Prize Winning Crochet Solar System - Pics 'Ta Dah'

Did I ever tell you what a fantastic pattern it is for this Crochet Mobile?  Did I tell you what an absolute pleasure it was to make and how proud I am of the results?  Today I was a 'Prize' winner in the Guilds competition.  I am over the moon!  I feel like I have won the giant Gosseberry growing competition.  I am just feeling so smug!  I was placed second.  That is simply amazing as the competition was fantastic.  I think the winning formula may be 'if you can't stun people with your skills then go for the quirky comedy factor'!  My Banana Moon certainly got a few belly laughs out of folks.  The mobile is 100%  Hand spun which I think for me is quite an achievement in itself.

It was a bit tricky to photograph due to all the orbits going on.  I will give you a 'whistle stop tour' of some of the other entries. . . I feel embarrassed to be 'Second' as the other entries were very, very good.  The theme was 'The Solar System' and people vote for their favourites.

I love this felted 'Nebula'.

I loved this 3D box with little felted planet and the torch to light it up.  This would be a brilliant school resource for me.  The outside was all sparkly too. (I tried my best with photographs).

What do you think of this Cosmic Tea Cosey?  Isn't it out of this world?  This would make me chuckle each morning whilst pouring my morning cuppa.  Superb.

This was one of my favourites too.  I love the texture and the simplicity.

How clever is this?  Wow.  I could not manage anything like this.  It is beautiful and I would love to have it in my house.

This cushion was the winner it is dyed and embroidered.  The photograph does not do it justice at all it is sparkly and beautiful.  I did not manage to photograph all of the pieces but it was fantastic to see the range of interpretations of the same theme.
              The Exhibition is open to the public all day and today it was very relaxing and enjoyable.  I spent most of my time sat spinning, drinking cups of tea and eating cakes but don't tell anyone about the eating cakes part!  We even got time to try to teach another guild member to spin.  She did a fantastic job.  She has recently purchased a beautiful Alpaca fleece and that is now her motivation to learn to spin.  By the end of the day she had produced 'yarn'.  I had a good old chin wag chatting to some lovely people too.  I managed to resist buying any yarn or fibre but I did buy a jar of Plum Chutney that will be perfect with a lump of cheese and I also bought some little 'French Knitting Looms' that I will take to work for the children to 'play' with.  I have one boy who loves to 'finger knit'.

Here are some of the six inch rings that were on display at the National Exhibition in the Summer.  Again it is fantastic to see the diversity of ideas and end results when everyone starts out with the same design spec.  I think there were three or four hundred of these on display at the National Exhibition.  They must have looked a treat.
                When you are writing a Blog sometimes you don't feel like you have very much to say or write about and then there are other times when you have five posts waiting to burst out all at once.  I love the little 'newsy' posts about the everyday stuff in peoples lives.  I am not sure if there is anything that is too trivial for Blog Land.  I have a little store of posts and things to show you and tell you about waiting in a queue.  I will try to pace myself. It is nice to have things to write about and share with you.  I just won't share it all at once!  I hope you are all having lovely weekends out there where ever you are.
XXX  

Braiding Workshop with Colin Squire

Yesterday we went to Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing Guild for a days workshop.  The workshop was 'Braiding with Colin Squires'.  Colin has been teaching weaving for many years.  The above 'Inkle Loom' was in search of a new home almost a year ago.  Of course I had a loving home for it!  In my parents garage, where much of my junk treasures end up.  I had absolutely no idea how an Inkle Loom works.  My Dad managed to 'warp' it after watching a 'Youtube' tutorial.  I take my hat off to him as warping is not an easy task to me.  Unfortunately Dad's maiden voyage with the 'Inkle Loom' was with handspun yarn and it cause all sorts of bovver.  It stuck to itself and wanted to felt.  The 'Inkle' found itself disgraced and back in the garage until yesterday.
              Colin's workshop was not just about 'Inkle Weaving' guild members had the chance to try many different forms of braiding.  Using sticks, fingers, looms and patience.  I got stuck for a couple of hours trying to 'warp' this baby!  Me and warping just do not get on!  I realised I had not taken any photographs so I delegated the photography to my Mom.  She has never used my camera before.

Here is a great shot of me doing battle with the loom!  I had several breakages and found this to be the most frustrating of 'workshops'.  I am an instant gratification kind of gal!  I am rather pleased that my mission was accomplished though.  I warped the loom and have started to weave a braid.  I finally understand how an Inkle loom works at the most basic level.

Here is my braid in progress.  There is 'bubbling' at each end where I am not pulling my 'weft' thread tight enough. . . but believe me I am trying!  I chose to work with cotton as I felt it would be smooth and strong enough not to break!  'Wrong'!  Now it is warped and in progress though I hope not to encounter any more problems.

This was a lovely big 'Driad' Inkle loom and the lady working on it was given it by her mother.  Until yesterday she did not know how to use it.  She seemed to make fantastic progress and was making a beautiful braid from dishcloth cotton and some baby blue yarn.

Lovely loom - too big for garage!

This makes very strong 'straps' that can have many uses.  You can get some beautiful intricate designs from an Inkle Loom but I do not think I will ever be that clever.  Unfortunately I did not mange to get photographs of some of those designs.  It is the 'Guild's' exhibition next month so I will see what I can photograph then.

This was a lovely braid in progress.  The method was 'finger weaving'.  I was too busy Inkle Looming to learn anything else.  That would make a lovely belt though wouldn't it?  I am sure there are 'Youtube' videos out there for clever folk!
Another very interesting day.  Have you ever tried braiding, or stick weaving or do you have any good links to tutorials?  I wrote a post a while ago about Kumihimo Japanese-Braiding that is a fun way to explore braiding and is a brilliant craft for children.
XXX

What A Tangled Web We Weave!

I have been putting my little Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel through it's paces.  I have been pushing it to the 'Pepsi Max' of it's capabilities.  I am in experimental 'Lucy in The Sky' style territory.  If there are rules, they are there to be broken!  Finally I have made a little dent in my Alpaca stash.  I have realised that if I want have any chance of spinning a 'decent' yarn with it I am going to have to be brutal and lose a massive proportion of my haul.  Just keeping the better quality fleece.  It seems like a terrible waste to me, but some of it has too much vegetable matter in it and I do not have the hours in the day to pick it all out.  I have also only ever spun Alpaca unwashed and uncarded.  The next lot I spin will be washed and carefully carded.  I still have at least seven black bags full to play with!  Tomorrow I am going to Weaving Spinning and Dyeing Guild and I am doing an all day workshop, 'Peg Loom Weaving'.  Well I have a plan.

In among by Gizmos and Gadgets I have an under used peg loom, and the most delightful little 'Owlie' bag.

The pegs fit nicely in the 'Owlie' bag.  I have used the loom briefly at work where as a collaborative project the kids all had a go at weaving a group piece.  We used an assortment of odds and ends, bright acrylic and novelty yarns.  As I say, the loom is under used.  The pegs were too much of a tight fit so Euan has very kindly and diligently filed the end of each peg and now they are a much better fit.  I have done a little bit of 'Googling' about peg looms and know you can pretty much weave anything on them from rags to raw fleece.  I didn't want to buy anything in addition to the too much fleece and yarn I already hoard so the natural conclusion I came to was to prepare some of my 'Free' Alpaca.

I have literally chucked it through the wheel and made some Super Duper Ultra Bulky 'Yarn' as I Navajo Plied the already thick singles.  The little 'Kiwi' groaned under the pressure.  My Other Half came across a ball of the said yarn today and said 'What the Hell's that!  It looks like a creature!'  It does as well, it reminds me of that episode of Star Trek with all those 'Tribbles'

I wonder how they will weave up tomorrow?  I will of course be back to update you regarding my adventures.  Beam me up Scotty!

From Sheep to Chic - Textile Artist Linda Moss

I just remembered I forgot!  I forgot to tell you about last Month's Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing Guilds 'Talk'.   It was called 'From Sheep to Chic' and the speaker was Linda Moss.  Linda is a textile artist who works mostly with fleece from her own sheep.  She keeps 'Soay' Sheep that are a 'Rare' breed, registered with 'The Rare Breeds Survival Trust'.

Soay Sheep Society

Soay sheep are unlike any other breed of sheep.  They are one of the earliest most primitive breeds of sheep.  They originate from St Kilda in Scotland, the remotest part of the British Isles.  It also has the harshest climate in the British Isles.  How Soay Sheep came to be in St Kilda, no body knows.  They are adapted for the really harsh climate and are excellent conservation grazers, they are content in woodland or hills.  They lamb much later in the year than other breeds, biological programming ensuring optimum survival of their young.  Linda lives high up in the Shropshire Hills, where again the weather can be exposed and much colder than lower ground.  These little sheep are extremely hardy.  They usually have only one lamb and they make very good mothers, they can pretty much be left to their own devices and they will deliver a lamb without problems on their own in the field.  Although Linda occasionally has Bottle fed lambs around the clock.   I can remember Linda said they do not flock, so you have to tempt them with a bucket of food to round them up, also conventional sheep fencing does not suffice to contain this breed, although they are small they are agile and feisty.  There coloured fleece is a treat for many crafters.  They do not need to be sheared like other sheep as they shed their fleece naturally or it can be picked/pulled off to be gathered.

This Photograph shows the fleece shedding - this lucky sheep is being cared for at a sanctuary ran by 'Enfield' Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance

They are also good for meat, (sorry I cringed writing that).  The meat portions are much smaller but apparently delicious.  Rather than eat the lamb, farmers would wait until the Lamb is older than seven months and then it is called a Hogget and the meat is also called Hogget...not lamb and not mutton, the portions then are bigger than they would be but still considerably smaller than your average lamb.  Enough already of all this talk of eating little Hoggetsies it is not a nice thought!  Delicious on the plate maybe but not a nice thought when you look at the cute little Baa Lambs.  I am such a 'Townie' and would really have never made a Farmers Wife!  My meat comes in packs not from animals of course!
You can read Linda's  Artists Statement Here and also see samples of her work, felting, Dying and crochet to make hats, scarves, bags and jewellery.  I loved the bags made with natural fleece that had been wet felted.  Some of them had buttons made from natural materials, stone with natural holes in them (as opposed to drilled holes), leather or horn.  Bags like this could have been made in Bronze Age Britain as the techniques and materials were all available then.  Bone, leather, stone and horn would have been used for buttons.  It is believed felting is the earliest form of fabric dating from at least 10 000 years ago.
Do pop over and read more about Linda Moss and look at more examples of her beautiful textile work.  Very inspirational stuff.
            Now me needs a little sheepy.  We have just about chicken proofed the garden (well we actually gave half of it to the chickens and gave up)!  I wonder if I could persuade my Other Half to Soay Sheep proof the back garden?  I have also heard about a Piggy Wig that needs a new home as it is upsetting its Llama and Alpaca brothers and sisters!

Mental note to self:  Must Buy Lottery Ticket!

Yeah I am Still On My Easter Holiday

I hope you all had a great Easter.  The weather here took a turn for the worse but their was an abundance of Chocolate Eggs to compensate for this.  Sadly the upshot of this is I will be joining Weight Watchers later this week!  Oh dear, it feels like a very guilty confessional.  Moving swiftly on to matters that make me happy. . .
I have finished my 'Ring', my six inch ring for The Annual Exhibition for The Guild of  Weavers Spinners and Dyers.  Members were invited to submit an 'un-selected' piece of work to be displayed at the exhibition.  All of the 'Rings' will be displayed together in July.   I can not say I am happy with the results but I am happy it is finished!  I used my hand spun beaded yarn to weave, crochet, Kumihimo Braid and 'Flower Loom' my way to completion.  I have not used a flower loom for decades.  I had a yellow plastic 'Flower Loom in the seventies and would make colourful flowers when I was a kid, I don't know what I did with them, but that is the beauty of being a kid, you don't feel obligated to do anything with them, creating for the pure sake of creating.

One of our Guild Members makes these looms, this is the one I used today.  I had forgot how much fun making these little flowers is.  I also enjoy Kumihimo Braiding and whipped up my little 'loom' from the plastic  lid of a coffee tin.

I braided Beaded 'Flower Yarn' and made sure the little flower bead were on the outside of the braid.

I used 'Butterfly' beads for extra 'Flower Meadow' effect (also to hide lumps and bumps, but don't tell anyone)!  I am sure it will look wonderful displayed, if viewed from afar through squinted eyes.
          I have also been working on more crochet.  The little black hexagon is coming on nicely.  It just doesn't like to be photographed.

It likes to pretend it is a square, or a pentagon. . . anything but a hexagon.  I have high hopes for this hexagon.  The main thing it has going for it is...

It folds neatly into this shape. . . or . . .

This shape.  I could not for the life of me work out in my head how a hexagon could fold into either of these shapes.  I had to see it with my own eyes. . . trust me it works. . . a hexagon into these shapes, fancy that!   I think they have great potential.  I will keep you posted as to their progress and the plans I have for them.
          Over the Easter Weekend my Blog Counter blasted through 100 000 hits.  It caught me a bit unawares.  I had planned another 'Give Away' as 100 000 hits feels like a big deal to me as I am only a little Blogger at heart.  I have waited for months for my Blog Counter to reach the magic number.  I will get organised and post about 'The Give Away' asap too.  Thanks for following me, I admire anyone who manages to hang on in there and read my ramblings.  'The More the Merrier' so they say.  I also appreciate all of your comments too,  it is great to know you are out there.  XXX

Birmingham and District Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers 'Annual Exhibition 2011'

Today was the Annual Guild Exhibition Day, it is a chance to showcase examples of our work throughout the year  Also you can eat cake and drink lots of tea.  I quite like it because I get a chance to sit and spin.  I love to look at what others have been working on and chat to like minded people.  I whizzed around taking a few pictures before the 'Public' arrived.  I should have  taken more and have made a note to myself for next year.  It is quite tricky to get the balance right for a blog post, too many photos or not enough, sometimes you can't win.  This year we have had workshops on:

Colour Theory
Design Theory
Flower Pounding
Everlasting Christmas Crackers
The History of Ribbon Making
Natural Dyes

That is to name a few.  All of the displays looked impressive this year.  I particularly liked the Weaving tables.  We have some very talented weavers that are in their eighties.

Examples of a variety of methods of weaving were on display.  It fascinates me to see the skill involved.  There are also several 'Sales' tables.  I was fairly good today and did not spend!  I am due a large quantity of 'raw' Alpaca fleece at the end of the week and I don't know where to hide it, so I really had to resist more yarn or fibre.  I was asked if I wanted eight large bags of Alpaca for free!  What is a girl to say?  All the giver would like in exchange is something made from the fibre.  I think it is a stroke of good fortune but I will of course let you know.  It will definitely keep me out of mischief for a while.
At the Exhibition there is also an Annual Competition, this year the theme was 'The Sea'.  I am such a fool not to have taken more photographs but I got carried away spinning once I settled.  The entries were fantastic.  I was frogging mine on Thursday night, so gave up and didn't enter this year.  It is my own fault for getting addicted to 'Rippling' instead!  I remind myself that craft should be for leisure and pleasure anyway and if something becomes a chore I leave it alone for a while.  I did get a photograph of my Mom's entry.  I feel very proud of her and I think she did an absolutely fantastic job using entirely her own handspun yarn and some of the techniques and ideas we have picked up throughout the year.  She didn't get placed but the standard of entries was incredibly high this year.  Mom's piece is a 'Winner' in my eyes, I love it!

Flower Pounding with Linda Rudkin

Today I went to Birmingham and District Guild of Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing.  There has been a couple of months break for the Summer and we are now back to monthly meetings.  Today was a days workshop with the very talented Linda Rudkin.  I knew the workshop was on 'Flower Pounding' but other than that I had no idea what to expect apart from a lot of noise.  I really didn't think this workshop would be for me.

Here is one sample of Linda's fabulous textile work;

This one is beautiful;

Linda bought many inspirational pieces to share with us of her examples of 'Flower Pounding'.  Flower Pounding is literally that!  You pound with a hammer to extract the natural pigment of fresh flowers and foliage to create a print on fabric.  Essentially it is very simple to work on a sampler, experimenting with which flowers and foliage work well.  Linda's book is very concise and beautiful and will explain step by step what you need to do to create fairly instant gratification of  stunning, unique and natural prints.  If you are skilled in hand embroidery or machine embroidery or quilting,  then the sky is the limit for how you can use and enhance your prints.

The above is the result of me playing and experimenting for about an hour and a half.  Can you imagine the noise of twenty people flower pounding at once?  The blobs that look like squashed blackberry and squashed tomato are from flowers with quite fleshy petals.  Linda has an amazing knowledge of flowers and had no problem naming them, for me however it was more that is a nice 'Red One' and that is a nice 'Purple one'.  I loved the ferns, and the Pansy turned out well, so did a small Primula.  Very interesting results were gained in a short amount of time.  'Flower Pounding' does not create fixed dyes and they cannot be washed but they can be dry cleaned.  In the afternoon we tried something much quieter, 'Flower trapping'.  A method of 'Trapping' the flowers into fabric, using a fixing web and chiffon.  I used some fern and beautiful blue Hydrangea.

These are now preserved in the fabric.  The prints from flower pounding fade with time, where as with flower trapping the colour should not fade to the same degree.  I can recommend both for methods for a fun bit of experimentation, for pounding you need a hammer, a wooden board, masking tape, cotton and fresh flowers. You tape your flowers to the cotton and pound with your hammer on the reverse, when you remove the tape the print is left on the cotton.  It really is that simple.  Trapping flowers in fabric is a little more complicated, using a sandwich of baking parchment, cotton, fine bonding web, your flower design, more fine bonding web, fine chiffon, and baking parchment.  You then use an iron on the cotton setting to seal it all.  Ironing, not pressing as you do not want to singe your flowers.  Flowers need to be as flat as possible so you may need to snip bumps and lumps off prior to sealing your design, tweezers are also very useful.

This is a sample of a piece of work that has been outlined with a fine etching pen.  It looks amazing and really highlights the detail.  

Everyone who took part had something attractive to take home and feel proud of.

All the different designs displayed on one table looked fantastic.

This was my favourite.  It reflects what is happening outside at the moment, everything is turning decidedly Autumnal.  The nights are drawing in and as if by magic more crafting time appears.

Design For The Terrified - Creative Spinning Workshop with Alison Daykin

Spinning can be quite a solitary activity so it was lovely that my wheel was one of fourteen in a room today.  There is always so much to learn by sharing and comparing with others.  We hopped Guilds and went to Stratford Upon Avon to their 'Creative Spinning' Workshop.  We were made very welcome and everyone was so kind and friendly.  Guilds are a great place to learn with members of all ages and ability.

 I view Alison Daykin as my 'Spinning' Guru, I have been to one of her workshops before and I really admire her work, so I was very enthusiastic about taking part in today's workshop.  Alison demonstrated slub yarns, snarl yarns, making 'creative' batts with hands carders and drum carders and we had a demonstration with the Ashford Wild Carder.

The Ashford Wild Drum Carder is a seriously desirable piece of kit.  It is robust enough to cope with large quantities of various fibres and materials.  It has a hefty price tag though in my opinion.

Last night Alison gave a two hour talk about her 'Methods for Designing' yarn or woven cloth.  The key skill is observation.  She gave us many ideas and examples for enlarging, collage, working out colour and texture proportions, mark making and recording.  The above piece is my Mom's work.  She chose a greetings card with Sweet Peas on it.  She then made written notes recording any of her thoughts about the colours and textures in the image.  Using water colours she then created a colour palette to work from.

There was a huge stash of fibres to work from and we didn't travel light.  We did not have the messiest work area though but we tried hard to get this accolade.  I think my Mom did a fantastic job and I really loved the sample of Yarn she created, I think it is very pretty and an excellent colour match for the picture.  It is a confidence boost to have your work admired by others.

This was not our work space but I think it is fantastic.  This was also my favourite wheel in the room.  I have no idea what it is but I thought it was beautiful, it has been painted with a delicate Holly design and it had some enormous bobbins.

Here is my trusty little wheel, oh and my shoes!  I like to spin barefoot or wearing my special 'Spinning Socks'!  I chose a picture of some orange Iris, I did not paint my palette but blended my fibre to match my colours using my handcarders.

I experimented with three yarns, one colour blend, one with snippets of the first yarn added to the rolag and spun into singles and finally my first slub yarn.  I managed to use some of the fibre from my Adventures in Dyeing.  Slubs are great fun for adding texture and effect to the yarn but I found it tricky to do.  I understand the method now though for future reference.

Here is a closer shot of my slub yarn (Sorry it could be clearer I know!);

Alison also dyes her own yarns and sells a wide range of natural dyes, Pure Tinctoria.

After last weeks 'Birmingham and District Guilds' Dyers Picnic I decided to treat myself to some Natural Indigo and Red Lac.  I wonder what colour I can turn my hands with those!  I had a really enjoyable day and took on board some new ideas and skills.  I hope to tag along with the 'Stratford Guild' again sometime.