Learning To Spin

It is damp and grey here and I have a bad cough. So I am using this time to learn to spin on my new spinning wheel. I am reminded of learning to bake bread. As a young woman, I was determined to make all the bread for my family. When I brought some to my Mother (the master bread maker)to try, it was a bit heavy and she said, "Never mind. It will make good toast." While reading up on spinning wool, I read that your mistakes can always be used as "Art" yarn. So that is what I feel like I have been doing--making bread for "toast".

I am grateful to my Mother and Father who taught me that all things are possible. They made materials available to me and encouraged me to try things. So, I grew up knowing that I could do anything if I wanted to bad enough. Well I might not be a Master, but I could certainly learn to do it. Practise makes perfect.

So I will keep spinning and learning and having a good time. Maybe eventually, I will make bread that doesn't have to be toasted!

Taking Care

Taking Care
4x4

Happy Holidays

Reflecting

Reflecting
5"x5"

The large blue piece in this composition is
a reflector
 that fell off my mailbox into the road
 where it was run over a number of times.

From A Pear Tree

Isn't this cool.

 I am so pleased.

This is a piece of cotton,

 solar dyed in a jar of bright colored Bradford Pear leaves.

The fabric was in there a couple of weeks.

Most days the sun shown in,

 but not all.

 I can hardly wait to sink another piece of fabric in the jar.

Beaded Scarf

A silk and wool Nuno felted scarf with square sequins and beading.
Have I lost my mind?
I almost decided to bead around the edges!
Thank goodness I came to my senses.

Rinse and Rinse Again

This is the yarn I dip dyed in indigo.
I rinsed and rinsed
but
I should have rinsed again!

Into the Wild Blue

Playing with indigo again.

I was surprised that the dye in my ice bucket "vat" was still good. The yarn was aqua to begin with and I dipped some of it the indigo. I am anxious to roll it into balls but it is not completely dry yet. I also dropped a ball of white pearl cotton into the vat. It is definitely not dry yet.

The fabrics are both cottons.

On the blue and white one, I used a "school" glue resist. The other was folded, dyed, dried, folded and dyed again and then stamped.

 Now what?

Solar Dyeing

winter solar dyeing in the garage

At the Car Wash

We washed the car today

on the way to the grocery store

 after going to the Furniture Show
and a craft market

I have seen this pattern on the concrete before

 but today

 I had my camera with me.

Isn't it interesting?

 I think I will stitch it

sometime.

To Bead Or Not To Bead

wool fibers on a navy scarf.

I am thinking

about

beading

but if you wear this

around your neck

you wouldn't

see

the beads!

To bead or not to bead?

It's Finished

I finished the Pine Needle basket today amid many interruptions.

It is certainly not perfect as you can see, but It is a nice little basket ( 5.5 x 4)

 It has a row of my hair and then a curl of Robin's hair around the top.

Small Bag

Here is the small (6x5.5) bag I made this weekend.
I locker hooked the canvas with some inch wide bias
rayon and I don't think I will do that again, even though I have piles of the stuff. One inch was too wide for my canvas and so it was very difficult to hook.The lining peaking out of the top, is from a repurposed silk shirt. I thought it was very clever of me to cut the lining to include the front pocket of the shirt. That would make an inside pocket in the bag with almost no work on my part. Well, that sort of worked out. The pocket is really a little large for the bag, so when you put your hand into it,your hand tends to slip into the pocket. Oh well. It was a good idea and I will do it again. The beads are fabric beads that I made some time ago. Oh, and yes there is some novelty yarn in the bag.

Just so you will know--I did finally clean off my deak and pay the bills. I didn't want you to worry.

Thanks again to Bobbie for turning me on to Locker Hooking.

November 20

1962-2007
My first born, Robin, would have been 48 today.

Happy Birthday Robin.

I will love you and miss you always.

More Hooking

OK this Locker Hooking thing is getting out of hand. It is all Bobbie's fault. If you don't know her blog, she is at i didn't realeyes. I wish I could do that cool link thing, but I don't know how. You know where someone says "I saw that here" and you click on the "here" and go there. How cool is that! Anyway, I have finished one of these pieces of locker hooking and am now working on two more. I started on the red one and then remembered that I had a big trash bag full of bias cut fabric on rolls. I bought it years ago and made one crocheted rug out of it. I thought it would be perfect for this so I had to try it immediately. Actually, it was pretty amazing that I knew right where it was stored. The thing is though, I don't like that white rug canvas, so first I sprayed it with walnut ink. While I was at it, I sprayed the rest of the rug canvas on the red piece along with some sketch book pages. Some of the spray got on the hooked red fabric and it actually looked pretty cool, so that made me think it might be fun to spray the whole thing with something, but I haven't tried that yet. Maybe a light coat of that webbing spray or that stuff that makes it pearlized would be interesting. So anyway, I finally tried the bias cut rayon fabric and it works pretty well except it is cut 1" wide and that is not so easy to get through the mesh, especially on the edges where the mesh is folded over. Have you seen that tool that is called the Purple Thingy (or something like that). It is a useful thing to have around while locker hooking. All of this answers the question of what I was going to do today! I was thinking I would clean off my desk and pay some bills......

Pine Needle Basket

This is what I did yesterday. My friend Jo, gave a class on pine needle baskets. We had made one with her once before. As you can see, I didn't get finished! That is all right because I am going to try putting a row or two of human hair in this one. That sounds a little gory doesn't it. I don't know if I can do it, but I will give it a try.

A New Bag

Where has the week gone? This time last week, I was on my way to the Rice Fest, and I haven't posted since. Oh well. It has been a busy time. I did finish my L. Hooked bag that I made according to my friend Bobbie's directions. The one she sent me is nicer, but this was fun and I am already making another one to hold my spindle.

All the bright leaves are beginning to fall.

The Rice Fest 2010

I spent the weekend at the Rice Fest, a music festival in Fisher, Texas, a little more then an hour from where I live. The drive down was spectacular. The hills are alive with flame red and electric yellow trees, Sumac, Red Oak, Cedar Elm, "Lost" Maple, Cottonwood to name a few. The Sycamores were flashing in the breeze, leaves flipping from light to dark. In the fields were goats, llamas, alpacas and sheep and of course cattle, my favorite being the black ones with a white stripe around the middle. We call them the Oreo cows. The weather couldn't have been more beautiful. Saturday morning, we went to Wimberly and found a great guitar store and a yarn shop on an Alpaca farm outside of town. The music festival itself was the best they have had in years. We enjoyed everyone that played, but especially Jonathan Byrd, Tish Hinojosa, Tony Rice and Chuck Pyle. On Saturday, we were in the hall for ten hours! It was a great weekend but good to get home on Sunday.

Dye Experiments

On the left--the last of the Elderberry dye. Spent berries wrapped up in muslin and left in the sun. On the right--leaf prints.

Walking Away

The Face In the Window

L Is For Leaf--again

I am trying to finish things I have started and this is one of them. At least I think it is finished. I changed the "f" as it was bothering me. I was going to add some more dots or x's or the like, but I was afraid it would get too busy. I haven't decided what to do about the edges. I am inclined to leave them. As always, your feedback is  appreciated.

L Is For Leaf

I worked on this piece, made with the elderberry dyed silk and cotton, most of the weekend. Half of the time I really liked it and then toward the end of the weekend, not so much. I did finally acknowledge that I am not really happy with anything until I start taking it apart. I think they are calling that deconstructing. The piece doesn't work for me until I cut holes in it, unstitch it, cover things up etc. I believe I am like this across the board--in all media. In painting, I call it subtracting. So, on some level I know this, but I never really knew it. Now that I am acknowledging this, I can plan for it. Maybe? I am probably not done taking this one apart..........

If you are reading my blog, please know that I look forward to hearing from you.

Bad Hair Day

Thought you all might like a closer look at the Madam A.
doll having a bad hair day. But then she wasn't too happy upside down in the stuffed animal bin at Salvation Army!
She is holding one of her friends though. She couldn't leave without this little puppy!

Fun At The Thrift Store

Caregiving has been so frustrating here, I decided to treat myself to a trip to the thrift store while my Mom was with friends. I found this pink plastic cabinet of drawers, some stuffed animals for my dog, Tess, a red Chinese silk scarf and (can you believe it!) a vintage Madam Alexander doll. She was thrown in the bin with the stuffed animals. All these treasures for $2.00! The baby doll is having a bad hair day, but at least she has a dress.

Art Journals