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?

My desk clutter has changed

My desk clutter used to be like most people's desk clutter. Bills that need to be paid, papers that need to be filed, a book in progress, pens that may or may not work, and a half-drunk cup of coffee from earlier in the week. But it's different now. Now I have a baby bottle full of olive oil that I was using to oil my wheel because I couldn't be bothered to go buy the proper kind, 13 batts of burgundy-based fiber blend destined to become tweed yarn, a spare bobbin, some thrift store yarn that will be used to attach labels to my stuff, some exciting sparkly eyelash yarn destined to be the binder in a wild boucle, a bag full of assorted fiber gifted to me by a friend, my case of knitting accessories -- and that half-drunk cup of coffee. Today's anyway.

Does the Fly Lady have anything to say about fiber kipple?

Meet my new baby

I now have visual aids to help those of you not already imbued with carded-batt lust understand what the big deal is.

Here is my new drum carder, and a basket of fiber "nibbles" (1 oz bits) that I am preparing to blend by carding:



I'm sorry to say that I don't know what kind of carder I bought. I have a piece of paper that tells me. All I know is, it was a price I could afford, and good deal according to Irene the Fiber Goddess who brokered the deal, and after I fiddled with the positioning of the drum for a bit, it works. So I'm as happy as can be.

Here is a before and during photo -- the dyed roving before carding, and a drum with a batt on it, not yet removed:


Here is what a batt looks like, carefully folded and glowing in today's lovely sunshine:


And here is my in progress, personal carding project -- my attempt to make something like tweed. I'm using some dark BFL that I dyed burgundy, and all of my considerable leftover bits of wool from the past several months' spinning:


I can't wait to spin it up. I plan a worsted weight yarn done long-draw, to preserve the excellent wooliness of the BFL. If all goes well, I'll use the wool for my next self-designed sweater. I always make a personal project as a model when I teach my 8-week class in knitting sweaters without a pattern. For the past two classes, I've done a kid's sweater so I could be sure that I would finish each stage in time to demonstrate it, but I'm feeling ambitious these days (must be the sunshine). My Fall teaching at the Port Moody Arts Centre is confirmed, and my sweaters class is going ahead pending registration, so I have until September to finish the spinning. Maybe I'll knit the body in advance, come to think of it; that doesn't need to be demo'd.

Weather into the weekend is good, and if the Port Moody Knitters group on Ravelry is anything to go by, it looks like we'll have at least a half-dozen people at this weekend's Fiber Party, maybe more. I'm looking forward to it.

Party at My Place!

This Sunday, I'll be at the farmer's market for my scheduled day, and I'm throwing a party. I'm going to be hanging out, spinning, and playing with a drum carder. And while that sounds like a perfectly fun time to spend all by myself, or just with the friend who is bringing the drum carder, it would be a lot *more* fun if there were lots of fibery people all together.

So, I'm throwing a party, a fiber party at my market booth. Bring some fiber if you want to play with the carder (or buy some of mine); bring hand cards. Bring your spinning wheel or your drop spindle. Bring a pair of knitting needles and you WIP, or bring a crochet hook and stand tall as a representative of the beleaguered-but-belligerent hookers out there.

Also bring your own chair, and possibly some sunblock.

Location: Coquitlam Farmer's Market (click here for directions)
Time: 9am to 1pm

What do you think? Who's in?

WWKIP

This Saturday, June 14th, is World Wide Knit In Public Day. I did not make that up. I have no particular feelings on the subject of this day, but I like any excuse for knitters to get out and publicly fondle each others projects, so I'll be going to at least one of the six events happening in the Lower Mainland.

Specifically, I will be attending the Port Moody get together, which will be held from 11am to 1pm in front of the Social Rec. Centre here in PoMo (that's the building that has been under construction for the past 3 years, to the right of the library). Fingers crossed for sun, because if there is rain, there is no backup plan.

If you're on Ravelry, there is a thread devoted to the PoMo KIP day here.)

I will be raffling off a skein of my handspun at the KIP, and the price of entry is to knit a bit on the baby blanket I'm working on. I hand dyed 20 skeins of gorgeous superwash merino in different shades of blue, and I'm making a lovely log cabin blanket, but I want as many hands as possible to work on the gift; just as many hands help a mother to care for her baby.

Hope to see some of you tomorrow!

Keepin' it real

I've been taking a proper spinning class, and despite the humbling feeling of not knowing how to make my fingers interact with the fiber in such a way as to produce knittable yarn, I've been enjoying it tremendously. But this week, I'm positively singing with creative possibilities.

On the first day of the class, we touched raw fleece and did a little carding, to get the feel for how to separate and then line up the fibers, how to draft and add enough twist. The carding was cool, and it did produce the most lovely little fiber nibbles, but I couldn't honestly see how it was useful for doing volume work -- and it's not. It's a technique for those who have all the time in the world to just enjoy fondling fibers.

Cut to now, some 9 classes later, and we're all working on the long draw drafting technique. For those of you who don't spin, it's like this -- you build up a bunch of twist on a short bit of the yarn you have just made, pinching it so the twist doesn't travel down, then (if all goes well) you quickly swoop your fiber-holding hand down and away, and a perfectly even strand appears almost like magic from the fiber mass.

If all goes well. In practice, my early experiments with this technique have led to slubs, micro-fine thread, and broken bit after broken bit.

I'm not tangenting. Back to fiber preparation now. Last week, we were given some dyed but otherwise unprocessed Romney wool, and told to card and spin it. Carding, as well as neatening up the lanolin-covered fibers considerably, blended the colours up -- yum. Here is my basket of hand carded, sprinkle-dyed, raw romney locks:



I spun them using the long draw method, and even though the fibers were not expertly carded (read: they were still tangled), and even though they were sticky as all get-out with lanolin, I still managed a relatively smooth (read: I didn't keep breaking the strand as I made it) long draw. I felt proud. (I'd show you the yarn I spun, but there is no good light for taking a picture right now; I'll try to take one tomorrow.)

Today in class, I used the drum carder. I created a batt, which is much like a rolag except bigger. The fibers were all aligned, but they were so airy and light, they just drafted like a dream. I actually achieved the "swoop" with very little breakage and slubbing.

So, here are the pieces I have put together now. 1) Home fiber preparation, leading to airy fibers and the possibility of creating my own blends of fiber type and colour. 2) A successful, quick long-draw.

Suddenly, exciting yarn possibilities are open to me. Heathered yarn, which is made from different coloured fibers blended together to create a single colour of marvellous depth and movement, like watershot taffeta, is a possibility now. Tweed is possible.

Did you hear me? Tweed. Am I the only one who gets a somewhat indecent thrill at the idea of a gorgeous tweed?

I have this bag of dark blue faced leicester that I've been saving to do something special with, and I think I have a plan now. I'm going to dye it either blue-red or magenta. I'm going to drum card it with flecks of electric blue, canary yellow, and forest green. I'm going to make tweed batts, spin it up to a worsted or aran weight, and make myself a sweater. A hooded sweater -- it will be my demo project for the next class I teach in knitting sweaters without a pattern.

Then I will never take it off, not ever.

Anyone have a drum carder for sale? I'm looking to buy.

My Market Schedule

For interested locals, here are the dates I'll be at the Coquitlam Farmer's Market this season.

June 8, 29;
July 20;
August 10, 24;
September 14; and
October 5, 26.

I usually bring all yarn but just some of the available fiber. If you ever see anything in my Etsy shop that you want me to be sure to bring, just let me know the day before.

Creative Process

So here's a little collage that I just spent way too much time making. It would have taken less time, except that I really don't know what I'm doing with Photoshop, so using it involves a lot of trial and error. I'm a little better with InDesign, which in hindsight is probably what I should have used...but live and learn.

Anyway, this photo collage shows a creative process, just for those of you who are curious to see the steps. It starts with a picture, a colour combo that I found compelling. Muted red, cherry red, black, and hints of grey. I dyed the roving in these colours, taking care to put the black in such a way that it would blend with the adjacent colours, creating a streakiness rather than a solid block of colour -- just like the tie. You can see that somewhat in the bobbin of singles that is pictured. Then, plying blends the colours further, and we have yarn!

I'm not sure whether I'll be keeping this skein for myself or selling it. I'm going to look at it and pet it for awhile. I may dye more roving in this colourway on Friday; we'll see.

Buy Local

Just a quick note to remind folks that I will be at the Coquitlam Farmer's Market tomorrow. I have a huge variety of my yarn, so if you want to see everything I have all at once, the Market is the place to do that.

I have less fiber than I'd like though. My sales this month have been overwhelming -- which is great! -- so my stock is low. I have 18 lbs of BFL on order that will likely arrive in time for me to dye on Friday, so expect new stuff to start being available as of May 26th.

I have returned to making sock yarn. I took a long break from doing that, because I just wasn't satisfied with what I was producing -- it didn't match the picture in my mind. I've been learning tons from my spinning class though, and the other day I produced a 165 gram skein of DK weight yarn that makes me really happy. It's here, if you want to see. I used a worsted drawing technique, fresh fiber, low tension, and very even plying -- I'm very happy with the results. Happy enough that I might, just might, make more.

If you're in the GVA, come visit me tomorrow!

Preschooler Surprise

I finished the Baby Surprise Jacket, and I'm thrilled with it. I just followed the standard EZ pattern, but with a much larger-gauge yarn than she suggests. If you do this yarn in the suggested worsted weight yarn (I think worsted...maybe smaller), you get a jacket for a baby. If you do it in my yarn, which is an Aran weight, you get this:


That's my sizeable 3 year old, who usually wears a 4T.

The jacket is proportioned for a baby, hence the short arms. I could pick up stitches along the sleeves and lengthen them, but I rather like the short sleeve. The number of handknit sweaters I end up washing because they got a little food or paint just on the edge of the sleeves is large. Maybe this will cut down a bit on the washing -- dare to dream.

Specifics: I knit this particular jacket from 5 skeins of my own soft-spun yarn. I used a 5mm needle, but I'm a really loose knitter, so a more typical knitter may wish to use a 6 or 6.5mm needle. I had very little of those skeins left over when the project was done. If you wanted to lengthen the sleeves, you'd want 6 skeins. Garter stitch is lovely, but it does tend to eat yarn. Still, the resulting fabric is so squooshy and yum, I think the yarn-consumption is worth it.

The photo shoot was a bit of a challenge. You know how it is. The second your small child senses that you *really* want her to try something on, that is the one time she absolutely will not do it. And if they do it, they will run away from the camera when you pull that out and ask for just one picture.

Here is my daughter 'hiding' from the camera.


Tomorrow is Got Craft, and I have the usual pre-show jitters. I'm afraid I won't have enough stuff, I'm afraid no one will buy anything, I'm afraid I'll have not enough breakfast and too much coffee and be a manic mess whenever I try to talk to anyone, prompting the public at large to start referring to me as "that insane yarn lady." (I'm pretending that they don't already.)

At least I have a ride. My car broke down on Wednesday, and the garage I like can't look at it until Monday...and how will I get downtown with all my stuff you ask? Fortunately, the Skytrain is not involved, as amusing as it would be to carry 8 garbage bags full of wool on public transit. No, instead, the lovely and generous Amanda of Ebbandflo Designs, a vendor at Got Craft who just happens to live near me, will be giving me a lift. Me and my giant bags of wool. Fortunately, she sells jewellery which is small.

I am so buying her lunch.