Resist Felting

So I bought a second hand drum carder that needed a lot of love. I was also given some dirty old and very ordinary alpaca some time back, so thought I would test of the drum carder with the alpaca. There was 3 colours, off white, tan and a small bit of brown. So I thought I would try out resist felting, lets face it, who could resist trying this technique out.

Placed down the clear plastic discs, and soon reaslised that this was going to be impossible, so added coins, and this worked a treat, yes some moved a little, but made adding the brown and the cutting so much easier!

This piece of felt will become a bag eventually.

Also thanks to Jenny Hill of https://www.facebook.com/jhillfelt/ for the great you tube video on this technique!

 

 

 

Hand Spun Naturals

About a year ago, I decided to get my head around spinning, and today I finished a cowl of a selection of various shades and breeds. Shetland, alpaca, finn, corriedale, finn cross (I think corriedale and merino), and the colours are so rich and varied, who needs dyes!

The patterns are taken from the 200 Fair-isle Motifs book, I punch then onto a card, and knitting this up on the Bulky knitting machine. Since I can fair-isle knit well, the machine was more of a challenge. The mix is varied plys, some I had to use single others I had to double up.

Knitting on the machine can also be a little tedious in pattern work, especially all the colour changes, dropped stitches(mainly because of the varying plys).... and dropped stitches in fair-isle is a pain, as on the machine you only see the wrong side so keeping the pattern true is hard work.

So it has just turned summer, so it will be folded and placed in the cupboard all ready for Winter 2016..... I even have left overs that I will throw at the loom Saori style and see what comes out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nuno Felt meets Shibori & Indigo

I needed a project to test out my homemade Palm Washboard. I must give credit to the design to 'Heartfelt Silks though. I wanted to learn how to use the Router at 'Ladies in The Shed' and this was a good reason, and the result works a treat, plus my hands are not soap dry like they normally after a session of Nuno Felting.

Scarf is cotton gauze Indigo Dyed with Shibori folding and Triangles. The pre-felt is a mixture of Merino, some indigo dyed, some commercially dyed, some silk and cobalt silk threads. Then cut into triangles to tie in with the scarf and then felting onto the scarf.

 

 

 

Longbeach Urban Yarn Art Trail

One of the projects that has been keeping me off the streets and out of trouble.

Today we installed the Possum Magic Yarn Art pieces at Chelsea Primary School.

Tomorrow will be another big day of Installs, so stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/longbeachurbanyarnart

 

Saori Coat

Today I had some time to so some sewing for myself. So I finished off this coat from a length of cloth I wove using the Saori weaving principles. I topped it off with one of my hand made buttons from a 'Ladies in the Shed' session.
 
I am so in love with weaving at the moment, and in particular the Saori style, were pretty much anything goes! The yarn is a mixture of yarns I had purchased some time ago from Dairing Yarns.

As for the garment, and while Saori works on fairly raw principles, such as exposing selvedge's, I still felt I needed to line the whole coat and interface the opening, I guess some old habits will be hard to break.

'Storybook Yarn Art Trail 2015'

I have been flat out working on items for our communities 'Storybook Yarn Art Trail'

I have been working with my local Church groups and the local primary school my boys attended.

Here are some of the items so far, and these will be on display along with other local schools art for the month of October. You can read more on the Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/longbeachurbanyarnart

Scarf Festival 2015

Today I had to trek down to Geelong for a work meeting, and after the meeting I popped into the National Wool Museum and caught the Scarf Exhibition.

The theme was 'Coastal' and there was some amazing works of art. Knitted, Crocheted, Felted, Woven, Stitched, Painted, and some interesting scarf under the sub theme of recycled..... now just the thought of using cigarette buts would turned even a smokers stomach, this was actually rather creative and effective..... wearable... well not for me, but it certainly caught my eye. (make sure you go to the last photo to see this little gem)

Here are just some of the scarves.. and link with info.... but you had better be quick if you want to check it out, as it 'wraps up' this weekend.

http://www.geelongaustralia.com.au/nwm/calendar/item/8cfa6790ec73f1f.aspx

From Chain Stitch to Brilliant Buttonholes

My first sewing machine was a toy chain stitch machine that worked, I do not know how young I was, but I must have been young, as I do not remember not sewing.... from here I dabbled on my mum's Messerschmitt. (Neither of these photos are ours, but they are there as an example and to confirm that Messerschmitt indeed was a sewing machine brand and not just and German aeroplane from WW2).

Between mum and I we have then both had Husqvarna's, Pfaff's, a Lemair, and I now have a wiz bang Brother that can also convert to an embroidery machine.... oh and I did have an industrial machine that I loved and only did straight stitch!!!

So sewing machines have come a long way, and from someone accustomed to making do with the basic straight stitch, was dazzled by the Embroidery component, and I managed to overlook a great feature that I stumbled across today while running a sewing workshop.

My brother machine made great buttonholes, and have been using the great automatic buttonhole with the pull down sizing thingy.... but low and behold, if one puts in the button at the end, it makes the buttonhole the right size.... brilliant!!! That being said, it is brilliant and perfect for thick fabrics such as woollens, but for thin cotton, it is my opinion that the buttonhole is a little big. I like snug buttonholes that do not pop open.... but hey this is a great feature, and I cannot believe it has taken me close to 10 years to utilize this feature.

I now have to put aside my current novel and take the instruction book to bed for my night time reading to see what I am missing out on, as since I came home to test out on my machine, found that the button foot that came with the machine is pretty darn good too, with the option to increase the tightness or looseness of the button, again great for varying thickness!!