The Värmwool Bag

The Värmwool Bag

(“Värmwool”: See previous post)

I love my tools. I love them almost as much as doing the art itself. I also love baskets, as anyone who has been to my studio will notice. Everything is in baskets. 

But I decide that I also need a strong and large bag to tote around with me for my current projects, and the tools I am using with them. 

A basket-like bag, perhaps one that can be semi rigid, like a basket, but also expand a bit as well to fit large or odd shapes.

I double knit the walls of my basket bag into rectangles, and join the sides. Too floppy. The värmwool is strong and thick, but not rigid. 

It gets an inner structure made of repurposed cardboard, and a salvaged rigid plastic bottom to protect it from puddles. 

I make the inner lining out of denim from cut up old jeans, and use the pockets for inner compartments for my smaller tools.

These are the tools and yarns I use to create the unit of art described in the previous post, Blooming Rainbow

The resulting bag is fabulous! It is strong enough and large enough to carry a sewing machine! I love how it came out.

The Omniart Notebook

Omniart Notebook

My latest unit of art is called “Flowering Rainbow”

But before I show it to you, let me tell you what went into it!

 It started with the Värmwool. This is a story of some sheep in Sweden, the lost “forest sheep”. More than a hundred years ago, when wool processing began to go the way of factory farming, new breeds of sheep were introduced to Swedish farmers which were “nice and fat for eating,” as well as bearing the uniform, factory ready, wool needed by the mills. 

The old breeds of sheep were abandoned. Thought lost and gone forever, some just wandered wild in the forest for many years. Thirty years ago, the first of several of these heirloom breeds was rediscovered; a flock with only a few dozen sheep. Sweden now protects these “heritage breeds”. They are too skinny and stringy to eat, and their wool is not uniform enough for commercial use.

I am thrilled to find an entire raw fleece from this first rediscovered breed, Värmwool, for sale, and send for it.

 Her name is Ester, and these are her latest babies. She lives on a small farm and is treated like a beloved pet.

.

 The ad for this year’s fleece features a description of her personality as well as photos of her babies

The wool from these old breeds if often quite variable, both on length of locks and composition of fibers. Ester’s locks, or “staples,” are a mix of guard hairs, long, strong, hairs, and soft, fluffy undercoat. 

Often with animals, the undercoat is shed naturally in the spring when it no longer needed for warmth, and the guard hairs stay on. Some animals are simply combed at this time for just the soft undercoat fur. Some old breeds shed their entire winter coat in one, whole, partially-felted-up piece: a wonderful violence-free sheep-fur rug! I have one, and it looks just like a sheepskin rug, but with no stolen skin underneath. No animals were harmed.

I wash the naturally black fleece and spin it up whole; guard hairs, undercoat fur, and all.

For the rest of the wool for my latest unit of art, which you about to see, I obtain a whole, raw, merino mix fleece from a local farmer who also practices ethical and nontoxic animal care. She has a diversity of animals on her small farm. 

She says: “I decided years ago that I couldn't save all the animals, but I could save my own, so that is my focus. Any animal here is here for life.”

I hand wash the beautiful soft, beautiful white fleece. It has four inch staples!.

I dye it by hand in the the crock pot and  spin it up into the the rainbow of yarns I make for this project.

I weave, hook, and knit it into my art creation. It comes out awesome!

Flowering Rainbow