Any Guild or Associate Member belonging to the MidAtlantic Fibre Association is eligible to register for this virtual workshop being offered in the Spring of 2026. Membership info may be found here https://mafafiber.org/about-us/join-us/guild-membership-application-renewal/ or here https://mafafiber.org/about-us/join-us/associate-members/ One Handpainted Braid – Six Different Color Effects Handpainted braids are wonderful sources of… Read More »MAFA Virtual Workshop
Dressing my distaff with dizzed sliver or carded roving has been an evolution. In the beginning I placed the lengths of dizzed sliver/roving in a bowl (see above). As my lengths of dizzed fibre became longer, I needed to figure out a better system. This is when I turned to… Read More »How I Dress My Distaff
Leanne Paulin of Huespun Fiberworks is a talented dyer, spinner, knitter, writer and photographer. I follow her blog and really enjoy reading about her thought process as she decides how to dissect and prepare fibre from handpainted braids. If you enjoy reading about all things colour and fibre or are… Read More »HUESPUN FIBERWORKS
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
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
First, why load the sliver onto a distaff in the first place? There are several good reasons actually: It gives you a chance to slightly attenuate the sliver if it is compacted from packaging or dyeing. Eri silk is almost as fine as Bombyx. Even the slightest breeze can blow… Read More »Eri Silk, spinning on a top whorl spindle
February 15, 2024 the School of SweetGeorgia launches my new course, “Spin a Hand-dyed Braid 5 Ways. In this course I demonstrate how you can achieve five distinct colour effects in your 2-ply handspun from a single colourway. I will also be demonstrating how I use my equipment in non-traditional… Read More »Spin A Hand-dyed Braid 5 Ways
Some photos of recent works have been posted to my photo gallery. You will also find an updated list of all 2024 workshops as well as a retreat in August on Salt Spring Island. Below is a photo of six different colour effects spun from one Sweet Georgia Yarns colourway,… Read More »Photo Gallery and Workshops