Felting Day

Pris and Karen joined me in the studio today for a great time learning the ins and outs of felt.  Pris is an artist felter and Karen and I both learned so much from her. Karen is a textile artist in her own right and I will definitely write more about both women in the future.

Pris began her piece by layering periwinkle dyed merino roving with lace and dyed scrim.

After felting.

Dyed and carded wool, ready for felting.

Wool layed and saturated with soapy water.

Wool placed between textured plastic bags, towels and bamboo mat for felting.

Finished felt, ready for embellishing.

Kazoo Yarnies Dye Workshop

Sandy, Cindy and Beth gettin' ready to dye!

Last Wednesday, the studio was working once again.  It has been a while since any real action took place in there aside from my natural dyeing escapades.  Now that I have a goal in mind; getting inventory ready for Michigan Fiber Festival, I need to get out there more often. But it is so lonely!!!  So when Beth asked if I would consider having a few of the members of her fiber group from Kalamazoo come to dye, I knew it would be a gift for me.  Beth Pulsipher is the photographer.

I’ve blogged in the past about how difficult it is for women my age, (or maybe just me) to make friends.  These women were so interesting and friendly I was immediately drawn in.  We had a great time.

Catch Ups

It’s been a while since I posted on this blog because I’ve been writing more, visiting my children on either coast, and generally trying to catch up with my life where it left off back in October.  How’d we get to February 2012?  Alotta time has passed.

My life really hasn’t been in the studio. I left Blue Coast Artists at the beginning of the season; it wasn’t fair to them to list me in their brochure if I am never going to be open to the public.  It’s a better fit me for to be open by appointment.

Last  month, I was visiting Jennifer and her family back east when Del from Michigan Fiber Festival called the house and told Jim I was invited to vend at the festival in August. This is a huge positive accolade for me.  And, it is inspiration to get out to the studio and start working again.  It was a timely call because I just bought a few new toys that I would like to justify; a Hansen Electric Spinner, and a Brother Electric drum carder with fine cloth.  I have the huge old vintage Pat Green Cottage Carder that Andy gave me the money for back in 2006, but it doesn’t card fine fibers. I didn’t like being restricted to only spinning Romney and other long wools, although I love them. I want to do more knitting of fabrics that can be worn next to the body and long wools are too coarse. Sorry long wool lovers. I really do love them, too.

Brother Electric Drum Carder with fine carding cloth.

My good friend Beth Pulsipherand her group from Kalamazoo, the Kazoo Yarnies, are coming to dye on Wednesday, so I better get out and move things around.  I’ll post pictures after we have our workshop.

Mixing dyes for Wednesday's workshop with Kazoo Yarnies

I’ll be busy teaching and preparing for MFF in the coming months.

Read my other blog for news about my upcoming book, Dream Lover.

Full frontal and back cover for Dream Lover.

Call me! I am psyched about our spinning group, Back Row Spinners next meeting on February 12th at Sheltering Pines Farm.  This is a REALLY diverse group of people.

Betty and I at the September Back Row Spinner's get-together.

Crayon ART

I had the wonderful opportunity to have a week filled with art when my niece, accomplished artist Melissa, came to visit me.  In addition to going to a Saugatuck Douglas Art Club meeting, attending the opening of Art a Loan at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts, and doing much shopping, we spent two days learning a simple screen printing technique which uses children’s washable crayons.

To help us get started, we first watched a DVD, Mixed Media Textile Art with Susie Monday, produced by Interweave Press.  Last year, I saw her work in a Quilting Arts Magazine and it was so inspiring that even though I no longer quilt, I ordered the DVD.  Next, I got a simple screen printing frame from Dick Blick Art supply.  Melissa and I found some screen printing frames at Hobby Lobby and Micheal’s as well.

The supplies needed are as follows.

Screen printing frame with mesh attached.

Padded work surface.  We used a stack of old toweling which worked well.  In the future, I would protect the surface with plastic wrap.

Rubber gloves.

Washable Crayons.  Melissa also used watercolor pencils, but felt she got good results with the less expensive crayons.

Textile Medium.  This is a liquid product that is found where craft paints are sold.

Something to print.  We used bleached, prepared for dyeing bandannas purchased from Dharma Trading.

Supplies

Melissa had an image in mind and proceeded to draw directly on the mesh with the crayons.  I helped a little by coloring the checkerboard border:-)  We then placed the screen over the fabric to be printed.

Coloring directly on the mesh.

Once the image was to our liking, Melissa placed approximately 1/8 cup of Textile Medium in the ‘well’ of duct tape across the top of the screen.  She then spread the medium evenly across the image, allowing it to set for about a minute.  She squeegeed the medium across the image and it pulled the color down onto the fabric underneath.  The only thing I would have done differently was to iron the bandana first so there wouldn’t be the white fabric down the center. 

Melissa drawing directly on the mesh with crayon.

This technique is simple and yields huge results.  The post printing process is easy; let air dry for 24 hours, iron utilizing a pressing cloth, and then wash in cool water.  Be careful with the textile medium because it does have a rubbery texture.  We found that small images should be surrounded by freezer paper to reduce the amount of medium which transfers to the fabric without color.

The Other Thing I Do

In addition to the fibery things I am passionate about, I am also a published author.  I’m going to shamelessly promote my book here on the Lakeshore Textile Blog.  About twenty five years ago, I began writing a book that I finally finished last year. When I attempted to have it edited, the experience was so awful that I thought maybe I had wasted years of my time and a ton of paper and ink cartridges.  And then suddenly, I started writing Pam of Babylon.  It was so much fun to write, albeit a lot of work.  My editor loved it.  So that’s that!  Its available on Amazon.  The Pam of Babylon Blog has a short summary of the book.  And, the first sequel is finished and ready for editing, while the second is in progress.  I love the characters and don’t want their stories  to end.

WARNING!!! The contents are for adults only.

Memorial Day Weekend

Hey, if you want to come by the studio this weekend, just give me a call on my cell phone; 609-314-1872.  I’d love to see you!

Opening Day!

It has been a long, cold winter here in west Michigan.  But spring is here!  The studio is open to the public this Saturday, May 7th, from ten to five.  To celebrate, we are having a sale.   All hand dyed, commercial roving is on sale 25% off.  Hand dyed, carded fiber processed here is reasonably priced from $2-$3 an ounce.  Naturally dyed, commercially spun yarn is also on sale this weekend.

We are conveniently located in Saugatuck Township, five miles south of Douglas.  The easiest way to reach us to use mapquest.  The studio is located in our barn at 2750 60th Street, Fennville, Michigan, 49408.  If you choose to use gps, please put in 2751, but come down to us.  Gps loves to take people about 15 miles out of their way.

I am a member of Blue Coast Artists, and many of our studios are open now.  Be sure to pick up a brochure when you are here.

Coming Soon

Spring really is trying to arrive in west Michigan.  I had a premonition today that we could possibly have more snow.  Oh, I hope not.

My place of business is a working studio, not a gallery.  But I must try to make a nice space within the studio to sell what I produce. Right now, it is almost impossible get through the door because of the knee deep dyed fleece spread around in sweater dryers, drying.  The colors are breathtaking.  I am of the school, “it it isn’t broken, don’t fix it,” so my colors have stayed the same.

I prefer the ‘printer’s primaries’ to the ‘painter’s primaries’.  Magenta, turquoise, and bright, neon yellow are the basis for most of the colorways I am drawn to.  But a few days ago, I was inspired by a little bag of Pygora fiber that my friend, Betty, had given me.  Pygora fiber comes from Pygora goats, which are bred from Pygmy goats and Angora goats.  Mohair comes from Angora goats. Pygora is desirable due its softness; the addition of a small amount of the fiber to other protein fibers makes a lovely yarn.

The fiber Betty gave me had a little hair in it, and I suspected that one of the reasons she was passing it on to me is because it may have not met her standards for softness.  But when I was looking at the fiber, which was dyed a soft pink, I saw it blended with creamy white llama, navy blue wool and a very pale gold wool.  It turned out beautifully.  It wasn’t as soft as the fiber she usually spins; it was actually on the picky side of the scale, but I wanted her to have it because it contained the generous gift she had given me.

Later, I dyed part of a gray Romney fleece navy blue.  It is a rich, jewel color, alive and vibrant.  Navy punches up surrounding colors the way black cannot.  The colors in Betty’s colorway reflected off of each other.  Now I am excited about repeating what I did for my friend in spinning fiber to resell.  I need to capture that soft pink of the Pygora somehow.  So much for the printer’s primaries.

Today I heard from the Saugatuck Art Club about the Waterfront Invitational Fine Arts Fair on July 2.  My booth is in the second lane off the water.  Last year, I was next to the bathrooms, so this is a better location.  I have struggled with what my signature garment is going to be this year.  I enjoyed weaving and knitting the shrugs that were popular in my booth last year, but they take so much fabric, and don’t provide any coverage at all in the bust area.  The girls are right ‘there’.

A few weeks ago, my friend Sandy wore a lovely shawl with a chunky button that held the sides together.  It gave me an idea.  I could do something similar out of my handspun yarn that might be a suitable replacement for the handwoven sheep to shawl pieces that customers expect to see.  I am first knitting what are known as ‘blanks’ out of undyed yarn on my knitting machine.

Working

Opening day is only one month away and I am slowly gearing up! All but one loom has been sold and yet another knitting machine has appeared. My work is taking a new and exciting path. Will document here on the blog soon. In the meantime, spring is coming!

Sedona Fair Isle Hat Pattern and Chart

Corrected Sedona Hat Chart

Note: A very generous knitter is fixing the chart so it shows grid lines.  I’ll replace it as soon as she send it to me. See comments.  Some day I’ll be friends with Excel!  Thank you, Anne!

This past Christmas, my husband, our two dogs and myself drove to California to see our son and his family in our ‘new to us’ RV.   We planned on taking six days to get there from Michigan, and it was a good thing.  We ended up stopping almost every two to three hours for our four-legged children.

Jim drove the entire way, and I sat in my comfortable seat and knit.  We both thought the landscape of New Mexican and Arizona was breathtaking.  Especially once we started to go south on Rt. 17 in Flagstaff, the scenery really inspired me.

In Sedona, the mountains were covered with grasses, cacti, vines and short evergreen shrubbery.  I took pictures as we flew by, but it was what was in my memory that I wrote down.  The colors were surprising; in the middle of winter, most hillsides were brown and dry.  But in Sedona, the shades of greens, grays, and teals took my breath away.

As soon as we got to California, I printed out some graph paper and designed these stylized desert plants and cacti.  We drove up to Santa Cruz to see my aunt and she took me to a knitting shop there so I could search for yarn.  The selection of fingering weight yarns were mostly cottons and baste fibers, but I wanted wool.  There was some Baby Ull, not in a huge range of colors, but enough to get me started.  Since we got home, I ordered 26 different shades of green, yellow and teal of Jamieson DK, deciding I wanted the work to go a little faster.

The charts are in a printable PDF file; click on the link near the upper left of this page; the pattern repeat is 20 stitches.  Please print out the chart and tape the upper chart on to the lower chart.

To knit the hat, you can follow my simple directions or use any slouchy hat pattern, casting on enough stitches to fit your head but in multiples of twenty.  I knit 1.5 inches of 2X2 ribbing with two different colors, and then began the chart.  We have huge heads in our family and a lot of hair, so I started with 160 stitches.  I know, giant.  Another nice hat has 140 stitches cast on and then increase to 160.  A hat I love is Fair Isle Hat by Shelia Joynes.  Her basic pattern would work with any fair isle chart.  It is a lovely hat to knit.

Pattern

Yarn

Baby Ull, Six shades of greens, gray, and tan for the background.

Needles

US3 16″ Circular

5 dbl points US 3

Stitch markers

Tapestry needle

Cast on 160 stitches, join in the round, being careful not to twist.  Place marker at join.

Knit 1.5 ” of 2×2 ribbing using two contrasting yarns.

Using tan main color, knit one row, placing marker every 20 stitches.

Begin chart at bottom right.  I used the two handed method of stranding unless we were driving on bad roads.  Be sure not to get your tension too tight.

Knit through to top of upper chart; begin decreasing row in between saguara cacti.

Knit ten, knit two together.

Knit the next row.

Repeat decrease row every other row, decreasing by knitting two together in the center of each section of pattern.

When you are left with about five stitches on each of four double points, cut yarn leaving a ten inch tail, thread with tapestry needle, thread stitches on yarn, pull snug, tie and cut yarn, weaving in end.

My hat needed a rigorous blocking due to my uneven tension; I think driving and knitting fair isle may have been ambitious!