The Long Kozo Journey

So, I bet you've been asking where I have been. Well I am going to tell you now.
Long story short I hand spun, hand wove, and hand sewed a kimono.
This all started over a year ago. A group of artists were contacted to see if there was interest in doing a communal art show with a through line being kozo.
Now what is kozo? Kozo is a plant that grows in Japan. It is harvested yearly to make paper. The stalks are harvested and dried.

Once dried, the stalks are cooked in soda ash to break down the outer fibrous bark.

Once the stalk has turned the proper grey color, they are removed from the boiling water and cooled by rinsing clean.

The dark outer bark is then hand picked off the fiber and it is then beaten with a mallet into a pulp.

The pulp is then added to water and paper is made. It is at this point that most of the artists went their separate ways to create their own pieces.

Traditionally in Japan, the paper was recycled by splicing the sheets into strips and spun on a hand crank, small, quill wheel. It was then woven into cloth with cotton or silk threads to make kimonos.

The process for spinning the kozo is fairly simple, although rather finicky. Most of the spun kozo is done by dampening the strips and spinning it an average of 7 wheel rotations before winding onto the quill.

I tried that, and it didn't work for me. So then I tried it on my charka, again with no success. Then I attempted to spin it on my Sidekick, it was working better but I had to get a slower whorl. Finally, I had the bright idea to core spin it with silk thread. Boom, I had yarn.

After that I needed to figure out how much material I needed to make a short kimono. I went to my closet and pulled out a few kimonos I had on hand; I went to Pintrest, the library, anywhere I could think of that had resources on making a kimono. I ended up figuring I needed approximately 9 1/2 yards of fabric. This measurement included loom waste. Now, I am not going to go through the whole process of warping the loom because, to be honest, this was the first big project I had ever woven. 

(photo courtesy of Joe) 

But about 3 days of warp measuring and threading the reed and heddles, the loom was ready to start weaving.

I collected all the kozo that I spun and in this whole process I formulated an idea for what this kimono was going to look like. It included many different fibers in neutral colors and a plain weave.

I spun cotton top, lint (right side), ginned cotton (left side); bleached linen tow, water retted linen top, linen strick (bottom); silk noil, silk top. 

All these were combined with the kozo to make something far better than anything I ever could have imagined.

To see the completed piece you will have to wait...

The opening reception is Friday September 8, 2017, at the Western New York Book Arts Center located at 468 Washington St, Buffalo, NY 14203. If you live in the area please stop by and see not only my piece, but all the other artists' pieces. I know I am excited to see what everyone has done with it!

This whole process was made possible by The Western New York Book Arts Center. I extend my deepest appreciation for including me in this wonderful journey.

Llamas, and Camels, and Alpacas, Oh My!

Camelids are a special kind of mammal, mainly because they have great fiber! There are only a few species in this family, namely camels, then llamas and alpacas, and finally the more endangered Paco-Vicuna and Guanaco.
Alpaca seams to be the most abundant in the fiber world. It is very warm and very soft. It has a beautiful drape and a good staple length. Huacaya Alpaca is a shorter staple length and is most common, from my experience. The Suri Alpaca is much longer, comparable to a longwool, I have not worked with this variety however.
Bactrian Camels, as opposed to the single hump Dromedary Camel, has a decent amount of usable fiber. Both of these breeds are domesticated. Bactrian Camels have a short, cotton like length staple, but it is very soft and considered a luxury fiber.
Llama is a wonderful fiber to spin and knit. It is highly insulating and has a decent drape to it. I have spun to samples of llama, the first one was beautiful with a great staple length and the second, was clumpy and, what I believe, was second cuts. Take it from me, second cuts are not worth it!
Paco-Vicuna is a luxury fiber, it is rather expensive per ounce, but if you can find some, try it, you won't be sorry. It is very similar to camel, but it has a much longer staple length. It would be great blended with other fibers!
Lastly, the Guanaco, is one fiber that I have not been able to get my hand on, but I understand it is wonderful just like the Paco-Vicuna.
Now let's look at some spinning, shall we?
First to examine is baby alpaca. This light grey fiber was a real dream to spin! I spun 8 ounces total, the one on the left is worsted spun and the one on the left is spun semi-woolen, 2-ply. Note the difference in the two. While the worsted spun is spun fine it still has a lot of drape to it.

With the two next to each other, you can really see the difference.

Next, we'll look at the llama. The first sample was bought from a local heard in New York. It was beautiful fiber, very easy to spin, with really wonderful drape. It was spun from roving. The photo doesn't give it justice in terms of color. The fiber is a red brown color with some white thrown in. This was from one llama, I do remember.

The second sample is the not so nice llama.

Note the halo around the ball. You can also see some of the VM that was in the fiber.

This is the single. The lumps are small clumps of short hair, this is why I say it is seconds. There was none of this in the first batch. This was from a different vendor.

This is the plied yarn. Again you can see the lumps and VM throughout the ball. This is a good example as to why you should always take a good look at the fiber you buy. This wasn't expensive, first warning sign, and I was so drawn to the black llama. Very disappointed.

On my spindle below, I have Paco-Vicuna. What a dream it was to spin. This was just a sample of the fiber. It is super soft, with a very fine micron count, and such a warm color.

 In this, I wanted to show how fine it spun. This is next to a regular pencil. I highly recommend this fiber if you can find it!

Finally, we have camel. This is a very short fiber and difficult to spin on it's own. I have had the most success with it spinning on either my quill, or my charka. The fiber is very loft and is that wonderful camel color.

 

   Again, note the size next to a pencil.

This is a camel and silk blend that I recently got at the Interweave Yarn Fest in Loveland, Colorado. It spun up very well!

I hope you enjoyed this quick introduction on the Camel family. Happy spinning!

So, it has been a few months, and I apologize.
But, How is your knitting coming along? I hope it is going well.
Recently, I was with my knitting group and I was asked how I came into my knitting; my response was "By knitting through the Almanac".
Knitting through Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac, has been such a great experience. I know the year is not over yet, but I am confident that I will be finishing it.
I left off in February, which included baby leggings, a matching jacket and bonnet, a pot holder, and a square shawl. The pot holder is a chunky double acrylic wool blend yarn from Lion Brand, and let me say, it gets used. I wear the square shawl, and with this project came a happy mistake. Elizabeth tells you to increase at each corner by doing a yarn over, knit one, yarn over. I performed my yarn overs, not above the knit one but over the previous yarn over. This creates a parabola! More recently, I have been playing with the idea and making complex curved increases. Then the baby set was adorable. The leggings came out for a toddler while the jacket and bonnet were perfect for a true baby. The leggings were given to one young mother, while the jacket and bonnet were given to a first time grandmother friend of mine.
March is the only month I did not complete, which is ok because I love the pattern.
April was the afghan month and boy what an afghan. A friend of mine gave me two bags of lopi yarn, all in different colors and all beautiful. So with the lopi and some other chunky yarn that I had in my stock, I knit 24 squares, from the center. Then I grafted all the squares together, and finished it by knitting a sideways border all around it. Our summer was warm, so it was quietly packed under my bed till the fall. Only a short time into the fall now and already some nice naps have been had under the fine blanket. This was also the final project my grandmother saw completed.
It was in May that she passed away. Memorial Day 2015, my 93 year old grandmother passed away. Now, she did not teach me to knit, but she did teach me to crochet, and to appreciate the things we have. Growing up during the depression she did not have a lot, but it was more than my grandfather had. She told me that her family never went hungry, but that my grandfathers' did. As for knitting, it was the month of mittens, in which I only got one pair done. I think Elizabeth would have understood the circumstances though.
June was hat month, and boy did I knit hats! I knit all the patterns she had in the Almanac, and then I worked on some patterns from Knitting Without Tears. Now, I realize I have forgotten another pivotal moment to this year: When I Started Spinning!
I began spinning a few months prior to that on a drop spindle. I spun wool, and silk, and linen, and cotton, and, well, anything I could twist. In June, I visited relatives in New Hampshire and on the way there I stopped at the beautiful Harrisville Studios. I bought some wool there and also mohair, both of which I began to spin. By this time I have a heavy weight spindle, a medium weight, and a super light weight one. The heavy one I attempted flax on, but moved to the medium weight. Wool, I like on my heavy weighted one, and cotton and silk are perfect on my home made super light weighted one.
July was pi shawl month. I was excited. This pattern was why I bought the book in the first place. I had bought a silk and mohair blend yarn and found it an excellent suit for the project. I cast on and knitted, then increased, then knitted, then increase, and so on until I got to the end of three skeins and said enough. Then I began knitting a sideways border around the whole thing in hand spun mohair. Next came the blocking of the shawl, and my gosh, I love it. At the same time, I knitted a wedding veil out of a silk linen blend, which was a wedding gift to a dear friend of mine. This pattern I virtually made up, but it was based on the concept of a Pharoese shawl.
August came and went with more hats, I'm sorry Elizabeth, but I didn't get that chapter at all.
September came with no nether garments and ended with nether garments. Knitted Long Johns were the project for September. I loved this project. I know the idea seems rather odd but, knit them and you will love them.
Now it is October and I am knitting an in-between-season sweater, again not one of Elizabeth's, but I think she would approve. Details with pictures to come.
Happy Knitting!
ONO

First Etsy Listing

These are the picture to my first Etsy posting. This is a hand knit shawl that I made a few years ago.