Welsh Odyssey - 2. Scary Armchair to Woven Treasure

My journey then took me from mid Wales into Snowdonia and North Wales.

I was really impressed with the Welsh roads. From my childhood memory they were as bad as the roads on the Island (and that's bad!). Now they are all smooth and well maintained. Speeds are clearly shown and the road signage is the best. You won't get lost in Wales.

I had a bit of a scary moment going through one village, a car towing a trailer pulled out from a side road and went on ahead of me - half a mile down the road he was accelerating, being familiar with the roads, and I was so glad he'd made some distance between us. The next thing that happened was a large armchair bounced out of the trailer and bounded down the road towards me. Luckily I'd spotted what was going to happen as if in slow motion, as the chair first began its escape from the trailer, so I was almost at a stop. My guardian angel was definitely looking after me that day.

I reached Trefriw mid afternoon and was delighted to be given a lovely special tour by Morgan Williams, who showed me the carding, spinning, plying and weaving processes. It was so much more involved than I'd imagined and the machinery was on such a massive scale.

Bales of wool in the lower shed:

The wool is 'blown' upstairs into large holding bins - this is a mix which turns out a soft grey:



Then loaded into the hopper on the carding machine:



Then carded on increasingly fine-toothed heavy rollers:



Cunningly scraped off the rollers into a sliver which is hoisted into the air transported overhead, and laid down crosswise:



Then to be passed through a second set of carding rollers. This wool is CARDED!

Here's a shot of Morgan fixing a drive band - this shows the huge scale of the carding machine - this shot shows only half of the length of machinery that the fibre is passed through. The rollers are heavy mahogany.



Here's a shot of a roller totally gunked up with grease (the dark skinny one in the middle). Cleaning this is a BIG heavy job as the rollers have to be manhandled off the supports and the clogged roller scraped manually .



The yarn is eventually drawn off into fine pencil rovings - sadly my shots of this didn't come out.

Then it's off to be spun on a huge spinning mule, the whole width of the factory floor.



Then the cops are drawn off onto cones:



Then the cones are plied:



After this the yarn is too tight on the bobbins to take dye, so they are drawn off into hanks and tied by hand.



The first stage of the weaving process is winding the warp:



Here are several shots of the looms, with tweed and traditional Welsh patterns in production:







After such an interesting and informative tour, I was also shown the nearby small spinning and weaving workshop which is open during the summer months, and browsed around the large shop.

There were a lot of antique spinning wheels on show. Here's one display:


All in all Trefriw Mill is well worth a visit, I received such a warm welcome. Lots to see if you're a bit of a fibre processing anorak like myself, and a nice large tea room. If I'd have had time I could have taken the footpath up into the hills and looked down from the site of the old mill higher up. The Williams family have done a lot of research into the history of the mill and this can be seen in the Turbine Room.





.

My Welsh Odyssey - 1. The Curse of Colinette

I was up with the lark last Thursday, on the 06:15 ferry and off on my journey to Colinette.

I usually use Multimap.com directions which have been really reliable in the past, but this time even driving a Porsche on an open road wouldn't have got me to my destination in their timescale. Phew!

I finally reached the little trading estate alongside the Llanfair to Welshpool Light Railway around noon.

I rang the bell and was admitted to the yarn version of Aladdin's Cave. After staring at the sumptious yarns on offer, I decided to be very businesslike and track down my most wanted yarn and fight off the lure of any other.

Hence my purchase of some Skye - this makes excellent felted bags - the destination of this little lot.

Of course, resistance is futile, and I was drawn by the siren-call of some cotton chenille in the Forest colourway. I needed 6 to make a boxy jacket. That's when the Curse of Colinette struck. Whenever I've decided on making a garment - they're always one skein short of my preferred colour. I quit while I was ahead and exited, stage-left, clutching my bag of Skye before I committed myself to another colour that I was bound to hate when I got it home.

I then headed off to my next port of call - Trefriw Woollen Mill........







.

Spinning for a full 12 months

Well I did it - I gathered all of my production since I first picked up a spindle last May for a photo shoot.

First we have the cream Merino - STILL on the spindles....

Just remembered I have some chocolate brown Merino on another spindle which has eluded my roll call.

Various weights of Blue-Faced Leicester:

Various natural shades of laceweight Shetland:



My recent Silk & Wool mixes:



Finally my mini-skeins from various dyeing days. (My first attempts at spinning on an Ashford Trad are the 'textured' skeins at the top):





.

National Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing Week

I'm really into the construction of yarn, and whenever companies like Rowan bring out a new line I stand in John Lewis and surreptitiously tease the ply apart to see how it's been constructed. One of their 2006 summer range, Natural Silk Aran, was so incredibly detailed. Four-plied, with one of the plies highly coloured with tiny little flecks. How they get machines to manufacture it I just can't imagine. I think a trip to Rowan HQ may be in order, perhaps a mini-break idea for 2008........?

I used to think that high-end yarns like Colinette and Rowan were really expensive, but now I'm involved in the whole yarn making process, I realise the amount of effort that goes into some of these products.

I've had this book for a long time, but dug it out last night determined to immerse myself in some technical detail in honour of National Spinning Week.

The Yarn Book by Penny Walsh has just the right mix of history, technical detail (for yarn geeks like me) and technique. There's a fair bit about S and Z twist and their effects in plied yarn - something that I'm still not sure I've grasped completely. Lots of different types of fibres and techniques for making snarled yarns, over twisted, boucle effects, some colour effects in the carding process too. All in all a really good little reference book which I recommend.

.

Robin Hill Garden Show

Well, the weather couldn't have been more unfortunate for this event. Gale force winds in the Channel meant that the exposed parts of the Island were hit by fairly gusty winds and drizzle.

I attended Sunday and Monday in the end. Sunday was a breezy day, but the rain held off. We were positioned in the Craft Tent, and it was a bit draughty. I was woefully under-dressed in summery clothes where it has been so temperate recently. I ended up making use of one of Sue's exhibits - a merino and alpaca shawl - nice and cosy. Shame about my feet, chilling in their flip-flops.

Here's our set up, with my abandoned Traveller to the far right of the pictures.

I was going to take some pictures of the other tents and exhibits on the Monday - but it wasn't the sort of weather you wanted to stand out in for any number of minutes. We had to take down all of the display we'd hung on the walls of the marquee as they'd become wet in the overnight downpour.

I managed to spin and ply another full bobbin of lace-weight grey shetland, and a half-skein of the turqoise silk and wool. One of these days I may take a peg loom with me to a demonstration day and get more into my weaving.

Several people approached us and asked about giving talks in schools and to groups - that would be such a dream job - waffling on about the joy of fibre for a living. While I'm stuck on the treadmill of full time work, servicing my mortgage - that time looks a long way off!

.................................................

As I never get to go on what you'd call a proper holiday (a full-board week in the sun type-of-thing), I'm planning some mini-breaks this year that incorporate finding out more about my current love - fibre and spinning.

With this in mind I'm in the process of planning a weekend break to encompass Wonder Wool Wales and while I'm up country try to get to Trefriw Woollen Mill to see mechanised wool production from start to finish and the Brynkir Woollen Mill near Porthmadog. Then Colinette's Millshop for the headrush of all that colour. Finally the Cambrian Woollen Mill in Llanwrtyd Wells with Winder Wool in between.

I'm hoping I can fit this all into 3 days, but may have to stretch to 3 nights away if it looks too impossible. There don't seem to be many direct roads in Wales and I'm sure I can remember from my childhood that it's exceptionally twisty, bumpy and mountainous. Scary!

If Artis-Anne or any other Welsh residents stop by and read this, please could you let me know if these places are worth a visit, or indeed if my plans to drive all over Wales in 3 days are extremely naive! :o)


................................................

I'm finding it hard to contain my excitement, as after some months of umm-ing and aah-ing, penny pinching and saving, I've decided to buy myself a proper travelling wheel that folds up.

I've gone for the Kromski Sonata from Wingham Woolwork and can't wait for it to arrive. No more struggling to carry a folding chair, an Ashford Traveller, a basket and a carrier bag from field to Showground. Wheel in a backpack - both hands free! It'll also fit neatly into the car when I'm travelling and not take up all of the boot space.

I'm not sure how I'll get on with double-treadling, but after the burning sensation in my right leg on Sunday night after 6 hours spinning I'm hoping it'll even out the stress on my poor old knees. Here's hoping.

I may do something mad tonight - gather up all of my spinning so far - almost 12 months worth and shock myself into starting to knit something up. I think there may be quite a lot.




.

Colour Production

After my endless yards of natural spun fleece, I've gone colourful.

Last year at the Weald & Downland Rare Breeds Show, I bought some silk caps and a hankie.

You can see above that I've already prepped the orange cap.

On Saturday at the Guild AGM, I bought some tangerine merino from Ann & Jill (Ewe Too) which blended perfectly with the single of silk.

I whipped the merino into a single in double quick time watching re-runs of Inspector Morse on Freeview.

The resulting plied yarn looks startlingly colourful, but nice, in an orangey way.



I also prepped my silk hankies from the Lewes purchases at Guild, and got to work on the blotchy one - plying that with some burgundy merino(?) from my fibre stash.



At the Guild AGM I was voted onto the committee - but apparently my committments won't be much more than my currrent involvement.

We also had a workshop with Ewe Too making Dorset Buttons. These were tricky to get into the swing of, but once we'd grasped the concept it was just a case of getting into a rhythm. We made a crosswheel.





There are a lot of pattern varieties, and we saw some beautiful examples made by Marion Howitt.

.......................................

Surfing around yesterday, I was dismayed (not) to see a website promoting another UK fibre festival (my purse, and the mileage on my car winced as my eyes lit up.....)

Fibrefest will be held in Devon on the 1st & 2nd September this year, neatly dovetailing at the end of the Great Dorset Steam Fair which is, afterall, only in the neighbouring county!

......................................

This weekend I'll be demonstrating at the Robin Hill Garden Show so we're hoping that the weather will continue to be dry (an overnight shower might be nice for the garden in the meantime!) This is a new outing for the Guild, and it'll be interesting to have a walk around when we get to stretch our legs.

I haven't decided what to take to spin yet, but I did acquire a couple of local Dorset shearling fleeces last evening which will need washing and some work before I can get going. That might be something interesting to do, as I usually spin from prepped tops, so folk only get to see the spinning part of the process.







.