Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

Having learned from the shibori experience (take pictures, document your work), I was better prepared for Jessica Kaufman's "Incredible Ice Dye" class at Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance last weekend. Jess is the owner of Waxon Studio in Asheville, North Carolina. Jess teaches dye techniques, sells materials, and sells finished dyed goods. This time, I took pictures in progress and afterwards. For our class Jess had five-gallon buckets of "mordant" ready — recipe is one cup of soda ash/washing soda to one gallon water. Jess said this mixture can be used repeatedly. As for any dyeing project, start with clean laundered fabric. We dunked our fabric in the soda ash water for at least 10 minutes. This makes the fabric ready to activate the dye by shifting the pH to alkaline. Jess mentioned soda ash is sometimes used in pool maintenance and comes in 50 pound bags. If you have a friend with a swimming pool, you might be able to ...

There are several opportunities in the area right now to see fiber art on display. The Prince Cherrywood Challenge 2018 Tribute Tour has been touring through the area. I first saw these on display at the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival back in March. These quilts were also on display at STITCHES United a month ago. Thank you to East Cobb Quilters Guild for one more opportunity to enjoy these beautiful art quilts! Right now, the quilts are finishing up a one-week run here in my neighborhood at the Mable House Arts Center . They will be on display for one more day on Thursday 11 July 2019 from 9 AM to 5 PM. There are actually three separate groups of art quilts touring the country. Follow the Cherrywood Challenge link above to see the places and dates. I may get to cross paths with the quilts again at STITCHES Salt Lake in early October. There is a yarn bombing at the Rose Creek Library on Towne Lake in Woodstock. This is right next to Hillside United Methodist Church, whe...

During the first weekend of November, I took a two-day sprang workshop with Carol James. Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance offered the class in this amazing but rare technique. Unstretched I was interested in the technique because it is sometimes confused with knit and crochet in historic collections. Center for Knit and Crochet at some point will want to have resources on their website to help curators and collectors discern among knit and crochet as well as tatting, nålebinding, sprang, and the like. When we reach that point, I want to be useful. I came away with an appreciation for this amazing technique that dates all the way back to the bronze age. Carol showed us a picture of a Greek vase where the weaver appears to be making sprang. (There's an archeology journal article here .) The technique was common in European military sashes, which is how Carol was introduced to it through her business producing military sashes for reenactors. She also showed us pictures of M...

In my profile, I mention that I am a member of the Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance. So, what is SEFAA? SEFAA is a 501(c)(3) organization that is seeking to establish a fiber arts center in the Atlanta metro area. SEFAA hopes to open a space this July which would include three artist studios as well as meeting, classroom, workshop, and exhibition space. The long-term goal is that fiber groups in Atlanta would have a dedicated communal home space. Beyond just having a place to meet or hold classes, we would work towards owning our own property that is adjusted for our needs. For example, there would be adequate lighting. (How many of you have tried to knit or embroider in a dark hall?) Perhaps we would share some expensive equipment, such as a digital projector for PowerPoint presentations. We might eventually have library space and a dye kitchen. Heck, we might even have a little storage space for things like our convention booth materials. But most importantly, we would have a pl...