Plain and Practical

Things To Study Upon

This morning, having a terrible time with tingling in my fingers and hands, they've had quite the workout lately, so I plan to study upon this with my good friend Google (I've decided that Google is Quaker, it tries to be Plain and Fair, doesn't it?) and see if there's a suppliment anyone recommends and understand more about why it comes and goes.

And, the seeds have been arriving from Etsy growers, individuals who carefully save their seeds from their organic gardens, heritage plants that have been in their families sometimes for generations.  Here's E&M seeds organic tall telephone peas, delicata squash, and heritage green beans, and from Lady Alicia, moonvine, rose of sharon hibiscu, luffa gourds, yard long green beans, and salvia, all non-hybrid so they can be saved if I can make them grow, and all non-gmo, so I don't have to worry about contributing to unwanted mutations:

and some nifty newsletters have been coming in and I didn't know how I was receiving them . . . and then friends in Hillsboro said, "Have you been getting these newsletters?" and of course I need to write to day and say thank you!  Mystery solved!

Washer is running, there's leftovers to nibble until I do up ham and biscuits and gravy for tired husband's dinner, he's having computer problems and will be busy on that all day.  A couple of errands close by since I have the truck today, a little vacuuming to keep the cat's heart rate up, design the new labels for the yarns I have to price on Monday night and have printed tomorrow morning uptown, finish some prototypes for Art-O-Mat so they can be mailed tomorrow, some emails before the day is done, and fit in a nice walk somewhere in there, along with some quiet time with my Bible to look up some scripture passages that were used in another book I'm reading called Flat Earth.  I get to visit with Dawn tomorrow and pet her happy dogs, and take her the yarn I made from their hair.  Is this not a perfect home life?  What more could I ask for?  Peace begins at home. 

Furry Chains of Love

So, been taking handspun singles and pairing them and sometimes by themselves and chaining them into bulky yarns, until my fingertips are tingling and going numb:

it's a total delight to knit with, bulky and fast and yet not a lot of empty spaces, it fills out nicely.  But it does add over an hour per skein to the pricing.  And here are some bulky ones I plied,

that wisp of green here and there is Firestar, which I said I would never use, and here's me the liar using Firestar, acid dyes, my drop spindle and all sorts of "nevers" so, never say never!  Even to your boneless cat, he moved when he heard the camera whirl so sorry he's missing an ear in the top of the frame:

you see he flattened them up against his head because he knew this shot would make his butt look big, LOL.

We went down town to the anime con, saw the line with about 1000 people in it, turned around and left.  I spent the $35 I would have spent there, at the Dick Blick store, and got a spankin' new sketchbook for the upcoming sculpture gig at the coffeeshop, three more acid dyes, a box of charcoal and some large drawing paper (cheap newsprint).  I like to put the contents of each show or studio class into a large sketchbook, clippings, printouts from the computer, addresses, names, samples, sketches, the whole shebang, that way it's easier to locate something later when it's wanted.

I talked to a junk and antiques dealer out in Mt. Victory, have an appointment a week from tomorrow to go see her pile of broken wood stuff.  She was very kind and did not treat me like a madwoman when I asked if she had any broken pieces of furniture, preferably water damaged, gnawed upon by dogs and extra-special if it was split and warped, too.  She reports lots of the above in storage, no torn rusty corrogated tin roofing however, so still hunting for that. 

Back to plying, and washing the skeins.  Am hoping to ship this out by UPS on Tuesday.  I advise you all to put on fuzzy socks and find some couch work for the evening, a little thinking time with some work in your hands, will make the weekend more productive AND more enjoyable.  Peace.

Ply Ply Ply Ply Ply Ply

Ply on the big wheel:

wash stuff plied on small wheel:

ply ply ply ply all day ply some more ply ply ply

this wasn't all jiggly just because of caffiene, they were swinging as they dried on the back laundry room rack, I put a fan on all the yarns last night trying to move them through this process as fast as possible!  20 more to go! 

Tonight we're meeting up at Khristo's for a women's "Third Fridays" meeting, you just bring your handwork or whatever you want to work on and sit and talk and share and meet and sometimes a crafty lesson gets delivered one-on-one.  It's free and fun.

I got approved for an August slot to hang my works in a coffeeshop in the Short North district, in Columbus, so I did those sketches and photographed and sent them off, one was so nice I photoshopped it into color--since the sculptures are all black, they didn't make the most exciting sketches--and made several images good enough to send off for printing to become the cards for the show, and some larger prints to sell.  When you're on a roll, you gotta go for it!  So I also re-did this summer photo, it looks better if you click on it to enlarge it:

Visiting the anime convention tomorrow if the weather is okay for travel to Columbus.  I'm sure I'll find something to like, but I'm sure I'll get a lot of stares, LOL, you'all have a thoughtful day.  Peace.

Sculpture Gallery Show in August

So, going to be hanging some wall sculptures (wood, mixed media) in August in Short North, will keep you posted.  So on the way home from baking at a friend's house yesterday, added to my wood scrap stash:

and this is the loom I need to photograph and get sold, it's a six-treadle, four-harnish Harrisville Designs, has one broken piece of wood but an easy, easy fix.  Clean reeds, and lots of them, few plastic pegs on the sectional warp are missing but very usable.  Folds up and fits in the closet when not in use (folds even when warped) and it can do twill dishtowels, shawls, table runners, scarves, all kinds of sensible things:

and I found this skirt for 50% off, so it was 50 cents, it's black cordoroy, which will make dandy dust cloths, and the metal embellishments can be removed and sold at the September SCA show in Traverse City, so it's not only a rescue, but a nice little money maker, too.  Waste not, want not.   Peace.

Rolling Those Balls Forward

Okay, have contacted someone about cutting me two or three ash logs in the springtime, for splitting off weaving materials with a drawknife, have ordered plants you can weave with (Did you know that Etsy has lots of seeds for sale by individuals?  Non-GMO, heritage, hand gathered, organic seeds?  and fair prices, too). 

I sent two emails this morning to galleries looking to fill walls, saying I have some sketches I can send for wood wall sculptures I'm starting in late March or April, and made a list of three galleries to go look at to see if they are suitable.  Will pick one.

February 1st the Golden Hobby Shop in German Village opens up again, so will go and see what kinds of holes they have for my fiber arts, and start gathering those projects together.

Still looking for scrap tin, we went to the flea market to talk to a woman there who was gathering items for me but they were closed last Saturday, so will try that again this Sunday and see if she's been able to find some of the items on my sculpture materials list.

Off to bake with a friend for the day, a special project for her church, do a little drop spinning while there, maybe a thrifty store or healthy food store.  A good day of girl-time, and easy dinner to heat up when I get home.  Peace.

ADHD Kind of Day

zoom around and get breakfast for Husband, who is working from home today, the run three errands in town then be back here for a pickup by a friend and then zoom over to Plain City for items needed for baking with another Friend tomorrow, and in-between, try to get these beads taken apart and bagged and put away:

and this woodlands combo, made with black walnut dye and the "whoops" of throwing in a green wool to overdye, but it's very nice anyway (Thank you, Lord, for helping me out on that):

and when I get back and get everything from shopping put away, ply these:

an' just think, you're only seeing the top layer, so don't think I'll be getting that finished by the time I hit the sack tonight.  Peace.

Here's something I didn't know

I blended five more batts today, all with firestar, sometimes as a complimentary color and sometimes contrasting.  So here is a batt of black, dark navy blue, with dark blue firestar, and that's how it looks to the eye--almost black with a little dark blue--but the firestar does not reflect accurately to the camera, so it will be interesting to see if the final product is difficult to portray--I plan on spinning "dreadlocks" and geeky yarns for an April show with these, so photography is not a huge concern, but isn't it nice after three decades of this, to still be learning?

and here's the black walnut results:

see the blotchy green on the light brown in the 2:00 position?  yeah, Valerie dropped in some wool she wanted to over dye and Voila!  it speckled the entire batch so now it's not "naturally dyed" anymore (say phhht loudly here) but that's okay, it's still pretty, the brown reminds me of fawns for some reason.

We swapped out the temporary folding table for the actual desk, and I got a few more boxes unpacked.  The loom is clear enough to get pictures of it to get it listed on the Union County Classifieds on the facebook page, and in the local Craigslist.  The studio got swept out and neatened up for tomorrow, my boxes and letters are ready for the post office, progress on nearly every front.  Banged on the piano, combed the cat, cooked three meals, spun four skeins of yarn, carded for five more, and hung up laundry all over the place.  Loaded the dishwasher twice, vacuumed, watched a scary show with husband, put away socks and underwear.  I'd say it was a solidly productive day.  Time for a hot shower and jammies and some time on the couch with Boo.  Peace.

Odd Things Go Together

Well, the local stores were sold out of bird suet cakes so I made some out of the leftover bacon grease, leftover pancakes, the bread butts, old stale pickling spices, crisco, cat food and dog biscuits.  It can not be said that Valerie is not brave in the kitchen.  I cooked it, poured it into trays, let it cool, and put it outside.  They are now attracting about 100 birdies, but I'm not going to show you the picture I took, because it more or less resembled dog barf and was disgusting and you wouldn't have been able to eat your dinners.

I'm proud to say, for a first attempt, my leftover muss muss bird stuff, is attracting way more birds than the commercial stuff.  Going to think of them as "free range chickens" of the most free type imaginable.

Here is something I bet you've not put together in your yarn batts before, silver mohair, natural-- and four shades of green:

and this one is coral, pink mohair, some of the goldenrod yellow, and a bit of white from Bev, enough for two 8-ounce skeins:

and just for those learning drum carding, here's some of Bev's dyed spotty stuff (so wonderful) to show how that, and my dyed pink, changes as it's being carded.  After it went through once, it was pulled into strips, turned around, and put through a second time to give you the result in the background:

This may seem like a lot of work.  Why combine colors and then just mix them all together again?  It's because, with the artist's trained eye, this creates layers of depth, layers of subtlety.  The fibers that were red and yellow and hot pink, are worked into the pink majority, but the eye still knows they are there.  Even more important, the knitter or weaver can select this yarn, and find that yellow, pink, hot pink, and reddish pinks, seem to magically match--because those colors are already hidden inside. The resulting product--some my yarn, and some commercial or other yarns they combine with it--looks better, more coordinated, more thoughfully compiled.

Back to spinning.  And being amazed that the birds liked my greasy leftover slop stuff so much.  Peace.

Don't Look In The Window Unless You're A Spinner

Because it looks like my studio is either for making punk rocker wigs, not a bad thing, or I've climbed into the rejects dumpster behind Sesame Street and shaved all the little puppets and drum carded them:

There are EIGHT of these to start spinning in the morning.  Sunday will be the last day for spinning singles on this order.  And, singles ready to start plying:

and there's a whole basket of these, plied and dry, and they will be the first ones to get measured and tagged when it's time to put this order together:

Sorted through three large containers from the store stock today, reduced to one and repacked it and took it upstairs to the bedroom, where I've stacked one wall full of totes and boxes.  Only twelve boxes left in the living room, that are mine, so tomorrow will take down this temporary folding table the computer is on and switch it out with the tressle table, and that will open up more floor space.  There's papers all over being sorted and set into order by date for store receipts, I found six more addresses and got those into my address book--one piece of paper at a time, getting it all taken care of.  And a bit of spinning, too.  Snowy and icy outside, but it's fuzzy and warm in here.  Peace.

Dark Brown Abounds

So the house smells, not like cooking . . . not stinky . . . maybe a little like the woods, when you're taking a walk after the rain, not wormy, just kinda loamy and rich and somewhat comforting, and it's because there's a half pound of dried Black Walnut hulls, sent by my friend Bev, boiling in the dye pot:

these will soak all day, be strained in the morning, water back into the pot and then will dye some white wool, then put in some badly stained dishtowels (hopefully then they will be brown all over, not just in spots).

And here's the dog hair, 450 yards, as singles.  Each will be plied with itself, rendering two skeins a little different in color from each other, most of the golden retriever will be in the skein on the right.  The color and texture is lovely, there's enough for a set of mittens and a nice scarf, or a shawl, but that's for someone else to decide, I'm just the spinner on this project! 

and the silk scarf I shredded up, here's one of the art singles from it, it will get plied as soon as they are all dried and I can play matchmaker with the various skeins and see what I want to ply with what:

So a little bite to eat--I'm thinking rye flakes with brown sugar, butter on top, and I need to bake a cake (spice cake mix, raisins, ground flax seeds, extra vanilla, spoonful of molasses) and there's some icky calls to make to track down utility deposits, but all is warm here, snowflakes gently falling, and the cat is staring at me so gotta go.  Peace.