Colorful Custom-Carded Rolags and Needlefelted Flower

Custom Carded Rolags and Needlefelted Flower, originally uploaded by confections.

This week's Etsybloggers' Blog Carnival theme is "Carnival of Colors". Color was on my mind the other day as I was busy filling a custom order for a needlefelted rose that I had made on my 25th anniversary last December. My task was to reproduce the colors for the new flower.

The process begins with the selection of the basic pink wool for the rose petals. Neutral-colored wools are then blended with the original pink using handcards to make slight variations in the pink color: alternately, white, gray, brown, and black wool is custom-carded with the pink to make fluffy rolags. I learned this rewarding essential technique with spinner extraordinaire Celia Quinn at a workshop I took last fall.

I think the new flower's colors are spot-on like the original. It's good to know that I have retained the knowledge of color-blending that I learned from Celia, even though I hadn't used this particular method in a number of months.

Lendrum Spinning Wheel with Handpainted Handspun Targhee Wool

Lendrum Spinning Wheel with Handpainted Handspun Targhee Wool, originally uploaded by confections.

This lovely Lendrum Canadian maple spinning wheel of mine (named Rapunzel) will be my constant companion for the next three days as I participate in a spinning workshop with Celia Quinn of Homer, Alaska. Last October I took a two-day workshop in wool color-blending with her and had a great time. On Friday (yes, later on today) we'll be exploring good, solid basics of spinning. On Saturday, we'll be spinning to specification for a particular project, and on Sunday, we'll be experimenting with creating novelty yarns. This is going to be spinning nirvana!