weaving – Page 4 – Felting and Fiber Studio

Felting, Weaving and Teaching

June 30, 2015 Shepherdessann Comments 14 comments

I had a fairly productive week I made 4 cup cozies. They need their buttons and elastic loops but I should get that done this week. I need to sort out if they are narrow enough to go through the handle on a coffee mug. If they don’t fit I will make them for travel mugs without handles.

Here are some close up pictures. The top two have throwsters silk waste. The bottom left is a silk scarf and the right is cotton cheesecloth.

I also got the inklette loom warped to make a strap.

The weaving is not great but it is getting better as I go.

Lastly I had t very nice ladies to may studio to learn to make nuno felt scarves. As usual I was busy with the students and forgot to take pictures until the end.

Introduction to Wet Felting at The Fold

November 6, 2014 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 20 comments

A couple of months ago while shopping at The Fold in Marengo, IL, owner Toni Neil asked me if I’d be interested in teaching a wet felting class. Many of the people who shop there are knitters, crocheters and spinners and she said they were curious about the felting. I agreed and we settled on November 1, class size and I provided her with a class description and supply list along with a list of the items I would be supplying.

I always think when taking a beginners class it’s nice to come home with something you can either use or show people, so I chose to make a place mat. In preparation, I made a couple as examples and gathered some other samples to show how embellishments can be used. I also brought along, yarns, prefelt, and some silk for embellishments.

I provided a pool noodle, bubble wrap, a template, a piece of polyester curtain fabric for each student and gathered up my samples and other tools to discuss as we worked. In addition, I printed out flyers for the forum, a resource list and a general step by step guide to basic wet felting for future reference.

The class was held in Toni’s kitchen at The Fold which was comfortable for four people. Unfortunately, they had to turn away a fifth, but I don’t know where we would have put another body.

I was surprised to learn that a couple of the ladies had come from as far away as Beloit, WI and Highland Park, IL which is an hour and half away. The other two lived closer to me.

The kitchen was nice and bright. So sunny, pictures were a little hard to get.

The one thing I learned is that they would have preferred to not have choices as to design. However, I’m never one to squash the creativity of a group and as it turned out they helped each other and while they followed basic designs they added their own creative touches.

Toni M (not the owner) finished first and was pleased with her first project and decided she liked her organic edges.

Dana brought some beautiful Churro yarn she’d purchased from New Mexico and made her mat a bit more abstract with a lovely turquoise background.

Carolynne purchased her roving and yarn to match at The Fold with the intention making an additional five mats of the same design which featured the stripes and abstract yarn design.

Since Candace had just purchased all the merino sheep from The Fold, she chose to feature a sheep on her design that she cut out from prefelt and used yarn for a fence, silk for clouds and some roving for grass.

They were all pleased with their place mats. We worked hard, but had a good time. Now these knitters, crocheters, spinner and weaver have a new tool in their fiber kits! I hope they will continue to experiment and join us on the forum. For more information on The Fold check out their website http://www.thefoldatmc.net

I haven’t taught a class in a long time. I was tired, but a good tired and had fun meeting new people and sharing my passion with them.

The Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair, August 1-3, 2014

August 10, 2014 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 19 comments

by Guest Artist/Author Cathy Wycliff (Luvswool)

We, Marilyn (Pandagirl) and I (Luvswool), had never attended a “fiber fair,” so there were expectations and then the reality of the Fair. We had planned for many months to attend the annual Fair and met there early Friday morning with great anticipation. The advance program showed photos of sheep, fiber, workshops, art exhibits, bags of fleece, etc., and the Fair delivered all of that except for the sheep. One of the organizers explained to me that August is too hot for sheep, and I guess that makes sense. So, the only live animals were a lonely llama and a couple of angora rabbits. Still, it was an enjoyable experience.

The Fair has been held for 8 years in Grayslake, IL, a far northwestern town in the extended Chicago metro area, and it’s a Fair that celebrates the work of many hands. We saw spinners, felters, and knitters demonstrating their crafts, and there were many workshops offered during the 3-day fair. There were a couple of folk singers and a few food vendors outdoors, but everything else was contained in an air-conditioned building. The majority of the indoor vendors were geared towards knitters, with many beautiful displays of hand-dyed, hand-spun yarns and goods. Neither Marilyn nor I are knitters, so we headed first for a walk around to scope out the lot.

First stop was the Art Exhibit, which displayed fine fiber art–among them, my own display of five fiber wall-hangings. There were other fiber wall hangings, sculptures and “vintage” handbags (crafted from vintage patterns but otherwise entirely new).

(Cathy had a very prominent display! It was the first thing to see on our way in. Very exciting! — Marilyn)

Next up were the vendors, which included some crazy rag rugs, lots of beautiful yarn and bags of alpaca fleece. There were also felted hats and you’ll notice I didn’t snap pics of the roving, since I was busy buying it. Marilyn and I purchased some fibers we have not previously felted with–including Navajo churro, 100% Organic Polwarth, white Falkland and I bought some black Blue Faced Leicester with silk. Since there was so much yarn, I did pick up some white wool boucle for embellishment, as well as silk hankies, which I have never used.

As we neared the end, we were able to view the judging of alpaca and llama fleece. Two judges followed a quality control checklist and had to concur on all points.

Then it was goodbye to Princess Athena, the lonely llama, and our day at the Fair came to an end. We would love to attend another fair, but next time would like to see sheep–sheep-shearing, sheep-judging, sheep fleeces, border collies herding sheep, etc. Maybe there’s a trip to New Zealand in our future!

More distaff day

June 11, 2014 Shepherdessann Comments 19 comments

Last time I showed you what I did at distaff day. http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2014/06/03/distaff-day/ I thought I would show you some of the other classes that were going on.

Needle felting class

Sock knitting class

Weaving a little bag over a peace of card

Inkle weaving with wire added for manipulating

Kumihimo, Japanese braiding. here they are using marudai to do the braiding but you can do it with a piece of cardboard with slits cut into the edge.

Weaving a beret on a card with holes punched in it.

Rug hooking with roving. This is done with a hook similar to a crochet hook and thin roving. I had only ever seen it done with woven wool strips.

This rug hooking really interests me. It looks like a great project to carry with you when you travel. Have you seen a new to you fiber craft you want to learn?

Visit to Waldron Grove Alpaca Farm

May 12, 2014 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 14 comments

Last weekend, I took a little ride to the Waldron Grove Alpaca Farm in Campton Hills, Illinois for their annual Open House and Art Sale. The two day event featured their 30 Suri alpacas and an array of handmade items for sale and demonstrations by five featured artists.

The farm is owned by Susan and Ron Waldron since 2003. Susan is an oil painter and felter. She combines needle and wet felting using her Suri Alpaca fleece exclusively for her designs. She and Ron also specialize in alpaca farm start ups.

The alpacas are a little shy so they kept to themselves, but it was fun watching them in the field. Susan had two wonderful weather days for the event. (Lately, our weather has been very iffy.) A little windy but sunny and warm.

The garage was filled with wonderful art pieces for sale. While I was there I was able to watch a spinning and drop spindle demonstration by Laurie McGee who is a dyer, spinner, weaver and knitter. She also makes custom yarn, hand combed tops and gives spinning lessons.

There were many of Susan’s oil paintings, tapestries, silk scarves, shawls, silk coverups and clothing beautifully displayed around the area. She also sells alpaca needle felting kits featuring alpacas, irises, and other flowers. You can learn more about Waldron Grove at www.susanwaldronart.com

LuAnn Toborg and Anita Riemer were manning the cash register while I was there and I had an opportunity to talk to both of them.

LuAnn specializes in hand dyeing yarn with natural plants, berries and flowers.

Anita creates dyed yarn with acid dyes and makes cowls, scarves, hats, felted wallets, jewelry and baby blankets.

While I was there, Susan demonstrated needle felting and hand carding for her guests. She’s modeling a wool jacket she embellished with alpaca.

Of course, I bought some alpaca to play with. I also arranged to come back to take a lesson on using the needle felting machine.

It was a fun afternoon talking with fellow felters and artists and perusing all the wonderful works of art available for sale.

What special events have you attended recently? Remember, if you have a project or event you’d like to blog about, please contact one of the moderators and let us know.

nuno class and some great weaving.

November 25, 2013 Shepherdessann Comments 10 comments

Yesterday I taught a Nuno felt scarf class at the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild. this was my first class in our new space. http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2013/09/14/a-new-home-for-my-guild/

I still am not used to taking pictures of what ma doing so all I have is a final class shot of the finished scarves. the two ladies on the right traded scarves for the picture because the didn’t show up against their clothing.

to make up for my forgetfulness I have some pictures from our last guild meeting where Inge Dam http://www.ingedam.net/ came to tell us about her weaving. she combines weaving on a loom with card weaving. Her work is beautiful. I have a few pictures but her website has much better pictures if you take a look. She also has an amazing book.

I hope to get some time to felt this week but I know I have to make tourtiere pies for the Kemptville Farmers’ Market Christmas sale on Saturday.

Carp Fair Demo

October 4, 2013 Shepherdessann Comments 10 comments

This is the last Demo until spring. the carp Fair was celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. It was a beautiful weekend cool in the morning and hot by mid afternoon. There were more people their than ever before. We demoed an extra hour. It was alot of fun chatting with everyone that came by

Here is my display, I was making sheep again.

Here is hand spinning on her tiny wheel. I think it’s called a road bug. It’s designed so you can spin sitting in the passenger seat in a van.

This is Julie, She was working on an inkle loom and a 4 harness table loom and

This is Bernadette, she is showing me how to use combs. They are English combs I think.

And last but not least is Linda who is making a tail spun yarn.

We where not the only ones sharing our passions.

There was more to this display but I couldn’t get a good shot with the sun in my lens. All in all I think everyone had a great time.

OHS Conference

May 14, 2013 Shepherdessann Comments 8 comments

Here are some more pictures from the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners Conference.

It was a really nice venue with tons of good food and really nice rooms this is the courtyard where there where two magnolia trees in full bloom and a nice waterfall feature.

There were lots of things to buy in the vendor mall

There were some interesting classes.

This one was called Viking Knitting and I would have liked to take the class.

Unfortunately only 2 of my pictures of the displays turned out

the first is a cowl by Mireille Gagnon Moes who got honorable mention.

the other one that turned out was this large felt leaf by Diane Gonthier.http://www.savoir-faire-textile.com/eng/ It was displayed laid out on the floor. I think about 5 feet long.

There was also a banquet with a fashion show and no of that turned out. it was dark and no one would stand still for a second to take the pictures. I was a failure as a photographer but I hope you like the pictures that did work.

I Did Some Weaving

February 4, 2013 Shepherdessann Comments 18 comments

This week end I did something I claim not to like, weaving. What I really mean is I don’t like what most people think of as weaving, on a table or floor loom. I don’t like getting the warp ready and putting it on the loom and tying it all up and then sitting and weaving. I like finger weaving and I like what I was doing one Sunday, Inkle weaving.

This is a table inkle loom. I was using a floor version but I forgot to take a picture and couldn’t find one with the weaving on it.

I took the beginner class for the second time. I took it the first time a few years ago. Its not like most weaving where you only see the cross threads or you see the treads going in both directions. This is warp faced weaving. It means you see the threaded that are held on the loom not the threads you are putting back and forth. it also only makes narrow pieces. You use it to make straps and belts and trim.

This is the beginning. you can see at the bottom where I started isn’t as nice as it is a little farther along. In the beginner class we make a scissor pouch.

this is twisting the fringe the a really cool tool that makes it supper fast and easy.

You can see the little snip scissors inside the pouch.

This is the finished pouch . You wear it around you neck and when. you need to cut some thread you slide the snips out and there you go.

What I like about his kind of weaving is its so fast to warp the loom and the weaving goes really fast. When I finish my felt boots I may make some decorative trim for them.

Exhibition and Sale

November 6, 2012 Shepherdessann Comments 10 comments

The guild I belong to, the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild, had its annual exhibition and sale this last weekend. I had a booth selling scarves and wraps and flowers and cuffs and hats etc. The guild does a display on a theme and has demos and promotes our classes. It’s our big event for the year. The venue is beautiful it is a community center now but used to be a church and has a huge domed center.

Here are some pictures of my booth and me explaining what nuno felt is to a customer.

This is one of the organisers wearing an exquisite shawl she knit using her own hand spun alpaca.

This my friend Judy,http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jumaka.com%2Fspinning%2Fpetfur.html&h=fAQGCIXhy , she not only likes to spin yarn, including dog and cat fur she also likes to spin wood on a lathe to make nostepinne for manually making a center pull ball) and drop spindles in several styles and weights including supported spindles like she is using in the picture. This is her booth, she shares it with another friend who is more camera shy.