Soon I will be working on a project replicating some Roman linen, found in a stone sarcophagus a metre from my childhood garden. Turns out, a lost Roman road ran along the width of our old orchard and high status burials were found along it. Thereby hangs a fascinating tale but I’ll tell it sometime […]
Category: handspinning
We’re off to the British Wool Show, at the weekend. We’ll be taking our Jack Greene-made Great Wheel, and finally trying out an experiment we’ve been threatening to do, for years. If you’ve ever seen us demo-ing the Great Wheel, you’ll probably know what it is. Sources mention how much it was possible to spin […]
Categories
Never… Spun on an Ashford
Recently we were demo-ing at the Kendal Wool Gathering, and at some point in the early afternoon, a lady came in, walked up to us, and asked us if we’d be interested in having her old spinning wheel. She said she had just got in the building, we were the first people she had spoken […]
Categories
Spinzilla 2016
I managed to spin just over 7 miles of yarn in 7 days, with the UK Team, HillTop Cloud. Not a brilliant total – but not bad! The brown is some lovely, prize-winning Castlemilk Moorit (an entire fleece’s worth!) from our sheep at the Yorkshire Museum of Farming. Castlemilk is often short and can be […]
The sun came out, so yesterday I washed about 1lb of fleece for the ‘Spinning For Beginners’ Workshop, here at the Farming Museum this weekend! In the morning, we have our first ‘Like Fair Isle… But Yorkshire!’ workshop, which is going to look at Yorkshire two colour knitting. In the afternoon, Beginner spindlers will be […]
Finally, here it is. River Ganseys – Striking t’loop, Swaving, and other Yorkshire Curiosities Revived From the Archives is out on Ravelry. Your actual hard copies will hopefully be ready for Rhinebeck (The New York State Sheep & Wool Festival). The rather wonderful Schoolhouse Press will be stocking the book. That makes me happy on […]
Here’s some events coming up in the next few months. I’ll add in new ones as they’re finalised. 24th February, 2 – 3 PM. An Afternoon in Dove Cottage: For the Love of Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journal.  Sold out! My partner in crime, Caro Heyworth and I will be doing a fireside chat, at Dove Cottage […]
Or: or “How The New Edition of This Book Beloved By Knitters, Came About….” Today I thought I’d give an insight into how we put together the new edition of “The Old Hand-Knitters of the Dales”, that classic, much-loved book on the history of Yorkshire knitting… Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley produced six books together, […]
On impulse, I entered this year’s Spinzilla competition. Mainly because I’ve spent some time this year figuring out the sheer amounts spun in a day or a week by late 18th/19thC handspinners, and wanted to see if I could equal them; or even if the figures I’d arrived at were feasible. Also because I like […]
Teasles seen on a bit of wasteland, near Escrick, North Yorkshire, yesterday. They were growing deep into a high ridge of brambles; too inaccessible for us to go and get a closer shot, but here are some teasles in the wild. On Saturday, we were Luddites at Armley Mills, Leeds Industrial Museum, for the launch […]
PENELOPE HEMINGWAY 