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Author: Shepherdessann

What I’ve been up to lately

What I’ve been up to lately

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This week I started thinking about spring. It is coming, so to help throw off the February blahs I made some felt bird houses.

They are made form Romney wool. the original wool is a mix or white and brown that I dyed. you get a really nice variation in colour that way.  These still need their strings to hand them up and I think the big one might end up as a squirrel house.

The other thing I did this week was get 2 new book cases to store wool on. I wanted to get all the dyed wool out so I could see it and get all the breed specific wool out so I could see what I have. I thought it would be lots of room but I still have a bin of mixed colours( not in the picture),   I have my white and black wool in a bin each and that works fine and the Romney batts that are at least in a cupboard.  I also  have 8 or so bags of raw wool to be washed.  I need to find a way to store the bin plus of yarn so I can see what I have. It’s just not working to have it all in bags inside a bin. I would like to get the over the door hangers that have all the little clear pockets for the yarn. I haven’t found them anywhere yet. Oh well it is better than it was so I will just have to be satisfied for the moment.

Before
After
Spinning Day

Spinning Day

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During the Christmas holidays I got together with 2 friends to do some spinning. I was trying to do some art yarn with a Lendrum wheel I rented from local guild, Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild.

I borrowed it because it had a bulky head with a large orifice. Unfortunately the drive band was really tight so it made the wheel very difficult to treadle so I didn’t get a lot done but learn that I would like to do some more art yarns, so now I am saving to get the bulky head for my Ashford traveler. I had a little trouble trying to ply one batch and ended up with a big tangle of yarn.

Getting in a tangle while trying to ply from both ends

My friend Judy brought her Babe Big River Spinner wheel for us to try.

It’s an interesting wheel made from plastic pipe and it has a quill (long sharp spike) rather than a flyer.

You have to spin off the end of the spike. It is a very fast wheel and you build up to much twist very quickly. It was fun to give it a try.All in all it was a fun day with friends even if I didn’t end up with much yarn to show for it.

New Lamb on the Farm.

New Lamb on the Farm.

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We promised some sheep farming posts so here is one of the first lambs of the season.

She came 2 nights ago when it was bitter cold. She was also stuck.  We had to catch mom to check, as I was sure she was having trouble. I was right. The lamb was stuck. Lambs are born with the toes and nose coming out together, like they are diving into life. This little girl had decided to come with one leg back. She isn’t really very little either as she is about 9 or 10 pounds. She was too far out to push back and fix the leg positions. I wiggled and pulled and wiggled and pulled with mom pushing and we got her out. She is up and doing fine. We gave her a heat lamp the first night and then it warmed up. In the morning we had another little one born too. She had the lamp for a few hours and then was fine.

Just for fun here’s a picture of the snow we got today. This picture is across my lane. You can’t see it for snow.

Looking Forward 2012

Looking Forward 2012

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Looking forward I am tempted to say I see trees, lots of trees but can’t seem it find the forest. I too had a look at Ruth’s link and thought this was a much better way to move forward. I was thinking of using release, as in her example because getting organised is one thing I am always saying. Instead I decided to pick Breath.

  • Breathe out slowly and let go of inhibitions and all the other things that hold me      back from moving ahead with my felt.
  • Take a deep breath and plunge ahead with ideas for new felt pieces.
  • Make breathing room by getting rid of stuff that is just in the way.
  • Say no, so I can catch my breath.

I am sure that if I practise my breathing I will be able to back up and see the whole forest.

I am looking forward to helping Ruth, Zed and Kaz develop out blog and Forum. Along with following along with the various challenges that come up on the Blog and Forum I want to make more complex resists to make more complicated and interesting hats, vessels and birdhouses. I want to explore nuno felt more, being more creative with combining silk or other fibres with different wools and I want to use some raw fleece to make a bag with long curls. I think all that should keep me busy.

Happy 2012 everyone

A look back at the last year.

A look back at the last year.

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Well time to look back at the year and see what has happened. There was lots of felting  for sale and some teaching along with family, work, farm and farmers’ market. I decide early I wanted to make a nice nuno felt vest for myself. It doesn’t sound very hard thing to do but I never seem to make the time to make things for myself. It took a month to design the resist and find the time to do the felting and I ended up with a not very good-looking vest. As it turns out it was a good thing because it allowed me to become better friends with Linda as she helped me reshape it with her sewing skills. We went on to design jackets for ourselves this summer. I am still working on the jacket, hems on the sleeves and bottom and it needs some form of closure but I haven’t decided what yet.

I managed to try a couple of new shows to sell my work and expand my felting skills with the help from felting friends when we got together for our annual spring fun felting weekend.

One exiting thing that happened was being asked by Ruth to send some felt to her publisher to have its picture taken to be in her new book. So soon I will be able to say I’ve been published. Supporting Ruth while she wrote her book was a real pleasure and an eye opener as to what is involved in getting a book put together.

Starting the new blog and forum with friends from around the world has been fun and hectic as we decided to do this at the busiest time of the year. It really is amazing how the internet has made it possible meet like-minded people, make friends and take on projects with people you may never meet in person and otherwise wouldn’t have met at all. I feel very lucky indeed. Now I need to have a good long think about what I want to get done this coming year.

Happy New Year everyone,

Ann

Wet Felted Hat Class

Wet Felted Hat Class

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Wet Felted Hat Class

I taught a small hat class this last week-end. I had 3 great students all doing different style hats. Donna was making her first hat and wanted a winter hat with a folded up brim.

Dona laying out

Linda also a first time hat maker wanted an oversized pill-box hat in 2 pieces.

Linda Laying out

Jan who is on her 5th class and wanted a large turned up brim and a long tail to add curls and yarn embellishments to.

Jan Laying out

With patient rubbing

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Jan rubbing with a little to much soap

And Rolling

Dona Rolling

Then fulling and shaping (sorry no picture)

Everyone ended up with the hat they wanted.

Jan's hat
Donna's hat
Linda's Hat

Linda will need to sew the top piece into her hat when it’s dry and Jan will add her embellishments to the tail. I will post a picture when she has it finished.

Stock Solutions for Accurate Dyeing

Stock Solutions for Accurate Dyeing

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There is another way to do small or large amounts and get the same results each time.  The easiest and safest way is to make a stock solution.  It’s safest because dyes are most dangerous in there powder form, when the powder can fly around and land incredibly far from where you are measuring it.  It’s best to use a mask when measuring the powder. You don’t want to inhale the powder. You need to keep records so you know what you did. What I do for acid dyes is measure 10 grams of acid dye powder into 1 litre of boiling water.  This solution will be good for up to 6 months in sealed jars. Remember to labels your containers very well so everyone knows what they are. It’s best if you keep them separate and away from any food so there are no mistakes. This gives you a 1% solution so you can use 1cc (measured in a syringe for ease) of die solution for every gram of dry dye stuff (wool roving for instance) I want to dye to a medium shade. If I was pale shades I use half as much and for dark shades up to 4 times as much. This is the most accurate method. This can be hard if you don’t have a scale that measures very small amounts. Now if you’re not that precise that’s ok. As long as you use the same amounts every time you make your solution so if you use 2 teaspoons of dye in 1 quart of water and use a syringe to measure you will be fine. When you dye something write down how much wool you had then how many cc’s of each dye you used to make the colour. I used to keep a small sample of each batch on a card with the amounts of dye used so I could reproduce it when I wanted too.

A weekend of dying
Spiral Challenge

Spiral Challenge

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This is my first item for the spiral challenge. It’s a large heavy shawl I made for a cool fall demonstration. It started out about 10 feet across the long side and 4 feet from the point to the top.  After felting it’s about 8 feet long and 3 feet deep.  The main body is 23 micron merino wool and the spirals are multicoloured merino. It is lovely and warm.

Hi from Canada

Hi from Canada

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Hi I’m Ann and I live just outside the capital of Canada on a small sheep farm. Like Ruth, I had a journey to finding felt. At one time, we milked our sheep and I learned to make soap with the milk that wasn’t suitable for making cheese. On a soap list I followed, there was a link for how to felt around a bar of soap. I went and had a look and bought a kit to needle felt a sheep. I enjoyed making the sheep but felting around the soap really grabbed me. From there I took some lessons in wet felting and knew I had found what I was looking for. I’ve had a life long love of wool but hate knitting, now I could indulge my love of wool and hand spun yarn. These days I don’t do much needle felting, I spend my time exploring wet felting techniques.

Felting 3, 2 1

Q-3 Three types of fiber you can’t live without

Well, fine merino is my favourite wool for next to the skin applications. It is soft, easy to dye and felts quickly. I love silk; roving and hankies are my favourite way to make the wool sparkle. The third would have to be novelty yarns especially had spun ones. I am learning to spin novelty yarns for embellishing my felt.

Q-2 Two tools you use all the time

My reed mat is my best tool. I have a large one that covers my 4×8 table so I can do large pieces or several small ones. The second would have to be my Tupperware starburst lid. I use this lid to rub my wet felt; it really saves you wearing off your fingerprints.

Q-1 One fiber art technique you love the most

I would have to say nuno felting. I love the textured effect of the wool and woven fabric together. It’s so versatile; I can make a whole new fabric or decorate with it.

I am looking forward to working with my felting friends here and sharing with our followers.  I am excited about getting pushed outside my box and expanding my horizons.