By public demand - More about the SHIBORI FELTING

Oh OK then, by Dawn rather than public demand .....
The original "fabric" was very loose knitted with fine (4 ply / fingering?) Shetland wool.
It was 3 times the width it ended up.

Materials:
loosely knitted wool (NOT superwash) "fabric"
glass nuggetty things that you use in flower vases (mine were blue) or I believe pebbles / coins can be used
cling film / saran wrap cut into squares about 3 times the size of your nugetty things
rubber/elastic bands

Method:
Hold a glass thingy UNDER the fabric
grab it from the TOP
place cling film over top of fabric above glass thingy
wrap elastic band around cling film & fabric combined to trap glass nugget

repeat with more nuggetts + cling film + elastic bands probably in a RANDOW arrangement
to suit your eye

Put (now heavy) fabric in a net bag used for washing delicates or an old pillowcase (probably need to roughly sew this closed)
Put in washing with a small amount of washing powder & put through a washing cycle.
I put mine on 60deg - this may have been too long. 40deg quick cycle MAY have been better.

If you have a top-loader then of course you can open the machine and check progress.

When it came out of the washing machine it looked amazing. The edges of the cling film had been ripped during washing and was like thin pieces of ribbon floating from the "bubbles". Some of the cling film overthe top of teh bubbles had worn through and the blue glass was glinting like bright blue eyes.

AND THEN I REALISED ...... the nuggets were trapped!!! How on earth was I going to release them?
In a couple of places I had put a group of 5 or 6 nuggets all cuddled up together to make a giant bubble. I gently poked a small hole from THE BACK of the scarf and helped these to escape. With most of the small bubbles, I could encourage them to escape through the loose knitted wool fabric. I had to cut a tiny bit to allow a few of them to escape...

I wonder what the correct way of getting these out is? ...... or did I imprison them too securely?

Dawn wanted to see the "bubbles" more closely. Apologies for blurry pics - i think I was a little TOO close.

Sat-Prudence Mapstone Freeform Workshop & Sun- Shibori felt at home

On Saturday I managed to finally get myself to the other side of: Heathrow Airport, the M25 the M4. Now that doesn't sound like much of an achievement but haven't you ever tried to just "be" on the other side of a BIG GROWNUP ROAD and the whole universe seems to conspire against you?
I must have been on Level 7 of this computer game called Life because I had to contend with three obtacles at once. Anyway, I managed it and only arrived at the Church Hall in Iver, Bucks two minutes late.
Now I did meet Prudence briefly at Ally Pally 2005 but she was rushed off her feet with the usual mixture of groupies and neophytes buzzing around and drooling over her garments AND the new book. This time I was attending her workshop and then went on to have dinner with her in the evening.
Now on to my main reason for attending the workshop - MEETING MEL!!! I have exchanged emails with Mel G from Connecticut in the past and she generously sent me a huge package of info about "Tossed Salad" knitting & crochet and how to make a Ruana shaped garment. She is known thoughout the Freeform world for her vast knowledge of textile books and articles, especially FF.
Surprise, surprise she was dressed in her favourite colours of eggplant, as she calls it or aubergine as those on this side of the pond refer to it. I also met two people from the UK Handknitters group, Sue & Dawn. Sue dashed off to Australia on business as soon as the workshop finished but I was stuck with Dawn (& Mel and Prudence) till gone 10 o'clock at night! Dawn and I have since exchanged a flood of emails and I think we will have difficulty getting rid of each other!
Oh yes - workshop was arranged by Tracy & Jo of Taj Crafts They are lovely people and their shop is well worth a visit. I challenge you to go into their shop and come out empty-handed!!



There was another follow-on workshop on Sunday but I thought that I had better not neglect the family two days in a row but that didn't mean I had to be a martyr to family life. In between the washing and feeding and "being there" for people I had a go at SHIBORI FELTING ..... and made this

Watch this space....

Last weekend I bought a 2nd hand Ashford 800mm (32 in) rigid heddle loom.


Tomorrow (Saturday) I'm doing a Freeform workshop with Prudence Mapstone and Mel Gill from the FF Crochet group. (PM is over from AUS & MG is over from the USA)

Hanging on for dear life..

In response to Juuli's kind comments about my yarns & spinning. I use powdered acid dyes that I bought from The Handweavers Studio in East London . That's all I know about the dyes because they have a handweavers Studio label on them.
Incidentally that is where I learnt to spin almost a year ago to the day.

I think the way to get the boucle effect is every now and then to "hang onto the yarn" too much. if you overdo this tho' you will end up with barbed wire!!

Let the sun shine on

hand-dyed, handspun yarn.

I opened the curtains this morning and the sun streamed in on a box of my yarn bringing back happy memories of dyeing and spinning sessions.