A dear friend of mine requested the “dark angel” necklace in tourmaline for her daughter. I was surprised how hard it was to find faceted rondelles the right size for this piece, I was finding only teeny tiny beads. I know tourmaline can run on the expensive side compared to other gemstone beads but sometimes I get frustrated trying to find supplies in this country. I finally found a supplier in the US thanks to help from my jewelry group. Although these rondelles run smaller than the beads featured in the other necklaces (these are from 6 – 7mm in size) I still think it works just fine.
I absolutely love tourmaline and I’m happy to finally add it to my complement of beads.
Mohair bouclé on commercial cotton – hand dyed gracing the studio walls
Back in November I blogged about spinning bouclé yarn for the first time. I loved the technique so much it lead me to experiment with other fibers other than mohair to see what the end result would be. Here are some closeups of the finished products.
Mohair makes the most perfect loops
The above photos are all mohair. I dyed these after the yarn was spun, and will do a post about the dyeing process soon. I am really growing to love dyeing both fleece and yarn.
handspun silk on alpaca
So this was interesting. I spun some silk and then looped it as a bouclé on some handspun alpaca. After it was finished, I washed and fulled it (a process of shocking the yarn with hot/cold water so that it felts a little bit) and regretted it! I loved how it looked straight off the wheel, but thought it really lost a lot of its character and looked rather clumpy after the fulling process. Now that it has been hanging up in the studio for awhile, I am intrigued with it. Hopefully over winter break I’ll have a chance to knit it up & see what it looks like.
alpaca bouclé
Alpaca makes a really nice bouclé, too – very similar to mohair. I finish plied this with handspun silk and it looks so yummy against the dark alpaca fiber. I just wish I could have gotten a better picture of the entire skein, it was hard to do since it is so dark. I’ll definitely share once I have it knitted up in something.
I’m definitely bouclé hooked. So many ideas! I’m taking a break from that to do some core spun yarns which I will share more about in the New Year.
I’m closing the studio for a much needed break. I am around to work on orders if they are not of a time sensitive nature, so do shop away if you are finding the urge over the last few days of 2014. I cannot guarantee my usual quick turn around, however. I will be taking this break time to work on new designs and catch up on blogging.
The December 2014 Newsletter is available. This month we are giving away a customized flower engraved necklace. You can read all about it by clicking the caption above.
I can’t believe another year is coming to a close! Looking forward to 2015…
