Derbyshire Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers

Forthcoming meetings

2011-04-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

Friday 29th April 2011 - Meeting at Mickleover community centre, Mickleover, Derby. 7.30pm to 9.30pm A talk on making clothes and items from recycled materials by Mig Holder. Charge for non members and visitors will be £3 per person. No charge to members. Saturday 14th May 2011 - Workshop at Hazelwood Village Hall, Hazelwood, Derbyshire. 10am to 4pm. This will be a spin-in bring along your latest spinning project to work on. Patricia Ackroyd will be joining us to give a short talk about 'The Campaign for Wool'. Friday 27th May 2011 - Meeting at Mickleover Community Centre. Show and Tell, bring along your finished card woven bags. It is also the evening when we present the Guild Challenge - 'What can we do with a shrunken jumper'!

Indigo Dyeing Workshop with Pam Keeling

2011-04-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday 9th April 2011 - was a most excellent Indigo dyeing workshop led by our own Pam Keeling.

Pam brought along some of her beautiful indigo dye samples for us to look at and she talked us through how to obtain some of the lovely interesting dye patterns.

She made the whole process seem very easy and the results speak for them self.

We stared off indoors but the weather was so lovely outside, that seemed to be the best place to do the dyeing. So we move all the tables and equipment outdoors.

Here we are mixing our indigo dye bath under Pam's keen supervision.

Stuart Groom set up a very impressive washing line for us to use and it was soon filled with blue dyed fabric and yarn.

Here you can see some of the interesting patterns created by the stitching and the different objects that were tied into the fabric.

Everybody had great results from their dyeing that day and we all look forward to seeing what each of us will do with our dyed fabrics and yarns in the future.

I am sure there will be some members who will be turning up to meetings in pretty blue summer skirts and tops!

AGM Meeting and Guild Competition

2011-04-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

Friday 25th March 2011 was the Derbyshire guild's AGM and annual guild competition. The results of the competition and the election of new guild committee members will be posted shortly.

Nuno Felting with Jeanne Roberts

2011-04-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday 12th March 2011 workshop - Was a real treat, Jeanne Robets a fine arts textile artist took us beyond the basics of nuno felting to show us some of the tricks of the trade. She can be seen here, centre, with some of her beautiful felted wall hangings. The workshop was very well attended as always and I can say that everyone had a very good physical workout on that day. Felting is not for the weak and frail. But the end results were worth all the effort. Everyone made beautiful nuno felted silk chiffon scarves seen here below.

Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing in the 1500's

2011-04-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

Friday 25th February 2011 - We had a most interesting talk by Alison Coates on Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing in the 1500's. Alison came along in full costume, she can be seen here in traditional dress as a poor widow in the 1500's.

Her undergarments are made of woven, handspun linen; she has a linen smock and a linen coif on her head. This is for respectability and it also helped to protect against fleas. She explained that she is wearing undyed wool, as a poor widow in the 1500's she could not afford the dye. Only the very rich would wear bright colours like rich greens, reds and jet black.

Alison is part of a group who re-create the life in Tudor times at Kentwell in Suffolk. Her talk and slide show was very interesting and gave us a glimps into a past life.

Woven Bags

2011-04-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday 12th February 2011 - Anne Warwick led a workshop on weaving a yarn holder bag on card. The workshop was once again well attended. Each member was given a template and set of instructions for making their cardboard loom. The morning was spent cutting the card and warping it up ready for weaving.

There were some very enthusiastic people who by the end of the workshop had completed their bags, like Cath here...well done! But for those who did not we hope to see them completed and presented at the meeting on Friday 27th May.

Here's a selections of beautiful bags in the making.

The Ashford Day with Richard Ashford from New Zealand

2010-07-15T04:52:00.000-07:00

Another brilliant Ashford Day, lots to see and lots to say.
Richard Ashford with his wheels, Janet Phillips with her deals.
He said how the company started with toys,
And wooden things all made by the boys.
He told of the spinning wheels, described with clarity,
That they couldn't sell, so they all went to charity.

He talked about fliers, ratios and things,
That went over our heads, flew away with wings.
Then Kate Sherratt got up from a back row chair,
Showed us how to spin fancy yarns with a flair.
If we had problems David Herring was there,
To give us advice on the wear and the care

And then we all stopped and had lots to eat,
The food was plentiful, a really good treat.
Then Kate went up to one end of the room,
And showed us a new way to warp up a loom.
Some of us got some more spinning done,
Yes, another good time of Ashford Day FUN!

Poem by Catherine Housley.

The Derbyshire Guild would like to thank the Staffordshire Moorlands Guild for inviting us to a great Ashford Day. Their hospitality and food was fantastic, we all had a real good time!
Our thanks also go to Richard Ashford, Kate Sherratt and David Herring for making the day most interesting and informative. Thanks to, for the free samples of fibres and 'The Wheel' magazine. It was great to see the new products that will be for sale at this years Woolfest. We would like to wish Richard and staff a safe journey back to New Zealand.

AGM and Guild Competition

2010-07-15T04:28:00.000-07:00

Friday 26th March 2010 annual general meeting started with business from the chairman, the secretary and treasurers report, which shows the guild in a healthy position with rising membership. The committee was elected for another year and votes of thanks where given to the committee for all their hard work on behalf of the guild members. Thanks were extended to Stuart Groom for all his help and support throughout the year and for auditing the books.
After the AGM we had the annual guild competition where members submitt work in five catagories: Spinning, Weaving, Dyeing, Felt making and Creativity.
This years winners:
SPINNING
1st. - Anne Urquhart for handspun pure Silk
2nd - Anne Urquhart for handspun Blue Face Leicester
3rd - Frances Cooper for handspun Cashmere
WEAVING
1st - Anne Warwick for three hand woven yarn holder bags
2nd - Doreen Woodham for hand woven container
3rd - Stuart Groom for a trio of hand woven braids
DYEING
1st - Anne Warwick for Navajo ply hand dyed yarn
2nd - Anne Warwick for hand dyed Cotswold fleece waistcoat
3rd - Catherine Housley for natural dyed handspun yarns
FELTING
1st - Catherine Housley for felted flowers
2nd - Margareta Dawson for a felted cushion
3rd - Chris Sault for her Thermofleece felted box
CREATIVITY
1st - Doreen Woodham for her Woven container.

Textured Weaving Workshop with Stacey Harvey Brown

2010-07-15T03:39:00.000-07:00

Saturday 13th March 2010 workshop began with an introduction to weaving texture by Stacey Harvey Brown a weaver of some renowned. She brought along some of her stunning work and textured weaving samples, seen here, to share with us. She inspired us with her jaquard fabrics and creative ideas. She gave us an insight into her creative process as she goes about designing and accomplishing some of her beautiful fabrics. After the talk came the practical bit of the workshop. People had a variety of looms and tapestry frames to work on and we were encouraged to work from a design source for colour and texture inspiration. With stacey looking on to help and give advice, we were all pushed out of our comfort zone, to achieve some very interesting work. A productive day where seeds of creativity were sown and the results of which we may see later on.

Hazel and Jean looking at some of the beautiful books Stacey brought along with her that she uses for inspirational guide.

Show and Tell plus The Thermo Fleece Challenge

2010-07-15T03:21:00.000-07:00

On Friday 26th February 2010 the guild meeting theme was show and tell plus the guild fleece challenge. Someone had the bright idea of collecting thermal acustic insulation block samples. These sample blocks are A6 in size and made from Herdwick fleece. They are called Thermafleece and they were given out at Woolfest last year. So, we were set a challenge to see what we could make with a block!
The challenge was to see just how creative our guild members could be. Well, it was not the best of stuff to deal with, it seemed to shred and shed bits of stuff everywhere, it was rough and tough so you would not want to wear it. But our guild members were not deterred by any of this and true to form, like the creative bunch they are, they presented an interesting array of things from felted animals, bags, ear mufflers, a hot pan holder, pictures, bookcovers and felted boxes. So well done to you all!
If anyone has photographs of these items for this post please send them to me.

Felt Landscape using resist technique led by Janet Phillips

2010-07-15T02:22:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 13th February, at our Hazelwood workshop, the hall was packed with people and wool tops! Janet Phillips from the Threshing Barn came along to give us a workshop in resist felt making. The theme was the Derbyshire Countryside. Janet started off by demonstrating how to create an effective landscape background using a drum carder and coloured wool tops. She worked the foreground into 3D by inserting layers of plastic between layers of felting. This created pockets in your work that looked like hills and peaks and gave extra depth to the picture. When the plastic is removed you have layers of 3D felt that can be embellished with embroidery or needle felting. By the end of the day all the guild members had work hard to produce an amazing array of pictures in felt.......good enough for any exhibition says Bibi!

Naldinding with Tanya Patmore

2010-07-15T02:03:00.000-07:00

Back in January 2010 we had a very interesting Friday evening workshop on Nalbinding led by Tanya Patmore. This technique can be traced back to 4200B.C. in Denmark. It was used for netmaking, baskets, bags, clothing etc. and precedes continuous spinning. You use short lengths of yarn, working a link stitch that won't unravel, with a short flat wooden or bone needle. The technique of Nalbinding can also be found in the Maya region of South America, Iran, Peru and Taiwan.
We all had a go - some of us were better than others......me, I was not so good at it, being hampered by my not so dexterous arthritic fingers. Tanya brought along some of her nalbinding work to show us, mittens, boots and bags. I don't have any photographs to post of these item yet but will add them at a later date. So if any guild members out there has photographs of this workshop, I would be pleased if you could share them with us.

Navajo Plying workshop

2010-06-02T09:09:00.000-07:00

Back on Friday 27th November 2009 Jean Groom demonstrated and explained the technique of Navajo plying to the members at the guild meeting. This technique allows you to turn a single spun thread into a 3 ply yarn. It also lets you keep the colour sequence you have created when spinning. This can give some very interesting colour effects when using multi-coloured fibres seen here in the pictures. Navajo plying creates a rounded yarn that is very even. But you must remember it uses 3 time the amout of singles. It is also an ideal method of plying to use up all your left over singles on your bobbins.

The results from knitting up the Navajo plied yarn below was very interesting and not what I had expected it to be like. It produced short blocks of colour within a row of knitting. I like the effect and it would work well for a childs garment.

Guild Programme for 2010

2010-06-01T03:32:00.000-07:00

The guild meets on the second Saturday of the month, 10am to 4pm at Hazelwood Village Hall, Hazelwood, Derbyshire and the last Friday of the month at Mickleover Community Centre 7.30pm to 9.30pm. All new members and visitors welcome.

PROGRAMME for 2010:

Sat. 9th Jan. - Spin-in, show off you fibrous Christmas gifts.
Fri. 29th Jan. - Nalbindning with Tanya Patmore.

Sat. 13th Feb. - Resist Felt Landscape with Janet Phillips.

Fri. 26th Feb. - Show and Tell/ Thermo Fleece Challenge.

Sat. 13th Mar. - Weaving Texture Workshop with Stacey Harvey Brown.

Fri. 26th Mar. - AGM and Guild Competition.

Sat. 10th Apr. - Spin-in and Sales table in aid of the CONI charity (Care Of the Next Infant).

Fri. 30th Apr. - Talk on Angora Rabbits by Richard Grindey of the Angora Rabbit Club.

Sat. 8th May. - Visit to the Kaleidoscope Exhibition at Mansfield Museum.

Fri. 28th May - Mongolian Argali & Anecdotes talk by Alison Thornhill.
Sat. 12th June - Napalese Children's Trust Talk and Sale with Gwenda Culkin.
Fri. 25th June - No Meeting, members at Woolfest.
Sat. 10th July - An Abundance of Braids and Bands with Jennie Parry.
Fri. 30th July - Spin-in work on your latest project & Woolfest fibres.
Sat. 14th Aug - Guild Outing, open house at Muriel's.
Fri. 27th Aug - Summer break, no meeting.
Sat. 11th Sept - Spin, weave or felt workshop.
Fri. 24th Sept - The prehistoric uses of natural fibres, talk by Peter Groom.
Sat. 9th Oct. - 'The Fruit Course' a day of Dyeing with Mary Hawkins.
Fri. 29th Oct - Spin-in, wpork on your latest project.
Sat. 13th Nov - Needle Felting Workshop with Kim Smith.
Fri. 26th Nov - Spinning, Weaving & Dyeing in the 1500s talk by Alison Coates.
Sat. 11th Dec - Christmas Meeting and Shared Lunch.

Guild Newsletters will be issued in January, April, July and October. Details of workshop materials and equipment required will be listed in the newsletters.

Lincoln Longwool Sheep - A talk by Sharon Rowlands

2010-05-31T14:36:00.000-07:00

Friday evening meeting on 30th October we had a most enjoyable talk given by Sharon Rowlands of Greengate Wools. Sharon has her own flock of Lincoln Longwool sheep from which she supplies fleece, fibres,wool, educational packages and unique gifts.

She talked about how she stared up her flock and how it grew with the help of Hercules her ram, seen here pull a cart.

Sharon's talk and slide show was so interesting it inspired me to use the drawing of Hercules as the front cover of the Fleece Log Booklet I have produced seen here below.

I have designsed and created the Fleece Log Booklet for spinners to record details of the fleece and fibres they use. Each page has a section where you can record the type of fleece, it's staple length, weight, colour, cost condition, desirable characteristics, it's shearing age and origin address/tel.no. There is space on each page to write down spinning notes and to stick small samples of fleece and spun fibres. It is a simple A5 booklet that could build into a useful reference on your fleece purchase and spinning history. On the inside front and back covers you have a list of fleece and fibre providers who you can contact at shearing time to purchase fleece. The booklet costs £2.50 and all the proceeds from the sales of this booklet will go to the CONI and CONI Plus programme to raise money to buy specialist monitoring equipment for babies at risk of sudden infant death.

CONI stands for CARE OF the NEXT INFANT and is funded by The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths with your hospital and community health service. To find out more visit their website: www.fsid.org.uk

To lose a child is every parents worst nightmare and my family have first hand knoledge of what it's like. Raising money for this charity who are helping my family after the death of my grandson, is my way of saying thank you to the CONI charity, for their support, counselling and providing monitoring equipment for our new baby granddaughter who is call Hope.

If you would like to purchase a fleece log booklet please email me at anne@hiltondirectory.co.uk

A Vegetarian Platter of Dyeing with Mary Hawkins

2010-05-31T14:20:00.000-07:00

We had a most enjoyable day with Mary dyeing yarn that had been pre-mordented. We used red and brown onion skins, beetroot and red cabbage. Above is the red cabbage yarn results

The results from left to right - red onion skins, beetroot, brown onion skins and red cabbage. We use a combination of microwave and boiling to get these results. Some striking colours from these simple veg.

Here 's the results on the day from all the guild members, a platter of coloured yarns dyed using vegetables. Next year Mary said we can try the same thing with fruit.

Wool Combing on the Hackle with Mary Bell

2010-05-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

Saturday 12th September 2009 workshop - Wool combing and colour blending on the Hackle with Mary Bell.

Mary is seen here demonstrating the technique of combing fleece using the hackle. A very dangerous looking bit of kit with very sharp spikes.

Derbyshire Guilds Open Day June 2009

2010-05-31T13:59:00.000-07:00

Heather's silk flowers made from dyed silk rods. Purchased from the Threshing Barn at the Guilds Open Day on Saturday 13th June 2009.

Lorraine doing a great job of knitting on a pair of pins almost as big as she is. Not a task for the faint hearted. What's it going to be when it's finished Lorraine?

A very busy full room at Hazelwood Village Hall. The guilds open day was a great success with lots to see, lots to do and lots to buy.

2010-05-31T13:49:00.000-07:00

Saturday 11th July 2009 workshop with the Ladies of the Long Draw Spinners. Above is Pam Austin who came along to our guild with Rosalind Willatts to teach us the techniques of long draw spinning. You can find out more from their website www.longdrawspinners.org

2010-05-31T13:44:00.000-07:00

2010-05-31T12:33:00.000-07:00

It has been well over a full year since I made a post on the Derbyshire guilds website. I must apologize for this. 2009 was a difficult year for me, we lost our dear grandson at Christmas 2008. It was very sudden and a great shock to us all. He was only 17 months old and we miss him terrible. I am afraid to say that so many thing got put on the back burner throughout 2009. The guild has been very understanding and the members very supportive. But now I must try and bring this website up to date with all the interesting events and things the guild have been up to.

The 2009 meeting got off to a good start on Saturday 10th January with a Spin-in. Members brought along their stash of interesting fibres to share with us all.

At the Friday evening meeting on the 30th January 2009 Jean Groom and Ann Jones gave a very interesting talk and slide show of their trip to Bhutan.

The Saturday workshop on the 14th February 2009 - Making a woven corrugated cardboard basket led by Karen Edwards.

Friday evening meeting on 27th February 2009 was a Drop Spindling night led by Alison Daykin.

Saturday 14th March 2009 workshop we all enjoyed A Vegetarian Platter of Dyeing with Mary Hawkins with some lovely results.

Friday evening meeting on 27th March 2009 was the guilds AGM and annual competition.

At the Saturday workshop on the 11th April 2009 we all made 3D Felted Mittens with Penny Marsden. After a lot of hard work we all went home with a lovely pair of brightly coloured felted mittens that were a perfect fit.

Friday evening meeting on the 24th April 2009 was a show and tell night with members bringing along the projects they were working on.

Saturday 9th May 2009 we had a very interesting Antiques Road Show with a Buy, Sell or Exchange table.

The Friday evening meeting on the 29th May 2009 Jean Groom gave a talk called The Story of my Wheels. Jean brought in 8 of her 9 wheels. Each wheel had a story behind it on how she acquired it. A lovely nostalgic evening with some beautiful spinning wheels.

Saturday 13th June 2009 was the Derbyshire guilds open day held in the Hazelwood Village Hall. The Threshing Barn stall was in attendance along with other stalls with lots of goodies on sale. Some excellent food was provided along with some excellent company from visiting guild and friends.

There was no Friday evening meeting at the end of June 2009 because most of us were at Woolfest up in Cockermouth, Cumbria. The weather was very warm and it's hard to believe not long after Cockermouth was flooded out and homes were under 5 ft or more of water. The later half of 2009 was a very hard for Cockermouth, but they are fighting back to get ready for Woolfest 2010 and we will all be up there this year for Woolfest to support the people of Cockermouth.

Saturday 11th July 2009 we had a most interesting and informative workshop run by the Ladies of the Long Draw Spinners. Pam Austin gave a talk on the history of long draw spinning, then the three ladies, Pam, Rosalind and Val set about teaching us all the technique of long draw spinning. By the end of the workshop we were all mastering it. Well done ladies.

Well that brings us to half way through 2009 so here are some photographs to go with these events sofar.

Woven Corrugated Cardboard Baskets - workshop with Karen Edwards.

One of Jean Grooms lovely hand carved spinning wheels.

Photographs from the Saturday weaving workshop held in Novembre 2009

Spinning Fancy Yarns

2008-07-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

Febuary 9th Saturday Workshop was led by Alison Daykin and the title of the workshop was 'Spinning Fancy Yarns'. This workshop was inspired by Alisons new book 'Creative Spinning'. This beautiful and inspiring book encourages you to work from an inspirational source to create unusual textured, coloured yarns - and thats just what we did at this workshop. Blending colours, adding slubs, bits of ribbon even feathers to our spun fibres. Taking us out of our spinning comfort zone to produce some exciting yarns.

2008-07-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it is almost 12 months since I last up-dated the guilds blog and for this I must apologize. But the demands life makes on us sucks up all our time and before you realise it the weeks and months have flown by!

But I am pleased to report the Derbyshire Guild has been as active as ever throughout this time. We have had some interesting and inspiring meeting and I will try and bring this blog up-to-date over the next few weeks reporting on all our guilds activities. Starting with the 'Free Form' knitting and crochet workshop we had in January, led by our own Joy Smith. The art of free form was very new to most of us and it posed quite a challenge. But the results were lovely, bright and colourful. The aim is to sew all these beautiful free form squares into a centre piece display for our guilds stand at shows and events.

August Outing 2007

2007-11-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

Throughout the month of August we do not have a guild meeting, mainly because most members take their annual holiday during this time. But we do arrange a guild outing and this year we went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see the Andy Goldsworthy exhibition.

This is on from 31st March 2007 through to 6th January 2008 and well worth a visit.
The weather was kind to us and after a foggy start to the day
we had bright sunshine into the late afternoon for our walk round the sculpture park and woodlands.
We visited the Garden Gallery, the Underground Gallery and the Longside Gallery.Here is a photograph from inside the Longside Gallery. The windows are obscured with Cow dung on the glass.

Andy Goldsworthy aims to make the viewers consider the fact that the green landscape beyond would be very different without
the impact of centuries of animal and crop farming.

Some of the outdoor sculptures needed some explanation to them like those in the Longside Gallery, but the views were great.

The Underground Gallery for me was the most amazing. The foyer is dominated by a huge sculpture called 'Stacked Oak'. This is large oak branches woven together in a cone shape. The work is entirely self-supporting, a real feat of engineering. We could not take photographs of the work in the Underground Gallery. But for this work alone it's worth a visit.

Guild at play in the Garden Gallery, sculpture of the Running Man.
We had an excellent meal in the Gallery Restaurant and the day was rounded off with a visit to Wingham Wools.

Melting Pot Day

2007-11-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

The 'Melting Pot' workshop has turned into an annual event that all guild members look forward to. Everyone brings along all their unused fibres, from fleece, silk waste to man-made, dyed or undyed. The only stipulation is that all fleece is washed clean of grease. These are mixed up on the table where 4 drum carders have been bolted on, one at each corner and we all get down to the business of some serious carding for most of the morning.
The result is, apart from a good workout, a vast array of coloured carded bats all ready for spinning. These are handed out to each guild member. This year we carded enough fibres for everyone at the workshop to have 5 large bats each. There is no choosing the best colours, what you're given is what you get, just to make it fair. But to be fair, all the bats were lovely so no one was disappointed. The afternoon was spent spinning and delighting in the surprise results of the colours as they blend into yarn. Over the next few months these yarns will be knitted, woven or crochet into who knows what. We will have to wait and see.

Make a hat and scarf in a day

2007-11-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

October's Saturday workshop was led by Janet Phillips of the Threshing Barn and her helper Audrey. Twenty guild members attended plus two visitor. We all had a very enjoyable day knitting and felting hats using very chunky funky yarns and circular needles.

Janet demonstrated how to make a quick and effective scarf using a large lucet and crochet hook and another using needle felting. Janet also brought along her sales table full of goodies from the threshing barn. By the end of the day most guild members had made themselves a very stylish and colourful hat and scarf set. Thanks go out to Janet and Audrey for a very fun workshop!

Masham Sheep Fair

2007-11-11T10:42:00.000-08:00

On the 29th and 30th of September it was the Masham Sheep Fair - but it was a sheep fair without sheep due to 'Foot & Mouth' and 'Blue Tongue'.

The event is held in Masham Town Hall and despite the lack of sheep it was a successful event. They hold a handspun wool competition with categories in Spinning, dyeing, weaving, knitting & crochet and felt making.

Four of our guild members visited the fair and three entered the competition with pleasing results. Ann Jones won a 1st for her beautiful handspun, hand knitted lace jacked. Helen Livesey took a 2nd with her hand dyed, hand knitted bag and Anne Urquhart came 3rd with her lovely hanks of fancy handspun yarns.

Well do ladies! But that's not all, Maxine's little dog Rosie came 3rd in the small dog class, winning a yellow ribbon and dog chews.

Woolfest 2007

2007-07-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

Wonderful Woolfest - here are the pictures, write-up to follow......
I hope a kind guild member will help me out with this as I am off to Malta to be birthing partner to my daughter. It's her first baby and our third grandchild.

Well, I am sorry to say no one came through for me with a write-up on Woolfest!

The guild members that made it up to Cumbria for the event all had a great time. We did wonder if Woolfest would go ahead because of all the rain and flooding we had. But up there they missed out on all the bad floods and although it did rain on and off over the two days, it did not put us off enjoying the whole Woolfest event.

For me it was a special trip because I went up to buy a new spinning wheel. I am now the proud owner of a brand new Lendrum (seen here in the top left photograph). It's the lovely white looking wheel and I have my mum to thank for it. A very special birthday present for me from my lovely mum. As for the rest of the Woolfest experience, the Friday night Spin-in had a great atmosphere. So many different types of spinning wheels and drop spindles in action. All whirling away to a buzz of chatter as people discuss the goodies they had purchases that day or where going to buy the next day. For our guild members the whole thing was rounded off with a get-together on the Saturday night for an excellent meal before embarking back to the midlands on the Sunday morning.

Derby County Show

2007-07-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

All Wheels a spinning!

Was this Elvaston or Glastonbury?
In any event the Derby County Show on the 24th June was a complete mud bath. There were furrows in the field from before the 8am start-up time. Then a couple of hours later when it rained in earnest a river started running through the craft marquee. Straw had to be brought in to help with the water and mud problem. Then in the afternoon the temperature and the humidity in the marquee were nearly unbearable. In spite of this there was a high turnout of be-wellied visitors to the show. Duckboards were put down round the site, with tractors, vans and pushchair pushing parents juggling for position on them. Most of the beautiful polished tractors in the exhibition area had to be pressed into service tugging cars out of ruts and horseboxes across the fields.

Maxine, Frances and Mary turned out for the Guild to demonstrate their spinning skills. Frances braved the rain and cycled from her home in central Derby to Elvaston bearing her Louet wheel and Jacob fleece. Maybe Frances had the right idea cycling, because despite listening carefully to instructions Mary got stuck in the mud for an hour on leaving the show (car wheels a spinning) and had to be pulled out by tractor.

Dyes with a Heart

2007-06-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

Alison Daykin led a Dyeing workshop for 16 of our guild members. We all had a great day working with Alison's New range of Natural Pure Tictoria powdered dyes. They are very easy to use and give a lovely range of colours. We each went home with yarn samples made up into a comprehensive shade card showing the full range of colours Alison has on offer.

The only preparation we had to do was mordent our fibres the day before. Alison supplied everything else. We had great fun modifying the dyed yarns with iron water and copper warter with some surprising results.

Two New Banners

2007-06-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

The Guild has two new banners!

Our old guild sign was stolen along with all our exhibition stuff, all the guild members beautiful works, a spinning wheel, wheel chair and the camper van it was all packed into ready for the Broomfield show last year 2006. The police think the van was stolen to order. But that's all past now and we have moved on and all our guild members have worked hard to replace the items we lost that day and our bright new PVC banners hang well at all the events the guild attends.

Broomfiield Open Day

2007-06-12T09:11:00.000-07:00

Sunday 10th June - Broomfield Hall Open Day
This is a great day out for all the family and it proved to be a busy one for Maxine and Anne.

The open day was well attended, the weather was kind to us and the event was busy right up to closing time.

We had queues of children who were fascinated with our spinning wheels and eager to try their hands at spinning. Younger ones just had a go at treadling the wheel. But the older boys and girls were keen to spin a length of yarn.

Maxine and I must have been the most photographed demonstrators of the day, as proud parents took snaps of their little ones spinning with us.

In the pen area next to our stand was the sheep shearing demonstration so the children could follow the process through from fleece to finished product.

Making Silk Bowls

2007-06-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

9th June 2007 - Guild Saturday workshop at Hazelwood village hall.
Jean Groom (our chairman) demonstrated how to make silk bowls using silk caps and throwsters silk waste. Layers of silk fibres were paste onto a balloon using a paint brush and PVA glue (watered down). You build up the layers and trap things between them. For example, skeleton leaves or interesting textured fibres. You leave the glued fibres to dry completely before removing from the balloon. The result is a beautiful delicate silk bowl.
A tip from Mary Hawkins, don't use a balloon with print on it. This comes off onto the silk. Mary's bowl now has the word England (in reverse) and the George Cross on the inside of her bowl.

Jean demonstrating the technique, Anne getting all stuck-up and silk-cap balloons drying out in the sun. Here is the finished result of my bowl from that days workshop. It's a project I will try again. And, here is my other half wearing a 'silk cap'..........well what can I say.

Woolfest 2006

2007-06-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

As promised here are photographs of last years woolfest exhibition. Just to give you an idea of what it's all about, lets start with the live stock. Angora goats, Gotland sheep, Leicester Longwool and many more.

The exhibition had a large and interesting variety of stands with all types of textile crafts represented. Last year there was a strong emphasis on felt making with exibits from small pots to a full sized Yurt and demonstrations on how to make Nuno felt.

There were lots of beautiful natural fibres to choose from as well as a wide range of exciting modern yarns. There were dyes, books and equipment in abundance, just about everything you could possibly want for any textile project. Looking forward to Woolfest 2007!

Shows & Events

2007-06-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

Broomfield Open Day - Sunday 10th June 2007 held at Broomfield Hall, Morley, Ilkeston, Derbyshire. Open to the public from 11am to 5pm. The Derbyshire Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers will be demonstrating there. It's a great day out for all the family, lots for the kids to see and do. Both educational and fun events, animals, craft stalls, B.B.Q. and more!

Derbyshire County Show - Sunday 24th June 2007 held at the Showground, Elvaston, Derbyshire. Open to the public from 10am to 5pm. Members of The Derbyshire Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers will be there demonstrating their crafts to the public.

Woolfest 2007 - Friday 29th & Saturday 30th June. Held at the Mitchell's Lakeland Livestock Centre, Cockermouth, Cumbria. Open to the public 10am to 5pm. Tickets £5 each per day. Accompanied Children free. This is a great two day exhibition. If you are into textiles of any kind you will enjoy this. Most of the Derbyshire Guild will be going along. I will post photographs of the 2006 Woolfest so that you can get the flavour of what it's all about.

The Wool Experience - Saturday 7th July 2007 held at Blaze Farm, Wildboarclough, Buxton, Derbyshire. Open to the public from 10am. Demonstrations of Sheep Shearing, Spinning, Weaving, Felt Making, KNitting, Dyeing and other crafts. Crafts on sale and produce from the mini farmers market. Entrance fee £1 for adults 50p for children.

Inspireation 21 - 7th to 22nd July 2007 Exhibition of creative textiles and mixed media held at the Hardwick Park Visitors Centre, Doe Lea, Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Open daily from 11am to4pm.

Masham Sheep Fair - 29th & 30th September 2007 held at Masham Town Hall. They are running a Handspun Wool Competition, entries for this must be in by 8th September. Categories are Spinning, Dyeing, Weaving, Knitting or Crochat, Felt making and Sundry (any other item using handspun yarns).

Knitting & Stitching Show - 22nd to 25th November 2007 at Harrogate

Calke Abbey Craft Show

2007-05-31T12:36:00.000-07:00

On May 5th, 6th, & 7th guild members were demonstrating
the crafts of spinning and weaving at the Calke Abbey show. There was great interest from the public particularly from the children, who had the opportunity to try their hand at spinning and weaving. Maxine brought along a giant-sized pair of knitting needles for anyone who wanted to try them out and knit a few rows.

Guild Open Day

2007-05-31T12:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday 12th May was the Derbyshire Guild open day.
It was held at the Haven Christian Centre, Littleover,
Derby. Scottish Fibres, Pure Tinctoria Natural Dyes
and Michael Williams wood turner were in attendance.
We had visitors from Birmingham, Stafford, Alsager,
Walsall, York and Nottingham guilds. A very successful
day that everyone enjoyed immensely.

2007-05-31T12:06:00.000-07:00

Locker Hooking

2007-05-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

Friday 27th April meeting at Mickleover -
Locker Hooking led by Helen Livesey
Helen brought along some beautiful examples of her locker hooking projects.
Inspiring textured rugs and wall hangings hooked using colourful
shredded sari fabrics tempting us all to try our hand at this craft.
We each had a small piece of canvas and a locker hook and with

Helen's help and guidance produced a small sampler.

Our thanks to Helen for an interesting and enjoyable

Friday evening meeting.