Thanks so much to everyone who came through and linked and commented on Creative Friday yesterday and today:) There are so many amazing links and I really do look forward to them each week. I have learned so much from all of you and have also discovered such beautiful blogs and wonderful people.
And now for todays post… The Angora Diaries…
I have had 9kg of Angora fibre just sitting in a box in the corner of my wool room for quite some time, (I know, how could I possibly let it sit there for so long). I had such grand plans for it and then after many attempts to spin it up, it dawned on me that this was going to be quite a procedure. As you can tell, spinning Angora is something new to me and I finally noticed how short the fibres were (obviously) and when I tried to spin it up it kept breaking, (very frustrating indeed). So, I went straight to Google search and discovered an amazing web site called
The Joy of Handpspinning which
explained how to spin this exceptionally soft fibre. I tried spinning it from the fold, with little tension, this made a tremendous difference to my spinning and my mood, which by now was not seeing the fun experience that I had envisioned it would be…
It has been a while since I have spun Angora so today was the day to try and drum card some of this fibre into batts and give spinning another try. I teased it out to get rid of the clumps and fed it through the carder a little at a time and it worked!! I am so excited now that it is in a batt, it will be even easier to spin up. The first batt, was just Angora and to the second batt I added some Merino, this one came out divine (happy dance)… So I think I will be slowly working through the huge box of Angora and making as many batts as possible:) The Merino is fantistic as it adds strength and helps give the batt a better shape. I am a complete novice at this whole Angora story by the way, I am sure there are many of you who know exactly how to do this with your eyes closed, so if you have any tips I would be incredibly grateful and you will be saving me from myself! 🙂 I will post pictures of the spun up Angora soon, once it is spun up that is:)
I do enjoy the journey of the process of learning new techniques, at times it can be so frustrating and you can’t just not ‘SEE’ the light at the end of the tunnel, it appears as if the light is seriously NOT there at all… But then you try and learn and search and try again and the murky picture before your eyes starts to clear… Isn’t this just the best feeling ever? Like you have achieved something really great… oh it is… it really is!
Merino Angora batt on the left and Angora batt on the right.
In the garden today…
This discovery was a grand surprise, I decided not to plant pumpkins this year and guess what, one sprouted forth from the compost heap all by itself, it has so many blooms and plenty of pumpkins and one really large one pictured above. I love it when nature is so spontaneous and just decides well, time for this little seed to start sprouting. So we will be having pumpkins this year and it looks like quite a lot!
We also have Marigolds growing everywhere in the veggie and herb garden which I love, because of its companion planting advantages to deter insects and because they enrich the soil…
This Pride of India has really come into its own this year, I think mostly because of all the continuous rain we have been having for weeks…
Wishing you all a wonderful Saturday
xo
Linda
