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."

Not All Super-Heros Wear Capes

Rug Omission

I was driving home from work tonight and realized that I had forgotten to include this marvelous rug in my final retreat post, so this is a postscript. When Ahmed showed this to us, I marveled at how one could make something woven on a square loom appear to be round. Owning a round rug has no appeal for me, but understanding how those women make one really piqued my interest.
Look at what those clever women did. The rug is woven square; the shape is created by the knots. I cannot begin to imagine how they figured it out, but I marvel at their ingenuity and know they're not getting paid what they are worth. Okay, now I'm done with the retreat.

Turkish Rugs

Gayle arranged to have a Turkish rug trader visit us the morning we were scheduled to leave. He was returning from a show in Las Vegas and she promised him ladies interested in weaving. I don't think we disappointed him. He certainly didn't disappoint us!

Take a look at the inventory in the back of his truck and consider that few of the rugs he showed us were valued under $1,000. They were gorgeous and I was glad that the temptation was limited since I had to leave early to pick Ian up at the airport.
This piece that Lindsey is holding is hand-
knotted silk in tiny stitches and is priced at $15,000.


This one is machine woven from natural dyed wools. What a difference those natural dyes make.

And a closer look. I love the variations in shades. The green is pistachio, the blue is indigo, and the red is pomegranate.







Front









And back.




And still the rugs kept coming. He recognized who the potential buyers were and quickly began to pull rugs out that he thought might meet with their approval. It was a great show but nothing can last forever. I reluctantly got into my packed car and drove down the mountain, back to Reno and the airport.

Back to the real world - my real world, that is. (Click for big)

Yep - more Virginia City

Eileen is pulling off a panel from her blanket. I know she is very dis-
appointed but you can't it tell by her smile. That last panel was woven more tightly than her first two panels. I think this blanket is a success, even though she's going to have to weave another panel. This is her first weavin!!. She used the Ashford knitter's loom to weave three panels and learned the hard way about beating square. But oh my goodness, what she accomplished on a rigid heddle loom is impressive. I hope she is the wave of new weavers that old weavers have worried and dreamed about. Think about what she did and her initiative.

Behind her is the area where we gathered to knit and drink our morning cuppas. It's where I sat amongst lace knitters and was stung by the lace bug. Sue V was knitting a scarf from an old Piecework magazine mitten pattern. She liked the repeat, which I wrote down. Sue F, Dee and Sara were knitting a Falling Leaf pattern that they are working on for a SpinOff article next year. They have the same pattern, all cast on 92 stitches , and that's where the similarity stops. I can see why it's going to be an interesting article. Sue F wrote out the chart for me on graph paper. Since I had spun two ounces of silk there, I thought what the heck. I didn't have much fiber, so I only cast on 52 stitches - 52 stitches that want me to knit them when I really need to be doing something else, like sleep. What a siren. If you read this and haven't already received this warning - lace knitting is seductive, additive. Flee - run away.

This picture tickles my funny bone. It's an idle moment, only knitters don't have idle moments. Herme, on the right, is visiting with Lexie, who is finishing a baby blanket that she will be delivering to a shower the next day. Hermie has perched her glass of wine right next to Jen's Ashford electric spinner because, she is now officially relaxing - done for the day.


I find it hard to keep Virginia City separate from the fiber retreat. Nevada is interesting in its own way. Herme was excited - this is a rare form of buckwheat that only grows in andesite soils so is called Ansesite Buckwheat and it grows on the tailings in Virginia City - this plant is in a soil lab. I hope you can see the size of the leaves.

This is the kind of buckwheat that grows by my house. Herme is a biologist from Southern Nevada so these are different and we have to understand her enthusiasm. At least I do - she's my roommate.
I would love to take a nature hike with her in Southern Nevada - a bajillion miles south of here.

I am so sorry for the quality of this photo - we were returning from our evening walk and I just want to show where the old hospital ward was and where the current arts studio is. Can you tell by the fuzzy lights??

End of the First Summer Month

Northern California is on fire. They exper-
ienced over 4,000 lightening strikes last weekend when a storm blew through and in the aftermath, firefighters are struggling with something like 800 fires. The smoke is drifting through to us, but each day is better than the day before.
I did not doctor this photo in any way. Those rays are exactly as they appeared while I was driving and that's why I just had to pull off the road and grab this shot. It's the particulate matter in the air from the fires that makes those rays visible.







At the same time, we're having a cicada infestation. It's one of those every 8-15 year cycle things and they last for a month. Unlike the Mormon crickets, they don't eat anything -they just make tons of racket until they're done breeding. We can't sit out on the deck at night without experiencing hearing loss, but I'm happy they're not murderers and munchers like the crickets.




Jimmy Beans has the *best* buttons. Every color in my sweater is in this one button.


I finally have a FO~

Retreat and Winding Down

There was spinning and fiber, two pounds of Polwarth sorted into colors in this case. I think Lindsey has plenty to keep her busy for more than the week. She asked Sara if she would show us how to spin silk. It turned out that Lindsey and I were *us* so I dragged my stuff over for some spinning instruction. Sara spins silk for hours so has developed a long-draw technique that doesn't have any of the pinching or long-draw pull that I do. She draws the fiber from side-to-side. She lets the wheel draw the fiber out and uses her open palm to direct the twist. I know I can't describe it and I neglected to catch a picture of her doing it.

I wasn't able to manage with my palm but did finally get something to work, using my vertical fingers to bend the fiber in a right angle and parallel to the wheel. I'm still practicing but I'm much better than when I started. Amy brought me 2 ounces of Chasing Rainbows silk back from Black Sheep Gathering last year. I spun it up, with the second ball turning out better than the first. Go figure.
And there was weaving. Gayle cut off this silk and cotton cloth, 5 1/2 yards of it, which she will send to her tailor in Mexico. I wish I had a tailor. I wish I wove cloth!


Here's a little better detail. It doesn't look like much from a distance but it is gorgeous.




Marilyn Greaves, a tapestry weaver and instructor from Sacramento, was able to join us for the last day. She informed us that she's retiring next year so will finally be able to travel out of the Sacramento area to teach classes. I hope we'll be able to get her here in Reno.


Isn't this great color?? It's Sara's, but of course. These are the yarns that she's using in her samples for the book. I'm almost done with Virginia City, I promise. Gayle invited a Turkish rug trader to show us his rugs on Sunday morning, and I think some of the pictures are really worth sharing, but later.

Retreat and Cut-pile Weaving

The beauty of the retreat is the freedom to work on whatever you want to, whenever you want to. Those so inclined, gather in the morning with cups of coffee and knitting, and those so inclined, do that until inclined to do otherwise. In the midst of said activity, I was bitten by the lace bug - more on that later. Pajamas, breakfast and showers are on your own timetable - no class deadlines. There's no race to do anything, except be on time for the gourmet dinner that our sponsors prepare themselves. We are inclined to go early, but not invited until the dinner bell rings.

My picture makes my point. Allison is knitting on a commission, and to save her image, I'll spare the details. Dee is swatching some handspun and in the far back, Sara is evaluating her samples. In front of her are Eileen and Sue, both who are weaving cut pile pieces on Ashford table looms following Sara's instructions. At the same time they are also proofing the text for Sara's book on cut pile weaving to be published next year. I can't wait!

This is Eileen's piece. She has chosen a geometric Indian image, has charted it and these are the colors she has selected for her design.
On the other hand, Sue chose to chart Polish flower and is working from the top of the design so that the image will always be upside down while she's weaving. The technique is very simple, but you have to keep your picks square. Dee was working on a piece but the image was skewed and she is going to have to start over. She and I both learned from that.
Herme decided to make a pillow cover for her cut pile weaving and is working in her own handspun, hand-dyed Wensleydale. I was wrong when I thought I couldn't use my luster long wools that I been dyeing with natural dye. It's what you must use. Good news for me.
Allison took a class from Sara a couple of years ago so is ahead of the rest of us. She has several samples under her belt, and is finishing up what will soon be a bag. She's finished the cut-pile part and is weaving sumac for the flap.







Several of us took a walk at dusk one evening, and when I saw this rock, it made me think of Allison's bag.

A Virginia City canyon at dusk. Please click for big.

Addendum to Indigo

I didn't rinse my skeins until I got home so here they are while they dry. The haze in the background on Sunday is smoke from the hundreds of California wildfires. Today we can no longer see the mountains across the valley. My heart goes out to those who are in closer proximity to the fires. The smoke is no fun.

I was totally intimidated by the process of dyeing with indigo, but I have wanted to do it for literally years, and I have to tell you that I got my panties in a twist for nothing. I bought a half pound of freeze-dried indigo several years ago - Sara says it's a life-time supply. It's simple, straight forward and needs no mordant. Judith MacKenzie has instructions that you can find here. I printed them out, as insurance, but Sara's laid back instructions worked just fine.

I put water in the roaster with about a half of a mounded kitchen teaspoon of the indigo and let it cook, 100-120 degrees, until the metallic skin appeared on the surface - maybe a half hour. Sara said that I needed to be able to look into and through the bath and see yellow. I couldn't, so we sprinkled Rit Dye Remover, the reducing agent, over the top of the bath and let it sit for 10 or 15 minutes. When I went back out (I wasn't going to stand there and watch it and maybe miss something interesting!) I could look into the bath and see the yellow. I knew what it was the second I saw it. I laid the skeins in gently and when I lifted them out, I let the skeins drip outside the bath to avoid introducing oxygen. If you do get the bath oxygenated, sprinkle more dye remover, let it sit a bit, then pick up where you left off. I had to do it a couple of times. It was the easiest, most forgiving dyeing that I have done.

Indigo

This was my indigo work-
station. It stinks so I had to do it outdoors. I volun-
teered Sara to guide me in this venture, which she undertook gamely, and in questioning the caretaker about a suitable space, she discovered this one outdoor outlet - table included. That's my $15 Goodwill roaster, money well spent.

The various shades are based on the number of dips into the dye bath and the natural color of wool that I was dipping. I had a couple of skeins that were previously dyed yellow with lupine. Sara said that indigo dyers she knew never tainted their pots with previously dyed skeins - always the other way around. Skeins are first dyed with indigo, then dyed with lupine. Point taken.

Indigo isn't like other dyes - time in the bath doesn't mean a deeper shade. It's times dipped into the bath that determines the depth of shade. It was a great learning experience. The darker blue on the left was on grey wool. I'll hang onto several of these skeins and when rabbit brush blooms, see if I can't come up with a green. Also, Sara said that indigo that crocks, i.e., has too heavy of a load of dye and it flakes off, can be neutralized by a vinegar bath, should you ever need to know this.

Virginia City Fiber Arts Retreat

I have had such a wonderful week at the Fiber Arts Retreat in Virginia City. I don't want to bore you to tears, but I probably will. First of all, the facility is in the old hospital from the 1870s silver boom.

It's such a lovely place, but like all non-
profits, they struggle for funding. The building is very old and it desperately needs a rich uncle. The caretaker lives in the 600 square-foot pest house out back, and we left her infected, oh yes we did, with the fiber-arts bug. She has scouted out a fleece and drop spindle. Clearly, this a visceral venue for a fiber arts retreat.
As a hospital, these are the main stairs and we assume that somehow the wounded were carried up them to the ward where the current studio is now, since the surgery was at the lower level. There are secondary stairs, not used anymore, that the sisters used in their daily patient care. After running up and down the stairs for my dye pot, indigo, reducer, towels and wool, I have decided I know why they are called Sisters of Mercy. They get to the end of one of those runs of the stairs, and they declare - "Mercy!" Remember that this is at 6,000 feet. The first year I attended, I brought my 24" Gilmore, which Ian and another husband had to carry up the stairs, like a patient. Afterwards, Ian said, "Please don't do that again."
Oddly, we seemed to be a clutch of Lundrum Hens, all except the two anomalies, not shown. Though my wheel isn't pictured, I was finally able to get my super-fast flier to work - big $$igh. Lindsey asked Sara to teach us to spin silk - ooh my. I tried, I did, I did, and I'm going to need to practice at home because I'm such a silk klutz. Speaking of practice at home, Sue V brought her accordian and practiced her lessons in her room. I guess she thought we couldn't hear her, but it added a new and delightfully fun element to the retreat experience.
We work our tails off all day, except we think we're having fun, and we laugh an awful lot - a sinful lot, but that's because we're kinda that way. The word "work" doesn't enter into our vocabulary. We finish the day like this.
And this. More boredom to come~

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Virginia City at dusk.