Felting and Fiber Studio

yellow cotton rags to be woven with cotton yarn for table runner

Getting Your Groove Back

April 27, 2024 heirloom51 Comments 2 comments

How do the rest of you get your creativity flowing when you have no juice left? I did a lot, and I do mean a lot, of spinning over the winter. I played with colours, with silks, with blends, mohair, qiviut, camel, linen, all sorts of wools and nothing inspired me, nothing moved me. I joined a knitting group to relearn knitting. The group speak French as their primary language, so that was a doubly challenging. We have a blast and I have to say I’m still a terrible knitter and still not bi-lingual, but I love their company. Perseverance might be the only way through this arid spot.

We have started cleaning the Guild space and prepping for destashing. In the 100 inch loom studio was a very large bag containing rags for weaving catalogne blankets. These are traditional Quebec coverlets to keep sleepers warm during deep winters. They are thick and heavy. They are also quintessential recycle projects since they are made from strips of rags. I was allowed to purchase all the yellow strips. These are made from cotton jersey and I loved the colour.

One of our guild members made the happy/sad decision to accept a job in her home city and left here to move across the country to Vancouver. She generously offered her yarn for sale to Guild members. I love her colours so much that I violated my promise-to-self of no more yarn in the house. If you closely at the picture below you might spot a little loop of thread laying on the yellow spool. That is all that remains of the mushroom cotton. That’s yarn chicken at it’s finest, less than one yard remained on a 500gm bobbin.

All the mushroom, yellow and magenta cotton threads are now measured as a 10 yd warp ready to go on the loom and be woven with the yellow rags.

The final piece of this little “get moving – get weaving” scenario was a bag of warp spacers for a sectional beamed loom. These spacers really were the topper because they allow me to do a really long warp on my loom. I have no excuses anymore. This weekend I just need to put my mind to getting on with it and know I’ll enjoy getting creative again.

close up of sign for Peterborough fiber arts Festival and Sale 2024

Peterborough Fiber festival 2024 Part 2

April 25, 2024 Jan Comments 7 comments

part 1 can be found here: feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/04/15/peterborough-fiber-festival-2024/

Welcome back to the Peterborough (Ontario, Canada) Fiber Festival, 2024. I hope I have not left you sitting too long. So before you develop a numb butt let’s go look at the inside group of booths. I hope you have saved a bit of window shopping money since I think you may need it!

25) Map showing the location of the sale in Peterborough. Located between Ottawa and Toronto to give you an idea of the scale of the drive. approx 270km/167miles

While we are still by the windows, let’s look at what else is here. Next to the sitting area, where we are leaving Glenn to continue reading his book and hold my shopping, there are two more booths. The first is the display by our hosts, the Peterborough Weavers and Spinners Guild (ptbo-hwsg.com).

26.1-26.2) The Peterborough guild booth display, And close up of the display with rug hookers display in the background.

As I pull you away from the guild display let’s fill in our door prize ticket and we can check back to see if any of us won before we head home.

27)Door prize table and list of winners for the hourly draws.

Did you see the booth with the chickens as we came in? Let’s start there with the inner group of booths. this should be Earth and Vines. There was a distracting display of emotional support chicken wire legs! This prompted a chat about wire armatures and wire acquisition (aliexpress had aluminium wire, in a large range of gauges. For toes the coated steel floral wire worked well when needing a finer gauge but with greater strength than aluminium.) She also had an interesting neck armature idea, which I may investigate later.

28) Earth and Vines had Chickens, Chicken armatures and baskets.

The next booth, What’s Weft, it seemed quite busy most of the day. It had fibre and felted items

29.1 What’s Weft pictures, bags, purses and bags of colourful fibre (I think it’s silk and merino)

29.2 felted scarves and wraps, fibre to spin or felt.

Although the next booth should be the Embroiderer’s Guild with hand-stitched items, I don’t remember seeing it. I was likely distracted by something fluffy. So we will keep going. I think this next photo is at A River of Yarn which lists Luxury Knitting and Crochet yarns, tools, and accessories. When I see these knitted shawls I wish I could knit. Oh well, maybe someday.

30) Colourful knit shawls

You may recognize this next booth from photos from the Ottawa Guild sale last year!! Top of the Whorl I didn’t get too far into this booth, I was distracted by nalbinding needles. One had two holes, the rest had only one. Did you know that the two-hole needles allow you to work with longer lengths of yarn, so less splicing as you work?

Check out the spindles (both drop spindles and support spindles) and see if you pick out a spindle case with built-in support spindle bole! I spotted them down on the bottom shelf! Ann will be sorry she didn’t come too when she sees they had all the little boxes of rolags she enjoys spinning.

31) Top of the Whorl; spindles, nalbinding needles, spindle cases and rolags

Lanes End Farm was the next booth, I was distracted by the cute little wheel but was being good and just admired the little Saxony. Looking down I noticed needle felting kits with lots of coloured fiber. I also spotted more of the blue needle felting fake clover tools. They usually work well but are a bit noisier and not quite as smooth as the green actual clover tools (but are also a lot cheaper than the clover tools). If you have tried the blue tools, like the concept but not the feel of it, try the green Clover version before giving up on this style. they are different.

32) kits with balls of fibre for felting and a little Saxony wheel.

If you picked up the wheel and one of the fake clover tools, let’s go see what is in the next booth.

Eakoworks Fashions- (Quilts) I was distracted by the display of through pillows at the end of the booth and there was fibre in the next booth calling to me!

33.1- 33.2) pillows, is that a black moose on a green background?

Oh no is that fiber? yes, definitely fibre! I am distracted by Shepherd’s Hill Farm – raw fibre bags and locks as well as knitting yarn, books,

34.1) Shepherd’s Hill Farm, Yarns, books and locks mostly dyed

34.2) 2 bags of raw fleece BFL X Coridale and “Marsha” who had even nicer crimp I think she was also a BFL cross.

The fleece named Marsha had tiny tight crimp and more lanolin than the other bag. I was very tempted but needed to check a couple more booths before making an extra purchase. I did not see it when I went past a second time!

We now are going to turn the corner and start heading back towards the comfy window chairs. I must apologize, I was distracted at this point by felt backgrounds in the Wool for Ewe booth and missed a good shot of the Indigo Dragonfly – “luxury yarns dyed in small batches”. If you look behind the Shepherd’s Hill Farm booth, you can see some in the background. I remember deep rich colours, but the quest for wool felt background overcame my documentary photography tendencies.

35) Indigo DragonFly lovely yarn

Mostly Mohair – fibre bumps in bags, I got some! When I tore myself away from the felt that had distracted me, I headed across the aisle to Mostly Mohair, which had Bumps in bags fresh from the mill! Three bumps of top were wool, the others were blends of wool 60/ mohair 40.

36.1) The plastic bag above the table is the fibre blend fresh from the mill, the bags on the floor are state wool.

36.2) white fibre with knit sample

36.3) Felted Teddy bare with mohair locks

36.4) Bags of 60/40 wool/mohair blends in bags100.gr/10.00canadian.

By the time I got home, I had buyer’s remorse for not getting a few more bags. The colour does not show as well in the photo. It was lovely and should spin or felt very nicely. I will try it out on the new wheel (we will talk about that later) once it’s all clean and ready to go.

Once you have picked out a couple of bags for yourself, let’s go on to Songbird yarns. I was quite fascinated by the knitting of these hats. Knitting is so different I do wish I could figure it out. I will keep working on one needle and maybe, someday, I will be ready for two.

37.1) Fancy knitted tooks and yarn for hat kits $60.00

37.2) colourful knit took.

By this point, I was starting to get snide comments from my back about too much standing and bending forward and buying things. So I am pretty sure this was Sweet Pea Cottage Fibre – I got distracted by the fibre box in the corner. it was a sampling of local fleeces. let me read you the tag;

” All-Ontario Sheep Breeds Sample Pack”

Polwarth roving 40g
Babydoll Southdown Roving 40g
Icelandic lamb, Washed
- Black/white 60g
- Black /charcoal 60g
- White 60g
Cotswold Lamb, Washed
- Ewe, white 80g
- Ram, Brown/Grey 80g
Cotswold Ram Locks washed and picked;
- Light Grey 10g
- Mid-Grey 10g
- Dark 10g

(Price $45.00 Canadian)

There were also some individual bags of various fibre all well labelled. I probably should have dug around in that bin a bit more!

38) A study of Ontario breeds and some well-labelled samples in another bin.

I must apologize again I can’t remember either of the next two booths that were listed, Lisa Rideout Jewellery and Hek of a Knit – Knitted items and patterns. I suspect I may have been rushing by to see the double booth of the Olive Sparrow. I was able to pick up some more felt backgrounds for picture felting from Monika, as well as get distracted by all the colours (some of which were not Merino!)

39) Olive Sparrow Felting supplies as well as other interesting offerings.

I am not sure if I can drag you away from all the fibre but we only have a couple of booths left to peruse so let’s keep going!

We are back across from the bake sale table, but they have sold out! so we will have to go on without a sugar boost! Maybe we can stop for a treat on the way home?

Fabric Art- is at the end of the aisle across from the window chairs. It was quite busy and it took me a bit to get a clear shot of this booth. It was around 2:30 when I finally got a shot down the far aisle with this booth and the alpaca booth beside it visible.

40.1) glimpses of landscapes made with fabric

40.2) the far aisle, notice the empty bake sale table across the aisle from fabric art.

40.3) the edge of Fabric Art and the last booth we will see Twin Pines Alpacas

This too had been a busy booth each time I had passed it. I had spotted fibre in one corner and then a palm washboard hanging further down from the fibre. (unfortunately, it was priceless).

41.1) I may be able to get into the alpaca booth now!

41.2) This is from just before opening as vendors were doing their final setup

41.3 I have finally made it inside the booth and there are some very nice knitting samples as well as the yarn that made them.

41.4 here is a close up of one of the samples

We finally made it all the way around the sale! Now don’t forget to pick up your packages that were dropped off with Glenn. I will also remember to collect Glenn! I hope everything will fit in the car. Check the board with the door prize draws before we leave, to see if we were lucky. (I was not this time, maybe next year?). oh my, the clouds and rain seem to have wandered further east so maybe we will have a nice drive home?

42) the sky has blue spots and white fluffy clouds it may be a nice drive back.

If you will accompany us for a bit longer I wanted to point out to you something that quite shocked us on the way down. I remember hearing about tornadoes touching down along Highway 7, around Madoc – Tweed, but I don’t remember seeing them the last time we drove here. It’s really quite traumatic, so you may want to pull over and stop along the worst section. It looks like the last time we made the trip was May 2022 and the tornado hit July 25, 2022 (which would account for why we had not seen it yet). If you google-search “Ontario tornado highway 7 2022” you should find more information. It was rated as a high-end EF-1 tornado with wind near 175 km/h, but the swath of damage looks like it had a friend with a grudge and was a bit more aggressive. It picked up a big pickup truck on Highway 7 tossed it across the highway, over the power lines, and dropped it in a farmer’s field, the driver was shaken but relatively fine.

As we drove, you will see, we quickly caught up to the sombre weather, which seemed correct for the distressing sensory.

43) tornado destruction is still evident from July 2022.

44) There are sections, that have basically, been flattened. Some spots have the odd tree, now bent, trying to stand. Many trunks have snapped like twigs.

I don’t want to leave you feeling stressed so let’s take a quick peek at a few of the shots Glenn took which were not horrifying.

45)Beaver pond east of Peterborough

46) Above: Marsh with bridge and unfortunate McDonald’s sign hidden in the trees. Below: one of the small rivers with spring runoff just west of the Tweed turn off not too far after some of the devastation.

The rest of the drive was full of more rocks, trees and beaver ponds. We arrived safely home before 7 pm. It was a fun day. Did you want to take a peek at my loot? I am sure you will recognize most of my shopping!

It was getting a bit dark for photos.

47.1) I was being good but I have a weakness for cool new tools. I will review in the next photo what I came home with.

47.2)felt, combs, Nitty-knotty, nostapin, 2 nalbinding needles, 2 bags of fibre and not shown in this group is a second-hand felting book Fabulous felted scarves.

I hope you have enjoyed the trip and are very happy with all your virtual purchases. If you want more physical purchases, there is a vendor’s contact list here: http://www.ptbo-hwsg.com/events/fibrefest/ If any of the landscapes inspire you, please enjoy felting them! Although the later shots may be less stressful, than the former ones.

Eye Glasses Holder

April 23, 2024 Shepherdessann Comments 18 comments

Sounds like a quick and easy project, right? I thought so too. This is a case for my glasses to go in when I’m in bed. It will hang off the little bookcase beside my bed. Probably better than on the edge of the bed where they sit now.

I picked up some very pretty little batts at a local fibre shop. It is a combination of Canadian Ramboullet and Merino. It is sold as a wet felting wool, among other things. . The colours I picked were mottled and it is quite a short fibre. I did not do a sample as this is such a small project it is the sample. The batt is 50 grams and I don’t think I used half of it.

The other factor in doing this now was I knew I was going to the store to pick up wool for my workshop on the weekend and could pick up more if I liked it. I thought this small project would be just the thing.

This is the shape of the resist. I will fold the long part over to make a loop and use a button to hold it in place.

I split the bat so I could keep it thinner and still have it go in 2 directions. I am not used to using batts but they are a fast way to do simple layouts. After the first layer, I added some offcuts of cotton batting I thought might make an interesting raised texture. I wet it all out. It took a little more soap than expected to wet it out. I think there is some lanolin still in it but it is not greasy feeling.

I rubbed it for a while. it did get a skin but wasn’t starting to tighten up. I did a bit more and switched to rolling. I did that for a long time, flipping and changing direction, rolling on a ribbed mat all the usual stuff but no shrinkage. This was after about an hour rolling. You can see that it hasn’t shrunk at all

Next was heading home to the kitchen to rinse with hot water and get tough with it. I scrunched and rolled it in my hands and threw it in the sink. Maybe a little bit of shrinkage. It is definitely felt. It is holding together and I have removed the resist and the insides are not trying to stick to each other.

So what next? Time to do some laundry. I put it in a small delicates bag and tossed it in with a load of laundry, and then into the dryer. No pictures of that, I was too frustrated by then. I was also thinking that I would take it out and it would be 3 sizes too small.

This is the result, a very small amount of shrinkage, mostly in height. This is actually after it was dry and I had turned it inside out and then back because I forgot to take a picture.

I turned it inside out which made it stand open more so that is better for the purpose. I had to smooth out the edge divot from turning it inside out . the felt is quite thick.

It will work for the purpose. My glasses ended up a little too far down in the holder so I stuffed a little wool roll in the bottom so my glasses are easier to get hold of. It’s not a big difference but I can grab them a bit better. more wool may be added.

I just need to add the button and I am good to go.

I did let the store know that the wool is not good for wet felting. They said the mill is trying different ratios of the wools to find what works best. I suggested it would be good to make socks that would be fine in the washer and it is still good for needle felting.

Spring is here, My hubby has veggie growing fever. He has half my table as one of the few cat-free areas. Why do cats like to lay on top of seedlings?

Wet felted wool landscape with a red leafed tree on a hill.

Wool Landscape with a Red Tree

April 21, 2024 ruthlane Comments 11 comments

After finishing my embroidered tree, I needed a new idea for my next gallery piece. I took a look through my pile of sketchbooks and found a few options that might work for a wool “painting”.

I decided to use this watercolor painting for inspiration. Now to find the right colors to create this idea in wool.

Here’s my work table with my wool choices ready to mix. I used the hand carders to mix up some “variegated” colors. I find that using a dyed wool that is solid really doesn’t look much like nature, especially the greens. The solid colors look really flat. Most of the wool I am using here is short fiber merino and it mixes very easily. I don’t card it completely so I have a mix of two to three colors in each little batt.

Here’s the colors I mixed up. I was thinking of using some orange locks on the tree but ended up not using them. The brown is pre yarn that I will use for the tree trunk. The plan is to do the majority of the scene with the wool and then add a few free motion machine stitched details.

Here’s the scene after laying out the wool. I can see why some people like to just cover this with glass and be done. It has such a wonderful texture and looks like real foliage.

Here is the piece after wet felting. The felting definitely flattens the scene. Now to decide where to add the stitch details. And not to over-do it. I always feel like I do a bit too much stitching on pieces. I’m planning on just adding some branches to the tree and a few light and dark highlights. But that’s for my next post.

results of the dye experiments - closer view

Adventures in colour (Part 2)

April 19, 2024 helenefeltzen Comments 12 comments

In my last post I talked about a 4 week dyeing course that I attended a while ago at Sharon Wells studio https://www.sharonwellsart.com/ . The first week was dedicated to acid dyeing and we have fantastic results from it. Week 2 was all about natural dyeing, our colours were more subtle and totally restful. If you missed part 1 you can catch it at adventures-in-colour-part-1

I talk about the third and fourth sessions in this blog. I hope you enjoy!

Week 3:

This week’s session was all about the production of pigment. Sharon started off by showing us some ‘tools of the trade’; the glass mulling tool and tempered glass which, along with an old coffee grinder, she uses to grind elements into powder. We learnt about the difference between dye (dissolves in water) and pigment (disperses in water and so needs a carrier). Then we discussed types of pigment; earth and animal both of which can be ground into powder and animal, which needs a totally different process. We mixed various powers and produced test sheets using the pigments as both oil and watercolour paints. We also tried artificial pigments. It was very exciting. Here is a quick look at some of the day.

All the processes for making earth pigments
Linseed, used as the medium for oils
The water colour medium
A new student dropped in, but had other things on her mind
Ground down sea shells. There is still some grit in the mix so it was not fine enough
preparing the sea shells to accept the medium
Artificial pigments containing mica, they made delicious colours
The mulling tool is used for fine grinding and mixing the pigment with the medium.

The real excitement happened when we started making botanical pigments. Sharon boiled up some onion skins and in no time we had a beautiful golden brown coloured liquid which she shared out among the group. She then dissolved aluminium sulphite (alum) and soda crystals in two containers. We added the alum to our onion skin liquid and then watched in fascination as the soda crystals reacted to the liquid when we poured it in. The pigment separated from the liquid and we were, in the end, left with clear liquid. We then strained our pigment and dried it. Here are a few photos to give you an idea of the fun we had:

The onion skins were left to simmer for about an hour
The strained onion skin dye bath
measuring the aluminium sulphate before dissolving it
The aluminium Sulphate and soda crystals (in the peanut butter tub). The onion skin dye bath is in the background
The chemical reaction once the alum and soda crystals get going
Separation of the onion skin pigment.
The pigment attaches to the alum once the soda crystals are added to the mix.
The onion skin pigment drying at home
The final pigment was filtered through a coffee filter and left to dry
The bottle contains bluebell pigment which was prepared from the flowers in the tutor’s garden
Olive leaf pigment produced a lovely colour
Four botanical pigments: 1. Marigold 2. ‘wild Eve’ Rose 3. Olive leaf 4. bluebell
preparing the sea shells to accept the medium

The whole process had us all enthralled and ready to try it at home!

Week 4:

The final class in the dyeing series focussed on Procion Dyes . The class was led by Anne Jefferies, and Irish Textile artist and tutor. We used cold water dyes this time and worked with plant based fibre including different weights and textures of cotton, linen and silk. We also experimented dyeing a variety of different threads. Anne explained the full process and provided excellent notes so there was very little need to write which was good because our hands were very busy. Anne prepared the various solutions and we got to work using pure primary colours. We divided our samples into three lots and tied each piece of fabric into whatever shape we fancied then we got dyeing. We started with the lightest colour, yellow and dyed our first batch. Then we removed and rinsed these and retied a number of them, ones we wanted to overdye and popped these into the the dye bath to which some red dye had been added. We then added our second batch of undyed samples and watched the magic occur. We then removed all of these and set up a fresh dye bath for the blue. Here are some of the photos taken on the day:

Preparing the fabrics
The prepared Procion dyes mixed and ready for use
Stirring the yellow dye into the fabric
Stirring in the yellow dye – starting with the lightest colour
Work in progress on a messy table. Good reason to keep everything covered!
Dye testing a variety of threads
The thread experiment with dye added
Adding more red dye to the bath
Next experiment: red has been added to the mix and the fabrics have been retied
A two person job! stirring the bath and adding the fibre.
Some nice surprises when we opened our little parcels
A colourful table!
More samples ready for dyeing

Here is a slideshow of my dried samples. I can’t decide which is my favourite! Having said that, I am showing them all as some were disasters but still deserve an airing.

Definitely one of my favourites. Reminds me of strobe lighting!
I tied these with some string (but you guessed that already)!
Not a great result. If I stare at it long enough I might see something!
This is a bigger piece of light cotton. The pattern is a little more uniform. I might use it for nuno. Decision yet to be finalised
The pattern caught nicely in places but not in others
Subtle? Interesting? not sure
Sunburst circles a little too subtle I think!
Not a great result but it is one of the experiments so it is being included
These look like clouds, lined up in rows!
The longer I stare, the more patterns I see with this
Interesting subtle finish on this one.
The colours are not as faded in the sample. Love all the squares.
This one has a lot going on. Spot the paperclip!
Perhaps not one of the best samples but it’s good to see this too!
I find this quite attractive. I wish I could remember how I achieved the lines and squares!
Lots going on here. The colours are richer than the photo
A real sunburst, pity the piece was cut from the bottom corner!
One of my favourites! reminds me of bamboo cane
A heavy cotton lace again a tiny piece. I might add it to some nuno sometime!
I like the diagonal lines in this sample
This is a small piece of silk. I wish I had two meters as it would make a fabulous top!

I loved these classes. They were a mix of great fun, camaraderie and fantastic learning. They have demystified some of the processes around dyeing and I now feel confident in trying them myself. Thank you Sharon https://www.sharonwellsart.com/ for facilitating this wonderful experience!

FLEA THE PANDEMIC

April 17, 2024 frabjousfabrica Comments 19 comments

Back in September 2020 I was asked if I would make a prop for a play which Taboo Theatre Company, a locally based actors’ collective, was to perform in November of that year, at The Exchange in Sturminster Newton, Dorset. The play had been written especially for them by professional playwright Sue Ashby. Sue has written, among other TV and theatre scripts, episodes of Coronation Street (a very popular, long-running soap in the UK). More details of Sue’s career can be found here https://news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/dorset-history-centre-blog/2023/07/24/historical-plays-set-in-north-dorset/

You will no doubt guess from the dates that we were out of the first Covid19 lockdown, but still under strict mask wearing, social distancing and other rules and regulations. The play, “Flea the Pandemic Dorset 1348”, tells the story of the first Bubonic Plague to hit the UK; so, given that it was rat fleas that carried the Black Death, the prop obviously had to be a flea.

Bearing in mind that the stage at The Exchange is 23 feet (7m) deep and its proscenium arch is 40 feet (12m) wide, and that the hall it serves is 118 feet (36m) deep and normally capable of seating 301 audience members, making a flea that a full audience could see was going to be a problem. This was to be a play not a pantomime, so having an actor play the flea was not going to happen. (I don’t think that it had been decided, at this stage in the proceedings, that most of the action would take place on a much smaller podium constructed on the floor of the hall.)

After some (socially distanced) discussion with Craig White (director) and Robert Cowley (actor/producer), it was decided that the flea should be about the size of a cat, and be fixed on the end of a long enough pole to allow the cast member, who had to control its movements between the (socially distanced) actors, to do so without getting closer than 6 feet to any of them.

If I remember rightly, it was at this stage that my husband Graham became involved, not only to provide the pole, but also to work out how to enable the flea’s head to move and for its eyes to light up bright red.

With the help of Mr Google, I found some reference images of fleas (cat fleas in the end because the oriental rat flea which carried the bubonic plague was not that different in appearance but seemed not so photogenic). I enlarged a side view of a flea to fit on A3 paper, and having found a “full face” view of the head, I also enlarged that to a similar size. Quite fascinating really in a revolting way.

coloured drawing of flea with body parts named — Reference Image, drawing of flea with body parts named

flea's full face head — Reference image – Cat flea head. Not “just a pretty face”.

I had initially thought to make the whole flea from felt, but, because there had to be batteries, wires and an electrical switch concealed somewhere about its person, I had to change my ideas somewhat. I’m afraid that I do not have any progress photos, nor do I have any notes of how we proceeded. This was before I joined the Studio and it didn’t occur to me that anyone else might be interested in how we did it. Luckily The Flea was not disposed of after the performances so I have been able to examine it to jog my memory of the steps we took to produce it.

The body of the flea was made from three pieces of dyed and stiffened calico – two sides and a belly gusset – with its segments and spiracles painted on. This was stretched over carved lumps of polystyrene. The switch and wiring for the eyes and the battery pack were attached to a 6 foot long metal pipe, where it passed through the inside of the body from the neck to the “tail” end.

image of inside of flea's body with battery box, batteries and on/off switch — Flea “innards” showing the battery box, batteries and on/off switch.

The head, which was separate from the body so that it could be moved, was needle felted from brown wool (I can’t remember the breed) with mouthparts made from painted foam, plastic wire insulation coating and more painted and stiffened calico.

image of flea's face again with beside it a drawing of the face and mouth parts — That “pretty” face again and the drawing of face with mouth parts.

image of felted flea head, with mouth parts and glowing red eye — The Flea’s head – I’m really glad that fleas aren’t the size of this one.

Graham had to come up with a method of allowing the head to move and the eyes to keep glowing red, all without breaking the connection between the eyes and the wires running from the battery pack or those wires being tied in knots.

The method he came up with sounded extremely complicated to me, but then I’ve never had to put lights in a miniature building or lamp post. A circular piece of PCB (Printed Circuit Board) with a hole cut into the centre was attached to the flea’s “neck” at the top of the body, where the pipe was also firmly fixed. The PCB had the ends of the battery pack wires, through which the current would pass, soldered to it.

The wires from the red LED eyes in the head were soldered to another circular piece of PCB and the head was sewn to this (Graham having pierced suitable holes in it for the purpose).

The head was attached to a piece of wooden dowelling long enough to pass right through the neck piece of PCB and on through the pipe inside the body and protrude from the pipe’s “handle” end. This ensured that, so long as the two pieces of PCB were in contact, once the eyes were “switched on” they stayed on until switched off again, even when the flea was “looking around for it’s next meal” as the actor twisted the end of the dowel.

image showing PCB pieces, with soldered wires on neck end of head and neck end of body with dowel protruding from it. — Graham’s solution to the problem of the glowing eyes.

image of dowel protruding from handle end of pipe — This is the handle end of the pipe with the dowel protruding from it with the “bits” stopping it pushing through and decapitating The Flea.

The belly gusset on the underside of the body, which allowed the switch to be reached and the batteries changed as necessary, was closed with extra large snap fasteners for convenience (in case the manipulating actor was male!)

image of snap fasteners used to close the belly gusset — The “man-sized” snap fasteners used to close the belly gusset.

The Flea’s leg segments were needle felted in the same wool as the head and wired, with the claw ends just being fabric covered and painted for colour and stiffness. These were affixed to the flea’s thorax with wire and thread.

image of underside of the flea with closed belly placket and legs. — Closed belly placket and The Flea’s legs.

image showing front view of the completed Flea — The completed Flea – in mid jump?

side view of completed flea — Side view of The Flea – definitely in mid jump.

After we had handed The Flea over to Taboo, but before the play could be performed in November 2020, Covid raised it’s ugly head again and we went into the second lockdown. As a result the performances were re-scheduled to the end of January 2021. Unfortunately because of the post-lockdown rules and regulations, which effectively prevented The Exchange from re-opening in time, the play had to be postponed – again.

It was eventually performed on the 19^th & 20^th June 2021.

If you would like to see a critique of the play, try this link: https://www.theftr.co.uk/flea-the-pandemic-taboo-theatre-the-exchange-sturminster-newton/ It will tell you more about the plot, as well as the action. Unfortunately the images which were originally posted with the review have had to be removed, but the reviewer, Gay Pirrie-Weir very kindly provided the four images of “The Flea Acting” which you see below. I must say that it appears that the lighting techie has turned the actors and The Flea, as well as the set, purple. I’m forever having this problem with costumes and props changing colour on stage – grrrr!

image of two actors one with The Flea landing on his shoulder — The Flea Acting – just coming into land.

image of two actors, one manipulating the flea and the other shaking hands with an unseen actor — The Flea still acting – hanging on to it’s victim’s shoulder – just!

Image of 3 actors, 1 manipulating the flea, 1 "driving a cart" and the narrator reading from a book — The Flea being “carted” inland, while the narrator continues the story.

Image of 2 actors - the narrator and the carter with the flea at one side — The Flea “resting” while the story continues.

Oh, and we mustn’t forget The Mayor – you will need to read the Gay’s review mentioned above to learn about him.

an actor wearing a brimmed hat and standing at a lectern — The Mayor (Boris?)

Peterborough Fiber festival 2024

April 15, 2024 Jan Comments 22 comments

It is springtime in Ottawa, and the trees are migrating in my driveway. So now is the time to watch for fibre festival announcements!

1) Signs the migration has started by the trail of leaf debris and the new summer location of the portable forest (in front of the kitchen window). I just wanted to show you that spring has finally sprung!

Today I want to invite you to join us on a trip to Peterborough Fibre Arts Festival & Sale 2024. So set your alarm clock for 5 am and I will meet you in the driveway at 6 am!

2) 6 am, a light drizzle, but the new grass seed should be likening this weather. The sun is just starting to arrive. (Kea hatchback, with new tiers and a few other repairs)

I have an audiobook ready to go, and a heavily caffeinated Mountain Dew drink, Glenn brought his book (and a spare). We will pick up bagels with cream cheese on the way! We are driving west across the Canadian Shield, old rocks abused by glaciers, lots of trees and the occasional lake and streams. This time of year has those amazing colours, of ambers, rusts, browns and hints of green to come. Unfortunately, the rain is dulling them somewhat. However, I am sure you will enjoy the scenery anyway.

3.1 3.2) Rocks and trees of the Canadian Shield

There are sections of the trip where you can see beaver ponds, lodges and dams, but let’s skip ahead so you don’t have to enjoy the full 3.5 hour drive of scenery.

We arrived at the sports centre where the sale was taking place around 9:30 am. They were just finishing up the setup and would be opening shortly (10 am)

4) Spring Daffodils

Peterborough is always ahead of us in weather and is enjoying spring flowers, here is a lovely clump of Daffodils about to open, and there was a smaller clump in full bloom.

5) admission desk sign for Fiber festival

While I waited to go in, (Glenn read) I spotted this vendor in an asymmetrical nuno felted vest and was sure to get a shot.

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6)Nuno felt asymmetrical vest

At 10 o’clock they let the hordes in!

As we waited we could see vendors photographing something just inside, to the right of the doors

7) The Kawartha Hooking Guild had a display and demo just as you entered.

Ah, that explains that mystery!

The space is in a large gym within the sports centre. The booths are arranged around the edges of the gym as well as a centre double row of booths with a wide aisle between them. I am looking for the Black Lamb and Olive Sparrow in a quest for two types of felt backgrounds. But let’s stop a moment at the booth next to the rug hookers.

As the Wheel Turns:

8) This booth has refurbished secondhand wheels and spinning accessories

You may see a couple of the smaller items that followed me home. She had a Lendrum wheel, which we both thought would be gone by the time I made it around the show, it took a little longer but it sold. She also had a woolly winder for a Lendrum but it sold separately.

Let me pull you away from the wheels, the next booth was 3 Dogsknits and they had yarn and braids of fibre.

9) shopping at 3 Dog Knits booth, love the skirt

Wondering on, Lang Pioneer Village had a booth. They also have a Jacquard loom, there was a sample on their table as well as the fabric for the purse was woven on their loom.

10.1-10.2) Lang Pioneer Village Museum display and banner.

11) The next booth is Irish Hill Shop and they had felt.

12) I think this is Etho Makes? Very pretty yarn but I was looking for fiber.

13) Yarnsomiacs had a double booth, with fiber, a picker for sale, batts and yarn.

Next was the Black Lamb, which I was looking for some of her felt ground that I have used for name tags. I got very distracted and was sure I had taken more photos of the booth but seem to have bought needles, a book on felt and the felt I actually was looking for.

14) Black Lamb had a double booth, lots of colourful dyed fibre, most was merino, in both Superwash (dose not wet felt) and regular merino. I also saw cashmere, tussah silk and a lot of felting needles. If you look back at one of my trips to Twist you will see more of the selection!

The next was also a double booth, Kim at Designs. It was full of sewing/hand stitching supplies. It was full of people most of the time I was there. If you can make it through the throng, you can pick up some cool sewing items!

15) Slow stitching, embroidery, quilting, fine needles, scissors and other hand sewing tools in Kim at Designs booth.

If I can pull you away, the next booth was Wool for Ewe.

16) Felting backgrounds, yarn, batts of fibre, felting tools, Kumohimo and Felting kits at Wool 4 Ewe

I think the next booth was called the Living Canvas. It had hand dyed scarves and scarf hardware. It took a while before I could get a shot of it!

17.1-17.2) The Living Canvas Scarves

There should have been a rug hooking booth next, but I thot it was further down, and I can’t find a shot of that one either, I was obviously distracted.

18) Santosha Fibreworks and Farm was a double booth filled with Ashford spinning and felting projects, their own milled felt, various breeds of fibre in natural or dyed,

19) Next was a booth using rescued wood, Turned not Burned. There were lots of spinning, weaving and sewing tools

20) The Artisans Center is a group space with weaving, woodworking, quilting and felting on display.

Now that we are almost all the way around the outside I think you should take a look at this next booth and maybe treat yourself.

21) Cakes, Cookies, and other tasty treats at the Guild Bake Table.

If you have selected a treat, let’s take a quick look at the Guild Demo area.

22) Peterborough Guild Demo area.

I am sure by this point, you are a bit overwhelmed and would probably like to eat your treats? With good planning, there is a seating area up by the windows! You can join Glenn (who was being good and avoided the cake) as he holds my purchases and starts his second book.

23) The Husband Resting Spot by the window and the beginnings of my purchases

Just next to the rest-full-chairs was the demo area we just looked at.

24) The very nice spinner who was doing a fabulous cross body style of long draw showed off her loot to us, she intends to blend the fibre into batts on a drum carder.

It must be old age, or getting up at 5 am yesterday, I think I should leave you resting here until next week, there are still the inner booths and the guild display to wander through. (There will be felt!) so if you don’t mind, I will be back shortly to show you a bit more then we can drive back to Ottawa and see if it has stopped raining!

March Stitch Page and a Quiz

April 13, 2024 Shepherdessann Comments 16 comments

My March stitch page was done in time. I did the last thing on March 31. After doing February as a Valentine’s theme I thought I would do March as a St Patrick’s Day theme. so having an odd sense of humour I decided on green threads on an orange background. I am not sure which side of that( orange or green) would care the most. but after looking at symbols for St Pat’s I decided to give up on that idea and look for other March symbols. March has a lot going on. This is where the quiz comes in. I am not going to tell you what each thing represents as we go. You have to guess at the end. I will make a bit of a break in the post and then put the answers and you can see how many you got right.

I don’t have as many progress pictures as I might as I do most of it out and about. I did start with a shamrock. They are quite easy as they are 3 harts and a stem.

Before I remembered to take a picture I also added this dagger. I knew I bought silvery thread for a reason other than it was pretty.

Then 2 more important days were added.

Then there is this one that is so important to remember for all our struggles past and future. With a nod to my LBGTQ friends

This last symbol is for some great kids I drive to school. It didn’t turn out quite as I wanted but it was a new stitch for me.

The last thing is not a symbol. It was just a flower that popped up in my FB news feed and I decided to try it. It was easy and effective.

Here is the whole thing, followed by a numbered picture for your guesses.

Scroll down to see the answers

Shamrock for St Patrick’s Day
A Dagger for the Ides of March( Beware!)
Pi, for Pie Day: March 14 ( 3.14)
The symbol for women for International Women’s Day
Easter egg for Easter and spring fertility
The symbol for Down Syndrome for Down Syndrome Awareness Day

How many did you get right?

Blue green nuno felted background with hand stitched tree and leaves.

Embroidered Tree Completed

April 11, 2024 ruthlane Comments 23 comments

Although a number of people didn’t think I needed any leaves on my embroidered tree, I decided to go ahead with the leaves.

I used a lighter value yellow green to contrast a bit with the blue green background. The thread is a #8 hand dyed perle cotton. I’m not sure that you can see the variations in the thread color as it is subtle but it’s not a solid color. I used a solid fishbone stitch to create the leaves. I decided not to mark the leaf shape on the background fabric, thus there are some that are a bit wonky, but that doesn’t bother me.

Here’s a closer look at the stitching.

And here’s the piece after the stitching is finished. If you can see, the width of the fabric shrunk a bit with the stitching. The piece of fabric was barely wide enough to make a cover for my tablet to begin with and now I decided it wasn’t going to work to make a cover. So my first quarter challenge effort was a bit of a fail.

But never fear, the piece fit into a frame that I already had so it was a good use of stuff lying around the studio. I realize that I could have made a cover for the tablet and added the tree to the front but I wasn’t sure I would use the cover and the framed piece can always go to one of the galleries.

A New Lampshade.

April 9, 2024 mariees26 Comments 21 comments

I have been searching for a replacement shade for a pendant light for some time, but I was not having any success with finding something that I liked. So I thought, how difficult can it be to recover a lampshade?

Some years ago I tried to make a wet felted bowl, but somehow it all went wrong, and I could not get the bowl to ‘sit’ right. I had a table lamp that needed a shade, and as I was looking at it, and my felt bowl, I had one of those ‘lightbulb’ moments – sorry! I re-wet my ‘bowl’, then cut a hole in the middle and after some tugging and a little more trimming, I managed to stretch it over the lampshade frame. I liked the look of it very much, it fitted very well too, so I hand stitched along the top and the bottom to neaten, and to prevent both edges from becoming undone.

So, now I have another lamp shade frame that I want to make a cover for. I found a ‘how to make a lamp shade’ book in my library, and I borrowed it. I wanted to make some nuno felt to use as the fabric outer. I made 2 pieces of nuno felt using 2 different shades of green mixes of merino. The base fabric is a very fine open weave cotton, that in a previous life was a lightweight curtain.

Making the shade.

This involved a few steps; I read the appropriate sections in my borrowed book several times, and then made sure that I had everything I needed. I planned to make and hand stitch each panel to the frame; the other method is to sew all the panels together using the sewing machine and then stretch it over the frame, and hand stitch the top and bottom to the frame. This method is quicker, but the fabric needs to be cut on the bias to allow the shade to stretch over the frame.

The frame is wrapped in cotton tape and secured with a stitch. Each metal section/strut is wrapped in tape. Not all hand made shades will require each strut to be wrapped, but the top and the bottom will need to be wrapped.

Lining.

I used a white 2 way stretch jersey to make the lining for the shade. I cut 2 pieces and stitched to the inside of frame, folding and gathering as I progressed. Lining is desirable if you do not wish to see all the stitching when viewing the shade from underneath, and it gives a nicely finished look to the shade.

Pattern for a segment.

My shade has 8 segments. I traced around one segment on some paper, cut it out and tested how well it covered a section between the struts.

Cutting the fabric.

I cut 8 pieces, 4 from each colour, on the straight grain. Sometimes the fabric will need to be cut on the bias, but I did not need to do this. The fabric needs to be held tight between each strut, not quite drum tight, but not loose or floppy either.

Stitching each panel.

There is a special stitch used to attach each panel piece to the frame. This is called a ‘streetly stitch’, it is a locking stitch and it firmly secures each fabric panel to each section of the frame. In this instance you can see this stitch on the white lining fabric more clearly than you can on the nuno fabric. This stitching can make for very tender/painful fingertips trying to push the needle and thread through the fabric and the tape, while escaping the pins at the same time.

I neatened all the edges with a small sharp scissors, as each panel is completed, but without cutting any of the stitching. I did not want to restitch any part of the shade.

Attaching trim to cover all the seams.

Trim is attached to each seam and top and bottom of the frame. There is a huge selection and variety (and price) of trim available, and the search can encourage many trips down various rabbit holes. Trim is attached with glue, either hot glue, or fabric glue from a tube. Care and attention to detail while attaching the trim will ensure that the newly covered frame will look really nice. I soon forgot about my sore finger tips.

I did enjoy making my lampshade, and I hope that I have explained the process I used well enough for you all to understand. This is a view of it in place in the bedroom used by the grandchildren when they stay over.

The book I borrowed from the library is called:

Sewing Lampshades by Joanna Heptinstall; Search Press 2018.

Felting and Fiber Studio

An International Collective of Felt and Fiber Artists

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Eye Glasses Holder

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Wool Landscape with a Red Tree

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Embroidered Tree Completed

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A New Lampshade.

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