Gone Fishing

OK. Not really. But we do have fish!

My Spectrum Study Group worked on these fish at our meeting yesterday. Mine’s the green one on the right (metallic fabric paint and beads and sequins). The fish bodies originally come from Japan, made by women displaced by the tsunami. (Yes, many still aren’t settled!) The decorated fish are being collected by our friends at the Silk Weaving Studio and will eventually be auctioned off to provide funds to help these people. I was trying to find the correct informational website but it’s not turning up for me. Sorry about that.

Meanwhile, I have a huge pile of half-carded wool on my work table. Thom was helping wind the drum carder for me. Since the proposed sweater is for him, his assistance is very welcome. It’s like having a motor on the carder! I’m not sure this will be enough for his sweater yet though so probably more teasing and carding will be needed. There’s lots of this RomneyX fleece left anyhow. However this will fill my basket enough so I can get to the spinning before I forget how. I’ll figure out how much more is needed when this is all spun up. Slow clothes indeed! He’ll likely be wearing this sweater next winter instead of this one. Oh well. At this point we can’t even decide on which pattern to knit!

I also overdyed the black sock yarn skeins again. Third time was the charm! After the last effort they still had too many areas that were close to white instead of darker gray and since they were in skeins by this point anyway it was just as easy to give them another soak in a 1% black Telana dye. I have no idea what the total dye percentage is! So much for accurate dyeing, huh? Anyway now they are the slightly uneven black that I wanted in the first place. Lesson learned. Don’t try to dye those little poofy Elann yarn balls without skeining them up first! Got it. I may not get much chance to dye them anymore anyway since Elann’s new sales fulfillment plan, Amazon.ca, isn’t turning up any more of the F05 sock yarn at the moment. Figures that I just discover a yarn I want when it becomes unavailable. Pfth. Yeah, there’s some on Amazon in the US but I’m not going there when our Cdn dollar is so low against the US one.

Now I can’t start the Little Black Cardi that I want to knit with this yarn until I get at least one of my current knitting projects off the needles. I’m nearly at the heel flaps with the Emerald Socks for Thom. Good thing they’re too big for me or I’d commandeer them for myself! I love the greens and purple. And there’s still the Silken Haruni Shawlette that seems like it’s been going on forever and a day. I started this one waaayyyyy back in September when we were still in the desert. Then I frogged it when we got home and started again. I’ve only got about 14 rows to go before the bind-off but they are very long rows. Takes me about 45 minutes to knit one pattern row. Purl rows are slightly faster. The most I end up doing in one sitting is about 4 rows before my attention wanders.

Since my work table is inundated with wool fluff I haven’t been tempted to sew anything right now. Even though I have a huge pile of patterns and fabric! I don’t know if I’m really avoiding sewing or just currently more in the mood for playing with wool instead. It’s not like I don’t need more clothes! I certainly have been discovering where the gaps in my wardrobe lie this winter. As usual, I probably won’t get around to filling those gaps until spring and then I’ll have different needs. Why am I always a least one or two seasons behind? Yeah, I do have an excuse this time, don’t I?

The Hand continues to heal though slowly. At least it feels slowly to me! I can do a lot of things again anyway which makes me very happy and grateful. I just have to be patient and wait for further improvement. I need to tackle the ironing mountain, for one thing, and that still hurts somewhat.

Sewing Icing vs Cake vs…Bread?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t care about sewing the “icing” pieces. The fancy-shmancy dresses. The tailored suits. The highly structured Chanel jackets. For starters, I have nowhere to wear such things. And most importantly, they don’t interest me. At all. Sorry Susan Khalje et al. I won’t be taking a class with you. Not sorry.

I have a fairly active, relaxed and definitely non-business lifestyle. I know what I like to wear but most importantly I want comfort above all. A#1! Secondly, I look for out-of-the-ordinary shapes that are as flattering to my body as possible. I like to have fun with my clothes but I also like to be able to move easily so things have to feel soft and not restrictive or binding in any way. I walk, sit, lounge, bend over, kneel and move about all day. I’m active. I want to wear my clothes – not have them wear me! It’s a compromise perhaps, but one I’m willing to work with. OK, I insist. Or I won’t wear it. So there.

My favourite pieces seem to be knits. Separates. Tops, bottoms, tunics, vests – layering pieces. And we aren’t even talking about my knitting and weaving – sweaters, scarves, shawls, hats, gloves etc. I just love the seasons as they get colder and I’m able to wear lots more clothing layers. I’m just happier when the air is brisk instead of stinking hot! More options. So I’m a crustacean. Yes.

So I can’t be the only one who feels this way? Separates are everything! I’m sure I’ve complained about this before but please tell me why are the pattern companies, indie as well as Big 4 (or 5), still creating so many more patterns for dresses than anything else? And sleeveless ones at that! So practical in my life. Not. How many really formal or even semi-formal events have YOU been to lately. Me: none. Not in years. OK, maybe I don’t run in the right circles. Or maybe I’m too old…errr, born in another era? But my current wardrobe of separates and the occasional rather casual dress seems to fill any bill that comes up in my life. Your mileage may vary, as they say. If so, most likely you work in an office. And go on very hot dates. You have my congratulations - and perhaps my sympathies.

There are more casual clothing pieces that I don’t wear. Jeans, for instance. They don’t feel comfortable on me. I own precisely one single pair of black jeans, purchased years ago and with an elastic waist. Even more egregious than mom jeans! The horror. I wear them when we’re camping, mostly to go caving. I was happy to have thick denim between me and the rocks in the lava tubes, let me tell you! Otherwise, I never think of them. I usually wear leggings, stretch pants (I guess you might call them yoga pants?) or heavier knit (sweat?) pants. I don’t know how the styleista/fashionistas refer to them. I just know what I like.

So what I really look for are those interesting arty pieces. Something that slides over the lumpy bits and snugs my narrow shoulders. Interesting details, fancy collars, asymmetry, seams in unexpected places, funky pockets, dangling hems. I know it when I see it. And I love it when I do! There are quite a few manufacturers out there that fall into my criteria (except that they don’t fit me very well) but there are only a few people making patterns for these type of pieces: Issey Miyake (in the “olden days” especially), the Tiltons, Lynn Mizono, and occasionally Sandra Betzina. Once in awhile someone else, usually anonymous, nails it for Vogue or Butterick. I really don’t think I’ve seen too much of the type of garment I’m talking about from the indies. (We will not mention my intense love for Sewaholic’s Minoru Jacket since it’s not in the same category really. Even if it does have a really dramatic collar! And works really well in my wardrobe. I know because I wear it all the time! Ahem. I digress.)

Recently I’ve had to…been forced actually…to sign up with Pinterest. Forced because they wouldn’t let me in anymore as an anonymous guest! Pfth…For ages I’ve been clandestinely checking out several people’s boards on there but – they wouldn’t let me keep doing it unless I broke down and signed up. Sigh. I still don’t have any boards of my own. And they still don’t know whose boards I look at because I’m not obviously “following” them. My own clips are on Evernote. Privately. So sue me. I prefer everyone didn’t know what I prefer! But I like looking at others’ stuff. Yeah. Conflicted. I’ve recently been really tempted to create a new Pinterest board. Still conflicted. Urgh. And answer me this: why do I already have a Pinterest follower when I Haven’t Done Anything Obvious Yet? A mystery.

Meanwhile, I’ve been beavering away in the Studio. I finished my Cherry-Brown Stretch Pants out of the same luscious beefy ponte fabric as the T-Flare Dress. OK, they’re more like tights with boot-cut legs. Or something like that. Whatever, they are my TNT and I like them a lot! They’re very comfortable and look great as long as the top covers over down to at least the crotch area. Otherwise my Botticelli Belly overwhelms the unwary. Snicker! Here they are hot off the sewing machine:

Over a year ago I rubbed off the pattern from a pair of knit pants that I loved so much. The originals are nearly worn out now after a number of years’ yeoman service (close to 10 perhaps?). From the rubbed off pattern I now have 3 pairs of shorts, 3 pairs of pants and 2 pairs of capri pants. I’d say they are living on in their offspring. Excellent. More to come. I still need a black pair to replace the original one. Oh, and check out the ribbon tag that helps me get dressed in the dark morning:

Hmmm…that’s the photo closest to the real colour of this fabric yet. At least on my screen.

In the same vein after dithering for several days I finally chose a size from the Sandra Betzina Today’s Fit pattern V1411 pants:

View A with the wider legs. Don’t you love the seaming? Surprisingly this is the first Today’s Fit I’ve ever tried and Sandra’s sizes are of course not quite like the standard Vogue ones. (I do love that she has ALL OF THEM in the same envelope. Yay.) The size I ended up choosing is 2 sizes smaller than suggested by my measurements. Go figure. Is this another example of excess ease? Or do I just like to hold in the jiggly bits more tightly? It’s closer to my TNT pants in waist and hip but the legs are still quite a bit wider from just above the knee down to the ankle by at least a couple of inches. (Yes, I know. I’m that rare DIAMOND! AKA skinny everywhere except the middle of me.) I may have to take them in but we’ll see how I like it. Instead of making a muslin/tester garment I’m going to baste and try on first before committing to the final vertical seaming. I think it’ll work fine. If not, that project will be considered the muslin and I’ll move on. Works for me. I’m pretty confident though. The gray ponte is quite stretchy. Of course that first assumes that the darn thing fits on the fabric that I have left after I get Thom’s Finlayson Sweater on there. The sweater comes first! No compromise. T-Man gets his sweater – or else.

And then of course I’ve started a new spinning project. It’s kind of low-key. A gift. (And I don’t give out many of those as I’m sure long-time readers will have noticed.) Not sure how much I want to publish about it although probably the recipient doesn’t read this blog. Not sure however! The wool is a roving from the older incarnation of Aurelia Fibres called Boysenberry Sparkle. (The newer owner doesn’t have it, unfortunately.) Very pretty deep reds/purples/dusk and berry-coloured sparkles:

Only the flash could even get close to the real tones. These days of living on a fixed income, I’m committed to using up the stash and there may be just enough left of this bag of roving. Or a little more than enough. We’ll see. I’m spinning a medium singles to be chain-plied into an aran-weight yarn. Hopefully to end up with at least 125 yds when I’m done. And yes, knitting will ensue. More on this one later.

I also started hunting in the stash for another fleece to spin for when I’m done with the Boysenberry Sparkle. I have a Romney Cross from New Zealand in a lovely light oatmeal colour:

Yes, those are sheep on the pillowcase!  Please don’t ask where this fleece came from. All I can remember is washing the greasy fleece several years ago. Somebody gave it to me, of that I am sure. Besides, I’ve never been to NZ! It’s not particularly soft and it’s quite variable in colour and crimp which is kind of a challenge. I’m hoping that some thorough teasing and carding will blend it sufficiently to make a successful outerwear-type yarn for a sweater for Thom. Not everything has to be merino-soft, you know! (Besides, merino can pill abominably.) I have a few ideas on patterns. Yes, he’s getting spoiled. He deserves it! Not nearly as spoiled as I am however…

Ummm….moving right along…

In between the other projects, I’ve been working on our Spectrum Study Group’s current shibori project. It took hours to narrow-hem the silk/wool twill scarf (fabric from Dharma) by hand. I actually enjoy that part though it was really spongy compared to the pure silks I’ve worked with before. I’ve pressed some folds into it in preparation for the shibori stitching. I also tried out at least 3 different methods of marking the fabric on a scrap piece, including a Clover water-soluble marking pencil, a Chaco Liner and a water-soluble felt pen (I think it’s Dritz brand). The first 2 were too damaging to the delicate fabric so only the pen was a viable choice. I think it comes out in the wash! I did test-wash a teensy piece and the results were kind of hard to discern. If not, the indigo we plan to use will disguise any remaining marks. I also have several cotton hankies to play with shibori stitching. This will be an ongoing project for the next couple of months. More later. Again.

Oh, and I had a glitch in my Silken Haruni that took strong light, 2 extra needles and the chart to fix. Urp. Got it finally. Carrying on. I’m now past the 12 required stems and repeating at least one more time and maybe twice before starting on chart B. My yarn is thin and my needles fine – what can I say? It needs more gravitas! Just a wee might too teensy and airy as it stands. I need a new knitting project. Just one is not nearly enough. Especially when things go slightly awry.

Guess I’m done for now.

Quickie

Yes, I’m still here! I’ve been somewhat busy as well as somewhat avoiding blogging. Nothing much to report actually. I’ve been doing the usual weeding and watering in the garden. I spent a hefty portion of 2 days printing out class notes and finding all the equipment for my kumihimo class on Saturday (with a second class next Thursday). Spent half an hour hunting for the bobbins and counterweights because I forgot where I put them! Doh. They were in the attic, logically enough right next to the box of folding stools converted into marudais. But I needed to dig for them. And use a flashlight.

Today was spent with my Spectrum Study Group and we dyed all kinds of things in 3 dye pots: osage with iron, logwood and cochineal. We threw in various mordanted skeins of tencel, silk, cotton, and superwash sock yarn plus swatches of wool, silk and linen fabric and silk/rayon velvet divoré. There’s photos coming (I hope) and I’ll try to snap one of my little pile of goodies which is currently drying on the clothesline. It was a fun day and quite productive.

Finally finished spinning the Rainbow Dark yarn. I might have gotten a little finer grist towards the end, both because I was worried I wasn’t going to get enough yardage (and there ain’t no more of this stuff to be had for love nor money) and also because if I’m not paying strict attention I tend to slide back into to a default thickness, which with this wool is a light worsted. I found when I began this project that I was somewhat out of spinning practice and it got quite a lot easier as I went. Now I hope it isn’t too thin though most of it is pretty consistent except for the first skein. If it isn’t too much thicker I think I have enough for my sweater plan. I have nearly 1400 yards total but I need to put the 6 skeins on the scale to be sure what weight I ended up with. Next project is to wind skeins into balls and swatch some more.

However, that will have to wait for awhile. I have to spend tomorrow cleaning up the house, setting up the big table on the deck and locating a few more items for the class. I’m hoping the good weather holds though they’re predicting more cloud on Saturday. As long as the wet stuff whose name we shall not mention stays away. Our deck definitely is the best place to hold the class. We can put the chairs on the grass and the marudais on the wide step and everything is at the perfect height to work comfortably. Lots of table space as well. I love working outdoors this time of year.

So, moving right along. Things to do. Swamps to muck out. People to see. How did it get to be nearly a week into June already? More soon!

Here’s What Was Missing

Ha! I finally got the computer to speak to my camera card. So that means photos! Finally.

You might have to go back to yesterday’s post for clarification if you missed any of the details. Anyway, here’s the rayon/silk velvet (actually rayon pile on a silk backing) as I was cutting out my modified version of Katherine Tilton’s B5891 View C/D jacket:

You can see just how much of the yardage is left and how I had to squeeze the sleeve in so that there’s barely a seam allowance left at the armpits. The unused width on the right there is needed for the continuous collar/front bands of my modified jacket/cardigan. You can also see how the selvedges on this fabric are kind of wavy. Hopefully this won’t give me too hard of a time when sewing the bands. It may need a bit of easing to avoid a rippling seam. We’ll see. That piece is going to be treated with the devoré paste first though so who knows what it will look like after that plus a couple of dyebaths, rinsing, drying and ironing!

And here are my devoré samples from Thursday’s Spectrum session:

Not terribly exciting but I learned quite a lot from doing them – it’s harder than it seems like it ought to be! They were drying on my deck table in the sunshine when I snapped the pic so they’re a bit wrinkled and more transparent. Later I’m going to mordant them with alum acetate so they’ll be ready for a natural dye session with Spectrum next month. The actual jacket will be dyed in Procion MX and acid dyes though so I probably should do more samples before I tackle the real thing. I have some scraps still left to play with as well as my own bottle of Fiber Etch. This velvet fabric is stupid-expensive (at least from Maiwa where I got mine) and I don’t want to ruin it.

In other news, I finished another test knit for Sanjo Silk. Jo had knit one herself in the small size (before writing up the pattern!) and accidentally shrank it in the wash! Oops. So I knit her a large size and found a few errors in her pattern as written. Which was the whole point of the exercise, no? Really, aren’t they cute together? They kept making me smile until I turned them in to the shop.

The yarn is a yummy silk/wool blend from Italy and obviously not superwash! It did hold up well to the many frogging sessions it had to endure while I tried different cast-ons for the cuff and different interpretations of the eyelet check pattern. Personally, I think it would be better for shawls or even a fine-gauge sweater than socks. I’m much too hard on my handknit socks for something this nice. It’s also available in undyed as well as this rich red. Maybe it’s a good thing they’ve sold out of the black or I just might have been tempted!

So it’s still raining today because it’s still the weekend, of course. I had to leave the squashes and cucumbers under the lights because I didn’t want to get soaked putting them out in the greenhouse. If it was nicer today we’d be cleaning out the greenhouse and getting it ready to plant the tomatoes. After all, if they can stay in the greenhouse overnight in pots then they can be planted in there too, right? There’s some work to do first however – clearing it out, washing down the inside walls and adding compost and Sea Soil to the beds. It needs to be dry for a few days sometime too to enable an attempt to caulk the annoying leaks in the roof. One of the acrylic panels is cracked and pulling away and the previous repair isn’t doing anything useful. We’ve had this greenhouse for quite a few years now so some wear and tear is to be expected. It’s been great though especially now that we have automatic openers on the skylights. They open when the temperature gets too warm inside and close when it cools down. Saves a lot of fussing on our part. Also the shade cloth that goes on in June or July (depending on the weather) helps to keep it a few degrees cooler in summer than it would be otherwise. In winter we store the tomato cages, water garden, deck pots and Lazy Rosie, my potted rosemary bush inside. And I’m sure you noticed how I use it in spring to help harden off the seedlings until they can get into their permanent spots. It’s an all-year-round important part of my garden.

Gee, seems like all I can discuss lately is gardening, isn’t it? No, it’s not all I do! Honest. This is simply the time of year when it takes the most work to get everything cleaned up and off to a good start so it’s the most time-consuming. Later on almost all that’s needed is watering, harvesting and an occasional weeding. Both Thom and I really enjoy the work. Much more fun than going to a gym! And with something more to show for our efforts too. We have a system between us that works well. He takes care of compost, digging, mowing, the majority of pruning, some weeding and helping me tie things up. I do the seedlings, transplants, shaping the beds, fiddly weeding, deadheading and harvesting. We both water. And a little at a time the job gets done.

I’m very attached to my wee piece of land. Come to think of it, it’s attached to me too – under my fingernails! Heh!

Well nobody wanted to hear my May Day song and I forgot to wish everyone a happy Beltane, so now I’m trying to resist saying “May the fourth be with you” but obviously couldn’t help myself…

Must Be A Weekend…

…because it’s raining! Pity the poor folks who had to work and then expected the lovely warm sunny weather that we’ve had all week to still continue on their days off. Sadly, nope. However I was quite ready for a little break. We’ve been busy in the garden for days now and I’m still only about halfway through transplanting everything into their beds. The veggie patch and the dye garden are looking pretty good though there are still gaps because it’s just not quite warm enough at night yet to put in the beans and squash. Soon though!

A friend who is moving was kind enough to give me some of her Anthemis tinctoria (dyer’s chamomile, variety Sauce Hollandaise) to add to the dye garden. (Hi, Suzanne!) I don’t know if this variety is a good dye plant since the flowers have white petals with a yellow eye instead of being completely yellow as in the more common form that was actually used historically for yellow dye. But we shall see! Anyway I really needed more daisy-type flowers – not! In the front garden we already have English daisies and masses of Shasta daisies, which are actually kind of a weed and show up everywhere where I don’t want them. Also there’s the feverfew that I’ve been trying to eliminate for years. Not that I don’t like feverfew – the bright light green leaves and little white flowers with yellow centres are pretty – but it’s another one that shows up everywhere and the ants just love it. They plant ugly black aphids on the stems and then bite me when I brush by them. Yuck! Ouchie and so annoying. Hopefully the dyer’s chamomile will be pretty and useful and not pesky. One can only try it and see, right?

Sorry I don’t have any photos for you today. My computer is not cooperating with my camera card. Humph…

Anyway, Thursday was Spectrum Study Group Day and we had a lot of fun playing with devoré on rayon/silk velvet. I managed to get my jacket cut out (barely!) from my 2 metres of 45” wide velvet. I had one teensy centimetre of fabric length left! Good thing my arms are short, huh? However I wisely decided that a practice session would be a very good idea before I ruined the real thing. Just as well because I actually managed to create a couple of holes in my sample pieces! There’s a definite learning curve to this.

I tried some simple freezer paper stencils ironed onto the back of the fabric and also freehand with a foam brush and a squeeze bottle with a fine nozzle. It was super-hot on Jo Anne’s back deck in the sunshine so our pieces dried really quickly after applying the burnout paste. After lunch we did the ironing part of the procedure which was also kind of tricky. You have to get the heat just right, not too cool or it doesn’t work properly and not too hot or it goes very dark brown and can make a hole in the silk. Also no steam or it moistens the dried paste and can smear your design. You want a light and even biscuit beige. I found it was easy to test if it was enough heat by scratching the pile with my fingernail. If the burnout was done the pile came off quite easily. After ironing we washed out the rest of the loosened pile in warm water. I found the soft surgical nail brushes from Lee Valley Tools were perfect to brush away the pile without damaging the silk backing. Good thing we always keep a large package of them about the house. We use one in the kitchen (for scrubbing mushrooms and carrots etc.), one in the bathroom and one at the basement sink.

Yesterday (Friday) Thom & I walked down to Granville Island to get some groceries and also stop in Maiwa Supply for a bottle of Fiber Etch so I can get on with the real devoré project. I only borrowed a bit of it from my Spectrum friends for my samples. I could have gotten the ingredients to mix up lots of paste for much cheaper but since it only keeps for a month once mixed I doubted I would use enough of it to make it worthwhile. So instead I got the 12 oz. bottle of premixed for twice the price of the 4 oz. bottle, which I figured might not be enough for my jacket. Fiber Etch does have a shelf life too though because I used to have some ages ago that ended up getting tossed. Hopefully I can use it up before it goes off. Might be fun to try something handwoven inspired by some of the devoré work by the late Anne Field from NZ, hmmm…?

Well, I will try to get my pictures to cooperate and attempt another post soon. Over and out for now!

Trundling Along

We survived the weekend with the Bigger Grandbeasties (ages 7 & 9) while their parents were away in New York but it was a near thing! I must be out of practice with the parenting thing. It was fun but also kind of exhausting. And we didn’t even have the main part of the child care – their maternal grandma stayed at their house during the week while they were in school. They live about a 1/2-hour away from us (if you take the freeway) so it’s not practical to keep them here and drive back and forth twice a day. Yesterday however we had to do the delivery and managed to get them to school just before the bell. Whew! Luckily their grandma took over again after school and stayed until today. Their parents didn’t get home until the wee small hours this morning. We only know because their car has disappeared from beside our house! They didn’t want to wake us so they slipped away quietly. Our house is quite near the Skytrain line to the airport so it makes a good place to begin a trip but it doesn’t run in the middle of the night so they had to take a cab back. Hope they had fun! They’re probably still trying to catch up on sleep.

After we dropped the kids off yesterday we decided to go for a walk on the trails in Colony Farm Regional Park. This former farm was once part of provincially owned Riverview Hospital and has been fallow since the 1980’s. Some enhancement has been done for fish and birds and there are several trails along the dyke and around the edges. The plants are fairly bursting out with new spring growth even though the weather has still been rather cool for this time of year.

I love all the different grasses and the salmonberries are blooming:

My favourite part of this park though is the Community Garden. (There’s a good article about it here.) I always love to check out how other people grow veggies! We have lots of community garden plots around the Lower Mainland, many of them here in Vancouver, but this one is just huge! It has a number of sections surrounded by grass pathways (very soggy right now) and the individual plots are a good size, not the usual postage stamp.

There are hoses set up to use for watering in summer and many plastic-covered greenhouses. Also lots of interesting garden decor and bird houses which the swallows were making good use of. We could hear peeping inside more than one of them! It’s pretty early still though so not much was actually planted yet. The garlic is all getting tall and there was rhubarb that could be picked. We even saw some nice kale buds but nobody had harvested them. No, we didn’t do it ourselves! Come summer this place will be bursting with produce, so much so that they have to have signs saying no picking! Can you imagine somebody waltzing in to somebody else’s garden and just helping themselves? How rude!

I did get a chuckle out of this sign though:

There’s potential fruit here too. The blueberries were in bloom:

They grow very well in our climate and acidic soil. Ours are also blooming now much to the dismay of our grandkids who would prefer berries all year around! They just need a little patience. Heh.

These apple blossoms were pretty and smelled heavenly:

They have other fruit trees as well. We’ve tried to grow apples (and Italian plums) in the past but they didn’t do very well so we just stick with the berries in our garden now.

It was a very nice walk and luckily the rain held off until we got back in the car. I really needed to get out in the air.

Meanwhile, back in the studio I’m currently attempting to cut out a jacket from slippery squishy silk/rayon velvet. I’m supposed to be ready for a devoré (burnout) session with my Spectrum Study Group on Thursday. Finally we’ve hit on something that everyone is interested in doing! Amazing. I’ve had this fabric in deep stash for years (maybe 10?) and planned on learning how to do this ages ago but it’s taken a challenge from my friends to get me to actually follow through. I’ve yet to dig out my FiberEtch if I can find it which may not even be viable after all this time. Testing will ensue. Otherwise I’m sure we can share. I only plan to use the burnout on the sleeves and collar band and leave the rest of the body opaque. It will subsequently be dye-painted with Procion MX dyes and maybe even get an immersion bath in acid dyes to give more depth to the silk backing. We’ll see how it goes.

But first I need to cut the thing out ready to go. I’m using Katherine Tilton’s pattern B5891, view C/D:

In the interests of time-saving I’ve already fitted this jacket for me though the fabric of the first one is quite different, a heavy brushed cotton twill. I wear it all the time so it was very successful. This time I’m making some modifications to the original and will probably wear it more like a very fancy sweater. I’ve overlapped the princess seam (which in the original is just a seamed section and doesn’t include shaping) and also put the back seamline on the fold and then gently curved the neckline eliminating the asymmetrical collar and button overlap. I’ll cut out a collar/front band that will finish off the fronts and neckline in (hopefully) one strip. Unfortunately I only have 2 metres of the velvet so I’m going to have to squeeze to get the pieces on it. It washed and dried to a little less than 45” (115cm) in width so it’s quite narrow. And of course I have to go with the nap, right? Some creative folding will be necessary methinks. More on this later.

Nothing much else to report. Plugging away alternately on knitting the gloves and the test sock. I have 1-1/2 gloves so far – only 2-1/2 more to go. Including 30 fingers. Ulp! What have I gotten myself into in my quest for new gloves?

The garden hasn’t come along much farther than last time. Things are still growing but mostly aren’t planted out yet. The weather has warmed up slightly, enough at least that I was able to leave many of the earliest flats out on the deck last night and only brought the tomatoes into the house to join the squash and cukes under the lights. This is progress of a sort. Ideally I’d like to see it warm up at to least 10C at night. I haven’t dared plant the beans yet either but then mid-May is the best time here so I’ve got a couple of weeks.

Moving right along. Go cut out the jacket, damselfly!

Dark Days of December

Now that we’re into the darkest days of the year we’ve been brightening up the house with lots of lights, both inside and out. I especially love the multicoloured ones in the dining room on the wrought-iron railing of the staircase that leads upstairs. I love them so much that they usually stay up all the way to February if I can talk T-Man into leaving them alone.

It’s not that I suffer from the winter blah’s or anything. Actually as long as I can get light on my work so I can see what I’m doing, I enjoy winter. An excuse to stay indoors and play in my studio? Without hearing all the outdoor stuff calling me? What’s not to love? Of course we do get out when the weather cooperates. On Saturday we took a long walk to Granville Island along the seawall. We bought lunch and ate our taco salads on the wharf, carefully protecting it from large marauding seagulls and tap-dancing starlings. We also stopped for tea on the way home at our favourite tea spot, Pekoe. I finally bought a bigger tin of Royal Earl Grey because I got tired of refilling my little one every couple of months. It’s a particularly aromatic blend with both bergamot and jasmine. I don’t drink this one all the time but like a cuppa every now and then and I can’t get it at my usual Murchie’s. Gotta spread the love around, you know. Tea is my beverage of choice. I hate coffee and soft drinks. Bleh. And since I can’t have any wine right now, I’m drinking even more tea than usual.

In crafty news I finished the socks for T-Man:

Winter’s Dark Socks

Begun:  November 12, 2012
Completed:  December 5, 2012

Yarn:  Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Line Steps Color, colourway 5371 (black with stripes and dots of white), 50g = 210m, 2 balls.

Needles:  Blackthorn carbon fibre dpns, 2mm.

Pattern:  Damselfly’s Plain Socks on 68sts, 9” before heel flap, foot 8.75” before toe.

Comments:  I shouldn’t try to knit black socks this time of year! I dropped stitches a couple of times and didn’t notice for awhile. Ended up frogging back an inch to the gusset pick-up. I also managed to knit one toe too short and had to frog it back, join on new yarn and finish again. Oh well. He likes ’em and that’s all that matters, eh?

What else? Oh yeah. Spectrum Study Group has been making wool felt decorations to exchange. I got a lovely beaded brooch from Cathie of which I unfortunately don’t have a photo for you right now. However, here’s the heart that went to live with Kirsten:

Her adorable angel bunny was also made by me, knit completely out of handspun yarns and won at a guild gift exchange quite a few years ago. I was so glad she went to such an appreciative friend! The mother-of-pearl button on this heart is an antique one from Granny’s Button Box that I inherited from T’s granny. I also made two more hearts:

I’m keeping the little yellow and red one and the bigger blue and rust one is for the next swap. These were fun to make. I haven’t done any embroidery in donkey’s years so the first one is a little wobbly but I finally found my skills returning. I’ll need them because I plan to make a stocking for the Littlest Grandbeastie and incorporating some blanket stitches. I like the look a lot. Best get on that one asap.

However, first I want to finish up the project on my table. I’ve been trying to draft this pattern from “I Am Cute Dresses”:

You can’t really see from the photo that it’s a little shift with an interesting asymmetrical yoke that is buttoned on the left. The buttons are stitched lower than the buttonholes so the yoke fabric falls in folds. Japanese patterns often don’t fit me well without some serious adjustments since I have a lot more fluff on me than the average Japanese lady! Even though the simple garments in this book don’t have actual patterns but are made by drafting your own following the given measurements and your bust size including ease, they don’t quite work for someone who isn’t quite as angular. I needed more room for my bust so I added some length at the centre front of the skirt piece. I also made the skirt a little wider to accommodate my middle and added inseam pockets. I got confused by the shoulder measurements in the diagram, whether using the cm or inches made no difference. So I winged it and then made a muslin which showed me that the front shoulders still needed to be adjusted for my sloped/rounded/forward shoulders. There still seems to be a little extra fabric at the bottom of the back yoke but I’m hoping the skirt will pull that down somewhat. The muslin results looked somewhat like the photo but with a little less ease and more of my shoulders showing. The armholes aren’t shaped but just a straight line from underarm to shoulder and they fit better when they end closer to my neck anyway.

I’ve cut this pattern out in some freebee lightweight stretch denim stripe fabric that I picked up when my neighbour moved out. There was just enough to work around a few flaws and since it was free I’m counting this as a learning experience. If it works I’ll have a cute casual tunic/jumper (needs a t-shirt underneath to hide bra straps). If it doesn’t, only my time was wasted. And that doesn’t count, does it?

Yellow + Blue = Green

Running a bit behind as usual. Life happens, eh? I spent an inordinate amount of time today in the garden. The weather has been lovely but not super-hot. My favourite summer weather. A cooling breeze along with the bright sunshine. Gotta love it! I’m able to accomplish a lot outside without melting into a pile o’goo. The garden is looking much better after being neglected during our Manning Park Campout. However, now I am very tired. The good kind.

Backing up to Thursday (also a lovely day) my friends from my Spectrum Study Group came over and we made yellow, blue and green with my home-grown weld and Japanese indigo:

I’ve discovered the secret to Japanese indigo that is different from woad is to cover the leaves with cold water and heat slowly until the leaves look cooked. This can take as long as 2 hours and the temp shouldn’t go much above 60 degrees Celsius. After that, instead of lowering the temp to 50 quickly, just carry on with the soda ash and oxidation steps right away. Somehow this works. Japanese indigo has a lot more blue in it than a similar amount of woad and is very easy to oxidise with only a few minutes of whisking.

We also did a weld bath, extracting the dye from 500g of semi-dried plant parts and dyeing an equal weight of fibre that was already mordanted in alum or alum acetate. I also added 4 flavourless Tums for the requisite alkalinity. The results were a brilliant lemon yellow. Then the exhaust bath got several silk and cotton scarves popped in for a lighter butter yellow. Weld is so easy compared to getting blue out of the indigo leaves!

The first dip in the indigo vat was very dark but quite streaky. Unfortunately a second dip lightened the shade on all but the wool skeins. It did even things out some though. I don’t know if there was too much thiox which was stripping the blue back out again? It was my usual 2 tsps and there was quite a lot of indigo in it for a fresh-leaf vat. Who knows. Every vat is its own story. I’m still trying to achieve a really dark blue but it seems elusive. Especially when we stuff a whole bunch of skeins in madly! Perhaps one day I’ll keep an indigo vat all to myself and see what happens. Usually though I don’t mind sharing.

I also want to try freeze-drying the Japanese indigo – once it grows back from the haircut I gave it. The theory is that you pack the fresh leaves into a sealed bag, freeze it overnight, then take the frozen leaves out and dry them. Later they can be used as for fresh leaves. It would be fabulous if this worked so that I can make a dye vat from my home-grown indigo in deepest winter. I certainly don’t have enough of a crop to even attempt to make sukumo, the traditional composted indigo.

Some of the yellow weld-dyed skeins were overdyed in the indigo for a bright lime green. Here’s most of the skeins hanging up to oxidise:

So pretty, aren’t they? I find it so fascinating that I can get these intense pure colours from my very own garden plants. Who’d a-thunk-it? Exciting and satisfying in a way that I have a hard time explaining to non-fibre folks. Doesn’t stop me from trying…

Tomorrow I’m off downtown to participate in a street demonstration by my weavers’ and spinners’ guild at VIVA Vancouver. They’re closing Granville Mall to traffic and scheduling a number of free entertainments. I’ll be spindling up a storm by our tent on Granville St. between Robson and Georgia, 11am – 5pm. Drop by if you can. I may  not stay the whole time but I should be around for at least the earlier half.

Is Refashioning Really a Word?

I just read a really interesting post on A Fashionable Stitch. (Do read the thoughtful comments too.) Sunni talks about refashioning and expresses the same views that I share: it’s difficult and the results are not always worth the effort. Not to say that some creative and skilled people don’t do a fabulous job with making new clothes out of old ones! But I think that other people don’t have the kind of brain that can easily see those kinds of possibilities. I believe that it’s in the same area as draping – a 3-dimensional way of perceiving – that I, for one, have difficulty with. I’m much more of a 2-D thinker. Flat patternmaking stuff. I can use voluminous garments as yardage. I can piece flat bits together. I can shorten hems, take in sides, chop off sleeves. But I totally blank at the really creative metamorphosis that results in the kind of attractive and wearable garments that I admire most. Ones that don’t look jury-rigged in some way and that you can wear in real life. I guess I’ll just leave most of the really cool refashioning to others while I gaze at their works in awe.

In crafty news, I forgot to show off the ATCs that I made last week at our Spectrum Study Group meeting.

These are for a swap we’re having at my weaver’s guild meeting this month. I used some hand-dyed cotton (parfait dyed with Procion-MX) and stamped it with a couple of my hand-cut leaf stamps and metallic fabric paints. Then I stitched on a few seed and bugle beads to make kind of a little flower thingy for each card. To keep it simple I didn’t do too much beadwork. After the decorating I used Steam-a-Seam 2 to attach cardstock to the back which was printed with my name, the date and some other info such as the techniques used. The previous steps were all done with the cloth in one piece, i.e. ganged. Then I finally cut them apart and machine zigzagged the edges. And there ya go – 1 dozen ATCs. I really didn’t want to spend too much time on these because I’m unsure as to how many others will be trading. Though even if I don’t swap them all at the guild, I’ll have some available for future swaps.

Don’t tell anyone, but 3 extras came out 1/4” too small. AAAK!! Illegal ATCs! Guess I’ll hang on to them. Obviously I can’t measure accurately some days.

What else? Oh yeah. The weather has been mostly sunny and quite a bit warmer so we’ve been spending some quality time in the garden. I have the dirty pants’ knees to prove it! Still schlepping a ridiculous number of seedlings in and out every day though. This is getting old. I can hardly wait until they get planted so I can stop the madness! Unfortunately it’s still too cool at night for the tomatoes, cucumbers and squashes to stay out yet.

Obviously I haven’t had much time to spend in the studio. I have quite a number of top patterns to work on now. I also finally broke down and cut the BurdaStyle pleat-neck blouse out of an old sheet to test the fit. The fabric is a lovely mid-weight cotton in a supremely ugly shade of light brownish-pink. No, it wasn’t mine but rescued from T-Man’s late auntie’s stash. The label even says “100% cotton muslin, made in USA” and you sadly can’t buy this quality of sheets any more. I’ve decided to sew it in green thread so that if by some miracle it actually fits, I can over-dye the blouse in my favourite moss green Procion-MX (a proprietary mix from Maiwa). When used in low-water immersion techniques it separates out into some lovely effects. Polyester thread won’t take the dye so if I use something that is closer to the final colours it will be more inconspicuous even if it doesn’t match exactly.

Gotta get out in the garden. Pull weeds while the sun shines! I’ll leave you with this interesting shot taken by my friend Cathie near her house:

Yes, that is a partially albino robin. Still has the red breast and the dark eye but is missing the grey colour. One in 30,000! Do read the article I linked for more interesting info.

Defining My Style

I’m heading out to a Spectrum Study Group meeting today. We’re continuing to sew on our Camel Necklaces. If I ever get it done I’ll be sure to show it off! Meanwhile, the Madder Rose Shrug is still drying on the mats unfinished. But I am wearing my finished Yoke Dress. Show-and-tell to come.

Since I only have a short while to write today, I’m just going to muse on what does and doesn’t constitute my personal style. Such as it is! I’m thinking in descriptive words. First, what I’m drawn to.

Shape:

• practical
• unstructured
• artsy
• layers
• drape
• skim
• pleats/tucks
• asymmetry

Colour:

• black
• gray
• brown
• green
• rust
• muted
• earthy
• geometric
• botanical

Texture:

• plain weaves
• ribs
• knits
• devore/cloque
• wool
• linen/hemp
• rayon/tencel/bamboo
• elastic

Then, the things I tend to avoid or that don’t appeal:

• bright prints (unless I printed it myself!)
• lace
• ruffles
• full gathered skirts
• peplums
• jeans
• pastels
• white
• very shiny
• glitter/sequins/jewels
• too oversized
• tightly fitted
• elegant/dressy

I have no need for office-appropriate clothing so nobody tells me how to dress except myself. And I’m well past the age of caring what other people think, assuming I ever did. I always joke that after wearing school uniforms for 9 years in my childhood, I’ve been overcompensating in the opposite direction ever since! So it’s down to practicality on one hand and my imagination on the other. That leaves quite a wide space to explore, doesn’t it? Even taking into consideration all those bulleted lists up there.

So reminiscing about my school years inspired me to leave you with a blast from the past. This was me at barely 15 in my Grade 10 photo (circa 1965, my first year of public school) wearing the second dress I ever made for myself.

Aren’t I cute? It’s a sleeveless jumper in a napped cotton twill and I still remember having the devil of a time getting the back zipper in correctly. I had to pick it out twice! Too bad there’s not a better picture available but most of my childhood photos are long gone. (Very long story.) Also note the hairstyle which is somewhat similar to my current one. Except my bangs are shorter now since I like to be able to see! I still have a fondness for turtleneck t-shirts too. Guess some things haven’t changed much, have they?

Think It’s Finally Spring?

It sure was warm the last couple of days! Could that mean that it’s actually June and not November? I’m not sure I totally believe it yet. It certainly was cool and wet last Thursday when 2 members of my Spectrum Study Group came over and we played with madder:

That’s Sandra (left) and Masami checking out the dye pot. We dyed over a kilo of yarn, including some for other members who were off to the ANWG conference in Salem, OR. Here’s some of the results:

The rayon weaving yarn skeins on the left are actually slightly more orange in real life – at least on my screen. It doesn’t take the dye very deeply but that’s ok with me. The centre large skein is Zephyr wool/silk while the darkest wool skein on the right is Masami’s. This was already dyed a clear yellow in osage orange awhile back and she decided to overdye in the madder exhaust (second use) bath. It came out very deep even in the already-well-used dyebath. Deeper than my wool/silk from the first bath. Always curious to me how this works.

Afterwards, there was still a lot of colour in the pot so I quickly mordanted and threw in my new white silk french-cut undies:

The colour reminds me of my favourite Utah arches, doesn’t it? Notice the thread didn’t take any dye because it’s polyester. (You didn’t expect the manufacturers to use silk thread, did you? Or even cotton or nylon.) I also added a large skein of suri alpaca that had already been dyed blah beige in woad leaves. I left it in for several days and even managed to accidentally heat it higher than recommended for madder because I turned it on medium heat and forgot about it for about 4 hours! It’s a nice orange-red now and gorgeous in comparison to what it looked like before. Currently the skein is drying on my deck railing or I’d show you. There’s still plenty of colour in this pot so I plan to shove some wool fleece in it to hopefully soak up some more. But first I have to wash the fleece. Maybe tomorrow. The pot is patient.

On Friday I finally finished my Abotanicity Tunic. Yay! I haven’t properly written it up yet but here’s a preview of it blocking on the deck:

I had to fudge the sleeve cuffs because even though I counted and counted and couldn’t find a mistake… the decreases on the second sleeve ended about 2” earlier than the first one. Nobody will notice but me. They look just fine. This tunic is nearly more like a dress. Superwash sock yarn always seems to stretch and the lacy skirt hangs only a few inches above my knee. If I was to do it again (which I’m not!) the only things I would change would be the neck front which comes up a little high on me and the underarms which come a little low with resulting bunching of extra fabric. Neither is a real problem and otherwise it’s perfect and I love it! Good thing after all the knitting it took, huh? Unfortunately as I predicted it’s now too warm to wear it – likely until next fall. Sigh. Maybe I’ll take it with me on the Fambly Campout in a couple of weeks. Guaranteed to still be cold enough in the evenings in the mountains.

On Saturday we went cycling to the Seawall and around Science World, along the north False Creek waterfront and on to English Bay and Stanley Park. We made it as far as Second Beach and had fish and chips at the concession. It was only so-so flavour-wise and it took ages to get them after ordering. I think they had to catch the fish first?

Here’s the mad cyclists:

Himself and me:

Helmet-head and all. I was hot enough to wish I’d brought my bathing suit and towel for the rather inviting but unheated pool:

Instead we rode homeward in the ever-increasing traffic, over the Burrard Bridge in the special bike lane (nice!), up the steep hill (electric assist, I love you!), a stop at the magazine shop and finally home for a beer and a rest on the deck. Whew! I was quite stiff in a few places after this first time on a bike since last October! Apart from the excess of “creative” driving we saw happening around us, it was fun. And yes, I was actually drinking a beer when I got home. It was made at the U-Brew and bottled by T-Man and his brother. I’m finally (finally!) developing a taste for lager and besides our new batch of pear cider isn’t ready yet.

I earned another beer yesterday after 5 hours in the garden. That’s about 2 hours more than my usual limit. I did a lot more weeding out front and now we just need to do some pruning. T finally finished making a box for the butternut squashes in the spot where he removed a laurel earlier. He used wood from our old fence – totally recycled materials. (The louvered fence there on the west side of our yard was built by our neighbour and his dad. We just paid for part of the materials.) I’m hoping the squashes grow well there in their compost and mushroom manure:

I reeked of “eau d’poisson mort” after schlepping fish fertiliser around until I wore out. Speaking of the garden, I need to get back out there this morning and transplant my cucumbers and weed the summer squash bed so I can transplant them too. The Big Grandbeasties are coming over later this afternoon so their parents can go downtown to watch the hockey game being broadcast on the big screens in the streets with about 20,000 of their closest friends. Personally, I’d rather play with little kids. But that’s just me.

Happy Blogiversary To Me!

Damselfly’s Delights is SIX YEARS OLD today!

And this is Post #1,135. Whoo-hoo! Yes, even I’m impressed with me and my “stick-to-it-ness”. Thanks, Blogger, for giving me a place to babble to my little heart’s content. And an especial huge thanks to my Dear Readers! Sending you certified germ-free cyber-kisses. Without you all it would just be me babbling to myself. I do that anyway but still…it’s nice to know you’re there.

Our Spectrum Study Group, or at least half of our number, met yesterday and we had a good play with the red bug dyes: cochineal and lac. Of course I forgot my proper digital camera so these are craptastic out-of-focus images from Ruby, my iTouch:

This is the lac bath showing some gorgeous silk chenille that just slurped up the deep grape colour. And here’s a bubbly scarf in (I think) tencel and wool also in the lac but not yet simmered very long:

It ended up quite a lot darker and the two fibres are quite different shades of burgundy, one more purple and one more red. The other bath was cochineal:

And for once we actually got true red instead of purple. No idea what caused the shift apart from a different batch of bugs! It did go a little more to the crimson side as it simmered than this photo shows. Usually no matter what I do I get a purple rather than anything that could be described as red. Natural dyeing = Magic. Definitely not predictable. At least to me.

I brought my skeins home bagged individually wet and not yet rinsed and waited until today to rinse them out. Consequently these are still wet so the final shades will be lighter:

From the left, that’s 12% lac powder on rayon pre-mordanted with alum acetate, lac exhaust on wool pre-mordanted with rhubarb leaf, and 5% cochineal (crushed bugs) on wool pre-mordanted with alum acetate. Interestingly, the cotton ties on the cochineal-dyed skein are purple even though the wool is red! Mysteries.

Lac – extracted from the insect resin used to make shellac. advantages: a little cheaper, easy-to-dissolve powder, extremely light and washfast on silk and wool; disadvantages: unpleasant odour, muted colours, hard to rinse out excess dye.

Cochineal – from bugs that are cultivated on nopal cactus. advantages: high dye content, excellent light and washfastness, wide range of bright colours; disadvantages: expensive, dried bugs need to be crushed and dye colour extracted.

As usual, I’m quite happy with the results. Though you could say I’m pretty easy to please because I think all the natural colours are beautiful in their own way. And they all go together amazingly well too. I was glad to find out that the fine yarn really was rayon and dyes easily because I still have at least a kilo of the stuff. I know. I need to get weaving again some day soon, don’t I?

Next Spectrum will be here in my dye studio as we play with madder. At least it smells better than that stinky lac!

Leaf In The Wind

That’s what I feel like these days: one of the gajillions of leaves that are blowing around all over the place. I feel scattered and frustrated that I can’t seem to finish anything. I keep working but nothing feels any closer to completion. Maybe it’s just the weather. Or the fact that I have too many things on the go right now. Unfortunately, because I’m itching to start one more thing: this free beret pattern from Kelbourne Woolens. And I have just the yarn for it:


That would be my birthday present – sock yarn in the “Earth” colourway from Rabbit Ridge Designs of Anchorage, AK, brought home just for me by my mother-in-law from her Alaskan holiday this summer. I think it will make a very cheerful lacey beret and I might even have enough left over for fingerless mitts to match. But I can’t start anything new yet. I still have 2 big commitments that need to be completed first, not to mention 3 knitting projects already on the go. Notice how I’m trying to convince myself to resist starting this? Maybe if I don’t succumb to the temptation to just wind it into a ball. If it’s still in the skein then I can’t just accidentally cast on.

Yesterday was our monthly Spectrum meeting. The group headed over the Lion’s Gate Bridge in the rain to West Van and played with image transfers onto fabric. As I didn’t have a fresh photocopied image to try the acetone transfer or the acrylic medium transfer, I used some of my nearly-vintage t-shirt transfer paper and just a plain inkjet print on fabric that was mounted on butcher paper to go through the printer.


We did a test and found that BubbleJet Set 2000 really does work to keep the image from washing away. But that was with fresh prints after only half an hour. The initial print was brighter without the BJS but it washed nearly all the way out. Better luck was had with no BJS with a much longer (days to weeks) rest plus ironing to set the ink. Since I have a bottle of the BJS, I think I should use it anyway.

The t-shirt transfer paper leaves quite a stiff result but with excellent resolution. You print onto the paper using Best quality and the appropriate paper choice in the printer menu. Then you iron the image on the cloth and peel while it’s still hot. I haven’t tried washing it after but apparently you can even dry it in the dryer. It might make it a bit softer but I’d have to experiment I think. Meanwhile I’m only going to use my images for a wall piece that will never be washed so I don’t care about stiffness or whatever. I have a cunning plan for this design. Can’t start it yet either.

I’m procrastinating on what I’m supposed to be doing today. It’s still raining and my head hurts (again – what is it with Fridays?) and I just don’t feel like working on my guild’s roster booklet right now. However it does need to get to the printer sometime in the next week so I can’t stall for too long. Maybe after lunch.

Dancing With Shiva

We had a lovely time yesterday, colouring with crayons like little kids. However the “crayons” were Shiva Paintstiks http://www.thethreadstudio.com/hints/what's_new2.htm which are oil based and somewhat messier to use than wax crayons. But they are much fun and permanent even on fabric. We used stencils, torn paper, carved wooden and rubber stamps (wood works better), along with toothbrushes and stencil brushes and lots and lots of paper towels. The iridescent colours are particularly gorgeous and you can get some very interesting effects that you can’t get with dye or fabric paint. Here’s some examples:


Jo Anne has taught students these techniques so she had some pieces already freemotion stitched with batting and backing. Some of the fabrics used were already dyed, stamped or painted and then further embellished with the Paintstiks. So many ideas! This one is Cathie’s and on paper that was already printed with gold dots:


Masami decided to wear her piece and it almost became part of her blouse:


The woodblock stamp she used is one of mine that I’ve had for nearly 40 years. Donna was experimenting with a number of these blocks:


And Kirsten (who can now read my blog because she finally has highspeed Internet access – Hi, Kirsten!) played with rubbing plates as well as stamps and other items:


This is the only one I did that I kind of like:


For some reason, I always think everyone else’s pieces are much nicer than my own. I don’t do well in a group setting. It’s much easier for me to actually produce good work when I’m all by myself. Though I learn from what others are doing, I don’t usually make anything spectacular in a class. Except maybe by accident! I do love these ladies though so the social aspect is the big thing. And the food of course!

Now we let our masterpieces (hic!) rest for a couple of days and then give them a good ironing and they are then permanent. Good thing they aren’t permanent right away because I got a big smear on my jumper right across the bust. I washed it quickly in Synthrapol when I got home and it came right out. BTW the title refers to the Hindu god Shiva as the Lord of the Dance. (I really think he came before Michael Flatley!) Shiva is also the Transformer or Destroyer, depending on the aspect. Hope we don’t see that last one. Close your third eye.

I won’t be here for the next meeting in September so I hope they will do something I don’t care about!

Yesterday's Meetings Report

I had a bunch of things I was going to do today including having lunch with Milady Daughter, but yesterday was long and I’m tired. Or maybe it’s just the pouring rain and chilly weather that’s dampening my spirits and convincing me that a long walk in it is a dumb idea? Whatever, we’ve rescheduled our lunch date for next week. Maybe the weather will improve, though the weatherman says otherwise. What happened to my lovely warm spring? Everything in my garden needs little wooly sweaters and lifejackets. Even the tomatoes in the greenhouse are getting wet from the dripping roof and the basil got what I call cold spots from the several extra-chilly nights they spent in there. Sigh. Everything was doing just fine before this. Oh well. You can rant about it but you can’t change the weather.

So what did I do yesterday that tuckered me out? Well first there was my Spectrum Study Group. We West-Side-Girls car-pooled over to Jo Anne’s where we ate yummy Aunt Bertha’s Apple Cake and drank copious amounts of tea and stitched and chatted. I gave Masami her tawashi as a thank you for bringing me the yarn all the way back from Japan. I also gave her the pattern and she immediately whipped out a crochet hook (an interesting double-ended wooden one from Japan) and some scrap yarn and started making her own Linked-Rings tawashi. She thought it was great fun to do! By the end of the day she had a couple more of them already finished.

After our usual impressive potluck lunch, we worked some more on our projects. Most of us were stitching on our Inspired-By-A-Word Bags. Mine is kind of ugly and stupid but it’s coming along. I put some beads and Indian metal sequins on it which helped. You aren’t going to see it yet though! I’m keeping it to myself for now.

I came home for dinner, worked some more on the Big Secret Project, and then later T-Man drove me to my fibre arts guild meeting, last one of the year and the first one I’ve managed to get to. The speaker was a woman who had moved to Mayne Island in the Gulf Islands to a farm that had once belonged to a Japanese family who had been interned to the BC Interior during WWII. Interestingly she has met the original family and they have become quite good friends. It seems they are happy to have someone who cares for the land and appreciates their sacrifice living there now. (Don’t get me started on that horrible stain on Canadian history. I wasn’t born yet so I plead innocence but I apologise anyway.) Anyhow she now has 7 angora goats and dyes the wool with natural dyes, both gathered from her environment and bought (from Maiwa of course). She gets some very muted but pretty colours. It must be the water, which is quite different from mine, that allows her to get purple from blackberries where I just get grey when it immediately fades! I was fascinated to see the mohair swatch made from yarn dyed with…are you ready for it? Tent caterpillars. Eewww! She figured they were pests and eating chlorophyll so there should be colour in them and there was! It was a slightly greenish yellow. Not pretty enough to inspire me to try it but at least she rid her trees of some of the nasty creatures. Must have been very satisfying for her. I wonder if squirrels make good dye? Nah. I’m scared to collect ‘em. They’re too nasty. How about sow bugs though?

I was having much trouble keeping my mouth shut while she was talking. (Actually I didn’t and misheard her at one point whereupon I said something stupid. It might have helped if I had remembered my hearing aids, huh?) I did hear several facts I would disagree with but then I’ve actually got more experience since she’s only been doing this for a few years compared to me. Plus some of it is really subjective or depends on your information source. Your mileage may vary, as they say.

Dear T picked me up again and we got to bed around 10pm, which for us is like midnight. It was nice that we could sleep in to 6am this morning! He decided to do his part for the environment and save some gas by working from home today. We’re hoping it will become a once a week thing, but frustrations with his phone system (ear piece, wire and cell phone plus a long convoluted dialing system) may need some tweaking. Plus he has to IM much more to keep in touch with people at work. Otherwise it’s really nice to have him home — even though I still haven’t vacuumed and can’t while he’s working! Heh. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Off to continue with the Big Secret Project. It’s so dark I need the lights on to see what I’m doing. Kind of like the middle of winter? To dark for any photos today that’s for sure.