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Monday, July 18, 2011

YOGA MAT - Felt your own yoga mat




Felt your own Yoga mat (slip proof) in a One-day session!
Tutors will help and advise during the design and felt process.
Feel free to bring your own design, if you got one in mind!
You will learn how to fix a design in place without loosing its shape.
There is no previous felt making experience needed.
Early booking advised, limited spaces available.


For bookings and more info contact: Jennifer 087 0911275

Date: August 6th Saturday  
Duration: 9.30am - 6pm
Teachers: Mia Foley & Jennifer Lienhard
Costs: €60 incl. lunch, tea & coffee
Spaces: 6-8
Materials: €35 - €45 approx.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Spinning with the drop spindle - a bit of fun!

Spinning with the drop spindle - an interesting art and craft. Beautiful to watch, but even more nurturing to do. We were a group of 8, some with experience, some without. After we established the differences between fibres and spindles we got finally started. Week one was prone to be frustrating and whenever you decide to pick up  spinning - rule number one: take your time. It is only through doing it again and again that you will finally be able to spin long stretches. Anyway, week two was a great meeting. By the end of it everybody seemed to have found an understanding of the fibre and were able to spin on the drop spindle. At least that was the impression I got ;)! Thank you for coming and hopefully I will see you again for the 'advanced class'!!!


Handspun Yarn


Carding the wool





Spinning the fleece





Getting a good twist!



Love these boots....




Henneke's first handspun yarn, from her own shetland sheep's fleece






KNITTING - Contemporary patterns and styles

 Dates: Every Thursday, September 1st  - October 6th 

There will be plenty of handouts along with a choice of easy-to-follow patterns or you can bring your own. Classes cover pattern reading, finishing items, buttonholes, cables, and a wide range of stitches.
This is a favourite class! Early booking advised.
.
Duration:      6 weeks 10am  12.30pm
Teacher:       Sarah Thompson
Costs:           €12 per session
                     €45 Returnees (single payment)
                     €60 First timers (single payment)

For booking call Jennifer on 087 0911275 or e-mail:
woollygathering@hotmail.com

Looking forward to seeing you there! :)

                                                                               
                                                                                                      Previous knitting workshop

                                                                                                 

Friday, July 1, 2011

Combining Wool and Silk - A marriage made in heaven...

To set up the workshop space for the nuno - felting has been an interesting experience. You just don't know what to expect; drowning furniture, swimming pool conditions... getting out goggles for everybody and keeping the snorkels close by - just in case... I settled on piles of towels hidden under chairs and tables and just as well; they were well soaked and hanging on the washing line by the time people were leaving! But no rushing ahead yet...


I loved the aprons!

I love giving workshops; I thoroughly enjoy watching people following their thought-train, developing an idea from simple information and a few suggestions and even though everybody got the exact same bit of information the final pieces couldn't be more different. The colour schemes, textures and designs are all so unique and yet created by the one and same technique - Nuno felting. Joining Cloth with fibre, best known as combining silk fabric with wool. I was as excited, if not even more so, as the participants themselves about their designs and the final finished pieces! It was great fun and hard work. In the first two sessions we explored the differences between felting wool into cheesecloth and wool muslin. Tedious work but worthwhile, if you want to learn how to felt into fabric; at least I think so, but than I didn't have to do the hard work ;)



The next couple of days we considered different laying out techniques as well as exploring general felting techniques like net-felting and cobweb felting.



Network felting without cloth....





And an interesting piece of cobweb felt .... 

Finally, we worked on the silk fabric; some applied the network technique, others came up with gorgeous flower designs and contemporary pieces. Because we only have 2.5 hour sessions, some had to take their great pieces home to either finish or store until the next session.


Silk scarf....


More beautiful silk scarves!

Some participants couldn't wait until the next session and finished their pieces at home. So we started on a pair of felted wrist warmers introducing resist felting method and adding marbles to add texture.


Adding wool around a piece of cardboard wrapped with netting 


Adding design


wetting the wool


Working the 'felt'



First finished wrist warmers!


Thank you all for joining our workshop; it was great fun and hopefully we'll see you all again!