Silk Rainbow

Like many of you, I've been busy with making Christmas gifts.  Each year I face the dilema: what to make for my co-workers?  By now, they must be pretty tired of getting scarves from me, and this year is no exception. But I did put away my knitting needles and got out the paint brushes. 

For my striped silk scarves, I mixed up fiber reactive dyes and mixed two colors in varing percentages (20/80, 40/60, 60/40 and 80/20) to give a color gradient. I then painted repeating stripes on wet silk, letting the colors blend at the edges.  I wrapped each scarf in plastic wrap and let them sit for 24 hours to set the dye.  Any wrinkles in the plastic wrap add addition interesting texture to the scarf.

Fortunately, each of my co-workers have different color preferences, so I have a veritable rainbow of silk:

  

Tutti Frutti Scarf

A few years ago I dyed some yarn with Kool-Aid to create a bright rainbow yarn for a project.  Recently I mixed the leftovers with some other yarns to create this scarf:

As I was going over the finished scarf with a warm iron, there was still a distinctly fruity scent coming from the scarf.  Never underestimate the power of Kool-Aid!

And now for something completely different...

I finished the needle felted rug last night. 

This has been a very different type of project for me.  When I first envisioned a rug for my sewing/sitting room, I planned on something more traditional - floral, reminiscent of traditional hooked rugs, or perhaps a Jacobean design.  But the bright colors and an abstract design called out to me.  My room has pale gray walls, a charcoal grey floor and an in-between gray sofa - it called for color.

And Bijou the Siamese likes it just fine...

Fiber Play!

My friend Ercil and I have had a couple of fun fiber play-dates recently.

In June, we visited Ranch of the Oaks in Lompoc.  Tom and Mette Goehring raise alpacas, llamas and Icelandic sheep, and have their own fiber processing mill.  Mette introduced us to the animals and Tom gave us a tour of the mill.

Ercil fell in love with a sheep – which she bought!







I was a little more restrained, I bought a felted bat right off the felting table in the mill.  I’ve been looking for an area rug for my newly redecorated sitting/sewing room.  When I saw the bat – all cushy and fluffy at the edges I had a vision – a needle felting vision!

Now, Bijou the cat thinks the plain bat makes a fine rug just as it is.

I envisioned something with a little more color.





Last week Ercil and I got together again for more fiber play in her shady backyard.  We laid out the batt and drew the outline for my design with a Sharpie marker.  Then we got started felting.

After the basic outline was in, we got out the drum carder and Ercil’s collection of colored rovings from Mielke’s Fiber Arts, plus some odds and ends from my stash.  We created some scrumptious colored batts for my design.


Back at home, I started filling in the design.  Needle felting has a much higher instant gratification quotient than most of my art forms – I can see progress right away.  In fact, I have to be careful to pace myself and not try to finish it all at once.  I want to make the fun last!

Purples, blues and greens

Although my garden can't compare to Giverny, and I have no water lilies - just one small fountain - looking around, I have some of the water lilies colors in my yard.

Meanwhile, the weaving on the water lilies shawl proceeds apace.

Inspiration needed

With any process, there's a part that's less fun than the others.  For me and weaving that's beaming and tyeing on.  I don't know why - just is.  It would be easy to lose momentum at this point and - dare I say it? - procrastinate. 

That's why I need a little inspriation to keep going.  This video combines views of the Giverny gardens with Monet's paintings.  The second half of the video features a museum gallery designed to display some of the paintings to advantage.

And now, back to winding on warp.  Day 9 of Art Every Day Month

Order out of chaos

Some people thrive on chaos.  I am not one of them.  I like order - everything in it's place.  I also enjoy creating order out of chaos.  That, in a fundamental way, is what weaving is about.



Wild string in its natural, chaotic state.

Weaving takes a highly

chaotic element - string - and turns it into its most organized state - cloth.  Along the way, the weaver adds organization to the string in various ways: chaining it in warps, sleying it in reeds, threading it through heddles, winding it on beams and bobbins.  But these are just interim steps.

In the end, the only thing that holds the string in its most organized state is itself.  Through a series of interlacements with others of its kind, string becomes cloth.  That is, in itself, a miracle of creation.  



String confined in heddles in preparation for weaving.  Day 8 of Art Every Day Month.



Move your right brain, move your left brain

Weaving is like that.  It's a process with discreet steps, and each one must be followed with care and in order.  That's the left brain part.  But most of those steps are, within themselves, repetitive - one might say meditative.  That's the right brain part. 

There's a great deal that must be done before warp ever meets weft: measuring the warp, sleying the reed, threading the heddles, beaming on.  And before that there's design - color, texture, pattern.

Last summer on my fiber stay-cation, I planned a project based on Monet's water lillies paintings.  I dyed the yarn and measured the warp.   

For  day seven of Art Every Day Month, I sleyed the reed.It doesn't look like much, but it's a step along the way.

It don't come easy

You gotta pay dues
If you're gonna sing the blues
And you know, it don't come easy.
--Ringo Starr

Some projects just aren't meant to be easy.

First off, there are no size 00000 knitting needles in Ventura for ready money.  (Anacapa Fine Yarns did have some scrumptious yarns, so I didn't leave the store unscathed).  I could have ordered the needles on-line, but I wanted immediate gratification. 

So I toodled off to the hobby shop in search of 1mm brass rod to make my own needles.  Hobby shop doesn't carry metric, so my choice is between 3/64" rod, which is more than 1mm, and 1/32", which is less.  I buy both.  The 1/32" rod is more like wire - super bendy.  So I cut the thicker rod, and grind the ends into points.  Viola!  I'm calling these 00000.5 needles. 

The 20/2 silk that I was planning to use won't work on the smaller needles.  But that's ok, I have some 30/2 silk in my stash.  I wind some off and start knitting a little swatch.  I also get some more practice picking up dropped stitches. 

The resulting gauge: 14 stitches per inch.  Not the 18 I was hoping for, but I'm going to live with it, especially as I know that with the two color knitting I'll have some draw-in from carrying the thread across the back.

You may have noticed that the swatch is white.  My design is not.  So that means dyeing the yarn.  Out comes the dye notebook, I pick my colors and get to work.  But first I have to divide my yarn into skeins.   That's when I discover that the counter on my reel is broken.  So I count the turns out loud - 1,020 times.

Eventually, I actually get to the dyeing.  Whenever I dye yarn, I thank Deb Menz for her super easy to follow directions and computations in Color in Spinning.  Here are the results:

So there's day 4, 5 and 6 of Art Every Day Month: making the needles, making a test swatch and dyeing the yarn.  You won't hear any more about this project for a little while.  I don't intend to start the actual knitting until I have my new glasses.

... And not much to show for it

Day 3 and not much to show for it.  It's not that I didn't work on my new 14th c. bag project - I did for a couple of hours.

There are some parts of any project that are just not as much fun as others - dare I say "tedious"?  Swatching and sampling fall in that category.  I got out my needles and yarn and worked up a swatch.  I confirmed that my gauge with 000 needles and 20/2 spun silk is 12 stitches to the inch - pretty far away from the originals at 18 stitches per inch.  I also confirmed that I really need those new glasses (eye doctor appointment next Tuesday).  Also got some practice in picking up dropped stitches - which would have been easier if I could have seen more clearly. 

What I ended up with was a tiny swatch a little less than two inches square and the fact that I need smaller needles and finer yarn.  Next: the search for 00000 needles...

Day Two: Another Skein and Another Project

For the second day of Art Every Day month, I plied a second skein of the silk/merino/alpaca yarn. 

November is a month when we will be traveling quite a bit.  If I'm going to do Art Every Day, then I'm going to need something portable.  I could dig out a UFO - heaven knows I have enough of them - but what's the fun in that? 

Every since Ursula Georges conducted a workshop on the Gunnister pouch, and I did my first 2-color knitting, I've been anxious to make another and to kick it up a notch.  In this case it means bigger and smaller - a bigger pouch and smaller stitches. 

My inspiration are the Sion pouches - a collection of knitted relic bags from the 14th century that are a favorite of historical knitters.  The originals are in the cathedral in Sion Switzerland, and documented in Bishop Rutt's A History of Hand Knitting.  They are knitted in exquisitely small stitches - about 18 to the inch and the smallest bag is 8-1/8" high by 6-1/4" wide.  That works out to about 32,805 tiny little stitches!

Am I ready for this???

First, start a test swatch.  My smallest needles are 000.  I've decided that those are quite small enough, thank you, so unfortunately my gauge will be greater than 18 to the inch.  Second, make an appointment with the eye doctor - I can't see what I'm doing!

Finally, create a design inspired by, but not copied from, one of the relic purses:

November - Art Every Day Month

I'm participating in Art Every Day Month.  I figured it would be a great kick start to creativity.  There's nothing like making a public commitment to get you going!

So yesterday was the first day.  After working just a little late, then coming home to fix dinner for my family and do a couple of loads of laundry, it was 8:30 and I was really tired.  What to do to fill my art quota for the day?  I have looms to warp and projects to start, but I have to admit I just didn't have the energy to start anything.

So I dusted off the spinning wheel - literally, it had been a while - and dug out my "current" project.  Can you call it "current" when you haven't touched it for months? 

I've spun up a fine singles of tussah and merino blend from Treenway and another of baby alpaca, both purchased at SOAR many years ago.  Some nice quite meditative plying just the thing! 

I had just enough time to ply up one skein before bed time. Here it is - still on the niddy noddy:



2-ply tussah/merino/baby alpaca



Weaving in the Garden

The weather this weekend was nearly perfect for weaving in the garden.  The goal was to finish a group project that was started last year, and was put on hold until the weather was warm and dry enough to set up the warp weighted loom on the patio.  An unusually cool and wet spring postponed the project until now. 

With the help of Jan Eichling, we wove 25 inches between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening.  There were plenty of breaks for putting my feet up - one of the draw backs to a WWL is the standing.  There are about five more inches of weaving left on this shawl and a little finish work, then it will go to it's recipient.

Something old, something new

A couple of week's ago I took a knitting class based on the Gunnister pouch.  The 17th century original was found in a peat bog in Scotland, along with other personal items.  Here's a picture of the original:



My adaptation includes a design of crosses, instead of the stripes and checks of the original.

It's also a little bit longer - just the perfect size for holding my iphone.

All Wound Up

I have this bin in the garage (OK, I have lots of bins).  Up until today this particular bin was full to overflowing with left over bits of yarn.  Over the last two days, I have grouped the yarns, mixing textures and colors, and wound them into warps for scarves - ten in all.  Here are some of my favorites:

I love the candy colors of this one:

And the cool sage of this one.

This one reminds me of a berry/ peach smoothie.  Yum!

Meanwhile, I've been dyeing the purple and green warps for the Water Lilies shawl.  Here they are with the multi-colored warp and the blue weft:

And here are some of Monet's Water Lilies.

Getting Ready to Dye

This morning I mixed up the dye solutions for the projects I'll be working on this week.  With the solutions already mixed, dyeing the yarn will be much simpler - just mix the solutions in the right proportions and put them in the crockpot with hot water, yarn and, after a while, a little soda ash.

Mixing the dye solutions reminds me a little of my chemistry major days:

While the yarn simmers in the crockpot, I'm working on the lavendar scarf on the rigid heddle loom - see the "What I'm working on now" pic in the margin.

A Week's Vacation

I have a week’s stay-cation and my plan is to fill it with as much fibery goodness as possible. First stop was my yarn stash to see what spoke to me. There were lot’s of possibilities, but I settled on this:

Doesn’t it remind you of Monet’s Water Lilies? But there is not enough to warp up a full shawl, so back to the stash where I found this white cotton rayon blend. I don’t want white, though, but this cotton/rayon blend should dye up beautifully with Sabracron F dyes. Using my swatch book from Sarah Lamb’s workshop, I picked a blue and a green to match the Water Lily yarn, and a purple for some 20/2 silk for the weft.

It will take a couple of days for me to get all the yarn dyed. I don’t want to wait to start weaving, so in the meantime, I warped up my rigid heddle loom with a warp I’d had sitting around for a while.

This is a mélange of left over yarns: some black and purple ladder yarn, pink and purple eyelash, purple 20/2 silk (doubled), purple wool (a sample from a workshop) and some gray kid mohair from a UFO sweater. The weft is a super-fine lavender kid mohair.

Tomorrow I start weaving and dyeing.

More Leftovers

Who said that leftovers can't be wonderful!  Here's the second scarf in the leftovers project.

The warp is peacock blue Fun Fur, Trendsetter Murano railroad track yarn, and a little black sock yarn. The weft is very fine kid mohair, beat very, very gently to make an open fabric.


The resulting fabric is a little bit fuzzy, a little bit shiny and drapes beautifully.

The thing about yarn...

My most recent project is a scarf for a silent auction at my church.  I have a lot of designer yarns left over from previous projects, so my goal is to use some of them up making these scarves.  I figure that more than one large Rubbermaid tub of leftover yarns is too many.  (Don't think that I'm slacking, my stash of non-leftover yarns fills several large tubs.)

For this project I picked a couple of different yarns to mix in the warp.  And I used them up! Yes, all the way up. But I couldn't find yarn for the weft in my stash that was just right.  Time for a trip to the yarn store.

So here's the first thing about yarn.  Remember the old potato chip ad "bet you can't eat just one"?  Well, for yarn, it's "bet you can't buy just one."   Because the shop did have the perfect yarn for the weft.  And it had some really great designer yarns on sale for half price.  So I had to get some - really it was too good to pass up.

And that's the other thing about yarn.  You can never use it all up.  Because that perfect weft - half of the skein is left.  So into the Rubbermaid tub it goes.

I'm really happy about how the scarf came out.  It was soft, elegant and drapes nicely.  Buying the perfect weft yarn - even with the left overs - was definitely worth it.

Orange Day

This weekend was the time to dye weft for the second Orange Colored Sky shawl.  I'm a little bemused by the orange color choice.  It's probably my least favorite color (after lime green).  It's certainly not a color I would normally choose to wear.  Not since 8th grade and gym suits at Orange Grove Jr. High, anyway.  But there was something about that sky....

As usual, I rely on the color sample cards from the SOAR workshop with Sarah Lamb.  I'm always anxious about the results, but, also as usual, they were spot on:

The skein matches the color (lower left corner) perfectly! 

Thank you, Sarah!