Unique Fiber Arts

Three Color Striped Sash

2011-07-06T16:57:00.000-07:00

Today I finished the sash (belt) that I started at the Santiago archery range. I noticed that the beginning half is wider than the ending half. Maybe it's not a good idea to change locations in mid-project. I'll have to keep an eye on that in the future.

This was my first attempt at stripes and I used 3 colors of yarn.

Weaving With My Portable Loom

2011-07-02T16:56:00.000-07:00

On a whim I cruised through the children's section of the library and picked up a craft book. (See photo). In the book I found directions for making a super easy loom. I've been weaving almost daily ever since. I'm having so much fun. And I love that it's portable so I can take it to the park or an archery gathering or to the beach and weave.

My friend Barbara took this photo of me weaving.

New Old Guild

2011-03-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

Sean Michael Thomas demonstrating a drop spindle.

Years ago I almost joined a spinning guild, but then we moved and they moved and life went on. I recently ran into the man who runs it again, and this time I think it may be doable. They only meet once a month, which is better for me, and they meet at homes, so people can bring their spinning wheels. The other knitting group I've been going to meets weekly but it's at a Starbucks so we don't bring much with us so we won't take over the whole place. Sean's wife Lynn is going to teach me how to spin so I'm very excited. I've also been invited to do a demo at the Irish fair in June. I hope I can talk my boyfriend into it, but so far he doesn't seem that interested.

Original Needle Punch Art by Fayme Harper

2011-02-05T14:11:00.000-08:00

I've been doing a lot of needle punch lately and since I don't have a Needle Punch or Punch Needle blog I thought this would be an appropriate place to share them all. I recently got some better tools and better instructions so my work just got better. I draw each design by hand onto the foundation fabric and choose the colors as I go. I like my work to be spontaneous. If I planned it all out in advance, I'd be too bored to finish it.

Macrame'

2010-04-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

I ran across some photos of macrame' I thought I'd share.

I really should finish this gourd canteen strap.

Survivalist Fiber Arts

2010-04-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

Self Reliance For Survival
Recently another photographer invited me to join a survivalist group on Flickr called Self Reliance For Survival.
As I was contemplating about what appropriate photos I could add, I thought spinning would be a good one. Then I thought about a topic that kind of chaps my hide, so to speak.
Many times when I'm knitting or crocheting or doing other fiber arts, men will walk by and roll their eyes and say something like, "um, knitting, or hmpf quilting, my wife does that." And then they'll go back to working on their knife or their bow or their atlatl darts. Very few of the men say, "Wow, you can knit. Can you show me how?" I think it's happened once and I even remember the guy who said it.
And no, he wasn't gay. He's one of our best archers and teachers.
So what's the deal guys? Don't you realize that to be a true survivalist you need as many fiber skills as you can master? You can't always rely on a deer walking by so you can shoot it, and skin it to make clothing or shelter.
With knitting or crochet or weaving you can make coats, blankets, hats, socks, gloves, shelters, slings, bow socks, hammocks, and so much more. With quilting you can take old clothes, save the good bits and make new blankets and jackets and vests. If you are a big, brave, strong guy are you afraid people will think you are a pansy if you whip out the knitting?

In a bartering society, you might need things you don't know how to make, like butter or candles. You might need to trade for eggs, lye, coffee, or fence posts. If you know how to weave you can make things to trade like baskets, sunhats, mats, potholders. One guy I know made his own hat out of pussywillows.

I hope you men will rethink your attitude towards fiber arts. If you don't want to do them yourself, at least don't belittle the women in your life that do them. They deserve as much respect as a knifemaker or a bowyer. And for you few guys out there that do knit and weave maybe you can convince the other guys you know to give it a try.

raffia hat

fox quiver

men in kilts

knit cap

Japanese Cord Braiding

2010-04-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

My first cord.

The portable version of the foam disk.

Recently I took a class on Japanese cord making (Kumihimo). And after working on it steadily for a week, I'm finally done with the first one. The colors I used were purple, red, white and gray.
My mind has already planned the next one to be in gold and green. Hopefully I can get started on that one today. Once I have the card threaded, it's a good project to work on during TV commercials and short car trips as a passenger. That's why I like the little portable wheel. But I am looking at yardsales for a wooden stool to turn into a Marudai . You drill a hole about the size of a fifty cent piece in the center and use that as your braiding stand. The stand method is quicker because you can work with both hands and move two threads at once and it is more traditional. Of course if I found a Marudai at a yard sale I'd be over the moon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumihimo

Back to Tatting

2010-04-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

I met a tatter on Etsy that makes some amazing gloves and that renewed my interest in tatting. She's a shuttle tatter but there are also needle tatters. I haven't tatted in quite a while so I'd have to learn all over again. I was hoping I could get together with her, but she travels a lot for business and isn't free to just meet randomly sometime. But if anyone else wants to tat just drop me a line and we can meet at one of the many Starbucks in the area (Knott's Berry Farm area).

OT Shirt

2010-03-30T02:18:00.000-07:00

Here I am doing cross-stitch on a t-shirt using waste canvas. After the letters are done I pull out the strands of the waste canvas leaving behind hopefully straight letters on the t-shirt itself. It will say 'hypnotist'. I don't have a single t-shirt that is on the topic of hypnosis, so I'm making one. I have pretty unique interests so I've decided to make t-shirts to reflect that.

Ah well, it's late and I'm off to bed. So far I've finished the O and the T. So my shirt says OT.

Embroidery on a t-shirt

2009-09-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

I don't have an embroidery blog per se. So I guess I'll put my new t-shirt project here. I'm about half way done I think. That is unless I decide to do the back too, which will take more time. I think I may have a little surprise there on the back just so people will go, "Oooh look there is something on the back too".

Making New Fabric From Tiny Bits

2009-07-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to try to make some fabrics from bits and bobs of scraps and lace and ribbons all fused together. So at the fabric store I described water soluble fabric and they had some behind the counter. So here are some photos of my first experimental piece of fabric. You sandwich the bits between two pieces of the clear disolvable fabric, pin carefully, then zigzag stitch it all around trying to secure it all. Then you wash away the plastic stuff. Here are some photos. It was still wet when I took them.

Small Weaving

2009-06-18T19:21:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to figure out some weaving on a square loom I got that was originally sold to make potholders with stretchy fabric loops. After I did this part I added some tassels and hung it on a dowel. I'm not quite finished with it. I want to add some seashells or driftwood or something to it next.

Male Navajo Weavers

2009-05-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

Male Navajo Weavers: http://www.miaclab.org/exhibits/maleweavers/weavers.html Poor research has stated that only women in the Navajo culture were weavers, but this site features some of the male weavers and states there have always been male weavers.

Farmyard Embroidery Sampler

2009-03-06T12:20:00.001-08:00

Lately I've been obsessed with cross-stitch embroidery. I think I have ten projects going at once. I think it's because I'm inherently sloppy and cross-stitch is so precise and organized. It goes in the total opposite direction of my personality. It's challenging, it's frustrating, it's tedius, and it's way so satisfying when something comes out right. My favorite piece right now is a sampler with farm animals, letters, and flowers. I just added a deep red heart to it. I like that I don't have a predetermined outcome. I'm not sure what I will put where next. That keeps the project exciting for me. Like a murder mystery! What will I do next, and where will I do it? What color will I use? I'm using various reference materials, but I'm very proud of the pink piggy because I made that up as I went along right out of my head. I love working on tan aida cloth. The light colors look so good against it. I always thought mid-range backgrounds were the best, because then you can add shadows and highlights. I'm using 2 strangs of DMC embroidery floss on each 'x'. I got some new colors at the store on Wed. so now I can finish some of the animals I already started.

Weaving on a Board Loom

2009-01-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

As I scour the web trying to figure out why my weaving isn't going so well, I came across this cool weaving blog and when I have time I'm going to go back and read more of it.

I'm using my new loom from the Threadbanger tutorial only the sides are pulling in something awful and I'm trying to find the cure for that. Anyone have a hint? I'm weaving too tight, but when I try to do it looser it doesn't look right either. I'm using yarn instead of fabric so maybe that is the problem. Or maybe my longwise yarn is too loose.

I am enjoying it even with the mistakes though so I will keep at it.

I like primitive crafts and rustic weaving. I know those of you will computer generated weaving gizmos are probably scoffing at me, but this loom will fit in well with my paleoplanet.net group who like to do things in a primitive way. It's crude, but that's part of the charm.

Fiber Artist Blog Roll

2008-12-31T10:02:00.001-08:00

I just started a blog roll for other fiber artists. So if you blog fits the theme of my blog let me know so I can add you. I already added a tatter here: http://janeeborall.blogspot.com/ because she was nice enough to come to my daily blog and talk about tatting. For as much blogging as I do I get surprisingly few comments. So I always appreciate a good on topic comment to any of my posts.

2008-09-08T11:56:00.001-07:00

I just signed up for Tagfoot. http://ping.fm/lfV6m Come see all my links and comments and my wishlist.

2008-08-31T22:36:00.001-07:00

Want to join ping.fm too? Go to http://www.ping.fm.Use the code 'legendofping' and you could have the luxury of posting to all your blogs in one fell swoop like I do. Way more efficient than doing it one by one.

2008-08-31T22:34:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure what 'ping my default' means but I guess I'll find out when I hit send.

2008-08-28T13:39:00.001-07:00

The week sure went by quick. I had a lot more planned but didn't have the energy to do it. My hands are still sore from woodcarving, and so I've had to lay off the knitting and crocheting. I'm looking forward to the weekend. My daughter may visit. We'll see.

2008-08-27T10:08:00.001-07:00

Come view my Flickr photo stream. Over 3000 photos I've taken are waiting there for your pleasure. http://ping.fm/3TTAi

2008-08-27T09:53:00.001-07:00

I just signed up for Ping.fm to make social networking more effiecient.

Walnut nalbinding needles

2008-07-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

I made 2 nalbinding needles out of walnut. I think I need to make them narrower. Or maybe it's just that I don't know how to do it well enough yet and they will work just fine once I have the hang of the York stitch.

Nalbinding Socks

2008-07-05T23:42:00.000-07:00

I found this article on Nalbinding Socks and I'd love to give it a try. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/shelagh.lewins/shelagh/viking_textiles/nalbinding/sock_construction.htm

Re-learning to Tat

2008-06-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

My mother tried to teach me years ago but I was never
very good at it. Well, try try again.

Needle Punch Embroidery

2008-04-07T12:53:00.000-07:00

Years ago my mother and I bought some needlepunch kits on sale. At the time I remember almost finishing one, going out to run a few errands, and then when I got home I discovered my border collie had chewed it all up. That was in the 80's.

Now years later I was thinking of making a rug, and found ordinary craft stores don't have much in the way of rugmaking supplies. So my eye fell upon a needle punch kit. And now I have the confidence to design my own projects, so I dove right in. I learned the hard way that too much in one day can leave a nasty blister on a person's thumb. Now that it's healed up, I'm ready to go again.

My first design was a memento of my trip to Quartzsite AZ. I'm using embroidery floss.

Lacing on a gourd

2008-03-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

This was a tricky one. I had to use a thin wire bent in half as a needle threader to fish the lace through the drilled holes. Lacing is added to gourds to add visual interest as well as shoring up a crack so it doesn't get any bigger.

Freeform Embroidery

2008-03-02T08:58:00.000-08:00

A piece I made a few years ago. I should do more of this. It was a whole lot of fun.

netting

2008-03-02T08:55:00.000-08:00

My first attempt at netting. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Stickweaving Photos

2008-03-02T08:52:00.001-08:00

I made my sticks by sharpening dowel sections and drilling a hole in one end of each stick with a dremel.

Card Weaving

2007-05-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

I've been experimenting with card weaving. A man in the SCA first told me about it years ago in a little demo on Inkle weaving in his garage. Years later I decided to try it out myself. I'll probably use it to make a bell pull.

Welcome to Unique Fiber Arts

2007-03-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Unique Fiber Arts. I wanted to highlight some of the more unusual fiber arts I do. So this is where I'll post things I've done using stickweaving, lucet, tatting, and other things that don't fit under the knitting and crocheting umbrella.