a life of felt

I enjoyed my visit to Woolfest for several reasons. Firstly: bumping into (literally in some cases) lots of friends and colleagues, I think I spent more time chatting than looking. Secondly, I liked seeing the sheep and this year there were some Rough Fell on show, they are enormous sheep. Never mind shearing them I think you could saddle them!

Thirdly, it was interesting to take a look round the suppliers and see what was on offer, I didn’t even overspend all thanks to my trusty list. I got some beautiful Teeswater Curls that should keep me going for quite a while and some dye for the jacket I made.

This year there seemed to be more knitting and weaving than in previous years and it was very busy even on the Friday. If it gets any more popular you won’t be able to move around the show very easily so my advice is to go early and allow lots of time for what you want to see. There seemed to be more suppliers and less crafters to me which was a pity. It’s a shame that Fibrefest is so far away or I’d be tempted to go to that one too.

I’m really looking forward to Woolfest tomorrow. I am trying to be very good and have written a list of the items I need and another of the items I’d like to take a look at. If you’re not careful it’s very easy to overspend. You do come away with lovely things but then they go in your stash sometimes never to reappear.

In addition to stocking up on supplies it’s a great opportunity to have a go at short workshops and watch the fashion show. The sheep shearing should be quite interesting too. The other lovely thing is bumping into so many other people that you know and getting to know one or two new ones.

Well the weekend workshop with Charity Musoma van Der Meer went very well. We began by making a sample top using Charitys’ methods. It seemed a resonable size and I naively wondered if it would fit my daughter when completed. How wrong I was, it will fit a small teddy bear and I do mean small

Working large pieces on small tables was probably the greatest challenge we faced but there was some absolutely fantastic work produced. Below are images of the front and back of my top which I chose to make more like a waistcoat than a tunic. It is silk chiffon with merino 100s, on it I have put  two woollen yarns, one fine silk yarn, throwsters silk waste, ramie fibres, scoured wensleydale and some plastic rings covered with a wool yarn. Everything stayed on.

Some people chose to add frills rather than texture to their pieces and you can see an example of a skirt and a top below. Aren’t they both gorgeous.

I really enjoyed making this but I’m not sure that I’ve been converted to making clothes in felt. However, it has made me consider other ways in which I can incorporate some of these techniques into my other work. Maybe not yet, but hopefully by the autumn you’ll see a difference in what I produce.

Tomorrow I’m off to Thirsk for a weekend nuno masterclass with Charity Musoma van Der Meer. We can make either a skirt or a top, I’ve chosen to do a top and as I’m not over keen on frills I’m going to add texture to it.

The whole thing will be constructed in white and the last two weeks has seen me sampling a variety of fabrics and yarns. I’m very comfortable with nuno but much less so with dress making – wish me luck. I’ll put some photos up when I come back.