Leslie Ordal Fibre Arts

Win at MDSW

Posted on May 15, 2010 by Leslie

One of my goals this year was to enter a few skeins in various competitions around North America. There’s not much in the way of competitions in Canada, but many in the States accept mailed-in entries. One of the largest, at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (frequently referred to as MDSW), does not, but thanks to a knitter in MD named Kyrie, I was able to have a skein dropped off for the competition.

I entered the skein that won its class at Lambtown last fall, in the hopes of getting some comments from the judge on improving my technique. I entered it in the class for thick yarns prepared from raw wool by the spinner, and was floored when I got this back in the mail:

And the score and comments:

I couldn’t be happier with that!

Posted in competition, Spinning | 6 Comments

Tarts n’ Crafts

Posted on May 13, 2010 by Leslie

Last weekend was Ladyfest’s annual Tarts n’ Crafts show, a good-sized indie craft fair with vendors from Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto. I didn’t buy much (and I’ve heard from many of the sellers that it was unfortunately a very slow day for many of them), but I took quite a few cards and made note of a few of my favorites. If anything, it was inspiring to see what so many creative minds come up with, whether they use fabric, porcelain, or chocolate. Despite the slow sales this time, next year I hope they expand a bit–there were a few sellers I thought noticeably absent. Anyway, a few pics from the event:

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Grab bags from Darrell Thomas

Posted on May 4, 2010 by Leslie

Ottawa’s not a great place to buy fabric. Last time I asked someone where the best place to buy fabric was, the answer I received was, “Montreal.” If you’ve got a little money to burn, however, there is one great store for sewing, and is probably the only fabric store in the city that’s not stuck in about 1990. I’ve gone to Darrell Thomas Textiles in the past, mostly for buttons as their textiles are almost entirely out of my price range and not really what I’m interested in working with. Once in a while, however, they sell bags of manufacturer samples for $5/each (50 to a bag). It’s stuff that would otherwise get thrown out, but there’s a huge demand for these bags! (And I like the fact that all of the proceeds go to a local cat rescue.) Although the fabric pieces are small, they’re big enough to incorporate into another project, and I picked up two bags last week in hopes of finding some background fabric for embroidery. Here’s a look at some of my favourites from each bag:

Wool crewel on cotton, you can imagine why this costs $200/m:

Lots of silk:

I was swayed by the giraffes into picking up this particular bag:

Posted in embroidery, sewing, sustainability | 2 Comments

Fifteen minutes

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Leslie

The new issue of Spin Off features my first contribution to the magazine, in the form of an Armchair Traveler article on the fiber arts attractions in and around Montreal.

You can see more about the issue here. I’ve got a few more article proposals in the works, but seeing my name in print in the table of contents for the first time is pretty exciting, I’ll admit!

Posted in Spinning, travel | 3 Comments

Scarves

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Leslie

Just in time for warmer weather, I present last season’s knitting projects: scarves. Most people start with scarves when learning to knit, since they are a) simple, b) gauge doesn’t matter (being one-size-fits-all), and c) there’s more patterns for scarves than for anything else. My first scarf, knit in large part while seated in outdoor concert venues in Santa Fe in the summer of 2000, was cheap periwinkle acrylic and considerably narrower at one end than at the other. Long ago it was frogged and the yarn given to another beginning knitter, and I think the dented metal needles used to make it have been passed on as well.

Fortunately, a great many patterns exist for knitters who want to make scarves beyond the basic rectangle. I knit three of the most popular patterns, Morning Surf, the Striped Noro Scarf, and the infamous Clapotis.

I wanted to get a whole project out of a single skein of Handmaiden Lady Godiva I was gifted in a swap, so Morning Surf had to be significantly narrowed. The yarn is pretty and I love the colours, but I couldn’t believe it pilled sitting in a drawer. Silk will do that, I suppose. Going to be keeping small sharp scissors handy to keep it from looking fuzzier with each wear.

Brooklyn Tweed gets credit for inventing the Noro Striped Scarf pattern, but even he admits he’s not the first to alternate two different colourways of Noro Kureyon (or in this case, Silk Garden) to get a gradual and unpredictable striped effect. Even though the knit-purl-knit-purl ad nauseam can be boring, the surprise of each colour change keeps it interesting.

Clapotis put Kate Gilbert on the map, and it’s hard to meet a serious knitter who doesn’t know this pattern. The construction is ingenious, though that fact isn’t really apparent until you knit it for yourself. I modified it based on a sample I saw at The Naked Sheep, using 4 increase rows and 17 straight rows, for a much narrower version that only takes one skein of Arequipa. Oh, and take it from me, Kate doesn’t like it when people refer to it as ‘the clap’ (sorry KG, you know I meant it in the best possible way).

And now that it’s springtime and warm and delightful, of course my thoughts are on sweaters–I’m a slow knitter, further slowed at the moment by tendinitis in my elbow, so I have to plan ahead. At least Morning Surf and Clapotis are wearable for spring and summer evenings.

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Spinning horsehair

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Leslie

For a lot longer than I’ve been spinning, knitting, or doing anything else creative with textiles, I’ve been riding horses. This is my horse, Siân (her registered name–ie, the one on the papers–is Morning Theft, and if you know where that comes from then you deserve a cookie):

As lovely as she is, her hair isn’t much good for spinning (unless you’re making something to wear during your extremely repentant moods). Mane and tail hair can be used for braiding, but hair from the body of a horse is too short and coarse for spinning, which is really a shame when you see how much of it comes off the horse in springtime.

There is, however, a breed of horse that grows a coat that is much finer, softer, and curlier than that of other horses. Appropriately called Curly horses, their hair is short but definitely spinnable, and when I learned of the breed I knew I had to try it for myself. Much googling led me to the Curly Horse Fiber Guild site, which eventually got me in touch with Bunny Reveglia, a Curly horse breeder and fiber artist. Bunny sold me some washed Curly horse fiber in various colours:

Of all the fibre I’ve spun, I’d say it’s most similar to mohair, although much shorter. It’s smooth, lustrous, curly (of course), and quite a bit softer than what I expected. It’s tough to spin it on its own, and is best blended with other fibres like wool or alpaca. I bought a couple of 75% alpaca/25% Curly batts from Bunny as well, one of which yielded this skein of pretty soft 2-ply worsted-weight yarn:

Overall, it’s not an extremely versatile fibre, but it does blend well, and it’s fun to be able to finally spin horsehair. I’m thinking of working on another skein, blended with wool, to enter into one of the big competitions this year. At the very least it should get points for being unique!

Posted in Spinning | 1 Comment

the art of Adelaide Paul

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Leslie

This post has nothing to do about knitting, spinning, sustainability or any of the other topics I usually write about. Instead, I’d like to share with you the art of Adelaide Paul, an artist from Philadelphia. What makes Adelaide’s art so compelling for me is not only her obvious talent in her chosen media but her experience as a veterinary anatomy instructor which clearly informs her artwork. I had the real pleasure of having Adelaide help teach my anatomy lab when I was in vet school, back when my career trajectory was headed into veterinary medicine instead of its human equivalent. I found Adelaide an interesting, thoughtful, and unusual woman when I first met her, and enjoyed interacting with someone whose background wasn’t limited to science and medicine. I remember one afternoon with her in the lab, working through the biomechanics of the ligaments in the equine hindlimb while she told me about her idea for a course at the school on the philosophy of our consumption of animals — everything from euphemistic names for meat (e.g., “beef” instead of “cow muscle”) to the selective breeding of pets to ever more bizarre and unhealthy extremes.

When I discovered Adelaide’s work as a sculptor, I was deeply impressed. Her pieces are beautiful and often disturbing as well, the precision of the anatomy making the animals she depicts unsettlingly real even as they occupy forms that are physically impossible.

The real reason for this post is to let anyone in the Philly area know that Adelaide has an upcoming vernissage* at the Wexler Gallery on March 5, with all the details here. I wish I could be there myself but I hope others will be able to check it out.

*It was through another anatomy lab conversation that I learned that “vernissage” isn’t used in the US. “Art opening reception” just doesn’t sound as good to me.