Yarn Bits

Inspiration

                                                   

Yesterday, Tuesday, was a glorious day and I visited the Royal Botanical Gardens with a few friends.  www.rbg.ca  If you ever want some colour inspiration this is the ideal spot to find it.  At the moment the tulips are showing their colours, but iris and lilac are soon coming into their own. There are always fabulous blooms somewhere in the gardens. The restaurant in the main building  has great offerings for a quiet lunch and there also is the tea house for lighter fare.                                        

                         

I have finished the woven table runners for Fawn Ceramics at the distillery.   www.fawnceramics.com  As soon as I have them pressed I'll get a picture and post it.  Meanwhile this is the profile draft I used for this set of runners.

Ongoing Projects

                                                    It seems I have several projects going on at the moment.  Some have been around for quite a while as various life interruptions seem to impede a lot of progress. I've returned to the lace knit sleeve which I am knitting on to a woven piece of fabric.  This is a test piece to see if the sleeve will actually hang well and to find the correct length of knit lace section and the correct length of the cuff. The current plan is that the cuff will be quite long and the lace section wide  and 'puffy', having an Elizabethan type of style.  The final decision is still up in the air, but I am getting closer to finishing this trial piece and making decisions.  At the same time I have begun to knit swatches from all our Tencel yarns to determine some approximate gauges with suggestions also for needle sizes. I have also knit a swatch using some silk noil yarn along with Tencel and love the result.  The Tencel added some weight and lustre to the knit fabric.  I went ahead and immersion dyed some of the silk noil and am planning a top for myself. Don't ask when it might happen, but at least all the materials are ready and waiting.  I'm also weaving some table runners for a shop at the Distillery District.  Weaving happens during the day and knitting happens in front of the television at the end of the day or at other times  when I can't get to the loom.

This Saturday Don and I will be at our last knitting show for the season.  This show is a local one which focuses on machine knitting, so that should acquaint us with another audience for Tencel.  Apparently the knitting community is just beginning to become curious about this great yarn. We have applied to the Knitters' Fair in the Fall in Kitchener, Ontario and have been put on a waiting list for now.  Stay tuned and we'll let you know if we are able to participate in that show.  It's a good one.

Knitters' Frolic

  Last weekend Yarns Plus participated in the Downtown Knit Collective's annual show which also included workshops.  We had a great time introducing the knitting world to Tencel.  We were able to display a beautiful Estonian lace shawl knit by Reet Triefeldt using our 2/10 variegated Tencel.  We also had several socks on display knit with our new 3/5 variegated Tencel.  I was fortunate to be able to take part in a full day workshop on Sunday with Sally Melville.  She went through a lot of basics that us self-taught knitters just aren't aware of--various cast-ons and cast-offs, seaming, picking up stitches along selvedges to add trims in a way that won't leave any holes, bobbles, buttonholes, and so much more.  She had many gorgeous knit pieces to generously share with us.  Her work is so inspiring and not always complex. I would highly recommend her knitting books.  Sally's instructions are always very detailed and clear.  I am planning one of her tops in her first book, "The Knit Stitch".  All the patterns in this book are simply knit in the garter stitch.  I think I can handle that.  I am first going to dye some leftover silk noil tomorrow and then I will knit that up along with some tencel to give it a little zip. This will be my first ever knitting beyond scarves.  I am still working on the sample black silk lacey sleeve I'm designing to add to a woven jacket.  More about that later. Happy knitting!!

Another Day Another Show

I didn't realize how long it has been since I've made an entry.  Our focus has been on preparing for the Knitters' Frolic in Toronto.  Since the 3/5 Tencel didn't arrive until a week ago, we have had to really move to get it skeined and handpainted for this show. 

In the meantime, we have also had a wholesale order to fill, which meant further handpainting was required to complete the order.  The last few days have been gorgeous and allowed us to hasten the drying process as the skeins can be hung outside on our deck to dry.  Hoorah!!!  Meanwhile I have almost completed weaving the black Tencel shibori warp to experiment with discharging it. 

I have also rece ntly been asked to weave some table runners for a new shop in the Distillery district.  I usually weave table linens with orlec yarn because it is strong and the fringes will hold up well, looking great over countless machine washings.  I had to order some white orlec from Gemini Fibres  www.geminifibres.com  and it arrived next day.  Great service!  I have planned a long warp threaded in a summer and winter pattern in white and then I will  use various soft colours as weft--off-white, a very pale yellow and silver gray for starters.  We'll see how sales go.  I'll post a picture as soon as they are finished, which has to be very soon. 

Lost in Action

The Just for Us Originals Show   www.just-for-us.biz  was last Saturday at the Old Mill in Toronto.  Last week is a bit of a blur as all the last minute details had to be taken care of, as well as the set up for our Marie Josette booth  www.mariejosette.com  The show was great--wonderful food and friends, an impressive fashion show and so much wonderful art to view and buy--wearables, fine art, photography, amazing bronze sculptures, jewellery and pottery.  If you missed it this time around, watch for us next spring.

Today it w as back to the usual Yarns Plus  www.yarnsplus.com  work.  Don and I are now focussed on preparing for the "Knitters' Frolic", the annual event staged by the Downtown Knit Collective www.downtownknitcollective.ca  That means we need to have more handpainted 3/5 Tencel ready for the knitters, so I was mixing dyes today for Linda to begin dyeing the 3/5 for us.  Notice my glamorous dye studio.  What luxury!! The undyed just arrived last week, so it is going to be a bit hectic for awhile, but that's o.k.  Here's a sample of my dye sample book.  I picked it up at an art supply store some years ago now.  It has really heavy duty paper pages that I can hole punch and tie in samples of the various colours I work with.  It is a terrific reference for me.  Sometimes I mix the same colours and sometimes I just use a colour formula as a jumping off point to find the correct mix for a new hue.  I usually will include a sample of the woven material the colours were designed for.  It really is an invaluable resource.

Gauntlet

I just finished a completely different piece using our 3/5 Tencel  www.yarnsplus.com  with size 2.75 mm double pointed needles.  It will be on display at our booth at the 11th annual Downtown Knit Collective's "Knitters' Frolic" on April 26 and 27 at the Japanese Cultural Centre.  I tried a fingerless lace gauntlet unsing our "Flame" handpainted 3/5 Tencel. I'm really happy with it.  More details about the "Knitters' Frolic" can be found on their website www.downtownknitcollective.ca  There are workshops planned for both days, but the vendors' marketplace will be open on Saturday only.  Don and I will be there selling our handpainted yarns, especially the 3/5 Tencel that I have been knitting the socks with, and now the gauntlet.  I have registered for an all day workshop on Sunday with Sally Melville called "Essential Skills for the Self-Taught Knitter".  So, on  Saturday I will be helping to work the booth, but on Sunday I get to play.  I can hardly wait.

Remember that by simply clicking on the images you can enlarge them.

Vat Dyeing

The last couple of days I have been finishing the dyeing processes for my woven shibori scarves.  The final process in some cases is vat dyeing.  The dye pot holds a combination of water, vat dye powder, lye and thiorea dioxide.  One must be extra cautious when working with this combo, so in addition to the usual mask for mixing dye powders and the usual rubber gloves, I also don protective eye goggles and heavy duty rubber gloves that are shoulder height.  The extra gear is to protect from any potential splash with the lye in the mix.  I have never had a problem, but have always worn the extra goggles and long, long gloves.  This dye mixture will discharge the colour it hits and drop in the new colour which kind of cool.  If you simply want to discharge leave out the dye powder.  The vat dyes themselves will not discharge.  This fact came in handy as a couple of the scarves I did not like the combos of colour and simply put into a discharge bath and all but the vat dye discharged.  I was much happier with the final result.

New Sites Found

I have found 2 wonderful, exciting websites to explore and, in one case, to interact with.  They were both discovered through reading my latest edition of Fiberarts magazine.

www.fiberscene.com   a huge collection of various textile artists which I have only begun to explore

www.digitalthreads.ca  digital artworks from Canadian artists and the Textile Museum of Canada.  This is completely interactive site where you can play for hours.  I'll have to return.  Kai Chan's work requires a substantial amount of time to fully explore.

Have fun!!

Woven Shibori Scarves

It has taken an incredibly long time to complete just seven of these scarves. I used 2/16 Tencel for the warps and 2/10 for the wefts and just love the finished "hand".  Now that all have been woven and gathered and, in some cases, dyed a background colour, I have begun the final dye processes and was able to complete 3 of the scarves today.  Gathering threads are out and these 3 scarves are all washed and dried and ready to go.  I should be able to finish the rest this week.

As soon as the Just for Us Originals Show  www.just-for-us.biz   is finished on April 5th, I want to set up my new, smaller Weavebird www.leclerclooms.com   for the very first time and give it a try.  I think I will design a couple of woven shibori scarves with a twill background and an overshot pattern and perhaps not have the shibori for the entire length of the piece.  It's a design idea I'd like to try out and then perhaps use for a wrap down the road sometime.  I also want to try a discharged black Tencel scarf and also, using the black Tencel, dye some scarves in a vat dye which will supposedly remove the black and deposit the new colour where it hits.  It's worth some experimenting, I think.  I'll keep you posted.

Loom for Sale

Hello everyone.  I've been completely out of the picture for a whole week now with a very nasty virus, fever and total lack of drive to do anything other than sleep.  I guess my body needed it, but I'm sure behind with quite a few things, one of which is this blog.

I had a request to publicize a loom for sale and said I would be happy to post it here.  Nancy Newman is wanting to sell her 45" Weavebird and all its accessories.  Here are the details.....................................

16 shaft LeClerc Weavebird 45" production loom, includes bench, 1" sectional warp beam, spool rack, 30 spools, counter and tension box, dividers and sectional warp beam guides and $750. Weavemaker Computer Software Program for MAC.  Total new would be $8,872.00.  All pieces less than 4 years old.  Asking $5,800. or best offer.  Talk to me!!  I need to sell this.  Contact Nancy Newman  905-852-4772  or nancy@nancynewman.ca

This is an excellent loom.  When I downsized earlier this year I traded my 45" Weavebird for another one, only smaller, which fits nicely into my home studio.  This is a good deal for someone looking to try a computer assisted loom.