Monday's Dye Day

Yesterday was dreary and rainy, so I decided to dye some wool. I did some abrashing,  overdye, and marbleized some wool. Here's the pile of wool I got:



Here are two of the marbleized pieces I got. The purple one is completely different on the back -- more blues.

This piece is crazy! Look at the color choices you get!

A lot of this will be going to my Etsy shop:

Woolly Mammoth Woolens

Wait a minute! It's Easter, not Christmas!

Funny at this time of year to say, but I just finished a Santa rug -- a primitive pattern by Bev Conway. Small pattern, but a fun piece to work on. I particularly enjoyed felting the moon, the snow and Santa's beard. I love using sheep "locks" as the curls are built in!!

Looking forward to hanging it next Christmas. What are you working on?

Off the Loom

Finally finished weaving my cotton washcloths. All done in twill variations, these washcloths are so soft and yet very sturdy. This is the second set I've made. Not sure what my next project will be, but I'm thinking placemats.

At the moment, I'm threading my new tapestry loom. I've done some small pieces on the Harrisville lap loom, but the new loom is bigger and allows you to raise and lower the shed with threaded heddles. A bit complicated, but I'm close to being ready to weave.

Keep checking my Etsy shop for lots of hand-dyed wool.

Woolly Mammoth Woolens

The Black-capped Chickadee

The black-capped chickadee — a staple of the backyard. All year round, this beautiful little bird visits the feeder and flits in an out of the trees in our yard.

Last week, I took a walk in the Saratoga Spa State Park. Not a lot of birds around, but in no time, the chickadee appeared. I saw him first on a tree branch, and soon he was hopping about on the ground. I approached slowly and got within about five feet of him. He went about his business and let me take pictures of him. Such a pretty little bird.

Dreary Day = Make Bread!

Yesterday, I mixed together the ingredients for a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread using the recipe from Jim Lahey's book My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method.

After rising overnight (18 hours total), this no-knead bread was baked for about 45 minutes in a very hot oven. Here is the result:

The bread is going to rug hooking class on Tuesday at Julie Smith's house. Someone else is bringing soup to go with it. Hope it's good!!

Fiber Bowl

A few weeks ago, I got together with some fiber artists to construct a bowl made of all kinds of fiber: fleece, ribbon, cotton quilting fabric, angelina, silk, etc.

We laid our fiber out on a product called Badgemaster (a water soluble glue) in a few layers, and then pinned water soluble interfacing on top. Once the fibers were secured between the Badgemaster and the interfacing, the whole thing was machine quilted and pins removed.

Here is the interfacing side of the fiber sandwich.

This side shows the badgemaster side. You can see the quilting lines of thread.

At this point the "sandwich" was immersed in water for about 20 seconds. All that is left is the fiber and the glue. It was then formed over an upside down bowl. To make the bottom base, I used a round English Muffin cutter and secured a rubber band around it. From there, you have to wait about 24 hours.

These two photos show the fiber bowl after it was laid over the bowl to set.

And here is the finished product!