Just a wisp of Mohair!

A wisp of mohair was left on the floor, like a fallen feather, when Karen and Katie left the shop today. It lay as a reminder of a significant interaction: shiny, beautiful, sky-like, as though it had taken flight and landed gracefully.

I had a visit from Karen Lohn, the author of Peace Fibres today. You can follow her blog at http://www.peacefibres.com/blog/ . She came to see Libbie Soffer's show the show in the gallery and to re-connect on the theme of peace and fiber. We had talked at Shepherd's Harvest over Mother's Day weekend. We connected deeply over the search for personal and corporate peace and the role that fiber can play in the search.

It is an odd thing, this relationship with fiber. Perhaps it reaches way back into our early hominid history...to that time of early discovery of the protection and utility of various fibers...they ways they could be employed to tie, net and wrap things...the sinews that could hold the furs to our feet, that could lace skins together, the vines that seemed to invite the invention of basketry, the long thin fibers discovered in the inner back of downed trees, the stupendous fibers of the spider and the caterpillar...

I hope to read more about the history of the development of fibers. But, what I know now is this:

When I am in contact with fibers, I feel a peaceful ease fall over me. I breathe easier. I feel in contact with some kind of deep history of women's work. When I spin it, I feel bliss.

Give yourself space to breathe & thrive: try spinning.

The wool shop reopened today. ALL of it was packed for Shepherd's Harvest and needed to stay in the garage for the duration of the Mending Circles we had with the current show. With the exception of Memorial Day, I will be open on Mondays 10-5 and by very generous appointment. Come, pet the sweet, soft fibers.

Yarn about art? Art that is yarn?

I was talking with my friend Ann today, a fabulous spinner. We both share the utter enthusiasm for the variety of fibers, breeds of sheep, styles of spinning available to us as spinners. We get so excited talking about prepping new fibers and the discoveries that lurk around the corner! We see each other as our primary supports in our quest for spinning as fine art.

I seek to make the skein that is so beautiful, or so odd, or so laden with meaning that it can only be perceived as sculpture!

Ann seeks the skein that so expresses its "selfness," the twist, the color, the crimp that expresses the uniqueness that that fiber can become...often in garments. She spins yarns that cannot be found in the natural habitat of the yarn store.

Are we nuts, or something? Are we tilting at windmills? I don't know the answer to that question. But I do know that she and I will talk again soon about an idea that is beginning to form for us:

What if we formed a group of like minded spinners, who were interested in stretching the envelope of what yarn can be?

We are thinking of forming spinning group, but not just another spinning group where we eat and drink and spin. ( Even though we do like to drink and spin especially well!) We don't know what this group would look like, but we know that we want to create a more prominent place at the fiber table for spinners. We want spinners to be noticed as spinners of art, not imitators of store bought yarn.

What could we do? spin together, study together, encourage one another to stretch our skills and ideas, create exhibitions together...other stuff?

You tell me. Are you interested? Do you have ideas? Share them.

Which spindle/project bag suits you?

This past year, I purchased several antique Japanese obi's...the long elegant sashes used on kimono. I have made spindle/project/evening bags from them! Each bag is unique and will hold a sock project or several spindles and roving or you evening necessities! I think I have either 6 or 8 different fabrics so far. Check them out at:

Yarnover or Shepherd's Harvest

FIRESTAR!

Firestar is HOT! Or, at least the colors are! Firestar is a form of nylon that reflects and refracts light for sparkle almost as bright as glitter! While it can be spun alone, it is usually spun carded with wool to add sparkle and strength. It is a fun way to add strength to a sock yarn. Don't worry, though, Firestar is skin soft.

see it at Yarnover or Shepherd's Harvest.

Poor man's silk?

All that glows is not silk. Bamboo Rayon is so shiny and soft that you want to roll around in it. It can be spun as is...slippery though it is. It is reputed to be antimicrobial. I don't know if that is true, but it's neat to think about. It is not strong like silk, so I would not knit socks with it. But for a drapey scarf? yummy! I like carding it in with other fibers to add luster and drape to otherwise springy fabric.

Not so old goats

In addition to the hand dyed wool roving, I have lots of dyed mohair this year...from goats. I found a reasonable source for young adult mohair, yearling, in combed top. It is sleek & shiny...like fine jewelry!

It is great to spin very fine for lace or for making boucle's. Spun thick, by itself, it will be heavy and probably last nearly forever. Mohair is strong. It is wonderful added to a batt of wool to increase the luster or used as a single ply with plies of different fiber.

See it at Shepherd's Harvest and Yarnover

Yarnover is coming soon!

Yarnover, April 30, 7:45am-5pm, Hopkins High School, 2400 Lindberg Dr., Minnetonka, MN

Yarnover is the incredible annual event of the Minnesota Knnitters Guild. They get in famous teachers from all over!

I will be a vendor there with my handspun yarn and hand dyed fibers.

I think of my yarns as coming in 2 major classifications: knitting yarn and art yarn.

Now, both classes can be knit, crocheted, woven...but... The art yarn is more of an accent yarn, having add-ins, beads, flowers. The art yarns often express an idea, such as the landscape of Australia, or my memory of tailoring my own clothing as a young woman.

The yarn I think of as "knitting" yarn, is generally 2 or 3 ply, fingering to worsted weight. The yardage runs from 60-400 yards...With these yarns you get to experiment with different breeds of sheep, handspun cotton, wild mohair boucle's, hand dyed, handspun silk.

Different breeds of sheep and alpacas grow fiber that has a different hand. Alpaca, as you know, tends to be sleek and soft to the skin...if it is pure alpaca it drapes so "well" that some say it stretches. It is not very elastic to knit with.

Down breed sheep, like a Dorset, on the other hand, are so elastic that you would have a hard time convincing someone that you had not snuck in some latex!

And then there are the blends! OOO they are nice! Sometimes I blend on the carder, making heathery, tweedy yarns. SOmetimes I blend by plying totally different fibers together. Recently, I plied a turquoise cotton, a rust merino and a deep brown alpaca mix. I have plied silk, merino and cashmere...as well as mystery fibers and recycled sweater yarn.

So, come by and see the yarn! I'll be in booth #25, spinning away on things...

RIBBONS!

The first order of ribbons has arrived! SO PRETTY! They will be appearing on the aprons and bags any day now!

PEACE: a dream & an aspiration

I have always been a multimedia artist...always!

I have always worked in series, in themes, working toward meaning.

Materials and process excite me. I love to manipulate and build things. I love to enter the deep history of a material and feel myself as part of a larger story of making that goes back for millennia.

I worked for many years in clay, inserting myself into the twentieth century segment of the history of clay that began around the fires of hunter gatherers. I understood, in my fingers, the importance of the discovery of fired clay and how it helped to preserve food stuffs in an ever changing environment.

I then worked many years in handmade paper and books...inserting my work into the continuum of the dissemination of knowledge that exploded with the invention of movable type! Oh my! How that changed the world!

And then, sheep happened!

No, I do not own sheep. I live in the middle of a big city and I don't really relish the idea of husbandry ( sheep, crap, you know?) But, when I learned to spin, I became part of an innovative history that allowed us to clothe ourselves more efficiently.

Wool, cotton, silk...they all fascinate me. ( I haven't tried linen yet, but it is coming!) How on earth did someone discover that if you twisted some fibers together, they would lock and hold their form. And then if you knotted them, interlaced them, agitated them they would hold together in a sheet that you could wrap around yourself...How on earth did humanity DO this, over and over again, in all areas of the world? Wow.

And then there was Mahatma Gandhi, using the spinning of cotton to overthrow colonialism in India. Peaceful resistance. Hmm. The power of a simple thread.

PEACE! It is a dream and and aspiration. What if we really could achieve world peace? Grandiose, incredibly unlikely. But, I have noticed that when I spin, personal peace descends. Spinning fibers makes my shoulders settle down, the frowns leave my forehead, and I forget the minutia that were driving me crazy a few moments before.

So, in Sue's utopia, perhaps we would all spin as a way to connect to our deep shared human history and as a way to find, even for a moment, personal peace.