Flying W Ranch Retreat

The Kansas Knitting Guild hosted an overnight retreat in the Flint Hills at Flying W Ranch.  We hiked, drank wine and knitted the night away.  I spun a skein of cotton from the fields in Winfield.  Some very good stuff in my home state.

 

Halstead Fine Arts and Crafts

I answered a request for a spinning artist to give demonstrations in Halstead, KS at their fall arts festival.  I took all my (free on the side of the road) cotton and spinning supplies to showcase how a fiber can be hand processed, carded, spun and knitted into useful objects.  Turns out it was a good excuse to spend a day at one of my favorite crafts.

Free on the Side of the Road

I have a big basket filled with raw cotton I picked close to Winfield after harvest and decided to work it up.  It's kind of a tedious process but those are the ones I tend to like the most.  I also gave a demonstration over the weekend at an artist's gathering.  Here are the steps (which don't include a crazy white girl out in a field pilfering free cotton):

1) Pull the fiber out of the pods and then pick out all the seeds and debris
2) Hand card (flat brushes that line the fiber up) and roll like cinnamon buns ready to be spun
3) Spin two spools with a somewhat heavy twist
4) Counter clockwise spin the two spools into one yarn
5) Soak to clean, give it some good whacks against the bathtub then hang outside to dry

And that's it.  Ready to knit up into something useful like cotton washcloths.  Pretty cool to make something from nature into something useful.

Yarn Bomb a Chair

So, remember that flea market chair I found in Texas a few weeks back? 

Since it's the right height for my spinning wheel I though it needed to be somewhat fiber themed and yarn bomb came to mind.  For comfort I decided just to milk paint the seat and then used leftover yarn to wrap around (with mod podge to secure) the pegs on the chair. 

Fun with the Nuns

I'm always honored when the Sisters at Heartland Farm invite me to help them with events.  This time for another FiberSpace weekend retreat to help teach fiber arts such as knitting, crochet, spinning and weaving.  I tend to stick with the spinners turning alpaca fiber into yarn.  All the while close to tears from the nostalgia being at the farm with the Sisters brings back memories of times spent with my grandmother.  It feeds my soul.

 

FiberSpace 2013

This weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer and help the Sisters at Heartland Farm (outside of Great Bend, KS) with an overnight fiber arts retreat. I assisted those wanting to learn spinning and drop spindle with alpaca and wool fiber. The Sisters also provided instructions for weaving and bobbin lace. Everything at this organic farm has a beginning and end like the alpacas that provide a fiber to knit with to the chickens that provided us with a tasty meal. It's always a peaceful and inspiring place to visit and recharge.

Everything at the farm has a simple use and purpose:



Several years ago I found a rigid heddle weaving loom at an estate sale but didn't know if I had all the pieces or even how to use it so I brought it along. Sister Terry helped me set it up and to my delight all the pieces were there and now I'm on my way to weaving a small project like coasters. I discovered that I really enjoy working with a drop spindle to make a lace-weight yarn. So much fiber and so little time...

Matching Mitts

I knit up some matching mitts while watching the news with the leftover yarn I spun on Sunday. The super easy pattern, a simple chunky stockinette, Last Minute Knitted Mitts.

Spinning Sunday

I can't always make the 3rd Sunday Spinning group but when I can, we have a lot of fun and it's inspiring to see all the different kinds of wheels and spinning techniques. I recently got a jumbo flyer that has a large orifice for making chunky yarns and tried it out today on some wool roving I got years ago in Estes, CO. And then later tonight, I made another hat with enough yarn leftover for a matching pair of mitts.

Handspun Fidel

This one is special. I knitted it from my very first hand carded and hand spun chunky yarn I made from assorted fibers when I first got my spinning wheel several years ago.

I haven't had a use for it until now. The many different fibers made the yarn somewhat stiff so for this project I carried along a worsted cream acrylic with it. This hat has great structure and not as floppy as the previous one I made.

Out for a Spin

Met up with some of my knitting friends, Jan and Pat, for an afternoon of spinning at their monthly gathering at Covenant Presbyterian Church. It's probably been over a year since I've had my wheel out and it was so much fun to chat it up with them about our dogs, life, sloths and menopause while working on a spool of recycled silk.

Fiber and Inspiration

I met up with Karen and her daughter, Jamie to shop at the arts fair. There were a couple yarn and fiber vendors. Jamie picked out a handspun yarn and Karen went straight to work knitting Jamie a hat. I was low on cash and only purchased some handmade soaps and an event mug. I did see this interesting 14" crocheted doily that a woman used to make a hat. She added feathers and other trinkets to the design and in this kind of hippie festival it looked right a home.

January Spinning Saturday

I spent the day with my friend, Laura, at her yarn shop, Sugar Bunny Boulevard in ElDorado for Spinning Saturday. I took my portable Ashford Joy wheel to the shop along and some odds and ends dyed wool fiber that we ran through Laura's carder. I added some bits of recycled silk and like magic came out with a nice batt for spinning into a great handspun skein of yarn.

Cotton Update

The combines are out working the fields and leave big rectangular blocks of cotton behind to be delivered to the gins for processing. Today, I stopped and talked to a farmer at Metz Farms and learned a little bit about the process and their goal to be completed by Thanksgiving. The machines leave some cotton behind and he gave me permission to come back and collect whatever I wanted. I'm thinking that big mound in front of the bale is all mine...Just gotta love "The Look, The Feel of Cotton!"

Cotton Picker

It's just about harvest time in Cowley County. All the bolls have opened and the cotton fluffs out in big clusters. Cotton is my favorite fiber to card, spin and dye. It's mesmerizing to stand next to a field of white as I dream about all the things I could make out of it. Soon the machines will be out harvesting and white fuzz will line all of the ditches like a blanket of snow.

Rainier Alpacas

Aunt Rita dropped me off at the train station and I rode the Amtrak back to Tacoma where Laura and Dan picked me up. We had the entire day to spend together before I took a red eye flight from Seattle back home. We stopped at one more REI in Tacoma and then headed back to the house. On the way there are several alpaca farms and we stopped at Rainier Alpacas for a look see. Laura gifted me with a full bag of alpaca fiber to take back to Wichita. Now I'll have to get my Spin ON!

Sassy Spinster

A quick trip to Texas provided me with the chance to venture out to Lancaster to visit the Sassy Spinster. It's a great shop filled with spinning wheels and weaving looms of all sizes. I don't know much about weaving...yet...but that's about to change in the very near future.

Open Farm Day

Drove to Great Bend, KS to help out with the Open Farm Day at Heartland Farm. (Great Bend was also hosting the Big Bend Bike Rally where I passed my friends, M&M Choppers on the way there). I set up my spinning wheel in the artist studio and joined Sister Mary Ellen in giving demonstrations to visitors on how to card and spin alpaca fiber. Sister Jane was around the corner with a weaving loom while Shana and Michelle (dread envy strikes again) sold homemade items from the farm including some of my knitted items. The weather couldn't have been better and I was able to card and spin a whole skein of brown alpaca. I left with a small bounty of fresh eggs, noodles, zucchini muffins, tomatoes, salsa, pottery and a pumpkin.

Sunday Spin

Found some extra time this morning to sit down at my spinning wheel -- it's been awhile. Worked on the crayon-colored wool batt I made at my last fiber class in Oklahoma. The girls who dyed the wool were excited to sell it to me and see how it came out so I'm hoping they see this post. I added in some opague tinsel and recycled silk bits.

A Fiber Christmas In July

I got on the road early this morning to drive to a fiber event in Kellyville, Oklahoma for the two classes I signed up to attend. The first, The Amazing Angora Rabbit, a hands-on workshop using a live bunny. We learned how to handle, groom, harvest and spin the wool from the rabbit. Sounds cruel but it's simply brushing out the loose fibers - which they do enjoy. We got to spin fibers from English, French, German and Satin rabbits. Of them all, I prefer the English. At the end of the class there was a drawing for the demo bunny but (unfortunately) my name wasn't picked.

The next workshop was Spinning Novelty Yarns. There were only 2 of us in the class so we received special attention and learned several techniques for plying with thread.
The instructor brought a great drum carder and we made some crazy batts from fiber we purchased from vendors.