Well they made the fleeces, right? They ate grass and a little grain. They hung out in the barn. They did their part to add more carbon and nitrogen into the soil here at the farm. And once a year they are shorn, no it doesn’t hurt them. And then I take it to be cleaned, combed and spun into yarn.
Sometimes I leave them in their natural colors and sometimes I dye them up in luscious colors.
For the first time, I’ll share with you two ways to dye your own roving. In this Feb 29th workshop, you will dye approximately 8 ounces of fiber (either BFL or Merino, depending on availability). You can decide what colors you will use and we’ll talk about how to avoid felting your roving in the heating process. All my workshops have small so that you get individual attention. Click here to grab your spot.
It’s a new year and it’s the time when I think about what I want to learn. It is the time of year, when the fiber festivals are all done and I have more time to devote to teaching you a new skill, such as dyeing, knitting, spinning or weaving.
First up is my Dye your Socks workshop, I have scheduled 2 dates for this: Jan 20 (MLK holiday and Feb 8th. I limit the number of participants so that you have lots of individual attention. All you need to do is come with an idea of what color(s) socks you would like. You will leave with a variegated skein and a semi solid companion skein. Click here to register.
Dawn Viands will be offering a needle felted chick class to get you in the mood for spring. This class will be on Feb 9th. Mark your calendar and join our mailing list to be the first to be able to register for this class when it is available.
Dawn Viands will also be teaching pysanka–Ukrainian Egg painting class on March 8th. These are beautiful and can be put in your Easter basket or an egg tree for the spring holidays. Mark your calendar and join our mailing list to be the first to be able to register for this class when it is available.
It’s a thing….The Make Nine Challenge… I’m not sure who started it. But you can see all kinds of plan by your friends and people you follow on Instagram and Facebook. Here is my Make9:
4 of these are WIP’s. I want to finish those 2 pairs of socks. As well as the Ursa sweater and the Conflagration scarf. I will work on those first.
Then on to new projects: a shifty pullover with my Synergy yarn.
Some quick slippers with some of our Stratus farm yarn.
A Ruffles scarf using Zephyrette, I think….
The Anemone Hat with some handspun. And the cowl with 2 colors of Alto I think.
What do you want to make? Will you take the challenge? Comment on the blog to let me know!
It’s summertime. It’s hot. It’s sticky. The last thing you want to do is knit. And when it is so hot outside, you may not be thinking about doing anything with your yarn.
I know that I don’t want to spend anytime outside in the humid hot air. My hair doesn’t act right, I am sweating. My clothes are sticking to me. Instead I want to be inside. I want to be in the air conditioned house.
So what could be better than using my knitting time to fall in love with my yarn collection all over again. How about you? If you’ve been following this blog or subscribing to this newsletter over a few months, you probably know that I’m banishing the word STASH from my vocabulary and I’m trying to persuade you to do the same. I want to think of my yarn as a collection that I’ve curated over some time.
I’ve developed a series of 7 lessons to help you banish the shame of stash and relish all the gems that you have collected over the years. This free e-course will lead you from exploring what you have, to clearing out what you have outgrown, and rehoming those items that no longer bring you joy.
Summer is a perfect time of year for you to go through this work. You will be ready for the fall fiber festivals. You will receive a lesson each week with instructions and ideas for organizing your collection of yarn, patterns, needles and notions.
I’ve included downloadable documents as well. You can join our Ravelry group, where we will be talking about our collections and sharing ideas and photos with the hashtag #collectioncurator. I hope you will join me on this journey by clicking here to start falling in love with your yarn all over again.
I am a cowl girl. Yes, I spelled it right. I prefer cowls over scarves.
Where does that preference come from? As a weaver, I made a TON of scarves. They are linear. They are finite. They are fun. They can show off your dyeing, your yarn choice and your skill at a weave structure. But they fall off. They are always slipping to one side or the other. They are like snakes in the way that they can just slide off your neck and the next thing you know they are on the floor, under your seat, around the corner you just turned.
Cowls are like close friends. They envelop you. They warm you. They comfort you. Some may say that they can strangle you or be too cloying. But I think they are the best.
And I like to knit in the round. I prefer it actually to the monotonous back and forth, back and forth that knitting flat requires. Even when knitting flat, I use circular needles. They are comforting. They seem more secure to me. Not once have I lost stitches off the end of a circular needle. So for all those reasons I’m a cowl girl.
What about you? Cowl or scarf? What is your preference?
At this time of year, I like many people are thinking about their word of the year. It is a North Star or value or resolution. It marks how you want to spend your year. That is all good and I do come up with my word of the year each January.
But I want to talk to you about banishing a word this year. Let’s banish the word….stash. I’ve spoken to many of you in person about ejecting this word and concept from your vocabulary. When I hear people talking about their stash it is not out of pride. I don’t hear “You should see my stash! It is lovely.” More often I hear, “I can’t buy anything until I use my stash.” It is said in a kind of Eeyore voice. It is said with shame. Let’s banish that word! Let’s trash the shame!
I propose that we use the word, “collection” instead. You are the curator. It is your collection. Each skein and ball that is in your collection was lovingly acquired. Some with a specific project in mind and others just thrilled you with color or texture or softness. I think that if we change our language, we can change our outlook or attitude about the yarn that we have collected. We will be able to see those threads in a different light. We may even go through them and realize, “Hey! I’ve grown out of using this yarn, or this color!” Those parts of your collection can be donated or gifted. You have the power to make the choices, after all it is YOUR collection.
This year, let’s make the commitment to value our collections, to explore them anew and discover what you love about them and which ones need to find a new home. Let’s find some new ways of using what we have and making room to buy new skeins to augment the collection. If you would like to explore your collection in an organized way, you can subscribe to our Color Explorer eCourse. It is a 4 lesson course that helps you look at your collection from the viewpoint of color and allows you to make choices about what stays and what need to be removed from your collection.
What do you think?
It’s a proven fact. There is research. Yes, knitting and crochet does in fact enhance your health and well being. I know that when I am feeling low and tired, but still feel the need to “do” something, I take out my project bag and knit a few stitches or rows or repeats. I also take my knitting to meetings. Keeping my hands busy with knitting does keep my mind focused on during this meeting. Thankfully my boss is not bothered by this, in fact she does put out crafts and fiddles to keep hands busy and minds available for learning. I do have to say that I usually take “brainless” knitting that I can do without following a chart or thinking too much about what is being made.
I’ve noticed an uptick in the number of women, children and men who are knitting and crocheting, especially in the age range from 25-35. We even had a young man (13?) search us out at 3 fiber festivals this fall to buy yarn and roving. I can’t wait to see what he makes with his collection. So you can imagin how really happy I am to see a great article and a new book on the subject.
Here is what I’ve learned so far:
I’ve been thinking a lot about what all those ways that yarn manufacturers, including myself, categorize the yarn. There are so many ways of speaking about the size of the yarn. The standard yarn weight information is set up in a table with discreet squares. But I’ve been studying this lately and I’ve noticed that there is overlap, a lot of overlap among the yarn weights. So it seems to me that this is really a continuum. Just look at the info about YPP, yards per pound, the overlap here is really large. Why is that? It has to do with the spinning process.
Was it spun in a woolen way with lots of air and softly spongy and so it has a bigger diameter? Or was it spun in a worsted way which compacts the fibers and aligns them all in one direction and so it appears thinnner. These two yarns could have the same YPP but a different grist or appearance and they will behave very differently. So use these as a guide, but the ultimate test is your own swatch. These two yarns were both supposed to be a DK weight. But the diameter is SOOOOO different. They knit up differently too. The green one knits like a lace weight yarn. It is our Heritage BFL yarn. And the turquoise yarn is Fingal’s and truly knits like a DK yarn. It is also made with BFL wool and both were made at the same mill. Go figure!!
This really comes into play when you are wanting to make that special sweater. You are wanting to use yarn from your stash, not go out and buy the yarn that the designer used. Or maybe that yarn isn’t available anywhere near you. This is when those standard yarn weights become important. And even more important than that, is to knit up a swatch. Not only a stockinette swatch but also a swatch in pattern.
But is a swatch important when it is for a garment that doesn’t fit your body, like a shawl or a cowl? Well, I think getting the gauge close is important so that the stitches look the same. You may not need to get it “exactly” right if it isn’t going to “fit” your body. What is important to do is to check the size of the finished project, because many times the photographs used in the pattern, may be on a mannequin and not a person. It may be made for an extremely small or large person, someone whose body is vastly different than yours. Sometimes making a swatch seems like wasting your time and a waste of yarn. You will probably only need 25-50 yards for a swatch. It will reduce the chance that you would need to frog your project. I think it is important to make sure that the stitches look right. You may be a looser knitter than the designer or vice versa. So changing your needle size will be just what you need to get your swatch to look like the picture. Those are important questions to answer and it is worth the time to figure this out before you jump into your garment.
I read the Artist’s Way in 1992 when my life took a total shift away from an abusive situation to one where I was the one in control of my life. It’s funny to say that now, because there are so many days when really I don’t feel like I’m in control. But really, I do decide what I am doing on any given day. Some of those days I may feel like not going to work, but I did decide to keep teaching in the public school system while growing Flying Goat Farm. I do decide if I am working or sitting on the couch or working while sitting on the couch. I decide if I will turn off the TV or when I will do the chores.
Anyway back to the Artist’s Way. I did morning pages for probably 2 years straight. I did them religiously. And they did help me find myself again. They helped me figure out my feelings and what my next steps were. I really like to write, but sometimes I decide not to write daily. To get back to that practice of writing everyday, I joined 750words.com. Along with daily morning pages, Julia Cameron you must commit to go on an Artist Date once a week. Man, I had such a hard time doing that. What to do? Where to go? I would go to the LA County Art Museum, duh. That’s a no brainer. I went to farmer’s markets. I went to funky shopping districts, like Main Street in Santa Monica, Melrose Ave or Brentwood area in LA. I went to a great bookstore like the Bodhi Tree (where I even went to a book reading by Cameron) or even to the nearby library to just look at magazines. But they felt disjointed and weird. I never really felt filled up by them, something wasn’t quite right.
I stopped doing the morning pages after I went back to teaching full time. In the summers I would dabble in the pages, but it wasn’t really lasting or nurturing for me. Now that I am closer to being a full time artist, I want and need to develop a habit of the pages. Writing morning pages helps me to build my daily intention. It is helping me become a better writing just by the shear practice of writing.
Back to artist’s dates. I intended our trip to Longwood Gardens to be a fun day away from the farm as part of a staycation since Bill was off from work. As soon as I stepped into the visitor center, I began to feel like this was an artist date. I saw shots for amazing still lives, colors and closeups that could make beautiful photographs. With each view of flowers, the water scapes, and tree houses with their almost art deco look, I was filling up inside. We strolled through the large greenhouse with it’s orchid room and green wall and delightful children’s garden. I took over 100 photos.
Oh boy, we ate lunch at 1906 Restaurant. Lunch was artistically and physically filling. An amuse-bouche of yellow tomato gazpacho. Bill had mushroom soup that was creamy and earthy. I had the crispy salmon. Oh the skin was so delicious and the meat itself was succulent and juicy. The salmon was served with a succotash and lime “essence”. This foam tasted of tart refreshing lime and enhanced the vegetables and the salmon. I need to learn how to make that! It would be good on any recipe where lime juice by itself doesn’t give enough of a taste punch. For dessert we chose the sorbet trio: cucumber with mint, elderberry flower with pear and orange water with tangerine. Each was unusual and so, so good.
When we left, we were full of new inspiration and new motivation. We will definitely go back to Longwood for seasonal artist dates. Click here for information about the gardens.