Silk Scarves

I finished another silk scarf, spun from some hand-dyed roving that I bought from Mim. The roving weighed 1.8 ounces. The scarf is drying here because I washed and ironed it. The picture doesn't show off the pattern well, but none of the other pictures were any better. I don't think I have any silk that amounts to more than 2 ounces so I'm cursed to knit small scarves.




This is from the silk hankie I spun up earlier this year and the yarn weighs 2 ounces. I spun it tighter and thinner and have already started to knit it. Though it feels like I'm knitting with string, the fabric is wonderfully soft and drapey. It's the same pattern on the same needles, but it's much more open and loose which makes no sense to me. Half the time I don't know what I'm doing and the half I wonder what I have done.
I know this won't sense to non-
weavers, but a floating selvedge is recom-
mended when weaving twill but since they don't tie on to the back beam, they have to be weighted separately. Beryl had recommended a brand of C-clamps which I was unable to find so I substituted these. They work like a charm. When you need more length, unscrew the clamp and release another length. I have learned so much from my friends by blog - thank you all!

If you've managed to read this far on a holiday weekend, I hope you'll have a moment to view the historic clip at Selvedge magazine of wool and the weaving industry in Australia. It's an abbreviated version of a longer one available at link provided in the text. It's an educational film from the "talkies" era and I ended up watching it twice. Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving on this, my favorite of all holidays.

8th Annual Spinsters Retreat

Two weeks ago today our guild met at the Davis Creek Camp-
ground for our 8th annual Spinsters Retreat. It's the second weekend in September and the weather has been all over the map, from freezing to delightful, which it was this year. We set up our spinning circle under the pines and then chased the shade as the sun moved overhead. This is about a quarter of the circle.

Saturday is the Swap 'n Sale and it starts from time people arrive and goes all day. This year we had five tables, one which is all free stuff. That's where I put the yarns that came with my loom, and I was so pleased when Virva took them because they were perfect for what she was weaving.
Mim does such a good job with her hand-dyed rovings. She was able to sell enough to pay for the seven bales of hay in the back of her truck that we picked up on our way down.
This is the one that came home with me. It's just plain combed top wool, but she also had some bluefaced leicester and some fine merino. I've spun up a couple of greens and I think they'll go nicely with this purple in hats. I sold a couple of hats at the Brewery Arts Center since it reopened, so I need to be thinking about making some more.
It's not just wool that Mim dyes. She does a wonderful job on silk as well. I'm knitting this scarf from a 1.8 ounce bump of silk that I bought from her a while back. Since I don't have much, I'm making it narrow.
I gathered up my stuff for the retreat so I could pack the car the night before. When I pulled out my Lendrum bag, I was stunned to see that it was covered in moth larvae. I have moths again! I went through everything and tossed out the stuff that was most badly infected and scrubbed up my bag. Since the last infestation, I've put most everything in plastic bags and was relieved to see that they were unaffected. Yesterday on my way home from town, I stopped at the grocery store and bought 3 pounds of dry ice. It's in the bottom of this bag and I've placed the remaining infected wools on top where they will stay until next weekend.

I'm Out of Silk

It's so nice to finally have our skies back again. I took this from the porch yesterday morning. I was reading my daily readings but couldn't resist the temptation to run back into the house for my camera. I know the fires west of us are only 58% contained, but we're finally getting relief from the smoke.

The silk from my brick is spun and ready to be entered in the fair. I weighed it at 2 ounces. I can't wait to knit it, but wait I must. I'm spinning more Shetland for some commissioned hats, then need to do a skein of merino for a hat before I get to decide what I want to spin for me. After reading the Spin Off article on Kaye Collins Alpaca lace shawl, I think I want to spin alpaca. I took a class from her on spinning alpaca about four years ago at the Conference of Northern California Handweavers at Asilomar, California. It was an absolute treat, but I've never wanted to knit with alpaca, until I read that article. Of course, I never wanted to knit lace either.

I shot this from the mailbox tonight.

Still Spinning Silk

I am just past the half-way point of my schedule purgatory, i.e., no weekends off with people, friends, family, husband, and am trying to make the most my "weekend" days. To that end I decided that I would enjoy as much of these past two July days as possible, given temperatures in the upper 90s and continuing smoke from the California fires - those poor folks. If this is the blow over, what must their eyes and throats feel like?! I hung in there until 94 degrees - I was a wimp. There are no mountains - just smoke.

I am currently spinning this silk. I'm not sure what to call this sheet, but I bought it from Judith MacKenzie when she taught our spinning class at the St Mary's Arts Center in 2005. I loved the colors but this whole page/sheet/blanket of silk intimidated me into doing nothing with it. I am silk emboldened since the retreat.
Fully half of the fluff is spun up, and the remaining fluff is in this basket. Its even prettier in the daylight. Judith had more and I didn't buy it. Buyers remorse, only the other way.
One half of the silk sheet spins up into this bobbin, and it's the small bobbin of a Lendrum super-fast flier. I've managed to maintain a pretty stable and thin fiber, but I won't really know how successful I am until I ply it. I'm thinking it's going to be a scarf, a very short but very pretty scarf. I have decided that the lace bug bite is doubled when silk is part of the bite.
What was the lyracist thinking when he wrote, "Smoke gets in your eyes?" It was lovely for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but not so lovely really.

Bitten by the Lace Bug

Here's where we gathered in the mornings with our knitting and coffee. I got up earlier than I do on workdays because I didn't want to miss a single minute of it. Roommate Hermi and I agreed that we would never get up that early at home - doesn't sound at all retreat-like, does it.
So far my lace knitting has been on socks, I had a hard time finding a pattern for this yarn because it has no give. After swatching about three patterns, Gayle offered me this five stitch repeat.
Row 1: K2 tog, yo, K1, P 2
Row 2: Knit
Row 3: K1, yo, K2 tog, P 2
Row 4: Knit
It's a wonderful little sock pattern and she ended up writing it out for several of us.

Everyone around me those mornings was knitting real lace and chatting at the same time. The lace bug bite was subtle. I couldn't help but admire the three different results that were coming from the same pattern and different yarns. Sara says it will be the target of an Spin Off article next year. Dee was making her lace into a log cabin afghan from all crazy colors she dyed up, Sara was knitting undyed silk that she will paint later and Sue F. was knitting a shawl from wool she spun from her flock. Aren't you intrigued? I can't wait for the article. Before I knew it I was accepting Sue's offer to chart out the pattern on graph paper. That was a big step for me because I have been confident that I would never knit lace, but then I said that about socks about ten years ago too.

I focused on spinning silk at the Retreat thanks to Sara's generous tutoring. This is what I spun from the 2 ounces of Chasing Rainbows silk that Amy brought me back from Black Sheep a year ago. The roving was gorgeous and the gift was completely unexpected. I love how the color in the silk mimics the color in the bricks. I think I may have bitten by the silk bug as well.
This is where I am on the lace scarf at one ball. It's the same lace that Sue charted for me. In the beginning it seemed that I was ripping out just as much as I was knitting. It's only a 10 stitch repeat over 16 rows and I'm now finding it pretty easy to know where I am. Just the same, I still keep the chart right beside me. I'm afraid that once bitten by the lace bug, there is no cure. If you haven't already been bitten, resist will all your will power or you'll find yourself afflicted with the phrase, "just wait until I finish this row."