This weekend we went to my in-laws’ golden wedding anniversay celebration. It was beautiful. It was simple and was about spending time with friends and family. The children loved it as they felt grown up eating in a lovely restaurant, loved playing with their much adored cousin and were excited about staying overnight at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.
I wish I had taken more photos, but I had a mother of all headaches. I sneaked off into the restaurant’s garden, found a lovely shaded spot and kept an eye on the children instead. The cake didn’t just look good, it tasted scrummy.
To add the icing on the cake for the weekend, before we left this morning, the children and I spent an oh-too-brief time looking at Grandma’s spinning wheel, her spinning and bags of roving. AJ has inherited my love of textiles and absolutely loves seeing Grandma’s spinning wheel.
My mother-in-law started spinning after she retired. Last time we visited, both my girls had a go with her wheel. AJ, for one, is hooked.
I’m not surprised. I love seeing the combed fleece turning into yarn as we watch. Like magic. We all came away with goodies. I keep changing my mind what to do with the reddy brown, golden and blue wool. This is where blogging fails. I can only describe the softness of the wool and the smell of the fleece. I have not knitted with merino before, so I am so looking forward to finding the right project for this wool. (little happy dance around the kitchen)
I’m pretty sure what we are going to do with the jacob sheep fleece. We were planning on washing it tomorrow, but as the weather looks bad, I think I’ll save that for another day. I’m growing woad in the garden, so I’m keen to use that to dye at least some of the fleece. Then maybe felt it into a waistcoat for one of the children. I’ll probably change my mind lots of times before the woad is ready.
Oh and the children did not come away empty handed. Grandma let them have a sample of each of her bags of roving. They love it. They have plans for using it to make hair for more dolls, as yet unmade. I think a wet felting project must be on the cards. TF just loves feeling the fibres. Merino and silk. He may not settle for less in the future.
Big huge thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for a lovely weekend.
Happy anniversary to the grandparents! The wool is gorgeous; I know what you mean about the smell of fleece–I love it too. My daughter-in-law is interested in learning how to spin. She’s starting with a drop spindle. Thanks for sharing great photos, especially the last one. Lucky girls!
TF went off to nursery clutching his bag of rainbow wool to show the other children. I hope they like it.
The wool looks amazing, I love the blue. Dyeing the fleece sounds like fun but you do know that woad is very smelly don’t you. I went to a demonstration once about how it is prepared and the smell was awful! You’ll have to make sure the wind is blowing in the right direction.
Thanks for the warning. Got to admit, I’ve not heard about the smell before. I’ll make sure I try it outside first. I don’t want to make something that the children will not wear due to the smell.