Ashland Bay Fibers

Yesterday was spent taking pictures of all the Ashland Bay Trading Co fibers I've got here in stock so we (Sam and I) can get the website up and running soon. At the end of the day we laid out an assortment of the merino multi-colored top to get a picture that may end up being on the front page of the site as the banner. Aren't they scrumptous looking?! Such hard work yesterday fondling all the fibers!

I can't wait to get the big job of the website behind me so I can get back to weaving..........and then there's all the roving dyeing ahead of me this summer - will start on some of that, hopefully, next week. Oh to play with dyes!

Ashland Bay order

My huge Ashland Bay roving order arrived today - 5 gigantic boxes, many many pounds. We're still working on the plans for the website to showcase these fibers but in the meantime I'll be listing some in my etsy shop as I take pictures of them......that will be a very lengthy process.

This is the first fiber to be listed - Colonial Wool in a multi-color teal colorway. I've just listed a small bump of it but more is available.

What's on my drop spindle

Here's what's in the process of being spun on my Golding drop spindle. This is 2/3 shetland wool and 1/3 merino from Sporfarm in The Dalles, OR. It's a dream to spin! And no, I did not buy this fiber at BSG (Black Sheep Gathering) - it was in the stash from a purchase 2 years ago at OFFF (Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival).

Black Sheep Gathering

I just got back from the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR, just 2 1/2 hours north of here. I had a great long weekend visiting with friends, old & new, and enabling them to buy lots of stash! I get just as much enjoyment spending someone else's money as I do my own. For the first time in a number of years I didn't take any workshops, just hung out visiting, watching demo's, cheering friend Jeanie on in the romney (sheep) judging and spinning. I bought very little stash myself - I just don't need a single thing.......of course, I couldn't get out of there without buying anything! I got a couple of new shawl patterns, a fun small project bag that will be perfect for sock or scarf knitting, some fun gel sheep to put on the window in the studio, more No Crack handcream that is the absolute best, a quiver bag (for carting a drop spindle) and new spindle......like I really needed yet another Forrester spindle. Oh and a great dichroic glass pendent that says spin on it - it's sitting on top of the quiver bag above, here's a close up below. I'll either hang it from a piece of leather or rattail (not a real rat's tail!).

I'm on a fiber diet at the moment - I have more fiber stash than I could ever spin in my lifetime. I was admiring some that fiber pal Janis (Dyelots) was putting out in her booth and she just gave it to me! That was so sweet of her, and so unexpected. It's pictured below - unfortunately the picture doesn't do it justice, it's very sparkley. The quiver bag also came from Janis's booth, a friend of hers makes them, as well as the pendant that another friend makes.

What I'm current spinning.........

Here's what I'm currently spinning - it's a blend of 80% merino/20% silk hand-dyed by Shelley of Butternut Woolens. The colorway is absolutely beautiful and it's a dream to spin. Shelley always had a booth here in Oregon at fiber events but moved to Montana this past year.

Kat's Handspun

Here's a picture of Kat's handspun from some of my hand-dyed roving - this roving is a superwash merino, colorway 'flame'. The roving didn't turn out how either of us would have guessed but it's beautiful. Was experimenting with putting the pictures side by side - doesn't show up the handspun as much as I would have liked.

I thought I'd post at least one picture from our trip - this was taken in Leavenworth at our campsite on the Icicle River, those rapids were literally a few feet from where we were sitting and reading - the roar of the snow runoff was deafening but oh so lovely. It was hot, around 90, but when the breeze blew over the water it sent chills through me.....definitely not a spot to swim this early in the season.

I did finally get to the loom yesterday for just a bit, hopefully will finish up the summer shawl warp soon, it's been on the loom for way too long. I'm also working on planning for setting up a new website to sell Ashland Bay Trading Co. spinning & felting fibers and yarn. It takes so much time just to figure out what company to use for e-commerce, what I want on the site, etc. And next comes figuring out what stock to order first - so many colors & fiber! When I get everything up and running I will post an announcement here.

It's been too long..........

It's been way too long since my last post - I've been traveling and overwhelmed with things I've needed to get done here at home (which are still not done!). I'll post some pictures later - they're still on the two cameras.

We left in the RV on May 23rd for Big Fork, MT - what a long trek - two long days of traveling. Spent time visiting with family, seeing the town and a trip to Glacier........but we couldn't go far in Glacier, Going to the Sun Road was still closed due to high snow drifts on top of an avalanche that wiped out part of the road. My big thing was to have a moose siting - I would have settled for a mountain goat, big horned sheep or grizzley but we saw none! But at Costco in Kalispell who was in line next to me but Jack Hanna - he's much cuter in person, so I had a Jack Hanna siting. The day before we drove past his compound on Flathead Lake which is within walking distance of relatives house. I really wanted to meet him but held back and gave him his privacy. I wonder who those cases of oranges & watermelons were for - some critters???

The 27th we hooked up the 5th wheel and were on our way to Gonzaga Univ in Spokane, WA for the ANWG (Assocation of Northwest Weaving Guilds) conference. I'm very glad my seminars were good (Woven & Knitted Devore, Shadow Weave with more than 2 Colors and Beaded Cardwoven Amulet Bags) or else I would have been very upset with traveling that far. The conference was very disorganized, the accomodations and food bad which made me very happy I was staying in the 5th wheel. I was very disappointed in the lack of vendors, but I suppose that was ok because it was so hot in the vendor hall I didn't want to spend much time there. And to top it all off it was unbearably hot inside the majority of the buildings including classrooms. A few bright spots - they did a nice job of the fashion show, the exhibit of guild booths was incredible, and I got to see a dear friend from Idaho.

We left early on May 31st heading to Leavenworth, WA. It's a little Bavarian town set in the mountains, mountains that look like the Alps. The majority of the shops and buildings were of Bavarian style but I was a bit sad it find most of them full of touristy stuff that could be bought anywhere. But the scenery was well worth the trip. We stayed at the Icicle River RV Resort, had a site right on the river, 10 feet from our door were class 3 rapids, the roar was deafening but we loved it. Lots of outdoor activities in Leavenworth - rafting, biking, horseback riding in the summer months; all types of skiing, snowmobiling, sled rides, etc in the winter. Lots of German restaurants too, I'm not a big fan but did enjoy one really good meal. Of course we had to stop for some German pastries, a lunch of typical German fare and big hot pretzels with over 15 different mustards to choose from for dipping. Oh and then there was the artisan chocolate shop!

June 3rd we packed up and headed off to University of Puget Sound in Tacoma WA. for the NWRSA conference (Northwest Regional Spinners Association) - Sam and Bailey stayed in the RV in Gig Harbor while I stayed on campus with my fiber friends. The conference was so much fun, but then I expected nothing else. My classes were great - cable knitting, long draw (spinning) and continental knitting. I brought handspun/handknit socks to hang on the sock line decorating the tennis pavillion where the spinning circles, vendors and exhibits were. I entered two items in the gallery and got a first place on each..........hmm, not sure who they were up against, never figured out the category. You can see them in earlier posts: Feb 12th Scotch Thistle Shawl and April 6th Streaming Leaves Scarf. I did win a door prize of some romney batts that I'll spin in the long draw to practice that technique.

It was a long trip but we had fun, way too long to be away from home and my studio. It's time to play catch up but would really love to just sit down and weave or dye some fiber.

Jumped the gun...........

Ok, so I jumped the gun on having an attitude over not enough fiber time in my life - this afternoon I did get a couple hours at the loom working on the summer shawl warp that's been on it for what seems like forever. Feet dancing on the treadles, shuttle flying to and fro. Good karma came my way this afternoon..............what goes around comes around. Of course, a couple hours isn't much compared to my usual full days but I thoroughly enjoyed every moment.

Funny I should use that expression - jumping the gun. I've never been a runner so I certainly can't relate to running races......have never had a desire to be a runner, well, maybe for 5 minutes but it ended abruptly when I couldn't catch my breath. Have you ever noticed when you see runners that they always have grimaces on their faces........but when you see walkers they're always smiling?

Oh, I definitely need to get back to the loom....

No clock big enough........

It seems like these days there is no clock big enough to handle everything I need to get done in a day and my fiber time is dwindling. Since weaving (spinning too) is what fuels my soul I'm starting to get a big grumpy........well, I'm not really a grumpy person, life is just not balanced at the moment.

I did get to finish spinning and then plying a merino/tencel (50/50) blend of roving I had been working on. That's it above, 438 yards, 4 ounces so it's around fingering weight. I'm not sure what it will eventually be used for, it will sit on the shelf and marinate for a while.

So, if anyone finds that big clock please let me know.......the bigger the clock the slower the hands move around it.............

Since I'm not weaving at the moment I thought I'd share a few other items I worked on for my presentation on surface design. The bookmarks are what I made as a gift for everyone who attended. On wool felt I first did rubbings using Shiva Paintstiks, then I stamped on top of those with Lumiere paint, and finally foiled on top of that. I bonded the wool felt to cardstock to give the bookmarks a bit more body.

The second picture is of 3 black silk scarves that I played with Shiva Paintstiks on - I'm sorry the picture doesn't do them justice. I'm working on an entire series of scarves along these lines. They will all be up for sale in the near future.

So, the fun news of the day is that my handwoven peach huck lace towels are featured in an Etsy Treasury through Saturday evening. So, please go take a peek, click on my towel as well as all the other towels. The more hits they get the bigger the chance we have of making the front page of Etsy. http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=58082 I think this is my 4th time having an item picked out of my shop for an etsy treasury.

Life is not my own.........

For some reason life is not my own these days, many other things outside of weaving keeping me busy. Another day of this and I'll be pretty grumpy - I need my fiber fix. So, this is why you see a picture of Bailey - nothing new fiber related to post........he thought it was time he show off anyhow. I took this picture on Monday as Bailey and I were planting the deck railing planters.

I gave my surface design presentation on Saturday to the Saturday Handweavers' Guild, well received, although I feel like it wasn't as good as it could have been. Following a lengthy business meeting I didn't have enough time to tell everything I wanted to or to demonstrate all of the techniques I wanted to - thank goodness my 19 page handout should fill in the blanks. I was in a panic talking as fast as I could and watching the clock thinking "oh my gosh - I have 5 more techniques to cover and time is running out". Could have run over if it weren't held in a library community meeting room with the library closing at 4:00.

On another note - yesterday at a meeting of the other guild I belong to, Rogue Valley Handweavers' Guild, the props were brought in to work on how our guild booth will go together for the ANWG Weaving Waves of Color Conference in Spokane at the end of the month. All weavings were in conference colors - primary & secondary colors in undulating weave structures. It's going to be an outstanding booth. I'll post pictures of it from the actual conference after it's over. My contribution to the display are two bamboo scarves - one reds in an undulating shadow weave (3/7/09 posting), the other in blues in a advancing point twill threading with a networked twill treadling (2/15/09 posting).

My Fiber Story

I'm still working on the Surface Design 101 presentation - coming down the home stretch though which is a good thing since it's 2 days from now. Above is a piece of handwoven fabric that I embellished by stamping Lumiere paints in the leaf design. The original fabric was a hand-dyed warp I had done in 5/2 perle cotton. This was a fabric woven a while back that originally was to be used for a vest or kimono top only I didn't like the colors for that so the yardage has been used for other projects such as Christmas cards this past year. This remaining piece that I've stamped is probably only 20" x 28" - I'm not sure what will become of it - maybe for embellishing or piecing, maybe a purse, it will come to me after it sits on the shelf a bit.

Ok, so finally the story of how I found the fiber arts, yes Susan, I'm finally getting to this challenge.

A little background - from a very young age, encouraged by my grandmother, I learned to sew, crochet and embroider. I was always drew, very little in the way of painting though. I was an art major in college concentrating mostly on fine line pencil drawings, silkscreening, etchings and lithographs...........and then on the other side of reason the business and accounting classes so I'd be able to support myself once out on my own.

So fast forward to 1986 a visit to Oregon (where we now live) from DC where we both grew up and lived. My aunt had taken up weaving and that summer she was participating in a loom exchange where guild members threaded up their looms to different weave structures and passed them around. On our way into town we needed to drop off a loom, her car was small so I had this table loom sitting on my lap. On the 45 minute drive to town I kept looking at this loom thinking this looked like it might be fun to learn. Upon returning home I looked for a weaving class, found one with a great teacher outside of DC, took the class and have never turned back. Mary Alice Hearn is an incredible weaving teacher - she was one of the first to receive her COE from Handweavers Guild of America, in 1976, I think. Not long after the class she steered me toward a used 10 harness 40" wide Macomber - it's my all time favorite loom. Other smaller second looms have come and gone but this Macomber will be here for the duration. Currently I also own a 24" 8 harness Macomber that was originally built for Mary Meigs Atwater - I even have newspaper clippings showing her teaching at a workshop sitting at this loom.

Also on that trip to Oregon we decided to buy property for retirement, of course we couldn't wait until retirement so we transferred to the SanFran Bay area for 2 1/2 years while we built up here, moved to Oregon winter 1992. Sadly we are no longer in that original house we built - I loved that house. But lives change and being 45 minutes from one town and 1 1/2 hours from a bigger town became too much driving so we moved in closer in 2003. We're still on acreage but only 10 minutes out of town - much less time spent on the road and many less miles put on the vehicles.

Ok, so back to fiber - I said I would never spin, well I should have never said that because I succumbed to spinning, then decided I need to start drop spindling.......mostly because of the beautiful drop spindles out there to covet. Now I teach drop spindling - my most fun class to teach. I also do quite a bit of dyeing and some felting but my first love remains weaving - I could spend all day planning and weaving off projects. I currently say I'll never own fiber animals - that is true - just won't happen - not enough hours in the day. And this is not one of those that later I'll change my mind - no fiber critters for me, a happy golden retriever is all I can handle.

So for the future - I'll continue learning as much as I can about the fiber arts. For the past year I've been looking at the AVL 24 harness compu-dobby workshop loom, even picked up a laptop last September at a back to school sale that will eventually run the loom. I've been so busy since the beginning of the year that I haven't even thought about ordering it plus in this economy it seems like it's something I should hold off on a bit.....and then I need to decide do a take a class at AVL before buying to make sure this is the model I want. There are also classes in the software, I know I would learn a tremendous amount but since I currently work with another weaving software for designing I think I could manage without that class for the time being. So much to think about, so little time.

And now back to the studio to organize myself for the surface design presentation.

Great workshop weekend

It's been a busy week - but what have I accomplished??? Saw my brother off at the airport Monday then got ready for the American Sewing Guild's visit to my house/studio. I had never met any of these women and they knew nothing of weaving - what a nice time, very nice women, I'm glad I agreed to this.

The remainder of the week was spent working on my surface design presentation which will happen next Saturday..........very fun work but I'll be so glad to get back to what I want/need to work on.........two guild presentations so close together has consumed a tremendous amount of time, the majority of my time since January. Hopefully tomorrow I'll knock out most of what's left to be done with the last minute details to finish up on Friday.

I did spend a great weekend in a workshop with Anita Luvera Mayer. We learned about all different types of vests - weaving and embellishing them. Then a small hands-on project of a necklace/pouch in which we learned some beaded embellishment techniques. What an inspirational and creative woman Anita is. In the first hour of the workshop Anita asked us each what goal we'd like to have met a year from now. Mine is weaving more garments (for myself) - I've woven a few but never put it on the front burner since I'm weaving to sell. She said if the goal is put in writing it becomes much more attainable - so into the journal it goes and now it's here for the world to see............or at least the small portion of the world that reads my blog. Here is my pouch - the body of it is melton (fulled wool fabric), lining is pieced cotton.

Yes, I'm still here........

Yes, I'm still here.....have just been busy prepping for a couple of presentations and enjoying a visit from my brother from back east. I've got all my samples finished up for the surface design program but still a few projects to get done in the remaining 13 days....yes, I'm counting the days now, getting a little panicky. Tuesday I'm speaking at an American Sewing Guild meeting, these are fiber folks not familiar with weaving at all. They'll be holding their meeting here at my house and studio so it will be easy to explain/demonstrate weaving with the aid of looms. One loom was naked so quickly yesterday afternoon I planned a project of 3 summer shawls so there will be something on the big loom. I just finished getting it threaded and tied on and started weaving......pictures above. I'm using Henry's Attic Queen Anne's Lace, Silk City Avanti and 2 colors of 5/2 perle cotton. I quickly realized I needed to use a wide reed with multiple ends sleyed through each dent since the Avanti has very fat slubs. For this first shawl I'm using the same Queen Anne's Lace for the weft, 2nd and 3rd shawls the weft will vary, haven't decided what to use yet. It's fun to put on a quick project like this.

This coming up weekend is a guild sponsored workshop with Anita Luvera Mayer called Vested Interests - it should be very fun. I've heard Anita speak several times and took a class last year at the NWRSA conference called Mud Pies for Adults - all surface design techniques. She's incredibly creative and such an inspiration. I'm so looking forward to this workshop.

Another fiber thing going on in my life is the Southern Oregon Placemat Exchange. I've already started receiving placemats from 6 guilds here in SW Oregon. I'm compiling notebooks with all the drafts and swatches or photos for each guild library and will handle the exchange of the mats. The end of June all those involved will attend a potluck luncheon in Jacksonville - a day of fun and getting to know weavers from other guilds.....and to meet those whose placemats we've received. I had this brainstorm 3 years ago about doing this and presented it to one of my local guilds and it took off from there - first year was a towel exchange, second year napkins. I don't know if it will happen again next year.....depends on the group as a whole.......and maybe next year someone else would love to spearhead it!

Hopefully sometime this week I'll get to writing about how I got into weaving - the challenge was issued by Susan, Lynnette has followed through, I need to too.

Surface Design

Today was a day of playing in the studio. I started out with samples using the Shiva Paintstiks - I finished the samples needed but still felt like playing with them so I took out several silks scarves I had hand-dyed...these were ones I always felt needed something else. Well, the paintstiks were just the thing - I used them with rubbing plates. Above are two examples of scarves - guess I only took pictures of the two purple ones so they look similar....but they're not.

Also made freezer paper stencils and printed samples, did some monoprinting and made up a couple silkscreens. Hopefully tomorrow samples of stamping (all different kinds of stamps) and silkscreening samples will be done. Oh, and dyed a silk scarf using bleeding tissue paper - an experiment, can't wait to see the results tomorrow when it's dry.

Did spend some time outside - absolutely beautiful day...........sprayed the dreaded poison oak in Bailey's yard to hopefully combat a repeat of the 3 month bout I had on my arms last spring.

Mary's handspun from my hand-dyed roving

Mary from New Mexico bought this peonies colorway from my hand-dyed roving that was in my etsy shop. She spun it up and then knit this great hat with it. Aren't the colors wonderful! And isn't that hat stunning! Check out Mary's blog.....there's also a link from her blog to her etsy shop so check that out too. Thanks for sending the pictures Mary!

edit: just noticed I still have another peony colorway for sale - it's up in my etsy shop.

An older scarf

My friend Libby who owns several of my handwoven scarves sent me this picture to show how one of them looks with an outfit of hers. It's beautiful with that turtleneck and jacket. It's been a while since I wove that scarf but I'm thinking it's tencel. I did hand-dye the warp. It's woven in a 8H turned twill block design. I had forgotten how much I liked it - will have to weave some in that same weave structure in the near future. Thanks Libby for sending me the picture.

Today was a very fun day of knitting and eating with friends at our local get together, Sock It To Me, hosted by friend Karen at Applegate Country Fibers. I should have been home working on surface design samples but this was way more fun!

Discharging black chenille scarves

This is an example of using discharge paste which takes the dye out of fibers/fabrics. It's much safer to use than bleach and has very little fumes. This is a picture of one of my handmade silkscreens made using my Gocco machine which will burn small silkscreens. The pink around the edge is duct tape (quack, quack) to protect the cardboard frame from moisture. The discharge paste itself is the consistency of a thick pudding which is easy to work with - I applied it with the foam brush.

After the discharge paste is totally dry I press it with an iron (steam setting) and it magically pulls the dye out of the handwoven chenille scarf. The color that comes out depends on how a fiber was dyed - blacks can be anywhere from golds, to rusts, to deep reds. It's a surprise each time I use this process which is why I always sample before actually discharging a scarf.

These are pictures of sections of each of the scarves. The one on the left is the color the black discharges to. The one on the right I added Jacquard textile paints to the discharge paste so as it discharged the color would be absorbed into the fiber.

So, adding this to the other black chenille scarves posted earlier I now have 5 scarves to twist fringe on........will eventually get to it...........

Surface Design

This is just a little of what I've been up to - making samples of surface design techniques for a guild program. These are just made on either white or black cotton for ease but these are techniques I would usually use on silk or my handwoven fabric.

The sample above is using Fabricfun Oil Pastels with rubbings, stenciling, and drawing directly on the fabric. The sample doesn't look like much but these are fun to use.

This sample is of Shiva Paintstiks using rubbings, stenciling, a grid of masking tape for making little squares and using the edge of a manilla envelope that was torn.

This is the same Shiva Paintstiks used on white fabric.

This is bondable Angelina. It's holographic fiber strands that are fused with heat - sorry it really doesn't show but they're very shiny & glitzy. I fused pieces for one sample, another there is novelty yarn fused in the middle of pieces - those are not fused to the fabric, they will only fuse to themselves. The other samples (left) are fused to the fabric - the top I applied the angelina to wonder under and cut it, the other I used 007 Bonding Agent to fuse it to the black fabric.
This is foiling which is very fun - the shine doesn't show in the photo very well. My favorite way to use it is silkscreening the foil adhesive (bottom left), letting it dry and then ironing/burnishing the foil on.

I also spent time cutting handmade stamps out of various materials and making handmade stencils and more discharging done on black cotton fabric(forgot to take a picture). I worked on my WOW factor for my guild presentation - many mock-ups done, finally figured out exactly which I want to use which will use 3 surface design techniques. Can't spill the beans though since it's a surprise - will post a photo after my presentation in May.