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 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.

“A good day for playing hooky…”

That’s what the weatherman said this morning on the radio. That lovely (or terrible) hot weather everyone else is enjoying is making it’s way to Vancouver and today will be a lovely 26°C. But no playing hooky for me today — there is a ton of work to do.

Congrats to Betzig of Stitchcounter who was the randomly-drawn winner for the contest! And thanks to everybody for the lovely birthday wishes!!

It’s funny, a few years ago, I was trying to decide whether or not I should go to art school, full-time (after having already completed a Bachelors at UBC — because I’m crazy about school?!?). In the end, I decided against it since I would have graduated at 29 and I really, genuinely felt that by 29 I shouldn’t be “starting” my life… that I should be “complete” with a proper career, proper husband, proper family and lifestyle, blah blah blah. Well, life just doesn’t turn out as you expect, eh? If, at that time, someone had told me that I’d be dyeing my own yarn with ground up bugs, spinning yarn from raw fleece, or completely obsessed with weaving… I would have laughed.

But here is the beauty of where things are at… inspired, energetic, passionate and unfinished:

By the way, spinning cotton? So humbling.

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.

Lovely and amazing.

I have been secretly in love with Rachael since she knit Alice Starmore’s Cromarty in custom-dyed Koigu Kersti. She is not so secretly in love with Lala. And last night, I had the absolute pleasure of meeting them both after their wedding here in Vancouver. A lovely and amazing couple.

Also at the Sylvia Hotel reception last night were Mandy (Yarnageddon) and Janice (Rabbitch) who were the witnesses at the ceremony, Zak (Mandy’s DH), Rachael (photographer), Siew and Heather. All lovely and amazing people.

Of course, I was too shy to bring my camera, so you can go see Rabbitch’s photos here… or Rachael’s photos here…

Oh, and in case I accidentally gave anybody the impression that I spun up all the silk for the Flower Basket Shawl in one day (!)… this is the entirety of what I spun:

It’s a teeny tiny amount, but just enough to knit up a sample!