Fiber Arts Friday

Wow-I spent an awful lot of time washing, rinsing, and drying wool this past weekend-but boy was it worth it. Luckily it cleaned up really well, and drying was pretty quick on the lawn chair. I got that idea from someone else that contributes to the Fiber Art Fridays group-(I'm sorry I don't remember who it was). But, it worked great-especially when the rain came half way through the project. I was able to drag the whole works into the house through the patio door in one fell swoop, and then back out on the deck again the next morning. So now I have two big bins full of wonderful wool. I dyed some pink with tropical punch Kool Aid. I tried blue with easter egg dye-it didn't take so I added green and got a pale shade of green. I then used some berry blue Kool Aid and that worked for a pastel shade of blue.

I found a you tube video of someone using a home made hackle for combing the wool. They used plastic hair picks drilled to a piece of wood. Well, I didn't attatch them to anything, but I used that idea to comb some of the VM out of my wool--it works pretty good. Just using two and combing back and forth between them really pulled out a lot of dirt--I still have to pick out some-but it moved things along much better. The first project I hope to get done are the baby hats I need to make for "payment" for the wool. My knitting isn't the greatest-but I'll give it my best.

Fiber Arts Friday

I didn't get as much done with the free wool as I wanted to-but managed to wash a big handfull, card it, and spin one bobbin full. Its very white after being washed. I was pleasantly surprised. I have a vacation day on Monday so I'm planning a full, all out, wool washing weekend. Can't wait to get it done.

The pics are another of Gracie the sheep, and the bobbin of singles I spun. I checked the web to see if I could find out what breed of sheep she is, the closest I can find is that she looks like a Corriedale. I'll keep you posted on what I get done with all my precious wool!

On Thursday, June 11, I went to a sister-in-law of a friend's hobby farm and picked up a whole fleece from their pet sheep, Gracie. She was much bigger than I was expecting, and so was the fleece. There were actually 3 of them from the last 3 years just hanging in their barn. I didn't think I could handle all of it, so I just took one. I can have the rest in the future if I want. Of course I'll want it--the price was right--FREE! We shoved the fleece into the bag-with the help of their goats-one kept trying to climb into the bag. I got it home and had to let it sit for a day. All I could think about at work all day was washing that pile of wool. I got home and decided to just try a few handfuls and see how well it cleans up. Its soaking right now, will have to wait to give you an update.

http://michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/2009/05/crusade-no-31-make-it-your-own.html

This is a great challenge-I always try to take ideas and twist them around a bit to make them my own. Don't want to copy other people's work-unless its a class to learn a certain technique-but even then I try to change it up a bit.
there are a lot of wonderful artists involved in this challenge. Thanks to Michelle Ward for putting it all together.

I had a vision of this necklace while sitting at work the other day. I sketched it on the back of a grocery list I'd started. I got home that evening and started it right away. I actually finished it the next night. That's pretty quick for me.

The pendant is a picture of my mother from her wedding day. I did a small collage and soldered it between pieces of glass. All the links are handmade-inspired by an old chain in my stash.

The long beads are wrapped, felted wool that I hand-dyed with easter egg coloring. I then sewed on some seed beads with metallic thread. I made a swirly closure and added some hand-spun fiber, ribbon, and lace to finish. All in all, I'm very pleased with the result- except--I wouldn't put wool around the back of my neck again--kinda itchy!

Fiber Arts Fridays

I started carding up some rolags of some old forgotten fiber I had gotten for felting. Not the best stuff to use-lots of neps and noils. So I added a lot of cut up commercial fun fur yarns-made a big mess-but ended up looking pretty good. I actually got them plied, washed, dried and they're still hanging over my kitchen sink. I might actually try to knit something with them-not sure what-maybe a crazy scarf-we'll see when the mood strikes.