Creative inklings...

Hello all! Just wanted to make a quick picture post of the latest project. Friends will recall a ways back when I was experimenting with my inkle loom and made a few REALLY wide bands. These were less dense than the thinner bands and I decided to use the rainbow one for a handbag, and line it with some hand dyed cotton to keep the purse strong. This is an image of the wide band. Initially it was a sampler of a few different basic pattern concepts. I really like all the bright colors :)
So now I am making a tablet woven strap using the orange cotton I dyed the other day:
Now I know I know...Tablet weaving makes such lovely patterns why am I weaving vertical stripes? Lately I have just been satisfying my cravings for color blending. I haven't got any other excuses!

And since I apparently have hours and hours of free time to spend creating drafts of finished products in my Paint shop. Truthfully I have been avoiding housework by spending inordinate amounts of time at my computer "drafting". Anyways here is what my finished tote should resemble in the end:
Okay! There we go! And actual weaving entry of sorts! I was beginning to think I shouldn't have signed up with weave ring! Proof I actually make stuff sometimes :P

Hearts off the Charts!
JQ

Dye another day.

Voila! Three oranges and two blues! This is crochet cotton I dyed a few days ago and will be using to make a guitar strap with my inkle loom. I will be bringing the pattern for the strap, along a bunch of other examples of neat things to make with inkles, to my first workshop on Oct 24!

Coming soon...GREEN!

Hearts off the charts...
JQ

PS: Mom if you want to see the fair trade totes I purchased click here!

My first yarn!

Alright! Five hundred feet of hand prepped, hand-spun alpaca fluff. Be gentle folks I am still learning! Overall I am happy with the turn out and I learned a great deal. These were done using my new Leclerc drop spindle. Alas I am still having a nightmare of a time figuring out my wheel. The fawn colored stuff is off Airo, and the white in the tweed was from the lady I bought the alpacas from. She included it in the deal which was so very nice of her! :) These photos almost seem blurry but really that's just the soft fluffy fibre. Another picture of my pretty new 2-ply. When I was plying the tweed I realized that the singles hadn't been spun as much as they should have been so they plied together in very long twists. Its been such a steep learning curve! It's still pretty and can be used for something for sure...I know for next time!
One last detail:

YEAH soft fluffy yarns! Now I have to spend some quality time with my wheel and see if I can't get into a rhythm.

Cheers n beers!
JQ

Regarding a Hearts on Fibre website.

Hello to anyone who is cruising my blog! Welcome!

I am just starting out selling crafty bits like knit and crochet toques etc and people have been contacting me wondering about a website. Unfortunately at this point I don't have a site up and running but it is definitely in the works. In the meantime all I have is my Hearts on Fibre blog and business e-mail: fibreofmybeing@gmail.com.

I try and post images of any completed work in here as often as possible. Until I get a proper website up and running I will see about setting up at photobucket so that at least my images are available online. Please don't hesitate to e-mail me with any questions regarding my current products.

Hearts off the Charts!
JQ

A Fluffy Addition!

Everyone...meet Chantal. A Hembra after my own heart, she's a little tubby around the midsection, but over all super pretty and makes a LOT of fibre annually. 13 lbs they said. Her fibre is very soft and crimpy.
This is her tail. It is super fluffy. :)


And this is Chantal saying hello to one of the crias (baby pacas). Apparently she likes to play auntie to all the little'ns.And since I am on the alpaca pics, I posted a few of the Macho that bred Honey this past summer. His name is Choco. This first pic shows his coloring:

And here's choco's profile.
This is one of honey's surviving crias. Honey doesn't make enough milk, and thus some of her past crias haven't made it, so I have to bottle feed next summer, but I am okay with that. :) I'll be watching like a hawk and doing everything I can to ensure the little one survives. Anyways I wanted to put up a picture so everyone has an idea of the pretty babies she makes. This one is a year or two old. All the massive fluff around the eyes is a sign of a good fibre animal.

As for the "goaterrific" entry, I wish I had taken pictures of that silly billy to post here but alas! So I will just say that he won me over in an instant and spent the afternoon following me around chewing on my purse tassels. It was awesome!

I recently went to visit a flock of Merinos as well as the aforementioned Dorsets and Border Leichesters. We are seriously considering purchasing three pregnant Merino ewes, for a grand total of 9 sheep once they are all born. But this is still in the works so i will post later when I have some fantastic photos to share.

So anyone who pops in here is likely wondering about the products. Probably curious as to when I'll start making entries about the things I am making! Sorry guys, believe it or not I have been very busy making stuff, and plan to post a few entries with product soon!

Coming up: I would Dye for you!

Cheers n beers!
JQ

Well the Boreal Jam was a huge success! Everyone seemed to have an excellent time learning and just being surrounded in creative energy. I participated in as many workshops as I could, but unfortunately couldn't hit them all. I missed out on soapstone carving, culinary arts, silkscreening and paper making. I have quite a bit of experience in the latter two from college and I know if I would have taken soapstone carving I wouldn't have left that booth all weekend!

So I took creative writing, songwriting, guitar technique, tableaux performance, and painting from nature, and managed to get a little drop spindling done as well! It was so much fun to camp out on site and I don't think I'd do it any other way from now on.

There was a terrible storm the first night and I spent the whole night eyes squeezed shut, adrenaline rushing, as the rain and hail pelted the tent, and the trees groaned and creaked and broke in the distance. I am a pretty big pansy when it comes to lightning and thunder and big wind :P. Okay so OTHER than Friday night the REST was the bomb!

This is a photo of Moosehead Hall the morning after the big storm. There were trees down just a short ways up the road from us. I had to bail out my tent and make a quick trip home with a few things from my tent to hang and the lady next to me sent some sheets along to throw into my drier. That was the bonus of having this event so close to my house!

The super awesome soapstone workshop that I missed:

One fo many Canadian Candles we had on site throughout the weekend:

A shot of the campsite and fire. A very cool local artist named Doug Taylor hung out on site made some really cool carvings out of firebrick. He also did lots of other creative stuff reacting to the surrounding environment. What a treat!

Another shot of the hall with my friend and camping buddy Alicia (left). Artistic Director for the Jam and friend Cam is in the red shirt :

Okay two more entries left to catch up! The fluffy addition entry will have to be made after Thursday when I have photos! I'll combine the Dorset/goaterrific entry with it since I was lame and didn't bring my camera to the farm where we were looking.

Okay Later gaters!
JQ

My Head is Spinning!

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been a few days but I have been having all sorts of excitement here. I got spoiled rotten the last few days and am now the proud owner of what looks like an Ashford Traditional unfinished spinning wheel, one spool rack, two low whorl drop spindles and another set of carding paddles. YAHOO! Here are a few pictures of my loot!

The spinning wheel:


Another view:
The front drop spindle is Leclerc. I purchased it new at a yarn shop just the day before the bucket of goodies arrived from my friend Dorothy's daughter in Saskatoon. I guess she figured she'd throw the extra spindle and carders in with the wheel:

The carders still have wool bits in them but that's easy to fix. And I am happy to report that these newer ones don't have all that green tarnishing around the bases of the teeth so my wool won't get dirty!
This is what the teeth look like:Anyways, I am off to ginish knitting a bunch of baby sets, and I just received a commission to do four purses for a friend of a friend so I should get cracking!

Still to come: A furry addition, Boreal Jam on Rye, and My visit to see Dorset and Border Leichester sheep-- Goateriffic!

Cheers n Beers!
JQ

OH PS! I ordered five different colors of Reactive MX dye from opulence the other day and expect them by the beginning of next week sometime! YAHOO!