Thursday 28 November 2019
November's Fibre has arrived - Red Canary
When the letter for this arrived in my e-mail I did think it was going to be more of a pinky red rather than this orangey-red but its different. The little bits of Sari Silk won't pose a problem for me as I've spun Sari Silk in blends a couple of times now. A little bit of texture and colour really adds something to the finished yarn. This one is 62.5% Merino wool, 25% Sari Silk, 12.5% Mulberry Silk.
Sunday 24 November 2019
November's Fibre Club Letter
November's fibre club letter has landed in my inbox. I've still not got round to catching up with spinning so its really building up.
The letter reads:
Before I was a dyer I was a science teacher. None of my formal education was arts based, I have Science A-Levels and my subject at university was Biology. It’s always surprising how many people in the fibre arts come from a science or engineering background. There are times when I do sometimes wish I had done a more arts based education, but there were real benefits to studying science, and I was lucky to have some very inspirational teachers.
My tutor in my final year of university was Professor Tim Birkhead. If you like listening to science programmes on BBC Radio 4 you may have heard him on various programmes including The Infinite Monkey Cage. He’s a very funny man, and excellent at communicating scientific ideas. On the back of the door of his office was a publishers advertising poster for a book he’d just written. I wasn’t the worlds best student, and by that point it was becoming very clear that I was not going to be a career scientist, but I did still love the subject. So I went home and ordered a copy. I still have it, I still read it now and again, and it’s the inspiration for our fibre this month.
Ask anyone to name the first genetically modified animal and they will probably say Dolly the Sheep. It may come as no surprise that I am about to tell you that she was not the first. The first genetically modified species (ie. containing the DNA of a completely different animal) is the canary. The title of the book is The Red Canary and it’s the story of an amateur bird breeder, a scientist and a rich philanthropist and the quest to take an ordinary yellow canary and breed a bird that was bright red.
The canary had been kept as a domesticated bird since the 17th century, the original birds were green and yellow and found on the islands just off the coast of Africa and Spain. In Germany the breeders focused on producing birds with a beautiful song, including an incredible variation known as the Mountain Roller. The amateur bird breeder of our book was a master.
Karl Reich had managed to breed a bird capable of replicating the song of a nightingale. He did this using careful breeding, and crucially, the right environment as the bird grew up, as canaries learn their song by listening to other birds. Karl Reich met the scientist Hans Ducker, and together they set about trying to breed a red canary. Throughout the 1920’s and into the 30’s they tried to breed a red canary by introducing the genes from a Red Siskin. This was long before the technology of genetic manipulation that allowed precision splicing of the genetic code. Instead they bred thousands of birds, selecting for the best colour, and hoping that the hybrid birds would be fertile. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that they succeeded, but the story of how they got there is fascinating. The book tells this much better than I ever can, so I will leave the tale there, and as ever the further reading links will take you in the direction of pictures, videos, and much more.
So its going to be along the red theme then. I have heard about people trying to breed red canaries from my time spent as a member of a local bird keepers and breeders club years ago.
From the spoilers chat she has revealed that it is a textured blend and won't spin smoothly and its sturdier than last months merino.
The letter reads:
Before I was a dyer I was a science teacher. None of my formal education was arts based, I have Science A-Levels and my subject at university was Biology. It’s always surprising how many people in the fibre arts come from a science or engineering background. There are times when I do sometimes wish I had done a more arts based education, but there were real benefits to studying science, and I was lucky to have some very inspirational teachers.
My tutor in my final year of university was Professor Tim Birkhead. If you like listening to science programmes on BBC Radio 4 you may have heard him on various programmes including The Infinite Monkey Cage. He’s a very funny man, and excellent at communicating scientific ideas. On the back of the door of his office was a publishers advertising poster for a book he’d just written. I wasn’t the worlds best student, and by that point it was becoming very clear that I was not going to be a career scientist, but I did still love the subject. So I went home and ordered a copy. I still have it, I still read it now and again, and it’s the inspiration for our fibre this month.
Ask anyone to name the first genetically modified animal and they will probably say Dolly the Sheep. It may come as no surprise that I am about to tell you that she was not the first. The first genetically modified species (ie. containing the DNA of a completely different animal) is the canary. The title of the book is The Red Canary and it’s the story of an amateur bird breeder, a scientist and a rich philanthropist and the quest to take an ordinary yellow canary and breed a bird that was bright red.
The canary had been kept as a domesticated bird since the 17th century, the original birds were green and yellow and found on the islands just off the coast of Africa and Spain. In Germany the breeders focused on producing birds with a beautiful song, including an incredible variation known as the Mountain Roller. The amateur bird breeder of our book was a master.
Karl Reich had managed to breed a bird capable of replicating the song of a nightingale. He did this using careful breeding, and crucially, the right environment as the bird grew up, as canaries learn their song by listening to other birds. Karl Reich met the scientist Hans Ducker, and together they set about trying to breed a red canary. Throughout the 1920’s and into the 30’s they tried to breed a red canary by introducing the genes from a Red Siskin. This was long before the technology of genetic manipulation that allowed precision splicing of the genetic code. Instead they bred thousands of birds, selecting for the best colour, and hoping that the hybrid birds would be fertile. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that they succeeded, but the story of how they got there is fascinating. The book tells this much better than I ever can, so I will leave the tale there, and as ever the further reading links will take you in the direction of pictures, videos, and much more.
So its going to be along the red theme then. I have heard about people trying to breed red canaries from my time spent as a member of a local bird keepers and breeders club years ago.
From the spoilers chat she has revealed that it is a textured blend and won't spin smoothly and its sturdier than last months merino.
Friday 15 November 2019
New Wedding Shawl Photos
Ha, I did it. I lost enough weight to be able to fit back into the wedding dress that I bought to use as a photography prop. In fact, its a little loose on me now.
I tried the dress on first this time, to make sure, before I spent ages preparing the photo set up.
I've taken over 300 photos but unfortunately I did run out of time and light and so haven't been able to take new photos of everything I need to photograph, maybe about half of them but I am very happy with them so far and all I have to do now is edit them and get them exchanged with the old ones that are in the shop.
I will have to do at least another one photo shoot to photograph the rest of the shop items and improve the photos but we will have to see on the weather and the light as at this time of year its really hit and miss.
I tried the dress on first this time, to make sure, before I spent ages preparing the photo set up.
I've taken over 300 photos but unfortunately I did run out of time and light and so haven't been able to take new photos of everything I need to photograph, maybe about half of them but I am very happy with them so far and all I have to do now is edit them and get them exchanged with the old ones that are in the shop.
I will have to do at least another one photo shoot to photograph the rest of the shop items and improve the photos but we will have to see on the weather and the light as at this time of year its really hit and miss.
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