Just a Spranging...

Last night I decided to try a small Sprang sampler. I looked up Sprang on the internet and used the directions on Phialla's Stringpages in addition to "The Techniques of Sprang" by Peter Collingwood. I took a simple rectangular loom that we've been using as a taperstry loom and set up the warp, then used knitting needles and chopsticks to hold the twists as I worked. I used sportweight white acrylic cheap yarn at 20 threads in the warp. If I redid this project I'd used about 60-80 to create something usefully sized. It turns out the process is very easy and you can add to the patterning based on how you twist the strings. Due to previous injuries in the shoulders I found it physically difficult to do after about an hour because of the way I had to hold my arms out in front of me which hurts the rotator cuff areas of both shoulders, and the fronts of my shoulders are still hurting this morning. If I could hold it in my lap I think it wouldn't have had that effect. Today's quest is researching backstrap looms. We'll see if anything comes of that:>.

Kirghiz inspried Yurt

Ottyl and Briar of Northern Atlantia (Virginia I think) have a really great Yurt that they made themselves inspired by Kirghiz yurts. They steam bent the wood which they obtained at a local sawmill, and used industrial felt to create a look similiar to the real thing. They are now experimenting with felt making to eventually replace the current felt with the real thing!

Mongolian Ger

Mongolian ger minus the outer canvas that was set up in the merchant's area at Pennsic by NYCMongols.com. We bought a felt chessboard and container with ceramic Mongolia pieces and have had a blast with it:>. I love the painted detail on the ger and especially the braided ropes.

packing out...

Here is a pic of my DH in front or our yurt right before we pack out. We're sitting in a hotel room right now cause our truck threw a rod and we're both really missing living in our yurt home.

My yurt home

Here are pics of my yurt home for the last two weeks. It was very comfty and inspiring. I love living in a round structure. A buddy of ours told us about this yurt which was being sold by the original owners/builders for only $250. It was a great price for an experiment and we've more than gotten our money out of it in the two and a half weeks we've used it this spring and summer. I'd like to buy or build a 10 or 12 foot weekend yurt for short events in the future.

Felting at Pennsic

Here's the Scythian inspired painted floorcloth meant to mimic an inlaid felt rug used by Central Asian nomads and then a pic of an actual felt rug a group of us made at Pennsic War. It was a great experience and I'm looking forward to trying some more felting at home.

trying to get photos to upload

Well, we're not quite back from our vacation. The truck threw a rod and we're stuck in VA. I took a great class on Turkish socks and also had an incredible felting experience!