There's no skill in spinning that's as worthwhile to acquire as hand carding. It makes learning long draw an absolute breeze, and lets you transform a fleece in to something spinnable. I love spinning from true rolags, it's an incredibly pleasing feeling. If you don't own a pair of hand carders then they're a good thing to put on your Christmas list. I'm a fan of the Ashford mini carders (there's nothing mini about them, they're just much lighter than many other carders). Unless you plan on carding very coarse fleeces then the 108tpi are a lovely pair to use. Even if you don't spin from fleece they allow you to card your own blends. Much better value than a blending board, and when done correctly it's not particularly hard work. The key is not overloading the carders, I spin the stripey woolen yarns that I have for sale in the shop occasionally using rolags carded from an assortment of commercial merino top, native wool tops, and other luxury fibres. This post is part of my advent calendar 2016. Every day in December we're saying so long to 2016 by embracing learning, knowledge and creativity. Each day there will be a new post with a new skill or craft. You can read all the past posts here.
I love my rigid heddle loom. I love that putting on a warp takes me a couple of hours, and that I can be weaving so quickly. I have a wide 24 inch model (as wide as I was comfortable reaching across), but even small looms can still be used to make more than scarves and table runners. I often take the scissors to my cloth, and sew it together. I have an A-line skirt that is very warm, and looks smart. No one would know it was woven on a rigid heddle. I also regularly use my weaving for cushions. Sometimes I just use the woven cloth, other times I sew it together with cotton fabrics. I've also woven blankets on my loom, you just need to stitch together the edges before washing, then use a sewing machine to finish the edges. We had a great workshop with Bee Weir from Crafts from the Dungeon at guild this year where she showed us some lovely waistcoats and jackets, made from 10 inch wide hand woven fabric. Saori weaving books are a great source of inspiration if you want to get sewing with handwoven fabric. They often don't rely on any complicated shaping, just piecing together different sizes of rectangles. These tips on sewing with hand woven fabric are helpful... pre-stitching before cutting is really useful with these frayble fabrics. Not feeling brave enough to make a garment? This little bag doesn't need much fabric, though if you're in the UK the felting part is trickier because we don't have top loaders... my machine either doesn't full the fabric at all, or reduces it to a dense mass. Oh to have a local fulling mill like they did a couple of hundred years ago!
I'm ashamed to say I bought this sampler back in 2013 and still haven't started it... so, I'm going to say it publicly. By the end of this year I will have got it finished! Technically I could just have bought a stitch dictionary, and done my own, but sometimes it's nice to have your hand held. Then of course there is the rabbit hole of spinning for embroidery. No real reason why not to, it's how all thread would have been made in the past, and you don't need a very long length. It just needs a bit more twist than yarn for knitting or weaving. I have sort of experimented with this in a Fibre Jewellery workshop we had at guild, and it was fun. So if you already do some stitching, why not experiment with spinning thread. If you want your hand held completely there is a video class to go with the sampler. I'm also particularly taken with this alpaca embroidery kit. There's handy stitch guide on the DMC website.
And, late editions to this post, someone kindly left me some links to some more good online resources for embriodery. Lots of information from start to finish here, and an amzing collection of free resources here. Another late edition, December 22nd and I'm finally reaching out my sampler to work on. This series of posts is also really helpful. This post is part of my advent calendar 2016. Every day in December we're saying so long to 2016 by embracing learning, knowledge and creativity. Each day there will be a new post with a new skill or craft. You can read all the past posts here. Done well drum carding is a thing of beauty. It transforms fibre in to beautiful blends. It can take a tangled mass of fleece and turn it in to a beautiful fluffy batt that spins wonderfully. It's one of my favourite way of combining multiple fibres, particularly braids of combed top that I might be guilty of storing too long... If you're already a drum carder fan... how about this one? It's a great tutorial showing you how to make a rainbow roving, perfect for spinning gradient yarns. Remember the gradient roving I sold several years ago? This is how it was made. This post is part of my advent calendar 2016. Every day in December we're saying so long to 2016 by embracing learning, knowledge and creativity. Each day there will be a new post with a new skill or craft. You can read all the past posts here.
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Hilltop CloudHilltop Cloud- Spin Different
Beautiful fibre you'll love to work with. Established 2011 VAT Reg- 209 4066 19 Dugoed Bach, Mallwyd, Machynlleth,
Powys, SY20 9HR |