Madrona

The Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat was wonderful. I elected to take only one and a half days of classes and it was just the right amount.
I didn't hang out and look around very much but I couldn't help noticing the most beautifully knitted lace shawls some people were wearing. Wow!
The marketplace was bigger this year and had some great vendors. I headed straight for the fiber. I visited Crown Mountain's booth and felt in the mood for a little color. I grabbed this sunshine bright roving and then thought better and chose a more subtle medley of colors.









It ended up looking like this on the bobbin.


I'm still trying to get better at navajo plying. I might have to take a class.












I enjoyed the silk spinning class with Paula Shull on Saturday. We spun over 30 different kinds of silk and silk blend preparations. I tried to be very organized with recording the samples but got sidetracked early on so my documentation ends at the silk noils.








I really enjoyed the thrown silk waste. Now I have to try to find a supplier. I thought Little Barn had some but it seems that's Sari Silk ends.







Spinning Down Fibers with Judith MacKenzie McCuin was as expected just wonderful. We had some beautifully prepared bison roving. Precious stuff. We spun quite a bit of yak and some cashmere and a cashmere blend. I like the yak alot. Oh yes, we also got a treat of some Mongolian baby camel down.
I rushed to the Marketplace at the very last part of the day to return to Mount Hood View Farm who had some tempting Pygora fiber. I spoke with Kristin Gustafson Saturday and her fiber was calling to me. I resisted but finally convinced myself that her Pygora was definitely humanely raised fiber and if I ever need to spin for someone that will only wear wool or hair from compassionate and responsible farmers, Kristin certainly fits the bill. Talk about rationalization, right? But truly as I continue to think about it, I really would like to support small fiber farms. I know quite a few make very little money..sometimes feeling lucky if they break even. For some, it's just love of the animals and their fiber. I think Kristin might fall into that category.


I know...10.00 an ounce. I think a little goes a long way. It says dehaired but there are some stray guard hairs to pick out here and there. But oh my, I understand why. Judith handed around a bag full of cashmere down before dehairing. It gave me an idea of how much work is involved. I can't think of anything to compare it to in order to give you an idea as well.
I know that Carolyn Smith of Viva Yarns uses the dryer to get rid of the guard hairs from her silver fox. I wonder if it might work with other fiber.
And the folks at Madrona and the vendors always have little bags of treats for us. One of the most unusual things was Earl Grey Tea Candy from Churchmouse Yarns. I show only a small bit of the generous bag we each received. It's surprisingly tasty.

This & That & Mary Ann's Hat

My friend Mary Ann received her alpaca hat today. She likes it but it seems it's a little too big. It went to her without the earflaps because I didn't want her head to be cold all winter while she waited for me to get them knitted. I'm hoping I can remedy the size when I go visit it the spring.


Weaving is alot like work! I don't like or dislike it yet. It just reminds me of work. I have the table loom home with me now. I don't have a place for it yet but I'm thinking that I'll just move it onto my bed when I have time to weave. I have quite a bit to do with the warp this week and I'm nervous about not getting it done. It's a very busy week for me and this weekend is Madrona Fiber Arts (yay!).

I went to buy a little tool today at Weaving Works in Seattle. It's a combo heddle threader and sleying tool.











Of course, I had to make it worth the trip and I bought some merino roving called Hollyberry. I've never seen this one before.








And a Wild Fibers magazine. I did dip into it on my way home and read the cover story on Mongolian herders and discovered that a good part of the article involved Nancy Shand and her company Nomad Yarns. I had a very long conversation with Nancy last spring. We were thinking of possibly offering her yarns for a group buy at K-World-Tog but we ended up talking about almost everything else. I loved speaking with her. She's extremely engaging.







I also was pleasantly surprised by the Fleece Artist special offer of Country Mo in Brick that I received. I am not a handpainted yarn fan. I know... I've been experimenting with handpainted roving and navajo plying to keep the color sequence. It's kind of a fascination but I am beginning to appreciate and maybe even discern beauty a little bit but when I go to the yarn store, I head straight for the solid colors. But I love this stuff!








I want to knit it up and see if I really do love it.

Lichens & An Earflap

I was home again today. The roads were much better but I still didn't trust my truck after last Friday's experience. I am fully tired of staying home! There are times were I fantasize about staying home and doing fiber related stuff all day. I am temporarily cured of this desire.
I took one of the lichens gathered from the pre-Christmas storm and tentatively identified it as Usnea hirti.










I put about this much in a pot then realized I needed to pulveize the lichen first.



I am making a note that I'm using a teflon coated pot which could have an effect on the color. I chose to simmer it in water for about 2 hours. No color yet. What was encouraging when I looked in my lichen dyeing book was that Usnea hurti yields purples. Well, I don't see any evidence of that yet. There is also the option of letting it sit for about 2 weeks. I'll have to figure it out.
Here's the lichen dyeing book and 2 field guides with photos (the only way I can identify things...drawings don't seem to help me much.)





And I forced myself to start on the earflaps last night. I had to rip out the first one and although this one should probably be refined, I think I might stick with it. I need to do some edging. I tried crochet and it looked hokey. I can try that again trying to be very neat. (I'm not really a crocheter.) Or I might have to knit edging and sew it on. I can't face picking up stitches but maybe I'll get over the phobia if nothing else works.






I know now what would have been a better way to approach the earflap but I still have hopes that this will work out.

More Snow

I'm snowed in again today so I fooled around with wool.
I found a big bag of what I had originally decided were 2 dye experiments gone awry. Now the idea of using one color then another and navajo plying them appeals to me.















I did a little sample and because I had just read an article in an old Spin Off stating the navajo plying needs less twist then a 2 ply, I held back too much and ended up with a mini skein twisting to the left. If I'm remembering correctly, this means I needed to put more S twist in. In this case, that's more twist in my plying. The look of my wool seems to confirm this.









I knitted up a sample even though the yarn was hugely unbalanced just to see if it was what I wanted. It is pretty much though I could see adding another color to the equation.








I'm slowly getting used to the Ashford Joy. I have been spinning almost always with my bobbin zigzagged on the Babe and its been very difficult to just rely on the brake band for take up especially when I want to go very fine or when I try to spin baby alpaca on the Joy. The take up seemed too much even with the brake band loosened as much as I could manage and still get the yarn to pull in.
Because the flyer hooks are on opposite sides of the flyer, lacing the flyer seems pretty impossible. I did try this today. Hooking the yarn on the flyer hook I want to use as normal but then going up one hook through the inside and coming back around. I spun the merino today that way and it worked fine. I would imagine that as I approach the other end of the bobbin, I can reverse the manoever or figure out something that will work as well.


















My weaving class went very well. The teacher seems very good. All I did was wrap half of the warp I'll need for my project.











The project is kitchen towels. I chose these colors for them. The selection wasn't very wide but I'm still happy with the colors. It should be interesting to see how they work up. I don't have a weaver's eye so I'll just have to see. I'm calling the green, "my wild card".

Iced In.

We've gotten some very uncharacteristic frigid weather with lots of ice and some snow. I've been pretty much house bound. My truck even with chains is not up to the steep hills covered with ice. I've gotten some cleaning done but more importantly, spinning.
I picked up some merino/silk blend last Tuesday and spun up about 4 ounces.












I'm adding it to all the other merino/silk stash I've spun. Although I spun this a little thicker, it differs alot in that there is more twist and it appears to be a better yarn. I remember how much I loved the skeins of merino/silk as I spun them and now I have come to like them less. I guess the best strategy is to use my handspun right away before I gain more experience and see its flaws.













I did use quite a bit of yarn spun last spring for the alpaca hat. I still like the yarn and the hat very much but I can see how the yarn I'm spinning presently would be a stronger, longer lasting material.
I worked on the ear flaps for the hat. I attatched one and feeling that it wasn't quite right began to contemplate nixing them altogether. I woke up my friend Guy at 1 am to get his opinion. He has a wonderful eye and immediately knows what is needed or what is wrong. He said it was beautiful (a compliment from the very critical Guy) and that it did need earflaps but I needed to make them 2x as big. After sleeping on it, I do believe that he is spot on. So a few more days while I work this out. I really do tend to approach knitting without a pattern in a very timid manner. It takes me forever to get my courage up to begin and along the way I have to stop and let things sit without actually figuring anything else. All of which is absolutely unnecessary. It's just fear of screwing up.
In the mean time, I've been fooling around, trying this, trying that. I spun alot of cotton, tried to navajo ply it and found it didn't work at all. The bumps were too obvious. I'm not sure if it was my plying or just that thinly spun cotton doesn't work well when navajo plied.
Spun some camel down. It made a very bumpy yarn...not what I was trying to do. Let's hope that Judith MacKenzie McCuin's class helps answer some of my questions.
I played around a bit with merino and some tussah top. Lots of fun!
I also pulled out the bulky attatchment and did this. I'm not sure where I'm headed with this. Just trying things out mostly.

The idea is to ply it. I really want to shred stuff rather than cut strips. It just seems labor intensive to do it. There is a rugmaking cutting tool that might work. I think a commercial paper shredder might work too but they are expensive.

MY first weaving class is tomorrow!

Dulaan Hat

I took my plied yarn and knit up a Dulaan hat. I kind of winged it on the pattern...meaning I just went ahead and made it. I ended up with a very elf like top which I think comes from continuing to knit one decrease row followed by a plain knit row even at the very tip of the crown. My first Dulaan hat aand I tried to concentrate on warmth. I will make another for sure.
I love using my handspun for stuff like this too. This wool was merino but it sure felt like cotton. It was springy and all but for some reason it felt cottony to my hand. I'm wondering if it's the plying method I used. I've used this superwash merino 64 before but it felt more wooly to me. I don't have any complaints about the way it feels. It's just kind of shocking. I have to keep reminding myself it's wool. I'm afraid the Dulaan people will think it's cotton so I want to mark it with a tag "superwash wool".
I scored some good wool for another Dulaan project at the thrift store yesterday. Though I think I enjoy using my handspun more.






Oh, the dyed cotton roving. It's more vibrant than in the photo but it still strangely resembles the aenemic stuff I dyed months ago. Could this be because I have a limited selection of Procion dyes?













I picked up a copy of Learning To Weave for a weaving class that begins on Monday. For months I've been looking at my bobbins of handspun and wanting to weave with them. Weaving completely confuses me. I know it can't be that difficult but everytime I pick up a beginning weaving book, I get lost immediately. I even watched an introduction to weaving video and didn't pick up much either. Since the book focuses on using a 4 shaft loom, I imagine that that's what we'll be using in the class. I do have a rigid heddle and a backstrap loom in addition to a small tapestry loom. I think the class might demystify those for me. Or at least I'm hoping. I do have a small weaving library already. I've picked up books over the past year on book hunts. Maybe after this class, they'll be more intelligible.
I really enjoy learning new things but it's only fun if there's already basic information for the new bits to attatch to. Going in cold is necessary sometimes but no fun.

Navajo Plying..Very Trying!

I've been practicing my navajo plying and I am getting better slowly but not fast enough to feel good about my results. I'm also trying to spin thicker yarn and I'm ending up with small overspun spots. Arggh! The navajo plying is giving me an almost balanced yarn but unfortunately the last skein I plied seems to need more z twist. I have a long way to go in learning this technique.
My plan is to keep spinning and make some hats or something for the Dulaan Project.




The hat is almost done! Now I just have to figure out how to make earflaps.















And I finally redyed the failed cotton. Doesn't it look like something was disemboweled?

It's been rinsed and is drying now. It seems to have come out okay. It's certainly not beautiful but I'll spin it up and see how it looks on the bobbin.

Candy Lipstick

The colors in this remind me of candy especially candy lipstick.
I navajo plied it (badly) and am setting the twist. I'm not sure if the rest will get navajo plied or not. I'll see how the yarn knits up first.
This desire for handpainted roving is a new thing. I'm not sure what's going on.


The alpaca hat is close to being done. My stranding got a little tight on the upper part. I did make a very strong effort to keep it loose on the bottom part and it did seem to work. But old habits die hard.
I just have to say that I like this way better in person. I am pleased! Just the very top shaping to do and then the earflaps. The end is very near.

Ayany!

My Ayany yarn arrived yesterday! Ayany is a women's cooperative in a Nairobi slum. One of the things they do to make money is to spin yarn. I ordered my yarn last February and here it is! At the center of each ball is a tag with the spinner's name on it. As with most handspun, you have to hold it in your hands to appreciate it.

Being Flexible

Well, the fiber I dyed didn't turn out too badly if I keep the mindset of working with what I end up with.
This was suppose to be pink, russet and chestnut. Don't laugh.








But if I stay open minded and allow it to be what it is, I kind of like it. I want to navajo ply this to preserve the color sequence but I'm really bad at navajo plying. (I'm also trying to spin thicker yarn.)















The cotton roving came out horrible! I can redye it though. I will never use nylon again. I thought I had saturated the cotton with dye but as you can see it is very sparsely hit. I found the nylon unnecessary anyway. I actually rinsed the braided roving under the faucet very thoroughly with no harm done to the fiber preparation.
This isn't even funny, just sad. By the way, this was suppose to be pink, cerulean blue and camel. I've gotten little spots of cerulean with a very occasional discoloration that could be either camel or pink. But there might be hope for this yet. I'm spinning up the other aenemic cotton and it looks good on the bobbin.