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Textile Portraits

Textile Portraits

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Earlier this month I went along to a talk I’d seen advertised at the Louth Textile Group. The speaker was Textile Artist Holly Capstick who specialises in mixed media textile portraits and free motion embroidery.

It had been a while since I’d done any fabric projects but I’m a big fan of free motion stitch and so seeing the examples of work on Holly’s website made me want to know more about her techniques.

Holly is a very generous speaker and gave her audience lots of tips and advice on creating textile portraits. We were encouraged to handle the work on show and seeing it at such close quarters really helped us to understand the process of layering which she uses. These are some of the fabulous portraits Holly brought to show us…..

 

Needless to say I drove home that evening feeling very inspired by what I’d seen and keen to have a go myself. Holly was running a workshop the following day but there were limited spaces and I was too late to get booked on it. So the next morning I decided to have a go at home and found this photo of Mark to use as inspiration.

I got the image up on my iPad, cropped it to just show his face and changed it to black and white. 

The next stage was to make a (very) rough outline tracing to ensure the correct positioning of the eyes, nose and mouth. I placed this under my cotton fabric on the light box and traced it using an HB pencil, at the same time adding a little of the shading.

 

Holly works with paint and fabric snippets, built up on a base layer, and tops this off with a sheer silk organza. A search through my fabric stash confirmed what I suspected, I didnt have a fine enough silk organza and my synthetic sheers were all too shiny! In a way I was pleased because I wanted to create a portrait inspired by Hollys work but which looks like my own so I chose to work more simply with a base of cotton fabric, the hair and shadows created using a fine black tulle and black organza for the neck of the jacket.

I was keen to just get on with this so although sampling came to mind I dismissed that thought and got straight on with the stitching. Not the best decision I could have made! About a quarter of the way through I realised the thread I’d chosen was too dark for the wrinkles (wrinkles, what wrinkles said Mark?) so I ended up having to take those out and do them again. The bit I was most concerned about, to the point of dreading it, was stitching his teeth. I think I held my breath all through that bit but fortunately I managed to keep the stitiches where I needed them and his teeth worked out fine.

I’m really pleased with the result, its very different from what Holly was teaching but more true to my style. I did think about adding colour but decided to stick with black and white and maybe try a coloured version next time.

Members of the Louth Textile Group who were at the Portrait Workshop said it was great. Holly not only provides excellent tuition but also a light box and sewing machine for each participant to use which is particulalrly helpful as it saves you lugging your machine about!

These are two of Hollys workshop samples….

And a few of the students work in progress photos….

These are what they created on the day and will finish off at home. I know a couple of the ladies who attended and although their work wasnt finished at this stage their faces are instantly recognisable. I might have a go at doing my own portrait next….. if I can find a light enough thread to make my wrinkles less visible!

 

 

 

Mixed media painting "Forest Keeper" on watercolor paper - tree spirit with Mountain Hemlock
Essence of Nature

Essence of Nature

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In my recent art and design class, I painted a series of tree spirit portraits. In researching tree spirits, I found many photos of young women with ‘beautiful’ faces. I thought that if a tree had a spirit, it would be the same age as a tree, which can live for hundreds of years. I decided to base my tree spirits on the beauty of older women, with wrinkles, grey hair and wisdom shining through. Once these were painted, I decided to create tree spirits in felt and stitch. I will be continuing with this series as I found stitching and creating portraits a challenge.

I printed a copy of the original artwork and found a piece of deconstructed screen printed fabric that worked for the background. The fabric was silk organdy and I nuno felted it to a dark green wool. Then I taped a piece of water soluble fabric to the artwork and traced it on the light box.

I pinned the traced outlines of the face and the pinecone down to the nuno felt. Then I used a dark green to stitch the face outline and a dark brown to stitch the pinecone. It’s not shown here but I used a white thread to stitch the outline of the hair. The tree on the left hand side was developed free hand as there was already dark green in the background fabric that reminded me of the shapes of the tree branches. Once the outlines were stitched, I dissolved the water soluble fabric and let the piece dry.

Then on to stitching. This will probably seem like an exercise/game of find the differences as some of the photos seem very much alike. I used 1-2 strands of cotton floss and stitched in a distorted cross stitch. Unlike regular cross stitch, this is a very loose form of cross stitch where the stitches do cross but they are different lengths and directions to fill the space. It is a fairly easy way to shade for darks and lights without doing precise stitching such as long and short stitch. I started with the eyes. I have found when stitching a portrait before, that I stitch the “important” areas first. If I don’t like the eyes, I can either re-do them or start over without wasting loads of time on the rest of the face.

I continued using various shades of green and developing the face and then on to the hair. It was a really interesting process as it seemed like I would add more dark into an area and then find that I needed to add more dark to other areas. There are many layers of stitched threads and hours of work in the final piece.

As you can see, I didn’t take many photos of the tree development or of the pinecone stitching. But I continued with the distorted cross stitch for these areas too. The pine needles were done with stem stitch.

I changed the hair multiple times. I had added stem stitch curls but those seemed to stand out too much. I went back in and stitched over that with a variety of shades of lighter green to make the hair look more natural. I also worked on deepening the wrinkles around the eyes and mouth.

Nuno felted and hand stitched artwork of a tree spirit.

I probably could have kept working on this piece but decided to stop.

Once I was satisfied with the face, I needed a background fabric. I had linen that had been screen printed at the same time as the silk organdy. I tried an overlay of blue green silk but ended up choosing the linen for a background. The nuno felt was stitched to the linen background and laced over a matte board. The final piece is 10″ x 10″. I was planning on framing it but couldn’t find the correct size frame for it. I ended up covering a 10″ x 10″ canvas with green felt and stitching the edges of the fabric matte to the canvas.  Sorry that I don’t have a photo so that you can see the edge of the canvas and how that looked.

The piece is named the Essence of Nature and will be in an exhibition in May at 4 Ravens Gallery in Missoula, Montana.

 

Christina, Ruth, Penny, Gail, Moira and Nancy at the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum
Where Art Meets Embroidery

Where Art Meets Embroidery

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The exhibition Where Art Meets Embroidery is currently on display at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Art Museum (QFA) in LaConner, Washington USA through May 31st. The exhibit, for me, is the culmination of 16 years of classes that I have taken at the Gail Harker Center for Creative Arts. The exhibition includes work from both Level 3 and 4 textile art graduates. My post is about the Level 4 Experimental Stitch and Multimedia, including my work and my classmates. Tesi will be posting at the end of the month about the Level 3 Experimental Stitch student’s work.

Tables set up with working notebooks and other samples by students at the Garden Center

When the exhibition opened, we had a concurrent show for the first couple of days that was across the street from the quilt museum. In this part of the exhibition, participating students filled their tables with working notebooks, samples and pieces of artwork that didn’t end up in the exhibition at the quilt museum. Visitors could sit down and browse through the documentation of the process that most people never see with completed works of art. The working notebooks show the thought process, the inspiration behind the ideas and the work that goes into creating a large work of textile art.

Working notebooks and samples by Ruth Lane

Here’s a part of the set up for my space showing a variety of notebooks, samples and smaller stitch pieces. My theme is about the spirituality of trees. It was really interesting to talk to visitors about the process and how some of my pieces were created.

Samples and working notebooks by Nancy Drake

This is part of Nancy Drake’s table showing a couple of notebooks, some canvas work boxes and a flower that wasn’t included in the other exhibition. Nancy’s theme is about nature, leaves and trees.

Samples and working notebooks by Christina Fairley Erickson

Here is one of Christina Fairley Erickson’s tables showing some of her Advanced Research in Art and Design. Christina’s theme is about animals of all kinds. The large tall piece in the back is based on a giraffe (if you hadn’t figured that out already).

Signage for the exhibition at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Art Museum

Now on to the exhibition at the QFA Museum. If you are in the northwest Washington area, I hope you will get a chance to visit the exhibition in the next couple of months. I will be showing only a couple of pieces of work from each student. There is much more to see at the museum.

Christina Fairley Erickson standing by her horse head sculpture

Each student created a “large” artwork as part of the course curriculum. This is Christina Fairley Erickson in front of her machine stitched horse sculpture. Christina has traveled many times to Turkey to visit part of her family and the floral designs on the horse are based on Turkish inspiration.

Here are a couple of detail shots of Christina’s amazing stitching that has been turned into a lifesize horse head.

Two framed stitch pieces of bird eyes by Christina Fairley Erickson

Another portion of Christina’s studies were based on eyes of birds and animals. These are two of her stitched pieces of an Indian Peacock Eye and a Military Macaw Eye.

Artwork by Moira Gutteridge Kloster on the wall at the exhibition

Moira Gutteridge Kloster grew up in East Africa and based her theme on remembrances of her childhood as well as recent visits to the area. Moira mainly works with photos printed on fabric which she transforms with stitch.

Two African women in a stitched portrait by Moira Gutteridge Kloster

This is a closer view of one of her pieces from the wall shot above.

Black work lizard by Moira Kloster

This is a detail of Moira’s blackwork lizard. These blackwork patterns are a way to create various values to give the stitching more depth.

Framed artwork of a papaya and of a collage of elephants by Moira Gutteridge Kloster

 

Moira has many photos taken in Africa. The one on the left is based on a papaya and the one on the right is all photos of elephants (and one of my favorites, the elephant footprints).

Forest Floor by Lynette Barnes - stitched and felted textile piece

Lynette Barnes created ‘Forest Floor’ with a variety of machine needle felting, hand dyeing, machine embroidery, burning, fusing and fraying. Her theme is the Pacific Coast Forest Floor.

Here’s a closer view of a couple of small areas on this almost five foot wide piece.

Framed goldwork leaves/tree by Nancy Drake

Nancy Drake’s theme was based on the natural world, specifically leaves and trees. The piece above is created with metal and gold threads.

Goldwork by Nancy Drake

A closer view of the stitchwork and metal elements reveals the abundance of color variety in the metal threads.

Nanci also created this tabard, developing the pattern, hand stitching the design and then machine stitching the garment together. (In the video of my talk at the end of the post, you will see Nanci’s tabard and her hanging leaf sculpture, on either side of me.)

Two portraits of tree spirits by Ruth Lane

My theme about the spirituality of trees, led me to develop a series of tree spirits. These are two of the stitched portraits that I created. The top one is machine stitched over layers of tulle. The bottom piece was created from nuno felting a printed photo on sheer fabric of one of my original paintings and then adding hand stitch.

Ruth standing beside The Forgotten One

The majority of my time spent over the last two years was creating this ten foot tall tree spirit called ‘The Forgotten One’. His outer layers were made with silk, wool and tea bags that were nuno felted and then hand stitched into place on the inner structure. The sculpture comes apart into four pieces so that I could travel back and forth from Montana to Washington with it.

Here are a couple of closer photos to see the face and the texture of the sculpture.

On the first Saturday after the exibition opened, an artist talk took place at the QFA museum. Each student talked about their work, inspiration and theme. The video above is my talk and Gail showing photos of my work.

I hope you enjoyed this peek at our exhibition. If you’re in the area, please stop by and see it in person.

The Codification of Stitch

The Codification of Stitch

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One of the UK’s major textile events, the Knitting and Stitching Show, is held annually in November in the Harrogate Convention Centre. It’s packed with “must have” products and showcases inspiring work by a wide variety of textile artists. Within the show there is a dedicated exhibition area called the Graduate Showcase, which highlights outstanding textile art from recent UK BA undergraduate courses. This initiative, run in partnership with the Embroiderers’ Guild, provides a platform for emerging talent in the textile art world and it was here last November that I first saw the work of Charlotte Farrant.
Charlotte hadn’t originally planned a career in textile design, in fact growing up she had formed a fascination for mechanics and saw herself becoming a mechanical engineer. At some point Charlotte discovered she also had a love of embroidery and enrolled in the Royal School of Needlework, graduating with a first class degree. 

Charlottes “Codification of Stitch” is an innovative coded embroidery system developed by the textile artist herself and it is used to form hidden messages within the garments she designs, transforming textiles into wearable narratives. Specific embroidery stitches represent letters, forming hidden messages amongst the exquisite, decorative Goldwork, Blackwork, Whitework and Raised Work.
 
It was her fabulous “coded” Ann Lister black coat that first caught my attention on her stand at the show. In 2025, in collaboration with the Anne Lister project, Charlotte designed a range of costumes re-imagining the BBC cast of Gentleman Jack and bringing them in to the 21st century.
 
I hadn’t heard of Ann Lister but I’m guessing plenty of you will have, especially if you’ve seen her life story as portrayed by Suranne Jones in the BBCs series Gentleman Jack. This woman was an ardent diarist and from 1896 to 1840 she wrote a five million word diary, approximately one sixth of which was written in code. She combined the Greek alphabet, zodiac, punctuation, and mathematical symbols allowing her to document, but also conceal, the most private aspects of her life. It’s fitting that this beautiful coat should also conceal its message which is a quote from Ann in August 1823. It reads “I am not made like any other I have seen, I dare believe myself to be different from any other who exist.”
Ann Lister Coat
 
Sampler for coat

Another “Ann Lister” inspired piece on Charlottes stand was a waistcoat inspired by the diarists love of nature and the coded message on this garment reads “We are not alive if we’re not taking the odd risk now and again.” 

Ann Lister Waistcoat
Detail of waistcoat

There was also a selection of beautiful intricately stitched, coded brooches on display, each with a printed label providing its deciphered message.

Check out Charlottes website charlottefarrantembroidery.com where you can see her portfolio of designs as well as her shop selling Coded embroidery kits, brooches and many other embroidered coded art works.

Throughout history textiles have been used not only for protection and comfort but also to communicate our personal values and identity. Long before the written word came in to use Ancient civilisations would use specific colours and symbols to convey their environment, spiritual believes and culture. In this way meaning could be woven, felted or stitched into rugs, blankets, clothing, etc. delivering visual messages that could be easily read by the people around them. Examples include the felted rugs created by ancient nomadic tribes which would embody powerful symbols across different cultures signifying the wish for good health, long life, prosperity, etc.

Examples of just a few of the Symbols used in Middle Eastern rug making.

On the other hand, hidden “coded” messages in textiles have been used for a very different, but very important role in history. While imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots embedded complex and personal symbols within her embroideries to express her frustrations, assert her claim to the English throne, and comment on her unjust captivity. This panel depicts a grapevine and a hand holding a pruning knife. It references Mary’s claim to the throne, suggesting the need to cut away the fruitless branch of the Tudor tree represented by the childless and ‘illegitimate’ Elizabeth. The point is driven home by the Latin motto ‘Virescit Vulnere Virtus’ (virtue flourishes by wounding). (source:vam.ac.uk)

Embroidery also enabled Mary to communicate with her supporters by sending coded messages hidden in her needlework. 

In the realm of espionage, traditional handicraft skills were to take on an even more covert dimension during the World Wars when prisoners, spies and resistance members used embroidery to pass on information under the noses of their enemies. After all, who would suspect that something as innocent as an embroidery or tapestry could offer any threat from the enemy? Morse code and binary code were easily represented using a combination of long and short stitches, or French knots and seed stitches, and these would go undetected when hidden amongst other decorative stitches. Other methods required the person receiving the work to “undo” the embroidery as messages were hidden in the padding of trapunto or concealed beneath a second layer of embroidery. 

Knitting was another innocent looking but very useful craft when it came to espionage. Morse Code knitters employed single purl stitches for dots and sequences of three purl stitches for dashes. Their sequences translated into short and long coded signals. Some knitters used knots to conceal Morse code by tying specific configurations to represent dots and dashes, or varying the distances between their knots. These encoded messages could then be discreetly passed across enemy lines or integrated into knitted items such as hats and scarves to be decoded by the recipient. Written messages were also known to have been passed on, hidden in balls of wool!
This practise wasn’t exclusive to the allies. Using a system similar to Morse, German agents based in the UK also passed encoded messages using knotted yarn which was then knitted in to garments. 

Although an extremely dangerous occupation it’s said that the practise of covert knitting became so prevalent during WWII, some countries actually banned the posting of knitting patterns aboard, fearing they may carry coded information to the enemy. 
During times of war, a knitter was often more than just a creator of warm garments; they were also keen observers and messengers, their needles clicking away as they kept watch. (Source: Timoneillstudios.com)

Image Source: ww2wrecks.com

I will leave you with an embroidery created by one Major Alexis Casdagli. Alexis was captured and spent four years in a German POW camp where he passed the time in the innocent pursuit of cross stitch. He also set up a stitch school, teaching other POWs to embroider. Of the many embroideries he made this piece was so admired by his captors that they proudly hung it in the castle where he was being held and subsequently had it displayed in three other camps.

The prisoners must have found it very amusing that the guards had no idea of the defiant message hiding in the Morse dots and dashes stitched around the borders which read “God Save The King” and “Fxxx Hitler”. Fortunately it was never deciphered during those four years and so the embroidery, and the Major survived the war. He told his son on his return that the Red Cross saved his life but embroidery saved his sanity! 

 

 

Getting things ready for the Sale and Exhibition and class.

Getting things ready for the Sale and Exhibition and class.

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First, there are still a couple of days to sign up for the 3D multi-part resist workshop. It starts on the 17th, so hurry if you want to join us. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/classes/3d-multi-part-resist/

 

On November 1 and 2 is our guild’s Annual Sale and Exhibition. https://www.ovwsg.com/sale/ Or her on Facebook FB Event The guild runs a booth for people who don’t have enough things to have their own booth. I have been getting my things ready for the booth.

I have a few needle books from several years ago. I had to check the tags, replacing some and adding price stickers. They have 4 needle pages, 2 pouches, 2 pins, 1 needle, on thread storage card, and one needle threader.

I also have some scissors cases with scissors. These are great little scissors, I like the big handles so you’re not tight to get your fingers in or out of.

And there are the sheep keychains. I told you about them here. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2025/09/13/this-and-that-5/

I had to iron their ears as they needed flattening. I thought I might need hairspray, but I didn’t.

 

I stamped the back of their cards

I put them into their plastic. I need to finish that. I think I need to get some double-sided tape to keep them centred in the bags. And for some, I may resize their bags.

 

I may put the other things in plastic, too. Do you think it would look more professional?

 

I still have to make felted soap. That is on the to-do list. But now I am out of time for today.

 

 

Ruth's stitched down branch with fly stitch leaves.
Hand Stitching on Paper

Hand Stitching on Paper

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Our group meeting this month was inspired by some Instagram tutorials that we saw by Neha Sachan. Here’s her Instagram if you want to see the videos we followed.

We started with white or painted heavy watercolor paper cut into approximately 5″ x  7″ pieces. I had collected a variety of twigs and sticks. Everyone chose their twigs and our friend Deb had donated some dried grapevines that were such fun shapes we had to use some of those too.  Then on to punching holes into the paper and stitching. It’s really fun and relaxing to sit and stitch with a group of friends.

Louise stitching back stitch through previously stitched fly stitch with small branch couched on paper.

Here’s Louise doing a bit of stitching. She’s doing backstitch in between her fly stitches.

Louise's branch with lichen couched down and fly stitch leaves.

Here’s Louise’s finished piece. I love the lichen that’s growing on the branch.

Louise's grapevine stitched down to blue watercolor paper and seed pod attached with stitching..

Here’s Louise’s other stitched down vine. The seed pod was a separate piece that she added as it seemed to fit perfectly. Not much stitching here besides couching down the various pieces.

Sally's two stitched pieces on paper. Top paper with branch couched down, fly stitch and back stitch. Bottom paper with larch branch couched down.

Here are Sally’s two pieces. She hadn’t finished the bottom piece but had attached a twig from a Tamarack/Larch tree.

 

Paula's grape vine couched down with back stitched branches and one branch with French knots.

This is the beginnings of Paula’s piece. She has since added a bunch more French knots but I don’t have the finished picture.

Close up of Paula's French knots

Here’s a closer view of the French knots.

Here’s photos of my piece with the twig, fly stitch and back stitch. I made it into a greeting card. I tried to send it in the mail but got it back as it was “unmachinable”. I had to add more postage to get it sent. Always fun at the USPS.

Ruth's grapevines couched to watercolor paper painted blue with "cotton" bolls.

Here’s my final piece with grape vine and little balls of wool stitched down.

We had a great time stitching together and once you have the holes punched in the paper, this is pretty simple. We have decided that this coming year, we will be working on creating a fabric book. We will be doing quite a few dyeing and surface design techniques to create our book pages. Our next meeting, we will be clamp dyeing on felt.

Nuno felt tree landscape with grey, peach and red and dark maroon threads couched down for branches.
Grove of Trees – Part Four

Grove of Trees – Part Four

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I have been working slowly on my grove of trees landscape. I finished stitching down all the trunks and foreground fabrics.

Nuno felt landscape of a grove of trees, all applique stitched down.

So here’s a photo with it all stitched in place. Next up was adding a bunch of branches and I wanted to see how I could do that.

I took a piece of clear plastic and used paint pens on the plastic to look at various color choices. The photo on the left shows white paint pen and the one on the right shows using grey, peach and brown paint pens. The white definitely felt too stark. So I thought I would use a mixture of colors.

Wool threads choices for branches.

I looked through my stash to see what colors I had that might work. I decided to use wool thread as I wanted the branches to not stand out too much. I thought adding “shiny” cotton thread wouldn’t work well.

Nuno felt tree landscape with grey thread couched down for branches.

So I started with grey thread and this photo doesn’t really show the true colors of the thread. I used the grey on the grey trunks in the background.

Nuno felt tree landscape with grey and peach threads couched down for branches.

Then on to adding peach branches to the peach tree trunks.  I couched the threads down using the same thread for the couching stitches.

Nuno felt tree landscape with grey and peach thread couched down for branches. Auditioning dark red and pink thread for further branches.

Then I needed to decide if I was going to keep going with light colored threads or add some darker branches. I tried a piece of pink thread by laying it down on the right and then a dark maroon thread in the center. I decided the darker branches would work the best. As the light in this piece is coming from the back right, the lighter branches give that feeling of light shining on them. The foreground branches would be darker with less light shining on them.

Nuno felt tree landscape with grey, peach and red threads couched down for branches.

So I added a medium value red thread for the three red trees to the right side. Again, all the branches were couched down.

Nuno felt tree landscape with grey, peach and red and dark maroon threads couched down for branches.

Then I added in the maroon threads for the darker trees on the left side.  I also turned the silk that was loose on the top under to the back. I will hand stitch all of the loose silk around the edge down to the back. The piece is now hanging on the design wall. I think I will add some peach “grass” in the foreground just as I have couched down the threads for the branches. But I am letting it sit for a bit so I can see if it needs anything else. What do you think?

Close up of Red Dress displayed at Pacific NW Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum.
The Red Dress Exhibition at The Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum

The Red Dress Exhibition at The Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum

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While I was in class last week in La Conner, Washington, I was able to see the exhibition of The Red Dress at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum which runs through March 2nd. I actually hadn’t heard about this project before my fellow students suggested that we go and see it. The project was started by British artist Kirstie Macleod and took over 14 years to complete.

Red Dress displayed at Pacific NW Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum.

According to the Red Dress website:

“The intention of The Red Dress

Initially the project sought to generate a dialogue of identity through embroidery, uniting people around the world across borders and boundaries. However, over the 14 years it was created, The Red Dress also become a platform for self-expression and an opportunity for, often marginalised, voices to be amplified and heard, initiating vital dialogues on important and frequently uncomfortable issues.”

Close up of Red Dress displayed at Pacific NW Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum.

The embroideries were created by 380 people from 51 countries all over the world.

Close up of Red Dress displayed at Pacific NW Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum.

Each contributor was encouraged to create a piece in their own style reflecting traditions of stitching from their own region/country.

Close up of Red Dress displayed at Pacific NW Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum.

It’s amazing to me that the embroidered pieces flow so well together. Imagine the work it took to put all the pieces together as there were 87 panels to combine.

Back View of Red Dress displayed at Pacific NW Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum.

It was wonderful to be able to see this in person and see the embroidery closely.

You can see more of the Red Dress project at their website.

Bodice of Red Dress displayed at Pacific NW Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum.

The Red Dress will be traveling to other locations and if you get the chance, it is well worth seeing in person. Here’s the schedule of the exhibitions. Scroll down to see the upcoming exhibitions.

There are more photos and information on the website. I hope you enjoyed this brief glimpse at a wonderful project.

Wrestling with the horns of a dilemma – Art Yarn!

Wrestling with the horns of a dilemma – Art Yarn!

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For a long time, I have been promising myself that I would take a workshop to get some sort of grip on how to use a spinning wheel.  My friend Trish Kerr runs Irish Alpaca Yarns and she has for a long time been offering me a space on one of her spinning workshops – the stars never aligned as, invariably I was busy on the day.  Then, in December, the offer was once again made and, I was actually free!  The beautiful venue was not far away, Cornstown House (https://cornstownhouse.ie/) which was not far away from me.  Happy days!  Unfortunately there was a huge storm the night before but, despite fallen trees, we awoke to a clear bright day and I negotiated my way to the venue.

We were spinning using alpaca fibre.  I hadn’t realised it until then but some people who have an allergy to wool fibre can wear alpaca.  The irritant in wool apparently is the scales and alpaca does not have scales.

There were 5 students and some had previous experience.  Luckily Trish is an amazing teacher. I had warned her that, given my hideous coordination when learning something new, that this could put a serious strain on our friendship.  She laughed it off.  Trish has great patience which she got to draw on in bucket loads when it came to teaching yours truly!

We were working off Louet wheels which she supplied.  She is quite an expert on the older more traditional wheels too, and she was able to offer good advice on how to get an old wheel which a student had brought, back working again.

  • A traditional wheel one of the students brought in for some advice
  • What a beauty, owned I think by our host Fionnuala
  • All she wanted were cuddles

Trish got us all set up and was very attentive throughout the morning.   The first skill we worked on was treadling, as a first timer it took a lot of effort but after a while I had the wheel moving in a clockwise direction.  She set us up with alpaca fibre and soon we were all spinning.  Some (by this I mean most) much better than yours truly here.  But I was having fun.

Trish started us all off drafting setting us up with Alpaca yarn

The morning flew and we stopped for a delicious lunch and tour of the farm, both supplied by our most gracious hosts, Fionnuala and Dominic.  The tour was great fun, featuring  lots of Alpacas, some rare breed sheep (including one that loved to be patted, a cow and donkeys.  The farm offers Alpaca Trekking and workshops along with other events. When I explained that I primarily was a feltmaker and showed an interest in the Teeswater, Dominic disappeared for a few minutes and arrived back with some raw fleece for me to play with when I got home.

  • I had to include this photo. The pumpkin was still going strong!
  • She just wanted cuddles
  • Chatting up the girls!
  • The donkeys were very friendly, and happy out if you had a carrot in hand!
  • Just look at that pretty face!
  • What a beauty!
  • Those eyes!

When we returned from our tour, Trish gave us a presentation on alpaca fleeces which was very interesting.

  • So soft and of course no lanolin!
  • Trish showed us what to expect from a quality fleece

We plied our yarn in the afternoon.  Now that I had ‘mastered’ the clockwise, introducing the ‘counter-clockwise’ was, let’s say, interesting.  This is what I produced.  It is, I believe, kindly referred to as ‘Art Yarn’.  Now, I am in the horns of a dilemma.  I want to spin more but I don’t want to ever spin a nice even ply.  The general consensus in the room was that once you perfect the spin you can’t return to the Art Yarn.  Now, while I appreciate that at my learning speed, perfection is a long way down the road.  I don’t want to get there but I would like to spin more art yard and, if I’m honest, I would love a new toy in a spinning wheel.  Any ideas?

My plied alpaca art yarn

I played with the Teeswater when I got home.  Here is the result:

  • Scouring the teeswater
  • Final view
  • another view,lit by LED
  • A view of my experiment with Teeswater

Last year, I wrote up a number of posts about various dyeing  workshops I had attended.  In one I dyed a lot of fabric samples and wondered what I should do with them.  I think it may have been Ruth who suggested that I could think about stitching into some.  I have never embroidered by hand before but decided to give it a try over Christmas.  Here is my first effort.  I was inspired by a photo online.  Once completed, I padded it with some cotton batting and backed it with linen.  I might frame it  at some stage but I will need to find a suitable frame.

Using the dyed fabric samples, I tried my hand at embroidery over Christmas

I totally enjoyed my day spinning, even though I was pretty dreadful at it. But I love the result and for once, I really don’t want to improve greatly at this. Long live Art Yarn!

Do you agree? Any hints and tips on how I can retain my current standard? All suggestions will be very gratefully taken on board. I’m just looking for an excuse to buy a wheel.

Christmas card for Antje

Christmas card for Antje

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Our group did a Christmas card exchange again this year and I was partnered with Antje.  (You can see Antje’s post with the card she made for me here.) My first card attempt turned into a disappointing failure.  After casting about for more inspiration I decided to try using some of my handspun to make a card.

I cut out some felt the size of a blank card, and sketched out a design using chalk.  Then I decided that would be challenging to sew.  So I loaded a larger piece of felt into a frame and started over.

Supplies on the table including yarn, felt, beads, scissors
Gathering my supplies

Next I did a chalk sketch.  I outlined the size of my working area and the tree element I wanted on the card.

Chalk sketch of tree and size of card
Chalk sketch of my tree

The handspun I wanted to use was a very pretty singles.  It was quite bulky and not really suitable for traditional sewing as it would fray if tried to sew through the felt with it.  As a result I used a needle and thread to tack down the handspun at each edge of the tree.  (I actually had 2 working needles going, one for each side of the tree.)  The handspun was thick and thin which made the tree somewhat textured.  I dug around in my stash and found this very crazy gold fizz yarn that I used to make a bold star.

At this point I decided my card was a bit too plain.  So I bought some beads and then started playing with laying them on the felt.  I took my project to one of our guild socials and got some feedback from the ladies there about what beads to use.  Once the beads were selected, I started sewing them on.  There are dark beads as shimmery snowflakes and some white snow below the tree.  When adding the snow at the base of the tree I purposely changed the direction of the beads instead of doing plain rows.

Next I cut out the panel and made sure it was the correct size for my card.

Ann suggested that I sew the panel onto the card.  That way if Antje wanted to repurpose the panel it could be easily removed from the card.  (Unlike gluing which would be more permanent and possibly not good for the felt.)  I used some clips to hold the panel to the card and sewed it down at each corner.  I then decided to add a couple more stitches along the long sides.  Sewing the panel to the card was easy to do and the threads don’t show very much on the front of the card against the dark felt.  (Thanks Ann for the terrific suggestion.)  Success!

My next job was to send the card.  Unfortunately Canada Post went on strike and so mailing my card was delayed.  I did attempt to send the card via courier.  After waiting in a long line I was quoted a price of $117, which is crazy.  So the card went back home with me to wait till the strike was over.

I was nervous about sending the card since the beads could be damaged by some of the post machines.  So I padded out the envelope with a few hand knit dish cloths and hoped for the best.  Antje let me know that my packet finally arrived at her place on December 31st.  I am resharing the photo Antje took of the card and dish cloths once they arrived in the UK.

3 My surprise exchange collection from Carlene.
3 My surprise exchange collection from Carlene.