As well as being the last day of the Tour de France today was also the day of the Singleton Rare Breeds show. Here is the view across to the show rings while the set-up was going on:
There were lots of animals to look at, including some very cute alpacas:
I was delighted to find some Southdown sheep since that is the breed of fleece I am spinning with at the moment, they look like teddy bears 🙂
There were lots and lots of sheep, from the very large like these black Wensleydales:
To the really pretty tiny, like these Castlemilk Moorits (I hope I have identified these right, I failed to include their sign in the photo).
There was also a section for fleeces and handspun, where my friend Lisa won a very well deserved two rosettes for her spinning. Well done Lisa! There were lots of lovely things on display, I’m afraid I was so busy looking at them that I failed to take any pictures in the handspun tent.
I did buy a little bit of fibre, this is a mixture of merino with a bit of trilobal nylon which makes it sparkly.
The weather was the best it has been for months. I think it is the first time this summer I have worn suncream and my sunhat in this country!
This evening I spun a bit more of the purple Southdown while we watched the last stage of the Tour. I am now part way through the second bobbin.
Today’s coin is an Isle of Man pound for Mark Cavendish’s win. What a great tour this has been for the Brits!
And this is a pile of all of the yarn I finished during the tour, I had spun about three-quarters of the singles of the brown alpaca before the tour started.
Altogether there is 1545g and 3427m. Not bad really! I think I shall have a lie-in tomorrow 🙂
LUV THE PHOTOS OF THE LOVELY ANIMALS N U HV SO MUCH TO BE PROUD OF IN ALL U SPUN. SSSSOOOOOO IMPRESSED.
Thank you 🙂 I am very pleased with my spinning, and am looking forward to knitting it!
The animals at the show were all great. It was lovely to see all the different breeds, especially the ones that are quite rare and so you don’t come across them very often.
Bravo, Heather! I really enjoyed your daily Tour de Force – er Fleece. Got hooked similar to the soaps, ha ha!
We went to the Hastings Town and Country Fair on Saturday (glorious weather) and the very first stall at the entrance was – the 1066 Spinners!!! Roy was really interested in the spinning wheel (I don’t think he’d seen one that close before!) and one of the ladies there had a hand spindle on which she was spinning some fleece and I really liked the idea of that (very portable!). She invited me along to one of their meetings (1st Sat of month) but it doesn’t look like I shall be here on one of those until October! In the meantime I found a similar spindle on the internet and have ordered it just for fun …..
Have a happy summer!
love A. x
🙂 Glad you have been enjoying the daily lunacy 🙂
Very exciting about your new spindle! There are some good tutorials on YouTube to help get you started. The ones by Abby Franquemont are good:
Drop Spindle Spinnning
Introduction to Spinning Part One
Introduction to Spinning Part Two
She also wrote Respect the Spindle, a book which I think also has a DVD. I don’t have it, but some of my friends at knitting and spinning group do and think it is good.
Have fun!