Category Archives: inspiration

Precious Materials

Posted on April 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

Last week a friend of mine asked if I wanted to join her for the monthly meeting of the Westchester (NY) weaving guild.  They were having a guest speaker; she couldn’t remember whom.  She thought he was a tapestry weaver and a member of the “New York study group.”  I wracked my brain!  I should who this man is!…..but I didn’t!

So I went.  And of course I knew him when he arrived to speak.  It was Stanley Bulbach, who also happens to be a member of the Textile Study Group of New York. I’m so glad I took advantage of the opportunity to hear Stanley speak and to see a few of his rugs in person.

Stanley Bulbach

As many people may know, Stanley spins his own yarn.  I did not know that he does this on a homemade spinning wheel that is based on a bicycle wheel he upcycled for the purpose!  He spins yarn from Lincoln fleece, which is long and lustrous, and when he wants something other than the natural colors of this fleece he turns to natural dyes for additional color.  His rugs really glow, something you cannot imagine from a photograph  They are beautiful!

I know you can’t see his rugs well in these photos, and I’m sorry about that.  Trust me that my photographic ability wouldn’t do them justice anyway.

What I want to say about his rugs is that they have a presence.  Even if I didn’t know that he’d done all the fiber preparation by hand, that he’d created the yarns by hand, that he’d woven the rug entirely by hand…. I know I would still feel the presence of something extraordinary about them. …which leads me to the title I gave this post: there is something precious in the quality of work done by hand with precious materials.
 It shows.

He also spent a good deal of his presentation on the need for textile artists to better advocate for our chosen field.  Of course we do!  I am a perfect example of someone who has not recognized this facet of working in textiles, and since I am so ill equipped to cover this subject I’ll just pass you along to Stanley’s website.

(His photographs don’t do justice to his rugs either)…

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Posted in dyeing, inspiration, sheep, spinning, tapestry

Alchemy

Posted on April 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

Natural dyeing is still gathering steam throughout the US.  
When we leave here I hope to take some weld and madder with me to start a new dye garden in Essex.

Photo from NYTimes of Sasha Duerr's dye liquors

At the end of summer,  I hope to find some local plums to make Damson gin! (Can you guess I’ve been watching Masterpiece Theatre’s “Marple” while knitting?…the one with Geraldine McEwan!)

And a visit to the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx yielded a day of intense color and a rise in my own creative sap by seeing the glories of spring!

 

I have an armillary sphere in my garden, and now I want to display it like this, on a pedestal, and grow a vine through it!  This was my ‘take away’ gem of the day!


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Posted in dyeing, gardening, inspiration

Change

Posted on March 28, 2012 | Leave a comment

We are stumbling closer and closer to our move to Connecticut.  We have a buyer for our house in New Jersey, and we’ve committed to a house in Connecticut…..but getting everything to fall into place so everyone involved can move on has been a bit difficult.  It looks like we will be en route to our new home by the middle of next week!  We have been rattling around in our empty, echoing house for a few weeks now.  It doesn’t feel like our home anymore, so it’s time to move on….

We packed my last loom over the weekend.  I probably should have taken some photographs!…but it was too stressful.  I had the strong impression that one of us was going to end up in the ER, so grabbing the camera just didn’t happen.  This last loom is my big Toika, and it had a warp of cotton seine twine on it for a boundweave project.  My dear friend and experienced Toika weaver, Sister Bianca recommended leaving the warp on the loom.

Sr. Bianca advised me to take the beater, the harnesses, and the jacks from the top of the loom, and wrap them all together around the warp beam.  It was a brilliant suggestion!….

….executing it was not so brilliant….. imagine cutting the warp from the front apron and taking the reed out of the beater.  While trying to keep that from flopping about, I then tried to hold all the jacks in place while my husband tried to disconnect the jack-holding frame from the large side frames of the loom.  Where was our 3rd set of hands for this job???  Certainly no extra hands for photos…  At one point I thought the jack frame would surely hit one of us on the head, necessitating a hospital visit, and possibly necessitating a long recovery from head injuries (if not worse).  My husband was not amused at my conjectures.  I wanted to take a ‘time out’ to plan a strategy; he just wanted to get it over with!  Typical male/female disagreement, I believe!

I’m happy to report that there was no loss of life…..or even loss of consciousness!  But I don’t want to do that again any time soon.  If there is to be a next time, I must remember to get more detailed information on how to accomplish this! Advise welcome!

With my looms packed, I have turned to more portable projects.  (Hey, who am I kidding?….I haven’t actually woven in several months, just knowing that I was going to have to pack up those looms.)  Have you seen the swing knitting projects on Ravelry? Amazing!  I’m intrigued…

I did buy the workshop download for learning this technique, but I didn’t want wristlets, or a hat, or socks.  I wanted a jacket!  So I jumped in the deep end of the pool, and really, this technique is not difficult to understand.  There is no reason to do a little project if you really want the big one!  This jacket, designed by Heidrun Leigmann, requires four sections just like this one which I finished a few days ago:

Swing Knitted Jacket by Heidrun Leigmann

As you can see, it is a mitered square with short rows to create the curving elements.  The yarn called for is Noro’s “Flower Bed,” which I cannot find here in the US.  Since it is roughly sock weight yarn, and since I love the weight and bounce of Shetland, I have chosen to use a Shetland-like yarn by  Kauni in a long colorway that runs through the entire spectrum.  Is it too colorful??  Probably.  Do I have the guts to wear something this blinding?  …not sure… but I am enjoying knitting it!  Can I really knit four of these sections without losing motivation?  …not sure of that either!

In other facets of life, when not packing, I have made another “Blooming Gardens” crystal bracelet, along with matching earrings and even a small pendant.  The purple one is for my sister’s very belated birthday.

And lastly, I finished the Nantucket basket that I want to give as a wedding present to a dear friend’s daughter.  It’s only three months late…. that’s actually quite good for me! Now I’d like to make one for each of my own kids!

 

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Posted in baskets, inspiration, knitting, weaving

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Helena Hernmarck

Posted on February 18, 2012 | 1 comment

A friend of mine invited me to visit Helena Hernmarck’s tapestry studio yesterday.  She had been introduced to Helena through her current tapestry mentor in the mentoring program of ATA (American Tapestry Alliance), and she invited me to join her!  Meeting Helena Hernmarck has been on my ‘list’ for at least a decade.  I have a few acquaintances in common with Helena, and I even used to live in the same town.  But none of these connections had panned out or paid off as the years went by.  Yesterday was pay dirt!

My first exposure to Helena’s work was seeing a photograph of her from what I think was the 19060s, standing in front of her large tapestry of Little Richard.  I was so impressed, but that quickly took a back seat to  the tapestries that came off her looms in later years.  When I bought her book a few years back I saw photographs of her recently completed studio in Ridgefield, CT.  I even knew the man who helped design it, and he promised to make an introduction for me…. Well, everything comes in its own time, doesn’t it?

Helena Hermarck's wall of tapestry wool

What a thrill to see this wall of color in person…. I was mermerized by it almost as much as by some of the tapestries hanging in Helena’s studio.  She has two upcoming exhibitions, one at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC, and one at the the textile museum in Minneapolis.

I have always been fascinated by the weft floats in her tapestries, due to the use of weave structures other than plain weave.  The floats not only give a texture to her work, but also such a saturation of color, making strong highlights and deep shadows.  So effective!  I struggle to convey light and shadow within plain weave…. it boggles my mind to think of also trying to place color with floats as well.  Ever since I’ve seen Helena’s work I have wanted to try this technique of weaving tapestry with structures other than plain weave.

In her current work she is using a double cloth structure that allows her to continue to have floats on the surface of the tapestry, so integral to her way of conveying imagery, along with with the ability to add some structural integrity to the back of her pieces by having a second layer with a weft that can add structural rigidity to the fabric.  By doing this her finished works hang flat against the wall!  Brilliant!

front of back of recent tapestry by Helena Hernmarck

I enjoyed her enthusiasm in telling us about her work, about the connections she’s made over the years.  She is on my very short list of weavers I’d love to study with!  There is a glimmer of hope that this could happen!  She hinted that she might need help winding on a large warp….. I’m there!

 

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Not by Bread Alone…

Posted on February 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

An odd title for this post, since in fact, I am at a terrible stage in life when bread has been banned.  And I miss it dearly….

…but that title sort of conveys the suggestion that we all do something when we’re not doing what we’re known for doing…. When I’m not weaving, or knitting, or spinning  I cook.  (Cooking has been particularly challenging for me for the past 11 months while I’ve been attempting to eat a low glycemic diet).  Cooking and baking is my default activity when I’m ‘stuck’ in anything in life.  My ultimate cooking guru is Julia Child, whom I was fortunate enough to meet once, along with Jacques Pepin (!!!), for a day of cooking an entire dinner menu and eating the results! I own all her books and have read everyone of them!

Recently I have discovered food blogs!  I know there must be millions of them out there, and many of them must be fairly mundane.  I was lucky to stumble on a brilliant one, Orangette, and I get a real boost whenever there is a new post!  Now I own this blogger’s book A Homemade Life and am enjoying her writing as well as the recipe at the end of each essay.   Each day the temptation to get back to bread (and carbs!) gets stronger and stronger…

Molly Wizenberg's "Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Cake with Glazed Oranges and Creme Fraiche"

This week I succumbed and made Molly’s “Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Cake with Glazed Oranges and Creme Fraiche.”  Oh my.  Luckily I made it for a group so I managed to only eat one piece.  It tasted like sunshine, brilliant and warmly comforting all at once.  Everyone loved it!  Thank you, Molly!

Last night I was reading about Dutch Baby Pancakes. In Molly’s words, “The method for making a Dutch Baby, I thought, is only marginally less awe inspiring than the method for making a human one.” Well, that certainly sparked my interest.  After I saw the recipe I realized it is virtually the same as an old recipe I have from the mother of my childhood friend in Texas, which they’ve always called a “German pancake.”  It is a simple technique that bakes into a magnificently light confection, puffed up like a souffle, that you top with lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar.

Unfortunately, Dutch Baby is not one of the recipes Molly has posted on her blog.  I could give you mine, but this is not a cooking blog.  (Hmmm….my fellow blogger and weaver, Bonnie Claith (aka Cally Booker) has posted recipes on hers….  but I shall refrain.)  I’m certain Molly’s version is better than mine anyway, but I won’t find out any time soon since I’ve already transgressed enough in having the cake! You won’t find the cake on her blog either, but you will find “Bouchon au Thon” (and many other temptations!) which will be my lunch today.  This is a recipe I can make without guilt since the only carb involved is a small bit of tomato paste! Molly says it’s “what France would taste like,” and I look forward to finding out about that!

Molly Wizenberg's "Bouchon au Thon"

Lunch will be served momentarily…..
…okay, so the only connection I can make to weaving is the valentine cloth I made years ago that I’ve placed under the cooling wrack…  Please cut me some slack!  And I didn’t have gruyere so I substituted fresh goat cheese….and I didn’t have fresh parsley so I used dried tarragon instead.  Time to eat!

 

 

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Posted in inspiration

January, the Selfish Month

Posted on January 8, 2012 | 1 comment

As it should be.  Surely I’m not the only person who thinks this.  Almost every year of my adult life I have taken the month of January to recharge myself.  In fact, for many years, the day after Christmas was a day when I’d gather all my knitting and weaving journals from past years and look through all of them, enjoying the inspiration and letting ideas for my own work wash over me.

January is also my birthday month, so I get special dispensation to be selfish.  I can put my post-holiday inspiration and project-planning into action by spending money on myself!  There you go!

This year I’m struggling to finish a shawl for a friend during my selfish January.  This shawl should have been done back in November, but as I mentioned in another post, life has thrown some difficult stuff at me lately.  I’m a bit behind schedule.  I’m not worried though….I don’t mind having a selfish February if it comes to that.

Back in October, I bought four balls of Crystal Palace “Mini Mochi” from my local yarn store (The Stitchery in Pearl River, NY) for “Lala’s Simple Shawl” (available as a free download on Ravelry).  Just moments ago I bound off!  I hope I have just enough left to make a crocheted scalloped edge around the shawl.  If not, I have some Jaggerspun “Zephry” in a deep warm red that should fill the bill.  I’d prefer the edge to be Mini Mochi, but it will be what it will be!

I think these colors will suit my friend perfectly! She wears a lot of reds/greens/browns.  The LaLa shawl is simple and not too lace-y so the pattern doesn’t distract from the wonderful color changes.

It’s not blocked yet, so don’t judge it too harshly!  I’m not feeling confident about that little ball of extra yarn making it all the way around the shawl….but at least I have the “Zephyr” as back up!

 

 

 

Now to get back to Selfish January….
Here’s what has called to me….another shawl that is a free download on Ravelry.  The shawl is called Revontuli which is Finnish for Aurora Borealis, which is Latin for Northern Lights.  The designer is AnneM and you can get the pattern from either her site (follow the link) or here on  Ravelry.

Here’s the thing about this shawl.  It looks best with a yarn that has l-o-n-g color runs.  The designer shows this shawl made with a yarn called “Aade Long 8/2 artistic.” I did a search and discovered that it’s not available in the US, but is easily found on ebay and from an online shop in Germany, as well as from some individuals in Estonia.  Selfish me…. I’m getting two colorways!  “Pink/Brown” and “Red.”  They are both coming from Estonia, although from two different vendors.  Let’s see how long it will take for each skein to arrive.  Countdown starts tomorrow.

Aade Long 8/2 Artistic "Red"

Aade Long 8/2 Artistic "Pink Brown"

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Thankful

Posted on November 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

Autumn in NY (by Chris)

Today I’m playing in the kitchen, making stuffing from a whole wheat baguette, a loaf of raisin pumpernickel, turkey sausage, onions, celery, chestnuts, a few more raisins, and lots of thyme, and also making pie dough in which I’m tempted to substitute vodka for water (have you tried this?).

My kitchen counter is also strewn with several colors of Jaggerspun zephyr which I’m swatching for Pam Power’s lovely Devonshire sweater.  Sigh….  Life is good.

Happy Thanksgiving….

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Posted in inspiration, knitting

Bittersweet Season

Posted on November 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

It is the bittersweet change of season and here is the last rose from my garden, a David Austen “Heritage” (I don’t count the ever blooming shrub roses for some reason….).

I love the change of seasons.  The days are warm, and the sun on my skin feels almost like summer, ‘though by late afternoon there is a chill in the air that clearly means summer is gone…long gone.  Yesterday and today I stood for a while in a blizzard of yellow leaves swirling all around me.

Fall is festival time, and last weekend was “Lace Day” for the Metro Chapter of the Intenational Old Lacers.  There were demonstrations, vendors and classes!

This group (of mostly, but not entirely, women) proves that lace making is not a dying art.  Their knowledge is legendary:  they can tell the difference between Torchon, Milanese, Honiton from 20 yards (not to mention about a dozen other types of laces), and they have strong preferences about bobbins:  midlands, bayeaux, honiton…again, more names than I can keep track of… The vendors had some beautifully painted bobbins and other tools that were as pretty as the lace itself.

This is just a small portion of what was on display during the event, all made by members of this group.

Look at that fan.

 

 

 

 

 

These lace mavens do demonstrations all year long, at historic sites and local libraries.  Somehow they manage to talk to people as they work. Impressive!

 

 

 

 

Making a lace border for a  handkerchief has been my goal since my first lesson.  Now I’m there!

 

 

 

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Posted in bobbin lace, inspiration, Lace

Reconnecting….weaving memories

Posted on October 11, 2011 | 1 comment

This was a week when my dance card was over full, but how could I say no to so many wonderful opportunities?

My adult ed bobbin lace class has started again!  I am on the last third of the edging for some hand towels, so I guess I’d better get busy weaving the towels!  It’s wonderful to be back with these women again, who are very nurturing to me as a slow-learning beginner!

On Wednesday I rode with a friend up the Hudson River to Ghent, where she had arranged for us to have a one night farm stay at Kinderhook Farm, which is owned by old family friends and managed by two other friends.  I had no idea what a treat we were in for.  There are chickens with a delightful roosting house.  (I did not know chickens roosted up in rafters and on high perches).  There were lots of cows….I forgot to ask how many.  And there were over 200 sheep!

This is the renovated barn you stay in for the ‘farm stay.’  It has two generous bedrooms with sitting areas that look out the large barn doors at the fields of cows and sheep, and a large kitchen in the center that separates the two bedroom/sitting rooms.

When we arrived the wind was howling and we had to close the large folding barn doors and insert beams to hold them closed!

 

 

View from the farm stay barn

This is the view of the sheep grazing from the the barn where we planned to stay!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shortly afterward Lee came to suggest that we stay in the guest room of the main house since the night temperature was expected to be in the low 30s.  We were disappointed to miss staying in this bucolic spot with its view of all the sheep grazing in the nearby fields….but in the middle of the night we were both very happy to be warm in the heated guest room!

 

 

 

 

 

Before going out to dinner we watched the managers and two helpers bring the sheep into the barn.  In fact, we helped herd the sheep toward the barn.  They have two guard dogs and a donkey, but no herding dogs.

 

Lee caught the two new babies for us to hold.  He wants them to get used to being handled, but they were definitely not used to it yet!  And the mother of the lamb I’m holding was not happy about it either!

 

 

 

The next day was my first Wednesday Group class in the new location right on the river in New Baltimore!  Archie and Susan have a beautiful, renovated historic house overlooking the river.  The enclosed porch which is now their studio is 40 feet long and has spectacular river views!  The Clearwater motored down river, right in front of us, in the afternoon! Susan has filled their new house with many of her antiques, there is a 2nd floor wrap around porch for sitting outside, and the grounds go right down to the river.  She will have a garden next year!

We drove home after my class on Thursday evening, and early Friday morning I headed out to Mendham for my 2-day workshop with Daryl Lancaster called “Weaving a Memory.”  It’s been a fun two days, using the Theo Moorman technique to inlay silk habotai strips that were first ink jet printed with our personal photos.  Daryl covered the Theo Moorman technique as well as photoshop manipulation of our images.  You always get more than you can conceive of in a workshop with Daryl!  I will write more on that next time!  Meanwhile, check out what she has to say…

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Posted in bobbin lace, holiday, inspiration, tapestry

Knitting and Fabric Shops in Coastal Maine

Posted on August 10, 2011 | 1 comment

Several of our usual ports have surprised me with wonderful knitting and fabric shops!  Our ‘guest room’ is quickly filling up with my treasures!

Bath: Halcyon (the photo on their homepage is that Ecobaby sailor pattern! Ha!)  I have to admit that I’ve never been to Halcyon by

Halcyon Yarn

boat, but I have been going by car for 15 years.  You could get there by boat if you wanted to go that far up the Kennebec River and brave its challenging currents.  In all the years I’ve driven over that bridge I’ve never actually seen a sailboat moored in the river near Bath.  That’s not to say no sailboats ever go, just that I haven’t seen them on my yearly visit.  And what can I say about Halcyon, other than it is a weaver’s and knitter’s Mecca, not to mention spinners, rug hookers, crocheters, braiders, felters, etc…etc… If you do anything related to fiber, this is a great resource! Halcyon is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.  I had a wonderful shopping spree there!

Boothbay Harbor:  You need a car to get to Onboard Fabrics, but it is really worth it!  It’s a barn on Rte 127 (and their address is Edgecomb but my point of view is the harbor where a sailing seamstress might disembark), not far off Rte. 1 on the way to

On Board Fabrics, near Boothbay Harbor

Boothbay Harbor.  They have lots of nautical fabrics, inweights from upholstery to cotton lawn.  This year I bought fabrics to make aprons for gifts.  No sewing machine on board Pandora, so these projects will have to wait ’til I get home (meanwhile, my husband does have his sailrite sewing machine on board…but it will only sew heavy canvas and sail materials!).

 

Rockland: Quilt Divas.  They have fabric and yarn!  And the selections for both are great!  It is walking distance from the harbor

Quilt Divas in Rockland also has a large selection of yarn and knitting books

for us sailors!  I bought the Debbie Bliss “Ecobaby” book here as well as the yarn for the sailor sweater that is currently challenging me to re-design the collar!  I also bought more fabric for aprons here.  Now I’m going to make a lot of aprons for gifts!

 

 

 

Camden: The Cashmere Goat is new this year, in a good location right in the center of town (what used to be a shoe store).  The shop

'The Cashmere Goat in Camden

is not yet full, but they do have some wonderful yarns.  I bought Manos del Uruguay’s “Serena” (kettle dyed, 60% baby alpaca, 40% pima cotton) in a handpainted colorway (#9796) of watery blues and greens.  I’m going to knit a lace shawl from one of the free patterns at Interweave Knits

 

Belfast: Sock Heaven.  This yarn store has been in business for about 10 years now, but I haven’t been to Belfast in about 15 years,

Heavenly Socks in Belfast

so it is new to me! There is an entire wall of yarns produced in Maine, including Hope Spinnery and Done Roving. My big score here was Louet “KidLin”(49% linen, 35% kid mohair, 16% nylon) which I’ve been hoping to find during all my yarn store hunting.  It was hard to choose a color for Louet’s “Cia” Pattern, but I finally settled on “Mexican Orange,” a fun blend of gold and warm pink.

There is also a beautiful fabric store on High St. in Belfast.  I did not note the name yesterday, but I hope to go back today to spend more time there.  I will take a photo and get the name!

 

Other places.  I’ve been to the guild shop in the center of Blue Hill, as well as the yarn shop slightly out of town that has since gone out of busines (sigh…), and I’ve been to Shirley’s Yarns in Hancock (where I bought Dale microfiber years ago for a tank top I never finished because it was so unflattering on me!). Now I understand there are two shops in Blue Hill that I may not know: Blue Hill Yarn shop on Ellsworth Rd. and  String Theory on Beach Hill Rd.  I don’t know if we’ll get to Blue Hill this year, but now I hope so! And a google search shows two promising shops on Mt. Desert, one in Southwest Harbor (Lilac Lily Yarn Shop) and one in Bar Harbor (Bee’s, Inc.), so I hope to visit both of these since we are on our way there for the weekend.

I am putting aside the Debbie Bliss sailor sweater for the moment.  This is quite a disappointment to me, but I do want to give some thought to that collar.  The knitters on Ravelry did not have any solutions that appealed to me, so I will take a look in my library of knitting design books when I return home in September.

Here is my next knitting project, Louet’s “Cia.”

Louet's "Cia"

Louet's KidLin Mexican Orange

First I will finish my own design that uses Tess Designer Yarns’ micofiber ribbon.  I’ll be writing up that pattern to share here and on Ravelry.  It’s a very simple pattern, and I’m almost finished!

 

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