Full fibre immersion! at the KSW Fibre Craft retreat

By lizhaywood | May 15, 2022 |

It was a weekend immersion in all things fibre at Knit-Spin-Weave‘s annual fibre craft retreat.

Last year I took my oldest daughter to the inaugural one, which you can read about here.

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

This time both of my girls came. We took the tent and camped again because I was too slow to book a cabin. Last year the temperature dropped to freezing overnight and we were ill-prepared, so this time I took plenty of blankets and extra warm things. It turned out we didn’t need them – the retreat was a month earlier than last year and the nights were still mild.

There was a friendly community vibe on the retreat. There were about half a dozen young people around the same age as my girls and it gave the retreat a certain energy. They made lovely things at the workshops and had their own crafts going in free time too.

The other nice thing was that there were a few well-behaved doggies, and anyone feeling a bit flat or at a loose end only had to go and pat a dog for an instant de-stress.

I didn’t take many photos, but here are some of the things we did…

Mandala in hot pink and lime green yarn.
We made mandalas together as a whole group, led by Tracy of KSW, who’s an excellent teacher. It was a great community builder and really fun!
I last made a mandala at primary school, using icy pole sticks and squeaky acrylic yarn, but this was much more interesting.
Large piece of indigo dyed fabric.
I did a dyeing workshop. There was an indigo vat and some Earth Palette dyes, and we all had a hank of sock wool and a silk scarf. We could also dye things we’d brought from home.
I brought along 2 pieces of white fabric which I’d gotten to make shirts with but were too see-through. Here’s one of them – the pattern was made by folding and clipping with clothes pegs, and along the bottom row it looks like people with outstretched arms.
Piece of indigo dyed fabric with circles.
This is the other piece. I folded the fabric and then clipped a perspex circle onto it.
Pretty happy with this one.
My finger dipped in the indigo vat.
I accidentally got my finger in the indigo vat.
Orphaned joey kangaroo sitting in his bed.
There was a lady taking care of an orphaned kangaroo. He liked to suck his thumb! We watched her feeding him baby kangaroo formula with a bottle, all swaddled in her arms, and he gazed adoringly up at her.
Ball of white Leahcim merino yarn.
Hummocks Station now get their merino wool turned into yarn. It has amazingly soft “squoosh factor”. Every person was given a ball of it (but I got three because both the girls gave me theirs!).

Here are some photos of Hummocks Station. You can see it’s still really dry here.

Hummocks sheep station.
Hummocks sheep station, looking towards the Hummocks range.
Hummocks station campsite.

It was a wonderful weekend.

Cheers!

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2 Comments

  1. Carol in Denver on May 16, 2022 at 5:02 am

    Love the row of “people holding hands” on your hand-dyed fabric. I hope you can feature that specific area in a garment.

    Reply
    • lizhaywood on May 16, 2022 at 9:27 am

      I will try 🙂 There were some other fun randomly occurring shapes which I wish I’d taken piccys of – one lady had hearts (and her surname was Hart), little stars and others.

      Reply

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