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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.

A frontal photo of the Side Eye jumper
When knitting rebels against you…

When knitting rebels against you…

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…or, “when you’re a monogamous knitter and can’t bring yourself to knit anything else, even when you’re tired” – that could be the alternative title, it just slides out the tongue, doesn’t it?…

I am the sort of weird person who can’t stand multiple unfinished projects, I’ll definitely forget they exist if I don’t give them my full attention until completion. Sadly, this means I am stuck with a knitting project that challenges the brain even when said brain is clearly too tired to work on it. I’ve been very busy lately but also very stubborn and insisting I can knit something complicated even when I can hardly keep my eyes open.

Clearly this is headed for success!

Let’s backtrack: I got obsessed with a colourwork jumper I saw on Ravelry a while ago called Side Eye. To my eyes it is magnificent and just the sort of thing my wardrobe is wanting. I had some precious baby Yak yarn that would be perfect for it.

A frontal photo of the Side Eye jumper
Photo by Caitlin Shepherd

Of course, I apparently also crave chaos, because the version I really wanted to knit was one that had some colour changes. I wanted the same version as a Ravelry user called Viorelknits had made. Their version took my breath away and I needed one just like it.

Viorelknits' version of the Side Eye jumper
Photo by Viorelknits

To the unconfounded mind, this version might seem like a simple question of creating a couple of extra rounds in the knitting to switch colours and Bob’s my uncle. To my very confounded mind though, this was a bit of a nightmare. My tired braincells just refused to compute the change. Did this mean I rested and came back later? No, this meant lots of swearing and persisting!

My version of the Side Eye jumper, still unfinished

I have so far managed to knit the bottom successfully, but had trouble interpreting the changes Viorelknits made to their version to make the colour change possible in the section shown on the needles above. This means the beginning of my ram’s head doesn’t look as neat, and now there’s a possibility I might have to frog part of the top bit – can you imagine how much work it’ll be undoing colourwork?

So, wish me luck and keep me accountable, let’s see if my next blog post features a finished jumper, or whether I have instead gone into hiding and hate all yarn until infinity.

See you next time 🙂

Some pre-felt on top of a hessian stabbing mat, with sewn lines made to resemble a postcard
A Christmas card swap, except Jan’s card is still with me

A Christmas card swap, except Jan’s card is still with me

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Firstly, if you’re Jan and don’t want a spoiler about your card, stop reading immediately!

I think I’m jinxed. There, I said it. For last year’s seasonal card swap, I was paired with the lovely Hélène and the card I sent her was returned to me by Irish Customs, who didn’t deign my wares good enough to cross its country’s borders. This year, I am unable to send my finished card to Jan because Royal Mail says no (well, Canada post says no, they’re not accepting any mail until their strike is resolved).

If I take part in next year’s swap, you might want to avoid me as a partner…

This year I decided to take the notion of a postcard rather literally; I wanted something the size and look of one, and so decided to put my sewing machine to use.

Some pre-felt on top of a hessian stabbing mat, with sewn lines made to resemble a postcard

I cut some pre-felt almost to size and marked down the lines typical of a postcard using a heat-erasable pen. See the twisted red wool on the top left corner of the photo? At first I had the idea of felting the lines with it, until I realised it would take me forever and not look half as good as using the sewing machine. I changed tactics.

After sewing those lines I wrote down my seasons greetings. I was ambitious in what I wanted to say, as you’re about to see.

The beginnings of the writing on my wool Christmas card, where I wrote "Dear Jan, Happy..."

Using yarn, I worked with a felting needle and carefully started following the outlines of the words. I immediately realised my “handwriting” wasn’t going to be as small as I intended. Oops. If you look carefully at the picture above, you’ll see the next word I was meant to write was “holidays,” which is larger than the already felted “Happy.”

More words needle felted onto the wool, saying "Dear Jan, Happy Xmas! L xx"

Where did the word “holidays” go? Well, sometimes you have to pick your battles. Let’s pretend this was the plan all along, shall we?

And then, off to the decorating and making it a more seasonal card.

The almost-finished card with a 3D Christmas tree needle felted on the right

There was something missing in the background… so I did the foolish thing of working that part after having the foreground finished. However, I think it was worth it, but you can judge by yourselves.

The same felted card as before but the needle felted Christmas tree has a blue background also in wool felt

Much better, I hope you agree! I particularly like the detail of the present with the bow made from yarn.

Now it was time to cut the card to size and glue it to a real postcard (a blank one made from watercolour paper). I sadly don’t have a good enough photo of the card’s front, so you’ll just have to imagine the above image in the correct size and without the markers that I removed with a steam iron.

Here’s the back of the card:

The back of my card, made of paper. It has some drawn birds, a doodle of a cat in lieu of a stamp and some greetings to Jan

“I hope this card reaches you in time” was written before I knew Canada postal services were not only delaying deliveries but had altogether halted them. Sorry, Jan!

I will have this on its way to you as soon as possible.

(By the way, see the smudge under the flying bird? That wasn’t me being clumsy at all, no siree, that was completely on purpose and represents the movement and plight of the avian creature as it strives to reach its maximum potential. Cough cough…)

Seasons greetings, everyone! Thanks for reading.

 

A Knight’s Helmet

A Knight’s Helmet

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Along with the Ottawa Valley Weavers’ and Spinners’ Guilds 75th anniversary Show in Almonte that Jan told you about here https://wp.me/p1WEqk-hG9 we also had a smaller exhibition at our guild sale with the theme of Diamonds. I told you about making the diamonds here https://wp.me/p1WEqk-his   They needed something to make them more relivent so I enlisted Jan to make a dragon hand. I am sure she will tell you about it.  Then I thought I should make a bowl for everything. That seemed a little boring so I decided a Knight’s Helmet would be much more dramatic.

The helmet needed to be sturdy to hold the shape so I decided to use some Tyrollean wool batt I got before the pandemic, I think. It makes a nice sturdy felt. I think it is a type of Bergschaf. I am told bergschaf just means mountain sheep and not a particular breed. It would be a different breed in different places.

It had this helpful chart on the back.

It is a very nice grey, the batt is fairly consistent and I didn’t need to add many extra bits to thin spots. Most batts I have tried have been very inconsistent in thickness.

Next was laying out wool for the top, bottom and nose peice of the helmet.

At this point, I decided I didn’t want the nose piece attached. it was going to affect the shrinkage in the spot so I removed it and made it a separate piece along with the strapping that will go on later as well.

After that, it was a lot of rubbing and rolling and bashing until it was shrunk to the right size.

then it needed to dry in the right shape. I wanted it to be round. No idea why, it was just what I had in my head as the idea. I found a bowl the right size and stretched it into shape, fine-tuning the edges by using small tugs until the edge was “straight”  Sorry for the bad picture, it was on the dining room table and windows or glass fronted cabinets are the only options for backgrounds.

Next time I will show you the extra pieces being added and the finished piece.

A Few Felt Samples

A Few Felt Samples

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I am out of time to do an original post today.  So it’s a throwback post. This one is from the early days of 2012.

Doing samples is fun and I still have the last two. They are just fun to have.

I haven’t been doing much that is interesting to look at lately. Everything is white and is waiting for the dye pot.  I thought I would show you some samples I made a little while ago. The first 2  are purple merino with some silk strips on them. I thought they came out nicely with lots of texture.

Purple wool with strips of silk before felting

Purple samples after felting

The second is orange merino with some silk and curls on it, here I wanted to felt the curls right into the background. I also wanted to see how it would stick if I put it over the silk. I really like the way the little blob of curls all became one with nice texture. The curls going across the silk stuck down very well. Enough wool migrated through the silk to grab the courser wool of the curls.

Orange wool with silk and curls before felting

Orange sample after felting

This last set I wanted the curls to be attached at the base and left loose and hanging for the rest of their length. I use a small piece of scrap floor underlay with a hole in it so the wouldn’t stick down. It worked very well. I am not sure how I ended up with one really long curl.

Small samples with curls with their resists on before felting

Small samples with curls after felting.

I am not sure what I am gong to do with these. I might make some buttons or hair clips. Do you have any ideas?

75th Anniversary Events

75th Anniversary Events

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As some of you know this year has been the 75th Anniversary of the OVWSG.  One of the events has been a monthly destash for guild members.  This is beneficial for members on so many levels.  Those with too much can clear out, while those who want to experiment can have the opportunity to try new products.  I’m in the later group.  One of our most talented weavers was clearing out a huge quantity of singles from a very reputable firm, in colours that I loved.  I pounced on them.

The intention is make a rouana or serape.  I’m starting with a piece that is 45″ wide by 90″ long and will work on finishing edges after it is woven and fulled.  The piece will get thicker and narrower, I hope.

The pattern is a basic twill in one inch stripes, very simple and hopefully showing the great colours.

The loom I’m using is not my own.  We are very fortunate to have access to rental equipment at our Guild and for a very reasonable cost we can use the equipment there.  So I opted to rent one of the Guild’s looms for three months.  This will force me to leave the house to finish this project.  Setting some goals and discipline is a good thing in the winter, right?

Warping the loom is slow going because I lost the cross on one section.  This is very disappointing and will be problematic as the threads are wound onto the back of the loom.  It’s not insurmountable, just annoying.

I am going to have to be very careful here, but I think I fixed the problem on the next few sections with some small innovations.

The bamboo skewers are wrapped on either side of the cross and I can pick the threads from alternate sides to stop them from getting tangled.  This was a real time and sanity saver.  Dressing a loom is a series of steps.  Each one needs to be done with an element of care and thought. From the initial calculations and colour selection, to fiber choices and use of end product, then threading the pattern, tie-up, treadling, and finally weaving. It all takes a bit of thought some more than others.  So for now I have left the colour selection and fiber choice to a very talented member of the Guild,  the pattern is mine, the end product will be a rouana or serape in a twill.  It has been measured and threaded through the reed, next it must be threaded through all the heddles, tied onto the back beam, wound on, tied onto the front beam and I’ll be ready to go.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, next step, will be threading through heddles, all 450 or so.  Heddles are those silver wires on the right.  Wish me luck. I have three months to finish this, so I’m good.

A rare view inside Ashford Wheels and Looms, New Zealand

A rare view inside Ashford Wheels and Looms, New Zealand

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As textile folk, many of you are familiar with the New Zealand company Ashford Wheels and Looms. In fact some may own an Ashford product as they also sell hand carders, drum carders and many other tools and accessories.

They sell all around the world.

Me, I am the proud owner of a set of their hand carders and a drum carder, they are invaluable tools when it comes to my felt making.

Here’s a question:  what have Lego and Ashford Wheels and Looms got in common?  I will tell you at the end of the post.

Back to my story.  You probably have experienced one of those rare moments in life where the planets aligned – a real ‘right place right time’ moment.  This happened to me earlier this year.  Last February, we did a once in a lifetime trip to New Zealand.  At this stage I can’t tell you how many time zones we traversed but, travelling from Ireland, but were a long time in the air and we covered over 18,000km.  I loved every minute of the trip and we factored in time to spend at the Ashford store in Ashburton on the South Island.  So for anyone who has or is thinking about purchasing anything from the store, here’s some photos and a story that might fill in the blanks on your lovely pieces.

I was so excited when our hire car pulled into the car park.  I jumped out and started talking to the first person I met.  By sheer stroke of luck I was talking to the company’s owner Richard Ashford.  My second bit of luck was that he and his lovely wife Elizabeth were about to lead a factory tour for an American group.  He introduced me to the group (which I thought was very courteous of him) and off we all headed into the factory.  The couple’s charisma and energy shone through during the tour.  They were both about to retire from the family business making way for a new generation of Ashford’s to take over the business which has been on the go for over 90 years.  I wish them both a happy and healthy retirement and I want to thank them both for making the morning I spent in their company so warm and memorable.

So if you are the proud owner of one of the 900,000 Ashford products which have been made so far in Ashburton, give us a shout and let us know what treasured item you own.  If you are thinking of buying, the slide shows may well whet your appetite.  Enjoy this rare view inside the factory.

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Stockists are all over the globe.

My next stop was a wander around the store.  Think kid in a sweet shop in this regard.  The only issues that held me back were the fact that there’s only so much that would fit into the suitcase and the realisation that I can buy from one of many stockists in Europe – happy days! Here’s a sneak peak of the interior of the shop:

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I hope you enjoyed these special holiday photos. Please feel free to reach out and tell us what Ashford pieces you own (or what is on your wish list)

Answer:  both are highly successful companies who started out making wooden toys.

One frog and one toad, both hand knit, sat on a desk. One is wearing a turtleneck jumper and the other one dungarees and a shawl
When knitting is tiny

When knitting is tiny

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Does your crafting mojo wane and wax like the phases of the moon? Mine does. I have a fairly narrow set of interests but it’s up to the Gods of Craft when I work on one of them.

After my knitting took a back seat for a few weeks, I started feeling the need to get the needles and yarn out and create something cute and tiny. I didn’t feel ready to tackle a bit knitting project, my brain was asking for a quick reward. Enter a frog and a toad!

One frog and one toad, both hand knit, sat on a desk. One is wearing a turtleneck jumper and the other one dungarees and a shawl

If you are familiar with India Rose Crawford on Instagram, you’ll know her cute frogs poised in adorable miniature cosy scenes. If you’ve never heard of her, I highly encourage you to have a look, her attention to detail is fantastic.

I bought a knitting kit featuring India Rose’s frog pattern (jumper included) and when the time was right I begun working on it. My first attempt didn’t quite go to plan, as I mistakenly placed the eyes on his bottom… poor thing ended up looking much more like an axolotl than a frog.

 

Axolotl
A real axolotl. Photo by National Geographic

 

A knitted from resembling an axolotl
My “frog” with eyes on his bum, poor thing…

The knitting gods were mocking me but I persisted! A couple of days later I had a new cute amphibian with a wired armature.

An unfinished knitted frog with wires for arms. My hand is holding his torso.

Knitting an i-cord around wire isn’t easy, let me tell you. It’s fiddly work but the end result is super worth it. And yes, the background for the photo above is my pyjama bottoms – evening knitting works best in cosy loungewear.

A knitted frog next to a mini knitted jumper, still on the needles

The gods played tricks on me once again as I didn’t have enough yarn to finish the mini jumper, so I frogged it (if you’re not familiar, “frogging” refers to when you remove a project from the needles and undo the stitches, the resulting “rip-it” motion being similar to the word “ribbit.” Fitting for this post, no?) After adding some blue stripes this dapper gentleman was ready to stay cosy.

I seem to enjoy making things in pairs, as soon as I was done with the frog I decided it needed a friend and Toad was born. I even bought a tiny dungarees pattern for added whimsy. The front pocket was my own creation.

A hand holds a small knitted toad wearing knitted brown dungarees.

And there you have it, two quick dopamine-inducing knitting projects that eventually led me to a human-sized jumper a few days later. I’ll have to frog that project too, but that’s a subject for another day.

A hand knit frog is sat on the edge of a table with a standing knitted toad next to it.

And, finally, here is an image of what India Rose Crawford does with her knitted frogs. Amazing, isn’t it?

Photo by @indiarosecrawford on Instagram

Maybe I’ve inspired you to knit something tiny. If you do, let me know in the comments section. Thanks for reading.

Twist 2024; Part 2 – Demos!

Twist 2024; Part 2 – Demos!

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HAPPY HOLIDAY MONDAY to those who are enjoying the long weekend!

Last post we drove out to Twist Fibre Festival, in the heavy rain, and checked out some of the booths. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/08/23/twist-2024-part-1-shopping/

As you saw, this year there was a reasonable distribution of different vendors for weavers, spinners, sewers/Quilters and yarn for knitting and crochet. for felters I only found one that had felt things (boots and slippers) and two that had tools and one had needles.

DEMOS At TWIST

At 1:45 pm, I arranged with the workshop people to get a table and a couple of chairs for our demo space. it was the best spot for demoing, right outside the main arena, where everyone would pass. Since there was no demo box, which had tablecloths and other demo supplies, I was left with whatever I had in the car and the felt pieces I had brought to choose from, as a display. I went back out to the car, to drop off shopping (we will look at that later) and see what I had to work with.  I found an old sign I had made for the carp fair in 2017. (No idea why it was still in the car)  It was in a plastic sleeve, on card stock. It had our web address, a bit of info about workshops and our name. OK, signage covered? I have a number of lightweight black car blankets to cover stuff in the back of the car, which will work to cover the table.  I also grabbed the bag of felt pictures, the bag of wool I had brought to work from, and 2 of the braids I just purchased. With the walker loaded, I rolled back through the rain, off to set up a demo.

As I was setting up I had people dropping their stuff on the table, to get organized before going out in the rain. So I only used 2 of the black blankets to allow space at the end of the table, in case more people needed to prep for the weather. I set up all the felting I had brought and pulled out the Dragon hand (more about that even later too!) to add the first colour layer. I didn’t actually get much done on that, but I had a steady stream of questions about felt pictures, sculptures, armatures, needles and wool.

French was my favourite class up to grade 7 when our new teacher decided to teach us to read and write in French. I was very optimistic and had a working hypothesis, that I was enthusiastically testing; maybe I am not dyslexic in French! That did not work out as well as I had hoped and was proven to be a false hypothesis. While I was enjoying French, my English teacher was not. It seems my English spelling worsened and I was kicked out of French, by my English teacher….. I have since lost most of the vocabulary I had acquired before my ignominious removal.

So I was very pleased when another guild member dropped by at the end of her shopping as she waited for a friend to finish a workshop she was in. She had a sweet little support spindle and fibre to demonstrate spinning and spoke French! She was able to chat with many more of the people who stopped and was able to answer their questions or translate what I said. I was so happy that she was there to help!  By the time she left, the crowd had decreased and I was able to chat with most of the remaining people.

This was a great spot and I hope they will ask us back next year.

demoing of felting, pictures, and a few sculptures with armatures
It was very busy, and these pictures, as I set up, were the only ones I got during the demo.

Friday demo space, the table was beside the the door going into the area of the Arena.
The demo spaces at the end of Friday are all ready for the Saturday demo teams.

Sunday Demo teams Spinning, Weaving, Fiber prep with a swing picker10.1- 10.3) Demoing Friday afternoon, demo space at 6 pm, and Sunday demo teams

Now should we check and see if we bought the same things during shopping?  What did you select?

braids of fiber, spindles, silk, a small bat of green, a breed study kit from World of wool, 2 bags of locks, a small bag of cashmear, battery pack for EEW6. Book The Techniques of Tablet Weaving.
Friday’s Shopping

close up of braids most are combed top, 2 plastic spindles,
Close-up of Friday’s Shopping

Sunday's Shopping, 2 more braids of top, 2 twist angle guides,2 more of those spindles i got on friday, a pen holder for a note book, extra parts for the EEW6.
Sunday’s Shopping

10.4, 10.5, 10.6)Shopping!! braids, wheel parts, spindles, fibre, Book, Silk, Cashmere and twist guides!

On to The Shopping!!

On Friday: I found 7 Braids of combed top, most were BFL, Targi and a Romni cross in deep tones. Many were dyed over grey wool. 2 large top whirl 3-D printed drop spindles, I was crossing my fingers there would be a few remaining on Sunday since they spun like a dream, holding their spin for an extended period of time.  In the top picture (10.4) you will notice I found the Collingwood tablet weaving book I was about to order, and beside it is a mysterious cardboard box!  That is holding my new battery, it will make my EEW6 spinning wheel free of electric plugs!!  I had purchased a bag of these locks before and liked them enough to get 2 more bags this year! I was intrigued by a breed discovery pack from World of Wool (I was inspired by the upcoming workshop on Sunday), a green batt, a small bag of cashmere from the Black Lamb, and a small bag of grey/silver silk that may wind up on the dragon hand.

On Sunday after the workshop, I finished my shopping. First I was off to find 2 more of the spindles I had liked so much, then off to look at a couple more braids of combed top. (Batts are easier to needle felt but the colours!!! I could not help myself!!!)  Yes, I did cave and get a braid with Merino, bamboo and silk, it was the colour! and it will likely hang out with one of the spinning wheels. I found 2 twist angle guilds for the spinning wheels to share. I went back to get info on how to hook the battery up to the electric spinning wheel and also got an extra parts bag, just because I had not seen them available anywhere and it’s good to have spare parts when you need them. Lastly, I also found something for Ann, she has been looking for one for a while but she will tell you about the item in the paper bag (no it isn’t a knotty nostepinne!!)

Although my shopping skills are not up to Carlene’s ability, I did try my best! I hope your vicarious shopping has inspired your next felting, spinning or weaving project!

Thanks to Glenn for carrying loot and wheels on Sunday (he did not shop, since there was a serious lack of blacksmithing related items at the fibre festival, maybe he will have more luck next year? He did enjoy a nice day of reading a book.)

Still to come: Twist 2024; Part 3 – Breed Study Workshop, but first a quick trip to an impressive tapestry exhibit! that will be for next week! Have a wonderful long weekend for those who are partaking!!

Textured art yarn made from locks on a skein winder
A bit of this, a bit of that

A bit of this, a bit of that

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Hello! The writing of this blog post comes to you on a day where I am quite sleep-deprived, so you will have to excuse my possibly being a little off my writing game…

Allow me to start by showing you some art batts I created a little ago. I love art batts in general, there’s so much texture and colours to look at. I do so enjoy the batt-making process as well, looking at all my fibre and deciding what goes where, and how much… Anyone else feel this fascination when creating textured fibre sandwiches?

Speaking of textures, I recently spun an art yarn using some Leicester Longwool locks in their natural formation and I swoon every time I look at that texture…

Textured art yarn made from locks on a skein winder

This will become a weaving of some sorts, I am handing over the yarn to a fellow Edinburgh guild member so he can create some magic. I told him I wasn’t sure whether I was handing him treasure or a lemon (I believe textured weaving is new to him and I also have some plying inconsistencies on this skein), and he replied saying he would think of it as a pomegranate instead. I thought that was quite funny.

It is one heavy skein, as you might attest by the silly photo I took of it on my head.

Eleanor holds a massive skein of art yarn on top of her head

Finally, I also have news on my needle felted raven! The photos aren’t the best, forgive me, but this chap is almost complete. Unfortunately my customer didn’t like his blue eyes (a colour only present when they are young) so I have ordered some new ones to replace these. Once I do that I think he is complete. What do you think, is he finished? Would you change anything? Feedback welcome.

That’s it for today, let me know your thoughts and have a lovely week!