sweetgeorgia

Procion Mysteries

So! The vibrating pink silk scarf is off the table loom and I love it… after having overdyed it (scroll down…)

I’m currently playing with some new Procion MX dyes on silk and well, it’s a bit of a love/hate relationship. The results can be a little unexpected and I think it’s because I’m using soda ash as the dye activator. I’ve read that you can also use citric acid to activate the dye (plus heat) and that you are more likely to get a colour that is the same as the dye bath. See here…

Yeah, the colour COMPLETELY changed when I added the soda ash. It was like the blues disappeared entirely and I was left with magenta again. I love it anyway, but I want to try again for a deep, dark violet. With this yarn, I’m hoping to knit the “Silk Camisole” from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

This result, however, was so very welcome. I overdyed the super pink scarf with 1/2 tsp of Navy Procion MX in order to “sadden” or desaturate the colours a bit. I got a lovely raspberry colour and will absolutely wear this — I love it! Thanks to June who suggested the overdyeing.

One thing that concerns me is using soda ash on silk — it takes away some of the sheen of the silk and makes the texture a little more “cottony” or rough… So the next thing I need to try is using the citric acid instead and adding heat. But the appeal of dyeing with Procion, for me, is that it can be done easily without much equipment — take your dye powder and table salt (although I used Glauber’s Salt) and dissolve it in warmish/cool water (105F); add your wet fibre/yarn/fabric and mix for 30 minutes; add soda ash and mix for 30 minutes; let it sit some more then wring it out and rinse (a million times) until clear. All you need is a dedicated pot. One pot dyeing.

Spring this Summer

So, I had lunch today with an old, old friend — someone I haven’t seen in seven or eight years — and we got to catching up. What have you been doing? What are you doing these days? Blah blah blah. I think there was much verbal diarrhea on my part, but somewhere in the midst of all that, I blurted out, “I’m going to be a weaver.” And you know, it felt so good.

Yep. As an early birthday gift to myself, I ordered a floor loom. An 8-shaft Louet Spring 110 (44″) parallel countermarche loom. My excuse is that this birthday is a big deal. In a super cheesy way, it’s the beginning of a new phase in my life (although, did I just hear Jacey say that “30 is the new 20″ in her new podcast?) and this loom, both symbolically and practically, represents change, flexibility, new pathways and learning opportunities.

There was some urgency to place the order with Louet because they don’t keep the floor looms in stock (within Canada) and the containers only come over from Holland every two months or so. If I didn’t order by their deadline, I’d have to wait until September and you know how bad I am at waiting. Plus, I want to get a headstart on gifts. After placing the order, I talked to my weaving teacher and got her blessing for the new loom. I’m all set.

As for the loom itself, it’s a countermarche-type loom. I’ve been doing much research on the different kinds of looms (jack, counterbalanced, and countermarche) for the past few months and was positive that I wanted something quiet and versatile. Like different spinning wheels or different knitting needles, each kind of loom has it’s own pros and cons: Jack looms tend to be easier to tie up and use and they accommodate uneven tie-ups but they can be really noisy! Counterbalance looms are quieter, form better sheds (some of the warp goes up and the rest the warp goes down making a big shed) but don’t accommodate unbalanced weaves. Countermarche looms have the best of both worlds — they are quiet, give big sheds and accommodate unbalanced weaves, BUT they require twice as many tie-ups which often discourages people from ever changing the tie-up. In fact, after ordering the loom and then starting to read Peggy Osterkamp’s section about countermarche tie-ups in her book “Warping Your Loom and Tying on New Warps”, I thought “crap, what I have I gotten myself into?!?”. But, I am using this as a challenge to myself to become confident and efficient with all the little intricacies of the loom.

Thanks to Ahrisha, Stef, Arianie and Brooke who made suggestions and fielded my questions about floor looms. The combined knowledge of these lovely fibre artists is a force of nature.

And here’s a list of starting points and reference materials that helped me during my search:

• Learning to Weave by Deborah Chandler
• The Weaving, Spinning, Dyeing Book by Rachel Brown
• Buying Your First Loom (HGA)
• Which Loom Should I Buy? (HGA)
• Things You Need to Start Weaving (HGA)
• Selecting a Floor Loom (Joanne Hall)
• Countermarch Info (Joanne Hall)

The loom is scheduled to arrived sometime near the end of June — just in time for the transformation of our house into a real working studio. I’ve already picked a paint colour for the new weaving/spinning/fibre room. Now all I have to do is start dreaming up and planning new projects!

Secret Cove

Life has thrown me a few happy, crazy, angsty days since my last post on Thursday. Jen and I are both long-time volunteers involved in the organization of the annual DanceSport BC SnowBall Classic DanceSport event and we spent the past couple days tucked away in the Sunshine Coast participating in a massive strategic planning meeting that covers all things “SnowBall” from now until 2010. It was eight or nine hours a day of thinking, analyzing, dreaming, planning — all very inspiring. It’s so uplifting to be around people who are all so optimistic and enthusiatic. Their passion is palpable. The entire committee stayed at the gorgeous Rockwater Secret Cove Resort in Halfmoon Bay.

When we weren’t indoors, this is what we got to see:

And this is what we did each evening after dinner:

Jen is borrowing my Ashford Joy wheel indefinitely and so we were both spinning and chatting until late each night. A perfect way to relax after all that work — and I managed to get more of my Gotland spun up. Relaxing AND productive. No better combination.

As for the angst, see this lovely new 50/50 silk/wool laceweight yarn that I dyed?

Well, I can’t decide if I like it as the Diamond Fantasy Shawl or as the Kiri Shawl. Ridiculous, no? I started knitting each shawl from either end of the same ball of yarn… I’ll let you know which shawl wins out… when I decide.

Working spaces

My parents dropped by our house last week — the first time in many months. Even though we live less than five minutes away from them, we see my parents only once in a while — yes, yes, I’m a terrible daughter… In any case, my mom was a little horrified to find that yarn, fibre, equipment and books seem to have exploded in our living room. I think her exact words were “oh my god, you are almost getting to be like your father” — except that she said it in Mandarin.

You see, my parents’ house is not and will never be a spread out of a fancy interior design mag — it’s a working space. My dad’s studio is the living room. Their ‘living room’ is now sort of a tiny area between the the painting studio and the dining room, marked by the presence of a paint-covered sofa. There is paint on the floor, of course, and oil paintings stacked a foot deep all around the living/dining room area. But this is the only way… there is a massive north-facing window in the living room that my dad paints by… the view of West Coast mountains and water… it’s perfect. I mean, really, where else would you set up your workspace?

This is my workspace…

My so-called “knitting/dyeing/spinning/weaving” workspace is also our living room, dining room, bedroom, and second bedroom… it’s freaking everywhere. Sometimes, I don’t know how Richard can live with me. In July, we’ll be reclaiming our entire basement, so many many things (like rarely ever used golf clubs) will be able to move down there, including my design/work studio. I’ll get one half of the space for my office and fibre/equipment storage and Richard will get one half for his office…

That will leave the second bedroom empty for a nice, big floor loom (suggestions are welcome!). This room gets gorgeous, diffuse daylight and I’m looking forward to the days when I can wake up and weave or knit a bit with my morning coffee before going down to work. Ack. Can you tell that I just can’t wait to come home?

explorTAIWANESE

Did you know that May is not only “eat local” month, but it’s also “Asian Heritage Month” in Canada? explorASIAN 2006 is a month-long celebration of Asian Canadian arts and culture in the Lower Mainland. Chisako’s “Kasuri” weaving show that I mentioned a few days ago is part of the explorASIAN event schedule. My father, Shyh-Charng Lo, is participating in a joint exhibition called “explorTAIWANESE”, opening at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Yaletown next Tuesday, May 23.

Here are all the details…

Roundhouse Community Centre 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver May 23 - June 3, 2006, 9:30 am - 9:30 pm

Explore the work of Fu-chin Hu, a Taiwanese traveler, and Shyh-Charng Lo, a Taiwanese Vancouverite shown together in this exquisite joint art exhibition.

Come and see their beautiful interpretations of Vancouver scenery expressed through oil paintings. Get insight into the artists’ inspirations at the dialogue between two artists.

• Opening reception: May 23, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
• Artists’ talk: June 1, 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
• Closing reception: June 2, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

The show is being run in conjunction with the explorINDONESIAN exhibition. The Indonesian exhibit will also have a special display of Kain Nusantara (Indonesian Traditional Textiles) which should be interesting too.

If you are interested, come on down next Tuesday and say hello!