Around The World Blog Hop

Yep, it’s my turn to post as I follow darling Dixie of With Needle and Brush. She is always sewing up delightful garments, often with fine details including piecing and stencilling with fabric paints. To dye for! Thanks for asking me, Dixie! (And please don’t forget to go check out her blog.)

1. What am I working on?

Ummm…more like what am I not working on! Currently I have 2 knitting projects on the go: a shawl from silk yarn that I hand-dyed (the Silken Haruni):

I did one extra repeat of Chart A and just starting on the border Chart B which is easily half the shawlette. And also a Secret Gift from handspun. This is the yarn that I spun from Aurelia’s Boysenberry Glitter and chain-plied:

Hope you can see at least some of the sparkles in the sunshine. This stuff is really hard to photograph! I’m not telling what I’m making until after it’s been gifted so you’ll just have to wait for the big reveal. And there’s a weaving project: placemats in many variations of Summer & Winter weave:

No, they haven’t gotten any further since the last time I posted about them but at least it’s a new photo! And there’s a spinning project I mentioned yesterday: a NZ RomneyX fleece in a very pale warm gray for a sweater for Thom:

This photo is different from yesterday’s because it’s not in the sun. The yarn sample was spun using Ann Field’s “spin to the crimp” technique though I didn’t quite reach the 3 twists per inch to match the fleece’s wide crimp pattern but got a slightly tighter 4 tpi instead. Good enough since it’s quite as airy as I’d want it anyway and a bit fuzzy which surprised me. The sample swatch was knit with 2 different needle sizes, 5mm and 4.5mm. I like the fabric of the tighter stitches (top half, above the white cotton tie) better and the stitches are more even. Now I need to tease, card, spin and ply another 1.5 lbs or so of this stuff before I can choose the pattern and get started knitting. Whew!

And several sewing projects: a T-shirt (my own pattern based on MariaDenmark’s Kirsten Kimono Tee, cut out and ready to sew), a pullover sweater for Thom (Thread Theory’s Finlayson, pattern ready to cut out), and pants (Today’s Fit V1411, pattern needs to be traced and fit adjusted). This is the current chaotic state of my big work table and you can see more stuff that I pitched over to the sewing table on the top right to clear space:

We will not speak of the bajillion other items waiting in the queue!

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Of which genre in particular are we speaking? General fibre crafts? I think I’ve tried nearly every one of them at one time or another. And I prefer not to compare myself to others. I just makes ’em as I wants ’em! Everyone else is totally free to do the same. Go. Create. Just do it. It’s good for you.

3. Why do I create what I do?

Because I can’t not make stuff! My hands get twitchy without something to do and when I’m not actually doing it, I’m thinking and planning and documenting it. I just want to surround myself with me-mades and T-mades (that’s the stuff that Thom makes). And perhaps a few somebody-else-mades too. It’s comforting and special and I just like knowing the who and the where and the what of my possessions. It’s an ongoing lifetime project. And somehow I never end up with too many finished objects. I use what I make every day so things always eventually wear out and need replacing.

4. How does my creating process work?

See something. Get an idea. Hunt down the materials. Make. Record. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Gee, wish I knew how to write something profound in artspeak here! However it doesn’t seem to be part of my WYSIWYG personality to obfuscate with high-sounding concepts. Mostly I just follow my inclinations. It’s the path to happiness! Also I like to talk about what I’m doing so here I am - 9-1/2 years of blogging later.

OK, that was fun! Please follow on the blog hop with the very talented Myrna Giesbrecht who will be posting next Monday (Dec 1) with her take on the four questions. Myrna sews artful garments and knits and blogs about her creative process in an extremely thorough and insightful way. Enjoy!

I’m Touched

Darling Yarnpiggy of Flying Pig Knits has nominated me for a Beautiful Blogger Award!

Thank you, hon’! It’s a big honour! And a lot of work. Heh.

I now have to list 10 little-known things about me and nominate 10 blogs in turn. So are there 10 things you don’t know about me? I have no idea if you’ve heard any of this before, but I’ll do my best.

1. I’m not afraid of snakes, spiders or bats. I think they are cute and actually have a friendly cupboard spider that lives in my kitchen window. When I was a girl I once rowed out in a small boat onto a lake after dark just so I could feel the bats flit around my head. I also caught garter snakes just so I could feel them slither around my wrist.

2. I am afraid of being underground (caves, tunnels, subways, underground parking) but not so much that I can’t go there. I just feel the weight over my head and am uncomfortable until I’m out. Except once I couldn’t go with my family into the Horne Lake Caves on Vancouver Island because they were just too tight! Brrr…

3. I was born with a large mole on my left butt-cheek. My adopted mom used to say it’s how she could tell me apart in a crowd. And I would reply, “A crowd of nude sunbathers!” Yes, it’s still there.

4. My adopted mom only knitted and my birth mom only crocheted (though her mom could do both). I can do both. So can my daughter. So far my granddaughter has knitted a little bit – but then she’s only five. What will impending grandbaby Alien do? And why are the males in the family not at all interested?

5. Speaking of birth mom, I still have a little portion of her ashes on my dresser. Where to finally put them? I haven’t decided yet. There’s also a portion in Mexico, Haida Gwaii, Kamloops and somewhere off Crescent Beach in White Rock. She gets around, eh?

Jeepers! Only halfway there so far. What else about me? Must dig deeper.

6. I have no religion whatsoever. Although I was baptised a Catholic when I was 2 weeks old, I rejected the whole sorry mess when I was 13. Took me until I was 17 to tell my parents though. (Caused a huge kerfuffle in the family.) I try to respect those who do believe, but sometimes it’s hard. The Golden Rule should be all you need to live by.

7. Religion aside, I never knew it growing up but I was adopted into a dysfunctional family. Both of my younger adopted siblings have undiagnosed mental problems which our parents had no tools or help to manage. And to complicate matters, we had my mom’s sister living with us and she too had some issues. However, I knew I was loved and was smart enough to avoid most of the drama and came out of it just fine. I never realised until much later how crazy it really was.

8. I don’t like to be ordered around or told what to do. I hate having someone looking over my shoulder or watching me work – unless I’m purposely demonstrating. I’m happier if I know exactly what is expected and when it’s due and left to accomplish the task without supervision. Probably why I don’t have a Real Job, huh?

9. I’ve always thought of myself as a Plain Jane. T-Man thinks I’m beautiful though so maybe my perception is wrong? I think beauty is in the eye of the beholder anyhow and should be much more than skin deep. Personal style is more important (and fun!) than geometric perfection. At least I’m not worried about aging. As long as I have my general health, a few sags, bags, wrinkles and gray hairs are no big deal.

10. Speaking of age, I know I’m getting older because I don’t recognise a lot of the pop-culture references any more. And I don’t care. The reason could be that I don’t watch so-called “reality” TV, listen to popular music or read the bestseller books. I don’t live in the past either, but I choose my own path through the overwhelming media assault. It seems to be a path that is less-traveled – but I’m happy there. I surely could tell you the names of some recent popular knitting patterns!

Whew! That was hard! Now the even-harder part, websites to nominate. Along with hers, Piggy has already nominated 3 of my would-be choices. Maybe I’ll go with some that aren’t personal acquaintances but whose blogs I enjoy:

1. Ev of Strings ‘n Things. She also has a great podcast! Give it a listen.

2. Marilyn of Waterbourne – A Live-Aboard Blog. The skipper of Victoria’s FibreFest and documenter of ships and boats of all types.

3. Leslie of Devon Fine Fibres. I’ve mentioned her before but she so impresses me.

4. Connie of Constance Rose Progressive Textiles. Gorgeous fibre art.

5. Trapunto of The Straight of the Goods. Weaving and life.

6. Cynthia of Living and Dyeing Under the Big Sky. More gorgeous fibre arts.

7. Trena of The Slapdash Sewist. Cute garment sewing.

8. Leena of Riihivilla, Dyeing with Natural Dyes. (Scroll down each post for the English version.) Amazing dye colours from Finland.

9. Jane’s Existential Neighbourhood. Surface design and creativity in general. Looking forward to her new book!

10. And Sheepish Annie, just for making me laugh. Although I believe in being ready for the Zombie Apocalypse too. Are you?

It was hard to pick from the gajillion blogs I try to keep up with. And I didn’t want them to be the hugely popular ones but some a little more off the beaten track or ones you just might not have considered. Most of these folks are busy and likely won’t be interested in playing along so I won’t bother most of them to let them know they’ve been nominated. You can if you like. Or just leave them a comment if you enjoy their blog. After all that’s what this meme is all about, right?

Meanwhile, I’ve completed Debbie Double:

Look! She’s gray and wrinkly just like me! I don’t have those red lines though. Heh. We are already getting to be very good friends. I’ve used Deb to re-cut the Celestine dress pattern to hopefully fit me. It certainly wouldn’t have fit at all if I just went with my bust size. I went up a whole 4 sizes from the bust to the waist and hip, from a 42 to a 48 - which had to be extrapolated since the pattern sizing only goes up to 46. Yikes! Obviously women are expected to be more hourglass-shaped than pear-shaped, huh?

It might be a bit big now (since Deb is slightly larger than me) but at least I have some extra fabric to take in. Better than being caught short, right? I also brought the bust point down (gravity works!) and narrowed the front inset in order to accommodate it. Then I used the Sewing Muse website to track down some helpful fitting articles in my Threads magazines. Shoulders and sleeve cap needed some work to narrow them. This is a great site for a searchable up-to-date index for every issue of Threads right back to the beginning. Very handy. Yes, of course I have every issue from 1985 to the present. Why do you ask? It used to have knitting and weaving and all sorts of other crafts too besides just sewing.

So now that the pattern is ready to go, I don’t have any fabric that I want to use. I won’t be cutting up any of the good stuff because I want to make it out of something relatively inexpensive, just in case I’ve created a “wadder”. I’m aiming for a (hopefully) wearable muslin. I also need a matching zipper, preferably invisible. I haven’t sewn in one of those in donkey’s years! Don’t even have a proper foot for them anymore. Here’s a great tutorial on this type of zipper installation.

My first sewing pattern order finally showed up just now. Another is still to come. More later. Yes, I’m definitely on a sewing kick. Knitting? Nearly finished the Multi-Multnomah. Only 7 (or maybe 3) rows to go then the bind-off. It all depends on how much yarn I have left. Hope I don’t have to rip back if I miscalculate.

Me-Me-Me

Here’s a meme that’s been going around. Many folks haven’t gone through the trouble of actually tagging anybody so I’m considering myself tagged. You can too, but only if you want to be.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

Pretty much all the same things as now though I was also teaching occasional craft classes and editing my weavers’ guild newsletter. (I worked on that darn thing for 13 years in total!) Perhaps a little more weaving and beading and a little less knitting than currently. Oh and there was the steering committee work for our big HGA conference, Convergence 2002. I was “Publications”, a job that I knew would be over before the conference began so I could actually enjoy myself there. It took my guild 5 years of planning and hard work to put on the best Convergence ever, only to lose money in the end. Boo-hoo. (Now HGA organises it themselves in-house.)

2. What were five things on my to-do list today (not in any particular order)?

Make a potluck dish. (Faux-tato Salad made with orange cauliflower instead of potatoes. Yum.)
Go to my Spectrum Study Group meeting. (Where I will share the potluck dish with my friends.)
Stitch on our Bag Project at the meeting. (No, I haven’t blogged much about that. Eventually.)
This evening, go to a meeting of the Vancouver Guild of Fibre Arts. (First one I’ve attended this year and the last meeting of the year until Fall. Bad Damselfly.)
Pay my VGFA guild dues for next year. (Dues for the Greater Vancouver Weavers’ & Spinners’ Guild are coming up in a couple of weeks too. I belong to several local guilds and a couple of international ones. Not HGA though. Long story. See first question.)

3. What snacks do I enjoy?

Salty: corn chips with artichoke and asiago dip (I prefer potato chips but they don’t like me much), peanuts, plain salted popcorn (though I don’t eat it often)
Sweet: dark chocolate (must be really good quality), gelato in a waffle cone, honey mandarins

4. Where are some places I've lived?

Vancouver, BC, Canada. I still live in the same neighbourhood I’ve lived most of my life including nearly 30 years in this house. (World Traveler - not.)

5. What things would I do if I were a billionaire?

Let T-Man retire (as soon as he wants to), help my birth mom with her cancer treatments, pay off hers and my kid’s mortgages, put money in education accounts for my grandkids, do some upgrade and repair work on the house, replace all the junk in my house with handmade craft pieces (commissioned or purchased from the artists). Then after putting enough money away for us to live in reasonable comfort, I’d probably start a retirement home for aging fibre artists. Wouldn't that be totally wonderful? Nobody really needs a billion dollars. They just think they do.

OK, now I’m off to do all the things I listed in Question 2.

I've Been Tagged!

By Michele for the 7 Random Things About Me meme. But now I can’t remember her blog’s name to link to her. Sorry about that. If you’re reading this, girl, remind this swiftly aging granny! Maybe I’m just tired after babysitting the grandkidlets yesterday. Whew!

Anyway here are the rules: "Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog."

I'm just posting the rules as writ even if I have no intention of actually following them. I'm such a rebel.

The random facts:

1. I love to eat fried beef liver but I try not to offend anyone else with my cravings. T-Man is not fond of it so I usually cook it for my lunch when he’s at work. With onions or without, doesn’t matter. Yum! I do not understand why others think that liking liver is weird. Yes, I know where it comes from.

2. I’ve never lived by myself. I went straight from my parents’ house to my first tiny apartment as a new bride. I’ve never lived in any other city either. I’ve only moved a few times in my life and I still live in the same neighbourhood that I grew up in. Last time we moved was over 28 years ago and there are no moving plans in our near future, even if our house is now worth something close to a million bucks.

3. I have a fascination for nature. Whenever I travel I like to know the names of the plants and wildlife that I come across and we even bring reference books with us in the old VW van for me to look them up. If I can’t find it there, I bring home pressed leaves, lichen samples, drawings and photos to research later. When I was a little girl it drove me nuts when people didn’t know what something was called when I asked. I wasn’t asking for the Latin name — even the common one would do.

4. The farthest away from home I’ve ever been is Ohio (for the HGA Convergence 2000 in Cincinnati, in case you were wondering). I didn’t know a lot of the plants there at all and none of the locals I asked knew much more. Unfortunately there wasn’t room in my luggage for any reference books. I saw my first fireflies and Japanese beetles but I didn’t see a cardinal. I was so disappointed! I mean, they named their baseball team the Cardinals so you’d think they would be a common sight, wouldn’t you? I only found stuffed ones, printed ones, ones on t-shirts, etc. None of those were the feathered kind. I wore out my red crayons colouring pictures of them as a child but we don't have cardinals in the west. Or fireflies or Japanese beetles (yet) either.

5. I’ve never had a cup of coffee and a cigarette in my life. I actually hate the smell as well as the taste of coffee and we won’t even talk about how I feel about cigarettes. Eeww, peww, pfht… However, I drink enough tea in a day to float a battleship as my late daddy would say. And in my callow youth I was known to occasionally smoke a substance that now I would rather spin instead. It was the ‘60’s after all. Haven’t touched it since though. Except for its fibrous relative of course.

6. Summer is not my favourite season. I don’t like to be too hot. Or too cold either for that matter but it’s easier to warm up than it is to cool down. I enjoy the sunshine but don’t like to be out in it unless it’s cool enough to need to wear a sweater. I especially hate when it’s warm at night because I can’t sleep well without the weight of a lot of heavy blankets on me. For that reason, early fall is my favourite time of year followed by late spring. Luckily I live where being too hot and sunny usually is not an issue. Too cold and rainy is much more common. All year around.

7. My most un-favourite colour is pink, followed closely by beige and tan. Not that I never use those colours, but I prefer them as accents in a complex colourway rather than alone. All the breast cancer charities in the world cannot convince me that pink is a colour to be desired. Magenta maybe. Fuchsia, peach, raspberry…OK. But baby, Barbie, Pepto-Bismal, cool, pale, wishy-washy pinks. Uh-uh. I’m SO not very girlie.

OK that’s it! It was hard to come up with stuff about me you likely haven't already read. Now do I tag others? I’m not good at that. And trying to find 7 people who haven’t already been tagged is nigh on impossible. If you haven’t done this one yet, go to it and say it’s my fault.

When Wooly Dinosaurs Roamed

There’s an interesting Spinning Meme going around the blogs but there’s no point in me posting my version. Since I’ve been spinning for more than 30 years (yikes!) I’ve pretty much bolded everything on the list. The only things left are ones I’m truly not interested in or haven’t had at least a taste of in a class or something. No boast. Just decades of obsession…er, experience.

It’s interesting to me though how many of the items on the list weren’t available when I first began lo those many years ago. My first experience with spinning was a clunky plywood bottom-whorl drop spindle (aka boat anchor) and some icky dried up greasy carded fleece. It’s a wonder I still spin! And it’s all T-Man’s fault. He bought the kit for me. It even included a couple of pages of instructions. Heh.

Luckily I stuck with it and even got some hand cards to help prepare the raw fleece which was all I was able to get. A year later the finances were at a stage where I could buy a wheel (the Sleeping Beauty that I recently gifted my daughter) and my spinning really took off. I was still making thick singles and 2-plys most of the time but they weren’t as lumpy bumpy or as thick as in the beginning. Remember this was the ‘70’s — funky and natural was in. After the wheel I got a drum carder which was much easier on my hands. I also learned to dye wool in my canning pot after I got tired of natural sheep colours. It wasn’t that hard because I had learned how to dye with Procion MX for tie-dye and batik in high school. Little did I know I could have used the same dyes only with heat and vinegar on the wool! We live and learn.

There wasn’t much in the way of fibres other than sheep to play with back then. I spun some dog hair for a few people. (I drew the line at poodle! It’s coarse hair not wool.) I found myself collecting dirty camel fibres off the fence at the zoo. I went to the local (now sadly defunct) sheep fair and bought bags of lovely fresh fleece. Which of course needed washing, teasing and carding. Roving, sliver, top — huh? All I knew was rolags and batts which I made myself. Commercial dyed, painted, blends — nope. Soy silk, bamboo, Angelina — uh-uh. Wool combs, hackles, fancy little spindles — no way. My newbie spinners today have it so easy! It’s like being at a huge banquet as opposed to grinding your own wheat. Enjoy. I do. Even though sometimes I like to wash, tease, card, comb, blend, etc. myself. It’s about having options. Otherwise we’d just go to Wally World and buy a sweater. And that wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

However, I just hauled out my entire spinning stash from the attic and NOW I’M FRIGHTENED!!! It’s the Fluff That Ate Vancouver! I’m not kidding. See?


Doesn’t it scare you that it takes 2 photos to fit it in? And there’s more you can’t see underneath and behind that stuff? Note that it all came out of that little hobbit doorway in the back of the second photo. And it has to go back in again somehow. After I re-inventory, re-label, try to purge some stuff that I know I’ll never use and re-pack what’s left. I’m so grateful that I didn’t find any m*ths in there anyhow. I do love the new gigantic Ziploc bags for m*th prevention and general corralling of wayward baggies but they don’t stack. They avalanche. So how many more Rubbermaid bins do you suppose I need to contain this lot? I just went out with T-Man and the VW van and bought 4 honking big ones and 4 smaller ones but I seriously doubt that’s enough. Pardon me while I go clear the dust out of my throat.

Erm…is it true that some people are able to spin up everything they have and then have to go buy more? That they don’t have bags of fibre they’ve stored since 1985? I now have officially reached SABLE (Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy) and until at least a goodly portion of this becomes yarn, I’m on a no-fibre diet. Unless I “accidentally” find some Shetland wool at the ANWG conference in Alberta in June that is. Because believe it or not I actually don’t have any Shetland at all. Don’t look at me like that! I do know what I’ve got here, ya know. Just not how much of it there really is. Keep your fingers crossed that I don’t find any Shetland in Red Deer or it’ll be the fibrous equivalent of the straw that broke the camels back. I’ll be in constant danger of being smothered in an avalanche of spinning fibres as soon as I open the blue hobbit door. If it helps any, I’m taking two workshop/seminars on spinning at the conference: one on spinning for controlled striped yarn and the other on creative recycling for handspinners. Maybe it’ll encourage more usage. One can only hope.

It all makes great insulation in my attic anyway. That’s my excuse and I’m stickin’ to it.

Fiber Geek Questionnaire

This is from Fiber Femmes and I thought it was an interesting challenge to answer. Kind of like a meme.

1. Do you raise fiber, animals or plant, or are a fiber user only? If you raise animals/plants...what do you raise?

I used to have 4 angora rabbits but they’ve since gone to that big clover field in the sky. My cats are unfortunately not much good for fibre production. Not that they don’t produce fibre — just that it’s not good!

2. What's your favorite fiber & why? Which fiber do you like the least & why?

I don’t think I have a real favourite. I’ve spun pretty much anything remotely spinnable over the years, though medium-fine wool (Corriedale, Polwarth) is probably the most common fibre I work with. I can't spin silk mawata (hankies) or caps because pulling them out hurts my hands.

3. What's your worst habit relating to your fiber?

Spinning a regular yarn. I don’t experiment as much as I could so most of my yarns are plain old 2-ply sport weight wool. Boring but functional.

4. In what ways does your fiber habit make you a better person?

Gee, does it really? I’ve been working with it for so long that I don’t know who I would be without fibre in my life. A "chicken and the egg" thing.

5. How would your life be different if you had to give up fiber?

There is No Way that I would give up fibre. It would have to be pried out of my cold dead hands first. I've already worked my way through a couple of temporary handicaps. Where there's a will, there's a way.

6. What tools, yarns, books or gadgets can't you live without?

All of them. I’m particularly fond of my book collection, many of which are OOP and not replaceable.

7. What was your first fiber project?

Ummm...I don’t remember since it was about 50 years ago.

8. Do you have any fiber mentors? Who are they and why?

Judith MacKenzie McCuin, who knows more about fibres and spinning than anyone I’ve ever met (and I’ve met a few). She’s also very sweet and extremely generous with her knowledge. Paula Simmons, Mabel Ross and Jane Fournier also come to mind. I learned a lot just being a “scribe” while Jane judged submissions for the HGA's COE in Handspinning one year when our guild hosted it. I also learned that I will never submit for a COE myself and you can't make me!

9. Are you a member of any guilds? If so, which one(s)?

I belong to several guilds: the Greater Vancouver Weavers’ & Spinners’ Guild (21 years and counting), the Vancouver Guild of Fabric Arts, Complex Weavers and the Tablet Weavers’ International Studies & Techniques (TWIST).

10. What's the most exciting fiber project you've undertaken?

I don’t know if it’s considered a fibre project exactly, but I was on the steering committee for HGA’s Convergence 2002 that took place here in Vancouver that year and only the second time ever in Canada. I was in charge of the publications. With over 5 years of our hard work and after hosting about 3000 attendees, vendors and shoppers, I would consider that exciting!

11. How many people have you mentored? In which fiber arts?

I have absolutely no idea! I’ve been teaching on and off locally for 30 years so that must be a few, hey? I’ve taught weaving, spinning, dyeing, kumihimo, tablet weaving, beadwork, knitting and crochet. The folks at my LYS send people to me all the time with questions they can’t answer.

12. Do you consider fiber crafts to be functional or artistic?

Both. Though most of my stuff is functional, I’d like to hope there is some artistic merit there as well. But I don’t just make “art” for art’s sake. I enjoy what other people come up with though.

13. What, mainly, do you make? Do you keep, or give away, most of your projects?

Number One Item = Socks! I give away some of my projects (mostly socks now that my drawer is full) and very occasionally sell one or two things (if begged and pleaded with), but mostly the things I make stay at our house. I don’t think anyone else appreciates them as much as my husband and I do. He also does crafts with wood and glass. As he says “Wood is fibre too!” He sometimes makes tools for me and some of his lampwork beads go in my work.

14. Are fiber crafts an avocation or vocation for you?

Obsession. Totally. No question.

15. How many people are you committed to being a mentor for in 2007?

No idea, though I’m supposed to start a new beginner spinning class next week if there’s enough students signed up.