First Annual Guild Retreat

April 26th, 27th, and 28th marked the first annual guild retreat for the Crocus Country Fibre Arts Guild.  The majority of guild members were able to attend and we had a great venue given that we were able to spend the weekend at the beautiful North Bow Lodge.  The lodge overlooks the Bow River and is located just outside of Calgary, AB.  The owners Michele and Stu Wheeler were fabulous hosts providing us with comfortable beds, a homey atmosphere, and wonderful food.  Our guild had the entire place to ourselves for the weekend with the freedom to engage in any crafty endeavors that appealed to us.   The weather over the weekend was windy but was also warm and sunny and we were able to take the opportunity to go on some really nice walks along the river with deer wandering nearby, and a variety of birds as well.

View from the Lodge along the Bow

Folks brought spinning wheels, weaving supplies, knitting, dye supplies, blending board, drum carders, swifts, ball winders, rug hook supplies and of course projects in varying stages of completion.  Friday evening we all picked out our bedrooms, set up shop and enjoyed a yummy supper prepared by Michele.  Lenora was kind enough to bring a selection of non alcohol and alcohol based wines and gave us a fun and informative wine tasting lesson.  We got to learn about food pairing and tried out some lovely red and white wines.

Karen working on her spinning

Saturday morning we woke up at our leisure and enjoyed our coffees.  We had a nice continental breakfast and had a great time visiting and working on various fibre arts throughout the day.  Dianne brought a blending board and a wonderful bag of merino fibre contributed by Cal from Shuttleworks. Lots of us took the opportunity to try it out, and I was able to produce a small skein of yarn as a result.
  

Blending Board

Finished skein

Blended Rolags

 Susan had her daughter Cori come down to instruct an outdoor yoga class to work out our kinks, and she was able to join us for a couple meals and some cross stitch too!  Christa & Lenora brought dye supplies and we were able to do some dyeing with acid dyes as well as some natural dye products.  I had the chance to dye up some finn fibre that I brought with me and ended up with a very pretty light yellow from tree moss and a light fawn colour achieved from walnut husks.  I ended up blending the two together to create some really beautiful batts that I'm looking forward to spinning up!

After being blended on drum carder

Top is Walnut Husks, bottom is Tree Moss

 It was wonderful to have so many activities to choose from and so many wonderful and talented ladies to share knowledge and ideas with.  Theresa got to expand her knowledge and skill when she was given a spinning lesson by Christa and Cheryl.  Unfortunately she decided that this was not her cup of tea but did later discover that she really enjoyed needle felting and joined Dianne as both of them worked on felted creatures!

Theresa, Christa & Cheryl

Diane working on her needle felt creature

I also ended up completing two projects I had in the works, one of which was a gradient yarn that I spun from a Bullseye Bump from Steph of Loop on etsy.  Steph makes beautiful centre pull fibre bumps that I love spinning and I am so happy with the finished yarn.

Light Fingering weight 568 yards chain plyed - "Blackberry"

 I also completed a small shawlette that I was working on called Age of Brass and Steam which is a free download on Ravelry for anyone who is interested.   It is knit up from some of my handspun that came from a gorgeous braid from one of my favorite dyers Julie Spins.  A very easy pattern that results in a great shawlette that can be any size you want it to be!

Age of Brass and Steam

 Sunday morning arrived and we again had a wonderfully lazy morning and were later treated to a delicious hot breakfast.  Some of us completed projects while others had to pack up and leave early.  Most of us were packed up by early afternoon, and sadly the weekend came to a close.  Overall, I found the weekend to be a wonderful experience which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Much thanks and appreciation to all who helped to arrange the weekend, especially Alice who picked the location and made most of the arrangements for us.  I look forward to next year! 

The Month of Love Draw!

Since February is all about hearts and love I thought I would share the love and have a special little draw this month!  In addition to all my handspun and hand dyed yarns and fibre I am also an authorized retailer for HiyaHiya, Soak, and now LavaShea lotion bars! The package featured above is worth $30 and could be yours if you take part in the draw.

The rules are simple.  For the month of February every order placed with the shop will count as an entry in the draw.  All you need to do is post the date of your order and what it is that you purchased in this thread on my Ravelry Group. Items made from Wacky Windmill yarns and fibres also qualify for the draw if you complete them in the month of February!

If you are not on Ravelry then I would encourage you to join!  It is free and is a wonderful social media group.  To be honest, I spend more time on Ravelry than any other social media site, simply due to the fact that it is so user friendly and has a very positive atmosphere.  Ravelry is also a fabulous source of patterns, ideas, and resources for knitters, crocheters, weavers and spinners!

In addition to being entered into The Wacky Windmill draw, purchases from the shop also qualify for entry into the Fiber Indie eXperience Co-op monthly draw.  The FIX prize for February is a $50 gift certificate which can be used at any of the 10 participating shops!  Qualifying shops are listed at the top of the prize entry thread.

This affords you two possible prize winning opportunities!  Head over to the The Wacky Windmill now for your chance to win!!

Knit & Ski Steamboat



View of the Ski Hill from town on my way to breakfast at Winona's
 (Awesome blueberry pancakes with lemon creme sauce!!)



So I have recently returned from a great trip to Steamboat, Colorado.  The weather was beautiful, the town was charming, and I was privileged to learn a boatload about knitting.  One thing I love about the fibre arts is that there is always so much to learn.  I feel like I could spend a lifetime acquiring new knowledge and building on my skills. 

Knit & Ski Steamboat was an event that was coordinated by Craft Cruises and I enjoyed every moment of it.  Not only did I get to meet a variety of other knitters, but I had the opportunity to meet some wonderful knit wear designers & instructors. 

In attendance for the week were Galina Khmeleva, Ann Budd, Cat Bordhi, and Lucy Neatby.  All of these ladies are so talented and are a wealth of information.  I had the opportunity to take classes with both Galina and Ann and found them to be a pleasure to work with.  Galina is a treasure trove of information on Orenburg lace as well as Russian history and culture.  It was fun to learn the origins of Orenburg lace, as well as practise constructing some of the motifs used to construct these beautiful shawls.  Ann was one of the most genuine and modest individuals I met on this trip, and her passion for knitting, (as well as for clean edges in sweater construction) was very apparent.  I feel like I learnt a lot about sweater design and construction and definitely feel much more confident in undertaking a sweater project in future.  If you ever have the chance to take a class with either of these talented women, I would highly recommend it!  I also enjoyed meeting both Cat and Lucy and found them to be fun, and interesting and look forward to future opportunities to take classes with them as well.

In addition to the classes, there was an artisan market with yarns, and handmade items from all sorts of local producers.  I ended up getting myself a warm and cozy set of mittens from a lovely lady who makes them from upcycled sweaters.  They are fabulous!

On my last day of the trip I had sunny weather and a nice day on the local ski hill.  Below is a photo I took looking down on the town from the hill.  It was a gorgeous view and I could not resist. 

All in all it was a very worthwhile trip and I had a great time!  I'm hoping I will be able to take part in a future adventure with Craft Cruises and really look forward to the time that I can!

Take Care & Happy Crafting!

Flax Spinning Workshop

Some of you may or may not know that this past year I joined a local spinning guild called  The Crocus Country Fibre Arts Guild.  It has been an incredible experience for me in that I have found so many liked minded individuals who just love working with fibre.  Guilds are great for offering combined experience, access to resources, courses to help with growth and learning as well as comraderie!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to take part in a flax spinning workshop. Our instructor was Ruth Blazenko who is also an instructor for the Master Spinner Program at Fibre Week at Old College. For those of you who don't know, flax is the plant that is used to make the textile linen.  Linen is one of the oldest textiles in the world, and has been used to make aprons, bags, towels, napkins, bed linens, tablecloths, and clothing.  It is know for its coolness and freshness. 

In our course we learned how flax is taken from the plant form and transformed to create the fibres used for spinning.  Below I have a picture of a hank of strick which is a sample of flax that has been processed and is ready to spin.  The colour of the strick below is natural.  For those of you who are accustomed to thinking of linen as being white, this is done through a bleaching process which removes the natural colour.

We received information on flax fibres and their lengths.  In the photo to the right you can see several different forms of flax fibre.  To the far right is the hank of strick pictured above.  To the left of that is some line sliver which has been bleached to a nice white, and below is a sliver of tow which has been dyed in a light blue.  The fibres in the strick are the longest of the three and can vary in length from 18-55 inches. The line fibres tend to be shorter and tow is the shortest.  The longer the fibre is the finer the fabric created.

 

We started off working with the blue tow.  We hand carded it with some wool and then spun a sample 2 ply of Linsey/Woolsey.  I use this term loosley since traditional Linsey/Woolsey is woven, and typically was made up of a linen warp and a woollen weft.

 

Next up we tried spinning some of the tow by itself, and then proceeded to work up a mini skein of line as well.  I spun the last three skeins wetting the fibres as I went.  Flax is spun wet to create a smoother yarn.  The water helps tuck all the little ends in as you go. 

 

We had a lovely time, and a lot of fun playing with flax.  Below are some of the wonderful ladies in my guild having a little adventure untangling some flax that got out of hand.

 

Our next workshop is going to be on Silk Fusion!  I'm really looking forward to that one and will try to post some photos and details after the workshop!

BIG BANGERINO BABY!!!

Hurry Scurry!!!  Only 7 Days Left to Order!!!

Hey there everyone!! 

I just wanted to give you all a little write up on The Big Bangerino Fibre Club.  First of all I want to say how absolutely excited I am about club this year!!  I have lots of great ideas churning around in my head and can't wait to translate them into yarn and fibre and various goodies for everyone who is taking part this year. 

Last year folks got to pick club orders on a month by month basis. Each month a new theme, yarn, and fibre choice was offered.  In addition to your yarn or fibre I always include a little piece of swag that fits the theme for the month too.  Last year we had all kinds of little extra goodies, and I had so much fun picking them out.  This year however, I am only offering club in four or eight month sign up options.  Another new option is to double up on your yarn or fibre which is great if you are planning a bigger project!

While I still want to keep a bit of mystery around the themes, I also wanted to at least let you all know what the selection of base yarns and fibres would include.   The choices are listed in the order that they will be shipped.   If you got a 4 month subscription the bases you want to look at are those in bold print. 

Yarns choices will include the following:

Sock/Fingering - 75% Merino / 20% Nylon / 5% Stellina
Lace - 80% Merino / 20% Silk
Sock/Fingering -  80% Superwash Merino / 10% Cashmere / 10% Nylon
Sock/Fingering - 60% Superwash Merino / 30% Bamboo / 10% Nylon
DK - 50% Alpaca / 35% Merino / 15% silk
Sock/Fingering - 70% Superwash Merino / 30% Seacell
Lace - 80% Superwash Merino / 20% Bamboo
Sock/Fingering - 50% Superwash Merino / 50% Tencel


Fibre Choices will include the following:

85% Merino/ 10% Firestar / 5% Angelina Batt
80% Merino / 20% Silk
80% Superwash Merino / 10% Cashmere / 10% Nylon
60% Superwash Merino / 30% Bamboo / 10% Nylon
50% Alpaca / 30% Merino / 20% Silk
70% Superwash Merino / 30% Seacell
60% Merino / 40% Bamboo
50% Superwash Merino / 50% Tencel


Just to tempt you, here are a few pictures from club members and myself from last year's club:



I Dream of Nimoy - Fibre & Tribble
(Pesky Tribbles!!)



King of the Rabbits - Fibre



King of the Rabbits - Member Handspun



Bazinga

Bazinga - Member Project

Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty - Member Handspun
(Adorable Kitty not included!)

Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty - Member Project



 

The Large Hadiron Collision

Lizard Batt & Stitch Marker

Don't forget to order soon!  Deadline for orders is September 27, 2012.





 

Alberta Team Spring Bling Sale

The Alberta Etsy Team is having a SPRING BLING sale!  There are loads of savings to be had on all kinds of merchandise.  You can check out our Alberta Street Team Blog for a list of all participating shops.  Sale runs from April 27th - May 3rd 2012.  The Wacky Windmill is taking part and offering 15% off all items in the shop.  Enter coupon code WACKY15 to save!!

What's the Buzz?

Well, I know I have been an absentee blogger the past couple of months, but I am going to do my best to share a little more often!  Some exciting news in my world is that a small selection of my yarns are now available at a retail location in Medicine Hat called:



569 2nd Street SE
Medicine Hat, Alberta
(403) 504-5371


I'm not sure if I have any readers from the Medicine Hat area but I thought I would share with you about a really wonderful artists collective down there called The Hive.  I was approached a while ago by resident artist Kim Wilson of Arte Viviente to see if I would be interested in selling some of my yarns in The Hive's retail shop.  Feel free to check out her Indie Love page to see some of the other artists selling goods at The Hive.  I got the yarns all delivered to Medicine Hat on Tuesday and got to check out the place!  It is really a cool idea that they have.  All the items in their shop are handcrafted!  They had everything from wonderful jewellry from various artisans, to hand made harps and didgeridoos!  They have stuffed sock monkeys, unique paintings & drawings, pottery, felted items by artists like La Tatine & Enrapt, upcycled birdhouses...I'm sure I'm missing a bit but it was all so beautiful and nice to meet some of the artists behind it all.  The artist who makes the didgeridoos (Kevin Werre) was there and even played a couple of them for us (a few friends took the trip down with me), and we totally enjoyed the entertainment!!  There are several studios on the premises where you can watch the in house artists at work and talk to them about their craft.  I feel like my yarns will be in good hands.  Now I just have to wait and see if they sell! If you are in Medicine Hat, I would highly recommend checking it out!!  Here's a picture of the yarns I brought down there in case anyone is interested.