Weaving Class

I just finished teaching a weaving class at The Smallest Art Gallery in Ortonville, MN. Gallery owner Kathleen Marihart hosted the three day class. She participated between customers. Students learned to make their own loom out of cardboard. We also learned several different weaving techniques they will be able to use to design and create their own weaving projects. everyone had a great time and all the finished pieces were wonderful!

 The gallery was open to the public while the class was being held. Several shoppers and 'lookers' came in during the class. We may have to do a second class due to the interest shown by the people coming into the gallery and watching this class!

Katy was the youngest weaver. She is almost 18. Katy has some alpacas and angora rabbits. She likes to spin her own yarn with a spindle. She had a lot of fun with the class and brought along  lots of good ideas and things to add to the weaving like feathers and beads. 





Katy managed to finish two weavings during the class!

Sue is a quilter most of the time. She was looking for something a little different. You can see her design skills from quilting in her weaving She made good use of the different weights of yarn, sticks, feathers and beads that were available. She was able to incorporate some of each in her weaving.

 Her use of materials was fun to watch. Her tree was especially nice! She also found an interesting piece of wood to incorporate.

Kathleen, who is primarily is a watercolor artist, had lot of fun with the class as well. She waited on the shoppers between pics. She also made a mad dash to the lake to find sticks and pieces of wood and bark to add to our weaving. She was busy with customers during some of the demonstrations of techniques and created a few of her own! I think she has the hang of it and she plans to continue weaving. She is also interested in learning to weave on a ridged heddle loom. I feel another class coming on...

GALLERY SHOW

This month I have a gallery show at a new art gallery in Ortonville, MN. The gallery is The Smallest Art Gallery. The gallery was opened this spring by Kathleen Marihart. You can visit the gallery on Facebook and at http://www.thesmallestartgallery.com/ , or in person at 118 2nd Street NW Ortonville, MN 56278. The Smallest Art Gallery is open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 to Noon.

A fellow fiber artist, Erlys Sis and I are showing together. The show runs from July 17 through July 28. This is some of Erlys' work. She does many different types of fiber art from knitting and crochet to thread sketching and needle felting. Her items are very unique and interesting. She is teaching a thread sketching class during the gallery show.




I taught a  weaving class at the gallery where students learned to make a loom from cardboard. We the learned many stitches and techniques of tapestry weaving that they can use in future projects. All the students did beautifully, as usual. I am always amazed by what they turn out. Students will be able to take the skills they have learned and create their own future projects, building looms to fit their needs.

Next week I will be teaching a kids weaving class using drinking straws to weave yarn with!

Earlier this month Erlys and I presented at the Sisseton Fine Arts Show in Sisseton, SD. There were about 22 artists showing. There was everything from paining in different mediums, photography, jewelry making, iron sculptures, some needlework, and author, and much more. Sisseton has a wonderful and diverse community.  They are a very active community. They have turned an old school into a community building that houses not only art classes, but dance, yoga, and much more.

Under the weather, a little...

 Life has taken a bit of a turn. I had a total knee replacement last Monday. My neighbor came to visit today. He saw my walker and thought it was pretty cool, but he thought it needed some sheep on it. I agreed! This is how it turned out. I am proud to take it anywhere. The little red bag is my sister, Sara's idea. I needed a way to make sure I always had my phone within reach. She inspired me to create a little phone bag to attach to my walker. I can easily remove it and hang it around my neck if needed. Great little idea!



While Sara stayed with me for a few days after surgery (THANK YOU, SARA) she found time to
help my neighbor learn to knit. I just happened to have a spare set of needles left over from the Beginning Knitting class I taught in February.  I also had this ball of camo yarn that Nathen thought was really nice. He was a serious student and learned in no time!

I have also realized that I will be unable to spin any yarn for a while as I need to keep my leg elevated Sara brought a book with her that I had not seen before. 

It is the newest One Skein Wonder Book 'Lace One-skein Wonders', edited by Judith Durant and published in 2013 by Storey Publishing. I fell in love with the book and ordered myself a copy. It arrived today. It is full of beautiful, small, Lacey fun projects. I think many of these will be

Perfect to showcase Arachne Handspun yarns. I have decided to knit up some things to sell at the next sale I go to. I think Arachne will be presenting some Lace Knitting classes in the not to distant future...watch the Arachne Yarns Facebook page for announcements!

First Dyeing of the Season!

Spring is upon us. We have had some 60 degree days. I usually don't do much dyeing in the winter, simply because the wool is inconvenient to dry in the house; so when the warmer temps hit, I got anxious! I went to the freezer and pulled out my saved avocado pits and skins. I have a good supply of onion skins, thanks to Bonnie's Hometown Grocery where they save them for me. I had some skeined yarn spun up and some roving from the same fleece. I decided it would be fun to make a skein each of the onion and avocado. I put half the remaining roving in each of the pots. I thought I could blend this and spin it together to go with the other two skeins.

I started by putting pits and skins from the avocados in water in one pot and boiled that for about one hour. I filled another pot half full of onion skins and added water to cover by about four inches. I boiled them for about an hour also. I let the pots steep over night.

Later that day I mordanted the wool with a 10% alum solution. I cooked that for about 45 minutes just under a boil. I cooled the wool in the pot and washed it well after to remove any extra mordant.

The next morning I strained the dye into new pots. I put the wet, mordanted yarn in in the pots and slowly brought each to a simmer for 45 minutes. Then I let each pot steep over night.

The third day, I removed and rinsed the wool and hung it in the bathroom shower to dry...so much for warm weather. It is back into the 40's and feels too cool to dry the wool outside.

This is the result. Onion skins on the left, avocado on the right. Now that I see them together I have decided that I will probably not use just these two colors. I think some wool dyed with withies or dandelion would work in well and maybe aome marigold for green. Back to the freezer!

I will let you know what happens next....

Needle Felting Class

Today was Needle Felting class. The table is set and waiting for the class to start! Five people signed up for this class. The class was needle felting bunnies for Easter, but two participants wanted desperately to make gnomes....so we did that, too.

Lots of wool, needles, colored wool and beads, ribbons, and threads for decorating!

Soon the fun started. There were a few pricked fingers, no band aides required. Some people were shy, so no faces, but I can assure you, everyone was laughing as our bunnies took form.

Here are the new bunnies! 

And, don't forget the gnomes! 

Thanks to all who were here! It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon!