Felt United - Third International Day of Felt

No fever. No injury to report. Claxton didn't finally gather the family together for the dreaded intervention. Of course there's no room to gather family as I just received shipment of a bump (21 lbs) of wool (yahoo). I placed it right in the center of the living room where I can gaze at it from various angles because why even bother to try and hide the stuff any more ? At this point I'm fooling no one. Clearly I have not been healed or "cured" of my fiber need.

So, why does somebody with 5 spinning wheels, a honkin' big floor loom, a smaller weaving loom, gillions of knitting needles, a vast array of crochet hooks and a terrible fiber addiction suddenly not require even a smidgen of yarn for several weeks? Because, presently I'm totally immersed in wet felting. Why bother to spin the wool when you can use the stuff straight out of the bag! No need to delay gratification. I guess this is the equivalent of eating straight-up cookie dough without bothering to bake it. To which Claxton might reply, "Yeah, but even the Cookie Monster doesn't have 21 lbs of chocolate chip dough plopped in the middle of his living space for his spouse to walk around." and, to which I might respond with, "How could you possibly know that?" (The secret to a successful marriage is to always converse on the same intellectual level.)

I've been felting hats, mittens, scarves, pouches, bags, and all kinds of vases, vessels, flower pots..in short, been having great fun!

There is comfort in the knowledge that I'm not the first or only one who has fallen prey to the felting bug. And, addicts tend to run in the same circles so it won't surprise you when I say  I just happen to know somebody who has gotten so intensely into felting that she's taken on headquarters solely dedicated to this process. Her name is Mary Reichert. On November 1st she's opening a shop in Duluth and here's her website:  http://otlakfeltstudio.com/

O.K. so, last Saturday was a special, special day for felting addicts everywhere as it officially marked the third International Day of Felt. (This has a site as well: http://www.feltunited.com/)
 
Now, Mary knows that I've gone crazy (we prefer "gotten industrious") making felted vessels, vases and what-not so she invites me to participate in a little display she has arranged with Lake Avenue Cafe in Duluth in recognition of the 3rd Annual International Day of Felt. Here's an example of one of the many different felted vessels that were placed on tables at the cafe.

It's not my favorite or anthing like that. I only got the one picture because the other tables with my vases had people sitting at them when we visited. Claxton doesn't like to go out to eat very often and I figured if I started bothering other people in the restaurant asking, "Excuse me a moment but, could I please take a picture of your centerpiece?" he might never go out to eat with me again. I did get a picture of our waiter in Mary's hand felted vest though:

She did a really nice job making that. I want to thank Mary for including me in the event. I also want to thank Lake Avenue Cafe for hosting the display and for a delicious lunch. I had the feta cheese pizza with artichoke hearts.  Great service too! Very personable folks there as well.

When we got home I commented to Claxton how much I enjoyed seeing the various vases with fresh flowers in them. Naturally that got me thinking about felting flowers. As our yard is in full bloom at the moment, and as it could start to snow any time now that we're barely into October (you never know up here in northern Wisconsin) I decided to take a few pictures for reference. The bees were going nuts last Sunday and didn't even care how close I got.

(Naturally this picture has me thinking about felting bees...)

Fun Little Felting Class Coming Up!

I've been having a lovely time preparing for an upcoming class I'll be teaching on October 8th and snapped the above picture of our most colorful clothes line after a dying session. Lively colors of cotton gauze were drying in the warm breeze just begging to be photographed. They'll be used in making  3-D projects of wool during the class. I wanted to be sure that I had plenty of colors for students to choose from.

Naturally, I had to do a little sampling. 

The wool and gauze felt together into a solid fiber that holds its shape beautifully.

The below picture was taken in rather poor light

but, you get the idea.

I hand spun a bit of fringe to embelish the opening

of this fun little vessel.

If you live in the Duluth / Superior area and you'd like to come play with wool on Saturday, October 8th then check out the link at the top right of this blog. The class is very reasonably priced and the project is great fun!

Also, again this year the Duluth Fiber Handcrafters Guild will be at the Harvest Festival this Saturday, September 10th from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. I'll be there with my spinning wheel so, stop by and say hello!

http://www.lssfa.org/HarvestFestivalEnergyfair.html

Lots of new projects underway. I hope to share some of the wilder ones here in the near future!

Feelin' Groovy

And, here she is! My painted silk warp, the very one I've been yearning to finally harness onto the loom and she (for certainly this warp is too pretty to be a boy)  is, at last, settled in and ready to be woven! I threaded in three long scarves worth of hand-painted silk! (Oh how that painting process took forever).

The previous project hung around for a bit too long. But, I'm actually quite pleased with the 12 shadow woven cotton towels that I had to buckle down and weave off  in order to free up my lovely cherry wood floor loom, old "Betsy", old "Cinnamon Sticks", (not sure of a name yet) in order to move on with my silk project.

Moving on... here's that hand painted silk warp (that was shown above) interfacing with the snow white silk weft (that is shown below) creating an "undulation". Wow, that certainly is pretty groovy.

Throwing the shuttle a few hundred times and I'm starting to feel inspired!

Do you see the wefty-wavy-gravy playing with my hand painted color changes?

How about now?

Can you see it now?

I think I was meant to paint and weave pure silk only. (This could be a problem as it is intensely expensive and I do have a great abundance of cotton at my disposal just at the moment.) What is the Treadler to do?

Keep on groovin' I guess.

Death Warp

I have hundreds of pairs of knitting needles. Consequently,  I have zillions of unfinished knitting projects. But, there is room for only one 8 harness floor loom in my house so, there can be only one unfinished weaving project at a time threaded throughout this contraption and residing therein...and gumming  up the whole works until it is woven off and...o.k., o.k.  THIS IS A GOOD THING.

I realize and understand that if every unfinished knitting project I had were to take up 8 square feet of space in my home I would have to sleep in another country. While I'm new to this weaving thing I can already say it will make you finish a project! You don't start a new one until the old one is off that loom.

And yet...

I just measured out 7 yards of lustrous 20/2 silk warp threads at 30 ends per inch to make three  9.5 inch scarves. Then I painted that warp (after securing "the cross" and tied off the odds and the ends and then I took it off the warping board and soaked it and wrung it out and laid it out...)
I painted my silk warp in pretty, pretty colors! I wanted to recreate the colors of the northern lights as I like to think of them...

Isn't it lustrous? And, isn't it sad how it just hangs around with nowhere to go? Alas, that's because a fine, old, cotton, shadow weave project is still on the loom with a good 4 whole tea-towels to weave off yet before my precious  honkin' ginormous cherry wooded loom monster beauty is free to take on the silky warp that is all dressed up with no place to go.

I see what is going on. I have to grow up now. The Treadler has to finish what she starts before she can start the new thing she wants to get underway. I HATE THIS!

I'm in Love with My Loom

When I was in the 6th grade I would sit in my room and listen to Queen's,  A Night at the Opera over and over and over again on my record player. I loved Bohemian Rhapsody. It was very popular at the time but, my most favorite song on the album was The Prophet's Song. (That one would get stuck in my head for days on end.) The first concert I ever  went to was Queen at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City and, I remember, Billy Squire opened the show.

So - well, a few years have passed. Ouch, and yet not so bad actually. I prefer where I am to where I was in the 6th grade. It can be a bit like digging up an old time capsule though,  to pull out the music of one's childhood and really listen to it again. Strange how that special music can take me back just like the smell of lilac blossoms or a freshly mown lawn can send me somewhere far distant from where I am in the present moment. While I think it is best to stay right here in the wonderful now of living the life that is before me I have to admit it surely can be entertaining to go all the way back to revisit the distant memories of a 6th grade self. If a picture is worth a thousand words then a few songs can be worth... (I don't know what. I can't seem to put it into words.)

Let me get down to what I'm trying to convey here. There is a song on the album that I never fully understood. The sixth grade girl listening to A Night at the Opera did not get the same things out of the album as she who is writing you today.  The sixth grade listener never appreciated, "I'm in Love with My Car" The joy of that tune eluded me....until now.  I'm in love with my 8 Harness Loom. Oh yes, now I get it. I can fully appreciate the love for an inanimate object. And, poor Claxton has noticed this and recognizes it to be true.

He recently said, "I see now that you have this floor loom you don't need me any more."

As I expect the condition to be a temporary one I totally denied his claim. After all, 8 harnesses of cherry wooded magical wonderment cannot totally overpower one forever can it? Certainly I will recapture a perspective that prioritizes Claxton over this amazing Loomcraft 40", 8 shaft, floor loom with 12 treadles and the power to weave an intricate number of threads-per-inch into a vast assortment of majestic, cohesive fabrics of colorful blissfulness...yes? I'd like to think so. Here are a few pictures of my first projects. I'm making dish towels.

Shadow Weave. YAY!

I hate the thought that someone might read this and say, "Oh that poor, poor Claxton."

Please keep in mind that we are in the month of JUNE 2010 and the World Cup is at a fever pitch and will be going strong for many days to come. Truly I tell you Claxton has forgotten that we even have a honkin' giant loom in the livingroom. He is somewhere in Africa shouting, "GOAL!!"

Oh yes, and we have blossoms on the tomatoes! (The below is proof that I do go out-of-doors.)

 

Happy World Cup Everybody!!