General – Page 18 – Fiber Musings

Station Break

On 30 May, 2009

Spring Cleaning will resume tomorrow. Yeah, it’s depressing how many more there are. I’ll keep going until I am either finished with cataloging them or I’m too embarrassed to list more.Â Whichever comes first.

There has been other fiber activities around here, in addition to the spring cleaning.Â I’ve been working away at 12 oz of pin drafted roving from Morro Fleece Works.Â I bought this from Kristine via Carolina Homespun back in March. Kristine was clearing through her stash.

Although I have several pounds worth of Morro’s pin drafted fiber in the garage, I just couldn’t resist.Â This was a luscious moorit merino with streaks of tussah carded into it.Â The blend was a lot of fun to spin with long draw into a slightly slubby yarn.Â I have 3 very full bobbins of singles.Â I’ll be randomly plying from the bobbins into a 2-ply yarn.Â Randomly breaking off a single and joining in from another bobbin.Â Why? This will help even out the final yarn.

Amy told me that she is enjoying the Spring Cleaning series, but wasn’t sure that she’s ready to share with the world her stash of UFOs.Â First off, I’m not calling these UFOs — just projects that have been neglected.Â Semantics, I know.

In revisiting these, I realize that some of them are a lot of fun.Â I don’t know why I ever stopped.Â Something along the way made me put them on hold.Â Revisiting gives me a chance to re-evaluate the situation and determine the path forward.Â Or in the case of the Anarchist Sweater, abandoning it was the right path forward.Â (Incidentally, Grace, the short pieces from each of the squares would actually be great for weaving.Â A perfect project for Iris and her Cricket Loom.)

And the other reason for going through these is partially in response to “I’m bored. I want to cast on a new project” feeling.Â It’s sort of like the kid standing with the refrigerator door open and saying “Mom! I’m hungry and there’s nothing to eat!” when the refrigerator is full of food.Â There are lots of projects here that fit the bill for my need for lace, something warm to cuddle up to, something small and transportable.

Besides, I’m running out of knitting project bags.

Spring Cleaning #2

By Ann

On 24 May, 2009

In General

Spring cleaning of another sort.

The cottage is finally nearing completion.Â The new French doors are in. The cabinets are getting their finish this week.Â The new sofa and chair are in the warehouse, waiting for the construction crap to be hauled away. It was time for me to dig my rugs out of storage.

Today, they came out of the garage and onto the front lawn for a hose down. I first vacuumed them out with the vacuum beater brush, then used the strongest spray I could get out of my garden hose.Â After spraying the first side for about 30 minutes, it was time to turn them over.Â Guess what? They were still dry on the underside.Â I’m never going to worry about the wine soaking through to the floor again!

All the rugs are wool. Left to right:

Room sized kilim, approx. 8’x10′ or 12′, purchased about 15 years ago. Provenance unknown. Purchased from Bloomingdales (yes, how authentic is that?)Â This will go in the conversation area with my new conversation sofa. It’s possible that natural dyes were used given the variations I see in the rug, but I don’t know for sure.Â Woven on cotton warp.
Area rug, approx. 2’x3′. Gift from Ian & Sandy. Purchased from Mexico. Handspun, dyed, and woven.Â Natural dye.Â I even have the receipt somewhere with the plant material used for each color!Â Warp and weft are both wool.
Area rug, approx. 3’x4′. Purchased from Mexico. I doubt that natural dye was used here since the colors are so even, but I could be wrong (and pleasantly surprised). Warp and weft are both wool.

Having taken a navajo rug weaving class after acquiring these rugs, I have a new appreciation for the amount of work that went into weaving these rugs, natural dye or not.Â The ones with natural dyes? Wowza! Even more impressed, given the number of times the yarn had to be put into dye baths to get the saturation you see here.

They are still damp, but I’ve since moved them from the front lawn to hang on fences and tables in the courtyard. I wouldn’t want these babies to disappear before they dry and repacked.