High Fiber Event

The local Saturday Market and Vashon Island Growers Association hosted a really fun fiber day.
Our NwRSA spinning group, "Spinners Rock", participated with many parts of the sheep to wearable process.


from sheep shearing

(thanks to T Martino Yamamoto of Wolftown fame)

to drum carding (sorry, missed my photo op on that one)
to spinning and spindling,

(here I am, the happy spinner, enjoying the moment of spring sunshine, not yet aware of the sunburn that is warming the back of my neck) Thanks to Myra for taking the photo for me!


(and here's Marci, spindling away. She had a lovely young student for a while that day, learning how to spindle from Marci's able instruction)

to knitting and weaving,

(I love the way Sue uses a drill to wind bobbins!)

to natural dyes.

(I think Laurel's hanging some Marigold flower dyed skeins)

Lots of people, lots of interest in the process, lots of fun (in spite of the sunburn). Thanks VIGA for a great day!

Quilting Blocks Again!

This is the last batch of fun and fabulous quilt blocks from the beginning quilting class. Two new techniques this month - the first involved using freezer paper to create accurate/intricate designs. Yes, this is the paper sold in groceries for wrapping your salmon or other non vegetarian item before you freeze it. It has the useful quality of sticking to fabric (when you dry iron it on) but being easy to remove and leaving no sticky residue. So this is how it happens: You stitch your pattern onto the freezer paper with the sewing machine needle (no thread please!) and iron it onto the first piece of fabric (protecting both iron and ironing board from sticky stuff with an ironing cloth or pad). Then you put your next piece of fabric in place, peel the paper back just to the stitching line, and sew on the next piece right along that edge. Here's what I'm talking about: I know it looks a little sloppy, but you trim it up now and then, and trim to size at the end, and when you're done, you have a beautiful "Storm at Sea" block (samples above are the little corner squares). If you make a whole quilt out of these blocks, it creates a wonderful illusion of curves, waves, and/or circles!  

The other technique we learned was "flying geese" units - yet another way of creating triangles - little half square triangles stitched onto the sides of a bigger half square triangle (it's all done with squares and rectangles and a bit of wasted fabric). These pieces give you a block called Memory (could use more of that!) So here's the rest of the homework - using all the techniques learned so far - half square triangles, quarter square triangles, square within a square, flying geese, and even some freezer paper piecing. Sawtooth Star Summer Winds Broken Dishes Farmer's Daughter and Yankee Puzzle And here I've laid out all the blocks on an old sheet, and rearranged them until I have a first draft of what the finished quilt may end up looking like (with all kinds of fabric sashes in between the rows and columns, and borders around the whole shebang, of course). Of course, I may decide that it needs to be bigger, and so go off and make 5 more blocks of some kind, but that's another matter. I'll let you know. Meanwhile, the fractal stripe handspun sweater continues to grow.

Card Weaving

On Vashon, we have this rather fabulous weaving group (with some rather fabulous and talented weavers) that meets once a month to talk about weaving, to show and tell what we've been working on, to get inspired, and to learn. At the April meeting, one of the members gave a short lesson in card weaving (thanks Donna!). Card weaving (also called tablet weaving) is a pretty old kind of weaving (archeological finds - cards of ivory, bone, wood from 400BC and later) that creates woven bands with intricate patterns without a fancy loom.

So here it is.

You get these cards (OK, no fancy stuff here - these are just heavy cardboard) and thread your warp threads through them from the top or from the bottom, in a sequence that creates a pattern (pattern instructions in some good books - references at end of post).



Using colors too (if you like - you could also go with black and white, or you could use all one color and just go for texture - so many choices!)


Well, color it is (that's just how I am!). After threading the cards, you tie one end, slide the cards to the other end to straighten out the warp threads (not a trivial task, let me tell you - no matter how organized you are to start out, it becomes quite a jungle of twisted threads), tie the other end, and hook them up somewhere.


This bundle is stretched from a cabinet knob to a clamp on a weighted tray table.
To weave, you pass the weft shuttle through the shed (that V shaped space next to the cards)


Then you turn the cards (either towards yourself or away from yourself, depending on the pattern),


slide the cards towards the weaving fell (edge) to "clear the shed" (straighten out all the newly tangled warp threads) and to press the weft thread firmly in place,


and when you slide the cards back, "Voila", you have a new shed ready for your weft shuttle!


And the pattern grows (sometimes in unexpected ways when you forget whether you're supposed to be turning towards or away from, but it's all kind of cool, and it's fun to be surprised, mostly).


This is a pretty thick 2-ply cotton thread to make a sturdy band (for my sample, test, discovery, learning experience). My next band will use a bit finer cotton to make a more delicate pattern (thinking about a ram's horn pattern), but still strong so that I can use it for a banjo strap.

Pretty easy, kind of fun, and cool patterns.

Good books to use (these are Amazon links, but I found these first at my public library. . . then I bought them):

Card Weaving by Candace Crockett -for good beginner instruction and basic technique and some nice patterns (she also has a video to teach the process)

and for the serious student and for in-depth info on history, instruction, techniques with variations, and tons of patterns - The Techniques of Tablet Weaving by Peter Collingwood