Mulligan!

No, I don’t play golf. However, it is my understanding that the term “mulligan” is used as a “free re-do” of a poor shot – at least during a friendly game of golf.

My re-do involves knitting. In May (blog entry May 21, 2011), I started knitting an afghan from a delicious mohair boucle yarn. I had a good plan. Or, so I thought.

My idea was to incorporate zig-zag lines of eyelets on a garter stitch background. Here’s a rough sketch of my idea:


This is a big, big afghan. It’s 48 inches wide. And I’ve knitted nearly that same number of inches in length. So, I’m closer to the end than to the beginning. I took a couple pictures of my progress earlier today. Here’s one picture:


Nice colors, don’t you think? I do love this yarn, and I love knitting it. But I’ve been so attached to my design idea that I was ignoring what was right in front of my face: the yarn hide the fabulous design. I mean! Can you see it? All I see is garter stitch.

Here’s another picture which is intended to point out the pattern:


Perhaps you can see the eyelets, but not very clearly.

The problem is this. I’m designing the afghan to sell. I’m thinkin’ that no one will want to buy an afghan that looks as if it’s just knitted in plain ol’ garter stitch.

So, I’m taking a “mulligan”. I haven’t been able to bring myself to rip out the afghan yet, but I will. Anyway, July is not the time of year to knit with a giant pile of mohair in your lap.

When I do get around to re-knitting, I may go back to one of my earlier ideas for this yarn (which has, by the way, been a real pleasure to knit): an oversized pullover with a dramatic cowl collar, or maybe a flashy, versatile ruana. Maybe a cross between a ruana and a pullover…..

Festivals on Parade

Lots of links today. The fiber festival season is well under way. Here are a few in my future:

Fiber Arts Festival at Castle Farms in Charlevoix, Michigan, July 23-24. This festival has about 50 vendors, live animals, food, and various demonstrations; all at a beautiful venue! No workshops, however, so I’ll be attending as just a visitor/shopper.

Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan, Michigan, August 19-21. One of the larger festivals in the midwest, with fiber arts workshops beginning on the Wednesday (Aug 17) before the festival opens to the public. I’m teaching workshops Wednesday through Friday. See the MFF blog for details and pictures of a number of instructors.

Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival in Jefferson, Wisconsin, September 9-11. This is a robust and growing event that is celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year. There are loads of vendors and everything lamb & sheep under the sun. I’m scheduled to teach all three days, and I really look forward to it!

Northern Michigan Lamb & Wool Festival in West Branch, Michigan, September 24-25. Small by comparison to MFF and WSWF, this event is well known for its shearing school. This year there will be about 50 vendors. And the weather is often absolutely delightful at the end of September. I do love the Ogemaw county fairgrounds.

NYS Sheep & Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, New York, October 15-16. One of the largest fiber festivals in the country, “Rhinebeck” (as it is typically called) is a hoppin’ event! This will be my third year teaching there. Workshops start on Thursday, October 13 and go through Sunday, October 16.

Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair in Fletcher, North Carolina, October 21-23. A new festival for me. I’ll be driving from Michigan to Rhinebeck, then straight to North Carolina. It’ll be my longest fiber road trip yet. If you’ve attended, I’d love to hear your impressions or tips. One really nice thing about my upcoming October travels is that I’ll get to see fall colors here in northern Michigan, then in New York, and then again in North Carolina. Color, here I come!

Insinuating Influence

Most of my teaching travels are to events with either a spinning focus or a knitting focus. On occasion, the focus is on weaving. Such was the case last month at the Midwest Weavers Conference in Hancock, Michigan.

Because the conference, with pre-conference, lasted for a whole week, there was time for me to soak in a bit of weaving inspiration….without even trying! Let me share a few examples.

A number of folks who took my workshops turned out to be quite accomplished weavers. As example, Marcia Kosmerchock took my pre-conference workshop. (Then she taught some weaving workshops on Friday and Saturday.) On the third day of the workshop, she brought in a fabulous example of her collapse-weave work. The fabric had the most amazing texture and surprisingly stretchy drape! And I then saw a pillow of her's that was in the Member’s Exhibit. It had a very cool 3D textural structure to it.

All of the pre-conference workshops were held in the same building. On the second day, we had a chance to visit other workshop classrooms to see what everyone was up to. I got in a quick visit to Cameron Taylor-Brown’s class, “Natural Inspiration. Design Ideas from Nature”. I saw some very interesting strategies for refining ideas from photos of nature by using white cardboard cutouts to frame or re-frame sections of a photo. I came away inspired to play more with color and ideas for seeing texture in new ways.

Later in the week I snuck in to Robin Spady’s class for a look. In her workshop, “Fun, Funky, Fantastic”, participants try all kinds of strategies for insterting embellishments into plain weave. Hey, I thought, I can make plain weave on my Knitter’s Loom. Maybe I can do this too….!

Thursday, there were no workshops. Heather Winslow (who took my Nexus workshop, then taught silk spinning on Friday and knit/crochet edges on Saturday) and I drove to the Chassell Heritage Center to attend a fashion show of women's clothing from many decades, starting with the 1890’s. Prior to the show, we had a chance to examine some fabrics that were on display at the back of the auditorium. Many of the items were made by Finnish weavers. The Upper Peninsula was the destination of many immigrants from Finland and a strong Finnish influence persists today. I was especially intrigued by a plain weft-faced weaving that was a compilation of stripes. The technical execution of the piece was perfect, and I really admired the composition of the stripes. I wish I had a better picture...

And another piece struck me too:



Daryl Lancaster, who had to deal with illness and extreme weather-related travel challenges, judged the Fashion show on Friday night. I was so pleased to see her give her “judge’s choice” award to my favorite piece in the show, a stupendous jacket, “Spike’s Cuddle Coat”, by Peggy Bowman. You can see a picture of Peggy's jacket on Daryl’s blog.

As it happened, Peggy took my workshop on Saturday, so I had a chance to shower her with praise on her piece.

Also on Saturday, I got a chance to chat briefly with Jane Patrick of Schacht Spindle Co. Over the past few years, we’d chatted on the phone as part of our committee work for the Spinning & Weaving Association, but I’d never met her in person. It’s so nice to put a face to the voice! Earlier in the week, several folks suggested that I would find her book, The Weaver’s Idea Book: Creative Cloth on a Rigid Heddle Loom to be very helpful in my adventures in weaving with my rigid heddle loom. I’ve got to get that book!

With all the weaving vibes surrounding me for a whole week, I was nearly sucked in to buying another loom! Many of the conference attendees would meet in the evenings in the dorm lounge for some chatting, knitting, and usually some “grape juice” or “lemonade”. One evening, Julie A. (aka, “Chassell Tour”) put up a notice for a rigid heddle loom that she wanted to sell. I was seriously considering it. In the end, I decided not to buy it, and Julie decided to keep it!

Since returning from the conference, I’ve finished one woven scarf and started another inkle band.

Here’s a non-fiber picture that I took on my drive home. I stopped at a road-side rest area somewhere between Chassell and Baraga. This glimpse of Keweenaw Bay is what I saw.

Michigan is beautiful!

Nexus 4: Hands and Heads

What a week it was! The Midwest Weavers Conference was way too much fun. And exhausting. And wet (it rained most of the time). And full of weaving and fiber inspiration. There is too much to say about it in one blog entry, but let me start here with a few tales about workshop participants.

The Spin-Knit Nexus workshop yielded a lot of interesting yarns. The workshop participants were enthusiastic and inventive. Beth D. learned how to Andean ply. She wanted to have pictures to remind herself of the technique, so she pulled out her smart phone and snapped away. She then emailed me her pictures. Here’s Beth’s hand:

As a good chunk of Day 2 of the workshop, I had folks spin several 2-ply samples skeins, where one ply was from one hand painted combed top, and the other ply was from another hand painted combed top. Each student had roughly 2 ounces of fiber to spin. We made three smooth yarns and four textured yarns. At the end of the day, I suggested that it might be possible to knit a small hat with all the yarns they’d spun. Just a suggestion…..

The next morning, Sherri M. walked in and pulled out a hat that she’d knitted the previous night out of those 7 yarns (plus a tiny bit of some of the other yarn we’d made in the workshop). Whoa! Here she is wearing the hat:

By the way, Sherri is from Kansas. And she is one of the folks who will be coordinating the next Midwest Weavers Conference, “Prairie Winds”, June 21-23, 2013. It’ll be in Emporia, Kansas. I can hardly wait!

Here's a picture of some yarns that students spun on Day 3 of the Nexus workshop:

One more quick story: Julie A. took both the Beginning Spinning workshop and the Blending Colors at the Wheel workshop. When I first met her at the conference, her name tag was flipped around, showing the back side. On the back side was her ticket for the tour to Chassell, Michigan. All I could read was “Chassell Tour”. I thought, “What a lovely name.” So, for most of the week, I called her Chassell. (Once in awhile I’d call her Julie.) Chassell Tour. Don’t you think it’s a nice name? She said she was going to name her spinning wheel Chassell. I think I’ll name my next dog Chassell.

Nexus 3: Right Side Up?

There are many ways to take bits of fiber of many solid colors and blend them into one yarn. Taking such bits is also a nice way to make multiple different yarns that go together. Such approaches are a good part of my upcoming workshop, “Spin-Knit Nexus” at the Midwest Weavers Conference.

I wrote an article about one such approach for Spin-Off a few years ago, “Blending Colors at the Wheel”. You can download the article for free from their Spinning Daily website. Click here.

In the article, I described various ways of pre-drafting and then spinning bits of different rovings or tops to get a variety of blended effects. Here’s a picture of some samples:



I then used this blending technique to create yarns for a sweater that I’ve named “Right Side Up?”. I made three yarns: one all white, one all purple, and one that was a blend of the white and purple. The yarns:


And here’s a picture of my friend Sylvia VM wearing the sweater:


And here’s a picture of the back of the sweater:


The reason the sweater is named “Right Side Up?” is that Sylvia took the sweater, turned it up-side-down, and put it on again. And it worked!!!! Here she is wearing the sweater up-side-down:



I do have plans to write up this pattern, but I need to knit it once more in a different size to make sure it works. A near-future project.

Nexus 2: Pretty in Polwarth

“Nexus (neks’ əs) n. 1 a connection, tie, or link between individuals of a group, members of a series, etc. 2 the group or series connected.”

~~Webster’s New World College Dictionary

Three days of connection between spinning and knitting. That’s what I’ve got planned for my pre-conference workshop in Hancock.

One of my favorite ways to connect spinning and knitting is to combine two hand-painted tops in multiple ways.

Here’s one example: I bought some yummy hand-painted Polwarth wool top from Briar Rose Fibers in a sizzling combo of oranges.


And I got some equally yummy hand-painted Polwarth wool top from River’s Edge Fiber Arts in a succulent combo of fruit colors.


There are so many ways to spin these two fibers. My first decision was to spin the singles from both wools with the same thickness and twist.


Then I created a 2-ply yarn from just the orange fiber.


And a 2-ply yarn from just the fruit fiber.


Now, you may think that these two colorways wouldn’t go together, but I had to see for myself. I created two 2-ply yarns with one ply from the orange fiber and one ply from the fruit fiber. And, instead of plying a balanced yarn, I created a couple of textured yarns.

Here’s a “knot” yarn. I call this type of knot yarn “pill bug yarn” because the knots look like pill bugs.


And here’s a “snarl” yarn from the same two plies.


I think these yarns could be combined in a single knitted project to great effect. I was thinking of some kind of cowl/wrap, using the smooth yarns in a cabled pattern and the textured yarns as edge interest. What do you think?

Nexus

I’m getting ready to teach five days of workshops at the Midwest Weavers Conference, “Northern Wefts”, in Hancock, Michigan. And my dreams are filling with the preparations. I am especially looking forward to my pre-conference workshop, “The Spin-Knit Nexus”. I see this workshop as central to my spinning and knitting approach: I often explore the point where spinning and knitting come together by spinning a series of yarns that are different but compatible and that can then be knitted into one unified project.

One of my first attempts to create such a nexus project was my “Before and After” jacket. Many years ago, when I was a “young” spinner, I wondered why some spinners preferred to dye the fiber and then spin it, and some spinners preferred to spin the fiber and then dye it.

I decided to try both approaches and put them into one project.

I got myself three or so pounds of Bluefaced Leicester wool combed top. I spun up about half of it into a heavy worsted weight yarn. Now, I’m not a dyer, so I commissioned Nancy Finn of “Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks” to dye the yarn I had spun plus the rest of the combed top. I wanted her to dye both the yarn and the top in the same colorway. I suggested spice colors (you know….cayenne, cinnamon, clove, cumin). She did a magnificent job. I then went on to spin up the top she’d dyed, and then I designed and knitted a jacket that combined the yarn that was spun-and-then-dyed and the yarn that was dyed-and-then-spun. The jacket now belongs to my friend, Carol S. Here she is wearing the jacket:


For the upcoming workshop, I want to give the students a similar opportunity to play with this combination. I took some more Bluefaced Leicester wool top, and spun up half of it. Then I commissioned my friend, Elizabeth K., to dye both the yarn and the wool in the same colorway. I let her decide on the colors. I picked up the dyed wool and yarn the other day. Here’s what the workshop participants get to play with:


There are several nexus approaches that I cover in this workshop. I will write about more in the days to come.