The ongoing cotton project

Still catching up on the last 2 months of stuff...

These pictures are of our cotton tree...yes I said TREE! I was given the seeds for this tree by another member of my spinning and weaving guild a couple of years ago and I finally got around to planting them. She got them at a demonstration that our guild does annually in the herb garden at the Huntington Library where the parent tree lives. When I was at SOAR I met Phreadde Davis who recently wrote an article on growing cotton in the Spin Off Fall 2009 issue on natural fibers. She told me that these seeds are very special and were saved from extinction by a lady (who's name I wish I could remember) that did a lot of work to preserve cotton varieties. Phreadde (pronounced Fred) gave me some seeds for naturally green colored cotton that I plan to plant on the opposite side of my house so they don't affect each other with any cross pollination. Phreadde also taught me how to spin cotton straight off the seed. It's such a great thing to learn, now I don't have to sit around picking seeds out of the cotton balls. I plan to post video of how to do this soon!

In an earlier blog I posted pictures of the cotton bolls before they opened. Now they have!

We picked as much as we could before the rain this weekend. It's mostly mine & Riley's project but we have had to enlist Robert's help because the tree is so high we can't reach the topmost branches. When Robert helps us with the picking Riley and I run back and forth in the garden with baskets catching the cotton he throws over his shoulder! I wish I had pictures but then it would require enlisting another person in our project.

See how big our developed cotton balls are?

Here are pics of Riley & I carding cotton (before we learned the new way of spinning straight off the cotton balls), and spinning on a takhli.


I'm just now teaching Riley how to spin, pretty good for a 6 year old I'd say!

Tribal Fusion Faire-TFF-last minute insanity!!!

This weekend I'm performing and teaching and vending at Tribal Fusion Faire at San Luis Obispo. It has always been one of my favorite festivals because it's more like a get together of the California Tribal Bellydance community. It's 3 hours from L.A. and 3 hours from S.F. so it's smack in between for all of us. And it's a great opportunity to do a little holiday shopping, take a workshop from someone awesome and famous like Amy Sigil or Zoe Jakes or someone NOT so famous like ME!!! haha! It's really an honor to be asked to teach at this event! I hope lots of people come to my class, it's called Island Influences, and that is EXACTLY what it is about, not a Hula class, not a Tahitian class, but a belly dance class where I teach some of the Polynesian moves as they can apply to belly dance...so I hope it will be fun and a good workout too.

That is a picture of me the first time I danced at TFF way back in 2004 or 5 I can't remember!

Here is the link in case you are interested in going or just want to see what it's all about!

http://www.meddevi.com/tribalfusionfaire/

So tomorrow She'enedra is performing at 6:40pm and on Sunday my student troupe (which is pretty amazing right now) is performing at 1:20...


come out and see us!!! Yay! I have to run and finish many many details for the weekend now! xoxo


AND on Monday night I'm dancing and vending at this little event at my friend Donavon's place too!!!

I was made to GATHER!

The guild I belong to "Ventura County Handweavers and Spinners Guild" has an annual harvest sale -this is anachronistic because it happened before I went to SOAR, so it's actually in the wrong spot in this blog- and I did a bit of what I am genetically designed to do gathering. Oh! The fibers!

This is a camel/silk roving purchased from Redfish dyeworks



Which became this yarn, I think the pictures do not do it justice...



I am planning to knit it into a lacy cowl, it's 4oz and 370 yards.

This is some purple yarn that I purchased, I aspire to spin something like it eventually. But my intentions for this is to make a jacket w/ this yarn at the cuffs, collar and front. I found an Eggplant (dyed) colored Polworth fleece at Soar that will make up the body of the jacket.




And I also purchased this Alpaca/wool Indigo dyed roving that I spun up into yarn. It is not spun as fine as the camel silk but it's pretty nice. I just don't know what it will become yet.



I purchased a few other necessities a beautiful handmade niddy noddy and some unnecessities but did not take their pictures! And can you believe that Robert asked me when I got home if these purchases were part of my SOAR budget? Of course they were NOT I didn't buy them at SOAR! : )

I went to SOAR!!!

It's hard to believe I haven't blogged in almost 2 months! My life is just like everyone else's this time of year, crazy busy! I'm not sure why I let this happen but I'll try to fit a few of the highlights from my calendar that are just too exciting not to share. It may take a few installments on the blog...

First of all I went to SOAR-Spin Off Autumn Retreat, a dream of mine for quite a few years now. This event is an annual one put on by Interweave Press, it has a limited amount of registrants and I think I got in because the economy is so bad that a lot of the usuals didn't go. The teachers are the most well known and respected fiber artists in the country it was a great opportunity to learn and network and be with people who share the same crazy passion I have! It was pretty expensive undertaking, I'm trying not to feel guilty about the cost! I'm just so grateful that I went.

I had to buy myself a traveling spinning wheel which fit in the overhead bin on an airplane. Here is the sweet little Victoria wheel next to my Schacht wheel.

In preparation for going I wanted to make myself one of my handspun & woven belly dance belts to submit for the gallery...although I didn't finish my project in time - I ended up borrowing a belt from Nisan, who commissioned one from me a few years back- I'm happy I will finally have one of my own belts...it's hard for me to make time to finish a project for myself.

Here is the yarn I dyed & spun for the belt

and being measured for the warp



Here are a couple of shots of the warp going on the loom



And being woven




It's hard for me to express the happiness I feel when I see a warp on the loom, it's just such a satisfying thing.

I didn't take nearly enough pictures while I was at SOAR but here they are:

This is Sarah Swett- she is an incredibly inspiring woman. She actually used to live out in the wilderness in a cabin with just a mule, and during her time there she learned to spin. She is an exceptional artist, she only uses her own handspun yarns, prepared from fleeces that she dyes exclusively with natural dyes, she then designs her own handknits and tapestries.



Unfortunately I was really sick while at SOAR I didn't feel well enough to take pictures of all the great things she brought to show us...but I did get to try on her vest, so that's me w/ messy hair and all wearing Sarah's vest.





You can see a few of her things on the table behind me in the picture.

After that class I went to a class with Sarah Anderson, another exceptional artist, on Designing in Spinning. She had a whole table of white yarns she had spun using different techniques, I was very inspired by the consistent and organized manner these women have developed to get so much work done. Here is Sarah Anderson's hand as she demonstrates how to wind yarn for Andean plying and several of her yarns that were on display.








After Sarah's class I took some pictures of paintings and the lodge to show Robert and everyone.







Then I became incredibly sick and couldn't do much else, I missed my class on spinning for socks (heartbreaking). I somehow got through the class on hand cards but I was too sick to take pictures. There is a picture of the bed I spent too much time in and the view I had of the fireplace from the self same bed!

quick pictures from the home and garden

10 cheap simple things I to do to save the Earth and save some money too!

Remember that book that came out in the 90's 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth? I really enjoyed that book and I wonder what I did with it...probably recycled it! Ha!
Anyway, here is my little list of 10 things to do to Save the Earth or at least some money!



#1 Switch to dishrags for washing dishes. There are several really cute patterns for making your own, the one I like best is in the book Mason Dixon Knitting. Or you could make up your own pattern easily just get some of that peaches and cream yarn they sell in all the fabric stores, it's 100% cotton and get out some #5 or 6 knitting needles and knit up some squares. I was soooo attached to the Dobie dishwashing pads for years because well that's what my mom used and they worked so well, but now the company that used to make the Dobie pad Scotch Brite has a new product that is bio degradable called Greener Clean. Another excellent alternative to those plastic covered sponges, just make sure you don't throw your sponge into a plastic (non biodegradable) trash bag when you are done because the purpose will be defeated. You can put them into your compost, or put them into a biodegradable trash bag into the yard waste bin for trash pick up.
And this leads to...

#2 Switch to biodegradable trash bags. You probably buy trash bags anyway why not buy the good kind? They are available at this website...http://www.reusablebags.com/
OR another idea which would be better really...long ago, my dad used to line our trash bins with used newspaper. He read the paper everyday and would just fold the paper to fit into the the bottom of the bin. In our house we've actually gone through several incarnations with the trash issue. We used to have a square bin and the paper bags from the grocery store would fit into it. Then we stopped getting so many bags from the store and we just threw the trash into the can, but it got really gross and dirty quickly and I'd have to wash it, and the kids complained about why do we have to be so different all the time, why can't we just buy trash bags like their friend's parents. So I gave in and we got used to using the plastic trash bags, but it never sat right with me. So I'm super happy to have found a decent alternative.

#3 Use a clothesline! This is one of my biggest arguments with my family...why would you run the air conditioner and the dryer at the same time? Isn't that counter productive? Did you know the dryer is the 2nd most energy hogging household appliance? And when it's over 80* out and you can hang your clothes and they will be dry in the same amount of time? And I know where the hatred of hanging out the laundry comes from, I've been around long enough! As a small child I remember running back and forth through the sheets as my mother hung them out on the clothes line. I loved it but my mother didn't, she spent a long time washing, hanging and ironing all of our clothes. I also remember what a proud housewife she was when we bought our first house and she got a dryer! It was a sign of prosperity and having a good husband and a good life to have your own dryer. But these days most people don't remember that. Heck my husband is older than me and I don't think he remembers it...but maybe his mom got a dryer before my mom did. So it's no longer anything to do with prosperity kids! You don't even have to do it ALL the time! I put towels and jeans in the dryer and hang the rest, and I don't do it for every load. If you even do this once a month it will make a difference. And you will be rewarded whenever you hang out your sheets to dry, your linen closet will smell like a garden, it's amazing. And you get to sleep in this garden smell!
Here is a link to buy clothes lines & supplies... www.clotheslineshop.com/



#4 Use an ancient form of transportation! Your feet! Or you can even use a modern convenience and ride a bike! I recently bought a bicycle trailer and between the Trader Joe's, Riley's school and the library there isn't much reason for me to drive if I have errands inside of Newbury Park. Please be very careful of traffic, many motorists are not very conscientious of bicyclists.
#5 Go back to using a mop! Really, this is what stirred up this particular blog subject; I went to the store to buy refills for my swiffer mop, which I used all the time. I always felt bad about the chemicals in it but it was so easy to quickly just clean my floor at any given moment. I would use it and wish there was a way for me to refill the plastic bottle with a little soap and water, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I've used this thing for at least 5 years. Well consumerism working the way it does it wasn't enough for the company to just sell me the cleaner refills and pads but now they had to go and change the design of the mop so that you have to buy a new one in order to use the cleaner! Well guess what makers of swiffer? I don't love your cleaner that much! It was the mop, with the convenient sprayer that I was interested in. I bought an inexpensive mop and bucket instead thank you very much!

#6 Take a bucket into the shower with you...or two. I got this one from my dad who was a master gardener. During the last big California draught he came up with this idea to have more water for his orchids and roses. He kept buckets in the shower to collect extra water and then took it downstairs to the garden to water every day.

#7 Wrap your water heater. That was Jasmin's suggestion...I bought one of those water heater blankets, now I just have to find it!

#8 Switch to rags instead of paper towels. Scotch Brite also has biodegradable bamboo wipes...ok I do NOT work for this company! I just found these in the store the other day and was so excited by them...true it does not take much to excite me! And I confess that paper towels are one of my biggest attachments, so I have cut down on them as opposed to giving them up. But at least I'm working on it!

#9 Buy 2nd hand stuff! Now when I was younger I bought everything 2nd hand because I didn't have much money...and now with the current economic situation I find once again I have little money! And I'm trying really hard to hold on to what little money I do have.... I like to buy things used. And anyway it's new to me! There are so many great sources for stuff you can go to craig's list or you could even barter for stuff you need. I also like to make stuff but that's not news!

#10 Grow a vegetable garden. It's fun, healthy, and sometimes frustrating. You could even do something as small as grow herbs or a tomato plant in a pot on your porch. For me digging in the earth and watching things grow is just such a joy I don't know why everyone would do it! I'm going to post a picture of the avocado tree I grew from a pit. Well it's the inside of the tree anyway, it's probably at least 15 feet tall now.
I just read Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal Vegetable Miracle, I'll just say it was amazing and inspiring and if you are reading this you should read that book too. You will be glad you did it!


These things are probably no big deal to anyone who lives in Europe or even many people in other parts of the U.S. but apply to our L.A. life style which is unfortunately is fast and competitive most of the time. And you know the thing is we have so many fabulous artists and creatives here but we are all struggling just to make it by, I don't know...it's a shame.