fiber college bound:sept post 7

Heading north tomorrow! I'm recycling this image from a couple of years ago, of the house I stay at while teaching at Fiber College of Maine in Searsport. I suspect the few days we are there each year is the only time freshly dyed skeins of yarn hang from the trees. It adds something, right?

I'm hoping not to over schedule myself, for a change, and spend some time on that porch with my talented roomies.  If you are free this weekend, there're still classes with space in them. And Ellen Mason's prepping her dyes, so anyone can play in her dye tent. You won't be sorry!

fiber college coming soon, new workshops this year!

I can't ignore that September is rolling around soon. A couple of events I've been looking forward to are just around the bend. The first?

FIBER COLLEGE OF MAINE Sept 7-11, 2016

I'm teaching two new workshops. I'm pretty excited about them.They're also, I think, very much in the spirit of Fiber College.  Which is to say inspiring, fun, a chance to break away from the norm with no pressure. The photo above promotes a photography class aimed at anyone wanting to stretch their image making muscles: Creative Vision Challenge.  We'll be talking about ways to get out of imagery ruts, and provoke new ways of seeing. We'll be shooting challenges to make sure that happens. I am a firm believer in cross-pollinating your making experiences, it helps you grow.  This class should be amazing for anyone looking for a little jolt.

This image promotes a workshop called Haiku Postcards, co-taught with friend and frequent partner-in-workshop-crime, Beverly Army Williams.  We've come up with a project based class, one that lets you walk away with something in hand. We will be thinking about single shot imagery, photographing (with our phones-or cameras if you insist) on the beautiful grounds. We'll be printing images, placing them on  on postcard paper and then under Beverly's guidance, writing haiku to go with them. We can't wait to roll this one out. Sign up from the link on top or here.

(From the Oh, Natural Tahki Yarns collection I shot, just releasing. Love, love , love this hat.)

There's an interview with me on Fiber College blog. I keep returning to teach at Fiber College. It never fails to inspire, create community, and send me into the shortening days time of year with a good attitude. I leave Searsport full of ideas and the beauty I take in on  Penobscot Bay.  Also, full of lobsters, and wine and blueberry pie...but that is not strictly  required :-)
I've posted raved about Fiber College here, here, here and here, too. One important aspect: unlike other creative retreats and events, you do not need to pay one big fee. You can come and take just one class, or just pay to enter and stroll the grounds and try the mentored dye tent or other "pop=up" experiences, and shop, or you can take classes every minute you are there. 
So...next post..a big something else coming in September, too.

upcoming: say cheese!

In June, stones on Nash Island.
I may need to re-post this from time to-time, it's  a visualization of my mantra this summer: One stone at a time. Although Anne Lamott says it better.

Here it is mid-summer. Though there's mucho to blab about, instead I'm linking some upcoming classes/events/workshops.

-  Fiber College in Searsport Maine, September 9-13. The only thing that makes the end of summer bearable is looking forward to this creative gathering on beautiful Penobscot Bay. As in past years, I am collaborating with Beverly Army Williams to teach two new classes that combine photography and writing for your creative business (and creative life...not limited to those with businesses).  We are doing  Making Your Social Media Twinkle (yes..twinkle) on Friday, and Selling your Products Online, on Saturday. I am also teaching Photo Editing class, Sunday morning, which will leave you able to optimize and all around make your photos fanatastic-and no Photo Shop needed.  Class descriptions and registration info here.  Fiber College is an unusual, artful, affordable and always inspiring. Maine is stunning in September, by the way. Join us. 

- Say Cheese: A Foodie & Photo Workshop Day--  new & different and truly delicious, this one. I am teaming up with longtime friend and food professional Arline Conigliaro in Lawrenceville NJ to offer two sessions of this artisanal cheese-making, nibbling, wood fired personal pizza crafting and phone photography day...details here. 
 If you know any food bloggers or folks who  like to photograph beautiful food before eating it- and post the results online--pass this on!
Two sessions_ Sunday August 9 and Monday August 10 . Bring friends! 

fiber college: amen!

Loved all the blogreading suggestions and feedback. Thanks!

how they mend the screens at Fiber College

While I haven't settled what will be my new blog routine I do know this: if there's something you want to blog about, don't wait too long. It  evaporates like so much steam from the dyepot.

Which means I'd better tell you about Fiber College 2014. It is always quirkily wonderful-- maybe it's the stunning location on Penobscot Bay, at a campground with award winning gardens, making for a magical setting. Many classes take place under tents, or outdoors, so there's a festival feel, and a groovy vibe, as Beverly said in her post today.
added: and she blogged about quilting there, too

This year the special artists were Gees Bend Quilters, just the kind of mind bending cultural exchange you'd think.  I wandered into their sewing tent classroom when I wasn't teaching, to get a taste. How do you convey a form of quilting that's heritage, cultural tradition, intuition, oral history and faith in a higher power ? Not by making diagrams, setting down rules or talking about the principles of design. The Gees Bend Quilters are deeply religious and believe the spirit creates the art. Who can argue? Each class started with some serious praying and singing, like Prayer Meeting style, inviting Jesus to enter the quilters' hearts and minds and hands as they created, stitching by hand and by machine.

You'll want to google around to see more from people who quilted for real with the ladies. 
edited to add: here's Jan Cooper's wonderful Fiber College report. .Pretty amazing. I'll share with more of what I was teaching & making soon. If you posted about Fiber College, please leave a link in the comments !  And I'll  leave you with this:

 Fiber College blog here.
Tomorrow: I am on the Spinzilla Blog Tour. C'mon by.

recommitted (and it feels so gooood): blogging

Fresh back from the revivifying and always inspiring Fiber College of Maine , where I taught Savvy Storytelling: Writing & Photography for blogs with Beverly Army Williams of PoMoGo Lightly. 

front lawn view of Penobscot Bay

Fiber College:  a weaving underway

It was 4 days of sharing a house with funny, artistic, smart women, the kind of room mates you can only wish for. I took away lots of things, but mostly I realized I wouldn't be in that place if not for blogging, and spiralling connections.   

I'm joining Beverly, and Kirsten Kapur, and Mary Lou Egan and Cal Patch  and others, in returning to my blog with regularity. Not to mention rebuilding my blogreading habits.  Who do you read these days? Leave a suggestion in my comments!

Kirsten also asked this question and listed many of my longtime faves, she's s receiving great suggestions in her comments.

I've been gravitating to those who post regularly, and includes lots of photos:  LoriTimesFive, Fringe Association, Getting Stitched on the Farm, ZenNeedle,  Knitorius, and the longtime reliable Carole Knits. 

FYI: All of the photos today were  made with my almost dead older cracked iPhone. Yes I know I am a professional photographer with a kickass camera and plenty of knowhow.  Busman's holiday!  It is creating some interesting colorshifts and odd blur, which I sorta kinda am correcting and sorta kinda am keeping. 

If these photos look familiar, you may be on of my Instagram feed.  It is so easy to post there,  I do so daily.  Although tempting,  rarely a shot looking down on a plate of food.  Been there! Seen that! I'm galezucker on Instagram, you can see what I mean. 

Looking forward to your  blogreading suggestions and to being back here with some regularity.

random inspiration roundup...with footnotes

 

oh, hi there! Here I am preparing the blog writing & photography workshop I'll be co-teaching with Beverly Army Williams next week at Fiber College, Savvy Storytelling * and it's hard to ignore the [lacky of] content here this summer. One of the things we'll be blabbing about is the importance of consistency. ** um,...yeah.

You know what's  hardest about long lapses? Trying to figure out where to start. I'm just going to skim along through some moments of inspiration this summer. Photo heavy post follows.

In June I returned to Nash Island to help out with the sheep shearing and roundup. It deserves and will get its own post about the activities and people and sheep--but I had the honor of going out to the island the day before with Jani and Ellen, to camp and  just be there. I can't even put it into words, it was so beautiful and elemental. I have very little stillness in my life. So this? ahhhhh.

 

I spent a while just wandering around, the colors and textures slay me. We aren't even yet talking about the sheep, which you surprisingly barely see on this tiny hilly island,. Until roundup, that is.  My new banner, on top, was a rare girl who showed herself on the highest island ridge.

 

 More inspiration in June: the bathroom chalked graffiti at A Gathering of Stitches . This was my summer of stitching, which will also get its own post. But obviously, the writing was....on the wall. . Can you spy my subtle contribution?

In July I spent a few days with two wonderful women, Susanne of Lucky Spool Media  aka CraftyEditor and the talented Liz Quan,  shooting a book on bedroom quilts, at a converted barn home in the Hudson Valley.

 

If you're guessing that it made me want to quilt, you'd be wrong. But, it did make me think a lot about printed textiles, room styling, the beauty of a well-dressed bed *** Susanne is ahhh-maaaazing, she transformed rooms with a steamy iron, an artillery of Command hooks, and jaw-dropping ease. I also thought about how gorgeous a wall of old blue bottles or Queen Anne's lace can be.

My knitting cosmically coordinated with the bedroom I was assigned to stay in at the barn house. After finishing my ode-to-Maine green shawl, I'm continuing this thing of having my knits imbued with meaning****. The golden yarn is Rumplestilskin, from Lost City Knits, paired with a hand dyed grey from the seconds room at Swans Island Yarn--both souvenir purchases from summer 2013. My friend and collaborator Kirsten Kapur helped me pair them a year ago. Shooting a book for her earlier in spring made me realize how I needed to knit her Cladonia, so that is underway here.******

 

Can I leave out my favorite girl in one of my favorite places? Nope. I squeezed in three trips to the beach in Delaware, two with her. The family's place we've been gathering at since 1985 is for sale******, and every visit reminds us of time passing, and summers past.  No matter how gruesome the ride there is, that moment when you walk across the dune in front of the house to the crashing surf...it never ceases to be breathtaking.

What inspired you this summer? 

_________________________________

and now for the footnotes

* there are still seats left in the class, which happen this Friday September 5th from 9-5 in Searsport Maine.  Braggy moment: I am telling you, we've got a kickass class planned. If you can't make it and happen to be organizing an event--we are thinking of taking this on the road. Give us a shout!

** I am going to commit to blogging a couple of times a week, starting in midSeptember. If you are a crafter or small business person or social blogger, there is so much good about a consistent blog presence--not just for your soul and social life, but for the  growth you'll see in your following. For mine, one day  a week it'll be a photo heavy post about making/doing /life. The other will be something helpful. Or so I am thinking. Stay tuned! And, want to join me? We can link to each other.

***The quilting book will be out at the end of the year, and it'll be about bedroom styling with gorgeous quilt patterns, and ideas of choosing fabrics to match your personal style, the author is the talented April Rosenthal 

**** Up next a colorwork sweater, with Nash Island yarn from Starcroft, and Lori Versaci's Modern Tunic.  After shooting childrens' designs with her this summer I am a total fan of all her patterns for women too.

***** I know most Cladonias are striped. I'm opting for mostly grey stockinette section, a wide band of gold, then some stripes, then the lace...just  because. Go look at all the lovely Cladonias!

******If you happen to be looking for a fabulous place directly on the ocean in Dewey Beach Delaware, let me know, I'll point you to the realtor.

_______________________________

the recent past/the near future

where'ya been hiding all summer?

I was thinking I'd finally start blogging about my fibery/stitchy adventures this summer - there have been many-- but then I realized, it is almost the end of August, I must talk about what's next: 

FIBER COLLEGE  in Searsport Maine Sept 3-7 

 I'll be co-teaching Savvy Storytelling: Writing & Photography for Your Blog with Beverly Army Williams. We loved teaching this together last year (and loved our students). After a planning lunch this week, I can tell you that this year's version is going to be amazing. You will leave the day with a glint in your eye and all fired up to blog. ( I kind of got that way just talking about it with Beverly).  

Also a new class fromr me: Photo Scavenger Hunt. It will be a fun hands-on photography class making use of the wonderful surroundings- not just the natural but the people, and art and activities and moments. It'll teach you a lot about technique and composition, while you shoot challenges. You can be any level of photographer-it's a very adaptable and personalized class. Plus, there's a critique at the end.  I am rather psyched about both these classes. Click on that link to the (admittedly, um, idiosynchratic) website and sign up before you find everything full. I was astounded to learn there's still a couple of seats in Cal Patch's classes, f'rinstance and I recommend you nab'em while you can, too.  Hello? Do you need to think twice about hanging out with Gees Bend Quilters? Cal Patch? Ellen Mason? Jackie Ottino DeGraf? Mary Lou Egan?

I've blogged about my love for this unique event  here and here and here. Or email me if you want a private earful! 

__________________________

And now a bit about my last trip to Maine, to A Gathering of Stitches in Portland:

Meet Rhoda, the most self-possessed French Bulldog ever. In her fabulous porta-suitcase bed, thanks to her upholsterer-artist human,  who creates in a studio space at A Gathering of Stitches.

So much creativity at this dreamy makerspace, with Samantha Lindgren at the helm. (I am very annoyed that I can't find the excellent photo of the two of us that Keren Kurti made at the end of the classes) - upholstering, sewing, block printing, weaving..and in our case, 2 days of photo classes to explore shooting all of the above.

All three of the classes were new --or updated versions - and that was a joy. In the all day Photographing Your Handcrafts, we left time to upload images from earlier in the day,  and review/critique.We all felt like there was progress-I love this photo by Carolyn Noyes. A lot of talent in the room!

On Sunday the Photo Editing class and the iPhone Masterpiece classes flew by. I hope to be offering those again.  I think I heard some heads exploding when students saw the kind of controls you can have over your iPhone images with just a very few moves and a couple of cheap/free apps.

I can't end this wthout saying that if you can have a crush on a city, then Portland Maine is mine all mine. Obviously the vibrant arts and fiber arts community is there, the waterfront/beaches ( can.not.live. without a beach nearby), the hills and architecture and parks and size are right but ohmygoodness... the food!

Moral of the story: head northeast to Maine.  Join me at Fiber College. Get on Samantha's list and take a class at A Gathering of Stitches. 

______________________

PS There's a nice interview with me on the Fiber College blog. In it, I awkwardly mention my thing with tomatoes. I have no idea why I couldn't stay on topic!

next saturday in washington dc..and more...

I'll be at  The Knitting Loft in Washington DC teaching a Photography for Knitters class next weekend, April 12th noon-3:30. It feels like a great time to take out the camera and enjoy the world. Come join me, if you're in the VA/MD/DC area. There are a few seats left !

I'm picturing (yes of course that is how I think of things--pictures)  a festive spring day in our nations capital--who isn't ready for that? Also,  it's the 2nd weekend of the Metro DC Yarn Crawl. You could crawl earlier, acquire fun new yarn to shoot, then join us at this shop on Capitol Hill.
It has been a lonnnng winter here--I am really ready to get into some color--on the trees, in the skeins,wherever. What about you?

Fortunately, all my knitting projects right now have some color going on. Like this. It's a cardigan in Berroco Peruvia Pimienta I'm knitting for my friend and neighbor Sarah. She's an amazing artist & sewer, but doesn't knit .  She suggested we swap a sweater for a bespoke dress. Oh yes! I suspect she's going to be sorry, since she chose a pattern and yarn , snip-snap. I'm not nearly so decisive--we were both so ennervated by me choosing a pattern as a starting place for what I want, that we had to put aside choosing fabric for another outing.We chose this one, if you're curious.

 
And my Monster Cowl's  another colorful one   If you follow me on Instagram (I'm @galezucker there, my real non-sheep name) you may have seen this cheery bit of knitting. If you haven't knit any chevrons, I urge you to get something zig zagging underway. It's actually  hard to stop. I'm knitting it with these Shepherd's Wool skeins, lots of yardage, so no need to set limits -I may have to do a hat and mitts too. But maybe different striping sequence, so it's not too matchy matchy. Fashion note: I don't think you can be too chevronny, but you can be too matchy-matchy. 

Geez I am chatty today.  Just a couple more things, sort of random:
•  Look at the beautiful cowl  being raffled on Small Things blog. And enter (or, don't....because then my odds are better at winning...did I say that outloud?)

• I hate to think about the end  of summer, but a heads up that Fiber College, Sept 3-7th this year, has the Gees Bend Quilters coming to teach and talk and demonstrate. It's a mind bending cultural and craftual mix. Fiber College is always a mindbending craftual experience, so this year should really blow the hinges off the joint--if it had hinges I mean.. It is a very special place (my reveiws here and here) and most importantly--the classes listed are starting to sell out already. Consider yourself warned.

• I'm going to TNNA, I just committed.  Indiana!  I'll be  a free agent- not teaching, or booksigning or even with a booth,...just meeting and brainstorming....and I 'm taking appointments if you want to do a small photo shoot there for your patterns or sweaters or yarn or other business.  If you'll be there and want to meet about some other collaboration..I'm all ears. Give me a shout.

cardi weather on the horizon

Let's whiplash this blog north, way north, to Maine. When I was up there helping/hindering the Nash Island sheep roundup & shearing, I was awed by the landscape.  There's a point where the flora & light change dramatically Down East. It's rougher, and rawer, and makes your jaw just drop.

Enroute to Starcroft Fiber Mill, we passed through acres of blueberry barrens. They were budding, it being June.  In the late afternoon golden sun, there was the intense vibration of blueish/purplish fields, contrasting with the light. I wanted to scream STOP the CAR! But I waited till we arrived, said our hellos and then quickly doubled back before the light was gone.

 It's so funny how we humans react to our environment. I NEEDED to make photos , and Ellen? Handstands! Isn't that the best  joyful pose?

Magically, she had her Mary Rebecca sweater along, was wearing the blue smock top, and obviously, although totally impromptu, we had a smashingly perfect photo shoot right then and there. Not coincidentally, I am overcome with the wish to knit cardigans. Is it just me? I keep seeing cardis that would be keys to my sweater happiness.

If you're not familiar with Ellen's designs, and style, you should check her out. She's Odacier (that's Oday-cee-yuh), her patterns are pretty wonderful--modern but with a fun vintage feel. I keep telling her she needs to be WAY MORE BRAGGITY about her work. She's been making a dress and cardi a month all year and damned if watching this come together isn't edging me close, so close, to cranking up the old sewing machine. Check her out on Pinterest, you maydevelop the same urge.

at Ellen's house

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 

You'll find Ellen leading a class on dyeing, and running a mentored dye tent (drop in and dye) at Fiber College of Maine September 4-8th, very soon!--where I'll also be teaching. My offerings are an all day blog improvement class with writer Beverly Army Williams, and I'm offering one-on-one Photo Clinic for Fiber Folks: 30 minute private sessions to solve a photo challenge of your choosing--bring your knits, or bring your alpaca on the hoof,  and we'll figure out how to shoot'er just right. 

an agenda

Blasting through with a quick post of TwoThings I Need to  Tell You Before It is Too Late.
1- This Saturday Feb 2nd : Photography for Knitters workshop with yours truly, for The Village Knitter in Babylon NY on The Island. The class was moved out of the shop and down the block to the library, giving me room for a couple of extra seats. It's close to sold out but you can still join us. Do it!  It's going to be an excellent way to spend the afternoon 12:30-4:30. Your Ravelry Projects page will thank you.

2- I just know you want to be reminded that Saturday is also Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. Usually I have a party but since I'll be driving to LI, and the rules require eating ice cream before noon...I will have to celebrate in Babylon. I think I've persuaded Ann to join me. Hee-hee. You should too. I hope there is excellent coffee ice cream in Babylon. With sprinkles. That's all I'm saying.  
Both photos © mine, of course.
Top photo: the Cabled Cowl, a fab bulky project from Wear With All. Every time I look at this photo I wonder why I haven't knit one or six, yet.
Bottom photo: An embellished tree stump at Fiber College in Searsport Maine. I don't know what the doily is made from, fiber-wise- but it had been there a while I think, and was getting silvery from the elements. This kind of beauty is just all over the place there.

postcards from maine: the dye tent

I'd planned to take a class at Fiber College, along with teaching this year.  Then I learned that Ellen Mason was setting up a mentored dye tent.  No way! I knew that was where my free time was to be spent.

 

Three skeins of Ellen's handpaints, for inspiration. 

Woman knows her dye. She had at least a dozen stations set up, for DIY fun, animal or plant fiber, under her generous guidance.

 

Dye colors she had portioned out, for us to mix and match.

Here's the thing:  I love color. I know color, I blab about color theory when I teach. I can light the hell out of color. Clients hire me because of the way I make things look in photographs. In color.  Guess what?I am really bad at dyeing.

 

How great is a master who gets excited about your attempts? That's Ellen Mason , next to wavy haired Kirsten Kapur, cooking up some skeins, in the mist.

 

Kirsten proves she's got dyeing chops.

 

My yarns pre-soaking. The white is a KnitPicks Bare chunky, the greyish on the left is an angora blend I had left over from edging this scarf,the brown is a gift skein direct from Peru. It's a nice fingering weight alpaca, a little dull. 

 

The greyish yarn,  using a jar method. You add different color dye as you layer the skein into the jar, and then cook it.  I also had 6 skeins of the chunky white, in pots on burners: two different batches, trying to get nice, interesting saturated skeins.   I mixed colors.  With maybe too much abandon.

 
After the jar. Not awful. But also not great. Parts are too bright, some not saturated enough. The transitions are choppy. My other skeins? Inarguably awful. 

 

The chunky yarn, after.  You're probably thinking: that's not so bad. You're right, it isn't.  Because this is after after.  Ellen and Mary Lou Egan overdyed my dyeing, saving my self-esteem before we all went home. The nice mermaidy colors on the left  had, under my watch, come out like a Girl Scout uniform meeting an unfortunate bleach incident. (I'm thinking sash and all).  The fingering weight alpaca was so sad that Ellen kindly took it home with her, and turned it into a gorgeous olive skein that I'll show you another time.

 

Mary Lou's yarn drying technique. Aerobic, but not that effective. 

Yarn divas? This proves that I am as bad about dyeing my hair as I am at dyeing yarn.  

Watching over us, the whole time. Undyed.

postcards from maine: fiber college class

Fiber College of Maine leaves an afterglow: inspiration,  energy,  feeling the kind of happy you get from being in great company, laughing, talking, experimenting with new materials, coming up with wild schemes.....

Here're some postcards from my classes. If you think it looks like fun,  join me sometime soon:   like at Interweave Knitting Lab later this week, Oct 4th in Manchester New Hampshire. There are still 2-3  seats in my classes. And--we could use a volunteer model for the afternoon, if you happen to be around and want to join in the photo experience.*
 
These set ups are  the by students, to photograph their pieces, as I led them through the workshop. You can see our FABULOUS volunteer model, Lisa, in action--and also a great hat design from Lee, who I hope will link to it in the comments.
edited to add: Lee said the hat is Walk the Dog and the pattern will be on her website, Harper and Figg  soon.  Using color theory to pop the scarf...V1
  
and v2
sock knitting v1v2--can you tell I have this thing about alternative takes? ...and v3 
Here's V4 in action-maybe someone from class will link to what that photo looked like. Which do you like best ?
 
Making the most of local nature. 
My seriously wonderful partners in crime ......also making the most of local nature. Kirsten (Through the Loops) Kapur and Mary Lou (Wear With All) Egan, you surely know their designs if you don't recognize the faces. I'll trade any fine dining indoors for sitting outside Kirsten's cabin with our nightly wine, bread, corn, lobsters & blueberry pie. sigh.
  
The view from my cabin--not too shabby! Kirsten's was just around the bend.  More postcards coming soon. It was just a few days on Penobscot Bay in Maine but enough to fill several  blogposts. 

* If you want to volunteer model for my afternoon class this Thursday in Manchester NH at Interweave Knitting Labs, I would be delighted to have you! Ideally you'd be interested in photography, comfortable with cameras aimed your way, and fit somewhere in the S-M-L size spectrum. You'll definitely pick up some photo knowledge, too. Email me if you're willing !