Karelia Crafted

Finished a fun clasped weft accent piece just in time for Christmas ❤️ It’s been under planning since the spring and I dare say I’m really pleased with how well it turned out!

Spun up Shunklies Fibre Studio ‘sunrise’ (red/orange/white) and World of Wool red merino 80%, bamboo 20% on my Spinolution King Bee. I had less of the latter so I spun that thinner and plied together ☺️ Woven on Kromski Harp rigid heddle loom with an 8 dent heddle to a 5/2 mercerised cotton warp. Washed yardage, sewn into tubes, lined with rigid lining (leftover curtains actually). Pleated the end and attached pom poms.  Leftover yardage was sewn into a double loop cowl that ended up a Christmas present to my mother-in-law. 

Currently weaving the last piece of the Magic Word warp - thus named because the material blend is a mile long mouthful. 20% tencel, 20% seacell, 20% rose, 20% peppermint, 20% sarcandra glabra - the first two being collectively known as lyocell and last three are viscose - all of them ‘rayon.’ It has a silky feel but is machine washable on gentle cycle.  First piece “There Is No Such Thing As Too Much Pink,” 2 meter shawl with thin Venne organic cotton weft.  Second piece “City of Hearts” (I will make a separate post with more photos) with banana viscose weft and clasped weft details, 5.2 meters.  Last piece will be 3.5ish with fringes and nubby tussah silk weft. 

Finished a lovely custom warp for a wonderful mama ❤️ Four pieces - two with hand dyed cotton / hemp from Saltwater Rose, two with black 60% silk, 40% wool. The warp is Bockens 8/2 Egyptian cotton, hand painted. 

Still spinning for fiber 365 challenge. Just not updating because happily most of it is custom order for baby wraps and thus takes ages to spin 😀

  Handspun core yarn in mostly merino and other wools (and a dash of silk and glitter). 

Finished another custom dyed warp, this time in Saltwater Rose supima cotton. This beauty is a 6 meter mulberry silk clasped weft piece in turquoise and dark gray, “True Beauty Comes From Within.”  Pink and yellow warp with yellow banana weft, “Little Bird.” “Lempeys,” tussah and mulberry weft wound on the same bobbin.  And “In The Market For Some Magic,” handspun peppermint/baby camel/sari silk plied with commercial tussah singles. 

Well I finished my handspun double weave! It’s quite the beast but will not budge when wrapped. Quite nice as my kids are only getting bigger now. 

Started with two for fun batts I’ve been dying to spin. And once I started I couldn’t stop 🤩  Still a bit of singles to spin tomorrow. Blended this myself. Thinking of plying with venne 16/2 organic cotton but also tempted by tussah or bourette silk. White superwash merino 60%, rose 15%, pearl 10%, black sari silk 10% and trilobal nylon sparkle 5%. 

Part two of Magic Word will be woven by Eloisa Wovens ☺️👌

Got started on a small batt of Clun Forest sheep wool skirtings. 

I got two North Country mule fleeces earlier in the summer. This one got a suint bath and when the smell refused to leave, I kettle dyed it. Singed a bit too 😬  It’s quite lovely and medium handle, swaledale x BFL if I recall correctly. Only trouble is, it has a break and rise at the butt end - and the rise is terribly felted.  I’m yet not very efficient at combing (I take on too much and then my wrists hurt) so I’m flicking through the locks to remove the new growth of wool, broken tips and vegetable matter. But the rise and a few crunched up longer fibers seemed very cloudy as well so that’s what I tested spinning today ☺️

Spun a bobbin of rustic romney from picker cloud and got started on second, spun from washed locks. 

Not much weaving is going on. Again. Eldest with a temperature and cold this time so kids are at home. I did try to sneak in weaving time by bribing the older kids with ice cream but the youngest woke up before I actually got to weave. Thankfully she was so excited to see the toys upstairs she didn’t do much mischief and I got the first repeat done on my double weave piece with handspun weft. 

I’m on day 53 after missing three days so far. I’m making mini skeins of lock spun Romney fleece, lightly washed. Each skein is 45-60 grams, 68-84 meters. I’m really enjoying this, finishing a small skein a day. ☺️  Still need to dye the last one. I seem to be on the roll with these so I think I will wait for a few more before heating the dye pot. 

Finished dyeing a tencel / seacell / peppermint / rose / sarcandra glabra blend custom dye warp.