Bragging Up the Spinning Students

Some of the spinning students get the knack of it really quickly.  Here are some pics of some of their latest skeins including the number of spinning classes that they had when the skeins were completed.

These skeins were spun by Sheila after 4 classes.  They are silk/wool mill waste plied with wool (the blue and the green) and random linen/cotton/wool fiber plied with merino tencel (the light green on the far right).

 

And this is a skein of Bristol’s hand dyed corriedale that was spun and plied by Meridith after 2 classes.

Pretty impressive, no?

Weaver’s Craft Magazine

We just ot our first shipment of Weaver’s Craft magazine. I also bought one copy for the library of all of the back issues. What a beautiful magazine. Each issue takes an in depth look at a topic so you can really get a feel for the subject.

If you’re looking to take your weaving to the next level, you need to take a look at Weaver’s Craft.

Do You Need Inspiration for your Stash?

A lot of us are focussing on using up the stash rather than adding to the stash until we see how the economy is going to shake out.  Do you need some help with ideas?  We are in the middle of paring down our books in order to focus on our four key areas (weaving, spinning, felting and dyeing).  As a consequence we are offering incredible deals on a number of really excellent books that we ordered because we loved them….but they don’t exactly fit into those categories. 

Sample from our stash to your stash sale books

Intertwined is a great inspiration for spinning “outside the box”.  The photographs are beautiful, the text amusing and the price is a mere $20.

Heartfelt is an inspiration for people who want to create or use up felt in a variety of functional and beautiful garments and accessories.  The photography is gorgeous and the price is $15.50  If you have felt or feltables (can you say old sweater?) and some embroidery skills this book will inform and inspire.

Color – Elegant Designs to Stitch $15.50  Surface decoration techniques including embroidery, felt applique and beading.  This book will inspire you to diminish more than your wool stash. 

Colorworks by Deb Menz $17.50  This is not a how to book, unless your trying to learn how to look at your fabric, fiber and bead stash with new eyes.  Menz provides a step by step analysis of color and will completely change your opinions of what color goes beautifully with what color.

To dye laughing

Bristol is our #1 dyemaster. She spends about 3 days a week in the dye kitchen cooking up great color combinations for spinners and knitters.  These delectable offerings go in our Etsy shop.

She also teaches many of our dye workshops and is herding the interns in the weaving studio. (They act a lot like cats).

Selling to customers in Italy, Australia, Sweden, east Coast, West Coast and lots of places in between is really quite a trip and an education.  Knowing who has VAT and other issues really adds to the learning curve.

Welcome to the World Portfiber

Welcome to the world Portfiber. I got a wumping big AVL loom from Melodi and picked it up on Saturday. Joe, who is a genius, fit the entire thing into the back of the Mini Cooper. This is practical proof of his genius since the loom is about the same size as the Mini Cooper assembled. I kept an eye on the hanging out bits and we drove carefully up the hill to North Street. Sunday we got it mostly together and yesterday I washed it and tweaked it a bit more. I think I’m going to need to buy a couple of bolts (3 in all) and then I believe it will be ready to go. I am so happy…..I keep going in to that front room to look at it as if it were a Christmas Tree of presents and I was a twelve year old. (Which is about the age I was when I started craving a big floor loom…..that would be several decades ago….a long time to wait.)

It’s a Blog!

Martha has been bugging for ages me to start a blog. So here it is. 

I’m kind of at a loss for words which is why I resisted doing this for so long. I’m sure Martha and Bristol and whoever comes by the studio with something to say will take over  and keep this thing going. 

Until they find it however, I guess it’s up to me. So… it’s actually my day off and the studio is closed. I’m sitting on the back patio enjoying the breeze and trying not to move too much since it’s pretty warm and muggy today. 

The house is inhabited by a film crew today shooting ads for a political candidate whose house is still full of painters that didn’t finis on time! It’s been a fun process to watch and they promised to put all the furniture back in its proper location. But all of the cameras and lights and cables have made it hot in there.

Yoda (one of my cats) has retreated to the safety of my car and Charley  (the other one) has disappeared entirely. I’m sure he’ll be back around supper time. Yoda likes to supervise whenever we have groups of people in the house as long as they don’t interfere with her nap schedule.

The crew just brought be an iced coffee so I’m going to sign off and sit back and relax.

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