More From the Golf Course…

Who needs to head out into the wilderness to have encounters? We hear packs of these guys in our green space, these wild urban dwellers. The lost cat posters seen in the neighbourhood are a testament to the adaptability of the coyote. These are creatures to be admired – like the urban eagles and hawks that live in the park near us they seem to have established a way to live here. It’s an uncomfortable collision between worlds at times – but this fellow seems to have a system worked out. Some poor old mouse in the grass is not so lucky.

Two ounces of cashmere, one in cloud form, and one as raw fleece became first this:

then this:

The raw fleece washed up into a much lighter, and much less “goaty” smelling fibre. Both spun up a bit slubby but as a two ply a lot of the flaws were absorbed into the yarn. There were a lot of guard hairs in the raw fleece as well, and even now as the gloves are worn hairs poke out to be removed. It’s OK, the gloves are incredibly light and soft, I just reserve the right to maybe only use the processed fleece in the future. These gloves are incredibly warm – made just in time to be stored for cool weather. Very basic pattern, essentially a tube with a thumb stuck in it.

Next project, carding up some washed Polwarth locks, just expanding the skill set bit by bit.

This is more rustic yarn in the making – this wasn’t a top quality bag of fleece and there are a fair number of short bits and hunks of vegi matter, but hopefully some carding skills will be improved. Rustic yarn is kind of fun anyhow.

Small, Medium and Large

Endlessly fascinating.

And a wee project, quite small:

A cloud of cashmere, local stuff, making my hands itch to spin it.

The Gift of Time

A person has returned to our life from about a decade ago. No big story here, just someone who was a colleague and who moved on. A kind and skilled person, one who evokes a smile when remembered: “Oh yes, she was good to work with.” In recent weeks this person has offered her time. She has accompanied us to certain appointments, offered her considerable skills and presence. While we were on the road this was knitted with her in mind.

It is fairly basic, based on a free pattern on Ravelry, called “I am Biased” though really it is more of a suggestion than a pattern, because it was pretty clearly straight from a stitch dictionary. But the pattern helped in the planning process so I want to acknowledge that. The yarn is handspun, which took a bit of time. And then knit, for several hours total – it gets a bit gruelling doing the same thing over and over on a piece this size, but perfect for travel. The colours are subtle, and meant to reflect deep forest. (Dyed by another, label long gone. Keeping the little tags is apparently not a priority. Too bad, this was good work.) It’s alpaca and silk, and I think the recipient may like that. The idea was to try to say thank you for the gift of time, in the form of a gift of time.

We saw much more than bears and moose on this last trip. What a wonder it was to travel in early spring. The bird life was amazing. All sorts of flying creatures were pairing off, squabbling and noisily finding places to nest and those with young swooping and feeding them. We were serenaded multiple times by pairs of loons. The only time they quit calling was whenever I went out, phone in hand, to try to record them.  Some things we cannot capture and maybe the calls of the loons on deserted northern lakes is just one of them.

 

Sneaky Old Spring…

It was pelting down, the rain was this morning. It seems just when one thinks “too much”, mother nature offers a glimmer if we look. Sneaky old spring. With apologies to all my family, near and far, who are still looking at snow melting. (Or not melting even yet, in some places.)

A little bit of spinning completed:

260 metres of the Gotland I wrote about last week. Spun in the grease and sitting here as close to a heavy fingering weight 2 ply. One can still feel a bit of the lanolin even after a good bath, so it may end up blooming after another wash. It was delightful to spin and ply up. This might be terrific as part of a fair isle project…

Maintenance

Ooh this is satisfying. The wheel freshly dusted, cleaned, rubbed with oil. All the moving parts with a bit of oil applied. And then the fibre, a local Gotland, purchased yesterday at Fibres West. It seems to want to be spun semi worsted, though you can see the little bits poking up, I hope this will bloom when washed. There is a bit of lanolin in this, between oiling the wheel and working with the fibre, my hands are suddenly very soft.

And the vest, seen blocking. At 2.5 stitches to the inch it flew along. The centre panel shows a double dorge, or vajra it is sometimes called. More often seen in Tibetan Buddhism than our practice, but it has particular meaning to the wearer. (Who is pleased with it. And, while it has yet to be finished completely, needs a zipper and some tidying up, it fits. Whew.) I am leaving the explanation of the dorge to the wikipedia article. (Pure inertia on my part, I am not up to attempting a description of what it means in a personal way. ) The waves upper and lower bracket the main panel in a deliberate manner. And it is a knitted vest, not a sacred object – the purpose here is to warm the wearer.

And finally – I got a shot of a Red Winged Blackbird. A good walk out at the bird sanctuary. Patience is paying off. (Bird seed helped.) Aren’t the colours gorgeous on this fellow?

One Fibre – Three Techniques

What to do with that bag of roving? The one that you think, “what on earth made me purchase this?” The one with the somewhat insipid colourway, the one that doesn’t really spark inspiration. Well, it turned out to be a good purchase after all.

It’s perfectly fine, really. A bit on the felted side from being stuffed in its bag too long. And it is Blue Faced Leicester, that fine and longish wool that spins so easily. And perhaps it is good to address my bias against pink.

I cracked The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs, which is a beautifully laid out study of various kinds of yarns and set about improving my skill set.

First – the cable yarn. Four ply and lots of wow factor if you pay attention. This skein is far from perfect but in spots the cable really bounced itself together as I plied. I learned that it is OK to over ply, and when you think it is twisted enough, let it twist a bit more. One knows it intellectually but it is hard to break the habit of not over spinning the singles. I think some of this might become funky shoe laces for grey ankle boots. Maybe with a bead or two on the end?

And then, it was the spiral crepe – deliberately spinning a thick singles plied with a thinner two ply. I loved this! Ignore the colour differences, the day was very overcast and the red background – oh lots of reasons for wonky pictures, anyhow its the technique I wanted to document.

It looks a bit beaded doesn’t it? Fun. Maybe a scribble lace scarf for this to keep the structure front and centre. We shall see.

Finally because intentional spinning is what I aim for – the thick singles yarn, consistent rather than thick and thin. A bigger challenge than one would think. One hears how hard it is to go back to thicker spun yarns after learning to spin thin and while I wouldn’t say it is difficult, it does require focus. No autopilot here.

This batch is a tad overspun so it will live on the niddy noddy for a couple of days.

That bag of unremarkable roving turned out to be a lot of fun. Perhaps a good goal is to work through the Yarn Design book. I don’t do new years resolutions but documenting some ideas here might spur on a project.

Found Objects

This has travelled bit. Hopefully its owner isn’t too upset at its loss. From the wander at Crescent Beach this past weekend.  There is always something interesting. This was clearly propped up by other wanderers. (This beach is not likely to receive much debris from the Japanese tsunami, there are many landforms between here and there. At least that is what local media are saying around stuff washing up on the beaches of the gulf islands and Vancouver Island. The bike’s travels likely started out much more locally.)

While yet one more knitted hat blocks and dries, a look into the stash bin revealed some woven bits that were waiting to be made into something. I found some stuff from back at the beginning of my rigid heddle play.

A quick zip of the sewing machine and this strip of plain weave cotton fabric becomes six wash cloths. Warp is…something…weft is hand spun organic cotton, done up as a two ply. Very soft, next to skin soft. Hopefully they will continue to shrink as they are washed – other experiments in plain weave and cotton seem to do so.

A bit of saori style weaving with different remnents of handpsun wools and silks. Turning it into a cowl minimizes the various width and gauge changes – sheer luck that the piece was just the right size. I blame Mason -Dixon Knitting for reviving the cowl idea. While this might be a gift, I keep wearing it around the house…

Another found item – a very simple recipe for rosemary and olive oil shortbread. This might be the perfect activity for another cold day here. Not just winter coming, oh yes, that holiday, oh what’s it called? It’s on its way too…

What the Body Remembers

So, I have been thinking a lot about muscle memory. In attempting to learn anything using hand/eye coordination,  we have to persist until that moment, or series of moments when the hands take over from the too vigilant brain. That happened with learning to knit, it happened with learning to spin, and happened with learning to weave. This just reinforces for me what wisdom we carry in our bodies that my overactive chattering mind can miss. I can concentrate so hard on achieving the task that I forget to just give it time, and let the hands and body do their thing.

I found myself a bit “off” yesterday, a bit thin-skinned and glad to be home in my little so-called studio. Of course the rain and winds starting up contributed too. However, it was just such a comfort to stay home, let the fireplace stay on and spin, that activity that “self soothes”, that nourishes.

It finally occurred to me what was up. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my last radiation treatment. That day when I was hugged by the treatment team and “graduated” into the land of routine check ups and a return to (eventual) normal life. (Whatever that means!) I don’t talk directly about the events of last year on this blog, but I must be feeling stronger now, as writing about it doesn’t make me feel so vulnerable. This isn’t a health blog, or a cancer blog – if anyone wonders, I am one of the very lucky people who is expected to be cured.  The success rate for treatment for my kind of cancer is very high. I do get the privilege of being watched closely for a while, just in case, but so far, all is well.

My body remembered before my brain clued in. How about that?

The practice of gratitude is a large part of what we do in our particular tradition of Buddhism. (It’s fundamental to every religion, gratitude is one of the biggies.) Gratitude manifests in so many ways, both externally and internally. We give thanks verbally, we offer our hearts, and at times we offer our bodies, including our hands to others. Motivations for doing things can get muddy if we aren’t careful, but if what we do is in the spirit of gratitude we have less chance of adding all sorts of self to the mix. In a goofy way, one of the reasons I knit hats and send them along to Grant to drop them off at a charity downtown is because of my gratitude that I can.

The daffodil is the symbol of the Canadian Cancer Society. Interesting, in the month when the society does its fundraising, I see lots and lots of people wearing it. All of us are in the same boat really.

Another shot from our recent trip.

I am half way through a bunch of stuff – half a knitted stole of my own design, half a bump of fibre spun, and half a length of woven cloth. Hopefully some finished objects for next time.

Actual Knitting and Spinning Content

Well, I guess the season has turned. In the past I would ramble on about leaves turning, the temperatures dropping, the crispness in the air, the rain, oh yes, the rain.  All true to be sure. But it seems that the true marking of the season’s change in this house is when I oil the wheel, warp the loom and start to plot the knits.

Rocky Mountain socks, done on our trip. (With cat hair so my family and friends can tell that yes, these were photographed in my house.) Great Patons Kroy yarn, in the Ragg Shades colourway. This yarn is the first time I have looked at sock weight and considered doing a sweater. Briefly. On consideration, that would be a) expensive, b) exceedingly time-consuming and c) the stripes would show in a much different way on a larger scale. These were just great to knit though, and the yarn is bouncy and shimmery. Lots of instant gratification. I trialled some new needles, the Knitters Pride Cubics, so-called “square needles” – they were nice on the hands but the fabric is slightly more flabby than I like. We shall see how these socks hold up. I think I have the smallest needles they make which are 2.75 mm so maybe I will have to go back to smaller and round needles for socks.  It will all become clear fairly soon as Grant says he really likes these and will wear them. It’s so nice to knit for someone who appreciates it.

I had to lighten this pic a bit to show the colours of this top more clearly. This is a very fancy shmancy blend of alpaca and silk from the Sassy Sheep. It is gorgeous, and spins so easily, my dear wheel just sits back and accepts it. I plan to make a two ply and weave with it, likely another scarf as I am still besotted with previous efforts done with handspun. This colour way is Forest and it is fairly self-evident why.

No deep thoughts this week, just a check in. We are still coming to terms  with resuming the day-to-day after a stellar trip to the Rockies. Funny how, even though we don’t hike like we did in the old days, (no long back packs, no grand isolation,)  simply being quiet and appreciating what we actually have makes the point of a getaway so clear. To bring this attitude of mind to every day, to work, to the same old, that’s the thing.  Ordinary life, how extraordinary!

(From the very first day of our September trip, in the campground near Kamloops. Before his/her mother called her away.)

So, You Take a Left at the Waste Disposal Plant…Or, Evening Motorcycle Ride to Iona Park

Everyone knows what I mean – those evenings that are “tropical” in feel, mid summer. The light is warm and gold  and the air is still. Iona Park is fairly easy to get to, but not as busy as other beaches in the Lower Mainland. Maybe the route by the waste disposal plant is why this is? The park has a long walkway in one direction, and a fairly undeveloped beach in the other. It is also right next to the Vancouver International Airport so it is a prime place for folks who love to watch the planes come and go.

We stayed till dark and rode home in the warm night air.

View of the Gulf Islands just at sunset.  My attempts to make the birds pose for me are again unsuccessful. At least these cormorants obligingly flew overhead. I think I will come back in the winter, with a lawn chair and a thermos of tea. That’s the ticket! Apparently some two hundred plus species spend time out here. I think a good number are on summer holiday, or maybe they know I have my camera all poised…hmm.

My weaving guru Unni, (don’t tell her, she doesn’t know she is my guru…) told me to keep knitting despite arthritic hands. Something along the lines of “you lose it if you don’t use it.” In the spirit of “using it” and using up bits and pieces I have been doing knitted hats the last several weeks. They will go to a non-profit organization in the fall. Grant works in the Downtown East Side and knows the best places these can be used.

The WIP is from some handspun singles, done to learn thick and thin slubby yarn. (Deliberate thick and thin that is!  Pretty fun hat – hopefully someone will find the colours cheery, not just blinding…)