Hello Again!

I have decided it's time for me to crawl out from under my rock.  Not that I have been stagnating.  No, not me.  I have been steadily busy since I last posted -- always with the overriding buzz in my head that I need to post on my blog. I worked so hard during the year, I needed a little break. After my show season ended in November, I spent time getting my Etsy shop back in order and then I embarked on a journey of spinning and knitting like a mad woman making lovely things to gift to my family members, sons, sons' girlfriends, etc. at Christmas. I knit many hats (Simple Pleasures Hat), numerous pairs of fingerless gloves, and scarves and cowls.  And dummy me, I forgot to take pictures before they went off to the recipients.  

Well, then I began spinning and spinning and spinning, in between having lots of needed work done at my house -- wallpaper removal (ugh! ugh! ugh! what a mess!) and then painting and other repairs.  Still working on some upgrades of things, like my dishwasher that decided to give it up last Monday.  

So . . . I have quite a bit of pygora roving that I have been aching to spin. And here is a skein I have named "Chunky Monkey".  Not that the yarn is chunky.  By all means, it is a light fingering weight two-ply.  This is one continuous strand, no knots, 872 yards long, that weighs 12.9 oz.  I think this is a record for me -- the biggest skein I have ever spun.  It look me a little over a week to spin two full bobbins of singles -- spun while watching my friend Margie (who is not a weaver) weave two projects.   Don't even ask how long it took to ply all that.  This yarn is destined to be part of a sweater, and my plan is to divide the skein into about 6 skeins and dye each skein a beautiful pastel or muted color.  I have other skeins of pygora that will make their way into this sweater, too. Stay tuned.  This might be a project to be entered in the fiber competition at Black Sheep Gathering in June.

And I just had to do another Simple Pleasures Hat.  This one is not as slouchy as in the pattern.  What a great take along project.

I've also been wanting to knit a pair of socks again.  So I used two rovings that I bought from my friend, Miryha Runnerstrom (Blarney Yarn) when I visited her at the Renegade Holiday Craft Fair in downtown L.A. at the Los Angeles Historic Park.  I think the colorways were "Sunflower" and "Evergreen".  The pattern is from 25 Favorite Socks -- Embossed Leaves Socks.

Then there has been more spinning -- constant spinning -- while I got myself up to speed on Downton Abbey.  Had never watched it and wanted to be all caught up by the time the third season began.  I spun a whole lot of a merino/yak/silk roving that I had dyed randomly, seen below -- the purple, gray, rust and blue roving and then I have been plying it with one thing or another.  This first one is plied with a Blarney Yarn "Iris" in a Blueface Leicester/Silk blend.  

 This next one is plied with another of my randomly handpainted merino/yak/silk rovings.

 And this last skein is plied with one of my "Sargasso Sea" rovings in Polwarth wool/Silk.

And this past week, I have begun handpainting fiber again after taking a little vacation from dyeing. Ordered more fibers, too. I have been doing well on Etsy so my little fiber cubbies are starting to look bare.  I'll be doing lots of dyeing and restocking my Etsy shop.  

So excited -- just two days ago, I had track lighting installed in my upstairs weaving room.  This new found light motivated me to pull out my Ashford table loom and set it up. [Just getting it out puts me in a different mind set.] I have such a collection of interesting Habu yarns that I have been wanting to weave with so I'm going to warp my loom this week.  New year, new adventures.

Can't promise anything, but . . . I will try to be more consistent with my blogging.  

Sunday Musings

Well, I think this is the year that we missed Autumn. We don't seem to be finished with Summer yet. After a gnarly rainstorm on Thursday, with thunder and lightning and reported funnel clouds, the welcome cool down passed and we're back to mid-80's. I am frankly tired of being hot.  What I wouldn't do for a brisk Fall day.  Oh, well!  Here are a few photos I took hoping to get myself into an October state of mind.  

 The colors of nature are amazing.

                                                 The simple beauty of piles of leaves.

I am continuing to work on pieces for my booth at Artistic License -- coming up on Friday, October 26th and Saturday, October 27th.  These are some of the eco-printed garments I'll have there. 

                                             Shawls, ponchos and scarves

My booth will also be stocked with lots of my handspun yarns (and probably some bags of my "Pastiche" for spinning art yarns).  

Fingering and sportweight yarns  

 Chunky yarns

 And some art yarns

For information on how to get to the Artistic License Fair in Costa Mesa, you can visit the website:    www.ArtisticLicenseFair.com

Back to work now!

Upcoming Travel and Events

Well, in less than 48 hours, I'll be winging my way to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to meet my friend, Michelle, and to head up to Santa Fe, Chimayo and Taos.  This is our annual trek to the Taos Wool Festival -- this year, the weekend of October 6th and 7th.  We take some extra days for fun and relaxation and to rejuvenate and get our bearings.  A couple of days/nights in Chimayo at the Casa Escondida B&B works wonders on the soul, especially stretching out on our deck in the chaise lounges at night, glass of wine in hand and watching the stars and the Milky Way.  Then off to the Old Taos Guesthouse for the remainder of our stay -- always feels like home.  Lots of stitching and knitting in the back garden.

Casa Escondida

 Old Taos Guesthouse

Upon our return, both Michelle and I will be finishing up our preparations for the Artistic License Fair, Friday and Saturday, October 26th and 27th in Costa Mesa, CA, at Estancia Park.  For more information, visit:    www.ArtisticLicenseFair.com

Some felted scarves I'll have in my booth at Artistic License.

The following weekend on Sunday, November 4th, I'll be participating as a vendor (with my friend Margie Bell) in the Weaving and Fiber Festival at the Torrance Cultural Center.  For more information, visit:   www.schg.org/festival

This is a wonderful local fiber show with many great vendors, indy dyers, etc. hosted by the Southern California Handweavers Guild --  an annual event that draws fiber enthusiasts from all over Southern California.  Hope to see you there.  

During this next month and until after the November 4th fiber fest in Torrance, my Etsy shop will be closed but I will reopen shortly after that.  

August Workshop with India Flint -- Our Wayfayer's Wanderbooks

The afternoon of our third day with India brought us to the construction of our Wanderbooks.  It was very quiet indeed as everyone pieced together the fruits of their labors over the course of the workshop.  Here are the books displayed out on the grass. They are basically works in progress, because there are so many nooks and folds where little treasures and maybe new little books can be tucked away.  

 Close-ups.

Each and every one of these books was so special and unique, and I think every person walked away from India's workshop very happy and with a profound sense of accomplishment.  These three days were truly one of the best workshops I have ever taken and I hope that India, in her wanderings, passes this way again. 

August Workshop with India Flint - Day Three

Day Three of our fabulous adventure with India arrived and, of course, the opening of the bundles we had placed in the dyepot at the end of the previous day.  Again, we encountered magic as we opened our new work.  Each person layed their opened bundles on the wooden deck and we walked around marveling at the natural beauty of our creations, each person's work so unique with the many different materials used.

One of our bundles was wrapped in a bamboo sushi mat.

Some of our papers were folded to make little books with pockets.

More stitching of fabric on paper, too.

On student used some lace fabric from the sleeve of her wedding dress.

The prints on cold pressed water color paper were pretty amazing.

These pieces almost had an ancient look to them.

India shared some of her eco printed cloth with us. A beautiful wool shawl.

A pieced quilt.

We all gathered on the grass under a tree and India gave each of us a piece of newspaper that she had torn up.  She asked us to pick out nine meaningful words from the paper and write them down. We then went around the circle nine times reading one of our words each time.

She then gave us a bit of time to write a small poem using our words and then we each read our poem. What a lovely experience it was.

Finally, Darcy (our most wonderful host) gave each of us a small present of a rolled bundle she had dyed a few weeks before.

 It was a lovely piece of silk -- rust  and brown in color.

Before our break for lunch, India finally revealed that we would use each of the pieces we had dyed during the workshop to fabricate our Wayfayer's Wanderbook.  Our largest sheet of paper, on which we had painted with inks made of blueberries and walnuts, was folded in a way that created many nooks and we could insert little books and other things within this larger book.  

Final instructions for the morning were on how to sew our little books into the larger book.

Next -- our lovely books completed -- well, our works in progress.