Carding Fleeces in the Sunshine

The UK weather is about to take a turn for the worse with the remnants of hurricane Bertha heading our way tomorrow so I have been making the most of the sunshine over the last couple of days and carding my White-faced Woodland (WFW) and Jacob fleeces outside.

I have been making a few rolags to try on my new drop spindle too:

And I made a felt sample from the WFW:

This is quite a coarse, hairy wool, definitely not a good choice for scarves but has lots of potential for slippers and handbags. Its shrinkage rate was 40%.

Those of you on the Felting and Fibre Studio Forum may recall I was looking to join a felt-making or other textile group a few months back and I think I may have found one through the International Feltmakers Association. It’s not particularly close (they meet in a village hall an hour’s drive away) but I am hopeful it will be worth the effort and they only meet once per month. Their next meeting is tomorrow – wish me luck!

With my City and Guilds course nearing an end I have also taken the plunge and signed up to a couple of workshops in addition to a 1-week contemporary weaving course I signed up to in May. Fiona Duthie’s Surface Design workshop starts at the start of September and runs for 6 weeks, then I have Karoliina Arvilommi‘s workshop in the middle of September and Tim Johnson’s weaving workshop at the end of the month. I am hoping that I can use Tim’s techniques to incorporate felt and textiles into some contemporary basket weaving. September is already shaping up to be a busy month! Exciting times ๐Ÿ™‚

8 thoughts on “Carding Fleeces in the Sunshine

  1. Felicity

    Well done Teri! I hope you'll enjoy your new group meetings!
    And so many exiting plans! Are you going to Finland for Karolina Arvilommi's workshop? I've heard about her a lot…

    Reply
  2. Felicity

    Well done Teri! I hope you'll enjoy your new group meetings!
    And so many exiting plans! Are you going to Finland for Karolina Arvilommi's workshop? I've heard about her a lot…

    Reply
  3. Teri Berry

    Hi Felicity, the felting group was fantastic, I had a really good time and nearly completed 2 hats during the day. I will definitely be going again ๐Ÿ™‚ I'm joining the Devon IFA group for Karoliina's workshop, she's running workshops all over the UK for the next few weeks (check out the International Feltmakers Association for more details).

    Reply
  4. Teri Berry

    Hi Felicity, the felting group was fantastic, I had a really good time and nearly completed 2 hats during the day. I will definitely be going again ๐Ÿ™‚ I'm joining the Devon IFA group for Karoliina's workshop, she's running workshops all over the UK for the next few weeks (check out the International Feltmakers Association for more details).

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Laura McGrath Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *