Month: June 2017

Cobweb felting…

Posted in Felting, fiber, fiber add ins, Fiber art experiment, Fiber Arts, Mohair, silk, Teeswater locks, Wool, Wool locksTagged , , , , 4 Comments

I gotta say… This process was not at all, what I expected.  Usually, I take great measures not to felt my fiber. I’ve always been afraid of the dreaded accidental felting. I would let the raw wool sink on its own in the scour process, to avoid agitation. I actually bought a laser temperature gun to make sure the fiber I was transferring to a new tub of rinse water, it would be the same. 

I was really careful. I know the mechanics of felting… agitation, temperature change, soap (change in pH). I have watched several videos on the internet showing both how not to felt and even more on how to felt. 


I had my bubble wrap, mesh, pool noodle all set…

Imagine my surprise, when it took me hours and hours to felt a very thin layer of cobweb felt. No exaggeration, it took hours of full on abuse to finally get a result. I wasn’t even sure I had felted the piece when I stopped that days attempt, from pure exhaustion. I physically could not continue. I got on Facebook live to express my frustration and I said jokingly,

“Now I understand why people started violently throwing it at a certain point… because they really were pissed trying to make felt”

All the videos I had watched would say, ‘now is a good time to get out any pent up aggression’ and proceed to wad it up and slam it into their work surface. The only aggression I had was toward this scarf I was failing at felting.

Putting myself on pause was the best thing, even though I couldn’t have gone on if I wanted.


The next day, I went to check…

it was dry and damn if I wasn’t relieved, it was felted!!!

Let me just say wet cobweb felt does not feel felted. Or, maybe it does, but I just don’t have any clue what I’m looking for. I have to say I was really pleased with my result. It was light and airy and soft cobweb felt with teeswater locks dangling and silk integrated into the fabric.

Felt is the first ever cloth humans made. And I managed to make my own… barely. I didn’t know I had managed to create anything at the time, so there is still lots of learning to be done.

I really love the result. I didn’t expect it to be so soft and light. I’m into it… which is great news for all the wool waiting to be played with

My DIY Fiber Tools

Posted in Fiber Arts1 Comment

As you all know, this craft, this hobby (apocalyptic life skill) can be super expensive so wherever possible I’ve turned to DIY. It’s really nice to have all the different tools for fiber, it is even nicer when I’ve saved $$$.

Everyone has seen the pvc niddy noddy. But have you seen a repurposed desk fan be a bobbin winder?

The pvc swift seems to be popular. I hope this helps inspire anyone needing to save some cash on their tools of the trade. I’m a big fan of the dollar store, pet slicker brush as flick carder or hand cards. I’d love comments hearing what you have made as well as a link if you want to share.

Here are some of mine…

Tail/lock spinning with a small orifice

Posted in drafting, fiber, Fiber Arts, Handspun, Handspun Adventures, Mohair, novelty yarn, Plying, Spinning, spinning wheel, stash, Teeswater locks, Thread plied, Wool, Wool locks, YarnTagged , Leave a comment

I made this video to show how I spin locks and leave dangling curls with my small kiwi orifice and 4ounce bobbin.

Before I had any wheels that had the specs for more bulky and textured yarns, I really wanted to try spinning locks and having the curls dangle. I wanted tailspun. While I couldn’t have a yarn any thicker than my orifice, I made it work with thin yarns. I spun it just like I would spin a traditional yarn. I didn’t core spin or anything fancy. I just spun it the way I knew how like it was a traditional yarn. I did spin much longer locks but lamb locks and thin locks worked the best for my orifice. I made this video to show a friend how I did it and thought I’d share it here..

As far as plying, sometimes I would make two bobbins full and then ply them together for twice the dangley locks, or I’d thread ply but most often I’d leave it as a single, and it was fine as a single. You can see in the video even the smallest orifice can fit this size art yarn. So give it a try. I’m spinning blue faced leister lamb locks. And the orange locks are mohair.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkOWi_jlcwE&feature=share