Village Books is all set to become a Cushing Perfection Dyes Dealer.  The brick & mortar shop at 18 Waldoboro Rd, Washington, Maine will be stocking the Cushing Acid Dyes (for protein fiber) starting this month.  When I am a vendor at sheep & wool festivals and fiber events, I'll be toting the Cushings along too!  Cushing Perfection Dyes is an old Maine company operating out of Kennebunkport.  No need to take your fiber dollars out of our lovely state! And Mid-Coasters save on shipping costs, while enjoying a scenic trip to the best used bookstore in Maine.

Next up: Fiber Maine-ia, University of Maine, Orno, Oct 16 & 17!  Gently used fiber arts books, handspun, hand-dyed Maine yarn, roving and other goodies for spinners, knitters, weavers, crocheters, hookers, etc...

The Fiber Side & My Life with Knitters Combine! See PS

 I've been playing with all the different fibers I've bought over the past month or two.  I'm calling the products of this daily practice RANDOM ROVINGS.  Above you can see a pile of various rolags composed of combinations of merino/silk & mohair, coopworth & mohair, & coopworth & merino/silk, dyed with Cushing dye (Egyptian Red, very weak) and handcarded.

This is a LOT like painting...

Back in the day, when I got tired of painting, I'd turn to sculpture.  I've used welding wheels like the one shown below as a 3-D material many times in the past.  (A blacksmith's wife always has a few of these!)

Best artist question ever: WHAT IF...?

A yarn sculpture! 

Actually, this is a new idea I have for displaying my handspun, which is beginning to take over the house as well as my bookstore.  Here you see a few of the skeins I've completed recently.  Jeff is helping by supplying me with hand-forged hooks.

Here is one of my current favorite spinning raw materials: Coopworth locks.

I spun some yarn directly from the natural colored, uncarded locks, then plied it.  I got a marvelously soft, fat yarn (it's a little too brown in the photo). Swatched it on #13 needles. Cushing is sending me some more dye this week, so I'll be making more of this to color!

Different fibers, beautiful swatch:

"Art Yarn" I think they call it.

The beautiful bench below was completed this past weekend by the husband-blacksmith.  The owners provided the rock & asked Jeff to create an iron support for it.  Don't you love it?

More from this creative outpost in a day or two, when the Coopworth is dyed!

PS For those of you who follow both, I'm going to make life easier for us all by combining my two blogs.  Village Books will continue to have its own, books only blog and a new website when Kathleen gets to it.
Meanwhile, the link to MY LIFE WITH KNITTERS is the one to use!

Found Objects & Knitting

CURIOUS?  Check it out over at The Fiber Side of Village Books!

Dye Job

Friday, August 20, 2010

My first dye job...

if you don't count my hair!  Here is the gorgeous combination roving I bought from Guinea Ridge Farm in Union during the Open Farm Tour.  I spun it and plied it. I set the twist (yes, I did, Jeannine!) Then I pulled wads of jewelweed from under the apple trees (much to the goats' chagrin - they love jewelweed) and boiled it up.  Can't say I cared for the smell much.  I soaked my handspun, 2 ply in warm water, with a little cream of tartar dissolved in it.  Then plunked it in the dyebath for only ten minutes or so, since I love this light, creamy orange. Et voila!

Village Books has been reorganized to display the gorgeous roving that my friend, Toni, & I have been producing for sale.  Currently on offer are Maine Finn, both dyed & undyed, Romney dyed & 2 shades of natural roving, white Dorset, white Border Leicester & some lovely brown llama roving from Eolian Farm down in Newcastle, who also provides me with Shetland roving on occasion.  

Since I'm just a neophyte, I'm keeping most of my doings for my private use, but I did sell my first skein of yarn this month!  My spinning wheel is busy every day.

Meanwhile, lots of new books have come in, from the latest great fiction to histories to classics in knitting  (I use these big hand-forged hooks to hang yarn).  The Fiber Side of Village Books will be a book & roving vendor at Fiber College in Searsport, Maine, happening September 9-12.  This is a beautiful venue and a wonderful learning & networking opportunity for crafters.  Come check it out!  And stop by my table to introduce yourself!

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New Stuff!

So it was time for the Knitting Guild of America Conference in Manchester, NH and I was READY.  Here we see a tiny bomb (knitted by my sister Kathlene) in place at a McDonald's in Augusta, Maine.

Later that same day -

A railing outside the Radisson Hotel, Manchester, NH, was hit!

Then the KNITTING OUT LOUD team got to work!  We had a great weekend!

In other news -
I'm working very hard at my spinning.  Here's my first attempt at plying two of my handspun yarns together!  The grey is hand-picked, hand-carded & hand-spun Romney, and the gold is hand-spun from merino roving I bought in NH.  Very excited about the way the gold gleams through the grey.  We see this colour range a lot in late fall in Maine.

I'm also trying to hone my designing skills.  Here's a little sample I came up with, holding two yarns together & working in stockinette.  (one commercial yarn, one my Romney). I love the way it appears to form a pattern, just because the mohair I used and the Romney both have beautiful fuzzy bloom.

Washing & drying more Romney now in the cool, fresh wind that we're being treated to here today.

More soon!

OPEN FARM DAY IN MAINE

A glorious summer's day here in Maine, and farms throughout the state were open to visitors.  We managed Brae Maple, Agricola, Hawes and Guinni Ridge farms in Union, before visiting Sweet Season Farm Cafe here in Washington for lobster rolls and ginger ice cream. 

At Brae Maple I met a bunch of spinners who graciously invited me to sit and knit (I didn't bring a wheel), then I went down to Agricola and bought some lovely black alpaca yarn.  At Guinni Ridge we looked at the Katahdin & Suffolk sheep, and I bought some white roving (Corriedale & Romney blend).  Definitely would like to carry roving at Village Books and talked it up a bit with the spinners.

At Hawes Farm we bought some beautiful French green beans and small red potatoes (which we were going to have for dinner until I got the lobster roll/ice cream idea).

All in all, very satisfying day.  And now to my spinning wheel! Do you think spinning will burn off those calories?