Festival weekend

What an amazingly busy weekend, Linslade Canal Festival Saturday and Fibre-East Sunday.

 

 

We were already moored in Linslade and saw all the trade boats go by to the festival site. After all the beautiful weather we’ve had these last few weeks it rather changed for the worse with thunder & a few heavy downpours, but no ones spirits were dampened. I got a good bit of my Christmas & birthday shopping done from the trade boats and the stalls around Tinderfoot Lake. We got Cheese from The Cheese Boat, jam & chutney from The Jam Butty, bags from Bags by Jane boat, yarn from The Wool Barr boat and most importantly beer & English wine from The Beer Boat, a floating off licence, plus bits and bobs from the other stalls & boats. We were joined by our friends Yvonne and Mike for the day and just as they were about leave Louise, Paul and their dog-in-law, Dottie arrived for the evening. 

Rain on the porthole

 

The pox or just rain reflection from porthole

 

Sunday I got a lift to Fibre-East the annual fibre festival in Ampthill with a lovely lady I’ve been chatting to on the towpath. She was very interested in my spinning and dying she’d seen me doing on the towpath, we both belong to the virtial knitting forum, Ravelry. I’d not been to Fibre-East for a couple of years as we were travelling in the north, which made it extra special. In the morning I strolled around the event and bumped into several boating friends and friends that had stands there. I treated myself to some wool combs, flick carder so I can finally process the Wensleydale fleece I got way back in 2010, plus, I got some dye stuff. I was very fortunate to actually be given 3 lots of fibre to spin from a couple to the wool mills that had stands. I really enjoyed demonstrating drop spindling & chatting to the visitors, when I helped man the Bedfordshire Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers stand in the afternoon.

We are still waiting patiently to hear from the solicitor as to when we need to pop over to them to sign the contract for the house sale.

Oh and I spoke too soon in my previous blog, the water levels are severely down in Leighton Buzzard and we’ve been listing to starboard for a week. John keeps telling everyone it’s ruined his soufflé!!!

Dying in the heat

Onion skin dyed wool

My wool drying tree

Inspired by my friend Maggie’s photos of her solar dying on Facebook, I dived under the dinette to get out my 3 solar dying jars. Last summer was far too cool & wet in the north to solar dye, so it was 2 years ago we last did any. I had 2 years worth of onion skins to use up so have done 6 jars which have given a nice pale orange coloured yarn and fibre. Plus, I consulted my friend Jenny Dean’s dying book for ideas of other plants to use. There are quite a few blackberries out which aren’t very palatable yet, but idea for the dye bath and that gave a nice pinkish yarn after about 4 days on the roof in the blistering heat.

blackberry's dying

Wool dying in jars & felted onion skin bag

Last Saturday I attended Bedfordshire Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers for a dying day, with chemical dyes. I joined in the Guild project to Shibori dye some fabric in shades of red ready for the Guild’s 40^th anniversary later in the year. Some of my spinning projects are going to be on display on the Guild stand at Fibre-East this coming weekend.

Ruby Shibori dying drying

Stiring the ruby dye pots

Yarn & fibre in the steamer

Ooops, I splashed red dye  on Fiona

Dryed & ready to use from the steamer

We had a surprise visit from some of our motor bike club, the KGT a couple of Sundays ago. They’d been for a run out for breakfast and then on to us for tea & cake. We made plans for them to join us when we go up Foxton Locks later in the year, once our house sale has gone through.

KGT visitors

At the moment on his stretch of the Grand Union Canal we are OK for water, however, we’ve had notification from the Canal & River Trust that lots of the northern canal have already had to close as the reservoirs are dry. So we’re going to need LOTS of rain to get us all moving again.

We are really enjoying being in & around Leighton Buzzard to catch up with friends before we head north.

In the shade at Linslade

We are moored in a perfect spot in the shade at Linslade, with willow trees on each side of the canal which means the boat only gets odd spots of sun through the branches. And the solar panels are still picking up just about enough rays in the shade to keep the fridge going and as you can imagine it’s working it’s little socks off!!! Our portholes can be completely removed meaning we get a nice breeze or should I say warm breeze but the temperature inside in the day in this lovely shade is 28-32c. So these temperatures are perfect for sitting on the tow path spinning.

John’s been busy repainting the doors and hatches that were adjusted a few weeks ago and touching up other odd bits of paint too.

The moon last week was beautiful. The day before we moved to Linslade we walked up from Stoke Hammond to The Old Red Lion at Great Brickhill. The views from there of the sun set over the valley were amazing. The short walk back down the hill at dusk took us ages as we kept stopping to watch the wildlife, deers, rabbits that the fox didn’t quite catch for supper and lots of bats, we could hear the owl but he didn’t fly where we could see it. The farmers have been very busy with hay making last week, thank goodness my hayfever doesn’t play me up anywhere as much as it did in my younger years.

 

Last Friday we got the bus to Luton for John’s annual eye test and to probably give blood at our donor centre for the last time. All the staff at the donor centre know John really well as he used to give platelets fortnightly and the procedure took up to 2 hours.

Saturday and Sunday I went with the Bedfordshire Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers to demonstrate at the South Beds Country Show in Harlington. It was predominantly a steam and vintage vehicle event with a small craft marquee, children’s rides and a small area with farm animals, which is where we were. Gosh, it was hot but we unlaced our corner to the marquee to give a bit more of a breeze. I don’t think the event was very well attended and the traders were all moaning about they wouldn’t cover their costs. John came on Saturday and demonstrated lucet and pin loom weaving.

 

 

We keep looking at the news reports about all the moorland fires in the north west. The smoke from the Winter Hill blaze was blowing over Heather & Jason’s house at the weekend.