Kites
January 22nd, 2009Quite a lot has been happening on the kite front in the last few weeks, both making, adapting and meetings. First off, there’s the swan kite….
At the same time as I was drinking too much, and sleeping too little at WASH, most of the rest of the kite club were attending a workshop with Karl Longbottom, making swan kites. Karl was kind enough to put together kits for a couple of us who couldn’t make it to the workshop and mine has been sitting on my dining room table since the day of the car accident. I thought the time between Christmas and New Year was a good time to make a start, and hopefully complete the kite. Unfortunately I was a piece short, so I contacted the club, who contacted Karl, who put the piece into the post extremely quickly. After that it was a case of following the instructions on the DVD provided. I’ve never been 100% at following instructions, I tend to skip ahead and miss bits out - in this case it mean unpicking some bits and re-sewing!
I was hoping to have the kite finished in time for the New Year’s Day fly-in at Grafham Water, but due to the missing bit was too far behind with the build. As it turns out, I got most of the sewing done, but took the opportunity at the fly-in to check out the bridling of a completed swan - we took some photos which proved very handy for reference when it came to finishing the kite. I finished it fairly quickly after that but I’m not sure how it flies yet until I go to another fly-in with it.
Project DS hasn’t been abandoned, although it probably seems that way at the moment. I have got some odd bits done that I’ve been meaning to do for ages - a bag for the 8 pointed star kite, another bag for the new swan kite, and a tail for the star - actually several tails, and I’m still working on those - the idea is to make it look like shooting star - I’ll take photos when they’re finished, if it still flies with them attached, that is!!
The New Year’s Fly-in was fun, very chilly, and hardly any wind! Scott had a hot air balloon that flew so high it disappeared into the clouds, otherwise only a couple of kites were flying. Always worth going for a good chat/catchup, some BBQ food and hot non-alcoholic mulled wine.
Photos…..swan kite:
GOKF New Year Fly-in:
