Maia Spins

Where Have I Been?

Not on my blog, that is certain.

I have missed you.  There are no good excuses so I shall not attempt to make any.  I had elbow tendenitis in both of my elbows (ouch!) from lifting heavy objects improperly.  Lesson learned and they are now healed.  To be honest, they were pretty good by last summer.  Enter platar faciitis, a very painful condition that kept me from standing or walking. 

Now, I am (mostly) healed and back to dyeing.  The dye pots have been singing for me and I am excited about the colors I am getting and the colorways I am creating.  Such a relief!  I had no idea how much of my identity was tied to dyeing and how removed I would feel from my knitting/spinning/dyeing community because I couldn't dye.

January was a whirlwind of activity.  I dyed nearly every bit of yarn and fiber I could find.  The whole shabang got hauled over to Stitches West. 

 

I had a great time!  Many thanks to Rachel for her most excellent help.  I really wish I could afford an executive assistant because it rocks to have a smart and charming person anticipating your needs. 

My dear friend Rabbitch was there too.  Talk about someone who can keep you in stitches at Stitches.  (Bad pun?  Why yes, you are welcome.)  She had a horrible trip down on the train (that made a howlingly funny story) and didn't get her product here until Saturday (ugly since Stitches starts on Thursday). 

We did our best to keep her amused.  (Don't you want that skein around her neck?  She will be at Fibres West March 18-19 in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.  Stop by and see her.)

I managed to get a few things at Stitches.  I can never resist naturally dyed yarn and I am a sucker for yellow.

Three skeins of yummy Alpenglow Corriedale yarn.  I couldn't wait to start knitting.

Adorable bags from Top Shelf Totes.  See the grommet in the larger bag?  It is for threading your yarn through.  The bag keeps your ball of yarn unmolested when you cram it into your bag.  Perfect for the knitter on the go.  Don't you want something like that for spinning too?

 

Black Sheep Gathering

Been too busy to blog!  I am out the door to Black Sheep Gathering.  Tactile will be vending.  I am looking forward to the sheep (I fell in love with the Shetlands and the Wensleydales last year).

I am also participating in Black Sheep Bingo.

Hope to see you there!

Catching Up

So much to catch up on!  I had a great time at Maker Faire. 

That is one crazy zany event!    I love all the Steampunk styles.  It is high tech as seen through Victorian era eyes.

There were lots of cool vehicles like this snail car (satellites not part of the car).

Here is our friend Dre_ah with Jason.  Don't they look fabulous?  She is wearing a bodice, bloomers, and a hat she made.  All are beautifully crafted and fit her so very well.

And, Jason was looking very dapper!

I loved the human powered carnival rides. 

And the human powered music.  I think those are lucky audience members doing the pedaling. They would sometimes have to do some extra pedaling between songs to make enough power.

Joaquin was there to perform his duties.  This is a rare pouty moment.  How can he be so sad and so very cute at the same time?

Babies are so amazing.  One second he is crying and the next he is giggling.  I love that moment when he is between the two emotions and lets out a giggle-cry.

The booth next to us was Bug Under Glass (check out his website he has amazing stuff).  So cool!  Here is a huge moth.  I put a pen on the frame to give you a sense of scale.

A few more pictures of Maker Faire on my Flickr set.

Not much knitting has been accomplished lately but I do have some spinning.

I am spinning my Tactile club fiber from the April shipment, Finn wool.  It is yellow; bright, vibrant, yummy yellow made from weld. 

 The painted is on the wheel waiting to be plied.  My plan is to make a blanket from the first 12 months of club fiber (comfort version).

Here is the finished skein of the solid on my binder.  We send out informational sheets with each shipment.  It is on cardstock so I can punch a hole and attach a yarn sample.  I am also saving a bit of the painted roving.

Next up is my May fiber club featuring Cochineal.  Alpaca-Tussah on the left and Merino-Tussah on the right.

Fiber club is open for sign-ups now through June 15th.  More information here and the Tactile Ravelry group spoiler thread is here.

I am in Salt Lake City for a long weekend.  More on that in my next post.  Of to find SLC LYSs!

Friends & Lace

It has been a disjointed week.  I feel like I have been very busy, yet have little to show for it.  It has been all bad, I've had lots of time knitting with friends.

On Sunday I spent a few lovely hours at Janine's knit-in. 

Rachael with Joaquin.  Aren't they cute?  The color was wonky so I used Rachael's trick and made the picture sepia.

Brooke & Joaquin

Pardon the blurry-cam technology.  I thought the picture was cute enough to overlook the blur.

It was nice to visit with Celia, Becca, Nancy, and meet Joy and Therese.

On Tuesday, I went to knit night at Llama Llama Knit in Novato.  Love that store!  There is a wonderful crowd there and I feel so at home.

All this visiting has helped to get some knitting done.  I have neglected to show you the shawl I'm making with the Meyer Lemon Chocolate Alpaca-Tussah Silk. 

Golden Aura Shawl

There are three patterns before a wide edging.  I have completed the first two patterns.  So far I am quite happy.  It is about 30% done with the knitting.  Soon, I'll have to spin the second have of the roving.

I found that my Sweater Swine is perfect as a T-pin cushion.  So darling!

Aeolian is coming along too.

 

I'm done with the set-up edging and just started on the final edging.  It is hard to put down, easy to follow, and well written.  The beads aren't going to happen.  Maybe on the next one.  I am very intrigued by the Alternate Narrow Edging (ravelry link).

Off to get some work done!  Must prepare for Fiber Club dyeing plus dye some lace yarn and camel fiber and BFL and . . . .  I know, tough life!

Madrona: How I Love Thee

Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat has become a highlight of my year.  It is a wonderful event run by fabulous people (thank you Suzanne and Corny!) and incredible teachers.  Even though I don't get to take classes, I am inspired by the awesome knitters and spinners that come through the marketplace and thoroughly take over the Hotel Murano. 

This year I went with our friend Kris (TangleGirl on Ravelry).  Brooke stayed at home with her cute-cute-cute baby boy.  It was a complete joy to spend a week with Kris.  We may be twins separated at birth.  She is funny, sweet, and a very hard worker (not that that is why we may be twins).  She was so good in the booth that many customers thought she was the owner and I was her employee!  Love that!

The Tactile Booth.

The only downside of Madrona is having to drive up and back.  I am not a huge fan of spending a day in a over packed truck each way.  Then there is the small matter of snow in the passes.  It may not seem like a big deal to those of you who actually experience weather, but I am a coastal California girl used to weather that varies little.

My Madrona purchases are all special to me. 

First there are two skeins of natural gray yarn from Island Fibers.  The two women who own and run it are so sweet and interesting.  They source all the fiber from small farms on Lopez Island.  I love their commitment to thinking locally.  I may over dye one and make striped socks.  I am so loving the colors that I can get by over-dyeing dark wools.  Can't decide what color though.  Yellow might be a contender.

The next yarn is a big skein (1200 yards - 13oz!) of fingering weight Jacob/Alpaca/Mohair from Toots Le Blanc.  I love their yarns so much!  Plus, Michele and Carl couldn't be sweeter people.  I am going to dye this skein along with the light gray one I bought last year and make something large.  I am thinking a red serape; not the kind that is like a poncho, the kind that is a rectangle with a slit halfway through the middle.  The light gray skein tried to be a stole (ravelry link).  It just wasn't clicking (absolutely no fault of the yarn!).  Now it has a new life.  Provided I can find it; there may be a bit of stash around here, not to mention all the Tactile inventory (padding for the Big One?). 

Finally, there are 4 skeins of silk from Kakishibu.  Kakishibu is a traditional form of Japanese natural dyeing using persimmons.  It is very interesting and I highly recommend reading more about it on her website.  Taking a class is in this technique is definitely high on my list of things to do.  I got 8/2 silk, 400 yards total for some sort of a scarf.  

Last, but not least, I want to give thanks to Erin and Jessica of the DoubleKnit podcast for the sweet things they said about Tactile in their Madrona podcast.

SOARing

I am still floating on a SOAR high.  It was so much fun! Warning: there will be a crazy number of pictures in this post.

As I mentioned in my last post I took Deb Menz's 3-day workshop.  That was very interesting and she is a fabulous teacher.  Last time I showed you my complimentary color yarn.  Here it is as the start of a scarf.  I have very mixed feelings about it.  They color shifting is not really working for me; it looks so gray.  Okay, I know that is the point of a complimentary color blending exercise, but I am still disappointed (absolutely no reflection on Deb or her class).  What do you think?  Be honest.  Will it be worthy of gifting?

For the retreat sessions I took Wrap and Roll with Sarah Anderson, Spindle Spinning with Rudy Amann, and Spinning Big and Lofty Yarns with Maggie Casey.  I saw the wrap and roll article in Spin-Off and thought it was a great idea.  Whenever I have tried to make coil yarns I have had a terrible time keeping the core from getting overtwisted.  This simplifies the process.  I know it seems odd to consider spinning a spindle while spinning on a wheel making supercoils simple, but it is pretty fun when you get the groove going.

My favorite retreat session was Mohair and More with Robin Russo.  She gave us an assortment of goat fibers to spin and explained the differences between them.  It seems that goat fiber is not classified by breed as much as it is by fineness.  We played with mohair, pygora, and cashmere.  Yum!  Best of all, she provided us with a handy punch card to put our samples on.  I felt so organized leaving her class!

One of the highlights of my week was going to the Home Textile Tool Museum.  It is a great collection of spinning, weaving, and dyeing tools.  The folks there are so nice and knowledgeable.  We took a tour or of the buildings and saw so many antique tools like a gossip wheel.  It is a wheel with two bobbins.  The wheel turns both so the the spinner can spin two singles at the same time, one in each hand.  Crazy!  They were also doing a natural dye demonstration using plants grown on their property.  Gotta love that.

The best part for me was the great wheels.  I got to spend an hour spinning on several different great wheels.  What fun!  It was my first time and I loved it.  For those of you not familiar with great wheels (also known as walking wheels), they are quite large and don't have a treadle.  The spinner drafts with one hand and turns the wheel with the other.  As you draft, you walk away from the wheel to extend the singles yarn being made.  When you have walked as far as you can, you wind the yarn onto the spindle.  The spindle is a pointy metal rod similar to charkha.   The singles are spun off the end of the point and then wound onto the spindle by holding them perpendicular to the spindle. Silly me did not take her camera.  :-(  A great wheel and a charkha can be seen here.

The most exciting great wheel was the pendulum wheel (click for detail).  The drive wheel is still large and turned by hand, but the spinner sits.  To extend the singles, the spindle is on a counter-weighted pendulum with a treadle attached.  As the spinner drafts, they press on the treadle to push the spindle further away.  Oh how I wish I had a photo to show you!  I loved spinning on this wheel so much.  If only I had a larger house . . .

A huge thank you to Fluff N Nonsense for letting me use her picture.  Another picture of this wheel can be found here.  She has some other pictures from the museum that are well worth viewing.

The bestest (they were all the best parts really) part of SOAR was the people.  So many blog friends that I met for the first time, old friends to see again, and new friends.  Here are a few (click to bigify):

Steve - maker of the wonderful Spindlewood spindles, Fibergal - maker of gorgeous spindlespun lace and font of wisdom, Fiberguy - maker of great fun and our swill-meister, and Anne - maker of great book things fiber related.

Jennifer of Spirit Trail Fiberworks (love her rare breed fibers!) and Sheila (I need soak up more of her knitting knowledge).

Marcy (see what happens when you make silly faces!)

Janel looking radiant.  By the way, have you seen the new Spindlicity?  I highly recommend it.

Deb Menz

Aquilina who came all the way from Peru to share her Andean fiber traditions with us.  What a treat!  I believe it was her first time outside Peru.  She is wearing her everyday clothes.  It is the traditional garb for her town; each town has it's own style, patterns, and traditions.

Nilda in her traditional Andean clothes.  She is the author of Weaving in the Peruvian Highlands (fabulous book) and the founder of the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco.  The Center has restored the local textile traditions of the Cusco area.  People are again using natural dyes, spinning, knitting, and weaving, traditions that almost died out.  It has also brought jobs, money, and respect to the traditional peoples.  She gave a very moving talk on Sunday morning that had us all wanting to travel there for a workshop.

Dork that I am, the only pictures I got of the fall colors was on the drive back to the airport. 

More SOAR photos on my SOAR Flickr set.

And, I fell in love!  With Marcy's Canadian Flat Rim wheel by Alden Amos.  Be still my heart.  If only I had a larger house . . .

 

Cute Faces

Seeing the fiber animals is one of my favorite parts of a fiber festival.  Black Sheep Gathering did not disappoint.  There were various sheep reeds and angora goats. Click on any picture for a larger version.

Scottish Blackface, a common breed in the British Isles.  They are a very rugged breed and can withstand extremely harsh conditions.  I love the speckled faces. 

From a speckled face to a speckled fleece.  Jacob, are  beautiful.   I tried to get a good shot of one with 4 horns, but they didn't cooperate.

Shetland lamb from Morningstar Farm.  There were 3 colored lambs in this pen and they all fought to get chin scratches from me.  Totally fell in love with these sweeties.  They are friendly, soft, and bred for a single coat (trifecta!).  Unfortunately, this woman sells her fleeces to a mill.  I would love one!  Fleece that is.  Truth be told, I'd love a sheep or two or six, but that isn't happening in my little city lot (never mind my terrier who would like a taste).

Got VM?  When I get a lovely fleece with a bit of vegetable matter, I like to think of a happy sheep like this one.  VM equals fun and frolicking (in my imagination at least).  Can that be bad?

Got Horns?  Wear 'em loud, wear 'em proud!

Cute Angora goat chewing on its pen.

One of the best parts of the sheep and goat show is getting an opportunity to meet the folks who keep these animals.  (Farmers, growers, shepherds, rancher, what do we call them anyway?)

I met these girls and their mom of Boyd's Farms (email link).  When I asked if I could take their picture, both girls went in to corral their kid goats.  One goat was more cooperative.

So darn cute!  The girls were very excited about and interested in the goats.  The mom said they show the goats too.

If you are like me and always want to see more fiber animal pictures, go to my fiber animal Flickr set.

Many of the people showing animals at Black Sheep Gathering sell through Oregon Wool.  Check it out there is a lot of lovely fibery goodness to be had. 

Next post will be project updates.  There has been knitting!

Black Sheep Gathering Report

My first time at Black Sheep Gathering and I like it!  Cute animals, fabulous fiber, good vendors, and the opportunity to meet other fiber fiends make for a very good time.

Our booth was in a great location in the center building.  I love meeting the people that come to our booth, the other vendors, and just being in a crowd of fiber crazed people.  More pictures of our booth on the Tactile blog.

I had enough time to browse and make a couple of purchases.

A Forrester Granny spindle (Goncalvo Aves whorl, Maple shaft, 25.2 grams) and a sampler pack of rare breed fibers all from The Bellweather.  Clockwise from the top left: white Dorset, charcoal Hog Island, cream Ryeland, and two color Jacob rovings.  I am spinning it for sport weight self-striping 2-ply sock yarn.  I'll probably use the same method I used for Roger's hat.

Yummy gray Romney locks (about 8 ounces) from Iron Water Ranch.  I have no idea what I'll make from them.  They called to me and I couldn't say no.  It might be fun to knit them as locks into something.  I'll let that idea perk for a bit.

I bought a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous Lincoln (click on the link, these sheep are so cool looking) fleece at the wool show.  It is almost 7 pounds (in the grease) of lustrous, long wool goodness. The farmers (growers?  shepherds?) are Black Pines Sheep from Colorado.  A sweater from this wool, spun from the locks, is what I'm dreaming of.   

The locks are easily 6 inches long unstretched.   Did I mention how gorgeous this fleece is?  Love it!

Silk-Yak lace weight yarn (that the picture doesn't do justice) from Pack River Yaks.  Not sure what pattern I'll knit, but there is 1500 yards to play with; plenty for a shawl. 

Are you starting to think that I have slipped into an abyss of grayness? 

Nope!  I got a Bosworth midi (can't find the tag, I think walnut whorl and about 39 grams) at Carolina Homespun and had to take it for a test drive.  Some Tactile Merino-Bamboo roving called to me.  The color has great depth.  The merino took the cochineal (pink) but the bamboo didn't.  When it was dipped in indigo, the merino became purple and the bamboo became blue.  The effect is very nice.  I am spinning it fine for a 2-ply lace weight yarn.

Next time I'll post some pictures of the sheep and goats at Black Sheep.

C and C

We had a great time at Color!  The location was wonderful, classes were full, and folks came to spin and socialize.  We couldn't have asked for more.  Well, I wish I had taken pictures.  Thankfully others did.  Karrie created a Color Flickr group.  It was a particularly nice event because so many of the people who came were folks we know.

The only picture I took is from our after party.

From the left: Abby, Ted, Sara, Adrienne, Kristine, Karrie, and Kathleen.  A great group of folks!  I am lucky to know them all.

CNCH was fun too although it was very different.  The attendees are mostly weavers who may also spin and knit.  I liked seeing the beautiful handwoven garments they were wearing. 

Here is a picture of the Tactile/Verb booth (a couple more are on my Flickr).

I made a few purchases (how can I resist?).  In keeping with my current trend, I only seem to be attracted to naturally colored or naturally dyed fibers.

Our booth was next to California Cashmere.  Could we have had a more dangerous placement?  I got an ounce of their brown cashmere to spin (not pictured).  It is the softest, most delicious fiber!  I love that it is grown and processed here in northern California.  I plan to spin a very fine 2-ply yarn to knit another hat for Roger.

One of my favorite vendors was Shaggy Bear Farms from Oregon.  They have a variety of rare breed wools and mohair.  The owner had so many cute stories about her animals, I found myself finding excuses to return to her booth. 

Some soft mohair (white) and soft pin-drafted Icelandic wool.

Luscious pygora roving in shades of grey.  These two colors come from twin goats named Nancy Drew (love that name!) and Punky Brewster.  Pygoras are a breed of goats created by cross-breeding pygmy goats which have a soft downy fiber with angora (mohair) goats.  The resulting fiber is softer than mohair.  I got enough to make a large shawl.

Two skeins of Polwarth-silk (80/20) from Rovings.  Holy Moly this stuff is dreamy!  With 1600+ yards I have plenty for a shawl (yup, I am in full-tilt lace mode with 5 projects in the works).

I found one other vendor with naturally dyed fiber and this bundle of merino-silk (50/50) jumped out at me.  No website that I can find.

Our other booth neighbor was Spindlewood.  Oh my, do they make stunning spindles!  So beautifully crafted and finished.  I kept wandering over there to try them.  You know where this is going right?

Isn't it gorgeous?  Dark Brazilwood for the whorl and shaft.  It spins like a dream, smooth and long-spinning.  I love, love, love it!  My first fancy spindle has kindled a love of spindling.

Doesn't it look beautiful with the red merino-silk?  I have 2 ounces.  Think that will be enough for a little lacy scarf?

Last Minute

You know how you can get busy and neglect to do things?  Important things.  Yes, that is me raising my hand.  I don't mean blogging (as much as I love you all).  I am neglecting to tell you about Tactile events.

Color: A Fiber Festival
Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California
Saturday April 26, 2008
10am - 6pm

Tactile will be there with A Verb for Keeping Warm, Pigeonroof Studios, and Girl on the Rocks.  We will have drop spindle classes, fiber tastings, and lots of space to hang out and spin or knit with a view.  The weather is promising to be nice.  Bring your wheel or spindle, or knitting, bring a friend, we look forward to seeing you there.

We will also be vendors at the Conference of California Handweavers (CNCH) in Sacramento and Maker Faire in San Mateo next weekend.  Both events are Saturday and Sunday May 3 & 4, 2008.  We have teamed up with our good friend Kristine of A Verb for Keeping Warm again. 

Regular blogging will resume soon with tales of Louisiana and a blog contest.  I may have some knitting content too.