Carder'sBag

At work I designed and sew a big fabric bag of left over fabric.

I need to carry something with me every now and then. For practical reasons I need a bag for it. But it came without a bag when I ordered it at work for the students' use.

It is a bag for Golden Fleece drum carder for spinning and felting. The students love it and I am satisfied on it too; both drum carder and bag. The carder and equipment fit in the bag so it is easy for me to carry it all around without fear dropping something into snow and lost forever.

Spinning around

The 1st anniversary with COVID-19 has passed by. At my work they banned contact lessons on the 13th of March 2020 and since that it has been banned, not banned and banned. Which means since November the 5th, 2020 adult group contact lessons have not been allowed to gather. The new date is until the 25th of April 2021. 

You know I started to study for the Master of Health Care on August 2018 at Lapland University of Applied Sciences. I graduated on October 2019. Sounds fast, we were given 3 years of time, but it was "just" updating my graduation to the next level from bachelor's to master degree.

After that I did 25 credits in education in November-December 2019 to start to update my pedagogical qualification. We were given 12 months of time to finish it but I did it in few months.

After that I started to study at the School of Professional Teacher Education in Oulu University of Applied Sciences. Again we were given 3 years of time to finish the studies but I am so done right now. 😆 Sounds fast again but you need to know I specialized on education already at my art & craft school studies and have been teaching for my living since 2007. So please, take care of your mental health and don't compare yourself to this if you need more time in your studies. I was fast because of my previous knowledge. 

Covid-19 has changed the world and is still changing it. Especially with my pedagogical studies I have been spinning around COVID-theme because it influences so much also on education. The result at the end is that in the future I will have online courses in physical exercise and crafts. Yes, in crafts too! 

Now, when my studies finally reach the final end and I am having (slowly) my free time back, I have been back to something I love. That's spinning!

I graduated from arts & crafts on February 2000. Before that I had learnt many skills, also how to produce my own wool and spin it. At the college I learn to spin by a wheel spindle and I used to have one. It was not so good because I bought it at second hand. It was stored in outside shelter. When it had stayed indoors for several months the wooden parts dried and the wheel spindle "lived on". It started to get unbalanced. Missing one wheel spindle didn't help and fixing it had been quite a trouble. That's why I sent my ancient wheel spindle forward to become a home decoration item. Since that I have been missing spinning.

The miss relieved a bit on 2017 when I visited The Spring Stitching & Knitting Show in London. I bought my 1st ever drop spindle there. It is SpinCity drop spindle. Because I bought it on 2017 and started to study on 2018 I have not had so much time to dive into the secrets of spinning by a drop spindle. We also had our woolly secret on 2014 which demanded more machinery help in wool production than spinning all those kilos by our own little fingers. We had the angoras until they got too old on 2018 and still have 10 kg left their fine angora wool which is going to the mill to be spun into yarn there. 

I did use the fibers I bought from London but since the begin of March 2021 I have been back on spinning and using SpinCity drop spindle. I am going to start drop spindle spinning courses on the next term. The first one will be on August 2021. That's why I am slowly making samples considering it. Back on 90's and early 2000 I was young and stupid and didn't save anything. Nor pictured anything. Not even the yarn I spun back then. I sold it at a craft street market to earn some money!

Before the time starting from January 2011, when I started this blog, it is quite difficult to find any pics from my crafts. It took me hours to find that first pic on this post where you can see my 1st wheel spindle! Happy I decided to start the blog back then on 2011 so now, after 10 years, I have it all stored here! 

PS. Notice the cards He has made for me around 1998!

BlingBling into MyLife

 

Do you remember that I was in London visiting The Spring Stitching & Knitting Show few months ago? I bought some metallic fibers from there. All these months I have been waiting for the change to take it all out and play with it.

With the metallic fibers I included some wool.

For adding the wool I need my wool cards. Aren't they pretty? He has designed and made them especially for me. The handles of the cards are perfect size for my tiny hands. The design of the handles are designed and made in the way that I get a lot support of them to get more power when carding.

I needed to card the wool to get just a thin layer of wool to be felt with the metallic fiber. The wool forms out like a web over the metallic fiber to keep it stay better on its place. At first I used needle felting to attach the metallic fibers to the base and then needle felting to place the wool web over it all. I used my needle felting mat and it worked just fine.

For this try-out I used old left over felt (from my mother-in-law which she had designed, made and gave to me to be used in my projects). It all sparkles out with fascinating touch. I am not sure yet what to do with it but I do have an idea about it...