Eileen Lee has a textile background working with Levi Strauss & Co. for eighteen years where she was responsible for product development, design and merchandising. MeadowFarm Yarn Studio in Nevada City, California, is where she has been after that for eleven years, managing the shop, teaching knitting, weaving, spinning, dyeing and creating knitting patterns. She now has a studio near her home where she teaches all of the above classes.  She is published in several magazines including Knitting Traditions, The Unofficial Downton Abbey Knits, and PieceWork.  Her patterns  and products for sale  are available on her website, Ravelry (mzfiber) and Etsy.  She lives in Grass Valley with her husband Bill, son Eric and dachshund Lizy.

Weaving classes - Learn how to plan your project, warp and start weaving on a four shaft floor or table loom. For the floor looms, I can come to your house. If needed the table looms are available to rent. Rigid Heddle Weaving classes are also available and looms can be purchased. Spinning classes Spinning is a practical and creatively satisfying hobby with continuing appeal, especially in this age of mass production. Once you learn this skill, it is very relaxing and creative. In this class, you will be introduced to the basic spinning steps to creating a continuous yarn.

All types of knitting classes are available from beginning knitting, to socks, hats, lace, cables, sweaters, colour work, felting, holiday items, and many, many more. There are drop in Classes for when you are stuck on a project and need some quick attention. There are a lot of free knit days that are very nice. There is a lot of sharing of ideas, great stories, good conversation and plenty of laughter. Workshops are available including "Change your gauge numbers, and you can create your own pattern" and "design your own socks".

Woven or Fair Isle Knitting

Scarf #1

Obtaining motivation and creativity has been challenging during the pandemic. When speaking with friends and family, it is worth remembering that they too are experiencing the strains and negative impact of this current pandemic. It is a very crazy world we are living in today.

While at a zoom meeting, I had just finished working on scarf #1 and was showing it to the group. A friend told me that it has the appearance of Fair Isle knitting. Wow – it does. Then I came up with an idea. The concept of weaving a fabric that resembles stranded knitting or fair isle. This is something to talk about. At last, I felt excited. This is going to be fun.

Eight shaft overshot is the structure. I am using small patterns and many colors similar to stranded knitting. You can make up your own designs. I wove three scarves presenting different looks but all reminiscent of knitting fair isle.

Scarf #1 – This is the first scarf I wove. The yarn used is 8/2 tencel set at 24 epi. The warp and tabby weft are black and the pattern weft are several jewel tone colors.

Scarf #2 – After completing scarf #1, I tied-on to the same warp using a 10/2 cotton cream color yarn. The tabby weft is cream (same as warp) and the pattern weft is several colors. For this scarf, I used three of the patterns from the first scarf and added a separation between patterns with a 3/4″ plain weave cream color weft.

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Scarf #3 – This scarf is similar to Scarf #2 except the yarn used is wool. The warp is a fawn color and again using many different colors in the weft.

Scarf #2 and #3 look very different in person – the pictures don’t necessarily reflect this.

This was a exciting project to work on. I wove this on my Schacht Pup. There are a lot of color changes, but it goes fast after awhile.

Louet looms – you can test drive weaving

Dave Van Stralen, President Louet North America will be in Grass Valley on August 13 to let people test-drive weaving on the Louet David and Spring looms

He will be at the RV park of the fairgrounds 1pm through the evening

Let me know if you are interested mzfiber4@gmail.com or 530-559-7759.

This is a great opportunity

11228 McCourtney Road, Grass Valley, CA

Eileen

Indigo Dye Day

Enjoy a day dyeing indigo.  You can bring clothing, tablecloths, warps, yarn, fabric (folded for resists), scarves, what you want.   $35 for a full day of dyeing.

Reflected Double Weave

My first attempt at reflected double weave.  It was fun.  The only change i would make for the next time is i would use a closer sett.  the yarn is 8/2 tencel set at 24 epi.  I would do maybe 30 or 34 epi next time.  

Experimenting with warp and weft colors

I wanted to experiment with different warp color.  For this project, the warp is black and white.  While winding on the warping board, I held the  two colors together.

My next idea was do a fancy structure in a color for the weft.  What color should I use?  That is the question.  Originally, I was thinking a light color would look best.  But after samples, I decided on a darker color.

That reminds me, why sample?  In the past, I was working on a fabric for  shirt and couldn’t decide on the weft color.  I made many samples at the beginning of the piece and decided on a green color.  After the fabric was completed, I washed it including the samples of different weft color.  If I had seen the samples washed, I would have chosen a different weft color.  The washed sample makes a difference on what the actual fabric will look like,

Weft – that is the question?  What should be weft color be?  I made several little section of five colors.  I cut if off the loom and washed the sample.

There were five weft colors to choose from.  After wash, I choose the red

 

The scarf came out beautiful.  Usually fringe is what I apply to the scarves, but I didn’t do this for this scarf  because it appears mainly red and the fringe would be black and white.  I decided to hem the ends and add red beads.  Would I weave another black/white warp with color weft project again.  Probably not.  It is pretty but not my favorite.  But is was an  experiment and there you have it.

Fire and Water Scarves

The two scarves here are called “Fire” red/purple and “Water” blues.  The names come from  the two famous goddesses from Hawaii

Pele – Goddess of fire and volcanoes.

Namaka is Pele’s older sister and the goddess of water and the sea.