I often ask myself how I got to where I am in my life. I certainly didn’t expect to find myself wading thigh-deep in mud and spiders cutting down plants at a botanical garden. LOTUS I recently had the pleasure of reading The Long Thread special issue. Check out my review here. It inspired me
I’m working with the Wildflower Acres farm in Fillmore, Missouri. Joanna owns a small flock of Corriedale sheep bred specifically as a handspinner’s flock. She keeps her eye on genetics and micron count and continues to breed for finer, more lustrous colored fleeces. Much of the research surrounding micron count only focuses on Merino sheep.
At this exact moment, you might be asking yourself… is that a pasta maker? Why, yes, my astute student, that is indeed a pasta maker. But, Meagan, what are you doing with a pasta maker? Last year, I planted flax in my square foot garden. I ended up with a nice, 8 sq ft crop.
Light-fast? Nah… Last week, we tried our hand at using purple carrots as dye. As promised, I’d like to share my results. Purple carrots are not a light-fast or substantive dye. This means they don’t produce long-lasting color and the dye doesn’t adhere to fiber without a mordant. The superwash merino I tried didn’t take
This week, I harvested the rainbow carrots from my square foot garden. I ended up with a couple of pounds of carrots and I knew what I’d use them for. You see, I’ve got a nine-month old baby, and not only can I say I make his baby food, but I also grow it. This
When we use a single fiber, we benefit from all the qualities that one fiber possesses. When we blend fibers, we get a combination of qualities from the two different fibers. Blending different proportions of each fiber can alter the way the fiber preparation behaves. For example, a 50/50 blend of silk/merino is going to
I have a problem. I like to dye things. And by dye things, I mean I like to dye everything. If it is white or grey, it gets dyed. Even if my best intentions are to leave the wool natural, I still always end up dyeing it. 2017 and 2018 I have been heavily focused
Let’s try a controlled experiment to see how temperature and fiber type impact feltability. You will need… one to two ounces of commercially prepared wool (not superwash) one to two ounces of alpaca or another protein fiber beside wool A bar of soap, your preference Water A sharp knife Begin by slicing your soap into
Observation We talked a little about optical color blending and how our eyes will attempt to blend two colors that are close to each other, especially when the colors are present in small portions. This is why our eyes perceive a Pointillistic painting as an image and not just a series of dots. Let’s put optical
