Book located, and Spring Knitty

I found it.  On my bookshelf.  *facepalm*

The Spring Knitty is up!  I really, really want to cast on for Hanne, because I think my handspun 2-ply is probably the perfect gauge and would knit up to great effect.  However -- the border on my Pi Shawl is going on, but not done yet, the bands (waist, button, neck) on my tweed sweater still need to go on, my Kauni Rainbow cardigan is...actually, bands need to go on that one too.  The first wrist band is done, the second is nearly done, and the big job of the single border that encompasses the neck, button bands, and bottom remains.  (But due to a fit of pique at the insufficiently flexible cable of my Addi Turbo, I ordered 2 or 3 Knitpicks fixed circulars in the correct size.  Trust me that there seemed to be a very good reason for ordering more than one at the time.  I'm trusting me...because I can't really think of that reason right now.)  Also, the grafting of the baby bog jacket is done and it needs...

Bands!  Okay.  All my projects are stalled at the band stage.  I, uh, I guess I don't find knitting bands to be very compelling.  Although in my defense, the garter blocks pattern that I'm using for the Kauni sweater involve stranded purling, which is a truly hand-cramping, fiddly task.

Off to knit some edges on things.

Missing Book! Help!

I loaned out my copy of Stranded Knitting by Nanette Blanchard.  I think.  Does anyone who reads this blog have it?  I asked the person I thought I loaned it to, but she doesn't have it, so now I'm at a loss.  I'm done teaching class 2 of 5 of my Stranded Knitting class, and there are some pictures I really, really want to show the class, but I can't because I can't find the book.  I think I loaned it out...although the book just being lost in the house somewhere is entirely possible.

If I can't find it in a couple weeks I'll just re-order the thing.  It's a fantastic reference book and not expensive.

Working it out

I've had the word "blog" on my to-do list for ages now, and I never seem to find the time and energy to do it.  I don't really have it today either, but I figure maybe I need to treat the blog like I treat answering emails from friends, sometimes -- better to send scattered and less coherent messages more frequently than to send brilliant missives at one-year intervals.

So I'm pregnant.  Lots of locals already know this, and some read it between the lines, but that's why I suddenly decided to get the toxic dye out of my house last August.  That's also where all my energy has gone lately.  I'm fine, strong and healthy, but even an easy pregnancy still involves growing a new human and takes considerable energy.  For months now, I've only had the werewithal for my family and the basics of my business.  I'm managing a good rate of spinning, and a decent rate of dyeing due thanks to Felicia Lo of Sweet Georgia, who opened her studio (with rentable dye space) at exactly the right time.

The search for alternative workspace has been interesting.  Back in the spring it was becoming clear to me that if I wanted to grow, I'd need some workspace where I could spread out more and achieve a bit more volume, and I was selling my stuff at a good enough rate that the idea of paying for space was not too far-fetched.  And then, two lines appeared on the stick, and it was clear to me that finding workspace that wasn't my family's kitchen was a non-negotiable.  So I started to explore.

I told everyone that I needed space, and I know enough people in the local arts scene and a good handful of people in the fiber arts community specifically that I was really able to get the word out.  Lots of people were keeping their ears open for me, and while the suggestions didn't roll in quickly, they came in regularly enough.  Several of them were unworkable for my specific needs, but a few were possible, and one -- the Sweet Georgia studio -- was perfect.  Or at least, close to perfect.  It was downtown, so I'd have to make a pretty major expedition carrying all my stuff (20lbs of fiber, buckets, towels, my big box of dye solutions, etc.), but I tried it once, and it was okay, and the second time I went, it was awesome.  I dyed 15lbs in a day; my one-day record so far.

And just a short time ago, two or three more offers came in.  One for an actual studio four blocks from my house, with a totally affordable rent, and one for occasional use of another indie dyer's garage, which is her own dye workspace.  The first, I can't use now -- studio and newborn are just unmixable things -- but how amazing is it that, after only 6-8 months of starting the process of looking for this very particular thing, I found it?

I don't believe that the Universe is interested in my happiness one way or the other.  I don't believe that anyone or anything ethereal listens when you say what you want.  I do, however, believe that articulating what you want, to yourself first and foremost, and then to others, can provide impressive results.  Get clear on what you want, so that you recognize it when it happens, that's what I think.  And it's happening.

I have only one picture for you today: a pair of Knucks knit from a skein of my Bordering on the Avant Garde yarn.

More Knitting than Usual

One of the effects of me making teaching a significant part of my business is that I'm spending a whole lot more time knitting than I had been, and I didn't realize how much I'd missed it.  I never stopped, but I was doing pretty minor things -- a pair of mittens here, socks there, now and then a hat.  Now, I'm spending a lot of time making up demo projects for classes and trying to come up with simple projects that showcase my yarn.  It's kind of nice, to have stuff on the go.

I've been knitting a sweater for my Sweaters Without a Pattern class out of the tweed yarn I handspun a while back.  I'm so in love with this yarn, i can't tell you.  It's springy and robust but still soft on the skin, and the way it's knitting up, showing off those little bits and pieces of

 leftover fiber bits from my previous spinning -- love, total love.  I didn't have quite enough for a sweater to fit me, though, and I agonized for a bit.  I could just make a sweater for my daughter, and it would be lovely, but I worked so hard on making this yarn that I couldn't quite bear the thought of it not being for me.  I could set the yarn aside for a vest, and make the sweater from different yarn, but I'm not exactly rolling in money, and if I could make the demo project without spending money, that would be better.

I decided to go to the yarn store and see if there was something interesting I could use for the cuffs and button bands, maybe a bit of detailing, and I struck gold.  I struck Noro.  Their new yarn, Yuzen, is an interesting crispy texture, and the silk content gives it a bit of a sheen.  And they had a colourway that could not have been a better match for my tweed.

Here is the project in progress, half the body and the sleeves done, ready to be joined up for the raglan shoulder.  If you want to lick the screen, then you're like me.

I can't knit anymore on the sweater until a week from now, when I demonstrate how to do an armscye and how to assemble the pieces to begin the raglan shaping, but I was enjoying the pretty mindless knitting on chunky yarn.  I decided to cast on for a felted bag.

I've said in the past that it makes me cry when I find out that someone wants to felt my yarn, but I can see the appeal -- the colours are lovely, and it does felt like a dream.  So I chose some colours:

Mindless knitting, pretty colours -- I can see the appeal.  Will keep you posted.

Class news:  By popular demand, I'm running a Beginner's Knitting class that begins this Thursday evening.  I hadn't anticipated that Beginner Knitting would be the one with the highest demand, but now I know -- next Winter, I'll run it twice.  There is going to be a 2-session Mittens class beginning on Saturday Nov 22 that I think will be fun.  I'm teaching a pattern that can be used with any yarn, for any size hands.  I like any pattern that starts "choose any yarn you like."

Some pretty things to look at

In the past couple days a few people have sent me pictures of what they have done with my yarn, and I thought I'd share.

Firstly, some crocheting. I can crochet, but I usually don't, so I'm glad to see an example of my yarn used for a purpose rather different from the one I usually put it to. I've seen crocheting done up in handspun yarn, and the effect is very interesting. The colour blending that you get with the combination of stitch and yarn is really unique.



Next, a use I often put my yarn to -- mittens. Can never have too many mittens, I'd say.



Lastly, a contribution by a Torchwood fan and nascent spinner:



It's been a slow and quiet month. I started my weaving class, and it's been interesting. So far, I don't find weaving nearly as rhythmic and relaxing as knitting, but I'm new, so it's bound to feel clumsy and difficult right now. I've been neglecting my bookkeeping, doing no dyeing whatsoever, and playing around with the drum carder from time to time. I now know that I can drum card 8 batts in an hour. Hey, when you're crafting for profit, you need to know these things. I'm just adding it to the pile of Facts of Limited General Application that I have.

Mostly I've been concentrating on the teaching, this month. Three out of four scheduled classes have gone ahead, and I've enjoyed all of them. My Sweaters Without a Pattern class is beginning this Wednesday evening, and I'm looking forward to it -- I love teaching this class. I love taking a group of knitters and empowering them to knit stuff just the way they want it, in exactly the yarn they want. Freedom from the tyranny of the pattern! Not that there isn't a time and a place for a good pattern, but it's not *every* time. The class has four students in it right now so it will definitely go ahead, but there's room for a few more if anyone is interested. A fun time will be had.

Cautiously Optimistic

The nice thing about being a small business is that I'm very, very flexible. I don't have employees with specialized skills whose time needs to be used wisely, I don't have to pay rent on a separate business space, and I don't have large standing orders that need to be fulfilled or else I lose customers. When something changes, I can change with it.

This is not to say that it's easy, change, no matter what the circumstance. I had a rhythm going. I had regular customers and a fairly predictable set of activities that I would do over the course of a week or a month. Then I needed to stop dyeing in the house, and everything had to be rethought.

However -- I've been thinking and researching and planning these past weeks, and I think I have a workable plan. Here it is.

Firstly, my experiments with Wilton's and my research on the subject (which mostly consisted of talking to a lot of dyers on Ravelry who have used it and various other dyes) has led me to believe that it is not the answer to my problems. I believe I would be sacrificing too much in terms of my results (can't get the colourways I want) if I switched to food dye. So it has to be the toxic stuff.

However, I have figured out how to do a limited amount of dyeing on my front porch. How miserable this strategy makes me in January remains to be seen; it probably behooves me to stockpile a bit. I'm also investigating taking part in Felicia Lo's (Sweet Georgia's) shared studio, a project that she's setting up so that several of the casual and small independent dyers, weavers, and spinners (both business people and hobbyists) can have a suitable space for their activities. I'm not the only dyer out there with the problem of how to use toxic dye without polluting one's living space.

Secondly, the fiber sales are not kaput, but they will be limited. I will not wholesale my fiber, except for the carded batts that I offer to the two local stores I sell through. I will continue to sell some fiber on Etsy and to those who know me well enough to send an email that says "hey what do you have right now, can you send me a picture?"

Thirdly, I need to sell a lot more yarn. I haven't pushed the yarn sales because my fiber sales were doing so well. My yarn sales were mostly wholesales through Three Bags Full and Black Sheep Yarns. This was perfectly satisfactory to me -- the volume was high enough that the cut I take on the wholesale price still leaves me sufficiently compensated for my spinning time, and the online fiber sales made up the rest of my paycheque. Now, though, I need to somehow convince The Internet to buy more yarn. I can do this. I just have to put my mind to the marketing problem.

The last part of the strategy is teaching, which is ramping up about now. My beginners class at Black Sheep will begin this week, and it already has 5 or 6 people in it -- which is awesome. There are three or four more classes already scheduled at the shop, and once I find out whether my Arts Centre classes are going ahead, I'll be able to firmly schedule a bunch more for later in the Fall.

So that's that. I feel much less panicked than I did a couple weeks ago. I'm heavily buoyed up by yesterday's success -- I handpainted some BFL and cooked it in my new, standalone turkey roaster which lives on the front porch. Here is the roaster:


And here is the 3lbs of wool I painted:


3lbs is almost nothing compared to my previous production, but I'm still working out the details. It's a bit like going back to stovetop cooking, this roaster, and managing convection and colour splitting is something I'm having to re-learn. The batches are slow, very slow, so far, and I can't queue them up like I could with my oven method. I probably won't have many more 10 lb days, but hey, that's fine -- I'm mostly dyeing to supply my own spinning, and I can only spin so fast. Slow is fine.

Lastly -- I have had my final Farmer's Market. For some reason, this season has been the pits for sales at the market. Dunno why, but it has. So I've cancelled my last two scheduled days, because I have more productive ways to spend my time than huddling outside in the cold. The market was awesome while it lasted, and I'll continue to shop there, but my days as a vendor are over for now.

Hear that squealing noise? Those were my brakes.

This past week, I've been going through some major changes. I have to stop dyeing the way I have been.

For the time being, I can't use the Ciba dyes inside my house. I'm too concerned about traces of the dye getting into my system and into my family's system. I mix the powders in the little laundry nook in my bedroom (wearing gloves and a respirator), but I have some concern about the powders spreading out into the sleeping space. I mix the dye stocks in the laundry room too, which involves opening and closing a lot of jars, all of which have dried dye on the edge, which can spread more powder.

I handpaint the fibers in my kitchen. I put down a big shower curtain with a towel on top of it, but still, splashes occur, and since I'm still opening and closing plastic tubs with dried dye around the edge, there's probably some powder spreading. In the cooking area.

Step 1: No dye in the house. It's on my covered front porch now, in a big wooden bin.

Step 2: Figure out how to colour fiber without going back on Step 1.

So this is where I am. I see two options: use new dye, or dye outside the house.

The new dye possibility is Wilton's. Wilton's is an icing dye, available for purchase at Michael's Craft Store. It's expensive, but it's a cost I don't mind eating if it makes a difference. The reports on Wilton's aren't great, though. It's very difficult to manage (some of the colours -- several of the colours, in fact -- split like crazy, making predictable results hard to achieve), and it's not as light- and colour-fast as the professional grade dyes. I know of one Etsy seller who is very successful using it, but I'm skeptical. And my early experiments have not gone well. I'd post a picture of the bad, bad colours, but it's just embarrassing. Also, there isn't a decent black with Wilton's.

i just got tipped off about a "Green" dye with no heavy metals in it. I have contacted the company about their MSDS sheet and am waiting to hear. We'll see.

The other option is to dye outside my house. This would involve having someone else mix my dye stocks (I'm sure I can find a teenager who will do it for the right price), and having me retreat to my covered front porch to mix my colours and paint the wool. I would dye using a crock pot and maybe this cooker I found at Canadian Tire. I hear Felicia of Sweet Georgia uses an outdoor turkey roaster, and I'll be emailing her about that. The downside of this option is that a) it's cold and damp out there for most of the next 6 months, and b) it's a bit expensive, what with cooking outside and all the heat waste that implies.

Whichever of these options I choose, it still means that I'm pretty much only making enough fiber for my own spinning purposes. I can't see doing production dyeing with these methods. I might be able to do some fiber sales in the form of carded batts, and I'm willing to try to expand that, but so far my batts haven't been big sellers.

No fiber sales, that hurts. Fiber sales is 80% of my business right now, and for the past few months I've sold close to $1000 worth each month. Putting a total stop to that will hurt my bottom line, and I'm not doing this business as a hobby. It's a valuable part of my household budget.

The bright side is that, if ever there was a time to really push my yarn sales, the beginning of autumn is it. And I have 5 knitting classes starting in a few weeks; hopefully that will become a more significant source of income. And teaching? Completely non-toxic. I can do lots of that, and no protective equipment is necessary.

So that's where I'm at -- going out of my tree, more or less. Any attempt at helpful information or friendly hand-holding will be appreciated.

Coming Events

Just briefly, here are some places you can find me in the upcoming weeks.

Farmer's Market dates: August 24, September 14, October 5, October 26

Classes at Black Sheep Yarns: Sock Knitting, Project Support, Foundation Skills, Beginner Knitting.
Classes at the Port Moody Arts Centre: Freeform Knitting, Sweaters without a Pattern.

And of course I'll be spending an absurd amount of time at Black Sheep Yarns just hanging out, because there is now a yarn store within blocks of my house and I can.

Summer Hiatus, apparently

I didn't mean to take a hiatus, but it seems to have happened. It was an accident though. I have the time to work and I want to work, but it seems that I've been ordering such a high volume of supplies that I've been cleaning my supplier out, and then getting caught in her supply dip when I want to reorder. It has happened twice this summer. Once, I had a forced break of only a week, and that was fine, I just devoted myself to spinning, but this last break lasted three weeks. I had no supplies, I had a rapidly dwindling stock, and I could do nothing whatsoever about it.

I do not mean to criticize my supplier -- I have nothing but love for her service, her attention to quality, and her prices. I'm just growing is all. I am working out a deal for a standing order with her, and that should help. She's growing too -- namely, she's growing some storage space so she can keep more in stock, herself -- and the timing is perfect for that. With any luck, this won't happen again.

I did get my first box of supplies on Tuesday: 5 lbs of Corrie, 22 lbs of BFL, 1 lb of Wensleydale just to try, and another pound of wool/soysilk which is oh so pretty. I have attempted to work. My mom is visiting though, so you really can't blame me for taking Tuesday afternoon off to go see Brideshead Revisited instead. And yesterday, I apparently pissed off the gods of electronics. I had Internet connectivity troubles all day (this is unrelated to the dyeing), and my electronic scale went on the fritz. If I can't weigh the wool, I can't dye the wool.

As a result, although I got supplies on Tuesday, this is all I have managed to achieve:


That's 4 lbs of BFL. 4. On a decent single day, I can do 7, and that's if they're all handpainted colourways. If I mix up some semi-solids in my workload, on a day when I'm burning through the wool I can do 12. So 4 -- not so impressive. But as I keep reminding myself, there is NO SUCH THING as a wool emergency, so I try not to fret. But still, I'm feeling less than impressed with my output.

Something I am impressed by, though, is this:


For those of you playing the home game, that's tweedy yarn, spun from those mixed batts that were cluttering up my desk a few entries back. I am so beyond thrilled with this yarn I can hardly tell you. I'm spinning it long draw, so it's a little uneven, which is perfect; I'm going for a look that's really sort of arty. I plan to use this yarn in my next Sweaters Without a Pattern class that I'll be teaching at the Port Moody Arts Centre this fall. I always like to have a personal project to do so that I can demo the various techniques on a real project.

In other news, Black Sheep Yarns is days away from opening. I'm so delighted by this development. For one, Port Moody is ready for an upscale yarn store. The local knitters are numerous and artistic, and are apparently tired of driving to Maple Ridge or Vancouver for good yarn. Now me, I spent a decade living in a very boring town that was 2 hours from any really good yarn stores, so driving 35 minutes to Main Street to visit Three Bags Full was always just fine with me, but that's me. Living away from a decent city for so long, I relish the chance to go a mere half hour away to be in the midst of the interesting people, the cool shops, and the swank little coffee shops with wireless access.

However, a local yarn store -- really local -- is fantastic. And it's excellent for me, because I finally have a teaching home. I've been given more or less carte blanche to offer whatever classes i want, at whatever schedule I want. I'll still teach a couple classes at the Arts Centre (Freeform Knitting and Sweaters, this fall), but most of my teaching will happen at Black Sheep. I absolutely love teaching knitting, love to share my passion and my skill, so I have great hopes that I'll get to do a lot more of it now than I could at the Arts Centre.

The expected opening day for the new store is August 19, and the first knit night will be held the night before.

Lastly, here is a picture of cute children with a sheep. I took my daughter to Maplewood Farm the other week, and she loved it. She fed bunnies who were stuffed but tried to be polite and take a few nibbles of the profferred apple wedges, frowned at goats who were trying to nibble her shoelaces, and petted the sheep. I petted the sheep too. Or rather, I crouched down and poked at their fleece, gauging it for staple length, texture, and crimp. As the sheep looked back at me with an unmistakable "What *are* you doing?!" look on its face, I thought, most people probably don't do this.

Reflection

Last night, I went to give a talk to the West Coast Knitters Guild. There are a number of fiber related guilds in town: The WCKG mentioned above, the Greater Vancouver Weavers and Spinners (a chapter of the Northwest Weavers Guild), the Coquitlam Weavers and Spinners Guild, something in Maple Ridge, something in Langley. This area is lousy with fiber artists! In my travels, I've met a lot of them, and I've been invited to check out many of the local guilds and groups.

My family life is such that evening activities aren't practical right now, so I have to keep saying "thanks, but no" to the invitations. But I did thoroughly enjoy checking out the Guild last night. I met some local fiber artists as well as knitting enthusiasts. I got to talk dye technique, and say "why thank you!" to people who complimented my colour choices.

I was sorry that I had to hightail it out of there before the meeting was over, but with a 7:30 meeting and a 40 minute drive eachh way, that was the price for going at all. And it was fair. My motto these days, for getting through this busy time when my child is young, is this: "You can have it all, but just not much of it, and not all at once." It makes me sanguine about taking a hors d'oeuvres approach to my life.

I drove home watching the sunset light bounce around the haze that always seems to cover this city, making the North Shore mountains look like glowing shadows. I was blissfully alone and listening to my iPod, which was somehow feeding me a lot of my favourite songs all at once despite being on random play.

If there has been a theme of the last year, a principle I have learned, it's this: jump in bravely and do what you like, and good things will come from it.

I don't remember what I did that led to it, but in the spring, I was invited to demonstrate Freeform Knitting for the Port Moody Arts Centre's Arts 4U day, a day of demonstrating various arts and crafts to locals as part of the PoMo Arts Festival. I had never heard of freeform knitting before this point, but I jumped in. The day was fun, the demo was a success, and at the end of the day, one of the people at the Centre asked me if I'd be interested in teaching knitting there in the Fall. Paid work, teaching something I love and am an expert at, two blocks from my house on a schedule that I determine? Why yes, thank you. I would be interested.

Putting in a table at the farmer's market led to be being noticed by a writer for the local paper, Sarah Payne, a tremendous supporter of local artists and artisans. The article was open on the table the day Helen, of the soon-to-open Black Sheep Yarns, told her husband she thought she might like to open a yarn store, and what did he think? He turned the paper towards her and said, "I think there might be a local market for that, yeah." And the store is going to be my new teaching home in a couple months. That little cause-and-effect loop kind of gives me chills, the kind you get when the pieces are just so perfect you can practically hear the "click."

And last night, I had another little moment. As I said, getting to the Guild meeting was a bit of a labour, and definitely not something I can do regularly. But I was flattered to have been invited by Linda, who works at Three Bags Full, who sell my yarn and fiber and have been tremendously important to me for both the personal encouragement the owners and staff have given me, and for my local marketing. As I was setting up, I was approached by a notable local fiber artist who is working on setting up a fiber arts studio on Granville Island (for non-locals, pretend I just said "Soho"). She wanted to talk to me about being involved somehow, as a supplier at least. I kept my cool, but it tripped off all kinds of dreams of being artistic and fabulous in a Granville Island studio.

There have been a lot of little things, too. The friends, well-wishers, students, and business tips I have picked up by being at the Farmer's Market have been invaluable. The spinning class I just finished netted me some new friends, new customers, one student, and a drum carder, not to mention an acquaintance with Irene Weisner, a formidable force for craft about whose support and practical help I cannot say enough.

I have dyed the colours I liked without regard for what I thought other people wanted, and it turned out other people liked those colours too. And strangest of all, when I started dyeing wool in Whoverse-themed colours, I found all these people who were obsessive fans of both fiber *and* the Whoverse. Talk about a niche market, but I wouldn't have found it if I hadn't been just mostly making myself happy.

I don't believe that The Universe is taking care of me; I don't believe in The Secret. It's not my bent to believe in mysterious forces that do right by us if we're virtuous enough. I'm feeling awfully fortunate right now though, and just at the moment I'm rather taken by the picture that has presented itself. I took a real leap about a year ago when I decided to throw myself into something that had no guarantee whatsoever of being a viable job. I jumped in with both feet though, said yes to all kinds of things just because it pleased me to do so, and what I have in front of me at the moment is a wealth of something we all dream of: work that I love. And I couldn't be happier -- unless someone has figured out a way for me to do everything I want to, and still get 8 hours sleep? No?