First Yarn

This yarn is the finished product from my previous post.  I call it "carnival" because it reminds me of some of the costumes I have seen at carnival time in places like Rio or New Orleans.

The process of spinning on a drop spindle vs. a spinning wheel is more time consuming and takes a little practice.  I've been spinning regularly for about 6 or 7 months. First I spun a lot of singles and now I am plying two strands together to create what we normally think of as "yarn." It took me a little bit to remember that plying the two strands together requires one to spin in the opposite direction as when spinning the single.  Its all a work in progress as I continue to experiment and learn.

The wool itself is soft and fluffy. The hand carded batt is from Pumpkinhaus fiber arts and weighs 3 ounces. I plyed it with another roving in orange wool with silk and have enough out of the batt to create a nice scarf and perhaps some mitts.  I haven't yet found a pattern to showcase all my hard work but I will make certain to take pictures when I do. 

Silk and Wool

Here is a new way to use silk for those who are sensitive to wool next to their skin. I felted the silk into the wool, which only goes around to the middle of the neck back. The silk can encircle the neck to protect from the wool and secured with a loop through the holes in the piece. The wool used here is cormo and merino which is the softest of all wools. I think this piece looks very formal because of its form. It isn't a full scarf, rather more of a "cravat" which I think looks dressy. It would look really great with a turtleneck sweater to set off the color of the wool, brown with red highlights.

Today's Project

I started creating this dreads scarf a few days ago. My thought in laying out the wool for this one is to create a more random weave rather than the grid. The dreads will hang from all 4 sides. Over the next couple of days I will wet it and begin the felting process. Because of its size it will take a couple of days to roll.

Felting is hard work!!

Now that I am felting almost everyday so that I can create enough to fill the website and 2 store locations I am realizing the difficulty of creating by hand vs. creating with machinery. Really, I can only make about 2 scarves a day, plus a couple of smaller items like my flowers or booties. The smaller items take almost as much time as the scarves to make. But, the physicality of felting is really hard on my arms, elbows and shoulders so I try to work only in the morning until about 1 pm and no more than 4 days a week. This past weekend I traveled to New Glarus, WI to a wool supplier and on a whim decided to stop in Evansville. Jean Wyse runs a really beautiful antique shop there called Windmill Antiques & Co. It is so nicely organized with beautiful and artistic displays! I bought two vintage sweater chains (remember those?). I was wearing my felted wool vest (see older posts) and Jean asked me about it. We got to talking and she asked if I would like to sell some of my scarves in her shop! Wow! I said yes, and now I'm working on getting at least 8 scarves and other things to put there. Well, off to felt some more. Oh, I forgot to tell you about this basket -- its made of wool and will keep your bread warm for your table.