ArgoKnot

ArgoKnot
A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life
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Author name: ozweaver

>New Year’s Resolutions!

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My husband is renovating my studio during his time off from work between Christmas and New Year. Lucky me!
We were certain that there was humidity behind the walls in my basement studio. The humidifier seems to run all year ’round, I often feel groggy after working down there for any length of time, and I have just the slightest inkling that some of my migraines occur after spending time down here. So it was no surprise to find moldy, damp cement when Bob cut the walls away yesterday. YUK!!
And, of course, my stuff is a mess! There was no place else in the house to move my looms and other equipment and stash, so we just crammed it into the rest of the room.


Here Bob is jackhammering a French drain to help with the moisture situation. To cut down on dust he’s dexterously using one foot to guide the nozzle of the shop vac so most of the dust was whisked away!

Today’s progress: walls freshly painted with dry-loc! Tomorrow Bob will build the vapor barrier, and then get started on putting studs up for the new wall, which will come out past the French drains. There will be a shelf where the old walls end and the new walls join. More places for me to put stuff!

I will need to pick out new flooring soon!

So what are my resolutions for the New Year? Stay tuned….right now I need to get off the computer!

>Let the Holidays Begin

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>This is a wall hanging I did about a decade ago. It’s 24″ x 36″ and hangs in my red kitchen all year long. I had never taken a photo of it until recently when someone asked to have some directions written for doing boundweave….
Guess who finished the nasty Christmas stocking today? That requires some celebrating!….so I immediately grabbed the most luxurious yarn I could — “Sublime” cashmere/merino/silk — and began knitting the “Fetching” fingerless mittens by Cheryl Niamath from the summer ’06 issue of knitty.com.

Little progress made on any tapestries, but the most has been done on this one. I’m ready to start working on Rob’s hand. Challenging!

Time to make the cookies and the toffee and wrap some presents…. it’s almost Hannukah, Christmas, Saturnalia, and, best of all, the Winter Solstice! Let’s all give a howl!

>Merry Ho! Ho!

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>Well, aren’t there a LOT of demands on every one’s time this month! Why would I be any exception….

Yesterday was the annual sheep party of a group of weavers in which I am a lucky member. There are only 10 of us, probably due to the burden of buying any more than 10 sheep gifts! I was the hostess this year….and the sheep presents were awesome!….as was the food and the company!

Here’s my favorite sheep

And here’s the funniest sheep, unshorn and shorn!

I am reluctantly knitting a Christmas stocking for my new daughter in law. I got the Ann Norling pattern years ago because I always wished my stocking was the nutcracker. My stocking is a snowman, made by my mother in law, who wanted me to have one just like the ones given to her children by their maternal great aunt. She also knit them for my two sons when they were born, but I believe we are the only family members who got them. Lucky indeed!…..until now, when I have to keep up this family traditon and make one for our newest member. Did I mention that I hate intarsia? Making myself work on this thing has been torture. I think I’d rather have a root canal. So much for the adorable nutcracker! I can’t stand him now! Anyway, it’s still not finished, although anything else with twice the work would have been done before Thanksgiving. I think I started the hateful thing around Hallowe’en, thinking it would be done in a week. Ah….I’d forgotten just how much I hated intarsia since I haven’t done that technique in almost 20 years when I made Kaffe Fassett’s “Jack’s Back” and hated every minute of that!

So, every moment I work on anything else is loaded with guilt. I have now blown by two dates when I was supposed to deliver the stocking. I have knitting rage when I work on it, and that’s really not good. In fact, I fear I am polluting the world with bad knitting karma every time I touch the thing. I’m not sure I can give it away full of such bad vibes. Hmmm….

>What’s going on here?

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I just returned from a six day trip to San Francisco, where I indulged in a trip to Art Fibers and Britex, along with the typical sightseeing: the seals on Pier 39, Union Square, Chinatown….


Dyeing with weld has been on my mind since early summer when I realized my second year plants were going to flower. This is my first attempt at dyeing weld. It was a multi-day process. First I chopped up the dried branches from plants that I harvested back in July. Immediately after covering them with water I realized I meant to cut the branches into much smaller lengths, like 1″ – 2″ lengths, but it was too late! Sometimes I wonder at my lack of ability to concentrate! The color I got after simmering the weld did not look promising, like weak tea. I let the pot cool and sit for a couple of days and then heated it to a simmer again. I never did let it boil, and both times I simmered for only about 1 hour. I strained off the liquid from the plant material, gave the plant material a good pressing to extract all the liquid I could before disposing of it. The dye liquor was an unappealing dark tan. In went the wet yarns, most of which was my handspun romney and one 250 gram skein of fingering weight Palette from Knit Picks. This simmered one hour for a very awful tan. I then let the yarns cool in the pot and sit overnight for a second try the next day. Still very boring tan. I then resorted to my very expensive, $37/oz. powdered weld from Earthues. I had one ounce which I dissolved in a small amount of water before adding to my dye pot. The color got darker, but no better. Back in with yarn to simmer for about an hour. The color of tan got considerable darker and had an olive tinge to it. I still hated it!

I then consulted the internet on weld dyeing and what could be done to shift the color. The recommended additives were ammonia or sodium carbonate. I opted for ammonia since I could get that locally. I do wish I’d taken a ‘before’ photo! I removed the yarn from the dye pot in order to ‘glug’ in some ammonia, and the color change was instant and shocking! When I added the yarn it also changed right before my eyes to something quite lurid! It’s a lot more yellow now, but that olive cast is still there, making for a bright “French’s” mustard with an olive tinge. I rather like it! It’s certainly shocking.

I’m looking forward to over-dyeing with indigo, though this time I will only dip my little 1/2 oz. skein for a test before submitting all my precious handspun to what could potentially be a really nasty color!

I’m thinking about how to write up what I’m doing with my ‘Cardigan for Arwen,’ but can’t seem to make myself sit down with the graph paper to document my changes. I’m much more of a design-on-the-needles knitter, who struggles to then document what has already been done….

I bought some silk/mohair (76 % silk, 19% mohair, 5% merino) called Sylph at Art Fibers and had to immediately start working on a Clapotis. I was knitting everywhere in San Francisco, and obviously not paying attention well because I’ve now come to the fourth set of dropped stitches and those stitches won’t drop all they way to the bottom. It appears that I did a k2tog quite a fews rows down that is interfering with the dropping. I discovered this last night at almost midnight, while watching tv since I couldn’t go to bed when my body was still on West Coast time. I threw the whole mess into one of my knitting bags and hope not to think about it again too soon!

In the past couple of weeks I have worked on both the historical tapestry and H. Rob, but with no real progress to show for it. Baby steps are better than nothing though, and I have also done a small sample for my Hudson River Quadricentennial piece. Slow and steady…..

I do not understand why certain photos get sideways when the original was not!

Can you see here that I’ve drawn in the shape of the boat that will get woven next?

Ah, and I’ve just remembered that I promised an article to my study group at Complex Weavers….so I’ll sign off now to take care of that!

>Rhinebeck

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>This year I spent two days at Rhinebeck, quite a luxury! The first day I shopped like a fiend, and the second day I enjoyed the events, like sheep dog trials, the sheep to shawl, the vendors selling local cheeses and wines. The highlight for me was the sheep to shawl:


Second to the sheep to shawl would be the sheep dog events, like the trials and the frisbee events! Those dogs are fast and smart!

Isn’t this a great hooked rug? Definitely worthy of a blue ribbon!

alpacas, and a suri alpaca!

Vendors: I loved Gita Maria, who was new to the show this year! She makes wonderful cloissone buttons and jewelry. I bought three pendants which I hope to use as zipper pulls on sweaters and vests. One will go on my Arwen Cardigan (sans hood) which I will write about momentarily, and one is for my teal green handspun wool/mohair vest which is still a changing design in my mind. The third pendant I just had to have, and maybe it will actually become a necklace!

Yarns International had an amazing display of Fair Isle sweaters. I was truly mesmerized and couldn’t leave their booth, even though I was in no position to make a decision on buying a sweater kit at that moment. I have too many things in queue, several which have deadlines in the next several months….but it was so hard to tear myself away. I ended up in that booth again on Sunday, struggling to tear myself away again!

Homestead Heirlooms makes their own leather handles for purses and bags, in lots of colors and styles. Their booth was full of knitted, felted bags that showed the handles to great advantage! This was another booth in which I could have bought everything! They are the answer to my unfulfilled dream of making woven purses, like I’ve admired at Avoca (from Ireland) in Annapolis. I can’t wait to do something toward this! Meanwhile, I bought a pair of bright fuscia handles to knit a small felted bag for a friend for Christmas!

There were several booths with natural dyed yarns, but the one that appealed most to me was a woman from Waldoboro, Maine, named Jody McKenzie (yes, I did a double take, reading her name as Judith!). Botanical Shades is the name of her company, and she does beautiful hand painted yarns in natural colors as well lovely solids. I have a very tempting dream now of visiting her next summer for a day of dyeing under her tutelage when we are sailing in Maine. I hope it happens!

I bought a Golding spindle, some lovely autumn colored 50/50 alpaca/silk top, some Icelandic lamb roving, and several books. When I arrived at 10am on Saturday, I went straight to The Fold’s booth only to discover that the line for their sock yarn was already winding around the corner and serpentining through all the open space in the main aisle! I wanted a spindle, and since they hadn’t brought any this year, I could walk away! Whew!

The other highlight of the weekend for me was having people compliment my newly finished Icelandic Lace Shawl On Sunday, I heard someone yell, “Hey! Icelandic lace shawl woman!” And I turned to find a woman trying to catch up with me. She was from Viriginia, and she pulled out her partially finished shawl so we could both ‘ooooo and aawww!’
(why is this photo coming out sideways…it’s not this way in my files)
I should mention it seemed to me every one in three women was wearing ‘Clapotis.’ Looked positively lovely on some people and awful on others. It was nothing to do with the knitting….I guess that design is really meant for the svelte, so perhaps I will shelve my plans to knit it!

Lastly, I returned home Sunday evening to discover that one of my favorite scarves had sold in my etsy shop! It’s been a wonderful weekend!

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