Saint Patricks' Day

It's not about the actual Saints Day , its about our day at a local school , St Patricks

Three of us , Eileen Innes and myself visited St Patricks School as part of the Clyde Coast Guild of Weavers , Spinners and Dyers , to showcase some carding , spinning and knitting .

As part of their class project the pupils had learned to knit and made some smashing wee teddies and a blanket which was then donated to the Baby Unit at the Maternity Hospital .

They were all quite subdued when we arrived , but got very excited when asked to try some carding , Innes was on hand to ensure Health and Safety so there were no nasty scratches.

Eileen enthused them further with her spindle , and she passed around various fibres for them to guess the origins. Lots wanted to try out the spindling , and most were better than me!

Innes and I got some to try some spinning on the wheel , that took some effort to get co-ordination , but when we got round to showing yarn winding on the Niddy-Noddy every one wanted a go !

Innes did a talk on natural and acid dyes and passed round her samples , not many wanted to hold the sample wool dyed with mushrooms grown on horse manure! However they were fascinated by the various natural dyes , but when asked what they could find in their kitchen to dye with , one wee boy said Kitchen Towels!

One of the funnier moments was when we gave them a silk hanky to stretch out as far as they could , there was lengths of silk flying everywhere , and the teacher felt the need to calm everyone down!

One wee girl did ask where you would get a spindle , I think Innes mentioned something about making one with a pencil, some plasticine and a CD .

Overall , I think it was a very successful afternoon all round , the kids were fantastic and seemed to enjoy our wee demonstration .

We might even be invited back next year!