Hand Spun & Felted: Art Yarn

I spun all of these yarns with a drop spindle, first blending the fibers for (all but one of) them with my workhorse Louet drum carder.  After spinning, each skein is lightly felted: worked in alternating baths of hot and cold water, to which I’ve added a bit of pure, lavender-infused soap; then each skein is towel-dried and thwacked on a hard surface about ten times til the fibers “bloom” into full texture.  After they dry, I wind them into balls.

Now they are  waiting to be used: embedded into felted scarves as surface decoration and fringes; fabricated into wearable skeins; crocheted into cowls; tied around packages; worked into fiber projects as embellishments.  These yarns are highly-textured combinations of all sorts of fiber with curly locks, fabric strips, little tufts of baby-soft Cormo fiber, remnant sari silk threads.  I hope that in seeing these images, you feel the joy and gratitude I feel when I work with these fine-quality fibers!

Felted Dot Scarf

The weather outside may be icy, but in my studio things are warm.  This felted scarf with a dot motif is 9″ x 66″ — long enough to wrap in different ways — is crafted from 3 layers of very fine merino (with some soft curly locks added at the two edges as fringe) and felted just to the point of still having a graceful and soft drape.  It weighs just 4 ounces: soft, warm, one-of-a-kind. The underneath layer is a warm red, the mid-layer is a deep aubergine, and the top layer is ruby red with dots in every color.

 

I will be delivering this scarf to The Gallery Shop in Lemont, PA — unless it finds a good home before delivery!