Friday, December 30, 2011

Spent a bit of time yesterday with SR looking at what she called her warping mistakes etc and watching her spin wool yarn expertly on the top whorl spindle and not so expertly on another smaller (tahkli?) spindle spinning cotton yarn.

I came home and decided I wont rip up the warp because of a couple of the mistakes I made - but will experiment and try out different combinations and use up what there is on the loom now - then I can try warping it again.

so now I am experimenting with cotton on the warp and merino on the shuttle...


Tuesday, December 27, 2011

its growing tentacles!

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

my designs and patterns

Most of my patterns are improvised as those who view my UFOs and FOs on rav know by now. My main modes of fiber expression have so far been designing quilt patches mostly from handloom fabric (from India), crocheting with handdyed/handpainted yarn which is mostly (even if not always) handspun. My so-called knitting project frogged because I cannot sustain interest long enough nor do I have time away from my day job (which is really an all day all evening and all night job depending on what time of year it is and what writing and teaching projects I am in the middle of) to learn more on knitting. I tried many times to commit to buying a sewing machine but I dont see myself being able to spend time at a sewing machine - so my quilting designs are mostly simple hand sewing (with practice I hope to be better at the sewing - for now I just enjoy putting the designs together in patches I may someday sew into a quilt).


I recently (well its getting to be two years since I took my first lesson and a little over a year since I bought my four harness table loom - at a fiber market day - and my ashford antique spinning wheel -off e-bay and some spindles - off etsy...) started weaving and spinning - and have had warp anxiety and so on ... the spinning wheel I have has broken parts and repairing those I am told may be more expensive than getting a new one.. .. I am waiting an thinking before getting a spinning wheel - it will have to be small and portable for now - so a spindle does the job fine and I am still learning - I have watched my mother with the charkha and the takhli spindle and since I am still in awe of her perfection in craft - I wont be able to succeed in learning those just yet (my mother has tried teaching me many things - crochet, beading, cooking, sewing, takhli spinning, charkha spinning - but I have never been successful in the face of my mother's careful perfectionist mode of expectation and teaching - I have had to journey through learning spaces on my own and try to learn in memory - visual in my mind or through finding teachers who allowed me to make mistakes over and over again .... I am not good with paying attention when people are teaching - because once I start watching someone else doing something - I am fascinated and my mind wanders into a land of enchanted craft possibilities - if only I knew the skill - dont know if this makes sense to anyone else - I am the same when reading - therefore a very slow reader ... I live and think to my own rhythm in my head - have always done so - but not many people know this - they may see this as fanciful, flightly, distracted or just plain obstinate and lazy:))



so... my crocheting practice comes from slyly watching my mother (slyly because if I let her know of my interest she will try to teach me - and I cannot learn from her! and depending on when in her age span she has tried to teach me she retreats in irritation or hurt - but I think at some level she does understand now that what I have learned I have learned from her. My father never actively tried teaching me anything (maybe some math or algebra when I was in high school - but not really) so it was easier to learn his ways - he let me lurk around - I dont know if he knew I learned that way or he was just an older father not knowing what to do with his youngest daughter born later in his life when he was fully caught up in an international travelling/journeying career.)




my crochet designs then - are free flowing but very much from having watched my mother never actually use a pattern (or so I thought - she may have poured over paper patterns but rarely) she mostly got the patterns off actual artefacts that others made and was meticulous in following that pattern (this practice she learned from her mother-in-law - who made intricate white cotton doilies and table cloths I recently discovered... will share a snapshot sometime of a piece my sister found amongst my mother's things a while ago) - I however can neither follow a paper based (on website based ) pattern, a how to video nor can I consciously and with awareness of the stitches - get a pattern off an existing artefact.


I just crochet.


So when warping requires a different level of planning I struggle a little - but I think I will figure that out too so I can work around my own demons of perfection and my practice of learning my watching and lurking when others are not
focusing their attention on me...

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Cosy, warm, calm and natural dyed to boot...

I crochet stuff sometimes and forget all about it. I suddenly remember at some moment of tactility or a mood, that I had a certain color a certain feel. And I frantically run through my memory and my room and my stash to see if I still have or try to remember if I gave it to someone and start scanning my computer and other digital storage devices to see if I took pictures of it...then I run back to my stash of yarn and handloom cloth and look to see if I save some of the leftover yarn or cloth..... Two days ago as I packed for my Christmas trip to my son's place I remember this Blue poncho... http://ravel.me/radhika80/pndyp

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Happy winter solstice to all! Whether we call it that or not - whatever the reason any and all of us celebrate - can it be the objective truth that the stars do - in this time period and in relation to the planet earth - align in a particular configuration on this day - and this indeed is common to all on Earth? season's greetings - whatever it is you are celebrating this season:)

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Scatty Kabam - Yarn from Twisted

Friday, December 9, 2011

Of late I've been making a lot of crochet rounds - will post images of some of them. So I am thinking I may start a crochet rounds group on rav - I notice there are a few crochet squares related projects on... let me think of a plan - maybe ask and see if there is interest.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

I spent a couple hours yesterday evening and very early this morning getting packages for destash swap for story and for crochet necklace swap. As I packed and addressed each story for stash packet I was visualizing the person who will Receive the package based on the story they sent me.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Hi all, I have started a destashing diva group on ravelry - I thought I’d direct those of you who may be interested in receiving surprise packages of yarn from me over the holiday season to my group. I am having great fun putting together packets of yarn to send out. I have requested only a 500 word story about your yarn love or angst or destashing/stashing to be messaged to me - no other “cost” - this story helps me visualize where my yarn is going and sort of “humanize” my destashing process:) Please feel free to pm me about the destash - soon hopefully those that receive the stash can pm me their feedback and then I can either send you more of the same or something different if I have more variety. Offer lasts until it is absolutely too painful for me to let go of my yarn:) Tis the season!!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

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Friday, November 25, 2011

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