Majacraft Camp 2014

I recently had a great dose of fibre fun at Majacraft's camp at Rotorua. For a video of camp highlights visit http://www.majacraft.co.nz/blog/?=850/blog/?=850.

Speed Dating with Fibre Tools was my first workshop taken by Esther Rodgers aka Jazzturtle. Jazzturtle Creations I learnt from Esther Rodgers how to use a blending board and after making my first few rolags I was hooked. Luckily I had also chosen a workshop in which participants made a blending board. Even better Owen chose to demonstrate how to attach the carding cloth  using my board so I had mine made for me. On the last morning I sat in the sun happily making little rolags and more little rolags.

 Aren't they beautiful!

 Fibres on the blending board.

I spun mostly a woollen yarn using a long draw on my Majacraft Aura. I wasn't sure that this would work on the Aura because of its pigtail orifice but it did. Well I thought it had worked until I tried plying. I got myself into plying strife because I had accidently spun one bobbin on a different whorl setup to the other. The yarn broke in places because it poorly spun. All the different fibres, merino, corriedale,silk sliver, silk noil and mohair curls that looked so exciting in the rolags were beastly to spin longdraw.

 The mess on the bobbin as I searched for a broken end.

The skein of yarn  - Next time I will take the fibre off the blending board using a diz working back and forth across the board. That way more of the fibres will be in line. The difficulty with the rolags is that they had some inherent twist. Woollen spinning works best with evenly carded rolags. I had hoped I'd get away it - I didn't.

Tracy White inspires

This week has been the best ever for the Thames Creative Fibre group. On Monday several hundred fibre enthusiasts attended our Open Day. One of the traders was Inspire Fibres aka Tracy White who is a consummate spinner and felter herself. Over the following 4 days Tracy gave 4 workshops to our club members. Her extensive knowledge and love of fibres is apparent in her teaching. Her respect for the fibre and her commitment to supplying her customers with good quality fibre shows in all her work. All her dyed silk and wool is double dyed to ensure deep dye penetration. You can contact Tracy at tracywhite@inspire.net.nz

I was fortunate to host the Core Wrapping Workshop. Here is Tracy and a bobbin of corewrapped yarn on her Majacraft Little Gem wheel.

She had a wonderful selection of her fibres with her including silks, merino, and suri alpaca.

We also learnt how to make punis using a Majacraft blending board -they look so delicious http://www.majacraft.co.nz/blog/

and how to make them using a wild carder.

I was fascinated by the technique of using a diz to draw multiple colours of fibre from a hackle to make a beautiful blends of colours and textures. The dizzed fibre is just behind the hackle. The diz and hackle were also made by Majacraft. http://www.majacraft.co.nz/preparation.php

We had a fun day and can't wait to do this again next year. Thank you Tracy.