Pluckyfluff in Melbourne

I got to spend last weekend spinning in the company of some wonderful spinners!  I attended an Art Yarn workshop run by Lexi Boeger who's book started me off on this whole journey of Art Yarn spinning.

Like minded spinners attended this two day workshop, and together we experimented with the techniques shown to us by Lexi.  Lexi's approach is from the artistic perspective, and it really inspired me to consider a new approach with my colour choices.

The spinners who attended are going to start an Art Yarn Spinning Group here in Melbourne, so I am really chuffed about that. It is so good to get together with like minded people, it makes you feel part of something and gives you support when you're having a fibre challenge.

Well, off to the Victorian Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild today, so that I can check out their new shop front premises!  I am really looking forward to it and will post about it later.

Lexi of Pluckyfluff fame

Fibre fibre everywhere!

Spin and chat

Yarns galore

Navajo ply a really thick and thin single. 

This method is called Mohairy - I need to work on it!

Great Day at the Yarra Glen Artisans Market

What could be better than to spin in the open air with other wonderful Artists to talk to and have a constant stream of people looking and buying your work.  Well, that was the type of day I had at the Yarra Glen Artisans Market at Alowyn Gardens, it was a beautiful setting and the weather was perfect!

'Hand' knitting by Gayanne and beautiful felted flowers.

See the white chair, well the spinner who usually sits there is taking the picture!

Beautiful felting by Zephlyn

The beautiful gardens before everyone arrived.

Getting ready for Yarra Glen

Busy day today getting all my yarns and scarves ready for the Yarra Glen Artisans Market at the Yarra Glen Art Show.

Matches the gold fish!

Apart from labelling all my yarns etc I had to cover the prefect body hanging up in my work room in Linen.  Up until now she has just been an uninspiring plastic and when I draped a scarf around it didn't look very 'arty'.  So in an effort to make her look a bit more 'organic' I cut up pieces of Linen and got out the trusted PVA glue.  I was pleased with the result.

My basket of goodies ready to be received by the orgnisers

One of my latest scarves was inspired by several fibre artists in the states - Natalie from Namaste Farm being one of them and some fringe scarves I did last winter that went very well.  Whilst the fibre they used was Wensleydale I used Mohair and the result was rather yummy.  I dyed the fringe in graduated shades of brown, amber and orange.

Tonight I tidied up my work room, how does it get so messy, but at least I feel like my creative mind is a bit more organised. I will be having a fibre friend coming to stay soon so I feel like my room is ready for a visitors!

Bangle inspired

After dyeing lots of fibre a while back and spinning the most obvious colour combinations from them, I was just about to pack them away.  I often do that, and then later something will come along, some form of inspiration, that will make me hunt for a colour or a fibre to go with a completely different colour combination than was initially intended.  However, as I was packing them away, I came across a bangle that had not made it to my dressing table and I took a moment to study the colour combination.  It seems that my untidyness was truly inspirational.  I wish I could say that this was the reason for all untidyness, but in this case I was happy to use that excuse, and started to grab the fibres that would match the bangle.



Sometimes there are rewards for untidiness!

 Having got the fibre together I decided to make a fibre sandwich as I didn't want to blend the colours too much and I wanted to create a lot of texture in the yarn

Finally it was time to roll it all up and start spinning!   



Layer upon Layer

Time to spin!



Bangle inspired!



Where has the time gone?

It's a bit scary how fast this year is going, I mean we are at the begining of March for goodness sake.  Where has the summer gone, today I am really feeling a chill and had the heater on in the car this morning!  Never mind I love the change of seasons, and feeling a chill in the air means only one thing - I need to spin faster and more often.

This might be a bit of a philosophical question  and right out of 'left field' but do you believe that you create the coincidences in your life because you were already thinking along those lines, and want to see them as that?  Or do you believe that coincidences happen because these are confirming the direction in which you should go and you should take notice of them?  Complicated I know, but I feel a change coming on and I am sitting on the fence at the moment, one thing for sure, it hurts your backside well and truly!!

Enough of that, especially as I have some new yarns to show off.  One especially I am very fond of, a Tailspun yarn from Wensleydale Fleece.  Why special you say, well I come from Yorkshire and as a child loved the dreadlock sheep out on the moors.  Now this fibre came from Namaste Farm in California - small world now - and Natalie does a wonderful job in producing this lovely fibre. The fibre is so soft and the locks were a good 12 inches long in some cases, it was a dream to spin.  Now what colour will I dye it, that has to be given some thought.
                                         

At the moment I am preparing some work to go in the Yarra Glen Art Show in the Artisans Market, I am really looking forward to it and hopefully I will sell some of my yarns.  Even if I don't  it will be a lovely event and when I am there they want me to spin......like I was going to say 'No', try and stop me!  They are also promoting some Art Yarn Spinning workshops in August so it looks like the year is getting booked up! Can I hear sleigh bells?  Who said that?