Moving on

I started this blog over two years ago hoping to draw out my inner craftsperson. This time has been transformational for me in many ways, and now it's time to move on to the next stage of my life. As it turns out, my inner craftsperson is a weaver, and I would like to welcome you to my new weaving world, Melentine. Thanks for reading.

www.melentine.com

The scarf

I finally fulled that scarf I was working on a few weeks back.


I've been busy weaving and writing, and things are starting to pay off. Literally. I may be in print here shortly. No chicken counting yet, but things are looking promising.

I'm frustrated by the lack of exciting weaving out there. I am sooooo not a technical weaver. Complicated patterns and mind boggling detail don't do it for me. I can certainly appreciate the skill required, but I really have no desire at this point to be that kind of weaver. What I do love is color and texture and interesting materials. I love the idea of creating fabric I can use to fashion clothing or bags. Mind you, I could never have too many scarves, and if I could wear a scarf every day I would, but I want my weaving to be more than just rectangles.


This came off of my loom last weekend. In the very near future, it's going to be sliced and diced into something wearable. The fade pattern was really easy to manage - even for someone with the attention span of a gnat such as myself. On that note, gotta run.

Destashing

I have been fortunate of late. First, Jane decided that the huge stash of yarn she had stowed away at Schacht had to go. I managed to walk away with enough material to keep me weaving for months, if not longer. Then it was time to clean out all of the duplicate issues of Handwoven and SpinOff. I have been carting issues home on my bike for the past two weeks. Needless to say, it's starting to feel a bit cramped in our little apartment.
I have also been busy spinning and weaving for what I hope will lead to the start of a bit of publishing. Jane has submitted two articles for publication, one of which features some material I wove, and the other a project that Stephanie, Gail and I helped to spin. Wine and spinning do mix, by the way.

This was our post spinning photo shoot in Jane's studio.


I was so inspired by our project that I decided to create my own version. In addition to handspun and some commercial wool, I threw in a bit of perle cotton.


The project on my Baby Wolf.


And here is the scarf prior to fulling. The perle cotton won't full, and my goal was to use this to add a bit of texture and interest to the final project. I can't publish a final photo yet, so this pre-fulled image will have to suffice for now.


I already have another version of this project on the loom, this time incorporating some textured rayon with a bit of sheen.


I love how quickly this weaves up. I should have a final product by the end of the weekend, fulled and dried.

I am not a casual shopper. If I go out shopping, it is with a purpose in mind. I may come home with more than I planned, but I don't leave the house to shop without a list.

Well I was recently overtaken by some crazed need to buy yarn without purpose. I was at a fiber conference (think yarn, not bran) surrounded by booths bursting with yarns and spinning fibers. Not having a project in mind at the time, I browsed with interest, but no intent to buy. That is until I came across the Habu booth. I don't know what happened, but the next thing I knew, I was walking away with a bag full of things and a very fuzzy recollection of being there in the first place.


Here's the totally crazy part. After filling a bag full of yarn for which I had no known purpose, I decided that I didn't get enough of of a few kinds, and I went back again. Again! Mental note, Habu = Danger. Yeah, that shimmery dark gray stuff on the left up there is their silk/stainless steel yarn. Because everybody needs silk/stainless steel blend yarn.

Upon returning home, I immediately set to mending my guilty conscience by finding a pattern to start knitting something with this glorious stuff. Habu XS-21 Linen. That's its natural color. No dyes.


Here's my swatch, mistakes and all. I have always shied away from lace knitting as it's really not my style, plus having to focus on a pattern is generally annoying to me, but this might just work. Of course it will take me three years to finish the darn thing as I'll likely be distracted as soon as next week by my next crafty project, but it's going on the needles this weekend nonetheless.

Turkish Rug Felting

Last week, my pal Cindy and I took a day long Turkish rug felting class given by a fellow guild member. And while it is a wet felting technique, it uses less water and soap than typical wet felting. We started with a canvas of wool that had been lightly pre-felted with a cotton scrim.


From here, we traced our designs onto the scrim and then our design was layered in wool on top of the scrim.


A small amount of soapy water was sprinkled over the finished product and then rolled up inside of a plastic mat.


We then went through several different rolling techniques, the most amusing of which involved a bit of a two person dance - roll, roll, roll, kick, step, hop, repeat.


After 20 minutes of rolling, we unrolled the mat to examine our pieces and make small changes as necessary. The mat was then rerolled, and the felting dance recommenced.


Cathy's sheep escaped at one point and were milling about in her driveway. They were promptly herded back through the fence by Cathy and Cocoa under the watchful gaze of their guard llama.

The fun part came after the second round of felting.


First you fold and roll your piece into something that looks like a jelly roll. You spend a bit of time kneading the jellyroll, unfolding and refolding it top to bottom and left to right until you're generally happy with how it has shrunk. Then, you finish it off by crumpling it up and tossing it with force against a hard surface repeatedly. This allows you to control the final result. After that, a quick rinse and voila!



The cool part is that you can leave part of the scrim exposed, and you end up with a textured surface where the wool backing shrinks and puckers the cotton. Now that I have the hang of this felting technique, I plan to take another stab at it so that hopefully I'll end up with something that looks a bit less grade school and might actually be usable on the floor.

Weaving a skirt

At long last I managed to transform my handwoven material into a skirt. Aside from wincing as I made the initial cut into the fabric, the process was fairly painless. Even putting the zipper in didn't seem to take much effort. My crafting stars were aligned for this project, that's for sure.


I used four panels to form the skirt, each woven with a different length and shade of handspun as an accent. I think it might be a little odd looking, but the skirt is different from every angle. Either way, I'm fairly pleased with the outcome.


I even have enough material left to make a tote. I saved every little scrap of material I had to cut away. Perhaps one day I'll have enough scraps to make something interesting.

Weaving fabric

My five yard warp is now five panels of material, four that are destined to become a skirt, and one that will be a tote bag. I'm anxious to see how each panel looks next to the others as the handspun is different in each. This project could be an aesthetic disaster, but I really don't care. As far as enjoyment goes, I think I've found my craft.


I made cloth. Cool.