Dudleyspinner Tie Dye Roving Teaches at Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza Sept 18-20 Hot Spgs. Arkansas

This is the hat I am working on for the Free Form Crochet Class. I used the flower loom with Unspun Roving  the flowers are then crocheted around and attached to each other. I have a method of decreasing that works very well to take a flat shape like this and shape it into a hat.  This hat may become an earflap hat. It seems to be heading that direction.

Dudleyspinner Tie Dye Roving, Unspun Roving Flower Tutorial, Free Form Crochet Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza, Hot Springs, AR Sept 18-21,2014

Wrap the unspun roving around the pegs, I went around twice

Pull a loop through to the back, slip stitch around the center until it is secured.

I used a needle felting needle to secure all the ends, making a tidy little flower.

I will crochet through the loops to create the next scrumble.  Though each loop, chain 3 seems to make a nice smooth piece. 

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Dudleyspinner Tie Dye Roving Teaches at Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza, #ArFiber2014 Sept 18-21

 The progress on the scrumble that started with the UNSPUN ROVING  flower loomed and needle felted flower. I used a thin yarn and a large hook to crochet around the flower working through all the loops. The next rounds were some double crochet and bullion stitches.
The ball of yarn I was using evolved into art yarn towards the end. It got a lot thicker so I switched to a smaller needle. The color changes are all in the yarn. The scrumble is about the size of my hand. By making several of these I will have the basis for my hat. The yarn behind  for sale in my dudleyspinner.com  facebook page
This hand spun yarn  is a wool alpaca two ply.
You might want to snatch it up
 because it  looks like it is a perfect
coordinating yarn with my colorway for this hat.

Dudleyspinner Tie Dye Roving teaches at Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza, My Bio

I am teaching three classes at the Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza, Hot Springs, Arkansas, September 19, 1:30 pm-3:00pm, Adding Beads To Spinning. 3:30-5:00 Free Form Crochet. Sept 20, 8:30 am-10:00am, Simple Lacy Socks.

This is a little about how I got started spinning wool, knitting, crocheting, needle felting and dying fibers.

Becoming a Fiber Artist was not something that I aspired to as a child. I was very much like my daughters in the photo, just a kid that liked to go feed the bottle lambs with my Grandma. Grandma Bosselman would have me stay over and "help" her to go feed the lambs in the barn at night. I remember Grandma  filling the pop bottles with milk, and putting the rubber nipples on them. Grandma putting on my boots, the cold ground, seeing my breath as we walked to the barn. If I promised to be careful Grandma would let me carry one of the bottles.  I remember  he smell of the hay and being greeted by the hungry lambs bleating as we came close to them.  I loved the feeling of being a big helper. I am sure that just going by herself would have been much easier for Grandma, but I would not have learned about the wonders of wool if not for Grandma Bosselman. I slept under a wool comforter in our unheated upstairs  thanks to Grandma and those sheep. Those sheep and the memories kept me warm.

I learned to knit when one of the girls in my class wore a headband to school that was knit. I loved the texture and wanted to learn. Grandma took me to Woolworths and bought me my first pair of knitting needles. A pair of size 4 Boye straight needles and a skein of pink yarn. I did learn to knit when the girl in my class taught me how. I knit straight garter stitch for many years. By the time I was in high school, my Home Economics project was a cable knit scarf and mittens knit with Black Red Heart Wool, from the dime store. At that time all the yarn was wool, acrylic was not available.

When my husband and I got our first home that needed livestock for weed control I wanted sheep. The first trip to sell the wool I purchased a drop spindle and started making my own yarn. A dye class got me started with dying wool with natural dyes. A friend taught me how to use fiber reactive dyes for tie dye T-shirts. I sold T-shirts for several years. I later took those tie dye skills and applied them to wool roving  making my signature Tie Dye Rovings in bright rainbow colors. Along the way I learned crochet, then started doing some Free Form Crochet using UFO's in my work. I hate to see all that effort wasted.

 Spinning with a drop spindle was nice, but I wanted a wheel . Another trip to sell wool and an Ashford Traveller followed me home. I learned to spin mostly on my own, with a little help from the Mother of one of our friends.  Now my herd of spinning wheels has grown to 5 wood wheels and one electric Babe made of PVC pipe. I spend my days and nights knitting, crocheting, designing patterns like the purse I designed for the 2008 edition of Interweave Felts which uses UNSPUN ROVING . 

I haunt the thrift store in my local town to find unusual toys to use to make small scrumbles. Broomstick lace, hairpin lace, small weave it type looms, potholder looms, small table looms, knittng nancy looms,  all make it into a free form afghan.

I love yarn and color, so for me playing with a bunch of fiber toys and dying yarn and fiber is a joy.

Dudleyspinner Tie Dye Roving Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza, Hot Springs Arkansas

This little plastic flower loom can be used with unspun dudleyspinner roving.
I just followed the numbers and wrapped the unspun roving around each peg in a figure 8 pattern. Then I took a coordinating yarn and stitched over two loops, then under one loop until the loops are all secured. to fill in the center I took some of the yarn and used a felting needle to secure the center. To use this little flower in a free form piece I will just hook through the loops and build around it.  I love to visit thrift stores and have a collection of little tools like this. This is one of the scrumble starters I will have at my class at the Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza, Hot Springs Arkansas Sept 18-21. It is a very easy method of making a little flower shape. The possibilities are endless.

Dudleyspinner Designs a Lacy Sock For Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza Dudleyspinner Tie Dye Roving

 This is the lacy sock that I am designing for the class I am teaching at the Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza   September 18 -20 in Hot Springs Arkansas.  I have the first sock almost done. This has a band heel and a star toe.  I am using  Brown Sheep SY which is 80% superwash wool 20% nylon.  I am using a 2.0 mm needle or size 0.  I do hope that after washing the yarn plumps up a bit. I don't often buy commercial yarns. I am spoiled. My hand spun yarns do not split like this. I did purchase two cones of this and will be dying it up in sock knitting quantities. Personally I do prefer hand spun for socks, however if you are making socks for someone that will throw them in the washer this would be a good option.

 Close up of the feather and fan pattern. It looks good on a sock, in a scarf or afghan. A good introduction to lace knitting. The pattern will always even out, you increase 6 and decrease 6 to make the pattern. This is a simple lace, only 4 rows to remember and 3 of those are just knit!

 The star toe is a nice easy to work and adjust for fit.  The toe is divided onto 4 needles and the decrease is worked at the end of each needle. This is why I really like sets of 5 for sock needles.

My Nantucket basket that is the gremmel catcher for my Schacht spinning wheel. From S. Yarmouth, MA