Detail of sari silk, wool, Angelina, mohair, handspun yarn and dyed curly locks.
Laying out white roving and colored fiber on a layer of cotton gauze.
Wetting out the piece.
Adding a pencil roving dog.
Rubbing through bubble wrap to 'set' the design.
(Notice the blue roving bleeding a little?
Alas, this problem persisted in the finished piece.)
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I recently ordered a second drum for my Deb's Delicate Deluxe drum carder...
...a 'Production' drum that can handle snippets of yarn or fabric...
...Angelina, curly locks, sari silk and other strong fibers.
It's a lot less fiddly to use than the 'Fur' drum...
...and it's so much fun to just throw things in and see what I get! :)
I have a good friend who just had his 7th child...
...and I wanted to make something special for this cherished baby girl.
I laid out a square piece of cotton gauze...
...and covered it with a thin layer of white roving.
I then pulled pieces from my pink art batts...
...and made a frame-like section around the edges.
I filled the center with more white roving...
...and added a second layer of fiber to all of the pink areas.
After wetting down the project with soapy water...
...I added a pencil roving outline of a dog.
In order to help the design felt into the blanket...
...I rubbed it awhile through bubble wrap before rolling.
Next time: the puppy needs a friend!
21 comments:
7 children?!?!? wow!
I love your dog design and I hate it when the wool bleads. I stopped buying the cheaper wool because of it!
Love, Mattie
Thanks, Mattie! I know what you mean, but I love to buy new wool at Sheep and Wool Festivals, and I never really know how it will felt or whether it's color fast until after I'm home and have tried it.:(
Too bad we don't have a Wollknoll here! XXO-
What a great gift! That dog is just adorable. I can't wait for the finished blanket. I recently dyed some Suri Alpaca Orange and for the life of me I couldn't exhaust the dye. I was so frustrated. I even spun it (ended up with orange fingers) and continued to exhaust the dye once the yarn was created. I priced it and made a huge caution it does bleed sign with the yarn. A knitter who loves to dye bought it and said she would fix it before knitting. I told her to email me what she did. Argh! At least I had a buyer beware. I feel for you on the bleeding fiber.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! doggie!
jupi de pupi!
Heather this is going to be lovely! Love the 'frame' and your little dog :)
I shall be making another baby blanket soon, one of my favourite cousins is expecting her first baby (and Im getting quite excited :)
xx
Love the colors and I think it's great that you use so many different kinds of wool. I'm just working with merino at the time. Hope to buy some other kinds of wool and experiment with them, just like you do!:)) That's why I love how you explain your work method. hugzz...peebee
so nice! I'm looking forward to the friend!
Andrea---Grrrr...dyeing is an art requiring lots of patience and expertise. I did some more solar dyeing recently, and left a lot of white areas (not my intention)... sighhhhh.
MP--Wait until you see the 'friend'!! :)
Deborah--Ooooh...new babies are so great! Your cousin must be young...but then again, so are you!
Peebee--Thanks for the support! Sometimes, I regret purchases that I've made, but I like to support the vendors at the different Sheep and Wool Festivals, and they often have such luscious variegated colors!!
Swig--Thank you!! I think you will appreciate the friend! She's not your standard baby blanket fare! :)
I love the mixture of all the fibers!!! YUMMM! That was the one reason I started dyeing my own wool. If I was going to be mad about bleeding, then I could be mad at myself!! I have finally figured out what works for me, but some of those colors can be a pain to exhaust.
I LOVE how you use the pencil roving for the dog, simple but oh soooo cute!
love it and i find too that a lot of wool, even very expensive wool is bleeding colour. lately i started washing the wool before using it. love, riet:)
Gorgeous. I'm sure the finished piece will be much appreciated!
What a wonderful idea for a blanket! You never cease to amaze me, you have such a rich imagination. Beautiful!!
Thanks for sharing the art photos too. I've never been to an art museum myself. Very nice. :)
Kelly--Yes...I think the new drum will make lots of fun batts possible, now!
Riet--Thanks for the tip. It's an especially good idea when working on white!
Rachel--Yes-I think he was really touched.
Sandie--I'm really glad you liked the art museum photos! I know you'd LOVE visiting there, the way you appreciate design and color!!
What a cool process. The colors and different fibers that you used are so interesting and fun. The dog is adorable.
Thanks, ag! It's always so much fun to create something new!! :)
Love that dog! when wool bleeds you feel like one thing has just spoiled the whole work... but this looks great! Did it rinse a bit off when you were done?
Thanks, Mariana! Yes...the dye definitely 're-settled' after felting and it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I have a good close up photo of it coming on tomorrow's post. XXO-
Love it!!! (now I spy another post I somehow missed..off to catch up on Cleveland Rocks)
Thanks, Melissa!
I think the bleeding of the blue is lovely, actually. Adds individuality to the piece :)
Thank you, Rayna, and thanks to all of you who like my blue 'mistake'! :)
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