The Bare Weaver

Bare weaver gone walkabout We recently headed down to Wales to meet our fleece growers Denis, Erin and the girls   to take a look at what industrialisation did to our rural cottage workers. When we saw the scale of what could be done in the mills it was just incredible. The wool arrived from the farms in huge bales And it was fed by hand into their combing machine Where it is shredded, then combed and turned into roving. Then the spinning took place and this is the important bit -2000 of these- Were replaced with just one of these – And this was just one of six spinning machines that were operated in this mill alone. Just think about that 2000 small rural families losing their staple income in one fell swoop from just one machine and there were six of them just in this mill 12000 people put out of work so that rich industrialists could make vast profits – nothing has changed. So value what you do when you are spinnin...

One of the things I love about spinning and weaving is that it can be extremely relaxing and meditative. I hadn’t expected that, it came as a bit of a surprise, but when I thought about it I should have known this. Didn’t Gandhi use spinning as a meditative exercise as well as revolutionising a craft industry that took his country to independence? The answer of course is yes he did and I can understand both how and why.  In today’s very materialistic world people use possessions as a way to display their so called worth and value to others; those with wealth have power and power is the ultimate aim isn’t it? Well it doesn’t have to be; being independent of the mass industrialised profiteering ethos is extremely freeing and has a feel good factor massively more than the possession of the latest in thing. There is of course the temptation to have the latest in thing for your cottage craft but that isn’t because of peer pressure to have something better than those next d...

When you get the craft bug it can be quite a fascinating change of your life. It isn’t just about the things you make, at least it isn’t for me; it’s also about the story, for example I just bought and washed a huge wool fleece ready for combing and spinning – it was a lovely sticky sloppy job, it’s all part of the fun. I was particularly interested in this fleece because the lovely lady I got it from also sent me two or three pictures of Denis the Texel sheep who had grown it. So there was already a bit of a story there, but now I have a bit more of the story and the nice thing is that I can tell the story whenever anyone asks about the things I have made from his wool and who couldn’t fall for the story of this not so little fella?  “Denis is on the Pantcyfyng farm Bwlchllan, Lampeter where he and the rest of the flock are looked after by Caroline Lewis. Caroline told me… “Denis was one of a twin from a neighbouring pedigree flock of texels. He was born with contr...

Is it British wool? You might be fooled into thinking that buying wool certified by the wool marketing board as British wool that it would be 100% British wool. This sadly is not the case - the wool marketing board describes "British Wool as having to have a minimum content of 50% wool that originated here in the UK the rest could come from anywhere. Where do I source my wool from? I buy direct from the farm - so my wool is 100%British wool and I'm proud of that - it means that when you buy from me you are not only supporting a small craft business you are also supporting a small farm businesses too. Meet Erin, a Jacob cross Welsh black mountain - she's providing some of my wool this year and Denis - he's also supplied a wonderful fleece for this years projects. Erin's wool is a lovely mix of colours and should provide some fantastic yarn. I also use some other people's yarn for specific bespoke items such as this bag created in love...