My ‘Postcard from Farley Mount’ depicts the folly that’s a monument to a horse. The little landscape is made by wet-felting pre-felts onto two layers of white merino wool tops then lines of needle felting were added afterwards – it’s approx 15 x 13cm / 6”x5”.
I took inspiration for my landscape from the painting ‘Windmill’ by Eric Ravilious – I liked the very simple depiction of the landscape with its one dominating subject.
Farley Mount is a large Country Park of downland and woodland, with a folly stood on one of the highest hills in Hampshire, and was a favourite picnic spot for our family and friends in the 60’s.
The folly is a monument to a horse named ‘Beware Chalk Pit’ and the story is told on a plaque (photo from Wikimedia Commons) – see below the photo for the wording on the plaque.
“Underneath lies buried a horse, the property of Paulet St. John Esq., that in the month of September 1733 leaped into a chalk pit twenty-five feet deep a foxhunting with his master on his back and in October 1734 he won the Hunters Plate on Worthy Downs and was rode by his owner and was entered in the name of “Beware Chalk Pit”.
Picnics were always a time for my mum and auntie to sit and knit and chat while we children just mucked about having fun.
Cars were small in those days – everything you took with you had to be small to fit in the boot (trunk), so our chairs were very low, metal framed, fold-up canvas chairs.
One time my dad and my uncle came back from a short walk and unfolded a couple of canvas chairs to sit on.
Now, these chairs had seen many picnics and the canvas was getting worn so when my very portly uncle flopped his bulk down there was a loud ripping sound. He had gone through the seat of the chair and through the seam on the seat of his trousers!
There was no sewing kit to hand so a thin metal hairgrip, like this,
was fashioned into a needle, using pliers from dad’s car toolbox, then threaded with knitting yarn so that the seat of uncle’s trousers could be sewn together with great big woollen cross-stitches!
Last month I told you all about the John C Campbell Folk Art School itself. This month I’d like to tell you about the course I chose to take. It was called “Get Spinning with Wool and Whatnots” and it was taught by Lesley Darling. Lesley’s bio describes her as: Professional folk arts instructor, custom natural dye artist, and natural dye supplier. Lesley is passionate about “environmental resiliency for the planet: using traditional skills”. She feels “folk traditions across the globe, unite us” as human beings. She financially supports her local (Lincoln, Nebraska) indigenous communities, and their run-and-led nonprofits. She deals almost exclusively with local small businesses, especially the farms that raise sheep and process their fleece. She is small in stature, fierce with determination, and passionate about fiber.
She started our first class, a 2 hr evening session after dinner, by handing out a small bit of fiber to each of us. As she went through personal introductions, and the course outline, we all sat there fiddling with the fiber. By the time she finished, all of us had organically twisted our fiber into a felted worm of yarn. Then, she pointed out that we had already begun spinning. It was a really clever way to break the ice!
The next morning, we arrived for our first morning session. At each of our table spaces, were a few pages of notes for the day, a small tin of handmade hand balm, and several balls of different rovings to spin with.
Written handouts, a spindle, and balls of roving. In the background by the windows, were 2 tables of different fibers, natural wool socks, and silk items available for purchase directly from our instructor.
Day 2: We spent the morning, learning to spin and draft fiber using a spindle and the brown fiber (Jacob blend) shown in the photo. I had spun fiber this way, years ago at a fiber retreat. I think I was even less successful this time. It was a great relief when the class voted to move on to spinning wheels after lunch. 🙌🏼 Hooray! I think we were all on the same page.
When we returned from lunch it looked like a spinning wheel showroom. I was really impressed with the schools selection, of different spinning wheel styles, makes, and models. You could tell the schools attention was squarely aimed at providing the best possible learning opportunities for students. They had several wheels at each price bracket; low $350-$500, midrange $500-850, and high end models from $900-$2000. A few of us had wheels we brought too. Lesley looked at our body structure, and chose wheels that she felt would fit us well. She said we would use these for half the afternoon, and switch models for the remaining half. Lesley had us gather around a wheel, and watch the process first, then move on to our wheels.
I forgot to mention Lesley had an assistant, Jason Ebinger, who is the schools full time gardener, and more importantly for the fiber program…the person who helped create the Corey Brown Memorial Dye Garden. I’m going to let that sink in for a moment: they have a dedicated dye garden! Here’s a video of fellow gardener, Farmer Teddy showing a kool technique, for tying up plants, and telling you about this year’s plantings.
Jason lives near the school, and raises his own sheep. He learned how to spin at a previous session, and was there to help oil wheels, attach leaders, and get us started spinning too. They both had us spinning in no time. I think their laidback, calm demeanors, gave us all the confidence needed for success. At the halfway point we were given the option of changing wheels. I was using my own wheel successfully, and I didn’t want to confuse myself with another wheel. In retrospect, I wish I had tried another wheel…as I contemplate buying a different wheel now! I realize I had the best selection of wheels, right there, in front of me. Oh well – live and learn. 🙄
The showroom of wheels.
Day 3: started with us joyfully spinning the entire morning away. Lesley magically slipped in before breakfast and added more fibers to our pile of goodies. Jason was MIA because one of his sheep had begun the birthing process, and was in distress. Martha Owens, the Folk School’s Resident Artist (Department Chair) in Spinning, Knitting & Crochet, Feltmaking, Dyeing, and Surface Design, was already lending a hand to help Jason over this hurdle. Everyone helping each other – it’s a way of life at the school. We were all relieved to mama sheep and her little lamb were doing fine. That afternoon, we soaked some ethically processed fleece, in preparation for some natural dyeing. Once the fleece fibers soaked for an hour or so, they were rinsed and transferred to a heated pot of alum and water to mordant overnight. We learned once wool has been mordanted, it can either be naturally dyed right away, or dried to dye at a later time…that can be a year or so later. Once fiber is mordanted it will accept the natural dyes, whenever you have the plant materials on hand. That was a great piece of information, to me as an acid dyer used to completing the process all in one go. But, it made sense, as plant dye parts harvest at different times. Having fiber mordanted ahead of time, is way more efficient. And mordant can be re-used by adding 1/2 the original amount of alum to refresh the pot, thereby reducing water usage. Good conservation information!
Our class was held in “The Wet Studio”.
The wet studio, with clearly labeled supply cabinets, had everything.Dye pots, and larger items are on shelves, above the work surface.
Day 4: We did a little of this, and all kinds that! Lesley had prepared 2 dye pots of natural dyes sometime the evening before. She soaked chipped pieces of Osage Orange wood, and then simmered the pieces to make a dye concentration. She used natural Madder Root, dye powder to make a reddish color. She had a dye class the weekend before we came in on Sunday and they bought almost all the dyes she brought for both classes. She apologized for the lack of options, but it ended up working out fine as far as we were concerned. Today, Lesley handed out silk scarves to everyone in the class. We quickly soaked them, and used the mordant water from the previous day. I have to admit I was concentrating on my spinning, and my table mate was eager to take on the soaking bit. I had one single mission: to leave JCCFS able to spin and ply yarn. So far we had spun a bobbin full of different fibers that was lumpy and bumpy, “art yarn” we called it. Lesley confirmed, what I had been told by my spinning friends: “Enjoy the lumpy, bumpy yarn you make at the beginning…You will spend a long time, relearning how to spin that bumpy yarn later, when you want to make it.” She told us we were already getting the rhythm and our spinning was getting smoother. She was right, but we were a day and a half away from the end of the course, and I was anxious. I tried spinning a few times before this class, where I thought I had it…and didn’t. That’s why I opted for the 5 day intensive approach to spinning this time. Repetition in quick succession was how I planned to slew the dragon!
I was bound and determined, to go home with actual plyed yarn. I decided to start a new bobbin with a cream colored fiber called Polypay. It’s an older meat sheep breed, that someone discovered has a short fiber with a nice bouncy crimp. It was one of the fibers Lesley gave us that first morning. I spun the entire thing, and it looked pretty good. Now, it was the moment of truth, to double check what I wanted to achieve from this course. Spinning the beautiful batts I love making, on my drum carder. If I could leave, spinning more than scratchy wool, I would call that success. Thank goodness I had 3 bobbins with me. I started spinning that fiber like a champ. I was a spinner. After I finished my goal, we spent the rest of the day was spent dyeing fiber, and those mordanted scarves in the remaining exhausted dye. The weather was perfect for hanging fiber and scarves outside on the clothesline. It was hot and humid in the daytime but as the photo below shows there was a good breeze. This evening we stayed after class to clean up, wash all the dye pots and other items, and get it all put away.
The weather was nice for drying fiber, plyed yarn, and silk scarves. Mine is a solid pink color scarf on the right. I wanted mine solid to eco print on it later.
Day 5: Today is the last full day of class. We were pretty much free to do whatever we wanted, with Lesley available to ask whatever questions we had. Some students wanted to use drum carders, to blend fiber to take home with them all ready to spin. A few of our classmates ordered the spinning wheel models they were using in class. There was an active buzz of those checking Facebook Marketplace for used wheels to purchase when they got home. Several of us wanted to try spinning a different fiber blend. Lesley had a bag full of this lofty Alpaca, blended with Angora bunny fiber. Lesley told me the Angora part of the fiber was from her precious bunny, Gunny. Once I heard that, I knew that’s what I wanted, to remember my time at John Campbell.
Many years ago, you may remember, I was an art student. First studying commercial art, and then getting a degree in fine art and art history. Having the training first in Commercial Art changed the way I approached fine art.
The combined training also gives me odd bits of knowledge and techniques that a regular fine art student might not have run into. Yes, I can draw using a ruling pen, but I’m not sure that is a transferable skill to felting and fiber arts. Some of the painting techniques I was taught, in both disciplines, likely are of use to picture felters.
Today I am working on a Christmas card exchange for someone who seems to have the same aesthetic senses as I do, (leaning towards the Goth, with a liking for skulls, and a fondness for Crows and Ravens). So a macabre Christmas it is! But let’s hint at X-mass and make it more winter seasonal or solstice sort of image, so it doesn’t have to be removed after Santa has left the building.
As usual, I started with research! I get to look at crows and trees, since my original intention was to do a more cartoonish large raven bending over small Christmas tree (think, Charlie brown Christmas tree). But as I worked with the image, I felt the focus was on the unfortunate fate of the about-to-snap tree, rather than the fabulous raven, who threatened its demise. Humm, ok, keep looking. Maybe I should review what is the difference between crows and ravens so I know which one I am making?
I found a couple bird websites with visual depictions of the differences and added them into to my reference file. If you too want to tell the differences, here are the two web sites I found helpful.
Ok, plan 2, raven as focus, on pine branch, in winter. I found a Raven image I liked but not on the rite branch, ok lets look a bit at pine branches in winter, no that’s not what I was wanting ether, ok how about overcast snowy sky pine branch and add pine needles with snow. yes that more what I would like to make.
The image of the Rave I like, is vary grey scale already, I can add the pine branches but paint this as a grisaille. That would be an under painting in grayscale only. It is part of a technique of painting, which produces depth, in both field and colour. It uses a limited palette of Black, through shades and tints of Grey to white.
Grisaille a 3 part prosses.
starting with an under drawing, I used the extra fine tip sharpie marker to draw in the Raven and branch onto the felt ground.
adding the image in tones from black through grey to white. Some painters will block in the tones while others will take the image through to completion but only in grey scale. You can stop and declare you are done or you can go on to the next step.
adding the final colour layer. This can be done in washes or glazes, so the tones of the under painting are seen through the overpainting. This gives greater depth of colour. This can also be done with wool. (wisps of colour like in the Watercolour technique with wool.)
If you are not feeling that Gothic gray, underpainting can also be done in other monochrome pallets such as verdaccio (done with shades of green), brunaille (shades of brown), or ébauche (dulled, muted forms of the final colors).
I am not sure if I will push into hints of colour or be happy with the grey scale image I am creating. I will decide as I progress.
It took a bit of looking, but I found the green travel kit of felting stuff where I remembered putting my double ended sharpie (fine and extra fine). Using the reference photo, I drew out the Raven and branch onto my piece of wool felt. I am quite liking the extra fine tip on any felt that has a particularly smooth surface. If the surface is soft, try stippling your line (a line of little dots), rather than dragging the pen across soft felt. When I was pleased with the underdrawing, and was sure I could work with what I had, I put away the pen so I could find it later (I think I need to put a leash on pens, they keep wandering off).
Under drawing complete, it was time to add the wool. As with pastels, I tend to work from background to foreground. It is easier to add the sky then the trees, than it is to put in the trees and try and add the sky behind them. So, I turned to adding the greys to the sky.
I had a few different greys and a deep charcoal mainly for the raven. I wanted to keep him as the focus. To blend with them I had a unlabeled ball of white top which is likely BFL since it has a good sheen and is smooth but strong. I hand tore it into pieces similar in length to the grey and used the larger pet brushes to make little pile of different tints and shades of gray.
I put all the grey option into a zip lock baggie as well as the charcoal and the white. Then took my project, a wool mat, the reference material and wondered off to bed. I had not been feeling very well and felting in bed seemed like a good idea. Ok I did not fall asleep and wake up stuck by a needle but after more consideration, this was not really one of my best ideas. Even more so, because I had left the camera by the computer. Well that dose explains the lack of photos of the starting of the Raven.
As sometimes happens, when you finally get an idea and run with it, I got focused on what I was doing, and didn’t stop to take pictures. Ann often complains about this happening to her. I had crawled off to bed, bringing a foam pad, the blended pallet of greys I had just made, my reference material and my felting needle. Really, it’s not the best place to be felting, you don’t want to lose you needle in bed or fall asleep while felting. (Both could go quite horribly wrong), but I had had a rough day and was really tired, but also finally had the plan for the card.
2.1) assessing what I had felted before falling asleep
Next morning I returned to the computer, put on an audio book (Pattricia Briggs’ A&O 01 – Cry Wolf) and assessed the image I was working on.
2.2) adding white silk as highlights
I hunted around and found some very bright White silk, to use for highlights of snow and to mix into the sky.
2.3) adding a pine branch with needles, maybe not?
I considered a branch with pine needles but was not sure that was what should be there.
I had originally planned to crop the image around 3×5 or 4×6, but I was getting intereeged to find out what was in the forest behind the raven. But I didn’t want to visually over power the raven. So the image grew as I puttered, listened to the end of the first book in the series and started the second (A&O 02 – Hunting Ground)
2.4) change of plans
Oh I see it is not a branch at all, it’s a cascade of water falling into a lake. Well that makes more sense.
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3.1-3.5) investigating the background, then adding the highlights to the raven.
I think that is exactly what I was looking for, I think adding colour will again take away from the raven. I hope she will like it too.
The postal employees took a strike vote, was it last week? I don’t know what the result was so I had better get this in the mail soon. Monday Nov. 11th was reembrace day, so no mail, but I had the little raven ready to go into work on Tuesday Nov.12th with Glenn. He works in one of the main stations and the raven would go from his station to station 1 Tuesday morning, to be sorted later on Tuesday or Wednesday morning. it should have been on its way to Leonor by Wednesday afternoon. It was a good thing, since Glenn was on strike on Friday Morning.
Wednesday Nov 20th, I got a note from Leonor that the raven had arrived. Ravens are very good at doing Air mail apparently!
Along with the Ottawa Valley Weavers’ and Spinners’ Guilds 75th anniversary Show in Almonte that Jan told you about here https://wp.me/p1WEqk-hG9 we also had a smaller exhibition at our guild sale with the theme of Diamonds. I told you about making the diamonds here https://wp.me/p1WEqk-his They needed something to make them more relivent so I enlisted Jan to make a dragon hand. I am sure she will tell you about it. Then I thought I should make a bowl for everything. That seemed a little boring so I decided a Knight’s Helmet would be much more dramatic.
The helmet needed to be sturdy to hold the shape so I decided to use some Tyrollean wool batt I got before the pandemic, I think. It makes a nice sturdy felt. I think it is a type of Bergschaf. I am told bergschaf just means mountain sheep and not a particular breed. It would be a different breed in different places.
It had this helpful chart on the back.
It is a very nice grey, the batt is fairly consistent and I didn’t need to add many extra bits to thin spots. Most batts I have tried have been very inconsistent in thickness.
Next was laying out wool for the top, bottom and nose peice of the helmet.
At this point, I decided I didn’t want the nose piece attached. it was going to affect the shrinkage in the spot so I removed it and made it a separate piece along with the strapping that will go on later as well.
After that, it was a lot of rubbing and rolling and bashing until it was shrunk to the right size.
then it needed to dry in the right shape. I wanted it to be round. No idea why, it was just what I had in my head as the idea. I found a bowl the right size and stretched it into shape, fine-tuning the edges by using small tugs until the edge was “straight” Sorry for the bad picture, it was on the dining room table and windows or glass fronted cabinets are the only options for backgrounds.
Next time I will show you the extra pieces being added and the finished piece.
I started this book in October of 2022. I have been adding things slowly and painting pages when I had leftover paint from other projects. I had thought I would sketch on the blank pages covered with a mix of plaster and matte medium but they were too rough and difficult to sketch on. I haven’t shown you the book since last year and I decided to “finish” it up because we are starting on a new book project that will be made differently and I didn’t want to try to keep working on this one. I will be able to add things into the book if I like but it at least has color on all the pages and some with more ‘design’ than others. I had to cover a couple of pages that were not in the main color scheme. Somehow I got off track and added red which I shouldn’t have done. The book is mainly browns, blues and greens. The red/pink that resulted from painting a couple of the plaster pages was just not doing it for me. That’s what happens when you aren’t really thinking about what you’re doing!
I am not going to explain each page but you will notice the piece of blue glass and a small rock on the left hand page. I am using these as weights to hold the page open. The problem with this style of binding is that the book doesn’t open out flat unless you hold the pages. So you will see the page weights throughout. You can click on the photos to see them in more detail. Please feel free to ask about specific pages or techniques used.
The page on the left is one that I covered that was too red. These are small samples of ink that we made from natural ingredients.
Loads of tree bark interpretations 😉
More sampling of ink.
I made an error here. Do you see it?
The bark paper is from a napkin.
And for those of you who have forgotten or never saw the cover, here it is. On my monitor, the book cover photo is not showing correctly. If yours is also weirdly stretched, please click on the photo to see the book cover.
If you search on the terms “tree specimen book” in the right hand sidebar, you can see all the other posts about this book where I have given more explanation about it.
I keep having life interfering with my felting time, so I have not had much time to felt bigger things lately, but it is that time of the year when we need to start planning for Christmas gifts!
I would like to look with you at a wet felting project that I made almost exactly one year ago, when I had a bit more time to create bigger things that could serve as nice gifts: a big carry-all bag that I gave to my friend. She has kids and kids have activities to go to, where they need to have plenty of stuff, from towels and swimming suits to snacks and water bottles. Felt seems to me very good for that kind of carry-alls, because it is germ and water resistant,and generally life resistant as well.
First of all, I was thinking about size: I was going to use some big bamboo handles that I had bought at a good price, so its size and shape should be the right one for the handles.
I cut a resist from bubblewrap and put my big handles against it to gauge the right size and shape, always taking shrinkage of the final felt into account.
Cutting a piece of bubblewrap for resist.
Checking for size and shape with the bamboo handles.
I wanted to have an internal lining to the bag, thinking about future rough use, as I was planning to make the felt with my usual Merino wool, which is not the toughest of the wool types (but I just love it, and I will use it as much as possible).
I took out my stash of scarves for felting and found one that I liked for lining the bag and that I thought will felt in very well from past experience, as I hate hand sewing and I wanted to be able to nuno felt the fabric into the wool to give it more structure: I think that it must be a wool based fabric, although I do not know for sure, as it did not have a label when I bought it at a charity shop. It is a cream scarf with teal edges with tassels.
Measuring up the fabric from the scarf against the resist for cutting.
My cream woolen fabric cut and laid out on the resist.
I planned to have two internal pockets, one on each side of the bag, so I laid out my pockets before laying out the lining.
Decoration for the first pocket laid out upside down.
I laid out dark grey wool fibers on my decorative prefelt shapes (coming from previous works) to make the first pocket.
Then I put the first lining fabric shape and started on the serious job of laying my first layer of Merino wool.
Shaping the pocket with a very basic layout in grey Merino wool.
A few layers afterwards, I am almost ready to wet the pocket.
Wetting the future pocket, because I will have to cover it in bubble wrap next.
I covered the laid out wool with a piece of bubble wrap, so that a pocket would remain…well, that was the plan, but I did not think it properly and the bubble wrap was a tad too big, and the pocket did not come out as I wanted properly attached to the side of the bag, so I had to work on it a lot more than I was expecting!
My future pocket with the bubble wrap on it. You can see that the wool does not edge it properly.
Anyway, then I put my lining on the pocket and started laying out the whole side of my bag.
The cream lining is barely distinguishable on the white towel, but it is there!
Now, to the actual laying out of my bag!
I wanted a neutral background, as I was planning to use plenty of colours as decoration, so I opted for a lighter grey Merino wool, of which I had plenty just at that moment, due to a lucky mistake in ordering (I had ordered it twice! Never mind, I used it a lot afterwards.).
I had ordered something like 600 grams of light grey Merino wool…
Fine, back to work: I laid out my layers starting from the edges of the fabric shape and then going towards the center. I chose a plain horizontal-vertical pattern for my layers, nothing fancy, and I laid out my wool a bit thicker than I would in finer objects such as scarves.
Starting to lay out the edges of the first side.
The edges are almost finished for the first layer on this side.
Laying out the rest of the wool in a plain horizontal pattern for the first layer.
That is my first layer on this side.
Starting on the second layer, a vertical layout this time.
Third layer on this side, laid horizontally.
Last layer done on the first side.
Having laid my wool pretty thickly, I decided to stop there, and to go on and wet, soap and lightly rub the first side, to avoid having hidden dry areas once the second side was on.
And on to a light wetting, soaping and rubbing with a bit of netting.
Then, I turned over the first side and started working on the second side.
Oh Oh, how does it look my pocket from here? It seemed fine.
Right, where were we? the second pocket of course! Now, I paused for a while, trying to figure out that one as well: I always have some head scratching when trying to work backwards, I always feel pretty dense, because it takes me ages to work it out, and I often make mistakes.
Prefelt shapes again from my stash, for the decoration of my second pocket.
And here is my second pocket.
Then, of course, I had to put the second small rectangular piece of bubble wrap for the second pocket to open…well, guess what (picture embarassed face palm here) I forgot! So, basically, afterwards I was looking for a non-existing bubble wrap inside the felt, then glanced at the chair and had a laughing moment of recognition (oh, oh, what are you doing there?? you should be in my bag! I have been looking for you for ten minutes, torturing and puncturing the side!). I mean, there must be something with me and pockets, I do not know, I always have to pay extra attention to their crafting, and still most of the time something goes wrong and I have to rework them at the end.
Well, I blithely went on with the cream lining fabric, folding on it all the edges from the other side, so as not to lay my edges too thick with layers from the second side.
The lining is laid and the edges from the other side are all folded towards the center.
I added my layers of Merino wool mirroring the other side and careful not to put too much wool on the edges.
And then, the best part of all, decoration time!
I had already decided that I wanted colours colours colours. OK, but which ones? I took out the brightest from my stash, and tried a few combinations until I found the ones that I liked best for this project. I decided to lay out wisps of the various colours in a modern horizontal pattern on this second side. I reasoned that my big carry-all bag would have needed a bigger bottom, so I decided to leave the bottom third of the bag without decoration. I left my bright lines go over the left and right edges only a bit, because I was planning to change decoration pattern on the other side (because, why not?)
A colourful decorative layer for my bag.
I wet and soaped and lightly rubbed this second side and turned over the bag to decorate the other side as well.
Wet but not soaped or rubbed yet. Bizzarre, isn’t it?
And here is the first side with vertical decorative layer in the same colours of the other side, on two thirds of the height.
Wetting, soaping and rubbing accomplished on this side as well, I started quite a while of rolling on all directions.
I usually read on my ebook reader or listen to podcasts or songs while rolling for an extensive time.
When I stopped after a bit to open up the pockets after I felt the wool had started to shrink, I found out that one of the pockets was not properly attached and the other..was totally attached! Argh, pockets!
Never mind, I got into recovery mode, and managed to salvage the badly attached one, by first needle-felting its edges, then also stitching them with hidden stitches.
I finished the rolling and felting, trying to go on fulling a little bit longer than my usual, because I wanted a good proper felt.
And here is the dried felt bag, side A.
And side B. You can see now the cream lining fabric that felted wonderfully well on the inside.
Lastly, I stitched the bamboo handles on it, using the two flaps that I had designed into the resist for that purpose.
The carry-all with the handles, side B.
And this is side A finished.
I put a small bag of Christmas needle felted baubles in it and gifted it to my friend, who was very surprised by finding it on her door one evening right before Christmas holidays.
I enjoyed the making of this bag, and especially the gifting of it, and I hope that my friend made good use of it.
I hope that it will inspire your coming Christmas season gifts as well.
I have a few reusable shopping bags made from a light polyester fabric. I love these bags since they fold into nice integrated pockets, fit nicely into my purse, and when unfolded they hold a lot of stuff. I have 5 or 6 of these bags that I use all the time.
One of my bags got a hole. Since I love the bags so much I wanted to repair it. My first attempt at a repair was functional, but not very attractive. I mended the bag with black thread and managed to stabilize the hole. But it looked terrible. I
Foldable shopping bags with black mended hole
Black mended hole
I got the idea that one of those patch looms would be helpful. So I ordered one. My loom has 14 hooks and this is the contents of the kit. The loom, some elastics, a very long and sharp needle, and a long hook.
Darning loom kit
Next I watched some videos so I could understand how to use the loom. There are 2 methods for warping.
Individual warps – This method uses individual threads for each pair of warp threads. This allows you to create stripes in the warp. But it also leaves you with lots of tails to sew in. This video provides an overview.
Continuous warp – This method uses a single thread to warp the loom. It is tacked into the base fabric as you go and there are only 2 tails to deal with when the weaving is completed. This video provides an overview.
I opted to use the continuous warp method because I didn’t want to have to deal with sewing in so many ends when I was done. I stretched my fabric over the wooden disk and then setup the loom. Then I started warping using some white embroidery floss. You will noticed that I did not use all the hooks on the loom. I used enough hooks to ensure that my patch was larger than my previous repair.
Setting up the loom near the mended hole
Warping the loom
Warp completed
With the warping completed, it was time to start weaving. I selected an orange embroidery thread and started. As you rotate the hooks on the loom the warp threads change so that you are going over/under different threads. After weaving a row I used a comb to push down the weft. (If you don’t have a small comb I suggest a dinner fork could be pressed into service for this job.)
Starting to weave
Weaving in progress
Pushing down the weft using a comb
To start the next row, you then flip the hooks from left to right (or right to left) to change the shed. You also need to tack the weft thread into the fabric you are patching before threading the needle though the shed to create your next row.
I found sewing down the thread before starting the row to be difficult, especially as my weft rows got closer to the loom because the working surface was so small. When threading the needle through the shed the videos also suggest that you push the needle through the loom eye end first. I tried using the needle both ways and agreed that the eye first direction was easier because the pointed end of the needle would sometimes get stuck on a warp thread.
Getting ready to weave the next row by sewing into the fabric at the edge of the patch
Weaving continues
Weaving the last row of the patch
I continued weaving until my patch was completed and there was no more room for weft rows. I then removed the hook portion of the loom and set it aside. But I left the fabric stretched over the wooden disc. At this point my patch is really a small pocket on my fabric. Next I carefully sewed down each of the loops at the top of the warp threads and secured the top of the patch to the base fabric.
After taking off the loom, the patch is a pocket at this point.
After sewing down the top seam of the woven patch
It was now time to turn my attention to the inside of the project. I sewed in the tails and then trimmed them. (No photos. My work is passable but not really photogenic.) And here is my completed patch. It blends in nicely with the bag and I’m sure that it will help to strengthen my earlier repair.
Final patch detail view
Final patch overall view
Because I had my sewing stuff out, I also did a bit of mending on the attached pouch of another one of my bags. The pouch fabric had shredded 🙁 These photos show the pouch before I attempted to mend it.
Torn pouch flap
Torn pouch flap edge
Again, I used some white embroidery thread and mended across the ripped area. It was challenging to create a repair that would not lead to further shredding of the fabric. I also wanted to avoid bunching the fabric so that the pocket would continue to function properly. My final repair is not the prettiest. But I think it will work.
After mending torn pouch flap
Pouch flap mend after folding the bag up
I am happy with my new patch. The patch looks cute, it is not too bulky and I think it is stronger than my previous repair.
The mending loom worked OK. Flipping the hooks from side to side was harder than I expected. (I am not sure if that is my fault or because I have a cheap knock off loom.) I also feel that the working surface was a bit small. As a result I went ahead and ordered a larger loom. I will be ready for next time I need to apply a patch.
Do you have some mending that needs to be done? If so I encourage you to tackle it. There is a great sense of accomplishment when something goes from the mending pile to being back into service.
I hope you will join me for a trip to Kanata, its not too far a drive, in the west end of Ottawa. I promise, I will get to a bit of felting too. November 18-19th 2024, was the annual Kanata Board Games (and Felting) Convention. As usual, the felting side of the convention was very exclusive,.. ok it was small,… well tinny,…. ok, it was again just me, but i did demo felting and i both confused and had interest from the gamers. (One gamer kept coming over to see how I was progressing. Each time saying I had so much patents! Some of those board games can take most of a day to play so I’m not sure that felting would be too slow!!) The organizers were very happy to see me felting in the corner on Friday and I brought my own little aluminum table for Saturday since its always much busier on Saturday, so they need most of the tables to felt errr…… game on.
It is held at the same Church that the Kanata board games club meets at, on Tuesdays evenings. Unfortunately, being a church, the hall is already booked for some ongoing event on Sunday morning. So the convention runs Friday and Saturday. (There was a rumor that a Sunday available site, was being considered, but most locations in Kanata, are very pricey. This year they were very close to full capacity for their current location, so a move may be in the future.
The club has a large games lending library, from which games can be signed out, played, and then returned. Some gamers brought their own games too. There were also tables reserved, for playing three new games, thought out the weekend. I even spotted a game being play-tested at one of the tables!
1.1) The Games Library, you can sign out a game to play with other convention goers.
The convention was very busy, with Saturday having the largest attendance, partly because of the used games sale starting early Saturday morning.
As I looked through games in the library and those already in play, I found one that was sheep related! This one may be of interest to fiber people! “Farms Race” – the apocalypse has happened, the animals have taken over the farms! (Glenn says it is fun)2.1-2.5) Farm Race Game box
Friday I usually sit in the corner, at a table by the window. This year the table was already filled with gamers!!! so I calmed half of one by the kitchen door (not a favored gaming location). I had 2 projects for the felting part of the convention, add diamonds shapes to the Dragon hand and then work on the next moose bag.
3.1-3.2) Starting to add diamonds
I had brought the silver silk, you can see in the zip-lock bag by the headphones in the above picture. It was very short fiber so I spun it into yarn then took some of the twist out so it was a bit easier to needle felt in. (I do tend to be a bit overenthusiastic about twist, it likely comes from learning to spin by being handed a handful of cotton and a drop spindle.)
4.1 – short staple silk
4.2 using a drop spindle to add twist to the fiber so it will hold together as a single ply yarn.
44.3 hand spun silk on one of my drop spindles with a few pins sitting beside it.
4.4 using the pins to mark out the diamonds.
I used the pins to work out the diamond shapes as I went. I started from the claw tips and worked across the palm and doorsum then up the arm. i sent Ann a picture of the in-progress Diamond pattern and she said it looked like fish net stockings! well i was considering adding a bit of colour on one end of the diamond-like shape maybe that would help? i will have to wait untill i find the other bags of silk, i think i saw them somewhere in the office….
Most of Friday, I was sitting beside a table playing Arkum Horror, it’s based on the Cthulhu mythos and everything gets steadily worse as the game progresses.
5.1) Arkham Horror (Work as a team to save the town of Arkham from monsters and a Great Old One. 1–8 Players) game in progress
There were many games being played, some of which had lovely artwork or elaborate game pieces. here are a couple i thought you might like to take a peek at. the last one is called Landmarks, and seems to involve one player trying to guide the others across a board with single words that suggest which square they should go to next. i would like to try that one some time.
6.1 6.2 Rome
6.3 Potion explosion
6.4 Landmarks
There were also door prizes throughout the weekend. Hummm, unfortunately none of them were felting related. Maybe I should donate a prize for next year?
7) some of the Friday door prizes
Throughout Friday boxes and bags of used games had been brought in and mysteriously disappeared down the stairs.
Saturday morning started with a HUGE board game sale. This year they moved it to the large downstairs room, rather than in the main hall, as it had been in previous years. The games for sale this year, were also greater in number than any of the previous conventions.
8.1) the line is forming to go in to shop!
There was a waiting line to go in and as someone left they would let someone else in. I waited until most of the line had gone through, and then went down to see what was left. It took me quite a while to work my way through the rows of tables and the wall of shelves (I am not the fastest reader and I was on a quest for sheep related and cottage possible games).
8.2 -8.4 I finally reached the front of the line and got to see what was Left of the games (there had been a lot of games carried upstairs and i was near the end of the line so i was supprized there was so much left. at 11am a second line would go through and some of the game prices would drop.
I found 2 sheep games one of which the library has (under a different title). The second, Dragon’s Hoard, is a game where you play a dragon and are collecting sheep!! That sounds like fun. It’s for 2-4 players and takes about 45 minutes. I hope we can try it out at the next long weekend social.
8.5-8.8 the two sheep games i found amongst all the other games
Glenn also spotted and then ordered a new sheep game on line, which has now arrived. We have not tried it yet. From the box it suggests you collect sets of animals until a black sheep turns up. It’s for 2-5 players, it is a quick little card game that should take about 20 minutes to play.
9.1-9.2) Game box for Bye Bye Black Sheep
I spent Saturday working on my second project another moose bag. I hope you are not getting bored with all my variations on a moose! This time I am working not on the moose part but giving the stenciled moose silhouette, a landscape. I will be showing you how that is going in a later post.
10.1-10.3) progress on the moose bag landscape
10.4 Baggie of greens (this is my pallet)
10.5 the image i am working from. its hard to see it in the first moose picture (10.1)
i have been using my pet brushes, mixing baggies of colours to work from like a pallet, this time its various tones and tints of Greens. I am then pulling little bits out and layering them onto the bag. treating wool like water colour is not the fastest way to work, but it dose give some of the luminous atmospheric affect of a Turnner water colour, so worth the extra time.
Next year, maybe there will be more felters at this fabulous convention! if not, I will represent the dry felters, and it is fun to watch the gamers. Maybe I will even try to play a game next year?
Lastly, I wanted to give you some inspiration (if you have not spotted a game that looked interesting), here are a couple shots from the church parking lot, of the fall colour in Kanata. We have some extreme temperature swings in Ottawa, but that does give us beautiful fall leaves to enjoy before the snow arrives. (maybe it will inspire a moose or other bag embellishment?)
I am out of time to do an original post today. So it’s a throwback post. This one is from the early days of 2012.
Doing samples is fun and I still have the last two. They are just fun to have.
I haven’t been doing much that is interesting to look at lately. Everything is white and is waiting for the dye pot. I thought I would show you some samples I made a little while ago. The first 2 are purple merino with some silk strips on them. I thought they came out nicely with lots of texture.
Purple wool with strips of silk before felting
Purple samples after felting
The second is orange merino with some silk and curls on it, here I wanted to felt the curls right into the background. I also wanted to see how it would stick if I put it over the silk. I really like the way the little blob of curls all became one with nice texture. The curls going across the silk stuck down very well. Enough wool migrated through the silk to grab the courser wool of the curls.
Orange wool with silk and curls before felting
Orange sample after felting
This last set I wanted the curls to be attached at the base and left loose and hanging for the rest of their length. I use a small piece of scrap floor underlay with a hole in it so the wouldn’t stick down. It worked very well. I am not sure how I ended up with one really long curl.
Small samples with curls with their resists on before felting
Small samples with curls after felting.
I am not sure what I am gong to do with these. I might make some buttons or hair clips. Do you have any ideas?
The Gail Harker Center for Creative Arts is having an online textile auction beginning Friday, November 15 and ending Sunday, November 17, 2024. Previously, I showed you the artworks I created for the auction but I thought you might like to take a look at some of the wonderful auction items created by Gail’s students. The theme for the textile pieces is The Enticing World of Plants. There are more than 50 textile artworks that are 5″ x 7″ with beautiful plant designs. If you are in the USA or Canada, you will be able to register and bid on items. Sorry to all of you across the pond, but the bidding is limited to the US and Canada due to shipping costs/concerns. I still thought that you would want to see all the lovely artwork.
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These wonderful floral pieces are by classmate Christina Fairley Erickson. She has used a variety of techniques to create these small pieces of art. You can read the descriptions of all the items on the online auction site by clicking on the photos there.
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These pieces above are by Penny Peters. She was one of Gail’s original City and Guilds students when Gail first came to the US and is now an instructor at Gail’s center.
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Here are three of the pieces that I created and I have three more in this series in the auction.
I hope you will go and take a look at the auction and if you’re in the US or Canada, that you register to bid. There are some beautiful pieces that would make great holiday gifts for your friends and family!
This center is where I take classes and it’s one of my favorite places. Thanks Gail for everything you have taught me. I have really appreciated and benefitted from your expertise and knowledge of all things textile and embroidery.
1.1) 
2.1) assessing what I had felted before falling asleep
2.2) adding white silk as highlights
2.3) adding a pine branch with needles, maybe not?
2.4) change of plans
1.1) The Games Library, you can sign out a game to play with other convention goers.
2.1-2.5) Farm Race Game box
3.1-3.2) Starting to add diamonds
4.1 – short staple silk
4.2 using a drop spindle to add twist to the fiber so it will hold together as a single ply yarn.
4.3 hand spun silk on one of my drop spindles with a few pins sitting beside it.
4.4 using the pins to mark out the diamonds.
5.1) Arkham Horror (Work as a team to save the town of Arkham from monsters and a Great Old One. 1–8 Players) game in progress
6.1 6.2 Rome 
6.3 Potion explosion 
6.4 Landmarks
7) some of the Friday door prizes
8.1) the line is forming to go in to shop!
8.2 -8.4 I finally reached the front of the line and got to see what was Left of the games (there had been a lot of games carried upstairs and i was near the end of the line so i was supprized there was so much left. at 11am a second line would go through and some of the game prices would drop.
8.5-8.8 the two sheep games i found amongst all the other games
9.1-9.2) Game box for Bye Bye Black Sheep
10.1-10.3) progress on the moose bag landscape
10.4 Baggie of greens (this is my pallet)
10.5 the image i am working from. its hard to see it in the first moose picture (10.1)
11.1-11.3) Fall colour in Kanata Canada.
