A few weeks ago, on the hottest day since 1976, I set off early in the morning to drive down to Mid Wales. All went well until the powers that be decided to reduced the M6 traffic flow thereby creating an extensive car park. Myself and a few thousand others exited for Lancaster which soon became gridlocked. My leisurely 5 hour journey took 10 hours to complete but I let down the windows and absorbed the music because I was going to one of my favourite places.

Greenspace is an old forrestry cottage set deep in the woods and is the home of my friends Shirley and Bas, they are both masters of their crafts, she a spinner and weaver, he a potter.

In this idyllic place they teach their skills to visitors who come to learn or who just visit on retreat to be surrounded by the tranquility and absence of rush.

At the Shed I need a different system for making my warps, the stake warping isn't ideal.

So Shirley and I spent the whole of the next day experimenting with the creation of a multi coloured warp on her vertical warping swift, at least with the french windows of the studio wide open we had some benefit of another gorgeous sunny day.

After a less fraught trip North it was time to draw the prepared warp on to my recently purchased Swedish counter balance loom. Easier said than done, the 2 folded woollen spun yarn threads had severely tangled around each other and required some seriously strong combing to get them through the raddle and on to the beam. After all that effort the threading of the warp through the healds and reed was a fairly peaceful if time consuming affair.

With the warp in place and secured to the front roller, the first few picks of weft could be inserted across the warp. Eliott plaid emerging, all set now for The Clan Gathering at Redheugh and the Holm Show.

First repeat of the check