Sunday the 24th of May we were out as members of the Arkwright Spinsters at Hardwick Park Farm
It was an absolute scorcher of a day which seemed to attract the visitors. They had a team of shearers in, shearing their sheep, so we picked a nice looking fleece and got to work.
Laying the fleece out in the sun kept the lanolin warm which made it much easier to spin and the fleece was soon knitted up -
into a lovely ( although slightly greasy and smelly) shawl, for farmer's wife Clare.
They had a fantastic barbeque cooking too, we can recommend the beefburgers!
Bank Holiday Monday saw us at Wetlands Wildlife and Waterfowl Reserve at Sutton-cum-Lound, near Retford, which, by the way, is a great place to visit if you like to get a good look at unusual types of creatures, or just fancy a country walk around the lakes.
We had a nice shady spot, under the trees at the end of the deer pen and not far from their one sheep, Knobby, who was sheared by Philip in the afternoon ( the 100th sheep he had sheared this year!)
We managed to talk a few of the visitors into having a go at spinning too with some pretty impressive results.
