fiber arts Archives - tamarackfiberarts

Dirt, Rock, Iris, and Friends

January 7, 2023 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

There will always be stunning inspiration from nature. Take dirt, for example. More precisely, take soil. Clearly the folks at Three Waters Farm are inspired by soil. At the time their newsletter came across my inbox I was sure the last thing I needed was more fiber to spin. We were still in temporary quarters and I had packed more spinning fiber than three people could spin in three months. But I could not resist their beautiful colorway “Good Brown Dirt” on Targhee.

Aside from being a beautiful colorway and that I enjoy spinning Targhee, my oldest friend, Paula, is an Agronomist. A doctor of soil. Now retired, Paula spent a very productive career teaching college students about Agronomy and research. Paula is passionate about good brown dirt and has always been as passionate about her family, her students, and her work.

A year and a half earlier I knitted a wrap/blanket for Paula after her daughter contacted me to request a special blanket for her mom who was having great difficult with cancer treatment. Paula had been living with cancer for ten years by then. It was fun putting together the project with Paula’s daughter. Of course, soil was important. Prairie and ocean were Paula’s other inspirations.

Using Malabrigo Rios and a pattern that I modified, a big, soft, cuddly wrap was completed faster than anything I had ever knit. About the time Paula received the blanket, I received the painful news that all treatment was being stopped. The great news is that, although she has challenges, Paula has been living and enjoying friends and family and she continues to do so today. When working out on my elliptical I think of all the challenges Paula has overcome and I keep on track, listening to the Grateful Dead music we shared throughout the years.

Starting in late April I began spinning Good Brown Dirt with the intention of creating something for Paula’s birthday in early October. It was a fun spin, and I produced a two-ply fingering weight yarn. Paula is not a fancy person, so I chose to knit a scarf in the well-known Old Shale pattern. What better pattern to use for Good Brown Dirt?

About the time I finished spinning the Good Brown Dirt, I walked on the beach near my new home with a friend from my old home who now lives one mile from me. How great is that? We did not plan that one but as fate or luck or whatever would have it, we both left California about the same time and ended up with new homes a mile apart.

On that beach walk with my friend, I found an amazing rock. I guess I was rather taken with the rock because I found two weaving drafts and planned some projects. Of course, everything was taking way more time than usual because we were still unpacking and setting up our home. Using stash for two colors of green warp in 8/2 Tencel sett at 36 ends per inch, and weft of 20/2 cotton in black, I selected an echo threading from Marian Stubinitsky on Handweaving.net and started weaving a small scarf.

The rock was captured well enough, but for a variety of reasons, my selvedges were terrible. I used two strands of 8/2 black Tencel for floating selvedges, which I think was too thick for the weft, and the scarf was too narrow for my shortest temple. Close attention to the selvedges was paid while weaving but I decided to consider it a sample and it lives in my drawer full of samples. I will return to the rock and next will try a network twill from Handweaving.net. Meanwhile, a new opportunity was being presented and I decided to leap into a new project.

At the start of the pandemic when I was power walking my old neighborhood instead of going to the gym, I came across an iris of what struck me as exquisite color. As happens, I took photos and figured someday I would use this inspiration in my fiber work. This past summer, thanks to my friend from the beach walk, I finally had the opportunity to play with hand painting (some would say hand dyeing) Tencel warps.

Jan has done quite a bit of dyeing and we planned some projects. One was to dye warp for the iris photo. Thanks to Jan, we had fun and I learned a great deal. It took me two attempts, but I like what we came up with.

In late 2020 I had stored a network till draft on my laptop but, unfortunately, I did not store information on where I found the draft. My bad; I really wish I had.

I used some stash Tencel for accent warp and for weft and I enjoyed weaving this scarf. Thanks to TempoTreadle, keeping track of treadling is a breeze. I used a sett of 24 ends per inch. And, unlike the rock scarf, my selvedges are decent. The hand is nice, too.

Have I mentioned how much I value all my fiber friends and guild mates, both here in Washington and in California? To say nothing of the few non-fiber friends who have blessed my life for decades, such as Paula.

I have been enjoying meeting members of the Whidbey Weavers Guild and having fun with another fiber friend here, also named Donna. Like Jan and I, Donna moved here recently and we share a dear mutual fiber friend from California. Sharing knitting, spinning, and weaving with other equally passionate fiber folks enriches my life and my journey into the fiber arts in so many ways.

I have hand painted warps for two other nature inspired projects and I have been working on several other knitting, spinning, and weaving projects.

Throughout the autumn I kept taking pictures of a certain seaweed I would see on the beach here. Someday that will become something, too.

But Finn is ready for his afternoon constitutional and I’ll save those projects for another post.

Until then, sing praises, enjoy your friends, let them know that you appreciate them, and walk in balance.

Looms Come Home

September 24, 2022 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

At last, the day had come. May 3, 2022. The house was ours and we had the keys. Only discouraging news from the moving company could put a damper on our happiness. Broken truck, lack of parts, unknown delivery date, weeks away. Very anxious to exit the Hovel, we had already given notice so we could move as soon as we took possession of the house. To make it more interesting, my daughter was arriving from California that evening and my youngest kiddo was arriving from Indiana in three days. But now there was no telling when the looms, or the rest of our belongings, would come home.

The kids arrived and we all had a wonderful visit and fun camping out in the new house. Visits to thrift stores and the big box store on the island provided the basics to get us through. We could do basic cooking, had clean towels and bedding (if you count an air mattress and cheap sleeping bag as bedding), and we had the new counter stools and a couple of camp chairs, as well as the new washer/dryer and guest bed. I also had the two potholders a dear fiber friend in California dropped off the day before we left town.

Best of all was sharing our new home, the very first home without my kids in over 30 years, with my two awesome adult offspring. Finn was pretty happy to stretch out in the new house as well. It was a busy couple of days but a wonderful time to be together. Geography and busy lives have kept us apart more than this mother would like.

I could still spin and knit and daydream about weaving. And we had plenty to keep us busy as we attempted to have the interior painted before the furniture arrived. That didn’t turn out so well and it certainly complicated attempts to unpack once things did arrive but, in the end and long after we had hoped, the dull and depressing grey walls are now different colors. I chose a basic white for the loom room and my fiber/office room.

Being very moved by world events and a film I saw of a weaving family in Ukraine (Ukrainian Wool Blanket), I purchased a handwoven blanket from them via their Etsy store. We tracked the progress of the package across the world.

It took one month and the blanket arrived about a week after we started camping out in the new house. It is an amazing hand woven, hand washed (in a river), and hand brushed wool blanket and will certainly keep us warm during PNW winters.

Two weeks after the initial promised delivery, our goods were delivered. I was so happy to see my looms and to see that they were in fine shape. I found that it was a challenge to fit all things fiber into two rooms, especially coming from house as studio that had evolved organically over many years.

Things were not set up to function yet in my “studio” and we had company coming. So, Michael, Finn, and I spent our days making the kitchen functional, clearing living space of boxes, and getting ready for visits from friends from California. As always, puppy training and exercise and knitting and spinning continued. We had a wonderful time visiting with dear friends from California throughout June.

In between visitors, Michael and I arranged for Finn to have an overnight at a very nice resort for pups here on the island. We were lucky to get him a spot and it really is a deluxe resort with no crates or cages and lots of space to run and play. It is great to know that he did well and has a place to go, if needed. Meanwhile, the paw parents had our own night at a nice AirBnB in Seattle. Our intention was to visit the Nordic Museum and have a night on our own. We enjoyed a great meal and the museum

A highlight of the museum was the Margaret Bergman display. It was part of the display of individuals from Sweden having made an impact after arrival. She was the only woman mentioned and she was described as “A Weaving Innovator and Entrepreneur.”

The loom could have been much better displayed but what a joy to see the loom I had heard so much about. I intend to learn more about her three-tie unit weave.

I was finally able to start weaving in July. I used some of the handspun wool from our months in transition as pattern weft for an overshot dresser scarf. This was the Stricken Lonk from Edgewood Garden Studio that I wrote about in my last blog.

I had 16/2 linen in my stash and used that for warp and tabby. I decided to start with the Baby Wolf, otherwise known as Fiona. It was so wonderful to be weaving again! The scarf works well on an antique dresser that Michael had in his mountain home.

The loom room is a bright and beautiful place to weave. However, by the time I finished that project and was trying to warp towels on the Mighty Wolf, otherwise known as Wilhelmina, it was clear that the loom room could not accommodate everything that was in there. The Wolf PupLt, as yet unnamed, was already stationed in the family room. But there was just no way to be functional in such tight space that was the loom room at that point.

So, DH volunteered for duty and had some suggestions. We moved a cabinet with thread into the guest room (which already housed my knitting library, tabletop warping mill, mannequin, baskets of yarn as décor, and a closet full of sheep and an alpaca) and found a spot in the guest closet for my rack of reeds, temples, and warping sticks. It is still a very nice guest room with just a bit of fiber art spill over.

At last I had a fiber room/office with a work table and a loom room. Of course, we had not yet unpacked all the photos, wall art, and tchotchkes but now I could function and get a warp on both looms!

Meanwhile, Finn continues to grow and require lots of exercise, there are still many things to unpack in the garage, and we are still exploring our new island home

I am working on learning to be patient with myself. My solo days of being productively lost in fiber arts all day are long gone. Michael is home full time and I have a very large puppy who needs training and exercise. It will take me much longer to plan and warp a project than ever before. And there is nothing more important than being present in this moment with loved ones. So, I aim for balance as I move forward in our new home.

May all beings find balance. May it be so.

Looms On the Move

February 8, 2022 by Donna Johnson Leave a Comment

In my last post, written in the late fall, I noted that weaving was losing out to puppy training. That is still the case. However, Finn has us much better trained now. He is just about 6 months, 60 pounds, and he is becoming a very fine dog. Finn is well behaved, having never touched looms, spinning wheels, knitting, or any fiber equipment, even though it is everywhere throughout the house.

We had quite the dump of snow on December 26 and it turns out that Finn loves snow! He loves pets and cuddles and staying close to his humans, running and playing with other dogs, and he needs lots of exercise. This is actually a good thing, but it means I don’t get the sort of aerobic activity I need and I’m certainly without time to weave.

However, the biggest reason there is no weaving happening here is . . . we are moving.

It’s not that we were keeping it a secret. People who knew us very well were certainly aware. But no announcements were made until recently because of Michael’s work. As a psychotherapist, he had to first inform the clinic where he worked and, second, inform the many clients he worked with. That is a lengthy and painful process. As of a few days ago, I now welcome Michael to the ranks of retired folks! It is his third time but maybe this time it will stick.

So, it’s all official now. We are moving north to Washington. In fact, the moving company comes to pack us in just a matter of days. It is amazing how many little, and some very big, pieces must all fit together to make this work!

I will spare you all the boring details (there are a great deal of them), but the rapidly spinning wheels are in motion, and we will soon be leaving California. Michael is a California native, having lived here all his life. And I’ve been here just over 40 years. We love our house, so this is no small thing we undertake, especially at our ages.

We very much miss living by the ocean but, to be honest, our move is also about climate change, drought, excessive heat, and severe risk of wildfire. Yes, there is climate change where we are headed but not at the rates we see here, in the foothills of our beloved Sierra Nevada.

I have a large, framed poster that perfectly sums it up. It is a great leap of faith. If you know us, you know we have been doing our homework. For years, even. But still. It really is a leap of faith that we will find what we seek where we seek it.

We have been busy purging what we are willing to part with, carting off decades of old business documents for shredding (over 100 pounds so far), and sorting through the memorabilia of our lives. We've been passing things along to offspring, finding a new home for various pieces of furniture, and leaving books in the little neighborhood libraries that have popped up during the pandemic. I sorted through all my knitting and spinning stash and organized my weaving stash for packing.

Most of our possessions, including my looms, will be in storage until we find our new home. We are packing what we think we may need for a few months while staying in temporary lodging.

The very first thing I packed was, of course, knitting and spinning materials. But I packed them with purpose, sorting what projects I would knit, so only bringing those yarns and needles.

I will have my Hansen miniSpinner Pro with me and a selection of those eye candy, hand dyed braids to spin. I will also take my Gilmore Miniwave band loom so I can finish the handfasting band that has been on there since before my dear daughter postponed her 2020 wedding the first time due to covid. She’s trying for the third time to have the wedding this summer so that band will be the first thing I work on after arriving on Whidbey Island in less than a month.

I have joined the Whidbey Weavers Guild and I am looking forward to meeting my new guildmates. My guild here, the Foothill Fibers Guild, has been my anchor and will be sorely missed! I’m pleased to have been of a bit of service to my guild and I have found a member to take over my Web Manager duties.

When too exhausted by Finn or purging and other moving related details, I have been doing a bit of knitting and spinning.

I had a yearning to knit a sweater recently and before I started looking for a pattern, an ad at the bottom of a Ravelry page caught my eye. The pattern is the Safra Sweater.

After a quick search I found some great yarn and in very little time I had knitted the sweater. I would still like to weave a band for the button band but that will have to wait until I finish the handfasting band in a month or so. Buttons were easy to find on Etsy and I’m delighted with the sweater and how it fits. The yarn, unfortunately now discontinued, was a dream to knit. It is 85/15 merino and alpaca in a worsted weight.

A few months ago I was sorting through things in my fiber room and I determined to use some of those souvenir skeins that have been sitting in baskets for a few years. I selected some bulky single ply yarn from a fun little shop in Sigtuna, Sweden.

We visited Sigtuna, where some of our cousins live, in 2019. It is a lovely area and we had a wonderful day visiting the village. There is very rich history in this area. We visited several sites, including a museum that held some early spinning artifacts.

I decided to knit a hat using the white and the black yarn from Sigtuna. The pattern was easy stranded knitting, or so I thought. I should have known better.

My thumbs are too arthritic to knit bulky yarn on size six needles. It was a painful knit so I only did a little bit at time. The hat fits and will keep me warm on windy beach walks on the island. It would be much too warm for use here in California.

I’m also working on a project that I started knitting in 2012. I took it with me when I visited Scotland that spring. That is a very long time to be on the needles! It is a cowl in a stranded pattern knit with a solid purple fingering weight yarn and a variegated yarn. I will end the cowl by grafting in the round, a new knitting task for me.

The pattern was copied from a knitting magazine I long ago recycled and was terribly faded. Besides that, I only knit using KnitCompanion now. So, I recreated the chart in PatternGenius, transferred it to KC, and easily figured out where I was. It is nearly finished.

I think one of the reasons I let this project hibernate for so long is that the weather here is too warm for cowls. This is not the case in Washington! I'm glad I will get to use some of my woolens.

Just before Finn came to live with us in October, I started spinning one of Ilga Jansons hand painted braids. I enjoyed spinning on the Lendrum and Finn never tried to interfere with it.

The yarn is a Z-spun, S-plied two-ply fingering weight and I will save it for weaving a scarf.

With the move coming up quickly, my Lendrum is packed away so I started a new braid on my miniSpinner. This is also one of Ilga’s braids. This will be a slightly finer spin, again a two ply, and likely for weaving.

Continuing a tradition that I began last year, I started knitting a new lace shawl on Imbolc, or Brigid’s day. This ancient holiday marks the half-way point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. It is a time of rebirth, the return of the light, and a time of rededication.

My intention to knit lace is, for me, about my commitment to mindfulness and the practice of mindfulness. Knitting lace involves being mindful. I wrote about that a few years ago in a post I titled A Meditation in Lace and Cables.

This year, the project features more souvenir skeins. It is a two-ply Gotland fingering weight yarn from a shop in Edinburgh. During a visit there in 2017, I ended up running DH through the hills of the city to get to the shop before it closed. He won’t let me forget that!

I just started the project so there isn’t much to see at this point. The shawl features lace and cables. I’m looking forward to knitting it, especially since I believe I am on my way to having set things up correctly.

Soon I will be putting a “Closed” sign on my online Shop and disabling the checkout cart. It’s only temporary but it will be a few months before I can access my inventory. In the meantime, I will be further dismantling the home Michael and I created together and have loved for 14 years. Shortly we will be setting off on our new adventure and hoping we can quickly find a new home to settle in. Of course, I am imagining a nice sized, light-filled weaving studio as part of our new home.

There will be lots of boxes, a very large puppy to tend to, a three-day drive to temporary lodgings (we will take it slowly with dog and small trailer to consider), and new faces and places to encounter. Drafts I intend to weave are stacking up and crowding my computer but first we must find a home for two humans, one large puppy, and three looms. Wish us luck in our adventure and our search!

Since we are not experiencing winter weather here, in Northern California, I will leave you with a photo of the Highlands I took while in Scotland in 2012.

May you have peace of mind and of heart. May you enjoy the blessings of the ordinary, everyday miracles that are right in front of us. And may there be peace and healing on our planet.

I’ll write again from our new location.