Craftsy Crazy

OK. I’m going to admit it. Craftsy is the best thing since the in-person workshop! I tested the waters recently with a free class on Short Rows with Carol Feller. This is definitely not your amateur YouTube offering! No, it’s professionally filmed and edited and you get over two hours of clear step-by-step instruction from Carol with her lovely soft Irish brogue and a PDF of the class notes. The only thing that separates this from the regular paid classes at Craftsy is that the discussions are student-led rather than instructor-led. There is still a lot of good information available so this proves that even the “mini-classes” are totally worth checking out.

Another good thing about Craftsy is their money-back guarantee. If you aren’t happy they really will refund you. The paid class prices may seem high, some as much as $50, but there are sales offered and deals can occasionally be accessed from instructors blogs or home pages. I think the price goes down after the class has been available for awhile as well. The interface is quite good. You really do need a high-speed internet access though. I occasionally had trouble with the HD video stalling but was able to stop, go away and come back to fix it. You can also reduce from HD to regular if that helps. It always remembers where you leave off and you can rewind, add video notes (aka “bookmarks”) and replay anything as many times as you want. Apparently your class access never expires but you may not get quick answers from your instructor if time has passed. I’ve also heard that earlier messages in the discussion area disappear after awhile, which I think is a bummer. I get a lot out of reading other people’s questions and the answers they receive. If they are deleted then I’m actually losing some good information. Boo. But those are the only problems that I’ve found. So far. I’ve accessed my classes from both my big desktop computer and from my netbook. Even on the little netbook it isn’t a bad experience if I use full-screen mode and my earphones. You can also use an iPad or iPhone but I’m not sure the screen is terribly useful on the latter if you really want to see what’s going on. Might be enough to jog your memory if you’ve already seen it and you just need a hint on what to do next.

So far I’m up to 5 classes signed up, 3 freebies and 2 that were paid for. You can also get workshops, which are more like “a-longs”, patterns, yarns and fabrics through Craftsy. In my Sew The Perfect Fit class with Lynda Maynard, I received an actual Vogue pattern (not a PDF) to use which took a really long time to get here, more than 6 weeks. And then I somehow ordered the smaller rather than the larger size. Whaaah. It’s always a tough call for me since I’m right on the cusp of the usual sizing split. Not that this dress is remotely my style at all anyhow. Understandably now I’m a little reluctant to go with something that needs delivery to Canada as always it’s a crap-shoot on timing and customs issues. I think I will stick to things with digital downloads instead.

And speaking of classes with materials included, I saw that Natalie Chanin is presenting her Hand-Embellishing Knit Fabric. As a fan of Alabama Chanin’s garments I’ve always had a craving to try this technique. However I already have 2 of her 3 books plus I found out I already own the Vogue jacket pattern included in the class. I also have all the other items that I need (fabric which of course needs to be dyed first, paint, thread, stencil material) to just DO IT! I’m inspired now. The jacket (Donna Karan’s V1263) looks much nicer “Chanin-ized” than the pattern envelope version does. Of course if I do the whole thing with hand-stitching, I’ll never finish so I plan to use a combination of hand- and machine-stitching, especially on long construction seams. Unfortunately as always, it’s gotta wait in the stew pot that is my version of a queue along with everything else. I’m hoping it bubbles up soon and doesn’t get lost in the sludge on the bottom!

Meanwhile, I’ve been slowly plodding through Lynda Maynard’s The Perfect Fit class without doing any of the actual work. But that’s ok. I’m learning a lot about her fitting approach which uses a similar method to the one in Sarah Veblen’s Perfect Fitting book. You sew a muslin and then chop into it to release tight areas and add fabric patches underneath to fill in the gaps and pin them in. Then you pin out fullness wherever you need to. Lynda works from the top down and the most import part of the demonstration to me was how she transfers the changes back to the paper pattern. It’s pretty intuitive, at least to me, and I found her methods methodical and clear. Unfortunately to really use this in your own sewing, you pretty much need a fit buddy – and I don’t have one. T-Man is always willing but doesn’t have a clue what to do and I don’t know anyone else locally with the time and the skill or even the desire to play fitting games with me. It can be done on my own but it takes a lot of putting on and taking off, trial and error, mirrors and possibly photos to see the back. I have 2 bodices I want to fit so I’ll be putting some of what I’ve (hopefully) learned to use very soon.

Interestingly both Lynda Maynard and Kenneth King recommend the same thick textbook on fit for their students, one I hadn’t heard about before. It was originally published in the 1980’s but this is the 2009 revised version:

I found a copy on Amazon.ca here but it’s nearly $100 so I’m going to have to save my sadly-now-defunct Canadian pennies for this one. The reviews are uniformly glowing and it seems to be what I need to round out my collection of books on fitting. I personally have so many fitting issues that it is not a simple task to make closely-fitted garments in non-stretch fabrics work properly on my body. Besides, I’m an unabashed bibliophile. Any excuse for another book!

So have you tried any online classes? Besides Craftsy there are offerings from PatternReview and CreativeBug and I’m sure others as well. What I don’t like about CreativeBug is that it’s more of a subscription-based service where you pay a monthly fee and get access to all classes. That kind of automatic-renewal thing bugs me especially if you aren’t interested in seeing everything but they seem to be offering more “a la carte” single classes recently. My initial impression is that more of their classes are beginner level or product-focussed rather than technique or skill based. PatternReview’s classes are all (of course) about sewing and the prices are on the higher end. They seem to have some excellent offerings though and the deal is similar to Craftsy’s. I don’t know if the quality of either of these are equal to Craftsy’s nor do I know anything about how well their interfaces function because I haven’t tried them. Let me know if you have!

Nightmare

I just heard the news about Judith MacKenzie losing her teaching studio in a recent fire. How awful! I can’t imagine how I would feel if it were my stuff that had all disappeared in a puff of smoke. Of course in my case it would probably also take my entire house since I don’t have a separate space. Brrrr… I can’t get the thought out of my head.

Looms and wheels and carders and combs are relatively easily replaceable, maybe even with something better than what you had. What I would miss the most would be my library. Eight bookcases full of books, magazines, notebooks, sample swatches etc. all collected over the last 45 years of my crafty life. Most of it is unfortunately not replaceable even if the insurance would stretch to cover it which it likely would not. I don’t want to test it anyway. My fingers would be crossed now but that would make it hard to function.

My heart goes out to poor Judith and I know the community will rally and support her in every way they can. This website has been set up to help. She has an amazing number of friends, students and admirers and I see they’ve already gone a goodly way towards their ultimate donation goal. Unlike trying to help in the aftermath of hurricanes, this is something simple that you can do for someone you know, even if it’s just through her books and videos.

Speaking of which, I just finished watching her Spinner’s Toolbox video (available from Interweave here) and it’s exactly like taking a class with Judith. Except unfortunately she can’t come around to your wheel and help you personally! I remember taking my first workshop with her more than 20 years ago and billeting her at my house. She probably doesn’t recall but I can clearly see her sitting in my kitchen with my first angora bunny Dust Bunny peacefully on her lap.

The Toolbox video demonstrates 6 different drafting methods in detail. Even I, old dog as I might be, learned what I was doing wrong with my worsted join and what I was doing right with my attempts at woollen spinning. I doubt I’ll ever be able to accomplish her “wolf yarn” though Judith sure makes it look easy! I really need “trainer wheels”, a core yarn to spin around, rather than trying to accomplish both the fluffy overlay while spinning the core at the same time. But that’s just me.

I don’t own this copy but borrowed the two-DVD set from my guild library. Great resource and underutilised by members. I know because I’m a library volunteer. (Have I mentioned how much I love books?) I’ve always said that for spinning especially a video is worth more than a thousand words. Wisely folks are making them for us and even posting them for free on YouTube. How I wish something like this existed when I was learning how to spin! Might have saved me from struggling all on my own.

Power of Positive Thinking

“Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive, because your words become your behaviours. Keep your behaviours positive, because your behaviours become your habits. Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny.” Mahatma Gandhi

I totally believe this! As you may have figured out, I tend to be an upbeat kind of person anyway. But I’m convinced that your attitude is the most important influence on your life. I hear so much whining and complaining from people about how everything isn’t perfect. At least from their point of view. I fall into this trap myself every now and then. But you only have control over just so much so there’s no use getting worked up about those things that are beyond your influence. Let it go without regret. On the other hand, a smile or positive comment goes a long way toward making yourself as well as others happy. I don’t mean singing hymns while the ship sinks. But there’s no point in facing the world as a sourpuss curmudgeon and infecting others with your poor attitude. It’s catching. And I’d rather catch a smile. OK, Pollyanna Damselfly will shut up about it now.

Today, dear readers, we have a Book Review! I was waiting for this one to be released and then I was waiting for it to get to my Canadian online book source. (Chapters/Indigo if you must know. Amazon.ca is ok too but it’s much slower to get here – I’ve tested – and besides, I had a gift card for C/I. Thanks, Milady D!) And it was most definitely worth the wait!

Abby Franquemont has got to be Queen of the Spindles. Because she started spinning at such a young age (5!) in a culture that appreciates and expects girls to spin (Andean) she internalised the whole “making yarn” thing to an incredible degree. And then added her own highly educated North American scientific analysis to it so that she not only knows what she’s doing and why she’s doing it that way but can explain exactly how to do it in understandable terms. Not easy that. Ask me how I know.

“Respect the Spindle” is more than just another learn-to-spin book. I’ve been spinning for over 40 years and I still gleaned a bunch of helpful tips and tricks and a couple of why-didn’t-I-think-of-thats! I certainly need to practice how Abby can “walk” the spun yarn onto her fingers in a figure-8 before winding it onto the spindle. She never lets go of her fibre at the same time either. And her method of creating the half-hitch to secure the yarn on a bottom-whorl spindle is very slick. I found myself constantly nodding as she explains things that every spinner should know – things that I’ve tried to teach in my classes in the past. How to tell when there’s enough or too much twist. Which way to turn the spindle. How to fill it by winding on efficiently. Abby gave me some new ideas to think about on the latter issue: low-whorl spindles can hold more yarn than high-whorl and how to make a “stop” to prevent the high-whorl yarn from slipping when it doesn’t have a notch. (Wish I knew that trick before I made an ugly notch in my pretty dragon spindle. Darn.)

Abby covers less common types of spindles as well including tahkli, turkish, akha, navajo and russian (lack of capitalisation copied from the text) and how they are used. There’s a full chapter on plying, which is not all that easy on a spindle. I envy her slick lizzy-kate for spindles from Greensleeves (though they don’t seem to have any available at the moment). I tend to use the multistrand ball technique myself where you wind a ball using two or more ends together and then just add the twist with the spindle. The Andean ply method is going to take some serious practice! She makes it look so easy. Abby even shows how to chain ply with the spindle. As I suspected, there’s a lot of starting and stopping unlike the smoother motions when you do it on the wheel.

I particularly appreciate the chapter on repair and storage. Spindles are small; they drop; they get bent or broken. Good to know that often it isn’t fatal. And there are some preventative habits to form. Be careful where you leave your spindle.

There are only a couple of patterns in the book for handspun yarn:  a hat (crocheted), a shawl, a double-layer cowl and a washcloth (all knit). All very practical items and the shawl in particular is tempting me with its lacy mitred squares and yummy colours. But it doesn’t need these patterns to my mind except to show that, yes, you can make something from your new yarn. Of course there’s a resources list in the back identifying whose tools and fibres are shown in the photos. Interweave would be getting a lot of inquiries otherwise! The expected bibliography and index are also there.

Now what could make this book even better? Seeing Abby actually spin! So I sprung for the companion download (because it was $5 cheaper than the DVD and no postage or duty). The drawback is the quality is a bit fuzzy especially on poor Abby’s face. I didn’t lose much of the detail but then I already know how to spin so my brain could fill in the gaps for me. If you really are a rank beginner, the DVD might be the better option. Check out the preview clip and see what you think of the downloaded version. There’s also a second video from Abby on drafting, both in downloadable and DVD versions. This one uses the spinning wheel.

The spindle video is an excellent addendum to the book. The important bits are covered in more detail and you can see Abby performing the actions as she narrates what she’s doing. She breaks things up into individual motions and then shows it all full-speed-ahead. The Andean plying method is breathtaking! When I grow up I want to be able to do that too. Maybe one day publishers will realise that the technology already exists to imbed video clips into digital books. Then it would be one convenient item instead of two separate media. Just saying.

I particularly like that there is no distracting background music except at the very end of the video. As a person who is hard of hearing I prefer not having to sift a voice through a veil of other sounds. Since my little netbook computer doesn’t have very good speakers (though for some reason it no longer sounds quite so “head-in-a-bucket” bad as it used to), I use earphones when watching videos on it. I recently had to buy a new set of earphones because I broke a wire in my old ones. Poor things get used a lot on my Palm T/X as well as my netbook so they suffer much abuse. My new ones are cute J*V*C Gumy*s in a pretty tangerine orange. And fit very well surprisingly – considering most types are not at all suitable for my small ears. I tried T-Man’s spare iPod earphones and they didn’t fit at all. These are inexpensive and are slightly smaller than the Sony ones I broke. Not quite as “gummy” as the name might suggest though they stay put well. The only drawback is my old ones had a volume switch on the cord itself which was very handy for turning up the sound when in traffic or down when in a quiet place without having to fish out my Palm to get at the volume controls. None of the gazillion earphones/earbuds/over-the-ear types I looked at had this feature. Oh well. Did I mention they’re Orange? Cool.

Yes, I can be a geek.

Well. The weather has been very mild (12 C in January!) and very wet. There is panic on the mountains about having enough snow for that O-Lympical Thingy that’s happening here soon. They are busting out the shovels and the snow-making machines and hoping for colder temps. Can’t say I didn’t expect this! (Though it’s very different from last year’s Too Much Snow. It’s actually more normal.) Hope all this remedial activity is accounted for in the budget – the one that we will be paying for. For a very long time. I wish them success but I’m not much interested in the event myself. Too much ado about…

Oh right! Positive thoughts.