what's going on: itchin' to be stitchin'

aka WIP Wednesday Three knitting projects come to mind as well underway/ high on my enjoyment list. But today? We shall not look at them . We shall look at these:

50/50 silk /cotton, hand dyed in the jar technique and some Perle cotton. It's like embroidery thread, but better.  I never knew it existed till July. That's another WIP story.

The utmost in impulse project. I was in the best new little fabric/maker/handmade supplies shop ever- Clementine in Rockland Maine, with a group of Fiber College teacher friends. Someone said she wanted to play with dyeing this fabric. We egged each other on.  The next thing you know boom boom boom, each of us is out the door with yardage to  dye/ overydye. 

As expected, the silk took the dye but the cotton barely did, and the technique allows you to intentionally create splotches and color shifts--at least that's what I was aiming for. The fabric started as greyish/taupe. I wanted to stay on just this side of tie-dye, if you know what I mean

I was thrilled with how they turned out. Each will be a scarf,  splitting it in half lengthwise, hand sewing a nice felled seam in the middle. So do-able, so simple. Then I thought... sashiko! The running stitch rows I've been Pinning like crazy.  Crazy because I do not need to make this a bigger project. Plus,  I am not known for straight lines, I am a naturally veer-off-course kinda gal. But I can just see it,  I can't resist, and this summer I realized how much I enjoy the handstitching. (that;s another WIP story). I couldn't settle on one color for each scarf, I had to go with two and three...and then I returned home to reality and limited time.  Happily, taking this out to shoot and show you made me realize, it's not that big a deal, and I can't wait to get my hands going on them agan. This may be a FO Friday sooner than I thought. 

A couple more impulse items that came home with me from Maine that week. Can.not.resist. little smooth stones. 

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let me shoot you ! at RHINEBECK 2012

 I am all systems GO to resume my Rhinebeck Style photo project next weekend. Stop by and get shot in all your festival fiber fineness !!  Saturday & Sunday, too*

 
*It says Saturday but I'll plan to be there for the early part of Sunday. Or if Saturday is bad weather...longer on Sunday.

WHY: A couple of years ago, I was thinking how my very favorite part of the NY Sheep & Wool Festival, AKA Rhinebeck, was looking at what everyone wears. It is perhaps the only place on earth you can be wearing handknit socks, a handknit sweater, a shawlette over it, handknit mitts and a hat--and instead of having people leave a wide path around you,  you are embraced by strangers shrieking "ooh, is that a Damson? I love what you did with your February Lady Sweater! Whose mods?"  and..this year I suspect.. "whoa! that is an amazing  Color Affection combo!" 
I realized I wanted to make a collection of all those fabulous outfits, for the permanent record. 
So in 2010 I set up my backdrop and made 128 portraits. I blogged about it a little here. 
This year, I'm continuing. I hope you'll be part of it! 

WHEN: You can find me with my backdrop, set up by the 4H snack bar, most of Saturday.  Depending on the weather, I might be there for part of Sunday too.  I'll tweet what I'm doing about this @galezucker  and also post to my FB page. It should look a little bit like below, from last time.
 This year I am thrilled to be setting up the backdrop by the animal barns on Friday, because it wouldn't be Rhinebeck without the livestock and those who raise them. If you are there with your animals, please look for me Friday afternoon and come strike a pose with a woolly/fibery critter!
I would also love to shoot some vendors-- they are so busy..but we'll try!

this little spread in The Knitter, a UK magazine, in  2011 is the only place any of the photos appeared

WHAT am I going to do with all these photos? I don't know yet. It might make a cool ebook. Or real book, or booklet, or one-off magaziney thing... I'll email everyone once I've got it figured out.

WHY have I not done something yet with the 2010 shoot? Well..when I first shot it, I wasn't sure what my goal was. (I still don't. That's the fun of a personal project, as we photographers like to call them). I was neck deep in working on my book CraftActivism with Joan Tapper, and busy with my usual work as a commercial photographer. So I put the files aside till last year, when I realized I wanted to continue and maybe get a more rounded collection, with animals and vendors and volunteers. Then..we'll see. 

 FYI Even if you posed last time, come by again. It'd be fun to have 2 years' of outfits, right? 

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ps that is the very wonderful Earthchicknits in the photo above. Sadly, she won't be at the festival this year. Do you follow her blog ? You should!  

pps I am still, after all these years, unable to hit reply from the comments. eh , whatever, blogger is free and I still like the platform.....but if you want me to reply to you, leave an email (you can do it with a SallyKnitsATxyzDOTcom or just email me, the address is in the sidebar.