Green Fair and Spinning Guild ... although not together!

Saturday was my Guild meeting and the AGM, interesting time there as the chairman and vice chairman were stepping down so a new committee was needed to be voted in, which it was after some discussions. They celebrate 60 years this year so the newsletter I am editor for was printed and ready and praised, which was lovely - always nice to get some positive feedback. There will be an exhibition in August in Winchester (more on that in another post soon) so everyone brought things they had made for display at the exhibition.

In the afternoon we had a guest speaker talk about lace making, and wow, she had made things that I would never have thought of as lace, they looked more woven in parts. She talked about lace making being a technique that you can then use whatever yarn you wish - whether that be the old fashioned traditional linen which was later replaced by cotton, up to any yarn weight. She had items made from all sorts of wools, handspun, noro, silks, etc. She teaches and knows of people who are trying the technique with metal wire. Really opened my eyes to a craft I knew very little about.

Interestingly, and confession time here, I bought a whole load of lacemaking things at the June Guild meeting where they have a big sales table (bargain and lovely things - I'll post about it another time). It's actually going to be a present for my Mom's birthday (no really, it is) as she expressed a while back that she'd love to try it and wondered if I knew if they had a guild - which they do. So at the end of the talk we were all looking at the lady's lovely things and she asked if anyone would like to have a go and I jumped at the chance so that I could get my head around how it works.

demo of lace making (blurred the face of the speaker)

It is surprisingly easy. Probably easier than knitting. I hope to have a go with some bits before I put the things together for my mom for her birthday in September, at least then we can look at how you do it together. Watch this space for progress.


Whilst I was at the Guild, Alex took Imogen to the Green Fair in Portsmouth (he took her in June too, but then realised he had the wrong month - oops!). They had a lovely day there in the park, it was only in the Guildhall square last year but this year had expanded into the park. They have great stalls to learn about renewable energy, environmental issues, permaculture, etc. You know the sort of fair I mean and if not check it out here,. Imogen made a beeswax candle again (made one last year too) and got a certificate, and impressed the lady by pointing out the queen bee to her without any help, and her knowledge of bees.

butterfly painted arm and bee stamp

They had a fun day, she had a butterfly painted on her arm (doesn't like face painting), built a dinosaur which is part of this project to build a giant dinosaur sculpture on Southsea Common called Luna Park that you could see from the Isle of Wight - a huge 16 metres tall! Gotta go and see that, in fact they have some great events and workshops planned too.

Imogen also drew a picture which was on a piece of paper destined to be made into a pinwheel/windmill, except she decided she just wanted to keep the picture as it was. I want to share with you what she drew on part of it. A spinning wheel, as Mommy was off at her spinning meeting. The person is her Daddy with his spiky hair! I love this picture - pretty accurate too - three legs just like my wheel, the drive band and the bobbin. Brilliant, I shall treasure it.

Imogen's picture of a spinning wheel

Back soon with other recent adventures.