Random Romanticism

I have the itch... Call it Spring Fever, call it "I can't stare at the same 5 unfinished projects anymore", call it whatever you will but I have it bad...

I need to knit something impossibly complicated.

My masochistic brain was up at 6 am delving through hundreds of stranded colorwork patterns searching for the most ridiculously impossible-for-mere-mortals-to-knit albatross of a project. One of those perfect patterns where you see photographs of other knitters' finished pieces complimented by blog entries and project notes to prove that they really made them and yet, it is impossible to fully grasp. Surely these pieces were knitted by the angels of heaven themselves and bestowed upon the worthy... or made by supremely-intelligent aliens to remind the human race of its inferiority.

To make matters worse, it cannot be knitted from anything in my stash. No, I am pretty convinced it will have to be something...

expensive. Something Noro expensive.

Help me I am doomed...

I've decided that it is time to expand my spinning skills into new fibers and techniques. From the recent big Interweave sale I had purchased three great books that I had previously taken from the library, Spin Control, The intentional Spinner and Intertwined. (Only one is still in the store right now) Awesome books! Highly recommended. Between the three of them, written from very comprehensive but different perspectives, I have one complete spinning bible.

I decided to learn the long draw because I wanted to use the merino/bamboo blend that I had carded up to make this beautiful piece from Sweaterbabe. I bought the pattern months ago and have been carefully planning my yarn...

Long draw proved to be more challenging than I thought and all the instructions in the world proved useless until I watched a couple of youtube videos. Its a very odd sensation when it works but man! It seems to happen all by itself at times. I felt like a spider drawing gossamer directly from my body. I began singing to myself with the rhythm of the treadles (which have to go very fast for this draw to work) "Spider-girl, spider-girl. Spins whatever a spider-girl spins." The pure merino was so lovely to work with, it came out so beautiful and even and so I decided to try it on my blend.

Not so much.

I'm pretty sure the challenge was in the messy batt that I had carded. The bamboo roving is slippery and tends to jump out of my hand in weird chunks that create pills. This happens in both the carding machine and the actual spinning. The blend was 60% bamboo, 40% merino. I suspect that the carding challenge is purely about my issues with patience and my spinning challenge is largely about how even the carding comes out.

So far I have spun enough of the Paradise Fibers silk to ply with the Pitcher Plant and it has come out just GORGEOUS:


I have also been spinning their milk protein (really, really cool stuff) which is undyed and their "Black Gold" bamboo fiber, which is a mesmerising pewter-grey. While my spinning skills have all come back to me as well as improved quite a bit, I still had a huge hurdle to deal with: I've been totally blocked against dying my own stuff. I can't explain it... its totally irrational. I simply can't get my butt over to the studio to do it.

When Shoshi last came to vist she bought me a very comprehensive and fun book about dying fiber: Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece by Gail Callahan. At the same time that I ordered all of the fiber, I also ordered a basic set of Greener Shades dyes from Still River Mills. They are apparently completely free from heavy metals (except one color) and totally organic. As someone who is really sensitive to chemicals I love this idea.

So...

Nuthin.

Finally, I happened upon a whole slew of discussions about dying yarns and fibers with Kool-Aid. Yup, Kool-Aid. Its not something that I would have tried because I assumed that the colors would never last but, apparently, they are not only permanent but quite vibrant! AND, because Kool-aid is so acidic, you don't need to add anything to the dyebath to make it work. Just mix up a color, add your yarn or fiber and nuke it for 2 minutes at a time. Great instructions can be found in this Knitty article.

I had already been charged with procuring Jell-o for Graham to experiment with (the idea being to create molds out of his toys and imbed Lego guys in the Jell-o) so I grabbed 2 each of all 5 flavors they had at the Stop and Shop. I had bought a skein of Kashmira undyed wool yarn to experiment with and i made two skeins: one on my swift at the widest setting and one by winding around our dining chairs to try to get as slow a stripe as possible. I'm not going to pretend I made professional looking skeins but man, did I have fun!

It's not that I haven't been creative lately, it's just that I haven't felt like talking much. The economy has finally caught up with my dance business and things have gotten so slow that I have found myself with quite a bit of time on my hands. Lucky for me, I have a bazillion pots on back burners and have been moving along quite well with different projects.

A few people had commented to me that I seem to have a newfound obsession with knitting. Little do they know that this obsession has been lying just below the surface for years. Now I just do it in public. All the time. I've been knitting in bars, on the boat, at the beach, on airplanes, on car rides... its like getting back an old lover. All the old feelings come rushing back. I have also been shamefully neglecting thousands of dollars worth of rather nice spinning equipment and re-realized that this is the natural way for an obessive control freak to create the raw materials needed to obsessively control a creative process. So... from here on out we are going to add fiber arts to the long list of things to jabber about and lets see how that goes, shall we?

Lately I have been spinning fibers hand-dyed by other artists because I didn't have the equipment and supplies to do it myself. On my most recent trip to Newfoundland to visit my family I discovered Fleece Artist wool rovings. Their Blue Face Leicester is absolutely dreamy! Soft soft soft and so easy to spin it feels like cheating. I purchased about 150 grams of luscious roving in an oceanic colorway and then drafted and plied it carefully so that the color would subtly change on its way from one end of a finished piece to the other:



I also grabbed all they had (200g) of silk/wool sliver in a colorway called "Pitcher Plant". It is the dreamiest, creamiest, fluffiest, most delicious thing I think I have ever touched and I held onto it while I practiced spinning other things so that I wouldn't screw it up.



Makes you want to eat it, no? Not wanting to sacrifice yardage or texture I have ordered both undyed silk and BFL roving from Paradise Fibers to ply with it depending on which is a better match.

I know its been a long time since my last update...

Getting unpacked and organized enough to start working in the studio again took longer than expected. That process was drawn out further by a rash of very stressful events that all came on at the same time. Its all behind me now, though, and I am planning to announce some major shtuff in the next week or so :-)

I've also been struggling with the comment feature here and trying to install software that would keep the spammers off. These jerks were dumping in anywhere from a dozen to hundreds of "comments" with ads for viagra and the like... I had to delete them all manually. UGH. Turns out I am not a complete boob, but the plugin I was trying to add to the blog to stop this was faulty.

Simple easy captcha! Now, if you are not a member of the blog you can still leave a comment after typing the verification code.

I miss hearing from everyone...

So, the move is coming along slowly but surely. Because it is such a short distance I am attempting to do as much of it as possible myself, little by little, in my 'Beetle. I have to say, it is quite comical to see me driving across town with boxes and boxes of fabric squished up against the windows and the tall stuff sticking out the sunroof!

You just don't realize how much crap you have until you try to move it. Because I use lots of small amounts of fabric, bits of old jewelry and pretty much anything I can get my hands on, I have bins and bins and bins just jammed with stuff. I try to keep it somewhat organized, I really do. When I am working on a project I tend to amass anything that remotely interests me to use on it in one general area and then make that mess into a bigger mess. I am definitely making some good decisions about throwing away certain things. The problem I have found over the years is always the same, though- I save something for years and years (let's say it's a broken old necklace but I LOVE 2 of the 30 beads on it) and in a fit of frustration I throw it away. 95% of the time I will wish I had that stupid thing within a month of dumping it. Its just maddening!

Jewelers vacuum out their work benches to reclaim the bits and filings of precious metals and then have them melted down to be reused. I swear if you took my vacuum cleaner bag you could open a bead store.

I am really excited about the new studio. Its the front parlor of an old Victorian house in Salem so its big, with lots of windows and beautiful french doors separating it from the rest of the apartment. I am also very fortunate to be sharing it with my dear friend Damien and I'm really looking forward to trading ideas and inspiration with him. He's the only other person I know who, like me, collects weird old antiques so we have a ton of cool old shit to decorate with. He also has a really amazing art collection and I am hoping our stuff will look great together.

OK, I am typing when I should be packing so...

(For some reason this had been timestamped 1969?)
Man I have had a hell of a time the last couple of weeks. Moving itself has been extremely stressful- it always is. I usually get sick at the end of a move just because I am so stressed out and exhausted that my immune system really takes a beating. Today the sore throat started so I just know its coming. On top of the moving though, I have had a real rash of what I can only call "bad luck. The amazing thing is, that amidst all of the crap that has been rained down on me I am very aware of my blessings and the wonderful people in my life.

Two weeks in a row I have been booked at Basha Cafe and my car has broken down on the way home at 2am. The first time I was pumping gas and when I got back in the car the starter was dead. A very nice gentleman helped me push it to the top of a nearby hill and I was able to roll-start it to get home. The following week my clutch cable snapped on Rt 16 and I had to limp the car home by forcing it into 2nd gear over and over again. Not amusing at all... The gigs were tremendously fun, though, and I am so thankful that there was someone wiling to help me push my car at 2am. I have the most amazing mechanic who does twice the work for half the money and both times he had me fixed up and back on the road within a few hours.

Last Wednesday my very old and very wonderful kitty, Spot, finally reached the end of his life and I had to have him put down. It was the hardest and most painful thing I have ever had to do but he really wasn't well. I have had him for 15 years, since he was 3 months old, and he was like my kid for chrissakes. The vet was very sweet and reassuring and let me stay with Spot and hold him the entire time, even after he was gone. The next day I received a sympathy card with personal notes from each of the staff at the office and a plaster casting of Spot's paw print with a ribbon to hang it. I was just overwhelmed. I told Larry about it and he had tears in his eyes. It was just amazing.

Yesterday my sister Shoshanna called to give me the news that our grandmother was dying. Amid all of this stuff I needed to find the time and a way to get up to Vermont to see her. That was really the last straw for my fragile psyche and I was a total mess. I was booked at the Kasbah so I figured I would at least get to hang out with my friends there and try to take my mind off of everything. The owner took one look at me and asked if I was ok. I just said I was having a long day, not wanting to burden anyone with my sob story. By 10pm the place was packed like I haven't seen in a year. It was just wall to wall people, most of whom I knew from the Arabic club scene and they were just ripping it up. As I danced they were clapping and throwing money and just having a fabulous time. The band was totally on and when I wasn't dancing everyone else was. Spencer and Barbara came to hang out at the end of the night and for the first time in a long time I stayed there until they practically pried my martini away and kicked me out.

This morning Shoshanna called back to tell me that our grandmother was gone. I was just crushed. I knew it was inevitable and close but I was really hoping to be able to get up to Vermont to say goodbye and spend some time with her. She was such an incredibly important person to me and I loved her so much, I just wasn't ready for the end to come so fast. I was scheduled to dance in a fundraiser for the Northest Animal Shelter at the Salem town hall at 2pm and then at Tangierino's at 7. All I wanted was to crawl under the covers and cry myself to sleep. Somehow, though, I convinced myself that I couldn't back out of either show. Larry was extremely supportive and helped me pull myself together and get ready. I was pretty shaken up when I got to the event but I wasn't slated until the second half so I sat got to sit in the audience and watch all of the other performances. I reconnected with some dancer friends that I hadn't seen in quite some time and decided to just keep my mouth shut about anything negative. As soon as the music started and the first dancer came out I fel my stress lifting away and halfway through the first set I was feeling much better. By the time I was on I was still pretty shaky and I totally bombed my piece but I got through it and enjoyed the rest of the show tremendously.

Between now and April 1 I am moving to a new studio. I am very excited about it since I will finally be cutting my expenses in half. I am also really happy that I will be sharing studio space with my dear friend Damien of Organic Panic. Thankfully, D has already seen just how much crap I have in the way of materials and he still wants to share space with me. Poor kid has no idea...

Still staying in Salem, just a few blocks from where I am now. I am going to be rather insane for the next few weeks but I promise not to disappear...

I am feeling very guilty that nothing has gone on here for quite a while. Honestly, I put all of my projects on hold to make Christmas presents. Almost all of them were knitted and I only finished a few days ago. Those of you who know my love of deadlines are not surprised at all by this.

Thankfully, I have been dancing a lot (I am actually on a break at Tangierino right now, typing in the back office). The turn of the economy in the fall had me very worried and while being hired for parties has slowed quite a bit, the restaurants and clubs have all been great. I am back here at Tangierino, the Peabody Coffee House has started back up and I danced at a fabulous new place in Cambridge called Basha Cafe. I'm very surprised at how these places have endured the "recession that isn't a recession."

Im throwing myself back into the studio this weekend so hopefully there will be many more updates soon! In the meantime, my store has officially moved to Etsy (YAY!)

leads me to strange places on the interwebs...
Currently it is 3:45 am and I am hoping to exhaust myself with laughter.