Tapestry Weavers South

Dear hubs and I travelled to the Yadkin Arts Council to see the Tapestry Weavers South show.

This is a three dimensional piece titled On the Trail by Nancy Garretson.

These beauties capture your eye as soon as you enter the gallery.

The Kite

A wonderful work by April Price.

This piece is by Tommye Scanlon, I love the way she captures the beauty of the flowers and leaves.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show.  I carefully looked at each piece and wished the artists were there to talk about their inspiration, design process and techniques.  My apologies to the artists and works I could not identify.  I carefully took pictures of all the information cards but they were unreadable.  It was an inspiring show and I went home and planned my next sampler.

Ode to Romney

The Romney lamb's fleece purchased at MDSW on Sunday.  I couldn't resist processing a sample.

I  grabbed a couple of handfuls of the fleece.

Soaked it in hot, hot water.  I set a timer for twenty minutes and didn't touch it.

I soaked it in a second tub of hot, hot water with some blue Dawn dishwashing liquid.  Again I set the timer for twenty minutes and left it alone.  I repeated this step another time.

The clean locks were placed on a rack to dry in the sun.

Then I flicked the locks to open them up.

You can see the difference here.  The bottom lock has been washed and flicked.

Augie is guarding the 11grams of flicked Romney locks and black nylon.

After two passes through the drum carder this is a 13 gram batt of 75% Romney and 25% nylon.

This spun up beautifully.  The three ply sample after washing is 16 wraps per inch with a 30 degree angle of twist.  It was spun worsted on the Little Gem II at a ratio of 8.6:1.  The singles will rest over night and be plied tomorrow.

May the Sheep Safely Graze

This day old lamb's sweet face captures my 2016 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival experience beautifully.  How does it get better than good friends, sheep, fresh air, ice cream, fiber tools and lots of fluff!

These dudes were so handsome. 

Nora and I drove up on Friday and met up with Susan, Sallie, Peggy and Burgl for dinner. 

Saturday, I enjoyed the auction.  It was crazy fun, a wise man suggested I make a list of the items I wanted after previewing the auction items.  His best suggestion was to write down my top bid for each item.  He chuckled and said "because people lose their minds out there."

He was not kidding, some of the used, much loved items sold for bids above their new retail price.  There were bargains too.  I got three items off my list, a 12 inch Mirrix loom, an Archie Brennan

style copper pipe loom and best of all nine brass tipped tapestry looms.

I promised myself that my top bid for these lovely bobbins was $50.00.  They were part of a lot with three spindles.  Unfortunately they went for $70.00.  I turned around to see who my nemesis was and it was friend and fellow Piedmont Fiber Guild member Dawn.  Turns out she wanted the spindles and had no interest in my coveted bobbins.  Purchased them from her, so happy!

 That was the highlight of Saturday.  Sunday morning was bright and although the fairgrounds were muddy it didn't impede our progress through the vendors. 

MDSW  is an opportunity for shepherds, vendors and fiber enthusiasts to come together in one place to celebrate.  Nothing captures this as well as the Sheep to Shawl competition.  The  Spin City team won first place.  They had wonderful costumes, display and of course the shawl was beautiful.

Dawn and Christina from our guild were on this Alice in Wonderland themed winning team.

Another highlight of Sunday was a talk by Judith McKenzie on the history of wool.

Inspired by Judith, Nora, Peggy and I headed to the fleece sale.  We were only going to look.  Yeah, right.

This is a six pound Romney lamb fleece that Nora and I split.  Yikes, I said I would never process another fleece.

Until next year MDSW, may the sheep safely graze.