Retro-Roving ~ A Christmas Card Inspired Dye Session

We are having a very nippy February up in the North woods of Wisconsin! It's a great time for cozy, indoor projects. Naturally, all of my indoor projects (and a great many of my outdoor ones for that matter) involve wool.

Dad gave out the best, old holiday cards this past Christmas. He found them in a box in the basement. Retro-cards are great fun and this one was especially beautiful because of that wonderful, glowing blue effect that was given to the snow. Illustrations with blue-tinted snow somehow always take me back to Winter childhood adventures of sledding, building snow houses and other assorted jubilant activities that accompany the sparkly white fluff of Winter. So, last weekend the sparkly white fluff of wool became my indoor Winter playground.

I greatly value Deb Menz's work with color/dying as it relates to fiber/hand spinning. Her book, Color in Spinning is incredibly inspiring and a super resource from which to embark on one's own dying adventures. I have mixed up all of her recommended 1% dye stock solutions and enjoy experimenting with formulas and recording them in my personal dye notebook.

I selected 4 colors on Dad's retro Christmas card and did my best to recreate them in the dye cups. Using stencil brushes I dabbed and dotted these dye solutions onto a long, 2 oz roving of soft, white wool.

Warning: Dying wool is an addiction in itself. It all starts innocently enough with koolaid, white vinegar, water and wool on the kitchen stove top. Voila, those first brilliantly bright, fruit-scented fibers lead you deeper into this new-found adventure. Soon you're totally "immersed" in the process. Time to get more "scientific"...wash and colorfast dyes, the metric system, beakers and gram scales...

The picture at the top of this post shows the roving, the Christmas card and my little microwave-safe steamer. I have a microwave in the studio just for wool dying. (I ran across it at a thrift store and it is an absolute luxury!) Before obtaining this ginormous, old microwave I did all the heat setting, steaming of the painted rovings and simmering of the immersion-dyed wools, outdoors on a camp stove. So there I'd be, out in the bitter cold, stirring a large cauldron of billowing steam while standing in the snow...that will get the neighbors talking. Now I can hide away in my secret dye lab any time of the day or night, rain or shine and mmmmmmmwwwwhhhaoahahahah! Is there no end to the madness? Other great thrift store finds for wool dying: electric rice steamers and old crock pots! Once they become tools of the fiber frenzied they can never be used for food again.

http://www.debmenz.com/

Christine's Doll

For those checking in to catch a glimpse of each other's dolls from the Duluth Art Institute adventure here's a peek at Christine's finished piece. I LOVE those creative, hand made snowshoes!!

At our last get-together it was kind of sad for me to think about possibly never getting to see the finished dolls. Thank you so much Christine for sharing! (I've been wondering about how Hank was coming along ever since that last gathering when you brought the great pictures of your spouse posing for his own woolen caricature.) Hank is fantastic!

Class Has Ended / Winter Has Not Yet Begun

Firstly, may I say I owe a debt of gratitude to the individuals who signed up for the needle felted doll class at the DAI. Wow! I hope that you had half as much fun as I did. The creativity, playful spirit and individual talents and tales of this group made the experience a real joy for me.

As is always the case, whenever textile enthusiasts, craft persons and/or artists get together everyone is bound enjoy learning something new and fascinating. It is also always nice to reaffirm that this fiber addiction I suffer under is not a rare affliction. Certainly a fiber addict can recognize other fiber addicts... and I did.

P.S. I failed to add Alden Amos to the list of resources. I got that wonderful turkish drop spindle from his shop a few years back. He also wrote, The Big Book of Handspinning. I love this book! (And, there are people who aren't a bit interested in spinning who love this book for the way it is written.) Best foot notes ever! http://pweb.jps.net/~gaustad/spindle.html Look for the Turkish (Macedonian) spindle and, if you get the chance, have a perusal of that book of his.

Bitter Cold Weather and a Great Web Find!

It is still Autumn here in the northwoods. Ha, ha. I have already survived the lactic acid burn of the first few snow shoveling adventures and recovered (sort of). I'm ready for the next big drop of white but, wouldn't mind a few more days respite. The pickler for me are those sub-zero temps. I'm talking farenheight here: 17 below zero. With only 5 more days of Autumn I have the feeling this winter is just going to fly by. Again, ha, ha.

Here's a web site that will warm you: http://www.davidgrote.com/
Beautiful paintings, beautiful gardens, and LOVELY, LOVELY Icelandic sheep. Certainly, from my perspective as a fiber fiend, there is much that can be said for a breed that produces two coats at once each with completely different attributes and oh, the natural colors!

I had the good fortune of meeting this multi-talented artist and hand spinner recently. I tell you, there are fascinating people in this part of the country. I'd probably meet more of them if I wasn't in my woolen fortress of solitude playing with fibers every free moment of my life. But, that's probably not going to change any time soon. The bitter-cold winds howling outside only make a studio full of bags and bags and bags of wool a more inviting cocoon. No, this is not just the addiction talking. Wouldn't it be fun to have a transportable fiber studio that was also a yurt (house of wool)?

Fall Class Schedule Duluth Art Institute

If you live in or near NW Wisconsin or Duluth, MN and you enjoy playing with wool (spinning, felting, etc.) here are a few events coming up that may be of interest:

Holiday Fiber Show and Sale ~ Sat., Dec. 6th from 10 am to 2 pm

The Great Hall, The Depot in Duluth, 506 W. Michigan, Duluth, MN

You don't need a spinning wheel to make your own yarn. I'll be showing folks how to spin wool using a drop spindle made from a cd disc and a stick. HEY, I first learned to make yarn using a potato and a pencil but, then became mesmerized by the meditative qualities of spinning fibers. (Everything snowballed from there for I now have more than a few spinning wheels.)

This free event provides other learning experiences as well. There will be opportunities for hands-on paper making, weaving and more! Bring the kids and the spouses. (Even disinterested spouses can enjoy the event for its holiday treats and hot drinks.) The Great Hall is a roomy, elegant place to wander around and play with fiber for a few hours. Hand-made holiday items will be for sale as well.

The Duluth Art Institute has invited me to lead a 3 session Needle Felting Class.

So let's make a woolen doll. Dates and times:
Tues., Dec. 9th from 6-9 pm:This class will be dedicated to creating the head of your doll character. We'll use sharp, barbed felting needles and various colors of wool to make everything from eyelids to ears. You get a couple of days off to continue the detail work at home before we next meet where...

Sat., Dec. 13th from 10 am-4 pm: We'll proceed from our work of the 9th and create the wire armature for the unique dolls we've begun. (Everyone will be pursuing their own individual character.) Learn to build a solid wire "skeleton" to suit your doll and then build the entire body of the piece using wool and felting needles. This is an interesting class as the process creates a piece that is hefty in your hand, sturdy, strong AND can be posed! Again, you'll have a couple of days off to continue building the body of your piece at home before our final class where...

Tues., Dec 16th from 6 pm-9pm: We'll meet one more time to really have fun. Learn to needle felt clothing, completely of wool, for your doll. A variety of embellishment techniques will be explored. (There's no dress code.) "Dressing" a doll is the perfect opportunity to incorporate your other talents. Enjoy beadwork? Like to knit, sew, crochet, tat, weave, wet felt? Why not add a touch of your own free-form work into the costume!

Making a solidly constructed doll of wool is a time-consuming endeavor. Each character is an adventure in itself. You can put many hours into a well-constructed piece but, when you're done you just might feel as though you've finished reading a good book, a little sad that the adventure is over. I say to counter that bittersweet feeling simply immediately start creating a new doll.

(Before you know what has happened you'll be as addicted to it all as I am.)

This site will give you the registration info:
http://www.duluthartinstitute.org/html/education_classes.html

Two Wild Weekends in a Row!

What constitutes a "wild weekend" for The Treadler? Mass quantities of fiber, lots of people, and experimentation going on everywhere.

On May 3rd I was invited to host a station at the Duluth Art Institute's Family Day. I'm guessing there were 100 kids and parents there. Those in attendance got to throw their own pots on a potter's wheel, meet a local children's book illustrator, paint, sculpt and (at my station) needle felt for the first time.

Dry felting involves a very sharp, barbed and brittle needle that is over 4 inches long. The mother in me was extremely nervous, "Please watch your fingers while you're stabbing...Stop a minute, You have the needle upside-down..." I must have said those two statements about 1000 times. But, the child in me was enthralled with the creativity that went on relentlessly for over 3 hours. I saw everything from rainbows to rat necklaces created before my very eyes. No one was hurt, the adventure was fascinating and fun and, my nervous twitch has completely subsided.

This last weekend I went to the Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival. I'm guessing there were about 5,000 people there. This adventure is near the Twin Cities in Minnesota, about 2 hours drive from my own stomping grounds, a great chance to get aquainted with fiber addicts I haven't met before.

As a hand spinner I participated in the "Fiber Sandwich" fund raiser to benefit Heifer International. A fiber sandwich is a pot luck layering of all kinds of wool and fibers layered "hoagie-style" on a very large table. All the fibers were donated by various shepherd's and vendors at the festival. Each hand spinner was given 4 oz. of the sandwich to spin into yarn that was then sold in a silent auction format with the proceeds to buy farm animals for people in developing countries. It was a success on many different levels. And, the hosting guild invited me to their weekend retreat next January where I'll share a fringing technique with them and get to participate in their other class offerings.

I also met a doll maker, Oddest Goddess, with an unusual and fascinating style. She had a nice body of work at the Festival and I enjoyed talking with her and viewing her wonderful dolls. I've added her link to my list if you'd like to take a peek.

On the dark side, I couldn't find a blending hackle anywhere. The search goes on for that. Also, I increased my fiber stash (something I vowed not to do) leaving my husband to mutter, "What fresh hell is this?" as I unpacked from my travels. He'll soon come to appreciate my new vast array of silky, colorful bamboo fibers. Did you know that commercially dyed bamboo spinning fibers cannot go through the commercial drying process? They catch on fire. Processors have discontinued dying them because they require an additional step of air drying. I have the last of some most beautiful "rovings" in absolutely stunning colors for my future doll work. Bamboo spins a lot like silk. It looks much like silk. It feels a bit like corn starch as you spin it. I think it's fantastic.

I'll soon be posting a picture of my "Insect Whisperer", (a little gnome-like man riding a grasshopper). These needle felted dolls were awarded 1st prize at the festival. I'm going to bask in the glow of that for a little while before selling "Claude & Hopper" on ebay.