Recycled Silk Shirt Becomes Silk Scarf

I've had this idea to make a scarf out of a silk shirt. This is a silk shirt from the thrift store. Cost $3 The collar looks funny because I was testing my scissors on it. 

I loaded up the sewing machine with black silk thread. Cost $4
Then I sewed the darts (?) closed around the bottom hem of the shirt.

I folded the bottom hem of the shirt about six inches and sew along the bottom hem making a tube.

I cut the tube away from the shirt. I make a couple more tubes out of the remaining cloth.

Tube on the left is inside out. Tube on the right is right side out. 

To connect the tubes I slide a right side out tube into an inside out tube. Then I square off the end with the scissors.

I join the tubes together by sewing around the inside of the two tubes.

Turn the long tube right side out, tuck in an inch at the end and sew the end closed.

The scarf turned out to be a little over six feet long. I included the shirt pocket in the design.

That's the scarf experiment. I like my new sewing machine. I found that I had to adjust the tension on the bobbin holder thingie. Then I had to adjust tension on the machine to almost Zero or the thread keeps breaking. And the needle threading device does not like the silk thread. I have to thread manually. Yeah, I know how to do that. That's what the glasses are for.

Have a good day!

Salmon In The Classroom

(click pictures for larger image)
Salmon are native fish in California. They hatch from eggs in creeks and swim down to the river, then out to the ocean. There they grow for a couple of years and return to the river where they were born.

My lovely wife is an elementary school teacher (5th grade) and her classroom is designated to receive eggs from the "Trout/Salmon in the Classroom" program. She has a special refrigerated fish tank provided by the fishing sport association and the fish eggs are provided by the Calif Dept of Fish and Game.

The classroom received 30 eggs, which all hatched and after several weeks, there were 6 fish almost an inch long that needed to go to the river. Since the fish eggs are from the Feather River which feeds into the Sacramento River, we had to drive the fish to the Sacramento River (about 10 miles) to be released.

The fingerlings are about one inch long. Last year we had 30 survivors out of 30, so 6 out of 30 was disappointing. Here they are in the little pitcher we use to transport.

Here is my lovely wife at Discovery Park, Sacramento, Calif., where we will release the fry. Here is where the American River meets the Sacramento River. Those are Canadian Geese resting on the shore to the right.

Here she pours the fry into the river, near some vegetation where the fish can hide out while they get their bearings.

From here the fry will go down the Sacramento River (left side of the picture) and out to the San Francisco Bay then the Pacific Ocean. It seems an impossible journey for such tiny fish, but every year another group of salmon returns to the rivers where they were spawned. 

In February, the classroom will get Steelhead Trout eggs.

That's it from our corner of the world, Sacramento, Calif.

Have a good day!

Rebecca Mezoff - Tapestry Artist

I added another blog to the blog list.

Rebecca Mezoff is a tapestry artist. I added her blog because she has made a video showing how to execute the weft interlock technique devised by the late James Koehler, another tapestry artist.

I appreciate she spent the time to make a video to help other artists. Bravo!

You can see the technique at her blog.
http://www.rebeccamezoff.blogspot.com/2012/12/james-koehlers-weft-interlock-join.html

You can see my blog list at my blog, down on the right side of the home page.
http://francosfiberadventure.blogspot.com/

Have a good day!

SWSG Saturday Dec 2012

Dec 1 2012, meeting of the Saturday Group, Sacramento Weavers & Spinners Guild. The topic of the day is Angora Rabbit with speaker Erin Maclean. Because of the rainy weather, Erin did not bring a rabbit to show off. So above is a picture of some Angora rabbits that I used to have, just so you know what kind of rabbits we are discussing.

Because of the rainy weather, we had a small turnout. Here is Erin speaking to the group.

 Here is some of the items Erin explained and described. Erin raises German Angora rabbits. The wool is sheared regularly. Above Erin has brought some of the yarn she spins. There are felted hats and mittens, knitted scarves and socks. The angora wool is slick but has a lovely "halo." Blending with other fibers can add stretchiness.

 Felted fingerless mittens.

This knitted scarf was made with "blue" angora blended with grey leicester sheep wool in blend that Erin calls Silver Blizzard. 

 Erin shows off a felted scribble lace scarf made with angora wool.

It was a nice presentation on a rainy afternoon in Sacramento.

Erin Maclean's website is Bungalow Farm
http://bungalowfarm.com/

The next meeting is January 12 (Sat) 1-4 pm at the Arcade Library
Linda York will show us how to read a weaving draft.


 You can follow our schedule at
http://www.sacweavespin.org/saturday

It was a good day!

Need More Fiber

Another blog: Need More Fiber
Interesting reading and lots of pictures
http://fiberneed.blogspot.com/

Have a good day!

Structo Tips From Daryl Lancaster

Daryl Lancaster's blog relates how she rounded up 9 Structo looms to give a class in weaving. Structo made the little 4 harness looms that students would use to learn and test weaving patterns.

See some details on how she tunes up the looms for work.

http://weaversew.com/wordblog/2012/09/21/warp-speed/#comment-6020

Have a good day!

SWSG Sat Sept 2012

Sacramento Weavers and Spinners Guild Saturday Group met on Sept 15 2012 at Arcade Library on Marconi St. We opened the meeting with a review of the upcoming events. We also had a visit from club librarian Cheryl who brought some weaving books that were being culled from the club library as duplicates or not much demand. She also brought some rental equipment that members had reserved. Cheryl has been bringing things out for us in the Saturday Group since most of us cannot make it to the weekday meetings.

Today is also "Spinning 101" day for the library! We are giving free spinning lessons to the patrons of the library. We are teaching drop spindles. We got started and I put the camera down and forgot to pick it up again until we were almost finished so I do not have many pictures. So the library promoted the event and we had about 14 visitors with us. I had some drop spindles I made from dowels and wooden toy wheels. Linda Y brought some drop spindles made from CDs and dowels. Linda also brought some brown wool roving and some white wool roving. So the students could see how the brown and white twisted around.

 A couple of young women tried their hands on the drop spindles.

These women also learned a little bit about spinning today. We also had spinning wheels for them to see.

It was fun for the Saturday Group members to work with new spinners. Members just floated from person to person helping them by answering questions or showing how to hold their spindle.  It was also fun for our Guild to give back to the library which lets us use their meeting rooms every month.

Please visit our website for upcoming meeting announcements.
http://www.sacweavespin.org/saturday

It was a good day!