woven scarf
Mood:  on fire
Topic: Weaving

Diana here - I am almost finished spinning and plying up yarn for my next woven scarf project. I am only spinning for the weft, the warp is store-bought.

The grey is a natural color. The blue was a light grey, but I overdyed it. The black is llama. I dyed it to darken it up a bit more. I also spin the grey and black thinner than the blue

 

 

 

 

 

The pic gives it a more metallic grey look. In person, the blue in more predominate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The problem with spinning is, by the time you are getting towards the end, you have visions of your next colors. At the MFC yard sale this weekend, I saw Ruth carry away a lovely roving - Amethyst and a mint green.....

Diana 

 

 

 

Empty Rubbermaids!!!
Mood:  a-ok

I'm coming down from my adrenalin rush of the last 2 weeks. We had grandkids for 12 days in a row. Then onto  a huge success teaching dyeing scarves at Summerfair.  We taught more than 90 scarves on the weekend and made record profits for the museum.  Then dh and I headed up to mountains for a major clean of cabin that was flooded and needed new carpet.  We headed back to town Wednesday to start cleaning the garage for the big stash reduction sale on Friday.  We carried gobs of stuff out of my basement to put up for sale at my house.  Several friends brought things.  My goal was at least 4 big rubbermaids gone.  We have at least 12 empty ones plus some file boxes and more magazines and a quilting frame I had carried around since the 1970's.

I had some depressed moments as I said goodbye to projects that I had planned but have now realized I won't tackle in the foreseeable future.  For the most part, it  was extremely invigorating to get organized for this new chapter in my fiber life.  Can't wait to get ANWG's records turned over to the new membership chair on Tuesday and Wednesday so I can start a major dyeing adventure.  I have a new electric counting skein winder coming and lots more yarn coming.  I'm also doing a major sock blank dyeing to have at Wild Purls, my lys.

An artist friend told dh a few years ago when he took off for a few months in a direction with his painting that he was "cleaning his palete".  That is how I feel and it makes me feel liberated and excited.  Linda

Scarf dyeing and Summerfair
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Chemical Dyeing

My moment of fame arrived today. A few friends and I run a silk scarf dyeing booth at Summerfair, a large craft fair benefitting the Yellowstone Art Museum.  The fair is at Veteran's Park at 13th and Poly and runs this Saturday and Sunday July 18 and 19.    We teach people to dye silk scarves and all the proceeds go to benefit the museum.  Today, they featured an article about this in the Billings Gazette. The reporter, Jaci Webb, had come over and we had walked a couple of girls through the paces of dyeing a scarf which is very easy and immediate playing with color.  We just teach 3 easy Shibori techniques.  The first uses garbanzo and/or fava beans as a resist.  The second uses a simple hill and valley technique.  Then we teach pole wrapping on small pvc pipes.  Everything is then steamed in a roaster.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/entertainment/enjoy/article_08e3babe-726b-11de-bb35-001cc4c03286.html  I even like this photo.  

One of my husband and my sidelines to our normal dyeing and other art activities is dyeing silk scarves.  We donate them to silent auctions and other causes and give them away as gifts to friend and family.  Silk is so beautiful and instantly gratifying (and it is not even fattening). 

Dyeing scarves has even caused me to change the way I mix my dyes which is why I haven't blogged much the last few days.  I always have mixed my dyes at a 1% solution.  This works quite well for yarn dyeing, but isn't as intense on the silk scarves.  I have toyed with changing all my 60 mixtures over to a 2% solution since that is what Nancy Roberts of Machine Knitting to Dye For fame and also Kris Abshire uses for silk warp painting.  To convert all my dyes was quite a job, but after dyeing some more scarves for this article, I decided to bite the bullet.  It meant standing on cement floor for 3 days mixing dyes but I did it. 

Of course that meant I had to dye LOTS of fleece and yarn with the leftover 1% solution.  I still have lots of 1% solution, but that is okay.  I'm going to dye one of a kind skeins "Montana Moments Yarn" for Wild Purls so that the Billings knitters have lots of color choices in fingering yarn.  My wonderful dye studio is getting lots of good use.  Does it get much better than this?  Linda

Book Review Knitting over the Edge by Nicky Epstein
Mood:  not sure
Topic: Knitting

The last 10 days have been crazy busy with dyeing and other things.  But I wanted to get this review done and out.  I have had lots of dyeing ideas, tips etc. to talk about but don't have the energy tonight.  So book review it is.

Nicky Epstein's  Knitting over the Edge is the second book in a 3 part series published by Sixth & Spring Books in 2005. I picked this second book in the series because I thought I already owned the first book, Knitting on the Edge. But no, I own a much earlier book published by Interweave Knits called Knitted Embellishments. 

The publishers describe this book as 350 decorative borders, but there is much more than border stitches. Every pattern has a symbol telling you whether the pattern is knit from the top, bottom, or the side.

 

Each section has a very attractive garment incorporating the techniques in the section and the patterns for these 5 garments are included at the end of the book. The first section is devoted to unique ribs including a few pages on various fringe endings. Many of the rib patterns look great for sock tops as well as sweaters. Since everything is knit flat without charts, it would take conversion to knit them in the round. This is my only nit pick about this book, I wish they had included some charts. I love books with both charts and directions. I usually knit from directions (not charts), but charts make it easier to see the complexity of the knitting and convert to circular.

 

Fortunately the book has wonderful pictures, attractive colors, and attractive yarns that make me want to use these patterns. For this I almost forgive them for no charts. The section on cords include some very usable corded edges including new ones to me such as running a thin decorative ribbon through the cord. I can so see this on a baby garment or the front trim on a sweater or vest. Some of the hanging down I cord cords used seem less usable to me. I do love the circles and would love to incorporate them into something more contemporary looking.

 

Next comes a small section on appliqués. The shawl on front shows a great use of appliqués and opened my eyes to appliqué border possibilities. My favorite section is called “colors” and is 50+ color patterns in slip stitch, fair isle (which do have charts), and other cool techniques. These patterns are not for borders. Most of them would be great in any part of a knitted project. Some of the stitch patterns I have seen before, but Nicky’s colors and use make them come alive. The Fair Isle patterns mostly say children’s knitting to me which is helpful to me with 8 grandkids.

 The last chapter is Nouveau. I expected these designs to be too out there for me. Not so they are just new ideas that Nicky shares and many are quite immediately useful. I enjoyed this book very much and if you want to spice up your knitting a bit, make sure to check it out. This book has intrigued me enough I have to go check the other 2 books in the series.  All for a tired Linda tonight.

Family week and shawl and scarves
Mood:  lucky
Topic: Knitting

Whew what a busy week.  On Monday we took care of 6 month twin grandbabies.  That night my other daughter brought her 4 kids over for a 3 day stay when their little brother was born.  This brings me to 8 grandchildren--6 of them four and under.  The kids went home on Thursday and I turned to fiber as a sanity keeper.  After sitting in my chair and sorting through magazines for a while and writing a knitting book review, I headed to my local yarn store to figure out if they had the right buttons for a neck warmer I hope to get done in time for a Spinoff contest.  I also wanted just a few more Pagewood sock bites (little bits of yarn) to add to a scarf I'm designing.  No luck on the sock bites, but Wild Purls did have some cool buttons.  I bought 3 flower shaped antler buttons that I think will look nice with my handspun merino/camel blend.  I also had some much needed down time knitting at the store and vegging out.  Then I headed home because more company was expected that evening including my 14 month old grandson from Belgrade.  Throughout this weekend I kept the cooking simple and knit and designed out on my front porch or back deck and had a very nice 4th of July holiday with lots of family. 

Today my daughter agreed to model a shawl I had completed this spring.  It is in a perfectly lovely alpaca, angora, and cormo blend yarn that I dyed in a wave effect.  It is kind of hard to get the subtle colors on camera.  I wore this shawl a lot this April in Canada when it was cool.  It feels very snuggly and comfortable.  The more I wear it, the more the the angora blooms.  The pattern is a longer version of the Almost Lace Shawl or Shawlette.  I love this pattern because it is pretty much mindless.  To get it this big, I had over 500 stitches at the end which was a little slow.  But on a cold day when I need comfort this shawl will do it.

Knitting magazines--inspiration
Mood:  sad
Topic: Knitting

This week I have had lots of fiber in my life.  It served to provide solace about the loss of my old dog--JJ.  Sorting, cleaning my studio and various stash places have provided a lot of inspiration.  As part of my upcoming sale, I decided to have the great knitting (and some other fiber art magazines) give away.  I have a big selection of magazines I have subscribed to, purchased at stores and bought at garage sales etc. I'm looking through those and putting them in the "give away" bin along with my gardening magazines.  I still plan to keep my very favorites such as Knitters Magazine, Interweave Knits, Spinoff, Handwoven, Shuttle Spindle and Dyepot and most Vogue Knitting and Creative Knittingand other selected magazines.  At the same time lots of Easy Knitting, Cast On, Quilting magazines, crochet magazines, Threads, and many many others.  I don't know how many 100's of magazines this will add up to, but I did take 170 audio books to the library this week to give away.  This gives you an idea of my hoarding instincts.  Let me know if you need more magazines at your house--the price is right.  Linda

Stash reduction sale
Mood:  bright
I’m putting fiber up for sale that I can’t see myself spinning, dyeing, knitting, weaving, or teaching in the next 2 years. I have a list and prices on LOTS of fiber, fleece, hand-dyed yarn, weaving yarn etc. You can call or email me for the list and arrange purchases. What is not gone and other friends’ fiber items will be for sale: Friday July 24, 2009 10-6 and Saturday July 25 12-4 lindas5252@yahoo.com   446 Tabriz Drive, Billings, MT 59105. 

I'm just jacked.  I stayed up until 1:30 this morning sorting through my spinning fibers and pricing and inventorying "I can part with this" fiber.  At the same time I got psyched about the special fibers I'm keeping I just can't wait to get at them. I will admit I did spin both the bison and Cross Patch Creation fiber on my special list yesterday.

About 12:30 when I headed up stairs, I had to spin for a while to calm down enough to go to sleep.

I have 40 colors of Ashford Corriedale for sale, 20 colors of Ashland Bay Merino, natural colored roving, flax, bamboo, Sea Island cotton, etc. etc.  In terms of equipment I have a Schacht spinning wheel, a friend's spinning wheel, a couple of looms, nostepinnes, takli, navajo spindle, back strap loom and that is the beginning.

Yarn is another story, I have hand dyed sport/dk and fingering weight; many colors of Jaggerspun 3/8, 2/8, 2/20 wool; Zephyr lace 18/2 silk and wool blend; 10/2 and 5/2 cotton, tencel; natural hand dyed yarn in fingering, lace, sock, and dk weight.  I haven't even started inventorying the books yet.

Don't worry I'm not quitting my fiber life, I just want to focus on my special interests which have become clearer to me as I immersed myself in the fiber arts.  I also know a lot of things won't sell and that is fine too.  But a few dozen big rubbermaids in my house would make me very happy.  So contact me if you want the "for sale" list.

A happy fiber camper.  Linda

 

 

A new plan for my life
Mood:  energetic
Fiber, Fiber, Fiber.  After all these years I still love it. Thursday's spindle day and Saturday's Spin In brought into focus for me what I want to do with my fiber life for the next couple of years and how to go about it.  For the last year many factors have come together.  My kids keep popping  out the grandkids.  I enjoy designing knitting and punch needle patterns.  I want to pursue my own designs in both of those areas more. My dye studio makes it even easier for me to dye, dye, dye--my favorite activity of all.  Wild Purls has given me an opportunity to teach locally more and now are going to have my handdyed knitted blanks on consignment there.  Ravelry provides me some market outside of Billings for my items. Then of course in my spare time I do that accounting stuff one half a day, I'm Conference Chair for the upcoming MAWS 2010 conference in Billings June 4-6, 2010.  After that I'm in line to become president of the Yellowstone Art Museum in July 2010.  Somehow something had to change because I was having so much fun that it was turning into too much work.  I haven't taken  many teaching gigs out of the area for the upcoming year due to the MAWS conference.   By the time I recover from that and get used to the YAM thing, two more years will have passed.  So for the next year or two, I'm staying around here more unless some particularly attractive teaching opportunity comes up.  That takes me to the next issue--how much stash do I need for myself and local students.  See my next installment for my solution.  Linda

Spin-In Saturday
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Spinning

These few days are spinning intensive.  Saturday Diane, others and I will be at Wild Purls at a spin-in from 1-4.  I plan to bring some Cross Patch Creations roving that I'm spinning into a multicolored medium weight yarn with texture.  Just mindless spinning is my plan.  Nothing is as peaceful as just spinning.

Today two people came over to learn spindle spinning.  One brought with her a Madagascar spindle that her mother brought home from when they were missionaries in Madagascar.  This student has lived in Madagascar and imports items from there for sale.  Fortunately she had told me about her spindle and I googled it before she came and found a reference to a Spinoff article in 2002.  Pulled out this Spinoff and was able to show her spinning from the region in Madagascar where she got the spindle. It is a supported spindle you spin on your thigh.  She sat on the floor and spun with it.  I sat on the floor for a while and spun a fine yarn on a Russian support spindle I had.  I couldn't have spent all day doing this and relaxing.  Sorry to have to stop.

Tomorrow morning I am going over to a friend's house who has a new wheel and is having trouble adjusting the tension etc.  She took my beginning class at Wild Purls and then ordered her wheel.  I LOVE to get people going on their new wheels. 

Today brought some sad news.  The owner of Joseph's Coat, Susanna Springer, died this week in her sleep.  It is all Susanna's fault that I am a spinner.  In law school, I used to go by her shop often when it was downtown Missoula and go in and stare at the wheels, fibers, and looms.  I couldn't wait to learn to spin.  But I was in law school and had 2 children under 4, so I didn't take time.  I kept saying as soon as I get a real job.  Sure enough within months of graduating and my law job, I had sheep and a wheel.  The rest is history.  It is hard to imagine my life without spinning and other fiber arts.  So thanks Susanna and many knitters, spinners, and weavers in Montana will miss you.  Linda

Journaling--a way if life
Mood:  lucky
Topic: Designing

I so much enjoy designing knitting, crochet, and punch needle patterns.  Getting them all proofread, completed several times, photographed and printed I enjoy a lot less.  But I do like the designing and the early stages of the creative process and journaling has become part of that for me.

About 8 years ago when I had a stressful time in my life I started journaling.  The first journal lasted several years because I would go months with out entries.  About 2 years ago I started getting really regular and including all my thoughts in the same one, then I started adding design thoughts and even sketches occassionally.  Now I will sometime drag my journal out at meetings.  A pretty fat journal only lasts me 4 months now.  I have found journaling an important part of my life for some reason.  If you have ever read the Artists Way, they recommend "morning papers" for 1/2 hour each morning.  I rarely stick with anything so structured.  But the few times I do journal when I'm fresh I am more creative.  I miss journaling when I don't do it for more than 2 days although I often get busy.  I rarely skip a whole week and going that long stresses me out.  On a stressful day, taking a few minutes to journal is very soothing.

Today I'm starting a new journal.  Since I carry my journal in my purse now I wanted to get something smaller and lighter so I picked up a Moleskine.  These journals have been used by "European artists and thinkers for 2 centures, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from Ernes Heminway to Bruce Chatwin".  The jury is out to see if my thoughts are more profound now that I am using such a lofty journal.  They do have the advantage of being light and this style has graph paper which I really like for my purse.   On to more designing/day dreaming.  Linda