Drying fleece in the summer sunshine

 Today, I washed some alpaca.  I have three full fleece, around 1 kg each, and I'm washing just the amount I think I can get dried each day.  As the weather is good today I washed a couple of trays full, and put them out in the sun.

Three upright spinning wheels.

A family photo - my three little three upright spinning wheels.
Originally uploaded by Dorothy L

A family photo of my upright single treadle spinning wheels. All production wheels, all developed from the traditional Scottish upright wheels taken by settlers to New Zealand. Click on the photo to see a larger version hosted on Flickr.

On the left we have a 1976 Rappard Little Peggy. She's a two speed wheel and has seen considerable use at some time in the past, the metal of her flyer shaft is worn and you can see the footprint on her treadle. Recently aquired from ebay and in need of new leather flyer and bobbin bearings, otherwise in good working order.

In the centre, a little old Ashford Traveller, the original model as made from 1977-79 and identified with help of previous owner who bought it secondhand in 1980 and Mary Knox's website and book "New Zealand Spinning Wheels and their Makers", recommended to me by Spinningfishwife because shoulder problems can make righthand flyer wheels uncomfortable for me to use.

On the right, a modified Ashford Traveller, around 12-15 years old (I think..) with modern sliding hook flyer. Modifcations include the sycamore treadle that operates centrally and a lead weight on the inside of the wheel rim to balance the weight of the footman and give smoother treadling.

In the background you can see part of my American pendulum wheel.

Exhibition celebrating the work of weavers in Wales

I have just learnt about a current exhibition at the National Wool Museum of Wales, on until 8th January: Warp and Weft 2 - from handloom to production. This coincides with another superb event at the Oriel Myrddin Gallery in Carmarthen,Warp + weft, contemporary woven textiles, which features work by the following weavers - Peter Collingwood, Sue Hiley Harris, Ainsley Hillard, Makeba Lewis, Lucy McMullen, Ptolemy Mann, Ann Richards, Ismini Samanidou in collaboration with Gary Allson, Kathy Schicker, Reiko Sudo, Ann Sutton, Hiroko Takeda, Laura Thomas, Priti Veja.

Time to plan a trip to Wales?