Frilly Felted Fun

Have had a ton of fun at the shop lately!  Last week we held a felted flower ring workshop and it was so much fun that I left all the supplies out to make ruffle scarves. 

A pile of rings from the workshop. 

One of the ruffle scarves. 

A ring made by the instructor Kristy Sturgil.  

GGAF

Have no idea how I totally forgot to post about GGAF last year!  For those who don't know, GGAF is the Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival and it is absolutely AWESOMENESS!  2012 was no exception!  Met new fiber/yarn people, sold some yarns I miss, and managed to pack and load before the rain hit.  That in itself is a great hit in my book.

Have I every told you....  I love my yarns.  Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying that my yarns are better than everyone else's yarn.  What I am saying is that a little bit of me goes into every yarn/fiber dyed and spun, so it is like saying goodbye to a little piece of myself every time I sell one.  That definitely is not a bad thing, especially when my fabulous customers show off the lovelies they made.  It makes my heart warm inside.

This is the long stretch on Johnson Beach and is also where we were married.

My booth behind the rainbow adorned 'Wool Girl'.

Finally had a chance to finish spinning some very lovely hand dyed teeswater locks!

Don't you just love this knit hat!  Traded with a friend, yarn for knitting me this lovely hat using my Glammy yarn.  I seriously think I got the better end of the deal.

Very appropriate colors set up in the booth as the festival was in Florida!

Loved the Teeswater spun locks so much that they had to be shown again:)

Met a few Floridian friend for Pho (pronounced foe).  LOVED the fish sauce too!!!

Another Florida friend gifted me eggs, delicious, home-raised EGGS!  The little yolks come from eggs called and I kid you not.... 'Farters', a very technical term for the very first egg a chicken ever lays...hehehe

Had to show off some spindle spun yarn at the Barnes & Noble Knit Night...  PS, it is every Monday night at the Barnes and Noble by the airport in Pensacola.  Fabulous group of knitters and I LOVE THEM DEARLY!!!

A sand dune shot, just because I could.

Did anyone ever tell you they grow cotton in Florida!?! Well they do and in Alabama too!  This field of cotton was near Floamaton.

And why is there a picture of a room here?  Well, as chance would have it, these were my lodgings for the return trip through Georgia.  It was a darling room and I was a terrible guest... I broke part of the coffee table... Sigh, when will I ever learn!

Taught classes in Georgia on Carding and Core Spinning underneath this gorgeous chandelier.  This is one of those lovely places that one wishes they never had to leave.  Oh, I was so depressed leaving Georgia to go home!

Wonder if this sweet little guy missed me.  Probably not for long...lol

Luckily the fall foliage in it's gloriously colorful autumn splendor will cheer even the glummest of outlooks.

Seriously, I drove through this on the interstate.  Gorgeous no?

Felted Wool Pebbles Tutorial

These three little guys started it all.  After washing then reaching into the pockets of several pair of jeans on wash day and pulling out cute little felted grains, I thought, 'I so need to make more of these and totally on purpose and totally bigger!!'

So I have spent some time working them out and find that really anything goes when it comes to felting in the wash.  This is so simple and the end results are so fun that for a change..... I actually look forward to doing the wash.

Here is a simple pictorial on how to make felt balls in the wash.  My washer is set to run on a GENTLE cold cycle and I don't change to a warm or hot setting to get the little pebbles.  Of course, if you wanted to use a warm or hot setting to your wash, I bet they would felt faster.  Use your regular washing detergent and load  your machine as normal adding these little steps.....

Have a few little balls of wound roving or picked fluff ready.  One pair of jeans will do 2 pebbles.

As you put in your jeans in the wash, fill each front pocket with a tangerine or tennis ball size of fluff.  Make sure they are stuffed to the bottom of your pocket and if you have smaller pockets fold the jeans in half with the front, stuffed pockets on the inside.  Oh and do not use the little pocket on the front; for some reason fiber does not like to felt in there.

After a GENTLE cycle in the wash, you will have something similar to the ball of fluff above.  Notice that you can still see the seams where it was wrapped.  Do not worry and put your little compact ball back in the jeans pocket and toss your load of laundry in the dryer as normal.

When your jeans are dry, you will have a lovely round pebble!  Note, I have had a couple of pebbles come out of their pockets in the dryer, and the end result was the same.  A lovely felted pebble:)

From left to right or top to bottom:  Ball of fluff, out of the wash and completely felted.

The end result, fun little felted wool pebbles!  Notice the little purple tape yarn in one pebble!  It is a nylon yarn and the I had no idea it was in the pocket when it went through the wash.  Love that it is completely attached to the pebble!  Wool and angora goat locks felt great as well.  They felt slower than the other fibers so are a great way to add texture! 

GGAF & Pensacola - 2011

 

Now, why don't we back track a little bit to a time before the world changed.....

November 4th-6th was our second showing at the Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival.  I love this festival.  Not just because it is in Florida or even my top selling event, but because it is my very last Festival of the year!  And what a better way to end the festival season in Florida with your Floridian knitter friends, the Pensacola Purls who meet on Mondays at the airport Barnes & Noble! Gosh, how I love those gals!  Don't worry, I am definitely planning a return visit if the festival folks let me in again:)

I couldn't keep the art batt bins stocked well enough!

Yarn, yarns and more yarns!

Sock yarns

Bfl Sock

Glammy-licious!

I love when customers bring in finished projects from my fibers.  These are from last years batts and were spun on  a 'Trindle' and then hand knit.  Kudos to Miss Jennifer and awesome fiberista!

Say hello to the needlefelted dolls of Darlene Samuel of Pace Florida.  Is this not the cutest little needle felted guy on the planet or what?  PS..His mane was made from one of my batts!!

Also by Darlene, the cutest little finger puppets ever!  This little guy was done with  my fibers too:)

My little splurge each evening was eating at the 'Fisherman's Corner' which is under the Theodore Baar Bridge in Perdido Key.  It is not a super fancy place, but the fresh caught specials are out of this world!!!  As you can see, after finishing each night, I was lucky to get a little table  where I could knit a little while enjoying one of America's oldest brewed beers, Yuengling. Fabulous combination!!  Wish we had Yuengling in Kentucky!!

Kentucky Wool Festival 2011

The Kentucky Wool Festival was over yesterday and I have to say I am absolutely blushed. If you remember last year I stayed with the Yeltons and I was pleased as punch pie to have a return visit with them this year. Cheryl of Purdy Thangz and I were truly blessed to share in the Yelton's special brand of Kentucky Hospitality this year. Have to say I count myself lucky to have met and come to know Jim and Lana these past two years.

Side one of the booth full of wool.  This was the first show I got to play with the new wire panels and bins.  I think they still need a wee bit of tweeking, but they should be fun at future shows.

The other side full of yarns.  These were taken on the end of the second day.  By the third day, I was almost wiped clean. 

The boots on a section of fence posts were intriguing.

If only there were some way to find out the idea behind the boots on the fence.  

This little fellow, Jack, greeted me at Jim and Lana's by thoroughly looking through my bag for contraband.  He finally settled on an old receipt.  How stinking cute was that!?!  BTW, Jack is part of Jim and Lana's Flour Creek Dachshunds kennel.

Cheryl, aka Purdy Thangz, on our last morning with Jim and Lana.

An older version of the Louet S75 that is close to 20 years old and still a true work horse!  

Jim and Lana in front of their cabin.

The view from Jim and Lana's front porch.

Unfortunately, I missed getting snap shot of the other vendors.  You can take my word for it, there was fabulous fibery goodness everywhere in our tent!

Le Stash

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear you talking about stash this and stash that.  Well, I'm here to tell you that my stash is bigger than most!  There are probably a few out there that can trump me, but I bet they could be counted on one hand...hahaha

It started very simply and innocently with the desire to learn to make my own yarn.  From there it became a minor addiction that grew into a small little idea that I could sell some of my stash to get fresh stash.  It very quickly snowballed into what is currently known as the house of wool.  The snow ball event occurred shortly after the company I worked for went belly up.  As luck would have it,  during that same time period, the fiber stash enhancement business was starting to take off.

Now, I do have to be honest here quite a bit of the fiber seen in these photos is shop stock, but until the shop is up and running I am considering it stash.  I see that as OK, because if it doesn't sell or the store never opens, it will remain a permanent fixture in my stash!  Good think I only pick up things I like!

Big pink UFO behind bag of yarn and roving.  What you don't see are the 7 skeins of handspun yarn in the tiered bins of the 2 huge bags of fluff and yarn to the left behind the UFO. 

Handspun for a sweater on top of hand-dyed.

Weighed and to be priced.

Ready to head to the Fair!

Almost missed showing this 2 pounds of fiber:)

These were hiding in plain view too.

 

The Pink bags are full of dyed tops.  Not seen is a bag of washed fleece which is the remainder of the fleece to be spun from the white handspun yarns in the bag a few photos ago.  And yes, that is a loom under all the wool!

Bin 'O' Batts

Weighed out tops on top of carder stash bin

Inside carder stash bin.

More tops on top of carder in box on left and you guessed it more combed dyed tops in box on the right. The bag on the right is just for my spin-in stash.

Carder with scrappy bin to left

Yarns on the drying rack.  Yep, they are all dry, just need to get them in before nightfall and this was the only spot open because........

The indoor drying rack, aka the chandelier, was full of lace yarns drying.

From left to right:  fleece, roving from Tanglewood FArm, Coopworth, & handspun I don't want to part with (yet).

Fibers & Yarns on my favorite to spin in cat scratched wing back chair.  Note the two smaller bags under the TV on the DVR box.  Yep, you guessed it....  That's fiber too!

How many wheels can you count in this picture.  Note one doesn't look like a wheel at all.

The sheepy wheel next to a box of you guessed it more fiber.  this one is just 1/2 full though....lol

The Pirtle spinning wheel.

Fleece in the garage.  would you believe I open these and check them every month?

Yeah, I'm a little crazy.

Crazier still....

Does this @#%DQ$% ever end!?!

Nope, it doesn't.

See, I told you so. Fleece in black bag on top of 4 shetland fleeces in bin.  I missed one or two in the garage I think.

corner of shop stock room.

This is my prized possession.  Not sure when or if I will be spinning it, but I am keeping it for a very special project.  I would not part with this fleece for any amount of money!  Chris, if you are reading this, you know what fleece this is!

Old stash.

More old stash from back in the day that my stash actual fit in a freaking clothset.  

shop stash.

More shop stash.

Now that I am done describing all the stash photos, I have come to the conclusion that I seriously have a problem.  And it's not that I have too much stash.....  It's that I realize I have a few more stash spots that I forgot to photograph, such as the cedar chest, trunk, drawers, my Gran's garage................

Yep, I have gone a bit over the top, but thankfully the shop stash will be separated from my personal stash soon.  Both Bill and I look forward to that day.