Alpaca part 1

I Love Alpaca fibre :)

It is so soft, silky and shiny and great for wet felting. A few months ago I decided to do a little experimenting to see how well alpaca would felt with just one and two very thin layers-the plan being that I would use the info for making a scarf.

I already had some Huacaya fleece that I bought a couple of years ago, so after spreading a huge sheet on my floor, I sat down and separated a huge pile of locks.

After separating the locks, I picked out any large pieces of vegetable matter, then combed the locks. I did this by carefully holding onto one end of the lock, then dragging it slowly through the teeth of a hand carder a few times. Then, holding the combed end, I dragged the other end through. It does take a bit of time doing this and the hand carder had to be cleaned a few times to get rid of tangled fibre and vm, but the end result is a huge pile of soft, fluffy locks with all the fibres running in the same direction. This might not be important for some felting projects, but for cobweb felt for example, it really helps to achieve the wanted effect.

 

Some individual locks and a couple of locks after combing...I had to put the combed locks on a bright magenta background to get them to show up :)

These weren't particularly 'controlled' experiments, I didn't take notes on shrinkage etc, it was purely to see how the alpaca would hold together, how it looked and how it would feel. I'll do all the calculations when I decide which alpaca and how many layers to use.
The one layer alpaca worked better than I expected. It's fairly obvious from the photo where the rows overlapped, but it held together very well, and the effect of the crimp and curl of the felted locks was really nice.

Close up:

Held at the window:

The two layer sample felted much more evenly and the overlapping wasn't as obvious. It felt less delicate than the one layer sample, but had as much 'drape' and felt even softer. The characteristics of the crimp and curl wasn't lost either.

Close up:

Held at the window:



I'll be trying the same thing with Suri Alpaca, I don't think I'll get to it until after Summer, and it'll probably take even longer before I blog about it, but I will do eventually :)

Notebook Cover

Sorry! I'm a terrible blogger, I know :(

I really meant to do an entry all about Alpaca in April after I'd spent a few days separating locks of Huacaya and Suri alpaca. But, I got sidetracked with other things and then it was Summer. I find the heat and humidity impossible to felt in, and my wool tops become staticy making it a nightmare to lay anything out. We had about a week of lovely cool weather recently though, so I took a chance and made myself a new felt notebook cover.

I wanted something colourful, so I used a rainbow mixture of bright blended merino:

I'm so used to using lots of  'extras' in my felt that it looked a bit 'flat', so I added some silk, ramie and bamboo tops, some silk scarf scraps, pieces of organza and cotton gauze, silk throwster's waste, a few locks of Bluefaced Leicester and some silk noil and a silk carrier rod:

I think I made my strips of merino a bit too narrow because the colours went a bit 'muddy' as they shrank together, but the other fibres lifted it.

It probably took me longer to decide which part to use as the front than it did to sew it :) but I finally made my mind up and made a simple notebook cover:

I have a set on flickr showing how to make a simple notebook cover and if, like me, you always forget how to start off with blanket stitch, or even if you've never tried it, I have a set for that too :)

*** I'm sorry, but Blogger's new way to really annoy me is by not allowing me to comment. I really hate not being able to acknowledge that people have left comments, but I do really appreciate everyone reading the posts and commenting, and I do read them all.

White felt lampshade cover

I've been promising Heather for ages that I'd get round to making a white felt lampshade cover after she shared hers, and I did make the felt about a week ago, but I only got around to sewing it the other day. I handspun some thin white yarn to hem the top and sew the seam, but I left the natural edge along the bottom.

I'm wishing I placed some locks over the edge now.

The bottom is a thin layer of 18.5 mic natural white merino, then there's a thin layer of 23 mic natural white merino. The 3rd layer is lots of different natural coloured locks and curls-Mohair, Wensleydale, Angora, Teeswater, Bluefaced Leicester, and some wool nepps too. The top thin layer has natural Merino, Devon, Romney and Texel tops, topped with silk, ramie, bamboo, Teeswater, Mohair, soya bean fibre and silk noil. There's a few bits of vegetable matter in there too :)

Buttons!

....and a few brooches and embellishments :)

When I was searching for the perfect button for one of my texture-felt bags, I realised my stash of Fimo buttons and embellishments was practically non existent ... not counting the far too huge stockpile of 'rejects' I have (I will find a use for them one day!).

So, I decided to get all my fimo 'paraphernalia' out and make a huge mess in the kitchen making vast amounts of all things polymer. I wasn't even sure my fimo would be good, since I hadn't used it for 2 or 3 years, or that I'd remember how to do it, but it was fine, even previously conditioned clay I'd wrapped up was as good as the day I'd left it, and I had no problem remembering what to do. Though I can't for the life of me remember where my polyblade is :)

A few days on, and I have a growing collection of buttons, embellishments, brooches and pendants. Here are a few of them, there are more on my flickr page :)

Coin Purse Tutorial

I've been busy making notebook covers and matching (or contrasting!) purses for gifts this week.

Half way through sewing one of the purses, I found myself wishing I'd worked out a long time ago, how to do a zippered pocket. So before I started sewing up the second purse, I got my camera out and took photos of all the stages to make a tutorial. I wasn't too sure how to describe the pieces, so I hope the photos speak for themselves.

Here is the tutorial for making a coin purse with an inside zippered pocket: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedster01/sets/72157626049445520/

Texture felt bag...update

I've added a loop and button fastening to my small texture felt bag. I hand spun some thick yarn in the same colours as the bag, using merino and some 'fancy fibres', then I plyed it and felted it by wetting, soaping and rubbing.

When it was dry, I chose the part I wanted to use then positioned it on the bag and fixed it in place by sewing with regular thread. I then covered the sewing with a piece of felt and blanket stitched it into place. The button is one I hand made from fimo a while ago.

Felt Bags

About a year ago, I tried making a felted bag using the Textured Felt method and a bubblewrap resist. I really loved the results:

But I couldn't think of how to attach a strap to it without losing the fancy fibre tassles I'd felted into the sides, so it's been lying neglected in a box for a while. I finally gave in, and recently I snipped the tassles off and attached a strap:

I made a larger bag using the same method a few weeks ago. I haven't attached a strap yet, because I'm hoping to make a felted one, I might even try using the same method, though the thought of trying to sew 2 very long straight lines is a bit daunting :)

I took lots of photos while I was making it, and have added a picture tutorial with descriptions to flickr. The sewing does take a while, but it's a good excuse to sit down with a hot drink and a film :)