The Heritage Crafts Association

"The Heritage Crafts Association has been formed to support and promote heritage crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage.

It is unique as an organisation in believing that craft skills should be protected, promoted and recorded as part of our living heritage in their own right, not merely in terms of the objects they produce or their conservation value to old buildings."

- The Heritage Crafts Association website.  www.heritagecrafts.org.uk

Spinning wool and a great use for my herb basket!

Now, at the risk of going on... I found a perfect use for the little basket I made. Inspired by Mrs L over at her blog 21st Century Housewife, I sat down and practiced my spinning. 4 hours I sat there! It's the first time I managed to fill the bobbin without giving up, so I was pleased! It's a twisty mess but it doesn't matter because not all of it is! I plan to knit a masterpiece with it, well a rustic, novelty masterpiece!



Having that little basket hanging there is perfect! Just for odds and ends and bits and bobs.




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Now playing: Dick Gaughan - Banks Of Green Willow
via FoxyTunes

Photos of the Solitary Retreat

Here are some pics from the retreat. There will be more when I do my diary thing on my new blog Solitary Retreat. There is a feed just to the left so you can see what's going on over there. Thank you so much everybody for your comments!!!

The cottage is in the middle of this photo somewhere...


Yes, this is a brand new Ashford spinning wheel. For some reason I got a double drive and it's a pig to learn on! My reasoning was that I would be getting Exmoor Horns and therefore needed a wheel that could do a stronger yarn. What I didn't realise was how fiddly it would be to work out!


It's another Hen-head wearing a horny head-bag. I have named this particular bag 'Trinity' after the stitch that I used on it. There's a couple of lines of crosses that run along the head-bag. I worked the crosses out using the trinity stitch. Actually I got bored practicing the trinity stitch and managed to somehow make little crosses in a fluky kind of way!! I loved it though!


This little family came to visit me one day. This photo doesn't really show just how tiny the kittens were, I think it's because their mum was also very young (she is in the middle front, black and white). They were all healthy though and pinged and sproinged their way around mums hunting ground. I am convinced it was their first day out. There was a barn on the other side of the valley that I saw her go into one day when I was watching her through my inspectacles. So she is obviously an un-neutered barn cat. There was a rather heart stopping adventure that they all had that day too, which I'll write about on the other blog!


This is a fairy... shut up, it is...


This was the garden she was tending when I snuck up on her...


Sunset...



Moonrise


Thank you everyone for your kind words of support around this retreat!