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At our picnic last month Nicola, Madeline and Inge spoke about ways of dealing with raw fleece. We found that we had worked very differently with our recent fleeces, and we thought it might be interesting to compare these ways in a blog post. There can be many reasons for choosing a particular way of preparing a fleece for spinning. Some reasons for scouring (washing) the fleece that came up were: the quantity of fleece that needs to be prepared within a particular time frame, the space available for washing (a whole fleece as described by Nicola, or small parts of a fleece as described by Madeline and Inge), the quality of the fleece and how clean it is, and the personal preference for one or other way of working. We may also have a particular way of spinning in mind which can guide us in the final steps before spinning. Madeline I have been asked by Inge to describe how I sort a fleece. I did tell her I didn't think anyone would do it like I do, but after a lot of arm twisting I
Each year we have a dyeing/craft day in August. In 2022 we prepared this in a workshop of Stitched Shibori. Some examples Small samples of stitched shibori The way the above samples were stitched A Japanese mat The Stitching From the workshop Some previous stitched shibori work Laura was inspired to work further with the Shibori technique:
Our group was again very busy working on items for The Queen Mother's Clothing Guild, which is long established and supports many different charities who apply to it for various items. In 2022 we produced a total of 139 items: 12 Blankets 30 Hats 15 scarves 8 pairs of gloves 5 pairs of socks 13 child jumpers 24 child cardigans 2 baby sets 28 neonatal items 1 quilt 1 twiddle muff