GIFTED

My lovely and dear cousin Susan

 wearing the shawl I gifted her on a recent visit.

You can see close ups of the shawl if you scroll 2 posts down.

ON A 2 DAY POSTING ROLL, ha ha!

Even though I'm rarely present on my blog anymore,

I've been busy cranking out knit projects that I started but never finished.

I'm trying hard not to allow myself to start something new

till I finish long forgotten projects which is incredibly hard for me.

This shawl was started many months ago to learn some new knitting tricks.

Fading contrasting colors, pointy scalloped edges,

 plus more lace work then I usually do.

I can't tell you how many times I messed up the pattern and had to frog back before I could move forward again.

It was so good for my brain.

Above is a picture of how I block my pieces with tons of sharp pins

and a special squishy board after I soak/wash the finished piece.

This locks in all the loose ends as well 

as stretches out the work to show off the stitch pattern.

After removing pins it's pretty much holding it's shape.

This is a kit I found on a new site to me called Ranching Traditions Fiber

located in Montana.

The kits comes with a lovely skein of wool yarn (you pick the color).

It's called Roots in the Valley and the pattern is housed in the sweetest booklet.  

It also comes with a wooden shawl pin

 that I can't seem to find anymore.  Ugg!

However,

I didn't use the yarn because I wanted to use up some of my handspun stash.

I thought I had enough yardage to finish the shawl

 but sadly ran out 3/4 of the way thru.

But I love challenges like this.  

It forces me to think outside the box.

I had some leftover Malabrigo Worsted which was about the same diameter

so I ripped out a couple of inches and faded it in.

Again more frogging!!

The fading was trickier then I've done before 

because the colors contrasted so much,

 and I had to cheat and go back after I finished the piece

 and weave in some more lines to help it fade more smoothly.

The beige handspun is wool with some small pieces of silk spun 

to bring in a touch of color.

I recently gifted it to a dear long lost cousin that I just reconnected with,

 and am asking for her to send a pix of her wearing it.

Hopefully coming tomorrow in an email.

And here she is, 

my lovely cousin Susan wearing the shawl.

I think it looks perfect on her and am so very happy I gifted it to her.

Susan is from my father's side of the family 

and lives with her family outside of Salt Lake City.

I haven't seen her or her mother Georgie Lou since my mother's funeral in 2013.

It's been way too long!

I'm so glad she reached out to me and came to visit.

Susan and her twin Karen are such lovely gentle souls.

Now it's up to me to pay all of them a visit.

So Utah,

here I come.

GOOD AS NEW

A few weeks ago I showed this wheel from an ex student,

 missing some parts and in need of some tender loving care.

My husband and I took most of it apart,

and I gave it a good rubbing and cleaning with linseed oil.

My husband fabricated the parts of the treadle that were missing

and we put it back together again.

Then of course I had to give it a test drive.

I used some beautifully soft and clean Blue Faced Leister roving

from Capistrano Fiber Arts and the old gal is as good as new.

Now I think I'll mordant the skein and put it in a solar dye jar with some lovely pink and purple fushias I've been saving.

Have never dyed with those before.

I FELT FOR YOU

3-D FELT CONSTRUCTIONS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

wool batting, colored wool rovings, perle cottons, wool handspun yarns, needles for dry felting,

hot plates & pans, and a washing machine

Teachers Beware!

This is an especially messy, soapy adventure but well worth the prep, effort and cleanup.

Also involved is the use of your home washing machine,

and lots of counter space both in your classroom and at your home.

I use the floor under the classroom cabinets,

 as well as on top of them for the various stages of storage.

This year will be really tough in that I have more students doing this at one time then ever,

45!

There are many YouTube videos showing how to make felt on a 2-D surface,

which is how we begin this project,

 and even more on Needle Felting.

When the felt is shrunk and dried,

 the kids are required to use their critical thinking skills to cut out pieces

 and reassemble them into a 3-D piece.

No glue is allowed,

only Needle Felting or stitching or both to assemble them.

The results are quite remarkable.

We start with 8th grader Annie Nguyen.

The color movement going thru her design is so lovely.

She figured out how to put in her own zipper using You Tube

 (I haven't put in a zipper since the 7th grade).

She also brought in a bit of embroidery as well.

And her mom allowed her to use her sewing machine to put in the diagonal quilting lines

which I feel add so much interest to the overall piece..

Next up is 8th grader Shivani Kedila.

She transformed her flat piece of felt into this intricate box with a woven top.

I was speechless when I saw her finished product.

These kids are really incredible!

You can see how her sides are hand stitched up

plus she added a bit of embroidery as well.

Check out the top below.

I loved that she brought weaving into this piece!

This amazing pillow was the work of senior Inna Sikar.

Occasionally the kids work their flat flt a bit too aggressively when they begin the felting process 

and end up with a few holes or see thru patches.

Inna had both.

So she critically thought out to inlay a bit of fabric under those openings

for a very cool effect.

And we all were so impressed with her embroidered toucan!

She invested a ton of hours in this piece  as you can see.

We all loved the flowers that 8th grader Sophia Oporto needle felted on top of her purse form

along with her embroidered areas.

The colors flow so well together!

We totally didn't expect this clever solution.

Junior Rachel Tibayan knocked this assignment out of the park with her unique idea,

a complete outfit for her bear.

I just adore it all!

So well fitted and embellished.

Bravo young woman!!

And sweet 8th grader Yusuf Karan

 made this adorable kitty face pillow using his own handspun yarn for the whiskers.

Wonderful job Yusuf!

But it was senior Sophie Yang

 who really blew us out of the water with this elegant crafted pillow form.

Her 2-d felt piece was gorgeous from the get go,

then she cut it and inlaid the white wool felt.

The embroidery finished it off so beautifully.

And we loved how she alternated the design on each side.

Another brilliant piece to share with all.

LEARNING A NEW GLOBAL SKILL

HAND SPUN YARN

BEGINNING 3-D ART

wool rovings & spinning hooks 

Senior Clarrisa Gutierrez  below (our Homecoming Queen & host of Whitney Live)

makes the learning look easy.

But she and all my other students will tell you it was a struggle

with many of them thinking they wouldn't be able to conquer it.

But they did,

eventually  :)

It took between 6-8 days for them to finally get the hang of it,

to get that ah ha moment,

and then they started to actually enjoy it. 

English teacher Deliana Park,

who is taking the class during her conference hour probably struggled the most.

And the kids loved that since she took to all the other assignments like a duck to water.

So secretly they loved that she had a hard time,

right you guys???

Deliana is the English Dept. chair,

and has many responsibilities besides just teaching her students.

So oftentimes the counselors (like Yen Tseng here)

know where to come find her when they need her help or advice.

What Yen didn't know was that he would become entranced watching Deliana spin her magic

 with the wool roving.

So maybe next year he will also become a student in my class  LOL

One of the many things I love about our students is their willingness to help each other out.

Above senior Christine is coaching 8th grader Iris Lin thru her plying.

Below is junior Insha beginning to ply her yarn.

They were required to spin at least a 5 yard singles

that they could then ply into a 2 yard piece of 2-ply to turn in.

Just in case you are wondering,

I make the spinning hooks from coat hangers.

I can get 4 hooks from one hanger.

The hardest part is finding a wire cutter to cut thru the steel wire.

(I apologize for the messy table tops in my room.

Everyday after the kids leave, I clean and put all back in it's place)

I got some great shots of one of my favorite 8th grade students,

Micah spinning some extra credit roving 

hand dyed by my good friend Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts.

After etenuating his piece of roving

you see him drafting it while putting some twist in it with his wire hook.

Before he stores what he has spun on the end of his hook

(bobbin area)

he uses his thigh to help put in a bit of extra twist to make sure it will store well on top of itself,

and will ply later on.

Now he is checking his ply to make sure he has enough twist in it before he stores it.

And here he has just finished storing it on the bobbin area and he is back to drafting again.

So here are all the students first 2 yards of handspun.

After the kids spun their first two yards of yarn,

I asked them to dye it with either Kool Aid

or my Wilton Food Dyes.

It's amazing the wonderful variety of color you can achieve with food dyes 

versus using the more dangerous and toxic acid dyes.

BABY STEPS

It's only taken me 2 years to get this far,

(maybe because I have 50 other projects in the works at the same time)

  LOL,

but I'm ready to give a sneak peek at one of my favorite pieces 

that I'm currently working on up at the cabin.

The hand dyed rovings that I spun these yarns from were a gift from my dear friend Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts. 

Every year she donates a few of her hand dyed rovings to my Beginning 3-D students for their Hand Spinning Unit.  

During the summer before school starts,

I spin up a small sample from each of the colorways so that the kids can see what choices they have.

As soon as the unit is over I begin a new fiber piece with these samples.

I usually make baby garments or pillow tops with the samples.

Well last school year I whipped up these granny squares and stitched them together.

Then over this last summer I spun up some of my hand dyed rovings to border the squares with.

And now with the leftover hand spuns,

 I'm building more squares in a slightly different pattern with a circular center.

I will sew these together for my next border.

I'm hoping that in a couple more years this might actually be a lap blanket/throw for over the couch.

What I'm secretly hoping for is that I will finish it in time for my son's wedding present.

Not that he's getting married anytime soon or has popped the question  LOL

But I know how long these things take me and I want to be prepared  :)

Did I mention that I adore his girlfriend Nicole??

All Together Now

I love to share beautiful fiber finds with my 3-D students who I've taught to spin yarn.

So below are spun up skeins from 3 seniors that I gave roving to,

as well as my own.

What I find so interesting is that I gave them each the same amount of roving and each of the yarns turned out so differently.

On the far left is a 2-ply by Laarnie Barcelon, 

top center is my two-ply,

Then below me is Biana Tolentino

 who has Navajo plied hers then knit it into a beautiful pattern she was experimenting with..

And far right is a singles by Kaili Hamada.

I am so proud to share these young woman who continue the art of spinning 

even after the assignment is over a whole year later.

:)

What's Laarnie What Too?

Spinning, dyeing and building her own drop spindle.

Senior Laarnie Barcelon is the lone ranger in my Advanced 3-D class this year.

But that's a good thing, she is able to become completely absorbed in her work and go deeply into Right Brain.

As a result she is producing incredible works of art this year.

She started the year off by dyeing raw fleece with food colors.

Then I taught her to spin on a drop spindle and also on the spinning wheel.

She took to the spinning wheel like a duck to water.

Just look at her lovely tail spun yarns here.

All these yarns below were either spun on the drop spindle or the spinning wheel.

Drop Spindle

She was also required to build from scratch her own drop spindle.

It was so beautifully designed and crafted that I had to take several shoots at different angles.

The cross bars are from the leftover molding pieces we used in the barn

 up at the cabin this summer.

She was required to build it from at least two different types of wood.

I believe she used oak. alder and poplar.

I adore how she trailed beads and gemstones around the layers 

so that our eye wraps around the piece.

Lovely work Laarnie.

 I'm so proud to showcase your work!

Looking Forward...

to teaching my new 3-D students the art of handspinning.

These are some of their dyed roving choices for this year.

Bianca's Gift

The kindness, love, thankfulness and generosity of my students at the end of a school year is overwhelming and so heartfelt.

It let's me know I am on the right track with these young ones.

In the back of my mind I'd always hoped that I'd be a recognized artist, and maybe that is yet to come.

But what I do know now is that I have become a good teacher, and that I've opened the hearts and minds of over 5000 children in my teaching career to the world of art.

And that is way more important in the whole overall scheme of things.

One of the many beautiful gifts I received this year was from junior Bianca Tolentino.

She carded up this glorious batt of fibers for me to spin over the summer.

So Bianca, I wanted to show you the yarn I spun from your lovely gift, and to thank you for your thoughtfulness.

I will see you next school year in the Intermediate 3-D class.

Can't wait to see what you will create!

And I look forward to using this yarn in my lastest project.