South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market

Returns in time for Holiday Shopping

Come Saturday, November 27 & December 18, 10-4, to Susan Hensel Gallery, for wooly, silky, alpaca goodness!

•spinning

•weaving

•felting

•re-using!

Demos and shopping!

Fresh food!

You will find art dolls, handspun and hand dyed yarn, tote bags, tapestry, weaving, spinning materials. It is an ever changing roster of artists!

Almost all the artists will be demonstrating! Some teach, so talk to them. All invite you to sink your hands into the marvelous world of fine fiber.

WHERE? Susan Hensel Gallery, 3441 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55407

Australian Colors

The Outback of Australia encompasses many ecosystems, from dry desert to tropical rain forest. The quintessential Outback, the one we Northern Hemisphere types think of, it the Red Center, the desert throughout the middle of the Australian continent. It is dry, dusty, brick red to golden ochre, with smatterings of purple and sage green. The mulga trees and other eucalypts have bark colors that range from nearly white to dark, dark brown. The spinifex grass is everywhere, spikey and dusty green. When it is hot, the trees give off their eucalyptus scent. I can't get the colors and textures out of my mind. Indeed, I do not want to.

These materials

spun on the Aura. Oh how I missed the Aura! What a delightful wheel to spin on.

The last 2 photos show the yarn plied, but unwashed and then washed. I did something different this time. I spun it in the Spin Dryer and then put it in the electric dryer. I figured it was so close to dry that any felting would be minor and welcome as the yarn was looser than I prefer. Success! It came out poofy and nice.

Combat Yarn Photo Suite, in process, day 2

Day 2 of photography.

Combat Yarn Photo Suite, in process, day 1

This is a sampling of the first day of shooting. These yarns were all spun on the Majacraft Aura from hand dyed blended batts developed for this project. Additions of cloth, netting, raw silk in the batts, army men, camoflage material and felted balls spun in place. The photographer is John Hensel.

Battle scarf?

Battle yarns are being photographed and composed by my son, John Hensel, who is a profesional photographer. Stay tuned! The process is fascinating.

Meanwhile, I have chosen one hank to knit and that process is also fascinating.

The stich definition is good, it is easy to pull the added elements to the front. It looks normal and transgressive all at once. A very odd piece of fabric. A battle scarf?

Rainbow relief

Sometimes camo just doesn't cut it. So, I made 3 rainbow batts and dized them off the carder, making fluffy, vertically striped roving...i.e. the bamboo is in long strips rather than clumps. Yummy to spin on the Aura. because I can go so slowly, I think it will make a usable single. If not? I'll ply it with something or other;-)

Meanwhile, in the woodshop, of all places!, I have been making more striped rovings using either the carder, the hackle or both! Too fun. I will be teaching a fiber prep class this fall that will cover this and all sorts of other cool ways to personalize your fibers before you spin them. It's called Into the Wild. Look for it on the Weaver's Guild website
Blue! At first it was Too Stripey! So, I carded it and rebuilt it on the hackle more ot my liking.
Still doing camo-colors. Upstairs, in the dye studio, camo-dyed merino yarn awaits the steamer.

Transgressing wool!

In the art world, one talks about transgression. Transgression can be loosely defined as breaking expected boundaries or expectations. Yarn is expected to be soft, warm, useful, at times even life saving. It is often associated with leisure, craft and women's work. Rarely is it thought of as an object, a material or a subject of fine art.
So, as I progress on this project, I have to consider how this potential body of work transgresses expectations.

This yarn is transgressive because:

• It is not made for the express purpose of knitting or looping in someway into a useful object.

• Its purpose to to be a sculptural object or a field for narrative/political photography.

• It paradoxically uses its traditional softness to express a hard/harsh/violent reality

• It uses its allusions to its life saving properties( warmth, padding, protecting) as a field of discussion about war and death

• It uses a "women's art" to discuss a "man's pursuit."

Some new yarns from the new wheel

Aura tests 6-8

close -ups of test #6

Test #7White band, large whorl, no tension; Green band Large whorl, smallest drive wheel groove. Weak pull-in overall. Slow but steady for backward draw. Short draw also weak, but would leave lots of time to add in stuff or do pig-tails or other hand work. When I tightened the white band 4 turns, short draw felt more like an ordinary wheel. Long draw was easiest with increased tension. "Off the fold" was easiest w/ no tension

Test #8 White band on large whorl w/ no tension. Green band on medium whorl and smallest drive wheel groove. This was a lovely setting, making beautiful, beautiful long draw and very easy one-handed "Off the fold." Easy, easy in all four styles of drafting.

Wild Wool Market is coming

I have set up a rolling display for the upcoming South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market, happening May 29, 10-4. Yes, it IS Memorial Day Weekend...but we'll have fun anyways. Tonight it is under wraps for the gallery opening.

Treasures!

One of the highlights of my New York trip was a day in the garment district. Silks and trims at wholesale! Here are some of the trims: tiny rick rack and 3 kinds of sequins. I wanted them all! Whoopee!
The day I got back, while desperately wanting to assemble my Aura, I had to make a delivery to the Textile Center. Dutifully I delivered the hand dyed bamboo. And then I visited my friends at the Weaver's Guild only to find a 4 harness loom at an unbeatable price. Now I did have a great Shepherd's Harvest this year. I was able to get the AUra without having to deplete savings. This was just not the day to buy a loom. So I went home with out it. The next morning I called and had them hold it for me;-) It is a little Schacht table loom, about 18" wide. It has been well loved...i.e. a bit beat-up. But someone cleaned it and restrung it and everything works just fine. All I need are lease sticks and time!

Aura, Aura, Oxenfree?

The Majacraft Aura arrived on Monday. I was sitting on the airplane at MSP, awaiting the gate, when I got the email. I drove out on Tuesday morning to get it and put it together pretty quickly. I haven't had much time to play...not as much as I would like. But this soon will pass.


I did a test run on soft spun singles which I then plied. Easy peasy. Then I plied singles with silk flower additions with another single and beaded Habu textile pink metallic thread. It was a bear for a variety of reasons: I was tired, it was dark, I could neither see nor feel the Habu thread and the tension band flipped off a couple of times and the silk flowers did not want to feed on. Readjusted myself, and the bands on the wheel, and most of the flowers whipped through the guides...just the remaining large ones got stuck.The completed yarn is very nice and the plying is much more even than usual.