Off To SOAR

Just a quickie to say I'm leaving tomorrow, on a jetplane, to be a mentor at SOAR. Much to do yet before I sleep....
Destination: Granlibakken Resort, Tahoe City, California. Woo hoo!
Will be back by November 6th.
Happy Halloween!
Cheers, Jenny

And One More About Rhinebeck

Yesterday's post, from a time standpoint, brought us nearly to the end of Rhinebeck on Saturday. Or did it?
Having been a past vendor at Rhinebeck myself (The Copper Moth), I know the vendors' "culture" continues after the booths have closed down for the night. For those who've never experienced this, note that many vendors sleep in their vehicles rather than putting their hard-earned $ on a motel room. I was one of them. This "car sleeping" makes for many laughs and memories - all sorts of mayhem occurs afterhours. Who could ever forget the crazy conversations with vendors in the bathrooms on the grounds as we brushed our teeth or removed the grit of the day from our faces? How about the hullaballoo that occurs when one of three in a stationwagon needs to pee in the night and doesn't want to venture out in the dark alone? Let's hope no one had the gall to eat beans at dinner....

One particularly, shall I say fond?, memory actually happened at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Fest a few years back. It was a cold, incessantly, rainy weekend and wouldn't you know it, the car's window got stuck in the partially down position. Without duck tape and plastic, garbage bags (New England's Essential Fix-Er-Up Kit), we stuffed the window's opening with wool blankets. To make matters worse, I seem to remember us not being able to get the seat flat in order to even lay down properly. Amidst the downpour, a kind vendor came out of the night to our rescue, and the seat bowed down and obeyed. Thank you, good soul, whoever you are...

Somehow E realized that I missed the culture of vending. Not vending itself, just the culture of it. Though we knew we had a long ride home, and she was the lone driver of Ms. Jenny, with a busy day beginning early the next morning, E agreed for us to meet up afterhours with Patty and Maureen, Green Mountain Spinnery chums. As we waited in the parking lot for our friends to close up their booth, E and I decided to pull out our loot purchased during the day. The two bottom photos display the entirety of what I bought: 2 catnip mice, 1 sterling silver spider ring and 1 - 8oz bag of Falkland top. Am planning to spindle spin the cream Falkland top to pair nicely with some indigo-urine-vat-dyed CVM, spindle-spun yarn. See Of Cat Pee, Urine Vats And Other Potentially Nasty Things for a glimpse of the blue yarn. Once the Falkland's spun, this will be knit into some EZ/Meg, color-patterned, socks for THE BOOK. Don't have a clue what THE BOOK is? See Silk, Silk Blends & THE BOOK to be in the know.

The third from bottom photo shows E amidst her loot. Note that it would be difficult to hold all this in one's arms. You're looking at some monk's cloth for hooking, a foam hat form for felting, a takli and fiber for spinning, a canvas bag and some Green Mountain Spinnery patterns for knitting, some wooden tools for weaving on her triloom, and a tool for shirret. E's one talented and diverse fiber artist, eh? Also, I'm sure you didn't miss her dashing, hand knitted and felted hat.

The fourth photo from the bottom shows Maureen and Patty in an action shot, walking towards us so we could head out for an evening meal. After checking out the traffic jam, with vehicles attempting to leave Rhinebeck's grounds, we chose to walk across the street to the restaurant.

I have no idea what the present name of this restaurant is; the name's changed occasionally over the years. We found what we expected at the restaurant - a long queue, waiting to get seated. Such a wait, however can prove to be a fun opportunity since many of the folks in the same boat as us were vendors or general, enthusiastic participants of Rhinebeck. We passed the time chatting with old and new friends.

Pictured in the second photo from the top, is (l to r) Tom (seated), E and Linda (both standing) and Diane (seated). Tom and Diane are The Golding's, makers of exquisite spindles, spinning wheels, looms and fiber arts tools. Linda is the Fearless Leader of the River Spinners guild in Brattleboro, Vermont that I belong to. Diane, E, Maureen and Patty are members of this guild, too. The River Spinners' web-home is within the site of E's, Hemlock Haven Farm. Tom graciously came over and offered a round of drinks for us prior to dinner. Many thanks, Tom and Diane, from the gang.

I'll spare you the photos of Patty, Maureen, E and myself at our dinner table. We all looked like something the cat dragged in by that point. I will share the top photo of Jenn and David. Are they not the sweetest couple? We met them whilst waiting for our seats and they just happened to be dining next to us. Jenn was knitting something with lovely colors as we met her, thus we were tipped off that she was one of us. Jenn and David, both engineers, are engaged to be married. From what E gathered, Jenn will be knitting her wedding dress, with the ceremony set for sometime in '08. Do visit with Jenn at her blog, Cafe Eclectic.

If there's one thing you can say about me it's that I'm consistent as a navigator. Is it possible to miss every exit on the way home, similar to the way we missed exits on the way to Rhinebeck? The answer is in the bloody affirmative. E and I found ourselves on the yellow-brick-road to Albany - NOT the correct direction by a longshot. We pulled off an exit to right ourselves, got involved in a serious conversation and the next thing you know, I was deposited at my front door, practically without blinking. Alas, my pictorial story of Rhinebeck ends. 'til next year....

More Rhinebeck

Yesterday's post, in terms of time, got us to somewhere near the 1pm hour at Rhinebeck on Saturday - the scheduled time that other bloggers in the fiber universe had planned to meet up. I didn't photograph the sea of folks that made up this get-together, but it was overwhelmingly large. Do go to the Yarn Harlot for a good shot of the craziness. Happily, I was with E and immediately saw a friendly face by the name of Mary Grant. Mary is pictured at the bottom of the above photos, wearing a sheepishly cute sweater and red sheepy scarf. Our friendship goes back to my days of living in Toronto in the 90's, where you would often see Mary and her husband, Don, vending at various Canadian fiber conferences. They are the owners of Eldonview Farms in Woodville, Ontario, Canada, which has the most wonderful sheep fleeces, many of them coloured, from their Border Leicester, Lincoln, Romney and Targhee sheep. They also sell registered breeding stock, farm fresh lamb for freezers, prime sheep skin rugs and white/coloured carded fleece, too. Mary had along with her the neat 3-D, metal, wall-art of a women spinning on a wheel. She's got a few of these pieces and would be willing to sell them to folks. If you're interested in any of Mary's offerings, and you really need one of her fleeces, contact her at (705) 426 -7576 or e-mail her at eldonview@accel.net
For the record, the Border Leicester lamb I'm knitting up now, featured on past posts, Indian Corn Handspun Yarn & EZ and An Eat All the Icing Off the Cake Kind of Day! is from a Mary Grant fleece of supreme beauty.

Pictured in the second from the bottom photo, is me holding my yearly catnip-filled, handwoven mice purchase. This tradition goes back years and years (even when I only had Chloe), with only occasional lapses when I couldn't attend Rhinebeck. These special mice are of course expected by Chloe and Al, black cats both. I swear they watch the clock for my return from Rhinebeck. Once home, the tradition continues with me calling them both to attention, discussing I have something for them, shaking the bags and throwing a mouse to each good kitty. They both respond by rolling on their respective backs, mouse between front and back paws, kicking the mouse with no reserve and pulling off the tail. Next you can bet that Al is going to get jealous of Chloe's mouse, thinking it surely must be better than his. Much hissing and chasing occurs. Al sniffs and bats around Chloe's mouse. Chloe leaves to go upstairs in disgust, her mouse now defiled. If you would like your cats to experience the BEST in mice, e-mail Gloria Scannell at fiberart@mhonline.net She has lovely, wearable handwovens that will surely catch your eye and empty your wallet, as well.

Pictured third from the bottom, left to right, is: me, Liza and Liza's daughter, Caroline. I was extremely happy to see Liza again and meet her daughter for the first time. Liza had taken my three-day, "Spinning Silken Fibers" workshop at Peters Valley Craft Center in Layton, NJ this past summer. Liza is a great knitter and spinner. She did a nice write-up of our workshop together. Do visit her at Liza's Fibers .

Next, beginning with the fourth photo from the bottom, we have 3 pictures of my Green Mountain Spinnery buddies. The solo photo is of Maureen. Yes, this is the Maureen I'm often referring to in the blog posts. Yes, this is the same friend who once put a cigarette in the mouth of one of my baby jack-o-lanterns. Next we have E, who doesn't work at the Spinnery, but is wearing Maureen's lastest cardigan design, soon to be available as a pattern. Is this not a gorgeous sweater and dost not E look fabulous in it?!!
Maureen has other patterns she has designed already available through the Spinnery - do contact her - you'll want to order the patterns - and tell her I sent you! Finally, we have a trio, featuring (from l to r): Patty, Maureen and E. Patty is the official spinner of all Spinnery and custom yarns. Maureen is a jack-of-all-trades, but yarn stores deal with her because she's the Spinnery's wholesale manager.

Above this trio, in a beautiful red-orange sweater, is Linda Roghaar. We saw each other within the boundaries of the Green Mountain Spinnery booth. Linda is the co-editor, along with Molly Wolf, of the three KnitLit books: KnitLit, KnitLit (too), and KnitLit the Third. I have written two stories total, one each in two books: "Knit TWO Together," pg. 82, in KnitLit (too) and "Eye of the Grouse," pg. 150, in KnitLit the Third. Great seeing you Linda!

In the third photo from the top, you'll find, (l to r), Ann and Sadelle. Sadelle had been a driving force in the fiber community in the 80's-90's, dropping from the scene for awhile as she pursued other things in her life.
It's with great pleasure that I say - She's back! Sadelle, a knitter, spinner, fiber arts jewelry maker and more, produced earrings that were tiny replicas of spindles, complete with handspun yarn. I bet many of you out there wear her art regularly. Look for more offerings again in the future... Ann is new to spinning and they were looking for fiber for Ann to spin her own yarn. I have a feeling they must have found something to spin at Rhinebeck - don't you?

The top two photos are devoted to my favorite Rhinebeck food. What potato freak doesn't love french fries? And believe me, they're GOOD at Rhinebeck. Note that this is my second batch of the day. But let's not talk about how my stomach felt later in the night as all that coagulated fat sat heavy as lead, gurgling and poking my gut with it's greasy, french fried fingers. Chris, out-of-town on a gig tour, e-mailed me and I wrote him back how I'm as bad as a naughty child who has eyes and a will that have no consideration for the size nor state of her stomach. Well, so be it - I'm guilty. But NO fries for me for awhile - a least a little while. And I told my friends NOT to let me eat more than one batch in a day, no matter how pleading my eyes look or how much I swear.

Tomorrow, one more post's worth of Rhinebeck pictures and tappings.

Rhinebeck Of Course

It's most necessary to take a sidetrip from my last post, "The Road To Becoming a Fiber Artist, Part One", and discuss what turned out to be one of my favorite Rhinebeck experiences (and there have been alot of them over the years). I'll resume my trip down the memory lane of the job road after I get Rhinebeck out of my system. Just know it may take a few posts to get there....

Rhinebeck, for me, actually began with an e-mail from Elizabeth (aka Llamafarmgirl) the good friend I was to travel with. She, thankfully agreeing to be the one to "drive Ms. Jenny", asked whether I was comfortable with navigating and "Would I get the directions?". Loud guffaws came out of me as I read this. Anyone who has travelled with me will know why. Elizabeth was about to experience another level of friendship with the spider. I straight-away (and wisely) turned down the offer to decide on our route, but with unreasonable cockiness said I was getting pretty good at navigating for Chris in NYC, so why not Rhinebeck? Let's just say we are damn lucky we didn't end up in Atlanta. If one wondered if it is possible to miss every planned exit, know that it is. However, excellent driver that Elizabeth is, she didn't skip a beat and I think we ended up on a prettier route overall. OK, we did end up a bit later than planned to meet up with Elizabeth's (from here on out - "E") sister, Tamara, and Tamara's friends. But, unbelievably, we still made it prior to noon. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Just out of the car, after parking in the grassy lot already filled with tons of vehicles, we started a conversation with Carrie. We had never met Carrie before, but Rhinebeck has the happy way of reinforcing friendships and forming new ones - all in the name of fiber. Pictured at the top is Carrie in a green jacket and Elizabeth in an Aran, cream sweater - sunglasses both. Carrie is a "green" chemist from NJ and a mixed-media fiber artist. This was Carrie's first time to Rhinebeck (a virgin) and the glee on her face was evident. We unfortunately didn't cross paths with her again that day, but we have no doubts that she had a blast. There's just no way not to.

Once inside the gates E and I made use of E's husband's cell phone, that it took both of us to figure out, and quickly located Tamara, also known as Spincerely Yours and friends. The second from the top photo is E and Tamara (dost they not look like sisters?). Note Tamara's truly snazzy green cardigan - hand knitted no less by she. The third photo from the top features from left to right: Knitcole, E, Tamara and Dara- who all had a head start shopping spree prior to our arrival. After checking out their neat loot, E and I parted ways from the other three, knowing we'd meet up again at the blogger get-together scheduled at 1pm, down in the "new" (or not-so-new-anymore) building area. Into the maze of barns and people and all things fiber we ventured.

I found myself apologizing to E almost immediately because when you've been in the fiber world a long time, you tend to know alot of folks therein. It's so GREAT meeting up with everyone - and for me, that's what Rhinebeck is - at its most important essence. E, not a virgin Rhinebecker or fiber artist but not a loooonnnnngggg time one either, wasn't bothered at all that we chatted in booth after booth, taking many photos, writing notes to self, and literally spotting folks within every few feet of walking. Rhinebeck is like one big, incredible reunion. It's exhiliarating.

Pictured solo, donning a pretty cardigan and turquoise spider pin, is Liz. I've known Liz from being part of the very first spinning guild I ever joined, "The Berkshire Hills and Dales Spinners". This was from my Great Barrington, MA days, back in the 80's. Liz was possibly the first natural dyer I ever knew. She was one of my personal inspirations for co-forming "The Copper Moth" (now defunct), which dealt with natural dyeing silk, silk blends and other fibers for hand spinners. Liz is in the top ten of the most creative, hippest women I know, not to mention being always kind and willing to share fiberly information. So good to see you, Liz!

Another photo, fifth from the top, shows a trio (from l to r): Fran, Peg and myself. Fran and Peg are friends that would be taking part in Sunday's Sheep to Shawl at Rhinebeck, as they have in the past. Their team this year was to be the "Yankee Fiber Friends Team Peace Fleece" ("...a 'hippie' theme," said Peg). I just know they must have done very well and would love to hear about it. Peg and Fran are both Nutmeg Spinners guild members, the ever-so-excellent CT state spinning guild I was also once a member of (having lived in Middletown, CT for two years in the 90's). I've know Peg from her having taken my first Harrisville Designs "Learn to Spin" class (the next one is May 23-25, 2007, the 9th "Learn to Spin" I've consecutively taught at that location). Fran was a regular customer of The Copper Moth. It was lovely to see you both!

Next, E and I found ourselves in line inside the yellow tent of Little Barn. This is where E bought alot of her loot for the day (several bags of cotton sliver and some recycled soda pop bottle fiber) and where I bought the only fiber I took home (8 oz. Falkland wool top). Just waiting in line was fun, especially since we realized it was Chris, of Woolybuns and her friend, Blogless Sue, in front of us. Pictured, second from the bottom, is Chris on the left, wearing a felted scarf she made featuring Delores the sheep, and Blogless Sue on the right, holding the fiber that said it had to go home with her.

The bottom photo is of another person we met in line at the Little Barn booth (photo taken just outside of the booth). It's of Linda, wearing a beautiful, rust knitted pullover, who I had never met before but who had signed up for one of my classes at WEBS (a solar dye class) that unfortunately got cancelled because just one more person was needed to make it a GO (a sad situation for all, indeed, but a fact of life). However, Linda would like to schedule me to teach down in the Amherst/Northampton, MA area soon - perhaps through the guild that she belongs to, "The Parallel Plyers". Note that this works particularly well when guilds in the area combine to schedule and fill a class. If you're interested, let me know and I'll give you Linda's contact information to get the ball rolling. That said, I know already that my spinning class, "Thick, Medium, Thin" at WEBS, 12/3/06, is a definite GO, but there's more space if you're interested. Would love to see sign-ups for the "New Wave Fibers" class, also at WEBS, on Sunday, 12/4/06....it's fun spinning, so do consider it, please. Great to meet you, Linda, and may our paths cross again.

More Rhinebeck photos and keyboard tappings tomorrow. Geesh, I only went Saturday - can you imagine the posts of bloggers who went both days?!

The Road To Becoming a Fiber Artist, Part One

Does the job make the person or the person make the job? Hmmm. I've been pondering this question and similar ones in my personal, soul-search to figure out how & why I came to choose a career as a writer and teacher of spinning, natural dyeing and knitting. Some folks consider the fiber arts as a hobby; a productive way to pass the time. This has NEVER been the case for me. It was always so much more. Call it a lifestyle. Call it a passion. Call it absolutely necessary. Some may (and do) call it crazy.

For years I didn't know how I was going to incorporate the fiber arts I loved into a profession where I could actually make at least a partial living (read as: significantly contributing to the family income) from. Early on, I remember Chris asking, "What are you going to do with all of this spinning stuff?". I didn't actually know the end-all answer to his question, but not knowing didn't deter me from building on the knowledge I had already acquired - going forth full speed ahead and being proud of it. Luckily, Chris and I are 100% supportive of each other's pursuits - he as a jazz musician and ethnomusicologist; me as a woman who couldn't get enough fibers and all things technical that went with it, loved teaching (but never particularly liked it in the conventional sense of working in a classroom on a daily basis) and enjoyed putting my rather esoteric thoughts down somewhere.

On musing about what I've become, I got to thinking about jobs I've had and wondered how it all figured into my questions on why I am what I am. Try listing all the jobs you've worked at in your life - you may be surprised what you find out about yourself. You know, we're talking about those dayjobs (or nightjobs) that are necessary to pay the bills and live the lifestyle chosen (thankfully Chris and I both are cheap dates). Some folks (perhaps, but not necessarily, enviable) have only one or two jobs in their whole life. Hopefully these people like what they're doing and feel they've chosen the right path. I don't think this is a bad thing, but I knew it was never going to figure into my history. I knew my road would be alot bumpier, considering I rather liked the excitement of a good challenge and living on the edge. It was obvious to me, even as a teenager, that a normal 9 to 5 would bore me to tears, if not kill me outright.

I began work at age 14. My Dad, a personnel agent, actually secured my first job for me by telling Josef, the baker I ended up working for, that I was 16. I worked as a counter girl at Josef's French Pastry Shop in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, through high school and even a bit beyond. I remember watching a gal in the back room decorating cakes, and wondered if this was a creative enough path to choose for me? Nah. I liked eating cake, especially with real buttercream frosting, but not making them. Pictured is a photo of me in my bakery outfit (and do note it is a dress), sitting crosslegged in our living room chair. I was about 15 at that time. I remember Josef, smiling as he suggested that I needed to lower my skirt hem because the customers were getting a bit more for their money than the cream puffs they purchased, especially as I bent over to tie their packages up. I made $1.25 an hour at that job - it was the early 70's.

After high school I didn't think I could ever go to college in the conventional sense because there were no $ to be had (or so I thought). What to do? By that time I worked at one of the first malls in Detroit, at Hickory Farms - the sausage and cheese joint. It was there I cut my arm with a huge, cheese knife, nearly fainting from viewing the blood spirting upwards, faded scars still evident. Pictured is a photo of me behind a counter of dried soup products, wearing a dunce cap (heaven knows why), in a cheerleader outfit that I borrowed (for the record, I was NEVER a real cheerleader), because I was the "up front" girl who dressed in costume to sell things during the holidays. I seem to remember it was Super (Souper - hence, the soup products. Lame, I know...) Bowl time when that photo was snapped. I also recall wearing a bunny rabbit outfit at Easter. I made $2.10 an hour and later was told that the boss went to court for regularly skimming dollars off all her employees' paychecks. Bloody hell - can you imagine taking bucks from folks who make $2.10 an hour? None of us ever made our money back. Where's justice when you need it? Also, come to think of it, this was the job where a fellow, guy employee advised me to, "Just buff up the faucet area and they won't know the difference," when it was my turn to clean the customer bathroom. You'd have thought my youngest son, Alexander, (far from being born or even thought of) was listening carefully to that advice....

While working at Hickory Farms, I enrolled in a local, community college program that would turn me into a dental assistant. Why on earth I did this is a mystery to this day. I hate blood. I hate gross mouths of rotten teeth. I knew I had to make a living, but why that? My memory of my own dentist involved Dr. Green, after regular working hours (because I'd scare the other patients), pulling the gap in my front teeth closed with dental floss, as I screamed to high heaven. This was all because we couldn't afford braces. I had to visit that dentist regularly for new floss torture. I've often wondered if anyone else ever had dental floss braces? Pictured is me (second from the right), sporting well-tanned skin, standing in a row ready to receive my dental assistant cap, after finishing the one-year certificate program. I did work for a short while as a dental assistant - hated it (I mean, who would like a job where all the patients one dealt with didn't want to be there?) - began dating the dentist and never went back to mixing amalgam for fillings again.

Somewhere in the midst of all of this I began working as a receptionist at an accounting firm in downtown Detroit. It was kind of neat getting dressed up like a sort-of-professional adult for awhile, and I really didn't mind answering the phones much. I did, however, mind when I was told to make coffee for those jokers, and one of the accountants sidled up behind me - disgustingly way too close (that was no pistol in his pocket...) - as I did so. When I complained to the head secretary, she basically told me to put up or shut up. I told her, in no uncertain terms, where she could go and to please do so fast, as I walked out. I did end up dating one of the nicer accountants for a short while - Dad always said I had a knack (like he once did) for burning the candle at both ends....

I'll end this post with my last job before I figured out it was the Jimmy Carter years and $ were to be had to go to college ( the unequivocal good ol' days for education, and thank goodness for them). This job was probably the proverbial job-that-broke-the-camel's-back, sending me eventually into the arms of the University of Detroit. The job involved being trained as a photographer for Olan Mills, the portrait studio. The work did have a semblance of creativity - that's about the best I can come up with about it. Suffice to say that some of my time was spent photographing a monkey in a dress, an outrageously huge snake and far too many irritating groups of people who didn't know how to hold their heads still.

Note: I was not knitting or spinning or dyeing during any of the above years (the early to mid 1970's). I did learn to knit as a kid, but didn't knit again until '79-80.

Tomorrow (Saturday), I'm off to the autumnal fiber pilgrimage called Rhinebeck. Sunday I'll be busy hosting a potluck party at home. Maybe I'll get to post "The Road To Becoming A Fiber Artist, Part 2" on Sunday evening or at least by Monday. Until then, hope to see you at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival!! Players on Saturday, please don't forget, I'm a square for Blogger Bingo.

Gift A Fiber Arts Book To A Friend

Like many of you, I treasure books - especially my fiber arts books. See My Dye Studio for a sweeping picture of some of my fiber arts library. What was that universal worry about books going "out of style" once the ever changing, digital media (ie. podcasts, DVD's, etc.) got its foot firmly implanted, with books leaving by the same door as phonograph records? Not a worry. Not a worry at all. Not that I don't own a DVD or video cassette. In fact, I have ALL the videos that have come out of Schoolhouse Press. Especially when my boys were little, I often felt like I had the needed adult company of Elizabeth Zimmermann or Meg Swansen as I watched them discuss the intricacies of knitting techniques - almost as good as having them over for tea! And the interesting thing is that my kids got used to having them around - with their gentle voices and Chris's (Meg's husband) music playing softly as my boys played with their toys. I was proud that my children actually knew that the hat, mitts or sweater that they wore was designed by EZ or Meg or eventually - me, and knit by their own Ma.

Books-on-tape or books-on-cd also have proven to be very important to me, especially as a spinner. When I've popped in a tape of some lengthy novel, head phones in place, the rest of the world slips away as I listen to the reader's voice. No jumping up to tend to housework (though it doesn't take much to make me forget housework, I readily admit). No thoughts of anything other than my spinning at hand and how the story progresses. I often choose one of the classics that I didn't absorb or read in high school or as an undergraduate but sometimes I pick something I wouldn't normally read, and am frequently delighted by it. If the book-on-tape is particularly long, I tend to think about it whenever I see the finished project I made from the yarn I spun. For example, lots of the Grouse scarf's yarn was made whilst listening to Michener's, "Chesapeake"....See Silk, Silk Blends & THE BOOK and A Handspun Silk Scarf: Grouse-Inspired for more on that yarn and project.

Interestingly, as a kid, my parents didn't take me to the library. They always subscribed to the two, Detroit newspapers, but I can't remember once seeing my parents in a library. I owe my love of books and libraries to my girlfriend, Noreen's, mom. She would drop us off at the library's big doors and once inside, I felt like I was in Wonderland, with possibilities for exploration boundless. I would check out as many books as the library staff would allow and perhaps get to read one or two of them before their due date. To this day, spending time in the library for me is time well spent. On days when the Moo-ver, the bus painted like a cow, takes me to Brattlboro for the evening River Spinners guild meeting, I plop myself down in a nook for several hours and get to work - either knitting, spindle spinning or reading - the library folks don't mind as long as you're quiet and not overly obnoxious.

Chris, my husband, and I have had a love affair with education all of our lives. My education went hand-in-hand with my own books/magazines. In the early years of our marriage, Chris and I decided only one of us could go on to graduate school(s) and we decided that would be he. This did not bother me at all, but I was determined to get my own, personal, master's-degree-of-sorts through my own mode of study - reading. And read I did. One of my favorite dayjobs was at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where I was an office coordinator of the Student Center. After I finished my paper work for the day, all I was really responsible for was answering the phone or dealing with folks stopping in. My boss, Armando, good guy that he was, didn't mind if I read the day away and so I remember going through ALL the back issues of Spin-Off with a fine toothed comb. I learned alot during those two years, that I've put to good use through my own work as a fiber artist and teacher.

When you've been collecting fiber arts books for the 26 years plus that I've been doing so, duplicates are bound to occur - acquiring these books either through gifts or simply seeing something hard to resist in one of my favorite stores of all time - the second-hand book store. I decided that life's way too short to have two of anything and have experienced joy by giving away that second copy of a beloved book. What are my beloved books? ANYTHING by EZ or Meg, Barbara Walker, Barbara Abbey, Mary Thomas, Montse Stanley, Rita Buchanan, Jenny Dean, Lee Raven and others. I simply can't resist buying yet another copy of "Knitting Without Tears," by EZ, knowing that it's destined to be given away. In fact, I look forward to the very moment when I can give it away. Try gifting books a few times and I'll bet you'll get hooked on doing so, too. It's a small, but significant, way to possibly change people's lives for the better. Pictured are just some of my favorite fiber arts books - what are your favorites?

Just a note that I'll be gone for a few days, so no blog posts 'til Friday. Hope to see many of you at Rhinebeck on Saturday!!

Storing Takli-Spun Singles For Plying

After filling a takli with singles - now what?
You can use it as singles, but because I'm a knitter, I often prefer a plied yarn. Not always, but often.

Well, maybe you have two or more taklis and you put them into a make-shift-shoe-box-lazy-kate, and ply directly from the horizontal, rotating, taklis. I admit, I've never found this idea to be very satisfactory for me...sounds great in theory, but lacking in the results I'm looking for.

I prefer another way, where you only need to own one takli. Also, I tend to like to ply from repackaged singles as I feel I get get smoother results in my plied yarn. I could rewind the singles onto spare bobbins. Or I could use some of the old weaving bobbins that were once gifted to me - these fit nicely on one of my tensioned, lazy kates. Or I might use a cat ball(s).

Shown in the photos are a felted, "cat" ball. Ever make these useful spinning tools? Here's one way: Take commercial, 100% wool roving and roll it in a small (walnut size), tight, core of a ball. Once there's a core of dense wool, take about 6" pieces of the same roving, opened up a bit to add air, and layer it over the initial ball of wool - sort of crisscrossing the roving over the ball - this helps the wool to felt well. Make your ball bigger than you want because it's going to shrink down in the felting. Next, wrap wool yarn, tight-ish, again crisscrossing, over this ball in order to help it keep its shape. You can then put the yet unfelted ball into a toe of a sock or nylon stocking (at least there's some good use for nylon stockings in my house!) or a piece of tulle netting. Tie the sock/stocking/netting closed and pop it into a washing machine wash load with other clothing. Afterwards, it goes right into the dryer for further felting. One wash and one dry does the trick pretty well. I've been known to make 20 or more of these balls at a go for classes and my own use. Chloe and Al, black cats both, have their own ball stash as well.

Shown in the top photo is a takli and cat ball, with the singles being wound onto the ball for storage. When winding, hold the ball in one hand and hold the takli, sideways, in the other. Let the takli turn freely as you hold onto the shaft and wind the ball.

The second photo from the top shows another trick of sorts (taught to me by Rita Buchanan). This is where you've filled the ball with a takli's worth of singles and now you want to add more to the ball (without a knot, of course). My general joining method for spinning any yarn is called "Fluff On Fluff". This is where you overlap one fluffy end with another fluffy end, draft it to be the correct amount of fiber for your established size of yarn, add some twist and an invisible join occurs (if you did it well! Practice makes perfect!). The second photo from the top shows a fluffy end on the takli's singles and a fluffy end on the ball. If it's not fluffy, you can always make it fluffy with your fingers.

The third photo from the top shows this join after I inserted a bit of twist by twiddling the takli. The bottom photo shows the finished join. It's wise to do a test by gently tugging on the yarn, holding one hand near the ball and the other near the takli. If you feel slippage, it's not a stable join. Add more twist with a twiddle or more, in that case.

Can you envision a REALLY BIG BALL from unloading the singles after filling your takli several times? A great lazy-kate-of-sorts, that will keep the cat ball from travelling when plying, is an upside-down clay, flower pot. Bring the singles through the hole in the pot's bottom (now on top), and Navajo ply it with a larger spindle or at your wheel. You could use your takli to ply, but there's not much room on it, so a larger spindle is more practical. You could fill two balls and pop each under its own flower pot, and 2-ply to your heart's content. More plies? More balls and pots....

I love takli spinning because it's the ultimate spindle for portability. I can put a small tin holding my takli and fiber in my purse for spinning anywhere & anytime I choose. That said, I generally save the plying for home. As a passenger in a car, I can spin on my takli as long as I do a more vertical style of drafting. Chris definitely appreciates it when I don't hit him in the face with my drafting hand as he's driving Ms. Jenny.

Detroit Tigers Win American League Pennant!!!

I'd like to interrupt the regularly scheduled spinning, natural dyeing and knitting blogging to say that THE DETROIT TIGERS WON THE PENNANT!!! As I said in a prior post, once a Detroit sports fan, always a Detroit sports fan.

An e-mail came in today from my brother, Bob saying, "We arrived in Detroit last Wednesday. We are really enjoying the excitement the Tigers are bringing back to this city. The town is pumped up after winning last night to clinch the American League Pennant. The World Series starts next Saturday and they are playing like they are destined to win it all."

Bob goes on to say, "Will be coming back here on the 25th and taking in the World Series. This time we will be staying at a hotel in Greektown until the 30th. We hope to be celebrating a World Series Championship! Its been 22 long years since the last one. Its great for a city and its people that have been down for so long. I have been thinking of Dad quite a bit while taking this all in, how I wish he could be here with us....but I know he is here in my memory and my heart...".

Please note that the spider did not rub it in to her NYC friends that the Tigers beat the Yankees. But if the Mets end up playing us for the World Series, look out.... Even sweeter if it turns out to be St. Louis, because we beat the pants off them in the '68 World Series - that I remember as if it were yesterday. Back then, the nuns brought televisions right into our grade school classrooms and let us watch the games during school time. Cool, eh? How can the Tigers lose - with my Dad as their official, head cheerleader?! GO TIGERS!!!

Spinning On A Takli

I've been toting around a small basket lately, holding my Clemes cotton handcarders, a bag of solar, cochineal dyed, "silk/cotton fibre blend", a small metal box with a takli spindle tucked inside and a felt ball. I bought the fiber from the Canadian company, Treenway Silks. The fiber is 55% silk and 45% cotton, with the silk cut (by the company) to the same length as the cotton's short staple (about 1/2" to 3/4"). The top photo shows some of the fiber, after it was dyed and dried, pictured with a brass takli, an Indian-style supported spindle. My takli shown was actually made in Arizona and spins great.

I solar mordanted the silk/cotton top with Earthues products. The process I used involved three steps: 1) using the "scour" product Earthues sells; 2) using soda ash; 3) using alum acetate as mordant. For more on this I refer you to their website and Michele Wipplinger's booklet, "Natural Dye Instruction Booklet". This is the mordant process of choice for plant fibers and works great for bast fibers, rayon and Tencel, too. The silk is a protein fiber, that is also part of the blend I was dyeing, and I had to be careful not to use too much soda ash as it has a tendency to damage the silk's luster. By using this three-step process, I achieved vibrant color, rather than wishy-washy color. Of course I did have to use enough cochineal extract, also from Earthues, to dye the fiber "dark" (again, see Michele's "Natural Dye Instruction Booklet" for recipes).

Once dyed, I found the silk/cotton blend didn't want to spin too nicely from the end. What I did find was that it spun great once I carded it into punis - here we go with punis again....I refer you to the past posts, Making Punis and More on Punis (as if you didn't get enough...)

Remember that a takli is a supported spindle. This means that it's not generally used by spinning freely whilst hanging in mid-air, but rather is supported on your lap (jeans make this more comfortable), in a little bowl (a coconut half works great) or on a table, as it's being spun. The takli is a small spindle and suited for spinning fine yarns and works particularly great when spinning short-fibered, fine yarns.

To begin, I needed to spin a leader from the silk/cotton fiber. I could have put a separate leader on using something fine, like crochet cotton or even thread, but there's not much room to store yarn on a takli in the first place & I didn't want to take any of that room up with a separate leader - and so I began by spinning the silk/cotton immediately. The second from top photo shows how I caught some fibers from the end of a puni under the hook. Then, I twiddled the takli - the oh, so technical term for twirling the spindle by flicking between the thumb, pointer and middle fingers, as I drafted fiber slowly away from the hook's end, inserting twist and strength into the fiber, making it yarn (albeit fine yarn).

See the third photo from the top for the next step. Once I'd spun a length of yarn about 1 foot long, I carefully took the yarn off the hook (don't let go of the yarn!) - holding onto the end of yarn still attached to the puni with one hand and the end of yarn just removed from the hook with the other hand. Take the yarn just off the hook and put it up next to the shaft of the takli (I admit, a little spit helps), now set down on its side, just above the whorl (little, brass, circular disc). This is fiddly, but carefully roll the yarn onto the shaft, as firmly as you can, so it holds. Once the yarn is on the shaft securely, candy-cane the rest of the yarn up the shaft. I do like to candy-cane by turning the spindle clockwise - but it really doesn't matter, just as long as you remain consistent on which direction you turn the spindle to store the (singles) yarn.

The fifth photo from the top shows how I was taught to "collar" the yarn, just after candy-caning up the shaft, at the base of the hook. By collaring, or going around once or twice at this point, you keep the yarn on the shaft secure and free from undoing itself. After collaring, turn the shaft clockwise and catch the yarn under the hook, ready to spin some yarn. Be sure to leave a small length of yarn (about 1 1/2" to 2" or so) above the hook to make twiddling easier.

To spin, here's the steps:
1) Flick the takli between your thumb, pointer & middle fingers. It's a flicking motion where these fingers generally flick just a bit below the hook. See bottom photo for about where to flick.
2) See the photo that's 4th from the top for how the thumb and middle finger circles the takli immediately after flicking, so that the takli can spin freely, but is cradled in the crook of your middle finger as it's doing so.
3) Draft the fiber, making yarn with the twist you just put into the fiber from twiddling. Note that you need to hold the puni and draft at about a 45-ish degree angle off the hook (ie. not straight up from the hook and not at a 90 degree angle either). The bottom photo shows this angle correctly.

The rhythm is of takli spinning is: Flick and circle, draft. Flick and circle, draft.... the steps becoming fluid, melding into each other, as you practice.

Once you spin an arm's length or so, extra twist must be added to the yarn to make it stable (not pull apart). I often put in about 6 extra twiddles over the length of yarn. Then I tug gently at each end of the yarn to see if I feel slipping fibers. If I do, I add another twiddle or more of twist.

One helpful tip I can give is that a "roll back"- rolling the yarn in the opposite direction of the twist (usually done at the point of contact), works well if your fiber supply gets locked and you can't draft. When using a takli, you can roll back just above the hook, if needed, 'til the fibers start to slip again and proceed with your drafting and spinning.

When your arm's length of yarn has enough twist in it, bring the yarn out from under the hook and unwind the candy caned shaft until you are just above the whorl. Store the spun yarn in a cone shape (called a cop) above the whorl. Allow for enough yarn to candy cane back up the shaft, collar and go under the hook and spin some more!

Next post I'll show you what the felted ball I keep in my basket is for.

Leslie - Knitter, Spinner, Solar Dyer & Friend

I've been so looking forward to putting this post up. My delightful friend, Leslie, is a very private person and I respect that. It's an honor that she's allowed me to share her work with you. She's wonderfully down-to-earth, very kind and oh-so-talented.

Let's begin with a brief bio:
Leslie is a librarian who lives in Wardsboro, Vermont with her husband, John. Together, they built their incredible, reproduction, Cape Cod house and barn over the course of 10 years (1996-present). Note from the spider: I've seen Leslie's home and I can't begin to tell you how jaw-droppingly beautiful it is - down to every last 1700's-inspired detail.

Leslie said, "I learned to knit almost 25 years ago from a co-worker at Brown University. I learned to spin in May of 2003 at Harrisville Designs in Harrisville, New Hampshire. My teacher, mentor and friend was/is Jenny."

Pictured above are photos taken at a picnic lunch on the side of Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro, Vermont. The lavender colored mittens are called "Puff Mittens," named after a cat belonging to Joyce, a friend of Leslie's. The Puff Mittens, a gift to Joyce, are handspun from a drumcarded blend of Corriedale wool, Puff and some angora rabbit. She spun the singles and Navajo 3-plied it on her Ashford Traditional wheel. The yarn was solar dyed using the Terry's Tub method, see Solar Dyed Silk for more on using Terry's Tubs. I began mordanting on July 2nd and took it out July 10th (note: How long to solar mordant/dye something depends on what sun/heat is available - it's up to the dyer to judge what time is needed). Leslie then solar dyed the yarn in madder root for one week. Leslie says, "I had too much yarn for the amount of madder and it wasn't a color I cared for. I took two, small samples of the yarn and solar overdyed it with Lac and Logwood purple extracts." Leslie decided to go just with the Logwood purple, knowing that Joyce has two jackets, one tan and one green, and that this purplish colored mitt would look great with either jacket. The final, solar dyeing of Puff's yarn in Logwood purple extract was left for a week in Terry's tub, then rinsed.

Leslie said, "After swatching, I liked the gauge on size 7 needles and knit up the mittens with my trusty Penny Straker pattern. I gave the mittens to Joyce on September 24, 2006. Joyce is thrilled that Puff is in her mittens! Then I asked for the mittens back from Joyce so that Jenny could take a picture."

The shawl Leslie is modelling for us was knit from two cones of mohair that she was given. Leslie explains, "Sometime during the past year or so I read "Knitting Around" by Elizabeth Zimmermann, Schoolhouse Press, Wisconsin, 1989. I loved every story, every pattern, every word! Then, early this spring when I was gifted the reddish-brown mohair yarn, I knew that I would knit the "Pie Are Square Shawl" from "Knitting Around". I also wanted to do I-cord since I had never done that before either. So, I put the two together (shawl pattern + I-cord) in my project! I made a length of I-cord and used it as my cast-on as EZ instructed (there is a neat I-cord swatch to make on page 56). I saved three stitches on each end in order to have built in I-cord on the edges and finished by casting off in I-cord. What fun! It was all done with no other border to knit and the edge is firm, just as I wanted it. I modified the shawl slightly by making the yarnover holes the entire width of the shawl and not just between the vertical increase lines across the back. The shawl feels so lovely and warm. I wear it when I get up in the morning, reading in my chair, drinking my coffee, before I have to get ready for work".

The lace socks pictured were featured in the "Sun-Kissed Dyeing" article in Spin-Off, Summer, 2005. They are hand spindle-spun, four-ply, from Australian Merino top. Leslie solar dyed the yarn with tomato vines, then overdyed it with Goldenrod.

The turquoise socks, with multicolored heels and toes, were knit from a commercial, wool yarn that Leslie solar dyed with weak acid dyes. She used EZ's "Afterthought Heel," from "Knitting Without Tears," Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, 1971. Leslie was intrigued with this sock heel because EZ said the heel was actually made the same as a toe - and it was!

The lacy socks still on needles presented a dilemma which is being worked out as I write this. Leslie had solar dyed the yarn, with I believe, acorns (right, Leslie?) I can't remember if the yarn is handspun or not, but she'll surely let us know. Anyways, she ran out of yarn before finished, as you see pictured. What to do? Geez, how many of us have found ourselves in this same situation?!! We'll have to find out what Leslie decided to do......

Thank you, Leslie - for sharing some of your wonderful work with us and for all your great commenting on this blog. Readers are missing out if they don't occasionally check the comment sections because Leslie & others often pose excellent questions that are getting discussed back and forth right in the pop-up, comment square. Please be a commenter, too - won't you?

I Love Halloween

There is no holiday that I look more forward to than Halloween. I always feel so sorry for folks who "don't get it." For me, Halloween is ageless and makes me feel ageless when I take part in it. Some of my favorite childhood memories come from my trick-or-treating days and thankfully continued when my boys followed suit. I would have been appalled if my guys, Chris included, didn't love Halloween as much as I do - I'd have to disown them or something.

When I was a kid in Detroit, circa 1960's, Halloween was in its glory days there. Our lower to middle class, east side, Detroit neighborhood had houses that were decorated to the hilt for the holiday. Jack-O-Lanterns glowed with ghoulish faces and many windows were decorated with homemade paper witches, ghosts and goblins. We kids always loved it when folks went out of their way to set up graveyards in front of their home or invited us into their front room, set up like a morgue, eery music playing on the phonograph, with the adults dressed up as Morticia, Count Dracula or perhaps, a Werewolf.

You could go out just as it was turning dark, run as fast as you could to each house to gather your loot, and come in as late as 9:30 pm or even 10:00 pm - if you found folks still had candy left and their porch lights on. It wasn't until I started to get a little too old to trick-or-treat that fear had crept into the Detroit neighborhoods - in the form of razor blades in apples, poison/drugs in candy and the like. This was a tragedy of tragedies in that it stole all the fun from the youth. I doubt that neighborhoods such as mine ever recovered enough to celebrate Halloween like it should be.

To truly experience Halloween, I feel you have to be childlike enough to want to dress up. This was something my girlfriends in Detroit - Candy and Noreen - and I did all year round. We used to love going to Candy's house and don Candy's mother's 50's party dresses, dance to music by the Monkees, and have a jolly ol' time. See photo of Candy and I in her mother's dresses and shoes. Note my very fashionable tiara. See also Candy and I, a bit older - she as a hippie and me as a Colonial dame. My costume was sewn by my Ma, who also styled the ringlet curls of my hair and if I remember correctly, had a heavy hand with the brush...ouch!

For an earlier photo, check out me as a nun (costume again by Ma). I'm the one in the black habit with white headcovering, complete with white rosary. And later, there I am as a Pilgrim (yes, Ma came to the rescue again as seamstress).

Later photos include the trio: David as Frankenstein, Alexander as Dracula and me as a witch (sorry for the blurry photo - it's the best I had). Then, there's a picture of David in a Viking hat, his foot in an oatmeal box, carrying a bionic arm and hand (note his too-big, hand knitted slippers). A photo of Alexander in the knitted tiger suit that was originally made for David (see Happy Blogiversary "Spinning Spider Jenny"! for more on that), sitting next to David, an alien. Alexander (much older) as a baseball, wearing his Uncle Bob's old baseball uniform. Alexander with pumpkins, a week or so after Halloween in Canada (Toronto, Canada being about the only place we ever lived that came close to Detroit's Halloween in the 60's), wearing a checkerboard hand knitted hat from "Fox & Geese & Fences - A Collection of Traditional Maine Mittens" by Robin Hansen, Down East Books, Maine, 1983. And finally, there's Chris as Zorro.

I'll finish with a college Halloween story, circa 1970's. The dorm I was living in at the University of Detroit was planning a Halloween party. I borrowed clothing and shoes from my friend, Annie, in order to be a hooker. We laughed about what that said about her wardrobe and my choice to represent the oldest profession. Annie, on the other hand, put together an elaborate costume for herself as a human, Crayola crayon, complete with a stiff, wrapped, cardboard body and a pointy crayon head. On the night of the party, much dancing was going on. If there were any prizes (and I can't remember if there were) Annie would have won, hands down. But crayons and dancing don't mix. Whore outfits and dancing do mix - especially when one is doing dances like the down-and-dirty "Freaky Deaky". Who do you think had a better time that evening?

I'm so hopelessly Halloween.

Blogger Bingo!

Want to let folks who have chosen to play Blogger Bingo at Rhinebeck know that I'm a square for Saturday. "It's hip to be a square," so sang the Sesame Street Muppets from when my boys were glued to their every word. Looking forward to meeting you "players" and all my other friends-in-fiber who are going. Elizabeth will be "Driving Ms. Jenny" and we can't wait for our day together. Thank you Ms. E for making this trip possible. Thank you, Debbie for offering such a neat bingo game. Am planning on attending the blogger get-together, too. See you there soon!

My Dye Studio

When we moved into our present home in rural, southern Vermont, Chris winked at me as we viewed the attached garage. I remember looking at him puzzled, wondering what he had up his sleeves. He said that this was where I would have my studio. I admit, I didn't see the same vision he had. The garage was - well, a garage. It had no heat and no adequate lighting. I could picture myself freezing in there in winter, even if I'd be up to my ears in wool. What it did have was a new, refrigerator/freezer which the prior renter didn't want to take with him. Hmm, perhaps I wouldn't have to take up room in our food fridge any more with bags of dyeplants and jars of dye liquor....I was beginning to see the light. See photo for my highly adorned fridge.

About that time I was co-owner of "The Copper Moth," a business that naturally dyed silk, silk blends and other fibers for a hand spinning clientele. Prior to my studio, I did most of my dyeing outdoors on two, propane, turkey fryer set-ups and hot plates. Problems arose when winter came as it was beastly to tend pots outdoors, not to mention being far from fuel-efficient since it took longer to bring the pots up to temperature. I never wanted to go the route of dyeing in my kitchen, due to safety concerns of mixing dyeing with food preparation. Time to equip my studio garage.

The first thing we spent $ on was a propane, space heater. This was important if I was to store my fiber arts books in the studio. See one of the above photos for some of my books. The heater installation insured my library wouldn't get ruined with mold or mildew.

Next came the task of looking for a propane, cooktop stove. I checked out shops that had dented goods, but nothing looked very promising, so we ended up with a new, simple version that didn't have any bells or whistles. I told the salesman that I needed an exhaust fan to use over my stove, but it had to have plenty of power to pull dye fumes out. A photo above shows the industrial strength hood we ended up with, and I've been very pleased with our choice (it's a Broan).

We hired a friend to make no-frills cabinetry to house the stove top and a sink. I wanted the stove low, knowing I'd be hauling heavy dyepots to sit on top of it. The sink itself was bought for a song at "Twice Blessed" - Wilminton, VT's fantastic store of used goods. Someday I may have a real, running-water-faucet for my sink, but the poor woman's version is as shown: a garden hose that runs through a hole in the wall of the studio, under the stairs in the foyer, to the well's pump. At first Chris said, upon seeing the hose along the side of one of our foyer's wall, "It looks like we live in a damn barn!". He got used to it however, as he has with every "home improvement" addition my fiber work has introduced. The sink's pipes head out to a gravelly area on the side of the house, which has worked out pretty well since I don't let alot of waste water escape anyways and none of it is toxic.

Finally, pictured is the table that houses my imported dyestuffs (ie. Earthues and others). The table also is home to my very important dye box. This box was made after a long-ago e-mail chat with Wendy Bateman, my main fiber arts mentor in Canada. It is used as a safety precaution against inhaling dyes/mordants/assists in their most unhealthy form - powders. The box is cardboard, with a plastic bin that fits in the bottom. There are holes on the side of the box that accomodate my arms. A clear, removable, plexiglass sheet tops off the box. A stack of newspaper lines the bottom of the plastic bin. To use the box, I first spritz the top layer of newspaper with water. The damp paper will act like a magnet to attract any stray dye particles that are floating around. After donning a facial respirator fitted with the proper filters and my trusty dye gloves, I put into the box what is necessary to mix powders with water: measuring spoons, dye/mordant/assist powders/crystals, stirring sticks, a piece or two of paper towelling to wipe spoons and such & a jar with some water of the appropriate amount and temp for the dye I'm about to mix. I put the plexiglass top on, which I can see through, slip my arms through the holes, and accomplish all my mixing within the dye box. Simple and much safer than doing this out in the open. Clean-up includes folding up the damp newspaper in the box and throwing it away.

Improvements down the line to my studio will include track lighting, perhaps nicer flooring that's still easy to clean up spills and the like, windows with a view and a proper, cheery, paint job for the walls. Also, when Chris and I find our "nest" empty once Alexander moves on, I'll move my loom, drum carder and the spinning wheels (that take up ALOT of space in our living room, says Chris) to Alex's old bedroom. Yes, I'm planning on making his room a second, "dry" (not dyeing), studio. Rather grand plans, don't ya think? No hurry tho' - my situation as a fiber artist is better than it's ever been and I'm content, for now, as it is.

Autumn Dye Garden

Today Chris and I had to travel to Pittsfield, MA to get my packed and sealed boxes of SOAR class materials to a FedEx site that would get the boxes to CA in time for the conference. One simply has to drive quite a ways to get anywhere if your residence is in Vermont. We accept this fact and decided to make a day of it, since Chris wasn't due back to teach until tomorrow.

On the way home, in addition to the necessary diner stop for a turkey reuben and fries, we pulled in at a garden center that promised good pickings of pumpkins and Indian corn. Shown in a photo are the three pumpkins we adopted. Imperative to our pumpkins are curved, personality-laden, stems. Can you imagine my gasp as the clerk who rang up our pumpkins picked one up by the stem to weigh it? She could have broken off the stem!!! That's akin to picking up a spinning wheel by the wheel - it's just NOT done! It's a pumpkin-lover's rule and please don't ever forget it. She looked at me like I lost it - my mind, I mean - especially after I tried to explain why not to do this. Chris just rolled his eyes.... I'm just a little bit Halloween crazy - that's all. It happens every year.

Because of all the rain we had earlier in the summer, my personal, pumpkin vines got hit with powdery mildew, as did everyone else's in our surrounding area that I talked to. One pumpkin - the only bloody pumpkin - on my vine grew to the size of a fat cucumber and has stayed green. I don't like to give up on things, but I think I have to throw the towel in on this one. Thank goodness somebody's pumpkins grew in their patch or we wouldn't have anything to carve for Halloween, not to mention there would have been no fresh pumpkin seeds to roast in butter, top with salt and devour. That would have been a sad situation, indeed. Have you all roasted your own pumpkin seeds? Oosh! If not - here's a simple recipe from my friend, Pat:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Remove seeds from pumpkin(s) and wash off pumpkin innards. Drain excess water on seeds in a colander. Melt enough butter to coat well. Pour over seeds that have been spread on a single layer baking sheet. Sprinkle on salt. Bake in a 250 degree oven. This takes a couple of hours. Stir occasionally.

I have noticed that the majority of the foods I most love in life are simple & involve salt and butter. These pumpkin seeds are particularly delicious if eaten when still warm.

Another photo above shows the remnants of my large, front, rock garden. This is where I have the majority of my dye plants. This year the dye plants included Marigolds, Dyer's Cosmos, Dyer's Broom, Weld and Black-eyed Susans and Elecampane (root said to give blue but I've not tried it yet). Other plants in that same garden include Snapdragons, Asters, Lavender, Viper's Bugloss, Valerian, Petunias, Lemon Catnip, Lemon Balm, Feverfew, Peonies, Zinnias, an Obedience plant, Canterbury Bells, Bee Balm, Geranium, Columbine, Sweet Peas, Violas, Joe Pye Weed, Nasturtiums, Dianthus, Daisies and more. About 90% of my plants were grown from seeds by me. As I've mentioned in a previous post, I love growing and tending seedlings. Much of the flowers from the dye plants have already been stored in my studio freezer for dyeing this winter or for class use.

The top photo shows my "living wreath" this year before two nights of hard frosts attacked the Coleus and shrivelled them mercilessly. I did manage to save the Johnny Jump-Ups from the wreath and planted them in the rock garden among the Peonies. I love this wreath, made of two pieces of wire framing, in which you put moss as a liner to sandwich the soil within. Every year I try some new configuration of plants. I kind of liked how the coleus grew rather large and made it hard to even distinguish the wreath shape.

Tomorrow I'll take you into my garage studio and show you my dye set-up. It's not particularly pretty but it allows me to get the job done.

SOAR Preparations

Happy Columbus Day! To all Canadians, Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope everyone got to enjoy the same superb weather we've been blessed with here in southern Vermont this weekend. It's been extraordinarily warm and sunny, with the sun's rays making the orange, red and yellow leaves glisten like jewels. Chris and I played hooky from our usual responsibilities and ate breakfast on the bank of Lake Wilmington. There were only a few boaters and otherwise we were bathed in blissful peace. The water rippled and sparkled and as we walked along the rocky shore, we picked up a few stones that caught our fancy, to bring home to our gardens. Do you folks do this, too - bring home rocks, shells, driftwood, etc. as momentos from your excursions? It's one of those free things in life that gives me joy.

I'm pleased to say, that other than general prep reading for teaching my SOAR classes, I am ready and raring to go to CA (well, in a few weeks). I have completed the packing of two, HUGE boxes of class materials and my Lendrum wheel that will be mailed tomorrow to Granlibakken Resort - destination SOAR '06. Today I cut, sanded and waxed puni sticks, and put together some wooden, silk mawata frames for the three-day, "Silken Spinning" workshop. See photo above for a view of my meager woodworking skills as I cut the puni sticks. Note I am cutting the sticks on one of my found rocks. Another photo shows the completed sticks, ready to make punis with. Have you noticed I've been on a puni kick? See Chloe and Punis, Making Punis and More on Punis for proof of this.

A few days ago, also in preparation for teaching my SOAR workshop, I removed some merino/silk top from it's solar mordant bath. Participants in "Silken Spinning" will be, among other things, handpainting a length of this top with Earthues natural dyes. I rinsed the top once to remove any alum particles that didn't adhere and were uselessly floating on the surface of the top. I put the top in big, mesh bags that were bought in the sports equipment department of a Woolworth's store, years ago when we lived in Bennington, Vermont in the mid-80's. The rinse water was spun out of the top in my washing machine and set it to dry on my handy-dandy, drying rack. See Drying Rack Lowdown for more on that set-up. Photos above show some of this process, including a shot of me putting the spent alum bath on the ground by my blueberry bushes, which thanked me profusely for such attention.

I have been often asked how to keep commercial, wool & wool blend spinning preps (ie. roving/sliver, top) from felting after they go through the steps of pre-mordanting, natural dyeing, rinsing and drying? My answer to this is, "I prefer to stick to naturally dyeing commercial top (instead of roving/sliver)". Since the short fibers are removed when top is commercially made, there are no short fibers to cause the felting havoc that occurs when using roving/sliver. That said, you still have to guard against excessive agitation of the fibers and avoid any radical, water temperature changes. As the top is drying, I don't putz with it. I leave it to dry thoroughly before any predrafting is even thought of, let alone done.

I'll finish this post with the only Columbus Day story I can think of. When I was in third grade we had to print, on large, lined paper, our version of the life of Christopher Columbus. When it was time to hand the story in, we were asked to pass our paper to the person in the desk in front of us, and continue 'til all the papers were at the front desks. Somewhere between when I gave my paper to the kid in front of me and when it reached the front, a boy had erased my name and replaced it with his. 'course, I had no idea that this had been done - at least not yet. Prior to the graded papers being passed back to us, I was called to the teacher's front desk. She asked why I didn't write a paper? I said I did. We looked through the pile of papers and I spotted mine, but not with my name on it. On closer inspection, the boy hadn't erased all too well and my name appeared ghost-like, peeking out from under his. Next thing you know I was asked to sit back down and watched, along with my classmates, as one of the boys turned the most brilliant shade of red. No moral of the story except - if you're gonna do it, at least take the time to do a proper erase job.

A Spinning Conversation and SOAR

Yesterday I received a phone call from Leslie. Among other things she told me of a conversation she recently had with a 17 year old gal, Gabby, whom Leslie had been teaching to spin. Gabby, already a seasoned knitter and hankering for owning her own wheel, asked, "What's the worst thing one could do to a wheel?" Gabby asked this question as she was spinning on one of Leslie's wheels. Leslie teasingly asked, "What are you planning to do to my wheel?" Then Leslie said, "That's a really good question, especially coming from a beginning spinner."

Leslie answered Gabby, "The worst you could do to a spinning wheel is:

1) Not to oil the wheel. Spinning wheels are machines and this would be akin to not changing nor putting oil in a car.
2) Pick the spinning wheel up by the wheel. Leslie had seen this done over and over by folks, knowing that the better choice is to pick your spinning wheel up by the more stable "bench" or wheel uprights. Picking the spinning wheel up by the wheel is simply asking for trouble.

I thought about Leslie's excellent response to Gabby and felt it was something both newbie and seasoned spinners would benefit from. Thank you, Leslie, for letting me share it with the spider's readers.

This conversation got me thinking about similar ones I've had as an instructor with my students. A question that comes up frequently is, "Am I spinning this fiber wrong?," or even more general, "Am I doing this wrong?" I often find myself answering in this way, "There is no one right way to do something.
If you're achieving success (ie. you like and enjoy what your producing and it works in the situation you want it to) then that is right for you. Consider running or at least carefully backing away from the instructor who says you MUST do something their way or that there's only one way (or the highway)". As an instructor myself, I like to show students a variety of techniques, so that they can pull these out of the hat to see if any of them work for them in a particular situation they find themselves in. The more techniques a spinner/knitter has in their arsenal to choose from, the more chance they'll find the technique that pleases them and produces the results there looking for.

I think the only two, general, wrong things a spinner can do that's truly harmful is:
1) Mistreat your own body. (ie. not stopping when whatever you're doing is hurting you.)
2) Mistreat your equipment.

As a spinning instructor I constantly learn from my own students. Often I see someone doing something in a way I hadn't considered before and I'm intrigued that what they're doing is working for them. This information adds to my arsenal of technique. I wouldn't enjoy spinning myself if I didn't know I could continue growing as a fiber artist and instructor.

In a few weeks I'll be boarding a plane to California to teach for the first time at SOAR. SOAR is short for the annual "Spin Off Autumn Retreat," sponsored by Interweave Press and Spin Off magazine. I was able to attend SOAR myself - once - as a scholarship recipient and have been proud to be on the committee to choose SOAR scholarship recipients for the last few years. I had been a vendor at SOAR twice, as past co-owner of "The Copper Moth," a company specializing in naturally dyed fibers for hand spinners. I've been blessed to be able to teach spinning and dyeing quite a long time at a variety of wonderful venues, but teaching at SOAR was a goal I had set for myself many years ago, and that goal's about to be realized. It'll be a welcome pleasure to tick this off on my life's "to do" list.

I look forward to meeting and spending time with my "Silken Spinning" workshop students (a full class - 15!) and all who pick my "New Wave Fiber Sampler" class as one of their four choices at the retreat.
An added treat for me is that we'll all be spending Halloween together - my absolute, all-time, favorite holiday (expect me to be a bit giddy on that day). Until then, I best finish packing the myriad of stuff that I have to mail for my SOAR classes....

Alexander's Blankie

Why would the spider devote an entire post to a blankie? I'll answer my own question with another question. What was the most important possession of my youngest son, Alexander, in his early years (and not-so-early-years)? His blankie. And not just any blankie - it was a blankie hand knitted by me.

My oldest son, David, didn't have a loved blankie. Instead, he had a Cabbage Patch doll, named Horace, that my own Ma gifted him. In fact, I don't think I ever knitted a blankie for David, which seems kind of weird to me now. I did knit Horace a jaunty, circular sweater, with a purled star on the front, a hemmed boat neckline and with Horace's name knit into the lower hem. David loved that! And David received several, hand knit sweaters, caps and mitts as he was growing up - so he was anything but forgotten when I knitted. No poor, poor, pitiful David was he!

By the time I knew I was pregnant with my second child, however, a blankie not only had been planned but it was finished prior to us even knowing if he was a girl or boy. I used a variation of a feather and fan pattern out of the old magazine, "Knitting World"? Anyone remember that magazine? It looked kind of dowdy with a quick, flip through, but on further investigation, it held all sorts of knitting gems. I liked it so much that I had a subscription from about 1981 right up to the time it folded. I even ordered the back issues from the late 70's. That was the first magazine I ever wrote for (something like circa 1983), and they paid me about $50, but alas, my article was never printed despite the fact that they bought it.

Alexander's first blankie was knit from a medium blue, jumper weight, Shetland wool yarn that I sent for from Schoolhouse Press . I ordered enough wool to make other baby accessories, too, such as booties and a hat. I can remember knitting the hat in my hospital bed on the evening before I was to give birth (I had two C-sections with my boys - the first an emergency and the second was scheduled).

Three of the photos above show Alexander with the original, blue blankie. He used to take a corner in his fist and suck the thumb of the same fist. Given this treatment, the corners of the blankie are what started to wear out first. We would knot the corners to hold them together and call them the "blankie ears".

One awful day Alexander lost his blankie. By that time I doubt anyone would have even recognized it as a blankie because the whole thing was a jumble of knots. You would have thought Alexander was dieing. He wailed and wouldn't be consoled. We figured he dropped it at the grocery store and made a call to see if it was turned in. It never was returned and the only thing I have left of the original blankie was some knotted "ears" that had fallen off the main blanket completely. I have the ears tucked away to give to Alexander when he heads out on his own someday. Perhaps he'll frame them or something.

Alexander was still a little guy and grieving that he had no comforting blankie so I started knitting with leftover balls of various colored Shetland wool to make a replacement of sorts. I knitted it in stripes with seed stitch and I can still remember how bloody long it took to even knit an inch's worth. Seed stitch is one of my favorite stitches but it's time consuming when knit with relatively small needles and yarn. I think that's because there's alot of finger action going from the knit to the purl constantly.

When the pseudo blankie was about as big as a table mat, I said, "Enough is enough," and gave it to him. What is left of blankie #2 is shown, knots and all, being "stolen" by Al (Aloysius), then a kitten. Al absconded with it from under Alexander's pillow. Since Alexander is now 19 and Al isn't all that old, it's best not to do the math regarding how long the blankie was still kept under his pillow.

Yesterday, Alexander and his girlfriend, Courtney, were getting something to eat while I was in the kitchen. I said I was going to do a "blankie" post on the blog. Courtney said, "Oh, I used my blankie until I was 13 or so." I said, "Alexander was alot older than that - maybe 15 (or more)". Courtney thought that was darling. 'course Alexander got all defensive about this and tried to change the subject by being rude to me. This morning, as he was leaving for work at the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum, he said, "Really Ma, I was alot younger than 15." Yeah right, Alexander. Sure.

Seriously, what could be better and give more pleasure to a child than a hand knitted blankie? I hereby suggest that you go forth and knit a child a blankie - the rewards for both of you are priceless.

The River Spinners

Last evening I attended the October "business" meeting of the River Spinners in Brattleboro, VT. For several years I couldn't make it to the guild meetings and this had saddened me. I'm so tickled to be able to spend time with this group of talented fiberists once again.

Because my family only has one car and that was being driven by my husband to his place of work, I must take public transportation to get me to spinning guild. Even though guild is in the evening, I have to leave when the bus schedule dictates and that's 7:45 am. That said, it's a day-long commitment to get to spinning guild for the spider!

I board the "Moo-ver" (no joke!) bus that I pick up at the general store in Whitingham - the little, rural town I live in. The store is about a 5 minute, brisk walk from my home. The Moo-ver is a bus, painted like a white cow with black spots, which provides free, public transportation in the Deerfield Valley and now, thankfully, beyond to Brattleboro, my destination.

Brattleboro is a very hip, artsy and progressive Vermont town that I had lived in for about 5 years after our move from Toronto in the 90's. Once in Bratt, I headed over to the The Brattleboro Food Co-op , which is nothing short of an institution. This is one of the coolest Co-ops one could ever hope to be in and not to be missed if you're in the area. I made a bee-line over to get a cup of hot, fresh, ginger tea, to which I like to add a dash of hot, apple cider for zest, picked a bag of vinegar and salt potato chips, paid for my booty and settled in to a chair in the cafe area to enjoy my breakfast. Remember, I'm a potato freak - see You Say Potato -- I Say Potaaaahto for more about that - and potato freaks can eat potatoes of any type for any meal.

Next I headed over to Brooks Memorial Library and found a carrel on the second floor. In a few hours I was scheduled to have lunch with my friend and fellow River Spinner member, Leslie - who also happens to be a librarian of long-standing. But until lunch, I read all of the book (it's smallish), "Silk," by Alessandro Baricco, Vintage Books, NY, 1997. I had earlier bought some books with silk spinning as a literal focus or at least intertwined in a plot. I brought two of them with me to the library in order to "get in the mood" for teaching my upcoming "Silken Spinning" class at SOAR in CA. "Silk," the book, is a love story set in France and Japan in the mid-1800's. It is quite lovely and rather steamy in the erotic sense. After finishing and a bit of fanning myself, I plunged into "Women of the Silk," by Gail Tsukiyama, St. Martin's Press, NY, 1991. I only read a few chapters of this book, but it, too, promises to be a good read. Set in China in the early 1900's, it centers around the lives of the girls who were sent to work at a silk spinning factory as a way to earn money for their poor families and themselves. The characters tug at one's heart, being lovingly portrayed and memorable, and I can't wait for a quiet moment to delve into the next chapter....

Soon Leslie appeared by my side and we made our way out into the welcome, warm sunshine on the side of the library. We sat on a crocheted afghan made by one of Leslie's husband's family members and dug into our lunch (Leslie brought a sandwich from home and I had picked up vegetarian sushi at the Co-op), which wasn't easy because we were chatting non-stop. Leslie had brought out several bags that I knew held spinning and knitting show-and-tell treasures. You see, unfortunately Leslie wasn't going to be able to go to that night's spinning guild meeting, so I was lucky enough to have a "private showing". Well, it won't be so private because in a future post I'll feature Leslie and some of her work, which she's kindly agreed to. After lunch I left with some of Leslie's garden, homegrown tomatoes, some "hot flash relief" tea and a piece of her homemade cake. Whoosh!

Next I strolled down Main Street Brattleboro and headed over to the old electric building on Arch Street that once was our loft home, as well as being home to other interesting folks and a marionette theater. See more about the loft in Chloe and Punis. I had run into Terri at the Co-op earlier, our former neighbor and artist (she's painted many murals in Brattleboro), who invited me to come by her place in the electric building and see Bart and Spook, kitties both, and Barney, a gentle, black Lab. Bart and I had a special relationship due to the fact that one time Terri was frantic because she thought he fell into the Whetstone Brook, adjacent to our building. In the pouring rain, I went out searching for him - it was quite a to-do. Thankfully it turned out he was under or behind an old, low couch the whole time - good ol' boy, Bart! What a crazy character of a cat he is. You can see Bart and Terri in one of the above photos. True to his nature, we had to get Bart out from behind the same couch to snap this shot. I shared with Terri the wealth of tomatoes and cake that Leslie gifted me earlier and headed back to the library to meet up with Elizabeth, another friend and River Spinner member.

Elizabeth is the River Spinners' "Pen" - which means she records our guild news and info. You can find this on her website, "Hemlock Haven Llama Farm". We drove to "The Marina" for dinner. The weather was still so warm and gorgeous, we chose a sunny, outside table. Elizabeth ordered nachos and I picked french fries. Yes, I know potatoes had been decidedly tipping the balance of my meals that day, but so be it. The amount of cash left in one's pockets also has a way of making you not choose the lobster dinner. We enjoyed getting caught up on each other's lives and pertinent news. Once done with our meal and finding it chilly in that the sun went down, we headed to the Brattleboro Savings and Loan on Main Street for our guild meeting.

Our meeting place is in the basement of the bank. It's really quite warm and inviting, complete with a full kitchen, especially nice for pot-lucks. The photos of guild members are as follows: At the top there's Vicky (Vicki?), in a turquoise fleece top and behind her new Ashford wheel; chatting with Kim, hands folded and wearing a black top. The single person photo is of Elizabeth, spinning on a spindle with some of her own, self-grown & harvested, newly processed, llama fiber. Next to E's photo is Bart the cat and Terri, as mentioned earlier. Knitting away is Kathleen and Pauline. Kathleen is in black, knitting a beautiful, naturally grey hat from her Shetland ram. Sitting beside Kathleen is Pauline, in turquoise, though I'm afraid I didn't catch what she was knitting. At the bottom is a photo of Elizabeth in the foreground, laughing and holding her spindle; Lisa in the striped top at her Louet wheel; and Margaret, knitting on an orangish sweater and wearing a green top in the background. More photos in the next post....

More River Spinners

Here's a few more photos from last evening's River Spinners' guild meeting. At the top you'll find, from left to right, Vicky, Kim, Maureen and Margaret (past Fearless Leader). Below that is a photo of, also l to r, Cindy, Susan, Jenna and Kathleen. In the bottom photo are Graham and Linda (Linda being our present "Fearless Leader" and Graham being the Fearless Leader's husband), plus Lisa at her wheel.

Not all of the River Spinners' members were present last night. Some have been with us from the start and others are newcomers. ALL are welcome! Soon you'll be able to find out about the River Spinners' history at Elizabeth's webpage. Margaret, one of the long-time members, informed us that she had kept all the early records of our meetings. Wow, every organization should be so lucky!!

Oh, and for the record, I took several, single shots of Maureen, but she was squawking about it so much they all looked horrible. I figured she may squawk louder if I post one, so we'll just have to schedule a personal photo shoot and devote a post in her honor soon.

Speaking of Maureen, she and I went to the Twilight Tea Lounge after guild, because I had to wait for Chris to come and pick me up. She had a pot of English Breakfast and I had the most awesome pot of decaf Assam tea. Maureen ate a chocolate-enhanced fortune cookie with a dead-on, eye-opening, fortune.
Luckily Chris figured out we were at the lounge, because I wasn't where I said I would be when we had made our plans in the wee hours of that day.

Sure did make a full day of it, eh? Can't wait 'til next time....

Nancy - PA Hand Spinner, Knitter, Dyer & Fellow Zimmermann Lover

Now that I'm a self-proclaimed, virtual whiz at linking within a post or anywhere my heart desires, today I thought I'd begin with a post to Elizabeth's site, Hemlock Haven Farm. You'll find information for the River Spinners, our spinning guild in the Brattleboro area of Vermont; Brighid's Dyers, a friendly group of solar dyeing enthusiasts; and you'll get to see some of Elizabeth's great yarn and projects.

Since I've started writing this blog (& just prior to) I've met some really neat people. Sometimes these happy encounters take place in person, such as when I get to attend fibery events in NYC. In the City I've met Chante, Regina (with a soft g) and Regina (with a hard g), Cara, Ann, Julie , Kate, Valerie, Jen, Rose, Cassie and others. Online, but not yet in person, I've met many more great folks such as Lucy, Pam and Silvia. Some who have taken classes with me are regular commenters, such as Jenny in Jersey. Liza even did a wonderful write-up on a recent class I taught at Peters Valley Craft Center. Friends that I had been out of touch with stumbled on my blog and we've become happily reunited again, such as Judy, Sadelle and Emma. It get to stay in touch with longer-time-friends such as Leslie, Elizabeth, Jenna, Maureen and Tamara. I am formally proclaiming that blogging is a real good thing. So, how's that for links? I'm a freakin, bloody, linking wonder!

I've been getting lovely e-mails from readers of the spider. They sometimes send me photos of their work.
A friend once told me that I like to "share the wealth". I've always loved enabling and promoting friends/students/nice people in general. That said, if any of you have clear photos of your handspun yarn or projects and don't mind typing how you did it, a bio of yourself and anything else you think that readers would find interesting, I'd be pleased to share it on this blog. Just send it to me at spinningjenny57@hotmail.com.

The photos you see were sent and made by Nancy in Pennsylvania. In a comment Nancy wrote, "Was reading 'Zimmermania' and saw your post to discover your blog! Last year was my first year at Meg's Camp and everything I brought for show and tell was handspun (love my spinning wheel), and I was the only one with handspun -- Pi shawl and Collie dog hat and tote bag. This year I took commercial yarn projects, kinda just to show I could!!! Prefer handspun!".

Nancy wrote, "Photos are from 2005. EZ's Pi shawl is a variety of 2-ply handspun (spun S and plied Z).
The yarns include: "Jacob (from the sheep "Sugar" and "Sweetheart" I had in Arizona), Romney ("Hugsy," my ram in AZ), Corriedale (from MN), and Shetland (from a friend's AZ flock). It was knit along with the EZasPi group. The beige hat is handspun Collie fur from "Chess," my Collie I had for 14 years. The hat is knit on size 7 and 9 circulars, based on a pattern from "Homespun, Handknit," ed. Linda Ligon, Interweave Press, Colorado, 1987. The mystery tote was a project on the knitbabysurprise group. It includes Navajo Churro, Alpaca from "Elvis", mystery AZ brown sheep, Jacob, mohair from one of my AZ vets, Romney, Corriedale and thrums for the drawstring from Spinderella in Utah. Two of the Romney yarns are dyed. The purple is black cherry Koolaid and the yellow is Queen Anne's Lace from my yard here in PA. The yellow is mordanted with alum."

Nancy also kindly sent her interesting bio:
"I emerged into a fiber-filled family in which my Swedish grandmother taught my mother to crochet. She started teaching me to crochet when I was 3. By the time I was 5, my mother's aunt taught me to crochet handkerchief edgings. My eldest paternal aunt was a master Swedish embroiderer and her aunt was also a master embroiderer in Sweden, who sent me her handiwork every birthday and Christmas. Next door, my maternal step-great great grandmother had a spinning wheel and showed me how it worked but not how to spin. (Sigh....but the urge, no the need to spin patiently awaited the opportunity out of dormancy)."

"By the time I was in junior high, tennis sweaters became popular, but we couldn't buy them. Someone had to knit them for you! My mother found a lady to teach both of us to knit. No, the tennis sweater never was made but I quickly got bored with garter stitch and stockinette afghan squares. I researched patterns of different stitches to make an afghan. Yes, it was finished! (Red Heart wool from the 1960's is everlasting!)."

"I then went on to design a knitted sheath dress for my Barbie doll. And so on.... After a period of crewel and counted cross stitch after my move to Arizona, I discovered a spinner/weaver who agreed to teach me to spin as long as I promised to spin with her in a demo booth at the Apple Fesival. Agreed! And then I found a new friend with Polypay sheep who gave me a fleece and a friend who gave me a bag of (wonderful) alpaca. Next I bought my first MN Corriedale fleece...and...and...and too much yarn to just sit there so I went back into knitting."

"Each year for six years in AZ I entered the county fair (anything knit with handspun Collie would win a blue ribbon!) and demonstrated at the Apple Festival. Then I had to return to PA for family and sold my Jacob sheep and Shetland ram. But once here in PA, I continued with internet lists and got onto the EZasPi list at the very beginning - then the knitbabysurprise group and applied to Meg's Knitting Camp. I was lucky to have been to Camp 1 in 2005 and Camp 2 in 2006. I had bought "Meg Swansen's Knitting," by Meg Swansen, Interweave Press, Colorado, 1999, when it first came out and had followed articles in various periodicals by her. But having lived mostly in the Hinterlands the majority of my life (rural southwest PA; Navajo reservation, CO; southeast AZ), it's taken the internet and Meg's camps to bring me back into the 21st century! I did bring a Great Pyrenees with me from Arizona and now have another Collie; so I do have four-legged fibers to harvest. They just don't Baa-aa-a!"

Nancy finished by saying that she has a wonderfully supportive husband who encourages her fiber habits, jaunts and journeys. Her PA car license plate says, "Knit On2".

Thank you so much, Nancy, for sharing your fiber story and photos with us. Much, much appreciated!!
Do tell us, please, what the names of your two felines with your Pi shawl are. They obviously have great taste!

A Rhinebeck & Broken Toe Story

I received an e-mail from frequent commenter and friend, Lucy, the other day.
We were discussing broken bones. I wrote her about how I broke my big toe for the first time. Yes, I broke the same toe twice, but the second time it wasn't any big deal of a story. Not so with the first break. Lucy said I should post the first broken toe story 'cause she got a kick out of it and thought you would, too.

It all began on the Friday of Rhinebeck weekend. Fiber fanatics, for those unfamiliar with our east coast jargon, affectionately call the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, simply "Rhinebeck". Just as we call the the state fiber festival in Massachusetts, "Cummington". 'course it all has to do with the location of these fests. I wonder if folks on the west coast do the same with their fiber festivals? It's something to ponder....

Anyways, that particular Friday Chris and I were to go to an evening concert at the Mahaiwe Theater in Great Barrington, MA. A much- touted, young, Russian pianist was to be the performer. Both Chris and I were looking forward to the event and our much needed "date" together.

I was getting dressed for our night out in our upstairs bedroom. The time was getting on and I needed to get going quickly or we'd miss the beginning of the show. We decided this to be a dress-up date with me wearing something fancier than my comfortable, denim overalls. I must have decided not to wear my Birkenstocks and the shoes I chose needed for me to put on nylon pantyhose. Today pantyhose are on par with wearing a girdle - I don't do either - ever - never.

Our wall-to-wall carpet in the bedroom didn't lay flat. It rippled in odd places, even tho' we'd try to squash the ripples with our feet. Rushing and standing with one pantyhose leg on and struggling to get the other on the second foot, my big toe caught one of the carpet's ripples. The toe bent back as far as it could in a direction no human toe was ever meant to go. The crack was obscenely loud. Some kind of sub-human sound came from my vocal cords and I think my heart stopped a second or two. Luckily, Chris and the kids were busy doing something downstairs and didn't hear my cry.

I realized that this was one of those "fork in the road" kinds of situations. I could take the path that led me to the hospital where they'd fix up the big toe and I'd go home to bed with my foot iced & elevated. Or, I could get the damn nylons on my legs and go to the concert. Also in the forefront of my consciousness was the fact that Rhinebeck was the following two days and if I pissed and moaned about my toe, I would miss all the fiber fun for a whole year. On the pantyhose went. On went some pointy shoes not meant for feet that wore Birkenstocks. Down the stairs I went, with a smile.

Chris knows me better than anyone in the whole world. He asked if everything was ok? "Sure," I said, in a slightly, too-high pitch. Once in the theater, we settled ourselves in our seats and took in the show. It didn't take long for my foot to throb so hard I thought everyone in the audience could feel and hear it. I slipped off the shoe for relief. At intermission, I sort of let Chris know what the deal was. He replied, "Jen, are you nuts?" I said, "Just take me to emergency after the concert. OK?"

By the time we got to the hospital, the toe was black and the foot was swollen and disgusting looking.
The doctor gave me some pain killers and I hobbled out with my foot in one of those attractive shoes that keep everything stable, toe included.

The next morning I woke early as Alexander and I were going to Rhinebeck with a friend and her boy. Chris asked, "Jen, are you nuts?" I said, "Yes, I am". Alexander is pictured in front of a sheep's pen that was taken during that visit. Note his hair, please. That was the time period he refused to go to a hair stylist and get his hair cut. He can hardly see out of his eyes, for goodness sakes. He is, however, wearing a dashing, handknit, EZ designed, yoke sweater that his Ma made.

The other photos are taken at a later date at one of our family Rhinebeck excursions. Alexander is wearing the Elizabeth Zimmermann's bog jacket that was shown in the past post, EZ's Bog Jacket & A Chinese Worker's Cap . Chris is wearing another EZ-inspired circular, raglan knit out of Icelandic Lopi yarn that was brought back from a friend who went to Iceland. I am wearing EZ's yoke-style, "Hawser Sweater," as seen in lesson one of her, "Knitting Workshop".

This week I'm heading to Brattleboro for the "River Spinners" monthly, business meeting. This is the local guild that I formed several years ago and now am happy to be able to get to meetings regularly again. I'll bring my camera and take some shots of folks in the guild. I bet you'll recognize some of the names. Wish me luck on finding a fellow fiber fanatic who's going to Rhinebeck on Saturday in a few weeks and wouldn't mind some company on the trip. If I'm successful, maybe I'll see you at the best fiber festival around....

Oh, and for the record, I broke the same toe years later by catching it on carpeting in a different house, in a different state - no pantyhose involved, however.

Write What You Know

A long time ago I either read or heard someone say, "Write what you know." I have a feeling that this may have been first said by someone famous, but have no idea who this could be? Anyone know? Hey it could have been Sister Joanna Mary. Please see my past post, Past Tense - Or Was That Future? for more info on her, if you'd like. You may just get a chuckle out of it.

I got to thinking about when I was a kid and we had to write essays for English class. Somewhere between 5th and 8th grade, our English teacher encouraged us to enter a writing contest. The theme for the essay we were to submit must address our feelings on patriotism and should include something about the flag of the United States of America. I have no idea who sponsored this contest, but apparently it was being offered to students in classrooms such as mine across the nation. The teacher made quite a big deal about it and got us all revved.

I came home clutching the instructions and rules that would insure I would follow what the sponsor of the contest wanted and not go off on some random tangent of my own doing. Now I had a pretty good idea about what patriotism was and I've never been too much at a loss for words, or so said my Ma. I wasn't too worried about sticking the flag in the essay somewhere - that would be easy enough.

I started, as I still do, when I write an article or essay - jotting down half sentences for awhile; walking away and getting something to drink; jotting a few more thoughts down; going into the kitchen for some potato chips, the Jiffy peanut butter jar and a knife to spread the peanut butter on the chips (this was my brother Bob's marvelous recipe); writing a tad more; taking a power nap.....

Sometime later I'd return to the scribblings and see if any of it made sense. Attempts would follow to make complete sentences and even paragraphs, if I was lucky. When it seemed done, I looked at it. Rather dull, I thought. Even back then I knew lackluster when I saw it. What to do?

I roamed around the house for awhile and went into my brother Bob's room. He wasn't around and technically it was off-limits from the likes of me. I saw a few scattered books among his guitar, tanning light and barbells. One book was entitled, "Thesaurus". After thumbing through it and figuring out what the book's purpose was - I went back to the drawing board that was my essay, thesaurus in tow.

I was utterly amazed as I looked through the thesaurus. Here was the answer I needed to give my patriotic, flag-laden, essay the oomph it needed. I proceeded to replace nearly every word with a BIGGER and BETTER word that I found to mean the same thing as the measly words that I had first written. Did I check these new, improved words in the dictionary just to be sure they meant the same thing? A big, fat NO is the answer to that.

Confidently, I handed my completed essay to the teacher the following day. I think I even told my parents that there was a great chance I was going to win an essay contest I had entered. Well, as I often find when I'm cocky and fall on my ass afterwards, no prizes or honorable mentions were going to be hung in my bedroom from that contest.

Can you just imagine the looks on the panel of judges as they read my loaded essay? I'll bet it went down in history. I'll bet the judges' children's children have passed on the story to this day as a warning to the kids when they write papers.

The moral: Write What You Know. And while you're at it, keep a dictionary handy and use it.

Pictured is what I know because it's a road that Chris and I often walk daily. The road and pond is only about a 3 minute jaunt from my home. It's absolutely lovely in all seasons. Breathtakingly lovely. The pond is a seasonal home to various ducks, Canadian Geese, beavers and a Great Blue Heron. Deer have often been spotted along the pond's banks. Mating moose can be heard there. I'm told bear are hanging about, too - tho' I've never seen one.

In one of the photos Chris is with our pal, Tony. He belongs to Pete, a sweet, small guy who wears a large, white, cowboy hat. Tony had just been fed an apple by Chris and was more than pleased to pose for the picture. Someday maybe I'll post a face photo of Tony rather than his rear. Geesh.

Oh, by the way, I seem to remember that I wrote a paper soon after the one previously described called, "The Arabian Scimitar". Let's just say it took me awhile to grasp the whole "Write what you know" thang.