3 Fiber Arts Tools That Changed My Art in 2019

I've been a fiber artist for more than 50 years. Yep, that long. My grandma Augustine taught me to crochet when I was eight, and I've been obsessed since then. In that time I've developed a style that is me, designs I like, and a few that I've published. I've taught classes in places ranging from The Wool Festival at Taos to the Ozark Folk Center State Park. And I have learned so much and moved so far ahead in my craft in 2019. Always keep learning!

Part of it was driven by changes in my body. Treadling a spinning wheel or standing at a loom can wear out your joints. I have a master weaver friend who quit weaving because, as she said, her body could no longer take being part of the machine. But, fiber arts is me, so I started looking at different tools, and that learning has opened up so many doors.

My Spinolution Firefly with the 32 oz
bobbin. Lockspun hand dyed alpaca fleece.

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Spinolution Firefly - The Spinolution Firefly is an electric spinning wheel. I raise our sheep and goats for their wonderful fiber, that I spin into yarn and weave beautiful things. That's my passion. I've been spinning and treadling a spinning wheel daily for more than 20 years. My ankles and hips have joint issues, in part because of spinning. I tried electric spinning wheels off and on since 2006, and didn't like them. I love to spin from the locks, spin raw fleece, spin dyed blends, and spin lots of yarn. The Ashford Country Spinner was one of my very favorite wheels. and I couldn't comfortably treadle it any longer.

At the 2018 Arkansas Craft Guild Christmas Showcase, my dear friend and fiber cohort loaned me her Spinolution Firefly. I spun on it the whole show, and broke it! After desperate panicked calls to their tech support, we learned it was a blown fuse, and learned how to replace it. After that experience, I was sold on their tech support. And Leigh is such a dear friend, that even after that experience, she let me take her Firefly home with me to spin more.

There is a huge learning curve to an electric wheel, it's not something you can just pick up and do, even after 20 years of spinning. But I spun 3 of our homegrown fleeces, one alpaca (first, because that's easiest), one Jacob sheep (also easy), and one kid mohair (still a challenge today, but my favorite fiber) before I returned her wheel to her. Then, with my parents' help, I ordered my own. They are pricey, but for me, it has been worth it. I can spin so much more yarn, so much faster. And I have learned so much already, in just one year with this wheel. My Firefly is a good teacher.

I love spinning yarn. I love dyeing our fleeces into bright colors and blending those to make soft, luscious yarns. I've developed a unique style of yarn that I love making from our fleeces with the Spinolution Firefly. I've sold some of that yarn, but I wanted to make it accessible to people who don't do fiber arts. Of course, people can wear skeins, but that's not a real option for most people. I'm still in the process of designing yarn jewelry, look for that, maybe, in 2020. I tried crocheting scarves, and that seemed to hide the beauty of this yarn, as well as take forever. I tried big needle knitting, and just didn't like doing it. (I don't knit) I tried weaving a scarf on my 24-inch rigid heddle loom, and did a nice one, but the sizing was awkward. But that look I got from the weaving led me to looking at the "silly little starter looms." I love the Ashford products for their durability and versatility. As a weaving teacher, I try to get my students to think about where they want to go with their weaving, and then steer them to the right loom.

Kanger wishes I would spend more
time dog petting than weaving. Low
water immersion dyed/chain plied alpaca
warp, lock spun Nigel's mohair weft.

So, in taking my own advice, I knew I wanted to weave scarves. My tools need to stand up to farm life, demonstrating, teaching, traveling, and lots of use. One consideration is that I travel a good bit, and I take my fiber arts with me. A friend offered to loan me an older style small loom that she had so I could try the size, but that loom was no longer made. So, I jumped right in and bought a ten-inch Ashford SampleIt Loom. 

Sampleit Loom - My yarns are my palette and my passion. I want to share their beauty and comfort with everyone. I want to wrap people in a hug and make them smile every time they look down and see the flash of color draped down their chest. I want people to share my happiness in my fibers. The Sampleit loom lets me do that quickly. In two hours I can go from a naked loom to a scarf ready to hem and fringe. I can go from dyed and dried fiber to a finished scarf in less than 6 hours. That's lightning speed in fiber arts! I wove a scarf a day for a month and I am in love with that little loom!

I hate a naked loom, so, like most weavers, I have the next 2 or 3 projects planned while I'm finishing the one I'm working on. This solid little loom is a work horse, and I continued to weave four scarves a week on it from my handspun and dyed yarns from our critters here on Havencroft Farm.

Speaking of Dyed & Dried...

Spin Dryer - Fiber arts is a craft of lots of tools and tweaks. Many of them you create yourself, many of them exist and you just have to find them. Again, enter my dear friend and amazing fiber artist, Leigh. She is a creative explorer, maker and user of fiber arts tools. Check out her Twining Vine Designs web site here. She's a great teacher and an incredibly talented felter and jeweler. She is also very generous sharing her exploration of fiber arts equipment. When she upgrades equipment, she sometimes offers the prior one to the local fiber artists. So when she had a little spin dryer that need a new home, I thought I'd give it a try.

Scarves and dyed fiber drying in my dye room, aka the back porch.

I wash all my fiber for dyeing and blending. I dye most of my fiber and wash and rinse out all my dyed yarns and fiber. I wet finish all my spun yarns and woven goods. I spend a lot of time hand washing wool, mohair, and alpaca. And it takes forever to dry in the humidity of the Ozarks.

The spin dryer has been amazing. It pulls more water out than you could get out any other way, and in 12 hours I have dry yarn, fibers or scarves. I now can't imagine finishing my fiber arts without one. Thanks again Leigh!

2019 has been an amazing year of learning and growing. Following Focus & Finish has pushed me to find tools and systems to allow me to expand and improve my fiber arts. Now I'm looking forward to building on this base by #PushingBoundaries2020.

How to Finish Your Triloom Woven Shawl

The last weaving pass is run, the center yarn is clipped and your shawl is done! Yippee!

Oh yeah, the weaving is done, now there's the finishing. 

How do you go from that triangle shaped weaving on the wall to the beautiful, drapey, shawl to wrap around your shoulders?

Follow along on the pictures below, and if you have any questions, you can contact me via messenger from our Havencroft Farm Homestead Facebook page.

The weaving is done! This is a twill/tabby combo pattern done with 100% Havencroft Farm grown Jacob sheep wool (Patchwork Cowboy and Havencroft Lauren's fleeces) processed into yarn at Yampa Valley Fiberworks and hand-dyed by me.)

Pretty as it looks from a distance, there are still some spacing issues that need fixing.

Spend time lining up yarns with your trusty weaving comb. (Not to recommend Walmart, but this is the comb I use.)

Once your weaving is all evened-up to your liking, crochet off the top. This shawl is not fringed, so the color changes are along the top. I'll weave those in later. The chain I use to take a shawl off the loom is; pull the corner loop of the shawl onto your hook; pull a loop of your finishing color through that loop; pull the next shawl loop off the nail and through the loop on the hook; pull another loop of finishing yarn through that loop; and all the way across, shawl loop, yarn loop. You should only ever have one loop on your hook. You can see the pattern in the picture above. At the end of the top edge of the shawl, pull up your last loop, cut the thread in the middle and pull it back through, then knot the starting thread for the shawl and the ending thread of the finishing yarn together.

The top edge is crocheted off the loom. Now to lift the bottom two edges.

Just gently lift the yarn off the pegs, or nails, starting at the bottom corner.

This shawl is now attached to the loom only at the top two corners. This is where you can see floats or any other issues that may need to be fixed by stitching them in. 

Take off the finished shawl, hang up your loom and start the next shawl. I always put the next shawl on the loom right after I pull the shawl I'm finishing off. I've planned it while weaving the last one, and I'm eager to get started on it, plus I hate seeing a naked loom!

I weave in all the color join ends with a crochet hook. Some people use a yarn needle. What ever works for you. I take out the knot that I used to join the colors (why I knot the joins loosly), make sure the yarns are crossed over so there are no awkward holes at the top of the shawl, and tuck the ends in, weaving them down their own color run.

Some shawls I crochet a decorative border, and strenghthener on the top, other shawls don't seem to need it. This one needed a bit of straightening on the top edge, which is provided by the crochet border.

Once you are happy with your finishing on the shawl, it's time to wash it. This "wet-finishes" the shawl, allows the yarns to bloom and meld together and sets it as one garment, instead of a lot of woven yarn. It also assures me that the piece does not have any flaws that I missed in the planning or weaving. Hand wash, gently in cool water with wool safe soap. I do the same - lather, rinse, repeat that I do to wash most things. Make sure you fill the basin first and dissolve the soap before adding your garment. Take the garment out to drain while you rinse the basin and prepare the next water bath.

After washing and rinsing, roll your shawl up in a towel and gently squeeze out the excess water. 

Lay your shawl flat and shape it how you want it to dry. I put a king sized sheet over a few towels on our queen sized bed to block my shawls. It's a big enough space, and the door is closed to our bedroom, so it is a cat-free zone, too.

Give it a bit to dry and then wear your beautiful new shawl. This particular shawl is for a friend, if you want to see a picture of her wearing it (give me a few days to get it delivered!) visit our Havencroft Farm Homestead Facebook page.

Common Threads Shawls

I'm working a beautiful teal, rust and peach shawl right now on my seven-foot Laffing Horse triloom. I just love the way the yarn textures are creating a secondary pattern in the color pattern I'm weaving. I posted a picture of that discovery on Facebook. I got lots of likes, compliments that made me feel very honored, and an email from someone who wanted to buy the shawl. Wow. 

I had to let her know that this one was a commission. I have two more shawls to weave after this one that are already sold, and then I can design anew. 

Now, many of you know that I don't take orders, but, I will, as I say, take inspiration. If you want a specific blend of colors in one of my triangle shawls, let me know. I like to use 5-7 colors and textures in a shawl, with one being dominant. I have really come to prefer weaving with wool, mohair and silk, but I will use synthetics on request. 

If you would like to commission a shawl, let me know what colors you would like, what fiber types and short fringe, long fringe or no fringe. 

I can let you know how long it will take. The shortest possible time is two weeks. Sometimes the answer may be six months. I weave 15 to 20 shawls a year. 

I can also tell you what it will cost. 

Generally, shawls woven with commercial yarn, no fringe range from $95 to $150. Commercial yarn with fringe are $150 to $175.

Shawls woven with my handspun yarn from our animals take longer. They cost between $225 for unfringed to $500 for kid mohair with long fringes. 

I will not take any money up front. After I get the shawl done, I will email you pictures. If it is what you wanted, then you can buy it. If not, I have a new shawl in stock. 

Life happens

The last several weeks have been spent weaving, spinning, dyeing, broom and fringe tying. I've been getting up between three and four and weaving for a couple hours before I head into work. Then I weave or spin in the evenings. I wove some awesome shawls and rugs in the last few weeks. 

I do take the occasional "sheep break"!

Shawn and Lena have dyed some beautiful color of broom corn. 

Spinning incredible fine kid mohair. 

This year I managed to weave up every rug fleece that our sheep grew into wonderful Fleecyful wool rugs. 

This shawl is even more beautiful in person. I really wouldn't mind keeping this one. 

I tied so many fringes last week that my fingers are still stiff. 

Shawn and Lena had more beautiful brooms than ever. And Shawn built a stunning show booth that should last for decades, showcase both our products wonderfully and win a good many best booth in show awards. 

We both hit our goals for the amount of product we needed to take to Christmas Showcase, the Little Rock show that provides half our winter income. Everything loaded as planned. Booth, stock and suitcases took less than five hours, a record!

We left on time, running ahead of the predicted winter storm. Two hours into our drive, as we were turning onto highway 67 to Little Rock we got a call that the show was cancelled. Stunned is still the best word to describe how I feel. 

The van is still packed, though we brought the food and suitcases in. Several of us tried to put together shows for next weekend. Leigh Abernathy of Twinning Vine Designs managed to pull together a show for Saturday, December 14 in Heber Springs. I'll post the address on Facebook. 

I'll spend the rest of my time off from work posting the new rugs, shawls and yarns in the etsy store and trying some new promotions. And now that we have this new booth, we will be looking for some more good indoor shows. 

Just goes to show you, no matter how prepared you are, life happens. 

My Newcomb Weaver's Friend

I weave my Fleecyful Rugs on this Newcomb loom. My Aunt Jeannie found this loom when she lived in Lynn, Massachusetts many years ago. She gave it to me, well, quite some time ago, in the days before the Internet. 

So, I first set it up by trial and error. I've had it set up in several different configurations. I've taken it down moved it and reassembled it many times. Sometimes I mark the parts with masking tape to make it easier to put it back together. 

This week, I had someone message me that they had a friend who had acquired a Newcomb Weavers Friend and was attempting to assemble it. 

I said I'd be glad to take pictures of mine and how I have it set up and share them. 

I'm not saying this is the right way, but it works for me and I've woven several hundred rugs on this loom. 

If you have any questions, please either leave a comment or email me. 

And now I need to get back to weaving. 

 Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour is September 13-15, 2013. 

Color inspirations

Where do I get my inspiration for my color combinations?

Join me for a rainy morning walk in the garden. 

The world is so gorgeously green this morning. I think Oz is just short for Ozarks and we live in the Emerald City. 

Creativity in Black and White

I was sorting yarns in the freezer (a moth proof way to store yarn) and I came across this nice package of wool yarns that I had set aside for a shawl. My little loom needed a new warp, and I didn't want to dip into the Cast Iron colorway that I am dyeing up to warp the Newcomb for the new fleece rugs.

I'm mostly enjoying weaving shawls out of handspun right now, so I didn't feel like I needed to save that wool yarn any longer for a shawl. I warped up the little loom in this pattern with the black, gray, light gray and white wool.

Black to White warp with Tillie's white mohair

 Then I thought of the mohair I have left in the bag. Tillie's mohair - a nice, shiny white. Gizmo's mohair, a soft, glossy black. Should I mix them in one long rug?

Black to White warp with Gizmo's black mohair.

Maybe I should have, but I decided not to. I wove up the Gizmo rug on Saturday, and yesterday I started the white Tillie rug. They probably won't sell as a pair, but I'm having fun making them that way.

And I have this song stuck in my head now, "The ink is black, the page is white..."

Swatch test

After washing

Before washing

After washing

Before washing

I've learned, through experience to swatch test all the yarns I want to use together in a weaving project, especially if I'm putting them on the Newcomb. It takes 16 hours to tie and wind a warp onto the big old rug loom, and that's after I've dyed and measured the yarns. Then I can weave between 5 and 8 rugs on that warp, depending on the size of the fleeces, so I need to make sure the yarns in that warp play well together.

To do a swatch test for rugs, I take the yarn I want to use and crochet tem together. Then I just throw them into a regular wash load and see how they come out. I think this batch will make a pretty set of rugs. And I should have it on the loom by this year's Shearing Day, Saturday, March 30.

One knot at a time

I am a weaver. I take fiber and make cloth - one strand at a time.

As a weaver, I select my yarns, mostly by texture, creating my own colors in the dye vats. I wind each yarn into a ball, so that I can easily measure it.

One strand at a time, I measure my warp yarns. This current warp has 242 yarns, each one 8-yards-long. More than a mile of yarn, 5,808 feet. It's easy to snarl up a mile of yarn. You have to handle it carefully. One step at a time through all the processes.

I chain up my warp yarns as I measure them into loose braids. Then I lay them over the front bar of my loom. One strand at a time, I draw the yarn through first the reed, then its correct heddle and then I tie it on to the back beam. 242 knots, tied in sequence, one knot at a time.

I don't weave because I have to to cover my body or to stay warm. I live in the real modern world, and could buy things at stores. I weave because it feeds my soul. The rhythm, the regularity, the order, the whole body dance with the thread. I am a weaver.

And right now I see that I need to be a weaver with the rest of my life. The great snarls of projects on my desk, the tangles of things needing sorted, the bits of fluff that really belong somewhere... I need to take each piece of paper, one at a time, put it into a workable form and gather the forms into a chain of events. Then I need to thread them through my computer, my pen, my calculator and begin tying them into finished projects.

One knot at a time. I can do this, I am a weaver.

Stocking up

If you haven't entered my Country Outfitter boot giveaway yet click here and enter it now! If you don't need boots  (and who doesn't need boots) they would make a great Christmas present. 

We've had two hard freezes in a row now, so the garden is going to bed for the winter. The sheep are in their breeding groups and the dairy goats are starting to dry off. It's time for craft shows, indoor work and some catching up.

This mohair shawl just came off the triloom and it is divine.

Right now I'm down to doing only three shows a year, Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour; Eureka Springs Folk Festival and Christmas Showcase in Little Rock. That's way down from a high of 26. Really, my job keeps me pretty busy; pretty entertained; pretty distracted and pretty tired. But I still need to do at least a few craft shows each year.

I do shows to support my sheep; I do shows because I enjoy doing them; I do shows to keep connected with the crafts people that I know and care about; I do shows to look for new crafts people for the Ozark Folk Center Craft Village; I do shows find new homes for the things I make; and I do shows to connect to the buyers and other folks who I don't get to see any other way.

So, right now, I'm finalizing my stock for the November 3 Folk Festival Show in Eureka Springs. I seem to have stuff all over the place. I took two baskets to a demonstration at the Governor's Mansion on Monday. I have stock at the Craft Guild Gallery. I have a few baskets full in my studio and I have quite a bit of work in progress.

I try to do stock lists a week or two before a show and look for any holes to fill in. Currently I have on hand:

XX wool felt balls, undecorated @ $6.00 ea when finished

XX skeins of handspun yarn @ total of $xx.00

XX hand turned crochet hooks @ total of $xx.00

2 sets of hand turned knitting needles @ $25.00 ea

1 felted hook case, unfinished @ $25 when finished

1 felted mohair purse, unlined @ $80.00 ea when finished

3 crocheted handspun hats @ $25.00 ea

1 crocheted wool hat and scarf set @ $45.00 ea

1 crocheted mohair pouch... where is it? And should I line it? @ $25

XX finished tri-shawls @ a total of XX

XX tri-shawls in process (I want to overstitch the bamboo shawl with gold metallic, both for added elegance and to keep the twill weave from slipping) @ XX when finished

XX rectangular shawls @ XX

XX handbags in process @ XX

XX woven scarves @ a total of XX

XX finished rugs @ a total of XX

I always figure it does me no good and frustrates visitors/buyers when I don't have enough stock. People come to craft shows and studio tours to buy handmade items. I always try to have a minimum of $3,000 worth of stock to start a show and I'm happiest (and have my best shows) when I have upwards of $20,000. I don't have the time to make that much stock right now, but it is a good goal.

Mouse fleece - Mouse is our biggest sheep - rug on the Newcomb.

So, I need to quit writing this blog post and go weave... have a great day!

offthebeatenpathstudiotour.com