Fleeceful Kingdom

"A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor." --Victor Hugo

The loom sits idle. Too much is happening: a trip to PA for graduation, father's day, two surgeries for family in the same week, preparations for summer art camps, the art festival on Saturday, etc.

So I work on the "invisible." I close my eyes at night to a river of warp threads floating through my dreams. Purples and blues and turquoise, with a pinch or orange, maybe some pink. It will have to wait. It must wait.

I did manage to get this on and off the loom last week; a recycled felted sweater rug.

I scored these sweaters on sale last summer at a local thrift store.

I came home and felted them in the washing machine/dryer, but they sat in a storage bin waiting to be discovered.

I cut the sleeves in strips, and felted them again. They came out of the dryer cord-like.

I rolled the strips in balls, and free-wove in Saori style.

I wasn't sure what it was going to be: a rug? a messenger bag? pillows? tablerunner?

After taking it off the loom, it told me it did not want to be cut up! So for now, it is squishy and soft under my feet, so a rug it will be (until it tells me otherwise)!

In the coming weeks, I will be working a lot on the invisible because I will not have the luxury of time. I need to accept that. It is hard to gear down after pushing to get stuff made. And there is also fear. What if I don't get back to it?

It has been such a great time; a time of discovery, a time of healing, a time of reaching deep down inside and pulling out what is in there.

May your invisible labor be healing today,
Abu

"Because time itself is like a spiral, something special happens on your birthday each year: The same energy that God invested in you at birth is present once again." --Menachem Mendel Schneerson

This post is dedicated to Em, who came into our lives 25 years ago today. You have enriched our lives beyond measure, and it's been so wonderful to watch you grow, stretch, and discover your own special and unique gifts and talents. I will not embarass you here by lavishing on about you because you are quiet and private person. But you know in your heart you amaze me, and I am so proud of you!

In honor of this special birthday, I wove the fabric for a knitting bag I've been wanting to make for a while. Something big enough to hold a project with couple of balls, needles, etc. Something easy to get into, but not so big that you can't find anything.

It's made from recycled men's shirts, which I ripped into rags, joined together, then used as the weft on my loom.

Random shirt buttons popped through in the weaving.

I saved the surprise for last. The bag is lined with an extra large men's shirt. I kept the button band and the inside pocket!

Happy, happy birthday, dear Emilie!

With all my love,

Mommy

"It is thus with farming: if you do one thing late, you will be late in all your work." --Cato The Elder

I haven't been able to get in the dye garden. Either it has been too rainy/wet or it was too hot! Yesterday was the perfect garden day; sunny, blue sky, and a temperature drop of 30 degrees!

Boy, was I in for a surprise.

The flax is coming along great, but the edge needed to be trimmed and the bed needed weeding!

There. That's better. The Professor gave me some advice. Weed more like a meditation, not like your life depended on it. Then it's not so overwhelming.

So I started to weed. The sun was warm on my back. A mommy robin built a nest in the bird box and kept me company. There was a nice breeze.

But then I got to wondering. What if it did matter? What if there was no Walmart, Target, (enter other big name box store)??? What if the clothes on my back were the result of my own hand???

I've been following Rebecca Burgess and her Fibershed project since last fall. http://www.rebeccarburgess.com/fibershed

Her goal is "To live for one year, in clothes made from fibers that are solely sourced within a geographical region no larger than 150 miles from my front door; this includes the natural dye colors as well!"

This was part of my motivation to have a flax and dye garden. A challenge to myself. Could I grow my own clothes??? I have the Shetlands for my nice warm woolies, but what about the one day of summer? Cotton is out. Can I grow flax and hemp in Central New York?

In my research about flax, it is a 1-1/2 to 2 year project, from seed to actual garment!!! Can you imagine our fore sisters growing their own clothes? Which is probably why they only had one dress. And why clothes were handed down and stitched and patched and stitched some more. Which brings me back to the thought about telling time through cloth.

I'm embarassed when I open my closet! (But now I see it as potential). I haven't done a F*R*U*gal project for a while, so it was time to dust some of those clothes off and make something of them.

In case you missed my previous posts, F*R*U*gal means I'm a Free, Reuse, and Upcycle kind of gal. Here is what I'm working on today:

Em, if you're reading this, stop here!

M's birthday is coming up, and I thought I would make her a market bag type thingy. My inspiration came from a bag a woman brought to Saori Worcester last month.

The "What if it did matter?" will continue to be a big question for me. It brings me back to all the research I did in school on fair trade, child labor, the environmental damage caused by the textile industry, women's cooperatives, my idea of bringing back the local mills (they were all up and down the outlet at the turn of the century), putting local people back to work, knitting from wind power, connecting with other local fiber producers, etc., etc. Oh, I need to go and weave to calm myself. This is too big a question for my little brain!

Fleece and be calm!

Abu