Antique Amish Yarn Swift

Posted on 2020-01-08 by Andrea

I recently bought an antique Amish swift from my artist and fellow fiber friend Linda Czech. Sadly she is backing out of fiber pursuits because her cats are fixated on destroying anything fiber she creates.

I took it “for a spin” to skein a bobbin of 2 ply Jacob wool handspun I’d done for the Woolverton Inn. The swift works perfectly to wind directly from my spinning wheel without my having to lean over or stretch up and it also counts the yardage as it goes. Not to mention that it just looks really great sitting in the living room!

2018 Shetland Wool Week Pattern Available

Posted on 2018-03-15 by Andrea

Introducing the Merrie Dancers Toorie

Thursday, March 15, 2018

We are thrilled to announce this year’s Shetland Wool Week patron as Shetland knitwear designer and handspinner, Elizabeth Johnston.

The news was officially launched this morning at the start of the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, where Shetland Wool Week has a stand.

The annual SWW hat pattern, which is now synonymous with the launch of the patron, was also released. This year’s official hat pattern is called ‘The Merrie Dancers Toorie’ and was designed by Elizabeth Johnston. The hat is based on a fisherman’s kep in the Shetland Museum and Archives’ Boat Hall, and features three small patterns, but is not a Fair Isle design.

Elizabeth has lived in Shetland all her life, and like many others who grew up in the islands, has knitted from childhood. Elizabeth bought her first spinning wheel in 1978, which changed her focus from knitting to spinning, and also teaching these skills. She eventually started her own business, Shetland Handspun, which has taken her to many places around the world and she is in high demand as a speaker and instructor.

Elizabeth said: “I have loved designing the Merrie Dancers Toorie. The kep has a dark background with colours that remind me of the northern lights, or ‘merrie dancers’, and a familiar sight to fishermen. You can blend or contrast any colours and I have suggested a variety that use yarns from Jamieson & Smith; Jamieson’s of Shetland; Uradale Yarns and Shetland Handspun.”

We are delighted to have Elizabeth as our new patron. She has a life-time of knowledge about Shetland wool, learned from those who came before and honed through practice. Centuries of Shetland textile craft come together in her work: sheep-rearing, wool processing, dyeing, spinning, knitting, weaving. Perhaps more importantly, she is passing on her skills and knowledge to others through practice-based teaching, just as Shetlanders have always done.

The Merrie Dancers Toorie pattern can be downloaded from Ravelry or come along to our stand at EYF and pick up a printed copy. Elizabeth will be splitting her time between the SWW stand and also her own stand, Shetland Handspun, so drop by and say hello.

The pattern will also be available from the Shetland Museum and Archives shop and textile outlets in Shetland.

Knit the hat in any of the suggested colour variations, or come up with your own colour scheme, and wear it to Shetland Wool Week 2018 – identify your fellow Wool Weekers and compare hats throughout the week and at the official SWW 2018 photograph!

Remember to share your creations and experiences with us by tagging your photos with #merriedancerstoorie or #shetlandwoolweek2018

Source: https://www.shetlandwoolweek.com/introducing-the-merrie-dancers-toorie/

Gift Idea

Posted on 2016-11-30 by Andrea

How about a hand made yarn bowl filled with a skein of luxury farm fresh yarn? Take a look at these beautiful combinations for inspiration…

For those who like colors….

Aquatics Hand Dyed Yarn in Wendy Clay Blue Yarn Bowl

and those who like natural colors….

Nuts Natural Colored Yarn in Wendy Clay Natural Stripes Yarn Bowl

Skeins can be wound into center pull balls for knitting or rug hooking convenience at no charge, just ask!

Wendy Kastan’s yarn bowls can be found on her website WendyClay.com She also makes beautiful buttons.

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Chair Seats – Cats Who’ve Owned Me Series – 4

Posted on 2016-10-15 by Andrea

This chair seat is called “Cleaning Up” and features Sandy taking a bath. The design is based on my photos of him. I’m still experimenting with different colors and textures of yarn to find the best for picturing a cat. This time I used white and tan yarn and hooked the stripes explicitly.

I used my homespun and millspun hand dyed yarns, all of which are wool/ mohair blends (details). The backing is 100% cotton Monk’s Cloth. I used 13×13 epi cloth.

The wildflower patches are millspun yarns that were hand painted after the yarn was spun. The background fields were done with yarns that were kettle dyed before spinning.

Back of Chair Seat

Sandy

Front of Chair Seat
Before Finishing

Learnings

Good contrast in the colors chosen and work with scissors after hooking to arrange the lines as hooked makes the details much clearer. Sandy’s face shows clearly on the back of the chair seat but still needs some work on the front side. Since the colors are so close in value, it is hard to see his face details unless the lighting is bright.

I liked the look here of generic blobs of color versus trying to hook detailed flowers or grasses.

Yarns Used

Info on the yarns used is given below. The picture links to the full description and creation details for the yarn where available.


Wildflower Patches in Background:		Coreopsis – hand dyed (after spinning) 2 ply millspun – 50/50 mohair/wool. This yarn is shades of yellow with sections of yellow and white designed to stripe.
		Mardi Gras – hand dyed (after spinning) 2 ply millspun – 50/50 mohair/wool.
		Wildflower Meadows- hand dyed (after spinning) 2 ply millspun – 50/50 mohair/wool.
		Iris – hand dyed (after spinning) 2 ply millspun – 50/50 mohair/wool. The same yarn was also used for the edging.

Gravel Path:		Natural Dark Grey and Light Grey DK 2Ply Millspun 68% Mohair 32% Shetland, Blue Faced Leicester Wool.

		I used natural DWF white mohair/ wool yarn for the rocks along the gravel path (same yarn as for Sandy’s body). Sport White Millspun 2 Ply 59% Mohair 31% Shetland Wool.
Background Fields:		Pearl Green kettle hand dyed (before carding) millspun.
		Forest Dreams hand dyed (before carding) millspun. Designed to look like a forest at a distance for use in weaving and rug hooking.
		Aquatics hand dyed (before carding) millspun. Designed to look like pond water for use in weaving and rug hooking.
		Green with Envy hand dyed (before carding) millspun.
Sandy:		I used natural DWF white mohair/ wool yarn for most of Sandy’s body. Sport White Millspun 2 Ply 59% Mohair 31% Shetland Wool.
		Tan DWF mohair/ wool millspun was used for Sandy’s stripes. 3Ply Millspun 50% Adult Mohair 50% Shetland Wool 2.5 Oz Skeins
Edging:		Iris – Hand Dyed (After Spinning) Millspun. The same yarn was also used for wildflower patches in the background.
Lettering:		A small amount of hand spun, turkey baster hand dyed roving (white with small amounts of orange and blue) was used. A ball of roving was soaked in water for an hour, then injected with colors using a turkey baster, heated to boiling for 30 minutes to set the colors, then washed before hand spinning.

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Chair Seats – Cats Who’ve Owned Me Series – 3

Posted on 2016-10-09 by Andrea

This chair seat is called “Rori Shows Her Belly” and shows Rori on a rug in a typical “scratch my belly” pose. The design is based on one of my photos of her.

I used my homespun and millspun hand dyed yarns, all of which are wool/ mohair blends (details). The backing is 100% cotton 13×13 epi Monk’s Cloth.

The rug Rori is laying on is made of 4 different green millspun yarns.

Back of Chair Seat

Rori and Sandy

Front of Chair Seat
Before Finishing

Learnings

Details came out better with the more enlarged size of the cat. Also, contrast is key to making small details visible. The 13×13 epi Monk’s cloth worked much better than the looser version designed for embroidery.

Yarns Used

Info on the yarns used is given below. The picture links to the full description and creation details for the yarn where available.

Rug:		Pearl Green kettle hand dyed (before carding) millspun.
		Forest Dreams hand dyed (before carding) millspun. Designed to look like a forest at a distance for use in weaving and rug hooking.
		Aquatics hand dyed (before carding) millspun. Designed to look like pond water for use in weaving and rug hooking.
		Green with Envy hand dyed (before carding) millspun.
Rori:		Since natural black isn’t readily available in mohair (black mohair is dark grey at best) I bought a skein of Brown Sheep’s Lamb’s Pride Worsted Onyx. It’s a USA made 15% mohair/ 85% wool single ply yarn.
		I also used mill spun natural DWF white mohair/ wool yarn for Rori’s tummy patches. Sport White Millspun 2 Ply 59% Mohair 31% Shetland Wool.
	/td>	Eyes: Coreopsis hand dyed (after spinning) millspun. This yarn is shades of yellow with sections of yellow and white designed to stripe. I used a small amount from a section of yellows.
		A small amount of Natural Dark Grey DK 2Ply Millspun 68% Mohair 32% Shetland, Blue Faced Leicester Wool was used to create depth around the chin line and between the toes.
Edging:		Iris – Hand Dyed (After Spinning) Millspun
Lettering:		Ooops! Forgot it on this one so embroidered on the back.

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North Jersey Fiber Arts Festival 2016

Posted on 2016-10-02 by Andrea

Had a great time at the North Jersey Fiber Arts Festival in Ridgewood this week. I met so many interesting and kind people (vendors and attendees!). Here’s a pic of my setup thanks to Wendy “Clay” who does gorgeous clay buttons and yarn bowls!

Dancing Waters Farm Booth at NJFAF 2016 Ridgewood NJ

Dancing Waters Farm at NJFAF 2016 Ridgewood, NJ

I got to show quite a few youngsters (and their parents) how to make yarn starting from a sheep/ goat haircut. Lots of felters and a few hand spinners attended. Weather was gloomy outside but we were pretty lively inside the building!

Chair Seats – Cats Who’ve Owned Me Series – 2

Posted on 2016-08-14 by Andrea

This chair seat is called “Nap Time” and features Sandy and Rori napping against the night sky. The design is based on my photos of the two napping on my bed. I’m experimenting with different colors and textures of yarn to find the best for picturing the cats.

I used my homespun and millspun hand dyed yarns, all of which are wool/ mohair blends (details). The backing is 100% cotton Monk’s Cloth. I used 8×8 epi cloth since I’d already washed the fabric and drawn the design on this cloth found in my stash. The next chair seat will use the new 13 epi cloth I ordered as it is designed for rug hooking and should make the hooking go more quickly and efficiently.

I designed Starry Nights roving with various blues, purple and black with bits of yellow to look like the night sky in weaving and rug hooking. This “rug” used a lot of it as I went with a fairly simple background so the one skein I had spun was not enough! Had to stop and spin another skein when I was nearly finished. Oh well, it means I’ll have some ready for another fiber project.

“Nap Time” in progress. Moon, sky and part of Sandy shown.

Starry Nights roving and 1 ply on bobbin.

“Nap Time” Completed

Back Side Showing Closeup of Modified Cat Faces

Sandy and Rori – the cats being depicted

Closeup of Cat Faces on Right Side Before Re-hooking

Learnings

For this size “rug” (roughly 16″ x 14″), the subjects need to fill the space as much as possible for any detail to show and look right. I’m trying to find an easier way to enlarge my drawings than redrawing from scratch based on a grid. I looked at buying on overhead projector or enlarger but they are fairly expensive and my scanner/ copier doesn’t enlarge. Still working on this.

Cats aren’t brown, but orange isn’t right either. I may have to design a roving or yarn that will give me the greyed orange with cream stripes that says tiger cat to me. In the first chair seat I used tweed yarn and it gave a nice random tan and white color to the cat. In this one I used a hand spun with random brown and white color changes. The way the colors fell gave a stripe to Sandy’s back and mostly brown elsewhere. With some planning I could create stripes where they are wanted but it would take a bit of work.

Black is also tough to re-create as mohair isn’t really black except in new born kids, it turns to grey, so it would have to be dyed to get that color. Additionally, shades of black would be needed to allow any details of the cat to be seen. The size of the rug makes the addition of whiskers pointless – they would either not be visible or take up a disproportional amount of space versus the rest of the body. The eyes were an issue too because of their proper size in relation to the entire body. Since the smallest object that can be hooked is 3 punches with the needle, that fixes the eye size in relation to the rest of the design. In this case the eyes seem too big for the body.

On to Chair Seat number 3!

Yarns Used

Info on the yarns used is given below. The picture links to the full description and creation details for the yarn where available.

<td Yarn Dark Grey DK 2Ply Millspun 68% Mohair 32% Shetland, Blue Faced Leciester Wool - By the Pound A small amount of Natural Dark Grey DK 2Ply Millspun 68% Mohair 32% Shetland, Blue Faced Leicester Wool was used to create depth in Rori, around the chin line and the inside of the ears.

Sky:		Starry Nights hand dyed (before carding) roving. Designed to look like the night sky (variegated blues, purples, black and bits of yellow) for use in weaving and rug hooking.
Moon:		Coreopsis hand dyed (after spinning) millspun. This yarn is shades of yellow with sections of yellow and white designed to stripe. I used a small amount from a section of yellows.
Cats:		Brown and white random color hand spun skein from a (stash) roving grab bag for Sandy. Since natural black isn’t readily available in mohair, I bought a skein of Brown Sheep’s Lamb’s Pride Worsted Onyx from Alpaca Direct as they had the best price when I was shopping. It is a USA made 15% mohair/ 85% wool single ply yarn. I used this yarn for the black cat (Rori).
		I also used a mall amount hand spun natural DWF white mohair/ wool yarn for Rori’s white paws and stomach patches. Sport White Millspun 2 Ply 59% Mohair 31% Shetland Wool.

Edging:		Iris – Hand Dyed (After Spinning) Millspun
Lettering:		A small amount of hand spun, turkey baster hand dyed roving (white with small amounts of orange and blue) was used. A ball of roving was soaked in water for an hour, then injected with colors using a turkey baster, heated to boiling for 30 minutes to set the colors, then washed before hand spinning.

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Chair Seats – Cats Who’ve Owned Me Series – 1

Posted on 2016-07-09 by Andrea

Since I can’t take the afternoon heat lately, I’ve been working (finally) on a set of chair seats in honor of cats who have owned me. The first one (described in this post) is Sandy and Rori looking out the window. I used my homespun and millspun hand dyed yarns, all of which are wool/ mohair blends (details). The backing is 100% cotton Monk’s Cloth.

I designed Blue Skies yarn with variegated blues and a bit of white here and there to look like the sky in weaving and rug hooking. Similarly I designed Forest Dreams with primarily greens and a bit of blue to be used in weaving and rug hooking for broad expanses of trees or a forest with just a hint of sky poking through. Here it is used for carpeting or a reflection of the outside grass.

“View from the House” Chair Seat

Closeup of Sky, Clouds and Bird

Closeup of Grass and Edging

Learnings

For this size “rug” (roughly 16″ x 14″), not much detail will show. Next in the series will be designed with less detail and the lettering will be made larger to show more clearly.

The Monk’s Cloth used was found hiding in my fabric stash (price was right!), but since it was 8×8 epi it was difficult to use for rug hooking. The design came out but it took more time and yarn than it should have because the yarn did not always stick into the fabric evenly. It was also hard to get the tension correct. After some searching I located 12-13 epi cotton Monk’s Cloth and ordered some for the rest of the series. The best price I found was from Earth Guild at $14/ yard (60 inch wide). The 8epi cloth was $4/ yard! It was not easy to find the right epi cloth because most web sites don’t list epi in the description.

Yarns Used

Info on the yarns used is given below. The picture links to the full description and creation details for the yarn where available.

Sky:		Sky Blue Hand Dyed (After Spinning) Millspun. Designed to look like sky with variegated blues for use in weaving and rug hooking.
Grass:		Forest Dreams Hand Dyed (Before Spinning) Millspun. Designed to look like trees/ forest with variegated green and a touch of blue for use in weaving and rug hooking.
Cats:		Tan White Tweed (for Sandy) Natural Color Millspun. Since natural black isn’t readily available in mohair (black mohair is dark grey at best) I bought a skein of Brown Sheep’s Lamb’s Pride Worsted Onyx from Alpaca Direct as they had the best price when I was shopping. It is a USA made 15% mohair/ 85% wool single ply yarn. I used this yarn for the black cat (Rori).
Clouds:		Small amount hand spun natural DWF white mohair/ wool yarn. Sport White Millspun 2 Ply 59% Mohair 31% Shetland Wool.
Edging:		Iris – Hand Dyed (After Spinning) Millspun
Birds:		Natural Dark Grey DK 2Ply Millspun 68% Mohair 32% Shetland, Blue Faced Leicester Wool
Lettering and Cloud Outlining:		Small amount of hand spun, turkey baster hand dyed roving (white with small amounts of orange and blue). A ball of roving was soaked in water for an hour, then injected with colors using a turkey baster, heated to boiling for 30 minutes to set the colors, then washed before hand spinning.

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Weaving Samplers

Posted on 2016-03-25 by Andrea

I’ve been weaving some samplers to explore techniques. Since my working looms are rigid heddle looms (a Mirrix tapestry loom and an Inkle loom) I’m focusing on using only two sheds. More intricate things can be done on these simple looms by adding pickup sticks but my poor vision makes me prone to threading mistakes so I’m working on getting the most out of simple methods. The sampler below explores color and weave. The patterns that can be created are nearly endless and use plain weave! The trick is in threading the warp with a color sequence and then following the same for the weft.

Color and Weave Sampler in Progress

I used green and white 100% wool mill ends at 10 ends per inch (epi). The warp was threaded as follows (left to right in photo):

20 ends white, 1 green 1 white 10 times (20 ends total), 2 green 2 white 5 times (20 ends total), 1 green 2 white 7 times (21 ends total), 1 green 3 white 5 times (20 ends). I also added 2 warp rows of green on each end for a selvage.

The weft followed the same pattern:

20 picks white,

20 picks total of 1 white and 1 green alternating,

20 picks total of 2 green followed by 2 white alternating,

21 picks total of 1 green followed by 2 white,

20 picks total of 1 green followed by 3 white.

This produces 25 blocks of patterns (5 wide x 5 high).

Initially I had a difficult time getting a good shed but after about 4 inches of weaving it finally started behaving. Wool is ‘sticky’ so it is tricky to use with a small epi in both warp and weft. Also, the green was not as strong as I would have liked so it was difficult to get good even tension across the warp. I made a few mistakes (!) but it will make a great reference for future weavings. I finished it using twisted fringes, the first time I have ever used this method. I bought a very economical fringe twister from Fiber Artist Supply. It made the job go quickly and it would have been difficult for me to do by hand due to my arthritis.

Color and Weave Sampler Off the Loom

In order to use up the rest of the warp on the loom (ie- not waste all that yarn and effort!) I created a Ghiordes knotted mini rug using BFL, Coopworth and Shetland fleece locks.

Ghiordes Knotted Mini Rug

It is done with all natural colors and so luxurious feeling. The length of the locks was quite different so the pile length varies. I did some trimming to remove “split ends” as I went along. The edges have 2 plain weave selvedges to keep the rug laying flat and there are 4 plain weave rows between knots of the shorter BFL and shetland locks (~2 inches), 8 plain weave rows between the much longer coopworth locks (~6 inches). The most time intensive part of the project selecting evenly sized locks from the fleece and organizing them to be pulled up quickly while weaving. I’ll definitely do more of these on a larger scale. Just need to develop a design. One more item for the to do list!

Life Lessons From Attending a Sheep Festival

Posted on 2016-03-25 by Andrea

This is an older post (Oct. 2013) about the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival that I just saw but thought it was cute, inspirational and still so true! Enjoy.

21 Life Lessons you Learn at a Sheep Festival