I'm spinning this silk right now. Linda, Amy, Mim and I had a dye day here just about a year ago and I dyed this with Linda's ProChem dyes, using Sara Lamb's recommended basic colors. At that point I had dyed up all my wool and was envious of the results the others were getting so started dyeing some of the silk I have. I really am not a silk spinner. At this time I don't have anything else to spin - so now it's time to get this into yarn. I've had doubts on what it will look like be when I ply it back on itself. Linda loves to spin silk so I asked her for her thoughts at the Alpaca Festival last weekend.
She said that while the rainbow dyed roving is gorgeous and really fun to spin, she's never been happy when she plies it back on itself. So yesterday I dyed another 2 ounces of silk and will ply the two together. I have absolutely no idea how it will turn out. We leave for New York a week from today. Our plans are kinda loose, though we do hope to visit with friends. I look forward to bialys, knishes, bagels and a black and white cookie (think Seinfeld) - we have identified recommended shops for all of them. We also have tickets for In the Heights, a Broadway musical and 2009 Tony award, about the Dominicans in Morningside Heights (up by Columbia University). The music is going to be fantastic.
We're going to skip the Met - it's too big, which makes me sad because we're going to miss the Robert Frank photographic exhibit. I may yet change my mind - it's a wonderful story. He was an emigrant who shot pictures of Americans in the 1950s, thanks to a Geggenheim grant. He was arrested in Arkansas as being suspicious and given an hour to leave town. He told them he was on a Guggenheim grant and they demanded, what's Guggenheim. I feel my mind changing already.
The Guggenshim is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a Vasily Kandinsky retrospective. I saw a small collection of his at the Phillips Collection in D.C. and look forward to seeing this in the environment of the spiral path to art discovery. I'm also excited about the exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt: "Ten leading designers have been commissioned to develop new uses for sustainably grown and harvested materials in order to tell a unique story about the life-cycle of materials and the power of conservation and design." Is that cool or what?! MOMA has Monet's "Water Liles" and you see the problem unfolding.
We'll be there at the same time of The New Yorker Festival and that's why Ian chose these dates. Ironically, we won't be attending any of the author panels, though if time allows, I would love to attend T.C. Boyle's author book signing on Saturday. We do have tickets for the Character Actors panel (Second bananas) with Christine Baranski, Joan Cusack, Luis Buzman, Richard Kind and John Turturro. I am really excited. Little Sharon, my step-daughter, will be with us for about half the time. She has found a yarn shop in SoHo that she wants us to visit and we will combine that with a stop at Yonah Schimmel's where I will undo all my Weight Watchers work.
7 comments:
Sounds like it will be a wonderful time Sharon. I will never see New York, although I want to see the Statue of Liberty, from the Bay lol
Too many people in too little space for my tastes.
When I spin variegated silks, I almost always Navajo ply. It helps keep the colors together to a point and it is really really pretty. The pic on my blog of those three different yarns are all silk blends, but the first two are Navajo plied.
Wait; did you say "I don't have anything else to spin"? Is that POSSIBLE? You even have your own fiber animals!!!
LOL, Oh my, you two have a ton of stuff planned. Go to the Met, see the one exhibit at least. Bye Bye Birdie is playing for the fist time since like 1962 I heard.
It's been years since I went to NYC and I'm right there with you on the bagels, knishes and all the other good deli things you can't get anywhere else like NY. I don't think I've had a good bagel since I was there last. Certainly not MA, and they don't have a clue about good bagels ( and bread for that matter) in northwest.
And for gosh sakes, go steal some fiber off of those critters outside!
I've always plyed my silk on itself and turned out ok. Love the color you dyed your silk.
Have fun in NY. Sounds like you have all your time planned and will be very busy.
I second Becky's opinion, on the silk, that is. The best way to work with rainbow dyed stuff and make it look good is to navajo ply it. It's a little extra work, but worth it. The nice thing about silk is that you don't have to worry about it being balanced - when you wash it to hang it, it deletes all excess energy from the yarn, and miraculously, it doesn't ever come back.
I've been to New York, seen the UN, got a anchovy, cream cheese and cucumber on dark rye sandwich (my family was appalled), went in the Statue of Liberty, and was supremely non-plussed. Of course, I was 16 and knew it all at the time. However, I will also agree with Becky that there are too many people and not enough space.
Have a wonderful time!
WOW! What an amazing trip you have planned!
As far as MOMA and Monet goes: my parents were disappointed at how little Monet there is, and how *much* Jackson Pollack there is (I myself am the opposite, I love Pollack).
I thought you had an October trip coming up. (But I was confused because you traveled in September too, right?)
Have a great time! It's always hard to fit in everything you want to do, isn't it? Maybe that means you should stay a few more days!!! (Although, I am so not a city person. I do make an exception for cities with good museums and good food, especially in Europe!!)
Have fun!!
Sue
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