Glasgow School of Yarn

Backdated post - 18/19 October

GSoY was great. Two days of happy chaos followed by five of being weak is an overcooked noodle, recouping borrowed spoons.

I suppose the two big things were divided into one mental/emotional and one financial/crafty. The first was that asides from the time I spent volunteering, I also made an effort to spend as much time as spoons allowed with friends and other Ravellers. I did my best to not stutter and I borrowed heavily on future spoons as well as exhausting the 'spoon savings' I'd built up in advance. But it was definitely worth it. I had a lot of fun and really felt like I got to know everyone a bit better.

The second was the time I spent at the carder demos and later talking to Wrigglefingers Jill and Hilltop Katie. I got a much better understanding of what you can do with a drumcarder and what I was looking for in a carder. I also got the tip-off regarding Classic Carders which resulted in me moving forward plans for my own purchase. I think this will really help advance the things I want to learn/do with my spinning, and eventually save me quite a few pennies in the long run.

Thank you to everyone I spoke to for helping me have such an enjoyable early birthday. It was truly worth every minute. Here's a picture of my haul.

New toys

So over the past few months I have managed to accumulate more "toys" than I've had in the past few years, the most noticeable one being the tablet that I'm typing this blog on right now. I love it, I've been using it for everything from reading books and manga to teaching myself to play backgammon and Go. It's also been great for reading crochet patterns and has a great post it app for my to-do list, which includes reminders to take my meds and attend appointments.

My beautiful new camera was a purchase from a few months ago, and has already performed well at a wedding, as well as getting some cracking up-close shots of birds. I've added a tripod and a pop-up studio tent (with the idea being actually getting off my lazy butt with listing things on eBay and etsy). Just today I also placed an order for a great camera bag thing since there's no point in having the tripod if I don't have the means of taking I out and about. Especially I'd like to take some photos of the beauties of Scotland, particularly for my friends abroad.

Then last week, after hearing from folks at the Glasgow School of Yarn that Classic Carders - the company that makes the fantastic drumcarders that I've been lusting after - had become successful enough to require vat registry, I made the plunge and ordered mine before the prices jumped by 20%. Here's a photo I swiped from their site of what mine will look like as it doesn't arrive till Friday.

I'm not being naughty though. The carder will be my Christmas present from Pyro. Honest.

Fife Guild and Inkle Weaving

I try to go to two Guilds every month, the East Central Scotland Guild (aka Fife Guild) and the Edinburgh Guild. They both require taking a couple of buses to get to, but I feel they are eminently worth it. The Guilds often run workshops to teach members about various aspects of weaving, spinning, and dyeing. Today there was a workshop on inkle loom weaving. For a crafter with an active interest in premodern crafts I was naturally the first to sign up. Since there was no way for me to get a borrowed inkle loom home, I co-warped another members loom (she'd never used it before herself) and I learned a lot about the whole process, enough to be confident in trying it by myself some day. I quite fancy have an inkle-woven watch-strap or perhaps as a strap for my camera!