New Business Venture!

Right now I'm embarking on a new business venture with my friend Laura Cohen.
We're very excited to say that we're looking for craft kit vendors to sell to this new business,
Krafti-Kit

We've really been looking forward to the day that we could formally announce this new project and hope that you know some craft folks who will be interesting in contacting us with submissions.

We really see this as a start for some new "cottage industry" and a way for folks to get more exposure for what they're already doing.

Our time line in...ummmm. NOW!

Sock Summit Post 1

This is the sweater I finally finished and will be wearing today to the Sock Summit.

And yes, day 2 of registration. Yesterday I started at 5PM after the folks before me had been there for 4 of the first hours. The message to register before the whole shindig started got things going on the right foot. Although it took me about 20 minutes to catch onto the process, all went smoothly for me.

Won't even TRY and process the whole event until it's over, but so far am as excited as can be. I feel happy every time I send a student on their way with tickets, book and schedule in hand. I have to say though that I was so tired by the time I got home last night I just flopped in bed. And seeing how exhausted the planners were just made me feel like a wimp! I hope they got some decent sleep, although probably not.

Was Flumoxed, Now Finished!

Wow, am I every happy that I got my new blocking squares this week. This scarf, thankfully grew another foot after blocking! I'm so pleased. Although the wool will not be worn for a bit, I know I'll wear this one a lot.

Flumoxed!

This picture was taken a while ago. It's now 2/3rds done.

Jeez, I took out an old ufo (unfinished object) today because of a message I got on Ravelry. The message said how great it was that I had a "zillion" works in progress. Oy. I know I don't even have them all up there. But....

1. I knit like the wind
2. I actually finish a lot of projects
3. I crochet and spin as well
4. I start too many things that are charted.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it! Never MIND the fact that I de-stashed an obscene amount of yarn this past year. I admit to having some kind of guilt, but I'm not sure what it is.

I'm thinking about Sock Summit. I'm thinking about what I would wear each day to show off my knitting prowess. Uh...I've got lots of tank tops that I've knitted and I'm almost done with a little summer sweater that I ran out of yarn for. Maybe I need to start another quickie shrug, or tank top, or...

Yeah, maybe I just need to stick to finishing what I have on the needles right now! For the love of fiber, how to we get this way??? Oh, right. That would be, For the love of fiber.

The Pink is Back

Don't forget to click the image for a really close up look!

These are both rather unbalanced 2ply yarns and for good reason. I'm learning plenty about what I do and do not like to spin these days. Both of these fibers are from Spunky Eclectic. I love her stuff. The one on the top is s silk/merino blend in Tahiti, plyed with a tiny silk single. This skein is really light and airy and was easy to spin.

Then came the merino/Tencel in Pink Elephant. It was so slick it was pretty hard to manage. It just wanted to pull as much fiber in as possible and not "hold" the twist. So, I let it do it's thing and then I plied it with a thread of iridescent Mylar. It looks way better than you can tell. I have another 2 oz of this to spin so I'd best get anther spool of thread. If I had plied it against itself, it would have been so heavy. That's what happened when I tried to do that with Optim. So, now I'm seeing that if I want to get this weight of yarn and not laceweight, I should just ply it with a tiny single for strength.

Come Engage!

Next Monday I'll be doing a tele interview for the blog Woman on Quilts at 5pm PDT. The focus will be creating and business. Call in and have the opportunity to ask questions on the many different facets of this topic!

Tricky Latvians

My new knitting buddy, Petra showed up to group yesterday with the coolest little way of counting pattern rows! It's a length of yarn, (see white strand above) knotted in one inch increments. You move along to the next knot to as you go to the next row! When I asked her what the origin of this technique was, she said:

I just confirmed the source. In Joyce Williams' book "Latvian Dreams," she cites Lizbeth Upitis (author of Latvian Mittens) as the source.

Coooool. Low tech and free.

So, you'll also see these funky mittens that she's knitting in Noro as well.

When the Wheel's Away, the Spindle Will Play

Ever since I obtained my funky little spinning wheel, it's been a little tricky, having only one bobbin. What I've been doing is filling it up, winding half of it off and then plying it with a drop spindle. It's been exercise. I think my upper body strength has benefited. But, along with that challenge is the challenge that once I commit myself to spin a fiber, I've gotta pretty much stick with it until the bobbin is full.

It's been hard to find someone to make me some new custom bobbins, PDQ. I did find someone and then it's been a matter of letting my bobbin go for about a week to have the "babies" made. I have plenty of knitting to do, but there's this certain mindset that's just right for spinning. Hard to describe. Slightly distract-able, but still wanting to do something. Knitting won't always fill that void.

Thus, my lovely Spindlewood Spindle came out to play. It's a little snobby though. It only likes luxury fibers (go figure). Last night, in the heat of the night I started spinning some silk. It's pretty satisfying. I haven't dropped it too many times. The fiber is from Chasing Rainbows in Abalone.

There wasas well, the slightly manic spinning BEFORE I let got of my bobbin, pictured below. I had to do finish off what I had started before I let go of the bobbin for baby-making. You really can't tell in this photo, but this is Ramboulet, Silk and Sparkles, in a intense, deep blue. It's my idea of "dessert" spinning. It's something that I save up for fun, adventure and color satisfaction.I admit it: I'm a kinky spinner. I have proclivities that can hardly be explained. But, I have NO shame. Well, almost...

I Couldn't Wait!

I couldn't wait to post all these pictures from my time yesterday at the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR. This is my third year and was really the best ever. I went with my friend Melissa who is NOT a fiber person but a jewelry person. She's so inquisitive though that it made it really really fun. I love talking wool. I love talking all things fiber. And Melissa, well, she likes talking! (I may catch some sh*t for that last comment).

The whole day instilled me with new enthusiasm for my fiber-life. I paid more attention to the sheep breeds and their temperament. I found myself more open to every aspect of the day. And yes, I did have lots of business cards with me! This picture above is one of my favorites of the whole day.
There's Melissa (top left) just dreamy with thoughts of sheep.
This is my buddy from Twitter, Velma who was there showing her ColorBomb Creations.
And here is the bunny lady, Debby who I am always so happy to see. We found each other in the Toots Le Blanc fiber booth.

Then came the judging.
Each farm presenting their sheep breed would show in groups of three. Here are two being wrangled. They show the livestock with their butts facing the interior of the ring, to be judged first. Interesting.
This wee gal had the third in that group and you can see she had quite the steady grip on this sheepy.
How can you not be fascinated with the different horn shapes?
The amazing monotone but gorgeous texture combination is really highlighted with this ram.

But you look at this one and wanna say, "Hey! You've got a great haircut but let me get that straw out of your 'do! Ah! The conditions there are just not up to a fashion icon like yourself!"

So, as you can see, I've taken no pictures of the fiber this year. Yeah, it's all just gorgeous. Does this mean I'm about to buy some goats or sheep in the near future? I think not, but the focus in my spinning it changing a little.

The Day After

I hand lettered an insane amount of these armbands, not knowing how many folks would show. I mean, Through a combination of Knit/Purl and Larissa Brown I ended up getting a lot of press! All in all we ended up with a great situation of being able to snag use of these great Adirondack chairs that were in place for the floral exhibit. I felt like we were having a garden party.
And here we are, right in the middle of Pioneer Courthouse Square, a rotating group of enthusiastic knitters. I stayed 4 hours and then gave it up to those who arrived much later. Thanks again everyone for coming, and for Emily's fantastic vegan cookies. It was great meeting some new knitters and hooking up with old friends.

The Day Before...

From this fiber

To this yarn that reminds me of a wool dress that my mom made for me when I was a girl.

This is from pencil roving and might actually get knitted into something!

Tomorrow is WWKIP day (world wide knit in public). This is the first year I'll be an organizer and I stepped up to doing the gathering here in Portland, OR, specifically downtown.

I signed up for this way in advance out of concern that there would be a lack of interest. Portland has such a huge knitting community and we get together all the time. I think folks often wonder, why bother? We bother because we are showing folks what we do and how we value the craft of knitting. Important stuff.

Yesterday I went to my friend Melissa the jewelry-maker's house and she made me whatever kind of stitch markers I wanted. She had never made any before and I doubt she will ever sell any. That said, I get to show mine off to you in pride ;-)

The Party's Over...

...and this is what's left! Cake gone of course...

I'm giving away my age this year because I'm actually pretty proud. It's been an incredible year. Lots of challenges that have ultimately moved me to completely commit to my dreams. Not a minute too soon, I say. But, things take just as long as they take, I suppose.

This year was also the start of Portland Spinnerati, MelissaBarton.org, getting my knitting stash down to bare bones to move other areas of my life forward and reconnecting with some VERY old friends and mentors.

I've had a truly amazing year and I want to thank you all for your part in it.

Sit and Spin!

Jacey Boggs of Insubordiknit sent me her amazing dvd for my review. First, let me say, that I have never had ANY interest in spinning "art yarns". Little did Jacey know just how hard this sell was gonna be.

At first, I was a little put off by the eyeball yarn images on the front cover. I think I'm just under the wire of a month to get this review out because I had some major reservations on all the new-fangled stuff.

The wonderfully filmed, shot and organized video was so instructive I would have to say that in each of the 39 chapters I learned something completely new. Between each chapter, which was comprised of individual segments on related techniques, you get to watch the best, silliest fibery music videos. Just enough of a breather to get you to the next technique.

The 5 types of techniques she covers are Puffs, Coils, Wraps, Loops and Foriegn Objects. In each segment you have the ability to watch a video loop of the technique. Yay!

I watched this whole dvd straight through without actually spinning, which might be a good idea so that you'll have your materials set up and think about what you might like to try. The way the video it shot gives you the best possible view on what's going on. I would even say that it's better than an actual class. Jacey does each technique at different speeds and shows you the crucial steps in making this work. My only question is, don't her students (in the video) every talk? (Two silent students flanking her.)

Sure, classes are great but I have to say that having this in your library would take the place of many many classes. All in all, I have to give major praise to Jacey for every excellent aspect of this kick-ass dvd.

The Last on the Block

There are trends in knitting and then there are TRENDS in knitting. In this case, I am probably the only knitter I know who has not knit a Clapotis. Pronounced Clap-oh-tee. It appeared in Knitty in 2004 and here it is 2009. Better late than never.

I have to say that one of the things that held me back is that I really hadn't seen one I loved. It was an issue of yarn. Wool is generally just not drapey enough. That even goes for the one they used for the sample in the photo.

I chose rayon. I order a lot of this rayon from Yarntopia Treasures on Ebay. The type of base yarn they use has finally become consistent and it's a really good deal. The way it is with handdyed yarns though is that you never know how it's going to knit up. Especially with a pattern like this. So, I had one skien and I had sold the second one to my friend Duffy, months ago. I thought I'd try it scarf width to see if I'd enjoy knitting it.

You know what happened next. I ran out of yarn. I ordered new yarn and the color was off and then I asked Duffy if she would trade me. My buddy not only agreed on the trade by she drove it right on over, to my lame protests. She of course is laughing right now because of course I spent the weekend finishing my Clapotis so that I could wear it.

This one was so much fun to knit that I've started another one, full width. The colors on this one really "pop" and I'm rather pleased with it.

There are less satisfying projects in the works as well, right now. I'm hoping that some time with the knitting gals tonight will help me get over my pattern struggles.

I'd like to end this post on a serious note though. I knitter that I have known from my online knitting community for many years, Witt, just passed away. It was unexpected to us all and I am here to tell you that knitters are just the most wonderful people and Witt was one the of the best. We will all miss him.

Worlds Collide

The collision is between my fiberarts world and my business life. There have been several instances where I was doing test knitting professionally, and still do, but It's not my "real" job. You know, mentoring professionals, consulting in various areas of business. The line is blurring more and more these days. I felt it most recently when I ended up cross posting from this blog to my biz blog for my interview with Brenda Dayne.

More and more I'm working with fiber arts professionals and that's a great thing. I know the market, it's strengths and limitations. Talking with non-fiberarts folks has given me the most clarity on what we're all doing. People ask me how many people are knitting. Once I get past the most basic points on the history of fiberarts that have brought up to this exact time in history, then we come to a really common question:

What is this all about? Is it a JUST a "hobby"?

A Hobby? I find myself taking offense at the term. It seems like something cheap and insignificant and "old-timey". Within me, I feel a passion. A drive to discover the very best in knitwear design right now. What makes this different than just someone looking at a fashion magazine and saying, "I was to buy that" is that I am able to have the instructions right there in a magazine, book or web tutorial. I make that fabulous garment. I own a part of it in a way that's very different.

As I write this, I realize this was my experience in making music, in playing the piano. Not in all ways, but in this way: When I read music, it's like listening to the composer's thoughts. I have a video of myself explaining this to my niece when she was just a wee one. I was so sincere. It was so important for her to understand. Reading a pattern is like listening to the designer's thoughts. I can recreate the object based on their charts and words, like notes on a page.

Now I surround myself with people who appreciate many of the same things I do. When I do come across someone who wants to understand what this thing "I do " is...well...mixed results. It's a difficult thing to explain why I would spend an entire weekend knitting one pair of socks, hour after house, like this weekend. I can say it's grounding, that it's something beautiful I get to wear. It's more than that. It's how I'm hard-wired. It's what I did as a child. It's what I have always done. It's what I consider to be essential to my existance. I will always do this and it is the one thing I have no doubts about.
This is something I knit from yarn that I spun from cashmere/merino fiber.These are the socks that I knit just this weekend.
This is part of the top that I started crocheting last Summer and finished this week.
These are socks that I finished this week that were started long ago.
The embroidered motif at the top was part of a large white shirt that I embroidered all over and I did another one as well. That was last weekend.

A Greener Spring

I received this vibrant green yarn from Teresa Levite Studios just the other day. It's hand dyed on a base yarn of 63% Superwash Merino, 20% Silk, 15% Nylon and 2% Silver (real). Fingering weight, put up into 420yd skeins, just waiting for your next sock project.

The subtle gradations of color, even though it's bright, would make it great for a pattern with plenty of lace or cables. Sure, colorful varigated are fun to buy, but when it comes to knitting an interesting pattern, the texture you knit can be so easily lost in all that variegation. This yarn has just enough for me.

Find Teresa's offerings:
on Etsy
on Artfire
And Teresa's own website
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Teresa Levite:
I love all things fiber! My current passion is dyeing. I'm fascinated by the changes that take place when a few chemicals are combined with a handful of wool or silk and something very different comes from the dye pot. Common to many fiber artists, my love of fiber goes across the board and includes crocheting and quilting in addition to dyeing, spinning, and knitting. There are still a multitude of crafts and arts I haven't even tried - yet. I'm hoping to soon as 'weaver' to my list of titles.

Spinning Spring

This is a closeup of the simple shawl I knit from the kid mohair and silk yarn below. I was just teaching this technique last weekend at the Spinnerati meeting. It's always interesting to see what pattern in the knitting show themselves when you've pulled in colors randomly in spinning. The actual spinning can be quite fun because it's all about "giving up controlling the fiber." It was interesting to see what the other spinners who had never tried this came up with. I think I have some converts...

I have felt somewhat "plagued" by working with silk hankies in spinning. Unlike silk roving, it's really sticking and hard to draft. That said, now that I've found a good use for the fine single I spun, I'm finishing these up to ply with a "sherino" wool yarn.
These are the Sherino locks, picked into clouds, spun into a tweedy single and then plied with the silk. (Don't forget to click on this image to see it better)

A Nation of Makers

Last weekend was the Portland debut of the film, HandMade Nation and the Museum of Contemporary Craft had quite a weekend full of events. I wasn't able to get tickets to the two big screenings, but when more were offered on Sunday, I went with a friend to that one. I did attend the panel discussion with the filmmaker on Saturday afternoon after a fine breakfast with some new local crafty friends. New to me, that is! By way of Twitter, I found this little cluster of folks going and meeting up and we all got our acts together to meet and hang.

While I was in the middle of writing last week's post here and try to make plans for the confligration, my internet went down. Well, it was stressful, but I spent some time downing Chai in a free wifi cafe and got it all together. Lesson the in pleasures and dangers of the Internet and it's power in my life. Yeah.

I kind of found myself in the role of interviewer in many ways. There were so many things I wanted to know about everyone's process, and business and lifestyles as crafters. So much of what I'm trying to do right now, business-wise is connected to assisting creative folks maneuver the business world better. Some I see are really quite savy and I was clearly the one learning from them. Delightful.

On the left we have Adrienne Shaffer of MmmFiber and Amanda Siska of Bread and Badger etched glass.

Here we have Heather of CroqZine with one of her two little one's that Saturday morning at Byways Cafe in the Pearl.

Here, left to right we have two folks (who's names I do not remember. UGHHH) who have started a new craft happening in Vancouver, BC called Got Craft, Kim Werker, and Amanda and Adrienne (stealthfully holding her business card ;-> )

I ended up finishing this shrug and wore it to the screening with a headscarf that I crocheted the previous day from a skein of Koigu.

On the way out of the panel discussion I ran into Kathy of Pendleton! Her office is just around the corner from the Museum and I was glad to see her and catch up. It then occured to me that I had never posted a picture of the wonderful blanket I got in exchange for my spinning demo at the Home and Garden Show.
So, here we go on that! It's the Mt. Hood Sesquicentenial blanket on a one-off colorway that was never mass produced. I just love it. It goes perfectly with my bedroom.