Zati Masks
Zati
is an Urdu word meaning "from the inside out" or "the spirit inside". Fiber
artist Susan Barrett Merrill has been creating these masks for many years. The
faces are woven flat with hand-spun wool. Facial features are created in the
weave, using weft-wedging and other techniques, and sculpted into
three-dimensional masks. The faces are then felted onto headdresses using soft
Merino wool. Each mask is unique.

We are fortunate to have Susan as an exhibitor and demonstrator this year at the Fair.  There is no other way to describe her work other than incredible.  The faces of these mask are all woven and the headpieces are felted.

Susan also runs Weaving a Life Workshops.  You can find more information at:
www.zatimask.com and www.weavingalife.com

Having the opportunity to witness her amazing talent is reason enough for a trip to the Fiber Center at the fair……….simply wonderful!!

Autumn trees swept with dawn
Look as if they’ve been lacquered,
Rooted around an old battlefield,
The mists linger here like ghosts.
(Deng Ming~Dao)

The morning comes early, fair week….. however, the journey to the fairgrounds from my house is one of the sweetest ones here in the Valley.  As I rounded the corner, sipping on my coffee, I couldn’t resist stopping and sharing a little bit of my life here with you.

This week will be too busy for much blogging, so I thought that I would share a picture of a fiber artist,their products,and contact information with you each day, starting tomorrow.

I was a wee bit excited when I checked out the judging ribbons yesterday.  I ended up entering 9 items for judging and received 7 ribbons……5 were blue and 2 were red :-)))  Annie asked the question last week if we thought that blogging had enhanced our lives.  I for one can honestly say yes.  With your encouragement, I have pushed myself to try things that I may never had tried…….so in a little way, these ribbons belong to you all too 😉

Enjoy the week~

What a glorious day it is supposed to be here in the Mountains.  A perfect day for the start of Fryeburg Fair, where I am slated to work most every day this week.

Yesterday I sat down to wind a warp that I prepared last week on the table loom that I am to demonstrate later in the week.  I use Peggy Osterkamp’s method of dressing a loom from back to front using 2 crosses.  It usually works beautifully for me.  (getting that warp on the back beam has always been my biggest challenge in weaving)

When I wind my warp, I make sure that I use the same color yarn to tie the crosses off on the top and bottom of the cross using one color for the top and a different color on the bottom.  It is important when threading the chains onto the lease sticks to make use that  you have the same color for each chain facing up, especially if the project is to be patterned or striped.

After I had the bottom cross securely on the lease sticks, I cut the threads getting it ready to be put onto the raddle.  Oh oh…….if you look at the 2 chains, the chain to the right with the green chenille was put on properly with it’s cross intact and the one to the left was not.  Somehow I miss-threaded it on.  <groan>…….this is basic easy weaving stuff, I should have taken this as an omen and quit whilst I was ahead.

It took me a little while to get the threads all straightened out, but finally the entire warp is on the raddle and positioned on the loom and ready for winding on.

One of the things I like most about Peggy’s method for winding on a warp is the way she has you put the wound chains off the back of the beam…..it makes it so much easier to even out the tension as you are winding on warp.  I use heavy craft paper in between the layers as I am winding to prevent the warp sinking into the previous layer and getting tangled.  So far……so good……although, I do notice that the warp is twisting a bit as it is going on….but I wasn’t too concerned.  It should straighten itself out, as long as the crosses are intact, right?

From there, after putting the top cross thru the lease sticks and securing them on the castle of the loom, I start threading the heddles.  This is my favorite part.  As much as I HATE winding that warp onto the back beam…….I so enjoy the rhythm of threading. 

After the threading is complete, it is on to slaying the reed…….another part of weaving I enjoy.  Finally the entire warp is tied on to the front beam and we are in business…ready to weave.  The first few inches when I am weaving with chenille, I use either cotton or acrylic, so that when I wash and dry the finished item, I can leave it in without worry of felting.  That yarn holds the fringe together, until it is dried….then it is removed and viola….fringe that wasn’t eaten by the washer/dryer.

There is nothing quite as pretty as the shine of rayon chenille, especially after it has been washed and dried. 

It’s looking great, don’t you think?

Oh DEAR!!!  Remember that twisting that I thought would straighten itself out??  Well you can see in this picture of the thread in the back, that they have not straightened out, in fact they are worse…….ggrrrrrrrr!!  I am not sure where I went wrong.  I have threaded chenille on to this loom many times without nary a problem…….so what happened this time? Grrr…

Oh well, as there is no time to wind another warp on at least for Tuesdays demonstration, I will have to try and make it work somehow and hope that another weaver can help me figure out where I went wrong.

I am contemplating taking some more weaving classes this winter to learn different methods of winding on a warp.  A few that interest me is this one in Massachusetts, which is a week long study…..here or here.

As soon as the craziness of the fair and the fun of Rhinebeck is past, I plan to spend a lot more time weaving.  I am determined to make this winding on the back beam, much less of an obstacle than it has been for me.

Have a great day and if you are venture up to Fryeburg Fair, please stop in the Fiber Center and say hello!

We’re after the same rainbow’s end–

waiting ’round the bend,
my huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.

"excerpt from Moon River"

I have so been trying to start and finish projects, without wandering….so therefore, this lovely yarn has been sitting next to my computer desk looking at me every day, patiently waiting for me to finsh Hannah’s little pink shawl.  The pictures don’t quite capture how lovely this KSH is.  This colorway is called Moonlight, which is basically Smoke with tiny silver metallic threads.  Now mind you, I am NOT a metallic girl kind of person…..usually ranks right up there with Stilettos in my humble opinion…….but in this yarn, it is so soft and subtle. I just can’t say enough, how much I just love KSH.  This is to be my shawl to wear dancing NY’s eve……..if I don’t kill myself trying to get in shape…. 😉

Did you know?
September is the Harvest Moon month. In China they celebrate the Harvest moon as the Moon Festival with little moon cakes.  Deng Ming-Dao says of the Harvest Moon " The queen of the night is at her most perfect roundness, closer to us than at any other time of the year.  She glows silver in an indigo sky.  The Moon Festival is a woman’s festival……If you are a man, then it is a night to step aside for your wives, mothers and sisters.  But for all, we can be thankful for the riches of autumn and begin our preparations for the coming frost.

"How cool is that?"

And……….that frost shall descend upon us in the Mountains tonight, just in time for the Harvest Moon this week….bbrrrrrrrr……

What a beautiful day it was here today in New Hampshire!  Early this morning I journeyed down to Southern New Hampshire to visit again with people who breed and show English Setters.  My drive brings me thru a little town called Meredith (town over from Patternworks), which surrounds a portion of Lake Winnipesaukee.  The weather was slightly cool and the sun was brilliant, making for a wonderful day to be out traveling.

Bob and Francie Stevens of Fieldplay English Setters have been so kind in allowing me to visit with them and learn about this
sweet and beautiful breed.  Such nice people and so very likeminded about the things that I feel are important when it comes to raising dogs. I so enjoyed my visit!!

I am looking forward to new challenges and am excited about the possibility of learning how to show a bigger breed.  Now, in order to show a bigger breed, one has to RUN around a ring, as opposed to the comfortable walking gait when showing a Cavalier……..of course you know what that means.  I NEED TO GET IN SHAPE!   Sarah, the girl to the right is due to have babies in November and if she has more than one nice girl, one may come here…….that gives me…..um…..5 months to whip this chubby body into shape.  Hmm………perhaps Mr. Woolen Rabbit and I will go dancing this NY’s Eve 😉

Now as you may have guessed, given that I had to drive right thru
Concord, a trip to the Elegant Ewe was in order.  I was a good girl, though…….

As you can see, not one stitch of yarn came home with me……however, there is a set of Rosewood 1.5 needles, Nancy Bush’s new sock book (which is fabulous!!) and a circular needle for the new shawl, that has been patiently waiting for me to finish the Koigu shawl (see, I am getting better at not starting too many projects before finishing others……..I am trying).

If you look on the pumpkin, there is the neatest shawl/sweater pin made out of pewter.  I just HAD to bring it home, but not as a pin….haha.  When I get those pesky Hot Flashes, I quickly reach for the nearest douple pointed needle and pull my hair up, and then promptly forget about it until I catch sight of the piece of wood sticking out of my head in my rear view mirror……..eekkk!  At least this kind of looks like it belongs in my hair….LOL!

And finally………what kind of yarn are you??

You are Merino Wool.
You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to
keep you close because you are so softhearted.
You love to be comfortable and warm from your
head to your toes. 

What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Introducing Leaves and Flowers…….

What a joy this little shawl was to knit!!  A funny thing happened along the way.  I purchaed the Koigu for this shawl knowing how much my youngest daughter, Hannah loves bright pink.  I figured it would be a challenge for me knitting with a color that is typically not one of my favorites……..but as the knitting progressed, much to my surprise in addition to the bright pinks were some of my favorites……poppy red, paprika, bright orange and apricot……I loved each and every stitch of this little shawl

Now, I was supposed to be knitting items for the fair next week, but this shawl would not be ignored, so I will have a lot of fiber at the fair for sale……..but not too much in the knitted items dept….  Oh well, sometimes we just have to listen to the wind if it makes us smile 😉

Ooo~La~la……Sheer Luxury!

I finished up carding the Northern Lights roving and had enough of the dyed raw angora left over to do up a 1.4oz batt of roving by itself…..pure angora in all it’s glory…yumm!!.  One of the things I have to demonstrate next week is spinning angora.  Having the carder makes it very easy for me, but for the novice spinner, angora can be tricky, as it lacks the "barbs" that wool has.  It can be slick………but oh, how wonderful it is.

Now I can assure you, I will have at least a dozen people ask me if angora comes in this color naturally (cinnamin with green streaks)…aarrgghh!

This yarn when it is finished next week will be staying here for something special….two of my favorite colors combined….how can I resist??

Whether it is dyed or natural, in roving or on the bunny……….Angora is special stuff.  I feel so fortunate to be surrounded by such luxury every day.

Nordic Star-Light thinks so too!
(click on the picture to see Star Light with her brother Star Bright as babies)

There is nothing quite like Autumn in the Mountains.  It has been such a hot late summer, that nary a thought was given to Apple Pickin’ season, until this morning when we woke to below freezing temps.  Yes, fall was definitely in the air, so we decided to take the day and bring Hannah and my granddaughter off for a day of Autumn fun.

We started the day, taking a tractor pulled ride down deep into the apple orchard.

Even though the day was overcast, the rain held off and the cool temps made for pleasant pickin’ weather.

The girls had a fun time climbing the apple trees…..and given that I had the camera, they did the pickin’ and I did the  picture snappin’

After the Orchard, we went searching in the Great Pumpkin Patch.  Here at the farm, while I searched for Autumn Mums, Pumpkins,  Indian Corn and winter squash, the girls and Ken visited the Hay Maze that the farm builds every year for the children.  Yup……..Ken is a big kid at heart 😉

Once at home, I settled down to read my new Apple Cookbook.With yummy recipes for the fall and recipes for preserves (yes Norma and Liz, I am getting a jump on next year’s Victory Garden), this book is a good thing.

To keep this fiber related, Mr. Froggy helped me display my morning’s work…..a skein of Candy Apple to be sold at the Fair next week with Anne’s Lotus Blossom scarf pattern.
Today……..it was all good 🙂

The big fair of the year is fast approaching and I have been very busy in preparation.  As I am processing all of my fiber right now, the carding machine has been working over~time as have the dye-pots.

Angora is wonderful stuff, as many of you have noticed, however, it can be very stubborn when it comes to dyeing.  Angora needs to soak in warm water for quite a long time.  As you can see from the above picture, it is very very resistant to water…..good for the bunnies, not so great when you want to dye it.

In both pictures you can see how angora clumps together when it is placed in water.  In order to dye the angora, those clumps need to constantly be pulled apart, to make it more accepting of the water and then the dye.  Even when I think that I have been as diligent as I could possibly be at breaking up those clumps, sometimes I am disappointed at the angora that didn’t take the dye, due to the clumps that I missed, which of course will lighten up the final product, due to the amount of white that gets blended in with the colored angora.

This time I was rewarded for my diligence with the rich deep colors in both the dyed wool and angora.

After the dye~pot it is onto the carder.  This is where I find out whether my color choices are going to be a hit or a bomb.  What looks good to the eye separately, once blended on the carding machine can sometimes yield unpleasant surprises.

This time, however, I am pleased with what the machine is presenting to me.  I like it enough, that I decided to only do one pass, leaving the colors to shine, instead of my usual tendency towards more muted color.

I will spin up a couple of ounces of Northern Lights to see if I made the right choice…….we will see. 😉

One thing I am finding out about myself, is that I have a tendency to want to do it all. I put an enormous amount of pressure on myself to produce.  I don’t think of myself as a type A person, but sometimes I find myself behaving as though I am (hhmmm….).  As I pile on project after project and demand after demand, I start to loose the enjoyment in my pursuits and it starts to feel like work.  For this fair, I have 13 items entered into the judging competitions, 3 loom demonstrations that the looms need to be warped for and of course the rovings (which help fund Rhinebeck 😉 ) and I am dizzy.

A few years ago, I took the year off, spinning one bunch of roving at a time and then knitting something special from each at a comfortable pace…..keeping to myself and enjoying the freedom of quiet "me" time.  It was a productive and stress free year.  As I wind down from this self imposed pressure cooker that I have created for myself this year, I am going to take that time once again and enjoy my hobby for what I want it to be……..my hobby.

If you have stuck with me this long, you will understand why this closing verse spoke to me from my little meditation book today.

I want to make myself an empty room:
Quiet whitewashed walls with slant sunshine
And a fresh breeze through the open windows.
Deng Ming~Dao

Enjoy the day~in your corner of the world.

A sentinel owl regards me unblinkingly,
And beyond, alpine forest form a cadence
To a distant moon.
Deng Ming~Dao

Sandy is having a contest and the prize is two skeins of Lorna Laces Sock yarn in the Gold Hill colorway……..thus the evening sky picture.  This is the pond across the street from our home.  It is home to geese who gently honk at this time of the night. (it always scares the bejeesus out of new puppies…..LOL)

And here is where the sad sock tale beings…….

Once upon a time, there was a 6 sock KAL.  The second sock in the series was called Making Waves.  Now this was a fun little cable sock that moved along at a nice pace. 

They were much loved as they matched the colors of green that I always wear.  They were loved so much, that they made the long trek to Rhinebeck with me…..my prized socks, that looked so nice with olive green or Khaki.

Now given that I am of that menopausal age, sometimes I get "hot" feet…….and when that moment strikes, off come the socks, and frequently, they are neatly folded over on themselves and tossed in a corner.  Imagine my dismay, when a few days after returning home, I found my pride and joy to be missing.  Frantically I made waves and called the hotel……..no sign of the socks.  Boo Hoo!!

So Norma………..I know you are lining your pages with Gold……heck, you are looking like a regular Golden girl…..but you must admit, it was kismit that Sandy has this sockyarn up as a prize and with just enough time for a pair to be made again for Rhinebeck ;-))

Just in case the "Golden Gods" do not shine my way, Autumn in Opal Silk (Safari) is hoping in the Rhineback backpack this year too 🙂