Felting and Fiber Studio

I hope this is a Happy Monday, as you read this.

I had another little oops on Friday. I was sitting and bent forward…and felt a little pop, froze to assess what I might have done. Decided it didn’t seem too bad until I tried to straighten up. That did not go as well as I hoped, but I got myself back to the computer and tried to keep working on a comparison of needle felting safety devices notes I had been working on. That didn’t last long and I wobbled off to lie down. If I had got the memo that bending foreword was forbidden on Fridays I would have abstained from that offensiveness movement.

Instead, I had to accept my back’s indication/insistence that I should wait on the article I was writing and get back to focusing on another short chat about Mega-Stega-bag-blog. So let’s see if I am up to transferring photos and giving you a progress report. (Lucky you, a less verbose me! Since this is the first day, Sunday, that I can type (leaning forward and sitting seems to offend whoever I ticked off greatly, while lying down was the only acceptable orientation the last few days).  so to appease my demanding back it’s back to the bag:

A week ago Monday I was back in at the guild studio working on the library, dispersing fleeces and continuing the calculations for the resist for my new phone holder.

1)From 12 bags to 4 bags, with 2 spoken for that should leave 2 left to find homes.

2) This is the modified Dewey architecture we are using for the OVWSG library’s collection.

I went with a process format for classification, if you are curious I can tell you about that sometime.  I will try not to get too distracted today or I will not get this blog done. I will give you the topic headings in case the photo is not as clear as I hope. (I have the OK drugs for my back, not the really good ones from the last time.)

• 000’s Programs, publishing and people (biography)
• 100’s Law and Business
• 200’s Studio and Guilds
• 300’s Fiber Sources and Preparation
• 400’s Colour  and Dyeing
• 500’s Felt
• 600’s Spinning and Post Spinning
• 700’s Fine art/ Design and Weaving
• 800’s Post Weaving
• 900’s History of Textiles

I added a few more books to the OVWSG guild library collection. I need to add the new donations to the database before updating the subject, author and title lists on the guild website. Then it was time to take a break and I got started on the stegosaurus expansion to create the purse resist. (It was one of the few days I did not do library work through  the social.) See I did get back on topic!

 3) Vertical lines have been expanded.

4) You can see how well-folded the paper under the pencil has become.

Now I am ready to work on the horizontal lines.

I used the same technique as the vertical lines; measure the distance along the line inside the Stego-blob on the piece of paper. Fold the paper in half and then fold the half in half again. Take that length and add it to each end of the line on the outside of the blob.

5) Measuring from the edge, where the line and outline meet to add the amount of shrinkage to the shape.

I had to add a bit more paper to my graph to get the head and tail horizontal expansion plotted, but eventually had a spot where the plotting overlapped. If I had wanted to be exact in my expansion I would have added I diagonal element to fix these troublesome transitions. Instead of adding another step, I went with Ann’s suggestion of just estimating, and drawing a line.

7-8) After estimating the line in the two areas where the horizontal and verticals did not agree, I was ready to cut out the new larger shape of Mega-Stega-blob!

9) Remember to use your paper scissors, not your sewing or fibre scissors!!

Ann was very curious to see the difference in size and shape between the original side panel of the giant Stego-bag and the new Mego-Stego-Blob, so we checked.

10) The new shape should make a bit more diminutive purse.

I will add the legs in four extra resist pieces (oh drat I will have to scale that up too), but I did leave the original attachment sites marked on the template. I also have the plate locations marked too. The plan is to add the legs to the body resist to be felted at the same time as the bag. The spines and plates I want to pre-felt partly leaving a fluffy attachment end so I can make them very firm.  I had considered wire augmentation for the spines, but have not decided whether to include it yet.

My next step will be to consider the colour so I can lay out the wool. Unfortunately, that will not be this Monday. My goal for the day will be getting to the guild, which I am hoping I will be up to. Possibly adding a few more books, and then getting myself back home! But for now, I think it’s time to go lie down again.