Thursday, May 19, 2016

Traditional Textile Garments .... Leslie Turner Presentation


Lesley Turner of Ravenmade Works and Fine Arts Textile Instructor at Victoria College of Art brought her collection of traditional garments from around the world to our Guild last Tuesday.

Leslie presented a dazzling display of textiles illustrating the evolution of clothing.
Fur Pelt
Hide decorated with beads

Protection from the elements
Garment constructed from Palm Tree Fibres




Paper Garment made from Mulberry Tree Fibre



Simple Woven Length of Cotton
Ornate brocade cloth featuring gold metal threads

Leslie showing different ways to wear a simple length of beautiful batik cloth

Sewn Garments - Pleated Skirt
Cloth ornately decorated then cut and sewn to fit
 Embroidered Top

How to wrap a Sari
Winners of the draw for some unique items








Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Skirting the Fleece - Spinning in the Grease

What fun at the Guild today!  Sandra Jaycox of Silverwood Farms, brought in a fleece from her Ewe (Bonnie) and told us about the process of skirting and sorting the fleece.  Sandra raises Icelandic Sheep and the fibre is absolutely beautiful.



Sandra demonstrating the skirting process.
Skirting a  fleece is removing the inferior outer edge pieces.  Much of this is done at shearing, before the fleece is rolled and bagged.

When the fleece is unrolled the neck area is unrolled first, shorn side down. The fleece is heavily skirted starting on the tips side of the fleece, removing dirty and stained wold and vegetable matter.  Fleece from the belly, neck, leg/britch (buttocks, outside of hind legs), haunch/tail areas is usually dirty and discarded.











The fleece is turned over and the shorter second cuts are picked out.
The Icelandic fleece is unique, there are two types of wool in one fleece, some refer to this as dual coated.  The longer wavy or corkscrewed fibres are called TOG and the soft down-like shorter wool is called THEL.

Sorting:  The shoulder and sides have the best wool, shoulder having finest crimp.  Next will be sides of the neck, then  the hips.  The back gets rain and sun exposure, some people like to sort it out for felting.















Helen choosing the fleece to spin for our demonstration.  The process is sometimes  called spinning in the grease, because of the lanolin content of unwashed fleece.



Samples spun and washed




Sample #1(right) fleece with long staples produce a coarse wool
Sample #2 (middle) fleece with no guard hairs long staples produce a finer softer wool
Sample #3 (left) yarn from fleece with a combination of long staples and shorter fibres is not quite so coarse.














More fun spinning!





Silverwood Farms can be found on Facebook as:  Silverwood Farm - Icelandic Sheep.


Thursday, May 5, 2016

A Visit from Alison Irwin .... Inkle Loom Lessons

The Deep Cove Weavers and Spinners Guild were pleased to have Alison Irwin visit us and talk about Inkle Loom weaving.  Alison brought along a table full of inspiration for Inkle weavings.   Following the Guild meeting she held a workshop for interested members on the basics of using the Inkle Loom.
Those of us who took the workshop were impressed with her knowledge and patience in teaching beginners.  If you have an opportunity to take a workshop from Alison, it will be time well spent.

Some pictures from Alison's table of inspiration:

Progression of lessons clearly labeled


Past Conference Materials

Project for upcoming ANWG 2017 Conference
Alison answering questions
Inkle Lesson 101 - Basics