Lucky People

It's not about what you make, it's that you make it.

It can be yarn, a sweater or lace shawl, miles of fabric or a garden, a good dinner, or a welded sculpture of a tree. Just use your hands, make something.

I am just home from Olds, and had much time to ruminate on the trip back. I packed my knitting. Say that again: I packed the knitting and just sat there (well sometimes snoozing).

Good thinking time.

We are lucky people, we who spin, knit, weave and felt. We gather at conferences like Olds, even in difficult economic times. We have reason to come together, to learn, to teach, to practice, to perfect, to meet new people and catch up with old friends.

And we make things with our hands. We watch just how to turn a wrist so the fiber flows more smoothly. We look at beautiful plain weave fabrics that have complex surface interest without using complex tools. Using just our hands, we can feel the difference, feel what is real, what is timeless, what is made by hands.

Olds? Good times. Good weather, and some fabulous conversations. Teaching, both formal classes and informally, around the table at meals, or on the porch in the evenings. Sharing, both intentionally and not. A little wine occassionally too, although some of us (Lisa) had to wear our wine.

And to Vicki? I have the hand cream, thank you! I will remember this kind gesture the next time I see you.



What goes around, comes around.

Credentials

I'm getting ready to head off to Olds College, for Fibre Week.

"Getting Ready" involves walking myself through every day, making sure I have the necessary supplies or that I requested them, making sure I have the right samples, the right equipment, making sure I have the right clothing (the right clothing for a dye day is different from the right clothing for a weaving class), and last, in this case, making sure I have the right slides for any presentations.



I will give a couple of lectures: one for the Nickel Arts Museum, in Calgary, Friday, for their lunchtime lecture series, and one for Olds, as the keynote lecture for Sunday evening.

Olds Fibre Week revolves around the Master Spinner Program. This program is rigorous, and very impressive. After 6 years of classes, spinning different fibers, using a variety of equipment and with lots of documentation, spinners receive a Master Spinner Certificate, a credential. There is grading involved, judging, weighing and measuring. It is humbling and astounding to see the workbooks produced in those six years of study, and I am envious of the people who can take advantage of the depth and breadth of the program.



This year, the first year of a Master Weaver program is also beginning at Olds, and I would love to eventually see the binders of samples, the products these new weavers will produce in their quest to Master Weaver certificates.

I am (and I know I repeat myself) envious of those weavers, of the choices they will be competent to make once they have tried so much of what there is to know in weaving. I found my own path through trial and error, and, while I do not wish to change direction, wonder if things might have been different if I had a programs such as these in the beginning years of my learning the crafts.



As weavers, we have very few University credentialing programs, and those few usually produce artists who have little or no interaction with the guild system that I belong to, and to the conferences I attend. One of the rare exceptions is my friend Bonnie Tarses, a graduate of RISD, and a longtime professional weaver, who came reluctantly to the guild system and happily found her place among us.

Most of us, on the other hand, learned to weave from someone, who learned from someone else, who learned from a book and a few classes, or from an elder in the family, etc. We take classes at conferences and guild workshops, share with our weaver-friends and get feedback from them and from the work itself over the passage of time.

Then we practice for 10, 20 or 30 years. We pass on what we know to new weavers, who (yay!) seem to be increasing in numbers recently.

My *slides* are now digital images. I have been poring over images of spinning, dyeing, knitting and weaving, looking for a common thread (heh) for people to catch as they listen. It is fun, if somewhat akin to navel-gazing, to look over years of textiles.

The work I have produced comprises my credentials, so to speak. No neat and tidy piece of paper with a date on it, to prove competence or familiarity. Just a body of work, reflecting many years of fascination, effort and exploration.

New Clothes

I've been throwing the shuttle for a week and a half now, with good results:


Three fabrics (well, four, more on the top one in another post), three garments. There is a shirt, a vest and a jacket in there; all that remains is the sewing. I might add here that I finished some silk fabric last Fall for another shirt, and all that remains is the sewing. Ahem.

I am sure no one is surprised at the colors.

So what prompted this wardrobe extravaganza? Some of you might recall SOAR in the Poconos 2008. Maggie Casey was being introduced Sunday evening, and Amy Moore put up a slide of Maggie, me and Cindy Lair from the year before.

Cindy was not on site yet, but there, in full glory, were Maggie and I, Wearing The Exact Same Clothes As The Year Before.

Obviously, we had One Good Outfit.

The truly funny part was later in the week, when Cindy showed up and She Also Had The Same Shirt On As The Year Before. No, we did not warn her.

Needless to say, Amy took another photo of us.

New Clothes are in order. It remains to be seen this Fall whether Maggie brings new clothes too. Cindy? The choice is yours.

Surprise!

I went looking for Maggie's book on the Interweave website, to give someone on Ravelry a link.

I found this.

Making Things

I've been doing a little silk knitting and kumihimo:


This is a class sample, 4-ply bombyx silk yarn, knitted on 00's. I have knitted with 2-ply for lace before, but had not tried a solid fabric. It looks nice, and feels fabulous, a success.

The kumihimo band is made with reeled silk given to me by Michael:


It's threaded through holes in the knitting:


And then doubled back:


Sharp people will notice there is also crochet at the top of the bag; I'm not adept at it, but I can get the job done. It does make a nice finish, and looks fine on both sides, so it is good for flop-over tops.

Lots of people make things, of course, and we went to San Mateo last weekend to see some of them at the Maker Faire. This is our second year going, and people have asked just what is the Maker Faire, so ths year I took some photos.There were foodies of various sorts, including cheese makers:


mushroom growers:


Chocolate makers:


Local food advocates:


There were blacksmiths:


A cooper:


Welders and sculptors of all kinds:

welded trees: fire safe, and tres cool.

Rocket makers and makers of other things launchable:

This is a potato gattling gun. I'm just glad my boys did not think of this when they were in the potato-launcher stage of growing up...

There were Art Cars:

Whirly Car


Radio Flyer Car

A car with actual bras:


Inside the buildings were all sorts of robotic cars:


A chair made from corrugated cardboard:


There were things for yarnies too: Tactile had a nice booth inside the Craft building, and I talked with Brooke a bit about how her business and life have changed with a new baby. She will also be a vendor at SOAR this year, yay!

Outside, there was a solar dyed yarn purveyor:


Primitive Arts booth:


with felted hats and boots, baskets and tools:


mineral painting agents:


The Maker Faire has just about anything you could imagine, booths with helpful people teaching things. Spindles and Flyers Guild had a booth teaching spinning, there were several yarn companies teaching knitting and crochet, sewing and quilting, all sorts of crafts, not to mention the electronics guys, and the mechanical guys, solar stuff, electric cars, rainwater collection systems, you name it. If you can make it, it was there, with lots of happy people of all ages playing, demonstrating, talking about what they make, and learning things. It's reminiscent of the 60's, with new century variants.

It is crowded; there are various strategies to cope with parking, crowds, eating, whatever, but the fairgrounds is a big place, made to handle lots of people, and it never seemed overwhelming. This coming from me, who is crowd-averse.

All in all it is a fun day, with too much to see and do, and we arrived home Very Tired!

Purple Yarn

I've spun and plied half of the camel down/silk from the last post:



This is just under 8 ounces, and about 880 yards. I have another 8 ounces to spin, and the color (much darker than this photo would lead you to believe) is fabulous. I know I should spin up the rest, and make something big and glorious with this, but my inclination is to make a Priscilla Gibson-Roberts whimple from Knitting in America. We shall see.

The rest of the fiber may become small things too: gloves, a hat, who knows, combined with this yarn, merino and silk dyed by Yarn Chef:



If you read the comments in the post mentioned above, you will see that Jen is dyeing more of this fiber, in several colors, and Morgaine should have it all soon for upcoming fiber festivals (guessing here but Black Sheep, GGFI plus SOAR are probably on the agenda). I highly recommend this fiber: lots of yardage and plenty of spinning-and-knitting enjoyment for the $$.

Last Friday was SSK (Society for Subversive Knitters) and I usually try to get a blog post up by that morning so I can counter the verbal abuse from Patricia and Lindsey. Well, Lindsey has managed to subscribe to Bloglines, so she no longer clicks in vain to see if a new post is up: she is just pleasantly surprised when one is, and she leaves me (mostly) alone if I have not posted for a while. I say mostly, because Lindsey is good with the very quiet comment at the odd moment when you are least expecting it. Funny. Ha Ha.

But Patricia loudly proclaimed she was tired of the purple yarn whenever she opened the blog up. Now? She has more:



This is Patricia:



Doesn't she look cheerful? Don't let that smile fool you: therein lies the heart of a hawk. I should truly thank her, though, (and Lindsey) for keeping me posting, frankly. Without some encouragement, ofttimes there would be no posts. I expect it from them, in fact. But this time? I got it from other, unexpected quarters.

I got a comment from someone who is usually gracious and kind, and does not point out lack (or lax?) in others.

Et tu, Dee?

Exhale

A moment of exhale, the time between ending and starting. The time for exploring and catching fire:

(Cameldown and silk, from Spirit Trail, purchased from Carolina Homespun.)

The time of planning, preparing:


Samples,weaving, spinning, comfort zone, back to basics:


Playtime. Dipping a toe...listening to the wind:


Happy and sad:

Happy, because my wool arrived from Tasmania. Sad, because the box was smashed and half empty. Sad: somewhere in some Customs office or warehouse, half of my wool has been left to become, what? packing material? Sigh.