Pictures of Progress

Weaving-Warp going on the loom. It is now on and being woven.
Spinning-Hand spun slubby for a new scarf.
More spinning- My attempt to spin silk into silver. This is some cochineal dyed silk that was then "saddened" with iron. I almost exploded with excitement when the change took place. For those of you who have never dyed with cochineal before, it is a natural dye that is made up of dead bugs that you grind and boil. Not for the faint of heart. Nor for those that don't like "earthy" smells. The colours that you get are pinks, burgundy, and some purples, depending on what mordants you use. No mordant on silk with iron added gives you this lovely silver colour.
And here is progress of a different sort. Yup. Those are tulips. And that is snow. I took this picture yesterday and unfortunately the up dated photo would be just like the upper right hand corner. Because right now, it is snowing. Again.
Crap. I have been living under a rock today. Bill just came out and we are watching the news about the shootings in Virginia. This is starting to happen far to often. I feel so sorry for everyone involved.

The War Rages On

I have dealt a severe blow to the troops of the living poop. Still they manage to rally new members and attack the home front of the lily plants. I have stepped up my counter attacks by grabbing at the little shit disturbers bare handed. My battle cry of "Gross! Gross! Gross!" has been heard by neighbours and beetles alike. It is really a shame that the beetles are so destructive. They really are a very pretty beetle. Lovely red with very pleasing beetle proportions. I only feel a small twinge of guilt when I crush their bright wing cases beneath my shoe. No guilt is felt by crushing the disgusting larva which, if you had forgotten, cover themselves in their own feces. Gross! Gross! Gross!

Yesterday was the first market for me this summer. I did sell a few things. Mostly some hand spun yarn that I had marked way down. I actually didn't expect it to sell the yarn at all and had considered it an experiment. The result was that I felt rather ill at the price that I got for my work. After the second sale, I quickly put my prices back to where they had been before I discounted them. But by that time 5 of my skeins were gone. I won't tell you how much I sold them for, it is too embarrassing. Both people were from out of town and had stumbled upon the market (well, I led one there when asked on the street corner for a recommendation for a good place for breakfast.)

I have three skeins left and I think that they are going to be for me. I am also almost finished plying my fine yarn in the mermaids dream colourway. I think that it will be somewhere between a fingering weight and a sports weight. Once it is plied I will give knitting my first lace sample a go.

Sara, I'll be knocking at your door! I think that you can come over and dye the second half of your roving in exchange for lace knitting tutorials!

I had another dyeing workshop today. It was just my former students who wanted to have me available to answer questions while they did the dyeing. It was in a different location because school is over for the year and when we set up the date for the workshop, I was unsure if the new stove was going to be installed in the dyeing kitchen by then. It actually was installed and it is a beauty! It is a glass top industrial range that will fit 4 large pots. It also has what is called a bridge between two burners so that you can use a really large pot or a roaster. We needed to get a new stove because the last time that I used it, sparks flew out of one of the burners. I have gotten so many shocks that I finally stopped changing the fuses that blew with amazing regularity. I just went and found Joe, the maintenance guy. Wonderful Joe would come and change the fuses and eventually explained the situation to the powers that dole out the cash, who decided that a new stove was in order. In any case, we had the workshop in Karen's back yard, which was fine, except that it just wasn't like home. Or school, as the case may be.
I have dreams of my own studio. With lost and lots of shelves.....
I still have to clear some bobbins and get that cochineal silk plied. I really have no idea what it shall become. Could I be so decadent as to make some silk socks? Probably not. But what a lovely thought!

On the horns of a dilemma

You all remember this, right? It's the cochineal saddened silk that I was going to ply with something and knit a lace shawl. The problem is what do I ply it with?
I had thought maybe this merino. But never having plied a solid with a variegated, and never having knit lace, I thought that I would ask for your valued opinion. I'm not really all that keen on the candy stripe look of plying a dark singles with a light one. I tried that with the silver and some black.
I have more merino to dye. I like these colours, but would it be better to dye more like this and then blend it on a drum carder? Or dye something in the lighter range of these colours that will blend more with the colour of the silk. Or some other colour altogether and save the silk for something else.
The pattern that I am using is Kiri which calls for 400+ yards of sports weight yarn. I can manage that.

When you knit lace, what do you like? Variegated? Candy stripes? Solid? Other?Does anyone have any pictures of lace knit with hand spun that they can point me to?

I just gotta share

a couple of things.

The first is that I finally finished spinning the cochineal silk. I have come to the conclusion that I really don't care to spin silk. It took me so long to spin because I just kept ignoring my wheel and making up excuses as to why I had no time to spin. And while I was busy, I could have been doing some spinning on it. The big clue was when I took the silk bobbin off and grabbed some black merino. Just because. And it was like entering an oasis after a trek in the desert. Speaking of oasis, there were two things that helped me finally finish this stuff. One was Whitefeather. At our spinning group, I asked her for some pointers. Pre-draft was the answer. It helped. The other was Viggo Mortensen. We watched Hidalgo last night. He kept my mind occupied while my hands were busy cursing the silk.
The silk is really different from anything else that I have yet spun. The fiber staple is really long (of course it's long, duhh, it's SILK) and it has a mind of it's own. I think that I am going to have to try some blending with the silk that I have remaining. Or maybe I'll just let it sit for a while. It's not going to go bad.

Here it is in all its glory. It's about 4 ounces and heaven knows how many yards.
Now I have to decide what to ply this stuff with. I have several options and will be performing some tests in the near future. I have several different colours of roving that I have recently dyed and I also have just plain black. The plan is to spin the merino, ply it with the silk and then knit my self a lace shawl. I've wanted to do this for a while and I have a friend nearby who is willing to give me a quick lace tutorial. The shawl that I want to knit is kiri from all tangled up. The pattern is under the e-mail sign on the top right. I love it. But I fear it too.

The socks that helped to get us lost are almost finished. I'm down to the toe on both!

The last thing that I have to share is Chris Jordan. His photos are incredible and really put the consumption of our society in perspective.

One That Got Away

This is a bound weave rug that I wove in my second year at school. All those many years ago. I actually wove it as a wedding present for a very good friend of mine. The marriage didn't survive and I have since lost touch with her. I wonder if she still has it or if it was given away. It measured about 4.5 x 3 feet and was linen warp and wool weft. It was so beautiful that I wish that it was back in my possession.

Here is a detail.



Now back to my current pursuits.
On the socks- Both heels turned, one instep decreasing finished and smooth sailing on the foot.
Weaving- second hand spun and kid/silk blended warp with a bit better tension, but still a bit wonky.
Dyeing-Two warps dyed. One is 3 scarves in silk and the other is two wool scarves. Who ever dries first is the first to go on the loom. I have a show coming up in two weeks and I need a few more things for the table before then.
Spinning- Slubby fiber all spun, plied, and the twist set ready to be made into a warp and go on the loom. Now on the wheel, some silk that I dyed with cochineal and saddened with iron. It made the most delicious silvery grey. I am in Love! I am going to pair it with this
roving so that I can start on my first lace project. It is the Kiri shawl that quite a few people have made. I was going to make it out of a lace weight alpaca yarn, but lace fear took over and that project never got off the ground. Sue suggested that I make it in the sports weight yarn that the pattern calls for. Brilliant! But being one to put off lace, I decided to spin the yarn for it first. I seem to recall that the pattern calls for about 450 yards of yarn and I don't have anywhere near that in one colour of hand spun. So off to the wheel! Pictures to follow.

Yarn Cakes

Spinning is so much fun! I finished another 300+ yard skein on Mermaid Dreams in my effort to procrastinate a bit more on the start of my lace shawl. I'll get there some day.

In the mean time, I have also been spinning with weaving in mind. I wanted to make some more slubby scarves. To the left is Arabian Nights and on the right is a new colour way that I am thinking of calling Carnival. Unless someone else can come up with a better name. Any suggestions? It is reds, yellows, oranges, and a touch of purple. It reminds me of the bright lights and loud music associated with a carnival ride.
And here is another cake of Water Lilies. Each cake is about 8 ounces and will produce one scarf. Thankfully my loom is small enough and set up so that I only have a few grams of loom waste. After all of that work, I would hate to end up throwing precious hand spun away.

And speaking of precious hand spun, I don't know if I showed you my finished skein of the cochineal silk.
4 ounces, 200 (ish) yards. Unintentionally slubby. I had a few, ahem, problems, with drafting. This was so different to spin from wool that I can hardly compare them. If anyone has any tips for spinning silk, I'd be happy to hear them. Plans for this little bundle of beauty? Nope. I just plan on enjoying the look of it for a while. It is not going in the stash. It is definitely going on display!