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Month: July 2024

Close up of green nuno felt background with foreground stems stitched in place and orange petals completely stitched for center flower.
Progress on Indian Paintbrush Landscape

Progress on Indian Paintbrush Landscape

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I have been slowly stitching down the applique flower pieces for my Indian Paintbrush landscape piece. You can see prior steps here.

Drawn design on tracing paper with cut applique pieces next to nuno felt background with distant flowers laid in place.

I started by laying out the background flower applique pieces for distant flowers. I still haven’t decided if there is more stitching needed for stems and leaves. I’m waiting until I have the foreground flowers in place. I don’t want to add too much detail to the background.

Green nuno felt background with orange flower petals stitched in place with random straight stitches.

I used very simple straight stitching to adhere these small flowers. I purposely made the stitches longer than the fabric as Indian Paintbrush have a frayed edge. I tried to make the stitches random sizes and directions.

Green nuno felt background with foreground stems stitched in place and two orange petals stitched for center flower.

Next up was to add the center flower. I went ahead and added the two stems on the right side to make sure I had the flowers in the right place. All of the placement of applique pieces was done by eye. I didn’t try to mark where they were to go as the markings usually tend to stay when I don’t want them to. I appliqued the cotton organdy applique pieces in place with small stitches, a very fine needle, and one strand of cotton floss.

Green nuno felt background with foreground stems stitched in place and four orange petals stitched for center flower.

Then it was a matter of continuing to add pieces and stitching them in place. I listen to podcasts while I’m doing hand stitching as it is definitely “slow stitch”.

Green nuno felt background with foreground stems stitched in place and orange petals completely stitched for center flower.

The center flower is now completely stitched down.

Close up of green nuno felt background with foreground stems stitched in place and orange petals completely stitched for center flower.

Here’s a closer view of the flower and the stitching. It’s possible that I could add more detailed stitching over the top of the foreground flowers but I haven’t decided yet. I should have made a sample so I could try out some different ideas but I forgot and I don’t think I have any more green silk for a sample piece. That’s what I get for not planning enough!

Recent Shopping

Recent Shopping

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I have a confession to make…. I love to shop for craft supplies and love a bargain.  This had lead to some more items being added to my stash in the past few weeks.

Recently our guild had a destash sale that was combined with our Monday guild social.  Of course I found a few treasures to adopt.  The top right bag is wool roving dyed by one of the ladies in our guild.  The other bags are all silks.  (The bottom right is 200g of silk.  The small baggies are batts of carded sari silk.  And the white bag at top left is silk lapp.)  There will be many hours of fun from this pile of fibre.  I may even try to dye that white silk.

Wool roving and sari silk from the guild destash
Wool roving and sari silk from the guild destash

I also went to Value Village and found a couple of items to adopt.  The prefelt fabric was intriguing.  It may be for upholstery or sewing.  But it seemed like it had possibilities and so got put in my cart.  The bags of yarn were a nice bargain.  The top bag is Lion Brand Scarfie that I plan to weave with.  The bottom bags are random fizz accent yarns that will also find their way into my weaving projects.

I was browsing Ravelry and spotted someone selling a copy of this book about plain weave.  The title is Plain Weave (60 Patterns for Mastering the Basic Technique) by Tina Ignell.  I had never heard of this book and I was intrigued.  My Saori looms have 2 harnesses and so I do a lot of plain weave.  I ended up buying a copy of this book from Amazon and it arrived very quickly.  I haven’t had a chance to really dive into the book yet.  But at first glance it is a beautiful book with a nice clean layout.

Last weekend we went to London Ontario to visit our families.  We carved out a bit of time (in between visits) for me to pop into a local yarn store called London Yarns.  Of course I found a few more treasures that wanted to come home with me.  All the balls of yarn were on sale and only the 2 skeins in the photo were regular priced yarns.  I think I did all right.

18 balls of yarn
Sale yarns from London Yarns (in London Ontario)

My CH60 Saori loom is currently empty.  Once I put a new warp put on it, I am sure that some of these new yarns will be finding their way onto the loom.  New materials provide so many possibilities and spark creative thinking.  I think that is why I love shopping for supplies.

 

finished rag weave material
About that ‘groove’ …

About that ‘groove’ …

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In April I talked about getting my groove back and trying something new.  Groove, rut, six of one, half dozen of the other, right?  Not really.  I had the opportunity to purchase a large quantity of pre-cut jersey rags from the Guild.  Bright yellow was perfect for a summer project and perfect to get me moving again.

The project is all done.

The final weigh-in is 2.5 kilos or 5 pounds.  Right now it needs to rest for a few days.  The plan is to do some minor repairs because there are always small repairs and then decide what to do with the material.

finished rag weave material

Some of the repairs are very small, just need a clip,

Some need a bit more of a reweaving and inspection.

And some really came as a surprise.  I must have been asleep at the switch with this one, but it’s totally fixable and I’ll take care of it.

Once I had used up all the rag I was left with too much warp thread for me to comfortably cut the threads and I was sure there was more to be made from this fibre. Weavers are known for being economical (aka cheap).  The work needed in warping a loom is significant and I hate wasting the time and the fiber.

So I found a bobbin of deep blue cotton and gave it a try. And I liked it, so now the warp is used not just for rags, but for cotton as well.

simple twill weave for cotton cushion cover

The final product is enough to make a great cushion cover or bag, or table drape, or maybe a project bag.  Lots of potential for this fabric. It’s surprisingly thick just as it sits without finishing.  So once it’s been washed it will be even fluffier and more dense.

finished cotton twill for cushion cover    Hem stitched finished edge on woven cushion cover

I did try hem stitching the edge and found it is not my strong suit.  But I’ll keep practising and someday I’ll be happy with the final result.

For now, everything is resting; me included.  The fibres need to come back into their original shape and that takes a bit of time.  I need to do the repairs and inspection of the final product and tie off all loose ends before it goes into the laundry.  Then I’ll see where I go after that.

I may want to leave the huge 7-meter piece for a display our guild is having this fall at a museum, but I’ll talk to our curator about that first. So many decisions, and so much fun for the next project.   Thinking of doing a linen table runner, never tackled one of those.

 

sheep name tag with no name yet
Name Tag: Sneaky

Name Tag: Sneaky

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Someone mentioned that her name tag was really old and missing. I can’t seem to narrow down what I want to do, so let me look at replacing the missing tag for Ann. Now I hope I can finish it before she finds her old name tag!

Hum, what might Ann like? Sheep!  Ok, off to Google Image to see if I can find an interesting sheep. What kind of sheep might she like? The Sheep Ann has are mostly mixed with Rideau Arcott (developed at the Animal Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada), but I have heard her say she likes black sheep. Ok, let’s look for “black sheep”, “Sheep in barn door”, and  “sheep and wall”.

There was a profile photo of a Black Icelandic-looking sheep, which was very striking.

profile of Icelandic looking sheep with horn and nondescript background.4 seep in barn doorway, i sheep in old wooden doorway sheep in white painted doorway1.1) Icelandic sheep in profile. 1.2) sheep in barns

 It did not have as interesting background as I would have liked. Ann likes purples so maybe I could do a sort of purple sunset? After looking through many sheep, I narrowed it down to about 6 options but came back to the black Icelandic in profile.

Ann had mentioned that she found the nametag pieces I had cut were too big. So I should stiffen the background and then reduce the size.  To firm up the odd green felt I added more white wool (Corriedale). When I cut the nametag down, you can see the path of the needle, as it pushes the white fibre into the green felt.

wool base with white wool added then cut in half showing insertion of white wool into the green felt. 2) Showing the wool being pushed through the felt

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3.1) adding more white wool to hide the cut (front View) 3.2) Adding a bit more wool to heal the cut edge (Back view).

two sizes of sheep image compared ageist size of name tag4) Now to decide the scale of the image, to the size of the tag.

As usual, I am working from the background towards the front. In this image, there are only 2 plains, the background and the sheep! Again, I am using the template technique, which you have seen me use before.

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5.1-5.2) Starting to add a background. background blocked in.

background blocked in, used sharpie to outline face (and shadow under chin)6) Background sort of blocked in, using a sharpie to outline the face and position the eye,  let’s see if can make a sheep

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7.1-7.3) Adding the sheep starting with the head, and horn and then adding the body.

Not sure about the shadow under the chin, but let’s block in the horn, and come back to the shadow. As i worked i kept asking Ann for her input. She didn’t seem to suspect i was making this for her.

As you have likely noticed, I often have issues with keeping 2D flat….. so I am making an ear…..a sheep needs an ear!

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8.1) making a black ear 8.2) ear attached

Oh drat,  good ear-age makes the horn look flat…. Got to fix that. I need to add more wool to create a more substantial horn to go with the ear. And the head is getting lost in the body…. Lest sift it lighter.

3D ear and horn9)  Now we have a 3-D ear and Horn that looks better.

I added a magnet to the back so she didn’t need to have a safety pin or sew-on pin.

adding magnet disk behind small pice of comertal wool10)  Adding a magnet by sewing a small pocket of commercial felt to the tag.  The second magnet is in the background.

I went back, added a bit more detail, and got rid of the shadow that had been under his chin.  now he might be looking back towards you, rather than ahead.

changed the sheep body to a lighter colour11) that looks better, no chin shadow, lighter coat

OH NO! Ann Found her old name tag but said it was looking a bit ratty and needed to make another one!! I need to felt faster!!!  she has seen what I am working on but doesn’t seem to have guessed I am trying to make a name tag for her!

Ann's old name tag 12) Ann’s old name tag had been found

I could not find a yarn that worked. But Ann offered a bit of her handspun yarn. Now What font?  “Ann” in Harrington font might work, it has a nice Art Neuvoue feel.

"Ann" in Harrington Font13) Ann in Harrington font which feels very Art Neuvoue

It’s hard to fit letters when the tag is smaller but let’s see if I can fit all of them. I had a few guild members wander over to see what I was felting but had my hand over part of the name. Maybe I am going with Jan with 2 N’s? Good thing we share letters!!

added Name "Ann"14) Ann’s Name tag done!

I hope I have not spoiled her fun by making her own name tag.

Ann trying out her new name tag15) She did seem to be surprised. I hope she will like it.

I was trying to complete this before Ann found her lost, older name tag, and felted much faster than I usually do.  I usually pause, and debate options as I am working. I can already see a few tweaks I would like to do. I wonder if I can borrow it, for a quick touch-up?

Up Date 07/22/2024:

Ann’s name tag, before getting back to work.16) Ann’s name tag, before getting back to work.

I borrowed Ann’s Name tag when she arrived at the guild social and got back to work.

First I edged part of Ann’s letters in white, to help subtly pop the name. I checked in with Ann again and she wanted me to change the angle on the “A” crossbar. I can do that!

“A” crossbar re-angled at Left baser and added white edging shadow.17) “A” crossbar re-angled at Left baser and added white edging shadow.

Now,  I need to add a bit more 3d-ness to face, and add a bit more shadowing on the horn.

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18.1) – edging on letters added, nest to build up forehead, bridge of nose and nose. 18.2) adding dimension to forehead, losing ear, will fix that shortly.  18.3) – ear fixed head showing more depth.  18.4) added fiber to forehead, front edge of the sheep face and nose. then added a bit of dark to the horn as well as make it a bit firmer. I also straitened the horizon.

There that looks a bit better! Time to check with Ann,

Ann inspecting updated name tag 19.1) She Likes It!!!

Ann inspects 3D sheep head19.2)  Much more 3D!

I hope Ann and her sheep will be happy and she can use it at socials, Demos and workshops!

Now that I have made a name tag for  Glenn and one for Ann do I have a better idea of one for me or will I pick on someone else next?

 

Working on my new blending board.

Working on my new blending board.

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I finally bought a blending board. I have wanted one for a while and was hoping for a second-hand one. One finally showed up, Yay! Patience pays off, well, it’s more being frugal(cheap) than being patient. I wanted one because rolags are my preferred preparation for spinning. I took it to the guild one day, along with a big bag of fibre some sari silk and some sparkle.

I started with some purply blue and lilac purple. I added some pink and purple sari silk. I think it’s called royal robes. I think I added some sparkle but not much. Here it is on the blending board. I added more of the blue-purple on top before rolling it off.

purple and pink fibres on a blending board

Here is what the rolag looks like

And here it is spun up as a single. I will wind it off and ply it.

Next was some red with yellow sari silk blend and some pink sparkle

This is the rolag

Next is some dark blue-green. It’s one of my favourites. I have some dye in this colour called mallard green. I don’t think that’s what World of Wool calls it though. I forgot to take a picture of it until I had taken one rolag off. I get 3 from the board per colourway. I was enjoying myself, hence forgetting to take a picture. It looks like I added some yellow and a different green. I am not sure I haven’t spun it yet.

At this point, I was having too much fun and I forgot to take any more pictures until the end. Here are the rolags all together

The light blue and the light purple are pretty close to being opposites. I just switched the base colours.

You saw the blue/purple and light purple above but I have also done the light blue light purple one. I am not very fussy about it when plyed. Partly, I think it is because “baby” shades are not colours I like much. This mix looks muddy to me.  I was trying to go outside my usual colours.

I am currently working on the opposite one. I like it well enough in the single, it is much less even on the colour split so I think it will be nicer when plyed.

I don’t know if I will do the red or green next. First I have to finish this one and do the plying.

 

Green nuno felt with applique cutouts in place to create Indian Paintbrush largest foreground flower.
Indian Paintbrush Applique Process

Indian Paintbrush Applique Process

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I have started working on the green nuno felt that I showed you several weeks ago.

Nuno felted green silk with highlights of orange.

Here’s where I left off and you will see that I eventually turn this piece so that the orange bits were at the top instead of the bottom.

Fabric and photos laid out on work surface before beginning applique process.

I looked through my stash to see what fabric I had that would work with my inspiration photos of Indian Paintbrush. I have tons of photos that I have taken of wildflowers so I printed out some that were closer and some that were farther away.

Green nuno felt beside tracing paper and scaling photos of Indian Paintbrush flowers on copy machine.

Next, I needed to scale the foreground flowers up a bit. I do that on my copy machine and then use the photos to trace the design on to tracing paper.

Light box with photo of Indian Paintbrush and tracing paper on top. Partially drawn design with pencil.

I use my light box to trace the design on to the tracing paper.

Green nuno felt beside tracing paper with Indian Paintbrush flowers designs drawn in pencil.

Here’s the design beside the background nuno felt. I have turned it around so the orange is towards the top and further in the background to represent more flowers.

The next step is to copy the designs on to freezer paper. I picked out which petals I wanted to be a darker orange and transferred the petal shapes on to freezer paper. I decided to leave the edges of the fabric raw when I appliqued them down since Indian Paintbrush have ragged edges. Therefore, if there’s fraying, it’s not a big deal.

Then I cut out the flower shapes, some in darker orange and some in lighter orange. The fabric is all hand dyed so it has color changes throughout and looks more natural for flowers. I then peeled off the freezer paper to see what the flower would look like on the background. At some point, I decided to leave the freezer paper in place as it was preventing too much fraying before I started stitching the pieces down.

Green nuno felt covered by tracing paper and applique cutouts in place to create Indian Paintbrush flowers.

Here are all the pieces in place over the tracing paper which is laid on top of the nuno felt. I haven’t decided if I need to add anything else or not. I think I will stitch the small flowers down on the background and then lay out all the foreground flowers and decide if it needs other flowers or grass or… More to come!

Detail of Young Fuchsia by Kiki Peruzzi. An abstract woman dressed in red is holding a green leaf, on grey background.
Felting books. The Gormenghast series.

Felting books. The Gormenghast series.

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Or maybe I should say “Felting something inspired by books“: that is what I would like to talk about with you today, although the other one also gives me a few ideas, now that I think about it. Maybe we could launch a year-long challenge on “Felting a book” or, better probably, “Textiling a book” to keep it completely inclusive, but then I guess Ruth would be already done with her Book of Edgar (here is a link where you can see it at the end of the post) and Ann with her Year Journal of felted pages (this is her last page).

Oh well, let’s go back to books as inspiration.

I usually do not get inspired by books for visual art, because, I don’t know, they often seem two different realms, unless the book is actually about embroidery or textile art or art in general. But I tend to read a lot. I mean a LOT, that is my main hobby and I manage to squeeze reading into most chores as well, to make the most of boring time such as washing up or ironing. I am a Humanities type through and through, and that is where I come from in terms of education as well. This whole part is to explain why I got to felt a whole series of textile works on a book that I was reading, as my experience of the book (or rather five books all linked together!) in question was so immersive, reading it by day and night for weeks.

First of all, the novels are massive and are called The Gormenghast series, by Mervyn Peake, or simply Gormenghast for its friends.  (Here is the link to the wikipedia link.) It is actually a long fantasy trilogy, to which a fourth book was added after the author’s death, and it is such a sprawling, flooding and never-ending series that one would not know where to start to talk about its plot and characters.

Great part of it is set in the place giving the name to the series, which is Castle Gormenghast, a maze of a place, more resembling an endless palace-city than a castle as its name states.

The series is a bewildering succession of unlovable characters, full of foibles and quirks, and quite often motivated by less-than-honourable drives, acting in loads of ways up to and including murder in some bizarre fashion (“eaten by owls” rather comes to mind as one of the most bizarre). I could not find a single character that was appealing to me, to tell you the truth, I just could not like any of them. I get it that it has its own fans and quite a following, but I am not one of them.

So, why did I start felting works on its characters or scenes from it? did I just waste my time reading it?

Well, it is maybe the first time that I find a novel that really I can’t stand at all, but that impresses such vivid imagines in my mind’s eye: Gormenghast is all about flamboyant and often weird visual descriptions, its author himself was a visual artist and illustrator, his work was all imbued with visual imagery that just pops out of the page in his writing. I could just see all of those in my head, and could not help feeling that I had to create something to get rid of them. Have you ever had the same feeling over an artwork, that it just needs to be done so you can go on to something else?

So, I got to work as soon as possible and with a vengeance (so to speak), trying to complete the first one, and then all the others that came after it while I was going on reading the rest of the series to the end. Don’t ask why I kept reading it, although I did not like it..I guess in part it was also because I kept thinking “Oh, this would make a good felt artwork, actually! And this one..I wonder how to create this visually in felt..”

My first one was about Barquentine, a priest-like figure, stomping around with his red official rags, wooden leg and a very bad character, imposing the never-ending rituals and rules of Gormenghast to everybody. He ends up dead, in a bad way, as a lot of the characters. Oh well, I did not like him anyway.

I started by preparing a grey base layer, lightly prefelted, on which to work, and a prefelt of reds for Barquentine’s dress and greys for the Castle background.

On a table covered in a white towel and bubblewrap, a grey prefelt already wetted and soaped and a small rectangular mound of red and grey fibers ready for pre-felting
The base for the background is lightly pre-felted, and the wool for the dress is ready for pre-felting.

I wanted the Castle to be a very present background in my work, as Barquentine is all about the Castle, its eternal presence defying time and rot, its inevitability in the lives of the Castle’s ruling family, the Groans, and their subjects. So, I decided to set a background that I imagined as the grim stony Castle’s Banquet Hall or any of the grim stony corridors around the Castle, of which there were kilometers I suppose, or some such.

I used a mix of merino dyed and undyed wool fiber and Corriedale, and rectangular or square shapes cut from the lightly prefelted merino wool made previously and other prefelt from my stash, all in tones of grey with a few accents of reddish-brown and pewter. Perspective did not interest me in this, as those bigger-than-life characters tend to pop out of the background anyway, if I am making sense. The central strip of reddish-brown prefelt could be the Banquet Hall table seen at a distance, maybe, or maybe something else, you choose.

Background in wool fiber and pre-felt for the artwork Barquentine by Kiki Peruzzi
The background for Barquentine laid out but not wetted yet.

Finally, I assembled Barquentine’s body shape and rags dress on the background. I choose to make Barquentine’s body in black, not because the character is actually described as so, but because he dies in a fire and I felt that a symbolic character such as him should have an abstract streamlined body. I wanted to have his claw-like hand kind of pointing at something wrong or other, and I wanted him to go away from us towards the Castle in his wobbling gait, underlining his wooden leg with a few strands of shiny red eri silk fiber (his wooden leg is very central to him).

I decided to partly shape and partly shred the red prefelt, adding touches of red and grey wool as needed for the rags, and I scattered some brilliant red napps on it as well.

On a table with a white towel and bubblewrap there is a felt artwork in progress at the assembling stage, with a grey background and a black abstract shape resembling a man with a red dress.
Assembling Barquentine’s body and dress on the background.

Some of the napps did not felt in properly in the end, but enough stayed put that it was fine by me.

Detail of Barquentine's red dress with red napps on red and grey wool
Barquentine’s dress with the remaining napps: they were enough to make the rags more brilliantly red.

 

A brick wall with grey and reddish bricks.
Some kind of colour reference for the background of Barquentine.
A detail of background with grey and reddish shapes in the felted artwork Barquentine by Kiki Peruzzi
Background detail for “Barquentine”.

I quite liked how this came out after wetting, soaping, rubbing and lightly rolling:

Wet Felted artwork Barquentine by Kiki Peruzzi. There is an abstract shape of a man in the foreground on grey background.
My finished “Barquentine”.

 

Detail of Barquentine's black claw-like hand in artwork by Kiki Peruzzi
Detail of Barquentine’s hand in black wool.

 

Detail of Barquentine's wooden leg in black wool and red eri silk.
Barquentine’s wooden leg tumping tumping tumping around, looking for faults.

I eventually went on to wet felt six other Gormenghast themed abstract artworks, all of them quite small: they are 7 in all, of which 5 are on characters and 2 are about meaningful scenes of the series.

Wet felted abstract artwork Young Fuchsia by Kiki Peruzzi. There is a human shape in the foreground resembling a woman with black hair and a red dress, on a grey background.
“Young Fuchsia” was one of the best characters in the series, especially when young, interested in nature and imaginative, impulsive as her red dress.
Wet felted artwork Countess Gertrude by Kiki Peruzzi. There is a black dressed woman shape, with long red hair piled up on her head, filling up most of the space, on a grey and green background.
Bigger than life “Countess Gertrude” with her towering hair hiding birds (yes) and her enormous black dress (I used a scrap of silk scarf).
Wet felted artwork Steerpike by Kiki Peruzzi. An abstract human shape with very white face, big eyes and red hands, in grey clothes, on a grey background.
Hateful and hating “Steerpike” a murderous fellow who comes to a bad end, but not before having killed a few and taken horrible injuries to his hands.
Wet felted artwork Nanni Slagg by Kiki Peruzzi. There is the shape of the head of a person on the bottom half and a big hat shape in the center of the artwork on a grey and brown background.
“Nannie Slagg” , overfond of her enormous hat with the green glass grapes (I used green sari silk for them, and a mix of Alpaca Camel Merino and Mulberry silk for the hat), and useless otherwise. She is likely going to fetch a wet nurse for the newborn Groan heir.
Wet felted artwork In the Oak Forest by Kiki Peruzzi. A white human shape is on the right in front of a green and brown background resembling a thick forest.
“In the Oak Forest” the young protagonist glimpses The Thing in a faithful occasion: this meeting will drive him to leave Gormenghast, eventually. The oppressive closeness of the ancient oaks and the ethereal ghostly appearance of The Thing (in undyed rose fiber) are what this episode is all about.
Wet felted artwork Tenth Birthday by Kiki Peruzzi. It is a nocturnal scene with a white moon on a very dark background. There are four shapes, a sheep a lion a wolf and a horse with a pink hat.
“Tenth Birthday” is about a momentous occasion in the protagonist’s life, when an elaborate ritual is carried out at Gormenghast to mark his coming into his full powers as Count of Gormenghast. It involved a weird theatrical performance by animal shapes on stilts over a lake in the night. Eri silk for the moon, and tussah silk for the lion’s purple mane (don’t ask, it was never explained).

I could not wait to finish them and go on to other things, although at the same time I would not want to not have made them at all, I felt that I needed to create them and I hope that anyone who has read Gormenghast will understand and see something true in them.

Has it ever happened to you something similar, not liking a book but being driven to creating artwork on it? Please, share your experiences in the comments, and thanks for reading!

Three balls of Lion Brand Rapido Yarn in purple/blue
Rapido Yarn and a Bird Fibre Update

Rapido Yarn and a Bird Fibre Update

Comments 12 comments

Recently I was at Value Village and I spotted this super bulky yarn.  I didn’t have a use for it as yarn, but thought it would be nice to spin.  I have a fondness for blues and purples.

Lion Brand Rapido is a Super Bulky yarn.  This colour is called Tangy and it is 74% acrylic, 22% wool and 4% other fibres.

Three balls of Lion Brand Rapido Yarn in purple/blue
Three balls of Lion Brand Rapido Yarn

The yarn has a thin black binder or ply thread.  That black thread needed to be removed before I could spin it.  So I sat down and slowly pulled and then cut the black thread away.  I was left with three balls of roving.  I then started spinning.  After a few days work I had two bobbins of singles.  As you can see, one bobbin is much fuller than the other.

Next I started plying.  Initially I did a simple 2 ply yarn, using both bobbins.  When the smaller bobbin of singles ran out I was finished with the  2 ply.  With the remaining singles I made a 3 ply yarn by chain plying the singles.

The completed yarns look nice and I love both the 2 ply and 3 ply yarns.

In other news…. I have been continuing to monitor the Bird Nesting Balls (see Bird Nesting Balls 2024 for more info).  We have many American Goldfinches in the yard.  The Goldfinches diet is 100% seeds.  As a result, they time their nesting to coincide with seed availability which means they nest later than most of the other birds.  Recently I have seen the Goldfinches collecting wool, alpaca, bear and dog fur from my nesting balls.  Yeah!  (Getting photos of them collecting the fibre is much harder.)

Our yard has also seen a number of other visitors.  In addition to the steady stream of birds and Raccoons, we have had a fox visiting us quite regularly and last week this bear popped in looking for food.  I was sitting at my desk about 3 m from the bird feeder and their appearance was quite the surprise.  Luckily we were able to convince it move along by making a bit of noise and the feeders were undamaged.  I am waiting a while before putting out more attractive smelling suet or peanuts though.

 

 

Nametags: Glenn

Nametags: Glenn

Comments 21 comments

Nametag for Glenn

As I mentioned previously,  this is the local Weavers and Spinners Guild’s 75th anniversary. One of my jobs to get ready for the party was to find and print out the nametags I had made for Demoing, quite a while ago, when I was demo coordinator.  This aligns perfectly with one of my goals for this year; to learn the names of more of the guild members.

One of the ways I am trying to do this is by suggesting using nametags. For the party, we seemed to run out of time to get everyone to make their own name tag, but I did have the old weird sheep name tags I had made when I was the guild’s demo coordinator. We used some of them last year for the Sale and Exhibition for vendors and demo people.

I dug through the computer and found an old file with some of the pictures.  After a quick perusal of Google image search, I added to the weird sheep pictures, then added them to the formatted guild name tag file. After a couple of days of work, I had the updated sheep-related nametags printed, cut, and ready to go into lanyards or pin-on tags for the party. This would also allow non-guild members to know who were guild members at the party.

a pile of nametags with odd or funny sheep photos and cartoons. printed on cardstock, cut out, and ready to use.1) Silly sheep Name tags for the Party Sale and Demos

As cute or silly as the sheep theme is, it does not fully represent all guild members as well as making their own personal name tag would. So for the long weekend, Monday social, I suggested we start the personal nametags-making project.

Name Tag Supplies: plastic bag with a bit of wool in a few colours. Bag of green wool felt underneath it. dollar store “embroidery” thread, little balls of acrylic yarn, bag of safety pins, Reece’s peanut butter cups and KitKat mini chocolate bars, plastic bin with sewing stuff, and bag with the last of the coridale bump In white and top black possibly merino wool.2) Name Tag Supplies: plastic bag with a bit of wool in a few colours. A bag of green wool felt underneath it. dollar store “embroidery” thread, little balls of acrylic yarn, a bag of safety pins, Reece’s peanut butter cups and KitKat mini chocolate bars, a plastic bin with sewing stuff, and a bag with the last of the corriedale bump In white and top black possibly merino wool.

I already have a nametag on my apron (one of the sheep ones and a magnetic needle felted sheep head), but Glenn is unidentified.  Glenn has been attending socials with me since he was released from the hospital in January. This might be his last for a while as he is finally starting a graduated return to work.  I had brought some over-washed green wool felt.  It looks like a pool or billiard table green, that’s been washed. Why someone would want to wash it, I have no idea but I found it second hand and it would either work for miniature war gaming or name tags.  It will make an excellent base to build up colour to make the nametags.

I suggested a landscape.  Glenn said he also wanted to have a train. (He likes those long, math-involved, 18XX train games. The trains are not X-rated!  it’s just that all the various versions of the game are covering the 1800’s involving trains laying track and the stock market. Board Game Geek describes them as: “18xx is the collective term used to describe a set of railroad-themed stock market and tile laying games. The 18xx set has two main branches: the 1829 branch (1829, 1825, 1853, and 1829 Mainline) and the 1830 branch (1830, 1856, 1870, etc).”)  it still doesn’t sound fun to me but OK, landscape with train. Ann kindly gave me about 6 inches of light blue combed top, for the sky, I had white, black and some weird bright green with flecks of orange and blue. I also had a bit of heathered purple with me. I overlaid the white first, it would tone down the billiard table green. Then added the green ground blended with a bit of the purple to tone down the green. As well as a blue sky with a few clouds.

covered green felt with white to make a slightly thicker baseand hide the intesity of green . starting to add sky and ground, using Clover tool and small pet brush for blending sky with clowds and grass with small flecks of colour suggesting posibly flowers3.1-3.2 ) Covering the billiard table green wool with white then adding the ground and sky. I used the Clover tool to block in the basic colours.

showing the back of the felt and how much wool has been pushed through4) The back of the wool base

Off to Google to find historical train silhouettes.

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5.1 a selection of train silhouettes

5.2) the train silhouettes under consideration in various sizes, then cut out to get approval.

-5.3) I thought he would choose this one

I had thought, “smaller train pulling the name “Glenn” behind it”.

Train selected, I printed out a range of sizes and cut a couple out to show him.  Glenn chose the largest one that obscured most of the landscape. I cut out the train and traced around it with a permanent marker. I should have cut out the train to make a stencil but oh well. I placed the train on the background and realized that a black train would overpower the tag.  so suggested a compromise, how about an outline of a train?  With the “Glenn” inside? That was agreeable to him and off I went outlining the silhouette.  I scaled up the train a bit further, so the name would be easily read inside the train.

outlineing train sillowet in wool outlineing train sillowet in wool6.1-6.2) Glenn chose the largest train which I traced with permanent marker, then started to outline in black wool

Next, what font to use? I went through the list available in Microsoft Word (2010 edition, yes I am retro but it still works just fine.) I found four options I liked and thought would work with the train, and then narrowed it down to Lucida.

4 text fonts “Glenn” in Freestyle Script, Gulim, Pristina, and Lucida Handwriting7) “Glenn” in Freestyle Script, Gulim, Pristina, and Lucida Handwriting

I drew a picture of the name on a card that would fit in the train. Going with Lucida as I like the letter spacing and the curves juxtaposed with the angles. Which I felt mimicked the feeling of the old train. Text isn’t just letters, it’s shapes, spacing and negative spaces and it’s filled with emotional content. Ok, that is likely just the dyslexia compensating for the rest of you telling me that b-d-p-q is not the same letter just seen from different viewpoints. Don’t get me started on the untrustworthiness of u-n-c, w-m-3-E or even t-f depending on the font.

glenn drawn onto a scap of file card to get spacing8) Drawing out the letters to make sure they will fit in the space available

Font decided, I worked from the guide and added the name to the tag, by this point it was after 11 pm but I was still inspired so kept going. The N’s wound up to be a bit off, so I blame the lateness and they are a tricky shape.

Well, it has all the letters, they seem to be in the right order, and I didn’t miss any of them (Glenn got both his N’s even if I think the second one is just there for decoration. Look how silly Jann would be with 2 n’s! well, actually, it gives it a bit more gravitas and does balance the weight of the J ……. Maybe I do need a second N too? No that’s just one more letter that could go horribly wrong!!!!)

text added into the train9) All letters are there and in the correct order! G L E N N

Now I am at the last step, how to attach it to the Glenn. I could add magnets, a broach pin or I could add a lanyard. I think the lanyard would be most practical for Glenn. So where did I put my kumohimo discs and fake embroidery thread (it’s braided so doesn’t actually come apart, so it’s not embroidery thread) from Dollerama.  No clue where the box with disks went. Glenn has been working through stuff in the living room and has moved everything… but I know where some of the dollar store embroidery thread is!! (Bedroom, wicker basket, little plastic bin with sewing stuff.)

I had the remains of a box of crackers so used a glass to make the circle and then messed up the bisecting of the segments. I need to divide the circle into 8 sections. Then cut a ¼ inch in at each section for the yarn to fit in. I have 7 embroidery thread bobbins (in plastic) to wind and I will find one of the big bulldog clips for a weight.

Cracker box cardboard with hole in the center divided into 8 sections. Plastic embroidery floss holders are my bobbins10) Cracker box cardboard with a hole in the centre divided into 8 sections. Plastic embroidery floss holders are my bobbins.

I want the cord to be reasonably thick so it will be comfortable on the neck so I divided the scenes in half. The tags say they are 7.3m or 23.9 feet. That should give me about 8 feet of braid. I will need enough to go around the nametag then up and around his neck. Not more than 4 feet. Just keep braiding until it’s long enough! You would need less if you did not want to outline the tag too. I got comfortable with making the cordage,  watching YouTube then listening to my book and realized I had enough cord and still quite a lot on the bobbins. I guess I can finish it while I listen to another book later.

Before I cut it off I sewed around the tag and got Glenn to try it on. There is enough! So did a bit more tied off and cut the braid. The last bit of sewing is to join the braid to the name tag and then assess it. Hmm, it needs a bit more wool to hide the stitches at the back and a quick touch-up of the front and it will be all ready for next Monday’s social.

Kumihimo cordage sewn to the name tag11) Border on and length of lanyard adjusted

testing the nametag at a guild social. yes it works12) Name tag working correctly at the guild social.

Ok, the tag works at socials, one last test will it work with the Kanata Board Game Group?

the Name tag works on gamers as well as it works on spinners and weavers!13) The name tag works on gamers as well as it works on spinners and weavers!

While Glenn was busy,  I started another little landscape on one of the name tag bases. I was inspired by a friend’s vacation photo and wanted to try it as a landscape, but I will show you how that turns out later.

June’s page is finished

June’s page is finished

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My June page is done.  I started late but once the mood hit, it didn’t take long to do. It’s not a very complicated one but June is a busy month. I work best against a deadline.

a pink piece of felt with stitching and needle felt

There is a birthday cake for my birthday. I hear I share June with several other blog members. It looks like grey icing and a grey candle but they are purple in person.  DAD is for Father’s Day.  It is International UFO Month so I had to have a cute little alien. International Bicycle Day is this month and it is International Blood Donor Month.

I drew out the different pictures on some washaway stabiliser. It worked well, except for the blood drop as you can see it looks fine here

water soluble stabilizer with pictures over felt

But when I washed away the stabiliser it looked like this.

The first thing I tried was needling the felt to move it back into place. it works well a lot of the time when things need realigning.  but that didn’t work.  So, I used more of the red thread to fill in.  I thought it might make the shape funny but it worked great.

I picked some grey for July. It’s neutral so it can take anything. I may just do abstract stitching but I haven’t decided yet. grey felt