Illston on the Hill WI Sept 23
We welcomed Angela from Barn, SpunYarn and Farm, a Crafter’s Journey.
Some time ago Angela was asked by her husband ‘what would you like for your birthday?’ After serious thought she said a sheep and a spinning wheel. Her wish was granted, although he gave her 18 sheep, so possibly more than she bargained for!!
A journey into wool
This started her journey into wool. Obviously started with shearing (she didn’t bring in a demo model!) fascinating how, when wool is twisted from the fleece it doesn’t break, but splits immediately if not twisted. Once the wool has been spun it is then dyed and then made into garments.
Angela now has some 75 sheep, all different breeds and from the samples she brought it is easy to see how the wool various from type to type. All the sheep have names, but I fancy Colin is her favourite because he got a lot of mentions!
Wash wool slowly – less likely to shrink
It was an interesting fact that when washing wool, the more it is moved about and pummelled the more likely it is to shrink.
Just leave it in water and then dry in the normal way.
Angela brought samples of knitted items plus lots of samples of the various types of wool. She has moved from the kitchen into a custom renovated barn on their farm and gives lessons in spinning, dying, etc. and the workshops are proving very popular. Our meeting ended with luscious refreshments.
July House Party
We enjoyed a ‘house party’ for our July meeting, it should have been a garden party but the weather scuppered that! However, member Sharon opened her beautiful home to us.
We all took something to eat and we had a thoroughly enjoyable meeting – lots of time to catch up and we did eventually manage to get a look round the garden. In fact we had such a lovely time we forgot to take photographs!!! Thank you Sharon, it was great evening.
Long-Alley Skittles
We arranged a long-alley skittle evening for our August meeting. This was a huge success, inasmuch as we all enjoyed it, but the standard of skittling left quite a lot to be desired. We are all maintaining our day jobs!
Champion was Dianne who was awarded a bottle of fizz and Jane A was in receipt of the wooden spoon! A lot of fun – we may do it again.
Jane Shute
New name for Kibworth Grammar School Hall
