Two Workshops with Christina Boucher, Fantastic Farm Yarn
In June, I took two workshops through Pleasant Mountain Fiber Arts with Christina Boucher. Christina creates soft, luxurious handspun, hand dyed yarns for her business Fantastic Farm Yarn. In the past, she has worked for Peace Fleece and raised her own flock of sheep. Now she enjoys working with fiber sourced from small New England farms. She is renown for both her stunning use of color and her love of naturally-colored fibers.
Everything she creates is beautiful.
“Carding Batts” was our first class, and in creating batts, Christina likes “to keep the character of the individual sheep breeds and embellish with color and texture.” Students were each given a tray of clean white Leicester Longwool locks that had a shine and softness one sees in kid mohair. Our opened locks were passed through a drum carder twice to make a large fluffy white batt.
This batt was divided into 5 wide strips, one being set aside for later. Four were spread evenly on a table for adding embellishments: loose fiber or locks dyed in bold colors—crimson, blue, gold, purple; natural-colored locks in a wide array of textures; and finally, snippets of silk noil for accents or rayon for sparkle. Colored fibers were added either randomly or not, depending on one’s preference.
The segment initially set aside was layered on top in order to preserve the arrangement. The resulting “sandwich” was then run through the drum carder, either once or more, depending on whether the preference was for batts—and resulting yarns—to be more blended or more wild.
The batts were gorgeous.
In our second “Spinning” class, Christina guided spinners to create a soft, thick, loosely-spun singles from either our created batts or from other material she had dyed and processed. We used the largest whorl on our bobbins for the slowest ratio (I had a Louet wheel with a 5:1 ratio). Take-up tension was set to high and we worked quickly using a modified long draw to spin fibers quickly onto the bobbin with a minimum of twist. The amount of fiber incorporated into the drafting zone was key. Several times, Christina had to demonstrate the technique for those of us too willing to spin completely even, medium-to-thin yarn. Christina’s yarns preserved more of the character and beauty inherent in the fiber.
It was clear from her teachings and from the movement of her hands, that Christina Boucher has years of knowledge literally at her fingertips. Anyone interested to learn is encouraged to contact her, as Christina contemplates offerings workshops from her home in West Baldwin.
We can’t wait!
