#fiber

Every year, California’s largest sheep and fiber festival, Lambtown, takes place in Dixon, CA. On the second day of Lambtown, teams of eight compete in a “sheep to shawl” competition, where the teams must start the day with un-spun wool and end the day with a 72” woven shawl. Teams may “warp” a loom ahead of time (where you thread the loom with its foundation of parallel threads), but on the day of competition they must spin their wool into yarn and weave it into a complete shawl.

This year competition was stiff, and very very close, and the winning team finished their shawl with two and a half minutes to spare.

I frequently hear about “needing to keep “politics” out of fiber arts, but art is inherently political.

These were beautiful, masterfully spun, woven, and finished shawls and that in itself is worthy of note.

But watching this team of eight would fight for hours, and pour their love for their community into their art was deeply moving and I am still reveling in the opportunity to have seen this win.

Finished another hand-knit sweater — this one’s for my sweet bf! :] (Pictured) (not the cat).

Completed star shawl, made with Sultan Deluxe yarn from Hobbii. I really love how the beaded tassels really make the rest of the textured design of this shawl *pop*.

🥕 Veggie Patch Needle Book Tutorial

I feel this is the longest tutorial I've written, but not because it's incredibly complex - I was trying my best to cover as much detail, as possible.

This is one of my favourite designs, and I really wanted to make it accessible to everyone to make or simply to be inspired by.

The substructure of synthetic fiber, caught mid-separation. Electron micrograph. Encyclopedia of X-rays and gamma rays. 1963.