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Fibre-East Festival, 27th July 2014.


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These delightful black piggies were part of my day last Sunday, when Larry and I went to the Fibre-East Festival at Redborne Upper School in Ampthill. There is a farm on the school where the pupils can learn animal husbandry. The animals were extremely well kept and happy and the pig-house even had piped music installed to keep the pigs entertained.

 

There was a farm shop, where I bought some fresh eggs and some honey and in the freezer there were all sorts of home produced meats.

Here are some pictures of the fibre festival itself. Larry and I had a wonderful time looking around and it has inspired him to take up weaving!

There was have-a-go spinning for beginners:

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There were weaving looms galore.

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Lots and lots of yarn. Here I am checking out some wonderful, purple art yarn.

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Bales of roving in all natural colours and livid ones too.

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Hand-made drum carders:

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I was interested in those but they were very expensive.

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Just look at these gorgeous colours:

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and of course there were sheep!

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and a sheep shearing demonstration:

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and the fleece was for sale too. I didn’t buy one. I am still working on the one I’ve got!

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Have a great weekend, whatever you do!

Oma

 

Jane Austen Knits – Capelet project finished!


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Remember this project? Well, it’s now finished and keeping me warm. Here’s another picture from the magazine:

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The second picture shows the shoulder joining, which is tied with a pretty ribbon. However, I wasn’t too sure about that ribbon, so on my version, I plaited some of the yarn I had spun previously, like this:

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I think it looks a lot more natural.

You can read about how the wool was spun here and then here

So the lacy top is mohair in a gorgeous orange colour, but I crocheted instead of knitted. It’s so warm…

This is the back:

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I added a bead feature at the corner:

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All in all, I’m very pleased with it 🙂

Oma

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A pretty lace shawl for chilly evenings.


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I’ve just completed this lacey shawl for the chilly evenings and I’m pleased with the result. It’s the first time I’ve used Debbie Bliss lace and the colour here is called ‘claret’.

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Shawls are ‘big’ in America. I noticed that when I was over there last time. So far in England I don’t see many. Also the lace weight yarn is not so popular here yet. Correct me if you think I’m wrong knitters!

It took me quite a while to get used to the needle sizes and descriptions of yarns used in America and I’m still not as familiar as I should be but since it is best to do a tension square first, it doesn’t really matter, especially in the case of a shawl where the sizing is not crucial.

I used a pattern I’ve had for a long time and can’t remember where I got it. I didn’t use a chart. I’m working on that. Charts seem to be all the rage and I need to get up to speed on those things, particularly for shawls which are not straight forward and have more than one pattern in them. This one was quite a basic pattern and for a change I crocheted round the edge.

Today we are enjoying temperatures of 86 degs F, which is hot to us here in England. I don’t have air conditioning in the cottage so I will be using my fan and hoping it doesn’t start clattering. It seems to have developed a noise lately. Perhaps there is something caught inside it. If not, I might be heading for a new one soon!

Only ten days till I go and fetch hubby from the airport!

Have a great Saturday folks.

Oma

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