Beaker Button Blog

I had my third person to teach spinning to today.  Usually my Mum teaches spinning, as she has 40 years experience.  But I'm learning to teach spinning on very special people, who don't mind being practiced on or being passed on to Mum when I feel inadequate.  So today I taught Silka to spin, starting with carding and ending up with setting her own skein to take home.  She was brilliant.  Very focused, and with her listening ears on.  She picked it up really quickly, which is nice for both of us really.  Below are a few photos from the day. spindle spinning bit of a draw on the wheel getting the twist first yarn on the wheel finished skein close up 

I spent a very enjoyable day on Monday in the shop with some dear friends, being taught how to make Torchon lace by another dear friend.  I started the day in complete bewilderment, with no idea what was expected of me or what I was going to do.  I've never made anything like lace before.  Basically you use bobbins wound with thread or in our case yarn, a large straw, foam or polystyrene covered cushion and lots of pins.  You weave the bobbins in set patterns to create stitches, the pins hold the threads in place where necessary.  Sue, our teacher, gave us dotted paper which is the pattern you work to.  I took to it like a duck to water.  For some reason the whole process felt completely logical once I'd got started.  Mind you, I couldn't explain it to anyone else, but give me time.  I've added a couple of photos below to show you what I did.  Beaker Button will hopefully be adding this class to our workshop program very shortly, a...