Friday, May 3, 2013

Day 1 on Salt Spring

Today is my first day at the felting workshop I'm attending here on Salt Spring Island, BC. It is such a beautiful, vibrant island! Im here because i want to learn how to felt with alpaca onto silk. I took a bag of Buttercup's alpaca rovings with me, plus silks, natural yarns and threads.
Today i started a silk scarf. It started out
as a piece of white china silk 90 inches long by 20 inches. Im anxious to see how much it shrinks!
First step
Lay out the alpaca fibre onto the silk.
I added some threads of a blue silk yarn.
Then the labor begins.
Sponge wetting the fibre on the silk
Rolling it tightly on to the 'noodle'. Roling it to a count of 350. Unroll. Reroll from the other side. Repeat rolling to a count of 350. Repeat whole process two more times!!!
Then check to see how the fibre is felting. If too dry rewet and message with dove soap. Rewrap and roll 2 to 3 mire times. Check.
If ready you now rinse in hot water squeezing out soap. Then throwing it onto table. This agitates the fibre and gives relief to the felter! At this point i bundled up my wet piece and put into a plastic bag. I wonder how much it will
Shrink over night???










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