Originally from Wichita, Kansas, Cheryl Goyer has lived in the Rogue Valley since 1985. She’s primarily a spinner/dyer/knitter but also weaves. She’s crocheted for years, but unfortunately, doesn’t do it much anymore because it bothers her wrists and hands.
She thinks it’s goofy, but I love Cheryl’s self portrait!
I found pictures of her wonderful spinning bags on Ravelry, where she goes by cgoyer. Want to know more?
When I asked about the bags, she emailed me that, “Every year me and three of my friends get together after Fall term is over (we all work for a community college) for lunch and have a gift exchange. It’s also a chance to celebrate the birthday of one of the group. It’s a challenge to come up with something unique, handmade, and appropriate for the recipient. That’s the basis of my inspiration, to give a gift from my heart and hands. This was the first year the four of us all had spinning wheels so I thought these small bags would be great to hold an oil bottle and a few other small tools for spinning.”
Cheryl crocheted all of the bags with the same size hook and yarns of varying weights and plies that she spun (unless otherwise noted) to create the dense fabric. The 5″ to 6″ wide bags contain between 60 and 64 stitches. She wanted them to represent spinning or fiber in some way and that each be unique and relevant for the recipient. The handles were twisted with the same yarns used in the bags. The shape of the bags grew more or less organically.
Cheryl tapestry crocheted the background of the Angora Goat Bag with three-ply llama yarn. Handspun sock yarn and BFL (Bluefaced Leicester) was used for the checks, and the goat was crocheted with the fiber it’s know for, mohair.
Cheryl’s first spinning bag features an Angora goat and the words, “spin yarn.”
She explained that, “Spin Bag uses the remainders of some sock yarn I had spun for camo socks for my husband along with natural BFL. The fiber from that bag was purchased from the woman who eventually got the Namaste Bag.”
Cheryl’s Spin Bag.
Namaste Bag was crocheted with three-ply Suffolk from a dyeing experiment and natural BFL. That bag went in a silent auction basket at the 2010 NwRSA Conference.
Cheryl’s Namaste Bag.
“Other than the dancing grannies and the horse bag I had no specific recipient in mind while I was making them and made my decision once I had a few to choose from. The animal motifs and the dancing granny motif are all borrowed from other sources, mostly knitting. The rest are my creative embellishments.”
“The dancing grannies bag was for my friend that was turning 60. The pink yarn for the dresses was some she was going to toss as it was left over from plying. I took it and said I would use it in something. The flesh tones are mohair as are the green and blue stripes. The dark is natural Corriedale. Some grannies are sleeveless because my friend won’t go sleeveless and I wanted her to know it’s OK for grannies to go sleeveless.”
Cheryl’s Dancing Grannies and Alpaca Bags.
The alpacas were crocheted with handspun alpaca. The rest of the bag is dark Icelandic and light gray Shetland. Cheryl donated this bag as a prize for the 2010 Black Sheep Bingo at the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR.
Cheryl’s Jumping Sheep Bag was crocheted with natural light and dark Shetland singles.
“Finally and most recently I made a bag for my oldest daughter who is just learning to spin. She’s a horse woman and has been since very young, hence the horses. I used dark Shetland singles for the background and the rest is Romney singles. I should have used Carol’s tapestry crochet graph paper for the horse’s legs, they would probably have looked less skimpy. I added the manes because the horses just looked naked without them.”
Cheryl’s Horses Bag.
I hope this isn’t the last of Cheryl’s tapestry crochet! Perhaps a looser stitch and a bigger hook would lure her back.