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| This is a shawl that I made as a special gift for Gail on her 2' loom out of her beautiful Leicester Longwool sheep wool. |
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My latest dying projects -The roving on the left was dyed using black cherry and grape kool aid. The roving on the right was dyed in cherry kool aid. The balls of yarn are dark cherry, lemonade and grape. The roving balls in the back/middle are natural. I decided to try dying the roving as opposed to the yarn for better saturation and it worked! I can't believe I didn't felt it in the process. The yarn balls shown were used to make the shawl below. Very vibrant colors. |
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I was at the MD Sheep and Wool Festival at Gail's booth with the mini triloom doing demos using her beautiful yarn. I had some of my fiber creations on display. All proceeds from the sale of my handmade items went directly to the Susan G. Komen fund. Gail's husband, Adam, was there creating hand carved signs. Thanks to everyone that stopped by. The black cherry and grape are hand spun out of Gail's roving. The lemonade is my handspun alpaca. |
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| It's done! This shawl and its coordinating hat were donated to raise funds for the "Our Breast Effort" team walking in the Susan G. Komen 3Day walk in TX in November. The silent auction will be held in VA at the Indian Summer Silky Show on Sept 26th hosted by Janet Shlanta of Springs Run Farm. Please let me know if you have farm related items and/or products that you would like to donate! |
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I wove this shawl from yarn that Gail donated. I will be raffling it off to raise money for the Susan G. Komen fund. The shawl is a beautiful natural and pink color. The natural wool is a wonderful creamy vanilla and Gail achieved the pink by using beet juice. How creative! And yes, it's permanent. Congratulations to Donna Mellin for winning the raffle for this shawl! |
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| The hat is done! and it went with the shawl for the raffle. A matching set was given to my sister-in-law, as a special gift for Howard and TJ's very generous donation to our 3Day fund. Thanks so much for your support! |
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| Here are some more projects. |
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I've been spinning my alpaca fiber since May 2008 after taking a class at the MD Sheep and Wool festival and picked up crocheting again after many years
of not crocheting. It was time to do something else with the yarn after several hats and scarves so...... I found the neatest pattern for a homemade triangle loom
made from cardboard on the Internet. This is my first shawl
from that loom. What fun!
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It took a few hours to make the loom. I coated
the entire front of mine with clear tape to help preserve
it.
Here are directions for making the cardboard loom.
And directions for using the cardboard loom. It costs me absolutely nothing. I had the cardboard, tape and pins!
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| I crocheted a hat to go with the shawl. |
| This is also my first attempt at dyeing using Rit dye. This is supposed to be black, however, in person it's a deep purple. |
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You can find anything on the Internet... This is homespun alpaca dyed in Kool Aid, from yes,
directions found on the Internet! What a fun and easy way to get started dying fiber. I had so much fun with my cheap cardboard loom, my
friend, Gail let me borrow her beautiful
Cherry "real" triangle loom. I can't wait to finish spinning and dying a skein of blue so I can get started weaving.
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| Getting started weaving. |
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| All done! I added fringe to the bottom edges and crocheted a single row on the top to give it that finished look. I'm quite pleased. This was two ply yarn. My next attempt I will be using Leicester sheep wool which I got from Gail. I believe I will do a 4 ply yarn to make it heavier. Back to the spinning wheel! |
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| And of course there has to be a hat for the scarf. |
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| These are matching alpaca hats that I crocheted for my mom and dad. This is natural colored Rudy and Curley homespun fiber. |
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| This is Mohair I purchased at the MD Sheep and Wool Festival. This was my first attempt at spinning and the first time in years I picked up a crochet hook. I love to spin the mohair. I need to get some Angora goats. (Shhhh.... don't mention that to Nick.) |
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| This is a bright orange Kool-Aid dyed set. It would be great for a hunter! |
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| This is the same blue Kool-Aid used to dye the yarn for the triangle shawl except I used at least twice as much for the hat and scarf to make it more vibrant. |
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| Strawberry Kool-Aid |
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| This is my first alpaca spinning. You can't tell too much from the picture, but I messed up the yarn in the scarf when plying. I plyed it in the same direction as I spun it. I learned my lesson on that one. |
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