Spinning idea's needed

A lot depends on the pattern. Feather and Fan seems to do nice things to prevent pooling, bobbles will make dots of single color, and so on.

=Tamar

Back to sampling.....grinning.

I have done that today, or rather I used up bits of chemical dyed mohair fleece. This little bits were left over from demonstrations I gave in September. I did some spinning with it, as well as some felting and tried different things. Last year at the local Fiber Fest one of the felters showed us how to use a small sander (power tool) to help the felting along. I bought a very cheap one to do just that. I felted long strips, somtimes from a single colour and somtimes using all the colours or just two. Maybe you call this playing versus sampling....LOL I also felted some circles the size of a yogurt lid and proceded to make a small basket, with the circles on the bottom, catching the strips in the middle, and letting these fan out. With a needle and a thread in the same colour I fastened the stips with tiny stiches. It was more quilting than embroidery. Where the crossings happened from the weaving of the basket I used beads on the four point where the felt crossed during weaving. The beads were of the same colours as the felted strips. It came out alright and now a lot of these little bits are gone, though not all, so the rest I will spin up and the ball of yarn can sit in the little basket..... I have learned a lot today. When you want to make a basket, you better start with some measurements so all strips will come out the same length. etc etc. All in all a good day

PS. Please do remember if you are going to try to do the felting with a power sander, to only have your materials damp. You could electrocute yourselve. Do be carefull. I have my materials caught between curtain sheers, and gently push down. There may be instructions to do that the correct way on the internet.

Els

I have gone and googled felting with a sander and here is the website to read all about it. Is a very good information and it is given by a textile group who indeed talk about the dangers of using a sander the way a discribed above.

Els

Els

Oh don't Els, So much choice and so little time...such is life...

Cheers.....Cher

See I knew you'd all come on and give me tons of idea's to try, lol. Thanx for the idea's though, fantastic. hugz.....Cher

That sounds fascinating Els, I've just done some fiber felted pots, but covering both sides of a polythene former with fleece making patterns on both sides of the first layer, then when I'd covered both sides and felted them enough, I made a slit in the centre of one side, and eased the former out, and continued pulling and felting it into a pot, turning it inside out, and pulling up the slit and in another case a X type slit, so that I had pointed tulip type edges to the rim of my pot. Pretty too.

''curtain sheers'' Els, what is that??

cheers....Cher

Oh thnx Katherine, couldn't think what it was we say that backwards over here....Sheer Curtains, lol trust us,

Thanks again.....Cheers...Cher

Wow, you did a much more technical job than I did. I even skipped the serious hand and arm work, and used a little sander...LOL

I bet it is a neat looking pot

Els

OK I may have misspelled it, but sheers are what some people hang in front of their windows as curtains. It is an open weave of a fine man made fiber, such as nylon. It is very strong and works well for holding the fibers that are going to be felted together.

Els

Katherine, thanks for that definition. You are my official life dictionary....LOL

Thanks

How are the turkey sandwiches....LOL

Els

Curtain Nets we usually call them over here, thnx for the explanation Els.

Cheers......Cher

They come out quite nice, mine have gone back to the workshop where I got the merino tops from. I'll get some tops and do some more and send you one so's you can see.

cheers.....cher

I just call them "sheers".

Kather> Oh thnx Katherine, couldn't think what it was we say that backwards

My pleasure, Els. Keep the turkey sandwiches coming, and I'll keep the definitions coming.

Katherine

Net curtains are a wee bit different though,

I have sheer muslin curtains which are not nets

They are. Net curtains are almost like filet crochet, in my experience.

Kather> Net curtains are a wee bit different though,

and we usually say ''nets'' funny lot aren't we?

Cheers...Cher