Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival 2014

Oh my goodness, 3 days jammed packed with fun classes, shopping, and delightful colors and texture.  It was a fiber loving paradise!  

Last year, I discovered that there were classes offered in addition to hundreds of vendors but I was too late to sign up for some of them.  This year, I was ready, and signed up early to ensure that I got to take the classes that I wanted.  It was hard to decide but in the end, I went with two felting classes so I could learn technique and basic felting skills.  All the felting that I have done has been self taught.  The classes were very valuable and I can't wait to experiment more at home.

Class number 1:  Making a felted shawl using resists for texture.

Merino wool

Silk scraps

An example of texture.

 We chose our colors - 2 colors of merino wool (an arm length amount of each color), two silk squares, and embellishment colors.

Step one:  Shingle (lay out in one direction) very thin pieces of roving on a rolling mat (the non skid padding you can put under rugs).

Step two: lay out a silk square on top of the first shingled layer.

Step three:  Lay down your resist shapes.  These were foam squares that we got to cut out in different shapes.  I definitely learned that less is more and smaller is better!  I chose to do my shawl a bit different than most of the others.  After I had finished with the felting, I cut it in half and then needled felted (with some dry wool pieces) to make a big triangle.  Most people just cut a slit up the center.

Step 4:  Cover your resist pieces with another layer of shingling going in the opposite direction.  I learned that the resist pieces need to be on the silk.  The affect ended up working out but it was iffy when I was felting it down.

Step 5:  Cover the final layer with a square of silk and decorate with bits of wool 

Step 6:  Wet the entire thing down with cool water with a tablespoon or so of olive oil soap solution.

Step 7:  Wrap a pool noodle in a rolling mat (under carpet stuff) and then gently roll up the entire thing, loosely.  Roll 50 times from one end, then roll 50 times from the other end, then switch directions and repeat (so you are rolling a total of 50 times on every side).  Roll until the wool permeates the fabric and begins to shrink.

Step 8:  Cut out the resists by snipping down the center.  For the circles, cut an x and then a + for little triangles.  

*I can't remember if I cut and needled felted after step 8 or 9.  

Step 9:  Roll 20 more times with the resists still in place

Step 10:  Remove the resists and rinse in hot water.

Step 11:  Start throwing the felted piece on the table making a big splashy mess.  Stopping every so often to shake it out a bit and make sure the resist cuts aren't felting to each other.  Do this until the shawl begins to pebble (shrink making bumps).

Step 12:  Rinse in cool water, wrap and roll in a towel to dry and voila!!  

The resists are the bright foam colors taped together

Truthfully, I probably wouldn't wear this.  The patterning was a bit too....aggressive.  The colors were great when I chose them but the light green wool and maroon silk piece turned out gray which wasn't so nice.  The fit is a bit too small I think.  I may experiment with some free hand quilting on it.   It was a great learning tool though!!

This scarf probably cost 40 dollars to make and took 6-7 hours to make (I worked during lunch) but that included making the templates and working on designs.  

Class number 2, Making a felted cowl

The next instructor had several samples of fabric (mostly silk) and how they felt with wool.  This was so useful that I took pictures!  Silk is very expensive (cheap undyed silk is more than 10 dollars a yard) so I am hoping that I will like the affects of cotton muslin/gauze/scrip just as well.

Her felting method was different and her project was more delicate than the last class.

This is the instructors example done with printing called botanical or eco printing.  I must learn more about this!

She had a more muted color palette and I chose to use hues of the same color rather than complimenting colors because I didn't want any more weird grays!

Step 1:  We worked on a pool cover bubble wrap, on the slipper side (I always used plastic wrap on the bubble side...no more!).  We wrapped our resist in a pice of silk, making sure to give it a generous overlap.  The open sides are the top, the closed sides, make it into a tube.

Step 2:  We layed out a very wispy shingle layer one direction, and then another layer in the opposite direction.

Step 3:  We covered with our embellishments (a silk hankie which is dyed silk cocoon stretch out like spider webs and bits of silk roving). Then, we covered with netting to keep everything in place.  And wetted it down with a soapy water solution (just a bit of Dawn in small plastic container) using a wadded up plastic bag.

Step 4:  Flip and repeated the two layers of shingling, folded over the netting, making sure the wool on the folded sides (not the open ends, those remain long and open) is tucked in. 

Step 5:  We rolled up the netting, bubble wrap and all on a piece of plastic piping, nice and tight.  Tie with t-shirt strings (stretch strings made of t-shirt fabric).

Step 6:  Roll 50 times, check that the netting isn't sticking.  Roll 50 times from the other end.  (This is so that each end gets a turn in the middle...do end to end before switching to the opposite direction.).  You can remove or leave the netting at this point.

Step 7:  Roll the other side, end to end, 100 times each, flipping in between and checking for fibers sticking in the netting.  Then switch to the other direction for another 100 rolls.  Total of 400.  If the fibers are still slipping and moving a bit, roll another 100 times.

Step 8:  Cut one end of the open side (because the silk and wispy wool overhang will have felted) right up against the resist and then carefully remove the resist.  Carefully peel back the other end for a ruffled end (or cut is for a smooth one)

Step 9:  Gently drop (not throw like the other more durable felting) until the fibers begin to migrate through the silk and show a bit of a halo affect.

Step 10.  Now, you can roll to start fulling using just a piece of carpet underlayment on the bottom, the felting on the top, rolled up as is, no plastic pipe needed.  Roll in different directions, and moving the felted cowl tube until it shrinks down to the desired size (we shrunk it 40% of what it was and had all the measurements before hand).  We would stop occasionally and measure and felt the sides according to what needed to shrink.  Felt is shrunk in the direction of the roll.

Step 11:  Rinse in cool water and roll in a towel to remove the excess water.  Air dry.  The cowl can be left in a tube shape or cut up 1/2 to make a v or a triangle point.

The first photos are the instructors example and she didn't work on the blue bubble wrap.

My design:

The tube inside out being fulled down.

This shawl cost 20-25 dollars to make and about 4.5 hours to make (but that included a lot of instruction)

The vendors

I didn't actually take too many pictures.  It felt a bit awkward in the crowd trying to get a good shot and many of the pictures that I did take were blurry.  

This was one of my favorite vendors.  She teaches classes at her studio in Eugene and I think I know what to ask for Christmas!!

The animals:

We watched this ram getting shaved.

Who doesn't love a pink llama?

The Loot:

There were so many wonderful things for sale!  So many colors, fiber mixes, yarn, roving...it was almost overwhelming.  In the end, I didn't go with the artistic supplies rather practical and inexpensive...things that would give the most use for the least amount of money.   I walked around the entire vendor market and took notes, made my decisions, and then went back through for my purchases.

Some mohair locks for spinning into art yarns.

Wenslydale curls for spinning or felting.

Merino wool for felting.

Corridale roving for felting.

Some dyed locks that were just too cheap to pass up.  They are more pastel than I normally go for but I figured they would be a nice compliment to a more subtle felting project or spun into art yarn.

I spent every bit of my birthday money.  Luckily, my parents gave me an early check and I borrowed some in anticipation of the birthday gift that Gram usually gives me.  I can think of no better present!  I sure wish that fiber arts were a less expensive hobby though!  Plush and lovely homemade yarns and hand painted roving can be 50 dollars a skein (or the same amount of fiber needed to make your own skein).  Having made my own yarns, and taken fiber from animal to finished product, it is worth every penny and more!