Elderberry progress

So here is my elderberry wine coming on nicely. Hopefully the 4-5 month wait until it's ready will be worth it.

Elderberry wine fermenting

And here is some of my wool soaking in elderberry juice. It looks a bit disgusting at the moment but it seems to be taking on a nice pinky colour.

 

 

Elderberry solar-dyeing

Elderberry picking

It was such a nice morning so I went out to pick some elderberries to try out dyeing some of my wool. I'm also going to make some elderberry wine!

Elderberries

Dew shows off the delicacy of a cobweb

Mist rising from the fields

Spinning some yarn

After going along to Twisted Tailor's open studio last weekend and being invited by a few members of the Diss Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers, I went along to a sit and spin meeting with my wheel and some wool. They are a lovely group of ladies with a wealth of knowledge between them. So excited to finally learn what to do with my wheel and spin some yarn from my fleece.

My first bobbin

 

Getting my wool on

So I have finally started doing something with my fleece. My sister-in-law's grandfather gave me a few fleeces a while back now, from his gorgeous Suffolk-Merino cross, which produce lovely wool. Here they are:

The boys

I've started cleaning the fleece by soaking it in cold water to dissolve the dirt and then in warm soapy water to remove the lanolin. Makes it smell a bit better too.

Soaking

Drying

By chance I ended up visiting an open studio yesterday. Twisted Tailor studio is based just a mile up the road and produces beautiful knitwear, weavings and handspun yarns. Chatting to the ladies there I found out about a local spinning group. So I am excited to go along this week with my spinning wheel and wool and finally learn how to spin some yarns. I'll let you know how it goes.

Well done to Harriet as New Designers comes to an end

New Designers part one has closed now, it was a great week and a good experience. There was a lot of really lovely work on display from universities from all over the country. If you didn't manage to visit last week, part two will be open from 4th-7th July.

A massive well done to Harriet Riddell for winning the Absolut Blank competition, it was well deserved!  Visit Harriet's blog to find out more about her work.

New Designers

Contemporary Applied Arts from University of Hertfordshire will be exhibiting during Part 1 of New Designers later this month.  Follow the link to the website for more information and how to visit the show.

Degree Show

The private view which took place on 31st for our degree show was a great success and everyone really enjoyed themselves. I have uploaded a few photos under the degree show tab at the top of the page, which I will add to when I get a chance to sort some more of the images out. Everyone did really well. Congratulations!