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Mason bear closeup
A wee escape into the Highlands for some knitting

A wee escape into the Highlands for some knitting

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If you’re reading this post, there’s a good chance you have at least one crafty friend group; whether yours meets up for felting, crocheting, summoning the Gods of Wool under the full moon (wait, that last one might be just me…) or a bit of everything, it’s good to get together with like-minded people and share an activity in joyful companionship.

This past weekend, I met up with 3 friends for some light travelling and knitting. We rented an AirBnB in the Highlands and departed on Thursday for 3 days of crafting and castle-visiting fun.

Our first stop was Glamis Castle. This is a castle dating back to 1372, with rather lovely gardens. Sadly we’re not allowed to take pictures inside due to it still being the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne’s residence, so I shall only be able to regale you a few whimsical images of the outdoors.

First, witches!

The 3 Macbeth witches, weathered wood sculpture
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble

The back of one of Macbeth's witches wood sculpture

I was mesmerised by these sculptures, the weathering and liveliness of the faces, the texture… Surely this could inspire a felted artwork?

I’m terrible at taking photos of the “big picture” but love details. Here are a couple.

This needs to be a yarn colourway…
Buzz buzz
What a lovely concept.

The following day we went to Crathes Castle, this one in the capable hands of the National Trust for Scotland. Again, marvellous gardens, and this time I was allowed to photograph the inside, but if you know me, you won’t be surprised I forgot to… apart from one little detail that I’ll show below.

Is this a thistle? Regardless, it’s gorgeous!
Well. There’s really no need to comment on this plant, is there?…
Facing the wrong side…
What a marvellous fuzzy plant. It almost seems made up…
I really want to know how a tree is crowned champion. Also, this is the best tree because it’s Portuguese (and guess half my nationality!)

I think my captions really er, capture my thoughts on these images (hover with your mouse to read them!), but I do need to point out my outrage when I saw that the spinning wheel was facing the wrong side. WHY do I see this all the time in exhibits? Yes, I had to tell the people responsible. Yes, if I lived near I’d go back in a few week’s time and check up on the status of this scandalous situation. Yes, I am aware most people wouldn’t care.

Finally, you’ll be delighted to know I do have knitting photos to share!

I went to the Highlands full of hope and with a sense of endless time, and of course was perfectly convinced I’d knit and finish all three of the projects I took with me. The truth is, I hyper fixated on just one and that’s what I have to show you.

Meet Mason Bear.

Half-finished knitted bear

This is an adorable knitted bear pattern that I’ve made a few times already, and until recently never kept one. That’s been corrected, but this guy was meant for a friend who is going through some challenges and I thought could use a pick-me-up.
Although the pattern is meant to be knit flat, a few simple adjustments make it perfect for knitting in the round, and this means you can purl a lot less and stuff him as you go along. Very convenient, if slightly menacing-sounding.

Now renamed Timothy, this bear took a brave bus ride during the busy Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and is now living his best life in a place where he will be loved.

Tell me about your retreats! How many have you taken part in? Are they “official” or are they just with friends?

Summer Fiber Prep has started for 2026

Summer Fiber Prep has started for 2026

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July 17 2026 (how did that arrive so quickly?) I am just back from my Doctor’s appointment (I passed my blood work and am good for another 6 month! still not quite back to normal but moving in the correct direction.) its summer so let’s do some summer things! Ok, so how many fleeces have I collected…. and now need to wash?

Fleece 1 for 2026:

A couple months ago I went south of Ottawa to the town of Spencerville, (it has a very photogenic mill you saw in a post a few years ago as well as a lovely small fiber festival).

brick low building with dubble glass doors and name "Drummond Building" in Spencerville Ontario Canada.1.1) fabulous parking space rite by the door of the event!  We were a bit early.

It was a small but well done event, lots of variety in booths and lots of shopping. From fiber to Yarn to finished products as well as fiber prep and weaving equipment.

5 photos of booths and close ups of the sale in spencervill3 20261.2) a few shots of the sale 2026.

One of the booths had some very nice looking fleeces. I took a few photos there and then kept on with the photo documentation, definitely planning to come back for one of the fleeces.

open bags of various fleeces , close up of 2 bags and th name of the booth 1.3) The Sweet Sheep Co. booth full of bags of fleeces.

I am sure you have already guessed it was an Icelandic cross with lovely shades of tog from white to cream to grey. The thel also had lovely variations. Unfortunately as I returned to buy it, someone had spotted this fine fleece and had the bag in hand, and was BUYING IT!!! I was so disappointed. Oh well, maybe I will get next year’s sheering?

2 people in booth with bags of fleece 1.4) shopping Oops, missed the fleece I had  wanted.

Seeing my obvious disappointment, the vender said she had a smiler Icelandic cross under the table…. It was bigger…. So I stopped the photography, percussed it and added it to the walker! (Ann ran it out to Glenn who was possibly snoozing in the car. Thanks Ann!) It was a much bigger fleece as you will see further down. That should keep me busy this summer.

 

OOPS Fleece #2, 3 and 4:

The local Ottawa Guild was contacted by a sheep farm outside of Ottawa wondering if we wanted their fleeces. They are primarily razed for meat but were described as having good fleeces and some were “not white”. Jean got the message and drove out to pick up the fleeces from the “organic sheep”. They arrived the afternoon of a guild social and we emptied one of the multiple feed  bag stuffed with what we thought was a fleece each,  onto a table to see what the fleeces looked like.  we found there were three fleeces in the first bag. I re-bagged them in clear plastic, so they could be seen, and admired, more easily. I selected two brown fleeces that night,  then the next week picked a black and white fleece which was particularly soft.

1.5 (fleeces in feed bags at studio), 1.6 (photos of the top of 4 of the feed bags showing fleece), 1.7 (the 2 dark brownish fleeces i chose) Organic sheep fleeces Jean picked up for the guild. (There are still a few bags left!)

hand washed samples from one of the dark fleeces also a bit sample of spinning in the greese1.8) sampling one of the fleeces, quick hand wash and mostly dry and sample spin the grease.

I left the two dark fleeces in the side yard, they looked reasonably serkerted, and took the multi-colour fleece to the cottage. Glenn got the 6’ folding table set up on the deck and I spread out the fleece to evaluate.

2.1) Third fleece from the guild it is multi coloured but mostly white and off white. top photo fleece in clear bag, lower foto fleece on table2.1) Third fleece from the guild it is multi coloured but mostly white and off white.

This particular fleece would be called lightly skirted. I did find quite a bit of second cuts, that’s short bits that the sheerer cut a bit high then neatened up the sheep with a second pass of the sheers. I pulled out the second cuts, any vegi matter and a few lumpy brown bits.

  2.2) spread out on the table you can see the fleece is multi-coloured 2.2) spread out on the table you can see the fleece is multi-coloured

3 photos top and to Left close up of fleece, to right purple bucket with wast fibers, and VM2.3) close up of parts of the fleece and bucket of rejected bits

some of the second cuts were longer than i usualy see2.4) second cuts some were longer than i usually see

 2.5) picking and sorting fleece on 6’ table 2 bags of similare fiber are sitting on adjacent chair2.5) picking and sorting fleece on 6’ table

I was sorting the fleece while shaking sections, picking out VM (veggie-matter) and short cuts. Then bagging similar sections of fiber, into clear bags. The local chipmunks and squires will have extra warm homes this coming winter. the Phoebe who had its nest in the corner of the deck was not quite as excited about me using the deck.

small brown song bird called a phoebe sitting on a wooden railing2.6) phoebe on the deck railing

I hit a much cleaner section and was starting to think the fleece wasn’t quite as filled with hay and burrs as I had thought then I noticed the ground…. What a mess! I am just over half way through the fleece. I will keep working on it over the next few weekends when we get down to the cottage (there is a lot of work to do there but this will make a nice brake).

showing deck floor, lots of bits of wool and VM which have escaped the overflowing purple bucket. this is not all the fleece done. 2.7) the deck is a bit of a mess.

I was going to add the fleece bits to the garden, (it will hold water, suppress weeds unless the weed seeds are in the dirty wool, and help feed the plants, well the butt end wool  anyways), but there are quite a few burrs in there. since I don’t want burr plant popping up next year I think the most of the purple bucket will be garbage.

After shaking and picking the next step is a soak in the stock tank to wash it. But I have only 2 small bags of fiber from this fleece well picked and sorted, so I think I will switch to the Icelandic Cross from Spencerville.

 

Stock tank:

You have seen this part before, the 75gallon stock tank is usually used to water livestock, but it makes a great bath to wash fleeces. The larger sizes have a drain to make changing water easier. (they go on sale at the local princess auto so watch there flyers if you are looking for one, you might get lucky and find a second hand one on line.)

3.1) the Black 75 gallon stock tank from Princess Auto, I have added a hose and shut off valve to the drain.3.1) the 75 gallon stock tank from Princess Auto, I have added a hose and shut off valve to the drain.

I have added a hose extension and shut off valve so I can empty most of the water, then tip out the last bit. Other than the first wash (which tends to have a lot of weed seeds and soap.) the rinse water can be used on the flower boxes along the side yard. if the water is quite clean i can reuse it for the next soap batch.

3.2) five strainer buckets soaking in stock tank.3.2) I picked, shook, and pulled out a few burrs from the fleece, and separated the first part of it into five strainer buckets.

3.3) close up of the edge of 2 stainer baskets and very dirty water.3.3) after letting it soak for most of the day the water was very brown.

I found a few spots with Sheep Dandruff but most of the fleece so far looks good.

Once the fleece had soaked and released a lot of the dirt, I lifted each strainer basket, resting it on the edge of the stock tank, and let most of the dirty water drip out.

some of the strainers hanging from hooks along the side yard trellus3.4) once its reasonably less drippy, each was hung up by the side garden.

The first batch of was returned to the stock tank to rinse.  (They were hung up to drip while the water was changed). after the first rinse the soap seem to have left, that was a surprise it usually takes 2 rinses,  so on to the drying racks.

ikea floding drying rack in white mettl and plastic coated wire3.5) I have been using Ikea’s folding laundry drying racks.  

a second smaller wier rack hanging under cover in the side yard3.6) I also put the overflow fiber on the upper drying rack which also dried well.

CLose up of 2 photos of fleece. one sitting on my hand to show the length of staple3.7) here are close ups of the fleece after washing

 

the first batch washed and mostly dry:

This is defiantly part Icelandic, with a dual coat. The tog is quite soft and there is a bit of black kemp-like fiber in arias.

fleece in sunlight showing bits of the kemp within the fiber (black courser hairs but still not too course in this particular fleece)3.8) I may use this part to spin part of the weft for an Icelandic blanket (with tufts of tog).

I am working on washing the second set of strainer baskets. The amount I have left will be 3 or 4 more strainer baskets to finish the fleece off.  so its likely 13 or 14 baskets to wash this one fleece. Oh the tag on the bag said “Icelandic X” 5.20 lbs, “Midnight #44302”.

 

I had better get back to work and switch the second set of strainer baskets while its sunny and not raining. The weather continues to be hot, but occasionally we are getting cooler nights. We have seen signs of the smoke from the forest fires well north of us. The sky spent a day being yellow and we have smelt the smoke as it drifts across the city. I hope they can get it all under control, then out soon. I hope also that the weather is being kind to you and you can do some outside fiber prep.

rhubarb is sprouting new baby leaves in large pot by front door. 4) what odd weather, the rhubarb is starting again in one of its 3 pots?!

A felted object in orchid, teal, yellow and white wool is on a wooden table. The object seems to hold no particular shape.
Buying boxes? Nossir! (or maybe I should have..): how to salvage a misshapen project.

Buying boxes? Nossir! (or maybe I should have..): how to salvage a misshapen project.

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Hello, my creative friends.

Here we are at the start of a new and exciting adventure: making a felt box out of, yes, wool!

You think that I am stating the obvious, felt is oftentimes made of wool and of course you can make felt boxes: just look at the internet and you will see tons of them for sale (mostly made with industrial felt)! But you would not believe how many times I have had to explain those two bits of information to people during the time that I was making my box: yes, I am felting it. Yes, it is made of wool. No, I am not going to sew it (if I possibly can), I am felting it. Yes, I make it by felting wool. W-O-O-L. How, you ask? You can make all sorts of shapes by felting with the right resist..no, I am not going to sew it, I assure you it will come out with the box shape. Well, hopefully.

To be sure, a box is just another type of wet felt vessel made with a resist, and yes, of course you can make it by sewing the single felted flat sides and a flat bottom together, but…sewing, where is the fun in that? (total respect to people who like sewing, eh, it is just not me)

Long story medium-short, we decided that we needed to organise our living room in a better way, changing bits of furniture and generally trying to sort out the chaos, also because we are in the process of adopting guinea pigs (oh, my! let’s see) and we need the space for an indoor cage. So, we are plus bookshelves and minus an office desk with drawers, and we need some kind of storage box that fits the shelves and, crucial, does not seem something that you find in your shed. Unfortunately, the size of our shelves is not standard, and a standard storage box will not fit, either because too small or too big. So I thought, let’s have a box that is good to look at and the maximum size that will fit in there, let’s make it ourselves!

(well, I would not want you to think that I normally talk to myself with that royal We. It is clear to any who know me that all that was just me and me thinking “What, 30 pounds for that soulless box that does not even fit properly? no way, I can make one better than that and spend less!” or something of the sort)

A white sheet of paper with measurements for two boxes, a bigger one and a smaller one.
The size of the bookshelves that we have comes in two flavours, big and small, both somewhat non standard, so I originally thought about making a smaller box as well, and took measurements for both. All measurements are in centimeters.
Calculations for a 40 per cent increase on a piece of paper.
I arbitrarily added a 40 % increase on all sides, and did the same also for the height of the lid (all other measurements being the same for lid and box, of course)

To start, I prepared my resist for the bottom of the box: this involved a bit of sewing, namely attaching together the various bits of bubble wrap in the shape of a very floppy box without a top, as I will make a lid to fit it (some time in the far future). It does not show well in photo, but here it is:

A bubble wrap resist is on a floor
Here is the resist seen with the bottom part prominent (naughty).
A resist made of bubble wrap is on a brownish floor with a rug.
And here is the resist bottom down: very floppy, you can not really tell that this is a box shape.

I hate hand sewing on bubble wrap, the plastic just clings firmly to your needle and it is worse than sewing sewing, in my opinion, so let’s not dwell on it.

I did not have as much wool as I needed, so I ordered some from World of Wool. I wanted to try out something different from my usual Merino, as I needed something coarser that could be hard wearing and stand a bit stiffer, because the box is not small and will be full of quite a few things that are on the heavier side, such as tape and packing tape, some cables, and so on. Unfortunately, I am not used to coarser wool, the room was in a chaos and I did not have time for much research on our brilliant Blog or Forum (yes, it is lame. Let’s say, it is not the best excuse for not doing my homework that I have ever found, I’ll admit, but if you give me a bit more time I can say that the guinea pigs have eaten my research), anyway, ahem, later on our wise felt experts from the FFS Forum have determined that apparently I picked the wrong wool.

Well, you know, it can happen to anyone if they skip research and sampling. Well, yes, I also skipped making samples, because, let me think, the guinea pigs ate my sample? OK, maybe not. I’ll get better, pinky promise.

Anyway, I got my generic “English wool” from World of Wool, and yes, it was a bit coarser than Merino but still quite soft..in hindsight I may have been suspicious when it felt so soft, I do not know. Actually, that is a mix of different breeds’ wool, some that may actually be quite good for stiffer felt and some that are not, although they are coarser than Merino. Perfectly fine felting with it for all sorts of uses, but , a word to the wise, do not use it to make big boxes, eh.

A label reading: White 56's English Top, Size 100g, Quantity 6, Total 600g.
Here it is, the challenging wool.

So, I got on my white horse and started felting on my resist straight away with a lot of good will. I assumed that the coarser wool would need less layers to obtain the same felt (do not ask, pre-christmas chaos guinea pigs mind fugue hobblegobble chicachicacha) and I decided on 4 good layers.

Here are a few photos of my felting the first box:

A rectangle of laid out white wool just sprinkled with water, on a bubble wrap.
Starting from the bottom, that was the biggest area.
A work in progress of wet felt in white wool is on a table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap. There is a smaller rectangle covered in a small layer of wool resting over a bigger rectangle covered in white plastic sheets.
First layer on a short side. I took care to cover each already worked on part with a layer of plastic (I used plastic bin bags) as I learned from Lena Archibold’s advice on how to work with a book resist.
Folds wrapped in bubble wrap open over a rectangular shape wrapped in white plastic sheets.
Figuring out how to fold the different sides to get an even result was a bit puzzling at first, I spent some time opening and closing folds, it must have looked weird from outside!
A rectangle of wool pre felt has a layer of Merino wool on top. The Merino wool is half rectangle in orchid color, and bright yellow and teal on the other half rectangle, overlapping a bit the orchid color.
Yes, we are at the fun part of the 5th layer, when I could use dyed Merino wool for the wow effect!
Another rectangular side of the box. There is a rectangle of laid out Merino wool, half the rectangle is teal and half is orchid color, and the two colors overlap a bit.
Here is another side. I actually decorated both four sides, but forgot to take photos of the two smaller. Anyway, it is the same colours for all the sides, only different layout.
A smaller rectangle of wet and soaped Merino wool, with the upper part in teal, a small central line in yellow and a bigger area in orchid color, all slightly overlapping each other.
This is one of the small sides, all wet and soaped, being worked on.
A roll of pre felt is on a wooden table, covered with a white towel and a plastic bubble wrap.
And here we are at the rolling stage. I also used throwing and variously manipulating the shape.

Wait, let’s see if you were attentive: have you noticed that I said “first box”?

Exactly: here is how it stood after drying, that is to say not at all:

A felted object in orchid, teal, yellow and white wool is on a wooden table. The object seems to hold no particular shape.
No words, really.

It took more or less a day to felt, and a few days to dry. I liked the colours (a last layer of Merino wool, the 5th, to do that), and the shape ended up exactly the right size, but it would not stand, and I thought that it was because the layers were just not enough. I had enough wool to start a new one doubling the layers, so I went back to it using the same resist and the same type of wool (not my cleverest day, fine).

A big bag of white wool is being weighted on a scale on a wooden table.
I weighted the remaining wool and I found out that I only had used about 150 grams of it, so I had still about 450 grams to try again.

The steps were the same, only more layers, so I will not show more pics of it, only the final result when the box had dried:

A felted box with the sides slightly collapsing is on a grey sofa.
One side..
A felted box with a side in yellow and teal is on a grey sofa. The sides of the box are collapsing in.
..the other side. I did not decorate the small sides this time, but left them natural white, as they are not going to be seen when the box is in the bookshelf.

It was better, but still the sides were not holding up.

At that point, it was definitely time for my felting fairy godmothers to intervene: I asked the classic “Help, what did I do wrong?” on the Felting and Fiber Studio Forum and, thank goodness, got kind replies that explained the generic English wool issue as probable cause (so, no, adding more layers was likely not going to cure that, in case I still had not clicked on to that) and gave me very good advice on what I could try next to avoid throwing the 2 boxes into the scrap pile and to salvage them.

The suggestions were:

– to try and stiffen the sides or corners with machine or hand stitching

– to try and put a wire armature inside the felt or stitch it on the inside of the box

– to use PVA glue to stiffen the felt

– to stitch the two boxes together one inside the other, and maybe also

– to add some stiff padding, sandwiching it in between the two boxes.

Or possibly to try a combination of the above suggestions until the aim was reached. Which is exactly what I did, apart from the PVA glue and the stitching, both left as last resort, the glue because I was not fancying working with glue with such a big object, and the stitching because I do not have a sewing machine and it takes ages to stitch by hand.

What worked? well, clearly not one thing only, I had to go on trying to the last, but in the end I have a workable box and we are already using it, even though there is no lid yet.

First, I added thick wire to the inside of the box corners, with a few stitches. The felt was not thick enough to insert the wire into it, that would have been better. Sadly, it did not solve the issue totally.

Then, I stitched in place the first box (the thinner one) into the second box, leaving the upper edges open for putting in some padding if required. It was better still, but not there yet.

Lastly, I started looking for padding. Floor underlayer was suggested as good for that job, but when I went to look at my local DIY builders warehouse I did not find the exact type and thickness that I needed, and I came home empty handed. The same research online left me with too many choices, some of them a bit on the expensive side because with a required minimum purchase limit that was also way too high for my storage capability (What, 20 meters rolls minimum?? I do not live in Versailles palace!)

Luckily, as I told you, we were changing some pieces of furniture and it so happens that some had polystyrene sheets in their packaging: initially, I did not want to use that for a few reasons (it breaks easily, it is not going to be washable, it can disperse plastic bits in the environment in time..), but in the end it was there and I could use it instead of chucking it in the garbage bin, so it is kept out of the dump for a little while more. And it was free for me, and readily available.

So, I cut it to size with a knife (bits of polystyrene everywhere, not my idea of fun but the kids where jumping up and down like it was going to be disco party in a minute) and inserted it in the pockets in between the two boxes, and then a quick blanket stitching all around the upper edges did the job. In time I may unstitch it and change the padding, if I will feel so inclined and will have the time.

And here it is, my box done!

(the bottom part, at least)

A felt basket or box without lid, full of miscellaneous objects, on a grey sofa.
That is one side..
A felted basket or box without lid, and full of objects, on a grey sofa.
..and that is the other. Already full of stuff.

Now, for the lid, we will see. Who knows, it might be ready in time for my next blog post..only, don’t hold your breath for it, guinea pigs may be coming and all of that (how did I manage with my lazy excuses before them is a wonder, my friends!)

I hope that you liked my adventures, feel free to leave me a comment, as long as you do not ask me about hand stitching the whole box or preparing resists by hand stitching bubble wrap together, any other thing is totally fine.

Best wishes!

Kiki

@kiki.textile.art

http://www.kikistextileart.com

A stack of bowl cosies
A quick handmade Christmas present: bowl cosies

A quick handmade Christmas present: bowl cosies

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I had this big idea of creating a step-by-step tutorial for this post, but the flu is doing its rounds and I just didn’t have the energy. Sorry! Here’s an abridged version.

A few months ago, I went to a friend’s flat and she warmed up some food for me in microwave at dinnertime. She used a weird sort of mitten that she placed under the bowl, so that when we took the hot food out, we’d grab onto the fabric and not burn our hands.

Mind. Blown.
This thing was, she said, called a bowl cosy and I immediately wanted to make a dozen and hand them out.

 

A hand holds a handmade bowl cosy to demonstrate how it works. The background is blurred.
Now imagine a bowl on top of that fabric. No burnt fingers here!

These cosies are super easy to make, especially if you batch-sew them. They’re also great to use up scraps of fabric (some of mine were made with patchwork bits).

How to make a bowl cosy

  • Cut two 10″x 10″ (25cm x 25cm) squares. Fabric must be 100% cotton or other natural fibre.
  • Cut two 100% cotton/wool batting squares, slightly smaller than the fabric ones. I made mine ½” (1.25 cm) smaller all around.
  • Sew the fabric and batting together by making an X (see images above).
  • Sew darts as shown below, towards the wrong side of the fabric.

Image of a square with darts inserted where they should be sewn

  • Sew the now two bowl-shaped squares of fabric, right sides together, leaving an opening for turning.
  • Once sewn and turned, press and topstitch.
  • Tah-dah!
  • Make sure all fabrics are 100% natural, so they don’t melt in the microwave. I used nylon thread without issues but you might want to use cotton thread to be on the safe side.

I found a great illustrated tutorial by Lovely and Enough here.

These make great handmade stocking fillers and show you care about your loved ones not getting scalded hands. Nifty. You can even use themed fabrics to suit their preferences.

Two bowl cosies, one with cat-themed fabric, the other with dog-themed fabric

That’s it. I hope you found this idea useful, if you do, let me know in the comments or tag me on Instagram @eleanor.shadow 🙂

A stack of bowl cosies

Happy sewing, happy holidays, and see you next year 🙂

Further revelations on Onion Skins and book review on Pigments (plus new course announcement!)

Further revelations on Onion Skins and book review on Pigments (plus new course announcement!)

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I’m hoping the featured image will make you curious!

Before I start into my post I want to mention my new course on wet felting which was recently launched with the Felting and Fiber Studio. It’s designed for felt makers who are new to using resists.

It’s fully supported by ‘how to’ videos and PDFs and we work with the simple circle. You will learn how to make a vessel and at the end I discuss with you the possibilities of how you can take it further.

So, you start by learning how to make something like this ….

Then I discuss a few variations that can be made with the circle and you could choose after the course, to make something like this ….

I discuss how to make this sculpture on the new course

This course is permanently open so if you fancy it you can register anytime. Curious? Then feel free to head over to https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/classes/online-course-wet-felting-a-vessel-using-a-simple-resist/ to find out more.

Promotion over! Thanks for your patience, Now let’s move on to my post.

Onion skins were at the centre of my last post – I talked about making pigment out of the dye. I mentioned that I would return and show you a little bit more of what I did with some of the dye. Here is the link to the post in case you missed it: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2025/08/18/is-this-compost-or-dye-material-actually-its-both/

I had set aside around half of the onion skin dye pot to try out on some fabric (I used the rest to make the pigment). I decided to experiment with a little margilan silk and some woven wool fibre. I mordanted these fabrics first, using an alum solution. The alum attracts the dye particles and the colour is less likely to wash out.

Margilan Gauze dyed with yellow onion skins.
Woven wool sample dyed with yellow onion skins

 

I love the vibrancy of the results. I would describe the wool sample as deep orange while the silk sample turned out more of a golden colour. It is quite the challenge to get the photo to reflect the true colour of the fabrics. I now need to work out what to do with these two fabrics. To be honest, there is not a lot of either and I don’t have a toning fibre to use behind the margilan – I think I will have to make up another batch of the onion skin dye.

Once I finished dyeing the few bits of fabric, I transferred the remainder into a 5 litre container. I basically forgot about it and only remembered it when I came to put together this post. So it has been sitting around for two months.

Now I need to digress a bit. Our lovely little pooch, Archie developed a lump on his elbow a number of months ago. We have been keeping an eye on it as his vet warned that it would become impossible to remove if it grows much bigger. (there would not be enough surrounding tissue to easily sew up the wound). As fate would have it, it grew and Archie went ‘under the knife’. He was discharged wearing his ‘cone of shame’ which we quickly swapped for an inflatable version – much more comfortable for Archie and for the humans too – less bruising on our lower limbs. The only downside was that the cushioning around his neck caused him to snore. He sleeps in the bedroom with us and this was cute for about five minutes….. The cone was tied with an elastic bandage. I was having fun playing with the weave and thought it might be fun to felt with.

Archie in his blow up collar and sore paws

I made a bangle. First I laid down the bandage and wrapped it around a resist which matched the length of the bandage. Then I laid down layers of merino fibre – 6 thin layers in total. I felted it to fit my wrist and shaped it. The whole purpose was to see how it would take the old onion skin leftover dye. I did a cold mordant – I soaked it in 10% of its weight in alum and left it overnight. I rinsed it out and popped it into the dye bath, slowly bringing it to the boil.

Here is the result. The colour is a lot lighter than its first run. That said I decided to speed up the process as the smell of the dye bath was pretty awful. In fact it was pretty disgusting. I endured it for around one hour and then my nostrils got the better of me. I poured off the majority of the dye bath and then left the bangle to cool in the rest. I also lit a scented candle (it really did take away the stink – good to know going forward!)

Bangle made with merino and elasticated bandage dyed with yellow onion skins

While I like the colour, I think I will use it as a base to play with stitches. So I may be back to you on that.

I mentioned in my last post that I had just ordered a book on pigment making and that I might review it, if readers would like that. I know I am stepping away slightly from textiles and felt here but it is possible to combine pigment and textiles (alcohol inks anyone?). I was feeling quite excited as I had ordered the book and it was on the cusp of delivery. I got a positive response so here it is.

The book is called ‘Natural Watercolor Paint Making’ and it is by the artist Joanne Green. Some of you may already follow Joanne on Instagram (#joanne_green_art). I love watching her magically transform plant matter into pigments and then reconstitute it into a paint which she uses in sketches of the plant which has formed the basis of the actual pigment. Very clever and a great pleasure to watch.

Cover sleeve of Joanne Green’s book

Joanne’s book is beautifully presented and very readable. It’s a bit like sitting with a knowledgeable friend having a chat over coffee. The materials and supplies list is very comprehensive and I found that there’s really nothing on the lists that could not be sourced. With regard to the topics covered, I think the easiest way to show this is by sharing the contents pages. As you can see, there’s a whole section devoted to step by step instructions on how to make the lake pigment from the moment you have produced your dye bath through to turning your powdered pigments into watercolours and how to store your new treasures. Joanne is living in Canada but I can easily access many of the plants she uses in her recipes in Ireland.

Source: Natural Watercolor Paint Making; Joanne Green
Source: Natural Watercolor Paint Making; Joanne Green

Photography (primarily by Canadian photographer Tegan McMartin) – is sumptuous and a pleasure to view. It’s interspersed with Joanne’s tiny watercolours that are a feast to the eyes.

Source: Natural Watercolor Paint Making; Joanne Green
Source: Natural Watercolor Paint Making; Joanne Green

I am so pleased that I made the leap and purchased this book. I found it easy to source too. If you are a fan of Joanne’s social media postings or are curious about producing pigments, then it is a worthy purchase.

Eleanor Shadow with someone who had more colourful hair than she did
I did two yarn festivals in a month

I did two yarn festivals in a month

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Are you familiar with that feeling of agreeing to do something far away in time because you’re sure Future You will deal with it with grace and organisation? Since you’re sure Future You is much better at things than Present You, it’ll be a breeze when time comes. No? Just me?

As you can tell, I fell into this trap. I had already said yes to doing The Scottish Yarn Festival at the end of August, and when an invitation showed up in my inbox for Summer School mid-August, I thought, “easy breezy, I’ll be prepping for one show already, what’s the problem with another?” Famous last words.
(By the way, I wasn’t the only one flying by the seat of my pants, the Summer School roster doesn’t even include me in the website!)

For those who don’t know me, I am an indie dyer of yarns and fibres going by Eleanor Shadow. I run everything on my own, from admin to web design, to aaaall the hand dyeing of gorgeous fluff for the pleasure of the spinner and knitter. I do love what I do, but it’s hard work.

 

Top view of a hand dyed sock blank in rainbow colours, with sprinkles
An example of a rainbow I love to create, but that comes in multiple steps and takes longer than I ever remember

 

The passion I have for hand dyeing often makes me underestimate how much work something is; pair that with a neurospicy brain and there might be trouble!

The months of July and August were spent in a frenzy of planning, dyeing, sewing and art-batting (I know, not a word, but it represents the nervous energy spent at the drum carder extremely well). I never had enough time.

 

Multiple rainbow yarns drying on a rack, with a cheeky hand spun rainbow yarn in the middle
Rainbow hand dyeing and hand spinning drying. Behind the camera there’s one seriously dishevelled human trying her best to Do All The Things.

 

Top view of yarn in a dye bath, this is Apocalyptic Tweed in the sprinkles phase
Adding sprinkles to my colourway Apocalyptic Tweed

 

The end results, however, were wonderful. I had the most stock I ever had for any show, and consequently sold the most I ever had in a month.

Another fun thing about yarn festivals is meeting lots of different people. I was out-coloured by a lovely yarn-loving truck driver! Behold.

 

I didn’t have much time to peruse other people’s stalls, but I was sorely tempted by this prize-winning black fleece by BeautifulFleece.

 

A glimpse of BeautifulFleece's stall, with a luscious black fleece on display with the winner ribbon on top
Look how shiny those locks look! That prize ribbon gives me grabby-hands feels.

Finally, click here if you’d like to watch a video of my stall (which I’m not uploading directly here because it would be a chunky file!)

All in all, it was a blur of activity and also fun, and I wish I’d taken more photos… neurospicy brain, remember? I’m just glad I got all the yarn dyed and could put two sentences together during the events.

Tell me all about your own festival experiences, whether as a seller or buyer. Got suggestions? Leave them in the comments section, I’d love to know. Thanks for reading!

Sven Came Home

Sven Came Home

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We got the call the other day that our new (baby) ram is ready to come home. We decided to call him Sven. He has grown since April. He now weighs 70 pounds(32 kg).

Here he is with his fellow lambs. He is the one in the back with the white on top of his head. He knows something is up.

HI is still a baby, so he was easily rounded up and carried to the dog crate in the back of the van. He was not impressed with his travel accommodation.

Here he is looking back as we drove away. It made me feel sad.

But that didn’t last long, and he was looking out the front window. He didn’t complain much at all.

And now he is in his new temporary home. He will stay here for a few weeks to settle in, and then we will put him next to the Storm, our current ram, and the ladies to get acquainted.

Here he is listening to Storm and the ladies yell greetings from the other side of the barn. This was a couple of weeks ago. He is settling in nicely and no longer thinks my son is going to kill him when he brings him his grain. He will even let him pat him if there is grain on the offering.

Lastly, a couple of close-ups of his wool. I hope to make something nice out of it next year. The sun shot shows you the lovely colour.

FELT SWAPPING

FELT SWAPPING

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The International Feltmakers Association has been running an annual Felt Swap – setting a theme and linking members who’ve elected to join the challenge with a “swap partner” from somewhere in the world – since 2020.  I spotted the invitation to join in the 2025 swap on one of the regular emailed Newsletters and decided to have a go.  I started to write this post about the entry and remembered that I’d entered the first Swap and had posted about it.  However, when I trawled back through my posts to find the link for you, I found that I hadn’t actually written the post, let alone published it.  So we’d better start there.

The subject of that challenge was “Light”.  I thought a lot about this as it seemed such a wide subject and I didn’t know where to go with it.

To begin with I listed as many things as I could think of that could have anything at all to do with light and came up with: Light bulbs;   Bright light – dazzling – blurred;   Rainbow;   Prisms and light splitting;   Dark area with light coming in from one side;  Sun beams from behind clouds;   Fire light;   Moon light;   Lighthouse;   Northern Lights.

Clouds and especially stormy skies fascinate me and I thought that I could do something with this idea.  Initially I went for a sun low on the horizon just showing through some dark clouds but with rays going upwards behind the clouds.  For some reason this was not a success so was abandoned.

Then we had a thunderstorm and I had a lightbulb moment!  So I looked through some of Mr Google’s images just to remind myself what forked lightning looked like and then went for a storm over the sea, and used this image for reference.

dark sea, dark stormy clouds with forked lightning running from clouds to sea
Lightning at Sea

I have a collection of fibres, yarns and fabrics in my “stormy” project sack – too big to call a bag – and my first thought was to use some of those in the picture I had in mind.  I had already made a mixed media image of a storm at sea using various textiles and fibres and thought of doing something similar.

Mixed media picture of stormy clouds, rough sea, rocks, spray and wind tossed seagulls
Storm at the Coast

So I looked out some of the fabrics and yarns and other bits and pieces to see what I might use.

But in the end I decided that I wouldn’t use these for a couple of reasons: 1. this was supposed to be a “felt” swap; and 2. using the mixed media would possibly need a larger picture than I was making – we were limited to A5 size – 5.8 x 8.3 inches (sorry I don’t work in “the foreign” if I can help it).  I did use my stormy fibres though.

I was reasonably happy with the picture after it had dried, but decided to do a bit of tidying up and embellishing with some needle felting.

This is the final result

completed felt picture of storm at sea with dark clouds and forked lightning running down into the sea
The swap picture of LIGHTning

 

My swap partner, from Denmark,  sent me a felt bag, which was really good.  I didn’t want it to get dirty or damaged before I was able to use it and show it off so I wrapped it up and put it in a safe place.  So safe that …..!

Anyway, back to this year’s swap.  The theme for this one is “Inspired by an Artist”.

Again this was a very wide subject, first choose your favourite artist then find a piece of their work that sparks an idea.  I don’t actually have a “favourite” artist, I love the work of many: Constable; Canaletto; Turner; Rowland Hilder; William Morris and most of the Arts and Crafts artists and architects; Rennie Mackintosh….  I could fill up the page with names.  I trawled through works by most of these, bearing in mind the maximum size of the piece I was to make (8″ x 8″) the while.  In the end I decided that I would go with Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

I searched google and found several stained glass windows, one wall carving and a draft fabric design that I liked.

In the end though, I decided to go with a section of the last one, which I squared up and manipulated to make it the right shape and size.  The window is typical of the Art Nouveau period and “attributed to Mackintosh”.  I could not find out if it is actually his design but it is certainly very like his work.

I picked the centre of the window to work on and the enlarged and reshaped (slightly) design was printed off in greyscale and laminated.  I would be able to use the laminated design as a base on which to lay out the fibres.

a monochrome image of the window section covered in polythene sheet and the original image in colour
All ready to lay out the fibres

While I was looking through my stash for suitable fibres and pre-felts for the project I  happened to glance at the design which was inverted.  I immediately saw a face with an extremely runny nose!

the monochrome image rotated 15 80 degrees
This was when I spotted the runny nose!

Nevertheless I thought it would be fun to use the design of the face, since we were to produce something “inspired by” a favourite artist, rather than copy what s/he had produced.  This would allow me to get rid of the runny nose and I also wanted to change the colour scheme.

I had decided to use a piece of pre-felt which I had bought from Wingham Woolwork some years ago, especially as it was slightly moth eaten and I could use what I might otherwise have to throw away.  This was a lovely strong purple colour so I decided that my colour palette should be purple, turquoise and orange.

various fibres, yarns in purple, orange and turquoise, and an orange chiffon scarf
Picking colours and materials

The basic design was laid out in reverse, that is with turquoise knitting/felting yarn “face down” on  the design, with some fillings-in of orange fibres on top and two squares of turquoise where the “eyes” would be.  The purple pre-felt backing was placed on top of that and the whole wet felted.  Unfortunately this resulted in the straight lines becoming distinctly wavy – a good job this wasn’t a straight copy of the original!

After the piece was rinsed, dried and ironed, the remainder of the design was added by needle felting (which, together with the shrinkage during wet felting, had effectively removed the moth holes) and finally some simple embroidery stitches.

The piece has been mounted on foam board for stability.

finished face - orange eyebrows, nose and eyes with turquoise moustache, and facial features on a purple background
Finally – the Swap piece

This is the piece I received from my Canadian (Calgary) swap mate.  It is inspired by “Violet Poppies” by Emile Nolde https://arthur.io/art/emil-nolde/violet-poppy

Isn’t it gorgeous?

3 felted poppies with dark leaves on a yellow felted background, displayed in a circular embroidery frame
Swap piece received from Canada

A Sample for my Seat Cushion

A Sample for my Seat Cushion

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I decided to make a sample before plunging into making a seat cushion. I decided this for 2 reasons. First, I am not sure where most of the batts are hiding, so I only had a small batt handy. Second, I needed to do some quick felting for the blog today. The sample fit the bill perfectly.

This is a Swiss Mountain batt. I got it off Etsy a few years ago.

I decided 10 inches by 10 inches is a good size for a sample and makes shrinkage easy to calculate. Please excuse my dirty-looking table; it’s some sort of glue that won’t come off.

The edges a thin, so I folded them down to make it square.

I added a layer going up and down.

Once it was wet down, I folded the thin edge top and bottom to square it to 10 inches. That would have been enough to make a sample, but it would also be very boring.

I got out some balls of my handspun and made a spiral. Who doesn’t like a spiral?

I spent longer than normal rubbing so the yarn would stick without moving too much. My impatience usually results in wobbly lines.

Then, of course, lots of rolling to full it properly.

The finished sample ended up just about  7 by 7 inches

It ended up fairly sturdy. The spiral ended up holding its shape very well. However, it is quite hairy and I think it would be a bit prickly to sit on with thin pants or a dress. Once it is dry, I will try shaving it, but I don’t think it will work. There will still be short, strong fibres on the surface. I may have to try some Blue-faced Leicester or maybe some Corriedale. What’s your favourite strong wool for sturdy applications?

Upgrading my Fiber Prep system

Upgrading my Fiber Prep system

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Earlier this spring we went out to Princess Auto to look at some fiber prep equipment, who would have thot they would have such fabulous fiber equipment. The item I was considering was on sale, but Glenn thought he could modify my small fleece washing bins. I was getting sore, so we headed home without it. I had not-buyers-Regret.

It’s now June, last week was very hot, sunny and perfect for washing fleeces, but I had no buckets ready to go.  I was finding it more and more difficult to use the large buckets and strainer baskets. Tipping the buckets when they were full of water was getting challenging. What I was looking at has a drainage system that a tap and hose could be attached to. That would eliminate the tipping of heavy buckets full of very dirty water.

We are very lucky, we live in a city with two Princess autos. I went online to see if the West End store had one in stock, nope, but the East End store has four. So off we went in my little KIA soul to find “the item”.

75galon stock tank black with a drain.1) LITTLE GIANT 75 Gallon Black Poly Stock Tank, SKU: 9281205, In Stock Online, 4 available for In Store $129.99

This is called a stock tank. It is meant to hold water for cows or horses. This seems to be the smallest size with a drain option.  This one is 48 x 34.5 x 18 in. (L x W x H). In larger sizes, they are also used by athletes for ice baths, and by koi as a backyard pool.

When we arrived at Princess Auto, we headed to the customer service desk. The nice lady immediately asked what I was driving. I said “a KIA”! Her response was “I hope it’s not a Soul”. “Why yes, my soul is grey, not black!” I replied. She looked worried and called the warehouse. She asked if they thought it might fit in a Kia Soul. They were sure it would. I added “with a walker?”  The answer was still “it should”. We were to browse for about 5 minutes, and then go pick it up at the back of the store.

Ooh Lovely!! Yes, that will probably fit in the car. I purchased it and a couple of other things we found while browsing and headed back to the car.  Glenn was able to put it in the back of the Kia Soul, and stuff the grocery bags in the tub and still have room for the walker too!

When the last renter next door moved out, he left a metal backless bench. It’s very rusted and doesn’t have a cushion. I was going to put plants on it. I think I have a better idea. Glenn found the hose extension and the tap attachment, which we hooked up to the tank, which is now sitting on the bench with a base of 3 4×4’s for extra support.

close up vew of tap and hose extender 2.1) The stock tank sitting on 3 4X4s on top of the metal bench. Connected to the drain is a hose extender, then the tap valve and the old hose to send the water down the driveway.

All right, I have a hypothesis. This should be easier to use than the big round bins I had been trying to bend over to lift baskets and tip the bin to drain. (Lately, it tended to get me wet and make me sore. But, they did work!) You have seen me use the strainer baskets in previous posts, but I have to go one basket at a time. I think I can do at least 3 baskets per wash in the stock tub, and just turning the drain should be much easier on my back.

Now I need a volunteer fleece to help me test out the new tub. Cupcake has volunteered! Thank you, Cupcake!

flece a mix of colours from dark brown to bage and grey 3.1) Cupcake is a BFL X Romney fleece, which was 6.4lbs. 

Normally, I would set up my skirting table, but I gave away the extra small rain barrels, which were part of its supports. Ok, it looks like it was well skirted, and not too much Vegi-matter. So let’s see if I can sort directly into the strainer baskets.

I gave the stock bin a quick rinse and realised the drain is over an inch up the side….. ok, there will need to be a bit of tipping to get the last bit of water out. Silly me, I got too excited to be fleece washing again and put the soap in before getting a couple of inches of water added. Oh well, the suds will dissipate, eventually.

added soap too soon as i added water stock tank now has water covered in suds3.2) Too many suds, I guess the fleece is about to have a bubble bath instead of scouring.

Since I don’t have hot water outside and I don’t have a space inside to set up to wash fleeces, the fleeces get a bath in the ambient temperature water. That’s ok, if there is a bit of lanolin left in the fleece, it works wonderfully to wind bird feet and toes.

Now let’s see how many bins I can fit in. I think I may be able to get four in the stock tank! The fleece is (6.4 lbs), and I split it into five bins. It’s a bit tight, but I can get 5 bins in.

5 strainer baskets in soap filled stock tank3.3) 5 bins just fit in this size!

There is a smaller size of strainer basket if I want to work in smaller amounts. What I have now is the larger one from Dollarama.

the soap is helping the wool get wet 3.4) The soap (not Detergent) helps with wetting the fibre as well as releasing the dirt. Look at all the fabulous colours in this fleece

soap has disapated, water is a shade of dark brown, the 5 bins sit in the stock tub3.5) A good soaking and suds-be-gone, so time to get out of the bath.

draining one bucket before hanging it up to finish dripping, the dark brown water is visible in the stock tank.3.6) Look at the dark brown colour of the soap wash water as fleece-filled strainer buckets are coming out. That sheep was dirtier than it looked!

starting to refill the stock tank (the tank has 3 rings each suggests it is 25 gallons. i will be filling to the first line so 25 gallons3.7) Rinse #1 refilling stock tank to the first ledge.

lighter brown water after fist rince 3.8) Rinse #1, after the strainer baskets have been removed, inside the stock tank, the water is getting closer to clean!

The inside of the stock tank has 3 stepped edges, which are spaced to suggest each is 25 gallons, since the total it can hold is 75 gallons. So, I am using about 25 gallons for each wash and rinse of five strainer buckets.

Rinse #2 cleaner still, but we were rushing against the weather, which was threatening rain. I also had a camera malfunction…. Both the battery died (I can recharge it) and the lens cap I just bought a week ago broke. I will order another one.

2 stranier buckets saoking in second rince Draing strainer basket by resting it on the edge of teh stock tank. you can see the water is closer to clean then rince 13.91-3.92) End of rinse #2. And resting the strainer bucket on the side of the rim to drain most of the water out before hanging it up to finish dripping.

I can not feel the lanolin, and the fibre feels quite clean. I have had to rinse out fine sand each time I clean out the stock tank. Did this sheep have a fabulous beach holiday?

Glenn is on holiday, and since we are not going to the States, he is helping me today. Two of the strainer baskets look like they need another rinse, but three are looking good. So each basket that seems clean gets gently dumped into the spin dryer.

RV hand washer spinner for cloths4.1) This is an RV washer/spin dryer.

Think of it like a giant salad spinner for clothes, er.. Fleece! There is a dial at the lower edge that can turn on the drain or keep the water in and rotate your clothes.  I set it to drain, and Glenn spun it for me! I found this at a second-hand store, recognised it as a wonderful fibre prep equipment, and bought it!!

the lid off teh RV washer spinner showing fleece inside4.2) just like a giant salad spinner (but I don’t advise it for clothes or salad after all the fleeces it’s been washing.

Glenn brought the drying racks (from Ikea) up from the basement and put them under the covered area of the back patio (the part that doesn’t have blacksmithing stuff)

sears Robuck light dutie farm forge, and larger forge under cover.5.1) the small forge, Sears-Roebuck light duty farm forge and the bigger forge under the large black cover.

We set one drying rack up behind the large forge and the other on the other side by the house.

the green strainer bucket is from the RV spin washer 5.2) The green bucket is handy to move the fleece to the drying racks.

first bucket full on driying rack with plastic owl watching in back grond wool is on ike cloths drying rack5.3) The plastic owl takes his job of guarding the wool seriously.

the patio behind the bigger forge, has 2 drying racks full of fleece, a rain barrel and wooden fence in background  5.4) Two buckets on the right drying rack, and one on the Left. The plastic owl is still supervising. I hope it keeps the evil chipmunk from “Helping”. He will be eating all my blackberries shortly!

blackbarry plants with flowers along the back of the brick house, blue tarp covers blacksmiths foot vice5.5) This is part of the blackberries along the house, and one of Glenn’s blacksmith footed vices under the blue tarp. It could be a very good crop of blackberries (which will make up for the rabbit cutting all the canes off at about a foot for the raspberries.

We pulled out the last two buckets to drain a bit before going onto the racks. And I got busy weeding and then adding more little plants of Tie basil and parsley to the planters. There is a bit more Thai basil and weeding to do, but it’s starting to drip.  What have we learned in previous summers about drying wool?  If you put wool out to dry, it will probably rain….

We moved the 2 draining buckets a bit closer to the overhang, moved the umbrella to give more cover and then put the drying fleeces back in their buckets and moved them and the racks under the cover of the dog-covered area of the side yard. I had a barking Cat, not a dog. He didn’t like to go out if it was raining, so we had to cover a section for him. It’s where I set up my outdoor studio. I haven’t got that sorted out yet this summer.

2 ikea cloths driying rack full of drying fleece5.6) Moved drying racks under cover to avoid the rain.

In the morning, the wind is up, and the fibre is still there, but still not dry. Ok, one drying rack when in front of the garage under the last umbrella, and the other went by the side door.

one drying rack moved under umbrella by garage one rack by side door wool is getting closer to dry but still is a bit damp5.7-5.8) I still have one strainer basket to put out to dry.

strainer basket of wool wating for space to put wool on drying rack5.9) The last strainer basket waiting for space on the drying racks.

I have been ready to start another fleece, but with the drying racks being full, I don’t have a spot to put them once they are washed. So this is the new bottleneck in fleece washing.

Let’s review the Stock tank: Pros /Cons

chart of pros and cons of the stock tank

6.1) Chart of pros and cons that I can think of for the stock tank as a fleece washing tool.

For those who want to see if the washing worked, let’s take a last look at this lovely fleece.

locks of wool draped accross fingers locks of wool Blue faced lester cross romni draped on ruler very crimpy lenght is up to about 3.5inches long7.1-7.2) Washed locks of BFL X Romni. The locks are very soft and crimpy. Unstretched, the locks range up to 3.5 inches

If you think this may work for you and are now thinking about a quest for a stock tank, look at farm supply stores if you don’t have access to such a diverse store like Princess Auto (they also have some blacksmithing equipment).

So I think the stock tank will be a great improvement to fleece washing. I will now have to figure out an upgrade to my fleece drying equipment. Maybe I will have to take the long, arduous, 7-stop sign (one is in their parking lot) trip to IKEA and get a third drying rack. I love an excuse to go to IKEA!!! (and it is just down the street, dangerously close to home.) I hope you are enjoying lovely fleece washing weather and getting some fun felting done while the fleeces are drying!

UPDATE: the Princess Auto Flyer just arrived. the 75 Gallon stock tack will be going on sale July 1-13th 2025, but the store is closed July 1st for Canada day. check on line, there may be a free shipping option. or watch for one at a garage sale!