Butler Bombs a JEEP!

The Butler Spinners and Weavers Guild has bombed out!

Not really. One of our members participates in the Bantam Jeep Rally in Butler each year. We decided her Jeep needed to be blessed with yarn this year. Members wove/felted/crocheted/knitted pieces; a muslin cover was made for the Jeep; pieces were sewn to the muslin--HOURS of work by many people. I sat at home for 2 weeks and crocheted wheel inserts and a cover for the spare tire--thank goodness for Netflix? We did a fitting during our meeting in the park. Black knitted cord was sewn to the patches to outline Jeep details. Finally, on Main Street in Butler, a sheep was added to the passenger and a wonderful dry-felted wolf became the driver. Our theme, which happens to have flipped over when the final photo was taken, was "Meals On Wheels".

And what can one do with all that leftover bright yarn? I originally had 4 skeins of white and one each of dayglo orange, yellow, green and red. I frequently contribute to a center that distributes handmade scarves, hats, toys, etc. to women's shelters in the Pittsburgh area. These woman and children are fleeing from unacceptable environments and often leave home with nothing but the clothes on their backs and their self-esteem in tatters. Being given something made by hand is very meaningful to these people. The perfect place for bright colors!

Two scarves are finished. I still have leftovers and need to cruise Ravelry patterns--maybe a bright amigurumi toy or two?

Diagonal Block stitch

Second scarf, in progress

I love this stitch!

A Sheep to Shawl demonstration at the Indiana County Fair

Discussing how we'll proceed with the demo

As I mentioned on my Facebook page, we spent last evening in Indiana at the fairgrounds. We were asked to do a Sheep-to-Shawl demonstration. For those who aren't familiar with this type of competition/demonstration, there is a team of 3 spinners, 1 sheep shearer, and 1 weaver. The loom is pre-warped with the wool yarns but that's the only preparation allowed. Once the shearer starts working with the sheep, the rest of the team may not participate till the shears are turned off and the shearer throws her arms in the air to show that she's finished. Then the team moves in, going through the newly shorn fleece for dirty bits and taking the best of the wool. All 4 start to flick the wood to remove grass and hay and open it up for spinning. Once there's enough to start, all 3 spinners hit their wheels at top speed while the weaver continues to prepare wool for the spinners. When one of the spinners has a full bobbin she winds her yarn off onto a weaving bobbin and hands it to the weaver, who begins to create the cloth for the shawl. When the weaving is finished, all team members pitch in to help the weaver remove the finished shawl from the loom and present it to the public (or the judges if it's a competition). And all of this must be finished in under 2.5 hours! In a competition, there are a set number of points that can be earned in several categories--shearing, spinning, weaving, overall appearance of the team, difficulty of the woven pattern, and length/width criteria for the finished shawl. But this was a demonstration, meant for the enjoyment of the crowd while the Lead Line competition was taking place. We love educating folks in the process of wool-to-garment, love answering questions and discussing how our equipment works, why sheep need to be shorn for their health, and why we each have chosen this particular path of creativity. It's great fun for all involved!

Shearing begins

Are we done yet?

We start preparing the wool for spinning

Spinning begins while the weaver prepares wool

The weaver explaining how the loom and pattern work

Working away at the shawl weaving

My biggest regret is that I did not snap a photo of the completed shawl (Wini? Will you take a photo and send it?). At was late by the time we finished and my brain decided not to work after 9pm. However, the shawl was won by a lovely lady whose tartan exactly matched the colors in the shawl. And half of the auction price goes right back to the Indiana Fair for future development of their wool program. We hope to do this again next year, perhaps as a real competition if local teams can be persuaded to join us.

Charity knitting for the Women's Shelter, and a successful spinning guild program yesterday

Each year toward the end of summer I go through my inventory and select unsold items for contribution to my friend who supplies all the local women's shelters. These ladies leave home in a hurry, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, taking their children with them as they're fleeing from very bad situations. Their self-esteem is low and they have nothing, and that's not a place anyone should ever find themselves. The scarves, hats, mittens, pillows, etc are given them as soon as they walk through the door and is a sign to them that someone out there cares enough to make something especially for them. Since I no longer mentor young people, I feel this is something I can do to help others and pay back a little of the kindness that's been given to me throughout my life.

This year, my friend asked for ruffle scarves as they're very popular with the ladies. I had about 6 balls of the yarn around and threw them in a box for something to do on my vacation last week. Well, my SIL fell in love with the idea of making ruffled scarves, we made a few trips to the local Joanne Fabrics, and somehow I have 18 balls of ruffle yarn now. HAD 18 balls--there's only 2 left, one to go into this shipment and one for a gift for a relative. The other 16 became these:

Closeup of upper tier

Closeup of lower tier

Yes, there are three scarves in Steeler colors. I'm pretty sure those will go quickly!!  The purple ones are specifically for the October gifting because October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and purple is the designated color. If this type of charity knitting appeals to you, look up Comfort Scarves of Western Pennsylvania on Ravelry, Barb would love to hear from you. BTW, my SIL has now taught HER SIL to make these scarves and both women are now addicted to knitting/crocheting ruffles scarves. That makes me giggle, I so enjoy enabling others.



Yesterday I presented a program to my guild, the Butler Spinners and Weavers Guild. I showed them how to spin beads and other fun things into their yarn. These folks are great friends and even better enablers. Usually I'm the one who is setting peoples brains buzzing with spinning, knitting and weaving ideas but these folks did me one better. Who woulda thunk that bells would be fun to spin into your yarn? We had felted beads, shank buttons, ribbon bows, ribbon bits, silk shreds and glass beads--all of it looked wonderful. One lady used locks of fleece to thread her objects, saving her a lot of time pulling off bits of fiber to thread. I have to try that next time I have a nice long-staple fleece (where IS that Icelandic fleece anyhow?). As always, I had a great time sharing ideas and homemade picnic food. Love y'all!

A visit to a local historic house, and there's spinning/weaving, too!

Yesterday my guild went on a field trip in lieu of our usual meeting. We do this once or twice a year when the weather is nice and we don't want to be cooped up inside--we want to see fiber stuff instead!! We met at the Vicary Mansion which is a few miles down the Ohio River, just over the hill from Cranberry and Harmony, PA.

Although they are still working on the renovation (and what historic site isn't always working on renovation?), it was a treat to explore. They have one room dedicated to spinning and weaving and also collect and research old textiles. They are the proud owners of a rare Newcomb loom and currently have a nice rug warp on it. Here's two pix I managed to take, excuse anything that's not completely clear because the room is crowded with warped looms, working spinning wheels and fascinated guild members yesterday. The Newcomb is a semi-automatic loom, meaning that many of the operations usually performed by the weaver are handled easily by this loom. That automation increases the weaver's production rate because she/he has no need to stop and advance the warp, etc.
 

Back of the loom

Front of the loom--that's one heavy beater bar!

 We wandered through the house and up to the attic which was wonderfully spacious. The Mansion personnel store their costumes here, which are used when there's an event and volunteers need to borrow period clothing. Back in the corner I noticed 3 spinning wheels, and really like the little flax wheel all set up and ready to go.

 One of the functions of the site is to preserve local textile history. They had two woven coverlets out, both of which had been assessed by Rabbit Goody when she was here in October 2012 for a lecture sponsored by our guild. The first was standard red/blue coverlet of which I could only get a full photo. I don't remember if we asked the fiber content of the plain weave component (the white threads) but the red and blue are definitely wool.

The more interesting (to me) coverlet was the orange handspun hand dyed one. The plain weave (white threads) are cotton and the orange is wool. The weaving experts at the mansion are working on replicating this one, and Dorothy has all the wool spun up and dyed with madder. Her yarn is on the little bobbins in the back left-hand corner of the full photo, and they are currently weaving up samples to make sure they have the weaving draft written properly and that they've centered the design on the panels. Very few household looms in those days were wide enough to produce a one-piece coverlet so many of them were woven in wide strips (36-40 inches depending on the individual loom) and sewn together to cover the bed.

Notice the variation in color due to exposure to light?

Closeup. This is a section about 2" square.

All in all, we had a wonderful time. If you're looking for something fun to see and want a little local history too, take a ride down the Ohio River and stop at the Vicary Mansion.

The stitching commences...

I decided to start with the hotpad since it was flat and less lumpy than the tea cosy. I chose matching pansy patterns from a book I had in my reference library in the studio--Elizabethan Cross Stitch by Barbara Hammet. Since it's stitched on a square grid and knitted fabric isn't square, I had to cut a piece of waste canvas and baste it to the hotpad. The canvas is 5" square, so that gives an idea of the total size of the hotpad. It's original size was probably about 6" square.

The stitches are worked over the canvas, then you wet the canvas and pull out the threads of the waste canvas. Easier said than done, believe me! The canvas dries quickly which means that the glue hardens. So there I am, sitting in a recliner with the hotpad on a towel and a wet paper towel covering the parts of the canvas I'm not working on with a small pair of needlenose pliers. Once you get half the threads pulled out, the rest goes easily, though.

Finished stitching, waste canvas trimmed away

And just for fun, I added a few lines of lavendar and purple beads to the center of the design. Next up, stitching the tea cosy...

Fulling the tea cosy and hotpad

Fulling a knitted item, especially flat items, is very easy. I had a load of cotton slacks to wash, not very dirty slacks so they needed only a short agitation cycle. Throw the slacks, hotpad and teacosy in the washer, add the usual amount of detergent, select the Regular cycle with a short agitation time, and start the machine. I left the lid open so I could watch the proceedings and pull the pieces out if necessary. They fulled perfectly in the 10 minute agitation time!

Yanked them out of the washing machine, closed the lid and let the load finish itself. Meanwhile, I filled the sink with water of the same temperature as the wash water and threw the pieces in to soak for a minute. Swished them about to make sure everything was rinsed out and laid them on the furnace vent in my dining room to dry. I have to mention that I live in an old house and the original furnace vents are very ornate ironwork--this particular one is flat on the floor, and my family has always used it to dry wet mittens and hats and to warm ourselves on cold mornings. It's amazing to stand on the vent in your flannel nightgown and let the warm air turn you into a bell! Until your mother yells at you for hogging all the heat, that is.

Hotpad, unfulled

Hotpad, fulled

Tea cosy, fulled

Tea cosy, unfulled

You can see that there's not much shrinkage in the pieces, but the fulling did fill in the gaps and lock the knit stitches together. Which is exactly the foundation I needed for the stitching to be applied. Here's the hotpad with waste canvas (10 per inch) basted in place:

First step, knit the items

I have decided to knit and full a tea cosy and matching hot pad, as there isn't enough of any one yarn to do a purse or clutch. For the tea cosy I used US #13 needles and the art yarn, since that was the most yardage of all the skeins and also a good bulky yarn for quick knitting and easy fulling.

I started with the Felted Tea Cosy pattern by Janet Renouf-Miller which I downloaded from Ravelry. However, I found that it would be too small, was knitted in 2 pieces and seamed--I hate seaming and avoid it like the plague! I had to make some radical changes to fit the yarn available, so I ended up knitting in the round and doing the top as double decreases at 4 points to give it a rounder shape. I would have liked to make the cosy longer but have only 4-5 yards of yarn left. Here's the result, although I really wish I'd thought to throw a ruler in the photos for size reference:

Dang those curling edges...

I then started on the hot pad, using US #8 needles, the worsted-spun singles tog and the semi-woolen thel. The pattern is Felted Coasters, Hot Pads, and Beverage Jackets by Knitting at KNoon Designs, again downloaded from Ravelry.

Singles tog yarn

2-ply thel yarn

First I needed to ply the tog so it would be of a similar weight to the 2-ply thel. And in case you needed light conversation for your next cocktail party, tog does not like to be plied. It fought me every step of the way, trying to unply itself despite the light amount of twist I ended up using. It IS the long outer hairs of the sheep and naturally doesn't like being twisted in any direction. Plying it more tightly resulted in hairy thin rope! I started with the now-2-ply tog for the center of the hotpad and finished up the purl edging with the 2-ply thel since I had less yardage in that skein. Again I have about 4-5 yards of tog and 8-9 yards of thel left over. And here's the hotpad, waiting for a good hot wash:

Top view

Side view. Look at that curled edge!!

Next, we full the knitted items.

Guild exhibit at Shaler Library during the month of May; Reminder to register for classes at Waynesburg Festival

The Butler Spinners and Weavers Guild is hosting a display of textiles at the Shaler Library on Mt. Royal Blvd. My friend and I are hanging the show and did a mock-up of the display this past week. Folks, there are some lovely pieces in the show. Our guild is full of talented people. I'm entering 3 pieces but have only photographed one, the handspun handknit linen market bag. It's a small bag but I'm sure I can fill it up at the yarn store (like I need more yarn?).

With apologies to my guildmates, here's a few shots of other pieces.....

This is going to be a great show!



And I wanted to remind folks that this is the first year classes are being offered at the Waynesburg Sheep and Fiber Festival in mid-May. There are some great knitting, spinning, crochet classes being offered for first-time crafters and this is a great opportunity to learn a new skill! Yep, I'm the spinning teacher and I'm looking forward to meeting some wonderful new spinners that weekend.

Oh, it just hasn't been a good week to finish my vest....

Our spinning and weaving guild is celebrating our 30th anniversary this year, and the first of several displays will be mounted in May at my local library. I've been trying to knit a simple vest from the Winter 2011 Spin Off magazine with my handspun. This was my starting yarn:

Cherry Divinity yarn

I needed 2 accent colors and choose a deep red heather top and a charcoal heather top, spun the yarns and started knitting. Ran out of the charcoal. I knew I needed another entire skein as the charcoal would also be used for the neckband, and so I spun up a bobbin early in the week, plied and washed it, and started knitting again.

The vest back

I've now run out of the deep red yarn--just 3" from being finished with the 60 stitches on underarm portion of the back of the vest! Ack! Drat! Dagnabbit! sigh.....

Not nearly enough yarn there.....

So it's back to the wheel today, wash the yarn tonight and hopefully continue the knitting tomorrow. It's so frustrating when I keep running into problems on such a simple project, but I suppose it's my own fault for not guestimating my yarn requirements correctly. Live and learn.....