East Grinstead Spinners

The time has just flown by. We have been out and about at our regular venues, the National Trust's Standen House, the Ashdown Forest Visitor Centre, the Edenbridge and Oxted Show, and the Tonbridge Lace and Threads Fair. We were blessed with perfect weather for our annual Dyeing Day in August, topped off with a batch with Madeline's rock cakes. And to top it all off this September we have celebrated our 30th Anniversary. Directly after the AGM we had a Pot Luck (and were we lucky, yum yum) Lunch to which we invited past and founder members.  Liz had made us a cake to celebrate!   And Linda and her husband made us a sheep, to which we all contributed 30g skeins of wool Shaun the Sheep showed off his woolly skeins in East Grinstead Library, together with a small exhibition of work - organized by Phyllis and Anne. We further celebrated with a Spin in Public Day with our new friend Shaun the Sheep, by the East Grinstead Bookshop in the High Street where we were able to keep an eye...

The Japanese art of Boro is 'on trend', We had fun playing with this decorative art at one of our 2023 workshops Repairing a rip Disguising a hole                              Covering a stain Making a feature of the mend Extending the life of a sock Choosing the yarn          Using any odds and ends you have to hand. Perfect up-cycling solutions   

Carol provided small lengths of dyed prepared tops, which were languishing at the bottom of her stash, challenging those members who wanted to take part, to use it in whatever way they chose and share the finished results.... We were all excited about the vibrant colours in the top - purple, green and orange - as can be seen in the images below it was a challenge to keep those colours Kate felted a little sample book Kate says: Of the 3 colours in the tops, my instinct was to work with the orange first.  But NO!  Of course, without scissors it was not possible to separate the colours, as all the staples were painted across in stripes. Then, "what to do" with such a small portion of fleece top?  I decided to make little textile- samples on a thick felted backing (some of which was Nuno felting made at a previous Guild workshop).  The samples include: a woven front, felted balls, a tassle, a crocheted disc and chain, blanket stitch, and a needle-felted spiral. ...

Many people had brought their spindles - some of us had experience, others were learning. Good fun was had by all. Top whorl spindle Madeline presented the workshop with a few tips and tricks, which were much appreciated. She also showed us a couple of possibilities of setting up for plying - to easily remove the singles cob from the spindle, it was suggested that a quill of card was wrapped around the spindle shaft. Shoe boxes and knitting needles come in very handy A very advanced lazy kate Many different types of spindle were in use - mainly suspended spindles, which included a couple of Turkish spindles. Towards the end Laura demonstrated supported spindling. A display of spindles. The displayed spindles are as follows: A takli spindle for short fibre spinning - a very fast supported spindle, which needs to be supported in a container which doesn't get damaged by the sharp metal shaft. 3 further supported spindles, the middle one being a Russian type spindle, these are all made...