rockpool candy

WIP & Spinning and Dyeing Workshops

It's hotting up work wise here in my rockpool and half of me is glad to say that there are not enough hours in the day to get artwork finished for people that want it, keeping me super busy (nice position to be in) and the other half would relish a lazy day, or 10, picking through my stash, pondering on what fibre to fiddle with.

Since getting back from Chicago, (ahhhh, 7 hours in the air with nothing to do but crochet....) I've been getting ready for the Belfast Vintage Fair next weekend, as well as to visit the Knitting and Stitching Show  in Dublin. I know that's going to hurt my pocket and bloat my stash even further.

My 'Stitchies' are multiplying, growing in their Staffroominess; suede elbow patches and sideburns appear out of nowhere, as do stuffy history teachers and beardy blokes.

As well as all my work, I've been attending weekend workshops at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum which is like stepping back in time. I'm learning all about dyeing and weaving and brushing up on the spinning skills I acquired as a kid. I have a wonderful teacher, Rosemary, who's accomplished and honest (she'll tell you that she doesn't know if she doesn't) and patient. Oh boy! How she's patient with me, asking question after question. I'm like the kid that sits in the back of the car constantly wanting to know "Why is blue?"

We had great fun dyeing up yarns with natural dyes. My favourite has to be the lichens. They self mordant, so there's no other nasty chemicals to add. Here I'm dyeing a hank of yarn with two different colours. I found that a short boil brought about a range of beautiful soft greens, whilst a longer time in the dye changed the yarn to a brown, which whilst pleasant, was not as nice. The resultant range of colours from all the dyes we used was extensive. And has lead me to look at the natural world with a sense of "I wonder if I could boil that up?" I only thank my lucky stars that it's the 21st Century. Only a few centuries ago, they'd have burned me at the stake!
We attached the dyed yarn to card, as a record.

Here are the lovely soft lichen colours.

Chicago Tribune Zip Code

Annoyingly, it turns out that you need to register to see the Tribune pages that I mentioned in my previous blog. You'll need a zip code to do so, just type in 60602 - it's down town chicago - and you'll get right in!

Chicago Hyperbolic Reef

For those who don't know, I've been lucky enough to be one of the contributors working with Margaret and Chrissy Wertheim at the Institute for Figuring on their hyperbolic reef. The bleached reef here was crocheted by Chrissy and the beautiful broken red pink corals by the genius that is Helle of Gooseflesh.

Each coral in the reef is crocheted to a mathematical formula (the basic idea is that you increase stitches uniformly by your chosen set amount; 2 to every 3, 2 to 1, 5 to 4, it doesn't matter).

The results are surprising and amazing.

From the outside, the Chicago Cultural Centre is impressively huge.

Inside, the Chicago rooms, of which there are two, are daunting when empty.

Luckily, Margaret and Chrissy had a wealth of works by international handicrafters at their disposal to fill the space, along with the wonderful enthusiasm and generosity of spirit from many paid and unpaid helpers to arrange it. Here, Tim helps me hang three of my football jellyfish.

Many of the reefs were sewn onto felt-covered upturned baskets to create mounds.

Yarn shops and enthusiasts in the Chicago area were informed about the reef by Catherine Chandler and Lisa Yun Lee at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum
and encouraged to join their artistic outcry.
The result? A band of amazing people, including Cindy here, crocheting like mad, still adding to the Chicago reef as it was put together in the gallery.

With my head down, I tried to curate my own wall of plastic sea creatures. I marked out a warm current swirl in masking tape.

And then Tim and Jocelyn helped me to afix my different sculptures.

Finally, and you can't see this from my terrible photos, (note to self, check camera's shutter speed) we set to, drilling holes for about 1000 white-headed map pins, creating a warm current of spawn in which the pieces sit.

We added my large coral fan and shell forms to the outer edge of the box wall.

The opening evening, on Friday the 12th October was a whirlwind of wonderful people. Margaret and Chrissy gave a talk, explaining the project and thanking everyone, present and not, for their hard work. (seen here being filmed by documentary maker Shimon Dotan, winner of the Special Jury Prize for Best World Documentary Feature at Sundance Film Festival, whose crew were charming and made us feel very at ease, even when they had a camera but inches from our noses! Shimon has taken a particular interest in the reef project.)

There was lots of 'ironic' posing by me, Debbie McGee style, infront of my plastic work.

And also the showing off of my wonderful husband beside my fibre work.

The assistant commisioner to the Chicago Cultural Centre, Valentine Judge, even invited the French Pastry School of Chicago to create a sugar reef for the night, which was truly spectacular.

Everything was wonderful. The toxic reef was toxic. (see here, Ildiko's wonderful neon work nestled amongst plastic-infiltrated corals)

New and firm friends were made (thanks to Henry and Ann for saving the day with crochet hook help - see my Crochet Hook Carnage blog entry; and also for sharing Ann's birthday evening with us)

And the beautiful twins, Monika and Erika, talented owners and makers of doublestitch
shone out as only they can.
(We blagged our way into their catwalk show a couple of nights later - if you have a wonderful figure and want to show it off, then their crochet urban wear is right up your alley.)

The whole experience will go down as one of the most wonderful weeks of my life. The generosity and friendliness of everyone we met was overwhelming. The trip truly was our pleasure. Chicagee, we loves ya!

Chicago Tribune

Hi All,
I know that I've not posted a blog for a while, sorry, but please forgive me.
We landed back from Chicago and I had 24 hours to unpack, wash my stuff and repack before jumping back on another plane and nipping over to the Mainland for two days' worth of creative meetings (some of which included a visit to a re-cycling centre). I hang out in all the most glamourous places.

And this morning, I'm off for a weekend course in spinning at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

So I SHALL update you on my Chicago trip, but as a taster, you can check out the chicago tribune feature

Annoyingly, it turns out that you ned to register to see the tribune pages. You'll need a zip code to do so, just type in 60602 - it's down town chicago - and you'll get right in!

It's Charles Storch's story about the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef. There's a video, where I'm mentioned, and more photos about the installation, including picture 6 of 7 of me working on my plastic spawning reef wall.
love inga

Crochet Carnage

RIP my vintage hooks.
I took plastic hooks on the plane to Chicago, hoping that they would be security acceptable. They were.
But it was the cabin pressure got them!
It must be something to do with bakalite/vintage plastic and 35,000 feet, but they kept breaking whilst I used them.
By the time I arrived, they were in tiny pieces and I'd actually had to resort to knitting with a pair of cocktail stirrers. Who knew twizzle sticks were so adaptable?
TIP: if you're flying and your airline won't let you take knitting needles, then cocktail; stirrers are the babies that you should ask a steward for. They certainly knit plastic bag yarn well.

So our first few hours in the flamin' hot city were spent searching for new crochet hooks. Not that easy on Columbus Day, when all the knitting shops were shut.
But thanks to the wonderful folks at renegade handmade, who took time to find us a local store that was open, my beloved hooks have shiny new replacements. And yes, I bought enough to get me through the week and all the way back to Belfast.
Sorry that there are no pics, but the B&B mac I'm typing this on doesn't have bluetooth. I'll add a pic of the twizzle stick knitting when I get home.
Inga