April

At last venturing further afield than our own doorstep has become possible. For now travel is only meant to be within Wales, and people shouldn't be crossing over the border from England, so it's been peaceful. 
Or as peaceful as it can be with one of these newly arrived in the house!

Nell arrived with us 2 weeks ago. We said goodbye to our oldest dog Gwen earlier this year, and the house felt too empty with just one dog, and in the manner of many other people, all the time at home seems like a good time to teach a puppy how to be a good dog, particularly as things start top open up again so we'll be able to go and do all the appropriate socialisations to make sure she's a happy reliable pet.
She's a border collie from working farm stock, her Mum was also called Gwen and her Dad was called Gilbert! 
Meg is unimpressed with the new arrival, though is starting to mellow towards her!
Almost nothing in the house is safe from her desire to play with it... so knitting has bee rather slow. However I have done the swatch for my cashmere jumper, and cast on!

I'm not doing Virtual Wonderwool as a business this year. I don't have an excess of stock I need to sell, and I dislike using Facebook. However I am still taking part in a different form. As part of the Welsh Guilds of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers we've organised a series of talks taking place that weekend. 

The speakers are all offering their time for free, and we're asking that you donate to either the Welsh Air Ambulance or Macmillan Cancer Support in exchange for attending. 
The full details of all the talks, and links to book your ticket (which is essential) are on the All Wales Guilds website.
​There's a huge variety of topics, some on historical textiles, natural dyeing, contemporary yarn production, hand carding...
They're being hosted on Zoom as seminars, and we hope to have an automated closed caption system in operation as speakers are talking. 

In the last post I promised that I was working on my next Spinning with a Purpose Course focusing on Twist. It's now live and ready to go. Here's the full course outline so you can see what's covered in each lesson. 
There's lots of technical information on twist, but there's also lots of practical advice to help you get better at judging twist as you spin. You're encouraged to experiment and sample to find the level of twist that works for you, rather than a prescriptive instruction. 

It's available to buy in my Payhip store, once you purchase you'll be sent 2 pdf files. One is the course outline, the other contains your link to access the course in the Fellowship of Yarn Mighty Network group. 

Lambs are starting to appear in the fields here, our upland sheep lamb later in spring and out in the fields. The daffodils have been looking stunning, and the tulips are growing their flower buds. The other sign of spring is one we can watch right through our window with a telescope. Whilst eating breakfast a few weeks ago we spotted a pair of Red Kites repeatedly landing in a tree. A closer look with the binoculars revealed a part built nest. She's now been sat on a clutch of eggs for about 10 days, so by the end of April we might have some Red Kite chicks to watch.