Ross summer day

 It is that time of the year again.

Every year the handweavers, spinners and dyers guild of Tasmania have their state wide get together at the beautiful town of Ross.

We sit out under the trees and spend the day spinning. As Ross is an old historic town there are always curious tourists stopping by for a look and a chat. This is always a great day and one a used to enjoy with my mum , so full of great memories.

Tour de femme 2024 day 4

 Day four of the tour de France femme has been a good spinning day for me. I had a bit more time to do some spinning today, and half of that time seems to have been spent preparing the fleece.

I must admit that I love having these mini goals to give me the insentive to get crafting done. There are always long term projects that seem to sit to the side and not get worked on for one reason or another. The tour de fleece is always a good way for me to work through all that brown fleece I seem to have stashed away over the years.

Tour de France femme #3

 Day 3 of the tour de France femme race is on. I managed to get some plying done today, but this brown fleece seems to keep giving. In previous years I have used the tour de fleece as a way to work my way through the brown stash. Brown is not my favourite colour and I had thought I was near the end of all my brown fleeced but no, there is more.

Tour de femme 2024

 It is tour de femme time again. From the 12th to 18th of August the femme will be cycling their way way around Europe. While they spin their wheels a number of dedicated yarn spinners will spin their (spinning) wheels. 

I was unable to spin this year during the men's race as I was busy finishing my quilt so I am really excited to get some spinning done.

Here is my first days spinning. I hope to get this brown finished. Below  you can see the bag of brown I hope to work my way through. Wish me luck.

Bishopstone yarns, sit & spin. Tour de fleece in July 2023

Come and join me as I chat about my spinning adventures in July during the tour de fleece.

Episode 28

Episode 28 of Bishopstone yarns is now up on youtube for you to watch. I have added a little introduction to this video just to talk about the loss  of The Queen. I hope you all enjoy the spinning update and have found some time to do your own crafty making over the past few weeks.

I love reading and hearing about all the crafting you have been doing so leave a comment and I will be sure to read it.

 

Episode 20

Bishopstone yarns episode 20 is now up on youtube. Pop on over to have a look at what I have been working on.

 

episode 16 of Bishopstone Yarns podcast

 Episode 16 of Bishopstone yarns podcast is now up on you tube. come on over and see what spinning fun I am getting up to.

You will find me in the corner of my studio surrounded by my fleece. Come and see what I am planning to do with all this lovely softness.

A little bit of carding goes a long way

 I have started my next spinning project. I will be blending wool and alpaca to eventually knit up Birkin by Caitlin   Hunter. If you are interested to see more about my carding and spinning process you can see all about it on my podcast Bishopstone yarns on you tube.

Blending in progress on my drum carder. I have put this bat through the carder about three times. It is slow going but still a lot faster than using my hand carders.

Bishopstone Yarns episode 14

 Bishopstone yarns podcast episode 14 is now up on youtube. This episode is a sit and spin chat where I talk about my next spinning and knitting venture.

I want to spin up and then knit the Birkin by Caitlin Hunter. I just have to decide if I will use my morrit fleece or a white fleece as the base for the spinning before I over dye my yarn for the Birkin.  The Morrit fleece refers to a Tasmanian stock line of sheep that were bred on the East coast of Tasmania for their brown fleece. Using a coloured fleece as the base for dyeing will give a richer colour for this project but I am not sure if it will create too dark a colour for the main body of the jumper.

I think I may have to do some experimenting to see how the colours look.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Bishopstone yarns episode. Thankyou for joining me. I would like to thank everyone for joining me on my crafting journey and I always love to hear what everyone else is making. 

Valentine's Day knitting love

 As it is Valentine's Day here in Tasmania I thought I would share some of my wooly love. These are true love as they will keep you warm for years to come. These knits are all from my handspun wool and are also hand dyed by me.

I hope your Valentine's Day has been full of love in what ever type that is.

Art yarn

these three skeins of art yarn are part of my sale. They are perfect for adding excitement to your next project.

You can contact my through my instagram account at bishopstoneyarns. 
 

A cardigan for me.

While going through some of my handspun yarn I came across some of my early yarn that was spun from our sheep when they were only young . I then dyed the yarn using landscape dyes. I have always loved these colours and over the years I couldnt find a pattern to use. So I decided to just jump in and create something.

since we moved to a much smaller place we no longer have space for sheep so I am going to treasure this cardigan as a memory of the years of fun with our sheep.

 

Brown spinning

 I have been working my way through a brown fleece. So nice to see the lovely variations in the colour as I spin my way through this fleece

So far I have six  skeins but there is still so much fleece to go. 

These cold winter mornings don't seem to worry these girls but I on the other hand am looking forward to seeing the flowers back in the garden. I still have a few fleeces left from last year's shearing so I think I will have to get spinning before summer comes.

Winter dyeing

I have been in the dye shed playing with some colours to brighten up these cold winter days. Now I have to decide how I will spin this up. At first I thought I would just ply it with itself but now I am thinking about using a solid colour. It will be fun either way.

Time to weave again

At the start of this time of isolation I had lots of energy for crafting but as the time passed I found it harder to find inspiration and desire to create. Today I was pushed into starting a new weaving project.  So often it only takes that little nudge like a virtual group to spur us into action. Now to start the weft.

Organising my yarns

I thought I would  spend today trying to organise some of my previous yarns. I still remember the projects made and the skeins I have sold from most of these samples. I feel the pull of the dye pot now I am already thinking of new colour combinations to try.