Charleen's Fiberblog

The Silk Road

While I was reformating my computer and cleaning up my files I found the slideshow for The Silk Road, last year's Folklife Festival at the Smithsonian. It was so hot and dry last July - you felt like you were on the Silk Road with the amount of dust that was kicking up. Hard to conjure up that feeling with the cool, damp, dreary days we've been having lately. Of course, with 21 school days until vacation, I guess it's good it doesn't feel like summer.

I took the blanket off the loom. I'll post pictures after I twist the fringe and wash it.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! My youngest daughter, Sarah, went to a yard sale yesterday and found these eleven cones of Conshohocken Softball 2.2 for $1 each. What a great gift. I'm thinking the greenish blue on the right would make a good Wallaby. I've knitted with it before, but I also think they'd make a great weft for a blanket. You can't really see from the picture, but the multi cone under the white one has flecks of navy, blue, red, and green. Anyone ever use this for weft?

Another cool present I got was from Dan, my oldest son. He gave me this heating tool, that can be used for woodburning, stencil cutting, even soldering. I have some designs in mind for my Louet that I wanted to burn and I now can make up my own quilting stencils.

I'm still playing around with the Jacob. I think because it has so many burrs (at least that's what I think they are, it looks like tiny little sticks, not hay or straw) that the best course of action will be to rake it with the dog rake, then card it on my drum carder. It's really going to be a messy job. Even after raking out tons of stuff, the carder still got lots out. I'm going to spin up the first batt tonight and see how it looks washed up before I do anything else. I like Claudia's idea of hand carding it and Navaho plying, but I couldn't get it clean enough to do that. If this doesn't work, I'm just sitting it aside and going on. Life is too short.

MDSW

I had a great time at MDSW this year. My plan was to pick up a variey of fibers to stretch my spinning abilities. I also wanted to get a book on needle felting and some needles. Other than that, I was fair game!

I picked up some dyed Coopworth locks for some needlefelted tropical fish I want to make from Dyed Dreams. The woman in the booth was demonstrating knitting right from the locks and was getting a lot of attention.

Stony Mountain Fibers had brightly dyed roving and needle felting supplies. I also bought some cormo that was pin drafted by Ohio Valley Natural Fibers. Didn't figure you needed a picture of a coil of white fiber! After seeing the nice job they did on Stony Mts. cormo, I went over to talk with Don (?) about the Whitefish Bay corriedale. He explained to me how the do the pin drafting and the difference between top and roving. I understood it when he explained the different terms but don't ask me to explain it to you <g>

At the Carolina Homespun booth I found some gorgeous Merino/Tussah Silk and a few ounces each of Silk Rayon Blend, Cultivated Silk, and Soy Silk/Cashmere Blend. They were all natural colors.

Stopping by The Woolery yielded 2 oz. of Camel/Silk Top and white Firestar and a deep blue/green/fushia Metallic Mardigras.

Check out this gorgeous Bombyx top from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks. I don't know where I heard it, but someone mentioned The Drafting Zone for processing. I stopped by their booth and picked up 8 oz. of a 80 Romney/10 mohair blend that they processed and dyed themselves. I figured it would be a good indicator of their work. Somehow a pound of Brown Sheep roving also found its way into my bag. Well, you know I need something to dye with.