New Yarns!

Lately, we've been inspired to create soft, warm, wool yarns for handwork projects and for sale.  They work well for doll hair, knitting, crocheting, weaving and felting.  The fiber colors inspire us to spin and spin!


Auloniad (nymph of the glen)

Bohemian Fairy

Twlight Fairy

Sylph (air elemental)

Chocolate Fudge Fairy

Handwork Workshop

On May 29, we hosted a Handwork in the Dell workshop in Fair Oaks.  What a beautiful day!  The sun was shining as a group of lovely, creative women entered our home.


 We started out with circle time singing "My Hands are Good" to warm up.

Spinning on spindles and carding up batts was great fun! Joey helped with the niddy noddy and demonstrated the spinning wheel.

Tunisian crocheting is quicker than knitting, uses less yarn than crocheting and is easy to learn.  We even made the "knit stitch" which looks just like stockinette.  After lunch, we did some knitting and verses.

Weaving on small cardboard looms with a naalbinding wood needle gave us a good start on making a simple pouch.  We also tried out the Ashford Knitter's loom.

Our next handwork workshop is in August!  Email us if you are interested in attending, or if you want a handwork workshop near you.

Dye & Fiber Retreat

Our family attended the annual Griffin Dyeworks Dye & Fiber Retreat this year in the beautiful mountains above Castaic, California.  This was the 4th year for the whole family, and Mommy and Joey's 5th year attending.  Definitely one of the highlights of our year!

Camping on the Hillside

Punch Needle Rug Hooking

Spinning

Naalbinding

Natural Dyeing

Splash Dyeing

Whittling

Soldering a Pebble Dish

Making a Spindle

Embroidery

Tie-Dyeing

Card Weaving

Cross Stitch

Graduated Dyeing

Teaching Tunisian Crochet

Selling our Fiber Arts Tools, Books and Totes

Time out for fun -- basketball, star-gazing and musical improvisation

It was a jammed-pack weekend filled with sweet, wonderful, talented people -- and teaching, learning, sharing and creating.  Thank you to the amazing staff and supporters of Griffin Dyeworks for hosting this event!

Carding Fiber Batts

Handcarding is a great experience for kids...easy, colorful, tactile and fun!









Phoenix Batt Carded by Wilson (available in our Etsy shop)


Making our own fiber batts is something that we do when we want to spin up crazy yarns, or sell them online or at shows. We also have demonstrated how to card and spin in classrooms and at conferences.












Mommy demonstrating carding to a 4th grade class at Rail Ranch Elementary in Murrieta, CA when she was the school principal -- kids loved watching the drum carder in action!


Sometimes we give them interesting names, like "Arsenic", "Phoenix", or "Hamadryad".

"Hamadryad" "Phoenix"

Once in a while, we needlefelt or wet felt with our batts.

Joey carded a batt and then needlefelted hearts for Valentine's Day pins

Joey and Mommy went to Camp Pluckyfluff a few years back and learned how to card up crazy batts, full of all sorts of fibers!

Crazy batt made by Joey at Camp Pluckyfluff -- this became a crazy yarn, and then was crocheted into a crazy scarf!

Wilson likes the tiny hand carders! He sometimes tries the larger hand carders, but they are heavy.

All of us take turns using the Fancy Kitty, hand-crank drum carder.

Joey's batts for wet felting a scarf, spinning into yarn then crocheting a Think Pink scarf donation, and spinning into a sparkle rainbow fairy yarn that sold on Etsy

If you would like to get started carding, buy some basic wool fiber from a local farm, yarn shop, or online. Practice with hand carders and then consider purchasing a drum carder. The objective is to pull the fibers apart, combing them into one direction that will be easy to pull apart and spin on a spindle or spinning wheel. Take a lesson on how to do this, or find a fiber artist to observe carding. Play around with combining colors, dyeing your own fiber before carding, or carding a variety of fibers (tencel, bamboo, tinsel, etc.). If you want to get into the business of selling batts, you can even get an electric carder! Maybe we'll get one of those someday....

"Mercury" by Ricky Wilson made this batt and is spinning it on his spindle