Taos Sweater Finished!

Last October, my friend Michelle and I purchased a chocolate brown fleece at the Taos Wool Festival.  It was a CVM/cotswold/corriedale fleece. When I returned home, I washed, carded and spun my half into yarn with the idea of knitting a sweater to enter in the fiber arts show at Taos this year.  I also spun white cormo wool/silk and merino/angora yarns so that I could dye them in pastel colors to use in the sweater.  Over the weekend, I finished my project and I am very pleased with the outcome.  I saw Michelle today and asked her to model it for me.  

That's it for today.

Sunday Fun

Last week I got an email from Robina Koenig of Tumble Creek Farm up in the Pacific Northwest letting me know that her Fall shearing was done and she had some fleeces up for sale.  I had seen Robina's fiber at Black Sheep Gathering in June and asked to be on her email list.  I immediately opted for a small two-pound BFL lamb fleece.  It arrived yesterday so quickly.  Gorgeous little fleece, to say the least.

I kept looking at that fleece and knew there was no way I was going to be able to sleep unless I soaked a part of that fleece overnight, so that I could wash it today.  Here's the fleece drying out in the sun.  Very yummy.  Can't wait to spin it.

MORE BUNDLES UNVEILED

The other day, my friend Margie came over for a playdate and we made nuno felt with the idea of eco printing the pieces we made.  After a morning of feltmaking and lunch, we were off to forage along the local San Juan creek area.  We found some wonderful plant materials, one of which was a downed branch of eucalyptus, which had been laying in the middle of a field, hot sun mostly likely beating on it for at least a few weeks.  It was so dried up, we were skeptical but we collected some of the dried leafy branches as an experiment.  I still had a big pot of the golden liquid from the rabbit brush a few days before, so we used that dye bath as the liquid in our new dyepot.  After hours of simmering and then cooling down overnight, we had some very successful results.

These are the bundles fresh out of the dyepot.

My felted pieces drying.

And these are my eco prints on nuno felt. Some of the strongest rusty oranges, we obtained from the dried up eucalyptus branches.

Margie's bundles had to sit for a couple of days unwrapped and she got some very intense prints -- could be that the extra time in the bundle helped. A silk blouse.

 Her nuno felted pieces.

Margie also brought some plant materials from her garden:  sunflower leaves, avocado leaves, amaranth, and a few sunflowers.

Needless to say, we were pretty happy with our day of experimenting. 


And I have been making progress on a sweater I started knitting in January. This is my own design.

I purchased a small fleece at the Taos Wool Festival last October from Sheepfeathers Farm of Lafayette, CO.  This was a dark chocolate CVM/Cotswold/Corriedale cross which I processed and spun. The other handspuns are fibers I bought and spun from Toots Le Blanc and from Foxfire Fibers and then dyed in various pastel colors to go with the brown fleece. 

I am hoping to finish this sweater so I can wear it this year at the Taos Wool  Festival.  One sleeve and the collar to go.

On a Sunday, a dyepot of mullein is simmering on the barby.

SURPRISES IN THE MORNING

After cooling down and sitting in the dyepot overnight, my bundles were ready to be unrolled. There's always anticipation (and excitement) as I undo each bundle.

This bundle was wrapped around a copper pipe and was a piece of lightweight wool.

Nice clean prints.

Interesting greens from the copper pipe, I think.

The next few pieces were dyed using the nuno felt pieces that I made.

Lovely eucalytus -- vibrant rusty orange prints.

More eucalyptus -- greens and golds.

Love these prints -- various eucalypts and many colors.

END OF SUMMER APPROACHES

I am finally emerging from my summer "cave" -- my self-imposed exile from the blogosphere. I was pretty much burned out after two back-to-back trips in June.

First, I attended a weeklong felting workshop at Shakerag (Sewanee, TN) taught by Jeanette Sendler and Allison Mountain from Scotland. This was one of the best workshops I have ever taken and I (along with many of my classmates) was in the workroom until midnight every night -- so excited and inspired by our teachers. And then back in my room, knitting, reading or whatever until 2:00 a.m. I could not turn off the mind. Suffice it to say, I was exhausted after a week of getting about 4 hours of sleep a night. But I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

In fact . . . I have already signed up for Shakerag 2012. It is one of the all around best workshop venues. All inclusive and they feed you the most wonderful gourmet healthy food -- breakfast, lunch and dinner. I will either take natural dyeing with Michel Garcia from France or wearable art with Jean Cacicedo, an amazing artist from Berkeley. I am leaning toward Jean. I took her class at Shakerag in 2006 and loved every minute of it.

As soon as I arrived home from Shakerag -- and running on empty -- I had to pack my van for another weeklong trip heading up to Eugene, OR, for the Black Sheep Gathering with my friend, Miryha, of Blarney Yarn. We had a wonderful week and a very successful show but by the time we got home, I dropped into my big cushy chair to catch my breath and get recentered. Just couldn't bring myself to do anything but relax and spin and knit, and knit and spin -- some sewing, too -- well into July and August.

August took our family, both sons, one girlfriend, and my husband and myself, up to the June Lake area of the Sierras. One day we took a ten-mile hike in Yosemite through Tuolumne Meadows up Tuolumne Falls. This is a glorious hike, fairly easy, and the scenery is to die for -- as is most of Yosemite.

At the falls, more water this year because of all the rain and snowpack.

Upon returning from the Sierras, all relaxed, I was ready to start doing some dyeing again. I made my rounds to the various places in and around my neighborhood and collected some eucalyptus and other leaves, and raided my garden. I then made up some bundles for the dyepot. Here are some of the results.

Close up -- you can see prints of the black sunflowers from my garden.

Windfall dried eucalyptus leaves.

Windfall oak leaves that I collected in Tennessee, yellow coreopsis from my garden.

After this dyeing venture with eco printing, my dyebath was still a vibrant rusty orange. I just hated the thought of wasting it, so I poured the liquid into two big pickle jars and put some alpaca/silk yarn into each jar -- no mordant. I set these in the sun for four days and was pleasantly surprised at the lovely color the skeins absorbed from the dyebath.

When I was in the Sierras, I collected some plant material for dyeing. Here are some of the dyepots and the results. The first is white sage -- no mordant.

Yarn simmering.

This dyebath rendered a beautiful beige -- again the alpaca/silk.

The next dyepot is rabbit brush.

These two skeins of alpaca/silk were in the same dye bath. The top skein had no mordant and came out a pale yellow. The skein below was pale yellow and then was placed in an ammonia afterbath, which made the skein brighten up, almost to a maize color.

My rabbit brush dyebath was still quite vibrant, and again, I didn't want to waste the color, so I rooted around and found some pieces of silk and wool and placed them in the dyepot. After simmering for a couple of hours, this is the result. I am letting the pot sit overnight to see if the fabrics will absorb more color.

And while all this was going on, I made some panels of white nuno felt so that I could do some eco printing on felt. These have just gone into the dyepot, will simmer, and then cool down overnight. Oh, surprises in the morning!!

So, all my friends out there who have been wondering, "What the . . . ?" I am ready to get back to it after a summer of lots and lots of playing around -- mostly with my fibery stuff.

Next trip up: Taos Wool Festival at the end of September -- a week in northern New Mexico with my friend, Michelle. This is just fun and relaxation. I can hardly wait.

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO???

Oh, my word!! When I logged on and saw the last time I posted, it was a bit shocking. I have definitely been neglecting my blog. What with having a pre-Christmas flood in my house and having all the repair work done. Then removing everything out of every room to have new tile and carpeting installed and then . . . going through everything before putting it back. So much was thrown out -- stuff, you know -- that stuff that accumulates over 20+ years. And then there's getting ready for Black Sheep Gathering in between. Well, when put like that, it's no wonder I've been distracted from posting here.

So happy that it's finally warming up. . . I think. My Eden roses are magnificent. I've made some bundles of lavender that are hanging in my studio. Hope we've seen the last of the cold weather for a while.

Lots of flowers.

Bougainvilla in bloom.

My tomatoes are in. Marigolds and coreopsis planted -- good dye plants.

Took a few days off recently to spend time in Cambria, along the "Gold Coast", with two of my high school girlfriends. Nonstop gabbing for four days -- can you believe that after 44 years? Totally, one of the best times ever.

And in between "life" as it happens, I've been readying fibers for Black Sheep Gathering.

Black Sheep Gathering is set for June 24, 25 and 26 in Eugene, OR, at the Lane County Fairgrounds. I will be sharing the booth again with my friend, Miryha, of Blarney Yarns. We'll be in Booths 49 and 50 and will have lots of good fibery things. Miryha also plans on having some handmade soaps. This is definitely one of the best fiber/wool festivals on the West Coast. Hope to see lots of our friends there.

FIRST MONDAY STITCHERS

Today was our first Monday of the month stitch group. We have a great little group of women that meet (usually about six) and there's always good show and tell. Today we had a new stitcher -- Kristine Brooks, who was brave enough to venture up from San Diego in the rain.

Margie (our "Ma Belle") was stitching on some nuno felt that she made with me last week. After our felting session, we went foraging down near San Juan Creek for leafy materials. She left my house with rolled up bundles that, after a little simmering, produced some magic.

Kristine brought a sampler piece for a class that she will be teaching -- woven strips of silk fabric -- on which she stitched and embroidered.

I continued stitching on a sweater that I eco printed.

A little herringbone stitching and some blanket stitch. Another of my many "works in progress", scattered about.

Claudia was the hit of the day with her artistic and creative shirt -- which she said started out as a plain ole white shirt.

She used a lot of rusty old stuff for her dye job. And then she added wonderful appliques that she hand printed herself.

She also stitched on little appliques, added buttons and did lots of hand stitching all over the shirt.

The back was really great -- her handprint. Girlfriend, we were impressed! Job well done.

While on vacation recently, I brought along some of my handspun yarn ("Tiger Lily") and knit a pair of socks from Janel Laidman's "The Eclectic Sole" -- the "Simplicity" sock. I know it's hard to imagine, but I sat on a balmy tropical beach knitting merino/silk/angora socks.

And finally -- TOOT! TOOT! -- can I toot my own horn? I entered my handspun Helix scarf in the Spin Off call for entries, and it made it into the magazine.

I'm tickled pink.

Our next stitch group will be Monday, April 4th.