sweetgeorgia

Keeping Cool

Ugh, knitting and summer. I don’t know how people do it. Already, I live in the Vancouver where the climate is beautifully cool most days. If the temperature gets above 26 degrees, I start to want to wear a bikini top to work. Totally inappropriate work wear, I know. But once the weather gets warm, I find it hard to knit wool without wanting to go rinse my hands under cold water every ten minutes. So, I have two solutions. One: new yarn. Two: hide in the shade.

Enter this SeaCell-based laceweight yarn. For some time now, people have been asking me if I have non-wool yarns because they are either allergic or just want to avoid animal fibres. And outside of often pricey 100% silk, I haven’t had much opportunity to dye non-wool blends. But I did get my hands on a batch of this lovely laceweight and it’s available exclusively on the website as a limited run, called SeaSilk Lace.

It’s a 60% SeaCell and 40% tussah silk blend in a 2-ply laceweight. SeaCell® is a cellulose-based fibre (like Tencel®) derived from seaweed. I had dyed and tried some SeaCell/silk yarn a while back and even blogged about the differences between SeaCell skeins and 100% silk skeins. Being a cellulose-based fibre, the SeaCell doesn’t take up the dye the same way as the silk, so this resulting yarn is at the same time glossy and shiny but also heathered looking. It’s an odd combination to describe, but it’s like having shiny and tweedy in the same yarn.

Here’s hiding in the shade. For those of you who have visited the studio, you’ll know that two sides of the studio (north and west) are actually floor-to-ceiling double-high windows… which means, being in the studio is basically like being in the outdoors. When it’s dark outside, it’s dark at the studio. When it’s hot outside, the heat is magnified by the windows and it’s invariably roasting inside the studio. So, on non-dye days, I have been hiding out at my mini home office.

It’s a little corner I carved out to surround myself with yarn and knitting books. In the daytime, there’s plenty of natural light but it’s stays cool and I can see out into the garden and courtyard space. The hydrangeas are in full bloom and are so unabashedly rich in colour. Violet and mauve. I keep my spinning wheel nearby as well as my guitar and music things. Kind of a grown-up craft girl’s romper room, I guess.

This is where I’m working today. Emails. Bookkeeping. Writing. And keeping cool.

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._

Working spaces

My parents dropped by our house last week — the first time in many months. Even though we live less than five minutes away from them, we see my parents only once in a while — yes, yes, I’m a terrible daughter… In any case, my mom was a little horrified to find that yarn, fibre, equipment and books seem to have _exploded_ in our living room. I think her exact words were _”oh my god, you are almost getting to be like your father”_ — except that she said it in Mandarin.

You see, my parents’ house is not and will never be a spread out of a fancy interior design mag — it’s a working space. My dad’s studio _is_ the living room. Their ‘living room’ is now sort of a tiny area between the the painting studio and the dining room, marked by the presence of a paint-covered sofa. There is paint on the floor, of course, and oil paintings stacked a foot deep all around the living/dining room area. But this is the only way… there is a massive north-facing window in the living room that my dad paints by… the view of West Coast mountains and water… it’s perfect. I mean, really, where else would you set up your workspace?

This is my workspace…

My so-called “knitting/dyeing/spinning/weaving” workspace is also our living room, dining room, bedroom, and second bedroom… it’s freaking everywhere. Sometimes, I don’t know how Richard can live with me. In July, we’ll be reclaiming our entire basement, so many many things (like rarely ever used golf clubs) will be able to move down there, including my design/work studio. I’ll get one half of the space for my office and fibre/equipment storage and Richard will get one half for his office…

That will leave the second bedroom empty for a nice, big floor loom (suggestions are welcome!). This room gets gorgeous, diffuse daylight and I’m looking forward to the days when I can wake up and weave or knit a bit with my morning coffee before going down to work. _Ack._ Can you tell that I just can’t wait to come home?