My Spinning Journey

My Spinning Journey

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I often wonder how people first get into fibre crafts.  Whether they learned them from a family member or fell upon them quite by accident.  For Alex and I, we discovered felting during lockdown, but as a young girl, I had the opportunity to try spinning in school.  Our needlework teacher brought her spinning wheel in for one lesson, to show us how to spin fibre into wool.  I was lucky enough to have a go, and I loved it.  Sadly, it was a one-off lesson that was never to be repeated, but the love of creating wool from fibre is something that has stayed with me all my life.  So having  tried felting, and then moving on to weaving, the natural progression was to think about creating my own yarns to use in weaving.  I started to search online for a wheel, not really knowing enough about them! I came across an advert for an ‘old traditional Welsh spinning wheel’.  As it was local to me, I went to take a look at it and immediately fell in love with it.  It was so pretty!!

I had done a little research, and knew to check that all the relevant parts were still attached, so when I looked at this one, I did a mental checklist and was satisfied that nothing seemed to be missing.  The older couple who were selling it explained it had belonged to the lady’s great aunt, and she had inherited the wheel but never used it.  In my head I though fab, I’ve found a little gem and decided to call her Angharad (a traditional old Welsh name).  However, when I started to look at getting it to work I realised that there were some anomalies.  For example, the footman seemed much too long and something seemed wrong with the way it connected to the wheel hub.  Also, there was no sign of wear and tear anywhere, and I also realised another big mistake….there was no way I was ever going to spin art yarn on a flax wheel, even if I could get it to work! But I could still see the value in spinning other fibres, so set about trying to make it work.  Eventually, I had to concede defeat and started looking for a different wheel.  By this time, I’d learned a lot more about what I needed my wheel to do, and set my heart on an Ashford.

 

Social media is a great place to find little gems (as well as the not so good!).  I eventually found an advert for an Ashford Traditional, that was built in the 1989/91 that was still unassembled in its original box!  So, it was a vintage, but like brand new.  The chap that was selling it (Bob Granger), was quite local and told me that he works out of Craig-y-Nos Country Park, and renovates spinning wheels!! So I seized the opportunity to tell him about my Welsh wheel, and he kindly offered to take a look at it for me!! I was so happy  to have found someone with the skills and knowledge, who was only in the next county to where I live!!

 

When I arrived, I was in awe of both the location and Bob’s knowledge.  Having purchased the new wheel, I left old Angharad with Bob, to see what miracles he could do to get her working.  But what a fantastic place to work!! I was totally taken aback by the beautiful location of Craig-y-Nos… What a truly amazing work-life balance to have…

This is the view from Bob’s workshop!

Having taken my new Ashford home, I decided that I would call her Valerie after my late Mum.  That way, every time I spin I will think of her.  I couldn’t wait to start putting her together.  I opened the box and checked nothing was missing, before I waxed all wooden pieces ready to assemble.

  I couldn’t have found a ‘newer’ wheel second hand even if I tried!

 

It even still had the original packer’s details in the box!  I wonder if she’s retired now…

Having assembled Valerie, I couldn’t wait to start spinning!  I think I did a good job of the assembly.

Sadly, Bob and his friend tried their best with Angharad, but despite shortening the footman, shortening the flyer and fixing the metal part that connects the footman to the axle, it still wasn’t viable.  To be honest, I don’t think it had ever been used!! It seems ironic that someone would go to the trouble of putting so much time and effort into making such a beautiful spinning wheel that would never work.  The bobbin was fixed to the flyer – although it would spin, you can’t remove it and it’s so small, it would hold hardly any yarn!  I now have to decide whether to keep the wheel for it’s beauty or whether to sell it on as an ornament! Pete is hoping that I will sell her as the house is fast being taken over by my hobbies!

This was my first attempt at spinning on Valerie.  My friend and neighbour Debi was kind enough to give me some Corriedale fibre that she didn’t need, so this was my first go.

As you can see, it’s quite ‘chunky’!

But to be fair, as I want to use the yarn for weaving weft, I can still use it.

My next spin was a merino wool which I decided would look interesting plied with the corriedale.

I was quite pleased with the end result…

  I tried some experimenting with the plying technique, to see whether I could make some interesting bobbly effects.  It’s all a learning curve!

I think my next attempt was a lot neater.  I used an art batt that I purchased, and tried my hand at making a thinner yarn this time…

Around this time, we went up north to visit Pete’s family.  I decided to take my spindle, to practice my drafting.  It worked really well in the car and it also gave me a chance to feed my new-found addiction to spinning!  I think I managed to spin a much thinner yarn and it’s all practice isn’t it.

     

I’m still picking up the spindle in between spinning on Valerie, and it’s now nearly full!

I have purchased a lovely book to help me in my quest to learn spinning.  I have to say, when it arrived, I was so impressed with it.  I was lucky enough to buy an unused second-hand copy, and it’s like new.  It kind of matches my purchase of Valerie.  Both previously owned by someone who never used them.  For a novice spinner like myself, I can honestly recommend this book by Sarah Anderson for its clear instructions with beautiful illustrations. But it’s equally good for experienced spinners who want to learn new yarn designs…

Here are some of my creations, I hope you like them!

   

I also invested in a cute little Niddy Noddy, to help me put my yarns into skeins.  I opted for the type that can be taken apart and fits into one of my many fibre boxes (see Pete, I am trying to reduce the space my hobby is taking up in the house!!) I also bought the extension for it, so I can make 1 or 2 yard skeins.  I got it from a great little Etsy shop called Hairy Dog Crafts and it works really well! I love the names on some of these shops!

Of course, no blog from us would be complete without the usual interfering cats.  To say they are still as fascinated by wool fibre goes without saying but I have discovered that for Eccles, it also extends to pictures… here she is having taken over my book!

And Elliot had to make his usual blog appearance of course…

But sadly, the little man somehow managed to open a sealed plastic box to retrieve my yarn.  I didn’t realise until I saw him acting ‘sheepishly’, and discovered my beautiful yarn under the dining room table looking more reminiscent of a birds nest than my lovely yarn!!!

I still can’t get over the fact he managed to open the box.  He is one very clever cat.  But I’m so glad I managed to save this other one before he managed to redesign it…                           

I still have a long way to go, but I’m enjoying the journey.  Alex came over this week, and he had a try at the wheel.  His little legs only just reached the treadle!  I think it will take him a while to get the hang of coordinating his hands and his feet, but I can see great fun for him in the learning process and together, we can enjoy playing with new designs we make to weave.

 

Inspired to felt an Iris (prototype)

Inspired to felt an Iris (prototype)

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Last week I watched an online workshop with Tjarda van der Dussen. She was showing how to Needle felt a realistic Rose and Butterfly which had blue patterns on one side of the wing and brown on the opposite side. Originally, what I found fascinating was her ability to work very thinly with a lot of surface detail (particularly with the butterfly).

As I watched her workshop, I was impressed with her ability to do surface work (shallow insertion of the needle only affecting the top layer of her piece.) She achieved this partly through the angle of the needle and partly by very good depth control. She said she preferred spiral (twisted) and star needles for her work. She used them in a wooden single needle holder.  I am not sure if she has tried Crown needles, which as you know, have only one barb per side but all are located very close to the tip of the needle (making it ideal for surface detail felting). I think she said she was using 38 and 40 gauge needles. She also had one of the 7 needle fake clover tools (the blue rather than the original clover green) which she used mostly with a shallow insertion.

For her working surfaces, she usually started with the clover brush tool, used covered with cotton fabric. She was lifting frequently whatever she was working on, so it would not stick to the cloth. She would, at times switch over to working on a wool mat that she had made herself. (I do want to figure out how she made that!)

She used a pattern or template for the petals that reminded me of the paper flower patterns I have seen on Pinterest occasionally. I should go take a browse and see if I can see a pattern for an iris. (I miss my iris now that my front garden is all shade). Tjarda would compare the petals she was making to the template, first getting the general shape, then adding the indentations indicated for each petal shape.

She used leather finger cots (protectors) as she held the petal and template to work on the edge with the needle. If you don’t have finger cots you can make them out of scraps of leather or you could try to “accidentally” cut the fingers off a strong leather glove. If you go for the latter plan, it may be best to find one stray glove and hope the other doesn’t reappear later. Also, test the leather with a felting needle to make sure the leather is thick enough to protect you while supple enough to use to hold your project.

Her last tool that intrigued me was a “mini Iron” for sewing and crafting. After a bit of searching and price checking, I found one online. This iron requests a heat mat which I have not yet tracked down. There are similar-looking tools for taking the wrinkles out of leather and another that fixes dents in car bumpers, both are reportedly much hotter and a lot more expensive. The ones I saw described for quilting while looking identical to the Craft version were more expensive. If you find one at a garage sale you may want to get it if it’s a good price. Hopefully, it’s one of the ones that has a temperature adjustment and rest for the hot end.

She used the little iron to flatten the petals and also add a bit of shape to them. The most important aspect seemed to be the flattening and increasing the adhesion of the felt. Unfortunately without a heat mat, I didn’t want to try out this part of her workshop. I will try it as soon as I can find the elusive mat.

Now on to trying to create a flower, not a rose but let’s see if I can find a paper flower pattern for an iris. So off to Google image to see what I can find. Success! I found a page from what looks like an old book on flower making. There were also pages out of another book, in Russian, that look interesting but it took me a while to find an iris.

1) https://i.pinimg.com/564x/9d/4f/76/9d4f76d3d25433c7582e8db41be8d7e6.jpg

2) https://i.pinimg.com/564x/9d/af/ac/9dafacd4d3bdeecf0a766c7b7b9ddd29.jpg

I found a more modern-looking page from a book that had templates for Iris petals. I tried to track the image back to find out what the English book was called and if I could still get a copy. I think it might be “Handmade Flowers from Paper and Fabric” but I can’t find a view of the inside to check. I will have to watch for a second-hand copy. Maybe Ann will spot a copy at Value Village?

3) cover of the book I think the pattern may have come from

4) Iris pattern

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ab/6a/b3/ab6ab390722260765a706977a3bc3b21.jpg

OK, I have found a general pattern shape to do a test run on.

Iris test run.

I printed off the pattern and cut out the pieces, then transferred them to card stock. I used the pattern to layout fibre for the petal.

 5) original pattern pieces and transferred to card-stock

My first petal was “A”, (it’s the petal that has the beard on a bearded iris). I lay down thin wisps of variegated blue from the remnants of a braid of merino.  (yes I do have a bit of Merino wool)

6) Pattern “A” fibre laid out

I did not have a clover brush tool like the one that Tjarda had used, instead, I tried the Red higher density kneeling pad. After removing the template from under the wool, I was focusing on thin like the ice dragon’s wings…..nope that’s too thin.

7) adding more wool to thin spots in the petal

I added more fibre and used the fake clover tool very lightly to fill in the thinnest spot. I found that the fibre tended to spread a bit and I had to check the template regularly and readjust the edges.

8) shaping the edges with the felting needle (if you are careful you can hold the pattern and petal in your fingers and very carefully needle felt the edge)

Each petal does not have to be identical but it should be quite close to the same size and shape.

I carefully lifted the wool off the foam regularly turning the petal.

9) Gently lift the wool off the work surface and turn it frequently

I followed the instructions and made all the required petals. (Ax3, Bx3, Cx5 I am going to make the leaves later)

10) all the petals are now created.

The next step was to insert the wire into the petal. I made sure that the wire was hidden in the fibres and not visible on either side as much as I could. I added a bit more fibre to make sure the wire would stay hidden. I did this for each of the 3 “A” and “B” petals.

11) slide the wire into the petal and hide with a bit more wool if needed

At this point, I realized I didn’t have a high heat ironing mat. So decided to fall off the instructions and skip the anatomical correctness for the lower petals and instead had a bit of extra fun.  (this is just the prototype to see if the pattern pieces work or if the size needs adjusting.)

12) the cool Mini Iron II, with extra bits! (but not a heat pad)

I had been looking at my photo reference for a Bearded Iris, Instead of a small beard (practically a goatee as it were), I went for the full ZZ Top facial hair on my iris. If you are going to have a beard, you might as well see how long a beard you can grow. I had a bit of Bernadette’s combing waste for the beard.

After adding the excessive Beard-age to the lower “A” petals, it was time to start the assembly. I paired an A with a B and twisted the wires together. This gave me three pairs of petals, which I positioned and twisted together in one stem.

13) The ZZ Top of Bearded Irises!

14) the bare twisted stem

 Next, we need to have that green base just at the top of the stem with the twisted wire I did not have trouble adding green fibre to cover the wire, building it up under the iris.

15) the stem gets wool at the base of the flower and down the stem

I will still need to make leaves for the flower but let’s move on to the bud so we can get it to about the same spot as the flower is at this point.

To make the bud I made a round-bottomed cone with a floral wire embedded in it. I then added the remaining petals, one after another,  adding them around the cone core.

 16) the bud

I had no trouble building up the green base to the bud but wrapping the stem was not as easy.  I followed Tjarda’s lead and tried clear fabric glue on the wire before adding the wool. This worked but was a bit messy on the fingers. It did allow for a very thin layer of wool to be added so I may try it on other tiny-er projects.

17) Tacky-fabric-glue,  make sure it drys clear

Now it was time to make leaves. The pattern instructions suggest 4 long leaves and 2 short for around the bud. I had a nice (feels like Corriedale) green in the bag I had found the blue roving in.  I think this was the bag I put together to make wet felted iris flowers at a felt in at Carsonby Hall a few years ago (no wonder I seem to have almost all the colours I wanted in it!)

18) first of the 4 long leaves to make.

This is long Iris leaf #1 done with the wire inserted. I will need to make at least 3 more but not today.

It has been dark and overcast all day today. Looking out the office window, I keep seeing little occasional white bits floating past. Not enough to rebuild the snowbanks, but too much when I have just planted the first pot of snow peas! I also have the front yard grass raked and the topdressing with grass seed has been applied!! This is not the time for even a few flakes of snow!!! What happened to plans for spring and getting the side yard felting studio ready to work in?

Oh well, at least I am well on my way to having a nice blue Iris to look at even if our plans for spring change suddenly back to winter.

19) the full-bearded Iris

20) iris and bud with the first leaf.

Next time I will try out the T40 Crown needles and press the wool. I am still pleased by the thinness of the petals on the prototype especially since they are not ironed.

Have fun and keep felting and I hope someone is enjoying spring.

Update on the small picture and the studio

Update on the small picture and the studio

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Where did the time go? I looked at the posting schedule and thought I have lots of time to get my post ready but here I am down to the wire,….. again.

I did manage this week to make some progress on my small picture. I started by adding some grass/stems/leaves/. Starting with a very Christmas green.

Then adding other shades

It looks ok but it’s way too short. What am I going to do with the other 2/3 of the picture? So, remembering Ruth’s advice on the last stitch project when I wasn’t very happy with it, she said  “just keep adding more”,  I decided I was not taking the stitches out. I would just keep going. The next batch of grass was longer.

At this point, I notice the bottom edge was starting to curl a little. This is because I was stitching into the bottom edge. I didn’t want the bottom of the stitches to show entry points on the top side of the bottom edge. I noticed some of the threads were a little loose too. To remedy this I ironed it with steam. I think it helped.

The next step is the flowers. I was originally thinking stitched flowers, then thought maybe seed needs would be good. I asked opinions at my guild social and everyone seemed to think I should do both. I probably will.

And now the Studio Progress.

The walls and floor have been painted. The place that hasn’t been painted is where the ductwork will go for the heating. It will then get drywall put over it and it will be painted. Notice one of my favourite things about this space. It has a center floor drain. The electrical box will get a cupboard built to hide it.

 

Yes, the floor is covered in blue speckles, for non-slip and to hide the floor repairs.

Next are the sinks, the ductwork, painting my selves, bookcase and small table. They will be boring white, once the books and wool are on them they will be colourful enough. The table gets the microwave so it will not be seen much either.

That’s it for now. I plan on doing the flowers for the next post but I am not sure what else. I am sure I will find something to keep me busy and out of too much trouble.

 

Experimenting with Paste Resists on Fabric

Experimenting with Paste Resists on Fabric

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I have tried flour paste resist before and even wrote a tutorial about how to use the resist on silk scarves. My local group decided we wanted to try some experiments again with flour paste resists. If you are wondering how you could use this technique, it would work great for making patterns on silk fabric used in nuno felting. If you want to learn the full process, click on the link above.

Because we were going to try this in one afternoon, I had to do some prep work. It takes at least 24 hours x 2 for this process to dry. I started with hand dyed fabric and used a variety of colors and a variety of types of fabric. I started out trying to document the process but the documentation fell apart in the middle of the process. So, I can’t tell you exactly which pastes were used on which fabric. But I did figure out what works and what doesn’t work so well.

So I pinned the fabric down and applied different pastes. Instead of just using wheat flour (which I know works), I also tried potato starch, amaranth flour, corn meal, and coconut flour. I could tell after applying some of these, especially the potato starch, that some of the pastes were not going to work as wheat flour does. After you apply the paste, you let it dry and then crackle the surface. The corn meal pretty much fell off the fabric and didn’t stick at all. The only alternative flour that worked well was the amaranth flour.

After the surface of the paste resist is cracked, then paint or thickened dye is applied. I used black textile paint. You can see that I left some of the pieces unpainted, as these would be used by my group during our afternoon get together.

If it’s working, you can see on the back side of the fabric, the paint comes through the cracks on to the fabric. This example is wheat flour resist and overall, it definitely works the best. I think if I had mixed wheat flour with some of the other alternative flours, it might have worked better and still given different crackle results.

Here are some of the results of the pastes that didn’t work so well. The fabric is still useable as the results were still very organic but it was not the crackle look expected from this technique.

Here are the two that worked the best. The one on the right is from wheat flour paste and the one on the right is from amaranth flour paste. It is really interesting how different the crackles look between the two. I’m not sure what I will do with these samples yet but I’m sure eventually, they will get used in some project.

If you try flour paste resist, we would love to see the results. You can upload your photos here.

Remembering how to make felt.

Remembering how to make felt.

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I have not made any felt since last November, and the possibility that I may have forgotten how to make wet felt was upsetting. So, with this post looming, I began thinking about what to do, and to make something that would reassure me.

I decided to make a vessel, and to use the few remaining heart shapes I had, for decoration. I had made some flat felt to make heart shaped lavender sachets, to be placed into Christmas stockings last year. Valentine’s Day is well and truly over for this year, but it was a good idea to use them up.

The last vessel I made did not have a nice flat bottom, but that was due to the shape of the resist, so for this one I used a disc shape. I also wanted it to stand up, and not collapse in on itself, and to be useful to keep ‘things’ in. The colour was dictated by the fibre in my plastic storage box.

This is how it looked when I finished my layout.

I used an 18 inch disc shaped resist and laid my fibre out and arranged the hearts around the centre, and decorated with a little silk. I wanted the opening to be in the middle. I placed the final heart on the inside, hoping that it would be visible when looking in.

I used quite a few layers on each side. I used a palm washboard (recently purchased)  for rubbing, it is so nice to use, and no missing any areas either. I rolled in all 4 directions on both sides too for good measure, about 400 times, and then when I could see and feel the resist beginning to curl at the edges, I cut a hole in the centre.

After a bit more rubbing, kneading and rolling, there was a satisfactory shrinkage, and I could see the centre heart. More rubbing, and shaping followed and a bowl shaped vessel emerged.

I healed the edge, and then I had to get the shape right. Some steaming with the iron, more rolling. The hearts kept their shape pretty well, although, now I feel that they were not quite in the centre, but I am happy that I remembered how to do the whole process.

I wish I knew how to get a rolled in edge on a vessel though. Is that even possible?

 

This is how it looks when dry, and the towel removed from the inside.

It is standing up nicely, keeping it’s shape, the heart inside is nicely centred, and there is very little fuzz. It would have been good if the inside had more white, but it was all I had. Not quite round either, but I can live with it, and it will be useful. It is quite magical making felt, and I will practice more often.

I called in at my local library the next day, and found Ruth’s book! I have borrowed it.

 

Recycled silk yardage
The never ending silk recycling is finally woven

The never ending silk recycling is finally woven

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The silk recycling is woven, it’s all done, finished, tutto finito bandito! I actually ran out of the red and orange silk so for the last little bit I had to dig in the bag and retrieve some matching silk with blue, red and orange. It looks just fine. Once the weaving was done I hem stitched the edge, wove in any loose warp threads and washed the yardage.

The whole mass went into the washing machine on a regular cycle, in cool water with my usual detergent. This is the way I plan on washing the finished jacket. I also did this to release any dyes that are lurking in the silk. The jacket will probably bleed dye for the rest of its life because some dyers do not set the dye in silk. The cotton warp took on a slight pinkish tint, so that helped to level the overall look of the fabric.

I plan to hang dry the jacket, so the material was taken outside to hand dry and freshen in sunlight. This proved a tiny bit problematic. The fabric was really, really heavy when wet. This is also when the light began to dawn that this was not, I repeat not, just a four yard warp. I left the fabric to dry on the railing overnight, where it promptly froze into position. Freeze drying works too, so two days later, in it came.

I was able to measure and confirm that this was clearly a massive piece of fabric. Originally, the warp was estimated to be ‘maybe’ 4 yds or 3.5 meters. It was purchased at an estate sale from one of our guild’s best weavers, but the labels fell off and things got a bit muddled when best efforts were at hand. I knew I was taking a risk, even getting it on the loom was a challenge, but I have no regrets. The length proved a great surprise and reward at the same time. It also explains why I ran out of weaving material. There are 8 yards or 7.5 meters, plenty here to make two jackets if I’m careful!

The final product is gorgeous. It just shimmers in the right light and I really want to do it justice. Even though it is a recycled product, or maybe because it is recycled, it’s important that the final result show the very best characteristics of the fibres that have gone into making it.

Our guild has an amazing resource for researching just about anything fibre related. Jan is our librarian. She is the lead book slinger in our heavy rental group called Jan and the Librarians; they have sessions once a month at the guild. I joined in last weekend and Jan supplied me with my requests for information on Japanese clothes, braids and ‘Saori’ weaving.

Japanese clothes design save weavers from the angst of having to cut their beloved fabric. The patterns are usually straightforward, basic, and interesting. I qualified this statement with ‘usually straightforward’ because I had never seen Saori weaving before nor the clothes that have been designed to use the material woven on a Saori loom. the book is in Japanese, the patterns are like origami on crack and they fascinate me endlessly. Until I can figure out the patterns I opted for a very conservative jimbei pattern from the jacket my son lent me. There are examples of simple patterns in one of the books.

This jimbei is meant for hot summer days. The sides are not stitched close but fastened with a cable stitch or stitched close with a decorative embroidery stitch. The underarm is left open, again for summer comfort.

The front is loosely tied or left open as preferred. I was interested in the reinforcement used at the bottom of the sides. These were the same reinforcements I found on the kimonos, so they clearly work.

The female version of this simple jacket has a closed wrist. It’s called a hippari. I might do one of these for winter if I have enough material left. The photos of the jimbei and hippari are from “Make your own Japanese Clothes” by John Marshall ISBN 0-870110865-X, I really enjoyed reading this book, lots of ideas for ways to incorporate the Japanese style into my life.

There are so many new things I will need to explore once I decide to start sewing this jacket. I’m really looking forward to getting the sewing machine out again.

 

Felting Surfaces & The new game, “What is that smell?”

Felting Surfaces & The new game, “What is that smell?”

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A short bit more about felting surfaces

As you may remember from my last post, I wanted to look at some of the types of felt pads but had not yet got my hands on them. Well, this week 2 examples have arrived! I hope you won’t mind and will join me as I investigate.

The felt pads from the descriptions and images seem to come in 2 main types.

Thick felt pad; the photos look like industrial Felt, which is made with hot pressed steam rather than a felting machine.  (Photos can be deceptive!)

Felt pillow; which looked like an outer felt layer stuffed with something, hopefully, wool.

Testing tools.

For this test, I used two thin layers of commercial red craft felt. It is a cheap, not 100% wool felt and is very thin like a pre-felt which stretches easily. It is not as nice as the real wool felt but also not as unpleasant as some of the acrylic felt that seems to be shredded fibre (and possibly dryer lint) held together partly by glue. For needles, I am trying a single T36 and the fake clover tool with T40s, the fibre is from my stash, some are from Bernadette’s Batts, some was Galaxy Melange (died grey wool) from the World of Wool (UK) and a bit of died core wool from Sarafina fibre arts. (Just in case anything looked particularly appealing and you desperately needed a bit for yourself.)

 1 craft felt – has the thickness of very thin prefelt

 

Test subject #1:

2  Comes in a nice cardboard box with a wooden needle holder just like the ones I have been ordering from China.

3  Close up of felt pillow showing value-added felting tool.

Let’s start with the smaller pad, 7.08 x 7.87 x 1.57 inches (with a nice 3 needle wooden needle holder).

Its described as “Thick and sturdy: Our gray needle felting mat is thicker than ordinary felt, and it is not easy to scratch the tabletop. Felting needles is made of soft felt and dense sponge. The needle felting mat has the best density. It is also equipped with felting needle supplies, allowing you to get a better needle felt experience.”  The Cost was CDN$ 16.99 (Not cheap but it did come with the expensive wooden 3 needle holder I was already familiar with. The needle holder has a bit of a wobble as you unscrew the handle but doesn’t rub or catch, so is not one of the factory seconds I had purchased directly from china). The description left me a bit confused but still curious enough to get it.

The cover felt layer is approximately 1/8” thickness with a sewn seam connecting the two layers. The interior feels like a piece of foam or firm sponge. The edges look like it has had heat applied to them.  The way the edge of the felt layers has bits of melted fibres suggests that the felt has a lower wool component so likely a higher component of synthetic than wool.

4 edge of the felt outer layer with a firm melted edge.

The feel of the needle entering the top layer of the pad feels like the short stapled acrylic felt that is partly held together with glue. There is a noticeable resistance to the needle penetrating into the felt layer of the pad. This is less noticeable as I add more wool to the little picture I am working on. This may not be an issue when working on a  thicker ground layer to the picture than it would be with such a thin one.

5  Starting with a bit of sky

6  Adding some hills,

Pushing the needle through the felt had resistance, similar to that found in the cheap craft felt that has a glue component to it. It requires the piece you are working on to be lifted regularly so it won’t cling to the felt cover. Once the needle had penetrated the felt the feel of the sponge or foam inside is comfortable. There does not seem to be shifting between the foam and the outer felt so I don’t think there will be any added worry about lateral movement and broken needles. I suspect this is not a felting surface I will use frequently although the wooden needle holder is always a nice addition to my collection. This pad will likely be put aside for students to look at during workshops.

After working with the pad for about an hour I noticed that I could see a red tint of fibres from the felt base I was using.  A firmer base felt for my picture may not have left as much residue.

7  Red residue left from the back of  my felted picture

 

Test Subject #2

8  the second felt pad, came with 9 needles in 2 lengths

“Needle Felting Pad made of pure wool dimensions 10 x 8 x 1.2 inches, Needles and leather finger pads included.” The cost was CDN$ 13.99.

As I opened the taped closed plastic sleeve that the pad was in,  I inadvertently did a sniff test. Ummm…. Well, that is an odd aroma…. Slightly like, petroleum? Ann took a sniff when she was over, she may have a better description.  The smell decreased to barely-there over the last 2 days. I suspect the smell may dissipate if left sitting outside in the sun… for a while.

The second felt pad defiantly is made of wool that has a lot of kemp in it. The edges look like it is made in layers or it may have been the implement that cut the felt has left bands and groves. The close-up photos hopefully makes the kemp easy to see. if you look closely you can see fibres (Kemp) descending from one layer into a lower layer. This makes me suspect that this has been made in a needle felting machine. From the original photos, I had expected this to be the hard industrial felt used in ironing pads but this has some give to the surface.

9  Note the kemp which there is a lot of.

(Video testing firmness) P1790339 10 checking squishiness

I added more wool to the picture to test how the pad feels when used. Not bad. The surface is soft and the needle has much less resistance on entering the pad. I like this one better than the last one.

11 Testing felt pad 2

12 Adding World of Wool fibre.

 13 Shortening the hills, adding foreground and water. This makes me think of the north.

Ok, that is working well, let’s see what else I can try. I had meant to make the picture 3×5  but I am interested to see where the water is going. (you can’t trust the sneaky wet stuff, it’s likely trying to escape the picture and make a run for it.)  Let us change the size of the picture and make it a 5×7. So I need to add both length and width to the picture. I added fibre around the edges of the picture building up the size to what I wanted. I found lifting frequently kept the fibre from sticking.

14 Here is the front of the picture

15  You can see how the original rectangle has expanded with the added fibre. (What a mess! I will not frame this one with double glass!)

I did find that there was some transfer of the kemp from the pad to the back of the piece. I do not know if this will lessen as I use the pad. I suspect it may.

16 Kemp transferring from the mat to the back of the piece.

17  There was a small amount of red f transferred from the back of the picture to the mat.

This mat I would use again. It has improved in smell, it is comfortable to use, and it can hold a 5×7 or a bit larger picture.

We have a new game to play!

Today was our local guilds Library day. I had been into the studio last week pulling requested books and getting everything ready for today.  Ann had seen and smelled the second pad right after it arrived, (when it was at its stinky-est). Today I brought the finished piece and the mat to have a few brave people try the fun new game “what is that smell?”  After some careful sniffing, we have come to two suggestions from a number of players. One was it was “ode de Mutton Urine” or possibly “ode de petroleum product”.  The suspicions were that the wool may not have been as clean as we normally deal with or the lubricants used in the carding process had gotten in the wool giving it the odd aroma.

 18  The new game “What is that smell?”

19  “Sniff”

20  “Oh my!  Ode de Sheep Urine?”

21 Testing it with a needle

22 Admiring the little test picture

The original wool may have been a lower grade or kempy carpet wool (not a bad wool just more ideal for hard-wearing carpets than soft woolly underwear. There are many types of sheep and many uses for each of their different type of wool)

I hope that gives you a couple more options for taking out your more violent stabby tendencies. I may still try to make my own pad using a felt outer layer and wool core. I am suspecting there may be less compacting of the inner core of wool if I use something that is more like hair than something with a lot of crimps. I wonder if I can find some unwanted Tog (I have been collecting tog for an Icelandic blanket project but may need to find more!) if I don’t want to waste good tog, I can always take a quick trip to Carlton Place and visit the Wool Growers Co-Op and see what they have in there carpet wool box! That sounds like a reason for a road trip!!!

On another topic, Signs of spring!

I am sure I will soon be out in my garden side yard studio. I know this since I have seen signs that the first of my trees have migrated to their summer location! (Spring tree migration time!!) Spring must be getting close!! I hope you are enjoying spring or can see it coming (keep an eye out for those migrating trees!) and I hope you are having fun felting.

23 The day-old tell-tail-tracks of tree migration

24 The tracks end here where we find the noble wandering trees (their poplars) I am sure the rest will follow their lead in the next week or two! (yes I have a small portable forest)

2022 Second Quarter Challenge

2022 Second Quarter Challenge

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A big ‘thank-you’ to Jan for suggesting the idea for this quarter’s challenge, so come on everyone – let’s get inspired to just have a go!

Take a short walk from your door, perhaps just into your garden or a few hundred yards up the road.

Really look at things that you might usually pass by without noticing the detail.

Take photos or make sketches that could inspire you to felt, knit, weave or sew something – be it a small sample or a finished piece.

Look up as well as down.

Reflection.

Flaking paint.

Tree bark and lichen.

Shadow.

Look closely at small flowers.

Church window.

Bath time.

Snail shell.

Lichen, moss etc.

Wrought iron.

Colours, textures and patterns.

Annie made a flippant comment about one of the photos above, and after having a good laugh, we both thought ‘Why not?’  So now I have the inspiration for my challenge piece!

We would love to see photos of challenge pieces and it’s now very quick and simple to upload your photos – please use the link below.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/community-photo-submissions/

Small felt

Small felt

Comments 9 comments

As some of you know I am moving my studio. I am not moving far, just from one end of the building to the other. I will gain some storage space, another room and a direct entrance. And importantly I will be closer to the bathroom.

I have packed 90% of my studio into boxes and they are piled up in the extra room. Consequently, I do not have a lot to work with. I did make a box with a blob of each colour of merino I have. and collected a bag of prefelts etc.

So there I was on Monday, wondering what on earth I would post about today. I was looking at my inspiration file and going through e bags of prefelt and I found this small odd-shaped one.

This is the back of it because I forgot to take a picture before adding wool to the front.

 

I added some sky

A blue sky is pretty much one colour. light at the bottom but not a mix of colours. The grass on the other hand is not one colour. so I mixed some up using my dog brushes.

 

 

this is the finished background. the needle is to give you an idea of the size. Jan thought it looked knife-shaped I thought it looked like a bullet train.

 

 

I want to add some flowers along the bottom. I wasn’t sure what thread to use. I hat unpicking so I grabbed a piece of fulled sweater off cut and covered it in green to try out some different threads.

 

the dark pink is Filtex. these are very old spools they are shiny rayon, like fake silk.  the orange is 1,2 and 3 strands of embroidery thread., the blue is an embroidery cord and the green is a different kind of silk or fake silk embroidery yarn.

 

Here’s a picture of the back. You can see what each thread looks like a little better.

Next is doing the stitching. I think I will use the green to add a few bigger leaf shapes. the orange and blue worked well. I will try using 2 and 3 threads of the pink to see if they show up better. stitching on felt is odd. you have to make your stitch about twice as long as you want it to get it to show up the size you want. It must be because of how soft the surface is. Does anyone else also find this to be true?

 

New Community Pages

New Community Pages

Comments 12 comments

I’m excited to announce that we have developed some new community pages for all of our readers and followers. We have had loads of requests from interested readers who wanted to submit photos after reading a post or being inspired by a challenge. We now have a place that anyone can submit a photo. Our Community Photo Submissions page is now ready for you to submit a photo. It’s under the Community tab on the menu.

We only ask that you resize your photo before submitting it to something smaller than 1MB. This allows more space for the photos and quicker loading of the site. Please include a description of what you are submitting as well as why you are submitting the photo. Once the submission is complete, we will review the photo and put it in the gallery under the community pages. This may take a bit of time (up to a week) but soon your submission will be available for everyone to see.

We have also included our Links/Resources page under the Community menu tab. There is some great information there if you haven’t checked it out before.

The other page in the Community menu is Links to Blog Posts. The page gives you a list of the last forty blog posts by name. It automatically updates whenever a new post is published. You might wonder what the purpose of this page is or how you would use it. If you read a post in the last several months, and you want to find it again, you can look on this page to find the post easily. That way, you aren’t scrolling endlessly through long posts trying to find a particular post. It’s also a place where Instagram visitors will land so that they can find the post they would like to read easily. Thanks Helene for setting this page up!

These changes have made this site much more interactive and we’d like to encourage all of you to submit some photos of your work. Have you created samples or a finished piece with repurposed or recycled items? The First Quarter Challenge is coming to an end but we’d love to see what you have created. It doesn’t matter if you created it recently or in the past, we would love to see how you are repurposing items into something new. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a finished piece or a small sample, show us your creations. You can upload photos here.

Or do you have some felt samples that you have from different breeds? Ann posted about her felt sample class recently and showed a sample of white welsh mountain sheep. Perhaps you have some samples of some wool breeds that aren’t commonly used in felting? We would love to see the samples with information about how the sample was made, about the breed, how the felting process went and the end result.

Also, don’t forget that registration is still open for the Hanging Felted Spiral with Helene. Class begins on April 8th.

 

 

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