My summer of blending is relaxing, evokes my curiosity, and it is just the thing I need; early mornings I walk down to the tiny house studio, and start in on a new project, sampling, spinning, photographing. In the beautiful squinting short light which comes through the barely open shade, sun drenching the Ajrakh against a shadow, and illuminating the object against the colorful block print, it is quite evident that the photographing is the part of documenting that I enjoy most. My mind is in a state of buoyancy, allowing myself to feel like a rank beginner again, it is liberating. I spend the morning, then again, the afternoon, long pauses from chores and distractions of the household. Its just me and the creative muse, together, hunkered down.

I love how Eri silk cocoons are harvested after the moth emerges, is produced using a more sustainable and ethical method, also known as “peace silk”, and judging by its sudden availability for spinners, very sought-after for this reason alone. I love how utterly ancient flax is, it is perhaps my favorite textile fiber of all, and I can’t say enough about how I want to explore flax more, and how I’ve been playing around with yarn for absolutely decades, but have never spun flax, and never spun silk (well, not really) as each of the fibers alone are much more demanding. The flax short fibers blended with the Eri Silk, it is absolute perfection, the softness and binding influence of the silk, married with the rustic, short, stiff and lofty influence of the flax tow, together it is fairly easy to spin and the result after plying is exquisite. Soft and yet rustic, I love it and will have to spin a much larger project with this combination, because it is my favorite so far of my experiments.

♣ Blending Notes ♣ 

• Silk: Eri Silk roving from Living Dreams , color natural red, approx 50%
• Flax: Flax roving from Carr Park Artisans, in color cinnamon, approx 50%