Swatching

Colorways. Sometimes I create colorways by putting the colors together that seem to have something to say to earn other. Like triads on the color wheel that make other secondary colors when gestating in the dyepot. Sometimes they contain opposites on the color wheel and I like how they speak to each other. But roving is one thing and spun yarn can be very different - so now I am swatching my color ways after fractal spinning. I'm finding that I know these colors in a whole new way. 

The swatching makes me think of colorways as potential garments, something real and in my closet!

If you read this blog and wonder where the activity is you can find more current postings over on Instagram under my name dedriquillin.

Social media

I have a confession to make- I'm old and don't understand the world of social media. I want to be one of the in crowd and skate through sites like Pintrest and Instagram with hardly a second thought. But the truth is that I understand slow yarn much better.  

This summer has been a good one for solar dyeing. Each pot takes a whole day and then sits through the night to cool down. The real advantage of summer is that the roving dries much faster. 

If there's one thing we do well here in New Mexico it is hot weather. I will be solar dying into November. 

I've also been spinning when I can get away from the shop for a while.

I'm still here in the digital world although my posts here have been sporadic. You can find me on Pintrest and Instagram and ravelry.

Slow knit / slow yarn

Yarn is such a personal thing. We like this color or fiber maybe not so much another. We hold that yarn in our hands for many hours as we make something for ourselves or a loved one. It is not too far a stretch to imagine that the yarn picks up some of our personal vibration. How much more of ourselves then would be embodied in something made from yarn we have handspun?

 Not too far in the past, a 150 years or so, all our garments would have been made through one slow method or another. Handspun, handwoven would have been the norm, and garments lasted for years. They were passed down through the family finally becoming quilts and rags. 

Making things by hand helps ground us. It gives us a tangible place in the world where our minds can slow down and be still for a time. I am beginning a new slow project. I've solar dyed some (28 ounces) of Blue Faced Leicester. The first 4 ounces have been spun on my Matchless into a two ply that is worsted weight - the  first skein was not quite 220 yards. I'm making a guage swatch in linen stitch with a vest in mind. The colorway is Autumn Shadows. 

Summer is a good time to slow down the mind. Join me.

September

I have a great love of September. It means summer is finally almost over - and here in the desert it is a lovely thought that the heat will end. September contains the Autumnal Equinox that abundant time of equal day and night that marks the turning of the year. What better way to celebrate than a small circle weaving in handspun with a few beads added? 

These gloves are one of my first pair this year. They are all in handspun solar dyed Blue Faced Leicester, navajo plied and knit from the Wabi Sabi pattern by Kirsten Tendyke  Here

I like this pattern because the mitts are knit two at a time on the same pair of knitting needles. Handspun is perfect for these. I like to divide a ball in half and knit from two instead of the ends of one - it seems like there is less twisting of yarn that has to be undone. 

Circle weaving classes start at the store in October.

May your autumn be long and colorful!

Bees

This video is about bees, not yarn. Some things are so important that we need to talk about them across all possible venues.

Thanks to Jude at Spirit Cloth for sharing it with us.

Online store

For several years I maintained an online store at etsy. Last year when we opened the physical store here in Las Cruces we put the online store on vacation. I'm pleased to announce that the etsy store is reopening. I've started with some new hand spun art yarn and will soon be posting hand dyed yarns as well.

Silk and merino with mohair locks batt.

Spun as a single. This is a good sized skein at over 200 yards. A sample of what I will be stocking online. These yarns are not available in the physical store and are a result of the many requests from those of you who have bought from me on etsy. 

Thank you for your continued support!

Boa follow up

Several posts back I posted a picture of the boa scarf I was weaving on a rigid heddle loom. This is the finished scarf. All the loops are on the edges and one side so the other side is flat. It is about 7 inches wide and 6 feet long. 

The Bundle Book

Did you know that the marvelous, wonderful India Flint has put together a new small book on ecoprinting for those of us addicted to her work? It is available through Blurb, the easy link is http://au.blurb.com/books/5423526-the-bundle-book
I ordered mine as soon as she posted the info and it came in the mail today.

It is full of inspiration and ideas.

I went out this afternoon and foraged in the yard and made three bundles.

Many Thanks to India who finds the time to put together nice books for her followers while travelling around the whirled. She makes our world a better place!

Yardage update

This is the beginning of the yardage. I'm finding that the hardest part is staying with cotton and light yarns - weight not color. My inclination is to do everything in wool, but I want this to be light enough to wear between seasons. 

Saori Links

Thought you all might enjoy getting to know the Saori community a little more. If you are on Ravelry there are a couple of Saori weaving forums. The one I belong to is Weaving in the Saori Way moderated by Nicolena aka Jill Sanders Here . She also runs an etsy shop that is the easiest way to buy some of the books and looms (although you can use any loom - the books are expensive and hard to find) Saori Santa Cruz Her blog is a delight and can be found at Centering With Fiber You can spend hours enjoying vicariously her beautiful studio and stories of her students.
Be sure to also check out the mothership for Saori Weaving at Saori No Mori which is the official site in Japan that explains the philosophy and background of this fascinating and liberating movement.

Is it autumn yet?

Instead of ranting about how much I hate summer I'll show you what I'm working on this week to beat the heat-blues. 

This is a cotton warp that I'm putting on the four harness floor loom. The yardage is for a vest. As I sit in front of the AC I like to plan what I might like to wear this fall. The plan here is for a Saori style vest. 

The black, brown and orange are easier to see in the cross. 

This is with the reed sleyed at 10 dpi it is 26" across and the length is four yards. 

Check back to see how I'm progressing!

Break

Vacation is a state of mind. This week while Kym is visiting our nations capital and the store is closed I am weaving near the air conditioner. It is a good thing it is Kym and not me who is in DC today as I could not possibly keep my mouth shut about the Supreme Court ruling against women's reproductive rights. I'd probably end up in jail with no yarn in sight. So I'm weaving a boa instead. Please note that all the yarn used was hand spun and Did Not come from Hobby Lobby. 

I will post a picture when it is done so you can see what this tangled mess looks like. 

Stay cool - wherever you are.

A little spring gardening

There is such seduction in planting in the spring before the summer heat sets in. The winds have stopped - at least temporarily. This morning I've been out putting in some tomatoes and a couple of basils.

This is an olla. It is a fired but not glazed terra cotta pot. 

The idea is that you put the olla in the ground or the pot with the plants to help provide water in this dry hot desert. 

This is the pot where I'm going to bury the olla. The top of the olla should be just above the dirt level.

There is just enough room to put a couple of tomatoe plants alongside. 

Here the rest of the potting soil is filled in. 

The stone keeps things from falling into the water. It will also help keep us from growing our own Mosquitos! By the end of the summer those tomato roots will have wrapped all around the clay pot. It is a good method for growing plants where it is so dry. 

Solar dyeing part two

Who wouldn't be inspired by all this spring color?

From the previous post - the roving was Corriedale with some mohair locks thrown in for good measure. I am a kettle dyer most of the time so the solar dye process fits in well with my expectations. I love how the variations in color turn out. I also think there is less chance of felting the fibers. 

Solar dyeing

Just in time for the weather to get warm a little solar dyeing. These are Corriedale and mohair locks. 

Moving

We are getting ready to move the store. It is kind of scary and exciting all at the same time. We have been at our location about 10 months and had already outgrown it. So we looked around and found a new place that is a bit larger, with better parking and quieter neighbors for the same price. The move is coming up April 26th and we will reopen in the new location on May 1st.

Here is a preview of some of the new things we will have when the doors open!
The new address is 121 Wyatt Dr #24, Las Cruces, NM 88005
Store Hours are still 10-4 Tues - Saturday.
Call me if you need directions! 575-635-9136.

Hope you can come by and see us!

Morning spinning

Sometimes before heading in to the shop I am able to get some spinning done. Usually I have the "help" of sleeping animals. 

Fiber before it was spun.

Murphy takes a power nap after breakfast. 

The ancient English Cocker sleeps on the couch. She will be 15 on her next birthday in May. 

Mermaid yarn

Just finishing up this cute two ply. It has hand dyed BFL, sari silk, angelina, and firestar plied with a turquoise sequin yarn.  The sequins remind me of little bubbles, they are iridescent. A good way to end the weekend. 

Happy new year

A new weaving project for the new year!

One of my hopes for the new year was to figure out how to update this blog from my phone. Being on the high side of 40 this was more of a challenge than it should have been. I finally gave up and asked someone who has teenagers and she told me what to do. Upload an app of course. 

Ordinary Things

I wait all year for October and it rushes by quicker than anything in the spring or summer. It is as though the last 90 days of the year are supercharged and travel at light speed while the first 3/4 of the year meanders along taking it's merry time. Probably that perception would be different if I were still in school or had rug rats in school to remind me that summer usually goes fastest. But now in my late middle years it is the fall that goes so fast that it makes my head swim. So today some ordinary things to slow things down.

The dogs waterbowls on the back porch.

Late summer coleus.

Climbing roses on the shade wall.

The cottonwood tree in the early morning sun.

New skeins from last week's dye pots.

Color everywhere this season. It is time to become a connoisseur of light. Drink it in like fine wine in this clear dry weather. Over at Windthread, Grace is appreciating the light in her modest home to the north of where I live.