Caroline Fiber Frolic 2012!!!

Peggy and Debbie waiting for my class to start.

What CFF is not—

It is not a massive number of fiber people meeting around a marketplace center designed to introduce new products and sell you lots of yarn and fiber. Such events have their place, but this isn’t it.

Mostly CFF is not massive.

This is Jane at a loom.

CFF is not in New York, Chicago, LA or even Charlotte. “Awayness” is an important part of CFF. Even more important, it is here in the southeast.

Enough!

What CFF is—

CFF is a gathering of fiber people—spinners, knitters, weavers, dyers, crocheters of all ability levels. For me the word gathering has an intimate quality, and that describes CFF. Last year I arrived knowing only 3 or 4 people. I left having met almost everyone there and having email addresses leading me to help and advice in my fiber activities.

This is what I learned to spin.

I taught too many classes so I was unable to take any. Even so, people taught me new skills. While hanging out after class, Anne Potter and Jane  taught me to spin novelty yarn, loaning me a wheel and supplies.

Linda from Rainy Day Creations

In the small, select vendor area, I met Linda, one of the owners of  a shop 20 minutes away from me. Listening to her spinning students showed me she was just the person I needed to take me from beginner to advanced beginner spinner. I arranged a private lesson at Rainy Day Creations, her shop in Pineville, and she taught me to make the most of my little wheel. I still don’t spin very often, but I really like knowing how.

New book by Fleegle

This year Fleegle from Fleeglesblog is coming and will teach a class on spinning with a supported spindle. (You rest the spindle in a bowl. This avoids that word DROP, which is the one that describes my spinning with a drop spindle. The ethnic spindles used for this are neat.) I want to learn this. This is the way those Russian women spin the yarn for their Orenburg lace shawls; you know, the ones you can pull through your wedding ring.  (Also check out her method for short rows which I have had bookmarked for years.)

Ann's batts ready for making beauty

Unlike the big events, CFF is like grown-up camp—at least during the day. Classes provide equipment if you don’t own it, so you can try new things without a long term commitment. Knowing how to weave changes how you look at fabric, even when shopping for a new outfit. Knowing a bit about spinning helps you make fewer mistakes in your yarn choices. But these aren’t the only reasons you need to know about CFF.

CFF was created by local (NC/SC line near Charlotte) fiber artist Jan Smiley. Jan felt we needed a fun, friendly, educational option HERE in the southeast. The first two years were held at the Middleton Plantation near Charleston. This year, CFF moves to the Sapphire Valley in NC—yea, mountains. Scheduling in the off-season allows participants a great price break on lodging. You won’t believe how great.

I have booked a 2 bedroom condo at a resort—Foxtrot Sapphire Resort—for $115 a night. This condo is fully equipped, sleeps 6, includes pools, hot tubs, Jacuzzi tubs, tennis courts, workout facilities and several restaurants if I wanted to use them. Yes, $115 a night. Divide that by the number of friends you bring. I am planning to take DH and maybe some other family. The Hampton Inn is a bit closer to our meeting facilities and has wonderful reviews on hotel.com. Jan has negotiated a special group price there of $89. They do include breakfast.

The registration fee includes most of your meals, and your non attending guests can purchase a meal plan and join the group for meals.  We eat very well.  Highlands, NC, is not far away and has some interesting and excellent restaurants as well.

Now—all of that being said, the community of people who will gather is still the most important thing. Classes are very important—both the skills and the people involved—but the hanging out is more so—at least to me. I came back with new friends, new skills, new ideas and so much enthusiasm for my craft. I cannot wait to get there this year.

More opinions

Please join me. You won’t regret it. Email me if you have questions. I’d love to tell you more.

Organizing whatever needs it–2012

A before pic

I don’t make resolutions.  That way I avoid the depression that can come with not accomplishing (or not even starting) them.  But I have been bitten by the reorganization bug.  Julie Fei-Fan Balzer did a week of blogs about organizing your studio.  She defines studio as anything from the corner of the dining room to a full, separate room.  She and her guest bloggers taught me a lot.  I strongly suggest you read her blogs because they can apply to anything.  I’ll put the link at the end of this report.

The best thing I learned was that your studio space is not a storage space.  The things you keep in your studio space are the things you need every time you work.  She talks about identifying 10 things you must have within reach and then organizing so they are kept where you use them.  If you have multiple work spaces—sewing, beading, painting, knitting—this means that you can use some of your walking space to organize and display partial projects, because you are planning to basically sit in one place once you start.  No getting up to get things every several minutes.  Also no moving big bins of stuff to find the thing you need when you use it often.  This extra bit of space in the walkways can be a great place to keep inspiration pieces or pieces that you don’t know what to do with.  Seeing them often may set off an aha.

Next I reflected on the idea of keeping things visible.  I’m ADHD and for me, out of sight is totally non-existent.  I hang things on hooks and doorknobs so I will remember what I am supposed to do with them later.  Julie talked about keeping supplies in smaller containers, not big storage bins; using transparent or open topped containers; and labeling the containers for easy reference.  She explained that the container system you choose should be easy for you to use or you will never ever put things away.  Putting away what you aren’t using leaves more room to work.

I have lots of transparent containers, but I hadn’t thought much about open top things.  Not only can I see the papers in this box – it came free with the beer I bought—but I can easily  pull out and replace whatever I am considering using.  I am following Julie’s advice about the cheapness of the container being more important that it’s beauty.  She uses the heck out of USPS boxes.

In keeping with open tops, I bought this small laundry-like basket at The Dollar Store.  Yep, it cost a dollar, and it has really been handy for ferrying stuff up and down the stairs.  I found some small, open plastic bins at the clearance section at the entrance to Target.  Those will go to the tools in the garage.

I have a bunch of home dec fabric and batiks that I want to use to make stuff.  Of course, even when working from your stash you have to buy some things—thread to match or a contrasting embellishment.   To make my trips to Mary Jo’s Cloth Shop  in  Gastonia easier, I made a swatch book of the fabric.  I used old white fabic and some ancient interfacing.  I didn’t sew the pages together, just used a clamp, so I could edit what I would take with me.  This was useful and I felt so proud of myself for being so super organized.  Wish I could get the gumption up to make one of my yarn.

The final idea from Julie that I am thrilled to be using is to label what comes next.  One of her guest bloggers puts the unfinished projects away in containers with all the supplies needed to finish AND with a note that says what the next step is.  I usually have a cutting table full of things that need to be done, but have to spend a half hour figuring out what I was going to do next.  Now I never have that problem with my knitting.  I have trained myself to always leave a note on the pattern or on a sticky note.  I like to knit, not think, when I knit.

Julie does mixed media work.  She has a free stenciling class online that I used.  She is filled with ideas, and like Alissa Burke, understands that messy isn’t always a bad thing.  Check out the organization week ideas here.

Another link I’d like to share is about the SOPA and PIPA legislation before Congress which is another effort to censor the internet.   As a trained Media Specialist (school librarian), the mere thought of censorship raises my hackles.  I do believe in obeying the copyright laws of the land and in the justice system taking to task–or to jail–those who steal the intellectual property of others.  However, that is not what this law is about. If you are unaware of these acts and wish to know a bit more, you might want to watch this brief talk from

Those Special Aussies

Christmas brought one unexpected package.  Our great friends Liz and Brett sent us a Care package.  It included a picture of an Echidna, Steve’s favorite logo for his biking team; a tea towel designed by some challenged children for whom Liz advocates, a calendar with pictures of the countryside, a needlecase for me and a bookmark.  Nothing was large or weighed very much.  Indeed the entire package weight about 3 grams.  The shock was that it cost $17.00 to mail it.  Wow.

I loved the postal envelope it came in and had to share it with you.  The Aussies don’t waste a lot of time on political correctness.  The just call things what they are.

Tough Bag!!!!  I loved it.  But examine the other hoops Liz had to jump through to get this to us.

 Evidently she had to present some kind of ID to mail something to the States.

And she had to swear it was legal and harmless material.

 Then she had to explain specifically what was inside.

Finally, she had to (Yikes) pay the postage.

But this package brought a great deal of joy to two honorary Australians.

More later–

Red Heart Fame

Dear Friend and Local Artist Cat Babbie works for Coats and Clark.   Sometime last year (never remember dates or timelines) the Red Heart yarn people were designing a new yarn and needed a pattern for it ASAP.  Cat said she knew a designer that could do it and PDQ.  (I can remember acronyms.)  They called; offered money; I said yes.

Much time passed.  Yarn was produced for sale and released with my pattern on the label.  Of course, no store anywhere around here carried the yarn.  I didn’t really want the yarn, I wanted the label.  I didn’t order it online because I was afraid there might be several labels and I wanted MY label.

Finally Cat came to my rescue.  She delivered two—not one—skeins.  That was good because when Steve saw it, he said we should frame it.  You need two to have a front and back of the label.  Yes, I’m going to frame it and hang it in my studio.  I am very proud of it.

Maybe someday someone I know will buy a skein and say Oh, I know her.  Wouldn’t that be nice?  Did I mention I was proud?  And really glad I know Cat.  She made the tiles in my kitchen and now is a marvelous leather wear designer.  Check out her work at http://rosewoolls.blogspot.com/ and on Etsy at http://www.etsy.com/shop/RoseWoolls?ref=top_trail

Sock Heel Replacement Experiment

I promised a report on replacing Paul’s heels. I used a combination of a Peasant Heel, an Afterthought Heel, and Lucy Neatby’s garter stitch heel.

I stabilized the stitches around the original heel by sewing length of sock yarn through the stitches. Then I cut out and picked out the original stitches. This merely requires good eyesight and great lighting. I attached the new heel yarn, a gray sock yarn from heaven knows where from the stash, and simply knit one row around the hole that was the heel. I did this mainly to make certain I had caught all of the original stitches. Then I counted. I had 32 on the instep needle and 44 on the sole needle.

At first the difference confused me. Then I remembered the gusset. Peasant Heel’s do not have gussets. Neither do any of the ones I based this on. I was not willing to turn this into a major operation, so I just K1, K2 together for half of the extra stitches, then counted backwards to figure out where to do this on the other side of the sole. Now I had 32 and 32, but the sole looked a bit “gathered.” Tuff!! I forged ahead.

I don’t like short row heels in stockinette stitch. They eventually mash down and do not coddle my dainty heel as I would like. They seem insubstantial and easy to wear out. That is merely a prejudice based on no evidence at all. I decided to use the garter stitch version. Neatby recommends using 60% of the sock stitches, but I had little choice here, or so I thought. I put on a pair of my own socks with this Garter St heel and began the process from the cuff area.

When I finished the heel, I needed to join it to the sole of the sock. I knew that Kitchner stitch was the best way, but I had no idea if the fit was right and I didn’t want to take the time. I just did a Three Needle Bindoff and went in search of a male foot. I finally got Steve off a bike and he tried it on, pronounced it a good fit, and said the Three Needle Seam was not obvious as he walked on it. Well, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Three needle bindoff

The second sock was better planned. I began the sock on the sole and knit toward the cuff. That placed the join on top of the sock. I knit the final Wrong Side row which looks like a Purl row on the Right Side, and then grafted the heel to the cuff on the Right Side. Looks great.

Joined with Kitchner st

My only criticism is that the heel length might be a bit shallow, but that would be settled by using 60% of the stitches when the sock is originally knit. You don’t have to do the heel as an Afterthought, where you would knit in some waste yarn and complete the heel after the rest of the sock if finished. However, you must use a different piece of yarn to knit the heel, even if it is the same yarn as the rest of the sock. This makes if easy and safe to remove the original yarn and replace it. Just knit to the heel, tie on a new piece or even the other tail of your skein, work the heel, cut the yarn, continue with the original piece.

This must make little sense all bunched together here, but if you had the sock in your hand, I think it would suffice.

If you don’t knit socks, do recognize that there are many ways to fix any knitting problem. Don’t hurry to pull out your stitches or toss away a project if it doesn’t go well. Seek out some other knitters and brainstorm a solution. Once a group of us salvaged a hat by turning it into a purse. We were quite proud.

More later–

Manipulating your mother-in-law

Your first impulse might be that I am a Duke fan.  Not so.  I am a spiral notebook fan.  It is a sickness.  When I taught high school, I wrote a lot of recommendations for students, but I charged for them.  If you got into that school, you owed me a spiral notebook with the school name when you came home on vacation.  I got lots of them and loved each one.  I love them when they have no writing in them—except the note the student often left. Plain white paper is a favorite.  I actually have been known to stroke the stuff.  Enough about my psychosis except to say that Paul, my SIL, knows about this.    So when he took his family to Durham for a Duke game during Christmas, he and Zachary brought me the above.

He should have.  Look what else he brought me over Christmas.

This is the first sock I ever knit for him.  The mate looked even worse.  Darning is not going to be possible, but he looked so hopeful when he asked if I could somehow save them.  I have to try.

I remembered reading about Elizabeth Zimmerman’s replaceable heel somewhere, sometime.  I researched starting with my favorite sock reference, Folk Socks by Nancy Bush.  Yep, in the first chapter or so is a section about various sock heels.  The Peasant heel is what I needed.  Sort of.  I think.

This is heel that you knit the same way you knit a toe.  So I threaded a needle and wove waste yarn through all the stitches surrounding the heel.  Then I cut the old heel away and picked out the stitches.  Turns out I had a lot more stitches on the sole than on the instep.  This sock is so old I have no idea what I was trying to do or why the stitch difference, but I do know how to get rid of stitches——-K2TOG.

I attached a new sock yarn from my treasured scrap basket and knit one row around the huge hole I had created.  As I knit across the sole, I decreased evenly 12 stitches.  This may present a big problem but I’m going with it–at least for now.

Plan A is to knit a toe but to decrease the stitches at a slower rate.  I will report.

I also plan to go to the Replaceable Heel concept for the future socks I knit for Paul.  He does love my socks so much that I just have to knit him some.

I even named a design after him which has a fantastic sole concept to support your feet.  He is special.

Finished Original Seat of the Pants Design

Vicki showed up at the door this week with a finished sweater that we sort of designed together.  She originally came and asked if I could help her design a sweater with a shawl collar and . . . .  I’ve never knit a shawl collar anything, but that was no reason to say No.  We did some research, maybe 10 minutes worth, and measured her gauge swatch and away she went.  The V neck was the first problem.  It needed to be wide enough to taper nicely almost to the waist.  Some math—and I did say it was merely a suggestion–and we had the thing.  But it was curved and didn’t work well as at the waist.  Too wide.  So we picked up stitches and used short rows to fill it in.  You can do that.  It’s a bit like patching something that is too small.

Next problem was shaping the shawl and in midstream it sort of became a collar.  It is a great collar, so who were we to argue.  The bottom had ribbing and was too long and drew attention in ways Vicki didn’t like.  She just pulled that out, bound off and the plain edge is covered by the drape of the sweater.  Smart!

Finally, she adopted my own method of buttonholes.  Don’t make any.  Just overlap the ends and sew on buttons.  Then you never button the sweater crookedly and embarrass yourself in public.  Ergo, all sweaters are pullovers.

I am so proud of Vicki because most of this design and redesign was all her.  She started experimenting with making changes from the day she knit her first scarf, but after taking my Sweaters from the Top Down class she has been unstoppable.  Cast on the shoulders, apply some of your basic sewing pattern knowledge and wind up with the sweater you wanted just exactly like you wanted.  Caveat:  sometimes you have to take stuff out and try again, but it is well worth it.

Bravo, Vicki.  And she and I both truly believe that anyone with just a bit of daring can do this just as well as we do.

More later–

New Class Schedule Posted

Click on the Class Tab above for the new class schedule.  It isn’t pretty or colorful, but it is up and I like the selection.  Hope you do too.

More later–