sweetgeorgia

Not my loom.

Ok, so the ultimate irony is that on the day that I got my loom I actually drove an hour (each way) to use the other loom at Place des Arts.

Yep. Weaving class is officially over but I missed a couple classes because of my dad’s exhibition and going to Vegas… so I’m a little behind and haven’t finished the Great Big Green Blanket (GBGB). Last night, I spent about two hours in the Fibre Room working on the blanket…

After about two hours, I found myself relatively comfortable with using the massive ski shuttle that I had originally found a little unwieldy. It really was the best solution though. I had tried using a boat shuttle and it just wouldn’t hold very much weft — and winding bobbins is significantly less fun than throwing the shuttle.

I also changed the tie up under the loom so that I could “walk” the loom. Basically all this is is tying the shafts to the treadles in a sequence that allows your feet to alternate (like you are walking). For example, my pattern is 12, 23, 34, 41. If the treadles are tied up in that order, I press treadle 12 with my left foot then treadle 23 with my right foot. Then I need to scoot over or cross over with my left foot so that I can treadle 34. That’s stupid. So, I changed the treadles so that they are ordered like this: 12, 34, 23, 41. That way, I go 12 with the left, 23 with the right, 34 with the left and 41 with the right and I never really need to change my position. You could also order it like this: 12, 34, 41, 23 so that you walk the two outside treadles and then the two inside treadles. Whatever you fancy. It seems to speed things up considerably or at least make treadling less awkward…

All I needed was maybe one more hour to finish weaving off the entire blanket, doing a little hemstitching and then cutting the blanket off the loom. Just one more hour! I’m delighted at how fast it is going. This is instant gratification, people. Instant.

Spring has sprung

It’s here… it’s here! Now… to figure out how to assemble it.

Hooking and Dyeing.

Sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it?! Sounds like I lost my mind and my morals in Vegas, doesn’t it? Heh heh. No, really. Our flight from Vancouver was supposed to leave at 8 pm on Sunday evening, getting us into Vegas just past 11 pm with enough time to partake of some of that “what happens here, stays here” type activity. Instead, our flight was delayed by FOUR HOURS and we got into hotel at around 4 am on Monday morning. But, what did I do for FOUR HOURS?

I re-learned how to crochet.

Yes, with the help of the Happy Hooker, herself, I started crocheting the “Short n’ Sweet” lace bolero with the DK-weight silk I dyed last week. Just as I’m sure new knitters find knitting instructions to be bizarre and vague (kfb, wyib, yo, wtf?), crochet instructions are just as weird and scary… double, triple, half, double triple, double half half… sounds like you’re ordering coffee.

As for Vegas, I have no photos. Not a single one. We were just too busy. The conference itself was inspiring, as always. The speakers are invariably energizing, engaging, and worth the price of admission. I tried to avoid the sessions that would most likely be portfolio shows, but did sit in on the 1.5 hour long presentation by Stanley Hainsworth, the global creative director for Starbucks. To be in charge of the design of the Starbucks experience, worldwide… Pretty cool.

It was too bad that Drew and I never met, but I didn’t see anyone else knitting… although I did meet a guy whose wife does felting and another girl who has a friend who does quilting…

Go big or go home.

This Wednesday, I shipped my biggest order yet to the brand, spanking new Make One Yarn Studio in Calgary, Alberta. Not a wholesale order, per se, but a really big order on behalf of the Make One Sock Club members. Whatever isn’t snatched up by the sock club knitters will go in the store starting June 20th… Amy at Make One (bless her!) is also a Buffy fan, so there’s extra Slayer, Willow and Angel in the mix!

Yes, it was a little freaky and a little intimidating, but I wanted to take on this order as a test for myself. I wanted to try and see what making a big order would be like… how difficult… how tiring… how fun… how exciting?

Well, I survived. So slowly (slowly, slowly) but surely, I am going to start taking wholesale orders. The details aren’t all complete yet but should be ready in a couple weeks. In the meantime, if you are interested in setting up a wholesale account or at least receiving a wholesale info package, let me know here: http://sweetgeorgiayarns.com/about/wholesale.php

There’s no dye session this weekend since we are off to the HOW Design Conference in Las Vegas. It’s basically four days of company-sponsored hedonism for 3,000 graphic designers in the middle of the desert. Crazy, crazy. I’ll be the one knitting a sock in the back of the room.

The Golden Fleece

Nothing says “it’s time to finish washing your fleece” like an upcoming fleece sale. That’s right. This Saturday, June 10, there will be a fleece sale in Langley. I was really considering driving down and buying a nice local fleece — maybe something mohair — but then thought, “hey, maybe I should finish using up the Gotland fleece I already have on hand”… so, out come the dyes…

I had just over 1 1/2 pounds left of the fleece, so I washed it, mordanted with alum and dyed it up with Pomegranate and Osage Orange natural dyes. Pomegranate dye is made from rinds of pomegranates and is high in tannin — it is supposed to give a gold/brown/yellow kind of colour. I think it’s better described as “caramel”. The Pomegranate comes as an extract, so all you need to do is add water and go. Here is the dye extract with just a bit of water… it looks just like chocolate ganache… and smells sticky sweet like port and maple syrup…

The Osage Orange, on the other hand, comes as sawdust… It’s cheaper this way. You can buy the liquid extract but Maiwa happened to be sold out when I was there. The Osage dyebath is easy enough to make though — put the sawdust in a pot with enough water to cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Decant and repeat. Since I was waiting for the fleece to finish mordanting, I simmered and decanted the Osage dyebath three times, straining it through an old nylon stocking each time.

Unfortunately, I ran out of alum and so the fleece that was dyed with Pomegranate only had half the amount of alum that it should have. That probably affected the final colour. The Pomegranate dye pot had lots of sticky scum on top, so I was anxious to get the fleece out of the pot and rinse it.

The final colours on this fleece… honey and lemons. That’s what I got. Caramelly honey colour and light lemony yellow.

I’ve separated the darker fleece from the lighter fleece so that when I card and spin the Osage Orange fleece, I’ll get a beautiful, clear lemon yellow yarn and a darker grey/green yellow yarn. The darker yarn will then go into an indigo bath to turn it mossy green. Yeah, sometime in the next few weeks, I’ll do an indigo day and overdye a little of everything I have in the stash — yarn, fibre, wool, silk, whatever.

The colours turned out very much lighter than what I expected, and I have to admit I was a little deflated by that initially — but now when I see that caramel-coloured fleece in the living room light, I love it. It’s subtle and gorgeous — I could dive right in. So this Saturday, instead of buying more fleece, I’ll be playing with this beautiful golden fleece!

Oh, and while I was dyeing on Sunday, Michelle dropped by to show me her first spindle-spun handspun. This is before setting the twist… so wonderful!

And we reviewed my second attempt at getting the right purple on silk…

The Lanaset worked so much better on these skeins of silk. They were immersion dyed in a big pot and the colour is quite even throughout. The skein on the right, the dark eggplant purple, is actually a mix of five different Lanaset dyes to give a colour that is deep but vibrant and glittery.