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Northeast Fiber Arts Center
Greetings
Shout out to all those who raise sheep and are in the midst of lambing!
 
I was telling the participants in the Learn to Spin class here last Saturday how appreciative I am of sheep. Each year they share this wonderful fiber with us (not to mention that they can provide cheese and meat too) for relative ease....give them a little pasture and room to roam and they're good!
 
And then yesterday, when talking to to Sue Johnson (who raises beautiful Border Leicesters nearby), I realized that raising sheep only seems easy to me because I don't do it! 
 
As she told me about how many triplets she had born this spring and that only 1 mother is nursing all 3 babes so she sets an alarm for 1 each morning to get up and bottle feed the other lambs then drops back into bed for a few more hours before getting up for good at 6 to feed and water...well, I realized it's not just the sheep that I'm thankful to!
 
So thank you all who raise sheep - both here in VT and elsewhere. For keeping the pasture land open and providing us all with wonderful fiber to spin, knit, weave and felt! I'm sure it is hard this time of year so just know that your work is appreciated.  I hope you all have a good lambing season!
 
Here is a quick look at some of the new yarns that have arrived for spring and be sure to read the couple of quick notes below....one each to knitters, felters and spinners. Particularly some important information for knitters about superwash wools and their care.
 
Hope to see you all soon,
 
Jen
 
 p.s. to those who were enjoying the Thursday night Knit-A-Longs....I still haven't worked out the new night/dates/format for these, but the next newsletter will have more details!
Superwash Wools - an update you'll want to read
Superwash wools -those that can be machine washed without felting - have been around for many years so most every knitter knows something about them. But as the wool processing technology has developed and washing machines and detergents have evolved in the last 4-6 years, I have some new insights you might want to consider or understand when choosing a machine washable wool for a project....especially as we head into that season when knitting for the spring babies is kicking into gear!
 
So if you're interested in learning some important things about superwash wools and their care, check out a little review I posted here.
Knitting For Spring Babies
A few fun little project ideas.....
These booties are knit using Debbie Bliss's new Eco Print Cotton. Organic and oh, so soft!
 

 
 
 
 
And Kimera 100% cotton by Plymouth Yarns is a summer version of the popular Knit-Col, which knits up into a self striping design.
The hat pattern is free with the yarn and the pattern for these "baby legs" is just $5.
 
 
 
Bio-Sesia Cotton is organic and a fingering weight (7 sts/inch) but I'm knitting a summer scarf on size 6 needles in garter stitch and getting 5.5 sts/inch. Six gorgeous colors for spring plus the 6 lovely neutrals shown here.
 


This sweet sundress is the perfect gauge for Cascade's Ultra Pima mercerized cotton. 
It is now available in some prints as well as several new colors for spring.
 
 
 
Phoenix Print, by Trendsetter is a lovely cotton/linen/viscose ribbon yarn with a long repeat
that looks equally great in a summer top (below) or for a summer cowl to take the chill off your neck on those chilly spring evenings.

Special for Spinners....
Spinning Hand-dyed Roving

We've got a few new colors of Nube hand-dyed merino roving in stock so I thought I'd highlight a couple of hand spun swatch samples we have kicking around the store by way of introducing a few principles of working with hand-dyed roving to those of you who may be new to spinning!
 
The photos below illustrate the impact of "how" one chooses to spin a hand-dyed roving on the outcome of the colors in the yarn and then in the knitted fabric.
 
What is obvious in hind-sight, but we often don't think about when we sit down to spin a lovely hand-dyed roving, is that the choice of whether to ply or keep singles (and if so, whether to ply navajo or 2 ply) as well as whether we choose to spin fingering, worsted or bulky, and even how we split the roving as we spin,  will all affect the outcome of the color distribution in the yarn and then in the knitted piece!
 
So if you are new to spinning and thinking about working with a hand painted roving, consider this.
 
This first photo shows , reading left to right, the same roving spun in a bulky singles, a lace weight singles, and 2 ply bulky.

 
 
What is obvious, but easy to ignore when you are new to spinning and concerned more about your drafting or spinning an "even" yarn, is that the finer you spin your yarn, the longer stretches of one color (middle swatch) you get than if you spin thicker (see how the middle swatch has long sequences, even stripes, of a color whereas the left most swatch is spun bulky and features shorter areas of color change).
 
 
What also seems obvious, but again with all you have to think about as a new spinner it is easy to overlook,  is that the colors in a hand painted roving stay more distinct when you spin singles than when you ply (click on the photo above for a closer look at how "diffuse" or "mixed" the colors are in the right most swatch which is plied). If you decide to ply your singles, you will get a "blurring" of the colors -a tweedy yarn - because the colors from one singles ply together with a different color in the second singles.
 
 

 
 
UNLESS....you either ply Navajo so you can control that each color plies with itself rather than with another color in the roving
OR.... you split your roving down the middle, lengthwise, and spin each bobbin from one strip and in in the same orientation as the other lengthwise strip. If you do this (swatch left in the photo below), assuming you have pretty good control of your yarn's diameter, the color sequence  in each singles should line up pretty equally with the color sequence in the other singles so when you ply them, you get the same colors overlapping and will get a Noro-esque swatch whereas if you split the roving haphazardly and then ply you'll end up with a tweed (swatch right).
 
Not that "tweed" is bad or that "clear" matching colors is  good!  Their just very different outcomes from the same roving. So you just want to think about these possibilities when you sit down to spin that lovely roving.
 
Just for Felters....
Call for Artists: Worldwide Colour of Felt
Calls for felters to submit examples of their work for upcoming publications come out pretty frequently and I usually ignore them because I don't have time, alas, for new work and what I've done in the past that I thought was worthy was either sold or gifted. 
 
But this current call for submissions happens to coincide topic wise and time wise with some new projects I had planned for March (where does the time go?!) and I've got planned for April, so I  am resolved to use this "call for submission" as a deadline to be sure I make the time to felt my projects this coming month!
 
So here is the information and I encourage you all to think about submitting as well!
 
Textile Art; The colors of living is a new publication that is looking for artist submissions now. Below is the information I received and want to pass on to you:

 
Call for entry ‘Worldwide colours of felt’
 
The new project ‘Worldwide colours of felt’ is now underway. This book will cover beautiful and unique felt works from across the globe that feature a feast of colour and inspiration. This will be the third volume of Textile Art (I have the first 2 copies of this series in stock at the store and available online too, if you'd like to buy one....they are filled with artists examples from around the world).
 
We are looking for artists working with felt from all over the world who wish to contribute by adding colour to ‘Worldwide colours of felt’. After all, as the title indicates, colour is key in the new set-up of this project. In this publication we will arrange everything according to colour. This will create chapters with one colour as their main theme. The book is expected to have room for 800 to 1,000 works of art. Depending on the use of colour, participants will stand a chance to have one or more entries published.
 
Participation is possible by creating a digital archive on the website from Textile-link, where you can upload and manage images of your recent felt artworks yourself. Do you already have a digital archive? Please add your latest work to it. You can send in your work until the end of May 2015 or thereabouts. The final closing date for sending in work will be indicated in time in the newsletter, on the website and on Facebook.
 
Just as with all other projects from Textile-link, participation is free.
 ‘Worldwide colours of felt’ is expected to come out in the fall of 2015.
 

Details Here
Northeast Fiber Arts Center  •  7531 Williston Rd  •  Williston, VT 05495
http://www.northeastfiberarts.com
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