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

This was my first experiment of weaving a project on my own from set up to take down, so I went out and bought a kit from Jane Stafford Textiles called the Undulating Twill Tea Towel. Of course its black and white and grey and charcoal.

This pattern uses 8 shafts and 8/2 cotton.

I set it up early January so that I would have a project to work on while I recovered from hip surgery. I discovered that I had set it up so the design would show on the underside of the loom, but I was ok with that.
Yes, I learned a lot while making 8 towels. And I learned a lot about design along the way. Near the end, I was a little bored and felt like I should be getting back to my wet felting. I took everything off the loom, hand-stitched the hems and put them away. Then I spent two days looking for the next kit or yarn. I just can't seem to handle seeing the empty loom. Who knew?

Would love to show you all my efforts, but until we can get back together again, here they are. I still can't pick a favourite.

Cheers!
Carolyn Steele Lane