Are you Raveled Yet?

Ravelry.com is a new online knit and crochet community. The index page of the Ravelry website says “organize. Organize your projects, stash, needles and more”, “share. Show off your work. Share your ideas and techniques”, and “discover. Find new designs and yarns. Make friends. Try new things”. That pretty much sums it up, I think. I am currently on the wait list for an account, but I have seen the inside through someone else’s account, and let me just say, I’m excited. This is revolutionary for the online fiber community, and we’ve been waiting for something like this to come along, to organize us and bring us together.

Some of the features of Ravelry include: organizing your projects and your stash; seeing what other people are working on and what they are using their stash yarns for; joining groups with similar interests; finding new projects; seeing how the same project can look in different yarns, joining a community of interest; and making friends. One of the things that most excites me about becoming a user of Ravelry is the inspiration that I am sure will become a detriment to my bank account, but also seeing what others may be doing with some yarn that I have been hoarding in my stash, waiting for that elusive “perfect project”.

The website is still in its beta stages, so the users are currently limited, at least until the operators get their grown-up servers and networking hardware in place and tested out. A recent post on their news blog indicates that there are currently 8300 users and, as of August 19^th, their new hardware was shipping and they were anticipating being able to crank up the invites soon. Meanwhile, for those of us who are anxious to join, you can sign up for their waitlist and periodically check where you stand on the list while you salivate at the prospect of becoming a member.

Research at the TSA

Do you ever wonder how textile enthusiasts and professionals stay in the know? There is a wonderful organization that can keep you informed and educated on the current research, exhibitions, and symposia in the world of textiles. The Textile Society of America mission statement is:

The Textile Society of America, Inc. provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination of information about textiles worldwide, from artistic, cultural, economic, historic, political, social, and technical perspectives.

To access all of the wonderful resources they provide visit their website at http://www.textilesociety.org/index.htm. Things to look for include the Events Page where you can find listings for events in the US and Canada; including exhibitions, workshops, symposia, study tours, and conferences. And, if you’re a textile researcher you may also want to take a look at the Resources Page with its international listings of websites for museums, conservation groups and other textile groups.

Hidden Treasures at the TSA

Become a member and receive numerous publications and meet professional in the field. They also hold a bi-annual symposium with some of the top researchers in the world of textiles speaking about their latest research.

Fall back to the basics...

First of all, happy birthday to our staff members Joe and Marena!

Many of you have already received your Fall edition of the Springwater Fiber Workshop's newsletter in the mail; if you haven't yet, or you're not on our mailing list, you can take a look at the schedule on our website. As always, we have a wonderful class schedule for the fall. Coming up in the middle of September are a wide variety of times and days for our Basic Weaving, Projects & Advanced Weaving, and Introduction to Four Shaft Weaving classes. We also have Denise Vauthier offering her Silk Painting & Surface Design class on September 15 & 16, Margaret Fisher offering Sensational Slip Stitches on September 16, and an exploration of SAORI weaving (which you can read more about in this article written by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, or click here to visit the website of Saori Worcester in Massachusettes).

Finally, plan to stop by the shop on Saturday or Sunday, September 8 & 9, as Springwater will be having an extra-special Back To School sale! We'll have our studio space filled with selected yarns, fibers, accessories, equipment, and books / patterns marked at least 40% off of retail; some are donated, some are remainders, and some special items will be directly from our stock! We're also using this sale as an opportunity to collect items for N Street Village to use in their outreach and assistance to homeless and low-income women in Washington, DC; next week we'll post a list of requested items and give you more information on this wonderful organization.

In the meantime, enjoy your last "summer" week, and stop by for a visit soon!

On the Road

This week, I am on vacation. I will hopefully be happily knitting away on a pair of socks or other small, tote-able project on the beach.

It seems only fitting that my topic be On the Road: What do you bring/do/buy fiber-wise when you travel?

Here’s what I tend to do and bring:

• I scout out nearby local yarn and fiber shops. And if I haven’t planned ahead, I do a search on my cell phone.
• I bring a couple of projects to keep me entertained and for different types of situations:
• A good plane or car project — something relatively mundane and/or small – I make tons of mistakes when I ride in the car, so it can’t be lace or anything too complicated, something stockinette or garter stitch is ideal, but I will also do small projects like socks or baby hats.
• A project that requires my attention and focus, usually a project I have been wanting to work on, but haven’t had the time or focus to make much progress. Wishful thinking.
• Something I can work on while doing other things (could be same as the first project).
• A back-up project. Again, wishful thinking.
• I plan for far more than I can actually accomplish.

And here’s what I tend to buy:

• Something special I can’t get at home or something unique to that shop or area. Is there is a yarn spun from local sheep by a local spinner and/or hand-dyed by local dyers? (I also use a similar thought process for MD Sheep and Wool – I limit myself to purchasing things I can’t get easily otherwise.)
• Sock yarn. I always know how much I need to make a pair of socks, so it is a safe and fun buy. Also, usually a low-investment purchase that doesn’t take up a lot of room in the suitcase (unless I buy 20 skeins of sock yarn...).
• Patterns. I’ve learned that when you see a pattern you think you might like to make one day, buy it. You never know if you’ll find it again. Also, again, low financial investment (because remember, I am using all my money to finance my vacation) and low spacial commitment in the suitcase.
• Buttons. I’m always looking for cute buttons. See above for why buttons also make a good travel purchase.
• Anything supply I end up desperately needing for a project that has been traveling with me.

So, here’s to happy traveling!

19th Cenury France at the NGoA

A trip to the National Gallery of Art can be overwhelming to even the most frequent visitor. Somehow, I always find myself in my favorite galleries time and time again. Most often I make my way to the 19^th Century French Galleries (galleries #80 - #93), where the works of Degas, Monet, Pissaro, and Cassat reside in perfect harmony.

For the textile lover these can be some of the most mesmerizing works of art to study the decadent and the simple. Artists of the period were masters at capturing the details of lace, embroidery, upholstery, and pattern popular in both clothing and interiors. While almost every work found here could be inspiring, we will look at two of the best. I hope you will either see these in person or at least visit the Museum website to enjoy the importance of textiles in these works. Go to http://www.nga.gov/collection/index.shtm for more information.

In gallery #90 you will find several works from Auguste Renoir including “Odalisque.” This Algerian inspired image of a woman reclining is a textile lovers dream. The model is wearing traditional Muslim clothing for women of the period, the bright colors clashing with each other and the opulent room in which she resides. Color, texture, and pattern fight to gain your attention in the overwhelming scene of pure luxury.

To see the more simple side of textiles stop in to visit gallery #88 and the master of simple elegance in everyday life, Edgar Degas. In his painting “Woman Ironing,” a simple task of the maid becomes a scene of beauty. Instantly one is drawn into the distinction between the messy clothes of the maid verses the crisp clothes on which she works. The clothes that hang around her cut the light and assume an ethereal quality. Meanwhile a small stack of crisp and freshly ironed shirts show the reality of the work the woman is doing.

Hidden Treasure at the NGoA

The bookstore!

DP WIP Tubes are here!

This just in the shop: Nancy's Knit Knacks, an outstanding source of creative accessories for fiber artist of all breeds, has just come out with their Double Point Work In Progress Tubes! Priced at $9.50 for a set of two (perfect for those of you that work two socks or sleeves simultaneously), these tubes telescope from 5" to 10", and with an internal diameter of 5/8", they will hold your small and medium size DPN's firmly, allowing your project to hang outside of the tube yet protecting the needles from breakage and your stitches from stitches slipping off!

We're also expecting our shipment of the new Cat Bordhi book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters, to arrive in the next week. The reviews of this book have been exceptional; my own knitter friends who have read it say that it's sure to become an important technique and reference book, and that it changes the way you'll think about knitting socks forever! Cat is one of the few designers around that challenges preconcieved notions about knitting; her Moebius cast on (found in her Treasury of Magical Knitting) was a truly new way of creating multidimensional items. You can read more about her at her website, www.catbordhi.com, and you can search on YouTube for videos of her demonstrating some of her techniques.

Finally, our new class schedule is at the printer and will be available on our website soon, but in the meantime, I couldn't wait to tell you about Margaret Fisher's class "Sensational Slip Stitches", on Sunday September 16 from 9am to 4pm. Margaret is a very popular knitting teacher, having taught all over the country for guilds, shops, and at large events such as Stitches, Maryland Sheep and Wool, and TNNA's biannual conventions. This is a great opportunity to learn various slip stitch knitting techniques, both two-color and multi-color, and inject some creativity and color into your work. Associate tuition for this class is only $100 (non-associates pay only $110), and it's sure to fill up fast, so call in or stop by the shop to sign up soon!

A Year in Socks

Not just another knit-along, the Rockin’ Sock Club hosted by Blue Moon Fiber Arts is an annual sock club. Every other month for a calendar year, participants receive a kit. The kits typically contain a special-for-the-club hand-dyed skein of BMFA’s famous (did anyone else see that line at MD Sheep and Wool? Crazy) sock yarn, along with an exclusive new sock pattern and dyer’s notes. The yarn and the pattern are available only to club members until the end of the year.

With each shipment, there is also the element of surprise. Participants don’t know what is coming in terms of yarn weight (will it be their lightweight? Mediumweight?), even fiber content (the second 2007 shipment was a new yarn, “Silkie” – 81% superwash merino and 19% tussah silk), or pattern (will it be lace? Will there be cables? Will it be top-down or toe-up?). Each shipment is a chance to potentially learn a new technique involved with sock knitting and try out a color you may not have picked out if left to your own devices.

Also in full utilization of the technology resources that surround us on a daily basis, the ladies at Blue Moon have a message board/blog set up for all the participants. They can communicate with participants about shipments, contests and answer questions; and the participants can also ask and answer questions, arrange local meet-ups and post status updates or modifications and finished photos of their kit socks.

If you are a die-hard sock knitter, or even just a regular sock knitter, and would like to participate in 2008, check back with the Blue Moon website closer to the close of 2007.

Prayer Rugs at the NERS

If you don’t have time to make it to a museum, and are in need of a textile fix, the Internet if full of many amazing on line exhibitions of artwork. We will certainly explore these as time goes on. This week I stumbled into The New England Rug Society. Currently showcase on on-line exhibition of Islamic Prayer Rugs & Related Textiles.

Harvard University Scholar Jeff Spur provides commentary on the importance and history of these religious textiles. His exploration into the symbolic meaning behind the iconography is enlightening and brings a wonderful clarification.

With twenty-six examples of rugs to explore a full range to stylistic possibilities are represented. Take advantage of the close up images to get an understanding of the structure or flip through the pages to see an amazing range of patterns and colors.

To visit the New England rug society exhibition go to http://www.ne-rugsociety.org/gallery/prayer-rugs-fall-2002/ners-prayer-rug-intro.htm

Copyright is Confusing

I was thinking of writing a piece on “tips and tricks” to share with you. One of the “tips and tricks” I use for nearly every project that I was going to share is to make a “working photocopy” of your pattern. I know it seems like a no-brainer, but I run into a lot of people who haven't thought of doing this to save their books from the wear and tear they are subjected to in project bags, not to mention giving you a handy place to jot down notes.

But I was having a dilemma. I couldn’t just put that tip out there and not include a note on copyright as it pertains to both personal uses and Springwater uses. So, here are the bones of copyright laws as they pertain to your own fiber endeavors and at Springwater:

Copyright law is a serious consideration for Springwater. Unfortunately, it is easy to violate (as we have seen with the music industry), but violations are still illegal and could carry hefty fines. As a non-profit organization concerned with community and educating people about all the joys of fiber arts, we also need to be sure we are not doing so at another’s expense.

Whether a pattern specifically has a big, bold copyright notice on it or not, it likely has a copyright owned by either the author or the publisher. Patterns, I think we would all agree, are undoubtedly artistic and intellectual works. The government copyright website (http://www.copyright.gov/) defines copyright as:

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of ‘original works of authorship,’ including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. . . . It is illegal for anyone to violate any of the rights provided by the copyright law to the owner of copyright.

~ Quoted from http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wci

Things we MAY do include:

• We MAY make a copy of a pattern we have already purchased for our own personal use. For example, I usually make a copy of a pattern that I am working on so that I may make notes, highlight the size I am working on, or make alterations to the pattern for myself.
• We MAY print out a copy of a free pattern on the internet for our own personal use. For example, patterns on http://www.knitty.com are available to print out for person use, but are not available to sell or distribute.
• We MAY tell customers where they may obtain a free pattern on the internet.
• We MAY make a copy of a pattern that we have sold the last copy of. This copy should not to be sold, but used only as a reminder of what we need to re-order.
• We MAY write a pattern and copyright it ourselves. If you do create and wish to copyright a pattern yourself, the correct notation would be: © 2006 Jane Doe or Copyright 2006 Jane Doe. Under the current laws, technically you do not need to register your piece nor put a copyright notice on it in order to secure copyright protection, but it certainly helps to avoid any confusion.

Things we MAY NOT do include:

• We MAY NOT make copies of free internet patterns to distribute to our customers. These patterns are under copyright protection by the author or publisher and may not be distributed by a store (even if we don’t charge for them) without express permission for the copyright holder. We can, however, tell a customer where to go to make their own copy for personal use.
• We MAY NOT make a photocopy of a pattern from a book we have not purchased, nor allow our customers to do so.
• We MAY NOT sell a photocopy of a pattern.
• We MAY NOT sell something we have made from a pattern that is copyrighted by someone other than ourselves.
• We MAY NOT make a slight adjustment (i.e. change the color of the yarn) to a pattern and call it altered sufficiently as to no longer be protected under copyright law. This is covered under the “derivative works” section and would also require permission from the copyright holder to distribute.
• Unless you are certain it is in the public domain, it is always safe to assume that if you did not write it, draw it, photograph it, compose it, etc., someone else did, and therefore, someone else holds the copyright, and we need to obtain permission (by asking or purchasing) to distribute it.

For more information about copyright, visit: http://www.copyright.gov/.

Reinventing Tradition at the DOI

Throughout the summer the Department of the Interior Museum Gallery is featuring contemporary fashion by Native American designers. The exhibit features the work of 15 designers ranging from the 1950s thru the present. Their inspired uses of weaving, felting, beading, appliqué, silk screening, quilting, and tapestry weaving can get you thinking in a new way about the fiber arts.

Using elements of the past, the featured designers are imposing their traditional techniques and patterns on modern clothing. By combining the elements of the past with the norms of the modern culture a perfect melding of two can be seen playing with and against each other. Must see articles include the Twin Peaks poncho (2007), and its silk-screened animal motifs from the tribes of the north west coast.

Directly across the hall from this small exhibit are traditional Native American garments making a wonderful transition in time.

Hidden Treasure’s at the DOI

The gallery itself is the most important treasure here. The permanent collection features the many aspect of the Department of the Interior and the many ways in which they have shaped the United States. Galleries are filled with historic Native American garments, geological samples, archeological artifacts, and mapping tools.

Pant...pant....pant.......

Wow…it’s already August! The dog days of summer have arrived, and it’s just too darn hot.

We have treats for you, though!

Our August sale runs from the 15^th through the 30^th, and for that time we’ll be offering 10% off of ALL special ordered equipment from Schacht Spindle Company! For those of you that are regular Springwater visitors, you know that we don’t offer discounts on large equipment – this is our one exception. It’s on everything that Schacht makes, from table looms to floor looms to their incredibly popular Wolf series looms to their Matchless and Reeves Saxony spinning wheels. You can even take advantage of the sale if you’re not close to us, as for a small additional fee we will be happy to have your purchase shipped directly to your home. Just call us for current pricing or stop by the shop and get more information!

I also JUST stopped by our master dyer’s house yesterday to pick up a brand spankin’ new batch of lace and fingering weight yarns for your summer enjoyment. These are stunningly variegated yarns (see the photo above!); we’ve got a wonderful mix of both multi-color and tone-on-tone yarns, which will work up into beautiful lace and other small-gauge yarn projects. She also sent us a few skeins of fantastic hand-dyed ribbon for those of you that love working with tape and ribbon yarns. Our experience has been that these sell very quickly, so I’d recommend stopping by soon to peruse the new yarns!

Our newsletter and new class schedule is coming out very soon...be on the lookout on our website in the next week, or check your mailbox for your copy in a few weeks. I've seen the class list, and there are dozens upon dozens of great classes for every fiber interest and skill level! I can't wait for you to see what we've got in store for you this fall!

Finally, if you have a LiveJournal account, you can read our blog entries on your friends list there! Simply go to our syndication page while logged in to your account, and click “add this journal to your friends list”, and each time we update you’ll be able to read it there.

Mystery Stole 3 – An Adventure in Lace

What’s got over 6500 members around the world, is free to join, and has everyone knitting lace? Why, it’s Mystery Stole 3, of course!

Melanie, knit designer and hostess of the PinkLemonTwist blog, is in her third year of hosting her lace stole knit along, and this year, it is bigger than ever. With the word out and a few well-known knitters and bloggers signed up, membership in this group exploded in the last week of sign-ups in the end of June.

I figured I’d better see what the fuss was about.

The idea is simple, yet so clever. Melanie has labored and created a pattern for a knitted lace stole. The pattern and theme are kept secret, but she gives hints at the outset to help each knitter make decisions about what yarn (and in this year’s case, also optional beads) to use. Each week over the summer, she gives out one “clue” (so far, each week’s clue has been 50 rows of lace knitting) to knit in consecutive order. At the end of the cumulative weeks, everyone will have a knitted lace stole (and will know what the pattern and theme is!).

Melanie has also set up and is moderating a Yahoo! Group as a way of communicating to over 6500 knitters around the world, distributing the clues, and enabling discussion amongst the knitters who wish to participate. As is continuing to be an prominent feature of the over-all knitting community (in her latest book, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot’s Guide to the Land of Knitting, the Yarn Harlot, who is also a member of MS3, gives a humorous glance into what characterizes this thing called a "knitting community"), the members of this KAL are eager and quick to assist anyone with questions or difficulties.

So, you may be wondering how my Mystery Stole 3 is coming along... I’m consistently a week behind on the clues, but am enjoying knitting every row. While it helps to have a bit of lace knitting knowledge under your belt to participate, there seem to be a lot of new lace knitters in the group – this would be to be a great way to find your lace groove if you have been daunted by trying a large lace project on your own. Just remember one word (ok, two, really): Life Line.

And if you’ve missed out on the fun this summer, plans are already underway for Mystery Stole 4 to take place late next summer.