I'm So Sari!

I'm actually really sorry about this title, but I just couldn't resist.

But before I get to the sublime, just to keep myself honest, I will report on the "Great Personal Destash Challenge."

1)  Gifted 4.5 pounds of yarn.  And drew my sister even further toward into the rabbit hole of fiberdom.  Double win!

2)  Finished the shawl made of Lion Brand Homespun.  Still hate that yarn.  After spending a couple of hours looking at border designs in various books, I ended up crocheting a very simple border - think it was HDCs and chain stitches but it's been so long since I crocheted I don't remember my terminology.  I'm pretty happy with the final result, but I have no more Homespun and that makes me very happy.



3)  Finished weaving the purple and green triangle shawl and have 3/4 of the fringe twisted.  In the process I have remembered why I hate knotting fringe.  As much as I love just about everything to do with fiber, this is just so tedious!  The only redeeming feature is that I get to use a battery-powered gadget.  If I was twisting this any other way I might abandon it completely.

 There are several different fringe twisters available - mine is the Lacis power 4-ply.  It's very easy to use - you just clip up the ends of your yarn in up to four of the ends on the twister.  Pushing the power button one direction makes the ends spin individually.  Then pushing the button the other way makes the whole head of the twister spin the opposite direction, twisting your yarns into one fringe.


  Here's the fringe twister in action. 














 
Just to prove that I'm actually making progress with the fringe twisting:














In other fiber news, Alpaca Fest West was last weekend in Norco.  It was much smaller than the first time I went.  There were only a handful of vendors, but A Simpler Time, where I bought the Calypso Cloud Alpaca/Silk roving that I loved so much was there and I managed to do some damage to my budget.  Of course, I went having no intention of buying more fiber (hahahahahaha) but one does have to support the vendors at events, doesn't one?






























 How could anyone resist this face?
























And the fiber I bought...  All alpaca or alpaca/silk except the center one, which is a Polwarth/Merino blend.  The colors on that one really do glow but are much richer than I was able to capture in a photo.

  And now to the sublime:
 
A few weeks ago, one of the members of my guild brought the most amazing rugs and bags woven from torn saris to a meeting.  They really captured my imagination and naturally I have been obsessing about weaving with sari silk ever since.

I'm blessed to have some amazing women in my life.  My friend Uwi is one of the most creative people I know.  I met her at class several years ago and I loved her on the spot for her fearlessness  joy in creating wonderful things.   And now we have become each other's enablers.

Uwi was equally if not more obsessed with the sari idea and we goaded each other into ordering a bale of used saris from India.  We ended up ordering 22 pounds of saris to share among four people. 





It took just two weeks for the box to arrive all the way from India.

Perfect timing, because we had class Wednesday night, so I loaded the box in my car and took it along.

I'm afraid I behaved like a 3-year old when we opened the box -- it was so exciting to see all the beautiful colors emerging.  I would love to have had something like this for dress-up when I was a kid, wouldn't you?



We had a great time dividing the saris into four piles - I think we managed to get a good variety of colors for each of us.  So I'm now the proud owner of 10 beautiful saris and loads of ideas.  Wish I could get a photo that shows the truly brilliant colors.

 

 


Yesterday I had a chance to examine them all...  Most of the fabric is in remarkably good condition.  There are some worn spots or tears that make them unusable as saris, but there is still a lot of good yardage so I may actually do more than just rag rugs.  I didn't find any stains and the saris seemed clean, but I gave each a cold bath with gentle soap. 

I was really surprised that the red fabrics bled very little, and even more surprised that all of the greens bled a lot.  See the amount of green in the water below?  This was the third rinse and this is a very bad photo.  Think "Emerald City" and you'll get a better idea of the amount of color coming out of these fabrics.

 

 I didn't notice any odor to the saris before washing, but one of them gave off a heavy mothball scent after it had been soaking for a few minutes.  So all of the newly washed saris will be spending the next few days getting some fresh air on my shaded back porch while I surf the web for more sari ideas.  And resist the temptation to order a few more bundles of silk.

In the meantime, here are some closer looks at my sari collection.  Please forgive the poor quality of the photos - they just don't show how gorgeous the colors actually are.

 

Alpacas and Llamas and Sheep, Oh, My!

Nearly five months later...   I'm finally getting around to talking about the IEHG West's February road trip.

IEHG West is an informal group of members of the Inland Empire Handweavers Guild that meets one Saturday a month, usually at a member's home.   at our January meeting, one of the members brought out a box filled with roving processed for her by Tom and Metta at Ranch of the Oaks.  Well, we all raved over it and one thing led to another - ending with me whipping out my iPad and emailing Metta to see if we could tour the ranch and fiber mill.

The result was that one beautiful day in February, twenty or so members, guests, and assorted husbands converged on Solvang, a little Danish village in the Santa Inez Valley.  Solvang is the home of Village Spinning and Weaving, one of the few (if not the only) brick-and-mortar stores serving weavers and spinners in California.  We had time to shop a little and have lunch before we were due at the ranch.

I've mail ordered from VS&W and shopped in their booth at the SCHG's annual Weaving and Fiber Festival.  But I've never been in their store and I was pretty excited about seeing it for the first time.  As some of our members were getting ready to pose for a group photo in front of the shop, the owner unlocked the entrance.  Can you blame me for snapping this shot and running for the door?

They had all kinds of yarns, tools, books - not just for spinning and weaving, but felting, knitting...  all types of fiber arts.  Instant bliss for the fiber frenzied!  As much as I like being able to find anything on the internet, there's nothing like being able to actually see and touch.



At the ranch we were given the royal tour by Mette and Tom.  The alpacas and llamas are kept in separate pens by gender.  The males can get aggressive, so we were invited to go into one of the pens with the females.  They were a bit shy until we offered them little baby carrots.  Then we couldn't get away from them.  What fun! 


I just love alpacas.  Love their funny faces, their many beautiful colors, their little humming noises, their friendliness.  And love spinning their fiber.










The llamas were not as friendly.  They kept their distance, even when the carrots came out.  So naturally I took up the challenge of making friends with a llama.




I spent a lot of my time trying to get close to this beautiful llama.  No soap. Couldn't even bribe her with carrots.




Finally gave up and turned my back on her.  A minute later I felt a little nudge on my back.  Turned around and got a llama kiss right on the lips.  Guess playing hard-to-get did the trick.



This was a day of firsts for me...  first visit to Village Spinning and Weaving, first visit to Ranch of the Oaks, first kiss from a llama, and first time spit on by an alpaca.

Well, not really spit - I hear real alpaca spit is slimy and disgusting.  This particular llama simply seemed to take a dislike to a carrot I had just fed her and she blew it right back at me after chewing it up.

But I forgive her because she's so darned cute.  Even though I'm pretty sure she was laughing at me with her friend.

  

 

 A small herd of Icelandic sheep live in a separate pen. This is one of the oldest and purest breeds of sheep.  I love that these are very close to the same sheep my Viking ancestors would have kept while they were pillaging and plundering my Manx ancestors.

Then Tom gave a tour of the mill.  I was so excited to see their process, I failed to take photos.  Guess I'll have to go back for another visit.  There was just enough time after that to do a little shopping in their store.  I have to say it got a little competitive, but no limbs were lost and everybody went home happy.





This lovely little shawl is made of 100% Icelandic Lopi wool raised, processed and spun by Tom and Mette.  The pattern is called "Rustic Bohemian," designed and knitted by Rebecca Stromgren, aka "Knits With Penguins" on Ravelry.  Since I look almost as silly in shawls as I do in hats, this will be a lovely gift for someone special.

For myself, I bought this "mystery" roving.  I couldn't decide which color I preferred so I made the only sensible choice and bought both.  Because I really need more fiber to spin.  Yeah.

Below are the rest of that day's alpaca photos.  If you're not an alpaca fan, you can stop here.  Otherwise, please enjoy these photos of some of my favorite animals (with a llama or two thrown in for good measure).