Enchanting weaves with wool and handspun fibre.....

Fun Knits Yarn Shop is happy to introduce you to two great women - the first is Vyvyan Dorsett (seated on the right). Vyvyan taught the Tuesday morning spinners how to spin, and she continues to offer invaluable advice on technique.  With meticulous accuracy, Vyvyan's dexterous, intuitive fingers spin, form, dye, blend, warp and weave fibres into exquisite articles of art.  Her work is stunning, and every piece I have ever touched, is scrumptiously soft!

Pictured below are four one-of-a-kind scarves. Each scarf is woven with Vyvyan's unique, hand-dyed, hand-spun yarn (used in both warp and weft) and each creation is a thoughtful blend and combination of tencel and superwash merino, mohair, dorset wool and pulworth wool.

Fun Knits Yarn Shop showcases Vyvyan's hand-dyed, hand-spun yarn in our spinning/weaving/felting section of the shop.  A not-to-be-missed delight!

The two scarves below are woven with a beautiful cool-red (as opposed to warm-orangey-red) fibre from Louet that Vyvyan re-carded and spun into yarn. The photos do not totally capture the lovely quality and depth of this particular red which, in scarf-form is magnificent - a regal, royal red indeed!  

We are so grateful that Vyvyan is willing to share her treasure of artful knowledge about all things fibre.  

Wait till you see her hand-dyed, hand-spun, hand-knit lace shawls........

How fortunate we here at Fun Knits are to know and introduce you to yet another extraordinary teacher - meet Sharron Hatelt of Adalia Fibre Arts Studio (check out our link to her blog). Below Sharron is photographed using her drop spindle to spin a fine line of alpaca yarn.  

She is currently organizing a new group of weavers that has a fascinating, social-justice oriented purpose.  I can hardly wait to post about it!

Below are three of her amazing, vibrantly coloured, multi-warp, multi-weft scarves.  

The weave is luscious and full, soft and warm.

A striking close-up of the plain weave pattern.

This is Sharron's hand-spun variegated mohair - it is delicate, gorgeous, transparent, and offers both weightlessness and warmth.

Here is a felted (machine washed and dried) tweed wool scarf that Sharron is planning to duplicate with a larger warp to create fabric for a kimono.  It is soft and thick and cozy!  In the sunlight, subtle dashes of pinks, purples, and light teals shine outward. 

And finally, Sharron has crafted a striped 100% wool scarf that has also been machine washed and dried.  It is a stylish scarf with a three-colour combination that blends beautifully. 

And, I would like to add.......

that I have wanted to weave since I was a young teenager and about five years ago I was given two floor looms.  Four years ago I asked Sharron if she would teach me to weave, and two weeks ago I was finally ready to learn.  Sharron has been an awesome teacher and I am now crazy deep in love with weaving!!!  

I've made three scarves and I love each one (bumps, frays, learning curves and all).

In the first scarf I used Elsbeth Lavold Hempathy for the warp and Collinette Banyan for the weft (all my yarns for weaving have been purchased at Fun Knits).

For the two scarfs below I used Freedom Cotton and Collinette.  

In actuality, the green (in the photo below) is a vibrant shade of lime which gives the scarf a whimsical feel that does not come through in this shot - I used Collinette and Freedom for both warp and weft.

The blue/purple scarf has a soft pink glow to it that does not appear in the photo.  I used Collinette Banyan for the warp and Freedom Cotton for the weft.  

How happy do you think I am working in a yarn store with a limitless supply of ....... 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend full of finished objects!