Seabreeze Spinners

Finished (Chiengora article 3 of 4 )

First the finished shawl was soaked in “Soak”, rinsed, soaked again, rinsed, and then soaked in Ikaria deodorizing pet shampoo, rinsed and spun dry in non-agitating front loading washer.  The completed shawl had been placed in a net laundry bag before being placed in the washer.  The water temperature throughout was “cold”, that is, straight from the tap which in Florida in the summer is room temperature not really “cold”.  Even wet through, there was no doggy odor (thank goodness).  Then the damp shawl was blocked by laying it out on the living room floor and coaxing it into shape and then left to dry flat.

The fiber was harvested over the past year and spun at different times.  Some was spun quite thin (lace weight) and other thicker (sport weight).  Using the different weights as bands creates interest, one of those serendipity things.  (If one chose to lessen the effect, the yarn could be used in progressively heavier or lighter weights to lessen the contrast moving from weight to another or one could be more technical and record settings and thickness each time they sat to spin.  Thereby having greater consistency.  Me, I just like to spin.)   On Shasta Daisy’s blog http://fiberfanaticblog.artisticexpressionsinwoolandglass.com/spinningpad.html  she reports her dog, Princess Vanity, provides different fiber in the spring than in the autum shed.  Something to consider.  I’ve just gathered and co-mingled my “harvests” in the past, but from this point forward I plan to be more mindful of the seasons.

FINISHED So soft …

I’m not sure which is harder to photograph, a black shawl or a black dog.  (I put a white t-shirt under the shawl to better photograph the lace.)
 

Thank you for visiting http://Seabreezespinners.com/

Tropical Twister

In progress. (Chiengora article 2 of 4)

I’m knitting the thick & thin two ply chiengora into a simple garter stitch triangular shawl.  Unlike the other shawl featured, “Handspun Knitted Shawl”, this one starts at the center back at the neck and the “live knitting” continues down the sides.  (I’ll post the pattern later.)  This is a great choice for any hand spun.  It creates a chevron (diagonal patterns) across the back which highlights variances in the yarn. 

I hope to finish the shawl today.  Afterwhich, I’ll clean it (the dog hair was spun without cleaning first which helps hold the short stapled fiber together), full it, and block it by laying it out to dry.  More later.

Tropical Twister

http://Seabreezespinners.com/

The blog has been up about a month.  Thank all of you who have visited.  How are we doing?  What would you like to see more of?  What not so much?  What are you interested in seeing?  Please, give us feedback.

Thanks

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http://Seabreezespinners.com/

I’ve been in contact with Andy Paiko who created the glass spinning wheel.  You can see the full sized, fully functional glass spinning wheel in action at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzYB1o9YRUc

Andy advises that the wheel is currently at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in downtown Portland, OR.  He goes on to say about the spinner,  “Violet Lakeland is a friend of mine, studying to be nuse, and my only friend who actually knows how to spin (I don’t)”.  The wheel is for sale.

For more of Andy Paiko’s work, including more photos of that amazing spinning wheel,  you can go to his web site Andy Paiko Glass http://andypaikoglass.com/sculpture/the_spinning_wheel/

Thank you for visiting http://Seabreezespinners.com/

Tropical Twister

UPDATE Monday September 1, 2008

Andy Piako advises:

“My wheel is made of over a hundred separate hot-sculpted glass components, fitted and cold-fused with an archival UV-curing adhesive, industrial-grade epoxies, and steel hardware. The wood is mexican cocobolo. The piece can be dismantled for easier transport. With the distaff, it is 60″ tall. It took me about three months of 8-hour days and many sleepless nights to complete.”

The wheel is for sale for $ 22,500.

Lacy is a “mostly” border collie adopted April of 2002 from the Inverness Animal Control through the sponsorship of the Humanitarians of Florida. Lacy is a Certified Hearing Dog Guide. She is a “Canine Good Citizen” who has completed CERT (disaster) training. 

Lacy was abandoned when her former owners moved and was impounded after neighbors called Animal Control to alert them to the abandoned dog. After 30 days in doggy jail, she was on schedule to be put down when she was spotted at a fund raiser by Arlene Dikerson, Director of the Florida Dog Guides. Phone calls were rapidly exchanged, adoption plans were made and arrangements were made for Arlene to return from Bradenton to Inverness to temperament test Lacy a few days later. Animal Control was unwilling to stay her execution for the few intervening days, so the Humanitarians of Florida fostered her until she could be tested. She passed the test with flying colors but before she could begin her journey to her new home, Animal Control intervened and refused to allow her to leave the county unless she was first spayed. Despite assurances that the program required neutering, Animal Control remained firm … until, a local county commissioner was contacted. He gave Arlene permission to remove Lacy from the county with his blessing and after he apparently contacted Animal Control, they were eager to facilitate her release. Due to traffic congestion the 1 ½ hour return trip lasted about 3 hours with Lacy throwing-up most of the way. She arrived at the Hearing Dog Center in East Bradenton underweight, tired and depressed.

Lacy has responded to having love and purpose in her life.  She embraces life with great joy.  When not off duty chasing squirrels in her back yard, she spends her days at the Family Counseling Center, Inc., Bradenton, FL

The Florida Dog Guides for the Deaf, Inc. http://www.floridadogguidesftd.org/ is a non-profit organization which places and trains service dogs for the Florida deaf community. Dogs are placed with deaf or hard-of-hearing recipients at no cost to the recipient. The program receives no state or federal funds but survives on private donations. The program rescues young adult dogs from shelters and rescue organizations and places them with their new owners. Then the “team” is matched with a trainer who helps the hearing impaired owner train their own dog. The dogs are trained to respond to sounds such as fire alarms, doorbells, alarm clocks and telephones. The dogs promote the independence and safety of their owner.

Thank you for visiting http://Seabreezespinners.com/

Tropical Twister

(Chiengora 1 of 4)
First, you need the right kind of dog.  This is Lacy, my “mostly border collie”.  She is a double coated dog.  That is, in addition to her outer coat, she has a soft, wooley undercoat.  The dog books say Border Collies shed twice a year, they’re right, day and night.  

The name “chiengora” comes from combining “chien”, French for dog, with “gora” as in angora, due to the “halo” the fiber produces.

HARVESTING CHIENGORA (no animal is harmed in the process).  It’s actually very healthy for the coat to remove the dead, loose undercoat from the dog, and cooler.  To keep Lacy’s coat healthy I use the Ikaria line of shampoos and conditioners from PetEdge http://www.petedge.com/home.jsp .  The rake photographed below is also available through PetEdge.  I’ve tried lots of tools but the Oster rake below seems to be the most effective to me.

I gently grasp her loose skin and rake the direction the hair grows.  Great gobs of dead hair are harvested each time.

I blend the dog hair with wool.  (I used Louet corriedale dyed in a color close to her natural coat color.)  While a purist may shutter at the notion of blending the hair I do so for two reasons.  First, the dog hair is very short stapled.  That is, it is short in length.  When spun alone, it requires a tight twist to hold in the short hairs.  I find this makes the yarn hard and less suitable for the scarves and shawls I like to knit.  Second, the dog hair when spun and knit has a lovely “halo”, fuzz.  When the spun yarn is fulled to set the twist, the wool and dog hair slightly felt and the wool holds the short stapled dog hair into the yarn.  I weigh out equal weights of dog hair and wool before blending.  I use a drum carder to blend the fiber.  One of the tricks of the drum carder, is not to try to process too much fiber at one time.  I layer first the longer wool, then a layer of dog hair, then a layer of wool.  I pull the batt off the carder, fold it in half and send it through the carder again.  In total, I send it through the carder 3 or 4 times.  I roll the finished batt and store it in a cardboard box careful not to flatten it.

The next part of the process is spin singles from the fiber.  You’ll see the singles emerging on my Matchless spinning wheel.  I then ply two singles together for strength and yarn size consistentecy. 

Visit http://Seabreezespinners.com/ again for projects made from the Chiengora.

Tropical Twister & Lacy

It’s continuing to grow slowly.  I find that I can only knit it when I’m concentrating on the project and I can think.  Mostly I knit without thinking and this is a challenge for me.  Notice the tag with the “25″”.  I found “tags etiquettes” by MSCO at Office Depot.  Any small price tag would do.  These are 3/4″ X 1 3/32″.  I tied the tag to the last stitch of row 25.  I will continue to tag rows every so many.  This is so if I get into the knitting and discover I’ve gotten way off of the pattern I can frog back to the last tag and know where I am.

Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MMarioKKnits/ to see photos of beautiful completed shawls. 

Thanks for visiting my blog SeabreezeSpinners.com and come back again.

Tropical Twister

Midnight Purple is a purple wool plyed with black mohair and silver metallic tri-loom shawl.  The finished shawl was slightly felted for a close fabric.  You’ll notice the smaller size … just right for my 5′ mother-in-law to whom it was gifted.

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http://Seabreezespinners.com/

This video from YouTube is a must see for spinners:

The video shows a woman named Violet spinning fiber (long draw) on a fully functional glass spinning wheel. The wheel is a kinetic sculpture made from hand-blown and hot-sculpted soft glass by Andy Paiko.

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“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” – Psalm 139:13-14

Prayer shawls provide a gift of comfort, hope, love and peace during illness and recovery, when undergoing medical procedures, during bereavement, when celebrating a marriage or birth, when honoring a graduate, or when praying or ministering to others. They may be knit, crocheted or fashioned as a quilt.

Whatever their construction, they are lavished with prayer.  Fiber Space supports Prayer Shawl Ministry of Palma Sola Presbyterian Church. (Click here to link to the Pastor’s Blog.)