A completed weaving woven on my rigid heddle loom

I spun some Shetland roving... and added in all kinds of acrylic yarns and various fibers such as silk, merino, and corriedale to make a novelty weft yarn.

I LOVE IT!!

I think I'll sew this cloth into a bag to hold my spindles. :)

Needle felting fun!

Yesterday was needle felting day. Caron and I needle felted some REALLY cute little bags. They're not quite done yet because we have to whip stitch the edges. I put hearts on mine. Caron put a 3-D dog bone and heart on hers. She's making hers into one of those treat bags that you can wear on your belt when you're training your pooch.

We also needle felted two 'critters'. Caron did the sheep. She is sooo good at making her critters life-like. I wish I had a closer shot so you could see the texture in the sheep's wool. Better yet, I wish you could feel him! OH, Caron tried something new this time. Rather than having her sheep be solid wool, she felted over some sweet gum balls.

I had fun spinning and then weaving this WIP today. I used gray alpaca (thanks Gerald!), and a bunch of miscellaneous pinks I had in my stash thanks to Rhonda.

Anyway, I learned the spinning technique from Velma Pretty easy and fun to do.

I wasn't sure how I'd like weaving with the crazy yarn but I LOVE it. It is just so much fun to weave with all different types of yarns! You just never know what you're gonna get! So MUCH FUN!



I also needle felted this cute little lamby pie the other day.

The Studio

Yeah! The studio is getting in shape.

Caron and I are going to be teaching classes in this studio. We plan to have weaving classes, needle felting, wet felting, rug hooking, spinning, spindling, fiber prep, dyeing, hmmmm bet I'm forgetting some GOOD stuff!

We will have classes for adults and kids. (I'm a certified 1-8 teacher - taught math and science in a middle school for 10+ years and LOVED it!)

Anyhhoooooo here's the fiber studio! We would love to do something with the floor. Any ideas?




Oh yeah.. this studio is in one room of a HUGE, HUGE barn. This is what can be seen outside the barn!

Cute Little Woven Bag with Wet Felted Flower

I wove this for the fun of it. (I still have a bit more 'clean-up to do on some threads/yarn.)

This bag is made from my homespun, home dyed bfl.

Both the warp yarns and the weft yarns were about 22 wpi. I used a 10 dent heddle on my flip loom.

The two stripes near the center of the bag are ribbons.

I have lined this bag with a hot pinkish silky fabric.

The flower is one that I wet felted recently.

Here's what's OFF my loom

In my previous video I showed how to warp a rigid heddle loom.

Here is a photo showing what I DID with the loom I warped in the video.

What is it??? It is a 'sampler' of weft floats from the book, "Textures and Patterns for the Rigid Heddle Loom" by Betty Linn Davenport.

In this photo you can see examples of Weft Float Experiments #1 - 4.

These weft float experiments were created using a pattern stick which created a 'pattern stick shed'.

I've been FELTING

I decided to make some felt balls -- just for fun....





Then I decided to make some of those felt balls into beads -- just for fun...









And THEN I decided to make some flowers -- just for the heck of it ;) .....




I'll tell ya what.... Making the felt balls is ADDICTIVE. I really like the way they feel and sound when I scoop up a handful of the warm fuzzy things and then let them drop into a wooden bowl.... kind of reminds me of what the lottery balls on TV sound like. Ahhhhhh...... !?

Oh yeah... I felted some soap too...

How to warp a rigid heddle loom

Ok, I'm certainly NO expert... afterall, I've only had my loom about a week!! But, you know me... l guess I just love making videos. There are a few "flaws" in this one. I'm trying to add mor annotations but youtube isn't cooperating!

Well, here it is..... :) Hope it helps!

Here's the first part of our Fiber Day Video

Yep! We're still working on it but here's the test run of the video for
Fiber Day at Freehaven Farm.

Click HERE.

www.freehavenfarm.com

We've been BUSY working on FIBER DAY!

Here's what Caron and I are working on. (Click on the image for a larger version.)



Click HERE or copy and paste this URL into your browser for more details. :)
http://www.freehavenfarm.com/

BTW, we are located in Simpsonville, SC (right outside of Greenville).

Spinning Corriedale Off a Dog Comb

I would LOVE to have some Forsyth Mini Woolcombs but there is a waiting list and it would be at LEAST 6 weeks until I could get a set.

Well, you know how that is!! I CAIN'T wait THAT long. I gotta get my hands into this corriedale soooo I'm going the 'cheap seat' route.... a dog comb. Hmmmm wonder if it would be better if I had TWO dog combs??

This Silk/Merino Top is a DREAM to spin!

I bought this Silk/Merino top (13 oz) last week at the Yarn Circle in Murphy NC. (Click on the image to get a larger view!)

I LOVE this stuff. It is sooooo schmooth and the colors are Gorgeous!! The 13oz of top cost 27.60. (Is that a typical price??) Anyhoooo, I am attempting to spin this worsted. I hope to 3-ply it and knit up a pair of handspun SOCKS! Yay!! (Oh, three plying is something that Judith taught us to do!)

While in NC I also bought one pound of corriedale fleece, some kid mohair (actually I think it was called something like 'young adult'), and 6 outdated "Spinoff" magazines. Included in the mags I got were articles by Judith MacKenzie McCuin (our teacher) detailing methods of washing fleece and plying yarn.

Anyway, like I said, Judith was our teacher for a week at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown NC. She was fabulous! She was soooo patient and kind AND I learned so much from her including....

**** once you have your default spinning figured out on your spinning wheel, all you have to do is vary the pulley (sometimes called whorl) in order to get LOTS of different sized yarns. You don't have to adjust your treadle speed at all. Below is a picture of merino top yarns that Judith spun using the pulley changing technique.

Carding Wool - Making Rolags

Woollen Longdraw

Spin Worsted-style - The Short Draw

Wet Felting Wool Over Soap

Here are a few comments by the maker of this video. BTW, she said that she was using wool that had been carded and combed. I THINK she may have meant to ONLY say CARDED.


I would suggest that you try batting rather than roving. Roving has been combed to be fairly fine and smooth so it might be sliding over the soap rather than grabbing onto itself if that makes sense.

The wool will continue to felt more firmly with use and the soap will dwindle and disappear leaving you with a little felted wool bundle that has a hallow core. You can carefully slice it open to make a coin purse, or cut off the top and add a strap to make a necklace pouch or holder of some kind.



In response to someone asking the author if the soap/wool gets moldy, she responded:

I've never had a problem with it getting moldy. Wool is naturally antibacterial and antimicrobal, so maybe that even helps things. As with any bar soap, it's best to keep it out of standing water in between uses (like on a soap dish that drains).

Llama Shearing Time!

Hey, my mom held my brothers by the ears a time or two also when she wanted them to "move (or not move) --- NOW"! Hmmmm... do you think this would help when shearing??? :)

Forsyth 4 pitch super fine woolcombs

I've gotta start my search for combs!!

Forsyth 4 pitch combs, processing Romney fiber

Processing Romney fiber part 2