Here’s the news for the first week of January:
- Marilyn’s weaving: the 3-at-a-time scarf project is almost at the halfway point. The floor loom is set up with three different warps. The idea is to have fun with color and to see how they turn out, given that the weaving pattern is the same in all three. Photos soon.
- Testing out new dyes: I returned from Australia with 12 jars of “Landscapes” dyes which were purchased at Petlin’s Spinning and Weaving supply store in Sydney. The color ‘mountain blue’ tempted me to get the dyepot out. I washed 1/2 pound of fleece from ewe 1005, Clarissa. This is her first fleece, her lambswool. The entire fleece weighed 9.5 pounds after picking. Because it represents 17 months of growth, the fibers are very long! Added a little sky blue to the dyepot to provide some variation. The fleece is sitting on the sweater drying thing atop the fridge. It will be dry in a day or two. The top of the fridge is a great place to dry wool on a sweater rack. It’s out of the way and benefits from the air movement around the fridge.
- Next weekend the spinners of area 6010 of the Northwest Regional Spinner’s Association will be retreating at Silver Falls Conference Center: our first ever overnight event! Spinning for 3 days? Yikes! I will need to do a lot of carding for that.
- Where is John in all this? Sitting at the Cricket match, soaking up Australian summer sun for the next five days. There is not much interest in wool during the Sydney summer. But there is a loom with a beautiful project on it waiting for his return later this month.