Gwynedd Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers AUTUMN 2017

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1 Urdd Gwehyddion Nyddwyr a Lliwyddion Gwynedd Gwynedd Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers N E W S L E T T E R AUTUMN 2017 CALENDAR of EVENTS Recent Saturday, 13 May 2017 Blending Boards Workshop with Ann Campbell Saturday, 10 June 2017 Freestyle Knitting with Crafts from the Dungeon Saturday, 8 July 2017 Art Yarns with Jill Sheppard Saturday, 12 August 2017 Spin Thin with Ann Barron Saturday, 2 September 2017 Fibre Dyeing Day at Treborth Gardens, Bangor* Saturday, 9 September 2017 Friendship Day at Llangoed Village Hall* Saturday, 14 October 2017 Needle Felting with Eileen Williams Saturday, 11 November 2017 Rigid Heddle Workshop & Fibre Exchange Results Upcoming Saturday, 9 December 2017 Fun Workshop and Christmas Party Saturday, 13 January 2018 Bring Your Own Work. Saturday, 10 February 2018 AGM REMINDERS MEETINGS at LLANDYGAI VILLAGE HALL, near Bangor, Gwynedd Saturday meetings are 2pm 4pm. A spinning workshop, which beginners are welcome to join, runs from before meeting from 10 am onwards so that you can come and enjoy the day. All are welcome to bring spinning, weaving etc. to work throughout the day at the Hall, bring your own lunch. SPINNING & WEAVING SESSIONS at Tan Lan Craft Centre Workdays are held at Tan Lan Craft centre, Bethel, Anglesey on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, from 10am until 4pm. We ask for a contribution of 4 for a whole day or 2 for a half day, plus 50p for each tea or coffee, though we now have a lovely coffee shop to frequent there as well. We d love to see you there. Bring whatever work you wish to do, spinning, weaving, knitting, crochet. Don t forget a packed lunch if you are staying for the day. Newsletter Autumn 2017 Gwynedd Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers Page 1

2 RECENT MEETINGS & EVENTS A Trip to Knockando Wool Mill, Strathspey from Cathy The garden and one of the buildings. In the summer of 2016 we went to stay with our friends in Aberdeenshire, Sandy and Pete. Sandy has been a long-time friend back to our days at Leicester University many decades ago. When I learnt how to spin some, 5 years ago, and Sandy came to stay not long after she was very interested in how this works as she, like me, has always been a knitter. So I taught her how to spin too and she was bitten by the spinning bug. When she got home she persuaded Pete to buy her a spinning wheel the next Christmas and she joined the local Guild up in north east Scotland. One of the other members of that guild works at Knockando Mill so when I was up in Scotland staying with them we went to Knockando for a day and arranged a behind the scenes tour with her Guild friend, another Sandra. Incidentally Knockando also has a fabulous café where a very good lunch can be bought, a must for a day out! The site of Knockando Mill has been a woollen mill since the eighteenth century; it was a 18th and 19th century farm diversification project and has grown somewhat piecemeal with the tenant farmers buying second hand machinery when times were good. This has resulted in the surviving tiny, ramshackle building stuffed full of historic machinery and redolent of the labours previous generations. Spinning and weaving went hand in hand with agriculture at Knockando. There would be little work carried on in the wool mill during sowing or harvest time but after shearing, local farmers would bring in their fleeces to be processed and take them away as blankets and tweed cloth. Woollen mills in the rural communities in Scotland were common back in time but most have long since disappeared; however, Knockando remains and is now a Category A listed group of buildings in the Spey Valley. Using expertise passed down through generations, the last proprietor, Hugh Jones, learnt the craft from his predecessor, Duncan Stewart. For thirty years he continued to produce tweed, rugs and blankets on the old looms. Knockando Wool Mill Trust, formed in 2000, stepped in to raise the 3.5 million needed to restore the buildings and machinery. This was completed in It now owns the mill building, leasing the rest of the site from Knockando Estate. The wool mill is now open to the public and continues to sustain the manufacturing traditions of the UK s oldest surviving district wool mill. The history of the site goes back to 1784 where parish records list it as a walkemill (Waulking means cloth fulling/shrinking) but their activities may also have included one or all of wool washing, dying and carding. Prepared wools would then be ready for hand spinning by 'spinsters', the difficult work done, the resulting yarn woven by local handweavers. The first carding engines were wooden and turned by hand - proximity to water was needed for washing and dying. Water for motive power could have been operative at this time or installed later as processes diversified. There is a water wheel at the mill which would have provided the necessary power. Knockando houses a spinning mule, dated 1870, and fits the space it occupies perfectly - it has not been shortened. This implies that it came new to the mills, and was made by Platt of Oldham. The mule was a revolutionary machine which had already transformed the English trade, spinning 120 threads at once. Newsletter Autumn 2017 Gwynedd Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers Page 2

3 This is fed by a carding scribbler and intermediate which produce thick continuous slubbings or balls. These are transferred to the third machine, the condenser where the slubbings are fed in slowly and taken off as fine rovings and wound on to wide spools ready for spinning. The input of washed wool, and two stages of the carding process. We observed this process in detail while the machine was in full flow, from the washed wool entering the process to the production of the rovings being allowed in beyond the barriers and provided with many details of the operation by Donald who was in charge or the carding and spinning area. Sadly the spinning mule was out of operation and requiring repair. Well it is a very elderly machine but its operation and mechanics were explained by Donald, the rovings are fed across the spinning mule and the spin which is started within the condenser which produces these is enhanced to produce the thread. Donald is also a spinner outside of work and has his own wheel. He explained the art of fermented suint method of cleaning fleece to me, this sounds interesting but unlike Hillary I have not been brave enough to try this method myself. Donald, the rovings and the spinning mule. We then went onto the weaving shed where they have two Dobcross looms, early examples dating back to 1896 and 1899, but they were in the middle of warping one of them so we did not have a major demonstration of the workings of these. I know how difficult warping a loom is and they were warping a complex tartan that they had not woven before so it was best not to disturb them too much. Newsletter Autumn 2017 Gwynedd Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers Page 3

4 The weaving shed and an example of Knockado s textile. The mill produces some 20 different tweed fabrics and, of course, the location being Scotland a range of tartan fabrics including historic patterns not produced commercially since 1700s. These tartans are very complex patterns and feature a surprising range of colours pink, purple, lime green, indigo, red. No doubt these colours have their origins in the plants and lichens of the area. Blending Boards Workshop with Ann C. - May 2017 from Sarah During our May meeting I participated in the blending board workshop taught by Ann. This was a great opportunity to experiment with creating my own rolags. Since I still consider myself a beginner at the guild, this workshop provided the opportunity for me to learn to create my own blended rolags for spinning. With excellent instruction and all the required supplies organised by Ann the group(s) created their own coloured rolags inspired by images from greeting cards. Using blue, orange, white, yellow and some pink I created three different samples: a subtle blend, a bright blend and a striped blend. These rolags have already been spun up on my drop spindles and plied with another turquoise and pink single. Both informative and practical this was a great workshop, thanks to Ann. A few images of materials, tools, rolags and guild participants from the blending workshop. Newsletter Autumn 2017 Gwynedd Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers Page 4

5 Freestyle Knitting Workshop with Crafts from the Dungeon June 2017 Each year that Bea from Crafts in the Dungeon joins us for a workshop it is a new experience. Her freestyle knitting workshop involved each participant exploring a series of knitting strategies. As you can see below when put together they create a great assemblage of texture and colour. Spin Thin Workshop with Ann B. August 2017 Quarry Bank Mill Trip October 2017 The month of October was busy with trips and events, including a guild trip to Quarry Bank Mill. It was nice to see new members join the trip and know that there were many exciting moments! From various conversations it seems to have been a very inspiring trip, with many individuals wishing to return again in future since there was so much to be seen and to learn. Newsletter Autumn 2017 Gwynedd Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers Page 5

6 Woolly Roadshow in Caernarfon - October 2017 from Enid On 8th October at short notice on Facebook I saw that there was a Roadshow in Caernarfon on the Mae's from 10 am - 3 pm the next day (9th). It was a combination of The Campaign for Wool, Rare Breeds Survival Trust and promoting British Wool. The "Roadshow" was run by David & Karen Griffith's of Griffith's Mill, Sudbury, Derbyshire. Karen & David had lots of literature promoting British Wool and their own mill. They do contract fibre processing for smallholdings, farmers and craftspeople. There was their range of British Wool yarns and fibres, clothes, knitted and woven items on display and worn by Karen. During our chat it turned two of our members had already visited them. At our guild meeting a few days later I found out that Carol and Pippa had visited. Alongside the trailer was a farmer from Garndolmaenbach with two Llanwenog ewes. I have got his name and number for anyone interested in making contact. Llanwenog are on the RBST watch list for as being in the minority. This means that there are 1500 to 3000 registered adult breeding females this year and that means that there is less than 5% change this year. Help save rare breeds folks wool matters! After their very short time in Caernarfon David was driving up to Scotland for another Woolly day and then off to other parts of Britain. A very hectic schedule for the week! Needless to say one or two pennies were spent. Needle Felting with Eileen Williams October 2017 from Sarah After spotting Eileen s work as part of the Birds of Wales exhibition at Oriel Ynys Mon it was really nice to see her attend one of our meetings to explain how she became inspired to become a needle felter and how she developed her knowledge. Now living on Anglesey Eileen is a local needle felting artist, she explored a range of crafting processes before finding needle felting. Over the past year she has expanded the size and detail in her work with the birds created for the Birds of Wales exhibition, and will continue to develop bird imagery with a few commissions resulting from people seeing her work at Oriel Ynys Mon. Her passion for needle felting was clearly evident from her talk. Thank you Eileen. More information about the Bird of Wales Project can be found on the website: Newsletter Autumn 2017 Gwynedd Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers Page 6

7 Spinning and Weaving Retreat October 2017 by Sue W. I've just returned from attending a spinning and weaving retreat weekend October, 2017, run by Rachael Prest of Cat and Sparrow, who tutored us in spinning art yarns during the Saturday. The following day Rose Green and her Saori friend Amanda tutored us in weaving our art yarns on Saori looms. The tutoring was excellent. The location was near Caersws, just off the A470, and lifts were also arranged from Caersws station. Participants, who had travelled from Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales, were thrilled to see their art yarns woven up so soon after making them. The art yarn methods included corespinning a single (unplied) on a cotton core, tailspinning locks, corespinning on wire, creating supercoils, spinning cocoons on a single and making beehives on a single. The tuition was very good! Fibre Exchange November 2017 images from Carol Once again, thank you to all those who participated and for all your innovative creativity with fibre. Congratulations to Susanne S. being voted best in show for the 2017 Fibre Exchange! Susanne s piece is No.13 in the image to the left. Her name will be added to the coveted sheep trophy. Good luck to everyone in Newsletter Autumn 2017 Gwynedd Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers Page 7

8 All Wales Challenge 2017 Sea and Sky Photos from the All Wales Event and our guild challenge. Another great group effort well done to all! Ideas for the next newsletter... Ongoing projects or recently completed work (with pictures please!) Holiday experiences Reports from recent meetings Our website: gwyneddguild.weebly.com REMEMBER poppy contributions for the Wonderwool Wall of Poppies for January Newsletter Autumn 2017 Gwynedd Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers Page 8