Jess Grady workshop

Last Saturday at Seata we had an all-day workshop with Jess Grady. We had a late start as her train was cancelled, and Julie very kindly fetched her from Doncaster station.

Fortunately there was a good sales table next to where I had sat. Good news and bad, as even after I had a good rummage through at the beginning, I kept spotting other things of interest because more was added as other members put things on the table. Bargains too good to miss!

When Jess did arrive, she soon had her samples set out for us to look at and be inspired by. After a quick outline of the plan for the day (we’d had a talk by her pre-lock down, so had an idea of what to expect), we got started on flowers / abstract gardens. Jess came round to each table to guide us and make suggestions on how to push our own ideas further.

I’d chosen a neutral background of a soft, fairly heavy fabric, and used what I think was the wrong side because I liked the effect of the weave. I’ve no real idea what it is, possibly a cotton / linen mix. I’m sure it came from a sales table at some stage, but it’s good to stitch in to. Jess had brought a huge bag of recycled ready-cut circles in various fabrics, papers, metals and plastics (many packaging of some sort). I decided to work out of my comfort zone with the pinks, and then picked out a couple of threads that don’t stitch easily, the rainbow-coloured ribbony one and a slubby knitting yarn.

I made petals by folding and stitching down the pink and purple circles, folded smaller pink paper circles in half, made them into little cones and put them in the middle, and then a tassle-like centre in some mauve shiny rayony thread.

Then I twisted more fabric circles in various weights and textures, and stitched them down.

I went for another rummage and look at Jess’s samples, and she was working on gathering up a strip of fabric / ribbony stuff. She said it was a good way of using things that won’t stitch through the fabric. I tried unsuccessfully to reproduce her effect, but was very happy with the way the slubby yarn gives the impression of clover or lilac. I think it will be a very useful technique.

I twisted the rainbow-coloured ribbon into petal shapes, and put beads in the centres.

Jess was having another look at what we were doing, and suggested twisting some crepe paper. I didn’t like the pink she was carrying with her, but she said there were other colours at the front. I wanted mauve or purple really, but a yellow picked out the yellow in the ribbon. It worked well with several layers of petals and coiling up the last bits in the centre.

Jess also suggested using twisted wire to make some leaf shapes, but this is as far as I got by the end of the session. Another work in progress!

The top photo shows the variety of work achieved by the group by the end of the day.

Spinning

I have finally taken my spinning wheel to Lorna’s group for a little help. It’s so long since I did any spinning that I couldn’t remember where to start, but hoped it would be like riding a bike, and once you got going again it would all come “spinning” back.

The wheel has stood on a little landing at the bottom of the stairs for more than thirty years since we moved here, and has barely been used since. It needed a good dust before I went, then the first thing Lorna did was to oil all the moving parts. I hadn’t even thought about oil. And I had totally forgotten about the hook needed for threading the yarn through the spindle(?). Lorna only lives up the road from their Village Hall, where the group has been held since we started up after lockdown. Fortunately her husband Sandy was still there, he and Jean’s husband Peter come and get the heavy tables out, then come back and put them away again at the end of the session. So Sandy very kindly not only went and fetched the oil and brought Lorna’s hook, but made a hook for me! He said the wire might be too thin (it was), but when he came back at the end he’d made a stronger one for me! Thank you, Sandy.

Lorna started spinning, just to loosen everything up. I was soon keen to have a go, she needed to remind me where to hold the yarn, between left thumb and finger, and let go to control the twist. It soon came back, but it takes a bit of coordination to get the speed right and get an even yarn with the right amount of twist. I definitely needed to concentrate and couldn’t talk at the same time.

Several in the group were soon wanting to have a look and asking questions. What had I dyed it with? Acid dyes, I think. What am I going to do with it? Knitted sleeves for a jacket Felting

The basket of rolags below were all I thought I had….

……until searching for something else recently I came across a bag of “locks” which need carding.

When it was time to pack up, I’d done a fair amount on the bobbin.

I now need to find the carders and niddy noddy and wool wind that Lorna said I’ll need to progress. Thank you, Lorna, for getting me started up and going again. And truthfully I’d forgotten how much I really enjoyed spinning, and now how much I’m going to enjoy it once more.

More than forty years ago, way back in the 1980s, Lorna and I both went part-time to the Technical College in Leamington Spa (120 miles away), to the same spinning teacher Margaret ….. and embroidery teacher Pat Philpott. We don’t think we overlapped classes, but it’s a strange coincidence all the same. Lorna has done much more spinning than me in the intervening years, and has far more knowledge about embroidery and textiles.