New garment

Ii’ve started a new garment with a selection of lavender and blue yarns textured and plain with some fuzz for fun.
Mostly handspun but with a fine commercial to link all the different tones. This will be felted after knitting and lined and should keep me warm this autumn as I investigate my new garden after the move next week.
I’m enjoying the bamboo needles, much nicer to handle than the plastic versions I used previously, light still and warmer in the hand.

moving over

Just when I was getting myself all cosy here in Ireland, I get a health disaster. Hence no blog updates , no new work and I’m only now getting well enough to be back online.

Soon I hope I’ll have something to talk about again, meanwhile hello to all who were able to get out and about for WSP day again this year.

Lone spinner confuses Public

by fuzzyball

I took myself off to wander the great City of Kilkenny this afternoon as expected. The rain held off and I was able to do a spin-in in the castle grounds, not content with that I moved over to the design centre and had a quick twirl round, before making for the macdonagh shopping centre, where once again the public seemed oblivious. I guess middle class women can get away with most things virtually unnoticed.

Having done my duty to the craft, I also got a  little fix of ART with some very nice work from a potter I own a couple of pieces by, one Jack Doherty, his glazes just get better and the forms are loosening a little . Sad to say not all the work was sold, recession blues hit us all.

crazy spinner wanders the city byways

It is nearly wsipd,  september 19th, come 2pm I will be in Kilkenny to do a little gorilla spinning, lurking around the castle grounds and the design centre and anywhere else my fancy takes me. Any spinner who would like to join me will know it is me , cos i’ll be the crazy woman doing some spindle spinning with some hot pink merino tops, on an improvised spindle, (paintbrush, and cd insert)

I’m also going to be promoting myself, website, etsy shop, and the crafty ireland etsy team , so be warned, leaflets at 50 paces!

Re work, I have nearly completed the new laptop bag which may accompany me into kilkenny as it turned out to be quite a colourful, nay , dare I say, pretty bit of painting. If weather permits I will be proudly wearing a fuzzyball hat and any other handmade handspun I can find.

It will therefore probably turn out to be a beautiful sunny day.

fuzzyball liz

Break out the Bubbly

by    fuzzyball,

champagne weather at last! Intended to paint a laptop cover this morning, but with this sunshine beckoning me outdoors, I’ll leave  it ’till later.

New yarn to play with, felt brooches in construction, and the summer arrives! also under construction two more caps on the blue planet theme, a bit more machine embroidery while the light is O.K.  It will soon be time to use the daylight bulbs in the studio.  A real difference that will make life easier in the winter months when all is doomy and grey, try one of the low energy types if you haven’t yet, well worth the  extra  expense.

wet,wet,wet

Warm and wet here today, but I’m snug inside and busy as usual. Another fuzzyball hat has been created and more on the way.

Tonight I spent some time with a neighbour who runs a fishing school on the lovely river nore here in kilkenny. It isn’t often that anyone offers such pleasant surroundings for such a good cause, so check it out.

post group fatigue

By fuzzyball

yesterday’s  meeting of the group was a pretty full on day of setting up and trouble shooting sewing machines, trying to coax them to do some free  motion embroidery without making tangles of thread and blue language. I think everyone was able to get their machine to do something O.K.  even if it wasn’t quite what the manufacturer had in mind.

We need our sewing  machines to be responsive and adjustable with ease, an ability to overide the ‘helpful’ automatic settings would be so good. Automatic tensioning systems just don’t work.

All the current machines have faults which prevent us from buying anything too new, and it isn’t as if manufacturers  don’t know about it!

Moan over , the day was good fun, nice to see people enthused and enabled.

So many threads to play with and not enough time.

shop is live

gorgeous fruity irish strawberries

By fuzzyball  After all the hassle of the last few days, sorting software and getting some files uploaded (no mean feat on dial-up), I have a real live etsy shop on the loose. I don’t know that it will do me much good re sales but the page looks nice. It will be good to be able to have on my profile in any case, and should prove whether anything I am making currently is popular with the etsy crowd. I think that the prices on etsy are way too low – if I can’t pay myself a skilled labourers wage at least then there is little point in all the effort required. For a person in my situation , web selling would be ideal, less physical stress than the craft fair circuit which is hard work, and does not always give a fair return for the effort put in. In my opinion the promoters, printers and organisers seem to get the most from craft fairs. Socially they are useful, but I would like to see the participants making the effort to organise their own fairs. Ravelry(USA) has managed to get the knitting community up and running, maybe here in U.K there will be some brave folk who will attempt the same. Check out sock summit on ravelry to see the results. 16/08/09

Welcome

By liz at fuzzyfibrearts.   Welcome to my blog, it will chart my fibre life as I learn new skills and add them to my art practice. I’ll include random musings which I will flag so you can avoid them!

Today has  been useful as I’ve managed to edit some photos for publishing , spun some more merino top, bright royal blue , to ply with some hot pink and royal blue hand mixed tops , all for more hats. The more I do , the more I can think of ways to change and extend the vocabulary. Besides, they are great fun, a completely different mind set to the embroidery or collage of the more serious things I do.

knit and felt hat august 2009

This hat is the latest from the fuzzyball stable, soon to be up and available for sale .

If I ever get broadband there will be lots of pictures on site, but for now that will have to do.

People who impress at the moment include artist  Mary Babcock

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