Last Week

Last week we were visited by Mr & Mrs Gedgrave-Wensleydales from Suffolk. We had a great time talking about fleeces, dyeing, blue-tongue, sheep ticks and all sorts of stuff that sheep-obsessed people discuss when they meet others of a like mind! We are going to work on a project to produce some Wensleydale Linsey-Woolsey using naturally dyed Wensleydale wool. It's very exciting and I can't wait to get started. The weather was mainly good, which was helpful, and we rounded off with a meal at the Harris Inn, Tarbert where the food was, as always, most palatable and the atmosphere conducive to having a good time.

My order of linen yarn arrived from NV Jos Vanneste in Belgium and it's just fabby. Would have put in a piccie but my camera batteries are flat and I forgot to get new ones when I was in Stornoway shopping last week. The colours are great and its glossy and glamorous to touch. I've started winding up cones for the warping creel as our next web in will be a Hebridean Linsey-Woolsey. 12 x 12 herringbone, 19 shots and ends per inch with two colour stripe in the warp - the point of the herringbone to come mid-colour. Weft will be some of the last of my Natural Fibres Spun Hebridean. I'm trying to get it used up before the Carloway mill Harris Hebridean arrives, as its important to keep it totally separate as it will be eligible to be stamped with the Harris Tweed orb mark after weaving, whereas the NF Heb isn't.

Then, as if this wasn't excitement enough for the end of September, tomorrow I'm off to Orkney for a five day trip along with others from the Hebrides, Shetland and Highland region. We are going to be researching the Orkney Craft Trail and why it is so successful, and why its so difficult to get something like that going in other areas. I'm representing the SassyGaels and we are looking to perhaps produce a craft map and add other forms of marketing for our craft fair participants next year.
I have specially purchased a memory card for my camera (shame about the batteries!) so will be clicking away everyday at everything that moves. Having never been to Orkney my O/H has given me a short list of things to specially look out for (sheep!) and it will be an excellent opportunity to get my networking hat on and meet new contacts and hopefully refresh old ones.
Only fly in the ointment is a ferry trip to Westray on Friday which seems to last a very long time. Now, I'm not the worlds best sailor, so if the weather keeps up what its been doing so far this week, I suspect I'll see a lot of the inside of the ladies rest room on board!

Meantime, will probably be maintaining radio silence on the blog till next week.
Over and Out....!