Interview by Nick Hand

Nick cycled by a last month and did a fantastic interview with Ailbhe Dunne and Aideen Fitzpatrick of our local knitting group at the studio. Check it out! Beautiful pictures!

nick hand interview

science at last

Hi All, Seema here just checking in and setting up some direction for the next 4 weeks. The studio is still going strong thanks to the work of Ruth and the wool co-op women.

The connections between global economic and local independence are well established in this project. It's time to bring in the science and some data. This project began as an intersection between art and science where sheep wool is considered a form of carbon capture, but is this the case? YES! I am currently in touch with the Rural Economic Research Centre and examining the carbon released and sequestered in the "life cycle" of the wool. From the grass the sheep consume to the use of electricity to shear them and the amount of transport fuel used to bring in their bags of meal. It is a weird and wonderful web.

This is also the time to bring design and data into the picture. Socks incorporating the data from Malin Head meteorlogy station and hats creating sculptural versions of the thermohaline ocean circulation system are in my head soon to be on some needles. Ready to knit with more art and more science? - get ready!

Hope you'll make it to the knitting sessions!

Special thanks to Dr. Rowan Fealy of ICARUS and NUIM for the many conversations about climate change.

(Images: molecular structure of wool. source: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/heritage/Astbury/alpha_to_beta_transition/; http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/File:Thermohaline_circulation_png)

Hello all, Ruth here again.

Call into the studio on Wednesday for some knitting and crochet fun! I'll be in the studio from 12 noon onwards (or earlier if you fancy) armed with pointy sticks and hand-spun wool; if you'd like to call in and learn some stitches with needles or hooks then I'll be happy to help :)

As always I'm happy to teach drop spindle and wheel working too so if you haven't given it a go yet just drop in to the studio!

Hello all.

Ruth here. Just reporting on some ninja spinning and knitting in public that occurred over the weekend. I took my drop spindle and my sock-in-progress all the way to the island of Inishbofin in Connemara. I knit up some lovely inishowen texel on the ferry while the sea roiled around me and I sat in the sun and spun some Jacobs fleece into lovely yarn that I think I'll ply soon. So there you go, wool adventures around the country :) Why not tell us about some of your own public knitting endeavors .

What a day! I spent the morning in Clonmany with our lovely wool co-op collective and we dyed up a storm!

Here are our lovely participants raring to go. We were lucky enough to have local Inishowen produce to dye with. We tried our hand at dyeing with onion skins and ivy. Below you can see some hand spun yarn waiting to be dyed and some of our dyeing materials.

Blackberries and wool; grown from Inishowen!
Here are some of our glamorous assistants for the day examining the onion skins before we boiled them up to make a dye bath for our lovely hand spun yarn :)

Here is our ivy dye bath (above) and our onion skin dye bath (below).

We used alum and vinegar mordants. Below is the yarn in the mordant solution.


And here is the finished product! Beautiful hand-dyed, hand-spun Inishowen wool.






It was a lovely way to spend the day. Hope to see you all again this Saturday the 18th at 1pm in the studio for a sock knitting workshop with the lovely Ailbhe Dunne! Keep your eyes on the blog for more workshops coming next week!

We were lucky enough to have a visit from this nice man today. Nick Hand is cycling around the coast of Ireland talking to local artisans and making soundslides/recordings of the people he speaks to. He happened upon our sock knitting workshop and got talking to some of our local knitters and we talked to him about spinning in Ireland.

Felting and future sock knitting.

We had a wonderful felting workshop on Monday with Maura McLaughlin, a master textile artist in the area. Big thanks to all who participated. Here are some shots of the group in action :)



































































































































































































We'll be running our first sock knitting workshop this Saturday at 1pm in the studio! It will be run by a local knitting enthusiast, Ailbhe Dunne. Feel free to bring your hand spun yarn to knit with or just show up and we'll kit you out with needles and local yarn to work with :)

Some words from a local lady who took part in one of our spinning workshops. It's so nice to get an insight into how people view the spinning experience.


'My week at home has happily coincided with a series of spinning workshops run by Seema and Janelle of the Carbon Footprint Workshop. I find the inspiriation for and behind the project really interesting - using local wool and the spinning thereof as a metaphor for climate change and how economics has changed. Wheras Donegal wool and the products made from it are sought after commodities around the world, in Donegal the wool is virtually valueless, with farmers using the raw fleece from their sheep for soaking up tractor oil. By spinning and knitting, felting, crocheting with our own local wool, we are avoiding the heavy carbon consequence that might otherwise be incurred turning this raw material into something deemed to be of "value", for example by flying to the Far East for cleaning, spinning and making into a garment, before being flown to North America for retail You can read more about this project, as well as it's goals and inspirations, over at the Carbon Footprint Project blog. The upshot of all this is that Seema and Janelle are teaching the people of Inishowen to spin, huzzah! I've spun with a drop spindle before, having got my first for my birthday nearly exactly a year ago (you can see some of my spinning here. Last Saturday I got to fulfill a long time ambition - to spin on a wheel!

Some more photos of the Spin in!

All courtesy of Paul McGuckin.

www.landscapeireland.com

spinning in the window!

our new drum carder!

following a wool laden lorrie into Carndonah - a good omen

setting up the studio window

Seema here filling in for Jenelle.
Despite grey skies and windy conditions, around 30 people spun wool into yarn in the streets and shopfronts of Carndonagh yesterday. Sitting in empty store front windows, or standing out on the sidewalk, people from the age of 6 to 80 got in on the action. We even had one of the local politicians take up a spindle. Overall the day was a wonderful experience of spinning and meeting people. The studio is set up and ready for visitors and makers. Many connections were forged and desires voiced during the event, and as a direct result we will be hosting our first workshop in the new space on Monday.  Felting at 1 p.m. on Monday with local textile artist Maura McLaughlin!

Here's a wee synopsis of recent events:
Sadly, on Thursday Jenelle left to resume her travels. Steve, my fella, arrived to fulfil the role of wrangler and keep Dashiell and myself together.
Friday was spent gearing up for the event, making lists, and contacting people.
Yesterday started in a slight panic with an unanticipated shift of weather! I woke up to pouring RAIN! The mostly “calm day with a chance of showers” was now forecast as gale force winds and rain! I dashed into town to secure a couple of indoor shop front spaces and scope out good alcoves for spinning.  Persevering despite a possible rain-out, Steve and I made it to the studio just after noon and began our mad sprint to the finish line with me setting up the studio space and Steve off to pick up reception supplies. As I was standing in the empty studio wondering how to wash windows and move furniture while wearing the boy in his baby bjorn, two women appeared at the door ready to help.

Mary and Ethna from Culmore had come up from Northern Ireland just for the event. They magically appeared at the studio and took charge of cleaning and arranging the space. It was amazing! After 2 hours, having been scrubbed and sorted, the studio was ready for visitors. A special thanks to Mary and Ethna! Steve, laden with booze and printing, did the final bits and put up signs in the window.  Johnny Shiels and family came by early to card wool for the spinners and set up one of his handmade spinning wheels. Ruth McCartney,(super hero of the carbon footprint team), had beautiful couches and other furniture delivered to the space!  Ger the printer also deserves a special thanks for getting signs done for us without any notice. A special shout out to all those who helped!  This was a truly Irish experience with many hands making light work.

left uncarded wool, right carded wool ready for spinners

Once it was all set to go, the spinners arrived to pick up some wool and take their posts. Remarkably, the weather calmed down enough for us to spin outside. Loads of people showed up for the spinning. There was wool and spinners everywhere!  The studio was full of good craic and song. I was well impressed with the enthusiasm of the group and the interest from new people.
Afterwards we all gathered in the studio and raised a glass to the success of the day and the many people that made it all come together. It was really a wonderful day! Thank you to everyone who supported the event! xoxoxo

spin in tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the big day. Many of you have volunteered to be part of the Spin In tomorrow from 3-5. Please meet (if possible - I know some of you are busy just before hand) at the Carbon Footprint Studio (former pretty windows store beside the persian pub) at 2:30-ish to pick up wool, grab some info cards, and find your spinning location. Depending on the weather, it might be advisable to ask a friend to come with you to hold your umbrella. Bring an umbrella.

There is a thank you reception in the studio afterwards. Please come and share a glass of wine and see the new space. You are all invited to come in and spin or knit etc. or just stop in at the studio over the next 9 weeks.

Thanks to everyone.
See you tomorrow!

Seema

Last Spinning Workshop Stop: Buncrana

Today we spent a lovely day spinning in the glow of the afternoon sun at the Tullyarvan Mill in Buncrana. We had a nice sized group out for the workshop and we are getting very excited about Saturday's spinning performance in Carndonagh.

More Spinning in Moville

Again the spinning workshop in Moville has been a huge success! We have been overwhelmed with all of the community support for the project. Thank you to everyone for coming out and to Aideen and Katie at Little Stars Preschool who let us host the event in their new space!