Silk Fusion

Hi Cindy!

Hope the kids are still enjoying the new school year. DH had two tests this week, both on Monday night so he spent much of last weekend studying. While he was busy I took a Silk Fusion at Tempe Yarn and Fiber on Saturday afternoon. Here is the store's account of the class along with a few more pictures. Do you remember the article from last year's Interweave Felt where they fused a stack of silk hankies to make a small purse? This is basically the same process except the fibers are teased apart and laid flat. They are then dried vertically to give them a better feel.

Here are the five panels I made. This was the first time the class has been offered and they scheduled it for 3 hours. It was a bit long. I had used up my first pack of silk fibers (the blues, purples, greens and reds) by the end of the first hour and picked out a second pack.


We used 18" square plastic trays to lay the fibers out on top of tulle. The first layer was laid down and then a second layer was placed at right angles. A second layer of tulle was put over the top. From there we wetted the entire packet with a dilute solution of Textile Medium (1 part medium to 4-5 of water). We worked the solution in and then flipped the packet over and made sure all the layers were thoroughly wet. We then squeezed out the excess and hung the fused silk out to dry.


Being a hot Arizona day the fibers quickly dried. I did have to touch up the Textile Medium on one of my squares as it was not completely fused, and I may do the others too this Saturday. I have enough of the gold and green silk, with a little red, that I can do another square before I need to get more fiber.


This last square is my favorite and was actually the first one I did. It reminds me of a peacock. I have it hanging up in my cubicle at work. It could use a pressing but still looks really nice. I need to come up with a design for a bag.

Take Care, A

Halloween weekend

Hi! We're having a warm spell here; it was nice to trick-or-treat without winter coats. Since DST wasn't over, it was even a bit light when we started. The kids did get lots of candy.

No school on 30th or 31st for teachers' convention. DH took the 30th off. In the morning, we went to Schuster's Playtime Farm, a venture run by our high school classmate Ms. T. Click on the link about the family and you will see a familiar face. I didn't get a chance to visit with her because the farm was very busy due to the days off from school being so close to Halloween. Their farm is LOADS OF FUN with animals to pet, areas to play in, a kid-size maze with hay to jump in, and lots more. We'll do their big maze some time when the kids are a bit older. The kittens were probably the most popular with DH and DD but it'd be a tough call. :D

On the crafty front, I took a Needle Felted Animals class at the Sow and had a great time. My little bright zebra pales in comparison to the animals created by my classmates but I learned a lot, had big fun, and can't wait to do more. I also have this crazy idea that I'm going to buy a Jacob fleece in the spring from a local farmer I'm acquainted with (OK, it's more than an idea; I've verbally committed to go to the farm to pick it out while the sheep is still wearing it!!! Never worked with a raw fleece before so not sure how I know to pick a good one . . .) So I am going to be strict with myself about working only from stash until then! Only exception would be if I need yarn for Shawl Ministry project but I can probably use yarn donated for that purpose.

We've also been following the election closely. Turnout expected to be very high here. Whew, I'm glad election day is here. Bye for now, C

The blog slacker on 8-8-08

Hi, thanks so much for the fun birthday package! Yum to the chocolate ;) and the felting book is amazing!! My digital photos are in disarray again so no pics this time, but otherwise things are going well. Next week I will teach "Spin & Knit Fingerless Mitts" (first of 2 sessions) and "Beginning Knitting" (first of 3 sessions). I have some new design ideas, she adds, slyly laying a finger alongside her nose. DH says "hi." Let's see ... Fall Rowan magazine is here and awesome. DD was perfect for her first dentist visit (whew)! The garden is doing well despite bunnies that are sneaking through the fence; we believe we have now live-trapped them all and that they will like living in the park instead. DS has turned his knitting into a Nintendo DS case which needs a lining and I will post a pic of it soon. Bye for now, Cindy, age 43

Soon...

Hi Cindy!

The sweater looks great! I love the colors. I am still chicken where colorwork is involved. Stripes I can do but Fair Isle and Intarsia freak me out. And steeking on top of that? Yow! Of course you've been knitting 25 or more years longer than I have so I'm sure you are fearless with your knitting. I aspire to fearlessness but have come no where near it.

DH ordered my birthday present Monday night. He ended up ordering from the Woolery. The price is slightly higher than the local shop but it does come with extras and by the time you add on Mesa city tax it would come out more to buy it locally. I'm also getting the pound of wool and a niddy noddy with it. The wool shipped out yesterday but no word yet on the wheel. Hopefully it will get here before Christmas.

Last night was the last spinning class. I started working on the bombyx top like I sent you. My color is Primrose. It is coming out really nice. I'm still getting a little of the thick and thin but not like when I first started. I think I like it a little more than the hankies, although both are pretty nice.

The other woman in the class ordered a new Ashford Traveler from the store the other day. When she started the class she was convinced that she wanted the Majacraft Rose. Last week she tried the Ashford and really liked it. The Rose kept having troubles with the drive band slipping off. And it is a couple of hundred dollars more than the Traveler.

I'm a little envious of the snow you had last week. It looks like fun. We've been cooler the last couple of days and they are predicting rain for Friday and Saturday. It will be the first storm of the "winter" season if it actually delivers. Of course the way the weather forecasters have been talking it up means we'll probably be sunny all weekend.

DH has his big 3 day retreat this weekend with their Roshi this weekend. It runs from 3:30 am to 8:30 pm Friday and Saturday and then 3:30 am to 5:30 pm on Sunday. He wants me to drive him there and pick him up each day. I'm taking Friday off from work because I don't think I'd be able to get up before 3 to take him and then make it into work. I'm going to spend the 3 days on creative stuff and decorating the house and Christmas tree. I might try to do some touch-up paint on base boards at some poin. I'm going to make a push to finish DH's socks too. I'm almost done with the gusset increases so it is time to turn the heel and start up the leg. He wanted to wear them this weekend but I doubt that will happen unless he wants them as anklets on Sunday.

More soon, A

Solar Dying Class

Hi Cindy,

The solar dying class went well last Saturday although the day dawned a little cloudy. Not to bad, just enough to be a slight concern. There ended up being just two of us in the class. A third woman had signed up but then had to cancel due to family obligations. The instructor was the same one that's been teaching my spinning classes too. She is from Montreal and has lived in the valley about 10 years. Most of the time you can't hear her accent but occasionally you'll hear oot instead of out.

We used Gaywool dyes for the class. She brought her personal colors and had another instructor's too. We each brought 4 oz. of fiber to dye and then we got an extra piece to try. For the merino mix that you sent me this summer I chose a color called Daisy. I went a little stronger on the dye and it turned out a lovely daffodil color. For the other piece of fiber (also a merino blend) we did two color painting. I chose two colors of hibiscus and mulberry. We used a turkey injector (without the needle portion) for the painting. It worked really well.

We were set up in the parking lot behind the store. We used big flat pans covered with plastic wrap for the single color and than the smaller pans with the plastic lids for the painted fiber. The instructor also used the large plastic bottle for a single color dye for one of the owners of the shop. In her flat pan she used a single color but then sprinkle some of the dye crystals on top to give it a splotchy effect.

Once the colors were placed and the pans covered we had about an hour and a half to kill while the dyes did their work. The pans took about half an hour to really get hot and then about another hour for the dye to really get taken up. If we had had longer the colors would have gotten deeper. (I forgot to take DH's socks along so I bought some yellow variegated cotton and started another MD bib.)



As you can see from the dried pictures the yellow took really well and is a vibrant color. The painted fiber is a bit more muted. I'm seeing more pink in the picture than I can really see when I look at the fiber itself. I am thinking about spinning these and then plying the two colors together. I'm thinking of either crocuses or pansies when I look at these colors together. I spun a tiny bit of the yellow at the end of class Tuesday night. It looked pretty nice.

Any plans for Thanksgiving? I'm taking both Wednesday and Friday off although DH is working those days. His parents are coming down Thursday morning to for dinner and then they'll stay the night. My BIL will probably stay too and we may do a little shopping the next morning. Ikea has free breakfast next Friday so we may try to do that.

More soon, Keep warm, A

Spinning Class

Hi Cindy,

Great pictures, even the sideways one of our DS. He looks very chipper. I saw snow(?) in your forecast the other day and when I looked at the Milwaukee Journal online this morning it said 37 degrees. I wish we could get even a small taste of that weather. If you were here today you'd think it was July. We have been in the 90's (!) for the last week and have set a record almost every day. The average high temp right now is only 79 and we're 12-15 degrees above that. Blech!

My intermediate spinning class started last night. There was another person registered but she didn't show up. When the instructor called she got a room mate who said the woman was out looking at houses. Looking closer at the sign-up sheet she had never paid for the class. It looks like I'm going to have a private class unless they decided to cancel it after all.

The intermediate class is for experimenting a little more and trying new things. I decided last night to try the silk hankies. I picked out one in the Taos colorway. It is done by the same one that did the roving that I sent for your birthday. The picture doesn't really capture the full beauty of it. It has a lovely mix of pinks, purples and browns. Some of the sections actually had a gold hue as it spun out between my fingers. I ended up spinning 4 or 5 layers worth last night. This is the finest I've ever spun anything and it will definitely need plying before I can even consider using it.

I used the Ashford Traveller that I've pretty much decided is the one that I want. DH is talking that one will be residing in our house in the next few weeks, just in time for a birthday/Christmas present. He is debating ordering it online versus buying it at the store. The double-drive double treadle is $25 dollars more online but comes with a selection of extras. The one in the store doesn't come with anything extra but I feel like I should buy it there anyway and with tax it comes out to just over the amount online. I'll leave that up to DH.

In closing I thought I'd leave you with a little Kitty Pron. That is the holiday version of the Knit Picks catalog, just arrived today. As you can see Teddy and Margi are in love with it. Lots of tempting stuff! There is a stocking kit that makes 3 stockings that looks pretty nice. It comes with the pattern and yarn, just add dpn's. All their yarns are pretty reasonably priced and they have free patterns or cheap ones to down load.

Take care, A

Hi Cindy,

The sweater looks like a nice challenge. Have you decided on a color or are you going to leave it the creamy color of the fiber? Since I've not even completed an adult sweater I can offer no advice on singles vs. plied. I started a sweater for DH last winter around his birthday but have not gotten beyond the yoke (it's top down from last winters IK). I did do the M-D baby kimonos for the twins last year but that's not a big reservoir of experience. In fact I think Margi's sweater is bigger than those were.

I start my intermediate spinning class a week from tomorrow. I think it will be pretty much like the second one I took over the summer, maybe just a little more structured. DH is planning on getting me a wheel soon, perhaps closer to my birthday. He's trying to get comfortable in the new job before making the $ commitment. On the 10th I am taking a solar dying class. It was originally going to be on the 17th but the instructor had another obligation come up. We need to take about 4 oz of fiber to dye for it. I am torn between the merino you sent me (just shy of the right amount) or the rollags I hand carded for the beginning spinning class. Or maybe I'll just buy some fiber when I go next week. I'll have a full report on the class afterwards (and hopefully pictures).

On Saturday I had lunch with Julie and Lytifa. L is almost 5 months pregnant and looking great. She was so sick the first trimester and ended up in the ER for dehydration. All she could eat the entire time was saltines. She is taking classes at the local community college and it was a real struggle with being sick. She has an English teacher that is really difficult. He dropped her from his class two years ago after she went back to Cincinnati for her grandmother's funeral. He didn't like her eating crackers in class but the alternative was for her to throw-up in class. I think she is taking 3 or 4 classes on top of working full-time. I don't know how she does it. I guess being 26 helps.

Afterwards I went to visit my friend Ash. Her family just moved to north Phoenix a few months ago. She is the one with the twin boys. They are really cute and sweet. We don't get to see them very often because it is quite a drive. I put on 80 miles on Saturday and didn't even get out of town.

This week I am at the International Symposium on Managed Aquifer Recharge here in town. It is actually at the Pointe South Mountain which is less than two miles from my house. If it weren't hotter than the surface of the sun I could almost walk there and back. One of the presentations today was by an EPA guy out of Chicago. He talked about a couple of projects in Regions 5 & 7. The two in Region 5 were in Oak Creek and Green Bay. There were some researchers from WDNR listed on his paper. I wondered if it was anyone you had known. My boss is moderating the first session tomorrow afternoon and then giving a presentation in the later session. There is a field trip to a couple of sites around the valley on Wednesday but our agency was too cheap to pay for us to go to them. That's okay, I have a couple of things I need to do in the office that day before another day of sessions on Thursday.

I guess I'd better finish this off. I'm pretty tired after a day sitting in a darkened room straining to understand a wide variety of accents.

Take care, A

Upcoming Classes

Hi Cindy!

This week I signed up for two classes in November over at Fiber Factory. The first is Intermediate Spinning. It is Tuesday nights in November and is pretty much just a continuation of the classes I took this summer. It is probably going to be a lot of the same that we covered in the second class. I'm just looking at it for additional time on a wheel. We're planning on getting one after Kelly gets a different job. Hopefully that won't be in the too distant future.

The second one I signed up for is Solar Dying. It is on the third Saturday in November. After your escapade a few weeks ago I thought I'd give it a shot. I just need to pick out some plain fiber or yarn to dye. Both classes are taught by the same instructor that I had this summer.

I tell you all this because I went over there tonight to pay for the classes. While there I couldn't resist picking up a few things. I'm sure you recognize the magazine as one from last fall. I needed a set of #3 needles for my reduction on the Bellatrix socks. And the yarn was on sale for 20% off plus they gave me the 15% class discount. It is Karaoke by Southwest Traders. It is going to become a hat for DH and maybe something else too. If it were a colder climate he'd get a scarf out of it but I can't fathom what he'd use a scarf for here. It is 50% Soysilk and 50% wool so it will felt nicely.

DH is doing a retreat this weekend so I am thinking about painting one of the walls in the front room. We are going to get the carpet replaced soon so I want to get it painted first. Look forward to pictures of it this weekend.

It sounds like it is blowing out so I'm going to finish this and go check. They are still saying we'll get rain from the remnants of Dean sometime this weekend. That would be nice since it's been so stinking hot again. Stay Dry! A