Silk throwsters waste – Felting and Fiber Studio

Degumming Silk Throwsters Waste

January 11, 2020 Shepherdessann Comments 15 comments

Today we have a throwback post. It was originally posted by Zed in 2011. Jan is ill and can’t make a post and I thought this would be interesting to everyone.

A few years ago I was given some gorgeous multi-coloured Throwsters waste in a fibre swap. I’ve always used it sparingly, worried it’d run out and I’d have to begrudgingly pay a ridiculous amount of money for a tiny handful. Then a few months ago I was ordering wool and fibres from World of Wool and thought I’d take the plunge and order some gummed throwster’s waste since it cost less for 100g than most people charge for 10g dyed. I had no idea it’d be so stiff and dull! The complete opposite of what I was used to. I had absolutely no idea how to de-gum it either 🙂

A couple of days later after a few hours searching the internet, I was confident I’d pieced together enough info to try de-gumming for myself. I thought I’d probably have to try it a few times before getting it right, but was pleasantly surprised to see it work first time with excellent results 🙂

If you’d like to try it yourself or are just interested in the process, I’ve made a tutorial with lots of photos and an easy to follow table for working out quantities.

Degumming Silk Throwsters Waste

I’ll be following up later this week with a tutorial for direct dyeing small amounts of animal fibres with acid dyes, which can be used to dye your degummed throwster’s waste some gorgeous colours 🙂

I have to say Thank You to foragingfibers whose pictures convinced me it was worth trying to degum my own throwster’s waste 🙂

Making some progress and free give away reminder

July 26, 2016 Shepherdessann Comments 9 comments

I want to remind everyone you only have a few days left to enter the free draw for a spot in Terri’s Concertina Hat Class. The last day to enter is July 28. Just follow the link. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/07/16/online-felted-concertina-hat-class-with-teri-berry-in-august/

I finished my triangle scarf this week.

The wool side

The silk side

There wasn’t that much shrinkage as it is very cobwebby on the wool side.

I finished the prefelt for the building on a Picture I am working on.

I cut some circles to make little earbud pouches. Sorry I can’t right now remember who had this great idea to use scrap piece for felt for this. I want to keep my square credit card reader in one.

I made 2 pieces specially to cut up.

I love the way the silk throwsters waist seems to hover on the felt even though it is well attached. The blue one isn’t firm enough so I will rewet it and full it some more.

I also started 2 more. I laid the wool out first. The first one I used on large piece of silk on top . I added the roving so you could see the colour. I wanted something a little more “masculine”.

The other one I want more texture from the silk so I had to wet the back ground so the silk would stay where and how I put it. I then added some synthetic yarn and put tiny amounts of wool to bridge it and hold it down. I really like how it looks so I think I will make a scarf in the same design. It is very dark in the picture because it is wet.

So that’s been my week in felt. I hope you have been able to play with some fibers too. Don’t forget to enter the draw for a free hat class.

Ooops!

March 8, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 14 comments

We’ve talked a lot lately on the forum about projects not turning out as planned. Sometimes we have happy accidents like my scarflette that turned out better than I had planned. However, that’s not always the case. That’s why we all have UFOs.

Last year I decided to design a credit card wallet. I spent a lot of time measuring and making resists and batts, cutting prefelt and designing a master pattern complete with shrinkage built in. I wanted it to be functional enough to be able to put most of the things I use in one place.

I didn’t have a wallet to use as a model, so I winged it. I used the prefelt as the base and began adding resists then the batts on the inside. To keep track of where my folds and placements were I used pieces of threads to help keep everything in line.

On the inside I wanted three long pockets, then eight credit card slots. There is one resist under the red batt.

Then I added the second lower pocket offset about a half inch, and began putting the credit card slot resists in.

Once I finished adding the slots, I turned it over and added resists on the front. I wanted a license holder and a pocket.

Then after covering in black merino and decorating with some red silk throwsters waste, I began the felting and fulling process.

The hardest part and one of my big mistakes was cutting out the resists. I decided to use an Exacto knife to cut the top large opening. Guess what? Yes, that’s a pen sticking thru. I couldn’t figure out how to take a pic with my finger thru it.

The lower hole is where I wanted the pic ID to be. Unfortunately, it wasn’t large enough to put in the whole ID and cut out a window to view it.

The pocket on the front was also too small an opening to put anything in there that wouldn’t fall out.

On the inside the larger pockets were functional, but I made a mistake with the credit card pocket by making each row a little deeper. Duh, what was I thinking? All credit cards are the same size!

There was room for cash and a checkbook and coupons, if need be. However, the credit cards were a disaster. I couldn’t reliably put them in there and think they’d stay put.

Folded over it doesn’t look bad on the front.

The back is a different story.

I had considered trying to save it, but I don’t believe it would be worth the time since many of the proportions are off and there a gaping holes. However, I did learn a lot from the experience.

Try not to make the project too complicated
Use a model for size proportions
Never use an Exacto knife to cut out a resist

I hope this may help others when they are planning a big project in the future. 🙂

Felt for a Spindle

January 8, 2016 Shepherdessann Comments 28 comments

You may remember that I am getting a new drop spindle http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2015/12/23/i-am-getting-a-new-drop-spindle/ I couldn’t decided on what colours I wanted so I decided to make several pieces of nuno felt with silk throwsters waist on the felt side. If you don’t know, throwsters waste is a waste by-product of reeling silk. It is all sorts of very short silk fibers and threads. It dyes up lovely.

I picked out some small scraps of silk I had and then some wool and throwsters waste. As usual when I start felting I forget to take pictures. This one is laying out the wool on top of the silk.

Here they are finished. Both sides of each. Forgive the quality of the photos. The only camera I have is my iPhone.

This is nice but it really isn’t very interesting to me.

I normally like purple and orange together but this one ins not doing anything for me.

I go back and forth on this one. I am not sure I like the bright colours on the wool side.

This is a much thicker silk and it gave a different texture not so tight. I really like it.

This is a close up of the throwsters waste side it is the biggest piece and I couldn’t get as close and see it all. I really like it.

What’s your favourite?

More Cup Cozies

July 8, 2015 Shepherdessann Comments 14 comments

This week I made more cup cozies. I made 2 sets of flat ones that will have buttons. I started out with a rectangle. I decorated them in a random way. I then cut them into 4 at the prefelt stage. The purple has some orange blobs of orange throwers waist. It should show up again when they are dry. The green has some of my hand spun single yarn. It is quite stable until you wet it then it get its twist back and goes all crazy.

I finish them on a glass wash board. It is very fast.

These are the rest of the ones I made. They will get buttons. Some will fit a coffee mug and some will fit travel mugs or water bottles.

Here are some of my buttons I will be picking through for these. I have many more if I need them. I will use a thin round black elastic loop to close them. That way I think people may be able to adjust them by looping them once or twice as needed.

I also made some that are like the cardboard sleeves you get at take out places.

The multicoloured one was made using a batt and prefelt triangles I cut out of some scraps. The black one is regular merino top with a white silk hanky stretched over it. The white one is made with prefelt and a black silk hanky stretched around it. The white one shrank much more top to bottom then the other two. I didn’t look carefully at the piece I had before using it. Prefelt is directional. If I had looked I would have used it in the other direction.

I use the washboard to finish them as well.

This is the group drying. I really like the way the back and white ones look like marble.

If you made it this far here are two unrelated pictures. One is my grandson helping me with my ice cream cone at the farmers market on Sunday.

And the turkeys I showed you a few weeks ago. The first one is when they are 1 week old. They are now 4 .5 weeks old. They grow very fast. They will be moving to new quarters this week.

Making a Gift for a New Grandma

March 14, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 32 comments

As you may be aware my daughter in law Mari is due to have a baby girl any day. While we wait for the “phone call,” I decided to make her mother a small cosmetic case/clutch. This is her first grandchild and she has traveled from Japan to be with her daughter and my son for the big event.

I made a template allowing for a 30% shrinkage rate. I had planned to use some prefelt and merino, but I realized I was almost out of black merino. So, I substituted some black Corriedale for a middle layer. The bottom half of the resist was 9″ x 11″ (23 cm x 28 cm).

The inside layer was a turquoise merino.

The second layer was the Corriedale batt and the last layer was a black prefelt. Then I laid out the embellishments. As usual, I was so engrossed in the process I forgot to take pictures. The embellishments were 100% Peruvian thick and thin hand dyed wool yarn, a turquoise and metallic silver mohair yarn, silk hankies and green and turquoise throwsters waste. The template for the flap was not used as a resist, but as a pattern for the shape and size of the flap.

Once I was finished felting and fulling, I shaped the bottom and sides using an ice cream scoop. The shrinkage was less than I expected. But it was well fulled so I was satisfied. The finished size was 8″ x 7″ high (20 cm x 18 cm)

I used the yarn to put on her initials — ST on the flap and embellished it with a silver button and will either use a velcro or magnetic closure.

I was pleased with the outcome. It is sturdy, yet not heavy or bulky.

A Felt Beret

May 16, 2014 Shepherdessann Comments 16 comments

The other week I decided to make a beret to see if I remembered how as I haven’t made one in years. They seem to be making a bit of a comeback where I live.

I decided on a nice bright red

I added some white throwsters waste for some interest

After some rubbing and rolling I cut a small hole to get the resist out and to make a hole for my head.

The whole stretches easily to the correct size

As it turns out a little bigger ( not much) would have been better it is a size small so tight on my head. I stretched it as much as I could. Just as well as I do not look good in a beret. I could make it bigger by cutting and adding sewn on brim but I am lazy.

I really like how the silk worked. It is quite big but I was thinking the you could put your hair inside it.

New Diary Cover

October 28, 2013 zedster66 Comments 8 comments

Before the black Merino and multi fibre notebook cover I made recently, I’d started to make a greeny blue one for a diary. The first batt I was happy with on my drum carder was blues and greens so I used this for the top layer. As well as Merino, I added some texturey Icelandic wool, and locks of Bluefaced Leicester and Wensleydale that I dyed a few years. I added lots of surface embellishments: silk fabric, cotton gauze, organza, silk top, silk throwster’s waste, some synthetic curly fibres and some more of the dyed texturey, curly wools.

It was too large to get a decent clear ‘after felting’ photo, but this is almost all of it:

This notebook took even longer than the black one as it was the first one I’d made like this, using felt off cuts for the straps and hand sewing all around the edges:

I machine stitched the smaller strip onto the wide closure strip

And I machine stitched the two pieces onto the back

But I finished all the edges with blanket stitch

I kept the natural edge of the felt for the inside front flap, I like the little detail of pink and yellow on the silk at the top.

Working on some Hats

October 18, 2013 Shepherdessann Comments 9 comments

I have been working on some hats. this week. A couple of weeks ago I sold my last Viking hat so needed to make some more. Theses are the 2 bases for the hats. They will have horns felted onto them.

I do not know what colour to do the horns on the blue one. Last time I did yellow but I do not have any yellow wool right now. What colour would you use?

I also finished the felting on 2 more pill box type hats.

The purple hat has green blue faced leicester curls. The pink one has silk throwers waist. I will sew them together this weekend. I need to make scarves but what i really ant to do is more fingerless mitts. I am having fun with them.

New Drum Carder

October 14, 2013 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

At least once a year I’ve contemplated buying myself a drum carder. But after seeing the wool blends Ann carded a few weeks ago, I seriously considered it, and after looking at a link Judith gave me to ebay, I bought myself a gorgeous handmade Ash drum carder from the Classic Carder company. I wasn’t very good on my first few tries, but I soon got the hang of it 🙂

I thought I should have an ‘aim’ instead of just going mad and making lots of nice coloured batts, so I decided to work out roughly how much wool I’d need for one layer if I’m making a piece of felt big enough to make a cover for an A6 notebook. I got my template out, chose a coppery bronze colour theme and then laid out the different coloured wools in different proportions.

I then gathered all the colours up, weighed them and kept notes. I’d usually think to do this after the fifth time of laying out colours, so I’m impressed with myself 🙂

I added some small amounts of flax and soy top to a couple of the lighter colours, and it’s not very obvious from the photo, but I added black bamboo to the natural brown merino.

I was impressed with how it looked after just one turn through the carder, but I wanted it more subtle than it had turned out, so I put the wool through again. I really like how it turned out the second time. I’m so glad I finally got a carder. It looks gorgeous, is incredibly well made and turns out the most gorgeous batts.

I’ve been thinking for a long time about making up ‘experimental’ or ‘inspiration’ fibre packs to sell on etsy. Working out what to put in there to make it worthwhile with our postage prices was difficult, but Marilyn recently suggested selling wool as well to make it more of a kit. I had a think about how to do it and came up with the idea of including just enough wool to do one layer, a nice blend for the top. I thought this batt would be perfect for the first one as it’s the same colours I used for my coppery bronze piece that so many people liked. It gave me an excuse to get out my favourite shades of organza too.

I measured and weighed the organza, picked out some matching cotton gauze, novelty art yarns and silk throwster’s waste like I used on my coppery piece, and also made another little batt to make sure there was enough. But I think after lots of weighing and measuring, the pack is finished. I just need to write up the description when I get back later today, but then I’ll list it on etsy.

Let me know what you think of it, is it a good selection of fabrics and fibers?

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An International Collective of Felt and Fiber Artists

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Degumming Silk Throwsters Waste

January 11, 2020 Shepherdessann Comments 15 comments

Like this:

Making some progress and free give away reminder

July 26, 2016 Shepherdessann Comments 9 comments

Like this:

Ooops!

March 8, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 14 comments

Like this:

Felt for a Spindle

January 8, 2016 Shepherdessann Comments 28 comments

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More Cup Cozies

July 8, 2015 Shepherdessann Comments 14 comments

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Making a Gift for a New Grandma

March 14, 2015 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 32 comments

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A Felt Beret

May 16, 2014 Shepherdessann Comments 16 comments

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New Diary Cover

October 28, 2013 zedster66 Comments 8 comments

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Working on some Hats

October 18, 2013 Shepherdessann Comments 9 comments

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New Drum Carder

October 14, 2013 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

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