Geelong Scarf Festival 2009

This year's theme is 'transformations', which embodies the notion that all materials (plant, animal or synthetic), raw and/or existing, can be changed in form, appearance, nature or character to produce a new object - in this instance, a scarf.

I'm committed to entering at least one scarf, hopefully two.  Here is my journey.

Friday 6th March, 2009

I've just visited the Scarf Festival website to find the above.  My "thinking brain" immediately says "What is a transformation?", "What is a scarf?".  My "spinning brain" says "You take the woolly blanket from the sheep make into a yarn and knit it into something to wrap around your neck or head".  I can see there needs to be a lot of brainstorming for this project to go forward.

Sunday 8th March, 2009

My mind is "awhirl" (is that even a real word) with images, so I'll just throw the word transformation around with the family.  Daughter #1 thinks it would be funny to knit a Transformer scarf - not really sure what it transform into.  My mother hears the word "transform" and says Tardis - I don't think this is a reference to Tom Baker's incredibly long scarf in Doctor Who, and my wonderful husband says "well you'll have to do something handspun, won't you?".  I think the family can go back to their fingerpainting now.

Monday 9th March, 2009

Well, the brainstorming session yesterday must have had an impact - I now have two ideas.

1.    A scarf in 2 halves - one half made of handspun fibres that I have started with from "raw", the other half handspun from commercial tops and then dyed.

So far, I have assembled "Brown Merino", "Cotton Spun off the Seed", "Brown Merino Lamb/White Alpaca", "Brown Merino/Suffolk - overdyed with Wild Raspberry", "Tussah Silk", "Rabbit".  I have rummaged through my fibre stash and found some "White Alpaca", "Red Mohair", and  "Caramel Alpaca" that I have carded and need to spin.  I also have some "Black Poodle" that needs washing, carding and spinning, that will look great next to the Mohair and the Rabbit.  The Poodle wool has come from my mum's standard poodle pup, Rocky, and for "dog hair" is surprisingly soft, like wool.  My mum used to have a fur coat that when she wore it, my sister and I would say "mum's wearing the dog again", the irony here is that somebody will actually be wearing my mum's dog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.    The seasons - using the "colours of the seasons" and handspun merino/silk.  Blend the colours at the "change" of season.  Make wider than a normal scarf so it can be draped over the head.  Use a bigger gauge of needle than normal so that it will not be too bulky.

Quite clearly now, I need to get on with spinning, dyeing and knitting.

Wednesday 11th March, 2009

The "Scarf in 2 Halves" has taken on a life of its own inside my head.  I wondered whether there was something that was common but unusual in the way of fibre that could be used in it, and there was - cotton wool balls.  You know those cute little coloured things made by Johnson & Johnson.  Alas, nobody makes coloured cotton wool anymore, so I dyed my own with food colouring, ready to spin.  Have I gone completely crazy?

Friday 13th March, 2009

Apparently I have gone completely crazy.  I am now obsessed with finding unusual/uncommon fibres.  I went to the Guild Shop yesterday and came home with; Black Wensleydale (and I thought Wensleydale was cheese), Bamboo Silk, Viscose, Carbon Fibre (sounds interesting, can't wait to get that on the wheel), Baby Yak and Samoyed (now the Poodle won't be lonely).  Now I have a menagerie and a small garden to transform into a scarf.  Still haven't worked out how much, what order or what colour to make the second side - huge dilemma.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, bought silk/merino blend for second scarf - need to spend some time at the dyepot working out my colours.  I think I'll just sleep and see what happens, or maybe play around on Ravelry, that always makes me feel busy.

Tuesday 17th March

Scarf in 2 halves - I only have the Bamboo Silk left to spin.  I have taken 10 - 15g of each fibre (with a bit more of a few in case there's not enough length after I've worked through the farmyard.  I'll finish the spinning today and wash everything (weather permitting).

Scarf of Seasons - I will start spinning today.  This will take a while as I want it to be fine - patience, patience and then a bit more patience.

Friday 20th March

Alas, the best laid plans have gone astray again.  I thought I had finished my spinning until some wonderful "woolly mail" arrived today.  I just have to include some of this, most likely "Storm", the blue/yellow/grey colourway.  After all I am trying to keep one side of this scarf looking as natural as possible.  Yes, I know you don't see many red goats but that was an unfortunate fibre stash situation.

 

I still haven't started to spin for Scarf of Seasons, but I have started playing with some dyes - nothing photo worthy as yet.

Saturday 21st March

Yesterday was incredibly productive.  I spun up the "Storm", I spun up my "Sheep at the End of the Rainbow" tops for the other half.  I have gone for spinning dyed tops as opposed to dyeing the yarn after spinning to have less striping.

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday 26th March

Here is my basket of goodies ready to knit (it's not really a basket here it's more spillage on the sofa), and yes I've start spinning the Silk/Merino for the second scarf. Time will not get away from me, I am determined!

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 7th April

I'm now halfway through spinning the Silk/Merino for the second scarf.  I've started looking at various colourways to represent the seasons and thumbing through my stitch books to find lace stitches to represent each of the seasons - I can't wait to get knitting this one.  Unfortunately, knitting is the only craft I'm up to for the next few days - I sustained an injury at soccer on Sunday and am unable to spin and walking up to the shed to play at dyeing is difficult right now too.

I started knitting "Scarf in 2 Halves" last night.  I had already done a test in waste yarn to see how the pattern might go but I changed my mind and made some alterations that I think work better - fortunately I have written sufficient instructions down to be able to know what I'm doing a week from now.

 

Thursday 21st May

So much for getting 2 scarves to the Scarf Festival in Geelong.  Fortunately I have been inundated with knitting requests that "my wants" have been put on the back-burner.  However,  I did complete "Scarve in Two Halves" and it is now on its way to Geelong. Ta-dah! (and I have some beautiful merino/silk ready to knit).