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| Dora instructing with Lindsay and Susie in the background |
Along with Cheryl, Marybelle, Meegan and Wendy, we spent the day blending and spinning colour samples and designer/art yarns:
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| That neon green background really highlights the yarns! |
The class is designed for beginning spinners, so I assumed I'd be tagging along for the fun of it. "Pride goeth before a fall" and all that-I hadn't spun on my Louet Victoria in over a year and had forgotten just how fast that wheel spins. I spent the morning muttering under my breath as I produced a stack of overtwisted samples so energized that they could run marathons even after a good washing and whacking.
The afternoon went more smoothly. We moved to textured yarns, practising long draw, chain plying and spinning cables. We made garnetted, slubbed and wrapped yarns. I produced a tussah silk/wool/alpaca cabled yarn heavy enough to work as an (elegant) dog leash, a pretty blue wool yarn garnetted with spring colours, a vibrant soysilk/wool chain plied skein and a very loosely spun long draw singles of wool and alpaca:
I came home, tired but happy. After finishing my samples and leaving them to dry, I fulfilled my wifely duties by watching Survivor Finale and Vancouver in the hockey playoffs. I also completed this:
I knit the summer scarf from spindle spun wool/silk/alpaca fibres from Fleece Artist. The freeform crochet trim was worked in hand spun cochineal-dyed silk and hand spun emerald soysilk. The scarf looked incomplete until I added the trim, which reminded me to keep design in mind, even for such a simple thing. A bit of thoughtful planning can make the difference between producing a piece of cloth and making a unique accessory. There is a bit of asymmetry here, in the trim and its placement, just enough to make me smile when I remember the making of this piece:
The scarf and my samples are reminders of sunny, warm pleasant hours of spinning and friendship in the Qu'appelle Valley. What more could you ask of a day?
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| Sara, Marybelle and Wendy |
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| Meegan |
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| Sara |
