2019 is Here!

2019 is Here!

2019 is here! And there is already a lot to do. Like most people, I like to look ahead to the year and lay out a structure for activities. It's a plan, not something that we always adhere to in reality, but a vision for the year.

We've had several intensive staff meetings in January to get all the details worked out. Stitches West is already on our horizon, and planning has more than begun. We have added DFW Fiber Fest back into our schedule, and moved the trunk show for A Good Yarn from April to March. We're thinking about who, what, where, and how things will happen this year. 

Besides the activities of Miss Babs Yarns, I am also thinking about how to charge up my creativity, and the creativity of all the Miss Babs team members. Veronica (website guru) will be taking another art class...

Leaf Drawing

Beth (our shipper) will hopefully be able to find another stained glass class to take....

Beth's Stained Glass

...and Annette and Cindy will be learning more about weaving from Jen. This is just a sample of things we have planned for the year.

Annette's Weaving

Last year we had two felting classes that everyone attended. The first taught us to make scarves, and the second was hats. I expect that we will have some Friday afternoon knitting, crocheting, and weaving classes this year for employees as well as another felting workshop. I certainly don't expect every employee to knit, but would love for them to have an understanding of our love of fiber activities and encourage their creativity in whatever direction it takes them.

Felting Workshop in the Studio

Back in April, before we brought the fiber back onto the website, we took a day to do some felting with everyone in the studio. Many of the people who work here at Miss Babs don't have any experience working with fiber or know what people use fiber for. So we thought a felting workshop making scarves would be a great way to introduce folks to fiber that would be more accessible than spinning.

 friend of mine, Jane Campbell, happens to be a felter and a great felting teacher. We have known each other for probably 15 years as we have both been members of the Blue Ridge Fiber Guild based in Boone, NC.

We got started around 10 in the morning. There were lots of rovings to choose from, as well as embellishments like yarns, and ribbons, and silk hankies. The rovings we used were Merino, Merino-Silk, or Merino-Bamboo-Silk. Merino is fast to felt and is so very soft on the neck.

Everyone found a place to work, got their fiber, and got the set-up stuff for when we would move from dry work to working with water.

We started by laying out the fiber in layers. Some of us worked with solid colors, while others moved from one color to another. 

 

Some people are faster than others! Some people started wetting down their not-yet scarves which is the next step in the process. The scarf is rolled up as it is wet and in the end is ready for rolling to felt it. You roll one direction, then the other, checking to see how the fibers are meshing with each other. When the fibers are pretty well felted, you take it out of the roll and do more rubbing on the table to encourage the fibers to enmesh. Lastly, and most satisfactorily, you throw the scarf onto the table to finish the felting process.

We made our hats in much the same way, laying out fibers over a form to create the hat shape.

Felting hats

JANE!!! We couldn't have done it without you. You are a wonderful teacher, incredibly knowledgeable and patient! 

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1 comment

Wow that felting is amazing! Love the update and seeing what others are doing

Kristie Michalowski

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