Winding down for the holidays

Well, the grandkids' presents are in the mail, most of the Christmas cards are on their way, Cookies are ready to be dropped at various locations, reservations made for Christmas Day dinner... yes, for the first time ever, we are going out for Christmas dinner! The weather outside is frightful (windy, cold, but no rain/snow yet!)... and I'm ready to take a little break! I started knitting a new pattern yesterday for a triangle kerchief... slowly adding a new stitch to my repertoire (kbf to increase), and I have opened up a new website for wholesale buyers! I have a few new items I created:

This is the rope-wrap shibori I usually do in cool colors... I call this one 'Fire'.

This is the 'Bamboo' pattern in camel and black... I also have two other color combos for this one.

I'm hoping to get back to my 'latest' Art Quilt over the next few days... I haven't had time to work on it for awhile, and would really like to finish it up over the holidays!

So to all who read this, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, and may 2011 bring us all hope, peace of mind, joy, love and laughter!

Knitting update

I haven't posted much about my knitting projects lately, but I've been plugging along. The last project I worked on was a knitted scarf using circular needles. I had to overcome the feeling of awkwardness I experienced at first, and had a couple of occasions where I had to rip out rows because I forgot to turn the work! Guess it'll become more natural as I go along. At any rate, I am pleased with my progress, and thought I would share my latest:

I confess that I have no urge to plunge into more complex projects at this time. My reason for wanting to learn how to knit was simply to have 'handwork' to do when I am watching TV, and don't want anything I have to give a great deal of thought to. On the other hand, I love working with fiber, and find simple projects to be very satisfying, especially if I can end up with a usable item. So don't be looking for me to get into sweaters, sox, or hats any time soon!

First scarf done, next art quilt started

I finished my first knitting project today, and I'm very pleased with it. No, it's not perfect, but it looks good enough to wear, so I'm a happy camper! I learned how to cast-on, knit, purl, and cast-off, so that's a good first project. Here it is:




It is a little bulky, so my next project is going to be made with sock yarn, which is a smaller yarn. I'm planning to make a Baktus scarf ala Melody Johnson, who is a wonderful knitter and very generous about sharing her knowledge on knitting, along with a boatload of other wonderful creative talents, so if you haven't browsed her blog, take a moment to stop there... you won't be sorry!
On another note, I want to mention here that I have been a big fan of two other artists who are extremely talented in the fiber arts: Deb Lacativa and Jude Hill. I started creating Art and Landscape quilts just two years ago, and around that time is when I discovered the blogs of these two very talented women, who create 'slow cloth'. They aren't the only ones by far, but they are two who have captured my attention and caused me to look at fiber art from totally different perspectives... thank you both! Not that I have any intention of attempting to 'replicate' your work, because I know that would be a total disservice to you, but you have shown me a number of wonderful techniques that I hope to use in my next project. I started a piece this morning that incorporates my hand-dyed fabrics, and will be hand-stitched, which is a departure from what I have been doing this past two years. I am no stranger to hand sewing or embellishing, but have been using machine sewing and fusing as my basic techniques so far. Oh, and I think it was Jude who posted a link recently to Arlee , who has inspired me all over again to rededicate myself to getting back into embellishing in a big way. So without further ado, here is a sample of what I will be working on for much of the coming months:

I just finished basting the pieces to the foundation, so now I need to study it for awhile and start thinking about how I will proceed. I hope to incorporate a number of techniques, and also plan to use non-fiber components in the piece as well. I will post pix as I go a long, so check back!

Progress report - knitting

It's been awhile since I posted about my first stab at knitting , so I thought I would give you a progress report. I am very close to being done with my first scarf:

I started out just doing the garter stitch with the variegated yarn, but after awhile I decided I needed to practice the purl stitch as well. I did about 8 rows of purling, then started alternating between the two. At some point, I realized I was running low on the variegated yarn, so I decided to switch to the solid color and work backward with the stitch pattern I had created. So I did an equal amount of knit/purl rows, then back to 8 rows of purling, now I am doing the garter stitch until I have enough rows to equal the variegated section. To finish off, I will be putting fringe on either end using the opposite yarn...

Two things I discovered: the knit/purl section curls, which might not be too bad, since that section will be going around my neck; the other thing is, I really love knitting! I have been blocked for years, and I'm not sure what caused the block other than my previous attempts were always disasters because I couldn't get my tension right. Turns out, I was trying the 'Continental' method, which requires you to wrap the yarn over this finger and under that finger, and it just never worked. Also, it was suggested by my friend Wendy that I try wood needles, and I highly recommend them! They are very comfortable to use.

On another front, a member of the Quilters' Guild I belong to gave me some 'mystery fabric'... no idea what the fiber content is, but it has an interesting texture. Anyway, Pats wanted to know if I wanted to try dyeing the fabric, so yesterday I cut off a small section and used some dye to test how well it would take the dye. Here is the result:

I used Royal Blue and Deep Purple in small quantities, dyed using Low Water Immersion technique, and it came out great! It has a synthetic backing which didn't dye, but the front is great. I'm thinking it might be silk, although normally silk requires vinegar to activate the dyes, but whatever it is, I think I might have fun playing with it and using it in some art quilts for texture...

Winter!

I took some pictures yesterday of the snow in the yard...

Looking from the front door to the garage

Our neighbors' horse, Sarah, frolicking in the snow at sunrise

Another shot of the sunrise

Birds feeding outside my office window

We got at least 18-24 inches over a 24 hour period. then yesterday dawned and we had a gorgeous day of sunshine. Our Son and daughter-in-law drove in from Las Vegas, and got stuck in the snow at the entrance to our driveway last night! But my husband managed to pull their rental car out using a tow-strap, and by the time they leave on Thursday, I'm sure they will have no difficulty on the return trip.

On the creative front, I haven't had time to do much the past couple of weeks. After my last show in November, I needed to switch to housecleaning mode.... long overdue! But I have some dyeing orders to do soon, and I have been learning to knit, which I am enjoying as a pastime while in front of the TV. Once the kids have left, I plan to do some serious organizing in my studio, and got started on that yesterday. My fabric stash has been crammed into an old 5-drawer dresser for the past few years, but I donated the dresser to my hubby for his DVD collection, and emptied the drawers into a large cardboard box. But on Monday, I bought a bunch of plastic shoe boxes, and began sorting fabric by color and putting them into the boxes in an attempt to tidy up... now I just need to find room to store the boxes! It's always something...

On another front, my hubby bought me Photoshop Elements 8 for Christmas, and I have started to learn the basics of how to use it to edit my vast collection of photos! Can't wait to see all the neat things I can do with it, and I promise to share my results soon!

Learning a new craft

For any of you out there who have been knitting since birth, this may be a bit of a bore... forgive me! I have had a block over knitting as big as the blocks I have over putting in zippers or button holes... it just never seemed like I could get it right, no matter what I did! Enter the computer age, and youtube. My problem has always been that I never had a human to teach me how to knit, and looking at illustrations just didn't do it. But this time of year, I do like to work on warm things, so knitting has been one of those "gee... I wish I knew how!" things. Well, I have at least learned the garter stitch:

I took a couple of suggestions from my friend Wendy, who apparently was born with knitting needles in her tiny hands: first, I got wooden needles. I was attempting to learn using long, metal size 11 needles, and they are really cumbersome. I have been focusing on just the garter stitch for several days now, just picking up the needles and stitching a row here, a row there, then stopping if I get tired. I have no ambitions beyond getting completely comfortable with the motions for now. Then after Thanksgiving, Wendy is going to give me a hands-on lesson, which will introduce me to purling, among other things. I'm thrilled that I have gotten this far, and can't wait to go even further! Stay tuned for more breaking news!