The Power of the Perfect Project

I've been knitting for 20 years 

and

for 20 years

I never stopped.

I have constantly had a project (or 5) on the needles. 

But this past year I slowly 

ran

of

steam.

There have always been good reasons happening in my life where it would make since to slow down. 

But knitting has always been a safe haven, a respite, an outlet. 

So I never have.

Until now.

This summer I decided I needed to make myself a sweater, with a fair isle yolk, with my handspun yarn. 

I had been creating yarn for my shop for a number of years but I never saved enough of it to make something really special for myself. 

I carefully hand selected various colors and packed them away and spun a whole shetland white fleece to compliment my plant dyed yarns. 

I searched and searched for just the right pattern. 

I searched and searched for just the right designing tools. 

Because really I couldn't make up my mind if I should design it myself or do something simpler.

Then last week as I finally choose a pattern and cast on, frustration set in as I struggled to work the 200 stitches. 

I let it sit for a few days and then I started day dreaming about socks, hats, and mittens knit in two colors. White and yellow. White and green. White and pink. 

I knew what I needed to do. 

As I sat on the floor of my studio with my toddler by my side rummaging through a box of ribbon, I frogged the few rows of my sweater. Added the yarn back to the basket and set it aside for later in the week. 

It felt so good to change course. 

Next, I went through my yarn chest and quickly but ruthlessly set aside half of my yarn 

to give to a friend who 

knows how to knit, 

really wants to knit more, 

but only owns 1 pair of needles and 3 skeins of yarn. 

Friends don't let friends be yarnless.

She needed my help 

and it felt so good to pass on what felt like almost 

10 pounds of yarn and a handful of needles to her. 

Some of this yarn I had had for 20 years. 

I could still tell you where every single bit came from. 

She was overjoyed to receive such booty 

and I was overjoyed to give it to her. 

While putting all my yarn back into the chest, 

I was reminded by these three little balls of silk kid mohair 

I had dyed with lichens, mushrooms, and then indigo. 

Back in August I had attempted this pattern but I messed it up right away so I frogged it.

Seeing the yarn again, 

I was reminded of what I had wanted to make and decided to give it a try once more. 

That evening I had everything set up so that after I put my son to bed, 

a new episode of my current series was set up along with pie, tea, the lighting, my pj's and slippers.

I cast on as Queen Victoria brooded and pined for her M

and I was in heaven.

Finally a project I knew would work and I knew I would enjoy. 

And one word would float through my mind as I worked on this: 

gossamer. 

  

Late last night when my husband returned home from a weekend away, I showed him my new project. 

As he picked it up, he said,

"Wow, it's so.... gossamer like. 

You can find this pattern, here

My Week in Pictures

This summer, I've been pretty quiet here. 

I've noticed that around spring time, 

I dropped off doing my dye tutorials here. 

I haven't been dyeing less but some how I ran out of steam for a bit on conveying all the details.

If anything I've been dyeing even more and 

things are getting serious. 

The following photos are just a few things from my past week. 

I may make this a weekly ritual as I do enjoy sharing my work and other things I find beautiful and amusing.

Like chickens and sunsets. 

If you have any questions about what your looking at, leave me a comment here. 

It's easy for me to make things complicated simply by talking too much. 

Upcoming Workshops

I've got a full line up of workshops this spring and summer. 

A little something for everyone. 

Feel free to email me with any questions about any of them.

44clovers@gmail.com

You can also check out my new website at 

44clovers.com

I've been running a series of natural dye workshops in conjuction with Portfiber 

all this spring. 

I have 3 classes left;

Natural Dyeing Basics

1 day; Sunday May 18, 2014

11am-3pm

$75

Feel free to bring fiber/ fabric in 4oz lots for dyeing. 

Whatever you like from wool, silk, angora, camel, etc. 

You can also purchase fiber from a wide variety at Portfiber the day of. 

You'll learn mordant basics and shortcuts, over dying, heating requirements, and much more. 

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Natural Dyeing for Sewists

2 Days; Sunday June 1st, 2014 11am-3pm at Portfiber

Thursday June 5th 6:15pm-8pm at Z Fabrics.

$105 for both workshops and all materials included

You'll learn so many skills in these two days;

natural dyeing on fabric

shibori methods

hemming techniques

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Natural Dyeing for Needle Felters

2 Days; Saturday June 14th 1pm-4pm at Portfiber

Saturday June 21st 1pm-4pm

$140 for both workshops and all materials included

We'll be working with raw Irish Texel fleece I brought back from Ireland:)

Bring along picture of your favrorite songbirds if you'd like. 

I'll also have pictures from magazines and books. 

We'll work on those tiny beautiful details that make songbirds so remarkable. 

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AT THIS YEARS MAINE FIBER FROLIC

The fiber frolic is a 2 day wonder of fibery delights ranging from animals, demonstrations, beautiful hand made goods, fiber materials and equipment. 

It's one of my favroite weekend of the whole years. 

This is the first year I'll be teaching at the Frolic and I'm SO EXCITED. 

Under the Rainbow in the Dye Pot

Saturday June 7th, 2014

9:30am-12:30pm

USing just 3 dye pots, I'll show you how to use natural dye pigment powders to dye dye each color of the rainbow. Then using a special technique, we'll make a self striping rainbow yarn. You can then use both dyed batches of yarn to incorporate into any of your fiber projects, rugs, weaving, knitting, crochet, or fulling

workshop fee: $75

materials fee: $15

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Lichen Magic

Saturday June 7th, 2014 

1:30pm-4pm

We'll talk about properly collecting within a context, indentification of lichens, and their fascinating properties. I'll also show you to test and prepare lichens for dyeing in order to extract their exciting colors which range from golds, orange, red, purple, and blues. We will also be dyeing up samples from my lichen fermentation jars. 

Workshop fee- $65

Materials fee- $10

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Foraging for Color

Sunday June 8th

10am-2:30pm with lunch break

Every plant  holds pigment inside. It's through experimenting that we find out what colors our neighboring plant life hold. We will discuss foraging with an ecological context, identify, and test what we collect for color using non-toxic mordants on silk fabrics and wool yarn samples. 

Workshop fee: $75

Materials fee: $10

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PEAKS ISLAND FIBER ARTS CAMP

 Peaks Island Fiber Arts Camp was founded by Laura Glendening and Susan Hanley in 2004 - now in it’s eleventh year of sharing a unique blend of arts, crafts & outdoor fun on Peaks Island. Our camps offer a summer time balance of learning skills, exploring & creating, and time for hanging out with new friends in a kind and cooperative environment. This year Susan will be taking the summer off and fellow Islander and textile artist Rachel Bingham Kessler will be filling in. We are happy to offer individual and group lessons too, please contact us for information.

To reserve a place in a camp, send in the following info; Your child's name
Age
Parents' name
Address
Phone number
Email
Which week you'd like to attend

Each camp enrolls just 8-12 campers, so please, To register and hold your spot, mail in your non-refundable deposit of $100 payment to:
Peaks Island FIber Camp
Laura Glendening
17 Sterling St
Peaks Island, Maine 04108
207-766-5705, lrglendening@gmail.com

Early Summer Days

Whittling, creature making and mud oven granola baking!

Spend the early days of summer relaxing with new friends and a project or two. We’ll whittle a walking stick and knitting needles - visit beaches and share stories. We’ll make a piece of fabric from which little animals & creatures will grow. And we’ll heat up the mud oven and bake delicious homemade granola!

June 23-27, 8:30-2:30. Ages 7-12 $285

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Fabric Collage

Create a beautiful light & colorful collage. Using Matisse’s cut outs as inspiration campers will create their own colors, shapes, and patterns with silk cloth. We’ll experiment with designs and lay-outs. When all the pieces of the collage are ready they will be held together, not by sewing, but by felting.

June 30-July 3, 8:30-2:30 ages 8-14 $235
Four Day Camp

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Still Life and Lunch

Fruit salad, bread, blueberry hand pies, pizza and more. We’ll spend the first part of each day drawing & painting the day’s ingredients. Then we’ll work together to prepare the recipe of the day. Finally we’ll enjoy the good food we’ve made. On Friday we’ll sew together a book using our drawings and paintings, recipes may be included too.

July 21st-July 25th 8:30-2:30 ages 6-14, $285

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Bugs Tracks and Crafts

Follow the paths of snails, bumbles, and hermit crabs while we explore the beach, garden, and forest for these tiny creatures. We’ll inspect their track habitats, and nests. Then using various textile textures, techniques, and our imagination, we’ll create unique keepsakes capturing the nature of these tiny creatures.

August 18-22nd, ages 6-12, $285

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NEW ENGLAND FIBER ARTS RETREAT

an all inclusive fiber arts retreat where you will be fed so well, make wonderful new friends

go on farm and studio field trips and take some amazing classes with some of Maine's most talented fiber artists. 

Another favorite time of year for me! 

This will be my 5th year teaching at Medomak and we've all been working hard to being new classes to the table. 

I am only 1 of 4 other instructors. All of us veterans by now. 

Bill Huntington

Bristol Ivy

Casey Ryder

Dana Fadel

Here's a short list of some of our exciting offerings through out the whole week. taught by me, 

felted soaps * inkle weaving * rigid heddle space weaving * felted landscapes * weaving on a 4-harness loom * tapestry weaving * tunisian crochet * knitting outside the box * finishing techniques * windrow cowl * beginning lace * knitting in the round * intarsia & duplicate stitch * to build a hat * stranded/ fair isle knitting * diagonal knitting/ felted bag * coils and core spinning * drop spindle spinning * carding to spin * botanical embroidery * embroidery 101 * shibori & bundles * rainbows in our dye pots * foraging for color

Holy Moly! That is a lot of classes!!

for more information contact our Director, Casey Ryder: casey@medomakcamp.com

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I am so blessed to have the oppertunity to work with all these wonderful fiber folks who are also dear friends. 

When I'm not knitting, spinning, and dyeing, I'm drawing up new class ideas and refining seasoned ones. 

I will also be adding a few plant dye workshops that will be happening here at my home on Peaks this summer, so keep a look out. 

If you have questions about any of these happenings or would like me to come teach in your area, I'd love to hear from you. 

44clovers@gmail.com

ox, Rachel