Air Ecru is an imaginary yarn lover’s vehicle for flights of fancy.  Our pilot is Captain Noelle, who this month finds color inspiration in places where light and water combine in heartfelt ways.  Every seat is first class on Air Ecru, and we invite you to take off in a fully reclined position.  Knitting needles and crochet hooks are of course welcome.

Our journey begins of in San Francisco.  The turn signal light on the VW bus (1958-63 models) tips us off that we’ve touched earth in an era of goodness, somewhere near the summer of love.  SF was then and remains a place defined by shining water and radiant mists, where light itself seems a tangible healing force.

This picture holds many memories of things begun here, possibilities that gained traction and flourished.  I landed on this shore in 1969 and soon went to work on the SF waterfront, helping to restore historic ships.  Roxanne and I were married on the beach at Kirby Cove, just behind the ship shown entering the Gate (in our wet suits, after paddling under the bridge in a kayak that we built together in a Victorian living room).  For many years we lived on a boat just over the hill behind the sailboats.

We live by the grace of nature’s generosity in a precious, delicate balance.  San Francisco rebuilt after the earthquake in a way that any yarn lover instinctively understands: starting with nothing, building strength from shared bonds.

Noelle wanted to make sure that we crossed the Pacific to Japan, where she spent some of her most important years and still finds strong artistic inspiration.  This 1910 poster for a Japanese steamship line can be taken as a symbol of life’s journeys.

Again, there are many memories.  I moved to California at the invitation of a Japanese friend, traveling with friends who were joining Zen Center, and came to live by SF’s Japantown, where handmade mochi cakes and miso-marinated fish we produced daily by skilled artisans.  Friends used traditional Japanese methods to dye silk cloth (in the same room where Rox and I later built our kayak), one of the many influences that led to Artfibers. I also lived for a time in the middle of SF Bay on Angel Island, next to the old immigration quarantine port and spent many nights wandering among the ghosts there by flashlight.  The Pacific culture forged in the overlap of American and Asian enriches us all, in many ways yet to be discovered.

San Francisco has long been a magnet for transformation, where people find new dimensions to life, removing old masks and perhaps trying on new ones.  Many Artfibers customers and staff have been involved with performing arts.  One customer proudly told us that all members of her dance troupe knit backstage — mostly nude, since their performances were erotic.  Stage light is artificial but penetrating, like xrays, revealing hidden structure.

This tour touches on places where light and water intermingle, both suffusing into a life of the heart.  Islands often have this magical blend.  I learned this first from a college friend named Roberto, born in Havana, citizen of the world.  He painted large, huge complex canvases bursting with color, and lived large through a passion for all things musical.  Everyone who could sing or sing along was his good and special friend, which could be a model for us all.  Finding inspiration in the work of someone else and then moving it forward into a new form as a gift, perhaps to some future stranger — this is our handiwork, and a form of singing along at the same time.  Thanks, Roberto, and to all friends, some never met, who open our eyes so that we can truly see.

We are children, or grandchildren, of voyagers.  Most of them crossed water, from a life heartfelt but sundered, to begin again.  When we take up fiber and marry its life to ours there are many twists and turns, aren’t there!    Some expected, some less so.  I wonder what my ancestors saw, in places like this poster, that I will probably never see but somehow still recognize.  When your ancestors looked out a window, what light fell on what motion, on what stillness?  And how much of that remains in you now, in the dance of your passing time?

Noelle’s steady hand on the wheel of time travel guides us back, to a point of origin, where water and light combine directly in new tangible form.  Plants are the cells of renewal, seeds of the future.  Add light, moisture, some fertile ground:  it’s not that miracles then happen.  Everything is a miracle, all the time, but thoughtful combinations bring fruitful results.  As Antonio Gaudi said “Originality is a return to the origins”.  Happy stitching then — may you find a new world!

These 6 yarns are included in the July YARNTASTING CAFE SAMPLER  — six samples, 15 yards each, 90 yards total, $10 ppd (add $5 more outside the US).  To order just send us an email, we’ll bill you through Paypal.  More info at our website.

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PS:  Noelle’s new blog is at http://colorfulrevelations.blogspot.com/.  She gives a fascinating account there of the development that went into our new yarn named after its inspiration, BJORK.  Here are two new colors from the past few weeks, shown with their inspiration images from Bjork’s website:

Tags: artfibers, yarntasting sampler

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