Fiber Festival

I have to tell you all about a fiber event that I just returned from. Sorry - no pics yet - but I will post some.

A two day workshop in spinning silk taught by the incomparable Judith MacKenzie McCuin!

Sponsored by Carolina Homespun and held at the Point Bonita Lighthouse just north of San Francisco.

OMG - what a great time I had. I flew into SFO early on Friday morning and was picked up by Lann. We toodled on over to Carolina Homespun and we all got the YarnV loaded up with anything we thought might be helpful to have at the retreat. A quick trip to Trader Joe's for munchies and lunch and Morgaine and I were on our way out to the lighthouse.

We ate our lunch and then unpacked an incredible amount of stuff from the YarnV.

I took my personal stuff to the dorm and picked out my room. There were so few of us at the facility and no other groups there - so I got a room to myself. The bed was firm just as I like it - so I scored!

Nancy Finn - the genius behind the Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks brought some of her work to Morgaine and hung out for a while. Turns out that she and I know some of the same fiber people from the 80's. What a trip.

The spinners started arriving and we got to know each other over setting up our wheels and then over dinner.

We sat and spun and talked for quite a while - then headed off to bed about 10 or so. I slept very well, only woke up once and then dropped right back off.

The next two days was a blur of silk spinning - trying to cram more knowledge into my brain that it was ever designed to hold.

If you ever get the chance to take any class with Judith - take it. The amount of knowledge that woman drops in passing is incredible - I only wish that I had a video of the workshop - cause I know I only got about half of what she was saying.

It was so hard to leave - Judith was teaching another class right after this one on weaving - at the same location - sure wish I could have stayed - maybe it would motivate me to warp up one of my looms this year.

Now for the good news for you all - Carolina Homespun is doing it again - only bigger and better.

The Golden Gate Fiber Institute presents the Summer Intensive. 6 Instructors - 6 workshops - the only down side is that you can only pick two. I registered months ago - and can't remember what classes I signed up for - but it doesn't matter - cause any of these women have something to teach.

I'm not affiliated with Carolina Homespun or Judith - other than the friendships I feel like I formed this weekend -but I encourage anyone who is remotely interested in the July program to contact Morgaine - there are still openings.

green silk

Remember this silk on the bobbin? I originally intended to ply it with some gorgeous dyed merino roving. When I took the bobbins and the roving to Yarn Yankers last weekend - the harsh light of day revealed that the two do not go together at all.

So, I plyed the bobbins together and ended up with this 790 yards of 100% silk.

From Blog photos

The weight is about 4 ounces - so about 3500 ypp. I am looking at shawl patterns to see what will bring out the shine and color of this.

From Blog photos

I love the teal accents in the green.

Polworth and silk - half way done

This is the charcoal polworth and the dyed silk from a couple of weekends ago.

I've been spinning the silk for what seems like forever and finally got to start the plying yesterday.

1070 yards and 4 ounces so far with 4 more ounce to ply up. I think it's gorgeous - not at all what I wanted, but pretty nevertheless.

I was really wanting the silk to be dark saturated colors, but the violet was lighter than I thought it would be and the silk roving didn't get dyed in places in the middle of the roving. The Burgundy turned out to be a very red brown and the dark green is nice - but the violet really throws off my autumn colors plan. Don't know what I was thinking with that.

I will ply up the remaining and look for a beginners lace pattern for a lacy shawl to knit with this.

Or, it really looks like the long color repeats might be nice for a woven piece - I'd have to sett this closer than I've ever woven before, but it might be the incentive I need to get the Macomber set up for a warp.

Hand painted silk

Here is the 4 ounces of silk I painted yesterday.

The cushings dyes I have are very old and I wonder if they are not performing correctly. I may have mixed the violet weaker than the other colors. I did use all three of these in the last dyeing day and made the mistake of not mixing the whole packet at once.

Next time I will mix up the whole packet of dye with water and just dilute enough for the weight I am dyeing that day.

Anyway, the burgundy did come out very brown and the violet is pinker than I think it should be, the color did not penetrate all the way to the center of the roving in some places. I am not sure if it will be what I want to use to ply with the charcoal polworth, I was looking for saturated color for that, but I like it and will spin it up. Perhaps I can ply it with the light grey polworth. I wonder which one the colors will pop better with?