Sometimes, as I walk out to my blue car, wearing my blue shirt and shoes, carrying my blue purse, I get tickled. I must really like blue A LOT. Sometimes when buying yarn, I force myself to look at the other colors first. After all, having something to go with blue makes the blue sing. Otherwise, I hear you on the day to day stuff. I am currently doing my own adulting while helping my adult son relaunch into adult life. Goodness to gracious... there's so much to do. Namely because the young man lost his wallet some time back so getting the cards back - like a driver's license, etc. - has been tough. Proving he is himself so he can do all the things. There are days I only get to glance at my looms. Good days are when I get to play with them. Anyway, thank you, as always, for your wonderful newsletter!
ps: Isn't Sarah Neubert just the most amazing person!? I ran across her by chance, as one does on the interwebs and liked her instantly. In an interview, she said something like "Me and weaving met and got married the same day." Yep, can I ever relate to that!
OH golly Ellen, what a thing it is to get one's life together -- indeed, to both preserve some kind of autonomy ("Yes I DO love the color blue and that's a fine thing"), and to survive in the world with all the appropriate documentation without which we're all hampered. Yowza. Thinking of you in that (as I've been doing a ton of it myself this last year), and I hope your son's stuff gets resolved even as you find your own magical way onward.
And thank you for that delicious Sarah Neubert quote. Makes my day!
Hi Sarah, the last time I did Indigo...it was from the previous Gran Master in japan..I was blessed with a very few grams..I hid the pot very carefully for weeks!! When it came time to dye..the wonderful aroma came blasting out..my landlord wasn't to thrilled and the 6 block area wasn't either!! I told them I should have charged by the sniff!! So glad you had fun! All the best masseyna
HA -- Indigo does have such a deliciously distinctive aroma. I've never had any complaints except for the time I did a Urine fermentation. The smell was.... strong. One of my son's young friends asked why our whole back yard smelled like a bathroom. But the BLUE -- oh my -- it was just spectacular. Such a glorious thing to have learned from a grand master in Japan. An experience to be treasured.
Oh yes, yes, yes to wholly absorbed, immersive days. Having dropped husband early at the station for him to go fishing for the week, walked Jasper the Springer spaniel to the Loch so he could change from liver and white to liver and mud, I sorted fleece, washed two 100g batches and left some unusable parts soaking in cold water to receive an extract of peppermint cut from the jungle that exists behind my polytunnel. I'm hoping the newly minted (😉) fleece packed into their favourite ports of entry will act as mouse deterrent as the autumn influx arrives. Anyone tried this?
While down in the jungle I cut comfrey leaves and they're chopped and soaking overnight ready for that clean fleece tomorrow. And in the spaces between all this I pickled some tunnel grown gherkins (cornichons) and made the base for (golden) courgette (zucchini), leek, spinach and sage soup. Some garden tidying got done in passing. A parcel of fresh weld arrived from my Bro in England where the stuff grows wild on derelict sites and mention of walnuts reminds me he can gather these, too. I must remind him.
Re lichen - in the UK very few give good colour in my experience - camellid range at best, I'd say. We self discourage from taking the encrusting ones that historically gave good reds and oranges.
Minted fleece packing.... what a great idea, as long as they don't decide to nest with it. It's been a banner year for the rodents and it's still high summer here in Northern California!
OH gosh Linda -- what a grand description of your solo immersion. One thing leading deliciously to another -- inside, outside, muddy, doggy, fleecy, anti-mousey! Brilliant. I hope the rest of your week went as well, and that your husband, in turn, comes home feeling sated with casting and wading.
And I agree about the encrusted lichens. I'm mostly a fan of the leafy droopy ones that fly to the forest floor in high wind and rain--How not to stop and pick them up all up as I walk, and fill bowls when I get home -- and finally, when there are enough, to simmer them up. We have three here, that never fail to give good color -- at least in the red/brown/yellow range. the fermenting ones (pinks etc), are not only hard to find nd scarce, but also not sufficiently light fast to pique my interest...
Hi Sarah, I am aware that you live in a different universe than the rest of us, but am wondering how PT can be an hour later than MT. This is complicated by the fact that I live in AZ which opted out of clock changing activities. But I can figure that one out if I know where to start.
Love the letters regardless of colors. Letters are in my DNA.
Yes. Yes to time spent in the creative bubble universe. Yes to blue, especially those warmish, watery, aqua leaning hues. Yes to beloved friends who are never forgotten. And a big yes to hands that can still create and hearts that can still laugh and love. Yes to the wonder of it all.
I am officially ready to get a WIP on the Wall; one of many quilt projects that had to languish while I was caring for my beloved Marley (2005 - 2023). Now I am ready to get the blocks on the design wall and the hands and machine humming to put them together. I am happily feeling a bit of Phoenix energy over here today. Reading your adventures has helped fuel my crawl out of grief ashes and return to creativity.
Now, off to the kitchen where a seriously cute baby watermelon calling me get a snack!
Ah Lorraine, so happy to hear about the rising of your Phoenix energy, even as I am so so sorry about your Marley. Such huge shifts -- though for us, shifts that are helped so much by color and fiber and the work of our hands. Hope so much that the songs of your quilt blocks is irresistible to your newly (re)hatched bird.
A propos of practically nothing, but I think you'd like this:
I used to see, I was very young, in the 1950s, an old lady who always dressed head to foot in the same color. Same outfit, floppy fabric hat with a brim, skirt suit, shirt waist frilly blouse, stockings, shoes in 1930s style, clothes clearly made by her, more hopeful than skilled. I remember her green outfit and her pink one, and there might have been a yellow one. She was always alone, always smiling, happy with herself. Your comment about the blue kit brought her flashing back. Thank you!
Oh golly, I can see her! Thank you Liz. What a delicious visual image -- and, oh dear, so familiar. Clothes made with hope rather than skill and thus also exude joy and pleasure all around. Thank you for that.
"Because though it might seem as if I live in continually-blissed-out-nonstop-maker-mode, all fully immersive days with minimal outside input—such times are actually rare treats and ever worth noticing.
Not that it isn’t helpful to also notice the other kind:"
Good to know that you too, Sarah, end up on hold for hours, and all the other indignities of modern life. I spent most of today doing taxes! Your post was a blessing!
HA! Hope your taxes are done and crossed off the list Julie, and that no other (or at least not too many others), have popped up since. So much easier to do though, when hours or days are salted with some blissed-out-maker-hours, eh?
Do you wrap the warp when weaving uprights for letters, or do you use an open or closed soumak? I'm working on my ATA postcard and I want to include a word.
Thank you so much! I knew I had seen that post somewhere, but I was looking on your old blog (where there is also some good info on letter weaving). Postcard is coming along well. I feel a wee bit intimidated by sending it to another weaver. :)
Red Nuns is mesmerizing! And yes, I do want to be there. It reminds me of a lace coracle that was knitted and then processed in some way to make it floatable, big enough for a person. My cursor sat still blinking here for a bit while I scoured my piles of books looking for that photo. Alas, it decided to be left in memory storage for the moment! The coracle is a lovely idea. Those moments of total creative immersion that makes time stand still are wonderful when they do show up! Thank you!
I LOVE that coracle. I believe it was knit by Debbie New and shown in her book Unexpected Knitting. I think she used some kind of rosin or maybe even fiberglass glue to coat it. A magical craft indeed. Thanks for reminding me of it
Hi Sarah. I just found out that the donation for your news letter didn't go through last week. I won't go into the reason right now, but if you submit it again, I am assured it will be ok.
Gosh Lynda, thank you for letting me know. Unfortunately with Substack there isn't anything I can do about how the payments work (or not), so fear you'll have to do it on your end if you have the inclination. So appreciate you doing this!
What a wonderful photo! I remembered the coracle from your Red Nun tapestry (one of many that enchanted me years ago and to which I often return to feast on the colors and fantasies!) but I didn't realize you really took to the water with your dog in a coracle. I love it. ....Now I think it's time to harvest my indigo and try another batch of blue magic. ... And yay for a, amen!
Indigo harvest. What a pleasure. What will you dye? I've been reading about Josefin Waltin's fresh indigo deliciousness on her blog these last weeks with pure delight. So love how universal is our love of blue. https://waltin.se/josefinwaltinspinner/blog/
I'm working on the basis that mice don't like raw sheep fleece (I'm only cold washing it) and mint is the doubling down. Our mice will go to manmade plastic & acrylic items for bedding but I've never had a wool attack. I'm trying hard to replace manmades but outdoor stretch fabrics are tricky.
Agree with the trickiness of outdoor stretch fabrics. Icebreaker makes some good leggings that are 100% wool and stay nice and stretchy after much wearing -- and I'm ever seeking more sources for such things. And so interesting to know that your mice willl bed down in acrylics but not wool. Not only interesting, but useful and compelling. Thanks
I love how you weave your life into stories! Outside my little caretakers cottage, I have two heavily laden walnut trees loaded with still-green walnuts. Is now the time to pick for dyeing? Also lots of lichen from the oak trees on the ground after Monday's big wind storm, begging to be in a dye pot!
Any time they start falling to the ground with their thick green husks I just pick them and pop them in a depot with water to soak until I have "enough" to boil them up (within a week is goo though or they might start to mold, which doesn't hurt but is icky). Sometimes I can get them all at once. Then I boil for a couple of hours, let sit, then either strain (tidy) or throw some skeins right in with the nutty/hully mess, and simmer gently until dark brown -- 1/2 - 1 hour. Very low tech but effective.
Red Nuns has always been a favorite of mine, but then many of your tapestries were favorites of mine 😘. In my backyard, Goldenrod is glowing the brightest golden yellow I have ever seen her wear as she arches her way upward to the heavens, calling my name...and I now wonder why I donated all my dye equipment before moving to MN. What was I thinking?!?!? (Might have to check out the garage sales around here.) I have answered her call, though, by taking her in flower essence form. Her essence helps us find a true life and courageously live it.
As ever, your ramblings, musings, creations, colors, and life with Beryl make my heart smile. Life is so precious when we stop and consider each moment is a gift to us. But it is up to us to recognize the gift. Thank you, for the gift of you that you offer us each week.
OH, those goldenrod yellows! My friend Jodi (https://www.instagram.com/kjodigear/) who makes my paint created an amazing yellow lake pigment/watercolor from goldenrod last year -- an alternative to dyeing yarn if one has happened to divest oneself of all that equipment. Another kind of flower essence I get to include in my drawings that always makes me smile.
Thanks as ever for your loveliness and good thoughts Bonnie!
Thank you for sharing, once again. It helps to know that such people are in the world. And such lovely dogs, too.
Sometimes, as I walk out to my blue car, wearing my blue shirt and shoes, carrying my blue purse, I get tickled. I must really like blue A LOT. Sometimes when buying yarn, I force myself to look at the other colors first. After all, having something to go with blue makes the blue sing. Otherwise, I hear you on the day to day stuff. I am currently doing my own adulting while helping my adult son relaunch into adult life. Goodness to gracious... there's so much to do. Namely because the young man lost his wallet some time back so getting the cards back - like a driver's license, etc. - has been tough. Proving he is himself so he can do all the things. There are days I only get to glance at my looms. Good days are when I get to play with them. Anyway, thank you, as always, for your wonderful newsletter!
ps: Isn't Sarah Neubert just the most amazing person!? I ran across her by chance, as one does on the interwebs and liked her instantly. In an interview, she said something like "Me and weaving met and got married the same day." Yep, can I ever relate to that!
OH golly Ellen, what a thing it is to get one's life together -- indeed, to both preserve some kind of autonomy ("Yes I DO love the color blue and that's a fine thing"), and to survive in the world with all the appropriate documentation without which we're all hampered. Yowza. Thinking of you in that (as I've been doing a ton of it myself this last year), and I hope your son's stuff gets resolved even as you find your own magical way onward.
And thank you for that delicious Sarah Neubert quote. Makes my day!
Hi Sarah, the last time I did Indigo...it was from the previous Gran Master in japan..I was blessed with a very few grams..I hid the pot very carefully for weeks!! When it came time to dye..the wonderful aroma came blasting out..my landlord wasn't to thrilled and the 6 block area wasn't either!! I told them I should have charged by the sniff!! So glad you had fun! All the best masseyna
HA -- Indigo does have such a deliciously distinctive aroma. I've never had any complaints except for the time I did a Urine fermentation. The smell was.... strong. One of my son's young friends asked why our whole back yard smelled like a bathroom. But the BLUE -- oh my -- it was just spectacular. Such a glorious thing to have learned from a grand master in Japan. An experience to be treasured.
Oh yes, yes, yes to wholly absorbed, immersive days. Having dropped husband early at the station for him to go fishing for the week, walked Jasper the Springer spaniel to the Loch so he could change from liver and white to liver and mud, I sorted fleece, washed two 100g batches and left some unusable parts soaking in cold water to receive an extract of peppermint cut from the jungle that exists behind my polytunnel. I'm hoping the newly minted (😉) fleece packed into their favourite ports of entry will act as mouse deterrent as the autumn influx arrives. Anyone tried this?
While down in the jungle I cut comfrey leaves and they're chopped and soaking overnight ready for that clean fleece tomorrow. And in the spaces between all this I pickled some tunnel grown gherkins (cornichons) and made the base for (golden) courgette (zucchini), leek, spinach and sage soup. Some garden tidying got done in passing. A parcel of fresh weld arrived from my Bro in England where the stuff grows wild on derelict sites and mention of walnuts reminds me he can gather these, too. I must remind him.
Re lichen - in the UK very few give good colour in my experience - camellid range at best, I'd say. We self discourage from taking the encrusting ones that historically gave good reds and oranges.
Minted fleece packing.... what a great idea, as long as they don't decide to nest with it. It's been a banner year for the rodents and it's still high summer here in Northern California!
OH gosh Linda -- what a grand description of your solo immersion. One thing leading deliciously to another -- inside, outside, muddy, doggy, fleecy, anti-mousey! Brilliant. I hope the rest of your week went as well, and that your husband, in turn, comes home feeling sated with casting and wading.
And I agree about the encrusted lichens. I'm mostly a fan of the leafy droopy ones that fly to the forest floor in high wind and rain--How not to stop and pick them up all up as I walk, and fill bowls when I get home -- and finally, when there are enough, to simmer them up. We have three here, that never fail to give good color -- at least in the red/brown/yellow range. the fermenting ones (pinks etc), are not only hard to find nd scarce, but also not sufficiently light fast to pique my interest...
Ah, you make my week…love your work and the way you think and write and, of course, Beryl too.
Hi Sarah, I am aware that you live in a different universe than the rest of us, but am wondering how PT can be an hour later than MT. This is complicated by the fact that I live in AZ which opted out of clock changing activities. But I can figure that one out if I know where to start.
Love the letters regardless of colors. Letters are in my DNA.
Oops! Well, it should be 11 Mountain time (Rebecca) and 10 Pacific time (me). How you Arizonans relate to that I cannot say.....;-)
Yes. Yes to time spent in the creative bubble universe. Yes to blue, especially those warmish, watery, aqua leaning hues. Yes to beloved friends who are never forgotten. And a big yes to hands that can still create and hearts that can still laugh and love. Yes to the wonder of it all.
I am officially ready to get a WIP on the Wall; one of many quilt projects that had to languish while I was caring for my beloved Marley (2005 - 2023). Now I am ready to get the blocks on the design wall and the hands and machine humming to put them together. I am happily feeling a bit of Phoenix energy over here today. Reading your adventures has helped fuel my crawl out of grief ashes and return to creativity.
Now, off to the kitchen where a seriously cute baby watermelon calling me get a snack!
Ah Lorraine, so happy to hear about the rising of your Phoenix energy, even as I am so so sorry about your Marley. Such huge shifts -- though for us, shifts that are helped so much by color and fiber and the work of our hands. Hope so much that the songs of your quilt blocks is irresistible to your newly (re)hatched bird.
A propos of practically nothing, but I think you'd like this:
I used to see, I was very young, in the 1950s, an old lady who always dressed head to foot in the same color. Same outfit, floppy fabric hat with a brim, skirt suit, shirt waist frilly blouse, stockings, shoes in 1930s style, clothes clearly made by her, more hopeful than skilled. I remember her green outfit and her pink one, and there might have been a yellow one. She was always alone, always smiling, happy with herself. Your comment about the blue kit brought her flashing back. Thank you!
Oh golly, I can see her! Thank you Liz. What a delicious visual image -- and, oh dear, so familiar. Clothes made with hope rather than skill and thus also exude joy and pleasure all around. Thank you for that.
"Because though it might seem as if I live in continually-blissed-out-nonstop-maker-mode, all fully immersive days with minimal outside input—such times are actually rare treats and ever worth noticing.
Not that it isn’t helpful to also notice the other kind:"
Good to know that you too, Sarah, end up on hold for hours, and all the other indignities of modern life. I spent most of today doing taxes! Your post was a blessing!
HA! Hope your taxes are done and crossed off the list Julie, and that no other (or at least not too many others), have popped up since. So much easier to do though, when hours or days are salted with some blissed-out-maker-hours, eh?
Do you wrap the warp when weaving uprights for letters, or do you use an open or closed soumak? I'm working on my ATA postcard and I want to include a word.
HI Deb -- yes, I wrap the letters. In this post (https://sarahcswett.substack.com/p/to-weave-a-letter-or-four), I show it more closely -- and there is even a video! Good luck with that post card
Thank you so much! I knew I had seen that post somewhere, but I was looking on your old blog (where there is also some good info on letter weaving). Postcard is coming along well. I feel a wee bit intimidated by sending it to another weaver. :)
Red Nuns is mesmerizing! And yes, I do want to be there. It reminds me of a lace coracle that was knitted and then processed in some way to make it floatable, big enough for a person. My cursor sat still blinking here for a bit while I scoured my piles of books looking for that photo. Alas, it decided to be left in memory storage for the moment! The coracle is a lovely idea. Those moments of total creative immersion that makes time stand still are wonderful when they do show up! Thank you!
I LOVE that coracle. I believe it was knit by Debbie New and shown in her book Unexpected Knitting. I think she used some kind of rosin or maybe even fiberglass glue to coat it. A magical craft indeed. Thanks for reminding me of it
Hi Sarah. I just found out that the donation for your news letter didn't go through last week. I won't go into the reason right now, but if you submit it again, I am assured it will be ok.
Gosh Lynda, thank you for letting me know. Unfortunately with Substack there isn't anything I can do about how the payments work (or not), so fear you'll have to do it on your end if you have the inclination. So appreciate you doing this!
What a wonderful photo! I remembered the coracle from your Red Nun tapestry (one of many that enchanted me years ago and to which I often return to feast on the colors and fantasies!) but I didn't realize you really took to the water with your dog in a coracle. I love it. ....Now I think it's time to harvest my indigo and try another batch of blue magic. ... And yay for a, amen!
Indigo harvest. What a pleasure. What will you dye? I've been reading about Josefin Waltin's fresh indigo deliciousness on her blog these last weeks with pure delight. So love how universal is our love of blue. https://waltin.se/josefinwaltinspinner/blog/
I'm working on the basis that mice don't like raw sheep fleece (I'm only cold washing it) and mint is the doubling down. Our mice will go to manmade plastic & acrylic items for bedding but I've never had a wool attack. I'm trying hard to replace manmades but outdoor stretch fabrics are tricky.
Agree with the trickiness of outdoor stretch fabrics. Icebreaker makes some good leggings that are 100% wool and stay nice and stretchy after much wearing -- and I'm ever seeking more sources for such things. And so interesting to know that your mice willl bed down in acrylics but not wool. Not only interesting, but useful and compelling. Thanks
I love how you weave your life into stories! Outside my little caretakers cottage, I have two heavily laden walnut trees loaded with still-green walnuts. Is now the time to pick for dyeing? Also lots of lichen from the oak trees on the ground after Monday's big wind storm, begging to be in a dye pot!
Any time they start falling to the ground with their thick green husks I just pick them and pop them in a depot with water to soak until I have "enough" to boil them up (within a week is goo though or they might start to mold, which doesn't hurt but is icky). Sometimes I can get them all at once. Then I boil for a couple of hours, let sit, then either strain (tidy) or throw some skeins right in with the nutty/hully mess, and simmer gently until dark brown -- 1/2 - 1 hour. Very low tech but effective.
Red Nuns has always been a favorite of mine, but then many of your tapestries were favorites of mine 😘. In my backyard, Goldenrod is glowing the brightest golden yellow I have ever seen her wear as she arches her way upward to the heavens, calling my name...and I now wonder why I donated all my dye equipment before moving to MN. What was I thinking?!?!? (Might have to check out the garage sales around here.) I have answered her call, though, by taking her in flower essence form. Her essence helps us find a true life and courageously live it.
As ever, your ramblings, musings, creations, colors, and life with Beryl make my heart smile. Life is so precious when we stop and consider each moment is a gift to us. But it is up to us to recognize the gift. Thank you, for the gift of you that you offer us each week.
OH, those goldenrod yellows! My friend Jodi (https://www.instagram.com/kjodigear/) who makes my paint created an amazing yellow lake pigment/watercolor from goldenrod last year -- an alternative to dyeing yarn if one has happened to divest oneself of all that equipment. Another kind of flower essence I get to include in my drawings that always makes me smile.
Thanks as ever for your loveliness and good thoughts Bonnie!