Historic Fibers

Second Wind

This has been an incredibly busy and stressful month, as I knew it would be. But it has also been very productive, and this week will be no exception. I'll try to catch up on some of the random threads, in no particular order.

On comments: I love getting comments (who doesn't?), and I love each and every one of you who comments. I am usually pretty good about responding to them, but as I have mentioned, the past couple of months have been crazy. Please know I appreciate you all so very much, and I am reading your comments and am grateful that you take the time to leave them. I hope to return to better comment response behavior in the near future.

On the Sacramento Crochet Guild donations: I have responded to the folks who wanted the address to send their goodies, so I'm not a complete failure in the comment department! Thank you, thank you to those few, those proud donators. There is plenty of time to send donations, so if you just haven't gotten around to it yet, take your time. It's an ongoing need. Again, thanks so much.

On spinning: Katia in Switzerland sent me some fabulous samples of roving from rare breeds of sheep - the Red Engadine, the Walliser Landschaf/ Roux du Valais, and the Jacob Sheep. I have started spindling the Walliser Landscaf roving and it reminds me of Romney - an outerwear wool that is just begging to be made into mittens! I am thoroughly enjoying sampling these interesting wools!  On the wheel, I'm spinning some of my own dyed Bluefaced Leicester in shades of blue, and that is also lovely.

On knitting: The Scotland sweater is slow going right now because I keep making mistakes in the pattern and having to rip back. I'm well past the point where I had to rip back due to gauge issues, but last week I accidentally switched hands in carrying the colors, and will have to rip back part of one round to fix that. It's really important in stranded knitting to make sure you are carrying the same color in the same hand at all times, or the way that some colors jump out and others recede will not be consistent. I also started a pair of socks for mindless knitting, because my mistakes on the sweater are more numerous when I'm tired.

On weaving: Dan, who willingly and obligingly listed our dining room table on Craigslist, sold it in one day! We then proceeded to shop for a secondhand loom, and successfully located the perfect one, which followed us home yesterday:
The loom, the cat, and the floor are all the same honey color! Actually, saying the loom followed us home really downplays all the effort that went into bringing this home, since the woman who owned it is retired and therefore has a busy and heavily scheduled life. Finding windows of opportunity that worked for both her and us was a long, long negotiating process. And then finding someone with a vehicle large enough to transport the loom was another adventure, that involved perseverence and downright bribery, but eventually it paid off. The loom, for anyone who is interested, is a Gilmore loom, 40" weaving width, 4 harness, 10 treadles, and it came with a bench, 2 reeds, bobbin winder, shuttles, bobbins, a couple of books, extra heddles, etc., for a remarkably reasonable price. I have situated the loom so that it looks out on our tiny backyard, which used to look very nice and right now looks like a war zone, which is a story I'll save for another time. The goal is that if I am looking at the backyard while weaving, I will be very quickly motivated to bring the backyard up to snuff. Plans are already afoot.

On the job interview: My job interview is set for this Thursday at 1 p.m. PST. If anyone cares to send good thoughts, prayers, spare karma, or what have you my way at that time, it would be most welcome. I did a mock interview with some professors at a nearby community college where I teach, and got tons of great feedback, but I have a lot of revamping to do based on their suggestions. I'm starting to feel like it will be a full time job just preparing to do well on interviews! But I'll incorporate as many of their suggestions as I can this time, and hopefully it will be easier if there is a next time. The Gilmore factory, where my loom was made, is located in the town where I will be doing the job interview! I need a tool to get warping, so after the interview I will stop by the Gilmore company and treat myself to a couple of necessary goodies. Whether the interview goes well or not, it seems like a positive way to mark the occasion - to celebrate if it is a good meeting and to console myself if it isn't.

That's enough minutae for one post! Hope your week is off to a good start!

Destash for a Good Cause

It has recently come to my attention that the local Sacramento Crochet Guild has begun to teach crochet and knitting to women and children clients of a nearby homeless shelter. It came to my attention because the coordinator, a wonderful woman called Melody, sent out a call for donations so that they can continue their good work. According to Melody, "I would very much appreciate what ever you can do so that we may help these women & children.  They have enough to deal with in their lives and we are just trying to make it so that they can take a little time from the stress." The lessons are given once a week at a local church, and the Crochet Guild, in addition to collecting donated yarn, knitting needles, and crochet hooks for these women and children, are also collecting donations of fabric so that they can make tote bags for their students to carry their projects.

I know knitters are a generous and kind-hearted bunch. I know because we are regularly asked to donate our time, our materials, and our money to worthy causes, and we always come through. I'm not asking for you to knit for this cause, just troll through your stash and see if you happen to have a few skeins (partial skeins are welcome) of easy-care fiber that you could send to Melody, or perhaps leftover fabric, excess needles, or plastic crochet hooks that the Sacramento Crochet Guild can use. Here, specifically, is what they need:

-Knitting needles, any type or size.
-Crochet hooks - plastic only, please.
-Yarn - acrylic, cotton, cotton blends, superwash wool or washable wool blends (keep in mind that people living in homeless shelters do not have the facilities to hand wash and block their finished projects, so easy care fibers are best). Partial skeins are welcome!
-Fabric for the tote bags that the Crochet Guild members are making for participants to carry their projects.

If you have a spare ball of Sugar n' Cream or a few sets of needles to donate, email me and I will give you Melody's address to send your items. I spent about 10 minutes last night skimming the top layer off my stash, and here is what I came up with:

I quickly found about 20 skeins of yarn, some partials, that I will never miss. Some are leftovers, some are things that I will probably never use, and all are easy-care. I also found these:

About 20 pairs of straight needles that I will likely never use, and a few plastic crochet hooks in various sizes. I still have a more than complete set of straight needles, even though I generally use circulars or dpn's. The only time I'll notice that these needles are gone is when I accidentally knock over the  jar that holds my straight needles - I'll have a lot fewer to pick up! Needless to say, I still have plenty of materials for my own use. I don't feel guilty or embarrassed by my own riches, and I'm not asking you to feel that way either. I'm just glad that I have plenty to share with people who aren't as fortunate as I have been. I hope you can help out, too. And if you can't help this time, no problem. There are plenty of other ways to do good in the world, and knitters are very skilled at finding those ways!

Weaving a Conspiracy

I had a great weekend learning to weave. With some skills, you want a really detail-oriented teacher who will show you the nit-picky little things to pay attention to in order to have perfect results. First-time weaving is not one of those skills, at least not to me. Because I have heard that warping a loom can be tricky and involved, I wanted a laid-back instructor who was just full of shortcuts and work-arounds for errors, and in Robin Lynde of Meridian Jacobs, I found the perfect teacher. I had taken a dyeing class with Robin before, so I knew she preferred a relaxed approach.

We started out by choosing yarns to weave, and while Robin has to-die-for Jacob wool, I chose cotton yarns to start because people, I am a knitter. Do I really need another wool scarf? No, I do not. But I don't usually enjoy knitting with cotton even though I love the feel of cotton fabric, so I figured weaving would give me a chance to use cotton without having to actually manipulate it around needles. Once I had chosen some cotton, I wound it around a warping board so that the threads crossed in certain places and tied it up, then hied it off to the loom. I was weaving on an 8 harness Baby Wolf loom, with four of the harnesses dropped so I could see which ones I was treadling.

Warping, as I had expected, was a little tedious. Part of the issue is that this was a two-day class, so we had to get the warp on in one day. After I had threaded all of those bits of cotton through the heddles, I heaved a sigh of relief and thought I was done. Not so! I still had to thread all those bits of cotton through the reed (called sleying the reed). At that point, it was late afternoon, getting warm, and I was a bit tired and cranky. If I were doing it on my own, I would break warping tasks up over a couple of days to maximize my attention span and patience levels. As it turned out, I made a few mistakes in sleying the heddles and the reed, which afforded Robin an opportunity to shine as a master mistake-fixer. "No problem," she said, whipping out her scissors and her tapestry needles and making it all better in an instant. I felt like I had provided a public service in making those mistakes since the other would-be weavers in the class had warped perfectly, which doesn't allow you to learn anything! We all learned a lot from my slapdash warping efforts.

The next day, we got to weave, and that was really a treat. I never expected to be able to weave patterns my first time on a loom and thought I would be restricted to plain over one thread, under another weaving. Once again, Robin was encouraging and made me feel like I could easily understand varying treadling sequences to get different patterns on my very first try, so of course I did and I could! I found weaving to be more meditative than knitting, since all of the really hard work is done in the warping. I ended up making a table runner using blue and gold threads for the warp, and a slubby white cotton for the weft. In the weaving, I just played around with different treadling patterns and didn't worry too much about making things symmetrical, since the table runner will be on a side table and will have decorative items sitting atop it, so it probably won't receive too much scrutiny. Besides, random is a good look, too. I decided to hem the ends, since the cats tend to chew on fringed items. Here is a photo of my completed runner:

I still need to run this through the wash and allow it to shrink a bit to tighten up the weave, but all in all I am happy with this project. I'm still pretty amazed that after 2 days, I learned enough to create a functional object. Oh, and one cool thing about weaving? You don't have to weave in ends like you do with knitting. That is all taken care of in the weaving process.

On to the conspiracy part of the weaving adventure. I took the class to get a chance to really weave and decide whether or not I liked it enough to pursue getting a loom for myself. I did like it enough, and oddly, one of the things I liked best about it is the same thing I like about knitting - there is vast scope for functional projects, no matter what level of experience or skill you are. I can start with weaving cotton  dishtowels in simple patterns and rag rugs, and work my way up to fine fabrics in complex designs eventually, just as beginning knitters can start with washcloths and scarves, and work their way up to stranded work and cables. It never becomes boring because there is always something new to learn and try as you gain experience and skill.

So anyway, I came home and began perusing listings for used looms, since the new ones are far beyond my current income, and found one loom in particular that looked right. The only drawbacks were that this loom would decimate my meager savings, and that we live in a fairly small condo that doesn't have a lot of room for a loom. I was looking longingly at this loom, and Dan noticed that I had gone back to that listing several times. I explained the drawbacks to running right out and purchasing this loom, and he said, "No problem." He went downstairs, cleared off the dining room table (which is gorgeous, but we never use it), took some pictures of the table and chairs, and came back upstairs to post it on Craigslist. By selling the table, we get the money for the loom and the space in which to put it! We've had several people expressing interest in the table already, and one couple is coming this evening to look at it. I'll wait until the table is really gone and the money is in hand before pursuing the loom, but things are looking hopeful.

And if the first loom I am interested in is gone before I can get there, Robin sent me some listings from her Weaving Guild bulletin that have some other possibilities. And that is how Robin and Dan are conspiring to make me a weaver. I just can't let them down, now can I!

The Incredible Lightness of Having Written

I just sent off Chapter 5 to the powers that be, and am experiencing the light and giddy feeling of having a complete first draft of all the main chapters of the dissertation. Sure, I still have to write an introduction and conclusion, not to mention revisit and revise all of the chapters, but right now it feels pretty good. It doesn't hurt that I really like the way the last chapter turned out.

I'm celebrating this weekend by taking a "Learn to Weave" class at Meridian Jacobs. I will be making a scarf on a 4 harness floor loom, and it should be fun. I want to see if weaving is something I will enjoy enough to actually get a loom for myself and continue, in addition to the knitting and spinning, of course!

And speaking of the knitting, I finished the ribbing on the Scotland cardigan a few nights ago and had moved on to the main body pattern. I have really been enjoying knitting this sweater, and am feeling a bit foolish for making it seem like a huge obstacle. It's a lovely pattern and I adore the stranded knitting. I decided to check my gauge last night, and realized with horror that I was getting 9 stitches to the inch instead of 7. Turns out I forgot to switch to a bigger needle after the ribbing, so off I went to the frog pond to make the necessary changes. I'm so glad I checked gauge early on, when I only had about 10 rounds of the body pattern done. It would have been awful to make this discovery a couple of weeks from now, or even worse, to pull a completed sweater off the needles that was way too small! All is well now, and I'll bring Scotland back up to speed over the weekend.

Have a great weekend and enjoy some lightness yourself!

Stop Stalling

I suspect my physical shutdown last week was nothing more than bloody-minded rebellion over the hellish couple of months I have coming up. I have to finish this dissertation and decide whether it will be done enough by April 27 to participate in graduation this year, or wait until next year when the whole thing will likely be  a distant memory. I have two conference papers to write, with the conferences taking place in May. One of them is in San Diego and I will know many of the people there, so it will be fun. But the other is in Lubbock, Texas, and I will be talking about the Gay Games. Yeah, talking about the Gay Rights Movement in Lubbock, Texas - that will be a treat. Then I have the job interview at the end of this month, and have to prepare sample syllabi (syllabuses? I'm never sure) and I'm doing a mock interview to prepare for that. Oh, and teaching a class as well. I have often marvelled over the insanity of my choice to enter a profession that has me regularly doing things that scare me to death.

Adding to the great Pity Party that is my life right now, we had Daylight Savings Time and 80 degree weather. I know a lot of people will be rhapsodizing about spring any moment now, but here in Northern California, spring is not necessarily good news. Spring lasts for about 5 minutes, and then we are squarely in the midst of summer with 100 degree temperatures and people swooning about, gasping for a cool breeze. So basically the weekend featured a lot of hand wringing, punctuated with plaintive cries of "Woe is Me! Woe is Me!"

Anyway, I finished off my procrastination projects, the Horcrux Socks (that defy photography - I'll try to get Dan to take decent pictures some time this week), and also finished and felted another pair of cabled slippers for myself, which I probably won't get to wear until next November. I had no projects in process, and had to have a little talk with myself about what to do next. I decided it was time to stop whining, stop procrastinating, and stop stalling. I cast on for the Scotland cardigan. All was going reasonably well, until I realized midway through the second pattern round that I had twisted the join, and I had to rip the entire thing and start again.

Dan wandered into the room just as I was getting ready to try it again, and I helpfully informed him that I was going to be counting. I find that it is useful to let those close to you know when you are going to be concentrating so they don't innocently ask you questions like what is the French word for "laugh" whilst they are completing the New York Times crossword puzzle, only to be met by steely silence in response. He said, "okay," and then I proceeded to inform him that I was in a cross mood since I was casting on 300 stitches for the second time, at which point he said, "I think I'll go downstairs." Wise decision.

Anyway, the second time around went well, albeit slowly with much checking and double checking, counting and recounting. I got past the second pattern round where I had to rip back the first time with no problems, and I kept going. In total, I completed 10 pattern rounds:
At this point, I was experiencing growing disbelief that a 44 inch sweater could fit so easily on a 32 inch circular needle. It just seemed like the stitches should be much more crowded. So I took a piece of cotton yarn and threaded the stitches onto it, stepped into the knit circle, and pulled it up to where the cardigan should be when worn, and it fit. I know you were all waiting for impending disaster here, but it actually fit just fine and even had a reasonable amount of ease. I threaded the stitches back on the circular needle, and called it a night. Let this be a metaphor for the rewards of gritting my teeth and starting that which I have been avoiding.If you'll excuse me now, I have a dissertation to finish.

Natural Disasters, Viruses, and Fleece Fumes

This has been a tough week. It was going just fine last week, and I had an intermediate spinning class which is always fun. We were working with washed locks and made some fabulous, ugly, thick and hairy yarn which I probably never would have tried on my own. That's the thing I like best about those classes - they push me to do things I wouldn't usually try by myself, and even if I never try them again, they make me a better spinner by forcing me to explore outside my cozy little box. I've tried three times to take a picture of the yarn for you, and they all look horrid. One unsettling thing happened at class - we were jolted by a 4.2 earthquake! The other San Francisco natives were unconcerned, but it scared the @!%& out of me, since the amount of seismic activity we receive in the Central Valley is just about nil. No one was hurt, but it literally threw me off balance for a few days. Maybe I can use the earthquake as an excuse for buying my first fleece - a kilo (2.2 pounds) of washed Polworth locks in a warm and earthy brown:

A few days later, I also took an introduction to felting class this past weekend - the "real" felting, where you start with roving and compact it into a sheet of felt, not the knit and throw in a washing machine version, which I am informed is actually "fulling." And I enjoyed the process and can see that it has vast potential,and I may get back to it at some point. But becoming a master felter is just not a priority for me right now - too many other things to learn and try. However, I did pick up a pound of undyed natural Polworth locks for rainbow dyeing and a half pound of some silver Romney locks. You know, I can usually resist dyed wool since I typically want to dye my own, but stick a natural fleece in front of me and I kind of lose perspective. Must have fleece. On my way home from the felting class, I got whacked upside the head by fatigue, the kind where you must go home and go to bed immediately. It was probably a virus,or maybe the aftershock of the earthquake, or maybe it was the fleece fumes. Whatever it was, it rendered me pretty much unconscious for a couple of days. And to top that off, I had to prep for another classroom observation on Tuesday.

The first observation a few weeks ago went really well - I had a good lecture and was on top of my game. The second observation did not go as well - nothing awful happened, but I just wasn't at my best and my lecture, written in my near-comatose state, was not as well organized or as clear as I would have liked. I am really happy to have the observations done, and hope the feedback will be kind. So after recovering from all of that, I was just about to get down to dissertation business yesterday when I received a phone call from a community college about an hour away. They had advertised a full time position a while back, and since it was the only full time job that had been listed that I was remotely qualified for, I applied. And now I have an interview.

This is good news, and should I actually get the job, it would go a long way to make a lot of my unpleasant graduate experience worthwhile. I'll send out a plea in a couple of weeks, and anyone who feels so inclined can send me positive thoughts on the actual day of the interview. Until then, I must concentrate on the many tasks at hand, and avoid natural disasters, viruses, and fleece fumes, at least for the time being.