Spring: Finishing And Starting

Despite the fact that we had a winter wonderland outside (again!) Sunday morning, spring is just about here. Things are coming up in the garden, and work starts next week.

A lot of my fibre projects seem to be either finishing or starting right now also. On the finished pile, I have all 5 skeins of that pewter-grey llama I was spinning, plus my first official weaving project, hemmed, washed, ends trimmed, and ready to go to the Guild on Monday.

Also going to the Guild will be my basket from the class I was taking. I must say it's not exactly a perfect basket, but hey, it's my first try. The reed we used was really light-coloured, and the basket sticks out like a sore thumb, since every other basket I own is patina'd and rather darker. But by a nice coincidence, I've been doing my first dye-bath of the season - walnuts - and thought that the exhaust bath might be useful to stain the basket darker, even if it takes a few coats. So I'm trying that right now.

The walnut-dyed yarn is hanging up to dry. The darker skeins are going for a sweater for a cousin's new baby, commissioned by my aunt. It's wool from their sheep that they had mill-spun at MacAusland's, and the weight and texture are similar enough to Briggs and Little that I will add some colours out of my stash of B&L to get enough yarn for the sweater.

The lighter skeins had a cold soak for 30 min or an hour in the exhaust bath - I just want enough there for a tint, which gives lovely reds with a cochineal pink/red on top.

While waiting for the yarn to dry for the little sweater, I'm finishing off a pair of socks for me. Fleece Artist BFL Sock I bought at Rhinebeck last year. The only picture I have so far, though, is this one of Pumpkin having a lovely nap on my laptop case and knitting bag, with the sock sticking out of the sandwich.

And the last current finished thing is the first Cowichan-style sweater Joan commissioned (we're still waiting on the yarn for the kid's version). It's really cozy, even if knitting with Lopi does make me feel like I've got a hairball in my throat. And I found out that taking a picture of your own back is rather tricky, but I got some sort of picture in the end! (All right, so the easiest was taking pictures while not wearing the sweater.)

I See An(other) Addiction Looming

This is for all of you weavers out there who keep saying things like, "Come on over to the dark side! We have yarn!" You know who you are. I did not need another hobby. I can knit, spin, tat, dye, embroider, sew, and crochet, and that's just the fibre crafts on my list. My mother weaves; I didn't need to.

But I thought it might be nice to try making a Linus blanket to contribute to the Guild's initiative. And here's my mother, aiding and abetting, volunteering her stash and loom and knowledge to help me....

I had a dentist appointment Thursday morning, came home minus one tooth, and started my period. Notwithstanding,  I learned to calculate yardage, and started measuring warp. We only had enough to warp up for one blanket, unfortunately, but it's the process that counts...

Finished measuring and chaining up the warp Friday morning. Between us, Mom and I got the warp through the reed, rolled onto the back beam, and threaded into the heddles over the afternoon and evening.

The one thing that you never hear of or think of, if you're not a weaver, is how much of your set-up time you spend tying and untying various parts to each other. I know when Mom got her loom, the lady who sold it to her sent a whole bag full of random pieces of string with the rest of the accessories, saying we would need it. At the time it seemed like a really random thing to send. But really, you tie up your warp, you tie the beater in position, you tie the shafts in position, you tie the lease sticks on place, you tie the extra heddles back - it all adds up. The box of string bits is an essential tool.

Anyway, this morning saw the sleying done, and the warp tied to the front beam, and I did a little math and worked out a random stripe pattern. Two and a half days into the project, and I finally got to sit at the loom and actually weave after lunch today. It's a twill weave, in cotton yarns (DK-ish weight, I think). I got a quick run-down on how to weave, change colours, and advance the warp, and off I went.

It is going surprisingly fast and well, in my opinion, for a first project. And I can see how this could get really addictive, really quickly. I'm over 2 feet in already. Wove for a while, refilled bobbins as needed, and wove some more. Wandered downstairs for a break - tea, bathroom, and a Motrin to take the edge off my headache (always happens at this time of the month) - and went back to weaving. Made a few mistakes in treadling, corrected myself, and wove some more. Answered the call to supper, and went back to work. Dad went off to the Irish concert in town, Mom settled down with her knitting, and I wove. Finally stopped a little while ago, and discovered my back muscles were stiff, so I think that ought to be it for the night. But I think I like this weaving thing.

I did tell Mom she might have competition for the loom now. She says when they find a buyer for the piano, maybe the other loom, currently in storage, can go in that space...

We all see where this is going, right?

Spring Forward

March so far has been coming in like the proverbial lamb. And like actual lambs, I suspect there will be a lot of busy-ness and bouncing around going on. I just got a call from work to schedule a meeting for next week, so I know the season is showing signs of starting, despite the snow still on the ground.

In the meantime, let's see. There's a pile of stuff to go to Jo again, including the scrappy fingerless I was working on (they came out nicely, but the ends! They practically had a fringe inside!), a pair of mittens, two skeins of yarn, and another pair of mittens on the needles which may become something else, since the yarn seems to be going faster than anticipated - I'll have to weigh the remainder after and see.

Also there's a pair of socks for Joan, for her daughter.

Hopefully we will be able to work out a meet-up this week when I go down to the parents'. I have to deliver Jo's stuff also, visit the dentist, and then (Oh, excitement!) Mom and I will warp up her loom and I will have my first go at weaving on it. A baby blanket, towards the Linus Blanket project, which the guild is also working on things for right now.  Oh, and I have to choose some fabric and a pattern for a quilt square for a community quilt that Mom and I signed up for last summer.

Then back to the guild and more weaving of a different kind - I'm taking my first class there in a couple weeks, in basketry - we're making a wool-drying basket. Very exciting, and it will be a busy day, since after that, I will just about have time for supper, and then a friend and I are going out contra dancing!

It's been a few years since the last time I did contra, but the subject came up recently in a conversation with the same friend, I went looking, and not only is the Ottawa Contra group still going strong, but they've moved nearer to me! And hey, with spring and work coming, it's about time I did a little exercising after sitting on my butt all winter, right? They had a dance this weekend that I went to, and it all started coming back pretty fast, and was super fun. Only, I am being very impressed with the fairy tale of the dancing princesses, because my feet were tired after only a few hours, whereas they danced all night! Well, I will have to experiment with different shoes, try something with a little more cushioning. But I definitely hope to make this a permanent part of my schedule. I've never really been much for the club-fashion, unstructured dancing. Contra, however, is as much a mental as a physical work-out, since you have to remember a different sequence of moves for each dance, and they change every dance - and you have your partner, and your current neighbour couple(s) interacting with you in each sequence. We get a walk-through of one repeat before the music starts, then the caller helps keep you on track for part of the dance. From the sidelines it looks like organized chaos, but it feels wonderful when it all comes together.

Winter Doings

Groundhog day, and sufficiently overcast and snowy that I doubt any groundhogs around here managed to see their shadow. Heck, you'd probably have to shovel out their holes before they could come up.

However, groundhog or no groundhog, February means that winter's half over, and it's all downhill from here. The days are getting noticeably longer, even if sundown still sneaks up quickly each day.

Out to Chantal's for a the-tricot aka a knitting get-together this past week. I had to take a picture of the rug she's been working on to show off. It was done on her floor loom, but reminds me of the Saori weaving I've seen people do, and it was woven with rag strips in tapestry, based on the landscape sketch at the top of the rug. Just, you know, kind of a neat idea.

And I'm officially done the second pair of the cousins' socks, and started on the third and last (and shortest) pair. Pair 2 is a little big on me, but still looks better on me than flat out for pictures.

When pair 3 is done, I have to clear my wheel to do some spinning for the Ranch as well as some knitting to restock there. I will have to try and sneak some sewing in along with, or the quilt top Mom and I were planning to finish this winter will get left behind yet again...sigh...5 months off work over winter and still not enough time to do everything!

Bits of Winter Life

I was happy to be out at the parents' for a couple days last week, in that so-lovely frigid weather. Nothing like having a good heat source, like a wood stove, on a cold day. It was very pretty, though - sunrises sparkling over the snow (that's what I get out my window when I'm there), and the feeders thronged with birds. But I watched from inside, thankyouverymuch.

I expect the good part of the cold for the birds is that they don't have to worry about the cats so much. Certainly none of them spent much time outdoors. Some, like Julia, found vantage points to watch the feeders, and some, like Pumpkin, just found a nice cozy spot (with a sunbeam, if possible) to nap in.

There's always erranding to do when I'm down, and this was no exception. Mom and I went to meet up with Jo and Chantal at the alpaca ranch - and I always come home with homework from the meetings. This time it was a pair of thrummed mittens that someone wanted me to knit up from a Fleece Artist kit, which I knew was waiting to pick up. I spent the next couple days enjoying making those!

There was also showing the model and discussing some pattern adjustments to be made to the stranded mitten pattern I've been designing for the shop, to go with the dye classes or with shop kits (and which I hope to get posted on Rav after Chantal tests them for me), and a bundle of yarn and some patterns and ideas for commissions for the shop, and a commercial sweater Jo loves and would like reverse engineered and adjusted for their yarn.... I think most of my personal projects are going to be put off again!

Mom's thing is weaving, and she had some books and magazines to lend Chantal, who wants to do some scarves for the store. She also brought her latest project, linen towels for the bathroom, to show. I can't blame her, they are lovely! They look so nice lined up on the towel rack.

There is also a matching bath mat - and a runner for the cats' table in the kitchen, where their food bowl is. Only in a weaver's house would the cats have a handwoven, wool-backed, linen runner to lie on and eat their food on!

Fiber, Various

A week since I taught my first dye class, and I'm finally getting around to showing off the pics of the day, and the newest member of Johanne's flock. We all went to see baby Achai before class started.

It's cute to see how all the females in the pen are kind of protective of him, and they would all move in front of Achai to keep us from seeing him, in case we were dangerous. 'He has a lot of aunts', Johanne said.

Thanks to Jo and Chantal's organization, we were ready to start promptly on time, with neat booklets of information and skeins of yarn for everyone. And all the students had a great time, getting into chopping plants and straining dye baths, ending up with a lovely row of samples to go home with.

You know it's a keen class when one of the comments from a sort of survey and discussion after was "You should have dye supplies for us to purchase so we can go home and do some more!"

This afternoon there was a bit of fiber fun of a different sort. Fibrefest is on in Almonte this weekend, and I snagged a ride with my mother and a friend. What I really wanted to see wasn't even as much the vendors as the exhibits at the museum (the MVTM, textile museum). I will say right now, definitely worth the trip. Go soon, before they're finished.

One exhibit was by a Peruvian tapestry artist, and while I'm not usually big on modern work, the colours and technique were incredible, as if the tapestries were painted.

(detail of the tapestry above)

The other exhibit I really wanted to see was a display of Coptic weaving, dating from the 4th-10th centuries. And they were amazing. Most of the pictures I had seen of Coptic weaving previously was monochrome, like the first picture, so to see a few colored pieces was exciting. This particular colored piece says it was likely a piece off a curtain. Think of it, these fibers were all handspun (spindle-spun, since spinning wheels were still hundreds of years in the future), natural-dyed, and handwoven, and they've survived for 1500 years since they decorated someone's clothes or home...

Fall Planning

Now that fair number 1 is over, the next big thing is Twist Fiber Festival. Just over a week until D-Day, and the girls I'm going with are coming over today for lunch and a dry run - we're going to see how much stuff we can fit in the back of the car, since two of the three of us are vendors. The hope, of course, is that there will be much more space on the return trip!

In the same hope, I ordered another lot of blank yarn yesterday. Because two weeks after Twist (and just after I start back to school) is the Wool Gathering at Roxham Corners, near Lacolle, Quebec. I can't give you a link for the Wool Gathering, since I can't find a website for it, but if you google "Roxham Wool Gathering", there are links to artisan sites and contact info. For anyone inclined to a road trip, it's 332 Roxham Road, open 10-4 Sat and Sun (Sept 8-9 this year). Parking wherever you can find space along the road. Local artisans ranging from baskets to jams to photography - and this year, our group also. Chantal and Jo with alpaca stuff from Jo's farm, my dyed yarns and things, and my mother's rugs.

I haven't showed off her rugs yet, have I? She's got an incredible sense of color and balance, which explains why her flower gardens look like a magazine, her arrangements win firsts at the fair, and the house is a feast for the eye.

And, yes, that's part of her upstairs landing/hallway in the last picture, and it really looks like that.

Textiles in TO

My friend Jen will be leaving at the end of the summer for Ireland, to attend medical school. Her visits home for the next few years, therefore, are likely going to be few and short. So I took advantage of the fact that I had three days between shearing and my cousin’s wedding, left the cat to enjoy herself at my parents’, and took the train up to Toronto to visit Jen – and my brother Joe, who is in TO also. He is the sort who always knows somewhere cool to go (he introduced us to Gadabout, on Queen, last year – a fun little vintage store), so he treated us to dinner at a chic and tasty tapas place one night, and we cooked dinner for him the second night.

A couple days isn’t a lot of time to go exploring in the city, but I did see a few things. St Lawrence Market, where we went for dinner supplies. Absolutely a ton of tasty things there, and I suspect I would shop there a lot if I lived nearby. Paul Kane’s house, which I stumbled on accidentally strolling with Jen to her work. It caught my eye, being an old, farmhouse-style place in the downtown, with pink-flowered chestnut trees in front. And last but not least, the Textile Museum.

About the Museum – it’s not a big place, and there wasn’t a lot of permanent collection on display, so I’m not sure I would have gone if the special exhibits weren’t of interest. But the two exhibits on – one on central Asian Ikat (and some embroidered things as well), and one on African textiles – were wonderful. You are allowed to take pictures without a flash, so I can show you a little of the fun, even if I can’t give a real idea of the colors of the ikat. It’s amazing to think of the work in them, as for each color, the silk warp threads are tied in bunches, the sections to stay undyed are wrapped, and the bundles are dyed. Most of them have several colors, and the color patches showing on the warp-faced weave form flowers or stylized designs.

 The embroidered suzani were gorgeous too, richly colored and detailed in pattern. I’ve seen pictures of a few in a Piecework article, but the real thing was much better.

Then came the African things – such a variety. Woven blankets with supplementary weft giving spots of color. Embroidered caps. An appliquéd door hanging. Lovely patterns my fingers want to produce and adapt.

And in the permanent collection, I had to take a picture of some adorable Chinese childrens’ hats and collars, with stuffed and embroidered detail.

The gift shop was a wonder, too. Many textiles similar to those in the exhibits, and I only wish I could have justified buying a few, or spending longer poring over the books (largest collection of knitting and needlearts books I’ve seen in a while, and possibly rivals Chapters). But, I had to go help with dinner, so I tore myself away.