Surface Texture Project

I have been spending the past few weekends felting small projects.  These projects focused on adding texture to wet felting.  For the final portion of the class we had to incorporate as many of the techniques that we wanted into a project.  I made a wearable. which is not something I do a lot since I don't really have the opportunity to wear them here in Florida.  My base was cotton but many of the techniques included silk.  It was fun using something other than silk for the large portion, I did not have the anxiety of ruining an expensive piece of silk for a project that I was not sure would turn out.  I dyed the merino, silk and all of the added fibers, so I was able to ensure that my colors would work together.
Here is my final piece.  I added a jersey back to create a vest type top.

Lots of texture was created with the techniques.  I'm currently working on a sketch for a bag.  I definitely found some techniques that I like better than others, but all in all, it has been a fun learning experience.

Happy Spring?!

Happy Spring!  Yes, I know I'm a bit late.......

With the wonderful weather we have been having, we have been spending our time at home working on the property.  The garden has been replanted, pastures are being cut, our pine grove has had many trees removed, and more gates have been added. We have an old 1949 Ford tractor that now has a finish mower on it, so cutting the pastures and up fenced areas is much quicker!  It took me a bit to get used to driving it, but I am feeling much more confident and am just happy that it won't be hours and hours of cutting anymore.

 On the animal front, the alpacas have been sheared, the goats are being silly and growing, and Snow our Great Pyreneese got a summer hair cut, knock on wood, everyone is healthy and happy.  

And last but not least, on the fiber front, I have been crazy busy.  I travelled to Sarasota to attend another SWAY Fest and had the chance to learn from Suzy Brown, AKA WoolWench, and spend time with some super fabulous gals.  I also took a free form crochet class from Heather, from Girl With a Hook, and made an adorable leather pouch trimmed with hand spun in a class taught by Debra, owner of Picasso's Moon yarn shop.  Wonderful weekend!  

I have also been completing a 6 week intensive, but fun surface design class in wet felting, I have so many new ideas now incorporating some of the techniques I learned with some designs that I will be teaching at SAFF.  I truly have been blessed this year in all of the learning opportunities I have had in the fiber world.  

In 10 days I will be transitioning into my summer break and watching my baby graduate from High School!

I am looking forward to a slow summer of readying for SAFF in October and enjoying my family, both of the 2 and 4 footed variety.

XO-Kelly

I was interviewed by Spin Artiste!

How cool is that?

If you want to check out the interview and have a chance to win a felted flower, then head on over to Spin Artiste Interview read the article, leave a message, and like my Facebook page.
 :) Kelly

Conquer the Igloo

Had to share the babies fun on the new to them igloo.  Silly goats are always good for a smile!



:)

Kelly

A little, felting, spinning, and weaving.

A few weeks ago I made a yarn for a class that I am taking.

I was able to incorporate wet felting into my spinning.  I started by wet felting my vines, I added leaves to some of them, while others I left plain.  I also finished some of the ends off so I could leave them free hanging in the yarn while others were only felted in the middle leaving the ends us felted so they could be drafted and spun as part of the yarn.  I fell in love with this yarn and wanted to try adding wet felted flowers to the mix.  

Here is the fiber prep for spinning with the wet felted flowers and vines.  I included super soft mohair from my goats that I dyed a deep green.

Here is a picture of the finished spun yarn.

I knew that I wanted to somehow incorporate this yarn into a weaving, but had no idea how I was going to accomplish my goal.  I decided to go pull other fibers for the weaving, and "wing", the rest of it.  

As I wove and added textures, I realized this weaving was coming together without much planning and I figured that since I wanted an organic feel to the weaving, that I was open to letting it just happen.  I am thrilled with the final result and now my mind is spinning with possibilities of incorporating all 3 of these fiber arts into one.  

 

 

This definitely screams Spring to me!

Happy Creating!

Kelly

SAORI loom in da house!

My new SAORI loom arrived!  I purchased from Weavin Place SAORI Style on ETSY (awesome peeps)

It was amazingly easy to set up, and within 10 minutes, it was ready.  

I decided to try and stick with a few colors that matched a beautiful hand-spun thick and thin yarn that I spun last Spring.  The poor yarn has been moved around my workshop all year.  I never found the perfect project for it, until now......  

I started the weaving one evening once the weekend settled down and finished it bright and early the next morning.  Since I am using it for a table runner, I folded the ends over and gave them a quick stitch on my sewing machine, it was quite fun cutting off the fringe.

I am thrilled with the "visual movement" on the weft sections that I used the thick and thin yarn.  It gave me some ideas that I want to try out on future weavings, but for now I will write the ideas down in a note book since my brain seems to be stuffed with fiber ideas.  The loom is ready for another weaving and I'm excited to see what magic occurs when I get the chance to settle myself down in front of my new toy!

Thanks for stopping by....

Kelly

Tutorial for some wool candy....

I posted a picture a few weeks ago of this

on Facebook.

A friend then asked if I could tell her how I did it.  So I typed up some basic instructions and emailed it to her.  I am pretty sure these type of felt rolls were one of the first things I learned how to felt.  To this day I still enjoy making them and have even added them as elements to my hand-spun yarn.  I decided to add the instructions here to my blog.  I hope you enjoy the tutorial.

:)

Kelly

SAORI Weaving Class

A couple of weeks ago I headed up to Northern Florida to take a SAORI weaving class.  I have seen so many beautiful weaving projects come from these workshops that when I saw one offered in the same state, I jumped on it.  Needless to say, it was time well spent. I had the opportunity to spend two FULL days weaving to my hearts content.  Instead of taking my rigid heddle loom, I decided to rent a SAORI loom for the workshop.

 What a fabulous loom it is!  I learned so many cool techniques from our instructors and saw such creativity from the other workshop participants that I came home energized, with new ideas filling my head.  After MUCH discussion with my better half, I decided to order a SAORI loom of my own!

Today the tracking info made it into my inbox, and I am tickled pink that it will soon be here.  Here are a few pictures of my finished wall hanging.  It's a sampler of many different techniques and of different types of materials.

Yes, I think I did get a bit carried away.....I'm going to need to find a very tall wall for this!

XO,

Kelly

Wet Felted Fingerless Mitt Tutorial

Today I felted.  I decided to write a free tutorial to go along with it!  I hope you enjoy it and will share it with your felting friends!
Link to the PDF

XO,
Kelly

Nekkid Goats

Twice a year I get rewarded with beautiful curly fiber from my sweet fiber goats.  Up first for their cuts were the angoras.  Billy, Chessie, and Annie worked hard growing beautifully soft and curly fiber.  They were quite upset and spent a week or so trying to figure out who these "new" goats were..... Silly creatures did not even recognize each other.

Above is a photo of Billy, one of my angoras in the middle of shearing, look at that shine!

The Pygora's are still little imps, so they were much quicker to shear.  They are still as cute as ever even though they have no hair.

Here is a close up of some of their curls.

Now all I need to do is get it washed up so I can create something wonderful with their fiber!

The alpacas are due to get sheared in April, and I cannot wait to get my hands on their fiber again, it was stellar last year and is looking just as prime again this year!

On a professional note, I will be teaching wet felting and nuno felting at SAFF again this year.  I will be posting more later about the specific classes.  I loved the experience last year and am thrilled to have the chance to do it again.  :)

XO,

Kelly