ProjectArt

 I tried dyeing some sock yarn with left over Procion and yellow food color left over from the Easter eggs. The purple Procion resulted in a dull blue on the wool yarn, but when I added some fuchsia I got a lovely dark purple. The fuchsia and yellow produced a bright orange; traffic cone orange in fact. Not the color I wanted in my socks, but I did enjoy its brilliance. I overdyed with a little blue and got a lovely tangy color that I am afraid this photo does not do justice to. The other skein has the original orange and blue, but then ovedyed with fuchsia in one part and then a mix of blue and orange to mute the overall color. The result was a nice autumn foliage blend; again this photo does it no credit.

I wound the yarn into long skeins - clear across the room so that I would get broad stripes and not a blotchy look in the final sock.

Then, because its not over til its knitted; I immediately started a sock. The stripes were about the width I wanted, but the colors are a little dark. Also there is not enough yarn for a complete sock; not even one I think.

My LYS did not have size 1 metal double points so I purchased this needle and tried Magic Loop; easy to do as it turns out, but I do like double points and the little tent shape they make as you knit!

It is so much fun to dye, but it takes so long to knit! 

The two newest members of the family; Gaia and Ganesha. These two sweet Lop bunnies were given to us by a friend. They are settling in and going to work on our overgrown yard.

Cascarones! We had about 500 total this year! I dyed them with left over procion dyes for the most part. With a little vinegar they dyed very well. Very good color with fuchsia and a mixed purple. Turquoise was bright but easily scraped off; more research is needed to know if it was the color itself or that particular vinegar-dye ratio.

I finished my two week soundboard quilt residency. The students were fifth graders and the theme was Colonial America. It was very difficult working with the soundboard fabric. There was no time to sew it, and it was hard to iron so fusible web didn’t work well. Elmer’s didn’t stick to it. We finally used hot glue (the safer lower temperature kind) and that worked OK. Each quilt is 45 inches tall. After spring break we will get them up on the walls.

Great school; very accomodating teachers and well behaved kids!

Drop spindles with Grades 5 to 7 at the Monroe Art Day. We didn’t have any trouble making the spindles (last year this was more difficult). Doweling must have gotten a little smaller. All of the kids made plyed commercial yarn successfully and quite a few made yarn from prepared fleece. A bit lumpy and thick, but that is more authentically Salish after all. I had an excellent teen volunteer helper!

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This is the project that the primary students completed. Northwest Coast Art made from construction paper.

I have been trying to figure out how to make eyes for the dragon; worrying about this has made it hard to keep working on the project. But last week I had a lucky find; blobs of glass that fall when glass blowers are making their vases and such and snip the ends off. I found two that more or less match and are the correct size.

This view shows the first coat of paint on the horns and a little of the texture that I am achieving with dryer lint. The old tie-dye T-shirt is poking through a bit. I found mixing a little pottery plaster into the watercolor paint made the paint completely opaque and is very hard when dry. Only problem is that it sets so quickly. Painting with wet plaster is one of the oldest art techniques around, so I am deriving some satisfaction from including this technique. Also cheap, and lying around the house. I am including as few purchased items as possible; so far only the jug of white glue (about $30.00)

Friday’s art project with third graders. These two classes did the very best job of making leaf bowls of any class I have worked with. The difference: the teachers. Two very strong teachers and a well prepared class.

No more knitting! (well not much anyway). Yesterday I made turtles with four classes of kindergarten and first graders. The kids did a great job and the turtles are cute!

Well, this was as far as I got with my second hat (I did finish my squid hat during the Olympics time frame, but I had already started it). I did work hard on knitting, but I still jumped from project to project a bit as I started spinning for the armwarmers, but then abandoned that project and took up with the hat. On Saturday I had to spin more yarn for it, which I ended up knitting right from the bobbin on the wheel. (the sky did not fall in) and that portion of my knitting is a little more “rustic”. But it still looks nice and has the texture I was aiming for. It has a nice stripe.

I did some more spinning today; another over-twisted skein of Navajo ply mohair yarn.

Why is the skein of yarn so much more beautiful than the knitted object?  This quandary has driven my knitting, my yarn purchases and my recent adventures in spinning. A beautiful hank of yarn does not a beautiful garment make.

Today’s spinning; merino carded with Black Welsh and gray Coopworth. I used colored merino, primarily red. My goal: to make a yarn that would pair nicely with the green yarn I had made previously. The two yarns have the Welsh, Coopworth, and Navy merino in common. The green yarn was two-ply; this red yarn is Navajo plied. I started knitting the green two-ply yarn; this will be the ultimate test. It has the speckled look typical of plied yarn. Too speckled for color work? Tomorrow I will add the red and we will see.

Eunny addresses the problem of variegated yarn in her blog. Small variations of color, imperfections if you will, often enhance the finished product and make the color seem all the brighter. Too much variation, though, gives a chaotic final result. I choose my colors very carefully, and find that they often fall right into a formulaic color scheme; it works, but is too often lifeless. I go right up to the edge of a perfect color system; value, hue and intensity perfect, warm to cool, 10% accent color and so forth, but if I find myself too close I add one thing that doesn’t seem to fit at first glance. One imperfection or unexpected addition will bring the whole thing alive.

I guess I am one of those unfortunate people that “are not cut out for self-improvement” What am I talking about? The Knitting Olympics of course! I hadn’t even started. But all is not lost; today I DID start. My original goal was to spin the yarn on my drop spindle (I need to get up to speed on the hand spindle as I am teaching a Salish spinning residency next month) and then knit some arm warmers of my own design in two or three colors. I am using colored merino, soy silk, and baby camel. No sooner did I break out my trusty spindle than I remembered how hard it is to spin soy silk on a drop spindle (beyond hard, actually). I knew this, but had forgotten in my Olympic enthusiasm. I spun the yarn on my wheel. Tomorrow I will ply it (two-ply or Navajo?) and drop spindle some ramie and Coopworth for my class.

 of course! I hadn’t even started. But all is not lost; today I DID start. My original goal was to spin the yarn on my drop spindle (I need to get up to speed on the hand spindle as I am teaching a Salish spinning residency next month) and then knit some arm warmers of my own design in two or three colors. I am using colored merino, soy silk, and baby camel. No sooner did I break out my trusty spindle than I remembered how hard it is to spin soy silk on a drop spindle (beyond hard, actually). I knew this, but had forgotten in my Olympic enthusiasm. I spun the yarn on my wheel. Tomorrow I will ply it (two-ply or Navajo?) and drop spindle some ramie and Coopworth for my class. of course! I hadn’t even started. But all is not lost; today I DID start. My original goal was to spin the yarn on my drop spindle (I need to get up to speed on the hand spindle as I am teaching a Salish spinning residency next month) and then knit some arm warmers of my own design in two or three colors. I am using colored merino, soy silk, and baby camel. No sooner did I break out my trusty spindle than I remembered how hard it is to spin soy silk on a drop spindle (beyond hard, actually). I knew this, but had forgotten in my Olympic enthusiasm. I spun the yarn on my wheel. Tomorrow I will ply it (two-ply or Navajo?) and drop spindle some ramie and Coopworth for my class. of course! I hadn’t even started. But all is not lost; today I DID start. My original goal was to spin the yarn on my drop spindle (I need to get up to speed on the hand spindle as I am teaching a Salish spinning residency next month) and then knit some arm warmers of my own design in two or three colors. I am using colored merino, soy silk, and baby camel. No sooner did I break out my trusty spindle than I remembered how hard it is to spin soy silk on a drop spindle (beyond hard, actually). I knew this, but had forgotten in my Olympic enthusiasm. I spun the yarn on my wheel. Tomorrow I will ply it (two-ply or Navajo?) and drop spindle some ramie and Coopworth for my class. of course! I hadn’t even started. But all is not lost; today I DID start. My original goal was to spin the yarn on my drop spindle (I need to get up to speed on the hand spindle as I am teaching a Salish spinning residency next month) and then knit some arm warmers of my own design in two or three colors. I am using colored merino, soy silk, and baby camel. No sooner did I break out my trusty spindle than I remembered how hard it is to spin soy silk on a drop spindle (beyond hard, actually). I knew this, but had forgotten in my Olympic enthusiasm. I spun the yarn on my wheel. Tomorrow I will ply it (two-ply or Navajo?) and drop spindle some ramie and Coopworth for my class.

Here is the “Peacock” journal page. Originally, I planned on pasting in a dyed silk or velvet scrap as blues and greens are so vivid and beautiful in Procion. But when it came down to it, I grappled head to head with the Muse of Watercolor and emerged with this result. I bought some new iridescent and pearlescent watercolors (buying gorgeous new art supplies is always a good tactic to get me into the studio, albeit one with an obvious limit). Still, even with the most fabulous art materials one cannot replicate the extreme iridescence of a peacock feathers.

As it happens, I am currently reading “Art and Fear” by David Bayles and Ted Orlando, and here is what they have to say about perfection; “…the belief persists among some artists (and lots of ex-artists) that doing art means doing things flawlessly”. In fact, our imperfections and failings are our guides and most valued teachers; “the seed for your next art work lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece”. Well, if we learn from our mistakes, I tackled the right subject; art is hard pressed to make a peacock more perfect than the peacock itself. 

Luckily, this is the last entry so the journal bursted with peacock art of every sort. The other artists had each approached the project in their own way; and each image or written piece had a separate merit. I had several collages of photographic images, as well as abstract compositions of saturated color. The freedom of Sumi-e brushwork is very impressive. I opted for art deco meets Audubon; and grappled with my perennial problem of where to stop with the detail. Add too much and approach a tight and fussy photorealism that is compensating for true “art”. Of course, this piece did not begin to achieve what I have pictured in my head. But, according to Bayles and Orlando, this is as it should be.