"Winter Light" by Bronwen Duncan

The inspiration for this is the Yukon December late afternoon light that is so warm-tinged in the absolute cold. This was very loosely based on a hike I did last December. The challenge of the project was to get the fox's face right; allowing the shadows to basically take over, and figuring out how the shadows work around the bottom of a tree. A mixture of wet-felting and needle-felting.

"Poppies" by Bronwen Duncan

The inspiration for this project came from how poppies are so incredibly graceful and happy. The challenge was how to make the petals of a poppy not seem very heavy and wooly, but have some lightness to them. This was the first felt picture I've done where I did not add any further wool after I wet-felted - I just tidied up outlines with the needle.

"Spring" by Bronwen Duncan

The inspiration for this came from the poem by Mary Oliver of the same name which has long haunted me. 
The challenges in this project were to get the trees to meld into the foreground, and to get the green grassy pieces to stay put (I'd cut them from a prefelt and so some of the fibres were so short they just wanted to bounce around). I was very pleased with how the trees seem to be dancing and as my English cousin noted: "The bear's eyes gaze on us rather than at us" (not quite sure how I did that!)
A mixture of wet felting and needle felting.

by Mary Oliver

Somewhere
    a black bear
      has just risen from sleep
         and is staring

down the mountain.
    All night
      in the brisk and shallow restlessness
         of early spring

I think of her,
    her four black fists
      flicking the gravel,
         her tongue

like a red fire
    touching the grass,
      the cold water.
         There is only one question:

how to love this world.
    I think of her
      rising
         like a black and leafy ledge

to sharpen her claws against
    the silence
      of the trees.
         Whatever else

my life is
    with its poems
      and its music
         and its glass cities,

it is also this dazzling darkness
    coming
      down the mountain,
         breathing and tasting;

all day I think of her--
    her white teeth,
      her wordlessness,
         her perfect love.

Woven by Wendy Nixon

I made these small (62 x 88 cm) [24.5" x 35"], weft faced rugs on a 4 harness floor loom using #6 cotton seine twine warp at 6 ends per inch, and a variety of wool and wool blend yarns in the weft. It was a great use of some of the coarse yarns that I have acquired over the past few years. The pattern of the more complex one was inspired by a rug that friends have had on their floor for many years. The primary challenge was dealing with the edges, and aiming for consistency in both pattern and tension along the selvedges. I now know what I should have done to achieve that! 
My plan is to warp the loom for 3 more small rugs, in a variety of colours and patterns. I am making these rugs for family, and as my technique improves, I hope to make some for friends. Many thanks my weaving mentors, Jean and Janice. You have both shown me there are no limits in the world of weaving. 

by Janice Brodie


White one is 2/20 silk sett at 20 epi. It's a lace weave with the pattern in plain weave. The pattern is quarter notes.
The pink-ish one is an undulating weave using handspun silk that was dyed in the roving. The weft is 2/12 silk l dyed TWICE... the first time it was dyed scarlet at 1% DOS. Yikes. It was too pink. Overdyed it with .5% DOS with violet.

Braided rag rugs created by Susan Ross:

I took the braided rug workshop with Jill’s mom (Lois Johnstone) about 10 or 15 years ago and did nothing since except collect wool that I thought would make colorful rugs. My stash grew and this spring I dug it all our from various places and realized that I had a great deal. I had 3 old blankets, one winter coat and lots of skirts. I cut and dyed and developed a bit of a pallet the using the written instructions from the workshop I started. My first two or three were full of errors but with each one I am seeing products that I am very pleased with.  

Created by Barbara Scheck
Pattern: Wild Rabbit by Claire Garland
Purchased through Ravelry.com

This rabbit, the second of three that I am knitting for my granddaughters, is mostly knit with wild fibre. Grizzly Bear, Arctic Blue Fox, Mountain Goat, and Quiviut make up most of the fibre. This fibre was handspun and purchased from Wendy Chambers several years ago. Some alpaca that I also found in my stash was used as well. 

The 15 pages of the pattern were at first daunting as not many rows were ever the same, but it was fun to see it come together and I am still enjoying the knitting as I begin the third and final bunny this weekend.

These are 2 rag rugs made from old flannel sheets that have been made to fit standard yoga mat dimensions (24” x 72”). They were warped with a strong linen twine at 4 ends per inch, and woven as plain weave with densely packed strips of flannel. The pattern uses some simple tapestry technique, as well as twisted strips of weft in some places to create the designs. Woven by Jill Johnstone.

After my big effort with weaving towels, I've found it hard to switch to wet felting and face all the big ideas I have. So I simplified and stuck to a comfortable pattern that I've made several times before - a circular resist - and added a little twist from elsewhere.

I have shared this link with a few fetters in our group: https://sherstival.ru/zapis/ . Its a Russian site that I seem to be able to display in english on my phone, but not my browser. The videos are in Russian as well, but you can still fast forward to the demos and follow along. The March 27 video has a demonstration on making thin leaves felted with silk fiber lines or thread. 

So that encouraged me to make a vessel with 4 layers of light grey corriedale fibre, lightly add purple fibre to the base, and decorate the top of the vessel with purple silk and some purple rayon thread I had on hand.

I have also been collecting gotland fleece and decided to wash up a bit of it and put it into a vessel. I used two layers of Corriedale wool roving and then for the next two layers, mixed the same corriedale in with some gotland that I had carded. I was impressed how well this vessel felted. And then I got carried away adding some of the locks I had just cleaned. Its beautiful stuff and so soft.

I hope you enjoy some more photos of these two vessels. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is doing to keep sane during these strange times.

Stay well!

Carolyn Steele Lane