Angora goat kids and Mini Dairy Goat kids born on Alba Ranch. Lavender Terrace Progress, Rock Wall Building, and Moon Garden Progress….Spring is here and work is on the go.
Tag: Angora
Artful Women’s Exhibition with Zonta in Canon City, CO
The international organization, Zonta, has an annual fund raiser. This fundraiser is for their scholarship fun and local and international service projects. It is called the Artful Women’s Exhibition. An Art Show that has 3 categories. Drawing/Painting, Photography, 3D and Fiber. I have 3 pieces that will be in the Fiber category.
We will be having one or two fiber artists from Ft Collins, Colorado judging the 3D and Fiber category. I believe this is the first Art Show that I have entered any Fiber Entries that will be judged by actual Fiber Artists. Most times, the judges are NOT fiber Artists so I have never been able to understand how they could JUDGE Fiber. I am looking forward to this.
The opening night is October 5, 2012 from 5:30-7:30pm. The show will also be open October 6 and 7, 13 and 14th, and the 20th. It will be at the old Sunflower Bank Building at 531 Main Street, Canon City, Colorado. Admission is $5.00.
I plan on getting to know more about the Zonta Organization and the local chapter. Their mission statement is: To empower women to improve their status through education, economic stability, health and wellness, to serve our community through local and international projects and through contributions, and to further the mission of Zonta International.
This is a good thing and I hope to find out more about them.
The 3 pieces that I am entering will show hand spinning, hand painting and dyeing, spinning from carded art batts, spinning from locks, crochet, weaving on a rigid heddle loom and free form crochet.
My three entries are Pastels, Bits and Bobs, and Beehive Art Yarn Shawl.
Pastels is an 8 ft triangle shawl. It was woven in continuous warp method on an 8 ft triangle loom from yarn that I hand painted.
Bits and Bobs was hand spun from art batts, rovings, and various other bits and bobs of fiber received over the years. It has alpaca, merino, wool, angora rabbit, angelina for sparkle and glitz, and other assorted fibers that I have no clue about as they came in art batts. I hand wove panels on my rigid heddle loom and free form constructed this jacket. I also wove a bag that I later felted for extra durability and wove a panel to be used as a wrap skirt to complete the outfit. This outfit has not been exhibited in Fremont County. It was my entry into the Art Prize Competition in Grand Rapids, Mi in 2011.
Beehive Art Yarn Shawl was spun from locks and hand painted in vibrant colors. The yarn is extreme chunky and bulky. I used a crochet hook that is much bigger than my thumb and free form crocheted this into a unique OOAK shawl. Ribbon was added for a nice touch and to close the front of the shawl.
I am looking forward to this exhibition and hope to see you there. Come Look for me 🙂
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Update: “Bits and Bobs” won Third Place in the 3D and Fiber Category at the Artful Women’s Exhibition. The judge particularly liked the different textures, colors, and seeing the “hand” of the artist in the weave and spinning.
Hand Painted and Dyed Yarns for the Store
I have over 60 new skeins of yarn for the online store. I did a massive dye project and hand painted 57 200 yd skeins in less than 24 hours. They were at the Salida Fiber Festival and are now going into the Alba Shop to get ready for the Holiday Shopping.
Here is a shot of them all hanging on the line to dry in my garden.
Most are in colorways of about 6 skeins, with each skein being 200 yds. One 200 yd skein will make a lacy scarf and 2 skeins making a lovely shawl.
I have 21 skeins of 100% pure Angora Rabbit lace weight 2 ply yarn. This yarn is a stunning 28 wpi! Such a delicate fine 2 ply lace yarn.
I have 36 skeins of a blend of 60% merino and 40% mohair. This yarn is dyed in about 8 different color ways. This fiber was grown here on Alba Ranch in the Colorado Mountains. It came from 2 white merino sheep, White Mama and Crazy 208. The 3 white angora goats were Michelle (grandma), Lucy (mom), and Sami (wethered grandson).
I also have a six skeins of Baby Woo Boo. This yarn is 35% baby alpaca, 30% merino, 30% bamboo and 5% nylon binder. It is a wonderful soft, stretchy boucle with lots of bounce and is still very lightweight.
I hand painted all these skeins myself and love the colorways. I am just starting to photograph them and will be uploading them to the shop here shortly over the next week.
I have taken over 100 photographs of the yarns and all the Lincoln Long Wool Locks. Now they are all edited and I will be uploading them in the shop as I get them done.
I have decided to include a few photos of the yarns just to tease you. Keep an eye out here as they come your way.
First Ever Salida Fiber Art Festival
The first ever Salida Fiber Art Festival is next weekend. September 8 and 9, 2012. I have to have all my things ready to put in the booth on Friday, September 7. My sister is coming in to Colorado Springs tomorrow night and it will be her first time in Colorado. She is also bringing her daughter, Isadora, who is 5 months old and flying for the first time. First time for both in extreme altitude, first time for these two city girls to be out in the backwoods of the mountains, so very many firsts in the next week or two!!!
I decided to specialize in Lincoln Long Wool Locks in small quantities for spinners and felters and hand painted and hand dyed yarns this year. Our guild has a double fiber booth so many members are putting things in the booth for sale. I may consider doing a booth on my own in the future but I would have to buy the tent, sand bags, set up the tables and be there for the entire fiber festival which at this time I just can not manage with my health. There is no reason I can’t participate in my guild’s booth because if all the members did their own booth, our Guild booth would be rather empty.
I have hand painted Lincoln Locks, solar dyed Lincoln locks, natural colored or white lightly washed Lincoln Locks, and some of the white Lincoln locks raw. There will be much to choose from. The dyeing of the Lincoln Long Wool Locks is already done.
I have 36 200 yd skeins of 60/40 Merino/Mohair 2 ply lace weight yarn. This fiber was grown here on Alba Ranch and I had the mill blend the two fibers into this yarn. Merino wool came from White Mama and the other crazy white merino. And the Mohair came from Michelle, Lucy, and Sammi. That is a grandmother, mother and wether Angora Goat Family.
I also have 21 200 yd skeins of 2 ply spider lace weight (28 WPI) skeins of pure Angora Rabbit yarn as well. All 57 of these skeins I am hand painting today.
I have those skeins plus 6 other skeins already dyed to make 63 skeins of yarn. I will have 40-50 individual bags of Lincoln Long wool locks. I have to tag and price every single one by Friday. I think my sister will be pressed into hard labor to help finish these!! haha
Any of the yarns and locks that I do not sell in the Fiber Festival, I will upload to the Alba Ranch Shop Online as I haven’t added any new products recently. I have been too busy creating to do computer work. I am off now to the dye pot or I will never finish today. Blog writing is NOT getting any dyeing done!!