Tag: corriedale

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felt-feutre Felting Symposium, Penticton BC News from Chaotic Fibres, Victoria, BC

Chaotic Fibres heading for Penticton

Woe are we! Trying to fit as much fibre into a small van as possible for felt::feutre! We leave Victoria early on Monday for the drive to Penticton and will be ready to set up first thing Tuesday morning at the Shatford Centre. Wish we could take two vans or a small train!

We’ve received masses of new stock and it’s ready to offer up to the felters participating in the symposium workshops and to those who drop by just to see the vendors’ marketplace. For felting fibres, we’ve all sorts of wool, wool blends, silk fibres and others. We have lots of  felting ball brausers for wet felting  and needles for needle felters.

cotswold fleece for get feutre from Chaotic FibresWe will certainly have Merino, Bergschaf, Maori, Gotland, some great, local Cotswold, Polwarth, Corriedale and Finnish. If we can do it, we’ll also have as many of these as possible: Falkland, Icelandic, Norwegian, Jacob, Shetland, South American, Welsh, Teeswater and Wensleydale. This will be a great opportunity for felters to find new fibre to experiment with on their next projects!

Chaotic’s Online Store will be closed for the week we’ll be away. We do not want our customers to be disappointed by having to wait until our return or, even worse, until we order replacement stock after our return. But, we will have access to email if you have questions or want to place an order that we complete upon our return.

Can’t make it to Penticton? Our next fibre event will be the Cowichan Fleece and Fibre Festival in Cobble Hill on Saturday, October 15th. And, locals are always welcome to email or call us to make an appointment to visit our home studio. Hope to see you soon!

 

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felt-feutre Felting Symposium, Penticton BC Fleece and Fibre Festival New fibres for felting and spinning New fibres ready from Chaotic Fibres News from Chaotic Fibres, Victoria, BC Online wool store, Victoria BC

Chaotic Fibres at Fibrations this weekend!

Doing some final prep and product selection for this Sunday’s Fibrations event at Robert Porter Park behind Sir James Douglas School in Victoria’s fabulous Fairfield neighbourhood.

As has become the case, we have way too many fibres and products to be able to bring everything, but we hope to cover what local felters, spinners and other fibre lovers are expecting. We’ve had some special requests and a few orders are ready for customers to pick up at the fibre festival. Let us know if you’d like to see something special and we’ll set it aside for you. With Felt::Feutre2016 coming up in 4 weeks, we’ve some really neat, new fibres that we can show off this weekend.

Chaotic Fibres online specialty fibres, Victoria BCDon’t forget to get your tickets for the door prizes! Sharon has just carded these beauties – seven raging batts each with a blend of at least five luxury fibres, including merino, silk, ramie, alpaca and more!

Here’s a heads up of just a few products we’ll be taking to Fibrations. Let us know if you’d like something special or order ahead and we’ll have it ready for you on Sunday!

All things felting: prefelt in many colours, ball browsers (bonsai sprayers), felting pads for needle felters, acid dyes in brown, grey and violet, bamboo felting mats, needles. We’ve set aside loads of silk: cocoons, lap, sliver, pulled sari, mulberry and tussah. We’ll bring small quantities of wool roving from 22 breeds such as Merino, Corriedale, Polwarth, BFL. Lots more here if you want larger quantities!

Look for some specialty fibres like angelina (8 colours!), yak, mohair, baby alpaca, hemp, ramie, camel, as well as blends like our camel and tussah silk (yum!!), merino/suri alpaca. Have you tried bamboo? We now have 9 colours including the stunning Black Diamond.

The weather looks like it will be perfect for an outdoor event on Sunday. Hope to see you there!

Fibrations detail

Fibrations 2016.jpg

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New fibres for felting and spinning New fibres ready from Chaotic Fibres New product from Chaotic Fibres News from Chaotic Fibres, Victoria, BC

Yakkity Yak … Chaotic Fibres goes nomadic

Ramie fibre for felters spinners from Chaotic Fibres, Victoria BC online store

What’s new and exciting? The world of fibre is unfolding like a rare, beautiful flower, opening slowly with the world waiting breathlessly to create magical gardens.

Yak fibre for spinning and felting from Chaotic Fibres, Victoria, BC, CanadaWhat’s old is new again. Yak has become popular – easy to understand when you feel this soft (15 to 19 micron) and amazing fibre. So many great characteristics: warmer than wool and as soft as cashmere; odourless; non-allergenic and anti-microbial so bacteria from sweat doesn’t hold on and grow in the fibre; and it’s a sustainable, ethical product that supports the traditional nomadic way of life of Mongolian herders that has a history of over a thousand years!

Two great YouTube videos highlight the reasons for supporting the yak fibre industry: Kate Humble’s  wonderful 2015 documentary on her experiences living with a family of Mongolian nomadic herders and Nancy Johnston’s short video, Tengri, that raises the alarm about threats to nomadic lifestyles. Kate Humble has three documentary programs on living with nomadic families, the Mongolian segment with sheep and goat herders, another on Siberian nomads and a third on Nepali herdersRamie, a bast fibre for spinning available for sale from Chaotic Fibres online store.

Chaotic Fibre’s shipment of Ramie fibre is now in and the new stock has been loaded on our Online Store. This is a bast fibre created from the stalks of plants, giving it the texture, lustre and working characteristics similar to Bamboo and Rose Bush fibre. Like Yak, this fibre has been valued and used for centuries. Archaeologists have discovered Ramie fabric on 6000 year old Egyptian mummies.

We have ten striking colours in stock, including the vibrant Caipirinha and the regal Theatre. Lovely! If you’re aiming for a special colour, we also have White so you can dye to your heart’s content.

Although it has not been used by exotic, traditional cultures for thousands of years like Yak and Ramie, Maori wool is a great choice for feltmaking. Maori is a combination of Coopworth and Corriedale. The fibres are strong (27 microns) and short (about 5cm) so this wool works well for both wet and needle felting. We currently have 15 colours in stock. Have a look!

 

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Fibres West Fleece and Fibre Festival News from Chaotic Fibres, Victoria, BC News from our Online Store Tools for Felting from Chaotic Fibres

Fibres West 2016 a Success!

Wow … wow … wow! Fibres West 2016 was a blaze of activity and an incredible weekend. It was great to see vendors we had met either at last year’s Fibres West or at other fibre events, and it was terrific to chat with Chaotic customers who had made purchases previously. We had wonderful feedback and such a good time!

wool, silk, specialty fibres online and at fibres west, vancouver
Fibres West 2016

Popular items? Some surprises like Rose Bush fibre sold very well (just as it did last year) and our Bonsai Sprayers for wet felting sold out in the first few minutes of the sale. The Rose Bush fibre is so incredibly soft and luxuriant that it seems to put a spell on anyone who handles it. Speaking of soft, our Yak Top flew off the table!

With this being our second year at Fibres West, more spinners and felters knew to expect lots of varieties of undyed, natural wools. So many of those, like our Polwarth, Gotland, BFL and white Merino, sold quickly. Mulberry, Tussah and Bamboo rovings were popular. Of course, the colour explosion with Merino and Corriedale thrilled a lot of people. No wonder! Our Extra Fine Merino comes in over 35 colours, plus we have the regular Merino Top at 23 micron, the Sugar Candy and Super Fine Merino!

Dyed wool roving for spinning and felting
Mercury Space-Dyed

Looking for colour? Our Space-Dyed Roving drew lots of attention. And, it’s still on sale at 25% off the regular price of $10.00 per 100g until the end of the month. Earth, Mercury, Neptune and Saturn – great colours that spin up nicely!

Lightning Merino 23m Trilobal Nylon 70-30
Coming soon – Merino/Trilobal Nylon 70/30. Sizzling!

The 100 Mile Fleece and Fibre Festival in Coombs comes up next. It’s on Sunday, May 29th from 9:30 – 3:30 at the Bradley Centre. We had to miss this one last year so we are looking forward to seeing our Mid-Island customers … and finding some new ones. We’ve heard very good things about this event!

So, Sharon is busy placing orders with our suppliers and stock will be arriving starting next week. Watch our New Arrivals page in our online store for new products like the exciting, Lightning Merino with a dash of Rainbow Trilobal Nylon!

Have you tried felting? We keep learning more about feltmaking and have just launched a new page on The Story of Felting. Early Chinese boats made of felt, feltmakers of Pompeii, the origin of needle felting as an artform. It’s an amazing story! Have you read it? What did you think?

 

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New fibres for felting and spinning News from Chaotic Fibres

New Felting Tools and Fibre from Chaotic Fibres

5" Palm Washboard

We have not been hiding under a rock!

In some ways, I wish we had. Instead, we’ve been recovering from a nasty flood from a burst pipe with the resulting restoration work that has taken almost a month so far. Just before the tsunami in the middle of the night, we had made the decision to go to Olds Fibre Week but backed away due to crazy days dealing with insurance, contractors and the disorganized mess. Next year!

5" Palm Washboard
5″ Palm Washboard

In the meantime, we had ordered new products from the US and Europe. Felters are loving our Palm Washboards from Heartfelt Silks. I have been playing with a 5” Regular doing a felted picture of a vase of flowers. We currently have some 3″ Minis, but can also get more 5″ Regulars, the 7″ Jumbos for bigger projects or their interesting Edges or Wedges  as special orders. These are beautifully handcrafted of durable hardwoods and finished extremely well to give you a lasting and precious felting tool.

Using a Bonsai Sprayer for wet felting has made such a difference from the old fashioned, inefficient squirt bottle I used to use. After the massive interest these sprayers generated at our booth at Fibres West, especially with Fiona Duthie’s recommendation to her workshop participants, I ordered a larger shipment and was able to reduce my cost and selling price.

10kg bump of Polwarth
10kg bump of Polwarth

All sorts of new fibre arrived, including this 10 kilo bump of Polwarth! I will package some up as is undyed and dye a whole batch in different colourways as well. This is a great fibre! Polwarth is a blend of 75% Merino and 25% Lincoln, a wonderful blend that has the lushness of Merino with the crimp, elasticity and more generous fibre length of Lincoln. It’s a great spinning fibre for softness next to the skin, and it felts well.

A few other new fibres in this shipment including Falkland, Alpaca/Bleached Tussah in both fawn and grey, Kid Mohair Fleece and some 50/50 Merino/Suri Alpaca Top. The Falkland comes, as you probably guessed, from the Falkland Islands. As a remote island, the sheep represent various blends of mainly Merino, Polwarth, Corriedale with a few quirks thrown in. It’s a lovely and long fibre at 25 to 30 microns and 80 – 100mm in length. Unique with a nice story behind it! As you can imagine, the Alpaca/Tussah, Kid Mohair and Merino/Suri Top are all pretty special and wonderfully soft fibres as well.

So on to new adventures. We’ll be looking for island and other local fibre events over the summer and fall so watch for our news of these. If your local spinning or felting group is interested, I’m always happy to bring a selection of products to group meetings. Let me know!