Creative Spinnig Workshop with Andrew Johnson.

I've been looking forward to attending this workshop since my friend Kirsten told me about it. I've been attending some of the meetings of the Glamorgan Spinners, Weavers and Dyers Guild, and when I was told about this workshop I put my name down Immediately.

Art Yarn is a personal favourite of mine so the idea of spinning crazy yarns from 10-4 was pure bliss. Tora, a friend and also a relatively new spinner also attended, hoping to improve her 3 week old spinning technique and also get some intensive spinning experience.

We started off spinning huge yarn from raw fleece, the idea was just to get it as big as you could and try to resist the urge to draft the fibre too much!! not a problem for me as I adore super bulky yarns. I can't remember the fibre that was used, all I could remember was its rough texture and adoring its lovely mixed brown colour, it was rough, scratchy and dirty.....awesome!!!

The second yarn we had to spin was with raw Wensleydale fleece, still damp and a little sticky, but Both me Tora and Kirsten were ready to get in there!! Sticky fleece was slightly gross, but considering some of my immediate family are from down south...I couldn't let the side down!!

The plan was to ply said scratchy brown yarn with said sticky Wensleydale....job done!!
Although, bummer as I forgot to take a photo...bad Bekka!

Next on the Agenda was Bouclé... now I can't really say that I am a fan of it, however its one yarn I had yet to spin so I was open to suggestions. I used some of the single that I had left over from spinning Buddy the Christmas Elf and used that as the pretty part of the bouclé. The other singles that were used were a mixture of organic merino and milk protein that were spun in advance of Andy's workshop.

We consumed copious amounts of tea and in the afternoon Andy decided to let us loose on some crazy carding, in order to spin up some luuurvely singles which will then be super-coiled into a cute necklace.

Here's a photo of my newly spun single


and here's another look, check out those lovely shreds of fabric, yummy yummy!



All in all, it was a fantastic day, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the ladies at the Guild and getting to know them a little better, at the end Andy graciously agreed to pose for a picture for me.

p.s I'm wearing my pretty super-coiled necklace :D

A new year and a new wheel!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone.

Well as Christmas's come and go I have to say that this Christmas I think that due to the horrific weather everyone who wasn't able to go out and shop as learned a valuable lesson (no, not go and do it earlier) but that Christmas is NOT about presents. I like to think that for this reason this Christmas was more about the things that are more important...family time :D

Hubby however decided to get me a new spinning wheel for Christmas which was awesome, however due to the crappy weather my new baby didnt turn up until December the 30th which was a lovely post-Christmas surprise.

My new wheel is a .....(drumroll)......an Ashford Country Spinner..WOOOOOOOP!!

So far I've spun up 4 lovely skeins of yarn and am seriously in love with the double treadle, I think a trip to Fiddies in Cardiff is in order soon as I really want to get a wax to finish the wheel (even though I should really have done this before I put it together..oops!)

Also, Hubby was only saying that Christmas isnt the same without having to put something together while someone bounces around over excited...wrong!! that was me when he was doing my wheel :D. Poor hubby was so serious because he didn't want to mess anything up and he had me bouncing around like Tigger in the background asking "Is it done yet?"

Aaaaaanyhow enough of my ramblings heres a photo of my new baby..



I'snt he puuurdy? the two marks on the pedal to the left are where I oiled the hinges, because the wood is so dry its kinda sucked up the moisture...do'h. Thats why I need to get wax and finish him :D

And lastly but not least here are a few shots of my new "yarn babies" that I spun using my new wheel.


Blank Canvas, a bulky spun merino yarn 162yds




Souk Market, Merino and Angelina - Chunky spun yarn 228yds



Caramel - Chunky spun Merino and Firestar - 145yds



And lastly, Zombie - chunky spun Merino with Angelina - 158yds



Stay tuned for more yarny adventures :D