My Little Spinning World!

 I have been working on some white Alpaca that I bought at the Smokey Mountain Fiber Fest a couple years ago.  After washing & carding it, it is like a soft mountain of snow.  Spinning it on my Alpaca wheel, double plying it.  Still have alot to go but hoping to get a shawl wove up with it.

Yarn to the left was some superwash roving that Candi at R&M Yarns had dyed.  She does such a beautiful job!  Can't want to take a class from her!

 

Picture below is my lastest blending board playtime! Going to ply it with some black rayon thread.  Weave a scarf on the Cricket.

What is Happening in my Weaving World!

Finally got the Leclerc warped up for rugs.  Did not take long cause I used the 8 dent reed.  Had some fiber that was given to me a few years ago by Phyllis at R&M Yarns.  Used it for the warp, mauve and grey.

I bought some New Zealand Wool yarn out of the discount bins at R&M Yarns after one of our guild meetings.  Had some black spots on it so it was 1/2 price.  I dyed it with Ghoul Aid, Cherry, & Grape Kool-aid.  Got done and thought how ugly it was, just thought lesson learned.  But as I am weaving it up - I am thinking how pretty it is.  Really a leasson learned - Never pass up a 1/2 price wool - you can dye it; And never think something is ugly - there is always beauty to be found.

Future Blanket!

When you spin to weave, you have to think long term.  You have to get the fiber, hopefully ready to spin but if not you go thru the process of possibly pulling any short cuts and too soiled fibers, then washing, washing, washing and rinsing and rinsing over and over until it it all cleaned.  Then out on screens in the sun to dry.  This has taken me days to complete and lots of water!

If you are lucky enough to have it ready to spin then you spin and spin then ply.  I usually soak in warm water with alittle orginial dawn then rinse and hang to dry - it just blooms.
Then comes the planning the project, warping and weaving!
So it can take months to work on a project but you do it from the fiber animal to the finish project.  As you work on it, you realize that you are doing something that was done centuries ago - you are creating with your hands!  I find such peace as I see it progress from raw fibers to a finish item.

My future blanket will be made of a blend of alpaca/shetland in natural colors of tan & redish brown.  The fibers are from a friend's alpaca & shetland sheep.  She surprised me one day with these two bags of roving, ready to spin!  She said it was payback for something I had gave her - I nevered expected anything and had actually forgot about giving it to her.  I feel very blessed to have such  kind friends.

Hopefully sometime this summer I will have it all spun up and on my loom, so we can have my first blanket to lay on the couch this winter.
Thank you Susan!

First Mill Processed Fleece

I sent my first fleece off to Stonehedge Fiber Mill in East Jordan MI a couple weeks ago.  Last night UPS pulled into the drive way and there was my fleece.  It is a beautiful alpaca fleece and it is so soft and downy.  Ready to spin or recard into batts with add in's if I decide to do that.

I love it!  I had always bought a raw fleece, spreaded it out, tried to pull anything that needed to be pulled out, then washed and washed and washed!  Spread it out on window screens and hoped I did not felt any of it.  This was so easy and less stressful!

Already thinking about sending a Jacob fleece off to them!

Chase N It Farms Free Fleece!

I won a fleece from Chase N It Farms (www.chaseit.com) !!!  They had posted on their website if you Liked them on Facebook you would get a chance to win!  I am so excited as soon as they shear, they will ship the fleece to me!

Blended Batts & Felted Pods

 

I love to card fiber!  I love to dye fiber!  Put it together and you come up with some wonderful batts ready to spin.

The above batt was dyed with Kool-aid Ghoul Aid and blended on the drum carder with some Angelina fibers.  The fiber is from a tunis sheep called Lucy.  My husband bought the fleece at the Smokey Mountain Fiber Festival in Townsend.

The batt below was also dyed with Kool-Aid Blueberry & Cherry.  The fiber is merino.

 

I had spun some Brown Sheep gray roving, then knitted and wet felted the pods below.  Then needlefelted some white Wensleydale locks randomly around the top.  They are freestanding with no support.  I love them!

Earth Loom

I think Earth Looms are so cool!  Some call them Journey Looms.  I have been hoping to build one of these looms in my backyard. 

I think it would be so much fun to weave a mixture of yarns, fabrics, branches, and grasses.

 

Has anyone done this!?  Let me know if you have.  

 

 

Scenic Valley Handweavers

Scenic Valley Handweavers Guild was formed in January.  We meet the third Saturday each month at R&M Yarns in Georgetown, TN (near Cleveland, TN) at 9:00 with meeting beginning at 9:30.

A community-based guild of handweavers in Southeastern Tennessee. Our mission is to create and promote opportunities to educate, share and stimulate interest in and appreciation of handweaving among our group members & the community

The meetings have been great! We have wonderful learning programs and beautiful show & tell.  There are so many talented members that are happy to share with us what they have learned.

You can contact R&M Yarns for info or email me at cottonpatchquilts@msn.com

Spinning Bags & Hand Card Covers

Like I said in the first post, I have a quilt shop.  I look for fabrics that would make totes and other items. 

I quilt the fabric before I cut out the patterns so they are sturdy.

My dear friend, Jennie, encouraged me to make hand card covers and these are what I came up with after making a couple proto types.

 

The tote bags have an outside and inside pocket.  They sell for $25 each.  They make great knitting or spinning bags. 

 

 

The hand card covers are also quilted and have ribbons to tie closed. I did not use velcro because fiber would collect on it and would have to be cleaned often.  The cards in the picture are Clemes  & Clemes to help show you how they look.  The covers are $15 each.

Coming soon will be drop spindle bags and spinning aprons.

First Attempt at Overshot!

I had been drawn to Overshot for a while.  I have a couple great books but I have a problem sometimes understanding books.  I was at R&M Yarns and the new Handwoven was out.  On the cover was beautiful overshot towels - I don't think I grabbed the magazine - It grabbed me!  I read it and read it, finally I decided to go for it. 

Picked from the 10/2 threads I had on my shelf for the warp and the tabby, then the 5/2 that I had for the pattern.  But when I started to do the weaving, got a little scared at all the different colors they had used in the magazine - I decided I would stick to 2 colors.

 

Watching the pattern emerge was so wonderful!  I just could not wait to try a different color for the next towel.  I made alot of mistakes when I warped up but fixed most of them and learnt alot while doing it.  Made mistake while weaving, but that's okay - maybe I won't make those mistakes next time.  Probably make new ones - but that is okay too. 

 

 

 

 

Blending Board

I bought a wonderful drum carder - love to card my fibers.  But as always that was not enough...lol! I wanted to make art yarns and the carder I have is just too fine a cloth for what I want to do.  Then Spin Off magazine came out with a article about blending boards - light bulb when off!

Did some researching on Ravelry and a few other places and decided to make one.  Found a very nice lady on Etsy that sold carding cloth and a very helpful lady on Ravelry that had blogged about making a board ( http://spinningshepherd.blogspot.com/ )

 

 

Here's what I made and my first rolags!

 Next came the spinning.  I plied it with rayon thread and it is ready to weave into a scarf on the cricket rigid heddle loom!  Will blog a pic when it is done.

 

 

I Am So Hooked!

I just love to weave and spin - plain and simple.  Can't say I am good, make alot of mistakes each time I start a project but I don't care - I love it.

Taught myself to knit from a CD then jumped in feet first and took a class that the Athens Art Center from Jennie Bennett on making socks with a friend.  I still love knitting socks but really realized that I am a slow knitter.

But as I knitted, I realized that I did not want to knit with commerical yarns - I wanted to make yarn from fleece - from U.S. raised sheep, alpacas, & rabbits.  So I went to The Spinnery in Gatlinburg and Nancy showed me a book with the instructions to make a spindle from a cd.  She showed me how to use a spindle in the shop.  Bought the book, came home and my husband made me the spindle.

That was not enough - joined the Tennessee Handspinner's Guild in Knoxville TN and borrowed the guild spinning wheel - I was hooked.  I loved it!  Bought a used wheel from Jennie and never looked back.  Now I own 2 wheels that I have bought at the Spinnery and love them both.

I took a class from Phyllis at R&M Yarns in Cleveland, Tennessee a few years ago with a friend - just a simple table runner but I loved it. My husband made me an old fashion rug loom but that was not enough, could not do what I wanted to do on it.  Found an used Leclerc counterbalance loom on craigslist and headed to Knoxville to get it.  Then came the Baby Wolf.  Then came a Harrisville loom that my dear friends & my husband's cousins gave to me. 

The Scenic Valley Handweavers Guild was established in January at R&M Yarns.  We are learning so much!  I look so forward to the meetings.

I have a blog that is mainly devoted to quilting www.cottonpatchquilts.blogspot.com but I wanted one that was more for the Fiber Arts like weaving, spinning and needlefelting.

I hope you will join me on this part of my life's journey!