Category Archives: Fine Craft

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Can you believe the Saturday crowd at MDS&W this year? It’s downright scary! There are so many spinners now, we could really make a difference in the world if we organized!

Holy smokes! It’s been six weeks since I’ve posted here. I think my little hour glass of sand has all leaked out…..

My younger son the physicist has graduated, I’ve been to The Maryland Sheep and Wool, seen the “Blue” exhibition at the Textile Museum in DC, had a much needed visit with my parents in VA, and spent almost a week away celebrating Memorial Weekend by sailing around Eastern Long Island Sound. Maybe I should try to do a photo collage…..

>There are times when I am decidedly anti-social. I’ve been underground for a couple of weeks now, due to some extremely emotional things in my life which I’m just not willing to write about here. When things are weighing heavily on my mind yet I don’t feel I can write about them, it’s hard to write about anything! So I’ve been underground.

One of the things I find therapeutic for anxiety is spinning! I haven’t spun in over a year, but during the past week I’ve been glued to my wheel. I had bought some silk top from Carol Weymar in two beautiful colorways. I neglected to take a photo of the fiber before I started spinning the green/blue/brown top. The interesting thing is I was attracted to this colorway because it was so watery: blues and greens with only a hint of copper/browns here and there. Yet the finished yarn is decidedly earthy, not watery. I still like it….alot. My skein is just shy of 400 yds. and I’m hoping it will make a very pretty (and small) Swallowtail shawl. I spun this entirely worsted and made a 2-ply.

I began spinning the second colorway yesterday. I finished the second bobbin today. There is only about an ounce on each bobbin, so it’s not a great deal of spinning. This time I spun from the fold and used a modified long draw. I am letting the second bobbin set and will refrain from plying until tomorrow. I can’t wait to see if the yarn is loftier than my worsted skein, and I can’t wait to see what happens to the color. I love all the bright pinks and corals mixed with blues and purples, but I don’t know if I could really wear this colorway! I wonder if it will mute a great deal when it’s plied.

My younger son turned 22 last week, and I went to spend the weekend with him in Rochester (NY). The highlight of our time together was a tour of the laser lab that he arranged for us. The University of Rochester has the largest laser in the world. That must be a little known fact. It was an incredibly impressive machine, but since photography was not allowed I cannot show you just how impressive. They are using this laser to work on fusion, and I hope they figure it out soon! Meanwhile I’ll include a shot of my son’s much smaller laser lab where he works when he’s not in class. It looks quite disorganized although he assures me this is how all labs look!

>Well, I’m mostly over all my angst of the past week, in time to celebrate my Celtic roots before the day is done. So here’s a photo of my favorite Emerald Isle and a quote I love to use more often than I should!

‘Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.’ –Yeats (of course)

Cead Mille Failte

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Well, there you have it. I was too bummed out last week to even look at the photos I’d taken in Philadelphia until today. Here they are! The theme was New Orleans Jazz. I’ve decided that indoor flower shows are very weird: I can’t get used to the artificial lights and the harsh accoustics. It is nothing like being

outside. I guess if one is really, really desperate for spring this is a pretty good substitute for the real thing. I don’t mind the seasons too much, though I always get tired of both winter and summer before they are quite done. Spring and autumn are never long enough! This flower covered mannequin reminds me of Project Runway. There was an episode in a previous year when the designers had to get their materials from a florist! They didn’t get a big enough budget to make anything like this!

Here is the view from our hotel room just after dawn. It was a lovely get away even if I’d always prefer a garden show outside!

>I’m making progress on some things, and it feels like a new beginning! I guess my internal clock feels the stirrings of spring. Whatever it is, I’m so glad to end each day with satisfaction that things are progessing!

Here’s the minister’s stole. I had already cut off a sample and washed it. It has a good hand!

And here is my little man in the boat. He looks like such a cartoon character with his pot belly and watchman’s cap. I need to focus on this project most of all and get it done!

And yesterday I gave this shawl away to its new owner. Boy, did she look great in it! My friend has such flair and grace, she looked wonderful in this! I totally recommend this project (Swallowtail from Interweave Knits, Fall ’06) because it’s a fast knit and looks more involved than it really is!

>Hmmmm…while I was happily knitting away on my new Swallowtail Shawl with my twice frogged Art Yarn called Alfabeto, I was tagged by the mysterious “Power of 7.” Unfortunately I have to pass along this curse to other bloggers who’ll be named shortly. It was very sneaky BadCatDesign who got me. Go take a look at her blog, where you’ll be happily lost in lace knitting for many hours!

Here are the rules for us ‘taggees:’

>Life is good! I’m getting my mojo back, I’m full of ideas and excitement to carry out some of them! Whew!

I’ve started all kinds of things in the past week. Maybe I’m manic/depressive, and this is my manic stage? Hmm…. I basted together the back and one front/sleeve of the Sunshine Circle Jacket (already knitted twice, too big each time) for Lauren (future daughter-in-law) to try on, and it fits. Whoa….I’m in shock, and I’m celebrating! Onward with the 2nd front/sleeve…..

After gestating (for months) ideas for weaving a minister’s stole for the soon-to-be-ordained, wonderfully-nurturing, first-female-minister-I’ve-ever-met, today I actually made the warp. It’s a mixture of things that finally came together into something intriguing. I bought a large 1/2 lb. hank of 8/2 tencel from Heritage Yarns in Missouri at least 2 years ago. When it arrived I didn’t really want to make scarves with it. I started a warp, but then rewound what I’d done back onto the hank. Today that hank suddenly came to mind, and luckily I found it without too much effort. I took four solid shades of tencel that coordinate with the colors in the painted tencel, and I shaded from dark at the edges to light in the center. I blended the four shades to create seven shades. I held one strand of painted thread with one or two strands of solid to get the shading. I wound the warp on my AVL warping wheel and wound it in 2″ sections onto my 16S mechanical dobby AVL.

Tomorrow is a free day since my normal tapestry class is canceled this week, so I will thread that warp. What an exhilarating feeling to have made a decision and started the project! I have a twill in mind, a pattern that creates the illusion of woven ribbons, but I have back-up ideas if I don’t like the look.

And life gets sweeter yet! Last week I happened to see a lovely little shawl on Knitting Daily. It’s from Interweave Knits, Fall ’06, and it’s called Swallowtail Shawl. When I saw it I dashed upstairs to get that issue and grab some kiwi green mohair. I started knitting and have barely taken a break until today. I’m about to start the final border so I can vouch for how quickly it knits up.
Partway through the body of the shawl I realized that this pattern is the ideal solution for my Art Fibers silk yarn which was never really destined to become the Muir shawl. When I run out of the painted alfabeto I can just start one of the borders with a coordinating solid color and continue in it.

All is well now…… I think I’ll make a marguerita!

>EVERY DAY IS A STRUGGLE;
THEREFORE WE MUST BE KIND TO EACH OTHER.

My son noticed this saying posted on the wall of the little hamburger place where we ate before the opera last week. At the time I thought it was a little overstated. Surely every day is not a struggle. But now as this I begin to tire of winter so early in the season this year, I imagine that each day is going to be harder and longer on the slow road to April!

I’ve already got a pretty bad case of the winter blues and it’s only mid-January. Yikes! I’ve got a long way to go…. So, look at these colors! The hot red and yellow, the soothing white and purple.  I think it was May last year when we visited Longwood Gardens. I’m trying to remember how it smelled on that glorious day in May.

Now would be a good time for spinning. I’ve got a rather imposing project going on my spinning wheel, something I admit I’m avoiding right now. But my lovely Steve spindle might be just the thing to cheer me! The fiber I haven’t finished spinning is a combination of merino and silk. It’s a very pretty grey/green with white silk streaks. And the finished yarn would make a wonderful lace shawl.

I have borrowed my son’s monitor for the past couple of weeks since mine died. He is going to pack his up and take it back to school today, so I will be visually impaired until mine returns from being fixed. So…..I won’t be here, and hopefully I’ll be spinning….