Fleece Washing at WhorlingTides

Much of the holiday weekend was spent washing Cheviot fleece for the Naked Fiber Club. Here's the evidence....Some of the pictures are of the lincoln locks that I washed, too. I purchased the lincoln from Kokovoko - the same folks who make the lovely spindles.





So, as you can see, sometimes I soak the fleece in the bathtub. Look at all that gunk!! My daughter says it always looks like intestines in the tub when I'm scouring fleece. I use very hot water (even raised the temperature on the water heater thermostat) through out. First I soak the fleece to get rid of most of the dirt, lanolin, urine...whatever. The second bath is when I begin adding soap. I use Dawn because if its grease cutting properties. Plus, I like the lavender scent in the one that I use. I never let the water temperature fall below 115 degrees because I don't want the lanolin to reattach itself to the fiber. The fleece will be rinsed with fresh water baths until the water is finally "clean." Only if necessary will I use a second soap bath. Everyone has her/his preferences about how much lanolin should be left on the fiber. I like very little lanolin as I'm not very fond of greasy feeling fingers.

So, here is the Cheviot for the Naked Fiber Club. See the gorgeous lock structure??!! Well, it is a beautiful creamy white color but has a lot of little bits of VM that are about 1/18 - 1/16th of an inch. And man, does it stick to the scales of the fiber! It combs, flicks, and cards out after washing, which is nice. But all of it won't wash out.



I decided that I didn't want to lose the lock structure of the fiber if I could avoid it. So, I did something new that I had read about in Spin-Off...I dipped each lock into some near boiling soapy water, then near boiling water to remove the soap, and then a good rinse in the sink. Check out that process below.

Here are a couple of raw locks from the fleece before scouring...

Here are some locks after scouring using the "dip" method.



And below are some puffy clouds of fleece that I will use to make batts for people who wanted their fleece carded! So pretty!

Now you see what I have been up to with your first fleece!

Wicked Wool Combs

Photo by Lisa at NativeFiberArts.

I just purchased these combs from NativeFiberArts, a super nice woman on the WhorlingTides' Ravelry group. They are arriving via priority mail so I should get them by Saturday perhaps or certainly by Monday. Aren't they perfectly wicked looking?! So this must be how princesses at spinning wheels are always pricking their fingers in fairy tales!

Weaving is Here

Dorothy has arrived. She's my new (used) LeClerc loom that I purchased on Ebay. She arrived in beautiful condition and 100% complete. I've never woven anything before. And frankly was not too keen on all the obsessive compulsive stuff that has to go on in order to make weaving happen. Then, one day, I awakened and I just had to have a loom. I had to learn how to weave. I bid on several looms but was getting frustrated because I would miss them by $5 here or $2.50 there. When this one came available at the "buy-it-now" price that I wanted to spend...I bought her. She's mine now. I love her already. Plus, it's kinda nice that my beloved grandmother's name was Dorothy, too.

Yesterday morning, Carol, President of the West Alabama Fiber Guild, came over to help me warp the loom. It took a couple of hours. But I have no doubt that she showed me the right way to do it, and I will certainly beneft from her vast experience. My first assignment is to weave one inch in each of the first 59 patterns in the Anne Dixon weaving book called The Handweaver's Pattern Directory. It is specifically for 4 harness looms like Dorothy. You can find this book on Amazon.com for $23.07. It has great color pictures, plus it is written clearly enough for me to follow the very first time! See the picture below. (Ignore the teal yarn...it is there to get the warp to line up straight.) I'm weaving the black cotton that you see in bands of different patterns. From spinning to dyeing to weaving...and it is not even my 1 year anniversary until December 27th!!! Have I mentioned how much I love fibers?

Tikkun Olam Tuesday

Yes, I know. I promised many Tuesdays ago to make a post every Tuesday on one small way to make this world a better place. In Hebrew, that is called Tikkun Olam. And then I became distracted. Let's get back on track.

The other day I purchased a book called Knitting for Good! A Guide to Creating Personal, Social, and Political Change, Stitch by Stitch. The author, Betsy Greer, also has a webpage called Craftivism http://www.craftivism.com/ and blog http://craftivism.com/blog.html/ . I look forward to reading the book as well as getting to know Ms. Greer through her online presence. Maybe she will even have some ideas to help me get a project up and running here. More on that another time.

Today's topic will be Education and More (http://www.educationandmore.org/mission.html). I came upon it totally by accident. I was searching for "weaving blogs" and up came this site. Once you read their mission statement, I think you will understand why this site and others like it are so profound. I quote:

The mission of Education And More is to further the education
of the children in the Lake Atitlan area of Guatemala and to reduce the poverty
of their families and communities through implementation of Fair Trade practices
with artisan groups thereby helping them to lift themselves out of poverty.

The website describes how to host a Fair Trade Bazaar (what a great way to raise money for a local project), buy handmade items such as woven shawls and beaded jewelry from their artisans, and ways to sponsor students. What they are doing is inspirational. And I continue to wonder...why do we create these foundations in South America and Africa when we have equally poor and hungry people right here in Alabama???

So take a look at this site and others like it. And know that WhorlingTides is simmering ideas about ways to make such a project come to life here, and if not now, very soon.

The Birthday Ball 2008

Sometimes my day job is stressful. I'm a clinical psychologist and I work in a veteran's hospital. The major way that I cope with my stress is to write essays. Sometimes I send these essays to people - especially people who understand military life. Never have I posted one online. However, I am posting part of one here...because it is part of my story today. The original story was sent to a friend of mine who is a Marine, after all it was partly about him (he is the "you" I refer to in the story) and it was also about Marines in general. I have edited the post to delete all personal information about the individual patient so that confidentiality can be protected.

The Birthday Ball

Every year at this time the USMC gives itself a formal birthday party. Typically this party is a grand ball replete with military elite in dress uniforms and women in spectacular ball gowns. This tradition has been in place for two-hundred and thirty-something years. Birthday Balls happen all over the world wherever Marines congregate. Princes and princesses they are in an annual fairytale that includes reading of a proclamation from the Commandant, service of the first piece of cake to the oldest Marine who symbolically hands it off to the youngest Marine, band music, dancing, laughing, drinking, enthusiastic "hoorahs," and all the merriment that has been saved up since last year's party. Young and old. Black and white. Enlisted and Officer. And don't forget the pretty girls.

What could be better? "Nothing" you say with the confidence and the wisdom that comes from spending one's life as a member of the Corps. But you would be wrong, as you will come to see in the story below. I know that I reminded you the other day that you did owe me a Birthday Ball. You don't anymore. Yesterday I attended a Marine Birthday Ball that surpasses any other party I have ever attended.

You see, yesterday we had a Birthday Ball at the hospital About 2pm, several young, strong, good-looking Marines wearing Dress Blues arrived on the unit. Along with them came men from several generations wearing Marine hats and pins who were dressed in street clothes. They brought with them an entire party. Staff and Marine alike enjoyed a decorated sheet cake, balloons, a bouquet of flowers, USMC napkins and placemats, music, speeches, and traditions. No other military service does this for their sick and injured.

Each in his turn, to a man, every single Marine shook hands with patients, they looked each other in the eye, they complimented their medal-covered chests whispering "wow, completed combat tours", they identified as brothers for life. Our Marines didn't dance on their feet, but they did dance with pride and become whole in mind and body, heart and spirit, always wearing smiles from ear to ear. When asked the Marines in the hospital said "This Ball's for Me." And so it was.

However, I was there.
I danced, too.

The essay was written on Thursday. On Friday night about 7:30 I got a phone call from my friend Lee who is a Colonel in the USMC. Anyway, he asked me to attend the real Marine Birthday Ball that would be held in Birmingham on Saturday night at 7p. He said the story moved him so much that he wanted to make sure that I got to attend a real ball. Of course, I said "Yes!" and began to wonder how was I going to get a formal ball gown the next day AND have it altered, and get both a manicure and a pedicure, AND, oh no! He called at 10am to say that I needed to be ready at 5pm rather than 7pm! No ball gown was obtained but a pretty party dress was and off we went to the Ball. And here's another of the pics my daughter took of us on our way into the chariot, his Jaguar. My very own fairytale came true for me last night when I finally got to be a princess dancing with a prince at this 2008 Birthday Ball.

Yarn Contest Winner is NWKnitterMama

UPDATE - I have not yet heard back from NWKnitterMama to claim her Hope Yarn prize. If I do NOT hear back from her by Sunday, November 23 at 10am Central Time, I will select another winner.

I have selected the following person as the winner of the yarn contest...

NWKnitterMama on Ravelry (Angela)

my hope is that my children will have a peaceful, blessed life, and that their father and i will be able to give them the nurturing they need to grow into compassionate adults who make choices to do what is right, even when it is difficult and unpopular. i'm NWKnitterMama on ravelry.

All of you submitted such beautiful comments that it was very hard for me to choose. Having raised my daughter to 18 which we just celebrated this week, I understand what it means to think about the above hope every single minute of every single day. We need compassionate young people now more than ever. I hope that NWKnitterMama realizes that wanting this for her children is half of getting there...

Thank you to everone who submitted comments. You have given me such new hope....Beth

Economic Slump Sale in My Etsy Shop

The holiday season is approaching and everyone at work is talking about cutting back on gifts for loved ones. At my daughter's 18th birthday dinner last night I heard about a little girl whose family had their electric power turned off. 85,000 families had their homes foreclosed in the month of October. With these kinds of things going on.....I will be offering lots of Etsy sales so that patrons of WhorlingTides will be able to buy the things they want for the people they love.

Some of the details as posted on http://www.whorlingtides.etsy.com/

ECONOMIC SLUMP SALE

We are all having a hard time with the economy. So, I’d like have SALE items in my shop at all times between now and the end of December. I know that, if you are like me, you will want to be able to still provide high quality gifts for your loved ones. Here’s the first sale….

YARNS ONLY:

• 25% off any one yarn.
• If you buy 2 - 3 yarns, I will give 35% off the total order.
• If you buy more than 3 yarns, I will give 35% off the total order AND free PARCEL POST shipping.

Sale prices will be refunded via PayPal.

Hope you enjoy the sale!

Some pics for your viewing pleasure.....

Sunshine and Cranberries (BFL)

Purple Glaze (merino bamboo blend)

Pink Kisses (BFL)

Hope: A Yarn Contest

Hope Yarn

I love words, I am the girl in the corner reading the dictionary to learn the root meanings of words. Although it would have been hard to figure out in advance that I would come to love words when I was first acquiring language. The story my mother always told is: "Beth wouldn't speak until she could formulate complete sentences. She wanted nothing to do with responses containing a single word." If that story is true then the first thing I ever said was "I want a horse." So my very first thoughts were of hoping to have a horse. It took twelve more years of hoping but I finally got Dixie, a barn sour strawberry roan who taught me how to ride with confidence. Confidence is a good skill to learn as a girl of thirteen riding around in the back hills of Alabama. Today, as the parent of a soon-to-be adult daughter (she will be 18 in two days!), I marvel at how my parents were able to allow a young teen girl to ride all alone on the back of a semi-trained mare into the woods where there were known to be bootleggers and active stills. But they did. And never once did anything remotely bad happen. Well, once I had to walk back to the barn after Dixie dumped me onto the ground. Embarrassed and brushing dirt out of my hair, I made it back to the barn in 30 minutes where ALL the laughing farm hands were waiting along with Dixie, also laughing, who was standing in front of her stall. I ramble...

Let's get back to hope. The dictonary says that hope is having a resonable expectation that something one wishes for will come true. In this country, we need some of that today after years of war and the knowledge that things are going to get worse in the short term for many people we love.

The Hope Contest

I think a fiber contest would make us all feel better; don't you? Here's the deal.

The Prize: Hope Yarn

1. Add a comment to this blog entry telling me what you hope for most right now. Use of creative thinking and positive language will be given highest consideration.

2. Make sure that you give me only one hope - otherwise I will only read about the first one and that might not be your best one.

3. Be sure to leave some method for me to contact you. The winner will be posted on the blog, but I would like to be able to send you your "Hope" prize.

4. The deadline: 10:00 am Central Time, Sunday, November 16, 2008. I will post the name of the winner by Sunday at 10:00 pm.

5. Your price will be the skein of "Hope" yarn that I handspun after the election last week.

Yarn Specs

36.7 yards of Merino Silk blend that was drum carded by me. The silk is a beautiful gold-yellow adding softness and shine through out the yarn. Some white glitz was also added during the carding process. Hope was handspun on my Schacht Matchless with a z twist and then plied with both a stark white linen yarn and gold embroidery thread.

I can't wait to read all your responses! I hope you enjoy reading them, too!

Kentuck Festival 2008

If you live anywhere in or near Tuscaloosa, Alabama and you have any interest what so ever in the arts and the local color...during the third weekend in October you will be at the Kentuck Festival. It has been that way as long as I can possibly remember. And I have been there so many times that I cannot even count them on two hands. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be showing and selling my work there this year, after all I just learned how to spin on December 27, 2007. Still, October 18th and 19th, as part of the West Alabama Fiber Guild, WhorlingTides exhibited and sold tons handspun yarns, knitting kits, and drop spindle kits. I made new friends and got some amazing invitations to participate in future events and even join an art gallery.

Carol T, President, West Alabama Fiber Guild

Sister Carol Drum Carding Dog Hair

About exhibiting at Kentuck...One can hope. One can wish. One can imagine. But being there so far surpasses all of those cognitions that instead of rambling the reader into obvlion I borrowed the image that you see to the above right...."Heaven is a Kentuck of a place." Truly, I was in fiber heaven. I took off from work on Friday so that I could help with the setup. Then on Saturday, Carol T., the Guild President showed Deirdre and I how to prep the flax for the linen demonstration. Immediately, however, I became very busy with sales so I had to focus on that. A few other Guild members wandered in during the day as you will see in the pics. Some were knitters, some spinners, one lace maker, and Sister Carol who really is a nun was drum carding her dog hair which Carol T. was spinning into yarn.

Deidre at Her Amazing Weaving Loom

The next three images were taken at my booth. These yarns were all handspun and handdyed by me at WhorlingTides. I sold so many skeins on Saturday that I had to raid my fiber stash just to have enough to set up the display again on Sunday. SAFF was the very next weekend so I had little time between shows to re-stock. I hope not to do two shows so close together again unless I really have substantial prep time.

WhorlingTides' New BFL Monochromes

More of WhorlingTides' Monochromes

A Variety of Handdyed Handspun Yarns

A new handspinner was born at Kentuck. She learned quickly how to use the spindle and is still making yarns according to her mom. I know that it takes a long time to make enough yarn for a project and certainly she is not quite ready just to enjoy spinning for the sake of spinning. In time K. That will come in time.

Another Etsy Fiber Artist. She's from Florida.

This fiber piece is one of many that the above artist displayed at Kentuck. She also has a shop on Etsy, which I will post here as soon as I locate her business card. I love the way she is influenced by the tattoo world. Her work is highly detailed and spider-web-ish. Layers of thread are sewn to more threads until it becomes an image. I would like to watch one being made.

Kentuck Heaven. It was a wonderful event. I hope to be there again next year. It was a great time to get to know other fiber artists, the members of my own guild, and to experience people looking at my fibers. I like to watch their faces and to hear what they have to say when the whisper to their companion "so soft," "oh...look at the color," "I wish I could knit" and so many more. Even if they just smile, I am happy they stopped by to touch WhorlingTides.

Election Day

"....while we breathe, we hope. "
Barack Obama

In case you have not yet heard Obama's victory speech...here's the link.
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6185658

SAFF 2008 Pictures

Bunnies!!!!

I will NOT buy a bunny. I will NOT buy a bunny. I will NOT buy a ....

What could be cuter than a bunny holding a bunny?

Art batts were a winner in my booth for sure.

Batts were turned into felted scarves by the wonderful folks at FeltLoom.

The main arena at SAFF. Next year I'll be there and be warm.

My friend Suzanne (left) and Barbara, owner of the amazing Cloth in Asheville.

A spindle bouquet. What a treat!

My new friend, Allen of Numma Numma fame (in the trench coat) and her friends.

WhorlingTides BFL roving on display.

WhorlingTides Merino Bamboo blend on display. These were HOT at SAFF.

WhorlingTides' softest ever Merino braids.

Peak season in Asheville happened for us during SAFF. Thanks!!

I'm too tired after my first day back at work to post a written description of my marvelous SAFF adventure. But I promise to keep adding pics and to write a summary the first moment possible. I will say that I have met some of the finest people imaginable at SAFF. And thanks to all the people who stopped by WhorlingTides. More to follow on all the great folks, too!

SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair)

7 hours and counting...WhorlingTides will be at SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair) in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina. It is one of the most exciting things to happen this year in my new business venture, and I cannot wait to meet everybody - vendors and consumers.

Addition

Thanks Suzanne. My friend, Suzanne, has been a friend since 1982. We met when we entered the MFA photography program at Indiana University. And even through ups and downs we have managed to remain friends all these years. Her daughter was 5 years old when I met them. Now Laure is married and a mother to 3 daughter. I will see all of them this week at SAFF. It will certainly be one of the highlights of my trip.

Suzanne is a book editor for fine arts and crafts. I don't have permission to say where but if she permits me, I will change the post to include her employer. Needless to say - it is a major publishing company and I'm honored that she is considering working with me on a book about dyeing for spinners. Once SAFF is over I will be able to focus on that once in a lifetime opportunity.

I trust Suzanne to read my writing critically. She is brilliant and knows words. She recommends that I amend my comments below with the following:

When I’m dyeing fiber, I usually have a specific and emotional goal in mind. “Accidents” can bring new insight but mostly my intention is to convey a deep and true emotion that I associate with a color set. Of course you’ll bring your own memories to the experience. As you look at my work, I invite you to try it yourself: does this one remind you of the lilacs you held at my wedding? That one of the Arizona sunsets of your youth?

I will make these additions because they will really capture the reader much more effectively than mine would have alone. Thanks to all who shared feedback including CC and IslandSweet. You are all special to me. You inspire my work and encourage me to a higher standard in my craft. Yet, we have never even spoken on the phone. Cyber friends. Real friendships.

Statement

My fibers are intentional. I am open to accidents when they occur, but mostly I have a goal in mind when I am dyeing. With my fiber dyeing I am seeking a feeling memory rather than a rational one. The goal is for each piece to evoke a color memory that is associated with a powerful feeling, a true emotion. The feeling could be a basic emotion without words like happy, sad, lonely, joy, or it could be one that the observer would have visted frequently enough to have a verbal tag or story for it. When someone looks at my work I want her/him to say "That yarn looks like the sunset when we visted the Grand Canyon in 1968, remember??" or "When I see that roving I am suddenly aware of the feeling that I had when I fell in love with Jamie." Each colorway does not have to evoke the same feeling in everyone who looks at it. Memories are not templated; therefore, colors should not be organized the same way for everyone. However, I do know that I have not done my work well if somebody says "You have the color blue that I need for my pattern." I also don't want to stay in the world of happy feelings. Each person has a range of emotions, some happy, some not so happy. A life without either end point is lived less fully than necessary. I cannot afford to live only part of a life on any given day. I hope everyone will enjoy the diversity in my 2008 - 2009 fiber collection. I have chosen to use the phrase... WhorlingTides: Fiber Arts for the Colors of Your Life. Now you know why.

My 300th Etsy Heart is Rawfish

Sometime ago I decided that I wanted to send a gift to the person who would be my 3ooth "heart" on Etsy. And this week, in the midst of all my new listings, along came Rawfish.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5160042

Rawfish (aka Laila) happens to be another Etsy seller. She is a spinner and a fiber artist with a bold sense of color. For her "heart" prize she selected several of the Why Knot mini batts. They are pretty cute as you can see below.

Take a look at her shop, too. If you need some hip handspun, her shop would be a good place to start. And Laila...Thanks for looking at WhorlingTides on Etsy.

Rawfish blogs at http://www.rawfishcomics.blogspot.com/ - love her pics of roving drying on the porch. Looks like my back yard. You can find her in my list of fav blogs!!

Dyeing Over the Weekend

It is no secret that I had breast cancer 8 years ago next month, November 9th to be exact. And as far as we know, my body remains cancer free. No, I'm not a cancer "survivor." I don't want the diagnosis to have that much power over my life that I would have to assume a warrior pose. So for me to write a blog title like "Dyeing Over the Weekend" sometimes the words kind of get stuck in my fingertips. But in dyeing this entire 4-day weekend I was really LIVING every moment. Not dying. Totally living. When I work with colors and fibers, I am totally alive and moving from one breath to the next like a dance or wave of peace. Yesterday disappears. Tomorrow is of no consequence. All the colors are beautiful, even the colors that don't "match." I am very attached to that space, and I miss it when I am not there.

So here is a sample of where I have been. Let me know what you see and feel from these colors.

These fibers are handdyed using Pro Chem Wash Fast Acid Dyes. The fiber content is a creamy merino/bamboo blend with a 60/40 ratio. Bamboo does not take acid dye; it requires fiber reactive dyes. Therefore, as you can see, there is a light dusting of frost or even a sugary glaze throughout the top that is caused by the merino uptaking the dye and the bamboo rejecting it. Altogether - a really lovely look, not for everything but it will make some beautiful yarns for some purposes. Here's some more....

I haven't posted in a while so there's a lot to catch up on. Let me briefly introduce my friend Carson Cooper. I call him a "friend" because I felt an immediate connection with him via correspondence. He's a wheel maker. He builds them from scratch - as in by hand. Here's a link to his website called Ztwist..... http://www.ztwist.com/ I'm enjoying getting to know him. He knows things about spinning that I don't know. We have discussed collaborating on some projects together - like making some spindles together - a version for him to sell at sales and a WhorlingTides edition. Doesn't that sound like fun??? Thanks, Carson, for making the most beautiful oriface hooks. Oh, didn't I mention that we met on Ebay when I purchased some of his hand turned oriface hooks in a yummy variety of woods and styles. He's writing a book on building spinning wheels. How cool is that?!?!

No more updates tonight even though there are so many more to make. Tomorrow will perhaps afford me time to add more updates. Off to spin until sleep arrives. I'm spinning some blue BFL scraps to see just how fine I can spin. It is an empirical question....

The Interview

Erica writes about the arts for a local paper called The Planet Weekly. Here's the link. http://www.theplanetweekly.com/ . She asked if she could write a piece on my spinning. So I said yes. Today I got a list of 5 questions to respond to. I didn't get much time because it was due shortly after I received them...but here's what I wrote....(It really messes with my perfectionism not to have more time to edit the text)....

1. I use the term "fiber arts" to describe using animal or plant-based fibers as a form of creative self-expression or design. The fiber arts include working with the fibers to make supplies, such as yarn, as well as to create unique pieces of wearable art. Animal fibers include fine wools (merino, romney, targhee), llama, alpaca, angora rabbit, mohair, cashmere, silk, and many others. Plant-based fibers that are very popular include bamboo, cotton, and linen. My love of fiber arts innocently began about 14 years ago when I was in graduate school for clinical psychology. I needed something to do for stress relief so I took a knitting class. Around the same time, my mother was dying from breast cancer. She also adored knitting. Together we would spend days together almost in quiet meditation just knitting, talking, listening to the click of our needles, and appreciating the time that we had together. Only recently have I learned how to spin and dye my own yarns. And when that happened, this little hobby of knitting a few scarves each year blossomed into a passion. Taking the raw fiber freshly shorn from an animal, scouring it, dyeing it into a gorgeous spectrum of colors, spinning it into yarn that can then be used to make a garment for someone to wear is incredibly satisfying. It is also something that women have done for generations. When I am working with fibers, I feel as if I am at peace. Interestingly, my maternal grandfather was a tailor who sewed for the fashion houses in New York, and my paternal grandfather was a miliner who was in the business of making the grand hats of the 1930s and 1940s. However, I could never even sew a button back on a shirt or hem a pair of slacks. It always amazed me that I grew up in this wonderful fiber family but never felt a part of it until now. So I guess I really have come home.

2. What do I do? I'm a spinster. I spin fiber into yarn. I use a fantastic wooden spinning wheel called the Schacht Matchless. First I buy the fiber in ecru or undyed. Sometimes I will spin it first, but usually, I will dye the fiber before I spin it. I started dyeing with Kool-Aid and food safe dyes and have recently moved to using professional grade dyes. The Kool-Aid dyes are fun but the professional dyes give a much wider array of colors and provide the consistency that I require. After the fiber dries, I can spin it into yarn. Then I have a lot of decision to make: How do I want to spin the yarn? What will the yarn be used for? How much yarn is needed for a specific project? Every answer will contribute to the overall appearance of the finished product. And each decision matters. Spinning is certainly relaxing and repetitive but it is certainly not a mindless activity. It requires planning and consistency, the ability to respond to the inherent characteristics of the fiber, knowing when to let go of control, and a whole lot of just plain old playing around!!

3. Social consciousness is important to me. I could not enjoy this work if I felt in anyway that animals were being harmed. I have been a vegetarian since 1978, and am committed to using fibers from healthy and well cared for animals. It helps to buy from local farms, such as Cozy Cove Llamas outside of Huntsville. But there are other ways, too. For example, when I work with silk, I only work with tussah silk. Tussah silk or peace silk is harvested from the cocoons of silk worms that have been allowed to live out their natural life expectacy. In addition, I am boycotting fibers from Australia, as are many of the well-known clothing designers, due to the inhumane treatment of merino sheep. Here's the webpage http://www.savethesheep.com/ . We can make a difference. I use my fiber arts blog for Tikkun Olam. Tikkun Olam is Hebrew meaning "Repair the world." According to this tradition, inhabitants of the earth are expected to fix it, to make it better than we found it.

4. In the October, I am thrilled to say that I will be showing and demonstrating fiber arts, such as spinning, preparing fibers, knitting, at Kentuck with the West Alabama Fiber Guild. Also in October, I am joining with some other fiber artists in town, Heidi Atwood and Sara Whitver, and a shepherdess in north Alabama, Cozette O'Neil. We have formed a group called Why Knot Fiber Collective and we will be exhibiting and selling our fiber arts at the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair outside of Asheville, NC. No doubt, we are very excited about tht opportunity. Next, in early November as the holiday season begins, I will be teaching some workshops at One Night Only Artique. These workshops will be in dyeing silk scarves as well as dyeing yarn so that everyone can offer a special, handmade, one of a kind work of art to everyone on their special gift list. We will have fun, get our hands wet, and make some beautiful wearable art!!!

5. I think it is interesting to know that men invented knitting. They began tying a variety of knots as sailors. They made nets and other fabrics all through knot tying. Then, they began knitting fabrics with the lanolin still in the wool in order to stay dry. Finally, during the Industrial Age, when men moved inside to operate machinery, woman began to do the knitting. Also, interesting is the way that the fiber arts have really taken off since the development of social networking sites such as Ravelry.com and online shops, such as Etsy.com.

Wish me luck! I'll post the finished article as soon as it comes out.

The Art of Spinning

When people discuss spinning, they are usually referring to craft or a technique to create an art supply or yarn that is then used to make something else, such as a sweater or a scarf. However, in the situation that I'm describing, the act of spinning rather than the result of spinning was put on display. The gallery owners of One Night Only Artique invited me to spin during an art opening Thursday night, September 4, 2008. The wheel and I were placed in the front window of the gallery where spinning could be seen from the outside as people were driving by and people could talk to the spinster (me) as part of the living artwork from the inside. I like this picture a lot. Through the window people can be seen standing outside in the rain under the protection of the awning smoking cigarettes and talking as young intellects do. Then on the inside is the wheel as a piece of art in its own right. All the while, the manequins are supervising the whole event.
Spinning is relaxing - it is the first time that I have been able to do something with both hands and both feet at the same time. When learning it takes a lot of concentration...over time some of it gets taken over by procedural memory, and when that happens, the body can manage the techniques of drafting and treadling without conscious thought. Never the less, one is always making conscious decsions about spinning which affect the look of the finished yarn. People at the opening enjoyed seeing the difference in yarns made from the same fiber that looked totally different. I think they also were drawn to the colors of the handdyed fibers. I love to watch people touching the yarns. The yarns want to be touched. Yarns come alive in people's hands. They need to be touched.




Here's Emily wearing my first layer cake cap which was orignially depicted in an earlier blogpost. Erica (co-owner of One Night Only Artique) and Emily are sisters. Erica thought Emily would like one of my caps and we were planning for a pink and black one for her. But when Emily saw this one she immediately put it on her head covered in long, shiny, auburn hair - we all knew that this green, brown, and white cap had found a home. It is a perfect fit. In general, people were very complimentary of all the caps and cap kits. I'm going to knit some up to have in the shop, and I am confident that they will do well there. They are young and hip - guess it does help to have a teenage daughter.

I don't usually like to get too personal here; but last night my daughter got in her first motor vehicle accident. Luckily nobody was hurt - the only damage was to the bumper of the other person's vehicle which we will fix next week. The accident happened because my daughter was someplace that she shouldn't be. She was supposed to be at a movie with one set of friends - instead she went to a fraternity party on the university campus where she was not supposed to be with another set of friends. Had she asked permission to be there - she could have gone - but she didn't. And poor thing, something always happens to alert me to her bad decisions. Like this little fender bender or Cody, her beloved dog coming into my room crying when she decided to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night several years ago. When will she ever learn....? I'm ready for her to learn.