Farmer's Market Project #7

I've gotten a little behind on posting the Farmer's Market Project, since being out of town for a few weekends, but I'm back, baby! Renewed determination and commitment to see this through until the end of the season.
This photo was taken 7.19.08 at the Johnson City Farmer's Market. You might recognize the tablecloth from past photos, as this is my favorite booth - always filled with color!

Bright red and yellow shades on mill-ends wool was handspun ultra-fluffy, thick and thin. Plied with a handdyed green hemp thread, the yarn became even fluffier and soft with a squiqqly, fun-in-the-sun vibe.Yellow Tomatoes, available here

I was happy with it, right until my husband looked at it and said "Hulkamania, brother!"
Oh, uh yeah, it does look a bit like it could be knit into a boa for the Hulkster:

Hmmm...

Farmer's Market 7.19.08

Grape tomatoes at Johnson City Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market 7.12.08

Taken by little brother T, at the Johnson City Farmer's Market...purple bell peppers?

It reminded me of this yarn:Irises

So now I need it to inspire a new yarn!

Farmer's Market Project #5

This week's picture was taken at the Johnson City Farmer's Market: ripening Cherokee Tomatoes, from a local farm. Just as the rain subsided, I was smitten with the deep red and receding green of this heirloom variety.


I captured the purpley red on mill-ends wool (rescued wool from what would be thrown out by a commercial spinning mill) and handspun it fluffy, thick and thin. I then wrapped the squishy wool in hemp yarn, handyed the shade of green tomatoes.
The two textures and colors play with each other, like the ripening of a tomato, creating a contrast for your eyes and hands. The knitted (or crocheted) fabric will have a slight tweedy effect with the green just popping up now and then to add some life to the party!

Farmer's Market 7.5.08

Cherokee Tomatoes - also known as black or purple tomatoes, fully ripe their skin becomes a blackish purple. (I bought two - very mild in taste, not tomatoe-y)

Farmer's Market Project #4

Inspired by these peaches, the seasons' first, I handdyed some local fiber 3 shades of peach.



The three shades in this 2 ply yarn create a self-striping yarn that starts with darker peach at one end and moves towards the lightest, peachiest color at the other end of the skein. Knitted (or crocheted), this skein will create one long color repeat that moves from darkest to lightest along the length of the project.

I was/am very tempted to keep this yarn for myself and knit a scarf out of it! It took all my moral fortitude to stick with the Project and list the yarn in the shop!

PS. This is a super busy week with out-of-town family (and pets) staying in my guest room/studio/office and dyeing lessons in my kitchen and knitting night at Jill's. I might not be around too much!

Farmer's Market - 6.28.08

Fresh peaches, Johnson City Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market Project #2

I had to skip the Farmer's Market last week, since I was IN my best friend's wedding, but the week before that I actually went to 2 local farmer's markets. The new Jonesborough market is still small, but all of the produce (of which there was very little by 10:30 am) was local. My favorite local chocolatier was there (Earth and Sky Creations)- and we bought a chocolate for each of us. On the car ride home they both got melty and so we were at a rush when we stopped by the JC market. So rushed, in fact, that I left my camera in the car and it wasn't until the last minute that I grabbed it and shot the brightest thing I found:

While I was out of town for the wedding, I thought about these flowers, so bright amongst the green leaves. I decide to finally break out the banana fiber I've been too nervous to spin and I dyed it a few shades of green. I found some brilliant impatient-orange recycled silk that are the perfect shade of orange. The banana fiber and recycled silk are recycled in the same way: a Nepalese woman's co-op collects the scraps from sari weaving; apparently banana fiber is a very common fiber in India! While the silk is smooth, with all the fibers parallel, the banana fiber is very crimpy and clustered up, tied together is some places. Making it spinable is a time-consuming task and involves "fluffing" it, pulling apart the fibers, cutting or untying the knots, getting it as parallel as possible (I tried handcarding to no avail!). Because the banana fiber is so uneven and I wanted to ensure a sturdy yarn, I chose to use a commercially spun 100% hemp yarn as the base and spun the banana and silk around the hemp yarn (like corespinning).Impatient Orange - available in the shop

The resulting yarn is fluffy and soft and scrappy, while extremely sturdy and strong.

and funky!

PS. The chocolate got melty, but we popped it in the fridge when we got home (just a few minutes) and it ended up tasting SO amazing - PB for Jay, Chili Powder for me.

Farmer's Market Project #2

Last week, at the Johnson City Farmer's Market, I was struggling to find some yarn-worthy inspiration. We had slept late and most of the fresh veggies were gone. While the goat cheese was delicious, I didn't think white slabs of creamy goodness were going to translate into an interesting yarn. Just as we were leaving, I caught site of these white stalks, which reminded me of Soy fiber (I don't know why; everything reminds me of some fiber!)

I was thinking of that pale green when I dyed the fiber and those spiky stalks on the round one (what is that?) inspired the way I spun it.

I'm not entirely happy with how the color came out, I was going for something a bit more green, but this ended up in the blue-green range. A little of the natural cream of the soy fiber still shows through, like the barely green of the stalks.
This yarn was definitely a lesson in dyeing soy and in trying to match the inspiration photo!

Farmer's Market Project #1

Last week,while strolling through the very lively Abingdon Farmer's Market, I slyly snapped this photo of a pepper plants and begonias, while my husband bought some peppers.



Throughout the week, I thought about the photo and what aspects I wanted to caputure in the yarn. I was most struck by the variety of greens and the interplay between the shot of red with the rest of the photo. It took me a few days, but on Thursday I pulled out some gray streaked mill-ends wool and a local wool/alpaca/mohair blend from Hobby Knob Farm. I put both fibers into a dyepot with a medium green. As the temperature rose, I sprinkled in a few more greens (dye will "strike" the fiber quicker when it's already heated, so you can get patches of distinct colors while kettle dyeing).


The resulting fiber was dried outside in the sunshine and spun into a bulky single, shot through with begonia red recycled silk. The scrappy silk offers both a contrast of color and texture, the same contrast provided by the begonia in the picture.

I would love some company for the Farmer's Market Project! Read this to learn more and then leave a comment if you'd like to join me. I welcome anyone who does any craft; I'll make a blogroll of those involved, so make sure you leave your blog address!

Farmer's Market Project - 6.7.08

Romaine Lettuce, taken at the Johnson City Farmer's Market

The Farmer's Market Project is a self-challenge: each week I'll take one picture at the Farmer's Market and will post it here. During the next week I'll dye and/or spin a yarn inspired by that picture and will list the yarn the very next weekend.

Tomorrow I'll be posting the yarn inspired by last week's photo.

New Project - Farmer's Market

Every Saturday, if the sun is shining, my husband and I (and sometimes the pup) visit a Farmer's Market. We get most of our vegetables, bread and eggs from the local farmers. I also recieve something a little less tangible - inspiration, a sense of community and deep gratitude for this excellent resource. In the past, I've created yarns inspired by nature, but I wanted to work on something a bit more immediate, more grounded in the present.
Thus, my Farmer's Market Project: each week I'll take one picture at the Farmer's Market and will post it. During the next week I'll dye and/or spin a yarn inspired by that picture and will list the yarn the very next weekend. This will force me to execute my plan quickly and spontaneously and I hope to photograph the yarn in it's "natural habitat", at the next week's market!

This week's picture was taken at the Abingdon Farmer's Market; a tray of pepper plants and begonias.