Saturday
Enchanted HFY Fiber Club
Mentioned in an earlier post I received a gift of a three month fiber club from Happy Fuzzy Yarn. For my first month Riin sent me "Enchanted" 4 oz. Polwarth combed wool top. I put all of the other things I needed to get done and sat down at my Kromski Sonota spinning wheel and began drafting the combed wool top. The colors of purple and so purple it turned into black was beautiful. I spun a single ply. Enjoy the pics!
Clean Llama
Finally got around to cleaning and combing the llama I purchased this past summer. I now have a basket full to spin. Llama is so very fine and soft once having gone through the process of being cleaned and combed!
Hats for Christmas - Needle Felting
Have you tried needle felting? It's addictive. At a recent craft show I was participating in I received an order to make a special color (turquoise) needle felted hat. Once I completed the hat I delivered it to a co-worker who had ordered it. That turned into an order for five more hats. Black hats. I found out that black wool is not cheap! The dyes are expensive making the black colored wool expensive. So, I emailed Ms. Luna and she was able to send me four gorgeous batts of naturally black wool from her Shetland sheep. The wool needle felted very well. Once the hats were completed I again took to work to my co-workers who ordered them. Doing business with friends and family is sometimes a delicate situation. A comment was made that the "black" was too "brown." A defensive emotion came to me but I had to be calm. I explained that the Shetland black wool was natural from the actual sheep and the color was not going to be a flat commercially dyed black and that the dimension in the wool was a gift. I sold 4 out of the 5 hats specially ordered! One co-worker just couldn't accept the brown in the black. I was disappointed but also took a deep breath and got over it. The pics below are of the needle felting process and some finished hats! Enjoy!
Friday
Happy Fuzzy Yarn Fiber Club
My step-dad is fabulous! I received a 3-month fiber club membership from Happy Fuzzy Yarn for Christmas. Riin just notified me that my first month's fiber is on the way. I can't wait to see it. I'll post a photo before I spin it. Does receiving fiber in the mail sound great to you too? You can't go wrong with the fiber if you love to spin a beautiful yarn. I highly recommend it!
Monday
You Never Know What You'll Get
The fiber colors are light greens, light blues, bright whites, very yellow yellows and pink. As I spun the singles the colors seemed to represent the pastel colors, but as you will see once two-ply the colors seem to represent more of a end of summer early fall color way. I guess you just never know what you'll get until you've created the beautiful yarn.
Silk Worm Cocoons
Because I have been curious about how the silk threads are taken from the cocoons so when I went to the Hamilton Fiber Festival I purchased about twenty of them. I read on-line a few blogs about how to take the silk threads from the cocoons. I dropped a couple of them in warm water and then gently rubbed one of the cocoons when very fine threads began to come off into my hands. I wrapped the threads onto a bobbin and collected what threads I could from the cocoon. The cocoon is created totally from the silk threads down to the very tiniest piece. Its amazing. Once the cocoon begins to dry, the threads do not loosen as easily as when it is wet. It is laborious work. The small amount of silk on my bobbin is from four cocoons. The lifeless silk worm was inside the cocoon and disposing of it made me sad.
Road Trip to the Capital of Kentucky
Frankfort, Kentucky is the home of The Woolery a fabulous resource for all of the pieces and parts for your spinning wheel. They offer spinning wheels from different companies. There are weaving supplies and niddy noddies in every size. The owners are personally in the store to help you find what you're looking for. On-line they offer a nice catalog of all things fiber related. The Woolery is located on a beautiful brick street behind the capital building. Nearby there are cafes to enjoy a meal or a drink and art galleries full of hand crafted items to buy. And don't forget the Bourbon Balls at the Chocolate Cafe just around the corner.
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| The Woolery store front |
Sunday
Purple from The Naughty Knitter
This purple BFL and silk is so soft. Couldn't wait to get it on the bobbin of my Kromski and begin to spin it. Here it is from fluff to a double ply yarn ready to knit or crochet.
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| 4 ounces of purple BFL and silk |
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| Double Ply on the bobbin |
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| 170 yards of purple bliss |
Prairie Sheep Painting
This little acrylic painting was inspired by actual sheep I saw in a pasture. I haven't painted for a very long time. I enjoyed doing this one.
Waterfall
Another Bernat Mosiac yarn crochet hat. This yarn is called "Waterfall." To make this one, I chained 50 stitches and crochet in the round. I used the front post stitch until I reached the height of the hat and then I gathered at the top with a length of yarn and a big-eyed needle. Ear flaps were added, something I hadn't done before,and then some braids were added too. Also, making this yarn awesome is it's machine wash and dry. My son tried on this hat and liked it but didn't agree to model it for a pic.
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| Close up of front post stitches and Bernat Mosiac "Waterfall" colorway. |
Ambrosia
I'm in love with the Bernat Mosiac yarn! When you touch it, it feels like merino but it's NOT! It's acrylic. Really when you touch it you won't believe it! For only $5.99 for a 209 yds/100g/3.5 oz it's a deal! Just think about the one skein projects you could make with this yarn. Oh, yeah! I made this crochet hat with "Ambrosia" in alternating half-double and front post stitches with a folded up hat brim. It will be for sale at my next craft show.
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| Bernat Mosiac "Ambrosia" |
Hat Felting
Oh, brother! I found a new craft while at the fiber festival. I knew about hat felting in this manner but had not tried it yet. I purchased the tall hat mold and Needle Felter needle with ten felting needles. I also purchased brightly colored roving in bright colors to felt a hat. The process took approximately 8-10 hours before I was happy with the results of the hat. I added white roving polka dots. While this was a learning experience for me, I learned that when you add embellishments (polka dots) not to poke so hard. I took plugs out of my foam form the size of each polka dot so my foam form looks a little like a block of cheese. I didn't find many You Tube videos on this craft. The crafter that sold me the tools gave me a very good tutorial and an instruction sheet with my purchase. His best advise was to hold your hat to the light and find any thin spots in the hat that need to be filled in. It makes for a more evenly felted hat. The hat provides warmth and style. Give it a try. Etsy has the high density forms available on line.
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| Blue high density tall hat form and Needle Felter with ten needles. |
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| Purple and brown needle felted hat with white polka dots. |
Felted Wool Shoe/Boot Liners
Displayed on one of the tables at the fiber festival I spotted shoe sole liners for sale made from felted wool. With that in mind, I grabbed a felted purse that the shape didn't turn out as great as I hoped and cut a square of felted material. I traced one of my shoe liners onto the felted material. Next I cut out the traced lines. Ta-dah felted wool shoe/boot liners. I couldn't wait to place them in my walking shoes. For just a few minutes of work (and I don't mean the felting process included) I have new comfy shoe liners. This would be a great gift for those men and women in your lives who work outside in the winter on cold days.
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| Trace shoe liner onto felted material. |
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| Shoe liners cut from felted material. |
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| Felted material is 1/2 inch thick. |
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| Fit perfectly in my walking shoes held in place with a length of two-sided tape. |
SIFA Fiber Festival Road Trip
Saturday morning, October 15th I headed out to the original capital of Indiana, Corydon the location of the Southern Indiana FiberArts Festival a couple hours drive from my house. With cash in my pocket and a cold water bottle I entered the fiber festival with my eyes wide open seeing huge country fair-size buildings full of fiber artists and every color of finished yarns, fibers to be spun, wool rug yarns on sale at 50% off, hand-crafted weaving looms for a very fair price, fiber animals and tools of the craft. I could have taken many, many pics but I was enjoying myself so much I pretty much forgot to take them. The fiber artists welcome questions and I find most are very kind.
Monday
There she was.... a spinning wheel!
Along the path to go home back to Kentucky, we stopped at several yard and garage sales. Mom spotted a sale that was being set up behind a gift shop so I turned the corner and went back to it. The Country Angel Gifts in Adairville, Kentucky is where we were. And then we spotted it...at the same time...a spinning wheel...we'll most of one anyway. I brought her home. She is missing her "mother-of-all" so there won't be any spinning on her until I can find what kind of wheel and how to replace the "mother-of-all." Nancy Watson, the shop's owner, was very kind and so was her husband. If you know anything about this spinning wheel, I would enjoy hearing from you.
Day #2
- Free breakfast in the hotel
- (Must have been a rodeo close by 'cause there was lots of cowgirls and cowboys in the lobby!)
- Antique shop - closed
- Goodwill
- Historic Murfreesboro
- The best almond cupcake ever!
- Naughty Knitter Yarn Shop
- Lunch
- Garage Sales
The yarn shop was about to open so we drove back there. Upon walking up the sidewalk I was greeted by the shop's owner Meredith Kermicle. Meredith's husband and shop dog where there too. There were boxes of new yarns ready to be opened. There were completed projects and yarns everywhere you looked. Meredith showed me a cowl she had completed with fake fur. It was white, soft and beautiful! A local customer arrived. She was loving the shop dog and visiting with the Kermicle's. I felt this shop was very friendly. I purchased a one yard Ashford "kniddy knoddy" and purple silk and BFL combed top. I have it on my bobbin now on my spinning wheel. Wish I would have bought the other 4 ozs. she had prepared but I didn't. Silly me! There's always the postal service! Enjoy the pics!
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| Meredith - Knaughty Knitter in person! |
Haus of Yarns
Once in Nashville we headed for the Haus of Yarns. We gave a quick call to the yarn shop and they were very nice to give us directions. Inside the Haus of Yarn is full of nicely displayed yarns, completed projects and an niche with a table and chairs to enjoy some knitting pattern books. The shop owner, Carolyn Smith, and her staff were helping customers with their yarns and projects. Visit the website at www.hausofyarn.com. I got to touch the new Berroco "Link" yarn. It was beautiful! Visit the Haus of Yarn if you're lucky enough to live close by. I read on their website they have a Sit and Stitch every Thursday evening. Now, that sounds like fun!
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| Shop Owner Carolyn Smith preparing a customer's order. |
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