A Small Dye Event

You would think that snow up to my chin would be perfect weather for dyeing...not so much!Not only is the snow deep, but it is too cold out there to open the window for ventilation! But, I was getting REALLY BORED spinning white cotton. I was getting good at it, but it looked like I was making kite string...and who wants to run around in chin deep snow with a kite? Well, who COULD anyways!

But then, I remembered my Procion dyes. They do not require cooking. So, I grabbed the 3ply cotton yarn I had spun, some carded cotton roving and some random Tencel roving and did a tiny dye session.

Cotton is very hard to wet down. I had to squeeze it under water the push out the air and encourage the water to penetrate. I painted one hank of cotton roving, the hank of tencel and the 3 ply cotton I had spun. I also dyed 2 other hanks of cotton by pouring color onto them in a zip lock bag.

The dye did not penetrate to the core of the rovings, but, so far, they are spinning very nicely. The white core, when it comes to the surface, just forms white tweedy flecks. It is really very lovely on my bobbin. I had wondered if the roving would be hard to draft after the harsh compression...but, no, it is easy peasy. I am spinning the cotton on my Hansenn eSpinner while I read a novel. I saw Rita Buchanan do it, so I figured I would try it.

Spreading the joy through KIVA

Sues's Luxury Fibers has made KIVA loans to Sebastiana Gutierrez Quispe to help her buy paint and canvas and to

Anush Baghdasaryan to help her advance her sewing business.

Thank you so much for making this possible.

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.

Cinnamon Baby Llama

You can almost smell the cookies baking! The natural cinnamon color of this baby llama fiber is remarkable! $4.50 per ounce....and an ounce will spin 40 + yards 2ply sport weight. Just think how many yards you could spin laceweight! Available from Sue's Luxury Fiber and Susan Hensel Gallery

Taming Wild Camels..and cashmere and alpaca and mohair...

Most common spinning fibers, even Merino, are not too messy to deal with. You get a few fibers on yourself, easily handled with a lint brush or a ball of masking tape. But, whenever I spin the camelids or the cashmeres, or even adult mohair, I am covered head to toe with fiber...A LOT OF FIBER. At the last WILD WOOL MARKET of the season, I was spinning cashmere. Now cashmere costs more than most fibers, even when it is a deal. I got up to service a customer or put on the coffee for the exhibitors or something... I think there may have been more cashmere on me than on the bobbin! Most of the fiber on my leg was reclaimed, but not in the lovely aligned manner in which it had begun! So, I began to think about what was needed to tame these wildly luxurious fibers.

AN APRON! But not just any apron. It had to be long enough to cover a reasonable amount of your lap. OK, that kept the fibers on your lap, getting tangled and sticking, waiting to be brushed off. HMMM.

Eureka! a pocket!

DANG! The fibers stuck to the cotton pocket.

DOUBLE EUREKA! A satin lined pouch to hold the fiber! Less fiber sticks to satin, less waste, and it is contained in one small area.

I'm starting to make them and soon they will be in my Esty shop.

Alpaca silk!!!!

The Alpaca silk is a dream to spin with! Holding it in your fiber hand is a cloud-like experience! Talk about luxury! And an ounce only sets you back $4.50! Such a deal!

Sue's Luxury Fiber