Maryland Prep

I am so excited to be headed to Maryland Sheep and Wool in under 48 hours.  The thought definitely kicked my fiber prep into gear.  Last year, I bought a Jacob fleece.  I came home and washed it and then proceeded to flick it lock by lock.  Whoa, talk about painstakingly slow.  After several hours spread over several days I had a small perfectly white small amount done.  I drum carded that into a batt.

Note little basket of flicked locks and larger baskets of clean wool yet to be prepared for spinning.  This slow progress prompted me to rent my fiber guild's picker.

The very intimidating picker, you can not see the sharp nails that pick open the wool as you swing the cradle back and forth.

Picked and fluffed.



The dyed locks all fluffed.  See this post for this post for the dyeing info.

24 grams of the mixed locks picked and ready to drum card.

Feeding the locks into my drum carder.  These locks and bits varied from a quarter of an inch to one inch.  Lots of nepps and bumps.  I put it through the carder four times. 



I ended up with 88 grams of lumpy bumpy goodness

I was worried but actually love the color variation and the all the texture.  It is spinning into a cool yarn.  You can see the smooth white on this bobbin as well.  My plan is to spin and end up with a dark brown, white, royal blue and medium brown yarn.

My friend Shirley predicts this will be the one and only fleece I process myself.  It is super time consuming but this has been a good process, fun and absorbing.

Tap... Tap...Tapestry

 Last year I became interested in tapestry weaving.  I purchased a book and a small loom at SAFF in October and began lurking on the tapestry weaving board on Ravelry.  Here is a small sampler.




The color palette is horrid but this is left over needlepoint yarn.

Fast forward to 2015, I knew I wanted to do more tapestry and began saving up for a small portable loom.  Instead I found a 40 inch Glimarka Gobelin for $25.00 on Craigs list.  We traveled to Southern Pines and out in a old barn there she sat. 



Still needs a good cleaning and polish and 13 warp pegs.

Preston getting back in touch with his junior high shop skills.

Looking good.

Mission accomplished.

There has been some spinning and knitting.  Tomorrow I am taking a tapestry class with my guild.  Then I will tackle warping this loom.

Spinning with Friends

 

Today was the quarterly  Saturday meeting of the Carolina Handspinners.  The group meets monthly at the community center in Lowell on the second Tuesday of the month.  Quarterly however we meet on  Saturday at a member's home.  This allows us poor working stiffs to attend.

Nora was a wonderful host.

 

 

Beth, Will and Christina settling into to spin.  Nora showed us the stack of quilts her mother made during her lifetime.  They now have pride of place in Nora's home.



Pam, Ann, Chris and Will.  Will and Ann used their drop spindles.  You can see we spin some, chat some and of
course eat some.

Shirley "vogueing" for the camera.



Nora, Shirley and Burgl discuss our food options.  Nora made a really delicious ham and bean soup and homemade bread.
Everyone else brought additional treats.  We never lack for food.

Nora got some spinning in with her hosting duties.

See there was actually some spinning accomplished, the two Pams and Ann.

Jan and Shirley spinning and knitting.

I always forget how much I enjoy spinning and knitting in the company of friends.  It is relaxing but also reignites the desire to spin more and better.

This my tapestry sampler.  The yarn is some random scraps of needlepoint yarn that I scrounged up.  The color combo leaves a lot to be desired but I am focusing on becoming familiar  with the process.

Showing Up

photo by Gentyl and Hyers

Submit to a daily practice. Your loyalty to that
is a ring on the door.
Keep knocking and the joy inside
will eventually open a window
and look out to see who’s there.

 

Rumi
 

 I have been interested in the idea of daily craft practice for a long time.  It is really hard to describe exactly what the allure of fiber work is for me.  What is easy to see is that the days that I make time to do some knitting, spinning or weaving are the better for it.  Sometimes though, I spin my wheels (pun intended) and do not have the oomph to push through to completion.  I look down at the work in my hands and see every imperfection and wonder...

 

Why does this matter?

It isn't any good anyway. 

You are just making more stuff that nobody will care about.

 

The project gets set aside and another idea is pursued.  The net result is not only a lack of tangible results but also a failure to achieve any sense of mastery.  For 2015, I desire a different result, so I am determined to show up everyday and put in the work.

This is going to require me to let go of my expectations and embrace the imperfections in the crafts I pursue and push through doubt to completion.

The bowls pictured above were valued by Zen masters because they were handmade and irregularly shaped, with uneven glaze, cracks, and a perverse beauty in their deliberate imperfection.  Their beauty enhancing the ritual of the daily tea ceremony.

Welcome 2015

Happy. New Year!  Reflecting back on 2014, I was not terribly productive knitting wise.  I continue to be distracted by other craft enticements, sewing, dyeing etc...  There is nothing wrong with that but I really would like to focus on knitting and spinning in 2015.  To that end, I spent much of today preparing 12 sock kits.  It was tedious to divide the yarn and wind each skein into two cakes but now I am ready. 

I am challenging myself to:

1.  knit twelve pairs of socks this year, one out of handspun
2.  knit three projects from Victorian Lace Today
3. design and knit one lace scarf or shawl 
4. spin and knit a project from my Jacob fleece
5. spin and or knit everyday

This blog will be where I document my projects and successes!  My family gifted me some awesome Christmas gifts.

A full set of Signature circular needles.

 



An Offhand Designs knitting bag and Namaste notions box.

This shawl kit from Infinite Twist is so complete it has knitting needles, markers and a colored pencil for tracking your rows.

In addition, there were three sample skeins of the Helix yarn.

In an effort to get organized, I made this frame to contain all my shawl pins.

Long time no see

Instead of catching up I am going to just jump in and pretend this  blog hiatus didn't happen.  Last weekend I vended at the Echoview Fiber Mill Holiday Bazaar.   It was so much fun!  I love the mill and they had organized this event beautifully.  They had coffee, hot cider and muffins in the am and served the vendors lunch as part of the $20.00 table fee.  Everyone was super friendly and there were lots of shoppers.

The Echoview sheep decorated for Christmas

My table before the bazaar started.

It was wonderful to see my friend Nora from Hickory.



It was such an enjoyable day, visiting with the other vendors and shoppers.

 

Everything from pottery, leather goods, yarns, felted and knitted items, edibles and jewelry. 
I purchased some beautiful things.

Lots of fibery goodness.

Downstairs

Beautiful yarns and talented vendors.

One of a kind leather goods.

Beautiful pottery.

 

I would heartily recommend this event.  They even had a special room for children with Christmas movies playing.  Whether you are selling or buying it is a great venue.

Welcome Fall

Completed Maedwe

Two Shibori scarves using rusty nails and dyed with yellow onion skins.

Using rubber bands I wrapped rusty nails in this infinity scarf and the placed it in a pot of steaming onion skins. 

Another shot of this scarf.  This is a habotai silk infinity scarf blank from Dharma Trading. 

This scarf is larger and is silk charmeuse.  Again, I used rusty nails and other random rusty pieces of metal and folded the scarf around two  ceramic tiles, bound it with string and steamed it in the same onion skin dye solution.  Both scarves were mordanted with alum and cream of tartar. I really love these and will definitely play more with rusty bits.

Fall is definitely here, I feel a chill in the air. 

We returned from a family vacation to the Outer Banks and is was a shock to see leaves falling and the bright colors of turning leaves begin to appear.