weaving-a new article!

Exciting news!  I've just had an article come out in Digits & Threads magazine on the tradition of weaving tallitot (Jewish prayer shawls) in Winnipeg.  It was a tradition in my family in Virginia too...shown here is a photo of my dad, weaving my youngest brother's tallit for his bar mitzvah. Also-clear proof of my family's maker/DIY history: this black and white photo was likely developed in my dad's dark room, and the Winnie the Pooh play room curtains behind my father were sewn by my mom. In later years, (cough cough) I ...may...have cut up some of that Winnie the Pooh fabric to make myself a pair of shorts--Which I then wore out and about in junior high and high school. Yes, I have always had a quirky fashion sense, excluding my handwoven tallit, of course! 

A 95th and other small treats

Part of my trip to Virginia was spent in celebration of grandmother's 95th birthday. The real event isn't happening until the beginning of February, but my mom invited lots of relatives for a family dinner. My mother expected a total of 14 dinner guests. When I fell asleep my first night in Virginia, I realized there were 8 people in the house, and usually there are half that many occupants. Even so, the day before, my uncle and his partner decided they shouldn't come from Boston because he had a bad cold and didn't want to get anyone else sick.

My mom had just cleared away their place settings when my best friend's parents called...they were travelling from Pensacola, Florida, to their home in Vermont when their car broke down. Luckily, it broke down nearby in Virginia. Shortly afterwards, the tow truck delivered my "second set of parents" and their two dogs (German shorthair pointers) to my parents' house! Next thing we knew, the place settings were back! Also, the professor and I played musical beds--we went to stay at my brother's house and guestroom (about 5 minutes away), so that my brother's dog wouldn't also have to play host. We all figured that 3 dogs and two little boys who are 5 and under seemed like too much chaos at his house. Instead, we just added one pregnant sister and her husband...

The short version is that our trip to Virginia was lots of fun family time, lots of food, and very social. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the family. I especially enjoyed my nephews, who saved up all their screaming and crying jags for us...but I didn't mind the quiet afterwards when they left, either! (One of my nephews had a couple of ear infections which were only diagnosed after we left.)

We arrived in Florida yesterday to see some of the professor's family. The temperature shift is enormous, fully 100 degrees Fahrenheit warmer. When our plane landed, it was 80F. When we left Winnipeg, it was around -25F. While it is still warm here, I continue to bring the weather with me. This morning, there was a huge thundershower and lots of fog. While this means the professor cannot go out to do his field work and collect his butterflies, it does mean we have some quality time together instead. Butterflies don't fly while it is rainy, windy, cold or foggy out.

We went to Whole Foods (fancy grocery store) where the professor found these tomatoes. He loves heirloom tomatoes, but I think the package is pretty funny, too. Fibery people, I am sure you will see the joke here. I found myself wondering how they'd gotten one of these into the package.

Next, we found a Florida grown Pomelo, one of my favorite fruits. When I was a teenager, I lived on a kibbutz for a year as a study abroad program. Behind our class dorm area, there was a citrus grove with Pomelos. We could pick them after school and eat them as a snack. My roommate and I used to share one. It always takes a long time to eat! I am thrilled to see these are now being grown in North America as they used to be hard to come by. I used to only be able to buy them in Asian groceries each winter, since they are mostly grown in Asia.

We also found moose dog toys with squeakers--so weird to find these in Florida. In Manitoba, we actually have moose living in the province. I have never seen a moose in Florida, but apparently the dogs needed us to travel to Florida to get them provincially appropriate squeaker toys. (As some of you know, my dogs are suckers for these toys...they love them.) We had to buy two, of course, as they fight over any toy without two exact replicas. Good practice for twins, we figure.

We've also seen egrets, armadillos, sand cranes, palm trees, a great sunset and lots of flowers...but I never had my camera ready to catch those images. My knitting for this trip is mainly black wool, so it is very difficult to photograph.

My father-in-law has saved me months' worth of New York Times "dining out" sections to enjoy. He must have waited unconsciously until I stopped being quite so sick to my stomach. I am now still occasionally nauseous, but at this point, I can eat out and read about food. It makes all the difference. Note the section on top--about how pies are now gaining popularity over cupcakes. (Those who know me know I am very serious about pie...especially fruit pie. I love it.) Of course pies are now the newest fad in NYC and San Francisco. Of course--they were the most popular fad in my house a long long time ago!

Just thought you might like a vicarious slice of vacation frivolousness. I'm off to eat some chocolate and take a nap. Ain't vacation grand?

the big painting effort

Thanks so much for all your wonderful well wishes! The professor and I appreciate it so much! I've been longing to tell you a funny story, and now that I've revealed the big news, the other stuff can follow.

In the spring time, we moved around all sorts of furniture to clear out a small room for our summer undergradate resident student. She got this (storage) room on the 3rd floor which didn't have a radiator. Time passed, she went home, and over winter break, the professor took on a big painting project. He decided to paint our bedroom.

The bedroom color was a yellowish brown which could only be described as looking vaguely (in my view) like, well, baby poop. I found it dark and depressing, but I can't seem to find a photo of it to share with you, so you'll have to take my word for it. The professor thought the paint job itself was atrocious, and we would lay in bed and discuss how awful it was.

This is the new light blue color of our bedroom...the professor did a great job. Such a good job, in fact, that a friend is using the room for a photo shoot for her new book this morning! (Then we'll move back into it.)

In order to empty out this room, we had to empty out the "loom room" next door so we'd have a place to sleep. We then moved all that fibery stuff up to the 3rd floor, into the little "student" room. Early on in my pregnancy I moved all the lightweight boxes filled with wool upstairs. Two or three weeks later, I went to rearrange those same boxes and they had become very heavy! The professor announced my box moving days were over...and friends helped us move the loom upstairs.

During this massive reshuffling of wool (I have a lot), the resident student from Kentucky scheduled a return visit to Winnipeg to do more work with the professor. She was absolutely crushed that she couldn't use her "old" room. I told her I could not let her sleep there in winter since there is no radiator in the room. It isn't warm enough! She'd never been to Winnipeg in winter so hadn't quite cottoned on to what I was saying. Then, feeling frustrated, she asked why the loom wouldn't be moved right back downstairs when the painting was over.

That's when the professor couldn't keep the secret any longer and said, "But then where would the babies go?!" (we've planned to leave this other room, next door to our bedroom, mostly empty after the painting shuffle until the babies arrive.) The student was so surprised she nearly cried. I laughed a lot. Luckily, the student has been ok in the guest room so far. :) She hasn't complained about the extra space, the larger bed or the radiator. Not one bit.

PS: I haven't been spinning or weaving much in the last several months since getting pregnant. Turns out that these activities relax me and lower my (already kind of low) blood pressure. Then I would stand up from spinning or the weaving bench feeling so teetery that I thought I might keel over. (Yes, I have fainted in the past, though not lately) The doctor also suggested I only take showers when someone else is home, because I might keel over in the warm shower, and hit my head on the cast iron claw foot tub. So, you know, knitting is still safe because I mostly do it sitting still!

PPS: I am doing a lot of teaching, booksignings, and even a lecture in January and early February! I will post more about that soon. For now, there is more information about a spinning class, booksigning and Knit Green talk here and about the January 30th handcarding class here.

Win Something!

I am so sorry, blog readers--it's been a whole week since I've posted. I feel like I'm letting you down!

Here's a sunshiney photo of my loom in action while I explain. I've still been feeling under the weather. I haven't been going out much and I'm a little lonely. I feel a bit teetery, like I'm sitting on a counter stool and my feet are dangling off the edge with no (steadying) floor in sight! I'm also trying hard to keep up with my work--including getting ready for the Handmade Holiday sale, put on by Manitoba Craft Council, which is taking place November 26th and 27th.

Comments on the blog have been few and far between for a while, so I was a slacker and didn't post as much as usual. (I find your comments and those interactions very encouraging. Otherwise, I don't much feel like posting sometimes!) I'm sorry for my silence over here, and I'd like to make that up to you. I figured I'd combine a few topics at once. Here it is:

I notice that a lot of people read my blog each day...but I don't actually know who most of you are. Are you friends and family? Fellow knitters/spinners/weavers? People who like dogs? People who like old house stories? People I met once? I wish I knew more. If only 3 people comment on a post left up for a week but 30 people visit each day...there are a lot of you out there who I don't hear from very often!

At the same time, the lovely folks at CSN Stores contacted me out of the blue and asked me if I'd like to give away a $45 gift certificate to any of their over 200 online stores on my blog. (They sell dog beds, kitchen tools, shoes, bar stools...and more!) Well, gosh--this seems like a really good time for someone to win a $45 gift certificate!

So, if you read my blog, and you'd like to say who you are, and why you visit the blog--I'd love to know. I will read everybody's comments and (assuming you actually say who you are and answer why you visit my blog) will enter you into a completely random drawing. Please leave your comment by next Monday afternoon - 3pm North American Central Time-, November 22nd. (I will hop on to the blog and officially close the drawing at that time.)

A few little notes:
1: Please be sure I will be able to contact you via your email address, blog, smoke signals, etc. Even if I know you in real life, I might not know your secret blog log in nickname, so be sure I can figure out how to find you!

2: CSN only ships to U.S. and Canadian addresses, and if you live in Canada, you may have to pay international shipping charges. (Sorry!) If you live farther afield, please feel free to leave a comment-I'd love to hear from you-but I won't be able to give you the gift certificate, as the shipping won't work out.

So, tell me, dahlink...why do you visit the blog? What interests you? I look forward to hearing from you! I hope you win the $45 gift certificate, too!!

squeaky

This post may be a bit quirky. I am feeling a bit wobbly--had some bad allergies/asthma earlier today. Due to the nice medicines I took, I can now breathe well. (Hurray!) However, I am feeling a bit disconnected from my toes. Off-kilter. :) Most of the day's activities were shelved so that I could sit quietly and avoid any missteps!

The first big news is only what you might expect from the daughter of an automotive engineer. When I got my big floor loom, I was thrilled by it and threw myself into weaving. What I didn't love was the horrible squeals that happened when I put my foot on the treadles to lift harnesses. I asked around, and my friends said there weren't many places to oil on a loom and --don't those metal heddles sound noisy? Well, when something squeaks that much, it turns out that there are moving parts and places to oil and yes, those heddles are noisy--but it wasn't the heddles.

I started out with sewing machine/spinning wheel oil, but I just couldn't seem to eradicate the noise. Finally, the professor came back from the hardware store with this spray lubricant guaranteed not to stain or harm wood, metal and plastic. I used that spray can stuff so much yesterday that I thought the smell alone might be dangerous in a closed up room in winter! All of a sudden...I hit it. The squeal-ly places. Silence. The squeaks were gone.

Wow. In fact, it was so quiet today that the professor didn't even realize I'd been weaving. Hurray!

In other quirky news....you may remember that back in July when we moved to Winnipeg, we drove most of the way here in one car. Our friend John drove the professor's car (and all our houseplants) up to northern Minnesota for us. He left the car at his parents' cottage, and we picked it up there. Today I got a very sweet Valentine's tale:

Our friend drove up to Minnesota, but stopped on the way to visit his relatives' farm. We'd heard a lot about this farm in the past, but we'd never seen a photo. Until today. Click here for a very sweet (and large) Valentine....I've also been wondering if it was stinky, but suspect that in this cold, it's probably not smelly. You'll understand this if you hop over to read this story. It's well worth it. Enjoy! :)

Big big loom

Announcing:
My loom. With Harry the dog, of course, as he always wants to be in the picture.
The story? Well, I'll start at the beginning. When I was a kid, about 12, I took weaving lessons to weave my own tallis for my bat mitzvah. It was an important religious experience and a good way to learn about weaving.
My dad also took lessons with me, and in time, we bought a Herald Loom. (this link is just to a photo I found online. Our loom was light colored wood but roughly the same size or larger.) The floor loom we bought was 48" across, and I could barely reach the treadles and throw the shuttle to weave. The front breast beam was higher than my appropriate parts. I'd stretch to make it work, and everyone hoped I'd grow.

Two things happened. First, I didn't grow. Not at all. I am still that same size! Second, I managed to come down with mononucleosis. (and no, I didn't get it from kissing, but rather from eating off wooden plates that hadn't been adequately washed.) I was really sick, and that horrible feeling rubbed off on my weaving experience. I no longer wanted to weave.

My dad kept the loom and wove a couple more projects. Then my younger brothers complained at how much space it took up in the play room and we sold it. All this happened roughly 24 years ago.

In the last few years, I've thought about weaving several times, but never felt particularly motivated. New looms were expensive and used looms were often advertised in pieces. I was afraid that I lacked the skills to assemble anything from a pile of pieces. It all takes up a lot of room in one's house, too.

Since moving to Manitoba, I'd been thinking about weaving more. I'd met lots of weavers here, and I started to remember how much I liked the physical act of treadling and throwing the shuttle. (and how much I hated warping the loom.) A friend assured me that a loom would appear, at the right price, when I was ready.

Surprise! In the afternoon, on New Year's Eve, I went to see a loom with my friend. She knew the seller and promised it was likely to be in good condition. It was in great condition, and it wasn't too big for me to use. Before I knew it, I was purchasing a Nilus Leclerc jack loom, 45", with a bench, bobbin winder, warping board, shuttles, lease sticks, reference books, and lots more for about $450 Canadian. The older lady who sold it is moving to an apartment near her children, and can't bring it with her. (For reference a new loom like this--without all the other gear--sells for something in the range of $2500.)

My friend helped take this loom apart in pieces. When it looked too heavy for me to manage, we called in my husband, the professor, to help haul. The two of them brought it out of the seller's basement, put it in my car, and then hauled it from the car, across the backyard, and into the house. Then it was up the stairs to the second floor. My friend put it together for me quickly, and was on her way.

There was a handspun warp on the loom, and I went deep into the recesses of my memory to figure out what to do with it. I had to sley the heddles and put it through the reed. I had to tie the warp onto the front of the loom and start weaving. With email support from my local weaver friend and a far away weaving teacher friend....I was off to the races.

At one point, when I told the professor all the questions I had, he said if it were him, he would wait and not touch anything until my friend had time to come over and help again. I picked up a book or two, emailed specific questions, and experimented until I got it going.

It's my first practice weaving, so it won't be perfect. That said, I've already done about 15" of weaving and I'm enjoying it. What I like best?

I am literally tied to the last owner of this loom. Her gorgeous gray wool handspun singles warp the loom as my first practice weaving. My weft (the horizontal yarn) is my dark gray Romney handspun. Not only is it my handspun yarn, but I knew the sheep who grew this wool, and I was at its shearing! I have a physical connection to weavers past through this warp, and a stake in the sheep and spinning of today, and hope to weave on to the future this time around.

Today is my birthday, and I am celebrating quietly, with the notion that this weaving, this handspun warp and weft, will continue to pull me into the future without losing any mooring to the past, either.

here's to 2009

Sometimes you can't see something well unless you see it in sections. Small parts. Things that you didn't expect to see are better illuminated that way, and the whole is better appreciated. That's sometimes how I look at things, in details, and then, well, I can lose track of the big picture. Oddly, the photos I shot of my new knitted hat fit this metaphor, and helped me reflect on the year, too.

This hat isn't my design. I had some oddball yarns and thought it might be better all round to rely on someone else's ideas for a starting place. Melissa's Hat is a Green Mountain Spinnery Pattern, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. The pattern itself is a very spare one which I figured out, but then had to adjust. (You know, like most well laid plans...spare at the outset, and then adjustable!)

The yarns were special odd bits. The white is a Belfast Mini-Mill yarn, made of Samoyed (dog fur) and a small amount of Merino. That accounts for its warmth and the amazing halo. The black and purple are both Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran yarns, they have merino and silk in them, I think. Then, there's the cranberry colored yarn, a Polwarth/Leicester blend from Rovings. So, two out of 4 of the yarns are Canadian made, but the wool here is Australian. No point, I figured, in designing something out of this, because no one would likely be able to replicate it in these yarns!

The gauge was off. That resulted in a hat that was too big so I gave up on what I'd begun and ripped it out and started with a smaller size. I also suspect either the row gauge was off or that this hat is designed to look like a church with a Ukranian onion dome. It's hard to tell from the photos. Never mind. Once I get into a stranded knitting groove, I'm along for the ride! Also, it's hard to rip out a Samoyed yarn. It has quite a halo--just like the dog.

Many people claim that dog fur is super warm (true), stinky (false) or a lot like angora rabbit. (sorta.) This yarn was well made and the Samoyed was spotlessly clean. I know it didn't smell stinky like some other dog because I left the yarn lying around on couches and coffee tables. Neither of my dogs attacked it, licked it, or showed the slightest interest. That is likely because it doesn't smell--because they've gone after way too many other dogs, cats, rodents, snakes, etc. for me to believe that they have a poor sense of smell. Dog blend yarns have lovely drape, but isn't very elastic or springy in texture.

At the end, I found the hat needed a sturdy hat band to stay on my head, which definitely wasn't in the pattern. (I then improvised, cast on with more black wool, knit a hem casing, and added elastic.) I also found that without an "inner hat", it wasn't warm enough in a winter prairie breeze. (par for the course) Finally, I discovered that I kinda liked what the hat became, and I'm enjoying wearing it.
Note that the horizontal lines across my face in this photo are from the old mirror inset on our kitchen door. I'm older, but not that much older!

So, in conclusion, I would have to say that this hat is a good metaphor for my 2009. It's been a huge year for me. I've had my first two books published. I've moved to another country. I've shifted from doing a lot of freelance writing and design to some freelance editing and occasional teaching. I'm only doing a little writing and a little design, and it's a good break.

I tend to get absorbed in the details...whether it's knitting a hat or something else. I find myself bemoaning the fact that while I wrote two books, I haven't earned anything much yet...and I may never earn anything past the advances. (the sad fact of book publishing these days) I get too absorbed in the negative interactions/experiences that occasionally pop up and follow me around as I became a more public figure. (That's sometimes rough and surprisingly unexpected.) I focus on the book reviews, the personal comments, the details. If you too are interested in those things, Knit Green got a great review here in the latest Library Journal. Oops. never mind...

The big message for me is that, like enjoying the new hat (and not focusing on the gauge issues, the hat band issues, the Samoyed fluff, etc.), I need to remember the big picture. I've had a super year, with great changes and lots of excitements. I can only hope 2010 will be so good.

Oh, and today, the last day of 2009, I'm off to take a look at a loom. Cause, you know, I don't have enough projects and fiber arts gadgets around here...and it's been a 24? year hiatus since I had a floor loom. Maybe time for me to think about it again.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, productive and exciting 2010. May it include lots of joy, including seeing the big picture and--fluffy onion dome hats!