2017 Projects

Lots of Projects for 2017 big and small, which will be expounded upon in further posts:

1.  Barn renovation

So we have this 1917 barn, or what´s left of it.  The roof had a gaping hole when we bought the place, and based on the builder´s recommendation, had the roof taken off and the rotten elements removed.  In retrospect, it might have been wiser to patch the roof, though the builder insists that the weight wasn´t good for the structure.  In any event, as a first phase we´d like to get it covered, install a floor, and fill in the openings so we´d have a dry place for storage.  Eventually, I want a studio workshop and a dry, secure place for storing feed/bedding/firewood/tools.  V wants a mancave.

2.  Garden

The veg area will be expanded, but is limited by tree roots and the zone around the barn which will be churned up by workers and vehicles.  Closer to the house, I´ll creating an area for flowers, culinary and medicinal herbs and dye plants. 

3. Assorted Interior projects:  backsplash, range hood, laundry sink

While livable, there are a few elements still missing from the house.  This year we´d like to get those finished, along with buying the last furniture items.  We´re still sitting on patio chairs at the kitchen table.  The laundry room needs a complete makeover, but depends on what kind of laundry sink we get.  A bigger, longer term project still pending is solar thermal hot water.  I wasn´t really convinced that Galicia had a climate for solar anything, but with summers getting hotter and drier, it´s probably time to investigate this more thoroughly.  We simply can´t afford a solar electricity set up, and the government is now taxing those who do, even if they´re off grid.

4.  Experimenting with natural dyes/cheesemaking/brewing

 India Flint

I miss doing creative stuff, even though I don´t seem to have time to do what I should on any given day.  Lately, I´ve been really intrigued by eco-printing and botanical dying, which uses plant material and found objects to print patterns and colors on fabric.  I got a copy of India Flint´s Eco Colour, who´s an Australian fibre artist and does very interesting work, and have a couple of books on dye plants and dyeing to put to use.  I got some cheesemaking supplies while I was in the States and will have to look into finding a supply of raw milk and maybe a local mentor to show me the ropes on producing cheese.  Another goal is to renew our brewing hobby, now that our bottle collection is out of basement storage in Madrid and here in Galicia.  Another reason to organize the laundry room space - storage for bulky brewing stuff. 

5.  Water

This winter is shaping up to be very dry.  I´ve been busily building raised beds since historically Galicia is quite wet.  But this winter the weather is wierdly dry, warm and sunny and we´ll be needing to take advantage of all new roof surfaces to store water, especially at higher elevations.  I´d also like to refurbish the defunct well by the barn for watering the garden, and there needs to be some form of irrigation put into place.  We´ll see.

6.  Chickens

Still need to decide on a place to put a coop.  Disruption from work on the barn could be an issue here, also.  I´d just like to get started with a half dozen hens and start producing some fertilizer for the gardens.  Always good to have the ingredients for a tortilla española around the place.

7.  Integrate into the community

We´re really, really bad at socializing.  V has the excuse that he´s gone a lot, but I´m just anti-social.  We know our immediate neighbors and have met a few locals, but haven´t done a lot to participate in local functions or anything.  However, just before Christmas, we started hosting a lovely young woman for an English conversation practice once a week, and are planning to meet her family soon.  Turns out, she plays the gaita/pipes and is a member of the local folk band, so we hope to be more informed as to local festivities this year.

So those are the plans.  We´ll revisit to see how well we´ve done at the end of the year.  And now I must go get in another couple of loads of firewood as they´re predicting a siberian cold wave for the end of this week.

First comission

A summer dress going to a little girl in País Vasco.

Hope she likes it.

Crazy idea #31

An Etsy empire.

 love this soft 100% cotton fabric

The little girl´s dress was such a huge hit with the family, I´ve decided to make a few more and try my hand at a Etsy store. I figure if they don´t sell, then the niece´s wardrobe is set for the next 2 years.

Still in the R&D phase - trying to remember to do A before B before C during construction as well as learning the Spanish vocabulary for bias tape and interfacing, etc. (Fabric shopping in Spain is a subject for another post.) The handmade trend really seems to be catching on, even here, where handmade is traditionally thought of as a sign of poverty. Go hipsters!! I´m all for spending one´s limited resources on local, quality craftsmanship that lasts.

something more urban

There are complaints among sellers that Etsy is succumbing to the wave of mass produced stuff being sold as ¨handcrafted¨, which seems both unfair and not very smart on Etsy´s part.  There are several other platforms for internet craft sales as well. Dawanda, a German platform, is popular. There´s also Artesanum, if you´re looking for Spanish/Latin American crafts. Those in the UK can browse Folksy.

 next . . .

Happy Shopping!

What shall she put in her pocketses. . .

A summer dress for V´s littlest niece.

Still getting to know the machine, moments of tension, going from hesitant to galloping away from me completely . . .

I debated a long time about pockets.

But the seashells, stray blossoms and other treasures of summer beg for a place to be tucked away.

Firsts

Made a notebook cover for my dear friend W, whose b-day was in January.  She was very gracious about the crude rustic nature of the finished product, but it was a great learning exercise for me.  New-to-me sewing machine, first time using leather, and first time embroidery with coton a broder thread.  Baby steps.

The monogram came from Broderie d´Antan.

Creativa Madrid 2013 Oct. 24, 25, 26 & 27

Creativa Madrid 2013 - for all things crafty.

Links to tickets, activities schedule and exhibitors list here.

La Campaña por la Lana

Once again, a day late and a dollar short.  Sigh.

 
The campaign ended - yesterday.

They had sheep.  Real live sheep in Serrano!

They yarn bombed La Coruña.

Oh well, I guess there´s always next year.

Creativa 2012

Creativa, the arts and crafts and hobby fair, is being celebrated the 18 - 21 of October at the Crystal Pavilion at the Casa de Campo. There will be workshops, exhibitors, demonstrations etc.

For more information the Creativa link is here.

The programming pdf is here.

Six degrees of surfing

I love this internet thing.

Today I was reading an article in El Progreso, the Lugo newspaper, about a craft shop opening.

Craft and Tea (Rúa Nova, número 75, Lugo) have a blogspot page.  They sell craft materials and hold workshops on crochet, knitting, and sewing as well as providing tea and cookies/biscuits.  It looks charming. 

Although the size of the header on their webpage forces a lot of scrolling down.  They also have a lengthy bloglist.  Which led me to. . .

Las Teje y Maneje, who also have a blogspot page.  They´ve compiled a wide-ranging and interesting list of hip craft projects in knitting, crocheting, illustration.  And they have a lengthy bloglist.  Which led me to. . .

Blackoveja, who have a blogspot page and a shop in Madrid!

They sell supplies and classes in knitting, crochet, patchwork and embroidery.  And in October they´ll be receiving a shipment of wool from a little corner of Leon that I vaguely remember hearing about where they manufacture wool blankets, rugs and outerwear from their own area sheep (mostly Merino and Churra).  All explained in this fabulous entry.
.

I´ve been wondering about small scale wool processing in Spain for a long time.  And now I know it actually exists.  Unfortunately, like many highly skilled artisan trades, it´s about to disappear due to a combination of the bad economic impact of globalization, unfriendly bureaucracy, and the age of the participants, one started learning the business at six years old.

And further googling I found this blog entry at Blog del Tamboritero Maragato  and a video!

Laurentino de Cabo, the Illustrious Weaver of Val

Val de San Lorenzo is the Leonese Olympus of textile art, but today there remain very few who make a living from it:  this family has managed it.

In 1752 there were 51 weavers in Val de San Lorenzo, a small village located in the middle of the region of Maragatos.  After an inadequate industrial revolution that arrived late, by 1920 that number rose to 112.  In 1968 only 82 dedicated themselves to this occupation.  In 1991 there were 31.  Today, in 2004, there are five.  The merit of these artisans is twofold:  First, they manage to survive, making a living from this ancient art which is increasingly difficult in a globalized economy.  Second, they remain loyal to the traditional techniques and spirit.  And one of these artisans is Laurentino de Cabo Cordero, descendent of a dynasty of Maragato weavers. 

De Cabo describes the process, which goes from the arrival of sacks of wool at his house up to the moment when the thick and warm blanket of pure wool wraps around the purchaser at night:  first, Tino says he always uses ¨local¨ wool, in other words, from the immediate area or Leon region:  Churra sheep, Leonese Merino or entrefina.  Churras from the moors and plains, Merinos from the mountains (excellent examples from the village of Maraña), each wool apt for each piece.  The strong, resiliant churra wool is perfect for rugs, but not blankets since it ¨itches¨; nevertheless, the merina, almost silky, is ideal for the weaving of blankets.  The wool arrives dirty and is washed in a special large tank, then left to dry.  Laurentino de Cabo says he simply ¨imitates nature¨ when making his creations: ¨If you observe a sheep, for example an entrefina - he says -, you will see that it has an interior fleece, springy and soft against the cold, and an outer coat of rough strong wool that protects it from the rain and external elements.¨ These two coats are also present in his creations.  De Cabo, who is a distinguished weaver, knows very well that wool is the best of insulators.  ¨If you observe a strand of wool under a microscope you will see that it is a hollow tube.  The weaving industry - he continues - has spent years looking for a synthetic material to substitute for wool, without finding one.  Wool never overcompensates for changes in temperature, it is fireproof, warms even when wet and protects from cold as well as humidity.  In addition, he says that merino wool from Leon is the second best wool in the world. 

But let´s continue with the process:  scouring serves to degrease the wool, although Tino allows a small amount to remain to serve as protection. The semi-degreased wool is ¨typical of Val de San Lorenzo, as it adds longevity and strength.¨  Once washed, the wool passes through a series of machines, the majority astonishingly old, from the beginnings of the last century.  ¨They´re the best ever invented¨, he says regarding this true ¨museum¨ of textile art.  The wool - if colored - is first dyed in a pot, where it simmers for an hour - it will pass through different machines to card and transform it into yarn:  the diablo creates tufts, afterward it passes through the abridores, a series of rollers with hard, thick teeth, progressively finer and closer together; this is the emborradora carder, from which it goes to the repasadora carder,  producing a kind of ¨veil¨ of wool which is rolled on a large cylinder with a scale that measures the size of the required yarn, according to the needs of the weaver.  A finer, denser roving material comes from the continua carder, from which will emerge the actual yarn.  Tino informs us that what makes the yarn consistent and workable is its twist:  wool roving parts easily, but once spun, tearing becomes much more difficult.  The torcedora is the machine which achieves this.  In ten hours it´s possible to create 80 kilos of yarn.

There is still an intermediate process:  creating a warp of yarn for the loom.  For this a urdidor is used, a complex machine from which emerges a ¨band¨ of yarns of any determined size according to the type of piece to be elaborated.  The buérgano folds in a block (also called a plegador) the amount which will be woven, then inserted into various channels with the goal of inserting them in the lanzaderas.  ¨Weaving¨ comments Tino - is the easiest part of the whole process.¨  To weave a standard blanket takes about two and a half hours with veteran looms (one of them dates to 1786 and uses the ancient system of perforated cards) which he maintains in perfect condition; aided by the use of electricity.  The last phase consists of fulling the piece with a batán, that old fashioned type of riverside mill (as can be seen in the Batán Museum del Val), and now modernized.  In the last process, the percha removes the hairs from the piece.

In addition to blankets, Tino makes socks, carpets, and sackcloth fabric for regional costumes.

Emilio Gancedo / Text 12/12/2004

Unfortunately, their webpage www.tejelana.com isn´t working.  I found a detailed pdf here that describes the wool carding/spinning processing in English.

In Spanish, but the images are fascinating and easy to follow.



Just the machinery alone is a treasure.  And it´s not too far off the path to the ruin.  Must stop by.

Knitting

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you - those are cables!!

Went to California to see my Mom and she AGAIN showed me how to knit. I am hopeful that this time it actually stuck. We knitted, purled, played with cables and spacing, cast on, cast off. She sent me home with needles and this sampler piece, to remind me that it could be done. In short, she did everything a Mom could. Now it´s up to me to practice and figure out how to fix my own mistakes (she is fab at that).

And I bought a book. . .

Who knows what might be next! Maybe pillow cases.

Source

Or a chunky throw.

Source

House Guest

We have an addition to the household while an SIL and BIL and niece are on vacation. Her name is ¨Calcetines¨ (Socks) and she´s supposed to be a dwarf angora - but she seems pretty good sized to me.

Rabbits are considered a good beginning livestock animal, but unfortunately neither V nor I are wild about how it tastes. Angora fiber, however, is quite another matter.

I, sadly, am not a rabbit whisperer - the little bugger has tried to bite me twice. I assume she was just hungry and crabby at the time. She seems to be settling in better now.

More on raising Angora Rabbits here and here.

Paper Dolls

I think this artist is AMAZING. Unfortunately, the exhibit ended June 5th, but keep an eye out for her work in the future.

Elenora de Toledo - Bronzino

Isabelle de Borchgrave´s version, entirely in paper:

From an exhibit at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco.

Another shot:

Parts I - IV here.

Semana Santa

From Hola.com

Easter is the time when Spain´s patron saints and virgins get dressed up and taken out for a walk around town. Andalucia seems to have the most massive turnout for these events, but they´re held all over. Unfortunately, processions were cancelled in Galicia because of rain yesterday. For more on Semana Santa in Galicia try Semana Santa en Galicia.

There are a lot of hard-working supporting groups for these processions to actually happen. From the costaleros who literally do the heavy lifting (see this video from Toledo where they have to exit and enter the church on their knees carrying the paso), the nazarenos who accompany the pasos, to the small crafts studios who produce the candles and finery.

I´ve been reading some blogs about the gorgeous embroidery used on the figures and pasos and thought I´d share. It can take up to 2 years to finalize the design and execute the embroidery. I´ve looked for courses on goldwork in Madrid, but again they seem to be in the south.

Jesus Gomez Jimenez´s blog El Arte del Bordado en Oro (in Spanish) is both stunning and informative, especially the videos.

This is a report from Seville Television including the lovely guy who´s been dressing the figure of the Virgin (La Macarena) for the last 50 years! If that´s not an Almodóvar movie character, I don´t know what is. You can see her in all her processional glory from about 3 minutes in.



Also Elloy Tellez has a great blog (in Spanish) where you can see the original design and then execution. And not just embroidery - crosses, banners, jewelry too!

No stockings this year either

Frankly, I suck at knitting. My mother is good at it and would like me to take it up - but it´s so FRUSTRATING. If I start out with 20 stitches, inside of 10 rows I can end up with 30 or perhaps 15, both have happened - and have no idea how I do it. You wouldn´t think such a repetitive activity as knitting and purling would be so irritatingly complicated.

I started this little exercise last summer visiting my Mom. Basic little knitting and purling, and really, the 5 x 5 alternating blocks of stitches and rows produce a really interesting basketweave pattern. Haven´t touched it since, but when I knitted a few rows the other day - I once again dropped or added a stitch and now I´ve had to rip out what I added (and more), and I can´t even get it back on the damned needles.



For me, the more I think about it, knitting becomes horribly like 3 dimensional math.

I just want to be able to knit warm, fuzzy socks.



Well, warm, fuzzy socks and slouchy hats. Socks, hats, scarves, mittens and gloves.




And someday, in my heart of hearts, one of these.




Since I seem to tend to drop stitches, maybe I´m a natural.