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More Samples with Interesting Results

More Samples with Interesting Results

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We’ve been talking on the forum about how important it is to make samples, especially when using new fibers or unknown fabrics.  It’s better to take a little time to make a sample, than to waste a lot of time and fiber.

I still had one fiber from WOW I hadn’t tried.  It was actually a Jacob batt.  The batt was very uneven so I used two layers and still ended it up with a couple of sparse spots.  I only felted the samples to the prefelt stage so I could use them in another project.  The end result of the Jacob was it was very loose and spongy.  I’m tempted to full it to see what happens.  It is very similar to the Black Welsh I featured in a previous post.

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I recently did an experiment with one of Fiona Duthie’s 15 minute projects called Mountains.  It’s lost it’s bowl shape a little, but I really liked the curliness of the base, but couldn’t remember what fiber I used.

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I have been trying to use more of the coarse fibers I have.  But I have been terrible about remembering to write down what I’ve used.  I thought Icelandic was harder to felt.  It has a very long staple, dyes well, and whenever I use it in has to be shaved when finished. So, I decided to make a prefelt of this as well.

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What I discovered is it is soft at this stage, but felted easily.

So, have I been badmouthing the wrong fiber? I have a fair amount of Cheviot so I figured I would experiment with that as well.  The Cheviot had a shorter staple but the resulting prefelt was soft and a little lighter in color than the Icelandic which I thought was a lighter color. Hmmm.

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When I went with Cathy to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, I purchased some Navajo Churro which I have never used.  It had a short staple and was coarse to the touch and filled with little knots.  The resulting prefelt was very hairy and much flatter than the others.  It reminded me of Gotland I had made a sample of a while back, but while they look similar, the Gotland was very smooth to the touch. It also had been fulled, so that may make a difference.  The Churro was very hairy.  I have some white Churro I will try dyeing later on.

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Last but not least, I made a Romney prefelt and found my curly fiber.  (its more noticable at the sparser edges. It is rougher to the touch but I like the cobweb wavy type look.  It also has a long staple.

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I had done similar samples using habatoi silk, mulberry silk fiber and yarns on each of them a while back, fulled, dyed and then stitched them together. Here is the Four Day Dye Experiment http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2014/06/15/four-unintentional-days-of-dyeing/

These samples were fully felted and it is hard to tell the difference except to rub my hands over them. The Icelandic and Domestic 56 are coarser to the touch than the Cheviot and the Romney.  Different than at the prefelt stage.  I think in the future I may take a smaller sample to full and compare obviously they are different.

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Now as a preview to some more future sampling on a pile of fabric samples to test.

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What is your experience with sampling?

 

Ingeo

Ingeo

Comments 15 comments

I haven’t had chance to get my felting stuff out for ages, so I’ve been working on my epic ‘Other fibres project’, which originally was going to be a simple e-book guide to embellishment fibres, but has turned into something of a 7 year journey to try every fibre with every breed of wool and animal fibre I can get my hands on, as it constantly gets shoved aside for other things. Looking through some of my samples, I found a couple of pieces using Ingeo. I like Ingeo fibre. All embellishment fibres have something which sets them apart from others, and for Ingeo, I think it’s the way it looks soft and fluffy, and slightly matt. Although it isn’t particularly shiny, but it does have a sheen.  This first piece is natural grey Merino.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAYou can see on this closer pic how it pulls together where it’s laid out thicker:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAGetting in closer, you can see the Merino migration through the Ingeo, and though the Ingeo is thick, it is still smooth:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis close up of the bottom shows what it looks like when it is sparser.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWhen I used Ingeo on this piece with dark grey Icelandic, I didn’t lay it so thickly:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI like the way it looks so different with the Icelandic, where it’s sparse it even looks a different colour.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThere’s a lot more migration with the coarser Icelandic:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAYou can see on this close up where the Ingeo is quite dense, it pulls together in a similar way to on the Merino, but isn’t quite as smooth:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERADo you have a favourite embellishment fibre or animal fibre and embellishment fibre combination?