Clun Forest in NZ

The ultimate test of the loaner spinning wheel was to spin some Clun Forest to 'feel' if it was as easy as it is on the Rappard in the US.  I have plenty of 'muscle memory' from the couple of years spinning of the wool and pretty well know how it behaves under most conditions.  The great news is the Ashford Traditional spins it every bit as well - I had a bit of roving rolled up along with the many batts we shipped home.  That all arrived on Thursday last week so this weekend I tried spinning that roving.

Clun Forest on the Ashford

The singles will eventually go towards some three ply for weaving.  It will be another good test to see how long it takes me and how much per finished skein.

We were able to get to the Wellington Weavers and Spinners guild meeting on Saturday.  A nice friendly group who welcomed Anne and I into their meetings.  We are now paid up members and I took out my first book from the well stocked library (not quite the size of the Washington guild library, but certainly adequate).  At the weaving meeting the members were just finishing a very interesting looking double weave project on the guild 8 shaft table loom.  Their next project will be cotton towls with twill variations.  After running through the maths involved in working out yardage required I took on the job of winding the warp.  I'll have to dig my warping board out of the back of the garage.  We also had a great demonstration of burn testing wool - with a few surprises!  The combined meeting in the afternoon included a 'bring along something different' show and tell - some amazing gadgetry turned up - and with many experts in the group almost everything was identified.

For the time we're here it should be fun belonging to this group