sweetgeorgia

Accidents in carding.

It was not a happy meeting today, the skin of my hand and the sharp metal teeth of my electric drum carder. However, it was a fantastic meeting this morning with a lovely fellow fibre fanatic who inspired me to unleash said drum carder. But rather than obsessing about my scraped hand, let’s obsess about the pretty puffs that it produced…

I swear, I’ve been trying to be completely authentic with this fleece. Purchased in raw form, I was on my hands and knees by the bathtub washing this thing. Then, delicately dyeing chunks of it in natural dye… my plan was to then card and spin all of it into worsted weight yarn which would then end up in a handwoven blanket… and then I got bored.

I didn’t want to spin a whole pound of cochineal-dyed fleece and then another pound of logwood-dyed fleece, etc. So instead, I just started to randomly drop hand teased fleece into the feed tray of the carder. These are like happy accidents. I hope they’ll end up spinning into some nicely heathered and randomly coloured yarns. And, most inauthentic of all, I have a large chunk of fleece that I overdyed in green acid dye. I thought all those natural pinks and purples needed a hit of green.

And for a nice hit of colour to dream about this weekend…

The little studio that could.

It’s pouring rain again in Vancouver and I have been dyeing nearly every day since Saturday. We’re trying to fill up this big place with colour, yarn and fibre… but no matter how much I dye every day, I don’t seem to be able to make a dent. It’s happening slowly though… colour is taking over the concrete grey room and eventually, we’ll be suffocated by colour. Yay.

I’ve been honest with myself and decided that I love dyeing silk… the vibrancy and saturation is just unparalleled with other fibres. Maybe dyeing BFL fibre comes close… or mohair locks… but honestly. I love silk.

Dyeing is idiosyncratic sometimes. It can be unnerving but also so very interesting when you attempt to dye fleece a green colour… and it turns out to have purple in it.

For whatever reason, the dye stock separated as certain dye colours were drawn to different sections of the raw fleece. Green liked the tips. Reddish purple liked the shorn side. Very interesting. I like these kinds of surprises.

And we keep chugging away and dyeing every day.

Wool n’ Dance

If I was in London right now, I’d be going to this!

“To coincide with the Thames Festival, Wool n Dance, also at Southbank Centre this weekend is a special event inviting you to cut-a-rug (quite literally) outdoors on a wet and slippery dance floor and turn a big wool carpet into felt. Live music and workshops in spinning, knitting, felting and weaving. This event takes place 13 & 14 September at the Southbank Centre. Free entry from 12pm.”

Turning a wool rug into felt by dancing on it? So cool.

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts/productions/wool-n-dance-42362

Ideal space. Studio space.

Time and space to breathe now. I have, indeed, secured an absolutely gorgeous studio space that is the studio space of my dreams. SweetGeorgia is now officially housed in a two-level studio loft with 18′ ceilings and a spectacular 4th floor view of the North Shore mountains and downtown Vancouver. The place is flooded with natural light via floor-to-ceiling windows on North and West sides. I will have more and more details about the space soon, but first I’ll be moving in this weekend…

… and then I’ll do more dyeing…

Here’s a teeny glimpse at the space and the iron spiral staircase…

Finally, we have a properly equipped studio space where dyers, spinners, weavers, knitters, crafters and fibre artists can converge, work, teach, learn, interact and innovate with other designers and artists and the community. Everytime I visit the space, I think it’s breathtaking. I can’t wait to be here.

Three more rows to go.

I am mere stitches away from finishing the Central Park Hoodie.