scrim in felting

[lyn]

Felting and Fibre blog is about scrim so I thought I'd put in my tuppence worth.

I'm sure I've posted this picture somewhere before, but anyway it's a good one to illustrate the point.

A few years ago, when Annie and I were making dozens of pods for a gallery, this was a popular design.
We felted a circle of our hand-dyed scrim onto the pod then cut the hole out. Although the scrim looks as if it's just resting on the pod, it doesn't move at all, it's fully felted in.

Dyed scrim, in small torn bits in assorted colours, makes good 'background flowers' and combined with a little wool and stitching, makes good foreground flowers too.

Hand-dyed scrim is great for nuno felting and we've also used it for strength - as a middle layer - to prevent sagging in a hanging.

We bought our cotton scrim, on 50m rolls, from Whaleys of Bradford. They sell other scrims, including Jute.

[zed]

That's gorgeous, Lyn
Do you know what the threadcount was for the scrim you got? The names used are different wherever you go, gauze, scrim, cheesecloth etc
Thanks for the info on where you bought yours

The cotton gauze squares I use were just regular medical ones from Boots (Just gauze, no cotton wool pad in). They are similar to this: www.amazon.co.uk/GAUZE-SWABS-10CM-NUMARK-44201/dp/B001RYWDG2/ref=pd_sim_sg_1

The thread count is around 30-35 and it can be distorted easily, ie, pulled, stretched, holes poked in

[MTRuth]

For people in the US, you can get cheesecloth by the yard or bolt at cheesecloth.net. They have three different weights including 10, 50 & 90.

The bowl is beautiful Lyn.

[koffipot]

The bowl is beautiful.

Thanks for mentioning Whaley's, I've looked there in the past, but 50m is rather too much for me.

Judith

[lyn]

Thanks Zed, Ruth and Judith.
Zed - the cotton gauze squares sound ideal. Annie and I used to hand-dye and sell our scrim (that's why we bought it in 50m rolls) but we don't sell our scrim anymore.
So when our stock is exhausted, we'll buy small bits too.

I don't know the threadcount of Whaley's scrim - would it help if I described it a bit?
There are 10 holes to 1 centimetre in the width and 7 holes to 1 centimetre in the length (so a square centimetre containes 70 holes) and the thickness of the individual thread looks the same as my Madeira bobbinfil which is a very fine No.70 (the rayon madeira thread I usually use as a top thread is No.40).

p.s. I decided to have a quick search and found this link for larger pieces of undyed scrim - obviously I can't vouch for it, but might be worth an investigate?
www.priceninja.com/cotton-scrim---undyed-3794228-p.asp

[zed]

That sounds like it might be a bit heavier than mine, lyn. I couldn't get a result for scrim on the gallerytextiles site.

Judith, try different searches on Whaley's they have lot of stuff that looks very similar and sell it by the metre. I think I'll phone for thread counts.

[koffipot]

Thanks Lyn and Zed,

Often, I've found that what some describe as scrim is what I would call muslin. i.e. a much closer weave.

I'm going to Woolfest in a couple of weeks, there's just a chance I might find some there. If not I'm sure I'll find lots of other goodies

Any other UK members going? It's a great venue for me - only an hour's drive.

Thanks again Judith

[zed]

Yeah, it gets confusing, gauze gets called scrim, so does cheesecloth, and muslin gets called cheesecloth
Then just when you think you've figured it out by threadcount, the Americans go and do it by weight! I was talking to my girlfriend about this and said I'm surprised they don't go by how much fits in a cup
Sorry USers

No, I'm not going to Woolfest. I hope you have a good time and get lots of bargains

[MTRuth]

We could just make up a whole new system because our way is best just kidding

[koffipot]

Ruth - I think you Americans have so much to offer - for instance a US knitting pattern will always state a yardage, which is far more useful than stating a weight.

[Shepherdess]

I think the worst measurement system that was thought up was using the blood system for wool. It tells you nothing. I like microns. It's easy and consistant.
Ann

[zed]

Isn't the blood system how much merino is in the breed, like a caste system?

[Shepherdess]

yes, which is why it's so useless. Like the only sheep worth having is a merino.