Spinning in Springtime.

Sunshine on the table.

Not having a big budget for flowers, I often buy flowers from a roadside stall. $3 for a bunch of cheer is awesome, and these daffodils were often replaced in the early spring.

Breakfast table.

We are an old-fashioned family, we set the breakfast table the night before, and always eat at the table. Stops you from rushing with your food, and is a great slow start to the day.
I love creamy porridge with dried fruit in cold weather.

Last September I attended a Spinning Workshop in Woodville, a one and a half hours drive south from here. The tutor was Suzy Brown, a.k.a. Woolwench . She is an amazing art yarn spinner, who lives in The Netherlands. She is a kiwi however, from Hawkes' Bay, so kind of the opposite of me!

Suzy and Tracy have their thinking faces on...

The workshop was held in Tracy Whites' Studio and shop in Woodville. I learned at least 5 other spinning techniques and Suzy helped me with some trouble shooting of one of my yarns as well. It was lovely to meet her face to face, as we had already messaged each other through her blog.
 I had a go at a Majacraft prototype carder, that we had to test, as well as using a blending board for the first time.

One of my fellow students trying hard to not control the yarn.

Tracy had some delicious fibres for us to play with, and I brought some of my own as well.

Suzy made us spin our first crazy multi-fibre batt with our eyes closed! This was to stop us controlling the fibre going into the wheel, because when you have spun for a while, spinners' hands want to make the thread fine and even. Art yarn can be bulky and full of irregularities.

Of course some of the fibre got so bulky, it wouldn't go through the hole, and there was some swearing in the room! Unfortunately not everyone had a wheel that could accommodate bulky bits.

Thanks to my new flyer and large bobbins I was fine with that.

It was a really good exercise.

A fine combed merino and silk mixture from the blending board.

At home I spun up my fine combed merino and oodles of silk rolags from the blending board, I managed to make 3 of those rolags. The thread I made was fine and even, because I wanted it to go a long way. I could use it by itself or as a wrapping yarn or as a plying yarn.
Who knows.
I'll show the other yarns I made in another post soon.

My favourite elmtree .

I drive by this marvelous elmtree every day I go to work.
 It is massive!
And has the perfect shape.
Oh I love it!

Free free!

This winter an escaped cockateel has been circling our street. The neighbours across the street have 1 too, in a cage on their porch. They screeched to each other often and the free one would circle their house.
Until one afternoon the cage door came unstuck, and our neighbours' bird joined the free bird.
We haven't seen either of them since...