ArgoKnot

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

>Unfinished Work

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>Will I ever finish this piece? I’m beginning to think NOT, and it’s frustrating me. Quite some time ago I found a wonderful picture of a stone Buddha on the fridge at a friend’s house. Yes, it was a photo posted on a refrigerator!….yet it was the most beautiful face I’ve ever seen, and I asked my friend right then and there if I could make a copy of it. She gave it to me. I’m not doing anything artistic with it, I’m just copying it. I blew it up to the size I wanted, and I took a lot of time deciding how to convey a sense of the pitted stone in yarn. I’m happy with the mouth and nose. I’m actually quite a bit further along in the weaving than this photo shows. Yesterday I started the left eye. Well, I guess it’s really his right eye, but as I work on it it’s the eye to my left. I’ve woven it three times now, and it’s still not right. I love everything about this face! He has a beautiful mouth, and a perfectly shaped nose, but his eyes are truly moving. I can’t get the right expression. I’m trying not to feel like a failure, but I really do. I’m just a weaver, and if I could figure out how to portray this beautiful face I could weave it without much trouble. It’s portraying his amazing expression that’s going to defeat me…..

Okay, here he is in the photo. I wasn’t going to post this, but he’s too beautiful to leave out. How many times have I written that word, beautiful, in this post? I think I’m obsessed with his beauty!

(The colors I’m using are closer to the real photo than this photo would suggest. He’s much greener, like he’s seen years of moss and algae, and not at all golden as he looks here.)

>Sleep Deprivation

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I’ve been awakened several consecutive nights by this owl. If you click on both the “A” sound and the “B” sound you’ll hear what wakens me! It’s a soothing sound, and I find it is bringing up some very old memories of sleepless nights full of teenage angst when I would be lulled to sleep by a whippoorwill. If you’ve never heard a whippoorwill I truly hope someday you will. It’s an indescribable experience that is heightened by occurring in the depths of night.

I doubt if I’ll ever get to see this owl, so hearing its call is quite intriguing. I’m imagining him (although possibly her) sitting in a spot like this photo, in a tree somewhere nearby, maybe even in my yard. I have heard him for several years now, in the summer when our windows are open. While the voice of a whippoorwill will always bring back details from my bedroom from the mid-70s, now the sound of an Eastern screech owl will be the voice of my menopausal, empter nester years when I don’t often sleep through the night.

Recently, during my late evening walks I’ve been hearing what might be a Great Horned Owl. I’m not completely sure about this as the owl in my neighborhood has a much lower pitched call. All I know for certain is that it is not the same owl as the one that awakens me later in the night. It’s interesting to realize that there is such bird life in my suburban town, although my town is rather undeveloped, so less manicured than most ‘burbs.

I’m not a “birder,” so it’s not as if I’m on the lookout for them, and this means I’m sometimes pleasantly surprised by my surroundings. Waking and drifting back to sleep to the sounds of owls (or whippoorwills!) is quite a good experience, something I highly recommend!

>Knitting Pattern

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Two years ago I started a knitting ministry group in my area. It was not about religion per se, but about the power of knitting to heal us and others. I think the act of making anything by hand and wearing it or giving to someone to wear or use is a powerful totem for good health and protection against bad things. There just has t be a lot of good karma in something that you’ve made stitch by stitch for yourself or for someone you know. I’ve made it a point for many years now to wear something handmade everyday. I was surprised at how easy it is to wear some little something made by real hands, mine or others, each day.

So, I figured there were plenty of people in my community who would want to learn to knit now that knitting is so hip and there are so many LYSs (local yarn shops) cropping up again, and so many mega craft stores carrying yarn. I also figured there were plenty of past knitters out there who wanted to start again and just needed a little impetus. So I decided to offer knitting lessons for free and to focus on knitting for others. I was happily surprised at the number of people who have joined, and very pleased at how they each help each other. Even the new knitters now help others. I’m awed by what they do!

Most of the group knits shawls since fit is not an issue and since they don’t require any complicated shaping. Some people have moved on to interesting stitch patterns and/or triangular shawls, and some have just continued to knit, knit, knit! Some of the members have learned to make socks, and some have rekindled their talents at making sweaters. Everyone has felt the healing power of just going through the motions of knitting.

So here’s one of the shawls for which I’ve written a pattern. It’s not complicated; it’s based on the traditional Faeroese triangular shape that starts at the neck edge rather than the bottom point, and makes a shape that stays nicely poised on one’s shoulders. Hopefully later today I’ll have the PDF!

>Summer Vacation

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>So here’s some of what I did on my summer vacation while sailing through the Elizabeth Islands, Martha’s Vineyard, and the Cape.

It was a good trip for knitting and spinning. I finished one pair of socks and knit another pair, and I knit the entire front of my next Elsbeth Lavold sweater (I had finished the back before leaving). I think she is one of the most interesting designers. Her pattern writing is so terse, but the patterns themselves are a joy to knit! Like Alice Starmore, even though Lavold’s designs look complicated, they knit like a breeze. There’s something about the designs that keep me going without any tedium, so they work up more quickly than would seem possible. I don’t think I could ever be that gifted designer who could manages to balance a complicated pattern with such logic and grace that the knitting is simple, so I’ll just stick to knitting their designs!


Wouldn’t you know this sweater, called Hild, was shown in my favorite color in the Silky Wool line! Since I’d already knitted Siv in this color I had to choose something else. I hope I will enjoy this color as much:

The first pair of socks I finished were the Jaywalker socks. I’d already made one months ago and had started the second, so I just finished these up one afternoon. The yarn is Regia Color Effekt.


The second pair of socks was made with yarn bought in June, in Williamsburg. The yarn is Regia Silk Color, and though it really doesn’t show in the photo, there is a certain subtle “glow” from the silk.

I had some trouble spinning while away. I’m trying to figure out the best way to spin a worsted single that is medium weight and has very little twist. It’s easier on my Lendrum, but I wanted to get some spinning done while sailing so I took my electric spinner. On the electric spinner I could not work out the ratio between slow spinning and slow take up. I had the brilliant idea that I could use my plying head to spin a low twist single, but I didn’t take into account how the plying head has even faster take-up since it’s used for plying. Ugh. Bob helped me put on a longer piece of cord for Scotch tension so I could slow down the take-up, and he suggested monofilament since it would slip a little which would also slow down the take-up. It worked well! Now that I’m home I think I want to go back to just spinning on a regular wheel, in my case, my Lendrum. I have barely put a dent in my beautiful Romney fleece. I’ll never get to dyeing if I don’t get a lot of spinning done….and soon!

I’ll be home for the whole month of August! I’m looking forward to catching up on a lot of reading and a lot of weaving. By the way, My copy of Tapeis Gael: Weaving in rural Ireland arrived while I was away so I couldn’t resist starting to read it moments after it arrived. I’ve read the first three chapters, and it’s well written and a wonderful story of such interesting people!

>Lost June!

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>I never got here in June. Hmmm…. I was traveling again, and when home, frantically working in the garden. I’ve been away so much the gardens are quite overgrown and messy. I hope I get them a bit tidied up before I leave again at the end of the week. As this is our first really hot week with temperatures in the 90s I’m not exactly energized to get outside and weed.


Look what I finished! Finally! Although I posted pictures of this project on the loom back in Feb., I actually think I put these towels on the loom way back in November! I was full of excitement to give them as Christmas presents, but somehow after the first couple of weeks I couldn’t actually sit down and weave them. Having a guild Show and Tell at the end of June was what motivated me to finally get back to weaving them. I’m happy to have them done! I will keep one and give the other four away, most likely well before this Christmas!

I have just spent an amazing weekend at our regional weaving conference, called MAFA which stands for MidAtlantic Fiber Association. This was the first time they have offered a conference in which one could take only a full three-day class, as opposed to some variation of 1/2-day and 1-day classes. I took a class on natural dyeing, and the teachers were so organized and so well prepared that we managed to dye 76 wonderful colors in only 3 days. We were insanely focused and busy, and we even had to stagger our lunch hours for this class when the rest of the conference had 2 hour lunches which allowed for lunch as well as shopping in the vendors’ hall, but it was well worth it! I will try to take some photos of my incredible sample book.


I am now so thoroughly re-committed to the tapestry project I’ve had in mind for a couple of years now. I want to do it with hand spun, hand dyed yarn, and this class has moved me considerably closer to gaining the skills I need. I’ve got two fleeces waiting (one washed, one not!) to be combed and spun. I’ve done a little sampling on spinning technique. I’ve taken a mentor on this project, or rather, she has taken on me! Her name Vicki Fraser, and she is the creator/weaver of the California Rug Project.

Vicki has been very patient with my questions on what breed of sheep to use and how to spin the yarn. She’s been giving me advice on mordanting and dyeing, which I haven’t even started yet, but I have taken copious notes from my phone conversations with her. This workshop at MAFA gave me the chance to do some real dyeing and get some experience under my belt. The two teachers, Debbie McCrea and Carol Wood, were also very encouraging to me (sorry, no website for them, but they are located in the Alfred, NY, area and are members of the Rochester Guild) and have offered to guide me on the dyeing if I can come do it at their studio. I’d better get spinning.

Meeting these three women who are so willing to share their knowledge with me makes me realize what positive energies are out in the world when one needs guidance. Some people call this synchronicity, which means something like “with time.” That’s just my very rusty ancient Greek coming back to me….I think it must really connote things coming together at the right time, and boy, that is what’s happening here! I feel touched by something greater than coincidence right now, and I don’t want to squander these opportunities.

Hopefully I’ll post pictures soon, and hopefully I’ll post again this month. I’ll be sailing around Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket for the rest of the month, but I hope to get some of the clean white Romney fleece combed before I leave so I can spin while sailing. I’m bringing my electric spinner (made by my husband) because it takes up so much less room on the boat than my wheel. He made it to be compatible with the flyers from my Lendrum. He’s so clever….

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