5.23.11 The Best Nest

Clothos Spinning Guild monthly meeting was last Saturday and that means it was time for the judging of the annual fiber challenge. Some of us took the challenge to create a fiber article from fiber we received from Mt. Airy Farm. Some fleece was CVM, some Cormo/CVM blend. Mine was the heavenly blend of Cormo and CVM. Some members spun yarns, some dyed their fiber, some felted shapes or creatures. All were done using the theme of creating something inspired by a person, place or event in Virginia.

My entry, which Mr. Lady said would win “best nest”, was based on the trip we took to see the eagles’ nests and resident eagles on the James River back in the winter.

The Best Nest

I spun a 4-ply cabled yarn of the Cormo/CVM blend fleece and plyed into it the emu feathers that I received from Shirley Treasure in Perth Western Australia last year! When I looked at my fiber sample I knew what I had to do. A world away the colors in nature are the same. The emu feathers there and the sheep here were perfectly matched in shades of cream and brown.

The singles yarn

The emu feathers

Plying with emu feathers

The cabled feather yarn

Mary’s entry was inspired by the emblems of Virginia: dogwood trees and the cardinal.

Barbara’s entry was spun with coins and actual shredded money! She said that during the spinning that her house was covered in money. Too bad it was not whole bills!

These are just a few of the entries. All 3 of us won fibery prizes and I think everyone who participated had a good time creating and seeing each other’s inspiration and results. And Mr. Lady was right, mine was the best nest. The only nest!

4.2.10 Yo, Happy Spring.

I love Spring. All except the pollen. Bleh.

In the long blog absence (sorry), there has been spinning:
This is about 800 yards of 2 ply sport-ish weight wool from fiber hand painted by Dalis Davidson of Dancing Leaf Farm. She did a demonstration at the January guild meeting of River City Knitters here in Richmond. I asked her when she was packing up what she was going to do with that soaking wet roving full of dye. She said “why? you want it?” Of course I said yeah! So here is some of it. there is also some mohair roving and a silk hankie that were dyed at the same time in the same bath.

There has been knitting:
These are destined to be a present.

There has been crochet, also a gift:
Became this:
Became this:
The pattern is from The Hexagon Pincusion from Leanda Xavian of OneLoopShort also on Ravelry.

There is also a kitty who is difficult to photograph. We visit each morning while I drink my coffee and if we don’t there is hell to pay.

Happy Spring!

1/20/10

Fichu? What does that mean? It sounds bad.

I started the 2nd shawl for Ravelry group “10 Shawls in 2010″. I doubt I will make 10 shawls this year but it is certainly fun to try. So, this is the Ruffled Fichu of Jane Sowerby from Knitter’s Magazine #88 from Fall 2007. The red/purple is Claudia Hand Painted kid mohair and the gray is handspun wool/silk, fiber from The Bellwether, spun on a spindle.

Ruffled Fichu

I have been searching for shawl patterns on ravelry when this one was in an old issue of Knitter’s magazine from 2007. I don’t think I ever even looked at this issue and who knows why I bought it, I think maybe to take with me on the UK trip. It was the issue before her marvelous shawl book came out. Knitter’s is not my usually my favorite magazine for a lot of reasons, and I have become less and less inspired by the patterns in knitting magazines in general. The designs are overdone. The garments are too fitted for me to feel comfy wearing them. And for me things are all about comfort.

10.24.09 Knitless Post

I just realized that my library books and videos are overdue. I am forever paying fines to those people. I am sure they know me by sight. The librarians at Bon Air Library are, for the most part, very congenial people. With a few exceptions. They are The Ones that seem to be there when I turn in my overdue books. They are The Ones that frightened my children. They still frighten them and they are not children any longer. How a 52 year old woman can be shamed by a librarian is probably a blog post in itself. We won’t go there. Go here. It is my friend Maureen’s new blog. Say Hi to Maureen. She has a recipe for chocolate sauce….

I still have not decided on how to use my twill fabric. I thought maybe pillow covers. Several of them. I am still thinking about it. Thanks for the ideas and
Sue, I am going to do a post about my so-called creative process. Yours was so good for me to read!

I have been doing lots of spinning. Same as in the last post. No new pictures of that. I asked my DH to make a spindle shelf for me and he is working on it! I even drew a little picture for him to use as an idea. That is amusing to him because I cannot draw and he is an architect. Glad to oblige in the free amusement category. My idea is to have a shelf that would hang on the wall that has holes in the shelves for the spindles to hang through. I hope it will work out. If not then it will be a shelf for something else.

I wonder why I am grouped in with the previous pets, now passed over the rainbow bridge? I need a frame of my own. That may be the only surviving picture of myself pregnant in overalls….

I know you came for the weaving so here it is. I wanted to use some of my stash of handspun on a scarf. This is a warp of 124 ends of mainly my white handspun coopworth and mohair from several years ago. It is rather unevenly spun. As I recall the fiber prep was uneven and I have learned since then that fiber prep is everything. Since it has the strength of the long fibers I am using it as warp. Since it has some uneven spinning I am using it as warp with my fingers crossed and some standing by for repairs. Also in the mix is some Frog Tree Alpaca and some Patons Bamboo/Silk.

For the weft I am using the coopworth/silk thread that I recently spun up from Wild Hare Fibers. The 2 bags of fiber made skeins of slightly different color so I am alternating them in the weft in 3″ bands.

Now go crank the music and dance in your kitchen. It is good exercise.