Please feel free to link to this blog or use the handy e-mail tool at the end of each post. However, all contents of this page are copyrighted by Cindi Huss. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission from the author (Cindi) is prohibited. This includes all images unless otherwise noted.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Belle (or Dingbat) of the Ball

I am going to the SAQA/SDA conference in Philadelphia next week and am staying to take a workshop with Jan Myers Newbury (yippee!).

I wanted something cool to wear to the Fri. night reception but have pared down my plans from dyeing a weekend's worth of clothes (as if!) to wearing a simple shift dress and inventing a shawl/jacket garment (barely) constructed of 3 yards of hand-dyed silk and wool roving to go with it.

I did one nuno cuff yesterday (around the oldest's clarinet lesson, dinner, the library, and rescuing Bob and the youngest who were stranded with a dead battery--good thing felt waits!)--and it worked! (Thanks for the advice, Chris!)

Nuno cuff, felt side--I'll have to work on getting my coverage a little more uniform.
Hard to do when I use so little roving!


Nuno cuff, silk side--LOVE that texture!

It's my first nuno, so I went through all the stages: Is this really enough wool to do anything? How do I know when it's time to start fulling? Is this going to be a giant hole? Will it ever begin to crinkle? Is it done? I almost stopped too early, but remembered Chris White's advice that it's not completely fulled if it's still easy to stretch it, so kept going and all of a sudden--MAGIC. What began as a ~44" width of fabric is now about 17" wide.

I'm lucky enough to be able to get personal advice from Chris, but her recent book, Uniquely Felt, is a fabulous reference that I will treasure when I move and is helpful even with Chris so nearby.

One more cuff and a few stitches and I'm all set. Either that or my garment will be really avant guard and assymetrical and I'll be the belle of the ball (or maybe the dingbat--we'll have to see how it turns out). I'll post a picture if I can stand it.

No comments: