Completing my sample book.

Completing my sample book.

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The previous post on the start of my sample folder is here:

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=60081&action=edit&classic-editor

For the pages of my folder, I have used some more pieces of the linen sheet that I had discovered in a charity shop. The pages I have made are double sided, so I have eight pages in total, along with the front and back inside covers.

I stitched some more pieces of fabric, and the fabric elephant shapes to the pages. The fabric pieces are hexagon shapes from a previous project some years ago.

 

 

I have also used 2 fabric placemats, and I stitched these to 2 of my linen pages. These are not really practicable for use as placemats, but they are very decorative items. They had been gifted to me by a family member following their visit to Japan some years ago. So I have more of them for other uses – I wonder if I could use a couple for nuno felt? An experiment for next time perhaps.

 

The linen sheet is really interesting.

There is a line of fine mending on the linen that is not immediately noticeable, but on closer inspection it is more visible.  See below photos. The repair to the linen is lovely and gives further life to this fabric. It can be imagined that it’s life was not part of a ‘throwaway’ culture that is often talked about today. The cloth can still be used as bed linen or to make clothing, and now, many years later it remains useful to me. I think this repair shows how skilled women and girls were at mending and needlework. Fabric may not have been as plentiful or affordable perhaps, world conflicts will have impacted many people, and make do and mend became the norm.

               

 

I have placed some of my flat felt sample pieces in my folder.

                 

 

               

The pages are attached along the centre of the folder using a few stitches with embroidery floss and tied to secure.

I am really pleased that I have a place to keep these little pieces, and that I will know where they are in future rather than rummaging around in various drawers/boxes. I may add more pages in due course.

Not for Hélène’s eyes – Christmas “card” swap

Not for Hélène’s eyes – Christmas “card” swap

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This year, our merry (see what I did there?) group of crafters/blog writers decided to do a card swap among us. It didn’t really have to be Christmassy, it just needed to somewhat resemble a card.

The idea is to overthrow the ephemeral notion of a Seasons Greetings card on its head and make something with your own hands that a fellow crafter will appreciate and want to keep.

I was partnered with Hélène, felter extraordinaire, so I was naturally stressed out. I knew my card wouldn’t begin to compare with anything she created, but I put those pesky defeating voices aside and got to work.

It took me a few days to come up with a jolly (ha, again!, I crack myself up) theme for the time of year, and decided to join two strengths of mine: pattern search and knitting. Off to Ravelry I went browsing, and settled on Stay Cool  by Drops Yarn.

Ravelry first page results for patterns with the term "snowflake"
First page results on Ravelry for the term “Snowflake.” Pretty, but not very card-like…

Stay Cool is meant to be a pot holder but I adapted it to be slightly longer on two sides and kept the back plain so I could attach it to cardboard. In hindsight, I could have knitted both sides in pattern, but at this point I was still a little fuzzy on my end goal. (Sorry, Hélène!)

I used my own hand spun yarn because I wanted the “card” to be as handmade and personal as I could possibly make it. If you want to get geeky with me with specs, I used white Shetland spun woollen from pencil roving for one yarn, and an Alpaca/Polwarth blend spun worsted for the brown.

A printed version of the pattern on top and the finished knitted snowflake "card" on the bottom

Not unsurprisingly, the back came out “longer” than the front, despite having the same number of stitches. I should’ve predicted this because fair isle knitting constricts patterns a bit, but alas, I didn’t remember.

Now came the daunting part for me: wet felting. I wanted the end result to be a fuzzy and smaller version of the knit, so off I went to the kitchen sink armed with bubble wrap, soap and very hot water.

If you think this felted right away, you’d be wrong. Nothing happened for the longest time! In fact, I nearly despaired because my idea was to fuse the back to the front, and that never happened. Apparently, knitted jumpers accidentally machine washed only become tiny versions of themselves if you never intended for them to shrink – Sod’s law!

After what seemed like four years of wet felting, here’s what my snowflake looked like:

Knitted snowflake after wet felting, on cardstock background with "Merry Xmas" written on top with iridescent ink

Hopefully it still looks like a snowflake to the untrained eye. I punched holes onto the thickest paper I could find and attached the wool to it with string, because I want Hélène to be able to take it out and use it as a coaster (or something else functional of her choice). This way she can always have a laugh every time she reaches for a hot drink and sees my meagre wet felting technique.

Detail of "Merry Xmas" wording on card showcasing the ink's shimmer qualities

The ink I chose has gold shimmer in it, which I found quite Christmassy. I hope Hélène can forgive the “Xmas” instead of the word proper – I ran out of space.

(Aaand, a little confession: I cheated and sent my card swap partner something extra… ‘Tis the season, after all!)

A very cute needle felted Christmas tree with baubles and a star on top, made by Eleanor Shadow

That’s it from me. I have a newfound respect for anyone who takes the never-ending task of wet felting. What advice would you give me for future soapy endeavours?

OVWSG 2023 Sale and exhibition (part 2

OVWSG 2023 Sale and exhibition (part 2

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Part 2

Let’s take a quick look around the rest of the OVWSG 2023 Guild Sale. I hope you save some of your Vicarious shopping money for the rest of the booths!! So far you have only seen the Guild booths and the exhibition (OVWSG 2023 Sale and Exhibition (part 1) ).

The booth next door to the Co-op booth is one of the local Felters, Wendo Van Essen.

Wendo's Booth, Wendo, sootcase with kits Wendo's Booth, flying felted animals, sheep and pincoshens17) Wendo’s Booth

She makes extremely whimsical hanging figures, pin cushions, and pictures. You may recognize her felt from Fiberfest in Almonte where I also sneak up on her and take pictures! I am sure you would enjoy stopping and chatting with her, but I have to drag you away so you can see the rest of the show!

mohair in yarn and fiber Mohair yarn and socks18) Les Belles Bouclettes (Isabelle Perdigal)

As we move on to the next booth, you will find Mohair, In fibre, top, yarn and even socks. As I hope you can see the lustre of the fibre as the sun hits it in the afternoon. Those blue purple colours make me want to create a wild sky over an untrustworthy cold sea.

Judy Kavanagh and Don Haines booth19)  Judy Kavanagh and Don Haines

Judy and Don are woodworkers as well as weavers and spinners. Judy is well known for her beautiful spindles and decorative rigid hedles for Scandinavian band weaving. Don has been making beautifully weaving accessories and now a loom to hold a rigid heddle or tablet/Cards for weaving. He also has tools for spinners too, did you see those doffers? Take a look at Judy’s tapestry of canoeing at her family cottage, she also made and is selling the loom she is demonstrating the tapestry on! She also had patterns to make those lovely mits. Lastly, she also has dyed fibre and braided roving or top.

Studio 320)  Studio 3  (Jean Down & Roberta Murrant)

Jean and Roberta are local weavers who always have amazing patterns and colours in their booth. The cards are mostly miniature overshot patterns woven in warp the size of sewing thread. (I did buy 3 more this year.)  Once you have picked out your scarf, take a few more steps and check out the next booth.

Top of the Whorl Spindles21) Top of the Whorl Spindles

This is a new booth to the show and had a large selection of spindles. There were also bowls to use with support spindles and cases with ingenious lids that turn into supports for the spindle within. The glass whirls caught the light and had colourful shafts. There was a support spindle made from a porcelain drawer pull that cot my eye.


Wööl, emporium de laine  22)  Wööl, emporium de laine

This booth had Fleeces that were for sale at Reinbeck (a big fibre festival in the States).  These were fleeces that won awards at that show. They were too nice for me to pass up and  I bought a bit of fibre from a couple of the bags, Teeswater and grey Mohair. There were kits including basketry, as well as a number of natural dies including Indigo.

Wööl, emporium de laine wool locks22.1) Mohair and Teeswater


Luna 23) Luna

As you pull yourself away from the fibre and turn to the next booth, you will find woodworking, weaving and felting.   The yarn bowls had this amazing glow that I had trouble catching in a photo. I have to tug you along to the next booth so I apologize, I can’t let you linger longer.


Fab Fibre Two24)  Fab Fibre Two  (Jean Sharp & Bernadette Quade)

Both Jean and Bernadette, who were sharing the booth, had handspun yarn. Bernadette also had batts that work well for felting as well as spinning. Jean also had both knitting and woven finished items. Check out the fabulous colours in the shawl. After you have picked out a skaine or two, lets move to the next booth.
 

Handweaving by Janet Whittam 25)  Handweaving by Janet Whittam

In the next booth you will find Janet Wittam, a local weaver/Basket maker from south of Ottawa. She has been weaving for decades and makes amazing wraps, shirts, jackets, ponchos, rugs and baskets. I enjoyed taking a basket weaving class from her many years ago. She had us go for a walk along her country road collecting vines and other basket making bits, then we made a basket from local materials. It was a lot of fun and i would recommend it if you can catch one of her courses! if you turn and look across the way you will spot the next booth to visit.


Sami Lemperger Artistry 26)  Sami Lemperger Artistry

This vendor was new this year, she had these subtle coloured wraps. She had a lovely display, which she changed through the show. I like the long fringe on the blue one, and the green one had interesting colour changes that looked like water. Compared to Janet, she is a vary new weaver but she is making such elegant wraps with interesting colour changes. i look foreword to seeing what she has next year! Oh i think you are already distracted by the next boot so we should continue the tour.


Beaux Arbres Basketry27)  Beaux Arbres Basketry

We have a couple of Basket weavers in the guild but the others are weavers who also do basketry. Michael Peterson has been a basket maker for 30 years. He is Inspired by historical basket techniques and locally available materials. He also teaches basketry classes, which i hear are also lots of fun. He is vary knowledgeable bout the history of baskets and local materials used  to make them. He can also tell you about how he has repaired old baskets. Michael is lots of fun to chat with, but we should not linger to long or you will no see the rest of the show!

  Sprout Handwoven28)  Sprout Handwoven

Moving on past the baskets you will see this booth, with tea towels, dog scarves, bags and lovely shawls. I particularly liked the shawl in blue and brown checks at the front of the booth. i hope you have selected your tea towel, they were going quickly!!  Did you notice the handwoven bottle bag, it would make a perfect bag to carry a spindle and some fiber when your out and about.

Wayside Weeds and Wool29) Wayside Weeds and Wool  (Amanda Carrigan)

Amanda has a natural die garden, where she grows her die pants and then make them into dies. She dies yarn and knits beautiful mitts and gloves. She also sells kits so you can knit your own mitts and gloves. You can see how the colours look in the late afternoon sunshine. Did you get the kit or just buy one of the pairs of mits or gloves? Oh, i bet you just spotted the next booth, so lets move on!


Felt by Molly 30) Felt by Molly

Yes its Molly Underhill! Molly is another one of the felters in the Ottawa guild. She has a booth with a diverse selection of pictures and other felted items. I love the felted flower framed between two layers of glass. In the afternoon the light shifted, you can see how it made the flower glow. It was quite amazing. As a former picture framer i was impressed with the double glass and frame. it showed the delicacy of the felt but also protected it. I am sorry, but again I have to drag you away or you will never see all the booths!


Carmen Deschênes, Lise Susin-Horth, & Elisabeth Davy 31)  Carmen Deschênes, Lise Susin-Horth, & Elisabeth Davy

This booth had fibre batts, felt and handwovens by Carmen, Lise and Elisabeth. This was a fun booth when they were not chatting enthusiastically with customers they were chatting with each other! The wild patterns were eye catching but i kept coming back to look at a couple of the simple pieces.  it was fun to watch the large E-Spinner, did you see the size of that Orifice?


Mapi Creations32) Mapi Creations

As you pull yourself away from the previous booth, I am sure all the colourful batts and braids of fibre will catch your attention in the next one! The batts kept trying to entice me into buying one or two.  The light turquoise batt kept making me think of ice burgs. (It was much too early to think about ice!!!) Maybe you will find a braid of top or roving that will call to you?


Off the Loom33) Off the Loom  (Liliane McKennirey)

Liliane has been a weaver for a long time and is known for her recycling of fur coats into new items. I have one of her throws and it is lovely, soft, and warm. The through pillows are so soft but i fear i would fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.  You should ask her about the steps involved in working with an old fur coat to prepare it to be woven into a new coat, through or pillow.


Lin en ville 34) Lin en ville

We have finally reached the last booth (back beside the co-op booth where we started). Here there were fabulous tea towels and lovely soft scarfs. I purchased one of the tea towels last year, the thread count is vary high and it is beautifully woven.  the scarves were soft and drappy. i hope you got one of the tea towels, they sold very quickly!

 

I wanted to share with you what I had found at the sale, technically I had purchased the moose bags before, but I was demoing the second moose bag and they made a nice background for the photo. The Combs were listed for sale online and were dropped off at the sale, but I did pay for them when they arrived,  so technically I did buy them there too. I wonder if you can see where I found all the great finds?

35) My shopping

 

I hope you have enjoyed wandering through the guild sale and you found some fabulous acquisitions. If you are near Ottawa during the first weekend in November 2024 we will have another sale and it will be the Ottawa Guilds’ 75th anniversary year with an exhibition to celebrate it!

PS; i am curious, what would you have bought and which booth would you have gone back to chat and look through more?

Making sheep

Making sheep

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Last time you saw all the lovely Bluefaced Leicester curls I dyed. It’s here if you missed it. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/11/23/felted-sheep/  The next step was to take them to class for the students to use.

I had 6 lovely ladies. All but one ad not felted before. This is a short class 7:00-9:00 in the evening. so it moves quickly and I didn’t get a lot of pictures. I often forget to take pictures until someone else takes out their phone to snap a few.  the first thing we talk about is the legs. I show them how to go about needle felting them. then I explain how to wet felt them. Then I showed them the snakes I made so they could all have legs without making them. everyone is thrilled. It is a boring and surprisingly time-consuming job even wet felting them.

sorry no pictures of any of that.

First, they have to make the bodies. We are using corriedale wool. It felts up quicker than merino.

 

 

and then onto the heads

And attaching them

 

They added the legs and the ears. Sorry, no pictures of that.

And then they start adding curls. s o this was the end of the class. some finished and some went home with a needle and a handful of curls so they could finish them up later.

and lastly this cute one with a heart on his hip.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and I may have a few new addicts.

Finished Nuno Felt Landscape with Birch Trees and Snow on Blue and White Background Surrounded by White Matte
Holiday Card Exchange for Carlene

Holiday Card Exchange for Carlene

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We decided this year to do a “card” exchange amongst our members. Ann M. drew the partner names and I got Carlene’s name. I decided that since Carlene likes to weave, that I wanted to include some needle  weaving on her card.

Blue and white nuno felt background

I wanted a wintery feeling so I chose this piece of nuno felt cut to 4″ x 6″. I can already see birch trees in the background so my go to trees this year were an easy decision for the design.

Nuno felt background with "base" for first birch tree stitched in place

I used a stitch technique that is usually used in cut and drawn thread embroidery. Since my background was felt, I couldn’t cut the surface to get my base threads so I stitched them on the felt base. It’s a very simple stitch as you just take the thread and move over and under each time filling in the “woven bar”.

Nuno felt background with first needle woven tree in place on right hand side.

Here’s the first one completed. I used white perle cotton in different weights for all the trees. If you look closely, you can see that on this first tree, I was catching the wool fibers that were coming through on the silk surface of the nuno felt. I was a bit concerned with this but then when I looked again, the wool just adds in the “spots” on a birch tree.

Nuno felt background with yarn used for planning tree placement.

I used some yarn to work out the tree placement before I went any further. I cut a piece of nuno felt to cover the bases of the background trees which I would stitch down after completing all the trees.

Then to continue on with the weaving. This isn’t a hard stitch but it’s a bit time consuming. I was able to hold the thread away from the surface to prevent catching the wool fibers but it really wasn’t necessary. Now I needed to add in the “spots” on the trees. Nuno felt background with birch trees, added brown ink for "spots" on trees and foreground hill of cut nuno felt.

I could have stitched them on but I decided to use dark brown ink. You can see I cut down the foreground nuno piece a bit and then I stitched that in place.

Nuno Felt Landscape with Needle Woven Trees and French Knot Snow

Now to add some snow. I stitched random French knots over the trees and background.

Finished Nuno Felt Landscape with Birch Trees and Snow on Blue and White Background Surrounded by White Matte

And here it is matted as a “card”. I made it as a small frameable artwork instead of a card. I sent it off to Carlene in Canada and she received it quickly. I’m always hesitant about the mail service these days, but all was well! Happy Holidays Carlene!

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

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Lyn

Robin Wreath Needle Felting and Wirework

Annie has many robins in her garden and she now has hundreds of photos of robins!  Looking at her photos inspired me to make my Robin Wreath.  It has a diameter of 30cms (12″).

English Robin in a garden

To make the wreath base I used a blue wet felted cord from my stash box ..

Blue wet felted cord

..but it wasn’t strong enough on its own so I made a wire cover for it by wrapping craft wire around a knitting needle..

craft wire wrapped around a knitting needle to make a wire spiral

..then stretching it out and threading the cord through it..

wet felted cord wrapped inside wire spiral

..then I made a hanging loop and wire branches for the robins to stand on.

Wreath base made from wet felted cord inside wire spiral      Wire branches for the robins to sit on

Then on to needle felting a couple of robins.  I used scraps of white felt as a base and I used photos of robins to get the outline.  Then I started to ‘colour it in’ with needle felting.

Robin outline on scrap white felt        Needle felting the robin      needle felted robin

I made the legs from black floristry wire and stitched them to the back of the robins.

The Christmas present was needle felted using 2 squares of scrap white felt one on top of the other then covered with yellow wool and embellished with a sparkly bead.

scrap squares of white felt     needle felting a gift

needle felted gift

I had to photograph the Robin wreath flat on a table because I’ve run out of time for this blog post.  I just have to make fairy stitches to the back of the robins and the present to attach them firmly to the wire branches so that I can hang it up.

Annie

I thought I’d like to make a wet felted Holly & Berries themed Christmas table runner so set about trying out a few ideas with different fabrics and prefelts.

Sample for table runner

sample for table runner

Trouble is I enjoy playing too much so when the work of doing the real thing of setting out lots of pre-felt holly leaves and berries began..

table runner for Christmas

..I ended up accidentally getting sidetracked by making a pair of pink wet felted stockings, then laying out another pair, this time one green, one purple, with longer cuffs that could be turned over if they work how I want them to (still in progress on the desk). The pink ones came out rather cute, but possibly do need some decoration.

Miniature booties made from wet felt

Miniature wet felted booties

I also started a bauble garland and some machine stitched shaped holly leaves!  Any projects that I don’t finish in time for this Christmas will be finished by the new year then I’ll be well ahead for Christmas 2024 🙂

 

No Scrap Left Behind

No Scrap Left Behind

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I am one of those people who does not like to sit idle.  So I try to bring a small project with me to keep my hands busy while waiting.  Usually that is a small knitting project, and one of the easiest portable projects is knitting small dish cloths.  I knit in the car (as a passenger of course), while sitting and chatting with friends, during Zoom meetings for work, etc.  My go to pattern is called Corrugated Cloth which I knit on 4.5 mm needles with 33 stitches in a row.  So far in 2023 I’ve knit over 225 dish cloths and there are still a couple of months left.

piles of hand knit dish cloths in many colours
Hand knit dish cloths

I had been accumulating odd balls of scraps.  Bits of yarn too small to make a full dish cloth.  My scrap yarn bag had filled to the top and so I decided to make a scrap blanket.

Bag with many balls of assorted scrap yarns
Bag with assorted balls of cotton scrap yarn

After browsing patterns and projects on Ravelry I picked the pattern Excavation, but with a couple of modifications.  I opted to omit the fringe and instead knit the blanket continuously.  I also opted to alternate 2 balls of yarn, doing 2 rows with the first colour, then 2 rows of the second colour.  This resulted in a nicely striped blanket.  Often I joined in new yarn mid-row using a Russian join to splice the yarns together.  Generally I alternated scraps with a bit of white in them with scraps that were darker (no white).

Small knitting work in progress showing 2 types of yarn and alternating rows
Start of my scrap blanket. There are 2 balls of yarn and you knit 2 rows with one ball, then 2 rows of the next ball.

About a month later, my cotton scrap blanket was done.  The finished project is 46″  x 48″ (116.8 cm x 121.9 cm).  It was a very relaxing knit and the growth of the blanket was aided by some long Zoom training sessions for work.

randomly striped blanket knit from scrap cotton
Randomly striped blanket knit from scrap yarn

Now that the blanket is complete, I was evaluating my bag of scraps and there are still quite a few left.  I think I used 2/3 of the initial bag of scraps in the blanket.  I also found another bag with scraps and a couple of odd balls.  Another scrap blanket is on the horizon.  Maybe next time I’ll use a single colour to contrast with the scraps.  I will keep this in mind next time I’m shopping for more cotton yarn and see if I can find a main yarn I’d like to use.  I wonder what colour I should pick?  (I am open to suggestions!)

Large pile of scrap yarn and odd balls
Current pile of scrap yarn and odd balls of cotton

 

OVWSG 2023 Sale and exhibition (part 1)

OVWSG 2023 Sale and exhibition (part 1)

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Vacarious Shopping!!

In November, The local weavers and spinners guild in Ottawa Canada have there annual sale and exhibition (briefly interrupted by the pandemic but running again this year!) The sale is held int the Glebe Community Center, which started out its life as St. James Methodist Church, begun in 1914 and finished in 1924. In the 1970’s it was converted to its present function of community center and rental hall. We take over the hall on Friday after noon to mark out the booths, set up tables then the venders arrive to set up there booths.

we have booths with local guild members and other fiber artists selling there finished items or various sorts of supplies and equipment. We also have a guild coop booth, make and take tables, a demo area and the guild info booth.

There was a large team organizing the event and publicity was mostly on line this year. Ann is the best one to speak to that part of the sale if you are very curious. I was only busy with a few parts of preparations. My jobs are more during the sale, the main one is photo document the sale and to take shots that hopefully will be useful in next years publicity as well as to entice anyone on our guild face book group to come shopping at the show. (I spend a couple hours posting photos to the group on Saturday night after the first day of the sale, I only took 343 photos, but didn’t inflict all of them on the group I promises!

Lets take a look around the sale, We had two booths with felting and a few with fiber that may be of interest. lest start at the guild table, which has the door prize for the surveys, stickers while they last, the Canadian moose skein winder bags, and extras magazines surplus to our collection (2.00 each). (there are also name tags with silly  or odd sheep for those who are working at the sale. you may spot them in various pictures.)

floor plan of booths at the sale1) Font of flyer

doors into the sale and poster with shuttle and spindle2) the doors into the sale, let’s take a look inside

As you went through the doors the Guild info booth was to your Left, we tried to ask everyone to fill out a Survey to enter for the door prizes.

  3) Guild table; Sheep name tags, survey slips, stickers for filling out the survey.

Door Prizes, white and blue handwoven shawl and felted lattern4) The door prizes for filling out the survey, which were drawn at the November guild meeting.

We were wanting to know how people found out about the sale (check our focus for advertising was working) and the aria that shoppers came from by asking for their postal code. This will let us check where most shoppers come from and see if there is a change from year to year. (Ann let me have fun with both the data enters and data analysis last time)

We also had a display of the Moose project bags,

OVWSG Anniversary Moose project bag5 )the 75th anniversary moose bags

And the Magazines that were extra to the guilds collection.

Magazines for sale6) Magazines for sale

in front of the guild tables are the Demo area to the left,

Spinning and weaving demo area7) Spinning and Weaving demo

Pine needle Basket making demo8) Pine needle basket demo

starting needle felting on the canvis moose bag. Felted Bat on a stick is sitting beside the moose bag 9) Felting demo

 The make take tables are on the right.  This was a fun spot that let people try spinning (on a Mayonnaise lid spindle), weaving (on a small frame or on a tapestry loom) and wet felting (acorns).

teaching spinning on a mayonnaise lid drop spindle 10) a spinning lesson with Mayonnaise lid spindles

2 girls weaving on popsical stick frame looms11) weaving on little frames

the Exhibition is in between Make and take table and the Demo area.  The theme was “Safire” this year, which leads into our “Diamond” anniversary theme next year.

2 veiws of the OVWSG Exhibition, the theam is Safires12) the exhibition

Molly's Entery in the exhibit was a wet felted vessel with inclustions of blue beads and rocks  13) Molly’s Wet felted Vessel

I suspect you will be interested in this one which was made by Molly Underhill. I think she said it was inspired by geologic core samples.

The guild had 3 wheels for sale which were displayed near the exhibition. the Louet S60 sold extremely quickly.  Which left the CPW (a fast spinning wheel used for production spinning and  the beautiful little Tyrol Spinning wheel . another wheel was dropped off but after more inspection it has a few repairs needed. It may need to have a spa day with Deborah, the OVWSG rental coordinator. (There are advantages to in person guilds but the commute to our blog or an on line guild is so much faster!)

a CPW and Tyrol wheel14)The wheels

 Canadian Production Wheel (CPW), a double drive wheel with tilt tension and a cast mettle footman.

Tiny Tyrol Spinning wheel, screw tension, peg for flyer,  Slow ratio, large mettle insert for orifice. There is a larger but very similar wheel in the Museum collection of Canadian Museum of history (previously M. of Civilization)

the two wheels sitting beside eachother showing how much smaller the Tyrol wheel is when comparied to a CPW15) Size comparison of CPW and Tyrol wheels

We had a small exhibit on the theme Safire this year, which leads into our Diamond anniversary theme next year.

Lets have a quick tour around the booths, starting with the co op booth. This allows guild members who have only a few things to sell or those with jobs at the sale who cant have a booth participate in the sale.

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16) Co-op booth

I hope this give you a suggestion of the diversity of the guild members work.

Since we are already on page 24 I think I should save the rest of the booths for the next post! Are you already shopping vicariously? (Save a bit of your Vicarious shopping money for the booths from the next post!!)

Dyeing curls for felted sheep

Dyeing curls for felted sheep

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I am getting ready to teach a group how to make felted sheep, Like these I used for a post, quite a while ago.

The class is this evening( Wednesday) so freshly made cute sheep will be next week. I like to use Blue Faced Leicester sheep curls for this as they are nice small curls. I had a few colours but not enough variety.

I had a couple hundred grams of the white so it was time to dye. My usual dye pot is really big. a stock pot. Much too big for this job. YOu will have to trust me on the next part as I forgot to take pictures. I was doing too many things at once. I have a nice large stew pot that isn’t too deep but I want to use it for stew again so I got a metal bowl that could be sacrificed and created a double boiler.  I placed handfuls of soaked white locks into a medium freezer bag. I made up a small amount of dye poured it on top of the locks and topped it up with water until everything was submerged. I  squeezed most of the are out and popped the bag into the water on the top of the double boiler. I did the next colour the same and popped it in as well. I could do 2 at a time.  I made up 3 more colours. the aim was to have dark purple, lilac, lime green, pink and magenta. this method was great. the top edge of the bag was above the water so I could easily pick it up to see if the water was clear. Once clear I took it out and put it aside to cool. this is also a good idea when you dye. to leave the wool in the dye bath until cool, especially if it refuses to take up all the colour. You will usually find that when cooled it often has taken up the extra dye. I have to admit I seldom do this as I need to get the next batch of wool into the dye pot, reusing the dye water. With the small bags, it was easy to put them aside to cool.

This is the result.

Now, you are probably thinking that there seems to be more than one dark purple. That is because I used way too much lilac in the lilac dye bag.  I ended up with the 2 purples in the middle. the top one in truth is quite vibrant and the bottom one more deep with a little lilac leaning wool on one edge. I had hoped it would split giving me a purple and blue mix. There is even a warning on the Dharma chart saying it can split. No such luck, isn’t that always the way?  They looked so much the same when they were wet I did another batch and although it looks kind of dark here on my screen, it is pretty much lilac. I tried to adjust the colour but then the green started to look kinda funky.

So that’s my prep for the class. This is an easy class for me because everything I need fits in one small bin.

I will show you the results next week.

 

 

Holiday Ideas?

Holiday Ideas?

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At this time of year, many of us are creating holiday decor, gifts and items to sell at markets for the holidays. Have you been creating any of these? We would love to see what you’re creating. You can upload a photo here. 

I thought I would show you some of our member’s gift and holiday makes. These owls are by Helene and I don’t know about you but they make me smile.

Lisa and Alex made this felted stocking with a snowman which would look great hanging on any mantle.

Lyn and Annie have created some fantastic holiday décor out of felt.

Antje created some wonderful elf/fairies’ boots to hang on the tree. If I remember correctly, we had several members making these cuties.

Jan created this angel mouse for a gift. Who wouldn’t love a mouse so cute with angel wings and a halo?

Ann M. created this felted Christmas tree and then decorated it beautifully. Easy to put that tree up once it’s finished.

Lindsay made some great acorn ornaments that she sells for the holiday market.

Leonor needle felts these wonderful trees that add a spot of color to any holiday scene.

Karen created these funny gnome characters that aren’t just for the holidays. Wouldn’t they look great on a mantle?

Tesi created this quilt on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to give to an unknown recipient. In the process, she was able to get through her own struggles during the Christmas season and remember that the season is about giving to others.

Carlene is modeling the beautiful cowl that she wove as a holiday gift. I would love to open that box under my tree!

And here’s an ornament that I made a long time ago that I had completely forgotten about. It’s always interesting when I start searching through our photos here and find things that had slipped my mind.

If you’re an author here and I didn’t show any of your work, it’s because I couldn’t find a holiday related photo by you in the library. But we’d love to see yours too, so please feel free to share.

Again, share your holiday makes here. 

To all of our American readers, have a Happy Thanksgiving on Thursday. And to everyone else, have a fun, relaxed and happy holiday season ahead.

Edit 11/22/23

We are getting lots of people sharing their photos, you can see them here (be sure to scroll all the way down to see all the photos):

2023 Challenges Gallery

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