Sep 13 2011

Spokane Weaver’s Guild Meeting!

Come to the Spokane Weaver’s Guild meeting tonight at 6pm at the Orchard Crest Retirement Community, 222 S. Evergreen, Spokane Valley, just south of Target.


May 27 2011

ArtFest is Upon Us!

It’s one week until ArtFest, and things are crazy at the house of the Angry Spinner.

The castle of the loom is piled with scraps:

There’s a TENT in the middle of the living room, that’s been turned into a sweat shop:

And I’m warping MOHAIR. Mohair, people:

But the mohair is making BEAUTIFUL brushed shawls and throws:

Come see me at ArtFest next weekend (June 3, 4, 5) in booth N36 in the NW corner of Coeur’d Alene Park in Browne’s Addition, Spokane, WA.


May 13 2011

Owl Bag Class – Finished Projects!

In a fun turn of events, both of the students in my class decided not to do owl bags, and just to use the pattern to make a messenger bag. Ironically, I’m the only one who showed up for the last class with an un-felted bag (see giant one to the left, back row).

They all came out so beautifully, with some unexpected twists . . . the bag handles (woven to 120″) were a little long, and the flap on the lilac/teal bag (far right) was a little short. I think the pattern needs some tweaking to accommodate the yarn, which is easy to over-stretch on the warping board.

For the sake of science, I have taken the fringes left on my flap, and braided half of them (left), and fringe-twisted the other half (right), and will leave them on during the felting process to see how those two preparations turn out.


May 10 2011

Finishing Hem Stitch Tutorial

To finish the end of a woven piece (and using the tail if possible), work from right to left, first inserting your needle two warp threads and 2-3 weft pics into the cloth. (The number of warp threads and pics will vary, based on the size of your threads and cloth. Pictured here is 14 Ply Wool Pack in a 5dpi reed.

Take the needle back to the right, under the first two warp threads, catching the “loop”

Pull snugly, and insert needle again on the diagonal, under the next two warp threads and next 2-3 weft pics

Take the needle behind the second two warp threads, again catching the “loop” of the tail

Pull snugly, and repeat: diagonally under the next two warp threads, and 2-3 weft pics

Pull snugly, weave under the same two warp threads, and catch the loop . . . then repeat across the whole width






May 8 2011

Swatching: A Cautionary Tale

When you meet me in a fiber circle, and you ask me a question whose answer would best be answered with a swatch (be it a knitted or a woven swatch), I will most likely answer that you should swatch.
(This is pretty much any question related to changing the pattern, yarn, needle size, or gauge, making up a pattern, changing the sett, or felting). My consistent, faithful, unwavering commitment to recommending swatches has earned me, in certain circles, the dubious moniker: “The Swatch-Nazi.”*

Swatching is particularly important when you’re wet-felting, so that you can ascertain if the piece will felt dimensionally (that is, it will retain its shape, but decrease in size), or will draw in more than shrink (that is, become a long, thin rectangle), or will shrink more than draw in (become a short, fat rectangle).

For the Owl Bag project, I made a small swatch.

This swatch is wildly too small. When I felted it, it shrank more than it drew in (short, fat rectangle). As I didn’t realize that this was an issue, I based my initial numbers on the swatch’s shrinkage, and ended up with a much longer, thinner owl bag than I had planned on.

Enter the full-sized swatch. While you don’t have to weave (or knit, or crochet) an entire project to make a “full sized” swatch, it is considerably easier and consumes far less yarn to make a “full sized” swatch than it is to make a mini swatch, be wrong, make the project, make a full-sized swatch, and then remake the whole project. Here is my second swatch, which is the full width of the project (11 inches on the loom) squared.

(In case you’re wondering why this swatch seems to have sprouted a teeny chest full of hair, it’s because I was playing around with the idea of giving the owl a “feathered” chest, and pulled a lot of individual strands through my plain woven cloth, much like a 70s latch-hook rug. I did not like the mass they felted into — too much like 70s porn star chest hair– and soon gave that up).

This full sized swatch felted dimensionally — that is, it kept the original dimensions, and resulted in the bag I set out to make in the first place — the short, fat owl bag:

On a lemons-into-lemonade front, I kept good notes on both owls, and made the pattern to reflect a choice of sizes.

* I’m certain I would probably prefer “Swatch Evangelist” or “Careful Fiber Artist,” but there’s a certain consonant-heavy assonance to “Swatch Nazi” that harkens back to Jerry Seinfeld’s Soup-Nazi, and I thus choose to think of it as a term of endearment.


Feb 18 2011

More beginning Weaving Classes

If you missed signing up for the rigid heddle class (it filled up super-fast!),
there are two more on the schedule, available through the
Spokane Parks and Recreation
Click on “Corbin Art Center Fine Art Classes & Workshops”
Click on “Corbin Fiber Arts Workshops”
Look for classes 17932 and 18312, which will be held with me, at Paradise Fibers.


Aug 11 2010

Weaving Classes

Want to learn to weave, but you’ve been too intimidated to go out on your own?

Join the Angry Spinner at Paradise Fibers this fall and learn to weave on a rigid heddle loom.

Learn the basics of warp and weft, learn to dress the loom, fill a shuttle, and weave beautiful fabrics.

Classes begin this fall when Paradise moves to their new location in Spokane, WA.