New Etsy Post.

 I have just posted a Angora Shoulder Cape on Etsy. It is hand knitted with my best hand spun angora from one of my favortie rabbits called Flute. He has a lovely coat which grows thick and long. It takes about 30mins to clip him because there is so much fibre to come off. It's a good job that I only do it once every 10 weeks because he gets a bit figerty in that time.

The cape is soft and warm with a lovely drape. A cosy cover up for indoors or out any time.

Colourful skeins.

One of the skeins I have for sale on Etsy at the moment is a Jacob mix dyed red and blue. Just to remind you Jacobs are a breed of sheep that are very popular with small holders because they are medium sized ,easy to keep, hardy and friendly. The fleece is good for hand spinners because it is easy to spin and coming in a mix of brown and white, it is easy to knit up to very effective patterns. The down side is that it is some times a bit course especially if the fleece is from and older ewe.

 I spun one single in pure Jacob randomly straight from the fleece. Meaning no carding. The other single was a white Oxford down dyed with Madder and Indigo. Spun alternately red and blue. When plied together it was surprising  how much of the Jacob was lost but the overall result was just what I wanted.

1st day introdution.

This is day one of this blog so here is a little bit about myself.

I live in a small village in lovely countryside, although we are only forty minutes from London(England). I have always been a country girl and gain lots of inspiration from the natural world. Hand spinning and dyeing are my great passions.I opened my Etsy shop a few months ago and would love to be able to earn a living from my work but have to work part time for the moment. It is over thirty years since I first learned to spin and have I found plenty of ways to pass on my skills. Teaching, taking workshops and giving talks to all sorts of groups. But there always seems to be new things to learn as I go along.

Other passions are my dogs, horses and rabbits. You will be hearing about these from time to time as they often are connected with my work, especially the rabbits. They are Angoras, and I love to spin angora it is hard to beat on softness. I hope you like the picture of my lovely Melody. How could you not!

Gardening is another hobby, I grow a lot of the plants that I dye with and will be explaining how to do this from time to time, as well as how to use them.

I'm afraid I am a multi project person. There are at least two or three things in my work box at any one time. There have been as many as five before now. I try to be a bit disciplined and get things finished. Remembering that I am trying to run a business is hard when I am enjoying myself so much. It never feels like work. All this means that I will have plenty of things to shear with you as I go along.

Please shear your projects with me, any comments, helpful hints, etc will be welcome. We can all learn from each other.

Bye for now, Gilly.