There is A Plan, based on lessons from the sampler and input from weaving friends virtual and physical.

Sue’s comment led me to Eva Stossel’s blog and this post. While I agree with Leigh that the texture looks interesting, weaving-teacher Liz cautioned that those nice plump worms can lose their pile over time and become scrawny, bare core yarns.   I think Geodyne’s  recent post could hold the answer to my dyeing concerns.

So, The Plan.

Sett: closer than one expects. Based on my samples, 15 epi in plain weave looks promising for controlling the twist, avoiding worms and still acceptable drape for a scarf.

Colour: Dye after weaving, trying out woven shibori (did you notice Catherine Ellis’s book in Geodyne’s enticing pile?).

The photo shows the relevant piece of the chenille sampler, plus a page of discharge samples I did a few years ago. Discharge removes dye from a fabric. My sample page shows pieces left 1, 2, 3, 4 and 10 minutes immersed in the discharge solution (thiourea dioxide).

Threading: Monk’s belt,  experimenting with pattern float lengths of 6, 12 and 24 threads and a range of spacing of picks of chenille between each of the floating, supplemental weft picks.

The Plan is to weave the chenille,  dye the woven piece a solid brown, then draw up the supplemental weft threads and discharge.

We shall see… Reality has a tendency to mock mere mortal’s plans. So far I have added lots more heddles to my ashford loom and am partway through warping.

Late this summer in a cave in the Republic of Georgia flax fibers were found that had been spun and dyed. Radiocarbon dating puts this fiber around 30,000 BCE, representing one of the earliest findings of humans using plant fibers. 

The thread was spun from wild flax. Threads found in the cave had been dyed violet, red, black and turquoise. From my little experience with dying fiber…these are not your everyday colors. Judging by the colors that are made from the majority of plant dyes , they are more in the autumn tones. Usually the results are gold, browns, greens and yellows. True black and real red are not easy to come by. I would love to hear from dyers and their opinions.

The cave was used on and off over various time periods. Due to the constant level of humidity in the cave it preserved the fibers. Fungus spores that were found in the cave are of the kinds that live off cloth. This leads the scientist to believe textiles were made from this fiber. 

The people of the time were considered early modern humans in a hunter-gatherer society. An out of date term you may know these humans by is Cro-magnon man.

I gave a timeline to give a broader picture of the time and what was happening.

Timeline

38,000BCE – 33,000 BCE earliest example of figurines

35,000BCE oldest known mathematical artifact

33,000BCE earliest musical instrument 

30,000BCE cave paintings 

10,000 BCE last ice age

While doing this article I came across that Neanderthals…prior to this timeline, buried their dead with items. Cro-magnon men shaved. I also need to read “Clan of the Cave Bear”. That story of a Cro-magnon girl and the Neanderthals. It is a historical fiction novel. Love those. Love to hear your opinions or outlook on this subject.

What a delicious and delightful evening we had last night! First we had a shared dinner, and then the yarn swap festivities began. Each person got to open their parcel, yarn was fondled around and dyeing techniques discussed.  Then after a quick photo session we lined up the yarn with the dessert that inspired it. And, then the desserts were history. 

It’s supposedly the beginning of summer now.  The last four days have been rain and more rain. The local airport has been closed for three days this week already due to low lying fog. And what has this to do with our swap? Well, the berry season is well underway despite the unseasonal weather, and you could certainly tell this from the desserts and the colours of the yarn. But despite similar inspirations, there were lots of variations on theme within the swap. Here’s a selection from the evening.

This is the parcel I recieved, with 200g of 10 ply yarn, dyed to go with a lovely wee tart willed with marscarpone and topped with stewed red rhubarb.  Beautiful!

And this is the yarn I dyed for my recipient.

You saw the dessert yesterday – I hadn’t realised how much yellow would be in it when it was made up – I focussed on pinks, with a touch of boysenberry and a little brown for the gingernut crumble on the of the parfait. The yarn is 100g of 4 ply Vintage Purls yarn.  My recipient hasn’t knitted socks before but had expressed a desire to do so.  I gifted the glass I made it in, along with three more to make a set, all with lolly parfaits, along with a few other goodies too.

I think you will agree I have some incredibly imaginative friends, and there is some beautiful yarn going to be hitting the needles around these parts sometime soon.

I’m not sure if you all want to see the desserts too? It feels like a massive picture overload for one post, so if you think I should share the delicious goodies, leave a message and I’ll post pics tomorrow

this was my first attempt using the hot bundle method of plant dyeing – i was impatient and unwrapped it after only 3 hours. i intend to redo it with some added extras this weekend.

i am currently waiating for my second a 2m silk scarf to develop. it has been there for almost a week now.

Dye assistants – nails, punches, cast iron fry pan, eucalyptus and tea

Close up of silk shirt – reclaimed

Pteris fern print on silk shirt

Mens Habutai Silk Shirt – still crumpled is set to be bathed again and another layer of dye to be taken on.

I used qld eucalyptus leaves bark and nuts, pteris fern, onion skins, nails and other oxidized iron, discard African tulip flowers

And tea for the bath.

Dharma Trading Co. has more copper Indonesian Batik Tjaps for sale! I went a little nuts and got two this time, Happy X-mas to me as it were.

To check out what they have left go here. They are going fast so don’t daddle!

pretty clown barf

Before I get to the clown barf, I have a little catching up to do.  Once again that pesky law career has intruded on my spinning, knitting & dyeing!

After I finished the lovely BFL, I got brave and went digging for the 4oz of MCN (merino, cashmere, nylon) top from Squoosh that I acquired about 3 months ago in anticipation of spinning sock yarn.  I wanted to spin it in a true 3-ply (my first).  The plan was to spin 3 bobbins full of singles and then stick all three bobbins on the lazy kate and ply away.  Unfortunately, I got a little antsy and decided that there was no way I was going to get 350+ yards of 3-ply. So, I broke down and just did a 2 -ply.  I wanted the 3 ply because good long-wearing socks need a nice 3 ply, but more importantly for me, I wanted a nice rounded yarn.  So despite the slight ply-fail, this is what I ended up with:

452 yards of sock yarn!

MCN top from Squoosh-Voltage colorway

Now, about that clown barf & candle wax-

I finally had a chunk of time & sunshine so I decided to dye up some of the rovings lingering in the closet.  I snagged a couple of pounds of superwash BFL from a destash and I figured I would not screw it up too badly.  I dyed up two 4oz. braids of the SW BFL.  One in some greens (spent an hour figuring out how to mix the greens I wanted):

Grassy knoll-SW BFL

And one in kettle dyed blues that I spiced up with some crimson/magenta handpainting.  Unfortunately when this one was drying over by the fireplace-my lovely decorative mantel candles decided to give up the ghost and melt! Hot wax dripped off the mantel onto my precious freshly-dyed BFL! You can see a few droplets in the picture below.  I was too disgusted to pick off all the wax before photographing. 

handdyed sw bfl top (with wax!)

I actually had a bit of dye left over and I was feeling awfully brave (this was prior to the candle wax fiasco) so I broke out the undyed MCN top I scored on etsy.  I figured sock yarn just screams for bright colors so I dyed some clown barf-

Funfetti handdyed mcn

I also spun up a little mini-roving of Wensleydale that was included as a freebie in my Into the Whirled order.  I would like to spin more of the Wensleydale.  I think it would make a nice shawl or cowl yarn in laceweight-ish singles (in a different colorway though!) 

Wensleydale-fresh singles-mini-skein

On the wheel:

Into the Whirled Merino/Silk top-Intrepidity

Lakeshore Textiles is a fiber studio located in the quiet west  Michigan lakeshore community of Saugatuck Township.  Our primary goal is to design, craft, and promote beautiful textiles from fiber grown in Michigan and the USA.  Through demonstration, classes and workshops, spinning, dyeing and weaving will be taught at the basic through advanced level by myself and nationally known instructors.

Situated on five wooded acres, studio classes will be taught in a tranquil setting.  Overnight accommodations can be arranged at several beautiful local bed and breakfast establishments.  Our season will follow the local tourist season starting in late April and running through November.

If weather permits, private lessons will run throughout the year.  We are in the region that is known to get ‘lake effect snow’, which means the studio may not always be accessible in the winter!  And since our driveway is a quarter mile long, that may be closer to the truth.  We will find out soon!

The rest of the year will be devoted to producing my own work.  My emphasis will be weaving with my own hand spun and dyed yarns. Dyeing will take place in the warmer months when it can be done out-of-doors and weaving will take place in the winter.

Starting to blog about a business that is not yet open may seem premature, but January 15th is only a few weeks away, I couldn’t wait to share my excitement about the studio.

When we moved to this area, we had the studio in mind.  We needed a large space separate from the main house to house my dye studio.  We have the perfect spot here in the barn.  It is large enough to accommodate my Patrick Green Cottage Carder, picker, six burner dye area, large painting table for warp painting, and storage areas.

In the house is the weaving studio. I currently use two Schacht looms, two Union Rug looms, and various smaller looms.  The four harness Schacht loom was purchased in 1976 and is Number 32, one of the early looms.

I use sustainable materials as much as possible, conserve water by reusing gray water, and have been working on a filtration system using an old sand pool filter.  Our barn doesn’t have a water source, so hauling water forces you to be frugal in its use!

Some of the classes we have planned for 2010 are warp painting, immersion dyeing, fiber preparation, color in spinning, and much more.

I will post more information about hours, classes, news in the studio as it develops.  In the meantime, feel free to contact me at saugatuckweaver@gmail.com.

Fondly,

Suzie

There are three things I’ll say upfront right now before proceeding forward: I make cheap puns, as you’ll have noticed by the title of this post; I’m a lazy blogger/photographer, as evidenced by my photography of beautiful yarns on a wrinkled pillowcase; and that I’m unhealthily obsessed with the holiday season for all of its pagan traditions. If any of these things bother you, it would be a good time to navigate away from this page now.

For those who have stayed on, I have lots of exciting things to share! Thanksgiving was big success, if for no reason other than the few days off of work and school giving me plenty of time to knit and play with my dye pots. It has been just over a month since the last time I dyed any yarn, and you’ll remember that I had a lot of fun and was looking forward to trying it again so much so that I put it on my life to-do list. My ’studio’ is at home in New York, so I revel in the time I get to spend there playing with mixing colors, winding yarn into hanks on my niddy-noddy, and standing over the dye pot watching the alchemy of layering colors. My initial try was full of hand-painting and primary colors, so this time I aimed for more deep, saturated colors, and tried kettle dyeing.

I was aiming here for a ’sugarplum’-esque color, but was a bit light-handed with black dye, which left me with a lilac/hydrangea pastel purple. I do quite like it, though. This is 400 yds of sock yarn, and the base is just lovely—a hybrid of the Madelinetosh sock, Koigu, and Colinette Jitterbug bases. Nice and sturdy, with a good twist, but not too stiff.

400 yds. merino laceweight yarn, a fun experiment in overdyeing.

Another 400 yds. merino laceweight.

400 yds of the sock yarn.

The last of the sock yarn, 400 yds.

Overall, I am MUCH happier with my results this time around. I feel that I had more control over the way the dyes ended up on the yarn, and I was more capable with mixing colors (after a LOT of trial and error). I’ve spent  a lot of time picking up the whole bundle and squeezing it into a tight hug, and although it doesn’t look like much here, it represents a lot of time spent standing over the stove with my mother by my side learning the process (what a reversal of roles!), and a step backwards into my life as a fiber artist. It has been so gratifying.

I’m rather stumped as to what to make with all of these new yarns, and I’d rather not make socks from them if I don’t have to. I would LOVE some suggestions if anyone has any thoughts or patterns in mind for any of the specific yarns.

Back from our lovely break and home in Boston, Scott and I are looking forward to our favorite season: one full of making things for our loved ones, listening to Sufjan Stevens’s Christmas albums, and shuttling back and forth between our respective homes for all the traditions each has waiting for us. I’m off to make some cinnamon hot chocolate and begin trimming our Christmas tree; here’s to a happy Monday to all, and a healthy season ahead!

It has been a crazy few weeks, with very busy childrens’ schedules, home renovations, and starting a new job. I am still not much further along the cuff of the mitten, despite going to many hockey games; I got sidetracked on a cross-stitch project and using some time at the rink to read papers for work.

Now, however, I have a bit of time to myself so it is time to re-engage. I started spinning the leicester wool again this morning, with awesome help from Max, who wanted to sit on my lap and bite the yarn. I thought I had been making great progress until I noticed about half my stock piled on top of a china cabinet. At least I know I’ll have enough for a belt.

After lunch with my sister, we went to her favourite wool store and this time I was seduced by washable combed merino.  I only bought three yards, but that should keep me going for a bit.

Now that the renovations are near an end, I am looking forward to cutting out fabric again. I’m starting to get itchy to sew. In the meantime, I will just use my spare time to spin up the wool collection and get on with more naalbinding, even though the temptations to go haring off in another direction are everywhere (from my computer, I can see the hemp for the fishing net, my big lace pillow, a bag of alum for dyeing projects, and a bottle that should be down with the others for the yet-to-be-started mead).

Daylilies - Beatrice Jackson

In my mailbox this week – Daylilies, by Beatrice Jackson.

It’s a cotton & linen mix, handwoven and hand dyed (arashi shibori).

Beatrice has given permission for me to quote an email giving some of her history:

“… [trying out so many of the weaves] …reminded me of how I was when I started out in 1983/84. I was weaving in wool and mohair in those days, for NZ conditions. Made a lot of throw rugs, scarves, wraps, even mugrugs in dishcloth cotton!Then I went into weaving fine fabrics for entries in the NZSWWS, (now Creative Fibre), Fashion Parades. One friend was a very fine spinner and dyer, I was the weaver and another was the designer. We had work accepted in several exhibitions and fashion parades, which was very good.

Daylilies - Beatrice Jackson

“Began doing painted warps which I loved doing.

“Shibori came in to NZ at a time when it wasn’t possible for me to get in to so it wasn’t until I moved over here, that I began doing Shibori and it suddenly gave me what I wanted to do, expressing my love of nature and the use of colour.

“I began weaving in cotton, tea towels and hand towels rolled off the loom! I love twill, so many patterns to do. Don’t get to do many now.

“I now weave in cotton, fine silk, alpaca and silk and Tencel. LOVE the fine threads!”

I met Beatrice through ATASDA. You can see another of her pieces here – towards the bottom of the page (a donation to our raffle). That link also leads to galleries of textile art work from ATASDA’s recent Exotica travelling exhibition.

It’s beautiful work – very fine weaving, complex dyeing and clever use of colour (which my camera and photography “skills” struggled with). When I saw Beatrice in Brisbane last September I begged her to sell me a scarf, any scarf – everything I have seen made by her has been exceptional and I trusted her choice.

Great choice!!

(another link showing Beatrice and her work here).

A few months ago I did have the thought that I should make some gifts for Christmas.  “It would be thrifty and more personal”,  I reasoned.  How did it happen then, that I have nothing home made to give?   It’s really very simple, I got distracted.

Firstly by the Icarus shawl.  (Even though it’s just a mini Icarus)

Because it seemed absolutely imperative that I knit myself a shawl for the 40 degree days directly ahead of us. I do really like it though. Initially I thought I would dye the white to match the green, but now I like it as is.  I’m not sure if you can see but I knit the last two rows in a similar green so it sort of ties in.  The green is my handspun and hand dyed alpaca, courtesy of Tauret. 

Then I thought that I absolutely must design an embroidered cuff because I’m trying to figure out the best way to attach findings to embroidery so that it can move beyond brooches.   This one uses hooks and eyes – I wonder if somebody makes sterling silver hooks and eyes?

Ever noticed how hard it is to photograph your own hand?  Especially when that hand has rather short,  stubby fingers and,  since you don’t have a digital camera,  you are actually using the camera function on the video recorder.

Ahhh…That’s the one! The cuff uses feather stitch, chain stitch, lazy daisy stich and palestrina stitch for the side seams.  It has little glass beads between each “flower”

The other day I was travelling to Sydney by train and was probably meant to be making some sort of Christmas gift, but I discovered that I had no pockets in which to carry my ipod.  Fortunately I had a crochet hook, some cotton  and some newly aquired crochet skills thanks to my friend and excellent crochet teacher,  Salihan.

So I whipped up an ipod cosy whilst two bemused teenage girls looked on and talked about me while I worked  not one foot away from them.  It seems that crocheting makes one deaf.  Not that they were rude.  It was just quite strange to be talked about in the third person by someone sitting directly opposite me.

Thanks for teaching me to crochet Salihan.

I meant to post this yesterday but I haven’t been feeling good again, I’m still really woozy and disoriented.  If I’m sitting down doing something I’m usually okay (I feel a little off balance right now, for instance) but I’m having a little trouble walking without looking (and to an extent feeling) like I’m totally shitfaced drunk, so its kind of hard to get out and take pictures.  Sitting around and either knitting or weaving is working out fine, until my head starts hurting, so I have got quite a bit of that done.  More on those things later.

Last Thursday, after my trip to the dentist, I got a burst of energy and decided to dye up some yarn.  Back when I ordered the yarn for my coat and the Alpaka Tunic I also got a cone of natural colored fingering weight superwash wool/nylon sock yarn to play with.  I’ve been wanting a new pair of mittens, mine are fine for now but they’re about to wear out, so I thought I’d dye something that kind of matched my coat.  I didn’t want it the exact same color but I did want a nice yellow-green that I could use with the undyed yarn for a pair of the Let it Snow Mittens from the Fall 2008 Vogue Knitting.  The color is a little off in this picture, the yarn is more of an avocado green and not so neon.  I love, love, love how the yarn came out.  The color is almost exactly what I had in mind, it is just a touch darker but I can deal with that, and I’m very happy with all the different shades of color.  I’m itching to start the mittens but I want to wait until I’ve made a little more progress on the tunic first.  Then I think I need a new scarf to match the coat and mittens and, maybe, a hat.

Go here for a great wool dyeing tutorial, dyeing is simple enough to do at home with every day items for tools e.g.
# Wool
# Stock Pot
# Plastic Container
# Water
# White Vinegar
# Dye
# Potato Masher
# Strainer
# Kitchen Stove
# A place for the wool to drip dry
For those who are after a more in depth look at the process, this is a really great bit of information for those interested in dyeing.
You do need a degree in chemistry to be able to understand huge swathes of it, but there is so much of it there that everyone is bound to find something useful!

Yep, the whispering was a surprise birthday party for moi!  I had no clue.  Even when Lake was ushering me into the house, I actually thought he might be staging a yarn intervention! 

So after a wonderfully exhausting Saturday, I relaxed and spun yesterday.  I hate to admit this (because I love the color), but got kind of bored spinning the Plucky Knitter Honey Wilkes sw merino.  I like color changes. I can’t help it.  So I pulled off the partial bobbin and plunked on some of my own dyed sw merino.

Then I re-watched the how-to-navajo-ply on a wheel video again and holding my breath, gave it another shot.

Not so bad-

154 yards sport weight

I am still cleaning up from the party. Popping balloons (40 balloons-seriously?) and unwinding black crepe paper (de-crepifying per the husband!) from the banisters.  Then spinning!

My spinning carries on in the background. I have bought a wheel and keep practising. I have finally reached the stage where I can start to dye my wool. Here is some I dyed with  dried eucalyptus bark from a tree my neighbour was felling a couple of years ago. I mordanted it with alum and am still extracting dye by cold soaking from the same bark. I am quite pleased with the colour, I may try experimenting with other mordants but my main problem at the moment is that I only have an aluminium  pan. I have found a site which tells you how to cold dye so I suppose I could have a go with that in a plastic bucket.

Dried eucalyptus bark, alum mordant

It seems that it’s gift season at the moment.  Everyone is busily preparing for gift giving of some kind or another, whether it be Christmas, birthday, koha or swap related.  I am reminded that my latest wool dyeing efforts have eluded the camera, so I thought I should snap some piccies before they disappear.

I won’t go into too much detail as these are yet to be gifted, but they were dyed using my new powder dyes and were steamed on the stove top.  I’m finally getting my dyeing technique sussed, and LOVE the effect of using variable dye percentages and tones that steaming allows.

My new spinning buddy, Sam popped over a couple of days ago with her latest invention.  A swift case!!  She had one for me and one for herself to house her new swift when it arrives.  Thanks so much Sam, it is just perfect and makes a much nicer home than the brown paper wrapping .  Miss Sam is going into production with these I think, so support young Kiwi talent and buy one!!!  Check out her lovely blog too.

I finally finished spinning my first attempt at sock weight yarn.  This was the chocolate and neopolitan roving that I bought a couple of months ago from Vintage Purls.  I’m happy with it now that I have it on the needles, it’s lovely to knit with and is shaping up to be a scrummy little pair of socks.  The pattern is Up, Up and Away by Megan S. Wright.  Thanks to Kristy who gifted it to me in our latest Naki yarn swap .  Ooh, and I have finished my Opal socks too.  Thank goodness.  Note to self; NEVER knit a pair of plain knit socks EVER again.  B.O.R.I.N.G!!  I’ll take some piccies sometime .

We have finally got most of our ‘junk’ out of Mum and Dad’s garage now that we are in a larger house.  Here’s some little treasures I found amongst my folders of work from Uni days.  They are by no means the best of work, but they are nice to have around.  It’s rather strange looking back, that seems like a lifetime ago.  Those of you with children will understand what I mean.  I love being a Mum, but I should really get back into illustration and life drawing in particular.  I miss charcoal and oils and the freedom and endless possibilities that they allow.  One day.

I thought that maybe I would switch jobs and be a wildife photographer. Here are some photos I took in the pasture the other day. This marsh hawk (birder friend, Claire, tells me that it is a northern harrier, but marsh hawk is the name I remember) was flying around the pasture, would land, and then as I stealthily snuck up on him, would take flight again.

Same with the egret. The hawk is on the ground and the egret comes in for a landing.  I don’t have a very long lens so this is the best I can do before they take off again.

So I guess I’d better keep at the fiber business and just use wildlife photography as a side-line!

Some of this weeks scarves:

These first three have supplementary warp of various odds and ends.

More log cabin scarves:

These are the same except that one has a bleached white yarn and the other has an ivory yarn.

A friend and I did an impromptu dye session this week.

She dyed yarn and I dyed fiber.

“When you consider the buttery softness of flannel… the smooth gloss of broadcloth… the rich depth of velour… it is difficult to imagine that all these textures and hundreds more could come from one fiber –Wool.”

I’m in Textiles class right now. We have been studying wool and silk. My teacher just started a movie about the process wool needs to go through. Bare with me… as I talk to myself and try to review wool for my test.

Just in case you don’t know… Wool refers to fibers from various animals including sheep, Angora and cashmere goats, camel, alpaca, and llama.

Steps In Processing:

1. Grading and/or sorting
2. Washing
3. Blending of types of wool
4. Dyeing
5. Carding
6. Combing
7. Drawing
8. Spinning
9. Weaving or knitting

10. Finishing

My teacher passed around a sample of wool at each stage of the process.

Grading: evaluating the whole fleece for fineness and length.

Washing: The wool is washed thoroughly with a soap or detergent and water solution where it looses 30-70% of its weight when natural grease and dirt are removed. Wool is passed through a squeeze roller and dried.

Blending: Wool is usually spun from different types of yarn, so it can achieve a certain color and uniformity. Blending is made by mixing different wools.

Dyeing: Dyeing can be done at any point of the process. If the wool is dyed after it is spun into yarn, it is called yarn dying. The wool is piece dyed if it is dyed after it is made into a garment. The proteins in wool help hold the dye extremely well.

Carding: Carding is the process of opening the wool fibers, separating them and laying them parallel to each other. The yarn is passed through rollers that have teeth on it, straightening the fibers as they pass through. The carded wool is then divided into “slivers.”

Combing: The next step would be for the carded slivers to be combed. Combing makes the fibers even more parallel, removing any short fibers in the process.

Drawing: The wool is now drawn through machines, which reduce the slivers into slightly, twisted “roving.” The next stage would to be put onto spools, ready for spinning.

Spinning: After the spools are in place on the spinning frame, the ends of the roving are pulled through rollers, which lengthen the fibers even more. They are put on to bobbins that apply a specified twist to the yarns.

Weaving or Knitting: Weaving is the actual production of the fabric, by interlacing two sets of yarns at right angles. Threads running lengthwise are called the warp. The threads running crosswise are called weft. The knitting is done on machines, which resemble the process of hand knitting. Knitting is formed by interlocking series of loops of one or more yarns.

Finishing: Everything that happens to the wool after it leaves the loom is considered a finishing process. There are vast choices of finishes for wool. They can alter the appearance all the way to how the wool performs.

Wow! That’s quit a process to get wool cloth. Thanks for helping me study… Hopefully I’ll remember it for my test. Next time you go shopping and pick up a wool garment, take a minute to study the label. See what kind of wool it is, try to picture the process your garment had to go through in order to get into your hands.

Here is my Q&A with Ray. He is a great guy with an excellent sense of humor and I was very happy to get a chance to ask him some questions.

I want to correct another point – originally on the post this morning I had a typo saying that you had to buy 12 skeins to get into the stashbuster stocking contest, when I meant 2. I just wanted to reiterate in case of any  confusion.

With no further ado; the question:

1.)What is your favorite part about running Knitivity?

Dealing directly with customers/end-users of my product; the ability to customize each skein if a customer wants “a little more of this” or “a little less of that” from my regular line-up, as well as a completely custom job from photographs.  I’ve done yarns to match several beloved pets for people, and recently worked from a photo of a customer when she was little, shown with her grandfather — she wanted his shirt color, her dress, his eyes, and the color of the ice cream they were sharing.

I also enjoy the flexibility of being a small operation, so I can adjust to my customers’ needs more readily than a large mill that has to make large production runs.

I don’t have a specific charity focus, per se, but when I hear of a particular need, I’ll announce it (like the Bundle Up New Orleans project immediately after Katrina, or sending socks to Greensburg  after their big tornado).  And if any of my customers are doing charity knitting/crocheting, and let me know when they order any of the mill solids, they’ll get a bundle discount.  And, if a group is doing a “love blanket” or something, they can all order their individual colors and get a discount, ensuring all the yarns in a project are of similar weight/gauge for a uniform group project.

Let me know of specific needs.   I try to avoid focused political and/or religious fund-raisers, of course, because everyone has their own views, but generic social service projects (“Aunt Millie’s house burned down and they need blankets and socks” for example), I can put the word out to others.  When there are larger needs, like after a natural disaster affecting many people, I try to find out who the local contacts in an area of need and direct people to send their charity knits straight to that area.  It’s always much easier to partner with local agencies or charity drives already in place, rather than re-invent the wheel.  Many American-based charities prefer acrylic-knit goods, but I don’t sell acrylic yarns, so my products aren’t suited for most of the big on-going charities.  And groups like Red Cross prefer simply to get money now.   So I stick with encouraging smaller projects.

It’s bigger than when I left in 1983.  I came here specifically because all my children and grandchildren are here.  Were it not for them I would have picked a smaller city where I could get around.  Houston is fine, of course, but where I live keeps me out of easy access to other knitters and other activities — no easy bus service into town, etc. (I don’t drive).

Sometimes I’ll aim for a particular result (like my colorways derived from the Astronomy Picture of the Day photos, or the custom jobs from customers); other times I’ll throw dye at a yarn and see what happens.

As with #5 above, sometimes it is deliberate (like when I wanted Candy Corn, or the Barista Collection), and other times a yarn names itself afterward, such as the Doberman — that was a total accident when a kettle of black was insufficient for all the yarn and it bled out to produce a tan edging, it reminded me of the coloring on a Doberman Pincer.

I don’t personally knit much lace (clumsy fingers, poor eyes), but many of my customers do.   I wanted to find a North American-made laceweight, instead of using imports, so I asked my mill that supplies all my other yarns to develop a laceweight.  So they did, and the rest is history.   Since I’ve had success with it, the mill will be taking it public in their line-up next year, but until June I have it exclusively.

Re: North American yarns:  I’m not strongly “anti” import yarns, and many of them are lovely.   But my personal goal, as an independent artist myself, is to support the North American / USA wool market, and I work with a mill that uses almost entirely North American raised wool, and they do their own spinning and dyeing here in the States.  It helps the sheep farmers, it keeps Americans working in the mill, and they supply virtually ALL my undyed yarns now.

See #7 above.  Originally it wasn’t a request specifically for superwash, but just something thinner than their fingering.  It just happened that their machines were already calibrated to spin the strands for sock yarn, so it was an easy modification to adjust it for laceweight.  But now having committed to the superwash, it is clear there is a market:  it will encourage more people to try knitting lace knowing they can just toss it into the washer if they need to.  Obviously care should be taken for any fine knits, but there’s not the worry about felting as might come with regular wool or other fibers.   And, it holds a blocking quite well, according to reports from my test knitters.

The next one!    :-)   There are some that make me happier than others (and a few that I hope I never have to dye again!) but as long as people order them I will continue doing it.  And quite often a “mistake” along the way often leads to an entirely new colorway.  Like when I needed to do an “Art School” (the primary colors a small child uses in art class), and used the wrong (deeper) dyes, so it became “Art School, Sr.”, in a bolder, more mature set of colors.   And then I accidentally spilled some black on a batch of Art School, Sr., and that became “Graffiti” — it reminded me of the splash of colors one sees while driving past a graffiti-laden freeway overpass.

Some of you might remember these pieces of jar lid resist fabric I posted pictures of a couple of weeks ago. Well, those white circles were just too much contrast for me. I wanted to paint them bronze. Last night I sat and meticulously painted each circle. But not all bronze dyes are made alike…as you can see in this picture…

..it’s too brown!  Today I tried some transparent acrylic paint to make it go more golden…

This is more what I had in mind.  I prefer to use dye paint, but acrylic was faster….just how many days do I want to put into this cloth? I still may mix some yellow dye paint and try it.

In other news, I have been working on my Visioning goals this week.  I got  two small pieces stitched and matted, and worked on one experimental sample, then started another.

When I was doing a little research on Florence Peto, I came across a quilt in a book published by the Shelburne Museum, Art of the Needle, and realized I had some “doilies” with a similar look.

The explanation from the book on page 100, described the technique: “The blue-gray color was sprayed over flowers, fern leafs, and bird stencils to look like early 19th-century photographic images produced on sensitized paper.”

This is the complete quilt, 89″ x 89″, late 19th century, pieced, painted, and quilted cotton.

The interesting thing about these pieces is that you can see the way the pieces were sprayed when you look at the edges. I think the fabric is a polished cotton and most of the images are of fern leaves. When I study the delight and imagery of these pieces, I immediately am drawn to here. I imagine the person making these images saying well…what if…and this is how remarkable pieces are created over time.

Thank you for your supportive and great responses to my post “Unfolding”. It will be a great way to begin a new year for me and my daughter. Collaboration is energizing and exciting. It will be fun to see how our mutual loves and dreams become an entity not yet defined…a longing of the best kind.

Here is the finished 2-ply sw merino from my hand dyed roving. I think it turned out pretty well, despite the loss of yardage to the horrid n-ply attempt.

Looks like a candy cane to me!It is as soft and squishy as it looks!

More Textiles Company News – China