nemo ignorat

finally summer

After a long, too long and too cold winter followed by some monsoon (yes, I still insist this was not rain. Rain comes and goes. Rain is something that maybe pours down on you but you don't have the desire to grow gills. And most of all, rain stops in between. This bucketful gale did not stop until everthing was pouring over, flooding everything, leaving you only wet, yearning for some dryness. Even so we are lucky enough not to live directly at one of the main rivers. We're at 300m and about 2.5 miles from the river.Which is a good bit of distance if the waters won't stop. And we're not in the Elb area. They won't see dry land for another month or so.)

it is finally summer.

Even though the temperatures are way above my personal comfort zone, I won't complain. Not this year. I soak up every little bit of warmth. And dryness.

And it is perfect weather for a nice fermentation vat outside.

Usually, I really hate those black plastic things but for budding lotuses and fermentation vats they are ideal. Little solar collectors each and everyone of them.The one with the vat comes with a nice fitting black plastic lid. At its height we had 40 °C (104°F) inside the vat. About 6 hours of direct sunshine. I'm curious to see how much the temperature will drop over night.

Last thursday night we had a storm. Just the usual kind when it suddenly gets warmer. And it bestowed upon me the gift of fallen twigs and leaves for dyeing. Lots of tannins ;o)

And another gift. My favourite Madame Louise Odier is in full bloom. She smells best in the early mornings and on warm evenings.

more basics

I'm getting the hang of it and I'm very confident to get some basic wardrobe done this year.

During the latest cold spell and monsoon (you cannot call this rain we had lately just rain, it poured, it came down in buckets, it didn't stop until all the clouds were empty) I felt like hurrying a bit with the needle killing sweater. I did, I finished it and it became a tunic. You could call it a mini as well but no way I'd be wearing it without trousers. Not me.

I admit, it looks a bit weird but it wears well which is the most important thing.

The yarn is handspun, the coloured bits are naturally dyed and the grey is wool from some British sheep I didn't remember because I couldn't find the label anymore.

Next is another basic top. This time I used my favourite top pattern. One I made for myself several years ago and which I used already for some linen tops. I based the pattern on the parts from other tops that fitted me best. Like the neckline from one and the arm hole shape from another. Most top patterns are either to wide in the arm hole so that you reveil too much or they are too narrow and uncomfortable. Same with the neckline. So I combined whatever was best into one pattern.

I extended the pattern to keep more of the dyed fabric. It is a silk bourette jersey tube I dyed with cocheneal during my last class to show a simple resist pattern and I'm really looking forward wearing it.The blue spots at the bottom are some contaminations from logwood that happened during drying. But I like it. It looks a bit weird.

BTW Peggy: sewing jersey is really simple as long as you do it by hand. I really hate sewing it by machine. The machine makes it all very complicated but by hand it is much like any other fabric.

tried my hands on Alabama Chanin patterns

a long while ago, I had my first try with a pattern by Alabama Chanin. It worked out ok and since the problems were me and not the patterns, I tried it again. This time with real cotton jersey. The fabric is organic cotton jersey I found some while ago in the odds and ends box of my favourite fabric dealer.

This one, I've sewn in two different versions. One a tiny bit larger than the other one. Or as it is called 'with some ease'. The second version is fitting to the t.

This one has not only the much nicer fabric (it's really soft) but the nicer pattern as well. I prefer the T-version which means, there will be some more coming in the future. Both patterns are sewn quite fast and easy - as soon as you copied out the pattern and understood the details. Which took me much longer than the actual sewing.

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Mum's back in the hospital again. A week ago, the metal prothesis they attached to her femur last winter broke. Luckily not the bone as well, so they just opened her up again, got both metal pieces out and attached a new metal piece and closed. And no, she didn't fall. It happened during physiotherapy though it could have happened any time. Here we go again. Same procedure same story.

what I was up to

seems like I'm back. The dye class ended last tuesday and I just collapsed for a few days. Did some reading and writing and nothing much else. In the meantime, my wistarias gave me the annual reason why I let them overgrow half of my garden:

this is one of those ugly 1960s Lawson's cypresses that were so popular back then. Evergreens or cemetary plants, as I call them. When we bought the house, the garden was full of them. But one of the wistarias occupied it and now it is full of birds that are living and nesting there on 4 tiers. And right now, it sounds as if we are feeding a whole bee hive with her flowers.

Wait till in 10 days when all the flower petals are falling off and I am wading through them. But right now, everything is forgotten and I just cherrish the sight.

Another reason why I am so quiet is that I am writing. I collected so many notes and informations on textiles, their ecological impact, spinning and natural dyeing that I decided to put it all together in a book. (German only, there are so many wonderful books on these topics in English already, you don't need a non-native speaker to barge in.)This is something I planned for a long time but now the time is right. 

I'm still not sewing. The tipping point has not been reached yet. But in the meantime I knit. And destroy needles.

victim

and perpetrator

Obviously the sweater is totally innocent since it was my hands which destroyed the needle. Still looking for good bamboo needels in this size and length. They tend to bend more and break less.

I'll be resurfacing over the next weeks, I guess. I had to communicate so much over the past 6 weeks that I still need some quiet.

what now?

Well, I plied the two spindles just for fun to see how it works. I plied the thread from one spindle with some commercial silk thread and then plied it with itself which means, I got a 4ply cabled yarn now. And I did the same with the other spindle.

It is still rather thin. Very thin. I mean, it weighs nearly nothing and is soft like a cloud but it is very, very, very thin.

I still have like tons (actually it's about 10 oz) of this cashmere and in the end I will have a lot of very, very, very thin yarn. This was not what I signed up for. What now? What do I with very, very, very thin cashmere/silk yarn? I don't knit lace. (Imagine her voice raising a bit in desperation.)

But it's so lovely and soft, she said in a dreamy voice. And much too wonderful just to be admired. Get over myself and begin knitting lace? Well, at least the spinning is relaxing and rather nice. 

wordless

Russian spindles and Schottish cashmere

breathe

Last night I found myself in the rare situation to be totally up to date with my preparations for the workshops and free to do some stitching.

Emergence haunted me the whole time. It was nice, pristine, good looking and a lot of other things but still ... it was not me. I am definitely not straight lines and prinstine. So I took it off the back cloth, cut the patchwork up and began sewing it back together.

Much better, she said with a deep breath.

I wanted to apologize for not answering any comments here or posting any on other blogs. I am totally swamped right now. I try following Jude's What If Series, try reading other blogs but there is barely any time left for anything else. But I appreciate every comment you leave. Thank you.

spindles

As I wrote before, due to some really mindless planning on my side, I'm a bit swamped this month by workshops.

supported spindles work a bit different from suspended spindles and I am absolutely intrigued by them. The whole concept is slow. And still they can be quite productive.Well, not productive in the 'I spin 1 pound of wool in a day'-sense but that is not their goal. With a supported spindle I spin thin yarn, very deliberately, purposfully and slow. It is a much more complex spinning process than suspended spindles and still ... I don't know how to say it otherwise, it is quite calm. There is not this sense of urgency in it that I have when I spin with my suspended spindles. Maybe because your spindle hand is continuously touching the spindle, twiddling it and in a freindly way fondling the fibres and yarn.

And as always with such a basic tool like a spindle, it can be as intricately made as humanly possible and as simple as a twig.

emergence

Jude's White project in the What If group CHALLENGEs me. White is so far away from my comfort zone as it only can be.

The challenge is to STEP OUT of my comfort zone, which is a bit painful and a bit exciting. A bit like a birth of a new idea. I'm HATCHing an idea egg. GERMINATing a little white idea plant. EMERGING.

I'm not sure how it will go on with it. I think that's the general idea. And I am still a little bit uncomfortable. For the time being, it will be called EMERGENCE.

breaking out

red emphazises the white

Meanwhile, the Gentle Giant has returned. His Humans are on a business trip to the States and we offered him refuge. One of them already has a new job there and now they are looking for a suitable house to move in when my friend will follow later this year. I will miss them dearly.

Due to bad planing on my side, the next month will be seeing me with my teaching hat on. In the Online Guild, I am teaching supported spindle spinning and on my own site, I'm teaching an online workshop in natural dyeing (German only). The first of three this year.

I am also thinking of offering some naturally dyed fabrics in my etsy shop.

Outside there still is winter. Even if we get a whiff of spring from time to time, the crocus are peaking out and the birds are marking territories like mad, it still is in the minus centigrades with a freezing wind from the Siberian east. It definitely does not feel like the last day of March, Eastern or April. Still more like February.

I've seen 12 great white egrets yesterday. They were perching on top of some precariously high trees in front of a snow white (it snowed again) sky. No use getting out the camera. White on White.

an old friend

Some 30+ years ago, there was an aran sweater. Knit from local (my back then local) yarn, bought for a small fortune at the farmer's market from a local shepherd who sold his wool and sheep products. Comparing to nowadays, the yarn was incredibly expensive and cost me half a months salary. (Well, yes, my salary was minimal and I was still in school but supported me by cleaning and doing the odd job since I didn't live with my parents anymore.)

It gave me warmth in every winter since then. A while later, it partnered up with a second aran, knit from a frogged sweater of my back then partner. But now, it begins to fray quite a lot. (The second aran isn't in much better shape.)

Seams are not only undoing themselves, they are getting thin as well. Holes are beginning to pile up and it is difficult to keep up the mending.

So I went through my stash and looked for some yarn.

In the background, you can see the original. A 3 ply yarn. The grey gauge is Kauni. Not my prefered choice. And the white one on top is some 2 ply worsted yarn. I think, I will give the 2ply a chance in another project but for the durable substitute of my favourite aran, I will need something different. 3ply preferably and from some longwool race or maybe some older race like gotland.

So I went through my fibre stash again and found 1 kg Masham (a Yorkshire breed, a mix between Teeswater and Dalesbred). Good choice but I doubt the kilo will suffice. Cables take a lot of yarn. So I will have to delve a bit deeper and look for something different. Or maybe, I will use another fibre for one thread and the Masham for the other 2 threads.

But before that I had to empty the bobbins of my spinning wheel. I'm nearly finished spinning some BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) that was waiting to be spun up, I plied some 2 bobbins of some green yarn I spun about a year ago and now I have only 2 bobbins half full of above BFL for plying. I think, the BFL and the green yarn combined will make a nice waistcoat.

BTW, even though I am all for naturally coloured fibres, I love a white aran. ;o)