Very soon after moving house last February I joined the Somerset Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers. Before moving I had found the Guild online and learned that it was one of the oldest in the country and from the posts it seemed to be active, with outreach demos and events. Even better the monthly meetings take place not too far away from our new home. I had not joined the East Sussex Guild, having found what I needed in the lovely Brighton Textile Arts Group which I sadly had to leave behind when we moved. Therefore, although I had friends in the East Sussex Guild I didn’t know what to expect from my first visit.

It is always difficult walking into an established group, but the members were very welcoming and I felt at home almost straight away. I had taken my travelling Victoria wheel with me and some random fleece that I had managed to dig out of the many, many still unpacked boxes that were, (and still are) piled in the new garage. It happened to be a lucky dip of hand dyed (and fortunately already carded) Shetland yarn.

Even in the turmoil of unpacking I managed to sort these into a semblance of order so that I would be able to spin a multicoloured yarn to ply with some natural singles that I fortuitously found filling a bobbin in Victoria’s bag.

Since then I have done several outdoor events demonstrating for the Guild and joined in the 75th Anniversary celebration and Open Day. Unfortunately I also bought more fleece at the Fleece Fair and have so far only managed to scour half! Lots of spinning is needed…

To get to the heart of this post, I will skip over lots of things, and get to the November meeting, at which David Herring and Josh from Frank Herring and Son in Dorchester came to run a wheel maintenance day and to demonstrate warping a rigid heddle loom. They also judged the spinning competition into which I had entered a couple of skeins.

I was caught by surprise when my sequin embellished Jacob’s yarn won one of the categories as there are far more skilled and experienced spinners in the Guild than me. I think it must have been a lucky fluke, but nonetheless I was very honoured to receive the Morfudd Roberts Memorial Trophy. It now sits in pride of place in our dining room.

When I can find the skein of yarn that won I will post it here, (see below, I found an old photo) but it is back in its box underneath things at the moment. I will also post the multicoloured yarn that I spun in the first meetings.

I must remember to keep the trophy dusted for the year in which I hold it – housework is not my forte, I would rather be spinning, knitting, weaving or gardening… but I guess I am not alone there.