It started with interesting fibers and colors that were soon to be blended on a variety of carding machines. Esther brought three different ones and our youngest fiber fanatic, Hampton, age 9, brought his brand new Patrick Green carder. As inspiration, Esther showed us several delicious batts that she had created and dumped a huge bag full of scrumptious fiber over a chair from which we could create our own batts. She had two different kinds of Louet carders and my favorite an Otto Strauch. It did such a beautiful job blending the fibers! It was almost as much fun creating the batts to spin as it was to spin!
We core spun yarn by adding fibers to a yarn base which made for a warmer yarn. Its benefits are that it extends your specialty fibers much better than regular spinning. We added "stuff" to our yarn and explored lots and lots of colors and textures in the many different fibers. We learned to wrap strips of fabric around our yarn. What fun! All of us came away from the day exhilarated!
It was wonderful having Esther stay at our place while she was in Savannah. Besides being a patient and knowledgable teacher, she was a very easy guest and so much fun to have around. The two of us enjoyed a wonderful dinner with her favorite crabcakes at Skylers on Bay St. Delicious!
Here is a luscious skein of art yarn that I created after Esther left using a beautiful spring flower inspired batt of wool from a black sheep who was SAFF champion, mohair, and silk and metallic threads. I added the little silk flowers and leaves (I stripped off all the plastic on them) and even a butterfly from flowers I bought at the dollar store. I love, love, love it! Such lofty soft texture! Now I have to think of just the right project for it, but until then I'm loving having it on the living room side table where I can enjoy it all the time!
