Hoop-La

It's time for the second annual Hoop-La show and sale! Cynthia and Frances - the founders of Necessary Arts Company came up with this fun show, not only to showcase artists work, but also as a fundraiser and studio grant! Participants were given a wooden circle to create a piece of artwork with. The finished pieces are on display and can be purchased online. I created a circular weaving on mine. I wanted to use lots of texture and different weaving and surface techniques to create my piece. I'm very pleased with the outcome.

Blending Board Fun!

I have a fun new piece of fibre processing equipment, it's been sitting in my studio for a while. It's called a blending board, or, blending palette. Mine is made by Fancy Kitty. Basically, it's like a giant flat carder that you can place fibre on in any pattern you like. It's great for using up bits and pieces and you can make some really cool rolags. Get into playing with blends and also processing for colour repeats. I felt I could be very creative with it.

I finally got to play with mine when my Spinning Guild had a "Blending Board Party". A bunch of us got together and just played for an afternoon. 

I focused on making vertical stripes and used colours that would usually not blend well together. Because you can be so precise with how you lay your material down, you can do interesting things like that and maintain the colour separation as you spin. You can really pack a lot of fibre on it and I ended up pulling three rolags off for each palette I filled.

I spun them up and really enjoyed the results. It was a little challenging to spin because I really used a lot of different types of fibres, some of which are much easier to spin. All in all, I really love the results and can't wait to play with it more! Now, I just have to decide what to do with the finished yarn… hmmm….

A Year-Long Sweater...

 What goes in to making something?  Creativity? Satisfaction of a "job well done"? Skill? Yes, all these things and much, much more. 

I'm going to focus one year and the sweater I made from my own hand spun yarn. 

As a lot of good things, this particular venture started in October at the NY Sheep and Wool Festival AKA Rhinebeck. In 2012, I decided to purchase enough roving to spin yarn for a sweater. I wanted the sweater to be crocheted (because I love crocheting) and I wanted it to be done by the following year when I would attend the festival again.

Jill Draper, Cal Patch and myself.

For this, my first entire sweater made from my own hand spun, I needed a special tool. So, I paid a visit to the Willette's booth. The Willette's hand-make tools for creating textiles. They are beautiful. I believe in the resonance of the maker on an object, so I was starting this project with all the care and attention that this couple puts into making their tools. I was also using roving that had been grown by a wool grower - someone who cared for their sheep. The sheep's gift in return, a lovely fleece. The care it took to process and dye this roving was also imbued in the wool. A lot of hands had already been involved in the process of making this sweater and I had not even started my part yet!

Mr. Willette hard at work.

I returned home and the year went on. 

I started spinning in November…. My idea was to create a multi-coloured yarn that didn't repeat and had short sections of colour. I decided I would randomly spin the 5 colours of roving into my singles and then chain-ply them to retain the general look of changing colour repeats.

 

The winter went by and in addition to spinning for this sweater I was working on Holiday gifts and other stuff.

In April, my nephew Finn was born… I continued spinning with the joy of now having another little one in my life.

Proud Auntie!

In May, I started my third year of school (the "hump-year" for the OHS program) and I spent a lot of time over the next several months spinning, sampling, dyeing and writing in preparation for handing in my homework. I took a break from my personal spinning at this point. But, it was there, a few skeins and a nearly full bobbin. I saw it and I ruminated and my skills improved because of school.

June was a big month. I got a chance to go to the beautiful province of Newfoundland. It was for Boomer's 40th birthday - a milestone in itself. In addition to the beauty of the east coast of Canada, I was struck by how wonderfully supported crafts people are in the province. I got to visit many studios and galleries and was greatly inspired.

This inspiration was tempered with grief as news of the passing of a close friend. I now was working on this project in reflection of his life and how the loss affected those left behind. It became more meditative and less intentional.

July brought a huge life change - Boomer and I purchased a house! I never thought this would be possible in my life. The thing that struck me most about the house was the room that has become my studio. Spinning in the bright sun coming in the windows and listening to the sounds of our new neighbourhood was refreshing and healing after the loss of the month before.

Early in September was a chance to say, "Cheerio" to my friend with some wonderful people in my life. We celebrated his life by taking a Scottish themed cruise around Toronto on a tall ship and letting some origami cranes float away. This would have been close to my friend's heart and we were able to grieve and celebrate. By now, I was finished making all the yarn I needed and was ready to swatch.

In mid-September I was lucky enough to attend the Wolfe Island Fibre Festival with my friend Andie of Well Turned Out Fibre House who was selling her hand-dyed and processed fibre. I started crocheting in the autumn sun surrounded by "fibre people".

Shadows on the beach of Wolfe Island.

 

Here we are back to October 2013. I finished my Violaine just in time to wear to Rhinebeck.

Some fun puppet friends at Rhinebeck 2013.

So, you see… A lot goes into each step of making something. Joy, sorrow, reflection, planning, pride. All of these emotions and factors are reflected in the spinning and in the stitches. The yarn isn't perfect and there are things I would do differently next time. However, the alchemy and memory of everything that happened over that year will remain in the fabric of this sweater. And, every time I look at it, feel it, or wear it, I'm reminded of how it grew to become what it is. It may not be visible to others, but to me, it's all there - in every last stitch.

Saori in Santa Cruz

Someone LOVES Saori weaving.

A small collection at an amazing studio.

Wow! I just got back from an amazing visit to the bay area. It was so super so visit with my amazing friend Jenne and her family. We did so many amazing things, there will be several posts to reflect my adventures…

Tea, inspiring stones and magical bobbins all ready for our workshop.

The first thing I would like to share is our Saori weaving workshop. We met Jill of Saori Santa Cruz and got to try out Saori weaving in her beautiful studio surrounded by redwood trees.

Getting down to business…

Saori weaving is a way of weaving that allows the creator to be completely free and open to what they are creating. It took me a while to "get into" it. I tried really hard to enter the studio with no expectations or ideas of what I wanted to produce and just let myself be inspired by the materials, atmosphere and my lovely friend - and of course Jill!

Weaving away.

Weaving away on another loom.

Up close.

Pleased with the results!

 We also got to try out this new amazing spinning wheel from National Custom Spinning Works. The man who makes them used to do custom cars and you can really tell by the aesthetic and materials!

Jenne trying out a cool new wheel while Jill looks on.

Tea Break...

Jill was nice enough to write her own blog entry about our day, please take the time to read it too. 

Jenne inspects one of Jill's amazing creations.

Hodgepodge Farm Residency Part 2 - Natural Dyes

Cal and me peeking...

It's about time for me to go back to upstate NY for the Sheep and Wool Festival! So, I thought I should post part two of three about my August residency at Hodgepodge Farm!

The first week I was there, we spent our time dyeing both protein and cellulose fibre with natural dyes. To make it easy I used only use alum and cream of tartar to mordant the fibres. Mordanting allows the fibre to accept the dye and make it colourfast, it can also alter the final colour significantly. A lot of mordants are very toxic, alum is the least toxic, so that factored into my decision as well...

Mordanting yarn.

Since I had recently done some natural dyeing from plant matter I gathered from my own backyard which, in my area, gives mostly browns, golds and greens, I was excited to try something different. We wanted some blues, reds, pinks and oranges! So, we experimented with Indigo, Madder Root, Hibiscus Flowers and Jewel Weed (attn. Cal - jewel weed is a natural cure for poison ivy!). 

Posed demo.

I was really excited about the jewel weed, Paula at White Barn Farm told us all about this plant. It is a pretty green bush with tiny, pretty orange flowers. The exciting thing about it is that the WHOLE plant yields a very pretty light yellow. Buttery!

Jewel weed.

The hibiscus smelled wonderful and the chickens loved to steal the flowers right out of the pot! It yielded a pretty, mellow red/brown and a cool thing happened when I left some skeins in the dye vat overnight - they turned a pretty steel grey!

Hibiscus flowers.

We had a few indigo vats, the first was an instant vat that Cal had read about, since an indigo vat can take several days to prepare, this seemed like a great option. The other was a vat that Cal had in her workshop that had been sitting around for a few years. The cool thing about these natural vats is that there really isn't as long as you follow proper storage instructions. We had a great time with the indigo! We didn't achieve any deep inky blues but I think that was because we tried to to jam too much fabric and yarn into the vat - more fibre than dye yields more subtle colours.

Vat one of indigo.

Vat two of indigo.

Indigo dyed stuff.

The madder root vat was a fun one too. We did two vats. Ideally, you want to really soak any roots or bark to extract the colour and there are very strict rules for temperature and timing to yield certain colours. With the first vat, I was concerned I let heat up too much, the fibre was more of a dark orange than red. So, I brewed up the second vat, didn't let it get too hot and let it sit for several days with the fibre in it... we still only got a dark orange colour. No red this time - but the orange is beautiful!

Dippy in madder...

The set-up.

Next time - we get crazy with synthetic dyes!

Hanging to dry.

Pile of yarn.