River Rapids Socks from Michelle

Michelle from Australia sent me this picture. They're socks that she made from a Merino Tencel blend sock yarn she got from my Etsy shop.
Here's what she has to say about the yarn on her blog
I think she used the River Rapids pattern on these.
Thanks Michelle!! :)

Rusts, Greens & Lisa.

Lisa, whose an avid knitter & recently returned from Bosnia & Serbia had bought hand spun yarns from me past winter.
When she sent me the images of what she's made from them, it occured to me that she may have been in a specific color mood!
One is a long scarf that she made from a beaded yarn & the other is a neck warmer she made from a "Mohair locks" yarn I had spun.
These are gorgeous Lisa!! I cant wait to see the finished 'Rusts' shawl you've been talking about on your blog. Hurry already! :)

Gorgeous Koigu-like hand-painted sock yarns

Up on my Etsy shop is a fresh lot of hand painted Koigu-like sock yarns!

A yarn of old.

7 months ago Sonia came over to my place in Richmond & I lay out my handspun stash for her to see. She picked up a skein of handspun & hand-dyed singles (fingering/worsted) in the colors of Fall & said "This is mine." Then she went away to live out her life & heal herself through difficult times. I didn't see or hear from her much in the months to follow other than exchanges of anguished phone calls.
A few days ago she called me over to her home for some home-cooked "Dhokla". She had found her ground and long lost love. As I sat cross legged on the floor of her studio, my eyes wandered to a half finished scarf that lay in the shadow of a wooden chest.

I now wonder - 'is this really the yarn I spun?'. Sometimes I think people in pain make beautiful art. I've been convinced of this for years after having seen my mother's work & now Sonia proved a point. She's now back to making the exceptionally beautiful jewelry that sat in the shadow of the same chest for long, dark months.

I'm not sure what size the needles are - maybe US 3, 4 or 5. She also alternated with US 8 or 9 to get a more latticed/open knit in between. The yarn & scarf will now go back to Sonia so she can finish it. Hope the pictures explain.

Michelle's "Fire Birds" Sock!

Michelle in Australia had bought the "Fire Birds" superwash Merino/Nylon sock yarn from my Etsy shop some weeks ago & LOOK what she made out of it!
Gorgeous socks from a plain knit!! Her blog is full of neat yarn projects & lovely photographs.

SPEAKING OF MOHAIR

I've been spinning some wool mohair blend & it turned out beautifully heathered - all 530 yards of it. It's got mostly mauves & some blue, grey, bits of burgundy & gold.



It took me ages to get down to weaving Sonia's shawl & when I finally did, I forgot to take pictures!
Sonia kindly returned the shawl for a few days so I could take pics.
The warp was a fingering weight Alpaca yarn - cranberry in color & very soft.
The weft was a grapey colored Mohair boucle. The inlay weft was white mohair used either single or doubled in pieces - it gave a subtle raised or ribbed effect intermittently.
Sonia's a talented jeweller & the shawl was in exchange for some exquisite things she made for me!

A ton of lace!

I just finished dyeing some lace weight yarns. Some in soft superwash lamb's wool and some in a gorgeous Silk/wool blend.
They came out just gorgeous - with beautiful tonal variations. Ready to be made into beautiful knitted or crocheted lace!
The smaller images on top are sock yarns in fingering & DK weight.
Free shipping till June 30th 2006 to US & Canada - all yarns.

Rizwana's Magic

I was stunned when I saw these hand embroidered bags & picture frames my mother had made.
She sells them at Rizwana's Corner
Her other embroidery work lives at http://creativeembroidery.blogspot.com/ Her media include Silk, Khadi (hand woven textiles) and other crazy things.
She's a self taught artist, a Bonsai Maestro & a prolific author of books & stories in 2 languages (Hindi & Marathi). Her work has been exhibited & shown in and around Mumbai (Bombay) & Pune.
She draws her inspiration from nature & her extensive travel throughout India & it's heartland.
As teenagers we used to laugh when people called her a 'witch' for being able to accomplish so much independantly.

A WORD OF ADVICE WHEN WEAVING ALPACA...

For all those weavers who haven't yet encountered the horrors of using an Alpaca warp but are fondling hundreds of yards of Alpaca for warp they plan to use in the near future - a word of advice.
Alpaca is treacherously deceptive. Even if you test -break the warp thread to see the strength in tension, it could mislead you. Alpaca warps - especially thicker ones - tend to rub against the reed & heddles & pill insanely till you're left helplessly praying against one or several broken warp threads. As you start to wind the warp on, spray it with lots of sizing spray. I use the lemon scented one my husband uses on his cotton shirts before ironing them. It definitely helps. It might make the warp look stiff & ugly but will wash off easily when you block the finished textile to reveal the same beautiful Alpaca you'd fondled lovingly. Do the sizing BEFORE the weaving. If during the process of weaving it looks like the warp is still pilling near the heddle/reed area, blast it with more sizing spray! You can't go wrong with this approach. I did this Alpaca shawl & nearly tore my hair our because the warp pilled & broke 7 times! Then I did another Alpaca shawl with a much finer thread but used sizing spray & it didn't break once.
Keep the sizing spray handy & all well twisted Alpaca can be warped.

CHARKHAS ARE BACK!

And this time, they're bigger with more capacity.
These beautiful 12x7x2, hand crafted Large Book Charkhas or Attache Charkhas have great capacity & a handle. Also, with them are available fabulous 75 minute long DVDs & VHS tapes by Charkha & spinning/weaving guru Elaine Benfatto. It is PACKED with information on how-to, trouble shooting, techniques, spinning with traditional & non-traditional fibers & advanced techniques - all that good stuff.

My very own exhibition!

This past January when the Richmond Public Library called me to say that the jury would be happy to let me exhibit, I almost went through the roof.
So for the past 6 months I've been steadily working at it.
Here's the brochure for my exhibition that goes up at 7pm on Friday.
I shall be at the Richmond public library all day on Friday.
Here's the link http://www.richmondpubliclibrary.org/events/artists/062006/kashyap.htm

Jone 6th: WHEW! All done. Opening night was great fun. I saw some folks from my old spinning guild & talked my tail off! AND I met Mira from the Panera knitting group (the kind I don't seem to find in Alexandria...). She's expecting a baby in August & looks lovely!

Lisa: thank you so much for your kind comment. I do hope you have the time to visit the exhibition.

COLOR AHOY!! More from the dye pot...

I've dyed up some more superwash. Superwash 100% Merino, Superwash Merino/Nylon ( to knit up in KOIGU-like patterned socks - shown in the long row above) & plain superwash Wool/Nylon - below, most of which shall be going up on my Etsy shop in 48 hours or the 1st & 2nd of June.
LOVE the colors!! Could take a bite out of these :)
FREE SHIPPING for a minimum of 2 purchases if you mention my blog.

MORE SOCK YARN FROM THE DYE POT

More gorgeous sock yarn from the dyepot!! Available here
These are wool/nylon. Great for outer wear & sturdy socks.

LESSONS IN SIMPLICITY.

Many master weavers would say that this ridiculously long piece of textile was a well...long mistake.
1. Intended to measure a 6 feet warp but ended up doing 12!
2. The yarns that I chose for weft gave anything but clean edges (which I love).
3. I wove the weft very randomly.
4. Changed my treadling sequence randomly (from 1/3, 2/4 to 1/2, 3/4)

However, as I sat weaving the never ending project in the studio, 3 feet into it, I had a 'moment'. This is what I strove to acheive in all my projects as a student of architecture- beautiful simplicity.
2 colors & 3 textures. And whimsy. Eash time I look at this textile, I'm taken back to every project I ever did in grad or undergrad when I could finally take a step back & say 'I think this'll do'.
The warp was a poppy red mercerised cotton. The weft was a rayon flake in a grey/green/blue & a red (same color as warp) nylon blend that was much thicker. You don't see the thread but you DO so the texture it creates!

The lusciousness of it all!

This weekend I dyed some Superwash sock yarn with Nylon. The colors came out stunning. And the skeins feel sooo silky!

Free shipping for the month of May if you mention my blog.

More to come from the dye pot this weekend.

The Maryland Sheep & Wool Pilgrimage.

The shawl above knocked me off my feet. Every single yard of lace weight in there was hand spun on a spindle! Click on the image for a better view. I think it won best of everything cos it was covered in ribbons. Apparently the winner spun specific lengths of colored yarn so she didn't have to stop & join anywhere. It was gorgeous. Ofcourse there was no touching allowed.

I want to knit a sweater like this! All thick & thin (worsted to bulky). It looked so beautifully textured. I love how it ribs. The size was for a young person.

Some lucky booger's ma or grandma handwove this entire beautiful blanket for them & then put adorable crocheted animals on the border!

This was a kind of cloak/poncho/shawl (?) Amazingly detailed felted work & needle work on it!

A hand spun sweater. I tried to get a detailed shot so you can see the different kinds of yarns used. The colors were natural & lovely.

The weather was gorgeous & I could barely stop myself from jumping all over the fiber goodies! I stuffed my face with strawberry ice-cream & country style french fries & my car with giga tons of delicious raw fiber to spin.
OK. Enough about me.

The kaleidescope shawl in particular almost caused me to pass OUT! If Anne Grout (i think) of State College, PA had been present there, I would have fallen at her feet & begged her to take me in as a pupil for life.
Another favorite of mine was the hand spun thick'n'thin sweater in cream & dark brown.
The rest were fabulous too.

Renee knits with my yarn.

Renee, a talented Canadian photographer & fiber artist had purchased yarn from me some time ago & sent me pictures of what she made with them. Right now my head feels swollen the size of a water melon! I love the bead-work she incorporated in the scarf first from left!

Renee’s very unique photography may be viewed at enchantedcottage.etsy.com
I admire her composition.

SOCK 'EM SENSELESS!

More sock yarns & lace weights from the maw of the dye pot.
This time I decided to leave some of them in their 'painted' states. I love the stark contrasts.
The rest are here. Free (domestic USA) shipping on all yarns if you mention my blog (end of May only).

More goodies Lisa made from my yarn.

Lisa, (who’s been knitting out magic with her kneedles as she goes to grad school) sent me images of the bag & scarf she knitted from 2 separate silk yarns I had spun & painted.
The pictures of the yarns used are inset.
Her Etsy shop is sacredpathways.etsy.com and her blog is http://sacredpathways.blogspot.com/
Lisa’s off to Earth day in downtown Richmond, VA with her knitted goodies soon. Good luck Lisa!

Desperate for cotton.

My friend from school had a baby 3 years ago & when she learnt of my spinning & dying asked if I spun cotton. At that point I said "no - not yet. It's a short fiber & takes really long to spin." A few weeks ago, i decided to dye an assortment of cotton lycra sock yarn for her & her child (both of whom are allegic to wools & animal fibers). She's knitting up a sock storm. I shall be uploading images of the socks once she's done. She says stockinette works up great & that she doesn't bother with a pattern since the yarn self striped by itself. Also she finds it extremely forgiving because of the lycra in the cotton - no loss of shape.
She & her knitting bud will later be knitting shells & tanks from more yarn I've dyed.