Garment 1: Agenda

Front - one of these arm slits is not like the other

This satisfying poncho is made of three new-but-old mohair scarves that once belonged to a friend's mother-in-law. New because they were unworn. Old because they were acquired over the course of a long lifetime, along with other mohair scarves, sweaters, coats, blankets...

Seems this lady had a big soft spot for mohair, but a big disinterest in wearing it. Or was there more to it? What attracted her to mohair? The loftiness? The luxuriousness? Did it remind her of a place or time? Or a person? Was there an empty space inside her that only mohair could fill?

Why didn't she wear it? Itchy? Allergic? Hot? It reminded her of some place, or time, or person? Was there an empty space in her that no amount of mohair could fill? This is what I wondered while my mind percolated on the weightless puffs - so cloud-like they refused to be properly folded.

Back

I stared at them for many hours over many days before they gave up their secret. Even so, making the only cut was a complete leap of faith. My friend was counting on me. Or was that me?

The construction consisted mainly of pulling and separating the yarns from the edges of the scarves to use for stitching. I wasn't sure at first if I should pull the threads from the long or the short edges, but both proved equally - surprisingly! - stubbornly enmeshed. I don't know much about the process of weaving mohair, but from trying to un-make it I've deduced that it must require some sort of felting step. It looks airy and nearly fragile, but it's no pushover. It took an hour to produce each decent length of unbroken, not-too-frayed sewing thread, regardless if it was warp or weft. After that, stitching it by hand with a darning needle was easy-peasy lemon squeezy.

Back fringe detail

Clues

Small ball of yarn fluff

My only agenda was to create a true zero-waste garment, using all of the 3 mohair scarves, and nothing but the 3 mohair scarves; the rest was up to the mohair scarves, themselves. I came pretty close to my goal. This small ball of fluff and yarn is all that was left. It's earmarked for a future project involving The Beatles starring in their first full-length, hilarious, action-packed film!  "A Hard Day's Night". And some felting. Still percolating.

Note: A tiny brown mark just under the front right collar was original to the scarf when I received it.

Hmm. Maybe she did wear mohair.

Size S-M. For sale by appointment. Enquiries at enoughstuffblog@gmail.com
Photography by Jeff Minuk www.lostinkits.com

OSF 7: OSF Nominated for Small Business Award

You love us!  You really love us!

Eternal gratitude to the anonymous OSF fan who nominated us for a Small Business BC award in the category of "Best Concept"! Thank you for loving us!

Being involved with OSF is the most exciting, fulfilling, inspiring experience I've ever had. The members of the board; our faithful volunteers; our less frequent, but equally appreciated volunteers; our wonderful donors who are so happy it's going to someone who can use it: our customers who take the pains to find out when our next sale will be, send us real estate listings, hang out on the sidewalk waiting for the door to open, cheerfully drag out the free boxes, and help spread the word to anyone who creates: we are all a part of this wonderful movement, and together we make it happen. Yay to us!  Let's get OSF the exposure we deserve by voting for us and winning us this award!

How being part of OSF makes me feel

The nominations close November 30.  That's tomorrow! I hope everyone who reads this clicks right away on http://sbbcawards.ca/award/concept/our-social-fabric/ and votes for us.  No checking the rest of your email first! Do it right away! (Thanks!)

Also, see the article where I don't quite answer the question: "What does being a small business in Vancouver mean to you?" You can see where I was going with it...  200 characters!  That's not a whole lot!
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2014/11/small-business-vancouver-mean/

OSF 6: The Pink Elastic Club

Are you a member of the Pink Elastic Club? Do you save those lovely little bits of pink elastic that hold your OSF fabric bundles together, just in case? What do you keep them in? Are they all a-jumble with other bits of trim, elastic, buttons and bias tape? Or do they have a place of honour in a special sugar tin that used to belong to a man selling his house across the street from the elementary school your son's grade 1 teacher strongly recommended he attend in the summer before grade 2? Have you used them for anything? Send pictures! I'd love to know what's happening with them.

When I first started volunteering with OSF, back when we were in the Frogbox building and still hauling out every box before the sale and packing it all up again at the end, we had been donated many boxes of the stuff. At the time we tried to sell it by the metre. Ha! My feeling was, "Curse you, never-ending boxes of pink elastic!" Then, some time after moving to our current location, and adopting the protocol of measuring and rolling our cut fabric for the sake of tidiness, in a moment of brilliant side-ways thinking, we started using the cursed stuff for keeping the bundles together. And now my feeling is, "Eep! One day we will run out, and then what are we going to do?" So hang on to those little bits. Use them! And if you don't want them, return them to us and we will gladly reuse them. Personally, I'm waiting for them to tell me what they want to be next.

And yes, that is my disgusting-looking ironing board. It's actually clean. Ish. Or has been clean at times. Made many years ago out of a piece of muslin, padded with a folded flannel sheet that once belonged to my grandmother, and secured with a length of kitchen string (the kind you wrap a roast with), it's a testament to hard use and utilitarianism and I love it. I keep toying with the idea of a fresh, clean, purpose-made ironing board cover but can't quite make the leap. This one works fine.

Speaking of ironing, may I introduce my iron? I'm embarrassed to admit it, but a photocopied article taped to the display model proclaiming it to be endorsed by Oprah (!) was what tipped me in favour of buying this baby. And I don't regret it for a minute! Not so much an iron as a powerful steam generator, this is the best I've ever used: heats quickly, erupts with massive steam on demand - even on low temp, never spits, doesn't leak.  And it's orange! What could be better?!