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January 24, 2019January 21, 2019

What a Square!

It all started with mandalas. Really. I’ve been fascinated with them as symbols, as maybe a garden maze, as a tool for meditation, and perhaps a placemat. I have learned mandala means circle in Sanskrit and it is usually used as a symbol for the universe. And since food is the center of my universe, a placemat is appropriate.

I participated in a class back in April of last year at the DFW Fiber Fest in Irving that was about making them in yarn. There were several reasons to be in that class, not just for the mechanics. I wanted to understand how to design them, what stitches to use; you know, the deeper yarn meaning of it all. So apparently it’s a bit like gumbo, or couscous, or paella, or…you get the idea. To each their own….design.

And it was a fun day. After introducing the course format and herself, the instructor, Molly Andries, pulled up a box and started removing awesome examples of the mandalas she had made. It was like a circus car or Mary Poppins’ bag; they just kept coming out. And colorful and all different. I didn’t take a picture of that but here’s one I made in the class. One of the fun parts about making them is the different stitches. Soo many. So many I’d never used. Yippee! Different stitches in different combinations make for many different textures and visual effects. And I just looked at the class schedule for this coming April and another class is being offered!

Anyway, when I got home I started thinking about what I could do with them if I made a whole bunch. Google, Pinterest, Ravelry were all involved in my thought process. Somewhere in the middle of it all I stumbled upon the post from one of the crochet bloggers I follow. Or maybe this is how I started following her…I really don’t remember. Tamara Kelly at Moogly.com. Anyway, she does a CAL (that’s crochet-along for those who aren’t familiar with that acronym) every year and the goal is an afghan. That sounded like a great thing that I could build upon with my mandalas, except, they were round and for this project, they would need to be square. So. I kept reading; the post, the patterns, and then of course clicking on to the websites for the individual designers. Time Suck. But of the good kind.

She asks a number (twenty-four to be exact) of designers to come up with a pattern to share as part of the afghan. They are all squares and the ones I saw when I discovered this all looked sort of mandala-ish. They started out round and morphed into squares. Then came the rabbit hole…or in my case, the armadillo hole (they’re bigger). To join in here I would be playing catch up. The CAL began in January and it was now end of May. Of course.

Step one, buy all the yarn, over 4000 yards in 6 colors. Total…not 4k each color. Done. Used the inexpensive stuff…unbelievably soft and on sale so not as huge an investment as it could have been. Filled my car up…well maybe not but it was a-lot. There was eye-ball raising when I came home from Joann’s with multiple bags of yarn. And then had to go back for more. Oops. If you are interested in seeing my takes on the various squares in the CAL and you have a Ravelry account, you can view them on my Ravelry project page. I will post some on my instagram feed as well for those who don’t frequent Ravelry since I believe you have to sign in to Ravelry to view my page.

Step two, start crocheting. I had ten squares to make to catch up to the schedule. It took awhile. I had other projects in the works after all. I ended up finishing the last square on time in December but am still hooking them all together to make the afghan. I will post that on my instagram feed when I am done. Probably not until end of January.

I did end up replacing some of the listed patterns (felt kind of guilty here but they didn’t match my “look”) with others that I found online; many from some of the same designers I had already used from the CAL. All told I think I changed out eight of the twenty-four. The three above are part of those substitutions. And then I decided that, really, twenty were enough for the size I wanted to make, so I have four left over.

I did not use the original mandalas I made in the April class but now I know how to turn them into squares if I decide what to do with them. And, also, I need to come up with a plan for the four left over squares. Hmmmm.

January 17, 2019January 16, 2019

Yarn in unexpected places

Back in December, before my annual art show and before things got stressful, I was at the Randy Brodnax Christmas show that is held each year not far from home. We have several friends that have been part of this annual event and usually meet up with several others who are there as patrons of all the art. It’s a great opportunity to jump start the gift buying season. And of course, what usually occurs is that we bring home just as much for ourselves as we do for gifting. Some years it becomes more of a social event! There were folks missing from the selling side that we usually spend time catching up with and we went first thing on Saturday morning before any of our other friends got out and about. Those two things combined meant we were able to peek into booths of folks we hadn’t met before or seen their craft.

That is a very convoluted way to begin the yarn part of this story. I have never seen yarn at this show even though there have been a few textile artists over the years. Of course it’s only been the last three years that I might have been interested and looking for it, so there’s that.

*Fiber Art Landscape by Audrey Legatowicz*

One of the first booths we stopped in was a textile artist named Audrey Legatowicz. I had seen her booth in years past but the reason we stopped in was to look at some of her woven towels. Really pretty and yes, took home a couple towels for gifties. Then I looked up and saw a wall piece that she had done using, you guessed it, yarn in a free form really cool way. This is my picture of her work. My brain went into overdrive. I turned around to ask her about it and almost stumbled on the basket of yarn. I swear, it must have stalked me like a puppy does when it wants attention.

I admit it. I don’t know why but when I find these unexpected delights, I get kind of giddy. So, if I remember correctly, she gets the fiber from someone she knows and also from farther away. Then she hand spins the yarn and dyes it according to what she wants for her art pieces. The yarn she was selling, I think, were the extra bits she has left after the art piece is finished.

And it came at a great time for me. My show was the following weekend and I had been struggling to find a way to put these oh so cute mini magnifying glasses (on the handles of which I had put some of the glass beads that I make…one of my other lives) on a necklace of some sort. I wanted a crafter to be able to wear it while they crafted and still be able to find it when they needed to use it. And the glass part is tiny, kind of like a jeweler’s loop.

Her awesome yarns, so different every one, were perfect for that. I could loop, drape, crochet, tie the yarn and then add the magnifying glass. So, an artsy craftsy look and feel; soft and functional.

January 10, 2019January 15, 2019

Dr. Strange and the monkey

And it’s January. December really is mostly a blur. But, the sun is shining here at my house so it’s difficult not to smile. I love the sun. Now if it was just as warm as it looks on the other side of my window.

In my post on November 22, I wrote about finding the missing component for a project using the Twisted Owl yarn. Still a “yay” but have not unboxed my german dictionary yet (you’ll need to read that post if this doesn’t sound familiar). What I couldn’t mention then, because, spoilers, was that I also discovered a new yarn dyer named Ali, who is based in San Antonio (I think). Her company name is Savvy Skeins. And the Marvel in this is that I found a yarn to use to make really warm and comfy fingerless gloves for a friend for Christmas. So, see, spoilers; couldn’t write about it then because said friend reads my posts :0)

Now I can. Write about it, that is. I love this yarn and the names Ali chooses for all of her yarns. Karla’s mitts are made using Doctor Strange (Marvel, get it?). Said mitts were well received and I have just finished a beanie to go with, using the rest of the yarn. No pic yet since I haven’t given it to her. She knows it’s coming but I will post pic on instagram after I gift it to her.

The other yarn that I have been drooling over from Ali (haven’t met her but hope to), is one she calls RIP Sock Monkey. It has been calling to me for several weeks now and as soon as I finish writing, I’m going to order me some. Nope, no idea what I’ll do with it but it will look so nice nestled in my stash. Yep, I have a sock monkey, actually two. Aren’t they cute? And the twisted part of me likes the RIP part…sort of a like a deconstructed stuffed animal, as it would end up being, if I gave the dog a sock monkey of her very own.

October 25, 2018October 20, 2018

Making a Difference

One of the sponsors for the yarn crawl last week was The Vineyard Marketplace in San Marcos. It is the store component of True Vineyard Ministries, Inc. My friend Tina and I visited the store on Friday morning. We were amazed at all the wonderful merchandise on display. Granted we were there for the yarn but we also checked off several items on our holiday gift list and extras for ourselves, including jewelry made by women in Ethiopia from recycled artillery shell casings. The women collect them, melt them down, make beads and then make jewelry.

True Vineyard is a member of the Fair Trade Federation so everything in their store helps the communities from which they come. Each thing for sale has a story. I really liked that. Those stories are shared by the folks in the store and also on the shop website when you click to buy!

True Vineyard also employs women in Rwanda to care for a flock of merino sheep and use their fleece to spin and dye into merino wool yarn. This is for many of the women, the first time they have been employed and received a paycheck. When they first started packaging the yarn the women wound it in a football shape; not our usual way of receiving it but very cute. Now most of it comes in the usual skein or cake form. The yarns you see to the right are, on the left, dyed using avocados and, on the right, the legumes from the mimosa tree. The third in my stash now is dyed using madder root. And as I was googling this, I was reminded that madder root has long been used for dyeing things with a reddish, rosy tint….Aveda even has a shampoo for us red-heads to fortify our hair. I might have to go get some!

They work with women in Ethiopia to hand spin the locally grown cotton into yarn. The yarn is then sent to Rwanda where it is plyed and dyed using area plants. My cotton choices (shown at left) were three different skeins of color, all using Cosmos flowers. Amazing the different shades they achieved with the same plant. The cotton yarn is a new adventure so isn’t on the website yet, but the page of wool yarn shows the skein of yarn next to the plant used in the dyeing process. What a great visual; many of the plants they use are familiar but may have different names in Rwanda.

I’ve found and brought home other yarns that were dyed using local plants. Being a gardener and having accidentally dyed myself when out working, the yarns I’ve brought home make me smile and think of far-away gardens.

Display of the cotton yarn from Ethiopia

There are several short videos on You Tube about the outreach True Vineyard is doing in Rwanda. Dreams presents many of the women in the program and this next one, that’s titled True Vineyard Ministries 2011 is a montage of the yarn making process.

It was, for me, a powerful experience to be in their store, talk with those working or volunteering there and hear the stories of the women in Rwanda and other parts of the continent that this organization is helping.