Stitching and Kitchen Updates

I am still doing a little stitching. I carry a small square in my planner so I always have it at hand. I intended to use these practice squares as breaks from work, but I just haven't made it a habit yet.

I finished a fly stitch square and the next will be chain stitch. I sketch shapes and lines in pencil, just for guides. Most of the time I work a plain version of the stitch, but with chain stitch I want to learn some different styles, knotted, open, and 2-color. My goal with this next practice square is to stitch more often. Less shopping for ink, more stitching on work breaks.

What's going on with the kitchen? We have new drywall and lots of lighting. Next are floors and cabinets. We're trying to roll with it all. The flooring is living in our family room- it makes a convenient footstool and stage. We are getting carry-out more than I wanted even though I am in love with my fancy pressure cooker/slower cooker. Just a few more weeks.......

Madrona - It Was Wonderful

It's been more than a week since I got back from the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat and I still have all of the warm fuzzies.

It was my first time teaching there and it felt like home. The students were amazing, smart and relaxed. Even on Sunday, after three days of classes, they were quieter, but still crazy sharp. My students spun every idea (and fiber) I handed to them, they asked great questions and had their own yarn and projects to show and discuss.

I was so engrossed in teaching and talking that I forgot to take pictures in my classes. I also forgot to make time for much shopping.  Madrona is so much about conversations and sharing ideas - with students, with other teachers, in the elevator, in a line or at the marketplace or the banquet. I don't remember the last time I came home from a retreat so full of ideas and so grateful for our community.

I was handed three of my greatest compliments at this retreat:

• From a student: You are the least judgmental spinning teacher I've ever had.
• From Suzanne, who runs Madrona: Would you like to come back next year?
• From a fellow spinning teacher: The work you do is important.

When I teach at big events like this I still feel like the kid. I've been in the fiber arts for 20+ years, but in comparison to most other fiber teachers I haven't been teaching long. I'm the new kid that often feels like I don't know enough, because I still have so much to learn!

At Madrona, for the first time, I figuratively and literally sat at the grown-up table and I felt like I belonged there. It was wonderful.

L to R: Janine Bajus, Greg Cotton, Carson Demers, Mary Scott Huff, Beth Brown-Reinsel, Debbi Stone, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Amy Herzog and Judith MacKenzie

Today the Hammer Swings

In about a half an hour Eric will show up with his crew and demolish our old kitchen. Goodbye cramped and ugly 1970s and hello counter space with light!

Here's a half-a-kitchen before panorama so you can have an idea of the yuck.

How will we eat?  We have a small kitchen set up in our living room and cooking burners set up in the basement. Of course, we will be going out more than usual, too.

Another blip in my sanity that didn't occur to me until late in the game is my work space. That upper left corner, along with our dining room table, used to be my office. For the duration I'm sharing space with Andy and working at the library.

It's going to be a bumpy month or so, any tips or tricks you have to share would be greatly appreciated.

I can't wait for the new space. We're already planning a celebratory smoked brisket party!

Handspun Weaving and Embroidery

My spinning and weaving blog series for Schacht with Beth came to an end last Friday, with the reveal of our finished projects. I am more than a little smitten with mine. I can't say that it came out exactly like I had planned because in my mind's eye my finished piece was always a little vague.

The woven fabric is silky and light, in a different way than BFL is when I spin and knit it. The colors of the variegated yarn came together wonderfully, but again altogether differently than knitted fabric.

The stitching was a surprise too. I was worried that the yarn I wove with would be too big, but that boldness works. I want to keep stitching all over this wrap.

Like I say in the blog post there will be more spun and woven wraps. This project pushed just enough of my curiosity buttons without being scary and overwhelming. It makes me want to figure out the why and how of the differences in woven and knitted fabric.

Can we have a few more hours in the day please?

The Week Rolls On......

This week I've been busy with getting ready for our kitchen demo (remember we're redoing our kitchen?). That packed full bookcase in the photo? It's empty now. That was in our dining room, now the staging area for our kitchen remodel. Our whole house is getting shifted. I'm sharing space with Andy for office work and we're using Henry's bedroom as a big storage closet.

I even cleared out a big part of the Stash of Wonder in the basement. I decided it was finally OK to let go of some yarns that are at least 15 years old.

I found I couldn't part with one inch of any of my tweed yarns or, weirdly, brushed mohair. I filled many black bags with yarn and it was easy, until it wasn't. When I started trying to convince myself that I needed to keep yarns for weaving, I knew it was time to stop.

I've been gettingready for Madrona too (so excited!) shipping boxes of fiber and getting my samples ready. Oy, the samples. See the photo with the mighty stack of boxes? Those are all of my samples back from my publisher, but they are labeled for my book photoshoot. So I have been slowly relabeling them from something like 6-10 (chapter 6 - image 10) back to teaching words like two variegated fibers plied and blended. I've caught up on a lot of TV.

The bottom photo is me being a sunny optimist. Of course, I have time to join the Bang Out a Sweater KAL with the Mason Dixon Knitting women. I love to start projects, but this will more likely be a Squeeze Out a Sweater KAL for me!

When They Grow Up Right In Front of You

This week was a wild ride. Every single part of my life, family and work, has been careening ahead at breakneck speed.

The biggest event of the past week was Isobel going on her first college visit. We went to the University of Pittsburgh. We met the diving coach and toured the school. You know how sometimes you can watch your child grow up right in front of you? This was one of those times. I watched my little girl interview a coach and a diving team, ask intelligent questions on a tour and generally take charge of her future. It was amazing. I am so proud. No, I didn't cry (I did that before we left).

Blending with Natural Sample Number Four

I snuck away from my mean boss yesterday and spun another quick variegated and natural sample. I like this one so much I wish I had made it much bigger.

This is a variation on the last sample, the insertion, but a 2-ply. I used much less natural this time, pieces about the length and width of my index finger. I put the natural in different place in each ply, so it wouldn't ply on itself.

I put the natural before the purple/blue in one ply and after the purple/blue in the second ply. I really like how it marls intermittently in the yarn. I may have found another way that I like marling yarn.

See, never say never!

When I started knitting the swatch, I wished I had about 50 more yards just for swatching. Those intermittent marls become blips of natural in knitting, I really like it. I think it would look even better with a bigger sample that didn't match in the plying.

I'm going to have do this sample again with more yarn. I have a feeling that it would make a cool garment.

Are you playing with anything new this week?

Tea Dyeing Cotton Thread

Before I started stitching my first square I upended my fabric stash to look for linen. I have a not-so-secret love for linen. I love to wear it, love the weight and that very particular fluid crumpled look of it. I got it into my head that I want to stitch on linen and nothing else would do.

The only color of linen fabric I had on hand was light-ish purple, not quite lavender, with a bit of grey to it. The other idea I had was to make this first stitching tonal, which meant a pink or purple for the thread.

All of my purple threads were too dark, too contrasty with the linen. I dove into my bag of pink threads. I'm not a great fan of pink and the pinks I have are very much on the bright and light end of pink. Too dark of a color I can't fix, too light can work. I picked a color that lives on the same block as Pepto Bismol and those plastic spoons from Baskin Robbins and decided to tea dye it to make it a murky pink.

I did no special prepping, didn't wash my thread or mordant it. I found and empty pickle jar, filled a tea bag with black Lapsang Souchong (because it smells so gorgeous) and stapled it shut. I dropped the tea bag and thread into the jar, topped it with boiling water, capped it and let it sit overnight.

Because the nature of this project is fluid and fleeting, I'm not worried about the dye being permanent.

The result of the overnight tea dunk is lovely, like the pink was dragged through the mud - in the best possible way. It looks great with the purple linen.

Now (of course) I want to dye more things with tea, it casts the most wonderful brown. Has anyone dyed commercially prepped top with tea?