Semi-solid roving

This is a new product as well. Medium wool, dyed in semi-solid colors. When you spin this roving, the tints and shades will blend into a heathered but smooth mix of related color. I would not expect any radical pooling or jagged color transitions when using the yarn you spin from this.

Shepherd's Harvest is Mother's Dayweekend.

How are you going to spend YOUR Mother's Day?

Shepherd's Harvest is coming soon!

And I am busily working on new products! These are the first little two ounce hanks of firestar roving. Firestar is a soft, sparkly add-in for you spinning and felting. I have received mixed information about what it is made of: polypropylene or nylon? It dyes like nylon. It adds strength and luster to your wool. It is not scratchy at all! A great addition to sock yarn.

An Interesting Transformation

This sweater turned into this yarn! What an ugly sweater! What beautiful yarn. Hmm. Makes you look at 1970's fashion in a different light!

General maintenance!

So, forty (OK, more like 50) years later, some maintenance is required.

First I made a commitment to lose weight a few years ago. I accomplished that and continually re-visit that commitment and commit to maintaining it.

Second, I made a commitment to exercise regularly, 4-6 days per week. I have stuck to that, but as my fitness level improved, I had to re consider what constituted a sufficient work out. Maintenance of heart health mean increasing intensity and duration of my workouts...and more movies from Netflix to keep me on the treadmill.

Third, I made a commitment to my aging bones and slowing metabolism. I needed to add on upper body strength training. This is NEW, but goes pretty well with weighted boxing gloves while on the treadmill.

Fourth- and maybe, really, primarily- I am committed to continuing to work in the field of visual arts and crafts. My recent sabbatical was spent honing my skills in the fiber arts, investigating my interests and limits. In December,2010, I met a limit. My hands began to swell and my right index finger hurt all the time. Can you imagine calling the doctor to say, "My finger hurts?" Well I did, after some delay, call. That call led to some more major maintenance efforts. I went to physical therapy for 5 or 6 weeks, learned stretching and strengthening exercises and was fitted for braces to utterly rest the now arthritic joints. My hands are happy now. I only have to wear the braces at night, currently.

Some things I learned are common sense, some not so much:

Spinning for 8 hours might hurt me, especially if the fiber or style is difficult.

Stretching before work is a good thing that I rarely remember to do

As a woman, building up strength in your hands is just as important as other upper body work for your general health as an art worker!

Tennis balls are great for stretching and massage

Oxo Bag Clips can be used for pressure point therapy on your hands...really.

And gravity can be your friend for simple hand maintenance...really.

Now, if I can just maintain my commitment to doing what I need to do to maintain my hands, like I do the rest of my body. Old artists never retire, we just might change media...or eventually, close the gallery.

More experimentation in the fiber studio

I made a spindle bag for myself several years ago. It travels with me very frequently. When I meet with my knitting group, who I call the Church of Knitting, although they call themselves Corcoran Knitters and Stitchers, I take my spindle bag with my favorite spindle and some yummy fiber.

.This turquoise bag is a prototype...too stiff for comfort, but the shape an size works well. It even holds the rather large Babe brand Spindle.This spindle bag, made from a swatch of Japanese obi, is totally functional and ready for sale..once I figure out the price.

There will be more to come. Watch this space and Sues Luxury Fiber on Etsy. I'm not sure how soon things will be posted as the gallery opens up for the season this week. Sigh! Bye, bye sabbatical!

Purple stuff: what do you think?

The new year brought some experimentation. Even though I rarely change purses, I have been attracted to the "poofy" cloth purses I've been seeing at the craft shows lately. So, I dove into my stash of fabric. Pulled out old figure drawings to cut up as pattern pieces (Must recycle, afterall) and began designing.
It was fun to be designing and building in 3 dimensions again. It was fun to be using my re-furbished sewing machine. (Thanks, Steve Pauling of the Bobbin Doctor)
It all went pretty well. I had most of materials, although the interfacing was lighter than ideal. I did not have magnetic snaps .
I even figured out how to put the pocket in the lining. What I got confused on was how to design in the purse straps! By the next morning, I had figured it out, but things were all sewn up! So, it became a clutch with a wrist strap. Not ideal. No zipper...would have needed to sew that in much earlier in the project.

So what do you think? Does it have possibilities?
Here is what I am thinking, in the long run, for shows and the retirement use of the gallery space: The purse reflects the colors and sensibilities of other products I make or carry. Much of my hand dyed roving, hand spun and hand dyed silk scarves relate to the purse. Other materials I order in also relate. So, it makes a lovely display...and a person could, I suppose, buy a purse, a clutch or whatever, and spin a yarn to make a scarf or a hat or, or, or?

What do you think?

For SALE! The Roberta Electronic Spinner!

Well loved, well used, this Roberta Ertoel Spinner production spinning wheel is moving out to make room for the other sweet wheels that seem to come home with me like stray animals! It's not that I do not love her. My spinning needs ahve changed. She is an Irish tension wheel, with a ferocious pull, making her ideal for lofty, bulky yarns or lightning fast plying. With lacing, you can easily spin thinner yarns. Speed is controlled by an infinite dial. There is an on/off foot pedal. It comes with the standard flyer and 3 bobbin set-up as well as Woolee-Winder with 6 BIG bobbins! It is about 5 years old with a new motor. Full retail is currently over $1400. I am asking $700, firm.

Round Robin Red...red studies

I have begun spinning some of the reds. The 3 dyes spun and plied in various iterations so far are Wash Fast Watermelon, Wash Fast Paprika, and Sabraset Deep Red. They were plied 2 ply of each combo and 3 ply of the lot. I also used, part of the time, my new Ashford sliding hook flier and a stretchy drive band. Felt like a whole new wheel...in a good way. Mechanically smooth.

The combat yarn project continues...this time with additions of silk and alpaca and natural cutch dyed wool. the fiber was blended on a hackle, making a wonderful, smooth prep. The radical single was plied with a fine commercial mohair I picked up in NYC this spring. It adds a wonderful halo.

Stay tuned. The gallery show for these yarns will be in December.

Outback Colors Abound

Three yarns, so far, inspired by my trip to Australia. So many more to come....so much more dying to do!

These materials turned into the following yarns:

a wild batt, felted pieces of orange knitting, dyedlocks in sky and shadow colors, striped beads (bought in Oberlin, Ohio 8 or 9 years ago!) plied in with a fuzzy mohair I bought in NYC this spring.

An energized single from the brighter roving I dyed/

Suddenly Autumn

There has been a sudden temperature change here in Minneapolis, so I am gratefully wearing my wool tights and thin merino hoodie bought in Christchurch, NZ!

The outback colors are deep, deep rust red, dusty green, some greys and blue, blue sky. I hope to combine these into a scrubby, expressive yarn. The locks are handsful of Romney, Border Leceister and Icelandic and maybe one mystery fleece. All various shades of beige and brown, overdyed in similar colors to the roving.

Madlyn, the joyfuling rolling alpaca, has soft, beautiful, hayfilled fiber.

Combat Yarn Photo Shoot, cont'd

Across the knitted battlefield.

Battle scarf?

Battle yarns are being photographed and composed by my son, John Hensel, who is a profesional photographer. Stay tuned! The process is fascinating.

Meanwhile, I have chosen one hank to knit and that process is also fascinating.

The stich definition is good, it is easy to pull the added elements to the front. It looks normal and transgressive all at once. A very odd piece of fabric. A battle scarf?

Yarn joins the drawings

While I may be adjusting the blacks a bit, I think it is done. The addition of a lightweight handspun mohair took it where it needed to go. The sea creature aspect continues...these seem to be "jelly-fish of memory"? Who knows, it is still a mystery to me.

I do think of the threads as memory, connections to the past, to shared histories...

Transgressing wool!

In the art world, one talks about transgression. Transgression can be loosely defined as breaking expected boundaries or expectations. Yarn is expected to be soft, warm, useful, at times even life saving. It is often associated with leisure, craft and women's work. Rarely is it thought of as an object, a material or a subject of fine art.
So, as I progress on this project, I have to consider how this potential body of work transgresses expectations.

This yarn is transgressive because:

• It is not made for the express purpose of knitting or looping in someway into a useful object.

• Its purpose to to be a sculptural object or a field for narrative/political photography.

• It paradoxically uses its traditional softness to express a hard/harsh/violent reality

• It uses its allusions to its life saving properties( warmth, padding, protecting) as a field of discussion about war and death

• It uses a "women's art" to discuss a "man's pursuit."