sweetgeorgia

The gift of silk and light.

Years and years ago, a fellow blogger, Freecia, was inspired to buy me something at a local fibre fair and send it to me as a gift. This was completely and totally out of the blue. She wrote me this lovely note and sent it along with a bit of the most divinely smooth and glowing cultivated bombyx silk fibre. Bombyx silk is still like the caviar of fibres to me. Absolutely delicious. I was very touched by her thoughtfulness and saved the silk package in my A-list stash… and sadly, it stayed there for years.

Late last fall, when I came to the supposed crossroads (why do I keep meeting this crossroad?) about whether or not I could continue to dye, I happened to find this gift and the note that accompanied it. And after my year-long hiatus, this was the first thing that inspired me to dye. I ventured down into the cold, dark laundry room and randomly dyed the package of silk in turquoises, blues, greens and browns. Distraught and sad at the time, I absentmindedly continued to pile on colour after colour… until I realized, “hey, this doesn’t look good at all”. The whole pile of silk seemed like it had been covered with murky, black dye and looked like a disaster. What a waste of a beautiful gift? I had ruined it! I was angry and disappointed with myself, even more convinced that I should just give away all my dye stuff and walk away.

Anyway, I set the dye with a bit of steam and then let it cool and exhaust. Days later when I finally went back down to the laundry room, I poked a bit at the crinkly dried silk roving and all this lightness came pouring out. I had been so absentminded that the dyes hadn’t penetrated all the way through the silk! I really was a dumbass. What I thought was a complete disaster, ended up being this beautiful, subtle mix of blues, warm greys and light. I spent a long time going over the roving, looking at the transitions between colours and values. Maybe I see things where there isn’t anything, but to me this was all about how things really are never as bad as you think they are. There is light in everything. Sometimes, I just need to be patient and I find light where I least expect it.

Thank you Freecia.

* Okay, honestly, my mistake was dousing the silk roving in too much vinegar to begin with. So as soon as I put dye on it, it would strike and fix to the outside of the roving. If you’re going to dye silk roving, use less vinegar in the soaking bath OR work the dye through the roving really well OR gently spread the roving apart so you can access all the bits of silk that need to be dyed. Personally, I don’t really mind undyed bits because it’s like “whitespace”. It offsets and makes the colours more interesting.

The need for shared space.

In my conversations with weavers, spinners, dyers, crafters and guild members this past year, I hear the same lament over and over… “I want to weave but I don’t have space for a loom…” “I have no place to dye…” “I don’t want to dye in my kitchen at home…” and then we talk about how fantastic it would be if we had a space we could use. Some place with space for a gigantic dye/print table, weaving looms and spinning wheels. A place in Vancouver where we could host spinning/knitting nights, host dyeing or spinning classes or … or … even just a place to pick up a new weaving shuttle or extra bobbin for your wheel.

Sorting through my spinning and weaving equipment yesterday, I was a little bit sad about how much equipment I have that just isn’t being used. Over the past three or four years, I have acquired two spinning wheels, three weaving looms, two drum carders, two warping boards, one warping mill, multiple sets of hand carders, hand combs, a zillion books, almost every issue of Spin Off/Handwoven/Rowan/Interweave Knits in the past four years, and an electric bobbin winder AND an electric cone winder. (Half of this stuff is from Jen when she left to go to London.) There’s only one of me… and how many minutes a year will I spend warping with a horizontal mill? I am SO keen on sharing this equipment with like-minded people. It just makes sense that all this stuff get used more often than not.

Of course, we all LOVE our local yarn stores in Vancouver. ThreeBagsFull and Urban Yarns are filled to the brim with absolutely to die for yarns and beautiful things. The Silk Weaving Studio on Granville Island is a wonderful place to watch weavers in a working studio. And then there is Fibre Essence which is a co-op for textile artists that offers retail/show space but no workspace for a $75/month fee.

For some time, I have been blessed with a ton of space to work in. Absolutely BLESSED. I had a separate and dedicated dye room with storage and both wet and dry stations. I also had a completely separate room to house my weaving loom, yarns, and library. This past year, I was so incredibly lucky, my loom was positioned where I could look at the stunning Vancouver mountain landscape while I worked. But no longer. About a month ago, I joined the ranks of tiny apartment owners in Vancouver and have been struggling with how to continue dyeing and weaving where there is just no space. (I have honestly contemplated dyeing in my jail cell-like storage locker, much to the potential chagrin of my strata council.)

So I’m looking to see what the interest level is like in Vancouver for shared space among textile/fibre artists, designers, and crafters. Where would you be willing to go? How much space do you need? What kind of work do you do? And the clincher… how much would you be willing to pay per month? What is a priority for you? Workspace? Showspace? Retail space? I’m superkeen to see what you think. You’re welcome to reply by email to felicia [at] sweetgeorgiayarns [dot] com.

Alt Fiber…

I am excited for Shannon today as her newest book, Alt Fiber, is released today. Several months ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to do some dyeing for her book and you can see some of the photos I took at that time.

Shannon incorporates everything from bamboo and soy to the more obscure banana and pineapple fiber to hemp and seacell… and of course, everything is designed into a gorgeous knit piece. Shannon promises that photos will be up on Ravelry soon!