spinning with a Drop Spindle

Spinning wool is something I have been aching to try for a few years but never really got the chance. I am a keen knitter and really love the idea of really doing the whole thing myself, from start to finish, just like people did hundreds of years ago.
At first I found it quite hard to keep the yarn even and stop it from snapping, but I was quite surprised by how quickly it evened out and I was able to make it lovely and thin.

One thing I love about this particular brown fleece is that I was able to see the sheep it came from being sheered, so I will be able to picture exactly where my knitting comes from!
I really love the deep chocolate colour of this wool, however, I found that when I plyed it together, i was so dark that its hard to see the definition of the twist and the stitches when I knit it.  Because of this, I decided to ply it together with some white wool, and I think the result is quite pleasing as you can really see each twist of the wool.

I think this yarn knits up quite nicely. I was expecting it to be very itchy but found it fairly soft, so I am hoping to knit some socks using this yarn, perhaps also using some of the pure brown yarn as well. I hear that you can prevent the knitting being so itchy by plying it with some more expensive soft wool but I cant quite afford £40 for a fleece at this point! I will keep you posted on how my socks work out :)

Experimenting With Sour Cherries

Every year my family get a small crop of sour cherries and since now we haven't really done much with them because they are so sour! But today I have been experimenting with using these cherries to make various things.

Firstly, I decided to attempt to make some ink from them. After squishing all the juice out of about 10 cherries I added one teaspoon each of apple cider vinegar and salt, which I have read will preserve the ink so it can be used for longer. 

I was worried that this ink would give a fairly pale mark on paper, however, I found that it does give a nice strong colour, in parts pink, and strangely enough in other parts it has turned a pale lavender/blue which I think also looks nice.

Since I used all natural and edible ingredients, and the ink is so bright, I thought it might be interesting to try out using the ink as lip and cheek stain. I found that it does work fairly well and I was especially pleased with the way it looks as a cheek stain, however, the taste is not particularly pleasant so it works less well as lip stain!

Hello!

Hi! I'm Lauren and I am a Contemporary Crafts student in Plymouth UK. I Love to make just about anything, from jewellery from recycled sea glass (which you can see here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lauren-Gunning-Jewellery/346103308774041?ref=aymt_homepage_panel) to baskets and herbal remedies. I am trying to create new things so I thought it might be a good idea to start a blog so I can share with you different ideas and ways of making things. Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!