weaving

Fibre, glorious fibre!

With Winter in full swing here it’s all about the fibre for me at the moment! I had a go at dyeing roving for the first time. The colours are beautiful (mixed berry I think), but not exactly what I anticipated- there was a lot of residual dye. Some online fibre dyeing friends recommended more vinegar and a longer steaming time. This roving is from Bendigo Woollen Mills.

I’ve since dyed some more roving, applying the recommendations and it seems much better this time. I’ll show you the new roving when it’s dry, we’re not exactly having the best drying weather here of late.

This is the first bobbin spun from the first roving and I think it’s really pretty! I’m trying out a spinning technique called fractal spinning – can’t wait to see the results.

I ordered some roving from First Edition Fibres and got the most beautifully soft and fluffy fibre. I think I will spin some of this in this natural colour as well as dyed, wouldn’t it make a gorgeous baby blanket?

I’m calling this project my “crazy scarf”. I’m using all different bits and pieces of hand dyed and handspun yarn in a somewhat random fashion (similar to the “crazy quilt” technique). Just for fun 🙂

Anything fibre related happening at your place this weekend?

Hand woven scarf charity auction

by Kelly Leave a Comment

This scarf is hand dyed and hand woven from handspun yarn 🙂 I’ve added a little beaded trim for a bit of bling. The scarf’s weft is throwsters silk, which is a waste product from silk making. It has a firm, rather than soft or floppy hand.

I’m auctioning the scarf on my Facebook page tonight at 8pm with all proceeds going to Mary’s Meals – a very worthy cause. I hope you can make it, and if you’re not on Facebook just contact me and I’ll place a bid for you. Bidding starts at $25 AUD plus post ($8).

The Handmade Library Showcase

by Kelly 1 Comment

I’m participating in The Handmade Library Showcase for the first time tonight! The showcase runs on Facebook and features many talented handmakers. The theme is “Something Old, Something New”.

Here is my “Something New” – a scarf I wove from my hand dyed 8ply merino. The colourways I used are “Bougainvillea” and “Pink Princess”.

And my “Something Old” – a silk children’s cape made from my hand dyed silk and silk ribbon.

Both are up for grabs at 8pm tonight, hope you can make it 🙂

Silk scarf

by Kelly 1 Comment

I bought some silk yarn a while ago and I was scared to dye it – it’s expensive and I hadn’t dyed it before. So, I worked up the courage to dye it and I liked the blue but wasn’t thrilled with the pink/green. It sat around for a while and I tried to decide what to do with it.

I was itching to get something on the loom, so I warped with the blue without thinking about it too much.

Then I wove with the pink/green. And I was pleased. As I wove I saw the potential and the beautiful sheen and I felt happy!

Off the loom, a wash and a dry and WOW! You just can’t photograph something that is shimmery, but this is so shimmery and the colours set each other off beautifully!

Sometimes I take a chance when I make something and it turns out badly. But then sometimes it turns out brilliantly and that is such a joyful feeling.

I’m putting the scarf in my Etsy shop for now and we’ll see if anyone else likes it as much as I do 🙂

Alpaca scarf off the loom

by Kelly 4 Comments

This scarf was partly experimental and I found after starting to warp that my mental calculations were not sufficient – I ended up using twice the amount of yarn for the warp than I thought. But that’s ok, these things happen 🙂

I wove with 4 colours – logwood brown, purple and pink/green using alpaca 8ply.

The scarf turned out very long and wide, almost shawl proportions. Perfect for Winter (not so perfect for modelling on a hot Autumn day!)

This is how the warp looked on the loom.

I’m going to make this my next charity auction item, starting on Friday at 2pm. The auction will be on my Facebook page with all proceeds going to Mary’s Meals.

Linking up with Creative Friday and Fibre Arts Friday.

Completed projects this week

by Kelly 4 Comments

Not one but two projects completed for me this week, this is almost unheard of!

First up, the Primrose dress for my 4 year old princess. I knit this in 8ply superwash and hand dyed it just for this project.

A little lace detail on the hem.

And some ladybird buttons to finish off with. There is lace detail on the shoulders and sleeve trim too.

I was really thrilled with this pattern – it was simple and easy to knit, the sizing is accurate and it was all explained so well that I didn’t feel like tearing my hair out like I normally would with a knitting project! The pattern in by New Zealander, Julia Stanfield.

Next up, some tea towels off the loom. I wove these with 4ply Bendigo Woollen Mills cotton.

I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, despite the wonky edges! I learned that weaving with 4ply is more challenging than 8ply.

It seems that as I grow more confident as a weaver and knitter I also increase in speed, which is a wonderful thing, it means I can turn out more beautiful things for my family!

Linking up with Ginny’s Yarn Along 🙂

Always making

by Kelly 3 Comments

It’s true, I’m always making something and more often than not I’m making many things! Here are a few of my recent and current projects:

I’m quite in love with this Primrose already, lots of knitting to go but I’m enjoying every stitch. I dyed the yarn especially for this dress and it looks better than I envisioned. It’s going to be for my littlest woolly lover, she is a most grateful recipient of anything knitted.

Always dyeing yarn….sales have dropped off a little but it’s only natural considering it’s Summer here. Anyway, my Etsy shop is stocked with plenty of yarn at the moment.

I have tea towels on the loom and things are going pretty slowly. I’m hemstitching them on the loom which always adds a bit of time and I’m also using 4ply cotton, so the weaving is not quick. These are my first tea towels so I hope they are a success after this time investment!

I dyed and made a top for me – it didn’t suit me at all so I cut the main part down to make a top for my eldest girl along with some Euro fabrics from my stash and one of my favourite top patterns for my girls – CZM Mareen. This girl just won’t stop growing!

As usual I have about 1000 ideas for things I “must do” but don’t have the time or money for, but they keep me ticking and I’m grateful to the time that I currently have to be creative. I have a couple of exciting happenings cooking up in my mind for this month, so stay tuned for those!

God bless you all 🙂

Random creativity

by Kelly 4 Comments

I thought I’d share with you a few of the things that have kept me creatively busy this week (and no, obviously blogging has not been one of them!)

A little weaving cotton.

A little dyeing cotton.

A little watercolour painting.

A little cloth dyeing.

And a little photography.

Not bad for one week hey? I squeezed a fair bit of sewing in too, but that is unfinished.

How about you? Did you get any time to be creative this week? What did you do?

Weaving on a rigid heddle loom

by Kelly 1 Comment

I know a lot of you are fascinated by the idea of weaving but are unsure about the whole thing and whether you could actually do it yourself. So, I thought I’d share some of my latest project (my second) with you to help de-mistify the process.

First you set up the warp. This involves clamping the loom and the warping peg to a table, tying the ends onto the warp beam, and then around the warping peg.

This is what the warp looks like when it’s all set up. I have used 2 colours for this project, but you can use one colour or many, it’s versatile!

In my mind, the warping is the “hard” part (and not all that hard) and the weaving is the “easy” part (which has it’s own challenges but is repetitive and relaxing). By weaving one inch red and one inch blue for the weft (the horizontal part) I was able to achieve squares (because I had already set up the pattern in warping by using the same 2 colours).

After cutting from the loom and knotting the ends to prevent unravelling (you can also hem stitch the ends) your project is washed, dried and ready! This is a sweet little table cloth for the cubby house which has been a great practice project. Next to come is a mat for the floor, and I may even try some different techniques – the rigid heddle is just full of possibilities!

So, what do you think? Are you interested in weaving? Perhaps you weave already? I’m looking forward to teaching this art form to my girls, I think they’ll love it!

Knit and weave

by Kelly 2 Comments

Lots of yarn activity here lately! I finished a Rainbow Dress using my hand dyed yarns in 10 ply. I love the look of it but I’m not sure how much wear she will get out of it now that the weather is warming up. Being 10ply, it’s pretty thick and heavy. As others have said, it will make a great long tunic next winter.

I’ll absolutely be knitting this pattern again, perhaps a cotton one for the warm weather. The pattern is by Tikki.

And this is my first ever project off my new rigid heddle loom – a stash busting scarf. I intentionally used a wide variety of yarns to see how they perform differently for weaving.

I learned so much from this project, and it doesn’t look nearly as rough as I expected for a first piece. I discovered that hand dyed and handspun yarns are perfect for weaving 🙂

My joy of all things yarn is not showing any signs of slowing and I’m very happy to say that my hand dyed yarns are selling really well. I’m waiting on my next order to arrive so I can start dyeing again, there will be cotton too 😀

The spring weather is so fabulous here at the moment and there is so much good, productive work to do. I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am.

God bless!