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!

Livin' & learnin' people who are famous and little ole' me!

I have to say that I LOVE my life! I don't mean to brag or anything I just kind of can't believe the exposure I've had to talent & fun recently and I MUST share! Unfortunately I was so excited much of the time I didn't take pictures so you will just have to try to believe this is true!

First- Workshop in Spinning Textured (formerly known as Art Yarns) Yarns with Jacey Boggs.

I had the honor of hosting Jacey at my home during this workshop. She is an awesome inspiring woman and she brought along her film crew of 2 Chris & Julie who were equally as awesome. The first day they were here I wanted to show them some of the area. We drove home along the coast because the ocean is worth the detour. We had a spectacular lunch at Real Food Daily in Santa Monica and then we went hiking up here near my house. This is one thing I am most sorry to have no picture of...we saw a rattle snake! Jacey took pictures and I hope to see them on her blog eventually, maybe. I have never seen a rattle snake on the trail before, it even rattled at us. When we were coming back around the trail loop to the end I was thinking to myself, well I've never seen a rattler before surely I won't see one again for a long time- I was hoping to see a deer instead- when low and behold there was a 2nd rattler. Crazy huh?

Then the workshop was great, I learned a lot of tricks that I had missed from the dvd. There is nothing like learning something in person. And let me tell you if you have a chance to take this class you must do it! Jacey is an excellent, patient and thoughtful teacher. Even if you think you know everything you will learn something new or at least have a ball.

I snagged a few workshop pictures from Ercil...I hope she forgives me. And I even am putting in a picture where I look terrible just to show you I was there!

The following weekend I went to Cairo Caravan on the Queen Mary and danced with my troupes She'enedra & Tandava also wicked fun! I will post a video of the dance this week. It is my choreography inspired by the book the Red Tent.

I was home for one day after Cairo Caravan and I jumped into my car and drove up to my friend Carolena Nerrichio's house (if you are a belly dancer you know who she is). And then we went on a pilgrimage to take a cotton spinning class with Stephanie Gastaud at her home in the mountains. Stephanie is also an amazing and patient teacher, I love the way she listens to people and then just says the right thing so you understand. Just unbelieveable! We of course got to meet her husband Alden Amos as well, they are so super cute! And Carolena kept calling their home & property fairy land, and it was. We were in total spinning heaven. Wheels & books & plants...lovely, I want to move there and be their neighbor. I hope they like me ; )

Once again I learned lots of great tips and improvements on my cotton spinning. Don't squish your cotton! wow all this time I've been compacting the stuff!

Back on my whirlwind to San Francisco, stayed the night at Carolena's...6-7 hours drive home ugh!

I did remember my camera...

Then I thought it was all over and I would just sit quietly and read and reflect and practice my spinning but I had one more little thing happen. My guild received the gift of several amazing alpaca fleeces and I got one for myself and one I am spinning up that will be made into a gift for the lady who donated these fleeces to us-she is very ill and we hope that the shawl will bring her some comfort. Anyway this is the cleanest fleece I have ever seen! Just flick and spin amazing!

I am grateful.

handknit socks

On a trip to San Francisco, while my sister was still married to her 2nd husband, I discovered Nancy Bush's book Folk Socks. This must have been a new book at the time. I can't remember how long ago that was -I do remember my children were still living at home and my sister was w/ the 2nd man...wait the wonders of the internet- it was 1994 when I first became enamored of sock knitting!

Was it really 15 years ago that I knit my first sock?

Being of a lazy nature I remember browsing the book looking for which pattern required the largest needles (Lithuanian Amber Socks #4 needles), although I eventually did knit that pair of socks for some reason I decided to start with "A Classic Sock." I purchased my first skein of sock yarn, a blue and white flecked wool, and a set bamboo #2 double point needles. From the minute I cast on I didn't want to stop to do anything else! I believe it was a Thanksgiving weekend, I sat it the window of my sister's kitchen knitting away, I was of little help. Her husband questioned me on why I wanted to knit socks in a bemused manner, my husband for some reason understood me. It was the same weekend that we discovered the Internet! Monumental! It should be a national holiday...oh wait it is, but not for the same reasons. By the time we left I had finish one sock and I couldn't believe how energized that sock made my foot feel. My feet had to take turns getting energy from it. And all I ever wanted to do was make socks and wear homemade socks every day of my life. The joy of discovery is a wonderful thing.

Since that time I have continued to knit many pairs of socks, repaired holes in worn socks, lost socks, knit them out of all kinds of yarn, handspun, and store bought. I even wrote my own sock knitting manual for my sock knitting class at Anacapa Fine Yarns where I taught many others how to knit socks. Hopefully many of those students became infected with the sock enthusiasm too. I still have that pair of blue socks in my stash somewhere, I should zig zag the bottom of the cuff on my sewing machine, cut the feet off, and use them as cuff warmers. If I find them I will do that!

What brought me to think of socks this morning is an article in Cast On magazine (the official publication of the Knitting Guild Association) on knitting socks from the toe up. This is something I have not yet done though I have every intention of doing it. It states in the article that experienced sock knitters have definite preferences for types of needles they use for sock knitting! Although I'm sure many sock knitters do have a preference, I must say that I do NOT! I love the classic technique of using the double pointed needles as well as the flexibility of using 2 circular needles...ok...maybe I lied! I HATE the magic loop or whatever it's called, I find having to pull the needle cable through the knitting periodically downright wonky! Ugh! OK no offense intended if this is your preferred method, please don't write me any hate mail!

Unfortunately I believe my lack of allegiance to one particular type of needle over the other made my class somewhat confusing to the sock students. I wanted them to know about all the methods without prejudice (yes even the magic loop) and I brought them samples of the different methods and offered to teach them to use any method the wanted. Maybe I should have had separate classes for separate methods. I didn't realize at the time that too much information can be confusing. And although, I have a brain that likes to know all the choices first not everyone does.

I have so much to do this week! I have to try to remember my ATS basics before going off to take the Teacher Training course from Carolena Nericchio. If you take belly dance from me or have ever, you know that I teach a combination of ATS, our sisterhood/she'enedra fusion improv, and just belly dance basics...so I need to revive the purity of ATS in my mind this week. I am behind on the garden...as usual, the house looks like a bomb went off in it (I like to exaggerate) and I have to finish our pirate choreography...just to name a few of the things I should and will be doing while pining over dreams of starting some toe up socks!

Check out this article on sock knitting and sock summit that happened in Portland Oregon this passed weekend (sad I didn't get to go ) http://blog.oregonlive.com/knitting/2009/08/sock_talk_nancy_bush.html