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The Year Ahead

The Year Ahead

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I’m ahead of myself this year, usually I start by planning to be more organised, but I bought some new tubs a few weeks ago and cleared up a few piles off my desk! And yesterday I sorted through a large box of fabric from the well being centre and put it more tidily into different bags and labelled them. One of the bags is lots of ready cut strips for making experimental nuno samplers. There are lots of unusual fabrics in there for beginners to try before they pick up any ideas of which fabrics ‘work’ and which ‘don’t’.

One of the first things I need to do this year is write a constitution for our group. We have our own light hearted rules, such as ‘You’re not allowed to be disappointed, we don’t make failures, we make unintentional discoveries’! but maybe we’ll keep that as our motto 🙂

Looking back at the things I made last year, I saw a lot of things I started to learn, but never really progressed with. One ‘unintentional discovery’ I made was that I quite like freestyle crochet:

I would like to learn how to do it properly though, so I can maybe make something, or at least freestyle a lot better! Another thing I didn’t really progress with is spinning. I did spend a few days practising and made some yarn I liked:

But I think trying to spin some Superwash, which spins about as well as it felts, put me off a bit:

I want to learn to spin on a wheel so I can knit some really cool jumpers, or at least a funky hat, but not being able to do a good job of sewing up is quite limiting:

And only really being able to knit with chunky pencil roving on fat needles is too:

So, I’d like to learn to knit better, or more, or just differently! And I’m really looking forward to the Surface Design challenges this year, I’ve already started thinking about mine for the 4th Quarter. If you missed Ruth’s post the other day, have a look here. Have you made any plans for the year ahead?

Finishing Up Some Spinning

Finishing Up Some Spinning

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In the spring I borrowed a blending board from my friend Carlene. I made rollags at guild social meetings and at demos.

And spinning here and there.

I finally got around to plying them all.

Then I needed to be washed to reset after being tight up in skeins for ages. this is before washing. I spent an evening tying the skeins up so they wouldn’t be a mess after washing.

This is some of them soaking.

And after all the skeins where soaked this it what the water looked like.  I couln’t believe how dirty it was.

then I had to hang them all up to dry. excuse my shower backdrop. we don’t have the new tub surround in yet so it is just orange construction plastic so we can shower.

And the finished yarn. I am making the skeins into center pull balls on my nostepinne. I am mostly done. I am getting better at them.  I didn’t realise how often I do thick and thin yarn until I started winding the balls. It is fun to do.

So thats one thing finished up from 2017 and only 2 days late.  All ready for embellishing some felt.  I hope you all have a fibery new year.

 

 

 

Demo Last Weekend

Demo Last Weekend

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This last weekend my guild did a Demo at the Carp Fair I went on the Sunday.  I took a blending board to make some more rollags. I had some hand cards with me and I had a spindle I was spinning a rollag on so I could explain it all.  It was very popular with the visitors to the fair. .

Bernadette was spinning Rambouillet on her wheel. In this picture she is Chain plying it.

Jan was working On the Edo Challenge. And Yes that is an octopus. I am hoping to get her to do a post about her progress. Here she is explaining it to some visitors.

Her fish was there on display and tried to eat a passing child.

Julie was weaving. She is doing shibori on the loom. She weaves the draw strings right into the scarf ready to be tightened up and then dyed. She has a finished sample onto of her loom.

 

And lastly 2 of the display tables.

I didn’t get any of the third table except Jan’s Fish.  We had a great time chatting with people about spinning, weaving and felting.  Have you been doing your crafts in public lately?

 

Spinning some yarn

Spinning some yarn

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I haven’t done much other than make meat pies for the farmers market the last week. It seems with cooler weather people want comfort food. So many Steak and Mushroom pies and Tourtiere pies have been made.

I did finish my Guild poker challenge I told you about here: spinning-for-the-guild-challenge/ The beads really were not inserted very well and that showed up more in the plying but here it is finished.

You can see how the locks aren’t in well enough so they are very loose in the ply.

I learned a lot and I think next time I will ply with a thread with beads on it instead or maybe do some sort of core spun yarn with a beaded thread.

I have also been spinning on my spindle. I can do that anywhere.  They are both thick and thin yarns. It will show more after they are plied. I finished this, it’s reds with gold super bright trilobal nylon I dyed. I don’t remember what colour I used to get it, maybe aztec gold. The first picture shows the colour best. The second picture is over exposed, so hopefully you can see how much sparkle is in it.

My current spinning project is also red but it has pink mixed in and white silk and undyed supper bright trylobal nylon.

After this spindle is full I will decide if I want to play them together or keep them separate.  Later they will make their way into some felting. What have made to use later in your felting?

Spinning for the Guild Challenge.

Spinning for the Guild Challenge.

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IN June at the last meeting of the guild before summer a guild challenge was arraigned. It is called Fiber Poker.  the Ide is to get you out of your comfort zone and get you to try something different.  In my case I am playing spinning poker. There are several stacks of cards and you have to pick one from each to get your challenge the stacks represent different aspects of yarn: colour, fiber, type of yarn, general design.  I picked colour: two colours; fibre: goat; type of yarn: 3-ply; general design: include beads. the roles say you can return one card and repick but that it but just one.  The first step was to get some Mohair. I got some combed top and some locks.

 

I decided that the easiest thing to do was thread beads onto the locks and them spin them in as I go.

I used this handy tool that is for helping to floss your teeth when you have braces.

The top was sticky so not easy to spin. I did manage to add some beads but it was a struggle. I took it off on to an empty weaving yarn cone.

I have the second single done.

I have one more to go. Originally I thought I would do a navaho or chain ply to get my 3 ply but I think the beads being large would end up making very frustrating. I think it may be very frustrating anyway. We will see.  You will notice that there isn’t much yarn with beads. It will be a very small skein of yarn but there was no min length so this will do. I am not enjoying the spinning but that’s ok . Now I have tried it I never have to again. 😀 I have to have it done by September 11. I think I will make it.

Spinning at the Medieval Fair.

Spinning at the Medieval Fair.

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Last Sunday I went to the medieval for to be part of the demo at our local Medieval fair. It is always fun.

Here I am spinnign some of the rolags I told you about in this post.

It looks like I was saying something very interesting to Bernadetts Who was carding on the hand carders and spinning on her wheel. She was Dressed as a Moorish house slave to some a  Dutch family. She would not go get us Coffee though. 😉

In the picture above you can see Judy spinning on a medieval spindle and using a distaff to hold her wool. Below is a video of me trying to learn and not doing a good job.

It’s a different action then using a suspended drop spindle like I usually do.  You have to spin and control the spindle with your right hand and draft off the distaff with the left.  My right wants to drift up and help my left draft. I need to practice much more. If you look at a medieval painting of spindle spinners you will see how they have one hand at there side and one up by the distaff.

We were close to the stage so we had entertainment most of the day. Here we are watching the dancers and musicians. but notice I am still demoing and not slaking off.  Another great reason to use a spindle.

Then this happened, and we had to pack up quick as the heavens opened and we all tried to stay dry.

All in all a fun day with friends and fiber.

 

Busy Busy

Busy Busy

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Hi folks I am a day late without even knowing it. Things around here have been busy. Saturdays are Farmers Market for us and that means Fridays are baking days; bread, butter tarts, lemon tarts, gingerbread cake, rhubarb cake, chocolate chip cookies, and oatmeal raisin cookies.  And to add to the excitement the chicks and turkeys arrived as well.

   

The turkeys are a week old when they arrive. we had to add another foot of height to their pen right away to keep then in.

I have managed to do a little bit of fiber. I got a grab bag of wool from world of wool a little while ago. It had this wool in it I think it is called Venus.

I had no idea what I would do with it, It was so bright and the colour changes so short. So I thought well its a good wool to spin with and share spinning with others. Much to my surprise it spun up very nice. The colours blended together to make quite a nice yarn. A friend is going to teach me how to andean ply with it.

I made some more rolags on the blending board I hope they spin up as pretty as they looking in this form.

I am off to have a shower and get on to do some work. Its a good thing the other ladies here and you folks are here to keep me on track or I don’t suppose I would ever get around to blogging and i really enjoy sharing with everyone.

Spinning mostly

Spinning mostly

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I haven’t been felting much lately, other than teaching, but I have been doing some spinning. I borrowed a friends blending board to try making some fancy rolags to spin from. I used 2 shades of orange, a purple wool, some silk and a tiny amount of  trylobal nylon on the board. It was my first time using the blending board so I was getting instructions and pointers from Judy.

I spun it on my new top whorl spindle. I don’t usually use a top whole spindle but I couldn’t resist this one from The Clay Sheep

Here I am spinning on it.

The yarn came out quite nice. I could have added more sparkle but I am always cautious of adding to much sparkle.  I wound it into a center pull ball the other night so now it is ready to be plied.

The other cool thing I got with my spindle was a hair stick. I asked her to make it as a special order.

Thanks To Jan Scott for the great pictures of me with the blending board and spinning. I think you took the hair stick pictures too even if it was on my phone.

 

 

Different Weavings

Different Weavings

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I took a couple of my pencil roving mats, and some pencil roving waste,  to the Well Being centre a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about plaid and checks, and I’d mentioned the pencil roving waste and how great it is for making patterns. This is one I took in, I’m not sure if I’ve posted it before, but it does look similar to others I’ve shown.

This is another I took in, which I made a couple of months ago:

A couple of the group members tried out the roving and made mats, and for last week, I made some little cardboard looms, so everyone who wanted to could make a woven pencil roving mat. I think everyone was pleasantly surprised how quick it was to make a small weaving. I don’t have photos because they were all still wet. But just doing that little bit of weaving gave me the taste again, so I finished off a piece I started ages ago with my first wheel-spun yarn.

I used stripey green pencil roving waste for the warp.

And I started another with my second wheel spun yarn, which had baffled me a bit because my first one wasn’t too bad considering I’d used my own blended texturey batts, but this was very weird. I realised later why, it was that weird stuff I got in the botany lap waste which is still an unknown fibre. I made a nice weaving with some of the better stuff last year, but I thought I’d start something with the uneven pieces, maybe add something else to it at a later date.

I bent the cardboard to make it a bit easier, it looks like a medieval instrument. Oh, and I finally ‘finished’ my new tutorial yesterday, the proof reading can wait, the sun’s out!

A Busy Guild Social

A Busy Guild Social

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At my guild, Ottawa Valley Weavers’ and Spinners’ we have a large formal meeting with a program on the first Monday of the month and on all the other Mondays we have a casual social night. bring your wheel or knitting or what ever you like and just have fun with like minded people.

This Monday we there was lots going on. There were spinners and knitters.

guild-social

Jan brought in some Sheep for the Demo boxes. they came back to the guild a short time ago from being used in a school program. they needed a little hair dressing and now they will go out for demos.

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Some people were trying to fix the brake on a loom.

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Elizabeth was teaching some one how to make a warp using the cool little paddle to speed things up .

and this is Judy carding cotton into punies ( probably spelled really wrong)

and this is a link( or maybe it will show.  to Judy’s YouTube video of spinning cotton on a Lego charkha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSbUTcfal1s