Navajo Plying Fun

Finished a top down vest in Alpaca from 'Fibre naturally'. (http://www.fibrenaturally.com.au/)

 

First time trying Navajo Plying. Navajo plying sure is tricky not to overspin, which I did, but happy with the gradient effect.

 

Topped off with a shawl pin I made a 'Ladies in the Shed' this morning, the wood is Myrtle from an old tree we had to cut down.

 

This garment and pin fit into the 'Fibreshed' with all materials sourced with 500km of home (and in this case much closer).

(https://www.facebook.com/groups/FibreshedMelbourne/)

 

 

Yarn Art

On Monday I went to an 'Art Yarn Workshop' at the 'Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild', with Janet Knoop. It was great fun!!

We started with preparing a fibre sandwich.... such a great way to mix it up and use up stray fibres bits.... then the spinning began!

In the afternoon we learned Beehive, spun up a little thick and thin and then attempted these. I say attempted as I need a lot more practice!

So Yesterday I practice the new skills, and mostly worked with the fibre sandwich. Then when plying I threw in a couple of funky beehives. Managed 200+ grams so I should be able to make some equally funky item!

Janet's facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/My-Spin-on-Things-187836691260881/?fref=ts

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.