Music and Life on a Hill in Wales
Rick WesthorpeMusic and Life on a Hill in Wales
Rick Westhorpe
I have a bag load of Scylfing 4-ply that we cannot sell because there is a defect in the spinning, but I thought I’d take advantage of it. These colours are the amazing Otter’s Cairn, Mound Fire and Ancient Heart.
Mostly when I weave I am interested in texture, but I have wanted to get a bit bolder with colour this year, so here we go!
It’s a plain weave, very loose set, so the end result is a beautifully light gauzy summer scarf.
My first go at huck lace. I found it quite hard work, and easy to get lost, though the end result is really nice.
The yarn is Mama Qucha Sock which gives an amazing body = more like a DK than a 4-ply.
So this was three skeins of Cywyn Heavy DK and 3 skeins of … something else! They’d been in the back of the cupboard for so long that even Caerthan couldn’t identify the yarn.
It’s a bit heavier than the Cywyn, but didn’t cause any problems, and in fact blended a bit more easily than I wanted – I was hoping that the extra weight would stand out a bit.
It’s possibly a bit on the long side, and is pretty heavy duty – it’s definitely not going to get any wear until the winter!
I’m very happy with everything else. Caerthan’s colours are always wonderful of course, and the Cywyn Heavy DK keeps it lovely and soft.
the weave was nice and easy – standard broken twill.
Still don’t know what the other yarn is – that will always be a mystery.
Actually I won three! I’m so excited and surprised by it that it has got me back onto our sadly neglected blog so I can share it with the world.
Susan from Alpacas of Wales encouraged me to enter the British Alpaca Futurity’s Fibre Craft competition – its for anybody who makes things out of alpaca fibre, so … spinners and weavers like us here at Pistyll Gwyn and also knitters, felters, crocheters, and dyers … I entered some yarn in the handspun category and a baby blanket in the handspun handwoven category.
Susan rang yesterday morning from the Birmingham NEC to tell me that my yarn had got second place in its category and my blanket had got first place in its category and also first place in the whole Fibre Craft competition. I was well chuffed!
The Alpaca Futurity show is one of the UK’s largest annual alpaca events and is a celebration all things alpaca. Although the main focus is on the animals themselves there is ever more space being given to fibre artists and crafts people to display their wares and show their skills.
Next year, hopefully, we should be in a position to attend ourselves and have a stall. I certainly feel a bit more encouraged and inspired!