April & Springtime -- and a look back at winter

Looking ahead to the spring, there are trips, workshops, talks...more on that in a bit.

Housekeeping in the garden and allotment is a good time to reflect back on the winter, which is often a time for planning, practice, and learning.

Much of January was spent in Rome, working on a new writing project and preparing the proposal -- writing up the pitch, crafting a couple of sample chapters for review.

It was a chance to finish up a project that I'd begun mapping out -- literally -- during lockdown. Inspired by a 1990s Vogue knitting pattern that was an intarsia round-the-world pattern, I wondered if I could chart something out with the Roman Empire in mind. Sure there are online programmes to use quickly to make charting patterns, but I decided to go old school and eyeball it with coloured pencils, graph paper, and a map taken from a textbook. I got about 1/3 of the way through it during lockdown, but ran out of room. On a whim, I took the project with me to the BSR, and in the evenings when I had the library to myself, spread it out on the library floor (underfloor heating for the win, very cosy). Loads of progress, at least enough to call it a day -- all those Eastern provinces did my head in.

I doubt it will be eventually turned into a jumper, but I suspect I will be at some point knitting or crocheting this into a throw, why not.

I usually make a small sprang piece whilst I'm at the BSR, and this time it was a belt, playing around with Z and S twist to make two colours move back and forth on the belt. I have loads of old buckets (another lockdown purchase), so I've got plenty more chances to practice.

Finished in January, too, was a sample piece of 2/2 twill -- very easy on a modern loom, a right palaver on a warp-weighted loom. I'm teaching a workshop on using warp-weighted looms this summer, and wanted to see how difficult it would be to weave up a multi-hedlle bar project on one of these studio-sized looms. The yarn is commercially spun, but I dyed half of it with cherry Koolade because why not.

Finally, January saw a completed pair of handspun 'scrappy socks' using up some bits and pieces of handspun in my workbox.

More scrappy bits in February -- crocheted granny squares from handspun from that same destash -- at some point to be assembled into a small cushion cover, I think.

I held a workshop at my weaving & spinning guild this month on sprang (accompanied by a short talk) -- my first sprang workshop, and much useful feedback from my guild colleagues.

I gave a talk out in Bournemouth for the Historical Association on Hannibal and the Second Punic War.

My uni's Reading Week coincided with half-terms in February, so I was happy to spend time at both Fishbourne Roman Palace and at Weald & Downland Museum -- they're both near Chichester, so it was a nice mini break to stay at a pub in Fishbourne and not worry about commuting on all three days. Always enjoyable to be back at Fishbourne doing the whole Roman thing, and at Weald and Downland I got some experience with working with the public at their Bayleaf House, which focuses on the Tudor era.

I had a chance to try out some 'new hair' at Fishbourne -- partly because it was a super windy day on the second day out there, and I didn't want my 'big hair' to get wet and blown around.

Finally in March I held a 'skills sharing' session in nalbinding at my guild.

Twp talks in March: one about Roman women, sheep and wool for the Eastborne Women's Institute

and had a wonderful trip back out to the Isle of Wight to speak with the Historical Association there about Emperor Nero and all of the women at his court.

A lot of learning in March for me, as following an online talk I gave for MEDATs, I was contacted by Carol James, a leading authority in all things sprang. I spent a lot of time this month practicing lace stitches and cicular warp.

Another induction day at Weald and Downland, this time at Pendean House, spinning flax; Pendean dates from the very early 17th century.

It's a busy time heading into April -- student dissertations are due as we are now in the last weeks of the semester, plus getting a number of late spring and summer workshops organised -- time to go through the inventory to see what bits need to be refilled and updated for the workshops.

More about April and upcoming events to come!