Looking back at former trips ...

Today, I was inspired to look back at our trip to India in 2010. 

In some ways it seems a long time ago, in other ways fairly recent. 

I was looking for photographs taken in New Delhi when we came across a wonderful textile market being held in the grounds of the Indira Ghandi National Centre for the Arts. There were stalls from many regions of India, and a few nearby places showing and selling local textiles.

One in particular was a stand from Bhutan, which had beautifully woven fabrics, but what interested me was the spindle and bast fibres for spinning. I was allowed to try out this spindle, and ever since have a great memory of just how beautifully it spun. How I wish that it had been for sale.

Other attractions abounded, there were concerts and dance performances throughout the day and evening, and wonderful food to sample. On our first visit we came across these dancers preparing to perform ...

There were so many other memorable performers, including this bagpiper.

The atmosphere was very relaxed, which helped with the sensory overload from all the colourful textiles.

This seems to be the only food stand that I photographed ... while perusing the menu.

Still spindling ....

I took my Bosworth spindle away to Ireland at the end of August, and found out a few places that are not conducive to spindling.
However, during a coach trip I did manage to spin and ply some fine yarn.
That yarn seems a bit more over-spun than some other little skeins.
In all, I managed to spin up about 20 gm laceweight yarn, which is 20gm more than I would usually do while travelling.
There is still about 100gm of this merino/silk mix still to do.
I don't want to wash it until it is all done, so no pics yet.

Secret Pal goodies again

When I can I spend a lot of time in the garden. This weekend, amazingly, my one day at home coincided with good weather. All week we had showers of rain, often heavy. Leaving work on Saturday afternoon I got drenched cycling home, so wasn't expecting such luck on Sunday.

But before I get too involved in talking about planting out items, here are the goodies from the first part of SP14: butterflies for the garden, beautifully dyed silk hankies and the handcream to smooth my digits before embarking on the spinning. Thank you, Secret Pal. When I get a couple of other spinning projects out of the way, I will spend some time removing all those gardening roughnesses with salt and oil, as I know that sik hankies are best treated with care. I already tried out the handcream, and it is just right to use before spinning silk and fine wool.And now for the creative bit in the garden. A while ago I found some old carrot seed and planted it in modules in the greenhouse. I have been rather lazy about keeping it watered and yet it survived. For about a week it has needed to be moved on. We never seem to get on well with carrots as our soil is full of gravel from the River Trent in whose floodplain we live. These carrots having survived my general neglect have now had lots of care lavished on them. I found some mature compost and assiduously sieved out all the stones and bits of branches. This has then had more compost and sand mixed in with it, and been put in a growing bag that held early potatoes until last month. Tonight they have perked up, so we may yet get a decent crop.
As you can see, the butterflies felt right at home on our patio. This pot has just developed by serendipity. Originally it held some golden hops and nasturtiums. Several years on it has self-seeded plants some of which I cannot yet identify. But as they all work well together it hasn't been disturbed. We frequently find plants creeping in, possibly brought in by birds. Only the fern in this pot has its parentage in our garden. We are still waiting to see what the other shrubs turn out to be.

Monday - carpet; Tuesday - desks; Wednesday - internet ....

... and so on. The move has been made, and we have an office set up as well as the studio.

Wednesday night saw the hanging of art work in the entrance hallway, and much tidying up.

On Thursday we opened an exhibition we are hosting for the next week, "Art at the HeART of Wellbeing".

Many of the artists were present, and since then several other visitors have trickled in to view the work.

We followed up the exhibition private view with an opening event for the Art Room from 14.00 - 19.00. Many people we know dropped by to see the new studio.

This hasn't left much time for knitting or crochet. I finished off knitting a sample of handspun and instantly gave it away to a friend, so no pics there.

Yesterday I was out in the garden trying to tame some of the geraniums, and came across these other flowers, some of which were a complete surprise. We have plenty of grasses scattered wherever they feel like growing:We have no memory of planting gladioli, so this was unexpected. It is really a magenta/purple colour. My phone has given it a much bluer tinge, and I was too lazy to go into the house to fetch a camera..

I haven't looked this up in gardening books, so can't tell what it is. I know that I planted it about 3 years ago, it disappeared, and has now decided to make its presence known.This hollyhock comes from seed given to us by Sylvi from her garden in the Czech Republic.

Art Room move

I've been a bit quiet here for the past while, and all because we have been moving the Art Room to a new venue.

We have been in business now for a little over 3 years, and our rate of expansion has been phenomenal.

When we moved into larger premises in 2007/8, we knew that it was only until July of this year.

It gave us a chance to work on a larger scale, and that proved to work well for us.

The decision as to where we would be after our lease ran out has weighed heavily on us.

It has been a bit of a cliffhanger, as our preferred premises were not available when we had expected them to be.

We only found out late last Wednesday that we could move in this last weekend.

We had to be out of our premises by yesterday morning.

So we didn't have to do a two-way move via temporary storage.

Now we are moved, and frantically trying to set up for next Monday when we will reopen to the public.

The builders also had no access until this week, so we will be working alongside them.

The good news is that our new landlords walked through with the builders yesterday, and the builders wasted no time, and started this morning.

We have long days ahead of us to get everything in place.

We won't have a telephone line in until Thursday.

So in some ways it has been quiet, as unless people know our mobile numbers we cannot be contacted.

I have been too tired to think much about the Secret Pal 14 exchange, which just started.

I am looking forward to taking part, having missed out on the last couple of exchanges.

But please bear with me for a few days until we are sorted out at the studio.

I did manage some spinning last week when very much stressed.

Some of it was sampling a fantastic alpaca silk mix in "Think Pink" that I bought from Krafty Koala at the end of UK Ravelry Day in Coventry.

I have also started on spinning some fibres bought from Skein Queen at about the same time.

This may be a long term project, and just possibly the recipient may read this, so no more hints.

And now a reminder that I do knit sometimes. Here is a quick snap taken with my mobile phone one evening when fetching the washing in (hence the bluish colour). Ian had hung a load of my socks together, making a burst of colour.

This is one view from bed early in the morning, which may inspire some wire or porcelain - fine spider tracery highlighted by sunlight.

And the little bit of wire knitting I did on my way over to Coventry for UK Ravelry Day - purple wire with gold thread, worn pinned through a piece of porcelain I had fashioned, but that broke in firing. Now (when I get time) I need to make some porcelain with larger holes so that I can pin things on more easily.

More haste ... less speed!

Although we have been together for nearly 13 years, I don't think that I have ever knitted a sweater for Ian. I've thought about, spun and sampled for them, but none seem to have come to fruition as yet. The dingy image above shows some recent sampling, which is now slowly being translated into a garment.

One of my favourite stitches is a k2, p2 moving rib. It can be knitted on smallish needles, yet gives a fluid warm fabric. It is great for mixing colours. The stripes are still visible, yet meld just a little. Here is an example using some of my handspun:

The other thing about it, is that it comes up to the same widthwise tension as garter stitch.

So, having acquired some wool, roughly 4 ply thickness that is in three distinct brown shades, I have been designing. Together with some ancient Rowan Donegal tweed colours it is taking shape.

The sample above was just to tell me whether the colours worked. Certainly my photography didn't! We are going away to Cornwall for a few nights, and this will be with me for the long train journey down to Penzance and back. I will be able to measure it against Ian and sweaters he has with him, what more could you ask for?

Of necessity, this trip was planned months ago, long before we had any inkling that the Art Room would be moving into larger premises. I will be missing out on some of the good stuff, and some of the nitty gritty, but hope to come back more able to help out.

This past week has been very busy. The other Mary was out in schools running sessions making pots for Diwali. I was running most of the open studio sessions, and making sure that the pots were dried out, and packed into the kiln for firing. I was glad that I didn't get to cope with the masses of children that came to the free event at Long Eaton town hall yesterday. There had been about 160 children there during the day, from 10.30 - 13.30.

And now it is time for those of a nervous disposition to look away!

On Wednesday, round about 16.40, I was leaving the Art Room (at 16.00 my 4 New Deal workers had left when the session ended). I brought my bike round, and as I was closing the heavy metal gate my left hand got in the way.

Now I know why Ravelry asks for a favourite swearword when filling out the profile.

Mine is roughly this: tsc#*=#, which you could well have heard had you been there.

This is how it looked this afternoon. Most of the swelling has gone down, and the other side isn't quite as black as it had been. This image makes it look much better than it is in reality.

It doesn't throb as much as it did, but is still much warmer than my other digits.

It limits what I can do. The feeling is now rather like a chilblain, but it is getting easier to touch it. For the first few days drying my hand was the worst thing I tried to do.

BUT I can still knit, not for as long as usual though!! I have been typing with only the index finger of the left hand in use. The others, and the thumb make a protective fist. This makes me even slower than usual in everything. I don't think that I'll make that mistake again. It all happened because I didn't want the metal gate to clang as I was tired.

She gave me Smiles

Back in the spring at one of the shows in the NEC, WyeSue handed me a paper bag.
In it were a handful of seed potatoes of a variety new to me, Smile.

We squeezed them in with our other potaoes, but all of our crop has been a disappointment this year. Due to our 3-bed crop rotation, they were in the worst bed this time. This is the driest, most shaded one, near the hedge and ash trees.

This weekend Ian dug out all the remaining potato crop, and it came to just one bucketful. I couldn't see any noticeable Smiles in there. So, it looks as though they never produced a crop at all. We will have to try to get a few to try again next year in what will be a far better position.

Knitting wise, I am working on a pair of socks for myself, that I need to photograph.
I am also untangling a skein of laceweight cashmere yarn, that got extremely tangled up. It is on my swift, and I am having to use my magnifying headband to see to sort out some of the tangles.

Of course my brain is racing away with all sorts of projects. I have a couple of small projects good for travelling. One is a small skein of indigo dyed cotton that I was given, which is crocking, and making an interesting record of the way that the yarn passes through my hands. Next time I work with it, I will have to get someone ese to take a photo.

The other is a skein of laceweight mohair from Mobair that I am slowly knitting into a scarf with two of a set of ancient bone dpn's. This helped me to remain sane last Wednesday, when I was a very short distance from the station at Loughborough and saw my train go. I had been rash in thinking that I could catch that one. The result was that I had to wait an hour, and then it took 45 minutes rather than 10 to get to our station. (The last train of the day doesn't go direct, but rather diverts to Nottingham and back again).
So there I was sitting at Loughborough slowly churning out froth as it was raining steadily in what appeared to be a horizontal way. Earlier I had trouble controlling an umbrella, and it wasn't worth the effort to walk back to get to a pub for the wait.

Now to hang out my second load of washing, to join the lot that has had an extra rinsing of rain. It is showery here today, but not as bad as it was early yesterday when one of the mini "tornados" caused havoc less than a mile away.

Then before I get further sidetracked, back to do a bit of spinning. I have a sample of an interesting wool/silk blend that I want to play with.

Fiber Swap questionnaire

What do you use your fibre for? I use fibres predominantly for spinning, but sometimes for wet felting or needlefelting (see some of the jewellery on my blog for instances of this).

What kind of spinning do you do or what do you spin for? I spin to knit (or sometimes crochet)
If you knit, weave, spin, crochet, needle felt, or do other fibery pursuits, how long have you been doing those things? In the early 80’s I won a fleece, and thus had to learn to spin. It was a Welsh Black Mountain, a lovely colour to start with. A year or so later I bought myself an Ashford double drive wheel. Since then I have spun when I feel like it.

What level of expertise are you at? I’d say I am an intermediate spinner. I don’t keep accurate records, but sample a lot before embarking on a project. I often dye fibres before spinning them. Just occasionally I dye my spun yarn.

What fibres have you worked with? I have spun various breeds of sheep (Gotland is a favourite), alpaca, silk, cotton and other plant fibres.

Which fibres, fibre blends, and types of fibres do you prefer? I like to spin fine yarn, and often blend silk in with fleece. That way I can get colour and/or shine without losing the elasticity that the wool imparts.

Are you interested in working with raw fleece? If so, what type? Anything that will result in a fine yarn, and that is naturally white or grey to black. I don’t like buff or browns.

What fibery tools do you currently have (e.g., spinning wheels, drop spindles, combs, cards, etc.)? As I mentioned before, I have an Ashford double drive wheel. I also have a Bosworth spindle, hand cards, swift, and a couple of niddy noddies.

Do you crave any tools, books, or videos? Amy R. Singer’s recent book “No sheep for you” sounds interesting. I haven’t yet seen a copy, so am not sure whether I would buy it. I already have an extensive library of textile books, built up over the past 30 years or so. I don’t have an inch/centimetre gauge, usually using a ruler when I want to check yarn dimensions.

What fibres are you absolutely dying to get your hands on? Having read of qiviut and buffalo fibres, I’d like to try them, just a handful or so. I’d also like to try out milk protein fibres, again in small quantities. Surprisingly, I haven’t yet tried Blue-faced Leicester.

Which fibres do you absolutely not want to work with? Anything artificial, course in texture and/or buff in colour.

Do you prefer natural colour fibres or pre-dyed fibres? I like both. I like merino/silk, merino/flax, and merino/cotton mixes.

What are your dye and colour preferences? My favourite colour is purple, and I like vibrant bright jewel colours, using either synthetic or natural dyes. Otherwise indigo is a favourite. I don’t like pale pastel colours, but do like the acid greens/yellows/oranges that are the opposite of my favourite colours.

Any allergies or things your pal should be aware of? I dislike smoke and animals anywhere near me or any of my things. I refused to spin some dog hair a few years ago for that reason.