My last two handspun, hand knit projects were stranded knit hats. I used a gorgeous natural dark brown for the MC (main colour) and a handpainted braid from Crafty JAKS in their “Sea Stars” colourway for the CC (contrast colour). I choose Sea Stars because to me the colours and… Read More »A Distaff & A Lock-Pop
I was recently asked if I could share how I maintain grist, a consistent thickness in my handspun. First, I think it is important for me to stress that my spinning does contain inconsistencies but those inconsistencies are not nearly as noticeable once turned into woven or knitted fabric. Here… Read More »The gist of grist
I recently participated in a really interesting collaboration with the team at SweetGeorgia Yarns. They asked their spinning instructors to share pictures containing colours or ideas that express something that inspires them during the winter season. My inspiration was a photo of a Common Kingfisher and the Greek legend which… Read More »SGY Winter Inspirations Collaboration
The first stranded knit sweater I purchased was back in 1977 and I have been smitten with stranded knitting ever since. Over the years I have, for the most part, knit smaller projects; children’s sweaters, mitts, cowls, hats, and the like. In 2023, I took the plunge and knit a… Read More »Stranded Knitting Journey So Far…
The slate of workshops and lectures for 2025 are updated and can be found under the Workshops tab. Topics include: “Eri, The silk with humble beginnings”, creating wool/silk blends, handspun from handpainted eri and tussah silk, how to use value keys as a tool for fibre preparation and plying, different… Read More »Workshops for 2025
It is always a bit of challenge to find/spin a background or main colour yarn that works well with yarn spun from handpainted braids. On the left is the handpainted braid used to spin the five different skeins seen below and on the right is my solution; a construction method… Read More »Background/Main Colour Yarn Design
One of my piques, when working with floating selvedges and a 2-ply wet spun line linen on a recent project was that the floating selvedge thread twirled around as it dangled off the back beam. This undid the ply twist and without the ply twist the linen was more susceptible… Read More »Floating Selvedge
As mentioned in Part II, my hands get quite warm and sometimes moist when I spin silk. Not a good combination at all. As the silk starts to stick to my hands, the fibre source becomes disheveled causing the fibre to draft poorly. Several years ago, I decided to see… Read More »Eri Silk, Part III
HYDRATING ERI SLIVER The night prior to preparing rolags, I place a length of sliver in a baggie along with a damp cotton ball, which has been gently squeezed to prevent dripping. After tucking the damp cotton ball into a corner of the baggie away from the sliver, the baggie is… Read More »Eri Silk, Part II
The handspun textural accents in this scarf were spun from hand-painted eri sliver. The fibre preparation had a silky soft hand and a satiny sheen. Quite a contrast to my first experience spinning eri fibre from India in the early 1980’s. At that time, the traditional degumming process subjected cocoons… Read More »Eri Silk, Part I