Zhora's Raincoat is a project I've been wanting to work on for some time now.  It's inspired by one of the best science fiction movies of all time--Blade Runner--combined with a great idea for recycling materials into a fabulous yarn. 

Zhora, (played by Joanna Cassidy) is a replicant (non-human) who dances and charms synthetic snakes in the far future.  Replicants are not permitted on Earth, so she and a group of others have returned here, knowing they may face death by doing so.  In a fabulous chase scene, Zhora is wearing her clear raincoat over her bikini/dance costume.  She runs in a haze of  colors and reflected light, through a sea of humanity as she is pursued by Deckard (Harrison Ford)  to her spectacular death; crashing through a series of plate glass windows as he shoots her down:

For this project, I used a damaged zippered clear vinyl bag (the kind new linens come in).  I cut it into long and short strips under an inch wide, and 1-6 feet long.  I used almost the whole bag except a few little scraps.  I then proceeded to sew it together at random on my sewing machine, adding bits of recycled fabric and silk scraps, handspun and commercial yarn bits sewn every which way.  Some are flat, some have loops, twists, etc.  I changed thread frequently, did zig zag and other decorative stitches, left long thread ends dangling, and included both halves of the plastic zipper tape as well as the metal zipper itself.  The design process after the basics was pretty much anything goes as I dug through the scrap box.

Though Zhora is not technically "spun", I think it qualifies as yarn, and I can't wait to see how it inspires someone.  The finished yarn really hit my mark--it's got the clear raincoat, the reflected light, the confusion from the chase scene, and the dark brooding colors mixed with brights, which director Ridley Scott pulls off so beautifully in this movie. 

Zhora is for sale on Etsy as an extremely late challenge for the FAST (Fiber Arts Street Team) challenge of April 'storms' since both the raincoat and the "hail" of bullets fit the storms theme.  If the yarn happens to be sold and you're interested in more, feel free to convo me and I'll be glad to make more to order.  I have a big stash of vinyl bags on hand recycled from friends and family...

This week has been a difficult one for us.  Our good friend Slinky the cat is gone.   She started to slow down at the beginning of the year, and started fading fast  recently.  She was diagnosed with diabetes and we put her on insulin shots and a special diet, which helped for a few weeks, but we could feel her slipping away.  This past weekend out on Shelter Island was her last, as she hobbled over to my parents house several times in a state of dementia, then slunk off into the woods.  I was sure she was looking for a place to lie down for the last time, and we didn't want to lose her that way.  We brought her home, and made the difficult decision to end her suffering.  So we said our goodbyes and yesterday we took her to the vet for her last trip.  It was one of the saddest days of our lives, but it was the right thing to do, and a relief to let her finally rest, despite our deep sadness at our loss.

Slinky was Craig and My first "child" from when we were still in college, before we were married.  She was a faithful companion and friend, a loving cuddly sidekick and a pain in the ass--all things a cat is supposed to be.   We picked her out of a tiny litter of 2 kittens from Craig's parents farm in Cato, NY, before they moved to FL.  She stood out as one of two gray kittens in a herd of inbred calico cats at the farm.  Her mama was a wild smoky gray cat, and Slinky's little white tuxedo left us no doubt that "Mr. Tux"--a hefty bruiser of a farm cat in black and white, tough on the outside but a softie at heart--was her daddy.  She was small, wild, tough and ultimately, cuddly--Craig had to chase her down and catch her so we could take her home that spring.  She never lost that little bit of wild cat mentality until the last few weeks of her life.  She never got close to strangers but she was a constant companion, cuddler and furry friend to our family--even to the point of being really patient with the kids who were not nearly as gentle as they should have been--for the 18 years we were allowed to enjoy with her. 

Slinky was part dog.  If you couldn't find her, all you had to do was whistle and she'd come running.  She loved to play fetch with crumpled up paper  balls and would get so excited you'd think her head would fly off if she heard the sound of paper being crushed up in your hands.  She was a pain in the ass like all cats should be, waking me up at all hours of the night to go out, then come in, peeing in places she shouldn't (on purpose), scratching and biting vet techs (and us) now and then.  She survived being hit by a car at a young age, and ended up with a funny parylized tail that flopped around for the rest of her life.  When we lived in the country, she was a fabulous hunter, leaving us a constant array of mouse and vole heads and innards on our sidewalk as presents.  She even caught a weasel and a bat--quite the trophies!  And of course we'll never forget the time she brought a live mouse inside and let it go.  She never did understand why we didn't appreciate THAT present...

Slinky was a snowbird when we were; traveling with us to Florida every winter for a few years, after which she made a surprisingly easy transition to suburbia and never complained despite having to be a house cat for a few years until we bought our house on a quiet dead end street.  When allowed to go outside again, she stuck close to home, always preferring to be out when we were in the yard and just for an hour or two each summer night to prowl and do what cats do...

We miss her everywhere.  The irony of having a pet is the little things, and the things that were annoying and that I cussed her out about are the places I now miss her most.  Lying in bed I missed the feel of her four paws walking across and weighing heavily on my butt as I try to sleep.  I miss the howling to come inside (and go out again) at 4am.  I miss playing fetch.  I miss her biting my ankles as I walked by.  I miss her meowing for food only to eat one kibble and walk away.  I miss catching her sitting in the bath tub drinking the drips of water (I guess we'll have to fix that leak now), and I am so sad to have to wipe up her last trail of footprints from the bathroom and have not been able to bring myself to do it yet.

Goodbye old friend. It was hard to let you go, but we know it was your time and your spunky spirit needed to move on.  We miss you so much already.  Things will not be the same around here without you.  Say hello to Mr. Tux, and catch a mouse for  us...

If you're in the Rockland County area, please check out the Music Festival at Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge this Saturday, May 17th.  I am sharing a booth with Jen of Lillyzoo, and we will be selling our wares this weekend at the craft fair part of the event. 

Jen has been sewing up aprons like a woman possessed (can't wait to see them!) and will also have felted soaps, felt balls, scarves and rattles.  I've got a good stock of  spring and summery knit and felt items, and just made up some gourmet needle felting kits, among other things.   I'll also have a selection of my Dad's hand turned pens on hand, which make great Father's Day and Graduation gifts.

We  will be the women under the white tent full of fibery goodies.   Hopefully we'll have good weather and a fun and profitable day!

I just love this yarn so I had to post it.  I think I must keep it for me, because the colors are so outstanding, it's unbelievably soft and just turned out special.  Spun from unbelievable hand dyed alpaca locks from the fabulous Holly, plied with glass beads in green, blue and brown, on a Habu tsugumi silk yarn in black.  Mine, mine I tell ya!

Fabulous, isn't it? (If I do say so myself)

"...in general i do try to live my life in the light. but let's be honest. i own a timeshare on the darkside and i just have to go there sometimes. so come, don't be afraid."

Quoted direct from Lexi Boeger, aka Pluckyfluff, on her blog recently.  I love this woman...she needs to write a book I think, and not just about yarn.  Maybe yarn and horror/sci-fi combo, yes, that's it.   I think I will put her quote in my signature.  What do you think?

Long time no post, I know, I know....and this one is a quick one, just to show off something recent that I enjoyed making and really like--enough to make more (that says a lot for me, I'm usually a one-of-a-kind type of designer).  This is my "Spring Surprise" shawl.  It's  a larger shoulder wrap that I hand felted from a 70% wool--30% mohair blend of farm roving in blues and greens, purchased from SpinningMoonFarm on Etsy.  I nuno felted it onto a thin layer of silk gauze with a single stripe down the center to grab and pucker the silk.  It's warm yet light for spring and summer evenings.  I donated it to little A's school PTA Fashion show fundraiser for a raffle this week, so I hope it helps to raise money for them, and drums up a bit of local recognition and possible future business for me. 

Here it is on the line, doubled up, (idrying:

and draped on a picnic bench:

These pictures make me realize just how much I need a dress form to shoot my stuff on.  The pictures just don't do this piece justice.  I just have to break down and buy one soon, because it's just silly not to get good photos of my work.

After my negative rant of the last post, I felt the need to share something positive today.  This picture was too cute not to share, so here he is, my very own Garden Gnome in his pointy gnome hat, tromping through our raised beds, compacting the soil and causing all kinds of trouble a few days ago.

And  below I have  another pointed item to share, a finished object  (hooray for me!) destined for Winterharbor Studio.  Hand knit from recycled sari silk yarn primarily in a deep red color with splashes of bright colors throughout.  This is probably the first and last time I will work with this yarn.  I love the effect this fiber gives, but it's difficult to work with.  The yarn separated now and then so I had to weave the loose strands into each other occasionally so it would be seamless.  If you have to frog it (I did) the tangle of loose threads is a major challenge to separate and keep your sanity.  And this sari silk is so overdyed that it bleeds like no tomorrow.  I have a bag of loose fibers to blend into spinning batts and it always manages to bleed and change the color of the finished yarn after I'm done.  Sometimes I like the results, more often I don't.  But it does make for a pretty shawl if you have the patience to work with it-the "Rejuvenate Shawl":

Gosh I hate to post this in public, but I need to rant because I am absolutely furious with our bank (Insert giant-corporate banking conglomerate name here).  We do much of our banking in one locale, and when Craig quit his job to start working on Crowd Fusion last summer, we took out a home equity line of credit in case we needed to dip into it to cover us in between "official" jobs.  Shortly after we got the line, our primary mortgage also was purchased by the same bank, putting too many of our eggs in one basket, in my opinion.  But what are you going to do?

Back in January I noticed a $25 debit to our checking account and questioned it in an email to them.  Somehow I let it slip through the cracks.  We keep tabs on our accounts mostly electronically, and it takes a few months to catch up sometimes.  I really don't know how I let it slip under the radar that they have been charging us $25/month for our checking account, which used to be FREE before we gave them more of our business.  The return message I was sent (and just read, 3 months later--that part is 'my bad'), tells me that we need a combined total debt and/or savings in our accounts of $250,000 in order to avoid the $25 fee!!!!!  Where the heck did that come from? 

I have a couple of accounts elsewhere that will charge me $5 if I go below a $500 balance.  That seems reasonable to me.  These guys have a half dozen assorted accounts with us, and a very long relationship with us.  My first credit card I got when I turned 18 is still with them--20 years, folks!!  Now they have decided they need to nickel and dime us to death.   Leave it to corporate America to screw you for giving them a bigger piece of the pie. 

It's UFO time, and  I'm not talking generally about my Unbelievable Fiber Obsession, but  am trying to attack a specific problem within my stash; a massive pile of Un-Finished Objects or as we fiber obsessed people (and crafters everywhere) call them, UFO's.

Anyone who knows me well (and some who don't) know that I have a case of "start-itis", a term I lovingly stole from another fiber artist on one of the many lists I subscribe to.  I come up with new ideas, sometimes write them down, and start them.  Finishing isn't my strength <----understatement of the year.  So the stack of UFO's in my stash is quite impressive, maybe 20+ ok, more like 30.  OK, lets be honest I just have no idea how many items are out there floating around, waiting for some attention. And if you counted all of the supplies I purchased with a specific project in mind and haven't started...well, let's just not go there now as I'm feeling good about progress made recently, and don't want to rain on my own parade.

In the past I've tried new project  "diets" that  required me to finish one UFO in between each new item started.  It worked for a while, but then I'd find that I needed something small and brainless to work on while at the PTA meeting, sitting on line, waiting during ballet class...so I'd grab some yarn and two to five pointy sticks and whammo...great plans out the window (but nifty new hat started, cool :)

So on the verge of the Spring craft shows, and updating Amy's gallery with seasonal items,  I am grabbing some of these bad boys and plodding through the pile, putting the proper Spring UFO's at the top of the heap. This past weekend I finished a beautiful sari silk triangle shawl that I started over a year ago.  Yesterday I finished a yarn necklace that's been sitting in my bead box for a few months, and I worked for a few hours on the hairpin lace scarf shown in the photo, started last summer?   I plan to finish that today.   As I finish each, I find new things hiding  and add them to my queue.  Some of them  only need a half hour of my time to finish up, and it feels really good to have completed things to photograph, sell, gift, and show off.  After a bit of progress I feel confident that my persistence will pay off.

Ooh...gotta run, I just got an idea for a new spinning technique and need to go try it out...

Hiatus?  Really?  No, not really, just no time to take pics or post new projects lately.  I've been working on an original technique that I'm not ready to share yet, trying to perfect it so I can make a kit to sell.  Craig is a big believer in "make it once, sell it over and over", and he's right, sort of.  My kit will include both a bit of handmade (by me) parts, commercial parts, and a pattern to put it all together.  So it'll still be unique to TemptressYarn of course.  Details coming in a few weeks, I hope--I'm not much of a graphic designer and not sure how to put an instruction booklet together for printing.  That part will be hard.  I may try to find someone to help with that part...will see.

I've also been working like crazy to get some Springy things made to take to my Sister Amy's gallery in Greenport, NY:  Winterharborstudio is on Main Street, open weekends and a few other days and for Greenport's monthly gallery walks. (And I need to update her web site to reflect all that and more!)   I've been doing some lightweight felting, knit and crochet handbags and I hope to finish a few spring shawls and scarf ufo's that have been kicking around here.  Will go pull the wintry things next weekend and swap them out, or at least that's the plan. My friend Jen has been making some new felt soaps to stock up there as well--so to add color to the site, here's a pic I swiped from her web site, LillyZoo.com   She is also on Etsy as Lillyzoo :

She has some easier technique that works in her washing machine for felting soaps so I envy her that.  Soap felting is work....well, maybe not hard work but lots of time for little profit, so anything that makes it faster/easier is the way to go.  Customers literally eat them up, so it's great to have a stock (well, maybe not literally eating them, but you know what I mean).  Anyhow,  my washing machine ate the soaps when I tried to make them in there...can you say "shrinkage?"  So I have to do them by hand, which means I rarely get around to it.

Off to finish our TAXES, eeeeeew.  And then housework and fiber fun (that should be sometime around Thursday, I think).  With luck I'll get some fun things to look at here in the next few days...

Last year I purchased two lovely, small Navajo Churro fleece from Barbara at Flint Run Farm.  I was attracted by the "rare breed" idea as well as the fact that she had a few smaller fleeces for sale compared to others I had seen available.  The thought of smaller amounts of wool to process really enticed me as someone relatively new to raw fleece (not wanting to get in over my head and all--I would never do that, grin).  This year, with my renewed interest in  fleece prep that came from a successful attempt in the washing machine, I decided to purchase a few more fleeces from Barbara,  despite the fact that I still have a fair amount of last years' left.  I inquired and ended up purchasing three small fleeces that arrived today. 

I heard the postal van transmission whining down my street, and then heard the telltale "thump" that means a package has arrived.  I looked out the door to see a giant plastic canvas bag like you might imagine Santa Claus carrying over his shoulder.  Strange, I thought....then realized there was cardboard inside the bag....even stranger yet.  Why would Barbara ship fleece inside a box, inside a bag?  After a bit more inspection of the package, I realized that her box was inside an "official USPS" bag because of some kind of  postal accident (the kind you can only imagine):

So there it was, in all it's glory.  Three fleeces in bags, each bag ripped somewhat with fleece peeking out.  And then there's this:

Thoughts on this accident ran through my mind, not necessarily in this order:

"How, where, and why did this happen?"  and   "Thank goodness I don't buy antique Tiffany lamps"  and of course the best of all "I wonder what the people at the post office think I do with bags full of greasy sheep fleeces.  I can just imagine the looks on their (very, very, suburbanite) faces"   That third thought made me smile...a LOT...in fact, I'm still smiling about it.

In all, no harm was done.  The fleeces (Faith, Nancy, and Grace) were intact and in great shape, well skirted without too much dirt or vm.  Even the invoice and photos of my new sheepy friends survived without a crease, despite being found in the bottom of that box!  And I immediately opened one of the fleeces up and here it is--from Nancy.  I put half in the washer and it's already halfway finished, turning from this to a nice creamy white as I write this:

I'm sure more Navajo Churro posts will pop up, since I now have so much to work with.  I do hope this  post is the last I need to make about postal mishaps.  Happy spinning and good night.

Just a vent tonight about a hat I've been knitting from my Winter Wonderland yarn.  I have frogged this freaking (frogging) hat so many times that I've lost count.  Tried to make a roll brim with seed stitch and it turned out to be big enough for a giant, plus the brim didn't roll much due to all the beads and sequins in the yarn, and my seed stitch sucked...pearls where there should have been knits, knits where there should have been pearls, aargh.  (Note to self--and others if you're listening--do not take seed stitch projects out and about to work on where you can't concentrate.  It wil not work out right and you'll be sorry.)  Next I settled on k3p3 rib changing over to stockinette, which went along fine.  I wanted to do some fancy openwork as a kind of top beyond the peak--a little detail to match the neck warmer I made with the other skein, and it's failed twice so far.  The latest version looks like a blender got hold of it.  Whose dumb idea was it to make those twisty dreads at the top edge anyhow?  Oh yeah.  My brain said "don't do it" but my hands did it anyhow.  I saw this technique on TV once and had to try it for myself.  Bad idea, I tell ya.  Like Dr. Seuss on steroids...which gives me an idea:  maybe congress can investigate my hat  and stop wasting time (and our tax dollars) on Roger.

Alright, enough baseball talk.  It will be summer before I get this thing finished, but I am so determined NOT to let another thing go into the UFO heap.  I love making things up as I go along, but this goes to show that sometimes a pattern is worth a couple of bucks, no?

Off to frog and give it one more try before I cash in the chips and make it a plain old beanie.  One good thing comes from all the cussing and griping I've put myself through for this hat:  I learned that my handspun can take the ripping, hold up and still look great.  That's a plus that I had counted on, but it's nice to be sure.

Just a quick post with pictures of a few of the items I've listed recently at Handmade and on my new etsy shop, TemptressYarn.etsy.com.  The batts are only available on etsy so far and the yarn is in both places.

Top left, tread softly batts (on etsy).  Top right "I dream in Color" yarn.

Bottom left, "Irish" yarn.  Bottom right--Border Leicester locks for sale on etsy.

It was almost too easy to wash this chunk of wool fleece in my top loading washer this week.  I'm not going to re-write history since I just spent an hour uploading and making notes on this whole process over in my flickr account, but I am putting this lovely tiled collage up here for a quick overview of the process, and a quick numbered list with info about each thumbnail below the photo.  For more details, please go through my flickr set titled Machine Wash Wool Fleece, and feel free to comment here or there and ask questions. 

For a first try at this method, I am very happy with the results I got.  The locks came out cleaner than many I have purchased with the word "washed" in the description, and were much easier to handle than the dishpan-by-hand method I've used in the past, so that makes it worth repeating soon.  This was from a 3lb, 11oz Border Leicester fleece that I bought at NYSWF at Rhinebeck, October, 2007.  I washed about half the fleece in one batch and am very happy with the ease and speed of the process and the great results I got.   Just a reminder that you can only do this in a top loading washer that has a way to run a "spin only" cycle without agitating.  Otherwise, don't try this at home.

1. Raw Fleece    

2. Judging Card from the NYSWF fleece sale

3. Fleece info card, weight, name, cost

4. Put the fleece into lingerie bags in a  loose, single layer.

5. Add very hot water to an empty washing machine (turned my hot water heater up one click).

6. Add soap after the water is finished filling to avoid massive bubbles.

7. Agitate for 3 seconds to distribute soap (wool is NOT in the water yet)

8. Set washer to "spin only" before you forget!  DO NOT AGITATE WOOL lest you get a giant felt glob!

9. Drop bags of wool into soapy water and gently push down.

10. First soak, 15-20 minutes, (again a reminder: do not agitate!)

11.Spin washer out--showing a sample of the locks after first soak and spin

12-13.  Set bags aside and repeat steps 5-11.  Use less soap this time.

14. Sample of locks after second soak/spin cycle.

15. Refill washer with hot water and vinegar to rinse soap residue and soften.  Repeat rinse soak until the water runs clear.  Keep using hot water, since some wool will felt with big temperature changes.

16. Baby gates used as drying racks---knew I bought those for some reason!!

17.  Wool spread out to dry, fluffed and flipped over once.

18.  Washed Border Leicester Locks, ready to dye now, hooray!!

Tonight is fleece a-washin' evenin' in the old clothes washer.

I'm just doing a final rinse now on about half an off-white Border Leicester fleece that I bought at the NYSWF in Rhinebeck in the fall (2007) that I've been dying to work with.  This is the first time I've used my washing machine for this process, but it seems to be working beautifully in the "soak and spin" method.  Will post details and a few pics tomorrow.  I hope to make a fleece washing tutorial out of this so I took pictures through the whole process.

My spin cycle just finished, so I'm back to spread the locks out to dry, then off to my wheel for some plying and then spinning some of these batts I've been making lately!  Craig is watching old Dr. Who episodes on the TIVO without me, so I've got to run before he starts another, aargh!