Tasmanian Craft Fair at Deloraine 2012

Countdown! One week and 4 days to go........  I received our exhibitors passes and programme in the mail yesterday, so it must be real.  Yikes, so much to do!!!!    

This is where we will be : Stand #560 in the Rotary Pavillion in Alveston Drive.

Same building as the Hoffman Quilts Challenge.  Do drop by and say hello.  Sue Evans and I will be there all four days, with Wendy Koolhof joining us on the Saturday.  Demos of fibre blending using a drum carder, spinning, felting and weaving.  Tilly and Shawn will be there too.  Lots of hand dyed Tassie "Pure Colour" Superfine Merino top, our new "Pure Ewe" 4 ply fine merino yarn in Wendy colours, "Tas Wild" batts in possum and wallaby and heritage Tassie English Leicester curls, fleece and yarn.  I've just picked up some fresh COLOURED superfine fleece...a grey, a charcoal and a lovely marle.  Fresh off the board and ready for you to spin.  If I have time, I'll get some washed so we can play with it.   Sue will have a fresh range of her gorgeous knitted and hand dyed garments and Wendy will be bringing loads of hand dyed yarn, silks, scarf packs and wool hats, gloves and vests. There will be a big box of threads, felting packs, small tops packs, embellishing packs and other bits and bobs as well.

YESTERDAY



In an effort to retain my sanity I've made the decision to give myself Fridays in the Studio for the next two weeks until we make the trek to Deloraine for the Tasmanian Craft Fair.

I'm really happy to open for serious shoppers looking for our yarns and fibre - as I did yesterday. Two lovely shoppers - a Guild Member from Maitland, NSW and the delightful Jenny from Little Jenny Wren Dolls down from Launceston. So, if you come to visit and find the notice in the window, please do ring me - I'm likely just downstairs - and I'd be happpy to open for you, as long as you are OK with me in a mess!!

SO lots of works yesterday.....dye the reds that didn't make it the other night, plait up the now full and soft blues from last week ready to roll and label (I think that makes around 53 wheel of colour)

and start the washing process for the English Leicester fleeces. I'm using Unicorn Power Scour for this.  Now stocked by Oatlands Handmade this professional grade product is super economical to use and gives excellent results. Combined with the Fibre Wash and Rinse, Unicorn fibre care gives complete coverage for your fleece, fibre and yarn.

More from the Dye Pot

Spent another night immersed in colour (and water).  This time it was the blues' turn.

 

I'm always amazed that these (left) end up looking like this (right) ... after a little attention!  The superfine merino fibre takes the dye so well and the lustre shows through on the finished product. I could roll in it it's so yummy!    I am aiming to have as wide a colour range as possible for Deloraine and it's the reds' turn tonight.

 

The Lucky Ewe now has Ludwig's Yarn.  8 ply millspun english leicester from Tasmania's northern midlands.  Again, it just laps up the colour and the results are beautiful. Available in natural in hanks of around 450-500 grams....and a range of hand-dyed hues by us.

I've also been playing with bamboo.  We have a quantity of natural chain construction 8 ply bamboo yarn in-store and the natural is nice, but a bit boring so out with the dye!    Landscape fibre-reactive dyes don't take too well and tend to wash out so I tried the new iDye from Jacquard.  With the addition of a good measure of salt, I used the pot method on the stove and found that the colour took really well, HOWEVER, following the wash instructions for bamboo is ciritical - wash in cold water as hot water will leach out the dye.  I think I'll make a nice lacey top from the sample and see how it goes.

English Leicester hank drying together with sunny daffodil yellow 8 ply bamboo