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

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

Warped Again?

I was sure I had gotten over the rigid heddle weaving bug.....I even sold my loom.  I was positive all I wanted to weave were triangles on my tri-looms.......  

Yeah right......  :). Look what the UPS man delivered.

So once again I am warping and weaving and loving it! 

I am currently working on my Ashford 32" rigid heddle loom and am loving the yardage that I can get with this loom!  The project that is currently being woven is a messenger bag body.  It is using a variety of mill spun and hand spun.

I guess I better get back to work or this will never make it off the loom!

New Design and a Silly Goat!

Quite a few months ago I created a few smaller weavings on a tri-loom with the idea for a new design.  Finally, after many months, I have completed them.  This bag was taken from raw fleece that I processed, dyed, spun and then wove.  I absolutely loved every step in the evolution of this bag.  Two more are awaiting straps, which I am weaving currently, and will be finished shortly.

Now onto my silly angora doe Chessie.  She decided she needed to join me as I was laying on top of a picnic table in one of the shady areas of a pass trough pasture.  Silly goat, trying to give me a kiss! ;)

Have a wonderful day and thanks for reading!

Kelly

Weaving with Hand Spun

I recently completed a peg loom weaving.  I bought this loom so that I could make rugs with the seconds from my alpaca fiber and from coarser wool fleeces that I have purchased over the past few years.  The weaving I completed in these pictures is not for a rug, but for a wall hanging in my workshop.

In the picture above, I am using a wool yarn for the warp of the loom.  Since this part is not seen, you could use any color.  For my future rugs, I will be using a thick cotton warp or a nice rugged hemp.  

In this picture I am starting the first part of the weave.  I was amazed at how quickly this part goes.  Luckily I had a basket of hand spun that I could grab from.  The entire piece was woven from my chunky yarn and because I was weaving around the pegs, I could use super chunky yarn without worrying about the thickness. 

Look at all of lumps and bumps!  What I love most about weaving with this loom is that I do not lose the texture of my yarn!  I cannot describe how squishy, yet solidly secure this piece is!  Okay, that was 3 exclamatory statements in a row.......that should show you how much I love how this turned out.  :)

The final piece is a bit over 24" wide and 30" long.  

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a fabulous weekend.

Kelly

Finished shawl turned bag.....

I thought I would finish this shawl quickly, but I have not been feeling very creative lately. You know that feeling when you feel as if you are going through the motions, not really into what you are doing? Yeah well, I've been there....
I actually had to spin more yardage for this shawl. But, it is done and because the hand spun is so thick, I am going to turn this into a bag. It would be great as a cowl if I lived in Alaska, but since I do not foresee that move happening any time soon, it will be turned into a bag. My next post sees me moving back to my wet felting roots. I think I have enough yarn to weave with for the rest of my life, so I am moving myself back to what I love. I will still spin, but I miss wet felting and so I will show you a nuno felting project next time!