More of Sunbridge and the Fiber Craft Studios

Here are some more lovely shots form Sunbridge/ Fiber Craft Studios.

Plant dyed hand knit socks

Here is the latest and the greatest from my last teacher training 

**coughretreatcough** 

Its wonderful to spend time with people that share the same intrest and that are really really funny!!  This is what we did in one of the classes for the first week.  More to come.

Here's to a hearty laugh.

Dye Garden

Cochineal with Madder to get that deep red.

Indigo 

Look what we dyed!!

Look at the selection we get to choose from as well as what we dyed.

Knitting...

Most of us finished the first week and some of us (me) we were the proud owners of our first pair of socks from scratch.  I'm the brown ones in the middle. Oh happy day. 

 :)

Ok, I'm back - sorry to have taken such a long break.  I have something really funny for you...

Sheep!

have a look and tell me what you think.  I'll be back to tell you all about my teaching training later this week (with photos!)

No camera - Boo Hoo

Hello, I'm sorry to say that my camera broke a few days ago and I feel like I am such a visual person - my words never do any justice.

I have been keeping myself busy with the end of school - lots of end of year reports, final projects wrap up for the kids, and then there is the cleaning...

I am planning a yard sale in two weeks  the attic has lots of space but my living room is atrocious,  I will use the money for my summer stint at Sunbridge College - Fiber Craft Studios for the end of June.   Its such a wonderful place to be.

Tonight is the Ithaca Parade. Now this is not your ordinary parade mind you.  There are stilt walkers, pie throwers, walking musicians, Belly dancers, Volvo's in tutus, and a chainsaw serenade at the end plus more.  Its usually an hour + long parade with way too much candy for the kids and its a sight to behold.

Lets hope the weather hold off...

"No rain, No rain, No rain"

Neil can chant so can you!

I hope to have my camera back in my hands at the end of two weeks - can I make it??

Madder - plant dye

Well as you can see I have finally dyed with Madder.  I have always used the root (unground) but have now used ground madder and wow what a difference.  You get the color so quickly.  With the root you have to soak and simmer for days to get color like this.  (Or maybe it was me doing something wrong)  But Wow I love this color.  

The wool roving balls - the orange/red colored ones were straight out of the pot (all have been fixed with Alum and cream of tartar).  The roving (and one silk scarf) that has more of a pink tone was dipped in an ammonia bath after dyeing.  The skeins of yarn were dipped twice and a slight ammonia after bath.  Amazing the color difference from just one pot.  The color get weaker with every dipping.  I have a skein still in the pot and will take it out after a few days.  Heat is also important - it was a bit more than hand hot but not near boiling.  I do believe that boiling results in a rusty orange at best. 

Great Weekend

I had a very nice Mothers Day - did you?

Happy Mothers Day to my Mom!

I had waffles, went to church and then off to the Farmers market for more food!  It was great.  The Farmers market is in full swing - if you are ever in town it is definitely something for your "to do" list.  However I would avoid it on Memorial day weekend - all the Cornell University parents are there because its graduation weekend and it is so full you can't move around!  So we will skip next week and go the following week for our noodle bowl fix.

On Saturday, I went to the Friends of the Library sale and got some great books.

I also went to my spinners guild meeting.  We chatted and then made buttons out of fimo/sculpty clay.  I highly recommend it!  You get the colors you need for your custom blended fibers and its really addictive!  Mine are the greens ones (what a surprise!) - bottom left.

My boys went fishing on Saturday and brought home some lovely fish for our pond.  They eat the mosquitos and its fun to "find" them through out the summer.

Snapping turtle

We saw this beauty ( snapping turtle) crossing the road the other day and had to stop for a photo.  Its not the biggest we have ever seen but he was a good size anyway.  He was meandering to the nearby pond.  Nice to see such a cool looking dino.

Here are all our teachers walking the land that will soon be our schools location.  We have acres and now we just need to build.  Ha - "just".   There is so much ahead of us it exciting.  

Here are the bees.  The hive was living in the neighboring house and decided to move out one afternoon and one of our loving students found the hive.  Magical and wonderful how it all works out sometimes.  

We have a program that comes to the school every friday thats called Earth Arts.  It teached the children all about nature and how to care for it and how to use it carefully and then in turn, how nature takes care and nurtures them.  We had a lovely slide show at our teacher meeting and she told wonderful stories of the children.

I held my 1st grade class outside today.  I remember wanting to do that when I was little - ("why can't they just take us out side" I use to think) so now that I am a teacher I do it as much as I can.

The Ithaca Friends of the library sale it tomorrow morning  - I can't wait.  I think I might do some yard sales too.  

Coldplay puppet show!

I can't get enough of this video so funny - just watch and enjoy!

Happy May Day

(removed photos - sorry)

The weather was perfect and all the children (and adults) has so much fun at our little festival. There were games, food and music. This was my third year attending and by far the most organized. Thanks to the Parent Concil - Much thanks.

Several kids and adults had on beautiful flower crowns. I would love to share but didn't get permission for close-ups but here is my husband and I.

I am in the process of firing up my indigo pot again. Its from instant crystals (1 TBS) lasts forever!! I have used the pot twice - with added deoxidizer. I love the teals I am getting with the softer yellows.

Plant dyeing

Well, the color that I was graced with by the Willow tree leaf is wonderful!

I love the fact that you can acquire a great yellow (all shades) from things growing in your backyard or side street.   For this I just trimmed a few low branches from a huge Willow tree and clip them with scissors and simmered them up.  When the plant matter sinks to the bottom of the pot (usually a few hours) you know that the dye stuff is ready to strain.  I usually never have the patience to strain and I end up regretting it because I spend more time picking the particles off the wool - and that takes more time than straining.  So learn from my mistakes!

The other color is from a weak bath of Black walnuts that have been sitting in a pot outside all winter.  I did strain this one because the nut hulls just disintegrated when I heated this one up.  I think it will make a lovely color for faces for my needle felted santas.

Here is a pot of Dandelion flowers that are just starting to sprinkle the lawns of the east.  I can see already (soaking overnight) that it will also be a strong yellow.  It's such a picture perfect pot with the blossoms floating.

For an end of year projects for my kids I hope to wash up a fleece that was just donated and dye with them.  It will take a bit on my part to get it organized for a 40 minute class but maybe I will make a day of it and stay through recess.

Box - o - Wool

I have taken a leap of faith in myself and purchased a BOX load of white wool/alpaca roving.

It was a mess in the box and took days to straighten it all into balls.  They called it mill ends - I call it heaven, my husband calls it fuzzy.  There was wool floating around the house for days - but then again when isn't there!  I hope to spin it, dye it with plant dyes, & then sell it.   

Where you ask?  

Me too.  I think I'll put some of it up on my etsy page, there are so many good spinners there so... I also hope to do some craft shows this fall.  It will take this long to spin it all.  

What color do you  like to knit in??

I have done this much so far...  Not much of a dent but I'm truck'n along.

I also had all wool roving in the box.  You end up with an unrequested, all white, types of roving.  I was really pleased with what I got.

I have soaked these rovings in alum (there is more in the pot) and are now drying in the sun/wind. I hope to collect dandlions and willow leafs for a nice yellow to start off my greens for this year.  I'll try to put up a play by play as I go along.

The Planets bend between us

I'm still adding to this - Lots more to go. I usually don't show my art work in progress but hey - I figure only my friends are reading this anyway!

I took out the real unusable wrinkles and straightened the ocean line.  Took out the dark figure and put in a tree.  Added lots of little touches that I'm sure you cant tell in this photo.  The top photo was wet felted and then the add ons were from a felting needle.

I like the colors - its the beach at winter - I'm still pondering...

...and from the edge of Ireland shout out loud...

Lots of fun on vacation

We had a lovely vacation 

- after the annual Easter egg hunt - 

we went to the Crystal Caves in PA. 

 The boys have been into the crystal miners from lego and they were thrilled to be in a real crystal mine cave.  Very cute.  Well, after mining for gold (purchased bags from the store and then you "pan" for your goodies) we went back to the hotel, that in itself was a treat.   

The next day we took them to Cabela's (can you hear the outdoors man gods singing?? - Ahhhhh). 

 Then up to Pottsville to the Yuengling brewery.  Lets just say this end of the vacation was for my husband.  I tried to swing in a trip to the wool mill, but alas, there wasn't enough time - later I'm sure.

I am working on a felted piece using lyrics to a song - I have wet felted it and after it dries I will be adding more to it.  More like a wool picture - I have done a few of these but not in this fashion, so we will see how it turns out.

Locks of Love

I have always wanted to do this but have not been in the right place/time.

I now felt in the right place and it feels great. I hope to get a finished hair look soon.

I highly recomend it if you can too.

Locks of Love.

Final draft of an ongoing change

Featured on Crafty Crow - Thanks

I was thrilled to have a spot on the Crafty Crow - Thanks!

(I'm at the bottom of the page as of right now)

She is such a great resource for crafts - check it out.

I am currently running around the house packing for a quick trip down south for the Easter weekend.  It's amazing all the things I want to take (crafting wise) to "play" with my sisters.  We also have a lot of show and tell to do as well.  I haven't seen them since the new year started.

Here I am doing a gift for my sisters while I sit in the tire store getting my snow tires off.  

It was snowing while they were doing it - how ironic!

The boys are thrilled for the annual Easter egg hunt as well.

Remember a while back I told you Snow Patrol was my favorite band.

Well my sisters and I are going to see then in June!!  I can't wait.  His passion, in his lyrics, just make me swoon!  They are playing with Coldplay - can't get much better than that.