My friend Catherine Hunt who has a holistic therapy practice in Grange over Sands is also part of the Allium Arts Group.Their Facebook page is worth looking at ! Some really beautiful work being done there!

Solstice Greetings!

Its Christmaaaaassss !! At Posh Sardine in Arnside

 

'Old Hat'

 

I'm really enjoying making these felted 1920's style cloche hats as I can play with wool and also have a good excuse to go to junk shops,charity shops ,vintage and antiques markets sourcing bits to decorate them with.So I have a collection of old buttons and beads, costume jewelry,pieces of old lace and flowers from hats and lots more!

 

New hat,scarf and wristwarmers pattern for  the Arnside chunky wool.

 

 

I should have this printed and available to buy before Christmas.

 

Lancashire Day on the 27th november and Colin and Carole are on The Wool Boat at Burscough.They will have some of my wool  on board and if you are into narrow boats and wool like me it should be a great event!

2016 wool

Here is the first lot of wool back from the spinning mill.From left to right we have fine DK spun from North Country Cheviot and Masham fleeces from the farms in Silverdale and Yealand Conyers,very lustrous and soft,some of this will be hand dyed,Next is Aran weight single farm yarn from the Fishwick Farms Flock in Silverdale and the  third skein is another single farm yarn from Saltcotes Farm in Arnside really chunky and bouncy!Theres more to come back from spinning and some rovings for handspinners.

These are new for Autumn! Cloche/1920's style felted hats.Hope they will be in the shops that sell for me very soon.I'm working on a grey one just now which is looking good as well

Wool Week again!

Heres a new and really lovely venue for Wool Week this year. Vintage and Country in Silverdale village.They have some beautiful and interesting items in their stock to browse among and a walk down to the shore will take you past the fields where the sheep are.

Wool Week 2016

Once again Posh Sardine is kindly hosting a display of local wool for Wool Week,Jane is very talented and artistic with her displays so if you are in the area its worth a look! Also its Woolly Hat Day on the 14th  so wear your woolly hat to visit Posh Sardine,The Promenade, Arnside! They are on Facebook if you want to check opening times.www.facebook/poshsardine.Great cake and coffee,fabulous views of Morecambe Bay,lots of wool ....... and all the local gossip!!!

getting ready for Autumn/Winter and Wool Week 2016

New handwoven felted tweed hats,bags and handknit long line fulled wool waistcoat all ready for Wool Week but still waiting for this years yarn to come back from the spinning mills.There seems to be lots more interest in British wool and single farm yarns with 'provenance' this year so the mills are very busy which is good but I've nearly run out of last years wool !

Fishwick Farms

I've posted this image of sheep on the farm at Silverdale before and yes those little white dots are sheep!This farm is where most of my fleeces come from and have done for years but to see some much better pictures of how farm animals should look and proper farming is done go to Fishwick Farms on Facebook and also find out about the new venture for the Fishwick family at Low Bankside Farm,Cark. I always know I'm getting top quality fleeces from here and  now with 2 farms I can have even more and still have the Morecambe Bay Brand on the wool.

New loom

Look at my new loom bought at an auction.It needs some fettling but its a lovely little thing.There were howls of anguish and cries of 'no room for another loom' when I said I'd bought it but things calmed down a bit  when it arrived........ weaving width about 6" !!

wool gathering

Here we have one of this years 'pet lambs' at the farm in Silverdale very noisily trotting around while we packed the fleeces into the car.A selection of crossbred North Country Cheviot and Blue faced Leicesters fleeces.All beautiful and huge!
Lots of triplet lambs this year so plenty of bottle feeding.I'll have their fleeces next year!

The first 3 bags ready to go to the spinning mill.About 40kgs in there.....and still more to go.

The Morecambe Bay Brand

                       The Morecambe Bay Brand will appear on all our wool from this years fleeces to show that the wool comes exclusively from 3 farms in this spectacular area.

Arnside/Silverdale AONB Local Food and Produce Festival 2016

OOPS,I set up a nice display of wool at The Silverdale Hotel as my contribution to this event.Its a lovely venue you can see the sheep in the fields next to the hotel and also have a great view of magnificent Morecambe Bay and the wool looks great.So why the OOPS? I forgot to take a picture!!

 

 

Very quickly took this picture before dismantling the display.It looked much better in real life on a window seat in the panelled entrance hall at the Silverdale Hotel.Many thanks to Caroline and everyone at the hotel for the loan of space and their interest!

 

Exporting to Australia!

This was really nice! Drinking tea in the kitchen with my brother on Sunday morning when he spotted 2 people at the front door and headed off  grumbling that they would be trying to sell something! However he then shouted 'lady here come all the way from Australia to buy some wool!' She hadn't really but they were from Australia,over here for 6 weeks and she wanted to buy some real wool from real sheep in each of the areas they visited and I was happy to sell her some! Don't know how she found me andI was too gobsmacked to ask and I also suppose thats why I didn't think to take a picture. She has promised to send an image of whatever she decides to make and that will be nice too!

Yarn Shop Day!

Looking forward to this event,kindly invited to join in by Maggie Baldwin of Crookilley Crafts which is a super venue!

Northern Yarns Lancaster

New Etsy shop selling yarns from across the North Etsy.com/shop/NorthernYarns.Just set up by Kate Makin and it looks lovely with lots of beautiful wool including some of mine! She's also on Twitter and Facebook and has loads of plans to promote British wool.

North Country Cheviot pencil rovings

Heres some pencil rovings I had made from 3 North Country Cheviot fleeces from the conservation grazer sheep.I had most of the crossbred Cheviot/Leicester and Bluefaced Leicester fleeces spun into yarn but there wasn't the quantity in these fleeces for millspinning.The mill suggested pencil rovings,something I'd heard of but not used.I'm finding them really interesting and versatile! A little twist on the spindle wheel gives me a good single thread which I've used as a weft thread and felted.That makes a really dense fabric that I like very much,possibly for bags.I've also plied it and knitted it with nice results and will keep experimenting. £1.65p per 50grams including postage and free samples sent out if you let me know.

Bags of bags !

More fab tote bags beautifully made by Jean using handwoven felted tweed from the fleeces of the conservation grazer sheep and lined with calico from Quarry Bank Mill woven on the old Lancashire looms.Decorative buttons are driftwood chunks from the shores of Morecambe Bay,coconut shell and some rescued from a charity shop.I'm definitely keeping one of these bags

for myself this time !

From Farm to Yarn

 

 

From Farm to Yarn worker!

 

.......and produce! Grown and millspun in Britain.

Now available for you to knit something fab! 100 gram skeins of Lancashire Farm wool from the conservation grazer sheep living around Morecambe Bay.
Chunky wool either natural cream or natural grey.Use size 6,6.5 or 7mm needles
Aran wool in natural cream.Use size 4.5 or 5mm needles.
The wool is a Single Farm Yarn which will knit up to standard commercial patterns and is priced at £8.30p per 100grams including postage and packing.
Samples sent out on request