Another parcel on its way to Warm Up America

Friend Mary's crochet sections and my knitted and Tunisian crochet sections are parceled, labeled, and off to Warm Up America today.

I think my knitting group work will be Izzy dolls next. I like work I can do while I chat.


Which doesn't include lace and a lot of counting and thinking.  Or stitching complicated bits of epp. I do that kind of thing on my own time!

WUA has some nice videos on YouTube, especially some for folks who want to know the needs, measurements, yarn type etc.

Two show and tells, well, three, really

So, pressed, done, all the basting threads tracked down and removed, all the templates retrieved and bagged ready for the next time I try this insanity, I mean artform, here's the Great Tumbling Block Caper

I still plan some stitching here and there. Sashiko, been wanting to do a bit more of that. And then, assemble it into a pillow.

And here are the current supplies of blanket sections for Warm up America, newly pressed and ready to leave once they've aired and cooled.

On the right, foreground, the work of Mary A, founder of both my knitting and crochet groups, she being a crocheter, on the left my items, knitted and Tunisian crochet.

So here we are.

Now I'm considering my next work. It might be that printing on silk I've been going on and on about. And I have those leaf shapes ready to applique to something.

Loose ends before the new year, mine, that is

I just heard about the snow forecast for Houston, really unusual for them, and it reminded me that I knitted a lot of pieces for use by Warm Up America, which is also based in Texas.  Right, that's been on my mind.  Enough for a small afghan already knitted.  And still sitting in the studio, waiting to go.

So I looked them up here and found that they currently have a need for knitted pieces for Hurricane Harvey survivors.  No sooner said than did.  Found the package of knitted parts, wrapped, trip to PO and now it's on its way to Carrollton, Texas, where they tell me volunteers will assemble the parts into what's needed. Arriving Monday.  If you check on that link, there are other current needs you might want to think about, too.

And while I'm at loose ends, I'm actually the opposite of those people who have many wips at any one time, can't tolerate it for long, where was I, yes,  right next to the Warm Up bag was the first of yet another pair of Aunt Maggie's slippers, which I now realize, has a destination. The yarn is from Shepherd Susie's flock, spun and hand dyed, and knits up a treat. And it now has a deadline.

All this is a way of clearing out a bit before I embark on my winter pursuits.  And my personal new year. The fall pursuit, of the Chinese ink calligraphy, is now a modest skill in my repertoire, and enabled me to do a fleet of cards and envelopes and artists' books for friends for the season.  I  learned what I needed, and now I'm looking at other artforms.

Marbling, which I did, and taught, years ago, is a re emerging interest, and I invested in a set of suitable inks.  That will be useful for art, for images on all sorts of surfaces, including wood.

Which brings me to my next adventure, whittling.  I have done a small amount of this, when I was a miniaturist, creating cabriole legs from solid blogs of balsa wood, for furniture.  But I fancy collecting fallen wild cherry branches from around here, seasoned and dry, and use them for carving with an xacto blade.  And possibly marbling, we'll see.  Always fancied carving myself a spoon, for some reason.  Or other useful objects. I'm aware that cherry is a tricky wood wrt food, though, cyanide, you know. It's why you don't give it to little birds for perches.  Some other wood probably better for a spoon.

But first I have to study a couple of books written for kids, on wood carving and whittling.  I always go first to kids' texts, because they take nothing for granted, and with an adult learner what you take for granted is often what does you in.

So here's to a good winter of content and making stuff. I should stop and give a shoutout to  Cathy Cawley, long gone on her adventures, and not now in touch, a wonderful person I used to work with.  She always liked to have a project for the summer, and I've taken on that great notion. I wonder if she still does it?  If not, she can consider it safely delegated.

Speaking of seasons, I was nabbed to be a presenter at next March's Maker's Day at the library where I had my artist books.  They're hoping for an artist book make and take, so I'll see what's easy enough for all ages, and doable in one session.  I can think back to my Artist in Residence stint last spring, where I did a different artist book every week, and see what went down well.

It's all go around here, even when I mean to just sit with my hands folded.

Experiments in weaving and blanket sections

Hard to write happy little blogposts these days; the anxiety and consequent activism always with me, but I won't bore you with all the actions and petitions, and encouraging, and signing and that. Just assume it's happening.  Local actions, too, turning friends on to helping the food pantry, that kind of thing.

However, some good stuff in art is also happening.  Some sections for my WarmUp America blanket offerings, well, they're activism, too, come to think of it.  

But anyway here are the first few, together with the cardboard template I cut to make sizing simpler.  And I'm knitting diagonally for the same reason.  

A friend stopped over, saw the sections, and threatens to bring over a large stash from her house once she's tidied up enough to get at it, because I can Use It Up!  I'm guessing that the blanket sections need to be machine washable, so I'm using my handspun for other projects, and donated stash for the sections.

Also I've been looking at some cool ideas for shaped weaving.  

Here's a little experiment with triangular freeform weaving on my potholder loom, small enough to mess about with and try out. I'm using my handspun for this. It's not true tri weaving (for that you need nails or notches on three sides) but it is a single warp yarn which becomes the weft too. That's the interesting part.  

And of course, since there are no notches on the hypotenuse, the weaving has to be freeform, not a solid triangle.  You work differently with a real tri loom, one of which I will probably make. 

With this one, you have a lot of threads packed into the corner but spread out across the hypotenuse, and I'm using the concept to push them about and try out different ways of seeing them. I will probably go in with a different thread, too, and work in the spaces.  This could be fun.  This picture is just the first arrangement, done more thread pushing since then.  More to weave to finish this triangle.  And it's just a motif idea that might work into other projects.  And I will loop each end over the next as a finishing method when it comes off the loom.

You can get or make real tri looms as big as 7 feet, but I doubt if I'll go that big..I will make at least one, though, once I get organized into correctly spacing the notches on the hypotenuse -- have to be the same number of notches or nails as on the other sides. Usually you go for the same spacing between notches or nails, which will be the same number if you're working a square or rectangular shape. Here it can't be the same spacing, in order to have the same number.

If there are short sides, it not being an equilateral triangle, it's not a very obvious bit of math. Fun to try, though. And it's a very different approach to weaving, since you continually feed off a ball of yarn, no bobbins or butterflies to fuss with.

I've also been seeing ideas for looms cut into the shape of pieces of garments, like pattern blocks, only notched ready to weave. I really fancy weaving myself a vest, using my handspun. Lined with silk or linen, could be very nice. But that's for another day.  Only challenge is cutting the cardboard pieces to the correct size. The actual notching and weaving not so complex.

So that's where art is at the moment. Exhibiting in April and May through July, not fiberarts, other pieces.  Artist in Residence stint in April. Quite a bit happening.