Sweet Georgia Yarns | 100 Mile Wear

I have finally finished my Sweet Georgia Yarn Fibre Advent project. I spun the entire project on my support spindles. Fortunately I have plenty of spindles, so I don’t need to empty them to continue the project. Once all the fibre was spun, I was able to line up all the spindles organize them into a kind of gradient. The plan was to create a simple two-ply yarn.

There were a variety of fibres and colours in the advent gift packets. The colours were mostly solid, so after a few days of opening plain packets, I decided to save up a few, add some sparkle and sari silk and make some unique blends. It’s all about fun so why not?

Once done, I lined them all up, and put them two at a time into my make-shift lazy kate – plastic basket with rocks to add weight. See below. From there I wound a two-strand plying ball. When one spindle ran out, I chose the next one in line, and fused that fibre to last one, for a continuous thread. There were many different wool blends in this mix, so I had my fingers crossed that everyone would play well together once washed.

I continued winding and adding new yarns until all the spindles were empty and I was left with a 203 g plying ball. And then, to get the job done quickly, because there is a part of me that is quite impatient once I get this far into a project, I plied this baby using my Majacraft Rose wheel. I washed, admired, and wound the yarn into two cakes ready for action. And then they sat until I figured out what they could be.

My plan was to make some kind of simple shawl that would feature the hand spun yarns. The Grain Shawl by Tin Can Knits came to mind. I worked from the middle out on both balls of yarn. To add a bit of fancy, I added an eyelet couple of rows and finished off with (seemingly never ending) picot edging. (Not in the Grain pattern.) Washed, blocked and posing for photos, I think she’s going to do the trick. A nice cover for a cool summer evening, and a cozy shawl/scarf for colder winter walks.

I am going to be teaching 4 full-day workshops at Olds College in Olds, Alberta this year during Fibre Week 2016. As you can imagine, I am over the moon to have been asked, to have my proposals accepted and then to have the classes get sufficient enrollment that they are a go!

The first one up is called Wild About Colour. Here is the short description for it:

This workshop is all about making sense of those wonderful hand painted braids we are seeing everywhere. Learn how to make a series of decisions that will help you get the yarn and effect you want from the colours in your painted braids. In this full-day workshop you will learn some basic and advanced techniques for working with hand painted top. Colour theory will be discussed and practically applied throughout the day.

We will start with basic 2-ply techniques and move into the wondrous world of fractal spinning. After making several fractal samples, we will work on combination drafting and also learn how to make ombre yarn. Skills such as hand carding and Navajo plying will be learned along the way. At the end of this workshop you will be wild about colour and never again hesitant about working with hand painted top.

This is a newly developed class, and though I’ve been thinking about it for years, I haven’t actually had the chance to make it a reality, until now.

For the last while I’ve been puzzling over how to get the most learning out of a 6-hour class. How many exercises can people complete in that time? What number of exercises and which ones will help people understand the fundamental principles of working with hand painted braids and then be able to apply them in other situations?

What’s the best way to teach colour theory, so we don’t get bogged down in it or confused by it, but inspired? These and several other questions have kept me up at night. In the last couple of months, I’ve been experimenting with the workshop plan. I’ve put myself through this class three times already, as each time I tinker with the exercises, the fibre and the flow of the day.

There’s no spoiler alert necessary here, because I have decided that I am not going to tell you my plan, until after the workshop. I want the 12 participants to be the first to see what’s up and how things are going to roll out. All I will say is that there will be seven different lovely coloured superwash BFL colourways from Sweet Georgia Yarns, and 14 different colours of Corriedale top from Fibres Plus that folks will be playing with.

The photos below are some of the shots of my planning and organizing for the class. More about the other classes in future posts.