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suespins.bsky.social

@suespins.bsky.social
179 followers 386 following 433 posts

Gardener, plant nerd. Plays with fibre - spins, knits, crochets and weaves. Has had an 'interesting career path' - now retired! Current postgrad student at UHI, Viking Studies.

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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Dissertation topic with @insuhi.bsky.social is coming into focus, hopefully looking at the evidence for woad production and use in early Medieval Ireland (expanding into the rest of north west Europe will have to wait . . .) Now to head into library research mode 📖 📝
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is so accurate 😂
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
This is for the hand spinners - cor, look at that crimp!! It’s a Blackface x Border Leicester cross Hogg fleece and this is the first shearing. It looks and feels very nice indeed! #handspinning
A crimped lock of sheep’s fleece, 20cm long, is on a folded black bin liner background with a ruler. Both are sat on top of a pale bag with the unwashed fleece rolled up in it.
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Lucy Bellwood @lubellwoo.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
New 44-track playlist from Smithsonian Folkways documenting sea shanties, nautical ballads, work songs, and other maritime musical treasures from the English-speaking world:
folkways.si.edu
Folkways Goes... to Sea | Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Long before modern instant communication, and even before the days of highways and railroads, ships and waterways connected communities with each other. These waterborne connections spanned distances…
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Impressive thunderstorms over southern Northumberland this evening! Video shows lightning strikes, about 100 per minute!
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Disturbed this excellent moth while potting up plants, iridescent patches on its wings.
Copper brown moth in a black flower pot.
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Bodies and Being: The Premodern Body Project @bodiesandbeing.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
We have a really fun one for you in June - #embroidery based on #medieval #marginalia with @xpi.bsky.social! #MedievalSky #MedievalHistory #Skystorians #AcademicSky #HistorySky #EarlyModernSky #EarlyModernHistory #EarlyModern #MaterialCulture #Bodies #WhatsHistory #needlework #crossstitch
eventbrite.com
Bodies and Being Speaker Series on Historical Embroidery
Join us for an exciting talk about historical embroidery and needlecraft with Kristi DiClemente.
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Curator Rob @curatorrob.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
It would be really nice if I could score 456 followers. For no particular reason.
A screen snip of the Sussex Past Bluesky account profile page. Crucially they have 455 followers.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
He’ll do anything to get in a sunbeam 🤣
A black cat is resting his head and one front paw on a pink box, in order to have his head in a sunbeam. It does not look comfortable!
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The Guild of Medievalist Makers @guildmedmak.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Sumer is icumen in! And with it, the unfurling leaves of more Guild events! 🌱 Join us for more Making Space sessions, and a special workshop on modular haiku comics. Not a member yet? Join us (for free) via out website: www.guildmedmak.com/join-the-guild
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Quinn Daedal @quinnanya.me · 06/04/2026
If you like data, or making things with textile crafts (sewing, knitting, crochet, weaving, etc.), I've finally written something up about data visualization with textiles. More words coming over the next few months! #DHmakes
textiledataviz.org
Data Visualization with Textiles
This site is notes and drafts that may someday become a Handbook of Data Visualization with Textiles.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Oh my, I’m just watching an otter on the Aln while eating my bacon roll - what a treat!! (The otter I mean)
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Woo hoo, new book day!! Looking forward to reading this 😀
A blue book, titled Rhynie is sitting on a patterned blue and white chair cushion.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
So it has just taken a large wooden spoon, a soup ladle and a small cardboard box (and much cursing) to get a fat bumblebee safely out of my kitchen via the open door, rather than the window which doesn't open - I'm exhausted now 😀 🐝
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Next doors cat resting in my greenhouse just now #catwhoisnotmycat
A small, but probably fierce tabby cat is sat behind plant pots in my greenhouse. She is definitely thinking thoughts of world domination!
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The Orkney News @theorkneynews.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #OnThisDay On 8 March 1978, Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was first broadcast over the airwaves on BBC Radio 4. The series follows the adventures of hapless Englishman Arthur Dent and his friend Ford Prefect, an alien who writes for The…
theorkneynews.scot
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #OnThisDay
On 8 March 1978, Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was first broadcast over the airwaves on BBC Radio 4. The series follows the adventures of hapless Englishman Arthur Dent and his friend Ford Prefect, an alien who writes for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a pan-galactic encyclopaedia and travel guide. After Earth is destroyed in the first episode, Arthur and Ford find themselves aboard a stolen spaceship piloted by 
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Have just made the connection between Bronze Age textiles decorated with sewn-on seeds and calling small beads seed beads/seed pearls. Hmm, wonder if there is a connection or whether it is coincidence. Also raises questions about seeds found in burials, maybe some of them relate to textiles. 🤔
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
So, my drop spindle flock is being allowed out today so it can meet my spinning group and, hopefully the two new drop spinners who came last time. Lets see if I can convert others to the dark side 🤣 PS I’m also taking a wheel . . .
A bunch of drop spindles are crammed into paper and cloth bags before I take them out to meet new people !
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
At last, the sun has come out today, ground is sodden (and frozen), so no allotment, but have spent a couple of hours pottering about in my back yard; tidying pots, planting up pots for a bit of early colour and general tidying up. Now for a bowl of homemade soup and some olympics 😊
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
James is always worth listening to, a great date for your diary!
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
So pleased this will be a legitimate part of my course work this semester 🤣
A dvd case shows two little figures with cloaks and shiny helmets standing on top of a friendly looking green dragon.
The case is titled’The Sagas of Noggin The Nog’.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
I don’t know who chooses the music on bbc radio3, but starting their programme from Boston, USA, with Mars the bringer of war seems dead on the money 🤣🤣🤣
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
Channeling my inner Nigel Slater with this morning’s home made bread and a bowl of lentil soup for lunch.
A white bowl containing brown-yellow soup and two slices of buttered bread are sat on a laptop keyboard.
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Karie Ghoulish 👻 @kariebookish.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
Barbara G. Walker is no longer with us. A lifelong feminist, writer, folklorist, and knitting pioneer. A trailblazer, a guiding light, and a woman who always connected her making hands with her inquisitive brain. Vale, Barbara. Thank you for knocking down doors over & over.
A white woman dressed all in black. A pentagram around her neck.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
Just watching a little group of (I think) goosander pootling around Bays Loch in the outer hebrides here www.coralboxwebcam.co.uk/ptzcam.html
coralboxwebcam.co.uk
Berneray Bay Loch PTZ Cam. This live streaming panoramic webcam is located in the shoreline of Bays Loch.
Our live webcams look onto Bays Loch, Berneray in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Currently we have three live webcams, with one as a fixed view in the shoreline and one as a moving PTZ webcam panning...
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James Wright @jpwarchaeology.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
The algorithms are making it a lot harder to spread the word about these online talks. Although numbers are still reasonable, it would be a great help if folk were able to give the 30 December event a quick share 🙂 Booking available here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/buildings-...
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The Past and other Places @pastandotherplaces.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Northumbria NHS have gone back on a promise to keep the front of Berwick's 1874 Infirmary. Now proposing to keep only the tower. Architect John Starforth. Make your own #model in card. Petition. www.berwick-heritage.co.uk #architecture #building #heritage Photo: www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4553656
Small Victorian hospital in stone with a distinctive tall square tower.  Double storey main building and single storey wings at either side.Image of downloadable model of Berwick infirmary you can cut out and make in card.
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Matt Berry @matthewberry.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Narcissus deficiens Natures rock garden Rodos 🇬🇷 Nov 25
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Ned Boulting @nedboulting.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
If you enjoyed the Accidental Tour-ist, then perhaps you might put your ballot paper in the digital box? I'd be enormously grateful. I mean, there's bigger things in the word than this. But the really teeny tiny things also matter (to me). peoplesbookprize.com/2025-categor...
peoplesbookprize.com
Non-Fiction | Peoples Book Prize
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Classical Studies Memes for Hellenistic Teens @csmfht.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Watch out for Ea Nasir this Halloween!
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
Really enjoying the talks this afternoon at the @pictishartssociety.bsky.social conference! Re the invisible charcoal industry, I'm wondering if some, at least, of their cooking was done using charcoal - this would just increase the need for a managed charcoal industry . . .
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
So a train ticket from 1996 I’ve found in my second hand copy of Women’s Work: the first 20,000 years. I’d like to think it belonged to the person who’d bought the book when it was newly published and hope they enjoyed it and found it interesting.
An open book has a train ticket balanced on it. The ticket was for a journey from St Pancras to Sheffield on the 14th March 1996.
I like to think that it belonged to the person who brought the book new and was reading it on their journey.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
I have achieved the impossible and picked my one courgette 🤣🤣 from the allotment. Maybe I’ll have more later . . .
A pale green courgette with rough, bumpy textured skin is sat on a laptop.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
As I have a long day, it's a bacon roll for breakfast; porchetta cure bacon from Turnbull's of Alnwick - absolutely delicious. Thoroughly recommend it if you're anywhere near Alnwick this summer!
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
Added another 10grms or so to this bobbin, grey masham dyed by @freyalyn.bsky.social for day 8 of #tourdefleece #TDF2025 Been in the stash for several years, so time to get it spun!
Royal purple yarn on a spinning wheel.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
The last of my Scottish merino was plyed yesterday. #tourdefleece day 6. Second image shows all the skeins of this fibre - 253 grms in total. I’m hoping this is enough to make a top for me. Pre-wash it’s about fingering weight, will check when I find my yarn balance, but c800m.
6 skeins of yarn sit on a laptop.A single skinny skein of yarn sits on a laptop.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Today’s Tour de Fleece work, Scottish merino as a two ply. #TDF2026 #tourdefleece
A skein of grey wool sits on top of a niddy-noddy with more of the same yarn.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Tour de France is up and away! #TDF2025 #TourDeFleece
5 cyclists in a line are riding through a French town in the Tour de France.
In the foreground is a drop spindle with purple fibre, my tour de fleece spinning.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
I love it when little gems like this appear!!!
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Birdsfoot trefoil (I think) in the short turf at The Ring of Brodgar in Orkney earlier this week. #WildFlowerHour
Little yellow pea flowers are scattered through the short turf.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Slightly damp visit to the wonderful Ring of Brodgar, on a day carefully chosen to avoid the crowds!
Standing stones under a grey and threatening sky - yes it did rain only a few minutes later!
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
I do like watching harbours, there’s always something happening even if I don’t know what’s going on. And just for now, the weather is pleasant.
A picture of fishing boats, bigger boats and a quiet quayside.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
it's amazing what 3 hours at the allotment can do, planted courgettes, squashes and pumpkins, all a bit small, but as I can't get there for the next couple of weeks, better there than in pots, plus runner beans, beetroot, swiss chard, kohl rabi, pak choi, radicchio, radish, psb, now resting with tea
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
No idea why there’s a cannon here, next to the river in Morpeth. Not sure who it’s protecting what from, though it is near the castle.
An iron cannon is sat on a small concrete plinth, next to a pub garden, by the river in Morpeth.
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Lowlandsbeach @lowlandsbeach.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Love this
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
@nedboulting.bsky.social - one for you?
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
At last, the weather has broken and it is raining here, with thunder and lightning! Maybe I won’t need to water the allotment today after all 😀🌱
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Awkward Botany @awkwardbotany.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
tiny, wild buckwheat: thymeleaf buckwheat (Eriogonum thymoides)
Several rounded clusters of tiny, cream yellow flowers on short, bare stems arising from a cushion of tiny, simple, linear leaves
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
My first swallow here in north east England!!
A tiny bird is sat on a wire - my first swallow of the season.
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suespins.bsky.social @suespins.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
The bulbs in pots by my back door are looking glorious today and the scent is wonderful. #spring 🌱
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