2/2 Twill Rug Weaving class

I just had 3 days of class learning 2/2 Twill Rug weaving from Jason Collingwood and wow am I tired!

There was so much information I am going to spend the next few days trying to reinforce what I learned and saw.

Unfortunately at this time I don't have any photos of the workshop but I have some of my weaving in progress. 

In the meantime here is a link to Jason's website. jason collingwood If you ever get a chance to take a class from him I think you should do it. He is a very kind and patient teacher who is extremely knowledgeable in his craft.

February 1

Time to rededicate myself to blogging every Wednesday again. I have been so over scheduled for the last 3 months that I have not had much time to do some of the fun things I want to do. Or maybe the fun things I do have really taken over my life? Not sure.

In the dance teacher part of my life I've started class sessions again and I'm preparing my student troupe Tandava to dance in Bohemian Roadhouse in a few weeks. We are all really excited, it's a Mardi Gras themed show and we'll have Sherri Wheatley & Sooz teaching workshops as well as being featured in our show. My class is wearing these wrap around skirts that are short in front & long in back, black & green bras, masks, feathers, fish net stockings and they are going to look fabulous. I'm not sure why but this round not many of my students are sew-ers so I have to do a lot of the skirts myself. Oh what I go through to make everyone pretty.

Tandava after our Circus piece at TFF '10

The exciting weaving news is that Jason Collingwood is coming to California and Ventura Guild is hosting him for part of his tour. I'm excited and have to warp the loom I've borrowed from the guild to be ready for the class. I can't wait to try my hand at rug weaving!

As a spinner, I've been doing much of what I always do...spinning yards and yards of yarn and I got Jacey Bogg's new book Spin Art. I am involved with her Insubordiknit group on Ravelry and we are working on all the techniques in the book. Even though I've done most of them before it's really good to make a study of each one to solidify my understanding of each yarn.

The first yarn in the book included a racing stripe. I did it a few times and wasn't happy at first. I spun a thin single out of a Mohair blend -that was very hard to draft- with S twist. Then I attached that single to a leader & spun a thick merino single and allowed the mohair to spin around it simultaneously. After a few miserable attempts I realized that in order to make the thicker yarn AND control the thin racing stripe at the same time I really had to get a larger whorl for my wheel. This made a world of difference...now I may actually do the yarn again. Since I have also spun some other thick singles just for the fun of it.

Multi Mohair Racing stripes with White merino/Teal merino/Black merino

My dance troupe She'enedra performed in a show called Bands and Bellies in Hollywood on January 22. It was fabulous fun! Princess Farhana was there as well as Monica Fernandez and many other beautiful performers.

Heidi, me, Tonantzin, Karma (yes those are their real names)

I also had a lot of fun with my friend Carolena, she came over to hang out and spin with me and stayed the night at the beginning of the month and then came out AGAIN last week and we had an indigo dye day with the craft grou. It was a very windy day and we had to work in the garage. If you've ever dyed with indigo you know how smelly it is. I'm waiting for some people to contribute pictures of the day so I can post them.

me & Carolena

I'm making these spindles for my Etsy shop and will be posting them soon.

That's the report on January! I'll be more consistent from now on so I don't have to put a whole month of news in one post!

I'm always spinning

Even when I'm so overwhelmed with everything else in life I keep spinning. Sometimes I feel like Dorrie from Finding Nemo only my song is "Just keep spinning spinning spinning." Here are a few samples of what I've done in the last 2 months while NOT blogging!

There is more I haven't photographed, and I seem to be enamored of singles all of a sudden! What is wrong with me? But to make up for it I'm doing a laceweight camel silk blend too (slow going).

Alpacas hum

Did you know that? Well I didn't! Until Riley & I took a field trip out to visit Windy Hill Alpaca ranch. Apparently it's the largest Alpaca ranch in the state and it is mere 20 minute drive from my home.

This must be why I've been gifted (yes I used that word) with so many beautiful alpaca fleeces in the last year, they are in abundance and some of these people have no idea what to do with them.
Good thing I know what to do with the stuff!

One of these days I'm going to get my own alpaca but I want it to live in my yard, I don't want to drive to visit it, it won't know me! I will name it Gandhi.

Lilia's Mitts

My friend Tonantzin commissioned these fingerless mitts as a Christmas gift for her mother Lilia.
The fiber is 100% angora that I spun from my bunny Midnight.
I'm thrilled with the look of the gloves and they are unbelievably soft.

At this show I played a

fairy with a very small brain : )

Bunny Puppets

They are not really Bunny puppets but I made these fingerless gloves out of some handspun angora fiber that came from a bunny I had loooong ago. They are so much like an actual bunny that I named them Bunny Puppets. Would you like the pattern? I swear I will NEVER spin 100% angora again...or at least never until I forgot I said that...I will be carding it with wool in the future. Why? Because I don't like fluff flying up into my nose and a knitted garment that is so fuzzy it looks like a rabbit pelt. But for now I do really like these silly gloves.