Batik and other fun stuff at the KSW Fibre Craft Retreat

On the weekend was the annual Knit-Spin-Weave Fibre Craft Retreat, and I went with my two girls.

Hummocks Station, near Snowtown in South Australia’s mid north, was the venue again; it’s a sheep station that also has accommodation.

We took our tent and camped. This is the third time I’ve been – I went with my oldest daughter to the inaugural one, then last year with both girls. Getting ready to go, packing the car, etc was all a bit stressful, but once we were away that was forgotten and we enjoyed the weekend.

Here are some of the things we did…

As a whole-camp workshop, we needle felted ourselves name badges. They’re made from wool roving felted onto a pieces of shop-bought felt with a pin sewn to the back. For obvious reasons, I chose to be “Liz” rather than “Elizabeth”!

All three of us did a batik workshop. I last did batik in high school and the others never have. We did a practice on a square of cloth, then batik’d a calico bag. The two in the bottom right corner are my efforts.

There was an indigo vat set up in one of the farm’s sheds. I had forgotten how horrible indigo vats smell! There were some beautiful scarves, bags, tops and fabric dyed.

I folded and clamped a length of linen, using giant wooden tongue-depressors. Here’s how it turned out:

I also stitched another piece of linen with running stitches to make a pattern. This took most of the afternoon! (and it was a bit boring.) When the stitching was complete, I pulled up the threads like pulling up the swags on an Austrian blind. I’m planning to use this for an Xanthea top – the indigo design “should” align with the garment’s pattern. I wish I’d been a bit more organised before we left – I could have done the stitching at home.

Meanwhile, my children went off and did workshops on their own. One did glass painting and the other learnt to spin on a drop spindle.

Hummocks Station was beautiful as usual. It rained a bit but nothing heavy.

Hummocks have been developing their own yarns and are about to open a farm shop on the 19th of May – we were invited to visit even though it’s not quite ready yet. This yarn is so amazingly soft it doesn’t even feel like wool! If you’re traveling in South Australia’s mid-north, put it on your itinerary.

Many thanks to Tracy of Knit-Spin-Weave, Rosie of Hummocks Station and Team for a wonderful retreat weekend.

Cheers!