Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Pencil Roving Purse- Part 1 of 2

Cutting lengths of pencil roving...

 
...in various colors.

 
As an accompaniment, fluffy orange wool with colored cotton dots. :)

 
Laying out a design on the resist...

...allowing some of the ends to wrap around to side two...



...and covering it with a layer of speckled roving. 
 
The piece after one layer of wool on each side...

 
...and, again, after several, mid-felting...

...(you'll notice that I'm working 'inside-out' again.)

 
Cutting open the partially felted piece and removing the resist.

 

In a comment on a recent post...

...my friend, Terriea wondered about pencil roving, and it got me thinking.

For those of you who don't already know...

...pencil roving is a very soft, un-spun, carded fiber that has been drawn until it is the size of a fat pencil.

Used by commercial yarn makers and home spinners alike...

...it can even be used 'as is' by knitters or crocheters...

...as long as they don't pull too tightly on their stitches while they work.

For felters, it can be a wonderful shortcut when a precise line is needed...

...and it works especially well for projects which require 'writing', like this!

In order to show you some more of the 'joys of pencil roving'...

...I decided to feature this interesting fiber product on a small bag.

I took various colors of pencil roving...

...cutting lengths of each color in turn.

After placing them on the resist in my desired pattern...

...I covered them with layers of orange dotted roving.

Next time: the finished purse...

...including a re-purposed denim handle.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can almost see the bag now, and know it's going to be very interesting as well as lovely. :)

Heather Woollove said...

Thanks, Sandie! It's smaller than my usual bags...
kind of a 'going out to dinner' purse. :)

Rachel said...

More colours, more new ideas - well done!

Heather Woollove said...

Rachel--Thanks! More ORANGE! Giggle.