Video: Traditional way of processing wool

That's wool and flax (or hemp). Love the little detail of the baba spitting on the flax (or hemp) which explains the one time I spun that material it gave me such a hard time.
It's been a while since I've traveled but the next time I visit Eastern Europe I'm going to find women like these to teach me how to use the vreteno (spindle) and the preslice (distaff) as seen in the video. When I visited my uncle in the house my dad grew up in I saw my grandmother's preslice leaning against the wall in the front room. Gorgeous detail in the woodwork. If you look at the vests the babas in the video are wearing you can see more ornate flourishes.
I have to re-watch this video a few times because it sounds like they're dyeing that wool with a rich batch of walnut hulls. If I could get that strong black I'd try a bunch of new gothic-y yet folk-inspired pieces! There are a few walnut trees on the farm and I'm tempted to get messy next autumn! The knit pieces in this video must be like cardboard if they're beating them in the creek like that. While visiting my great-aunt she once asked if I needed laundry done and proceeded to pound my Girbaud jeans in a similar fashion and I didn't have the heart to tell her my clothes weren't made as well as hers!

Process

"How long did that take you to make?"

I've decided to stop answering that question because I find it has a touch of the passive/aggressive and the answer is kinda obvious.
First I have to shear the sheep. Well, I have to take care of the sheep which includes shearing every spring after the weather has warmed. My personal deadline is the first of May but there are a few ewes that don't get clipped until Mother's Day. Some years a few keep their coats until the Fourth of July if the garden keeps me too busy.

Since my electric clippers are aging and never seem to work as well as my old-fashioned spring-action hand-held type. The girls in the photo above are of the Corriedale breed, which includes a Merino bloodline and the wrinkled skin, especially in the neckline, that makes it so hard to shear.

I usually wait a few months after shearing to take the clipped wool to Allegan's Michigan Fiber Fest in August. To keep costs down I try to save money on shipping by dropping of to the visiting Zeilinger Woolen mill for washing/carding. Within a few weeks it's shipped back to me and I start spinning.
Sometimes I leave the yarn in singles like the photo above, but prefer the stability of a double-ply and run them through the spinning wheel again.

I'm usually not ready to knit after spinning (and washing and blocking) because each batch of yarn has a different weight and thickness. I run a few test swatches to determine the gauge and also design a knit pattern that best suits the fiber.
So do I keep a time clock? No. So I'm not going to answer "How long does that take you to make."

Snapped!

checking in
Originally uploaded by jima

I had no idea my photo was being taken at the 8th annual DIY Trunk Show!

Arts and Crafts

It's been a while since I've had any of my work on exhibit so when Annie Holm asked to include some of my fiber projects in A Prairie Primer: an exploration of the intersections of art, history, 
and stewardship, I gathered up the following pieces for display:

Handspun wool yarn dyed with plants found around the farm (marigolds, cosmos, walnut leaves, and goldenrod).


Overshot weaving sample using natural shades of handspun wool with a few sections of goldenrod flower dyed wool.


My signature piece: the A-line, cable-knit miniskirt. This one uses yarn made with marigold-dyed handspun wool.

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Sheep nibbles

Shoulder Problems

I've been "sketching" out a sweater pattern in some Red Heart black acrylic for too long. I think I started this sweater a few years ago and I'm still trying to figure out the sleeve. Normally a gusset in the armpit would be added but there won't be a tapered sleeve, it'll have a 3/4 full sleeve in a moss stitch pattern. Just can't figure out how to shape it. The sleeve will be taken apart and I'll try short rows along the cable on the top ridge. . .

Vintage Friends

I live in a building with more residents than my entire hometown. When I moved in almost ten years ago I was taken aback by how chatty everyone is, I've never entered the elevator without someone greeting me kindly and on the short ride we chat casually about the weather. It is Chicago after all and the old saying goes "if you don't like the weather, just wait until the afternoon."
Weather is what brought up a discussion on what to wear in Chicago's ever-changing climate. I've been known to grumble about not being "put together" on many occasions. Part weather. Part budget.
My neighbor, Wini, mentioned that she stopped dressing up as she got older but still had many of her more "formal" gear. I mentioned I wore vintage dresses in college and had a hard time finding the longer, formal gloves that went with a 3/4 sleeve. Wini said she had LOTS, some even handed down from her mother and other female relatives. A day or two later the doorman called me to tell me I had a package. Wini had left a box of about two dozen vintage gloves at the front desk for me. The photo above shows her kind gift.

Bureks I have loved

I've never met a burek I didn't like.
A last-minute invite to a Local Beet staff meeting at Deta's Cafe in Rogers Park was more than welcome. It came after I finally posted a Farmer's Almanac update to their site, which I had put on hold after last summer's devastating tomato blight (which wiped out my entire crop as well as any residual energy I had left).
My late arrival didn't stop Deta from going back to the kitchen to get me a warm bowl of chicken soup before I dug into the spinach-filled burek (a Balkan-style savory pastry) and beef goulash. I don't know if the staff mentioned my Balkan heritage before I got there but she quickly picked up on it and Deta and I were chatting in Serbo-Croatian before too long. You have no idea how excited I am to be invited to visit her kitchen to learn how to make the hand-stretched dough used to make burek and Deta seemed a little thrilled to meet a farmer who grows a lot of peppers and eggplants. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Flickr Finds

Spun and Crocheted audio tape Cell Phone cover
Originally uploaded by dumpsterdiversanonymous

My friend Adamandia told me about seeing work made with hand-spun audio-cassette tape. At first I thought "scratchy" then I saw this link she sent me.
Lovely.
Want.