Dallas-Fort Worth Fiber Fest - What an Event! What a Marketplace!

I'm still in recovery mode from the Dallas Fort Worth Fiber Fest what a great event! I'll have more on my classes and the wonderful people I met on another day, today's post is about the marketplace. 

DFW Fiber Fest takes place at a convention center with classes upstairs and the market on the ground floor. There were almost 100 vendors, plus a big seating area and a Fiberatory, where there demonstrations, yarn tastings, and equipment samplings.

I found some delicious fiber and other goodies in the market.

Lisa Souza fiber (Lto R), 50% Merino/ 50% cashmere top, 16 micron Merino and two braids of BFL. I can't begin to describe how soft the Merino and the Merino cashmere blend fibers are. The BFL is for a blog post for Schacht so I get to spin it right away!

Gynx Yarn mixed BFL top, wonderfully dark and stormy.

Independence Fiber Mill Pygora cloud, Texas Tweed yarn (60% Rambouillet/ 40% Mohair) and roving of the same blend. I'm a wee bit obsessed with this yarn.

Delicious soap from Goodies Unlimited. Yes, that is chocolate soap. 

And Weaving on 3 Shafts from Yarnorama. Yes, it's a weaving book for a shaft loom. No, I don't have a shaft loom. We will discuss this phenomena at a later date......... 

PlyAway - What I Bought

I was frighteningly restrained at Ply Away. I was busy! I made it into the market only a couple of times and once was to sheepdog students back to class. I saw so many beautiful things, it was hard to choose.

I bought a support spindle from Brookmore Creations, I bought a pair of earrings from Lucky Heron Studio, and a pen, a TWSBI 580. That's it. I know, check my temperature. I did help other people buy things, including a Hansen miniSpinner. 

There were many pens bought with suggestions and giddy dancing by me in the pen store. Even Maggie Casey and Judith MacKenzie succumbed to the siren song (or maybe it was my dancing).

So much happened at Ply Away this year, but that's for another post.

Hello from Ply Away!

Hello from Kansas City. The first two days of Ply Away have been so much fun!  I've taught a two day class on spinning painted braids.

My students really dug in and tried everything I threw at them, and they came up with variations on color combinations that were new to me.

They spun braids from four different dyers. Experimenting with color manipulation on the first day, and thinking through amd sampling for a project the second day.

I also talked to them about grist, because I always talk about grist.

The marketplace isn't open yet, but the vendors are loading in as I write this. I did walk through, and saw many things that I want to buy.

I walk through the halls here at Ply Away smiling. I am with my people here and it feels great!

Spring+Summer Knittyspin - Wool and Flax

My living room is filled with bags, boxes and piles of fiber and samples for my classes at Ply Away and Dallas Fort Worth Fiber Festival. I am ready and nervously excited to go teach!

Spring+Summer Knitty went live yesterday, and that means a new Knittyspin column.

In this issue I explore the curious and yes, wonderful, world of wool mixed with flax or ramie. These blends have been around for a bit, but they became irresistible to me only recently. In my column I talk about spinning these interesting blends. Since I am a rookie at flax spinning, I asked two dyers who sell these blends, Jill of Hipstrings and Katie of Hilltop Cloud for help. I included their very  helpful answers in the column.

One of the things I do for Knitty every issue is review books. I do short and to the point reviews that someone once described as dim sum reviews. Here's my review of a  book that just floored me, creative, smart, and such pretty and wearable designs. I don't want you to miss it.

This Thing of Paper: Eleven Knitting Patterns Inspired by Books
by Karie Westermann

Every issue I fall a little in love with a book. I want to knit everything in it, I want to live where it was photographed, I want to befriend the author. I am not a stalker; I am a fan. This time it’s This Thing of Paper.

The eleven designs in this book are inspired in the point in book history when manuscripts became type. Every pattern is accompanied by a thought-provoking essay that either had me scurrying to do further research or nodding along with Karie’s personal stories. I wish more knitting books were filled with this type of excellent and insightful writing.

The Incunabula Cardigan is the first pattern I want to make, it’s a vintage inspired cabled cardigan, with beautiful cables floating on enough stockinette that I can adjust the shape to fit me how I like. I loved the Rubrication shawl (the cover design) even before I read that the stitch patterns were to evoke nibs and ink. The Letterpress cowl is a cozy, textured knit that I want to spin the yarn for.

The whole book package is gorgeously done, the size the paper selection, the photography and setting and the font, I’m swoony for the font.

This book is a beautiful marriage of books and knitting, of paper and yarn, I sincerely hope Karie has another book in the works.

I hope to see some of you over the next few weeks!

If you have tips for spinning wool and flax or wool and ramie let me know, my exploration is just getting started.

WEBS' Spinning Summit Is Happening Again!

I am so happy to announce that WEBS is having another Spinning Summit this year and Amy King, Beth Smith and I will be teaching.

The dates are October 5th-7th.

We had so much fun last year. There was chocolate, swag bags, a scavenger hunt, and shopping at WEBS after hours.

There are fantastic classes too.  The brochure for this year is here.

I'm teaching Fractal Frolic and two new classes for this year, Match Game: Spinning for Knitting and Pretty Maids All in a Row: Successive Color Plying.

Registration opens March 21st on the WEBS website.

Why Plying with Center Pull Ball Doesn't Work for Me

I have always struggled to ply from a center pull ball. I am in awe of the folks that can do it effortlessly. I have trouble getting the same amount of tension on both plies, I even have trouble holding the ball because I have small hands.

The thing that makes my eye twitch about center-pull-ball-plying is the uneven twist. The ply that comes from the center gathers more twist as it unspools than the ply that comes from the outside of the ball. To my eye this leads to an inconsistent yarn. Even if I do get the tension even on the two plies, one is a little tighter twisted than the other. 

The photo shows the phenomenon exaggerated because the tape is flat and was wound tightly, but it's a good illustration.

I don't knit my handspun from the center strand either, unless I want a little more twist in it. I do knit quite frequently from the center when I knit with commercial yarn. I think most commercial yarn is a little underplied, so I am happy to add a little more ply when I knit from the center of a cake.

This is just another one of those personal preference things, but the more you know about your yarn the happier you'll be.

Two Color Games That Are Teaching Me About Color

I'm still not feeling too great. I've hit that portion of a big cold where there is little sleeping due to coughing. NyQuil has been a dear, dear friend.

As part of my study of (obsession with) color, I'm trying to become more fluent in recognizing colors and what makes up colors. Does this particular color have a lot of white in it? Is that a grey or brown undertone? I have two games on my iPhone that are helping me practice. Best of all? They are both free.

Color Match  

This game is about recognizing and memorizing colors. You look at a color for three seconds, then try to match it on the next screen.

I can't break 800. My friend Erica who's been an artist for her whole life kills at this game. This is my favorite waiting game.

Blendoku   

This game has you place colors how they sit in relation to each other on a color wheel.

I just started this one and I'm struggling a little with shades. It's a much more fun way to learn about color relationships than studying  color wheel.

Do you know of any other color games?

Crafting with the Crud

I have the the crud, not the flu, but the big old supercalifragilistic cold that's going around.

I need to keep working and want to keep crafting. After years of raising kids and having them generously share their ills with me I've devised a plan to keep moving forward craft-wise with the crud. Here are my three top strategies to keep crafting while I'm cruddy.

I take the barbeque approach, low and slow. I work on something that is low in effort and brain power. I want a project where it won't be a tragedy if I forget to record how I set up my wheel or how many rows I knit or wove. I spin my default yarn if I feel like sitting all the way up. I knit hats and cowls or miles of stockinette on a sweater. I'll weave, but I'll never thread my loom when I'm sick.

I dream and research. This is the perfect time to figure out what my next project or craft is going to be. I take the time to drift and follow all of the rabbit holes; I pile up books and open 50 tabs on my computer.

I tune all the way out. I never love my headphone more than when I'm sick. (Nope, that's I lie, I love them most during preschool storytime when I'm writing at the library.) I crawl into bed or curl on a corner of the couch with a little spinning or knitting and someone talking directly into my ear, an audio book or a movie on my iPad. The whole world goes away and I rest.

Here's hoping you don't get any of the ills that are floating around and that mine is short lived.