Posts Tagged 'spinning'

Aurora Roving in Progress

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

Remember this lovely thing? It’s finally being spun, and by someone who knows what they’re about no less.

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

That person is not Mouffette, though she is clearly instrumental in the process.

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

It’s being worked up by the immensely talented Leslie Ordal, with an eye to keeping the different colour sections intact. It’s already looking pretty delicious – we (I say ‘we’ as though I am helpful somehow) are aiming for a 3 ply fingering weight yarn.

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

The plan is to knit this into something for my neck, something that will benefit from these gently shifting gradients, and something that I shall proudly wear when I finally hit the arctic and fulfill my bucket list item of shooting the aurora from further north than Sault Ste. Marie :)

I haven’t decided what that something is yet though, and I’m open to suggestions!

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

Thank you Leslie, Mouffette and the super talented folks at Inglenook fibers – I can’t wait to knit this baby up!

 

 

Aurora Roving

Inglenook Fibers is a hand dyed fiber studio located just outside of Boston, and it’s one of the many ways that the Sisters of the Holy Nativity Convent are totally self supporting through craft. A few weeks ago one of my pen pals there, Mother Macrina, wrote to me and asked if she could use this photo of the aurora Tito and I shot last fall as the inspiration for dying a bat of roving:

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

And just after Christmas, this lovely thing arrived in the mail.

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

I am blown away – the colours, the transitions, they’re perfect! It’s like I’m standing there all over again staring at the sky, working the camera and screaming “I’ve got it!” to Tito as we admired the light show.

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

This bat is destined to become something lovely. I’ve asked my spinning instructor to help me spin it up, or possibly just to spin it for me so it doesn’t suffer from my junior spinning skills. I’m going to try and keep the colours and transitions intact just as they are and knit an aurora scarf. Then, when I finally make it to the arctic, I will WEAR that lovely scarf as I’m shooting. It will be perfect!

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

You can check out the Etsy site for Inglenook Fibers here :)

Aurora Roving ©Shireen Nadir 2013

Treasure Hunting

On Sunday, our awesome friends Johnathan and Bev took us treasure hunting at an antique market out in Milton.

Antique Market ©Shireen Nadir 2012

Places like this are fascinating…

Antique Market ©Shireen Nadir 2012

…filled with old books, old toys, furniture, art….

Antique Market ©Shireen Nadir 2012

…even things that are creepy…

Antique Market ©Shireen Nadir 2012

…and then, SHAZAM!

Antique Market ©Shireen Nadir 2012

Here’s what I was able to find out about it – circa 1860 (we researched wheels from that era, and the design seems to match), missing a few bits, and best of all – about a quarter of the price of any wheel I’ve seen for sale here in Toronto. Score.

Antique Market ©Shireen Nadir 2012

It looks so happy in it’s new home.

1860 Spinning wheel ©Shireen Nadir 2012

Tito and started taking the elbow grease to it, bringing out the natural shine from under decades of dust.

1860 Spinning wheel ©Shireen Nadir 2012

1860 Spinning wheel ©Shireen Nadir 2012

1860 Spinning wheel ©Shireen Nadir 2012

Stage two was taking wood filler to the obviously broken bits.

1860 Spinning wheel ©Shireen Nadir 2012

Stage three happens when my spinning instructor Leslie Ordal can come by to take a look at it and tell me which bits we might need to build for it. It’s my first wooden restoration job – Can’t wait to see how it goes!

 

Another great spinning quote

Just a photo of my gorgeous new drop spindle, and the work I’ve started, and a quote from Elizabeth Zimmerman :) Feel free to click for a larger copy and save it!

Drop Spindle ©Shireen Nadir 2012

White on White; photographing fluff

Leslie Ordal came over last night for some last minute photography of her spinning work for a piece she’s writing in Interweave Magazine. We didn’t have a lot of time to plan the shoot, and the material was all white. White fluff, spun into white yarn. With the challenge of coming up with something artistic and creative late on a work night we opened some beers and got to work. Nailed it?

For the photographers out there: this was shot in a white lightbox with a medium grey backdrop and 2 small spot lights. I used the 7D with the 100mm prime lens at f10, to get every detail in the fibre for some shots, and f2.8 for the shallow DOF shots. I processed them in lightroom to select the finals and do a batch edit for colour correction, tone, cropping and adding the vignette effect. Finally, small clean ups (cat hair, non fluff bits from the mill) were taken care of in Photoshop with the patch tool. The entire shoot start to finish was 1.5 hours including processing time.

Found this beautiful quote and just had to share.

The photo is one I took of the 2 sisters roving I’m working on, and I found the quote online – feel free to click on it for a bigger version, enjoy!

Spinning - Photo ©Shireen Nadir 2012

Here’s something else I learned from a friend, quoted from wikipedia:

The charkha (etymologically related to Chakra) was both a tool and a symbol of the Indian independence movement. The charkha, a small, portable, hand-cranked wheel, is ideal for spinning cotton and other fine, short-staple fibers, though it can be used to spin other fibers as well. The size varies, from that of a hardbound novel to the size of a briefcase, to a floor charkha. Mahatma Gandhi brought the charkha into larger use with his teachings. He hoped the charkha would assist the peoples of India achieve self-sufficiency and independence, and so used the charkha as a symbol of the Indian independence movement and included it on earlier versions of the Flag of India.

 

Spinning the day away

This weekend I got lots of spinning time in on the balcony, while relaxing in the sun.

I swear it’s heaven.

I finally decided to take a crack at this bad boy from a company called ‘Two Sisters”:

… and I must say it’s coming along nicely.

I’ve decided to treat myself this weekend to a pretty new drop spindle at the Purple Purl. In the meantime, Tito and I spent the princely sum of $10.68 at the local army surplus store and came away with some plastic wheels and pvc piping – from which we plan to construct our own wheel. On the off chance that it works out I’ll document exactly what we do and share it in case anyone else wants to try!

 

 

 



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