Once again members of the Diss Guild volunteered alongside members from our neighbouring Guilds to engage with the public at the Makers Forum in Norwich during April. It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know other Guild members and to work together to demonstrate the skills of weaving and spinning as well as exhibit some of the wonderful work members produce. It was great fun and well attended.

Later the same week we supported the RBST at the Makers Festival. This year we were inside the Forum and lots of interested public stopped to watch us spinning and ask pertinent questions!

April’s meeting  was all about designing our own knitting patterns. Sue Woodgate had designed some wonderful sock patterns for herself and a few friends when they went up to Shetland a few years ago. Our thanks to Sue for an inspiring session as she kindly showed us how she developed the designs and how she incorporated these into her sock patterns.

In early May some members joined other Guilds for the Flax afternoon at Gressenhall near Dereham. The day involved processing the flax by breaking, scutching and hackling before dressing a distaff and spinning. It was a busy afternoon with some people spinning and some preparing the flax. The Flax project is ongoing and we went to have a look at the flax that has been sown this year. The seeds had germinated and the plants were just emerging; by late July the flax will be ready for harvesting.

The Bugs and Blossoms have finally found a suitable home and Juliet took the panels down to the Forest School at Grundisburgh for their project room. The school’s ethos is to engage with the environment and the panels will contribute to the children’s learning. They were delighted with the panels. 

Our thanks to Jen, Susan and Mary for a wonderful session on silk. For our May meeting Jen brought along her silk worms, some cocoons and silk preparations. Susan and Mary brought along a range of silk fibres including silk roving, caps and hankies as well as projects they are working on; Susan’s wonderful silk embroidery and Mary’s praying mantis, both works in progress. Maureen kindly brought along some silk fabric and her beautiful silk embroideries to support the session. All in all a wonderful demonstration from silk worm, to silk fibre, to silk fabric.