Looking for ideas part 2 (A to Z challenge... and a few words about being blocked...

I forgot to post the A to Z list, it's down below!

At what point does an artist know what to draw, paint, weave, knit, sculpt, etc.?
Sometimes you just know, and when that happens, the process seems to flow.

When it doesn't, it's an artist block.
It's still good to keep trying... fake it til you make it.

I had one of my small looms, a new-to-me Northfield Jori loom, in my lap and started weaving some little squares, and decided to dovetail the edges. That was a mental exercise. I'm not what I'll do after that. So many possibilities... but I'm not sure which one.

Last February, I had an idea, and the idea started from "maybe a Tardis" to what I sent to the Tapestry Unlimited show, shown on this blog entry (you gotta click this to see it!). I was walking back from the yarn store in Austin, and knew that I needed to go back for a certain yarn, because it would be good for a starry night sky.

Another time, there was a picture of an owl in my loom from several months or more prior, and one day I decide to weave it with some words:

It was a process, it flowed, it fed my soul while I worked on it. I love words, though weaving them is sloooow.  Sarah Swett has a way with words, both printed, and woven... her woven words are fabulous!

I started doing an alphabet sampler, I called it XYZ and I put it aside for some time, and when I pulled it out, it was ruined... maybe mice got to it, but I may see if I can do something with it, perhaps mount it on another piece, and go from there..find some way to secure the loose ends.

We'll see how this goes..photo another time if I  still have the piece! 

Here is the list of things I did for the A to Z project:

A: Abstract
B & C: Bluebonnets in a Can
D: Dancer
E: Evan
F: Feet
G: Gary
H: Harrison
I: Indy
J: Jimbo & the Rev
K: Kittens
L: Laborador (Daisy) (and Reuven)
N & O: Needlework Owl
R: Reuven (with Daisy under "L")

So I've got A through L, N, O and R... missing M, P, Q, S through Z... eleven more.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking for ideas: 29 Faces

Yesterday, I was going through my blog to copy the photos over to my Flickr account so we have them in one place. Patchworkgirl57 is my username. Most photos are designated family & friends, so if you're one of the above, leave a comment.

While going through the comments, I found the 29 faces challenge from May of 2012, and the A to Z challenge, but I didn't finish either, so why not make that the project for the rest of this month or year? I thought I wanted to do 29 faces last month, but no luck there.

Here's the list of faces that I did. The list may not be complete:

May 7: Jessica (art group model)
May 9: Indian Blanket Face
May 13: Doodle face: imaginary face, white ink/black paper
May 14: 3 portrait drawings of our art group model
May 17: Imaginary face in ink from this tutorial
May 18: oil pastel face, imaginary
May 20: Nannie (ink)
May 21: Donna Summer (ink)
May 23: Donna Summer (watercolor)
May 23: Jimbo (ink)
May 27: wacky watercolor
May 27: orange haired imaginary face, elegant lady
May 29: 3 pictures of Frida Kahlo
May 29: imaginary guy
May 30: self portrait

Doodle face:  white imaginary face on black paper

I found 19 photos from that other blog.. they're not necessarily in order... so 10 more!



  




 

  



 

    

  




I'll post about the A to Z challenge in another blog, another day.  

29 Faces

4 years ago in September, I did close to 29 faces. I'm going to try doing it again this year.

Here's the link to the challenge blog if you'd like to join:
http://29faces.blogspot.com/

these are some of my faces I did in 2012, and I posted a few here as well. This is one of my favorites:

I'll try to get those promised photos of my knitting & needlepoint today!

knitting & needlepoint & some weaving, too...

I thought I posted something about my latest knitting obses...project. It's this project here, but I don't have updated photos at the moment. I have a mystery yarn that I still have not found out what kind of yarn it is, but sometime in the next couple of weeks, I hope to make it to a yarn store to either find out what it might be, or find something it's compatible with.

I went through a bit of confusion with this yarn: I saw it on eBay: it was listed as a "bulky" wool yarn, but it's not much thicker than Aran or Chunky, closer to worsted weight... it also doesn't seem like 100% wool: when doing a burn test, it smells like wool, but beads up like acrylic in the end, so I think it's a wool-acrylic blend...it's very soft.

I put it aside & it kept popping up. I thought about giving it away or bringing it to the thrift store..finally, one day I put it in one of my boxes & didn't see it for a while... a couple of weeks ago, I found a pattern that I thought it would be perfect for, but I don't think I have enough to make that whole shawl. I don't have a McMorran balance to check the yardage of the yarn..one day I'll get another one. I think this shawl would be rather nice in this yarn.

Anyway, I started knitting the shawl and decided to try a different yarn with the pattern until I can find more yarn to go with the other yarn: Red Heart "With Love" starting in Mango, and when I get to the hearts section, I'll switch over to the Fruit Punch color. Hopefully it'll be an easy care yarn.

It's a good project to work on while watching shows: lately I've been watching Big Bang Theory, but I'm about to watch The Addams Family movie, so I'll get a bit more done.

I've also been doing needlepoint. I have a small turtle project with different stitches that I keep in my back pack, and also have been working on another small project with 2 apples, a few green leaves & a yellow background. I'm still unsure about the yellow background, but I may jazz up the colors for it.

I'm practicing on the smaller pieces in preparation for a Unicorn in Captivity canvas I found on eBay. It's nice... while I'm practicing, I'm deciding on threads/colors for it. I'd like something sparkly for the dark blue background & will figure that out soon.

I also have a new-to-me Northfield Jori Jr loom... but haven't decided what to weave on it. I did a small piece on one of my copper looms using all the yarns from a kit... and forgot to measure the lengths of the strands. Oops. Here's that piece:

I need more practice weaving... this is lumpy, lumpy... also I was playing with dovetailing. I don't know if blocking will fix things: tapestry weaving likes to decide its' shape, which depends on the skill of the weaver!

Next piece, I may try more squares & rectangles, or may do some curvy pieces & circles.

I'll post photos of the shawls & apple & turtle pieces next time. Maybe the apples will be done! I'm done stitching the apples, need to finish the leaves & the background. I can only stitch needlepoint during the day when the lighting is better.

I found a video that shows how to block needlepoint... I don't have money to send my pieces to finishers, so I'll learn how to do it myself. I have a piece that my mom did & may take it to a finisher. I don't know yet; it depends on how my finish work turns out..

U/U Tapestry update.

The tapestry was mailed a few weeks ago. I forgot to update that I did some more work on the tapestry: I didn't like the way the ukulele came out, so I wove another and attached it to the tapestry:

The photo of the tiny uke above was taken on top of my ukulele case!

Here's the completed tapestry:

Untitled/Unjuried and almost Unplanned tapestry

I recently completed my piece for the ATA Untitled/Unjuried show that will be held in Minneapolis this summer. It took me about a week to weave, several months to hem & haw about & I finally got closer to an idea for what composition I would weave when we were in Austin at the end of February.  At first, it was going to be based on Starry Night with a Tardis, and then I decided I wanted to put something musically related and thought "hmm, one of the 3 musicans (Picasso)"? So that's what i've got. The piece is titled "One of the 3 musicians and a ukulele". Maybe the word "unplanned" should be in it somewhere... I'm not sure. I started out with this idea:

Then decided to eliminate the Tardis & the Musician... as I wove, I decided to put the musician in after all, and wove it:

Tomorrow, I'll mail it.

I used different yarns & some silk hankie fiber. Wool, wool-silk, and even a wool blend that had some acrylic in it. I made an exception for this piece because I saw the yarn & thought it would be great for the squiggles. I'm happiest with how the sky came out in this entire piece. Eventually, maybe I'll do better with musical instruments, if I decide to weave them again...

I re-warped half of the loom right away, this time with cotton seine twine. We'll see how I like it, but my first love is wool. Sarah Swett feels the same way and discussed it in this blog entry. I think I decided that I like wool warp from the early days when I was playing with Navajo weaving.

I have another project coming up that I'm kind of excited about, a fake journal. Roz Stendahl started it.  I haven't decided what I'm going to do in my fake journal, we'll see... be another person or be in a different time or dimension or WHAT? Older? Younger? Dunno... We'll see. I'll decide on Thursday... I picked up a few books from the thrift store to take apart to put new paper in... OR I might get an art journal, perhaps the Strathmore mixed media book... or both. 

Still being creative!

It's been a LONG time since I posted. Hopefully people will just get notified in email that I have!

I have been knitting & weaving, and maybe I've posted a thing or two on my Ravelry page. Check patchworkgirl's projects there if you wanna see.  I guess I just don't love taking pictures, or rather, uploading them, cropping, and re-sizing them once I've taken them.

The next couple of weeks will be devoted to getting a piece ready for the Untitled/Unjuried show in Milwaukee... or maybe not. I want to get the "Harrison" tapestry finished first so that I can use that loom. I've got other looms. I want to use this loom.

3 letters to go...

This past weekend, we went to Austin for Jugglefest. I always make sure to go to Hill Country Weavers when I'm down there. It's about 15 minutes walking distance from the Gym where Jugglefest was held at theTexas School for the Deaf ...I went 4 times last weekend: Saturday, once before & after lunch & again on Sunday morning & before we headed out of town. 

The last trip was because I had an idea for a specific project for some yarn I saw there... while walking back to Jugglefest, I passed an artist that had some pretty cool colored drawings. One of them was of the 11th doctor, and I would have bought it except I was not sure which doctor is my son's favorite doctor. I got her card with web info.

As i was walking, I thought "hmm, maybe I should get back into practice doing portraits." then I thought, "or maybe try doing a part of a portrait for a tapestry, but I don't know how well I'd be able to do that, and with so little time, trying a new technique? Um. No. I then thought that I should do that Tardis based tapestry that I've been wanting to do and enter it in U/U. Then I realized I should have bought tthe yarn that had the most yellow in it rather than the green based one and that's why I decided to go back so that I could get it.

Hopefully the letters are visible.

A: this is a juggling bag that I bought from Juggling Thingies for small yarn projects. John Nord (the proprietor) pretended to be horrified by the idea! 

B is the last yarn I went back to get with the tapestry project in mind..

C is a yarn I bought just because I like it (same type as B, different color).

D & F are ruffle scarf yarns by Trendsetter called Flamenco. I still haven't quite figured out how to use it except for rolling the yarn stretched out (F) onto a piece of cardboard to hopefully make it easy to work with. I don't know if I will knit with it or crochet with it.

E is a cotton "shoelace" yarn that is so soft that I am using to make an Amanda hat.

Stuff for sale: Rug hooking kit, Books & Yarn!

Hi! I have the following for sale... clearing stuff out to make more space... I'm in the US, in north Texas... PM me with location info so I can figure out your shipping!

Rug Hooking kit:

1: I have a burlap kit called “Marie’s Sampler” that I started several years ago… it comes with the wool already cut, 1/8th of an inch wide strips…burlap with the design stamped, 19”x24”, actual design is smaller… instructions, paper guide & a photo… if I can find it, I can include the hook, which has a W or M on it… $45 obo, here are two photos of the kit:

2. Books:

Dreaming in Color by Kaffe Fassett, hard cover, good condition, dustjacket was damaged when I got it… $26
Icelandic Patterns in Needlepoint by Jona Sparey, $10
Raw Art Journalling: $9
Ikat textiles of India: $7.50
Knitter's Stash: $3
Twenty Easy Machine-Made Rugs Jackie Dodson $2
The Tassels Book $3
Small Woven Tapestries by Mary Rhodes, $8

3. Yarn:
Various skeins of Briggs & Little yarn, $3 per skein (approximately half price):

Heritage, worsted, 2 ply, 100% wool, green heather, red heather, royal blue, jade, blue heather, dark grey & evergreen...the 2nd photo has evergreen & dark grey and is actually darker and richer in person. 10 skeins dark grey, 2 skeins evergreen, 1 skein of the rest.

Tuffy (80% wool, 20% nylon),  oxford (1), denim (1), green heather (2), green mix (2), granite (2)

Jessica

The Hope Of Kntting & Weaving adventures...

I've been working on and off on Evan's cat rug... it's a locker hooking project... hopefully it will be ready for him to take when he moves... I don't know if he will want it as a pillow or a wall hanging... we will see! I found the printed canvas on ebay & it's supposed to be a fabric needlepoint, but I decided to locker hook it instead...

I've also been coloring a bit & reading too many messages about coloring/coloring books/coloring tools and Reuven has been coloring as well...he's been working on one picture since Evan's graduation night (on May 29th) and I've just been jumping around between projects/wannados... coloring has gotten pretty popular. Coloring takes the pressure off feeling that I have to come up with my own ideas... eventually I will....the rain we had has caused Texas to "grow some creeks, fill some lakes" and I love water, so maybe I'll get to do some water compositions...

I've also been going through patterns for making a shawl since last week I got to go to Hill Country Weavers in Austin and bought some yarn... I don't know what the Jupiter Farm "Zooey" is going to be. but the Classic Elite "Cricket" in pumpkin is going to be Christie Pruitt's Inspiration Capelet:

This is the yarn color:

These may be the beads I use... I may keep looking, but 1/0 beads seem to be hard to find..

I also may do a different (but somewhat similar) stitch pattern for the capelet, will swatch & see if I can make the numbers work!

I worked a little on my Color Affection (aka Color Insanity) shawl, but I don't love it & it seems to be going really slowly when I do pick it up... according to my project page, I started this almost 3 years ago.June 1, 2015... almost 3 years later, I'm playing with this pattern again.. I do pick it up every so often. I'm not in love with it, partly because I don't like the long points, so I've been dropping some of the increases, and hope to somehow make the back come out longer if I ever actually finish this as a shawl...  this project is further along than the Ravelry photo shows... I now have the project on a 50" needle, so maybe I can take a picture soon to show an update... it's not that bad, just... tedious.  The colors are cool, though! Here is the photo I took almost 3 years ago:... there's a fair bit more donesince the photo and one additional color, a sparkly gold.. the sparkles are very subtle...

I have a couple of other things that I'd like to finish, like the Beauty & The Beads shawl... I've done a lot more on this project since this photo, it has about 1,000 stitches...to get a decent photo, I'll need to put it it on at least one other needle so that I can stretch it out :

I get bitten by the shawl bug when the threat of cold weather lets up! :)

One other project I'm looking forward to is this one:

Louisa Harding's Quite Contrary Capelet

I'm gathering the yarns for it... the yarn has been discontinued, but people are selling it online... if they weren't, I'd find other yarns, but the called for yarn is SPARKLY and that is going to be fun!

The kitten in the photo above is Peppurr... she's about 3 now and had kittens a year ago... (she's spayed now!) and is pretty sweet... she has the prettiest green eyes.  We kept her 3 kittens..

I'm working with a tapestry weaving mentor online & when she gets back from her trip, we'll work on circles...

Locker hooking

I've been putting some locker hooking ideas together... I want to do some patterns that are already painting/printed on canvas, one of a duck that I've had for a couple of years or so... I'm doing the duck a little differently than the design on the canvas... I may try putting in some lettering along the lines of protecting wildlife. Here's the beginning of that canvas... I've made more progress on it since I've started, but I haven't taken any new photos. I think I got this canvas from one of the local thrift stores. If it's what I'm thinking of, it came with some strips and an aluminum locker hook, but that may another project I'm thinking of.

I figured out a way to do these points with a continuous strand of fiber. I'm using Briggs & Little country roving (which can be found on my website and by clicking on "country roving"). I'm using 6 strands of the fiber instead of the 5 that it comes with because it fits the holes best that way. This canvas is 3.3 holes to the inch.

I'm showing the back to show how I keep the roving going continuously.

The way I do it is to work the shape back and forth and the straight edge is the last loop in each shape... when I get to the top of the shape, I work back to the bottom of the section, keeping the loops oriented correctly and then do another shape... 

I could also do each shape individulally without the single column at the straight edge and cut the yarn, but that would be a lot of weaving in (which could be done as you go OR a bunch at a time. Working line by line would probably give a similar effect of the piece I'll show below...but then I would have to have several pieces of roving in progress for each point... which might not be so bad!   

This morning, I pulled out a "swatch" that I did several years ago using carded batts turned into thick and thin roving... I did a larger piece that was probably lost in our house fire in 2009... this piece was in our storage space:

It isn't finshed, probably 2 or 3 rows to go... the canvas is distorted and somewhat compressed...the fiber is probably too thick for it to lay flat, though blocking it may help... here is a closeup and you can see that the canvas holes are no longer properly square:

Here's the back:

Yes, I know.... messy messy... if I finish this piece I'll weave the ends in... it still won't be a 2 sided piece because you can still see the canvas peeking through in between rows.. not to mention the "jumps":

I don't remember the details about the fiber. I may have dyed some of it, but I don't think so...

More progress on the Knit, Swirl cowl

Progress photo as of yesterday. I've knit another welt or two since then!

I'm not sure if I want to stick with just this color order or mix them up and go easy on the pink... maybe handpaint a couple of skeins so I can have some green and reds...

I'm also working on some ideas for new tapestries. What I'd like is to fix up some copper pieces that I have so that it'll be a small loom, but I can roll the warp instead of having this big tall thing. I tried warping my inkle loom, but it doesn't hold the warp tightly at all... I don't know if it would help to somehow turn it into a closed loom. Gary doesn't think that using copper pipe set up similar to an inkle loom would hold the warp tight enough using a closed inkle loom design. I'm not sure why not, since lots of people use copper pipe for rectangular tapestry looms.

What I'd really like is something that would allow me to roll the warp and cut a piece off as I go and then re-tie the warp...  and allow pieces about 12" wide (for starters)... drawing board mode ON here!

Coat of Many Colors Swatch

This is the beginning of my Coat of Many Colors Cowl swatch... I did this last night while watching Heartland... I made a couple of mistakes but except for the one time when I knit a whole round without switching to the other needle, I didn't tink or frog at all...

I should be getting back to tapestry weaving soon... I may be doing a show at the librarry next year...