Updates? Meanwhile I have been weaving.

Since most of the dyeing has ceased for a while and my hands need a rest from spinning all the kinds of silk I can find,

I have resumed weaving...trying out the commercial stash and the handspun stash in various combinations.

Shepherd's Harvest ...until next year!

I borrowed this photo from the Shepherd's Harvest Facebook Group to let you know how much fun we all had and how grateful I am for your business. I probably could have taken photos with my ailing iPhone...but I had no time, nor presence of mind, as the day started with a bang on Saturday.

The organizers did a grand job!

I do the festival because I love fiber. I love everything about spinning and dying different wools, bast fibers, sparklies. (Maybe I don't like pricing and labeling so much.) I do all of this for my pleasure, sure, but also to help spread the word about the rewarding and peace-giving nature of fiber work.

I joke about being an

enabler, about Batts being a gateway drug to further fiber addiction, about the potential for world peace through spinning.

But seriously, while I more than half believe we would ALL be better off with fiber under our fingernails, I also seriously want to pay it forward.

5% of the gross sales from Shepherd's Harvest and recent ETSY orders has been given as a KIVA loan to the Sayhua Group in Urubamba, Peru, to help Maria Acurio Paredes buy materials to make jewelry.

And lest I forget, my work at Shepherd's Harvest would not be possible without the help of my dear friends who work for peanuts and popcorn:

Carla Mantel & Gwen Schagrin who have helped me at every Shepherd's Harvest for the last ...is it 6 years? The three of us came as spectators and students one Mother's Day and returned as vendors the following year.

Thank you to Pauline Mitchell who came for the first time this year, And Dale Kennedy who has helped both at the festival and at home in the studio and the gallery through out the years.

Hooray for great friends!

YARNOVER!YARNOVER!YARNOVER!YARNOVER!

Come Saturday, April 30, to Yarnover and see lots of the new products I have accumulated!

25th Annual Yarnover – Mark your calendars for the 25th annual Minnesota Knitters’ Guild Yarnover, an all-day event. Featured are a market with vendors from the Midwest and Canada, along with classes taught by nationally known teachers.

Location: Hopkins Senior High School, 2400 Lindbergh Dr, Minnetonka, MN

Contact: (612) 436-0464, ext. 115

Time: 7:45 a.m.–5:45 p.m.

I will be spinning on the Aura wheel, from Majacraft. Come see.

BFL/silk hand dyed roving!
Ashland Bay merino Silk roving: these are the samples spun up!
Baby Llama roving

Alpaca silk roving

alpaca, baby llama all spun up!
And boxes of handspun, hand dyed yarn!

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?

"What is SILK NOIL?" you ask.

Silk Noil is the short bits that are left from the silk cocoon after the finest silk has been reeled off. Some say it is short because the caterpillar chewed a hole to emerge...and that may be the case with some Tussah silks. Silk noil can be spun into a very slubby yarn. The fabric woven from silk noil yarn used to be called "raw silk." In the 1960's, my mother would get all excited about owning a suit made from "raw silk." It was pretty fabric: tweedy but lustrous.

I have been using silk noil for years as an additive for wild batts. I use it to put soft, contrasting color slubby bits in wool yarn. This year, for the first time, I will have a limited supply of dyed s ilk noil for sale at Shepherd's Harvest.

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.

The Sampling has begun...with the baby llama

Over the last few days, I have begun sampling the new fibers. I withdrew one lovely ounce from each of the three balls of baby llama top. OH MY! What a treat! I spun the yarns on my Hansen e-Spinner. I set the machine to allow me to spin a moderate, sort of sport weight, reasonably fluffy yarn. When you spin from top, you are spinning well aligned fiber with little air, making, generally, a firmer, smoother yarn. I attempted to maintain a certain drapiness and luxury, and succeeded. My favorite may be the three ply I did with one ply of each color: cinnamon, silver & grey. The silver reads as sky blue when plied with the grey and cinnamon!

Affordable luxury at $4.50 per ounce. Each ounce made approximately 40 yards of sport weight yarn.

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?

Happy New Year!

The wool nook is open! OK, it's not really complete...space and baskets are still being sorted out. More wholesale accounts are in process. But it HAS begun. One corner of the gallery is now devoted to wool and silk and cool fiber related stuff. The gallery is open on MONDAYS, 10-5 and by very generous appointment. Since the storefront is on the first floor of my building, and I live above the store, and I work at home....Obviously, appointments are easy. We just compare schedules and see what works.

What will you see in that tight little corner? Lots of roving, hand dyed and ready to dye, mohair locks, yearling mohair top (YUMMY!) It is so glossy! There are art batts, hand dyed silk and cotton scarves, lots of handspun and art yarn.

So much color! It is exciting!

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.

South Minneapolis Wild Wool Market

Returns in time for Holiday Shopping

Come Saturday, November 27 & December 18, 10-4, to Susan Hensel Gallery, for wooly, silky, alpaca goodness!

•spinning

•weaving

•felting

•re-using!

Demos and shopping!

Fresh food!

You will find art dolls, handspun and hand dyed yarn, tote bags, tapestry, weaving, spinning materials. It is an ever changing roster of artists!

Almost all the artists will be demonstrating! Some teach, so talk to them. All invite you to sink your hands into the marvelous world of fine fiber.

WHERE? Susan Hensel Gallery, 3441 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55407

WOOL MARKET RETURNS

Tomorrow, Saturday, October 23, 10-4

SO MUCH WOOLY GOODNESS!

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.

Angora testing

I dyed a small bag of free angora jet black and am now blending it with various fibers. The grey is alpaca at 67% and angora at 33%. Great halo.
The halo is less pronounced here. This was a random carding of angora and wool. Still fuzzy, but not quite what I was looking for.

As the kettle simmers

As the kettle of cochineal simmers on one burner and the cutch on another, the study in red accumulates steam! Pictured above are most of the acid dye reds and red analogs that I have. I will be spinning singles soon to compare, combine and contrast! It should be a lot of fun!

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/