The snow has lost it’s charm — that actually happened about late November — and the cold has never had much appeal. What do you do when you are sick of looking at dirty white everywhere for ever and ever?!?

Dye!

My art group that meets once a month decided to fight back against the Michigan winter by heating up the dye pots (OK, microwaves) and attacking protein fibers with color. Of course I forget to bring out my camera until after the fun part is over and I’m down to the drudge work - rinsing. But this sink full has some potential.

The bucket on the right is the only fabric I did, it is a fat half of silk noil and was actually more of a mop-up cloth than a planned project but the colors are nice The top bucket is some Tofutsie sock yarn I played with - I’m very please with this so far. The bottom bucket is a merino superwash sock yarn that is a bit darker than I had imagined. The photo below is a huge skein of merino single ply sock weight. I tried a technique I just read about in the new WeaveZine that Syne Mitchell is now publishing, a great read, check it out! Anyway, I tried the palindrome skein technique she wrote about. In a nutshell, its a way to dye skeins so they can be wound into a warp (for weavers) and look like a painted warp, sort of ikat style. I’ll keep you posted on how well my efforts worked.

I think I see a pattern developing here - could it be I have a favorite color palette? And yes, that’s a fire extinguisher weighting the skein. Hey! It was handy.

I think they might just do. I feel spring closer already

Deb H

I belong to a group of Fiber Artists that meet once a month to critique our work, torture fibers, share techniques, and kibitz. I’m not exactly sure what Kibitz means but I’m sure that’s what we do

Last month we succumbed to the current craze of turning junk into treasure by melting plastic to make beads. It was fun, stinky and headache provoking in a closed room - duh! But it was also 6 degrees F. out and snowing, thus the closed room. In our defense, it was a big room. The first photo is melted strips of Page Protector with (lower front) peacock feather, sheer fabric (top right), and plain (top left). For the whole story see our group’s Blog.

Though this was fun and we played with other melt-able materials as well, I couldn’t help wondering what I would ever actually use them on. To me, a Campbell’s soup wrapper still belongs in the trash; I just can’t picture thinking of it as a thing of beauty - sorry Campbell! This may explain why I have a hard time with the current craze of “Mixed Media” collage art. I feel a little like it’s too much! To busy, too junky, too everywhere! It makes me long for simplicity. I look at most of it and I want to run for a broom or hide in a bare room (not with white walls though, never white walls).

That is not to say that “found objects” or mixed media, or even collage cannot be done beautifully. I recently ran across an Etsy sight that had jewelry she makes from rocks. They are found objects but they are simple, clean, beautiful, even Zen like. Check this out but notice the lack of melted plastic anything. Another example in my own jewelry collection is the necklace at right. An Arizona artist who’s name I cannot remember (sorry!) made this with a rusted bottle cap, an old shoe button, a piece of beach glass and crystal beads from a broken vintage necklace. This is stunning without being “junky” or over done.

Why am I so craving simplicity? Could it be my studio is still a roaring mess?

Hummmmm….

Deb H

I’m a sock addiction enabler, a pusher if you will. If someone indicates to me in even a very small way that they would like to learn to knit socks, I slip them that little taste that might get them hooked. I’m evil, I admit it.

Mom just e-mailed me and said she wished I live closer (than 25,000 miles away) so I could help her learn to knit socks. I recommended my favorite book on that very subject, Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch, then went on an Internet quest for a good beginner pattern or tutorial. I found one that is so fabulous I had to share.

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Silver’s free sock classes are fabulous, as is her enitre site, check it out and happy sock knitting!

Deb H

It seems like I have not done anything but knit socks since Christmas. On my long list of things to get done in January, only the hall got painted, and one class got written… OK, I did more than that, I polished my Etsy and added some more yarns. I also learned a little about using Flickr and Ravelry but that is a huge learning curve at this point (well, for me).

I’ve been knitting socks.

Well, I did knit about 100 (slight exaggeration) sock toes as I was writing a class on alternative toes for socks to teach at Knit Michigan, which was a blast! Here are some of the round toes that survived the Grim Frogger (being ripped out).

But I had finished the grey silk socks and then began the December Tofutsie Club socks; Winterberry (top two photos) when my DH decided he needed heavy socks for his winter boots. His house socks I knit him last year (I hand dyed Cascade 220 Superwash for these and knit them on size 3 (US) needles) were perfect so could I just do another pair like that? But longer?

I love dyeing sock yarn, didn’t the colors come out nice and manly?

So two more balls of Cascade later (I did not dye these, he wanted them this winter) and I got them finished.

Not very exciting as far as color or pattern but somehow satisfying to work on. Even if they did take a very long time for such a big gauge - his has big feet! And the lovely green heather was soothing to work on. These were a basic pattern done toe-up, two-at-a-time, my favorite sock knitting method.

So, what is ABD? And, what does it have to do with sock knitting?

Avoidance Behavior Disorder. Before you run to your shrink for medication, I think I may have made this one up. Of course, that’s what they (the Dr.’s and the pharmaceuticals) do too, isn’t it? ABD is what you do when you really should be doing something else but are avoiding it… like cleaning up the studio.

Sigh,

Deb H