Carding Fleeces in the Sunshine

The UK weather is about to take a turn for the worse with the remnants of hurricane Bertha heading our way tomorrow so I have been making the most of the sunshine over the last couple of days and carding my White-faced Woodland (WFW) and Jacob fleeces outside.

I have been making a few rolags to try on my new drop spindle too:

And I made a felt sample from the WFW:

This is quite a coarse, hairy wool, definitely not a good choice for scarves but has lots of potential for slippers and handbags. Its shrinkage rate was 40%.

Those of you on the Felting and Fibre Studio Forum may recall I was looking to join a felt-making or other textile group a few months back and I think I may have found one through the International Feltmakers Association. It's not particularly close (they meet in a village hall an hour's drive away) but I am hopeful it will be worth the effort and they only meet once per month. Their next meeting is tomorrow - wish me luck!

With my City and Guilds course nearing an end I have also taken the plunge and signed up to a couple of workshops in addition to a 1-week contemporary weaving course I signed up to in May. Fiona Duthie's Surface Design workshop starts at the start of September and runs for 6 weeks, then I have Karoliina Arvilommi's workshop in the middle of September and Tim Johnson's weaving workshop at the end of the month. I am hoping that I can use Tim's techniques to incorporate felt and textiles into some contemporary basket weaving. September is already shaping up to be a busy month! Exciting times :)