Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
In the Dr. Seuss classic, the character Sam-I-Am asks the question, "Do you like green eggs and ham?"
Today's post is a compendium of chicken questions we have been asked by visitors to Green Pastures Farm. It's a little different post, I hope you enjoy it!
Today's post is a little different. I've had a quite a few first time visitors and new subscribers - insert me doing the happy dance - and so I thought it might be beneficial to give a little tour around the Flora & Fiber website. Even if you've been following for awhile, maybe you'll find something new.
The other 'Let's Spin . . ." posts have all been about various sheep breeds: Romney, Coopworth, Jacob, Lincoln, and Blue Faced Leicester. But today's post introduces something a little different, Camelids, which obviously includes camels, but also humpless South American alpacas, llamas, guanacos, and vicuñas.
Remember the post about my Spinning Competition at the Farm? I ended that post with a strategy to win . . . something my competitor couldn't match . . . adding color. I planned to weave an autumn shawl with handspun yarns and inlaid multi-colored leaves.
A dear friend and fellow fiber enthusiast generously gifted me about 2 1/2 pounds of raw alpaca fleece in 3 colors - black, white, and cinnamon brown. A spinner's treasure trove! So how do you get from this wonderful bag of fluff to . . . luxuriant alpaca top ready to spin?
This is Part 2 of Swedish Art Weave. In Part 1, I shared the tote bag I made with a sampler of the various techniques. Today's post provides a closer look at each of those techniques.
In my July post about Telemarksteppe (another Scandinavian weave), I wrote that I would be attending the MAFA (Mid Atlantic Fiber Association) conference and taking a 4 day workshop on Swedish Art Weaves with Joanne Hall.
I will be sharing what I learned in a two-part series. In today's post, I'll start with a finished project.
In today's post, I thought I would share my process from beginning with unspun fiber through the production of a finished woven project . . . in other words, Fluff to Stuff.
I haven't written about dyeing in awhile. Now with Autumn fast approaching, I've noticed the Black Walnuts are starting to drop, prompting me to sit down and compose this post.
Oftentimes, I find a new project is stalled by the process of color decisions. I'm sure you can relate, whether your creative medium is weaving or knitting or pottery or scrapbooking or home decorating or [insert your own]. There are so many color choices, where to start?
There's a lot of competition here at the farm for Best Spinner and Best Weaver. Despite my undaunted efforts, I don't think I'm winning.
I'm planning to weave an Autumn shawl from handspun, so my wheel is busy spinning the fibers for the project. The yarn needs to be something that when woven will create a lightweight fabric that is airy, yet stable, and has a soft drape.
I chose Romney wool to fit the above wish-list of yarn qualities for my shawl. Read on and see what you think about my choice of this fiber.
I'm currently in the midst of The Tour de Fleece. What is that you ask?
You'll just have to visit the blog to find out!!
I'm intrigued by Scandinavian woven textiles. I like their bright colors, their motifs and patterns, the intricacies of their weaving with frequent color changes.
I also love the charming names of their weaving techniques - dukagång (an inlay technque), krokbragd (a bound weave pattern), halvdrall (a Swedish block weave), krabba (another inlay technique), and rya (a pile weave).
This is Part 2 of a two part series on Shibori dyeing.
Shibori is a Japanese dyeing technique that creates dye-resists in the cloth by folding, pleating, and/or bunching the fabric. These folds are then bound with thread, clamps or rubber bands, preventing the dye from penetrating.
In woven shibori, instead of rubber bands or clamps to create the resist, various stitching methods are applied.
