LoopTangle

I attended last week/end’s Squam Art Workshops up in New Hampshire, and I’ve been trying to process it all this week.  It was just beautiful, in every way.  I was very focused on the workshop aspect of it beforehand, but what happened around the workshops was just as valuable and healing, and taught me more about living life.

I spent the first couple of days with a breaking heart, hoping against hope to see my Mom peeking out from around a corner, or from behind another knitter.  Rocklywold Deephaven Camp is just such a Her kind of place, and she would have been so delighted by all the workshop folks who were there.  Not to mention that the natural surroundings are within about an hour of where I was born and spent the first 9 years of my life or so.

New Hampshire is magical in the summer, in a very Fae kind of way.  The natural beauty dazzles, and the insects are truly impressive in their voracity.  And yes, I ate the faery food.  It was delicious.

After the first couple of days, I began to feel a strong connection and camaraderie with my cabinmates, and one evening’s entertainment related the bittersweet joy, sadness, growth, and humor of one woman’s experience with losing her own mother.  It was cathartic, it ripped out that painful little ball I keep shoved down inside, and it forced me to notice that other people hurt too.  Losing a person with whom you shared an uncanny connection happens to other people, and I hadn’t realized just how inconsolable I had been feeling for all this time.  And that’s OK, but the last thing my Mom would want me to be is miserable.

The following days I dwelled on her absence less, and enjoyed myself in the moment more.  I found that cliche, my happy place, in a very real way.  I learned about geometry and the rhythms of designing interesting patterns, other creative women shared wine with me, I communed with the lake and the sun.

I learned how to sew French seams, and an invisible zipper, and made friends everywhere I went.  I talked to strangers and tried new foods.  I had dessert at least once each day.  I was gentle with myself and listened to others’ stories and giggled and smiled and cried.  I dipped my toes in the cold, cold water, so recently snow or ice on the mountains.

I marveled at the beauty of the Luna moths that seemed to be everywhere, and at the tiny faery cities in the moss and lichen on stones and stumps.

I wore ridiculous outfits and accepted compliments graciously.  I gave compliments liberally.  I gave away a hat I made to my roommate, because I like her, and she lives in Boston, and OMG her head is going to be cold and I don’t want that.

I met the Yarn Harlot, mostly because I wouldn’t shut up about her and how I don’t do well meeting people I admire, and my roommate finally dragged her over to meet me, and we had a fun conversation where I didn’t refer to myself nervously as “we” a single time, and she showed me how to knit right from the stack of dyed silk cocoons I had just purchased.

Magic.

I am totally in heaven.

Look at all this yarn!  I made it!

I even learned to Navajo ply* for the roving I dyed.   It’s fun and I like the three-ply yarn it makes.  It’s tricky to manage how twisty it gets, though, but I’m learning.

I used the Lazy Kate to double-ply the gray, and that was really easy.   So much easier than when I would do odd things to shoeboxes to ply with my spindle.

I haven’t set the twist on any of this yet, and I still haven’t finished spinning  all the dyed roving yet.  After I ply this bobbin, I’ll probably get another 1/2-3/4 bobbin full.  It’s interesting that the colors’ saturation vary quite a bit, but I really like that.

One of my challenges has been getting the whorl speed ratio thingie through my head.  Finally, after much reiteration and B’s help, I can tentatively say that smaller whorls make the wheel twist more without my having to treadle like crazy.  Very helpful for the tiny yarn I keep spinning.  I can’t seem to make a larger yarn evenly, but that’s ok.  I like little yarns, and it keeps me out of trouble.

*I kind of learned.  I watched some videos on YouTube, was mystified, went through the steps very closely, and figured out how to do it in a way that made sense to me.  The idea is that you start with a loop of your yarn tied to itself, then pass the yarn through the loop, making a subsequent loop.  Over and over.  FAST.  And if you want to preserve your color changes, you can slow down the wheel and make the loop end where the color changes.  It’s very cool!

Oh!  It’s so exciting!  It started out with a gigantic box:

And here’s a photo collage of the unpacking and assembling process:

1. Opening the Box!, 2. The Ladybug Emerges, 3. Little Box of Accessories, 4. Detailed Assembly Instructions, 5. Accessories Unwrapped, 6. Double Treadle All Sunggled in its Blanket, 7. Double Treadle Yin and Yang. Kinda., 8. Getting the Wheel Out of the Box, 9. Getting Ready for Feet, 10. Unwrapping the Mother of All, 11. Am I Missing Pieces?, 12. Attaching the Treadles to the, um, Thingies. Footmen., 13. Attaching the Bobbin and Flyer.

I had so much fun taking each piece out and trying to figure out what it was.  The instructions are very detailed and have fantastic pictures to help you figure out what they’re talking about.  The lingo reminds me of sailor jargon.  “Stow the jib in the fo’c'sle, Matey!”

I was a little worried that I was missing some parts, as I matched up what I had with the list, but it turned out that they had already assembled one of the pieces of hardware, which was a relief.

Then I got to spinnin’!

I can’t believe how much faster this is.  I mean, sure, intellectually I understand the idea of gear ratios, etc.  But the wool, nay the YARN flies through my fingers.  It’s so fast I can hardly see it happening.  And I’ve worked on the long-draw drafting method a bit.  It definitely takes a leap of faith from inchworming.

I do want to get a Woolee Winder eventually.  The hooks are kinda annoying, but only because I get hypnotized by the spinning and get a giant lump in one place before I remember to switch hooks.

I’ve since plied the two bobbins of natural gray Swalesdale.  I’ll post pictures next time.  Next up – the dyed roving!  The Swalesdale wool is fairly coarse, so I haven’t decided what I’ll do with it yet.  It may make a pretty and sturdy knitting bag…

The wheel arrived and is gorgeous and I can’t wait to share my pictures with you! I’ve had a slight snafu with my home laptop, but all the data should be intact. So! Pictures soon, and yarn!

I also received my 7 pounds of wool to begin making dreadfalls, and it is SO SOFT.

Lastly, I have 3 new scents to play with for the lotion bars and I’m also working on a kitchen salt scrub (gets the onion/garlic smell right off) and a scalp massage oil. Wool dreadfalls are really light and soft, but I always have to pull my own hair pretty tight, and I thought a muscle-relaxing scalp massage oil would be just the thing after I take out the dreads. And if I like it, I bet some of you will too!

Breaking News! I have completed my taxes.  Boring.  I have received my refund.  Less boring…  I have ordered my Schacht Ladybug spinning wheel and am now anxiously awaiting its arrival!  Exciting!

I think I wish the vendor had given me a tracking number, but then I would have slashdotted the mail carrier’s site with my compulsive page refreshing.  It’s just as well for all concerned.  Friday is when I’ll start to expect it on the doorstep.  Tomorrow!

In the meantime, I’ve been amusing myself with my new Noro Sock yarn, by making some, ahem, “footless socks.”  Yes.  They are indeed legwarmers.  I ride public transportation!  I have to stand outside a lot!  No one will see my cheeto-colored stripey legwarmers!

I really believe that brighter colors make you feel warmer.  Or heathery gray.  I know that makes no sense.

And the narrow striping of a yarn with long color changes really is addictive and interesting.  I’m not 2×2 ribbing’s biggest fan, but I can knit on this for an hour or more and not get bored.  The yarn definitely has a rustic feel to it, which may be why it gets mixed reviews on its Ravelry page.  There’s lots of thick and thin going on, and odd little knots  and twists sometimes, but I think it gives it character.

It bores the crap out of the dog:

But he’s not much of a knitter.  And who asked him, anyway?

Last weekend, while I was casting on the Noro footless sock, again and again and again (I finally looked up the length trick for the long-tail cast on.  1/2″ – 1″ per stitch you’re casting on.) I popped over to TribalCon to sit at the Shimmy-A-Thon booth for a few hours.

That’s my bellydance teacher, Kira, on the right.  She is much more relaxed having her picture taken than I am!  I’ve learned lots and lots from her, and I’m really happy to be involved in Shimmy-A-Thon.  It’s a weekend event in September, with workshops and shows and a shimmy endurance challenge that raises money for Cystic Fibrosis.

Stay tuned for spinning wheel unpacking action!  I’ve always been curious about how they ship them, so I’ll be taking pictures as I unpack it.

I’m heading up to visit my family tomorrow, and of course today I am obsessing about what projects to bring.

The top-of-brain projects:

• Brain Slug – a birthday gift
• Toe-up Jaywalker socks – are being difficult.  I can’t find a gauge, they’re taking a long time with the tiny needles I chose, so I’ll probably leave them at home.
• Fibonacci Cowl – (Ravelry link) The one I’m making is loosely based on this.  Mine isn’t Moebius-like.  I’m just not that cool.  One math reference is enough for now!
• Prickly fingerless gloves – I don’t think I have any yarn for these but they’ll come in handy.
• A trio of floopy berets: Rose Red, Star Crossed (Ravelry link), and Bounce – I can’t decide!  I might have to make them all.
• Carillon - A cropped cardigan whose pattern isn’t quite written yet – go look at the picture though!  If you’re on Ravelry, please encourage the designer to finish writing the pattern!  I told her I’d be happy to help her size it up to a large.

Tomorrow I’ll be visiting Halcyon Yarn!  So I’ll have some supplies to look for there, as well as try out their spinning wheels.  I don’t know how many are available to store visitors, but they carry wheels from Ashford & Kromski; Louët, Majacraft & Schacht.  Dangerous.  I have only tried Mom’s Hitchiker and a Louet S-15 which was damaged.  I didn’t really care for either, but I think everyone’s preferences can be wildly different.  I’ve been lusting after the Majacraft Suzie and Little Gem for forever.  Thanks to our failing US Dollar, their price has been going up and up.  The Louet company has a couple of base models which are really reasonably priced, so I’ll definitely try one of those out.  They come unfinished, but it might be fun to do a little trompe l’oiel painting.

Wish me luck and keep an eye on my Flickr account for some good ole fashioned cellphone photo blogging!

Whew, that was a long pause.

Life has been pretty busy, and all of a sudden it got COLD.  I just want to post real quick while I’m taking a little break from work.  While I was sewing up the Polonaise, I managed to finish off two other great projects that I’ll blog about shortly.

1.  I finally made a duct tape double!  You saw her peeking out from under the mini-bustle!

2.  I made a really cute monster hat for the little one who was growing inside one of my duct tape double partners.

Those will get their own posts.  Other than that, I photographed all of my stash, except for the two balls of chenille yarn I used for the steampunk hairpieces.  I have a stupid amount of yarn.  Stupid.  Having pictures of all of it will really help me “shop the stash” and actually use the stuff I’ve already paid for.  In theory.

I recently started a little minisweater/shrug based on the free pattern from One Skein Wonders.  Many people have many problems with this project.  First, it’s only one size.  I guessed and sized it way up to accomodate my larger frame, but it definitely is no longer a One Skein Wonder.  I’ll take some pictures soon and you’ll see what I mean.

I tried out a new technique!  I inserted cables in between the raglan yarnover increases, and it is a fantastic detail.  Not too showy, but sophisticated.  I’m really in love with this idea lately.  You’re going to be fussing with the raglan shaping anyway, why not put a delightful little detail in there while you’re at it?

This weekend I’m going to a webmaster convention in town, and next week I’m visiting my parents up in Maine.  I’m really excited.  I’m going to bring lots of knitting and take lots of pictures.  Mom got us an alpaca fiber spinning gig at a fall festival and I am really excited about that.  I’ll be spindle-spinning as I don’t have a wheel, but if there’s a wheel there, you can bet your something-you-don’t-normally-bet that I’ll be trying it out.