The Good, the Bad, and, yes, the Ugly

Yes, today has been a head-scratcher. After a week of being on the receiving end of unprofessional behaviour problems, all I wanted to do was hide in my workshop. 

The Good: I finally had a chance to talk to someone in the yarn industry who was: a) happy to listen and b) actually wanted to offer some solutions to a business problem. I could have reached through the phone and kissed this person. Good karma call.

The Bad: What had been just a minor annoyance has now become a headache.

Here's the deal -- there's a big difference between professional dyers practice their art and, what seems to be, on the other hand, a proliferation of people who think they can dye yarn, sell it, and make a fortune. Good luck to them. The market will sort this out. Karma baby.

It's just that, well, we're not all the same. And buyer beware.

I get people at my market stall who say they have had a bad experience with hand-dyed fibre and don't want to pay for another. It's downright depressing. All I can say is, well, yes, I totally understand. Buyer beware. Some of us have done their hard yards, invested a lot of time and money to get their product into a professional standard, and it's hard sometimes when the competition doesn't do the same.

If you like to hand-dye and are happy with your results -- fantastic! If you think it's just a matter of cooking a pot on the stove and bunging your fibre in -- well fine.  Buyer beware.

I now understand the looks of dismay on the faces of some of Australia's best hand-dyers as they toured around one of the main festivals last year. All our new faces and fibres caused consternation. One fibre vendor -- I consider her to be one of our best --was aghast that I often rehank my yarns -- it's an aesthetic thing for me really -- and said -- oh! you rewind!

I assured her that if I had her volume, there's no way those puppies would get rewound -- we both had a good laugh. And I still buy her yarn -- because it is wonderful and a great product.

I totally believe there is room in this country for all of us dedicated fibre artists to have a go. But some of my "colleagues" believe that denigrating another dyer's product, or trying to rip off their style and designs is the way to corner the market. That really sucks. By the way, when I do shows overseas, the other vendors are fantastic, supportive, and form a mutual appreciation society. I don't get that vibe in Australia. Why is that?

My friend Suzette (talented jewelery artist) and I call the baddies -- Market Vampires. They go around to the markets, find stuff they like, then go home, copy it, then turn up at your market with a stall. 

Guess what? There are Yarn Vampires these days. Here are some ways to avoid being a Yarn Vampire:

1) don't ask the artist what dyes they use -- why? Go out and buy some dye, find a type you like, and mix your own. It's worth the time and effort. Otherwise, you're a Yarn Vampire. 

Yes, some of us are happy to tell you. Others aren't. If the only key to my art was the brand of dye I used, well, I wouldn't be any good then would I?

2) don't ask the artist how they dye their yarn -- why? Because many have spent a lot of time and money learning and practicing their art. Wanna cut corners? Get something for nothing? Then, you're a Yarn Vampire.

3) don't ask the artist if they can teach you to dye yarn -- why? Because many hand-dyers have developed their own methods of dyeing. This is proprietary knowledge, and for many, their livelihood. Most will be happy to tell you because the basics are out there, in books, online. So go do your homework and stop cutting corners. If the only key to what I did was putting dye on yarn, I wouldn't be doing my work would I?

Try this instead: ask -- "do you teach workshops?" If the answer is yes, the artist will most likely have a schedule and location of their next workshop. And they'll thank you for asking.

But please don't ask -- can I come over to your workshop and you teach me what you do? Yes, this happens to me often. One person even told me she was starting a yarn dyeing business, so would I be happy to teach her? 

And just in case you think this is a hand-dyer problem, rest assured, my other artist friends who sell their work get the same questions. 

OK -- ask yourself -- do you go into a fine restaurant and into the kitchen and say to the head chef -- "yeah, I cook too." 

We all have our own reasons for owning a fibre arts business. I started mine by accident. I was selling my recycled artwear and designs and customers kept asking me where I got my fibres. I said, "I dye bits and pieces for myself." I was dyeing yarn and threads because I couldn't readily find what I wanted to work with. 

I went home sad that day and told my husband, they don't want the garments as much as the yarn. He said, don't be stupid, sell the damned yarn. So there you have it. 

The Ugly: One YV, who inspected my work at my stall, stood in front of me and said, "I can do that for next year." But what's the point? What possible reason would someone think that is ever ok?  

Well good on ya sister -- see you at the shows this year. Just stay away from my stall. You're a Yarn Vampire. And I've got a stake with your name on it. 

Spun

My friend V advises she's been spinning some CSW  I dyed in Sherwood Forest (yeah, it looks like it sounds) and I can't wait to see it. 

Been spinning on my lighter gemstone spindles and really enjoying them. They take much more abuse than my Schacht spindle (broke the hook twice) -- I think the top of that one is too tall and just says, split me off please. I like the way it spins, but it's too expensive for me to abuse. I like to throw my spindle in my spinning bag. 

jasperstone spindle by SIOz

This puppy may not look like much, but it's just the right weight and spins nicely for me. I'm happy with my hooks -- they suit the way I spin -- and they're easy to cart around. 

spindles

What to do -- some whorls I'm playing with for spindles. Each one is unique, even when I get multiples, as they are machined individually and are made from natural stone, so they have individual quirks to 'em. I really like the yellow one and am fussing over it's best use. I've put them on wood for the photo, but they're not built yet. Hmmm. No time to spin with them tho.

Observations of a fibre dyer painter person

I was trying to explain to someone the other day what I did for a living and they just didn't understand. "So you own a wool shop," they said. No, I design and make yarns and fibres for people to use in their own creations. And I design and make my own pieces to sell and wear. The second part makes sense to them -- "Oh, you make clothes." 

Well, yes and no. I realised that the hat(s) on my head kept switching. I could almost see it over their heads like a cartoon bubble. 

But even then, my response was, "well, sort of."  When I responded that I make artpieces, sometimes vests, sometimes bags, sometimes just objects out of recycled fibres , they said, "why would anyone want to do that?" Well, actually, lots of people do it. And when my grandmother's mother did it, it wasn't called recycling. 

Clearly, this person needed to back away from my place at the Port Markets, right? No sale there.

It was a long Sunday after V left (that's Vellan, spinner, smartypants, gamester, and all around ace company person).

All this querying got me thinking. I don't see myself as a yarn peddler. After all, there are a lot of places to get knitting and spinning stuff around. I guess I think of what I do as  trying to get people to see their own knitting, spinning, crocheting, etc... in new ways. I'm also aware that I'm more used to seeing hand-dyed yarns than most of the knitters I meet here in Port Adelaide. One woman told me she was shocked by all the colour from my stall the first time she visited. I'm used to it.

I guess that's why most yarn shops, with the exception of a rare few, just don't do it for me. 

Quote from Sunday -- woman looks at a hank of hand-painted, pure Aussie 5ply, 100gms and sees the price. She looks at her husband and says, with disdain, "$22 for a ball of wool!" When I advise that it is hand-painted wool grown on a farm in Victoria and spun specially in small lots, she says, "ridiculous," throws the hank down, and huffs off.  This happened twice on the same day -- 2 diff market visitors of course. The first version -- they weren't so huffy.

Clearly, she wanted that wool, or she wouldn't have been so angry. I guess my years in the psychoanalysis reading study group at UMC pays off every now and then. Or perhaps, given the endless discussion of the Crisis, it seems disgusting to ask someone to pay that much for 100gms of knitting wool.

The flip side of this is the fab woman who came by with her first half of her new scarf -- knitted in Little John, some lovely Aussie 8ply pure wool -- def not superwash -- and she'd run out of the first hank already. Whooosh -- out goes another hank. I am grateful she brought her knitting by to show me, as her scarf looks gorgeous -- the orange pleasantly zigs and zags up the scarf in a sea of blues and greens. She advised she was going to make it for one of her children, but she's changed her mind. It's def. hers. Too right! OK, do -- does anyone need an expensive scarf? I dunno. I know she's enjoying watching the colours change as she knits happily along. And she will remember that happiness when she wears it. Can't buy that at David Jones.

Showing me that scarf made me so jealous -- I now want one too. Oh wait? I can paint more! I actually sometimes forget that. And there is definitely a disconnect between when I paint something and when I see the yarn knitted by someone besides me. I forget I've painted it and think, gee, that's nice! DOH!

Two years ago, at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show, I walked into the exhibit area where the knitting entries are -- and there I was, staring at a shawl on the wall. "Huh, that looks familiar." I stood there for a few minutes, seriously, until it dawned on me that it was my Versailles Shawl design from Yarn Mag. I had the strangest feeling. It meant a lot to me that someone would knit that design and enter their shawl into the contest that year. So thanks to the knitter near Melbourne who did that. 

I have to remember the good stuff on days when the negative goes over the top.  Yeah, sometimes I just want to say, "right, so you like wearing cheap acrylic then do you?" But I don't. Some days I think -- it's be easier to buy a traditional shop and sell yarn  -- but that isn't what I do. That would mean no time to do what it is I actually do.

m, still SIOz -- tired, having just finished a very large lot of banana palm silk painting

 

 

All knitting and no spin make M a dull girl

Where is the time going? I have just finished an enormous project for the US, so this week has been a post-partum kind of week. I miss the piece already. Bye bye for now.

The fibre sits here -- unspun again. I bagged the icky mill endy bits of the soy top I dyed last week and it is ready to go. Only I'm not. 

Here's a photo of my girlygirl, the love of my life, enjoying the remnants of nacho nite. You can see she is an enthusiastic eater.

Soy. Painted, not Spun

Hand-Painted Soysilk in V's colours

drying, not prepped for sale yet

I'll blame V for this colourway -- we were a-talkin' about her Urban Decay Cowl and I said I would like to paint something of that flavour --  chatted a bit about acceptable and unacceptable combos. This is my take on it.  The darker charcoal is a blue black.

It's positively evil.

In a good way. 

my spindle and me

Managed to sneak in a few minutes of spindling yesterday at the Port Markets. It's deadline season, so my woolly pile is just sitting there. V. sad.  Using one of these gemstone spindles (above). The picture isn't fab --- I worked a shorter hook on this spindle and really like its speed. On the spindle -- McLaren Vale CSW (South Aussie of course). It is going to be a 2ply for a shawl. I hope.

Really want to spin this hand-painted CSW (merino x) -- Wanting to see how the new deep blue blends.