Spinning Wheel Pic for FCFG Facebook Page

I love this picture of a spinning wheel that I used to update the Franklin County Fiber Guild Facebook page. 

The spinning wheel is a Jerry Jensen Traditional Production Wheel.  Photo by Jennifer Donovan.

Elissa Parish Demonstrating Tape Loom Weaving

This is Elissa Parish demonstrating tape loom weaving. "Tapes" (bands or straps) were widely used in Colonial America to tie clothing, tie grain bags closed, and many more uses. Tape looms were often made by the husband for his wife or a father for his children. The loom was made by Paul Parish.

I love my Paul Parish Tape Loom.

 

Shetland PeerieMakkers--Carrying on the Knitting Tradition of Shetland

 

 

It's so nice knitters in Shetland are carrying on their knitting traditions by teaching it to school children. So interesting they use knitting belts to hold one of the needles. Shetlanders call knitting "makkin" so they call them "makkin belts".

 Photo from the Shetland PeerieMakkers Facebook Page.  Shetland PeerieMakkers is expanding to eventually teach bairns (children) in 28 primary schools all over Shetland.  Jamieson's of Shetland is their yarn sponsor.

"PeerieMakkers" means small knitters in Shetland dialect.  Knitting was once taught in school, but that ended in 2010, so volunteers are helping to keep the Shetland knitting tradition 

 

        An Example of Shetland Fair Isle jumpers on Shetland PeerieMakkers Facebook Page

 The northern isle of Unst is known for lace knitting, and Fair Isle is known for colorfully patterned jumpers (sweaters) and hats.  It's wonderful they are keeping these knitting traditions alive.

The Gansey Girl Statue

This beautiful statue is called The Gansey Girl and is in Bridlington Harbour in England. She is knitting a gansey while waiting for her loved one to return from sea. A Gansey is a traditional patterned "jumper" or sweater worn by fishermen for generations. The statue is by Steve Carvill, and the old photo of a girl knitting by Frank Meadow-Sutcliffe was his inspiration, circa 1880. It's a beautiful tribute to the knitters and their fishermen families.

 I've been making posts for our Franklin County Fiber Guild Facebook Page of anything fiber-related that I find interesting, and I'm going to post some of my posts here on my own blog.

A Cozy Afghan for K

K loves her cozy afghan!  I love the way it turned out. 

The yarn is Caron Cakes Mixed Berry color, and I used almost 5 cakes.  The dimensions are 42" x 63".  The pattern is called Feather and Fan Baby Blanket by Alexis Middleton, but I made it much larger than a baby blanket.  I used a size H hook instead of the larger hook mentioned in the pattern.

 I cast on 187 stitches using the foundation crochet.  I first tried 221 stitches, but it was too wide (about 50").  I'm really happy with this size.  It will be very cozy this winter!

Halloween Crafts

I had fun making Halloween pillowcases and embroidering Halloween shirts for my granddaughters.

The embroidery designs are from JuJu's.

Weaving on a Beading Loom

I love my bead loom made by Tony Klissus of NW Looms.  I'm making bracelets for my granddaughters for Halloween.

I used size 8 beads and Nymo D thread.  Cats bracelet: Narrowed on the loom.  For the other two, I did square stitch after taking the piece off the loom.  Instead of burying the threads for the skull bracelet, I pulled the loops so I had only 2 warp threads per side to weave in.  I tried pulling the warp threads for the cat/pumpkin bracelet, but the Nymo thread wasn't cooperating.  The skull bracelet pattern is available on Youtube.  The cat bracelet patterns were on Pinterest.

I'm really enjoying making bracelets on the loom.