by carmen | Jul 5, 2011 | Personal, Studio
And the script is as follows:
John: Well, I’m calling like you asked. It’s 6pm, are you ready to come home yet?
Me: Well Monica just got here a little while ago and Kristen and I are really working the dyes.
John: Okay, should I call you again at 7?
Me: No, I’m definitely thinking I need to be here until 8:30, and then we’ll be home before 9 and I can still make dinner.
John: Okay, see you at 8:30.
Brief musical interlude…maybe the soundtrack from Buffy Season 6. Phone rings at 8:20.
John: So, I’m leaving the house now to come and get you, right?
Me: Actually I think 9:15 would definitely be better. Monica’s almost done the hat and we have one more round of dyeing to finish.
John: I’ll come now and start loading the car and maybe go for a walk around the neighbourhood, but we are leaving at 9:15.
Me: Absolutely.
Brief interlude in which much laughing, knitting, spinning and dyeing occur. John returns at 9:15
John: So I’ll just hang out with you guys until you are ready to go?
Me: That would be great. Thanks honey, we’re just getting so much done.
Actual time leaving the studio 10:20pm. Dinner at 11:00. In bed by 2:00 (working on a lace shawl).
by carmen | Jul 4, 2011 | Events
…but continues raining inside your tent, and other misadventures from market day.
We had an amazing day in Whistler yesterday. We managed to finish our entire set up before the skies opened up in a biblical way. A great flood with the intention of wiping bad crafters off the planet, perhaps? The rain was ridiculous and the customers were nowhere to be seen. Due to the water on the ground in my booth, I was unwilling to release the wheel. I found a corner where the tent didn’t drip and pulled out my knitting.
We just completed a waterproof coating on the tent top and were quite satisfied with it. Easy to be so confident considering none of our markets this year had any rain. I think I heard the thumping of a few frogs and some locus on the roof as well before the rain started to slow down.
Then around 11am people started trickling out of the Chateau Whistler with their beautiful golf umbrellas. I was hoping that a few of them would be left behind in my booth, but alas…….and then the sunshine and the heat came–steaming off the water that dripped on to everything and the tent became what I love it for the most.
Shade.
Out came the wheel, and the market was a whirlwind of activity. The kit yarns were being spun. Everything was drying. Dry things were being sold. Compliments were flying and friends came by for visiting and purchasing.
A lovely little doggie came into the booth, so adorable that I stopped spinning to pet him. Unfortunately this created the effect of “I’m so excited to meet you that I think I’ll pee in your booth syndrome”. Apparently this has happened before as the parents were armed with plenty of clean up tools.
As I was relaying the story to a friend, she indicated that she had to go home and clean her truck that her dog had just thrown up in twice (and I thought I had it bad). Hope everything is back to normal Jan!
The day ended with lamb korma in our favourite restaurant in Squamish —Essence of India. Even rain days at the market are great days.
by carmen | Jul 3, 2011 | Studio
We loaded up the car early and Kim and I made our way to the studio for reskeining, some tagging and braiding rovings. She was handling all of that while I was working on the kit yarns. And yippee….the first 4 colourways have been spun.
I honestly never thought I’d get to this stage. Finally, I’ve got the right amount of push to get this happening. Next step, my layout for the pattern and the packaging. Let’s see how long of a drawn out process I can make this. This is one thing I am definitely good at. Procrastination.
by carmen | Jul 1, 2011 | Knitting & Crochet, Spinning, Studio
I want to start riding my bike to the studio. When Jennifer visits the studio, she rides her bike from Steveston and I am only 5 miles from my studio….so why aren’t I riding….
This is what I will usually cart back and forth with. Far right, needing seaming and labels, middle box yarn needing to be wound for knitting and on the far left (since I’m a mood spinning) every dyed top in inventory.
Even though I have a plan there is no way I can commit to colours or “these five soemthings”. My one pannier rack on the back of the bike definitely doesn’t cut it. Anyone know of a great bike accessory place to recommend. I’ll need to pack like I’m going to war.
I spent some time at Birkeland yesterday, visiting with Pearl. It gave me time to finish off some inventory, shop and work on some spinning. The Matchless is calling to me. I may need to make an addition to the herd. I think it would be my home wheel.
A little cupcake inspiration. It even had me inspired for spinning.
It was more important to work on the 355 stuff, so I finally starting taking some shots and I’ll get those uploaded today. I am having a huge order of baby alpaca dropped off today. More on that later. I love it when beautiful wool just shows up at my house.
by carmen | Jun 29, 2011 | Studio
Things are just too busy to run the carding group at the studio anymore. Also, the size of the group is expanding to such an extent that we are running out of space. Having Kristen and Jennifer there as studio mates often finds them there on the group nights as well so this makes things even a little more tight.
Last night’s theme. Exotic fibres. Well, one in particular, some super fine dehaired llama for carding. What people did with their fibre was just amazing. Louet, by far has the best carders and the super fine does a great job with these special blends. There were batts, hand pulled rovings, core spun yarns and even some knitting as well. Although class ends at 9pm, the foolishness carried well into the night.
I am going to miss running this group and hope we can find the time for at least one more before the end of the year.
Off to the studio. Kristen and I are doing Game of Thrones audio books today and getting our knit and dye on.
