Nice cup of tea and a sit down.

This is the book I am reading at the moment, it is perfect for Tea bellies, that enjoy munching a nice biscuit or two.

This book discusses the Great British custom of consuming tea and biscuits.  With many of the popular types of biscuits reviewed  in turn.  It is fantastic with lots of information about common family favourite biscuits.  Comparing their merits and virtues when consumed with a 'Nice cup of English tea'.  Home made is often seen as a classier treat with a cup of tea, however we have already lost some of our biscuit vaireties and I would hate it if others were to become extinct.  I think we should consume as many as possible to preserve the wonderful variety that we are lucky enough to have in abundance.  Biscuits are our cultural heritage and require our support...join my campaign to 'Eat more biscuits now!'

I am rather partial to a Cadbury's Chocolate finger,

a Malted Milk,

or a nice Tunnock's Caramel Wafer.

The wrapper says 4000 000 of these are sold each week!

Tomorrow my favourites may change, I usually like whichever one I am eating at the time. Oreo's are the worlds top selling biscuit I believe.  Research by 'Travelodge' has shown two biscuits is considered the polite amount to eat in one sitting....how rude I am!  Which is your favourite?



Biscuit Tin Joke

My son showed me this joke that one of his friends sent him on his Mobile phone.  (Only stands a hope of being funny if you are from the UK as you need to be aware of the biscuit brand names.)

There’ s been a big bust up in the biscuit tin.

A Bandit called Rocky who was Crackers, hit a Penguin over the head with a Club,

Tied him to a Wagon Wheel with a Blue Riband

Kidnapped a Drifter and made a Breakaway in a Taxi.
The police say Rocky was last seen After Eight in Maryland, Hobnobbing
with a Ginger Nut.

Unfortunately they didn’t have a crumb of evidence
so the Jammy Dodger got away!

(Well....I thought it was funny anyway!)

Felt Making Workshop 2010 Birmingham and District WSD Guild

I have been sorting through photographs on my computer, I have not been very effective in organising them.  I came across this photograph taken at the Birmingham and District WSD Guild's Annual Exhibition in November 2010.  I thought I would show you the display of Felted Bags that were made in a one day workshop with Marietta Alker.  Marietta is a Felt Artist, she runs a variety of workshops. 


Felting Workshop WSD guild 2010

 The Green bag is mine, made from Merino and Corriedale, the Grey and Pink bag is my Moms made from Merino and Grey Gotland.  Marietta keeps her own Gotland sheep.  I have Spun Gotland fleece and really loved it to work with, very soft and springy.

As this was our first attempt at felting the bags took 4/5 hours to complete.  The process involved layering, wetting, soaping and agitating the wool to felt it.  The agitating was done by a rolling the soapy wet fibres in a bamboo mat or 'sushi' mat and you need a will of Iron and a fair amount of stamina.  I must be a wimp because I found this quite exhausting and my hands and arms really ached the next day.  I was fascinated with the felting process though and the following morning made numerous felted beads in the kitchen with my son, who also loved it and made some wonderful shaped beads.  I have found a tutorial on the net here on 'Rosiepink's' website for beginners to wet felting.  I would recommend anyone interested has a go.  Felt is a fascinating, durable fabric that has been made and utilised by many cultures for thousands of years. 

"Feltmaking is still practised by nomadic peoples in Central Asia and northern parts of East Asia, where rugs, tents and clothing are regularly made. Some of these are traditional items, such as the classic yurt, while others are designed for the tourist market, such as decorated slippers. In the Western world, felt is widely used as a medium for expression in textile art as well as design, where it has significance as an ecological textile."  Wikipedia.

A traditional Kazakh felt Yurt

Wool Dolly

Tiny Makey Challenge

I remember my grandmother showing me how to make these Woolly Dolls when I was small.  Mine never progressed beyond the style shown in the picture below.  

http://www.momsandkids.co.uk/makewooldolly.tpl  This is a link with the details of how to make the basic version out of wool scraps.
Urbantortoise has a great blog and has written a post about these woolly dolls after a friend showed her vintage/antique ones made by her Grandmother.  There are fantastic pictures of these tiny little dolls with clothes and features added.  Many of us will remember making these as children and these crafts are a dying art if they are not passed on.  This would be a fantastic activity for anyone needing to occupy children for an hour or two, on a budget.  Urbantortoise has set a prize competition, with the winner selected at random for anyone who submits a picture of a dolly they have made over the next couple of weeks.  Nostalgia kicked in after reading this post and I set to work on my dolly immediately.  Here she is...Wearing a smart Green and Pink ensemble, the skirt has pretty floral detail, the whole outfit is set off with the bling of a sparkly necklace and she has a Butterfly hairclip for her long ginger hair.  She comes complete with a crochet hook and her Work in Progress is an unfinished crochet doily.  Her shoes are very scruffy (I think she has had a night on the town!)  Nice legs, shame about the face!  (She is only about 8cm tall).  I had too much fun making this!


Lucy The Crochet Diva



Birmingham & District Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers 12th February 2011

Today it was our monthly Guild meeting.  It was an Open Morning where members old and new share their crafts and experiences all washed down with tea and cake perfect.  (I took the plate of Love Heart Cookies).  This morning the room seemed a positive hive of activity. Experienced members were teaching newer members to spin on a wheel, they were experiencing the common issues for beginners 'Like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time'.  Not put off they went home with a variety of fleece and fibre to experiment with, and will undoubtedly produce some unique lumpy, knobbly, springy yarns that will be much loved. 
There were also some members spinning on drop spindles.  The spindles were of all shapes and sizes, including distaffs.

I took along my Kiwi wheel and my Ashford Student Spindle.

I had more success today with my drop spindle, I practiced on a different spindle which I have to admit seemed easier to use than my spindle for 'Students', but with help and advice, finally I got it together and realise what it is I have to practice to spin a yarn on a drop spindle.  I am pleased that 'The Penny has finally dropped!'.  It is a good feeling to learn something new.  I will try and get the spindle full of singles and at the next meeting or two see if I can learn how to Navajo ply.
I am always fascinated to see Navajo plying on a drop spindle.

Others were weaving on square 'Weave It' Looms and inkle looms.

There was also the usual knitter nattering going on.  In all some beautiful work being created.

     In the afternoon there was a talk 'The History of String' by Ruth Gilbert.  This was an educational talk about the history, evidence and techniques for making twine, string and yarn. 
http://www.textileconservationcentre.co.uk/legacy/ruth-gilbert-mphil
There was an interesting slideshow of pictures and photographs to accompany the talk and a table with samples of various twines made from bark, grasses, plant roots and stems and also some modern twines and recycled plastic bag twine.  My favourite was a sample of a bag woven in New Guinea out of plant fibres.  Like the one below.

We looked at methods including twisting in the hand, spinning on a stick, spinning on a hooked stick, supported spindle, rolled on the thigh e.g Navajo, rotation of the spindle in the hand, grasped spindle, supported spindle - twirled in a dish and the use of the suspended spindle.  We considered  'Weaving is older than History', to weave there must have been yarn/ fibre that was handspun. The talk was certainly thought provoking.

I enjoy mooching through our Guild's Library and this month I borrowed two books:
Knitting Around by Elizabeth Zimmerman, I have been wanting to read Elizabeth Zimmerman for a while as I believe she is considered a controversial writer, by some a knitting Guru and by others patronising pain in the posterior.
Knitting with Dog Hair by Kendall Crolius and Ann Black Montgomery I am sure my dog produces more fibre annually than a sheep, I sweep and vacuum enough of the darn stuff daily!  When I groom her I can literally harvest it by the bag.

Spinning A Yarn - or attempting to on an Ashford Student Drop Spindle

Spinning a Yarn (Or attempting to!)October half term holiday was eagerly awaited by myself this year, as my very good friend for almost twenty years, was expecting twins. I went to University with Lucy and am sure I wouldn’t have made it through my four year B’Ed degree without her. We don’t catch up nearly as much as I would like. She lives in a small medieval Somerset town. Near to Cheddar. I optimistically arranged a four day 'break' in Cheddar with my two sons and my energetic dog.  To my relief (and more so their Mother’s!) ‘The twins’ were dutifully born by half term and were just over two weeks old when I had the pleasure of meeting them.


Searching the internet prior to my travels I noticed ‘The Glastonbury Spinners’ would be giving a half term demonstration at ‘The Museum of Rural Life’, Abbey Farm, Glastonbury, Somerset. I love all things Glastonbury and visit my ‘Mecca’ as often as I can. I made a mental note to go and see what they were up to. I had also spotted ‘Spinning Weal’ online, a shop selling spinning supplies in Clevedon, http://www.spinningweal.co.uk/  This seemed like a much better break from the M5 than the usual service stations.
I was so impressed with ‘The Spinning Weal’. It is a crafters heaven. Literally large sweetie jars lined up on shelves with beautiful colours and fibres. 20g – 500g carded and blended plaits of fibres, silks, plant fibres and synthetics hang from hooks in the window. Spinning wheels, looms, books, dyes and spindles. It is the equivalent of Charlie’s Chocolate factory for spinners, weavers and dyers. They also run courses and lessons in the following crafts and are fully stocked in these areas.
§ Dressmaking
§ Embroidery
§ Feltmaking
§ Knitting & Crochet
§ Quilting
§ Doll making
§ Spinning
The shop sells much more than the online store would have you believe and it was really inspiring to have a craft shop overwhelm me, rather than underwhelm me, as many do. I had to visit it on the way home too, I couldn’t resist. It is also on the same road as a fantastic cake shop! A short drive from the shop is the seafront complete with a Victorian pier.
On my first trip I treated myself to an Ashford Student spindle,



Some beautiful blended Merino and silk (Aquarius).


I also brought My Mom 500g of Blue Face Leicester called 'Humbug'.


I was even impressed with the cotton bag that my goodies went in. The plaits of fibre are tied with pretty ribbons with handwritten labels. I love this attention to detail, lacking in the world of the mass produced, it makes you really feel like you are having a treat.
When I arrived in cheddar and unpacked the car I trod on something and heard a nasty ‘crack!’ My sons found it hilarious that I had snapped my ‘spinning thingy!’ My oldest son did sense my bitter disappointment and went and bought a tube of Super Glue, bless him. I fixed my spindle and with the beautiful Aquamarine Merino and silk got completely engrossed for an hour achieving absolutely nothing! So I had to make do with my knitting, making ‘No.1’ son a chunky ‘Beanie’ hat. I only had to wait a couple of days and I would make my acquaintance with ‘The Glastonbury Spinners’.
I was really pleased to find four spinners whirring away in a quiet corner of the ‘parlor’ area of the museum. (What a gorgeous meeting place) They meet alternate Wednesdays at the museum and every half term holiday to give demonstrations. They were very friendly and I sat down straight away presenting them with my newly acquired and freshly super glued spindle, much to their amusement. They were more than happy to put me on the right track. My spindle was in fact a Top whorl, no wonder it didn’t like it when I tried to spin with it upside down! The spinners also admired my beautiful Merino and silk but recommended natural fleece to learn spindling as the silk made the fibre quite slippery for my novice hand. They kindly donated some ‘Coloured Ryeland’ fleece, not tied up in pretty ribbon and with quite an authentic aroma about it.


It was in need of some hearty carding. I enjoyed my spindling demonstration but I did not understand the explanation I was given for plying, I did ask for the explanation to be repeated but was too ashamed of my ignorance to ask for a third explanation. I don’t think the penny was going to drop with explanation alone. I decided I would be patient and attempt some singles, then make a nuisance of myself at a WSD Guild meeting back at home. The Glastonbury Spinners recommended the online WSD guild to me and it does sound like fun, one of the spinners was currently organizing a festive work swap where fifty hand crafted scarves will exchange hands in time for Christmas.
My first year with The Birmingham Guild has been great fun. I blame it for my growing obsessions and my growing mountain of unfinished projects and look forward to many more to come.  I wonder does the Guild provide hardship loans for fibre addicts or am I asking too much?
(This Article was written for WSD December Newsletter)