For the Love of Fiber

handspun, handknit!

2006-07-23T21:57:00.000-04:00

So do you remember that skein of green wool from my last post? The luscious, increadibly soft one that was my first finished product from a wheel?

Its now a hat, for the radient Ms. Vyxle, a first-class broad and a great friend. Hopefully it will keep her warm in those fridgid Tokyo winters.

nLike her, this hat is free; there was no pattern, and the form kinda came to its own feel during the knitting process. I am quite happy with the results, and feel that I may do more of this kind of knitting inthe future. For me this is the ideal: work from the most basic forms I can to create something as unique and individual as possible. Sadly, I did not dye this yarn. Hopefully I will have some understanding of this part of the process later on.

Still, I'm satisfied for now. My creative muse has been appeased.

As Promised

2006-07-13T22:13:00.000-04:00

This is my first "real" project spun on a wheel. This is a beautiful corridaile top. I am amazed at how quickly this spun up, and how thickly! This is a very heavy yarn, but still quite soft. It is a two-ply, which should knit up into a very warm scarf at some point.

Here are some earlier attempts at spinning on the wheel. Both are blends from the leftover fiber from spinning classes at springwater.

This is one of my discoveries from the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. It is called Jacob wool, and the three colors you see here are natural tones from the same animal! It is nice to use fibers that look great undyed.

Speaking of dying, though, the four skeins you see here are one of my biggest spinning projects so far. There is almost 400 years here! I spun these up from some roving I had dyed previously with Kool-Aid. It was Yellow, Purple, Blue and Red, and clashed horribly. So I overdyed it. Now, it has a wonderful veregation. And it will make some wonderful socks.

Here you see a hat. Well, its not a hat yet. It will be hat for a great friend of mine, but for now it is quite a large amount of handspun. This is an amazing merino top that I bought pre-dyed at Sheep and Wool, that I am increadibly excited to use.

More on these yarns as they get knit up.

2006-07-13T14:04:00.000-04:00

okay okay okay

I'm sorry.

I should be better about this. It has been a crazy stressful period, but I am getting back into the stitch (or spin?) of things, so to speak, and I have a lot of new fiber stuff to show you.

This whole employment question? Makes me not want to write much. I hate being unsure about work, especially with Peace Corps looming on the horizon...it makes it all so much more difficult. In any case, it looks as though I'll be at the Center, where I've been working, until I'm ready to head back to Michigan to prepare personally for 27 months abroad.

In the meantime, I have been doing some knitting, but not as much as at some points in the past. Or at least, not as focused. Here is a list of my current projects:

- Blue Socks (finished...finally!)
- Entrelac Pillow (need to sew on backing, otherwise finished)
- a black hat for a friend (started, stalled)
- cotton/silk/wool worsted socks for my dad...sent for father's day
- anther pair of worsted socks. Lorna's laces yarn bought in Toronto
- MY SWEATER. Yes, I started it.

so as you can see, I'm not very focused right now. Also, I have been doing a LOT of spinning. In fact, I recently learned how to use a spinning wheel, which makes certain jobs much faster, although I still like my spindles. I will post pictures of the stuff I've been spinning/knitting soon.

I'm very happy with the spinning process. I feel that I have advanced significantly, and I am now producing significant quantities of usable spun yarn. Not that I have tried to use any of it yet, but there it is, on my shelf, waiting to be used. Some of it is going to become a hat for Chan, some of it is going to become socks for Page. Others of it, I don't know. IF you have ideas, please let me know!

In completing my blue socks this week, I noticed something kind of odd. I don't think I pick up stitches correctly. I mean, they turn out fine, but for some reason, they leave a much bigger gap then they're supposed to. Especially at the very top of the gusset, right where it meets the tube of the sock and the top of the heel flap. I actually had to go in and sew a few stiches to pull these holes together so the socks didn't look like crap. I didn't miss anything; they are definitely sturdy in design. Its all very odd.

Okay, a pic post soon: I promise.

Madness

2006-06-09T14:43:00.000-04:00

Whew! What a month!

For those of you who don't know, in the past month, I have been out of town for three of the four weekends. I have also had the final weekend taken with out-of-town guests, and two other mid-week guests. Between being in New York, Ann Arbor, Washington, D.C. and Valley City, North Dakota, I have had little time to breathe, let alone knit.

Not to say that I haven't been knitting. Over the past weekend, on my trip to North Dakota, I FINISHED MY FIRST EVER FUNCTIONAL SOCK. I won't say it’s the highest quality thing in the world, but it’s good enough that I will wear it. Pictures soon. And a matching sock soon as well. I have a feeling this summer will be sock-tastic. Partially because I think that's all my handspun yarn will be good for, for the most part.

In other news, I purchased the yarn to construct my fall sweater. It is going to be brown and green. Why, you ask? Do these colors even match, you ask?

No.

And that's just how I like it.

I'm also having some fun knitting up a reverse-stockinette ribbed striped thingy (scarf) with my left-over yarn. We'll see if anything presentable comes out of it, but in any case, it’s going to be strange. I used up the last of my acrylic yarn in there, so blocking's a bit out of the question anyway.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry

2006-05-30T13:28:00.000-04:00

I havn't posted for a while. I am a bad little monkey.

But I hope this makes up for it.

First of all, updates on projects:

1) I abandoned the sock. Singular. I will try again...oh yes, I will.

2) I FINISHED THE SCARF. And HOLY CRAP its long. I am so glad to have this done, Miss Snowth really appreciates it, and not to gloat, it looks great on her. Sadly, I forgot to actually get a picture of her in said scarf, but here are some shots of the finished product:

A (badly shot) close-up of the patterning. I don't know if you can tell here, but it is an X and O cable pattern. The Yarn is hand-painted and not a consistant verrigation, which adds a great effect.

I am not exactly sure why, but this scarf just about _doubled_ in length with blocking. Its size is displayed here by the lovely Miss Page. Notice the blotching of the colours here...I love it. (for reference, Page is 5'3")

3. Photos from Maryland Sheep and Wool

The Group Knitters were the stars of MSW, and here we are, knitting away on a beautiful art shawl. This is a truly communal project, with everyone deciding together when and where to change texture, fiber, and when to stop.

Hokay, back to work. Hopefully, I will soon let you know about my upcoming projects.

how you know you think about fiber too much

2006-05-05T14:18:00.000-04:00

Me: I love the way a size 7 double point feels in my hands
Friend: you totally need to write erotic knitting stories
Me: uhm
I don't know how that would work...

...and then, as he licked my pleasure-trail, I picked up the loup to M1 for the shoulder shaping
ssk, he said to me, ssk...
Friend: then i asked: plain or purl
he shivered with pleasure
Me: and responded: cable me
see, this isn't so hot
Friend: put it on your blog
it is so hot
Me: uhm

2006-05-04T11:43:00.000-04:00

can someone tell me how to rotate pictures in this program?

wrist warmers, for those in the borial climates

2006-05-04T11:18:00.000-04:00

April is last month. April is also a great friend, and looks great in her new, snazzy wrist warmers.

Une Annee Sans Lumiere

2006-04-27T14:19:00.000-04:00

My projects have not been going wonderfuly. Socks, some have said, are hard. I have found this to be true. It is not, though, that they are technically difficult; its just hard to make them not look bad. I am profoundly unhappy with the one sock I have been knitting. To be completely blunt, it looks as though it was designed for Bigfoot, and knit by his alcoholic sister.

The hat I am working on for my friend Chris has not been any better. Cables are a hard thing to incorporate, as it turns out. They really screw with the structure of whatever you put them on. At this point, this has been frogged.

As far as spinning goes, I actually made what turned out to be my best skein so far earlier this week. It is a wonderful orange blend (tweeded) and there is enough of it to actually _make_ something. I have been trying, since then, though, to spin bulkier stuff, which is easier said than done. I'm hoping it will look better when plied.

I also want someone to show me how to do a long draw draft on the spindle. I've been trying to figure this one out on my own to no avail. I think it would be mad cool, though.

-Eric

Mohair, the easy way

2006-04-24T13:54:00.000-04:00

I started this sweater in December, and it sat on my shelf for months. It was difficult to finish, because it was supposed to go to my mother as a Christmas present, but it didn't get done because my Grandmother passed away soon before Christmas, and, well, it was too much to work on it under those circumstances. So now, only four months later, it is finished, and she can actually wear it. It is an adaptation of the To Dye For sweater from Stitch 'n Bitch (if any of you are wondering why I keep doing patters from this book, btw, it is because I am poor, and cannot afford some of the other wonderful books I would like to own) done in a deep dark red (Chartreuse?) kidsoft mohair on size 15's.

Old Projects

2006-04-21T14:16:00.000-04:00

This bag dates all the way back to my pre-knitting days! I almost forgot how much "stuff" I made with crochet hooks. Well, deary me, it is voyaging around New York City now on the shoulder of the lovely Anca, who I must say, I still think it suits quite well.

This is my first sweater. Made from three tones of Cascade 220, I used exclusively size 8 single needles to knit this. The model here is my sister, Leah, who sports her hoodie around the campus of Albion College, located about an hour west of our home town of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Front view of the same sweater. Incedentally, that is my family's living room you see in the background.

Hat-tastic! This is a simple adaptation of the ribbed hat design from the Stitch 'n Bitch book by Debbie Stoller, which I used to teach myself to knit on a long car ride back to Michigan from North Dakota. This hat, though, went the opposite way, and lives in my uncle's car, for use on the trip between Fargo and Valley City, North Dakota.

Hope you enjoyed looking at some of my early work. I should have more updated stuff soon. In the last few days, I have finished a skein of pink kool-aid dyed domestic yarn, I have a spool of orange kool-aid merino energized singles, and some undyed as well. I am also blocking the devil's hat for Erin, as well as my first experiment with intarsia...a small star patch. Easier than I thought.

Some days I don't want to leave my room. All I want to do is sit at home and work on my fiber.

Mayday! Mayday! M'aidez!

2006-04-21T10:25:00.000-04:00

So I was going to spend a good little while last night updating the links, posting pics of my projects, etc. here, only to have MY LAPTOP DIE. Yes, laddies and gentlepeople, my laptop is DEAD. The screen went kaput. I don't know what happened, but it involved a lot of crying and hair-pulling on my part.

So yeah, no cool updates today. If I can sneak some time off work and don' t feel up to writing job apps, I might be able to do something. Otherwise, I'll just cry for a while longer. And see who I have to knit for around here to get laptop repair/replacement.

-Eric

Current projects

2006-04-20T10:16:00.000-04:00

I have a plethora of small projects at the moment:

1. Devil hat (from Stitch 'n Bitch) is for my roomie, Erin (almost complete...just need to tie in ends)

2. Besotted scarf (from www.helloyarn.com) done in a beautiful hand-painted pink and peach superwash

3. Socks for me! My first pair!

4. Felted boxes...for storage of various items of crafty value.

I hope to get some pics up soon, so keep checking back!

-Eric

First Post

2006-04-19T17:00:00.000-04:00

A fiber, according to Wikipedia, is a class of material that is made of continuous filaments or is in discrete elongated pieces, similar to lengths of thread. Although it can range in size, an individual natural fiber is generally very small, or at least very thin and weak, at least for humans.

The flimsy base of this material, though, provides virtually unlimited possibility. Something as simple as a sweater, a table cloth or a blanket hold an immense ability to control and manipulate this material to create form, pattern, color and function. Each of these objects and so many more like them move far beyond the functional form to become a form of expression for the producer; from the wisps of cotton, wool, silk, and countless plants and animals comes art.

As an art form, though, these techniques that we collectively call fiber arts differ essentially from some more well-known forms, such as painting or sculpting. Whereas a painter will create a vision of a finished work that is isolated in time--either reflecting external reality or his or her mental construction--and proceeds to capture this vision in a particular place, a fiber artist does no such thing. He or she works, instead, in a linear context. The repeated use of yarns in knitting and weaving lends itself to repetition, both in action (moving back and forth when knitting square, or in spirals for in the round) and in form. The medium lends itself to pattern and repetition, which is something that is necessarily experienced over time.

The fiber arts are closer, in a sense, to the literary arts. In both cases, the artist draws the reader through the piece in a progressive fashion. One cannot help but read a novel by progressively turning a page, and in the same way, one cannot understand a woven pattern without understanding the context of what comes before and after it.

It is almost cliche at this point to refer to the storyteller who weaves a tale or spins a yarn, but these are the basis of much of our understanding of narrative. The word "text" itself comes from the same root as "textile" and refers to the creation of strength through combining of components. A good work of literature will be stronger than its component words because of the skill that goes into creating it. In the same way, a fiber product, be it hand-spun yarn or a knit sock, will create a strong and beautfiul piece out of nothing more than fluff.

Moreover, both writing and fiberwork use the most basic, primitive tools to create complex and advanced products. We may have word processors and knitting machines, but the basic tools of a writer are paper and pen, as some sticks and string are for knitters. Weaving can be done with holes punched in cards. Even spinning can be done with nothing more than a stick, a hook and a disc (or if you're crafy about it, a pencil and a couple CD's).

My goal in this blog is to keep a log of my fiber arts projects and to record my reflections on them, and on the craft as a whole. You will soon see that for me, the boundaries between craft and art, utility and asthetic, and fiction and reality become blurred. I hope you enjoy the read.