Spinning out of control

Duh...

2012-02-03T16:20:00.023-05:00

Remember that "milltop" yarn I'm using for the wall hanging? Well, it's not milltop...it's mill end yarn. I knew the word "mill" was in there somewhere. I lost the little tag a long while back and the old memory isn't what it used to be. The sales lady at the Mannings told me they were out of mill end at this time. And of course, I ran out. Now this wouldn't have been the case if I had decided to stick to the original design, but why do that? That would make sense. Actually since I'm studying the Fibonacci series and color, I started getting ideas, which is why I switched gears.

I'm trying out the ol' Fibonacci using color. I've seperated the hanging into 3 areas of 3 numbers in the series; 5", 3", and 13" to give a total of 21" L with 12 " W. The two colors that won't vary are teal and brown. The first 5" will be woven in dark grey. Then 3" in light grey, the the last 13 in natural (white). Should be interesting.

This is the dark to light grey. The white at the bottom will be hemmed up and not visible in the finished piece.

And then light grey to white. I am liking these colors a lot. Just hope I have enough white to take it up to 21". I ordered another white 3 ply rug yarn, but I don't think it's going to match. Well, I'm going to go as far as I can and hope it makes it.

2012-02-01T16:36:00.007-05:00

The rug for my mom is done. Finished at 22" x 35 ". I tried to puff up the yarn a little with some hot water finishing, and it worked a bit. But as I was washing it, I noticed a pretty strong smell. I looked at the dog thinking, maybe he got into last nights chili... but it turned out to be the yarn. Very sheepy smell. More like very sheepy pen smell. Weird. Baaaa!

So I decided to play with color. Using what's left of the warp that's still on the loom, I decided to do a wall hanging. Using a different yarn this time. I got it from the Mannings a while back and haven't used it yet. It's a 3 ply wool and sort of coarse. I think it's called Milltop or something like that. I'll have to call them and ask.

I measured out 120 yds. per color so I'll see how far I get with that. Originally this was going to be black, grey and white. Then I thought grey, brown and white (to sort of play with some neutral colors and give my retinas a break). Then I accidentally layed some blue/green yarn next to some brown and grey I'd layed out and loved the combination. So into the dye pot it all went. (And yes, I did wonder if the grey would dull the other colors but I'm going for it anyway.)

This yarn dyed up really nicely and very easy. Came out very even.

And this is how the colors are working together so far. Another krokbragd design. I kind of like it.

Uh oh...looks like someone went to the groomer's. Bwa ha ha ha ha!!!!

Creepy...very creepy

2012-01-25T11:39:00.009-05:00

I am on Weavolution. It is a weaving forum like any other social online site except that people exchange weaving ideas, projects etc. That's "weaving", or so I thought. Apparently there is someone on the site who is confused as to what the purpose of the forum is and thinks it's a dating site. I got a rather strange email from a woman (yes, I said woman...not that there's anything wrong with that, lol!) who believes she and I can "make it together" ... her words. You can't get into her profile, you have to be authorized, which is strange for that site because everyone is there to share ideas and such. I saw that they were having problems with the spam settings so I sent them an email to let them know. Weird.

I was off for a week, so I had the chance to finish my mom's rug. I threw orange in the top and bottom and now I'm not sure I'm happy with those color decisions, but it is what it is. I was in Amish country when I was getting the idea for this design, so thus the purples and oranges, etc. I learned from this rug that the Stitch Nation Full o' Sheep yarn, though lovely and easy to dye, is too lofty for a rug. It just didn't beat down tight enough, and I gave it a major beat down. I'll post a pic when it's hemmed and wet finished. Still plenty of warp on the loom so I'm thinking of a krokbragd table runner. I have a nice 3 ply wool yarn that I got from the Mannings. That should work well.

Spinning is coming along better. I'm now using the short draw method because I feel like I have a tendency to overspin. Short draw seems to work better for me. Plus I was thinking short draw would work better on the churro fleece I ordered from the Woolery. And of course spinning just wouldn't be the same without cats laying about.

Say good bye Mr. Squirrel!

Bragging rights

2012-01-09T17:48:00.008-05:00

My daughter made this wrap for me. She used Paton's silk/soy yarn that Santa brought her for Christmas. She sewed little glass beads along the edges. And she's only been crocheting for 3 weeks! Not bad, huh? I do believe there's another fiber person in the family :)

This is a cartoon for a simple sort of tapestry I am attempting. Simple because I like simple...because I am simple, ha! But I haven't done a tapestry on a rigid heddle loom before so this is an experiment and I'm more interested in the process than the result.

These are the colors I'm going to use. Have to spin the brown yet and will need to dye some more yarn for the border. I'm thinking grey.

I only sleyed it about 9 " in the reed. Using left over black 8/4 carpet warp.

The fun ends tomorrow...

2012-01-02T16:09:00.005-05:00

... and I go back to work. What a drag. Oh well, I haven't won lotto yet, so what ya gonna do?

But on the plus side, I've been dyeing wool all morning. What fun! I love dyeing. Love to see the way the colors come out. Love the way the wool sucks up all the dye. Love the process of measuring and stirring. It's like being a mad scientist bwa ha ha ha!!!!

I use a tutorial I found on the web from Wind Rose Fiber Studio. These colors are Jacquard Acid dye, Chestnut and Burnt Orange. They kind of look like pig's intestines hanging there... not like I festoon my backyard with pig innerds or anything.

The spinning is coming along better. This is still the second bobbin. I still need to learn about little things like too much twist or how to advance the yarn while spinning on the bobbin ... stuff like that. I didn't have to worry about that with the drop spindle.

Pulled the old sewing machine out yesterday to hem pants. Why do all pants seem to be made for women whose legs start at their necks? Anyway, I'm starting on the COE (I must be mad) and one of the instructions for the final judging is not to use any machine sewing in your work. Everything has to be hand sewn. Well, there's no danger of that with me because I hate sewing machines! And they hate me. It took so long to hem 3 pairs of pants, it's dumb. The thread kept breaking or the stitches seized up or this or that....aaaaarrrrrgggghhhh! How is it that I can dress an 8 harness loom, but just seeing a sewing machine makes me want to curl up in a fetal position under my loom bench?! I feel like such a shlemiel.

Spinning with more control

2011-12-27T15:36:00.020-05:00

I'm having fun with my new spinning wheel. It's the Babe Production wheel, and boy does it produce! I've spun more in one day than I could do on the drop spindle in a week. It's pretty amazing. But there is a learning curve for sure. I've found that you have to really learn to coordinate your hand and foot movements.

I also found that pre-drafting is key when your first learning to spin on a wheel. It just makes it easier and really helps. I've been using Maggie Casey's book Start Spinning and she had a helpful hint on drafting. When she pre-drafts for worsted spinning, she drafts the piece of top a couple of times, not just once. That made a big difference!

Here are my first attempts....you can see that I hadn't read Maggie's book yet :) This is over spun and not even or uniform

After pre-drafting (and checking it twice) ... much better I think:

I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Luckily they sent a nice amount of top along with the wheel to practice with.

Still working on the crochet rag rug. Littleman is totally passed out! Gotta love cats :)

Catching up

2011-12-09T08:15:00.006-05:00

Haven't written anything in a while. I've been taking an online art class and I kind of always feel like I'm behind in everything. And it's a "go at your own pace" kind of a class! That's pretty pathetic. And of course, now there's Christmas just in case I wasn't feeling harried enough.

Well, at least we got our tree up and decorated. Only took us 2 days. This is the largest tree I've gotten in a long time. 7 foot. It's the first year since my AN diagnosis that I've felt like decorating and stuff. It really helped to go on a brief trip to NC with beloved friends to visit beloved friends and the cold and Christmas feel just really helped ...

Haven't made snowmen in a long time :)

Here is the progress on the rag rug I'm crocheting. I'm surprised I've made progress on anything.
I thought maybe I could just use ready made fat quarters on this, but after using the art cloth I made last summer, I sort of think I'm going to have to just make my own cloth or it won't come out right.

And the "piece de resistance" .... I'm getting a spinning wheel for Christmas! I'm sooooo excited!
http://www.woolery.com/store/pc/Babe-Production-c120.htm

Progress

2011-11-10T08:15:00.002-05:00

Love this pattern. Krokbragd is too cool. I'm using colors inspired by Amish colors. Throwing in orange in small bits just to make it interesting.

Sampler rug

2011-11-03T10:46:00.003-04:00

Strange but I totally forgot to post this picture. This is a rug done in weft faced, balanced weave patterns. The selvedge got a little jacked-up in that one spot but hey, only God is perfect, right? This rug has gone to live with someone else. I've had a request for another, which I will do, honest! But I have to finish my mom's rug first. She's 86 years old, and as she has reminded me, "I'm not gonna live forever! Where's my rug?!"

Halloweeeeeeen Booooo!

2011-10-31T17:02:00.006-04:00

This is a new block print design. Silk screen ink on med. cotton fabric. I'm thinking he'd look cool along the edge of a table cloth or pillow. His name is Mr. Confusion Island Head Guy...or some such thing.

This is the beginning of the Krokbragh rug I started for my mom. I'm in an orange-y Halloween mood, soooo.....

Happy Halloween! BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Flour paste flowers pt.2

2011-03-02T16:52:00.006-05:00

After letting the flour paste dry, I painted in the flowers I had scratched into the wet paste the day before. I used Procion MX Chocolate Brown.

After painting over the flowers, I crumpled the whole thing a little bit and applied the dye all over.

After washing by hand in cold water and washing soda. The crinkle effect didn't come out quite the way I wanted. I like using flour as a resist as opposed to wax. It's so easy to get and make and cheaper than soy wax, etc.

I thought I would include this. Psychodelic Llamas! These are screen printed using watercolor crayon and mat medium. I used white school glue for the resist (circles).

2011-03-01T19:31:00.008-05:00

It has been a while since I've posted. I have been sick. Got the cold/sore throat horror not once but twice. I had a relapse I guess. Not cool. And I work with kids so their like little walking snot factories. It's been great. I finally started feeling human again on Sunday, but my sinuses are still messed up. Enough whining.

This is a fat quarter that I've dyed yellow using Procion and the scrunch method of tie dye. Then I went in and brush painted blue and red. In this picture I'm applying a flour paste resist. You just make a 50/50 mix of regular white flour and cool water (hot water will give you glue). You pin down the top of the fabric and the flour paste over the fabric and squeegee it all over the surface.

When you have the fabric covered, you pin down the other sides so it doesn't curl too bad when it drys.

I then took a wooden skewer and drew in my design. I used the fat end. The pointy end makes too delicate of a line and the dye may have a hard time penetrating.

Now I will let this dry for 24 hours. When dry, I will go over the designs with MX dye and let that batch for 3 hours or so then rinse out the whole thing.

This is a complex cloth that I just kind of went coo coo on. Then decided to do a block print over the 20,000 layers of dye and stamps and everything else. We'll see how this turns out.

On the weaving front, I finally felt up to crawling around under the loom this morning and tyed it up for a twill. I'm going to warp for two 32" rugs.

I hate deadlines

2011-02-11T11:23:00.007-05:00

This brought me right back to good old high school and early college days when I would start homework assignments the night before they were due. Which was pretty much every homework assignment. I had to haul butt to get this fabric panel done for a show. The Hollywood Plein Air group, of which I am a member, had our show at the Anne Kolb Nature Center this past Saturday. The other members were kind enough to let me hang a fiber piece, even though it's plein air. So representin' for the fiber heads....

It's called Manatee River. Here's maybe a closer view -

... from my studio door. Ignore the clothespin. There's 3 layers of Procion color and screen printed the manatees and babys. I stenciled and hand painted the gold water lillies.

Screen printing possibilities

2011-01-22T17:18:00.008-05:00

I stumbled across this cool youtube video and thought, hey, I gotta try this. This could be a very cool project to do with teens or tweens.

Using the above method I was able to make a couple of prints.

I used an embroidery hoop (med. size) and crinoline fabric for this screen. That's why this little lion has a grainier appearence.

These little goldfish didn't come out as detailed as I wanted but they were my first attempt with this method. I think they would be better done as linoleum block. Also, for some reason the gold ink doesn't print as clear as the white.

These are the two little embroidery hoop screens. I think this would be a really cool program to do with the older kids. Now, if I can get the Friends of the Library to cough up the dough for supplies....

A little afternoon dyeing

2011-01-12T18:47:00.003-05:00

Tie dye with accordion fold and clothes pins. This really isn't pink and grey, it's aquamarine and white...go figure.
Procion dye; avacado and aquamarine. I painted the colors on with a watercolor brush on damp cotton. The sumi goldfish will be added when the cloth dries. I love Procion dye. It's just like using watercolors. I made a mixture of 1 tsp. to 1/2 c. warm water, for anyone who would like to try this. It's really hard to find information on how much dry dye to water measurements.

Well looky what I found!

2011-01-07T17:29:00.008-05:00

I was looking in my closet among the ancient papers and junk for our marriage cert. so that Comcast would let my husband hook up digital in his own house...don't even ask. I'm surprised they didn't ask for DNA samples. Anyway, I found this neat-o little linoleum block I carved waaaaaay back when I was 17 years old. That is a long time ago. It is a picture of a monk harvesting wheat. I had a thing for Medieval art and still do.

I rolled some linoblock/screen printing ink for fabric on and printed on some old shirt fabric I had laying around. The linoleum block is cracked. I thought maybe I could fix that with some Elmer's but no go. It's 32 years old so I'm lucky it printed anything. I'm not sure how long these things last.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

2010-12-01T12:33:00.011-05:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful gobble gobble. I sure gobbled...up everything in sight! My little stomach organ itself felt like it was going to burst. It was pretty disgusting, really.

This is that little rug I was working on at the rigid heddle. It came out pretty good. I used a bulky wool that I dyed this yummy red and threw some little color stripes in here and there. The color stripes are left over Lion Brand Landscapes. Then I tried to felt it a bit and puff the wool up to make it thicker and that was it.

I was thinking about putting it in front of the bathroom sink but I liked the way it looked on this stool better.

Check this out....this is so cool! I tried the whole tying the warp to a belt around your waist, etc. and my back just wanted none of it. So I started looking at websites looking for a card weaving loom and found this really helpful video about using your rigid heddle loom. I set mine up like this,... not exactly like the video but I have a different loom. It works great! No more back aches.

As the belt weaves, I wrap it over the breast beam and clamp it with these little clamps that I got from Home Depot. You just keep advancing as you go along. It's the bomb!

The rug on the 8 shaft is going very slow, but going. I screwed up on the sleying. Don't ask. However, it just means that the rug will take a while to finish and eat up a huge amount of costly 3 ply wool ... no big deal. No, not at all.

Was a happy camper

2010-11-15T14:26:00.009-05:00

...when we were up at the Pioneer Day Festival in Barberville, FL. That was a lot of fun. Good music and lots of crafts. I got to meet the resident weaver, Steve. He was really nice. And above is Barbara the spinner, who was totally cool. I want to be her when I grow up. She had some good stories.

These are manatees that live in the spring at Blue Springs S.P. where we camped. See the ity wity babykins poopy doopy doops! Isn't he cute! He was so tiny (compared to all the others). It was chilly at night up there, but this time I did not freeze to death. Gerry took me to the HD and we got a lovely little space heater for the camper. That made all the difference.

This is the stash rug I was working on a while back. I'm not loving this at all. I was hoping for a more sporadic color combination and more knobby-ness, if that's even a word. Che liked it a lot, however, so I gave it to her. I'm going to weave a mat (smallish rug) next on the rigid heddle. I've got this white, bulky 3 ply wool that I have a ton of. It's like on an industrial size cone or something. I inherited it along with Kessy. I got some wine and tangerine Rit dye so I'll see what kind of damage I can do with this wool and dye.

This I am happy with! The colors came out just great. I love card weaving. This is from a pattern, but you can really go coo-coo with card weaving and come up with your own ideas. It's just a matter of how you turn the cards. Oooo that sounds very metaphorical, doesn't it?

Slower than slow cloth

2010-10-20T14:28:00.011-04:00

...that should be a separate category for me. I weave like I went to college...changing majors every semester and now with weaving, changing designs every rug.

You probably can't see this very well, but this is my pattern so far. Not crazy about it. Not at all. Believe it or not, it's supposed to be a straight 2/2 twill, 12 pick color sequence. It looks like pancakes!

So I'm thinking of switching to this Krokbragd pattern from the book I just ordered, The Handweaver's Pattern Directory. Even though I've never done Krokbragd. How hard can it be? HA HA HA HA HA!!!! Well, we'll see. I'll do a little test run. I am sure that I want to add this yarn color...

My friend and I had a little dye fest up at her place. She made a big batch of this lusious Rit dye that we made by combining Wine and Tangerine. I dyed this yarn, originally natural color, and she dyed some baskets. They came out real pretty. I didn't even know you could dye baskets! Check out the Rit website. They give you formulas for different color combinations.

On the animal front....I don't know if I mentioned this, but I found this little turtle on the side of the road, after I watched a car hit him and send him flying. He's the little guy at the bottom of the pool. He is a red ear slider and not indigenous to Florida. So I brought him home and put him in the pond with big turtle. That was about a week ago. Now, he's not in the pond anymore. I hope Sammy didn't tell him to "get in ma belly!"

And here's a parting shot of Littleman's left buttock hanging off the chair.

My dyeing day

2010-10-09T15:09:00.005-04:00

I measured out some of the natural color 3 ply yarn I bought at the Mannings. I am planning on using this in the next rug. Well, my original plan was to make it black. Black and white, or technically natural. And as you can see...

...it is gray. A sort of greenish gray. This is because I am a dummkopf. I had a little jar of Procion out and was reading the directions from that. But instead of using the Procion powder, which would make complete sense, I accidentally put the Dylon powder in the mix using the Procion directions. Yeah, we're talking Mensa material here. However, I really sort of liked the funky greeny gray and have decided to call this one of Marcel Duchamp's "happy accidents".

I love dyeing and now that the cooler weather, (i.e. the air is air once again instead of humidified liquid air), I can start dyeing in the garage. The problem is I must get my DH to get his crap out of the garage!!! There is a busted up awning, courtesy of Hurricane Wilma, that is still moldering in the garage. It's like he's attached in some strange way to this thing. And that's just the tip of the junk iceberg.

In this picture it looks more bluey/gray. Anyway this color has inspired a totally different design in my head. I'm thinking more of a quarter of the rug in gray 2/2 twill, morphing into a 12 pick color sequence and then into white. I'm loving the idea already and can't wait to get started. Unfortunately, I have to thread the heddles first. Poo.

Also, wanted to share this little book discovery. Got a copy of The Handweaver's Pattern Directory from the library. What a cool little book! It has all the basic 4 shaft weaving patterns with drafts and color suggestions. It is so clear and concise.

Spinning again

2010-09-28T11:29:00.005-04:00

To quote Knitting Dragonflies, "Everytime I start spinning again, I wonder at how much I enjoy it, and why did I stop." My sentiments exactly! Especially since I bought this nifty little spindle at the Quilt Museum in PA. It is so light and spins a really fine yarn. One I could actually ply! This is a big deal for me. I usually spin singles. The woman in the store told me, in a low conspiratorial voice, that I was getting it cheap at $15. Like it was some sort of magic little spindle. And it is :)

This isn't a very good picture, but you can sort of see how fine I'm getting it. I'll have to review plying, as I haven't done it in a while.

Also started measuring the warp for more rugs. I'm going to warp the loom for two smaller rugs this time. One will be plain twill, black, with a band of Kirschbaum's #4 pattern (Marguerite Davison, p. 133) running in the middle. The pattern will be white and black. It should sort of have a beatnik, Grecian urn feel to it, if you can picture that. The second rug on the warp...not sure yet.

Mannings

2010-09-24T14:25:00.003-04:00

I almost forgot...the class I took at the Mannings was wonderful! It was, "How to Use Your 8 Shaft Loom", taught by Thomas Knisely. He was totally cool and a good teacher.

Above is a view of the twill gamp we worked on. This is the first time I've done an 8 shaft pattern and it was so awesome to watch the pattern take shape. I ordered a copy of Strickler's book from the library. I'd like to try to do a table runner when I finish the rug I'm starting.

The whole experience was neat. There were 7 other weavers there. The first part of the class was drafting. Then after lunch we hit the looms ... table looms. I've never used a table loom before and it was nice. Of course the idea of purchasing one flitted briefly through my mind, but no. Must be good. I did go shopping after the class though. Bought a big cone of 3 ply yarn, new spindle, and 8/4 rug warp. I love the Mannings.

Let the food fest begin!

2010-09-06T08:47:00.006-04:00

Yep, we're in PA. I've only been here 2 days and have already eaten pig in two or three culinary incarnations. Night one, BBQ pork sandwiches. Night two, ham and cabbage. And then something else yesterday but I can't remember. It wasn't ham balls though. I'll have to try ham balls before this vacation is over. We did split a pumpkin whoopie pie yesterday. That was pretty stinkin' good!

I love eating my way through the state of Pennsylvania. These people know how to eat! None of that sissy S. FL exotic fish or tropical dishes here...healthy garbage. Hell no! You're going to eat ham dammit! And beef. Good beef too. These people don't play.

Here are some Canadian geese. I love these guys. They're so pretty. We didn't eat them though.

Now, this was cool and no I didn't make this...ha! obviously. I couldn't quilt if my life depended on it. We went to the Long Park Arts and Crafts show yesterday in Lancaster. It was a lot of stuff I've seen before, but there were some artists that stood out. This lady was one of them. Ann Brauer was an incredible colorist. Her work was just beautiful! And she was super nice too.

I noticed at this festival that many of the artists and craftsmen seemed to hide a bit behind their booths. Ann wasn't like that at all. She was up front and friendly, which was smart. She was making sales. She had her bread and butter items out (like above) as well as her more expensive works.

Sorry, I just figured it had been a while since I mentioned ham. Anyway, I spoke to the only weaver there. His work was really pretty cool and he did rugs and tapestry...the same as I like to do. So I was truely interested and wanted to know about his work. His pieces were all warp face. He warps the loom in the colors/patterns he wants and then uses fiber (yarn or bamboo) bundles as the weft. So you know, the weft really doesn't matter...sort of like card weaving. Anyway, he's all chatty at first and I ask him what kind of loom he has and he says a Cranbrook. I say cool, I have an 8 shaft Kessenich and I weave rugs too....well that's where the conversation ended. Like abruptly. Ha ha! He just said "Thank you" curtly and walked away. I couldn't figure it out. What did I say? I just laughed. I don't know but I think, and I don't want to get flamed for this, but I know that many "arteests" have big egos. Add testosterone to that and it's all over baby. Plus when he realized I weave rugs, I probably wouldn't be buying anything from him, so he wasn't going to waste his time on me. I get the feeling that the artists / craftsmen had paid a lot for the booths at this show, and seemed to be just a hair bitter about it. I can't blame them really.

Well, more adventures today. Perhaps ham will be involved.

Loose ends

2010-08-30T14:11:00.006-04:00

I'm trying to get my looms in order and ready to weave when I get back in two weeks. Haven't been doing much because thanks to hurricane Danielle and now Earl, there have been waves. We've surfed all weekend, and after the crummy flat summer and having to drive 2 hours up coast, it's been real nice to get some local action, so to speak.

I fixed the broken apron string. I hope this string holds, as it was a bit thinner than the string that was already on there.

Then a little Olde English lemon oil to spruce her up a bit. Changed the heddle to the 5 dent. So I'm ready to start that next rug when I get back.

Then onto the rigid heddle. I was starting to weave a sampler/wall hanging and I just wasn't feeling the love. So I cut it off. This is what's left. I started measuring out the warp for something I'd like to try when I get back. I want to play around with an idea for a rug using lots of stash yarn that I haven't used and can't see any use for in the immediate future. It's part of my clean up, break down, simplify, use it up "thing" that I'm going through. Or menopause...whatever you want to call it. Anyway, it should be neat. We'll see.

One of my art buddies, Larry, gave me this nifty little folding album. So I decided to make it a Sumi album. These things are cool but a little nerve racking because if you screw up a painting, it's stuck there in your album. You can't rip the page out because you're album will fall apart, which would be a bummer.

Van Gogh and the weavers

2010-07-29T11:21:00.008-04:00

I was reading about Van Gogh last night from the DK Eyewitness Book series. It's a kid's book series. I love the Eyewitness books. Anyway, the book talked about Van Gogh in Nuenen and his interest in the weavers there. The town of Nuenen is in an area of the Netherlands called Brabant, ... "an area in which weaving had always been important, and Vincent felt compelled to illustrate these 'Brabant artisans' ". He painted many pictures of the weavers of Nuenen and sent them to his brother Theo to be sold. He told Theo to keep the drawings and paintings if they did not sell; writing, "It would rather disappoint me if you sent these little weavers back to me."

I had never heard of these drawings and paintings before. I love Van Gogh even more now!

This one is my favorite. See the baby in the high chair to the right?

And speaking of weaving...this is the finished band from my first card weaving endeavor. I really like the way the pattern came out. I just kind of flowed with it and let it go whatever way it was going to go.

I've been a bad bad weaver

2010-07-17T10:37:00.005-04:00

Bad because I haven't been weaving. That's because the waves have been good. It has been so flat here for weeks. Lake Atlantic. But this past week finally a little push. So I've been neglecting my looms. But I've been exercising at least. Yeah, that's it... exercise. We all need that, right? There, now I don't feel so guilty. (Can't help it...Irish Catholic...."Guilt" is my confirmation name).

I have been getting some card weaving in though. I've been watching the Candace Crockett video and bought the book. The video is really helpful. She's an art professor at that commie school out in San Francisco....I'm just kidding. No but she really is a prof and she explains things very well. I chose some of the yarns I've had sitting around for a while for my first band; white, gray and brown. I know...there's some bright sunny colors for ya! I just have to start using some of this stash I've got, so I have a good excuse to buy more.

So I've threaded 20 cards and will follow the pattern in the video. I'm not sure how it's going to come out yet. But that's sort of half the fun. I'm looking forward to being able to design my own patterns with this method. You can do some really cool designs, that according to the book, you can only achieve with card weaving.

Get outta town!

2010-07-03T11:52:00.017-04:00

Gerry and I decided to take a little trip for our anniversary. We went up to Deland and stayed at a B&B. That was interesting. It almost always is. I was a little disconcerted when we walked into our room and I saw the bed post.

Ok...the hell?!?!? I spent the first 10 min. there trying to fix this bed post. I'm anal like that. Then, I checked the bed thoroughly because I am a total neurotic when it comes to hotel/B&B's etc. being meticulously CLEAN. And frankly, when I saw the bed post, I had my doubts. But it was just the bed post. Everything else was ok...breath, breath. The breakfasts were awesome!

We tooled around Deland. We're always in search of the perfect retirement location. While there, we went to Blue Springs and saw these lovely manatees...

We also went to the Museum of Florida Art. That was very impressive. We saw some really incredible pieces there. This piece, by Ummarid “Tony” Eitharong, was called, Winds of Change: Totem for Sadako which features a suspended mushroom cloud made from 1000 white peace cranes in honor of the Hiroshima survivors that initiated the “peace crane” project worldwide. This was really cool to see in person. It moved with every little draft and was just so fluid.

This exhibit was neat too. It was a collection of woodcut prints by Mollie Doctrow.

I think my favorite part of the trip though was the Pioneer Settlement for the Creative Arts in Barberville. I think they're a non-profit organization for the preservation of history and crafts such as blacksmithing, pottery, weaving and spinning.

This is the loom room. Most of the looms were 2 shaft with one 4 shaft. I thought that was pretty cool, since I've never seen a 2 shaft in person.

Here's me trying to figure out how I can shove this loom into my purse.

And here we are at the old train station. That's a paper conductor hat on my head. I gave myself a paper cut trying to fit it on my fat head.

Here's Gerry at a Mensa mtg. Actually it's the old school house. Yeah, we have a thing for putting hats on and acting like jerks. It's just what we do.

Anyway, it was a blast. Ger bought me a really pretty clay bowl from the Pioneer Settlement for our anniversary. The restaurants were good in Deland, so we ate a lot! And they had a Sonic Burger so I was good to go. It's also the home of Stetson University, which is a really pretty, old Florida liberal arts college. We really liked it there and the surrounding area.

Here's some more pictures. I hope this works....

A beautiful day in the succulent garden

2010-06-15T18:04:00.008-04:00

Isn't she lovely! I got this little succulent at Kmart...of course. Well, theres a Kmart down the street from where I work, so I need to get away sometimes at lunch time and well, you can buy stuff there. Lots of stuff.

I put it in with another plant that I got as a gift in a big old planter and both plants just took off like gang busters.

I had put this little Buddha in with the plants when they were little and now they are just swallowing him up!

More garden talk...I was coming back from lunch with Gerry the other day and was going past my favorite nursery. This place is gorgeous! It's a nursery but they have it set up so nice it's like a big botanical garden. Well, I thought I'd stop by. I've been wanting for a while now to get a pink powder puff tree. We had one when I was a kid and they are just beautiful trees. They get very large like a jacaranda and the canopy is umbrella like. But I just haven't seen any in nurseries or anyone's yard or anywhere, so I thought I'd see if they had a jacaranda instead. The guy told me the jacarandas all died in the frost we had last winter. So I thought I was out of luck. Then I saw this little guy with the tell tale leaves and saw it was a powder puff. I was so excited! I didn't think I'd ever find one. Here it is planted. Gerry put extra fencing around it so Miss Puddy won't use it as her personal toilet.

I finished the charcoal ficus drawing. Here it is matted and framed. It's all ready for the display in Nov. with the Natural Art Women's artist co-op.

And still working on the sampler. This is a really good learning experience. I'm having fun with it too.

Takin' the day off!

2010-06-12T16:37:00.008-04:00

Wow, these new templates are pretty cool! I chose this one because it's nice and clean and easy to read. I figure I'm confusing enough as it is so at least I can keep the format simple.

Oh yeah, once in a while you just have to say the heck with everything and take a mental health day! Went up to my mom's Thur. in Port St. Lucie (or as she calls it, Port St. Loser) and got to visit with my niece and nephews that I haven't seen since 1980! I am ashamed to say that. But Texas is kind of far and my life up to recent history has been sort of kooky and all over the place, as has theirs. (Not that my life is any less kooky sometimes, but I'm a lot older and don't care as much.) So it happens sometimes. But it was as if no time had passed at all. They were the same sweet kids they've always been.

They wanted to go to the beach. Understandable since they live in Arlington which is pretty far from the ocean. Here's my nephew posing for the Sports Illustrated swim suit edition

Here's my niece taking a picture of me taking a picture of her

This is big bro #2. He lives up in PSL.

And here's me catching some foam at the end of a pretty good ride. You can definitely see someone hasn't gotten very much sun this winter.

This was one of those impromptu things. We had to go to Kmart to get bathing suits and rent a big old foam board and boogie board. I have to say though impromptu is the best kind of fun :)

Sampler

2010-06-06T13:46:00.005-04:00

Ok, so I put the rug aside for now. I decided to get back to my goal of learning from the Collingwood book so I'm going to do a sampler. The book is pretty good, except sometimes you have to do a little translation from the British, but not too bad. So far I've practiced the cross stripes and pick and pick. I love the way the pick and pick looks! I'm also throwing some twill in between the sample sections for good measure. Here's another view...

This afternoon I'll work on doing spots.

Isn't this a cool ficus? I took the picture at the park this morning at our outdoor painters group get together. We usually paint or draw every Sunday morning. I have a ficus fetish lately. Thought maybe I'd try to do this one as another charcoal.

2010-05-05T13:50:00.008-04:00

Wow, it's been a while. Ok...so I'm still waiting for the temple to come in the mail. But I did manage to get the warp wound onto the back beam. I'm not even going to mention the big dumb stupid mistake I made. Let's just say, if this is your first time warping a big old 8 shaft loom with a sectional beam, be sure to take your warp over the back beam. Dee da dee! I used the Cay Garrett method and used tensioning sticks in the tabby sheds behind the heddles. She says to tie the sticks to the front beam, but I found tying them to both the front and the back kept the sticks in place better.

I don't really want to tie onto the front apron until the temple comes and I'm closer to getting started. So my little bundles just wait patiently. I'm working on the tapestry bag still and am almost done with it.

This also gives me time to mess around in the yard. This is a begonia that I got a couple of Mother's Days ago. It was on death's door so I just moved it to a shady place on the back porch and it came back really nicely. Miss Pud likes it too.

Here's the crysallis from my last post. Looks like we're going to have another butterfly soon! They get real dark like this before they emerge. If you look close, you can see the red in the wings.

This is my favorite baby tree. It is a baby live oak growing out of a palm stump. It's going to be a gorgeous tree someday.

I found these guys the other day. Collards. I have no idea how they got there. Neither Gerry or I planted them. You can see something is already eating them, which is why I don't plant collards. Too much trouble keeping pests away. I'd really like to start planting more indigenous plants/trees in the back like slash pine and needle palm. I'll check Craigslist for some growers.

Rainy days and warping

2010-04-12T15:17:00.010-04:00

...always get me down

It has been raining since last night sometime. The Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood area has gotten over 2 inches. But look what it's done for this bouganvilla! We've been in this house going on 4 years and this is the first time this shrub has ever bloomed.

I had time before work this morning to start making warp chains. This is the 8/4 cotton rug warp. By the way, I've been comparing prices on cotton warp, not that it's all that expensive or anything, and I've found that Great Northern Weaving has the best prices: http://www.rugwarp.com/rugwarp.asp

The tapestry woven bag I've been working on with the rigid heddle is taking a back seat right now to the big loom and the first warp attempt disaster. I'm taking off Thur. to get some things done, but I need to try to get to it before that.

On the knitting front...I'm working on this baby blanket for a friend of mine. I really need to get to work on this or I'll be giving it to the kid as a graduation present!

Here are two bears I'm working on. Different patterns. The orange and yellow one is for the Mother Bear Project and the other is a curly sort of fur guy.

Hmmm...somethings not right

2010-03-30T14:16:00.004-04:00

So I'm looking at the reed this morning and I realize...this ain't gonna fly. The warp ends are too close together. I'm afraid the weft won't cover the warp, which is kind of what I want. Then I says to myself, I says, "Dummy! You didn't figure out the wpi of this yarn!" duh, der, da! So I check it and it's 4.5. Ok, so I've got to sley it every other slot. See the difference?

I even threw a quick warp of the stuff on a frame loom at 4 epi and tested it. Looks pretty good. So now I have to re-sley but no big deal. I didn't sley that much yet anyway.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

2010-03-17T11:41:00.008-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here's a lovely crock pot full o' corned beef and cabbage just waiting for me to come home from work. Get in my belly corned beef!

Here's the table runner that I salvaged from "the thing on the 8 shaft" booooo.... I know, the selvedges are not so good, but I had some problems with the warp and a warp broke and yadda yadda. It's a basic twill pattern with plain weave stripes. The picture's not so good.

Had my 6 month MRI yesterday. That was fun...NOT. I did much better this time as far as being nervous though. The only bad part about it this time was how long it took and the dye injection. She about killed me this time. So now I take the CD to the ear doc tomorrow and see if the brain booger has gotten any bigger. I hope not.

Rainy days and getting stuff done!

2010-03-13T11:36:00.026-05:00

"A rainy night in Georgia..." ok, not Georgia but close...one state away. Yesterday it was just awful pouring rain. But like all things the rain had it's good side and it's bad. Bad side; the leak in the garage roof has gotten a lot worse. A two bucket leak so to speak. Good side; I got a lot done!

I finished the color variation exercise from a few weeks ago. I was going to make it into a small bag, but after heming and what not I didn't see that working out so now it's a little mat for my very small kitchen table. It was just an exercise anyway, but I still have mental blocks against just making something as a sample. It needs to be useful dammit! I really need to get over that. The colors came out ok, but I'm always afraid I ere on the side of kooky when it comes to colors. Maybe if I weave only earth tones for a while, I'll find a mental happy medium.

I finally finished the "thing" on the 8 shaft. Sounds like a B movie doesn't it? It was already on the loom when I got it and I decided to just practice weaving twill for a while. Well, instead of just practicing twill for a while and taking the dog off the loom, I tried to make it into something. See, it's a problem. It was too narrow for a rug, (too bad because it would have made an awesome thick rug). So I thought I'd weave two halves and put them together. That idea started dying after a while. Yesterday I said the heck with this. I took it off the loom and salvaged what I thought I could. I put it in some nice hot water to bloom. Here it is soaking. Pictures later when it's finished. I think it could be a table runner. Ok, now to tackle the loom! Clean up time!

This is the first I've had the loom "naked" so to speak. So I thought a thorough cleaning was in order. First to get all the dust bunnies out from underneath the treadles. These weren't dust bunnies. They were dust wart hogs. My animals shed so much that it amazes me that their hair DNA doesn't just form another animal...or maybe that's where Littleman came from.

Next comes the oil and polish! The heddle bars were pretty bad. I'm not sure if they were rusted or what but they were cruddy. Then I slicked her all up with some nice lemon oil.

Isn't she a beauty? All clean and shiny and ready for some tea towels, I think.

Yuky poo poo! See all the red rusty stuff? I don't know what that junk is.

After I was finished cleaning up the 8 shaft, I went to the rigid heddle. I had thought that the 8/4 cotton on the 10 dent heddle would work good for tapestry, but I was wrong. Dead wrong! So I thought well hell, let me just get rid of some of these pesky warps. I cut them every other hole and slot. You can see the cut ends dangling. This works well. So I started working on the bag this morning and am happy with it. I've never done tapestry type weaving on anything but a frame loom, so this is a learning experience.

By 5:30 I was cooked. Gerry came home early. We blew off the gym and went for Chinese food. Szechuan shrimp baby! Woo hoo! A little chardonnay doesn't hurt either.

A new bear

2010-03-10T15:54:00.011-05:00

Here's the beginning of another bear for the Mother Bear Project (see link at right). That's a foot and an ankle so far.

I have been working slowly on the COE. Right now I'm doing part one, learning about color. Reading The Art of Color and Design by Maitland Graves. Cool name, huh? Maitland. "Oh Maitland, tarry hither and bring me ma mint julep." So far I've learned about repetition, harmony, and discord in the visual arts. It's a little dry reading but I need to learn this. I have a tendency to paint and chose colors like a 5 year old. The brighter and kookier, the more I like them. I need to be reined in. Also reading a cool book called Color Exercises for the Weaver.

Started on a tapestry shoulder bag on the rigid heddle too. I'm using 8/4 carpet warp on a 10 dent heddle. At first I thought it wasn't going to work. But this morning, as I was rushing to leave for work, I just couldn't resist giving it a try. I'm using Paton's Classic Wool as the weft and hoping to felt the bag when done. So I beat it hard with the heddle and my tapestry beater too. Haven't done tapestry in a long time and forgot how much I miss beating the bejazers out of weft with a beater. Can't wait to get started!

Finger knitting

2010-02-27T16:48:00.010-05:00

February Little Van Goghs meeting. This month we did finger knitting. The kids loved it! We tried single strand and double strand. The older kids helped the younger. One of the moms joined it. It was fun! Check out this video to learn how to finger knit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3LKAlDz9ig

I finally finished my Mother Bear Project bear. He is my very first bear, so be kind. I've never made a stuffed animal before. I love doing this and feel so stoked that a child in Africa will get my little bear and love him. He is very flamboyant, isn't he?

Haven't been doing much weaving. Been really busy. But I did finish the color variation project and I hope to make that into a bag. I've been toying with the idea of adding freeform knit scrumbles as decoration to the outside of the bag but I'm not loving it right now.

This little dude was hanging out in our yard the other day. I love cardinals! They are so RED! We put some seeds out for him and his wife.

Pillow done

2010-02-13T10:39:00.001-05:00

Finished the pillow. I really like the way the colors come out and the plaid pattern. I'm giving it ot my mom for her birthday :)

Trip to St. Augustine

2010-02-09T19:09:00.028-05:00

The trip was fun. But it was way too cold. I've come to the conclusion that I really hate the cold. The camper has no heat, so 39 degrees really sucked. We had the sleeping bag that goes down to 25 degrees and that helped. It does sort of feel like a large dead animal is laying on top of you, but I was really glad to have it. We would have froze. Hell, we would have gone to a B&B.

I took a bunch of pictures...mostly of rocks. I just got attached to these rocks. They were by the St. Augustine pier.

I know...you're saying, "please for the love of God, enough with the rocks!" They were very cool though.

Oh yeah...brains the size of my pinky toe. For those of you who don't surf, I'll explain. "Locals only" is a term used by really stupid, small minded people who think they own a certain 50 feet or so of ocean. They only allow, (or imagine they have that power), those of their mental gene pool to surf in their little 50 feet of the world. People like this are sad. They are the reason surfers have a reputation for being total dim bulbs.

I was real into patterns this day.

Here's Gerry sort of cold. He is able to take it better than me.

Here's me totally freezing my butt off. Did I mention how much I hate the cold?

A courtyard in St. Augustine.

Here's Gerry all frisky in the cold.

And here's me totally done with it. All I wanted at this point was a warm restaurant and a bowl of soup. Which we did find. An Irish place with the most incredible clam chowder I've ever had. New England clam. It had fresh rosemary in it along with a bayleaf and butter. It was incredible.

We also went to an arts and crafts show. Have to support my fellow handmade folks. Bought a really cool little purse made from recycled fabric for Che and a really neat hummingbird wall hanging for Bridget. The artist who made the hummingbird's name is Bruce Cook. We talked for a while with him and his wife. Real nice people. That's one of my favorite things about camping. We always meet interesting people.

Honey combs and color variations

2010-02-03T12:16:00.003-05:00

I finally got the tie on done...sort of. It was still a little wonky but I said the hell with it. This is a learning piece anyway. I could have fiddled with it for days. The warp was doing some weird stuff after I started weaving too. When I put the heddle in the up position, the bottom warp was all loose. After I started working the pattern with the pick up stick, it started to normal out some.
This honey comb pattern is really fun. I love watching it take shape. I'm using a single ply funky cotton for the weft. It has like an uneven spin. I love purple and green together. Orange too. Big fan of the "secondaries" I guess.

Kid's art is so cool

2010-02-02T17:58:00.011-05:00

I absolutely LOVE kid's art! We had an art reception at the library today for our local elementary school art students. The teachers brought cookies and juice and the parents took pictures. It was so neat. Sometimes, I really do love my job.

Here's an abstract piece. Isn't it awesome?

I just thought this was so cool. I love the colors.

And so very cool...a budding fiber artist! Yay! I asked the teacher how the child did this, thinking she wove it, but she actually threaded the white and aqua yarn in the burlap to make it look like weaving I guess. I loved it!

This past Sunday, my friend Kathleen came over for a knitting afternoon. We had a lovely time. We ate this awesome blueberry cobbler that she made. So easy! You just lay some frozen blueberries out in like an 8x8 pan and then sprinkle some Jiffy white cake mix on top, a stick of melted butter, stick it in the oven on 375 for 45 min. and that's it! It was so good. We pulled our knitting books out and started working on Celtic knots.

Here's my first attempt. I really dig Aran knitting. It's so beautiful.

Started a new rigid heddle project. Hopefully, it will be a table runner. I was having an awful time with the tension on this warp. It's cotton, I think mercerized. I had started and the tension just wasn't right. I had to unwind it and take out the 12 or so rows I'd woven and start again. I just wasn't happy with the tension. This is my LEAST favorite part of weaving. I HATE the tie on! But let me tell you how I really feel about it....

I've decided to go for the HGA certificate of excellence in handweaving. I know...it's a really, really hard course of study. But, I think I will learn a lot. And since I live in the 3rd quadrant of Hell, and there are no weaving schools or teachers near me, I can do this course. I am going to take a class at the Mannings in Sept. though. Very excited:)

Four eyes

2010-01-27T16:26:00.012-05:00

These are my new $300 specs. Good thing I've got insurance. I decided I'm tired of wearing contacts all the time. But the other reason is my left eye is very barely sort of doing something weird with the contact, and I'm thinking it must be because of the tumor. It's hard because I don't always know what is "because of the tumor" and what isn't. Anyway, I'm getting old and glasses make me look wiser. Ok...older, but who cares.

These are some baby booties I'm working on for a girl at work. I've got too many knitting projects going. Mostly because I'm trying to learn too many things at once. Bought the Debbie Bliss book, How to Knit, and I'm going through it one project at a time. The first one is a little boy's sweater, which I'll probably give to my friend in NC.

Still working on my Mother Bear Project, bear. Poor bear, he's in surgery. His eyeball nerves are dangling and his intestines are all over the place! Aaaaaahhhhh!!!

Sat down to weave this morning before work and there he was. The loom troll. So I shoved him off.

And he tried to stealthily slither back onto the shafts. No I don't see you there hovering over my harnesses you little dope.

And back up he goes. He figures I'll never notice. Unless of course I tried to press down a treadle and it snapped in half under my foot due to his fat butt. Sigh. This is our little battle every morning. But I do love him.

Little Van Goghs ... and Hot Tuna

2010-01-16T16:23:00.010-05:00

Today, we did Edgar Degas. We talked about his preponderance for ballerinas. I saw his sculpture of the Little Dancer of Fourteen Years at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was incredible to be that close to one of my favorite pieces. We talked about Degas' use of pastels in many of his works and that he was one of the first of the Impressionist artists. So, we all drew a still life using oil and chalk pastels. Above is my contribution.

This is one of the kids...

I love the colors in this. Miss Loree made a slight faux pas, however. We always play music while
we draw or paint or whatever. I usually get something from the classics collection. Figure I'll try to give these kids a little culture. Goodness, knows there's no more Bugs Bunny cartoons anymore! That's where I learned all about classical music! Anyway, I was running late and grabbed a CD off the shelf in my office. Turned out to be Hot Tuna. I thought what the heck. So we're listening and I start to realize that maybe some of the lyrics aren't "age appropriate" but I figure they're never going to get it. Then 99 Years Blues comes on..."Well the world is a drag, and my friends can't vote, Gonna make me a connection and score some dope, Go get high, go get high" ...Whoopsie! Gee hey kids, look at the time! Your mom's here to pick ya up! Yay! Ha ha! Oh well. We had fun anyway.

It's cold!

2010-01-11T16:04:00.018-05:00

Ok...this is South Florida. It's not supposed to be 35 degrees. Yeah, it's gotten that cold before. I remember when it snowed in 1977. I was in my 11th grade art class. Some kid ran in to the class and yelled "it's snowing!" In minutes the whole school was in the parking lot eating snowflakes, tiny as they were. That was pretty cool. It snowed again in S. FL. Either Saturday or Sunday night in Miami and Coral Springs. Well, that's ok. I don't get to wear my Ecuadorian hat too often so it's all good.

Gerry's wearing his hood and a jacket, so you know it's cold.

When I felt I'd had enough of freezing my butt off, I decided to do a little weaving. Found this yarn on sale at Michaels. It's Caron Simply Soft Shadows in Soft Merino, Opal Twist and Dark Moss. I just really liked the way these colors looked together. Alternated the warp, 8 ends of each color.

It's coming out as a nice tweedy plaid. Would like to make this into a pillow.

Also got in a little spinning. I'd like to spin this first and then dye it. Probably use it as tapestry warp. Then cabin fever started to set in so I decided to cut Gerry's hair.

It's Zippy the Pinhead! HA HA HA HA HA!!!! This really isn't funny. I kind of screwed it up because I was laughing so hard. I still have to fix it.

Perfect cold weather dinner! Pork ribs in sauerkraut and apples. You just brown 2 lbs. of pork ribs, put them in the slow cooker, add 2 small granny smiths, 1/2 cup apple juice and sauerkraut. Cook on low for 8 hours and you've got some good eatin'!

Then of course desert. This didn't last long between me, Che and Ger.

Miss P was getting cabin fever too. She wanted to go outside. Of course she is well insulated so I didn't worry about her too much.

Turns out she didn't stay out too long anyway. She came back in quick and found herself a nice sunny spot in our room. I never noticed before but she has a star burst shape around her belly button.

Sunsets

2010-01-08T15:51:00.003-05:00

Just thought I'd share this sunset. This is what met me when I walked out the door at work yesterday. The colors were so bright it hurt the eyes. I see some really pretty sunsets out where I work. I pretty much work 2 blocks from the Everglades, so there's really nothing obstructing that western view. Anyway, I saw this and was just happy for another day.

Broken heaters

2010-01-07T12:43:00.007-05:00

Finished the variegated Valentine's scarf. Came out very toasty warm and pretty.

We came home to a broken heater last night. Poor Che was frozen. Sammy was shivering. It was supposed to go down to 34. Yay. So, Gerry and I went to HD to get a new thermostat, thinking that must be the problem. Ger installed it and it's nice. We needed a new one anyway. But it didn't fix the problem. So we slept under about 5 quilts...well I did. Gerry just slept under the comforter because he's a New Yawka. Sammy crammed himself in our bed up under Gerry's armpit I think. So the guy came and fixed it this morning. Good thing because we're getting another cold front this weekend.

Littleman found himself a nice warm place to hide. I was putting away towels this morning and heard this weird motorboat sound. There he was in the towels, purring away.

Intro to weaving Little Van Goghs

2009-12-28T18:44:00.012-05:00

This month we learned about weaving. We used styrofoam fruit and meat trays. At first I was going to have the kids measure out their epi then I thought...what am I, nuts? So we just wrapped the warps around the trays and it worked out fine.
We used all kinds of kooky yarns. I have a stash of Lion Homespun and the kids really seemed to like that.
Here's one of my regular students. She is an awesome artist, but the crafts seem to stump her a little. This started out good but sort of deteriorated as the class went on. But she is a trooper and finished it to the end.
This was "technically" the best piece. Done by a boy! Go Guys! He was completely exhausted by his endeavour, though. I had to laugh at that.

Christmas was very nice. I got some good news up in Gainesville...well at least I think it's good news. The doctor told me my tumor is small and I don't need to do anything to it right now. These tumors are benign and very slow growing, so I can wait a while. I'll get another MRI in March and if there's no growth, another in Sept. So we'll see. Anyway, that sort of made my Christmas a bit more stress free. I got a warping board for Christmas...
...and a 10 dent heddle for the RH. Now I can do some light cotton scarves.
Here are the feet to my Mother Bear Project bear. I know it looks like Santa but it's not. I decided to do a Smokey Mtn. black bear. He'll be wearing red pants and a blue shirt.

And here is Littleman's gift. An empty box ... to match his empty head.

Night of the Lepus

2009-12-17T11:50:00.011-05:00

Aaaaaahhhhh!!!! OMG! Run! Run for your life!

Yeah, she's a real terrifying beast, isn't she? Especially the knots under her chin that she won't let me get to. You can pretty much tell there's not much brain activity going on here. Duh. Flat EEG time.

Here is a little homemade loom. This Saturday, the Little Van Gogh's Art Club is going to learn how to do some simple weaving. I'm making looms from styrofoam meat and vegetable trays. I figure this will be a two part class. I really want to have the kids warp their own looms...because as we know, warping is a part of weaving.

I am totally digging the way the colors are coming out in this piece. And I am silently saying prayers to Jojo, the warp god, that my ends don't snap and I have to repair them. I hate, hate, hate repairing warp ends.

Yesterday, my knit pattern for the Mother Bear Project came (see link right side of page). I was so excited! Mother Bear sends bears to kids in Africa affected by the HIV/AIDS virus. Anyone who can knit or crochet can help. It is a wonderful cause.

Spinning again and stuff

2009-12-14T16:27:00.008-05:00

Here's the loom troll. He's taken over. I had to laugh this morning because I was trying to lift the 1 and 2 shafts and this genius was walking on them, but I didn't see him. I'm sitting there pushing on the treadle thinking "geez...why are these so heavy this morning?" He almost fell into the sectional beam. It would have been like some hideous industrial accident, only funnier.

I've finally started spinning again. I had stopped for a while thinking that maybe I was becoming allergic to bunny fluff and that's why the dizzys. But no. No such luck. So I started again this morning. Head lump aside, the fluff was driving me crazy. I need to get a dust mask. It's just too much.

I got this old book case from the same friend that gave me the jack loom. My daughter was supposed to take it to her new apartment, but her new apartment is too small. Oh darn! Looks like mom will have to take that off your hands. This case was just what I needed for all my "stuff". I had a mish mash of storage units in there and this just cleaned it all up and consolidated the space.

I just started on this scarf yesterday. I really liked the colors but I know the yarn was a poor weaving choice. I have a feeling I'll be repairing lots of broken warps with this. But it is nice yarn. If I can pull it off, it should be a soft scarf for Valentines.

Christmas tree time!

2009-12-07T15:39:00.008-05:00

This year's tree! I finally finished it last night with some help from husband and kids. Every year I gripe about putting it up. Every year I want to get an artificial tree with lights already attached. And every year, I'm glad we got a real tree. This year, I'm not putting out the little village thing. Just the creche. Che made some awesome peanut butter cookies to sustain us through the ordeal.

The tree is really nice this year. Fat and full. Except for one little hollow area. So I put this owl and some air plants in there for a little nest.

I tried to take pics of the mug rugs I'm working on but they're so ugly the camera broke. Not really, but the pics did come out bad so I didn't include them. I want to finish them SOON so I can start on the scarf I want to make.

Weird day off

2009-12-05T12:46:00.020-05:00

I hate when I'm off Friday, have to work Saturday and am off Sunday. Ok...I don't really hate the days off part, it's the Saturday part that stinks.

This Friday off was strange. The day started with taking the car to the mechanic because the mysterious "check engine" light came on again. Gerry and I hung out in Ft. Liquordale, had breakfast, went to Pearls Art store, the thrift store then back for the car. That was nice. Got a little more Christmas shopping done. After this, the day gets icky. We came home to a rock through the back window of Daisy.

You can't really tell from this picture. Took this after Gerry cleaned up all the glass. It was shattered. I think some kids were probably walking past the house throwing rocks at each other and missed. It was a small garden type rock. If someone wanted to do this on purpose, they'd have used a brick or something bigger. I couldn't believe such a small rock did such damage. Anyway $45 later, Gerry got replacement glass and we made a police report.

I just don't want to believe someone would have done this on purpose.

I started the supposed log cabin mug rugs. I hated them. The colors looked awful together and I was sort of disappointed. So, not being one to waste a warp already on the loom, I started playing around with this chunky Lion Brand yarn I've got. I can't even begin to guess how this will come out but what the heck. It looks like crap on the loom, which is why I didn't get too close with the camera.

Decided to take a break from this fiasco and watch the cats. You know I'm bored when I find them more interesting than my weaving.

Here they are both trying to pretend that they're not interested in the yarn I just shook in front of their faces.

And here's Ms. Putty completely over it. She wants to go outside and eat a lizard.

LittleMan got tired of the string too and went to his favorite spot...the big loom. He spends more and more time there now. He's either sleeping on the bench or walking around the back and front beams. He thinks he's Olga Korbet...get it...walks the beams, ya har ya har.

I'm still working on the table runner, or whatever this is going to be, on the big loom. The loom came with the warp, and once again...I hate to waste a warp. So I ended my weaving day on the big loom. Later we went for pizza and the Christmas tree. We're letting the branches relax down and will decorate tonight.

Every weird, icky day should end with some comic relief.

Starting the mug rugs

2009-12-01T17:21:00.009-05:00

Ok...I've put in my order for a warping board for Christmas, (that and a 10 dent rigid heddle). Walking the ends back and forth around the table makes me dizzy and I don't need any help in that department today. And yes, I did put away the autumn / Thanksgiving table cloth today. Out came the Christmas cloth. Hopefully we'll get our tree this weekend.

Oops...I better change Teddy's sweater too!

These colors are not the greatest. But the Sugar and Cream was on sale and the solid colors were very limited. I wanted something that would give me more contrast this time. Anyway, even though I got a little dizzy measuring, I was still happy to have my weaving to keep my mind off the lump. It's been a weepy day. Some days I have good days and a lot of faith that things will be ok and some days I feel very afraid about the acoustic neuroma. That's what it's called. I call it Lumpy Rutherford. Any Leave it to Beaver fans? Well, I had to give it a name.

Thanksgiving part 2

2009-11-28T17:49:00.018-05:00

We have a second Thanksgiving on the Friday after because the girls do Thanksgiving with their dad on the big day. Gerry and I go to my mom's up in Port St. Lucie on Thanksgiving. And that of course was a Davis family holiday, i.e. visiting my brother in rehab etc. Let's not go there. Anyway, part 2 was wonderful. We had a really nice day.

We started out the day with pedicures. That's Bridget with her foot up. Che is doing the pedi. She had to go to work but got home in plenty of time for more turkey.

After Che went to work, Bridget and I went to the store. On route to turkey shopping we thought it would be a good idea to stop at Famous Footwear...it's always a good time to shoe shop. We finally made it to Publix and got all the Thanks 2 food. Here's Bridget chopping fresh herbs for the butter/herb turkey rub.

Here's the finished bird. Bridget did this thing where she lifted the turkey's skin and put the herb/butter mix under the skin. It was heavenly.

And here's the gang enjoying the meal. Bridget worked super hard on this. The poor kid cooked about 5 or 6 turkeys the day before too. Good job Bridg!

I did a little home improvement this weekend too. I "borrowed" this idea from my friend Annette. You take glass blocks and make a little shelf for your window. Annette used a piece of marble for her shelf and I just went the lazy wood route. Bought a nice piece of oak and stained it. I'm using the shelf as a little herb garden.

Log cabin

2009-11-24T14:07:00.017-05:00

I finished the log cabin WAL on Weavolution. My pattern contrast came out a bit more subtle than other projects (click on image). I was also a little concerned about this being too "lacey". But no worries there. I fulled it in some very warm water and it just bloomed. All the little spaces filled in nicely and the selvedge doesn't look too bad. Next time I'd like to try two really different colors, maybe black and lavender.

So this is now an autumn table runner for my oldest daughter. She and her boyfriend are looking for an apartment together so this will be a nice Thanksgiving house warming.

Hope to be starting on some mug rugs soon. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thanksgiving craft

2009-11-21T14:55:00.009-05:00

Today we had our Thanksgiving craft...turkeys! Aren't they cute? The kids were very quiet and serious while they made their Toms. I think it's because of the little microscopic pieces they had to color and cut out, ha ha! That'll keep 'em busy!

We made them with toilet paper rolls cut to size. I got the template from this website: http://www.dltk-holidays.com/thanksgiving/mtpturkey.htm

I didn't use the fan idea. Instead our teen volunteer cut out paper feathers.

It was lots of fun. There will be some very cute little gobblers on some tables this Thursday.

Bean bags

2009-11-19T16:42:00.009-05:00

I've decided to knit a bean bag. According to the book I'm reading, Warping all by Yourself by Cay Garrett, a bean bag comes in handy when sleying your warp. You can weigh down the chain on the breast beam while you sley a few ends through the reed. I know...riveting isn't it? This is an odd color yarn. It was in my stash so I thought what the heck. It's one of those multicolor Red Heart Super Saver yarns, color Earth and Sky.

Got an appointment to see the otalarn...otalyarn...ear doctor up at Shands on Dec. 21. I hope he gives me the treatment option I want. I hope he gives me some encouraging talk. I feel very discouraged today. Have good days and bad days. Yesterday was a good day. No wonky head. Today...not so much.

Log Cabin weave-a-long

2009-11-10T19:26:00.011-05:00

I started a new weave-a-long. It took a lot of effort to get interested. I've been mentally battling a health issue (which is, thank God, not cancer, but a benign tumor on the left acoustic nerve...a little tiny intruder which I hope to kill dead). But I am feeling stronger mentally and spiritually and want to get back to my weaving. As Forest Gump said...that's all I have to say about that.

I chose these two colors because I wasn't really worrying too much about color. I like the colors, don't get me wrong. But what I really needed was some strong yarn that would work with a 7.5 dent heddle. So these were the best candidates, even though they barely work with the 7.5. It has a bit more of a lacy feel than I had planned or wanted so hopefully wet finishing with fix that.

Hopefully this will be a small table runner. The log cabin pattern is a real challenge to my dyslexia. So, I literally warped this in bundles of 8, being careful to keep the DLDL LDLD (Dark, Light) continuum. I was and am a little nervous about starting the actual weaving.

Also, I've decided to get back to knitting which I put by the wayside. I really need to start from ground zero with it too because I just don't feel competent. Have been doing the freestyle knitting and crochet though so my hand is still in it.

Mug rugs

2009-10-24T15:17:00.008-04:00

These are the mug rugs for the weave along. For the first one, top left, I used the color/placement variation 5/1/1/1 floats alternating front and back (Davenports p. 11). That one was strange and I'm not sure if I was doing it right. Top right I did the 5/1 lace, warp float. The one in the middle is paired 5 thread floats. Bottom left is plain weave and 5/1 lace warp floats. Bottom right is 9 thread lace huck (believe it or not). That one actually is my favorite.

This was way fun. I'd really like to do this again sometime.

Little Van Gogh's mtg. today. We talked about Grandma Moses. I told the kids that she didn't start painting until she was in her 70's. Prior to that she was a fiber artist, making embroidery pictures. She started painting because the arthritis in her hands became too advanced to do needle work anymore. I told the kids that Grandma was a folk artist or primitive, meaning she had no formal training. Her favorite subjects were family and home.

Fabric and fur

2009-10-20T17:36:00.006-04:00

It finally cooled down here. Went down to a chilly 58 degrees. I know... people in Buffalo would find that pretty funny, but it has been a brutal summer. Poor BunnyBoop woke up chilled to her little fibers. And she's got a lot of fibers! But even still, she doesn't like the cold. Sam (dog) loves it. The cats just sat on the back porch looking confused. But that's pretty much the way they always look.

I finished the mug rugs for the Weavolution WAL (weave-a-long) this morning. I got 5 rugs out of the warp. I tried 5 different patterns as well. This one is my favorite. This was 7/1 lace I think. Will have to double check. I let the piece rest today and will start finishing them when I get home.

Went yard sale-"ing" this past Saturday. Found these cool fabrics at one place. I've finally started to make strips out of the fabric stash I've got. Not sure how I'll use these, but definately a rag rug. I've been thinking that maybe I'll just go nuts with one and not worry too much about color composition. Just go crazy with colors and see what happens.

Went for a surf on Sunday. The waves were really fun. Was able to get lefts and rights. The water was warm but the air was cold! Stayed out for about an hour, then my ear started to ache a bit so I came in. It was great though. Haven't been on a board in a while. Very grateful for that.

I hope this weather lasts ;)

practice makes...somthin'

2009-10-15T17:33:00.001-04:00

I've been working on this twill pattern. The warp came with the loom and there's a lot of it. I just can't waste it. So maybe this could be a table runner. Who knows.

This is part of my WAL project. It's one of 4 mug rugs. Aren't mug rugs fun and warm and stuff? They look nifty on your desk. Anyway, this is a cool pattern from the Betty Davenport book, Textures and Patterns for the Rigid Heddle Loom.

The 300 lb. gorilla...

2009-10-07T12:08:00.007-04:00

...in the living room. That is what she is like...why did I just call it a she? Anyway, the Kessenich is here and I'm so excited! My family have had to move out and rent an apartment because there's no room for them, but they are being very understanding. As you can see, I let the dog stay. I've been crawling all over it like a curious monkey, playing with gizmos and gears and what not. Have been practicing twill patterns.

I moved my little rigid heddle to the bunny room, thus the protective foam around the legs of all wooden objects.

This is my small failure from the WAL. The warp I chose was not good at all. It wasn't holding up to the beating. So I cut it off the loom and made a nice little printer rug. I will start a new project for the WAL. I'm thinking mug rugs.

WALs and "found art"

2009-09-30T09:12:00.009-04:00

This is what I've got so far on the WAL. I'm mixing up the weft and warp floats a bit so as to get a lot of practice with them. This will hopefully be a nice man's scarf when I'm done. Well, I guess a not so nice man could wear it ...

Ok...now the found "art", which isn't exactly accurate. Our bathroom sink was lame. It's the original 1953 sink and basically it's just a counter with a sink in it and no cabinet or anything underneath. I found a cabinet in someone's bulk trash pile and thought, "hmmmm...".

Brought it home and sanded it. Then had Gerry cut the top out so it would fit around the sink basin. The back was out already...don't know why.

So, I painted it (purple of course) and fit it in under the sink with a little tull material and voila! It's not a Moen, but hey...it looks better than nothing, literally. I'll probably add some gold designs here and there. It needs a little something. Pay no attention to the dust bunnies...I forgot to sweep before snapping the pic.

Ladies dancing

2009-09-27T18:40:00.003-04:00

Forgot this picture. When we were in PA, we walked downtown to see the livestock auctions and then to the park to the Fiddler's Picnic, an annual event. I took this at the picnic. Something about these little ladies caught my eye. The picnic was very cool. A lot of follk music and very nice people, but strange too. I got a feeling of deep sadness and can't explain why.

What I did on my summer vacation

2009-09-15T16:41:00.030-04:00

Well, let's see. First we bought a 1987 Travel Master (see previous post). I thought that this alone would provide enough comic material to last a few postings. Not so. Daisy performed very well accept for some leaking in the Smokies and another incident that I’ll get to. But first…

Here is Gerry at a rest stop in ... oh heck, I don't remember. One of the Carolina's. At rest stops, you either go to the car side of the building or the truck/RV side. We barely qualified for the truck/RV side as you can see. Daisy is little. And she also has a cataract on her left headlight.

First we went to the Smokies. We camped at Smokemont, or as I liked to call it Smoke-em-if-ya-got-em mont. Apparently, the N. Carolina side of the Smokies is like some kind of rain forest, which is how we discovered Daisy has a little leaking problem. Who knew? Well Bobby did. We met Bobby at Smokemont and we all sort of came together because he too owns a little Daisy. He gave us all sorts of advice on these little campers. He's a super nice guy. We exchanged emails.

Here's Gerry at our campsite.

It was beautiful, as it always is there. There was an abundance of funky fungus and I had to snap pics of all of them. Here's one example.

The leaves were just starting to turn.

While on vacation, I took along Dowde's book on freeform crochet and decided to teach myself...

Here's a pic of me at New Found Gap. Be kind. I haven't bathed in a few days. No water or electric in the Smokies.

Here's me standing in one of the freezing streams. The water was so cold, I literally had a pain shoot up my back when I stepped in it.

This is my Uncle Joe...he's a movin' kinda slow. Ok...not really. He was a park employee at the old mill. He's from Jersey. Somehow, the authenticity was missing there.

Here's an artsy fartsy shot at the mill...

Has Gerry got a short sale deal for you! After the Smokes, we went to the Biltmore. $55 to get in, but worth it. You spend the whole day there. It was awesome. Especially the winery ;)

This is a good one. I was trying to be artsy here. Had no idea I had the lion chomping someones head off! Didn't even notice it until I looked at the picture 2 or 3 times.

Gerry picking the statue's nose....sigh...I think it's a statue of Plato or "Play Dough" :)

Then on to Pennsylvania. I taught my mother-in-law how to weave on the potholder loom.

Here she is in the ducky hat she won at the Farmer's Market

We had a great time in PA. The weather was perfect. In the 50's at night and 70's during the day.

Farms, corn, ham, tatters.....uuuuuuummmmmm!

Then we started home. We got as far as Rocky Mount, NC and poor Daisy got a flat tire. Unfortunately, it's a bit more involved with duel axle. So we had to have road side assistance. There were complications and we wound up having to stay over night. But the mechanic was awesome! They went out of their way for us ... so if you ever break down around Rocky Mount, call Automotive Express!

Daisy's flat foot.

A somewhat distressed Ger...

All in all it was a great vacation. We both came back tired but relaxed too. We met a lot of really nice people along the way. Camping is just way fun. But I think Daisy should stick to Florida from now on....she is getting on in years.

To see all the pics, click here

This dog must come off the loom!

2009-08-25T10:37:00.005-04:00

I think this thing has been on the loom for at least the last 50 years...and I'm 48. I have to finish it before I leave on Saturday! I don't know why this is taking me so long. It's a shawl and it will be about 72", I think. I can't remember anymore. It's been that long. But I will finish it. Of course if I wasn't here writing this, I could be working on the shawl. Duh.

Trying to get our shite together before this great adventure. We're going first to the Smokies, then PA to visit folks, then Woodstock to camp. All in a 1987 Toyota camper that we only just bought and have no idea if it will die somewhere in the boonies and we'll be made to squeal like pigs by some big bubbas somewhere between SC and upstate NY.

But I will bring my fiber fun along because I have an addictive personality and can't go very long without it. I figure I'll bring some cotton and angora to card and spin and some crochet and knitting. That'll keep me from jonesin'. Here is a pic of my big mamma cotton plant. She has been giving me cotton for over a year now. The other's all died off, but she's still crankin' out fluffies.

Here are some dahlias for the dye garden...

...they're just babies.

Travel Masters are...

2009-08-21T07:53:00.012-04:00

...the bomb! My husband has been stalking these online for at least a year. He finally found one in our price range. It'a a 1987 Travel Master. It is so boss, we're loving it!

It has a kitchen with a gas stove and sink.

A little dining area, that also turns into a sleeping area. New fridge.

There is a "bathroom". It's really small. You sort of have to be a two dimensional being to use it, or you can just pretend it's one of the toilets on a plane. Hey, it beats the hell out of stumbling to the restrooms in the dark at a state park, praying to God that a bear doesn't decide you look like a fun thing to bat around at 2 am. I'd squat over a pail to avoid that.

Oh yeah, and let me tell ya...been there. It's even more fun when your wearing a crappy pair of old glasses, cause it's either a contact lense exam or a glasses exam, you can't afford both. You feel your way along hoping that the psychotic park stalker with the 6 inch knife is really a tree. Oh and then there's the morning rush for the toilets, where every female in the park needs to do the morning business at the very same time. Gagging your way through that is just greeeeaaat. So if I have to pull my knees up into my nostrils to use my own bathroom, so be it.

Anyway, it's off to the Smokies next Saturday :)

Vegetarians, avert your eyes

2009-08-18T10:19:00.007-04:00

Ummmmmm.....sage sausage. How positively evil. I tried to do the vegetarian thing a few years ago. I really did. It lasted exactly one week. When I could stand it no longer, I drove to the nearest Mickey D's and got a Big Mac. God, that tasted good.

I've been reorganizing all my weaving and spinning "stuff". There is a lot. Not as much as I think some other people probably have, but a lot. Everyone is sort of drowning in it, so I thought I'd be kind and consolidate. Anyway, while doing all this, I brought this very cool loom in and cleaned it up with some Murphy's Oil. It is a 2 shaft table loom that my friend Kathleen gave me a while back. I really want to start working with it. I got the book Four Harness Weaving by Kernochan Bowen and am trying to figure out how to use this loom. It was the closest I could find to info on a 2 harness. It's a good book.

It's very cool and would be perfect for scarves.

This is what is on the loom now. A shawl that is taking FOREVER! I really want to try to full this one as much as possible. I think it will make a really soft fluffy wrap.

Layed back sort of morning

2009-08-12T17:13:00.014-04:00

Woke up this morning to some really pretty blooms in the backyard. These are some zinnias in my dye garden.

This is cosmos, also in the dye garden. This is a great flower. You just need to plant a few and they pretty much start popping up everywhere. They make a really pretty gold dye too.

Here's Little Man. He loves being outside. Che didn't want to let him out at first but he was so pathetic watching Miss P and Sammy frolicking in the yard. So I started letting him out on the sly. Eventually Che came around.

Here's Miss Patchouli sniffing a flower and enjoying the morning sun. She looks slim in this picture, which is really not the case. Gerry said she should have her own reality TV show on Animal Planet, sort of like Ruby...but with a cat.

Bunny Boop just says the hell with everyone. She looks like she's been on a 2 week bender or something.

Broken computers

2009-08-10T18:35:00.002-04:00

Well, my computer is still down. Rats. So now I have to do everything at work. Oops...did I just say that out loud?

Started on a new shawl. That's coming along ok I guess. I'm not thrilled with the selvedges. But I do like the colors.

Went surfing on Friday. Only one other person in the water. Everyone else was at work I guess....ha ha. Waves were jackin' up fun. Surfed the K board and no board. Worked Saturday and went out again Sunday. Not as good and more crowded. Too crowded. Someone cut their foot and there was blood in the sand. It was gross. Sundays are the worst because all those Everglades invading people from their zero lot line neighborhoods out west drive over to the beach for the day. It's a mob scene. They can't swim, they're always getting hurt or half drowning, they leave their trash everywhere. I usually stay away from the beach on Sundays.

Pick up sticks

2009-07-29T14:31:00.005-04:00

I've finally gotten around to playing with pattern sticks. I finally found a book that told me how to do it right...Davenport's, Hands on Rigid Heddle Weaving. I took this picture from underneath the loom. I was messing up because no one mentioned that you needed to work the stick in between the slot warp threads and no one mentioned that you need to pick "up" the selvedge warps, despite what the pattern calls for. So, once I found that info, everything went a lot smoother. I had other pictures, but my computer at home refused to acknowledge their existence even though I was sitting there staring right at them on the screen. Sigh....techno stress.

Here's a shot of my kooky little potholder rug. I tried to full it and block it, but it came out sort of rough looking. Pretty sure that's because I used different kinds of yarns, so nothing is really consistent. I wanted to play around with patterns and colors and fibers and such. I think the Red Heart Super Saver yarn would be best for rugs, but if you want to make a scarf or bag, the Lion Brand Vanna's Choice is real nice to work with. And both are inexpensive, which is nice.

Here's another shot of the rug. I am using it as a little bath mat and it's very nice on the feet. I think my sewing method is also adding to the "rough" look, but it's my first potholder rug. I've started another one, but using the same yarn throughout.

My corner

2009-07-20T15:04:00.004-04:00

This is my little corner of the universe. The neat corner. I've got lots of other corners. My family would probably say "too many"... full of yarn, looms, spindles etc. I was sitting there this morning thinking how much I love my little corner. I think one of the best things about it is that some of my pictures are there. They sit on the shelves next to me and I put my morning coffee there and my warping hook there, while I weave in the mornings.

This is my favorite picture in the whole world. This was taken in the hospital when Che was born. Bridget is looking at her new sister. I look at this every morning and it really helps me get through my days and reminds me of how blessed I am.

Went to the beach yesterday. It was so incredibly hot! I practically ran to the water and got in right away before I combusted. Waves were small but I managed to do a little bodysurfing. It felt sort of like swimming in your own saliva, it was so hot. But it was better than nothing.

Later on got a call from my mom. My oldest brother in Texas had a heart attack. He is not doing too good. I feel awful about it. I will pray for him.

Off the loom

2009-07-13T10:28:00.002-04:00

This weekend was pretty nice. We went up to Fort Pierce Inlet. There was a NE swell coming down from N. FL and the waves were fun. Unfortunately, there were too many surfers in the water. So many that it was dangerous. I didn't want to take my board out in that mess because I would feel awful if I hit someone, so I tried to bodyboard. Of course when you've got those conditions, you've got the usual surf Nazis who will run you over with no remorse. That's a character flaw, folks. So I quickly got tired of that. Grabbed my fins and went to the swimming only area and bodysurfed. That was the most fun I had all day. It was great. No pointy little boards in my face, no small minded little people up my butt. So peaceful and so fun, all at the same time. I think I may be getting too old and curmudgedy for dealing with crowds anymore. I don't suffer horse-shit well now-a-days. Pretty sure it's the old menopause coming on.

Took my newest scarf off the loom last night. It came out very nice and there is lots of that nice cotton/silk yarn left to make a cowl. I finished the ends this morning and will full it tonight. Starting to plan out a shawl using this really pretty yarn I bought like a year ago.

On the loom

2009-07-10T13:48:00.004-04:00

Latest piece on the loom. The yarn on the shuttle is a cotton / silk blend. I love the colors. I was originally going to use it in a shawl, but it would have cost a fortune in materials. So a scarf. The warp is Lion Woolease in mushroom. For some reason the scarf reminds me of Toll House cookies. But what doesn't.

Going up to Fort Pierce inlet tomorrow. Went last Saturday and the waves were small but fun and glassy. Hope it's good tomorrow!

Cameras and frogs

2009-07-03T10:02:00.005-04:00

Cameras and computers can be the biggest pain in the butt. I'm not a photographer. I know nothing about cameras. But I do know frogs and this one was a cutie. The first picture I took of him he was sitting in his little bird house, elbow propped on the sill, happy as a little frog can be. I ran for my camera. The first picture came out bad, because my camera always thinks it's in a dungeon, so the flash always goes off, no matter what. When I went back to take this picture, the poor little guy was cowering in his house, blind and confused. So I took advantage of his blurred state and got this picture. Ran in the house and went to upload the pictures and the cable was fried. So, ran to Target. I wasn't even sure what was wrong or what I needed. Luckily, the nice guy was there and he gave me this little thingy that looks like a jump drive that you can put your picture card into and upload without using the cable.

My new fun thing to play with is the potholder loom...yes, like the ones we all played with as kids with those loopy things. But I used yarn instead of the loopy things and they came out really cool. I didn't even realize it was like 12:30 in the morning; I was getting so into it. I learned about this from the Weavolution (http://www.weavolution.com/) group, the magic of potholder looms. Noreen Crone-Findlay's website tells you how to use these looms with yarn (http://www.blisstree.com/hankeringforyarn/how-to-weave-with-yarn-on-potholder-loom/)
I think I'll make a bunch of these little guys and turn them into a bath mat.

Happy Anniversary, baby

2009-07-02T12:34:00.002-04:00

...got you on my mind.

Last night was the big 3 years. And people said it wouldn't last. Gerry took me out to dinner. He made me wear a blindfold in the car so I wouldn't know where I was going. That was weird and a little car sicky. I was going to claw at the window and pretend I was being abducted to freak out the people next to us, but with my luck, the ppl next to us would have probably been a cop.

I knew where he was going for about half way there, so he distracted me by talking about the girls and their new boy people. I won't call them boy friends yet. They're both too new. Then I lost track of direction. Tricky little man. Anyway, we wound up at Joseph's on the Water...the place we'd had our reception. I was surprised and very pleased. The food there is off the chain! I had the shrimp scampi and Ger had the scallops. Had a glass of wine at home and then two at the restaurant. Wish I hadn't done that. Feeling it big time today.

After dinner, we went to the beach where we got married, on Charleston St. It was nice. There was a big storm coming in off the ocean. Major lightening. So we didn't stay long. As soon as we got in the car it started to pour. Then we went home and did what people do on their anniversary...we watched South Park. Just kidding.

New rug

2009-06-21T17:25:00.005-04:00

Finished the kitchen rug and first two sets of curtains for the cabinets. Loving it :) The colors are all making each other pop. Love the new floor too. It's the Armstrong vinyl planks. It's a floating floor like laminate, so we didn't have to rip up the old linoleum. Now going to put a cowl on the loom.

Couldn't make it to the beach. Let's just say I don't go in the water during certain times. A bunch of our friends went up to Ft. Pierce inlet for Father's Day. I hate them. I hope it was flat! ok...just kidding.

Little Van Goghs June 2009

2009-06-20T15:09:00.004-04:00

Today we talked about the Fauves. I told the kids about how Henri Matisse and other artists entered their paintings in the Salon d'automne, the season's major public art event, in Paris, 1905. People hadn't seen paintings like this before. The paintings were bright and the artists used colors that wouldn't normally fit the object being painted.

I set up a still life and the kids used watercolors to paint. I told them not to paint the colors they saw, but to use "different" colors. We listened to Copeland's Appalachian Spring. I figured that would put them in a flowery mood.

To learn more about the Fauves, visit:

http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/fauve/index.shtm

Free fall

2009-06-16T13:12:00.008-04:00

Finished this painting this morning. 36x18 oil on canvas. I need to go up to Old Tyme Pottery and see if I can find a frame.

I'm hoping to put this painting in the Broward Art Guild's Human Image show in late June through July. We'll see.

Look to this day graduate!

2009-06-13T15:14:00.003-04:00

The last one. I am finished. Now I can slip serenely into doddering old age in peace.

Good work Che!

Rain

2009-06-06T15:16:00.002-04:00

....freakin' RAIN!!!! I was off yesterday and so looking forward to a good swim. Waves or no waves I needed to get in the water. Planned to leave at 1:30 and by 1:00 the storm of the century hit. There was rain and thunder and lightening the rest of the night. Sucked. But, all is not glum. The rain kept me in and I got my new kitchen rug on the loom. It's going to be very cool I think. Also found some really colorful material to make curtains to match the rugs. My cabinets which are open cabinet style, look too crazy. Too many pot handles going every which way and I don't have nice matching China or anything. So, hoping this will make the kitchen look more colorful and uniform.

Little Van Goghs - May

2009-06-03T12:38:00.004-04:00

This month we learned about Frida Kahlo. We talked about how she was in a very bad accident that left her in a body cast and bed ridden for a very long time. Frida's mother bought her art supplies and put a mirror over her bed. Frida began to do self portraits and we talked about all the portraits she did and the many things and animals she included in her paintings. We sort of stayed away from the ones with like, you know, fetuses hanging out of her left heart ventricle and stuff like that. The kids did their own self portraits and we listened to the sound track to Frida. The rest of the pics are on Facebook (Davis Jackson) or Tweet (djfiberarts).

Kids

2009-05-26T17:16:00.003-04:00

Remember that one kid who forgot her way to mom's house on Mother's Day? Yeah, well mom spent Memorial Day sitting next to her in the emergency room. My poor little chef ... hot grease splashed up on her arm at work and she now has a nasty 2nd degree burn. See, God punishes you for not visiting your mom on Mother's Day, especially when you live in the same zip code.

On the bright side, the other kid was dancing around the living room this morning because it was her last exam and her last day of school! Wheeeeeeee! It's great. Now they are both safely on their way to adulthood and I am reminded that now my usefulness has ended and I can happily descend into old age and incontinence knowing I did a pretty good job.

Memorial Day rain

2009-05-24T14:21:00.005-04:00

Oh yeah....another rainy Memorial Day weekend. That's how you know it's summer in Florida. The monsoon begins exactly at May 20, plus or minus a day, and goes on for a week or two. Then come the mosquitoes. Have to work today which sucks. No three day weekend for me. But can't complain. I'm taking 4 days off at the end of the week.

Finished this piece this morning before work. I am so happy with the way the colors came out. This will be a bag by tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll be able to stop at JoAnn's on the way home for thread and a nice braid for the handle.

Got a very cool book from the library on freeform weaving. So I'm all set for rainy old Memorial Day. Of course sunny with perfect 3-4' glass would have been cool too....

New yarn, old body

2009-05-17T10:44:00.003-04:00

This was spun with that old roving I had. I plyed it using my Mother Marion spindle. Mistake. Luckily I've got good balance because I had to stand up to do this and balance on one foot while kicking the spindle. It was goofy but it did the job. After that though, I make a drop spindle for plying by gluing 2 whorls together to make it sort of heavy. This yarn is going to make a nice St. Chris beanie.

Surfed for like 2 hours yesterday. After 4 mo. out of the water, I am feeling it big time. I am so out of shape it's sad. But it was so fun even though it was typical crap Florida rip current surf. Surfed the 7'6 and switched over to my boogie board. I just don't have the upper body strength to fight those currents anymore. Gettin' old. Then ditched everything but my fins. That was the best. I'd like to make it down there again today but we're going to the Greynolds Park Love In today. Woooooo....gonna see Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.

Baby cotton

2009-05-12T16:45:00.002-04:00

I planted some new pima cotton like maybe 3 days ago. I swear this stuff grows so fast! I've already got 4 little baby plants. So we put them in the big garden and put lots of fencing around them so Putty and Weezer don't think it's their personal poop box. I have a load of cotton to gin yet. Want to card it and add punis to the Little Jakey and just sell punis separate too. Pima cotton is so smooth! It's almost like wool. I really like it.

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T13:06:00.006-04:00

Over all it was pretty cool. Except of course my oldest daughter forgot how to get to her mom's house on Mother's Day. Anyway, I got to do my favorite things and that's all you can ask. Got to dye my yarn that I just finished spinning. And got to weave. Loving the piece I'm working on right now too. The colors are awesome. And best of all, next to the box of chocolates I got from Che, was that I got to go to the beach. It has been a long crappy winter and I haven't been in the water since December. That's unusual for me. I usually surf all season, summer being the lamest due to lack of waves. But this winter was so freakin' cold and I got sick like 3 times. Two colds and the grand finale, an inner ear virus. I've been working through the vertigo for like 3 or 4 weeks now. So yesterday, when I saw that turquoise water, I felt like I'd climbed out of a very deep black hole into the light. I was a little nervous about my ears and getting water in them, but I was fine. The water felt great! The waves were tiny and barely ridable, but I was starving for glide and didn't care. I was bodysurfing, and the viper fins were getting me little ones anyway. It was so nice to be back in the water again. Then we went home for some of Uncle Gerry's Cosmic Enchiladas...WHOOT! It don't get no better than that! Here's a pic from winter '07, goin' right on a winter S. FL swell.

Bad kittys

2009-05-07T15:16:00.003-04:00

My kid-o Che had a kitty. But he passed away about 2 months ago. Well, she got a new little buddy from the Humane Society. He is a 2 year old male part Persian and
he couldn't get any nosier if he tried. Anyway, I warped my loom today and
learned that I have to keep a squirt bottle handy because he can't keep his
nose out of anything. Then he got my older cat into the act. Here they are being stupid. Weezer is the little guy in the foreground and Putty is my older girl cat looking into the basket. Weezer just got squirted, that's why he's not over there too. Pains in the ass.

Little Van Goghs meeting

2009-04-26T12:19:00.013-04:00

We had our meeting yesterday. We looked at the later works of Henri Matisse. His cut out art. Matisse became ill with cancer in his later years and could no longer stand for long periods of time in front of his easel. So he began to create beautiful works using paper that he had painted with gouache and cutting the paper into designs. We used construction paper. I told the kids to "paint with their scissors", making sure everyone knew how to use scissors so there'd be no snipping off of a digit or two. That would be really bad.

The kids loved this project! They just really took their time and got so lost in it. We listened to a CD of 20th cen. composers i.e. Claude Debussy and Gershwin since this music was still influencing people in the 1950's when Matisse died. I guess Elvis was influencing people too, but I don't think Matisse was boogying around his studio to Blue Suede Shoes. Although maybe, who knows.

Look at Diego's blue robot at the bottom. I'm gonna say that's a "tail". Yeah, that's it. A tail.

Italian yarn

2009-04-20T12:32:00.005-04:00

I bought this yarn at my little yarn store in the Everglades. That's where I work...the Everglades. Third alligator on the right. Anyway, I saw this yarn and the first thing that attracted me was the color. It's a beautiful green (though that might not be evident in the picture). Then the funkyness of it with the various textures, blew me away. It's an Italian yarn and pretty much, the Italians make yarn as well as they cook because this stuff is gorgeous.

I immediately thought "decorative scarf" and started to crochet. I tried 3 or 4 different types of stitches and found that straight single crochet was the way to go. I wasn't getting the full "funk" effect with fancy lace like stitches. And yes, I realize I've started another project again.

Old roving

2009-04-19T13:53:00.002-04:00

...well not that old. I had it laying around for about a year. Decided to spin it. I can't remember what the heck it is. Got it at the Mannings when we were up visiting the folks in PA. I wish I could remember what it is because it's really nice. This stuff spins up like butta baby. Can't wait to start dyeing it.

Spindles

2009-04-15T19:42:00.003-04:00

I have been updating my Etsy shop. Made some very nifty spindles. I'm trying to build up my inventory again and it is slow going.

Yarn yarn yarn!

2009-04-08T15:51:00.002-04:00

I just realized. My favorite yarn shop, which I could hardly ever get to because it is far from my house, is actually just around the corner from my job. I mean I've been working here since Sept. '08 and I just now realized this? Man I'm out of it. But to my defense, I think I didn't think about it because I've been so busy thinking about how far my stinkin' job is now! Oh well, it was a voluntary transfer, so I really can't complain. I'm much happier here and now I'm even more happy, yay! I think I'll head over there during my lunch break on Saturday!

One at a time

2009-04-07T18:38:00.002-04:00

This rug is coming very slowly. Why? Because the soumak is coming very slowly. Why is the soumak coming slowly? Because I stopped to design another rug. Oh yeah, and I got some hideous inner ear infection that has had me layed up for the last 3 days. Veritgo is a whole lot of NO FUN. I thought maybe I was like that guy from the Night Gallery, where some exotic earwig crawled in his ear and layed thousands of eggs. Yeah, I always see the glass as half full.

Anywho...I really need to stop doing more than one project at a time! I have to! I must! Since I didn't make a New Years resolution, that'll be it. A little late, but that's ok. Well, now I think I'll go put some more ear drops in my earwig...I mean ears.

Little Van Goghs April

2009-03-24T15:50:00.004-04:00

This month we did Jackson Pollock. It was a lot of fun. The kids were very conservative with the paint. I was surprised. I thought I'd have to take a shower afterwards. We listened to Dexter Gordon while we painted. Couldn't find any Gene Krupa laying around. More pics on my Facebook.

Sunshine Nebula

2009-03-21T17:21:00.002-04:00

Well, I was going to sell it on Etsy, but my daughter wants it. Easy come...easy go. It's now in the collection of Bridget Givonetti.

Sunshine Nebula

2009-03-19T18:29:00.003-04:00

This was a total experiment. I started crocheting some crazy little thing, not really thinking much about what it was going to be. I like the yarn so much I didn't care. It's a silk yarn really beautiful colors. Anywho, I got the idea to put it in glue and water and stiffen it and mount it on a canvas. The frame was bought at a thrift store and I painted it black and then gold on top of that. I wish I had just put one coat of gold though and let the black show through a little. I tried to sand it and that didn't work well. So next time. This piece is 10x14. The canvas was originally 11x14, but I had to trim an inch off to fit it in the frame. This is an acrylic and oil on canvas board.

Hooked rugs

2009-03-16T13:09:00.002-04:00

Reading "American Hooked and Sewn Rugs: Folk Art Underfoot". In 18th cen. America, people couldn't afford rugs unless they were rich, and even then rugs were reserved for only the best rooms. People would spread sand on their floors to absorb and hold the grease and dirt. They would sweep the sand into different designs, sort of like a Zen garden, but for decoration not spiritual purposes. Textiles were a very expensive commodity in the 18th and early 19th century. The book also says that rugs were used to cover beds and furniture and not to put on the floor prior to 1820.

The picture of the bed rug is from the Met's website www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/need/ho_33.122.htm

Little Van Gogh's exhibit

2009-03-11T15:52:00.004-04:00

I was able to get space to exhibit the kid's work. Here are their paintings done in "Michelangelo style". Oooo and that floor was hard too! Glad I didn't have to do it.

New rug

2009-03-11T12:38:00.005-04:00

Trying to get the right colors together for my new rug. Next I'll do the original cartoon in color pencil and be sure I want to use the colors I had at first wanted for this piece. This was originally supposed to be a tapestry but I think it will be better as a rug. Plus I'm very stoked on rugs right now.

I'm liking the way the canvas is looking. This piece will be titled "Tiny Purple Fishes".

Little Van Gogh's

2009-02-28T15:41:00.002-05:00

Today we had our Little Van Goghs Art Club. The kid's had a really good time. We learned about Michelangelo and talked about the difference between the art of the Middle Ages and the art of the Renaissance. We looked at pictures of the Sistine Chapel. Then I had the kids lay on their backs and paint on paper attached to the bottom of the tables, so they could get a feel for the way Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. I played a CD, Ecce Cor Meum by Paul McCartney so the kids could get a sense of what the music was like back in the 1400's. I think the music definitely helped the creative flow. I've posted more pictures on my Facebook. Picture quality isn't that good because like a dumb ass I left my camera home. So I had to rely on my crappy phone camera.