I love having a chat with members about their projects, so many great ideas popping up.
Janet Staben has been trying her hand at wet felting. She had some wool given to her and tells me that after some initial problems has produced a picture which she is very pleased with. Will look forward to seeing it at our next Zoom meeting.
Robin Blakely has found a couple of pictures of Dorset Buttons and wondered what they were. She did a little research on how to make them and what they were used for. She can imagine one securing a scarf or shawl. Now she has to find some curtain rings or something to work around.... just awkward going shopping for those sort of things these days. However she's going to Iook in her shed first ...who knows what she might find. These buttons could possibly be the subject of a challenge for the group in the
Deb Peck has been making good use of her time and loves the idea of the quilt from her stash of materials. She has also finished her cashmere/mohair jumper. I'll let you read her writings:
"I have stashes of off cuts that remind me of 40yrs in dressmaking. I can't remember all of my clients names, although I have vivid memories of the articles I made from the materials.
Going through my stash a few months ago I found baby nighties cut out ready to sew, that child is 29 now.
I'm saving all of my off bits from spinning that I'll process into wadding for quilt making.
I had bought some once and it smelt of sheep (possible rams wool) and had vegetation throughout, so if I card it well and pull out most of the vegetation, any noils can blend in with the rest and I could lay the battens at different angles and half felt them so that when I quilt I could randomly stitch down and secure the bulk of wadding. I'm planning to do large squares at a time and stitch them together with bands of edging, or make ties to join sections so that washing made easier. Press studs can be a fun way to join. I'm doing a quilt out of various white materials from satin wedding dress off cuts (which some are embroided with pastel coloured machine stitching, and some plain), cotton embossed quilters squares and other materials that takes my fancy. The fun of collecting, planning and processing this adventure into the world of artist pastime is fun and rewarding not to mention a lengthy process. It's the art of creation that doesn't need to be rushed. "
Deb continues "I have finally finished my cashmere /mohair jumper.
I had to spin the mohair I had bought from that session on dying mohair at our last workshop, her mohair was the same shade as the cashmere and just as soft. I started at the sleeves then bust up, with the cashmere, knowing that I had limited balls of it to make anything worthwhile. (I didn't want another scarf.)
I plyed what I'd spun with Bendigo Woollen Mills magnolia 2ply. This extended the cashmere into 4balls around 200 meters each then I spun the mohair and plyed with the 2ply for the bottom half. After nearly finishing (6 inches of knitting) I didn't like the pattern, it didn't sit right. So I invented several styles and the results are what allowed me to finish it. It wad easy to follow especially using a marker for the purl row as I used circular needles which required knit stitch. Keeping the pattern simple helped too. Mind you now that it's finished I've seen it before and I have done different versions.
When I spun the cashmere and mohair it was very thin almost like 2ply or thinner. It was knitted on size 4.5 needles to give it a light feel and to extend the wool as much as possible. I'm very pleased with it, now all I'm waiting for is for somewhere to wear it.
Spinning threads fine like cotton is something to master, mohair spins well and is a pleasure to use. It may have taken me near on a year to make this jumper what with re-knitting and spinning more balls to finish it, it's been an learning curve and huge pleasure to watch it grow. It better fit"
I hope other members will be inspired to pen a blog about their activities, we all have a story to tell.