Another leadership idea... for me

Between the yard, the house, my family, my friends, the pets, the guilds, etc., I feel a bit overwhelmed these days. So when someone suggested the spinning guild needs a study group in fiber prep and spinning techniques, I nearly collapsed. However, later I thought that instead of a separate group, we (and by "we" I mean the Old Guard) could teach these skills in a series of programs... NEXT YEAR. The guild has a lot of younger members these days who are not very adept at skills like flick carding, hand carding, plying techniques, spinning techniques, etc. so there is a need. If we old(er) spinners don't share our knowledge, it may be lost at the local level.

Dyeing: I zoomed in on a talk about dyeing with invasives, presented by a member of the Austin fiber guild, which got me looking up local invasives I could dye with. Dame's rocket is on the list, and guess what? I have a volunteer patch of that in my yard. Not much online about using this pretty biannual as a dye source, but I went ahead and plucked the flower heads, which are soaking in tap water (and getting a bit stinky).
Knitting: During a spin-in this past week, I managed to get to the heel turn on both socks. People think I knit a lot of socks (and maybe I do, compared to others), but it's my portable project.
Spinning: I finished spindling and plying the remainder of the fiber from the class I attended. I'm amazed at how balanced the yarn is.
Weaving: The houndstooth towels are off the loom, laundered, and awaiting hemming.

One technique I am not very adept at is pre-drafting and drafting. One of my fiber friends is considered the best spinner among us, as her yarn is very consistant. Her trick is careful pre-drafting. The other night, I watched our resident spindling expert as she spun, and she is very careful with her drafting, so her yarn is very consistant as well. At spin-ins, I need to park myself next to these experts and learn from the best.

Potholders!

The program at this week's weaving guild meeting was about weaving potholders. The best part - we all had the opportunity to weave a potholder. I didn't have time to finish mine at the meeting, but I did so the next day. Fun, but a little hard on my arthritic hands and wrists.

There were lots of examples of patterns one can weave on a potholder loom...

... including houndstooth.

Not sure how one weaves this house.

There were also examples of what one can make from the potholders, like a bag...

... or some balls.

One of the presenters had on a top that looked like it was made from potholders, although it wasn't. Wish I had taken a pic. If you are potholder-curious, here are some resources:

• Facebook groups: Potholder People, Potholder Design Genie, Radical Potholder Weavers
• Friendly Loom Wizard
• Online community, loops, books, patterns, kits at Kate Kilmurray
• "Make a potholder loom" with Kelly Casanova
• Piglet's Potholder Patterns

And of course there are many YouTube videos to help you along this path.

Spinning: I 2-plied the yarn that was on the spindle.
Weaving: Besides finishing my potholder, I finished the mug rugs - separate post to follow.

An item on my fiber arts "bucket list" is to dye with indigo. I've done this in a class or two over the years, but I don't really understand the whole process. Maiwa School of Textiles offers online classes, including one called Journey into Indigo. I'm very tempted.

Colorway inspiration

Every year the weaving guild issues a challenge. This year is to create a warp wrapping using colors from a picture. Not wanting to purchase any yarn, I contemplated "reverse engineering" the colors, choosing ones that I would match with a photo after the fact. Instead, I am inspired by the colors of spring blossoms in my yard.

I also decided they did not have to match 100%.

I think I like the bottom one the best. Thoughts?

It's been a busy week regarding fiber gatherings. I volunteered to take over the librarian responsibilities for the weaving guild next year. That was met by the 90-year-old current librarian not only with tearful relief, but it has also led to helping purge the library books, as our cabinet is FULL. The evictees will be offered to the guild members for 75% off their online used book value.

This past week was also the inaugural meeting of the rigid heddle weaving study group. One never knows how these things will work out, but I could not have asked for a better response from the group. We helped each other, learned something new, socialized, etc. The May meeting is already scheduled, and we may continue into the summer - that's how much fun it was.

Yesterday was an easy fiber gathering, at least for me, as it was a spin-in at the Little Shop of Spinning in Roanoke IN. All I had to do was show up. Ditto today's fiber club.

Knitting: At the above mentioned spin-in, I worked on the current pair of socks.
Spinning: Almost every day, I practice spindling.
Weaving: Warped the SampleIt at the study group using the yarns from last week's sample and wove a couple of mug rugs both then and at today's fiber club.

At the fiber club today, I sat at a table with an inkle loom weaver. The two of us generated a certain amount of interest, so perhaps we will have some new weavers in the future.

Dyeing with avocado

Using this site as inspiration, I decided to try dyeing with avocado. But first, I had to *eat* enough avocado, not easy for me. I found that mixing avocado with lime juice (one lime per avocado) created a kind of guac that actually keeps a day or two in the fridge if the surface is protected from air with saran wrap. Definitely needs salt, though.

Unmordanted on left, rhubarb leaf mordanted on right

I stored the cleaned peels and pits in the freezer until I had accumulated enough for the dye pot, in this case from 5 avocados. On day one, I simmered them for three hours, then let the dye bath sit overnight. The next day I strained the dye bath, soaked both skeins in the room-temperature dye bath for an hour, then raised the temperature and simmered for an hour. After turning off the heat, I let the yarn sit in the bath overnight.

Mordanted with rhubarb leaf

Apparently, the pits have tannin in them, so no mordant is required. So one skein was unmordanted, but the other had been previously mordanted with rhubarb leaf. The results are close, but the color of the rhubarb leaf mordanted one looks a bit deeper.

Unmordanted

The end results turned out more brown than pink. This could be from several different causes: dye materials not clean enough, dye materials kept in freezer too long, the dyer was not careful about keeping the dye bath temp at a low enough simmer, the yarn was kept in the dye bath too long, etc. I plan to repeat this experiment with cleaner dye materials and keep a better eye on the dye bath temp, to see if I get shades of pink. I may experiment with separating the pits and peels, to see if each produces a different result.

A-spindling we will go....

Many (MANY) years ago I took a class in how to spin using a spindle. It didn't take - too slow - so I bought a wheel. Recently, after watching a weaving guild member spin on a supported spindle during a meeting, I became interested in spindling again. Fortuitously, a spinning guild member offered a class through the local parks and rec department. That - and a few YouTube videos - got me going, so now I can spin on a spindle. (Plying is another story.)

(An aside: as you recall, I could not find my supported spindle a while back. When I did find it, I put a newly purchased spindle with it and tucked them in a safe place, or so I thought. Now I can't find them. The class fee included a spindle and fiber, so no problem there, but I would really like to find the missing ones.)

Dyeing: I dyed a couple of skeins in a dye bath made from avocado pits and peels; separate post to follow.
Knitting: Still working on the socks.
Spinning: Just the spindling, ma'am.
Weaving: Finally put on my big girl panties and wrestled with the poor tension on the houndstooth towels; the added weights help... sort of.

Wove a sample using some handspun for the weft (not sure if the warp is handspun - if it is, it was spun by someone other than me), that may lead to a table runner.

As if that is not enough, I am also experimenting with cyanotype on this lovely sunny day. Fun stuff!

Housekeeping

Per usual, the so-called studio is such a mess that I can barely get through it. I thought I could spend an hour or so in there and make it useable, but no. There was just too much handspun hanging here and there, awaiting further development.

The 900g of Romney needed to have its twist set. There is so much of it, it had to go into the washing machine. No, I didn't agitate it, just soaked the skeins in warm water for 20 minutes.

It is undyed, and I assumed I would dye it but maybe not? It's a lovely ecru color and there is enough for a sweater, me thinks.

Today while putting away all the handknit sweaters that had accumulated on a chair in my bedroom, most of which I barely wore this past winter, I wondered *why* I would want to knit another sweater. Yet, I probably will. And I will probably dye at least some of the Romney for it.

Knitting: I made some real progress on the current sock project while in meetings and listening to recorded Zoom sessions.

One of the meetings was with the Austin guild, on natural dyeing. In Texas, one can easily grow indigo and harvest cochineal, neither of which I can do here in zone 5/6, although I could grow some indigo as an annual. I can always buy dye materials that I cannot obtain locally, though. The idea of having an indigo bath for dipping already dyed yarn appeals to me. Also, anything that gives me shades of red and pink like cochineal interests me.

A recorded session I listened to was about weaving with handspun, which is giving me the courage to do just that. So I'd better get the current project off the loom.

Inspiration

The fiber club met today. The participants practice stitchery outside my wheelhouse, so inspire me. One member remembered me from the cyanotype workshop I attended a few weeks ago and brought a blouse she sewed using fabric she dyed using cyanotype and the iris from her garden.

This is in the neighborhood of what I want to do using cyanotype.

Another member showed us these stitched art projects: reels of appliqued and stitched vignettes of a sort. One reel was inspired by drawings her granddaughter did about the local zoo.

Another reel is the result of a YouTube "class" (Roxy's Journal of Stitchery) she has been taking, where the instructor supplies periodic prompts. This series is "Down the Garden Path".

She also sewed together samples of eco-dyeing.

Ditto some old fabric samples she picked up at our local Johnny Appleseed Festival.

I'm not about to become a stitcher like this, but I'm thinking of how I have been wanting to weave a diary of sorts. Little samples may be just the ticket.