Catching up, round 2

The latest fabric came off the loom recently.  I was so happy with this weaving project.  The pattern came out beautifully and when I fulled the fabric the color and drape are just what I wanted.  Hopefully it will be a jumper if I can get the pattern pieces to work.  

Harrisville Shetland warp (russet and walnut) and weft (loden blue)

We took the camper to Avon, MN for the third annual Hand Camp at the Avon Hills Folk School.  It was such a fun weekend and the weather was gorgeous.  Classes offered were:  Natural Dyeing Workshop, Bookbinding, Leatherwork, Birchbark Weaving, and Spoon Carving.  I took the dyeing class with Maddie, which was educational and just plain fun!  Jim enjoyed relaxing and even went fishing and he caught a fish.  

Campers sitting around the campfire on the first evening.

Foraging in the woods for plants for dyeing.

Maddie's beautiful sample swatches naturally dyed and some sumac that we used for our eco-dyed bags.

We each dyed two bags by laying out the flowers, bark, herbs, and leaves on the bags.  After rolling (while still adding bits and bobs) and then tying the bundles around sticks, we simmered them over the fire.  

There were three dye vats, walnut, buckthorn berry, and indigo.  The indigo is shown before we poured it into the large bucket with hot water.  

It was fun to unroll the bundles to reveal the colors on the eco-dyed bags.



I accordion-folded the towel, added marbles, and clothespins to make a pattern on the towel.
Dip-dyed for three minutes in the indigo dye.  It was cool to watch it turn from green to blue when it came out of the vat.

L to R top to bottom:  Indigo dyed tea towel using Shibori technique, overdyed handmade felt for vest, buckthorn berry dyed white handspun wool, walnut dyed wool fabric (the original white is to the left), and the eco-dyed bags showing the fronts and backs.  Some of the plants used were buckthorn leaves, goldenrod, fennel, sumac berries, purple basil, marigolds, turmeric powder, white birchbark (from a downed tree), and pine sprigs.
The white birchbark made the blue areas.

Catching up

September...Looking out the window I can see the latest painting project, which is the shed.  It took three days and (thankfully) the weather was relatively cool.  Jim and I finished before the heat wave hit.  It is beginning to rain and today is a good day to catch up on some projects.  The state fair begins this week and even though there is still a month of summer remaining, I see small changes like some of the sumac leaves turning orange and red.  Cooler sweater weather is on the way.

On Saturday, August 18, I volunteered to do a spinning demo beside the Three Rivers Fibershed.  Mary received an email inquiring about a volunteer spinner during The Great Makers Exchange at the American Swedish Institute.  The timing was perfect because I wanted to visit the ASI to see Gudrun Sjödén--A Colorful Universe and being a volunteer, my admission to the museum was free.  I did not take many photos during the demo time, as the stream of visitors was steady and the time seemed to fly by.

Twelve days pass...and I am back.  We took the little Escape Pod out to Banning State Park in Pine County.  It is a small park and three years ago we kayaked the rapids on the Kettle River.  Because it rained the first two days (5+ inches) the river was up and really rushing along.  It was a joy to get out and hike after the rain.

Late afternoon after the rain.  

Coffee time.  

The hiking was particularly good on the trail and along the Kettle River.

The spin-in after the campout Deb (Ewespun fiber Mill at Old Man Wool Farm) had some beautiful Leicster Longwool dyed the most beautiful moss green.  It was just the pop of color I was seeking for a project using the handspun Jacob wool from Chi Chi.  Her fleece was one I purchased at Shepherd's Harvest a few years ago.  I combed the wool and it spun up just beautifully.  

Pulling the wool through the diz that Mary's husband, Rob, made.  The Leicester Longwool spun and plied beautifully.  It will be a lovely pop of color against the grayscale of the Jacob wool.

Inspiration

The end of September campout was at the Camp-Inn Campout at Castle Rock County Park in Juneau County, WI.  While the majority of campers were teardrops, there were 28 home-builds, and various other tiny campers.  It was fun to visit with other folks from all over the United States.  

We spent Friday out and about the area.  We visited the Cranberry Fest in Warrens.  It is a small town, but is transformed with hundreds of visitors.  We took a short marsh tour to see how the cranberries are grown and harvested.  The guide is one of the local farmers.  At the end, we bought some craisins and cranberry honey.  The cinnamon craisins are delicious in the chocolate chip cookies I baked the other evening.

I finished my handspun beanie on the bus ride to the marsh.  The colors look just like the colors of a campfire.

The marshes before harvest.  

Wisconsin harvests about 60 percent of the country's crop of cranberries.  They are delicious and  I use them all year round.  Here is a link to some recipes.

Jim and I took a day to visit the Burr Oak Winery.  We tasted some whites and reds and settled on a bottle of white and a bottle of dessert wine.  The flowers in the courtyard were just beautiful.  Those mums were gigantic!

One place I was delighted to visit was Mielke's Fiber Arts.  I contacted Amy the day before and she opened the shop for a visit.  I found a left-handed Nalbinding book along with a larger needle, a couple of fun reads about spinning, spindles, and weaving, a Dealgan (Scottish spindle), and some naturally colored cotton spinning fiber.  I have some roving left from Texas, so the colors will coordinate nicely.  It was so nice to be able to wander around the shop and see all the wonderful tools for working with fiber 

A visit to Wisconsin isn't complete without cheese. We did not visit a cheese house, but we did buy a snack for the road.  The store carried a variety of cheesehead hats.