Purpose

I have been questioning who I am as an artist and why am I doing this, for much of this year. In the last couple of months I have had the opportunity to teach and demo at different places, read a couple of books and listen to some podcasts that have helped me to see the importance of being a fiber artist and why to continue. I have also learned who I am and who I am not.

I am not an indie dyer. I am not an indie designer. I took a class a couple of years ago at Interweave Yarn Fest in Loveland, Colorado. It was about how to be a designer and submitting designs to magazines and how to get published. It was only a three hour class but I learned that was NOT the life style for me, and that's exactly what it is, a life style. Swatch after swatch and multiple submissions to multiple magazines a month. This all makes sense but it's not what I want to do. As far as indie designing goes it will also not be something that I make a living on any time soon. I hate tech editing so much I have it scheduled into my daily routine so that it gets done. I will complete patterns as I tech edit and will publish them on Ravelry and Love Knitting when I do. It may be one a month, or more or less, and I'm okay with that.

I love dying. Kool-Aid dying is my favorite and I am making a lot of progress in my methods. I can't however come up with a new colorway each month, let alone enough colors to then retire some. I also don't have the capital to have the stock on hand to fill even an Etsy shop or something like that.

So here is what I have decided I am. I am a fiber artist who enjoys teaching more than the other things individually. What does this mean? It means that when a color combination for dying or a design idea comes that I will work on it until the end. Either finished items or until the Mojo is gone and the project is dead. That happens on occasion. I will not publish everything that I knit or crochet. Some will be one offs, either in the dye job or the design or both. I will dye yarn for people when they request it. This means I am not a slave to any one thing. I am very excited about this. It is going to change the way I document my projects, more pictures, more IG posts and the way this blog is written. It will have more teaching content on whatever it is I am currently working on. They say those who can't do teach. Well I teach because I can "do".

My commitment in all of this is to you guys. I commit to post more regularly. I will detail something new I learned or something that might be new to you, in each post with pictures and the reasoning behind my method. I plan on treating fiber arts like a job as far as having a routine and time commitment to it. I have had a routine in it for almost a year and that was a good decision. I have learned more and completed more in the last year than I have in the last 2 or 3 years put together. That's even with being sick for a few months and having surgery. The commitment changes in how easily I give up my time for fiber arts for another activity. Driving is usually the time suck because we live so far from town. If I'm a passenger then I can knit, crochet or spin while someone else drives and that's fine. If however I'm meeting someone in town for lunch... The entire day is spent and now I haven't worked on my blog or that new spinning technique I was trying to learn or something... This sounds very strict and forced, I know. However if I am to fulfill what I have decided is my purpose as a fiber artist this is what I need to do at this moment.

My purpose in doing fiber arts is to connect with people. People here, or in other places in the world. I can connect with them using fiber arts as an open door to talk, either because they are a fiber artist or any kind of artist for that matter or because they need a finished product from me, be it yarn, pattern or a hat. I also am a fiber artist so that the skills of so many past generations here in the States and current generations in countries abroad continue on and don't die. I do fiber arts so I can teach others to do fiber arts and keep these skills alive.

This week I am working on a test knit for Annie Lupton of Bohochic fiber arts. It is the Hippy Dippy Shawl. I am working it in Knit Pick Shadow lace yarn in the Snorkel colorway using US size 1 needles. Right now I am pushing through to get it finished. I am in the area of the design that is long long rounds of knit. What is nice about this though is that I can do this while doing almost anything else. I have done it as a passenger, sitting in church, at Bible study, after dinner conversation and while watching a movie with the family.

This week I am recovering from the Arapahoe County Fair. I entered 2 knitted items for judging. I stayed for judging as well. You can always learn something by staying for this part. What you learn will probably not apply to every fair and may not even work next year, because each judge is different. There are criteria in place so that much of the judging is as objective as possible but judges are still people with preferences and opinions. This year the judge was really focused on finishing. Taking the time to put the ends in properly, to block that piece and make it look at nice as possible. If it was a piece that had been worn a couple of times make sure to remove the pills. Don't place items on a hanger but include it for display purposes. If it is a mounted piece take the time to do it right. She stated that she understood the feeling of getting to the end of a project and just wanting to be done, however many of her decisions between first and second place came down to the finishing. So finish well.

I entered my All Things Spring Shawl, designed by Annie Lupton. It received a 2nd place ribbon. The judge decided that the other piece was better for first place because my petals were not all the same size. I also entered my Creu Sweater by Gina. It received a first place ribbon but was also the only one in the class.

This isn't the first time I have watched judging. I stayed for the entire fiber arts class, which took three hours even though my pieces were judged in the first 15 minutes. I was the only one there. This judge was an older lady, as many in my experience are. To me it felt that while she may still do some fiber arts she is not connected to the current fiber arts world. She thought that the cable on the back of my sweater was sewn in after the fact because the piece was too big. She thought the neck was too loose as well. If she were a bit more plugged in, she would have know that a single cable is a thing right now, as well as having a larger neck on a sweater. Judges really need to be connected to the current trends if they are to judge correctly.

She also missed two things that to me were big. She gave third place to a hat that had a flower sewn onto it. Okay except that the flower was sewn to what was really the inside of the hat, the wrong side of the work. I could see that from 10 feet away and she didn't even notice.

The other thing is there was a cute and very well done doll and her clothes entered into the felting class which has 2 choice, needle or wet. This doll was neither. She belonged in the sewing category. Her maker had cut pieces out and sewn them together beautifully. She really was well done but was in the wrong class and the judge didn't know or say anything if she did. The doll was the only item in the class and received a first place, as it should have. It was done by a junior. It may have received some better comment and advice from a sewing judge however.

The judge did suggest for next year that there needs to be a place to write what the items function is. I also think that Arapahoe County Fair needs to have a place for skill level as well, Adams county does. This means that a junior of 17 who has been working on the skill for 5 years isn't going against a junior or 8 who is just beginning.

Here is a picture of my pieces on display with their ribbons. If you look, you can see that my shawl was displayed wrong side up. So I will have another suggestion for Arapahoe County fair, have someone, maybe even the judge, with some know how walk through the display before it's open to the public.

After seeing this and truly realizing my love of education about fiber arts and to the artists I have decided I want to judge open class fiber arts, so I will be emailing them in a month or so after they have had a chance to recover.

Nijah and I were at fair on Friday evening, most of Saturday and all day Sunday. I spun on my wheel that Carl made for me for Christmas a few years back and Nijah helped people dye wool with Kool-Aid. Nijah helped about 100 people dye little bits of wool with Kool-Aid and found a neat way for the children to try suspended spindle spinning while she helps. I spun about 3oz of singles that will turn into a 3 ply fingering weight yarn and talked to a few people about Woolly Weirdos.

The fiber I spun at fair was not a new fiber for me to spin but I am spinning for socks. I have spun for socks in the past only to end up with yarn that is way too thick, which in my world is a bit strange because my default is thin. So I have been doing some reading on spinning sock yarn, mostly the Sock edition of Ply magazine and decided to try are few of the things I had read.

I know that I love BFL for socks. The memory of it compared to that of merino has made it my go to sock yarn. No it isn't as soft and you can feel the difference when you knit, but not so much on the feet. The wear and durability of the BFL has been great so far. Here is a picture of the first socks I finished out of BFL. They were worn once a week, every week and washed in the washer, it's super wash BFL, and dried in the dryer each week too until they were put away about 5 weeks ago. Here is what they currently look like.  They are the bottom of the picture, the yarn in the middle is from Hummingbird Moon and so is the fiber.  All items are BFL.  The yarn is in the Wool of Bat colorway and the fiber is Toil and Trouble.

I also know that I don't like a 2 ply sock yarn and don't see an advantage of a 4 ply, so 3 ply it is. I now have my fiber choice and made a decision about how many plies. I read about putting more twist into the singles, which is a skill I need to work on anyway and to put some extra twist into the ply as well. I made a sample from my 4oz braid.  Let me back up a bit though.

I know that 100g will make a pair of socks, a 4oz braid is about 112g so I have enough to make a sample.  I took a small chunk off of my braid after undoing it.  I then divided my braid into thirds.  I fluffed up each third for easier drafting and then rolled it into a ball.

I then divided my sample chunk in half.  I spun this half into three different bumps on one bobbin with a slip knot between each bump.

Why? So that I could make a 3 ply from one bobbin.  I didn't know if it would actually work, but it did!  I undid each slip knot and broke the yarn between the bumps to make 3 ends.  I then slowly wound a plying ball from those three ends.  You have to make sure that each bump is about the same or you can get a tangle.  If there is one much smaller or larger than the others it won't take the same number of rotations to get yarn off and will create a mess.

I plied the three together with a bit of over plying twist.  I have not measured the angle of twist but will soon as I have more understanding of twist angle now.  After resting, washing, drying and the yarn hanging out in my bag for the last week it has relaxed nicely.  Below is a picture of my sample yarn next to a strand of Wool of Bat.

I have now completed 2 bobbins of this and will start the third this weekend.  Here are Shatzie and I spinning yesterday afternoon in the meeting place of Woolly Weirdos.

Happy making everyone!