Late Summer...

Things have been busy and I have been enjoying my late summer. I have sent in my first assignments for my Ontario Handweavers and Spinners Spinning Certification (that's a mouthful)!
I've taken a fabric dyeing class with Alyssa Light which was really amazing. Great to meet her and learn some new techniques. I also got to take a little vacation with some fun gals. One of which was Andrea Lehnen!

First things' first. Spinning homework. There are all sorts of rules of presentation and extra little things that you have to remember from way back in May when I actually took the course. It took a while to actually get all the elements all together, labeled and mounted in the correct format. I'm expecting the rest of the assignments to go a little smoother now that I know what I'm doing!

Here's the first assignment - Colour Wheels on fleece and yarn naturally coloured white and grey. Mounted in a sensible way with all the recipes:


This is my text message to Andie L it says, "OMG! I'm about to stick everything down and I'm scared!":


Here is the final presentation:


Second assignment - Colour Gradation using fleece and yarn in white. Labeled, recipes, a made up special code for dyestock use and how everything was done. I liked my gradient but it was a little subtle. I called it "Pear" and it looked almost like I had used a plant dye.:


Here is the final presentation:


Now I'm working on my September assignments. I've been spinning at home by myself and have felt a little lonely about it. Although it's really not spinning that you can take somewhere. I guess I'll have to arrange another little hang out with Andie L!

This dyeing class I took with Alyssa Light was so great! She's a fun person and great teacher. We learned a bunch of resist dyeing techniques. The class was held at Greenwood Quiltery (where I'll be teaching loads this fall, I'll keep everything posted here). It was great to learn about dyeing cellulose fibres and I made some pretty neat patterns. My fave was the shaving cream technique. You spray shave cream on a surface and add ink. You can swirl the ink around using a stick or brush then you lay your fabric over top and allow the dyes to soak in. When you remove the fabric you have a really neat marbling effect.

Resist:


"Parfait" dyeing:

Shaving Cream:


Finally, the getaway! The great Canadian Cottage Getaway! We had a great time and saw so many inspiring things, got to relax and regroup!

Ducks:


Fun-times:


Nature walk (the Birch was sparkly gold, which doesn't really pick up in the photo):