Just a few pix of the critters living around the property apart from my sassy tame ones. I spent yesterday spring cleaning the garden (first step), and frankly I’m too exhausted to talk. 😉
Fibery stuff this week
Pincushion progress:
First one felted and stitched up ready to fill, but I want to add icord loops or something to have the option of hanging them from a hook. (if I can find a suitable location away from cat paws) I decided to try out the dye with regular laundry detergent, twice. Original yarn included in the photo. It turned out rather larger than I expected after my blanket adventure, but I liked the fabric the way it was, so didn’t want to give it another go at a higher temp.
Second one felted and ready to be stitched. Yarn is dyed with madder exhaust and Dyer’s Chamomile. Also washed with the clothes and detergent.
Third one – yarn chosen but the shape hasn’t presented itself to me yet. Possibly a cube. Originally all three were going to be like the first, but then the second wanted to be different and I obliged. Apparently my inner self does not want to be classy, and for now I’m listening – as long as it’s actually saying something, fine! Even if it means the house will look like a cirkus… Skeins are dyed with Dyer’s Chamomile and Weld (the lighter one).
Suffolk preparation started:
I’ve decided to just finger pick everything to get rid of the tiny bits of vegetable matter, then loosely blend on hand cards, which I hate but really doesn’t take such a long time as I imagined. To be spun into yarn for the tapestry testing, and when I’m done I have a huge box of Dorset that I’ve plant dyed which needs the same treatment. I thought I said something about not production spinning?!
Sample loom 1 done:
Seems to be working fairly well, I’ll be testing various widths of warp, how many meters of yarn go into xx cm of weaving etc. I tried at first without nails, just wrapping around, but I think it will work better with nails on the front. Possibly because the frame is so small, pulling the warp up from the back really makes it very taut. As well as being fiddly to adjust the gaps.
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Ugens fiberprojekter
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Nålepuder af plantefarvet garn undervejs: Første er klar til at blive fyldt, og så skal jeg lige have lavet en løkke i toppen til at hænge den op, inden jeg kan sy den sidste kant. Garnet er farvet med vaid.
Nr. 2 er filtet og klar til at blive syet sammen (kraprod og gåseurt), den sidste er der fundet garn frem til (gåseurt og vau). Jeg har vasket det sammen med tøjet og almindeligt vaskepulver, noget plantefarve kan ikke lide den behandling, men jeg ville lige prøve at se hvordan disse, normalt ret farveægte typer holdt sig.
Jeg er endelig gÃ¥et i gang med den sidste klargøring af min Suffolk ham som jeg gik og sjatfarvede i sommer. Det bliver pillet fra hinanden med fingrene for at blive fri for plantefnuller og hÃ¥ndkartet løseligt (hvilket jeg er herredÃ¥rlig til, men det gÃ¥r faktisk hurtigere end antaget.) Ja, og sÃ¥ er der naturligvis den kæmpe kasse Dorset jeg har plantefarvet, som skal samme vej…
Og så har jeg lavet en miniature væveramme til at lave lidt garn- og tekniktest på.
Wishcasting not-wednesday
Since my last wish is actually beginning to manifest (thank you very much), and I was in fact thinking only 2 days ago that I had not seen any prompts for this in a while, but if I did join another, I’d wish for some healing. And, well, it’s exactly what this edition is about, so…
Jamie asks: Where Do You Wish for Healing?
I have in fact two wishes when I come to think of it.
I wish to heal my “body batteries” which run flat oh so quickly and are so very hard to recharge. And I’d like to extend this wish to those of my friends who I know are battling the same.
I also wish to heal a rift in the relationship with a family member, who I’m not going to mention by name since I have not asked permission.
What do you wish to heal?
Inspirations 1
I think I’m going to publish a list now and then of random websites that have caught my eye for one reason or another. Mostly I guess pretty art or fibery stuff, but you never know…
Slow Cloth – focus on quality and presence in your craft, not quantity.
Creative Burn-out – A series of posts at Myth & Moor quite relevant to my own musings on procrastination. And she has a cute dog and a wonderful forest to walk in <green with envy>
About being an artist with chronic fatigue syndrome
Plant dyeing in soothing browns and greys
And for those of you on Facebook – one little old inspiring lady
Stella Maria Baer – photography
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Take a look, then come back and tell me which ones you liked!
From watercolour to tapestry
And THIS guy, is just friggin awesome:
http://www.worldofthreadsfestival.com/artist_interviews/083_maximo_laura_12.html
I’m getting so many ideas to try out that I never got with knitting, that I think I’m heading in the right direction, and it works so well with other picture making crafts, they kinda weave (haha) together for me. And as I mentioned before, this will make my spinning more fun and less production oriented, since I probably won’t be spinning all my weaving yarns just now, just dyeing them. Win/win on time as well as pleasure.
In fact I’m already in the process of making a small frame loom to make (up to) 15×15 cm test samples of warp spacing/yarn type vs. yarn thickness of the weft as well as samples of various techniques. I figure that should keep me occupied for a while. And that’s what happens when you spend a Sunday indoors watching youtube because all the farmers decide it’s a good day to spread liquid pig manure on the fields. Gag. Not just a whif on the air this time, but massive sensory overload. I’ll probably have to rewash the laundry on the line…
And something a little different (because I wanted to save the link and my bookmarks are out of control)
http://annakubinyi.blogspot.dk/p/muterem.html



























