Ooh it’s so exciting.
We now have an amazing drum carder AND both of my spinning wheels are
up and running AND at last I have conquered the use of the drop spindle.
We have got about 2/3 through the fleece and now with the drum carder
we can whizz through and yet still be using our own bodies as the energy. While our lovely Tina had a perfectly good
and reasonable argument for the use of the hand carders, there are some of us
who find using the hand carders hard on joints and S l o w………
The drum carder is still painstaking but the size of the batt is immensely
satisfying and the carder itself is really great. It is, for any out there who are interested,
a “Classic Carder” in oak of course!
Here is the link if you are interested. http://www.classiccarder.co.uk/opencart/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=57
Isn’t it beautiful?
And what about my spinning wheels?
They are both Ashford’s and beautiful too. My older one needed TLC after
living in the loft with unruly boys who didn’t appreciate their intrinsic
beauty. Poor thing needed a new orifice
bracket, new brake band knob, new flyer, (goodness knows where that could have
gone, it is so big after all) and a new leather bit for the footman. I spent some time looking on the internet for the right bits and supplier of said bits, then I contacted them by phone. What a delightful couple they were. They run a spinning and weaving centre called Hilltop and their names were Sue and Bill Chitty. You can find them on www.handspin.co.uk.
I had the most lovely phone call ever and it was more like chatting to friends than suppliers.
Any way, the parts were ordered and duly came along and now it is altogether beautiful and
working.
The other one just needed a
good polish up.
Lovely lavender polish.
Well we had fun…. Well I did anyway.
And here are some pictures to show us using the bits and pieces
mentioned. Now I am the one behind the
camera so don’t go looking for me okay?
Heath and Radish also had a go with the drop spindle but I forgot to
take pictures and will try to get some the next time for you. However, here is a great
picture of Radish using the hand carders, doesn’t he look grand with my piny
on?
Everyone had a go at the drum carder and here is Michael, looking up at
just the wrong time. I was trying to
capture him concentrating and of course the fleece has already gone through on
to the drum.
When the energy to produce anything comes from your own body, a part of
you is intrinsically integral to its makeup.
This is as true of a garment, or handmade machine, as it is of cooking.
For many years my gran used to say “Better a dinner of herbs cooked
with love than a banquet cooked without.” She is not here to say that any more but I say it now because
now I really understand what that means.
I used to often share a simple bowl of bean soup and wholemeal bread
with homemade butter with an amazing lady called Molly. It was always a simple meal as she lived frugally,
but do you know what? I remember those
shared bowls of soup with such fondness and a sense of fullness even now after
all these years as they were made with such love and the company was loving and
enriching in every respect. Yet I have
also been to grand meals where everything was turned out to perfection and
looked beautiful but there was no love involved at all, and there was no sense
of feeling satisfied. Maybe a part
of the cause of peoples poor relationship to food may be found in this
root? Food has to be satisfying on many
levels not just nutritionally and if one is just stuffing the face on the run
how can one really appreciate food?
Where is the love?
I love my ‘electric free’ things, I love making and creating things;
how grand to think that perhaps in some small way in my doings, and sharing
those doings with others, we are not just learning new skills but reconnecting
with another way to love, through the creative impulse and work with dignity.
Blessings of all green and growing things.
