The Good Girl
I went to Fibre Fest and didn’t buy anything.
Well actually, I did. I bought Michelle and Jo each a “Topknot” from Aurelia Wool & Weaving to see if it would push them over the edge and get them spinning. Heh. They both attended the drop spindle demo and then we spent much of the afternoon going from booth to booth to test the different spindles. The girls finally settled on a couple spindles made by Dave Smith/Shari Hamilton (similar to the one I bought in November at the Langley event). Michelle’s spindle is made from Jatoba. Sounds cool to me.
Over the five and a half hours that we spent shopping, I was such a good girl and didn’t buy anything. But Michelle bought me a ball of Bamboo yarn from Jane Stafford’s booth. Beautiful stuff. Laura Fry’s Weaving Studio was also offering a number of handpainted skeins of Bamboo yarn and I saw it woven up — lovely, soft and drapey fabric. And I heard it doesn’t pill!
I didn’t buy anything because, well, I have lots of stuff to play with already. So, on Sunday, I spent some quality time with my carder and some bombyx silk/merino top that I dyed a couple months ago. I’m in love with the carded batts at The Silkworker, so I decided to take my crumpled looking top and fluff it up with the drum carder.
I took one batt, stripped it vertically a couple times and spun it up from end to end. Andean plied the whole thing and washed the yarn. By evening, it was dry enough to knit up. This is going to be yet another Flower Basket Shawl (Evelyn Clark, Interweave Knits Fall 2004). I love how it feels kind of powdery and crunchy all at the same time — like fresh snow.
Tags: carding, Flower Basket Shawl, silk
I wanna make a sweater... pouts
Looks beautiful. I like your texture description!
Oooh Yummy! I Love it!
Did you spin it with your wheel or or with the spindle? Looks great!!!
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - you are SUCH an inspiration Felicia! GORGEOUS!
oh so pretty!
So beautiful! What a fabulous weekend you had. You’ve been working so hard on everything lately, even if you did bought stuff, you’d still deserve it.
Another Flower Basket Shawl? Good idea!
You can never have too many Flower Baskets. I’ve knit three and I’m not sick of the pattern yet!
That carded silk is pretty enough to use as desktop wallpaper.
Wow that is some pretty fluff/yarn! The colour is amazing.
Beautiful stuff. I want a carder!
Oh, so you just fluffed it up, spun it, plied it, washed it, and dried it in a day? Really, no big deal! Gorgeous stuff, you’re amazing.
I just love the way fiber looks on the carder! So straight and perfect. And your batts are gorgeous.
beautiful reds/pinks, i must say
mm, those aurelia topknots look so yummy…lucky gals!
Wow! Ditto what Stephanie said! You do more in a day than most of us in a month! That is really beautiful!
Your drum carder looks very fine, the result is perfect !
Beautiful - love the color.
Only one word: Gorgeous!
Beautiful!!
LOVELY!
I am so glad to have met you that day and to have the chance to tell you in person what an inspiration you are to many of us — especially the next generation of fibre artists. Keep playing!
So pretty!!!!!! When you said you Andean plied how did you do that? Is Andean mean how you wrap it around your wrist from a spindle? Im not sure on what the term means though I just learned to ply from a spindle and Ive used lazy kates to ply on a wheel. Thanks,as im a bit confused!!!
Love your pics!!! I love plying yarn. I took two different yarns (that were two-plyed)and plyed them to make a 4-ply yarn. The problem I think I created for myself is that when I 2-plyed each yarn I went counter clockwise, when I plyed the yarn to make a 4-ply i went counter clockwise as well, is this ok? Thank you for your help!!