sweetgeorgia

Reconsidering Natural

Reassess. Reconsider. Rediscover. You’ll note that I’m having difficulty writing full sentences right now. I still feel a little hungover from this weekend… I was quite fully and mercilessly drunk on the natural dyes and textiles from Maiwa’s Natural Dye workshop, led by Charllotte Kwon, owner and founder of Maiwa…

What I learned and received from the workshop was so much more than I had expected… and not just in terms of the fabulous reference binder of swatches, or the notes, or the technique (which is really just measure and cook)… It was really the appreciation of the work done by artisans everywhere, the understanding that the knowledge about these historic techniques absolutely must be preserved, and the overwhelming feeling of responsibility in everything we do… We dye, we spin, we weave. But how much and what kind of resources do we use? How much do we consume? How much do we waste? How can we change, adapt, improve our process so that we live more gently?

All this, combined with the October 2006 “Green City” issue of Vancouver Magazine, the launch of the “OneDayVancouver.ca”, and a million other tiny, niggling questions and contradictions in my head, have just been overwhelming to say the least.

What can I say? I got more than I paid for… and definitely in a good way.

Here and there.

There’s a coolness in Vancouver that is beyond crisp now. Yep, it’s downright chilly today. Feeling the need to have warm, comfy and cushy Zara sweater NOW.

I’m making progress, yes, I am…

In light of the fact that I seem to have zero spare time these days, I’ve been taking a tip from various knitters who encourage knitting a row here and there throughout the day… That’s three rows in the car, two rows before a client meeting, three more rows while waiting for dinner… It’s amazing what a few minutes here and there can do.

Similarly with my weaving, I was able to warp up my loom with the new handpainted silk log cabin scarf project during the daylight hours. Since I haven’t had time to move my work computer down into the finished (yahoo!) office, I’m still sitting three feet away from my loom… which means that when I have to upload a file that takes 10 minutes, I can turn around and fuss with my loom for 10 minutes.

This is 144 ends (72 purple threads and 72 black threads) spread out neatly through the built-in raddle that is positioned on top of the Spring loom. I’m being extra careful by running a thin strip of painters tape over the top so that stray threads don’t pop out of their spots… or that I don’t accidentally pull a chunk of threads out of the raddle. Yeah, been there, done that.

Those are two lease sticks that I’ve tied to the back beam of the loom — they keep the warp nice, neat and tidy… The last warp I put on was, well, shall we say, put on haphazardly without a tidy cross or lease sticks… and well, let’s just say, it got a little messy back there. So, I’m being good and conscientious here… hopefully it will pay off in terms of a better-tensioned warp and less mess.

And this probably should be filed under “too much information” but, yeah, I’m crocheting the bikini from last summer’s issue of Knit.1. Now, to figure out how to properly do crochet decreases…

Maiwa’s Introduction to Dyes

This past weekend was spent like every weekend… elbow-deep in dye. But this time, it was with Maiwa’s “Introduction to Dyes” workshop led by Anne Babchuk at Maiwa East. For three days, we explored a variety of different dyes and dye application techniques from Procion and Washfast Acid dyes to the new-to-me Vat dyes.

We spent Friday evening looking at some gorgeous and intricately detailed textiles, many of them incorporating resist techniques — shibori, bandhani, batik, and block printing… Shibori (Japan) and Bandhani (India) are just other names for ‘tie-dye’ but the method in which the fabric is tied or folded and clamped can create some facinating patterns and textures.

Saturday was spent immersion dyeing cotton, silk and devoré velvet swatches in Procion MX. While the swatches were setting, we also learned some fold/clamp/resist/tie-dye techniques using plain old cotton fabric and Procion.

Our little group of three people dyed our pot a colour called “Dark Earth” — a mix of Yellow, Navy, and Scarlet — which was supposed to be an earthy, mossy green colour. The interesting result was that the silk swatches didn’t seem to take up very much of the Navy colour and turned out a rust colour! You can see the devoré velvet samples have rust backgrounds and dark green “foliage” — that’s because the fabric is silk-backed and the velvet pile is rayon! Interesting…

On Sunday, we switched from cellulose fibres to protein fibres and dyed silk and wool using Washfast Acid dyes — both immersion and handpainting on skeins. The group that wanted to dye a yellow ochre colour somehow got a gorgeous grassy green colour… probably too much turquoise!

But you can see from the photo above that one of the fabric swatches turned out a pale, pale shade. That would be silk-backed rayon satin… So the backside is a deep green but the “right side” of the fabric is pale green because rayon, being a cellulose fibre, doesn’t dye with acid dyes. You can also see the fluffy pile of 100% nylon that dyed a beige/brown colour in the same pot.

On Sunday afternoon, we started using vat dyes. These are facinating… they discharge dye (remove colour) from the fabric and then deposit a new colour onto the fabric. Also, the final colour does not develop until the dye is exposed to oxygen and allowed to oxidize. So when you are looking at a “red” vat dye bath, it actually looks murky green. Then when you remove dyed items and put them into a cool water bath, the colour starts to develop into red… like magic.

So in the photo above, the swatch that is predominately red is actually our Procion-dyed cotton in “Dark Earth” — we did a rough accordian fold on the fabric, tied it in a couple places with ikat tape (I love this stuff) and then dropped it in the red vat dye bath. In places where the fabric was exposed to the dye bath, the green colour was removed and red was deposited. The opposite happened in the other swatch — it was originally dyed a cranberry red using Procion and then dropped in a green/turquoise vat dye bath. It results in an effect which just seems impossible!

And finally, check out what else went into the vat… a pole-wrapped (arashi shibori) silk scarf. Again, this was silk that was dyed in Procion, tied to a pole to create little accordian folds and then dropped in the vat dye. Since I’m going back to Maiwa East in two weeks for the natural dye class, I left my scarf there to dry. Once it’s dry, the silk will retain the texture of the accordian folds… I’m really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Eeee!

The class was a wonderful overview to all things chemically dyed. Processes like vat dyeing, I normally wouldn’t undertake on my own since it involves lye (have you seen Fight Club?) and thiourea dioxide (really smelly)… in fact, we all wore respirators with organic filters for the afternoon session. So the workshop is a great way to experiment and see what you enjoy the most. In fact, coming out of this workshop, all I want to do is play with the woven shibori techniques a la Catherine Ellis…

And while I was dyeing this weekend, a big box of my handpainted yarns winged their way to The Sweet Sheep…

Random Thursday.

So… photos of Sizzle. Right. This way…

Yeah, the photo is headless because I just got a haircut on Tuesday and now I look a little too much like Karen O… which is not entirely bad, just different. Why why why do I forget how I look with fringe?! Anyway. It’s just hair. It’ll grow back.

Sizzle

• Pattern: From Wendy Bernard at Knit and Tonic
• Size: The smallest size (30″)
• Yarn: Estelle Mystik DK, a cotton viscose blend… I think I used about 5 balls
• Needles: US 7 / 4.5 mm Knit Picks Options!!! (I love these!)
• Mods: None… I made the regular neckline although you can make a more “modest” version if you like… although this doesn’t seem too bad for me.
• Notes: It’s quick and easy to knit, although for me it wasn’t exactly a “three day project”. But I did knit the majority of it on our trip to Tofino and it was good “driving” knitting. Next time, I would knit this in the round, of course.

And seeing as I finished Sizzle and Orangina and I’m awaiting more yarn from Weaving Works to finish my EZ fair isle cardi, I figured I could start a new project… Enter Cosmicpluto’s Lucy in the Sky cardi:

I’m knitting Lucy with stash yarn. It’s Filatura di Crosa Zara that I bought a long while ago and even though it’s DK weight, I’m knitting it on US 8 (5mm) to make gauge. I don’t mind if the resulting cardigan is a little more drapey… in fact, I prefer it that way.

And, look, there’s more on random Thursday… Heather at Lectio.ca has written up a sock pattern for SweetGeorgia Speed Demon yarn that she is giving away for free! It’s called “Sell Your Sole” and you can download it from her site here: http://www.lectio.ca/images/sell_your_sole.pdf

With only 48 stitches around, these socks are quick to knit (I love that) and Heather has provided super-detailed step-by-step photos and instructions for turning the heel. Yahoo. If I have a moment to breathe tonight, I’ll cast on for a pair… Maybe I’ll even be able to bring handknit socks to my grandparents in Japan this time!

And finally on random Thursday, pop on over and visit my friend Shelley at The Maple Kitchen. We’ve been friends since our days at university and she was our uber-fabulous MC at our wedding… and now, she’s just posted about her very first knitting project!!! Send her some love.

Retreat

I need a vacation. Yeah, I know this is technically the end of summer vacation but… but… Astor is hosting a knitting retreat this Fall at Hollyhock on Cortes Island. Hollyhock is an educational retreat centre that hosts programs, camps, and workshops about everything from Tibetan Buddhism to Sea Kayaking to Poetry to Ashtanga Yoga… plus they also offer massages! That would be perfect… do a little knitting and then go for a massage… The retreat is called “A Pull of Wool” and runs from September 29 to October 2.

Unfortunately, I can’t go because I’m taking the three-day Colour Institute workshop with Michele Wipplinger as part of the Maiwa Textile Workshops. Actually, I’m taking dye workshops nearly every weekend in September, starting this Friday… I’ve got “Introduction to Dyes” with Anne Babchuk which will give an overview of all different kinds of dyes — including fibre-reactive (procion), acid (washfast and lanaset), and vat dyes (like indigo). I’m also taking “Natural Dyes” with Charllotte Kwon which should result in a reference book of 80 different natural dye samples. The class I was really hoping to take was “Precision Dyeing” which is all about using Procion MX to create a complete colour wheel… but the class falls on the same weekend as my five-year wedding anniversary… So it was celebrate my wedding anniversary or dye, celebrate or dye…

And there is weaving to do… I finally finished dressing the loom with some leftover silk warp and started this little stole. It’s 20/2 silk in a block twill. I basically threaded groups of twelve ends on shafts 1,2,3,4 or 5,6,7,8 somewhat randomly. This is really a test for a bigger silk shawl I plan to do and I just wanted to see how big the blocks might be and how it would look overall. But I was up until about 1 am last night fixing a couple threading errors and had to fashion my own string heddles to do so… very cool. I feel kind of empowered now. And using all eight shafts and ten treadles? Also very empowering. I like.

Oh, yes. And there is also knitting. In fact, I finished Sizzle. But there are no photos. Taking photos of yourself by yourself is hard work. So instead, I have photos of the Diamond Fantasy Shawl in progress…

Mmm hmm. And deadlines. And work. And more work. I’m tired. I think the very best news that I’ve heard in a long time is that we are returning from Hong Kong a couple days early (the travel agent’s mistake) and we’ll be able to squeeze in a surf trip to Oregon. It’ll be the very last weekend in October. The water will be cold but I can’t wait.