Rambling Warps

Thoughts about art

The last few days I've been thinking about where I want to go with my art, what do I want to do with it, etc... but I think it's kind of too soon for that: I need practice & I need to set aside a few months to revive what I learned in college in the 70s and early 80s... plan on making bad art, lots of mistakes, icky stuff... :)

I have been wanting to do a painting or color drawing for my Cat Looking Out Window pattern for rug hooking. I tried a couple of colored pencil drawings of the design and I don't think they look very good. I'll take some pictures to post here.

The colored pencil exercises that I did from the Colored Pencil workbook (#1) by Bernard Poulin (out of print, but he has other books in print) didn't come out too badly, but I need lots of practice.

SO I'll plan on practicing each day: the plan is to do one thing (drawing, colored pencil drawing, painting, whatever) each day & also do some drawing exercises.

I won't stop knitting or weaving...and I may punch hook the Cat Looking Out Window design...

Earlier this week, I got a new project to do for Hunt Valley Cashmere: this time it is 2 ply and the pattern is an easy lace scarf. It should be ready before Stitches in the fall...

Also, I'm still working on the Tapestry bag on a box project, but had to back up and do some practice techniques, so I threw some warp yarn onto my Paperback loom and am doing some of Project 2 in Nancy Harvey's book: the shading exercises and the circle... with that, I'll be able to go back to the tapestry bag on a box design.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Maybe I'll post some photos this weekend...

Oops!

I didn't realize it's been over a week since my last post... oops. Sorry about that, will try to post more often! I did try posting yesterday, but Movable Type wouldn't load... at least it works now!

There are 7 practice lessons with 2 or 3 drawings each in my Colored Pencil techniques workbook... I'm up to 4 or 5 now and will go through them again. I thought I was having some trouble with the stipling technique, but when I showed Micah the page that had the orange on it, he said it was making him hungry, LOL. I'll try to post some pictures of the exercises in the next day or two!

On Monday, I received a large order from my yarn supplier...I shipped out most of the orders that were pending and got a new pattern booklet, plus I looked through my Patons pattern page and realized that a booklet I have that y'all might like is not on the site... I'll try to get the booklets on the website today. I don't want to spend a lot of time with this particular page since we're working on setting up a shopping cart, but I'll definitely put these two new ones up. One is called "Wrap it Up" and has several great poncho patterns, including a couple for mom & daughters...the other is called Luxury Knits and has a wonderful cabled sweater on the front.

Gary has been busy in the shop lately: he's catching up on orders, and should be able to start building the stock back up soon so that we can just pack things as orders come in, except for the Big Sticks and Bronto Loom inkles, as those are definitely special order items.

Reuven is pretty much all done with his potty training, I am so thrilled! The other day, we had decided we would buy him some underwear...when we were in the store, he informed me that he had to go to the bathroom... we went and I helped him pull his diaper down and then went to look at the underpants. We showed him 3 different pairs: Sponge Bob Square Pants, Builder Bob & one other (I think it was Tigger from Winnie the Pooh)... he VERY emphatically chose Builder Bob (sorry Wendy! I was hoping for Sponge Bob...oh well, boys will be boys...)

Reuven also loves his Raggedy Andy... poor guy's outfit is missing, though, so maybe I'll knit him a pair of short alls or something... Reuven takes him into the bath though, so maybe I shouldn't... at our next trip to Walmart, I ought to see if they have any Raggedy Anns or larger versions of Raggedy Andy... this guy is only about 10 or 12 inches tall. We've had this Andy for about 8 years: Evan picked him out over Raggedy Ann and Reuven is the first one to bond with him.

I made a little bit of progress with my sock and am happy enough with the toe. I do wish it were a little bit rounder, though. This sock should fit fine. I have to admit that I find the knitting of the instep to be rather boring, but I guess it's good to have a mindless project in progress. I think I need to get my hands on some 3mm addi turbos so that I can do another couple of pairs of socks in this size.

The other day, I picked up 2 UFOs... I decided I wanted to do a bit of tapestry weaving practice, and my giant paperback loom (the frame one) is tied up with a warp and I remembered that I had a Tapestry Bag on a Box that I had started back in 1998, so I pulled it out of the closet, did a little repair work on the slots so that I don't lose the warp & also did a twining row at the top... then I went hunting through my stash for some wosted weight singles (mostly Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride) and am now trying to decide if I should just weave the colors and shapes randomly using a mostly mountain wave type of design or if I should draw somethign out ahead of time... this project was designed by Sarah Swett (who has some WONDERFUL tapestries on this website) featured in Spin-Off Winter 1997. The issue has been out of print for a long time, but you can probably call Interweave Press to order copies... one of Sarah's bags is shown in the 1998 gallery...and while you're there, take a look at the Schacht commission in the 2003 gallery... what gorgeous work!

My other revived UFO is a vest I started last summer... I picked it up on Monday, started working on the short rows for the 2nd shoulder and it's a little more interesting than the socks...so I now have a mindless project in progress (the socks), a knitting project that I can work on and still be able to hold a conversation and a tapestry project that I have to look at while working... plus the drawing practice...

Maybe I'll post some photos tomorrow or Friday...

This and that

The boys are outside making mudpies.. it started when Micah found a bunch of caterpillars on the sunflowers. He hosed them off and I guess later we'll get some BT (as suggested on the Dirt Doctor's website and clicking on C to find "caterpillars")... hopefully we'll be able to save the sunflowers. If anyone has any other suggestions for how to get rid of them, please let me know.

Comments in older blog entries

I've disabled the comments for older blog entries because we got hit by some idiot who thinks it's okay to advertise on MY blog.... I don't want no steenking empty statements like "I like your blog" JUST so someone can publicize a casino... online games and such are fine, but not 8 or 9 listings with pretty much the same URL... I've done my best to ban this guy and from now on will only leave the latest entry open to comments & then when I write a new one, I'll set the previous one to "close" if there are legit comments or "none" if there aren't any for that entry.

Paper

I ordered some paper and a couple more colored pencils that were not in the 48 set of prismacolors from Dick Blick and they arrived yesterday... I got a few sheets of Stonehenge and Canson that were recommended on the Colored Pencil forum of Wet Canvas. hopefully my 48 set of Prismacolors will arrive today: the seller told me that she shipped on Thursday.

Non-communicative eBay sellers

What's up with these eBay sellers and their short sentences? I'm not sure if I'm going to leave feedback for this one: I won the auction on the 4th, didn't hear ANY form of acknowlegement for my win or payment and wrote a couple of times asking if they got my payment: yesterday I got this: "Yes Thanks"..and then I wrote back asking when & how they shipped & today I got back "Priority Mail Thursday"... (I left out the punctuation they used).. I suppose I could understand that if they have a lot of customers, but if that was the case, they could set up some sort of form letter to acknowlege auction wins and such. When I run an auction and someone wins, I'll send them an email congratulating them and will give them details for payment, etc... and then will thank them when they make their payment & let them know when/how their item is going out. And THEN I leave a little note in the package as well. Common courtesy, etc.

The only thing I can think of is that
1: they may have been on vacation & when they got back maybe they were swamped with stuff to do (this is still a bad excuse) or
2: they were pissed because the auction didn't go very high... I'm sure that my win was less than wholesale price because it was only about $11 for a set of 48 Prismacolors and Dick Blick charges about $30 for the set... this is still a bad excuse, they could have either set the bid price higher or set a reserve... well, we'll see how this set looks when it arrives: the auction ad says that they only sell brand new items, etc., etc....

Knitting

I washed my square for Hunt Valley earlier this week and it took forever to dry. My drying method is to wrap it in a towel and then change to drier towels... the reason I do it this way is to keep the cats from playing with it or sleeping on it... yesterday I ended up putting it on the bed underneath the ceiling fan & kept the door shut... the cats hand other things to do anyway, so they ignored it. It is finally dry so I'll take some pictures of it and send it off next time I go to the post office.

I got a bit frustrated with my socks.. I guess I just don't like the look of the edges of short row toes and heels... I still want to do the heel short row because the one I did was comfortable, I guess I'll just need to do the toe differently. The short row toe method was so much fun, but I hate how it looks. I can live with the way the heel looks because it's not likely to be as visible as the toe might (depending on shoes)...

So much for that!

The boys want me to see their mud art... if it's possible to get a good photo, maybe I'll post it here!

smokin' on the 5th of July

We didn't get a chance to do our 4th of July cooking ON the 4th, so we did it yesterday instead...

Yesterday we smoked a brisket, it was gooood...we've got a lot leftover (well, a lot in our family is all relative... probably good for a few days of sandwiches)... Gary used some of the wood scraps, mostly oak, I think... he may have used some mesquite as well.

Gary also put some pinto beans into the water bowl of the smoker..they come out SOOOOOO good that way...

We also put some apples in the smoker, none of us were really impressed with it... the smoke flavoring didn't hurt or help either way... I prefer it with black cherry soda, my parents used to make it that way (my dad would often get out the apple corer and put the stuff in a pan and make them), so I'll have to see if there are any diet black cherry sodas sweetened with Splenda, though I supposed any diet soda will do for this dish, but I think I prefer Splenda sweetened... I think Diet Rite has a strawberry soda that is splenda sweetened, but I don't know how good it would be with baked apples.

Calling what my folks made "baked" is a misnomer: they cooked them on top of the stove...in a covered pan....used cooking apples, I think rome apples were what they used.

I also made the barbecue sauce from a recipe calling for tomato paste... it was in the NY Times Heritage cookbook... I altered the recipe a bit because we didn't have anything... when Gary said "we don't have bbq sauce, someone is going to have to go to town" I said "we can MAKE it" and he said "but we don't have enough ketchup"... I said "no, but we have tomato paste"... if I had not found this recipe, I would have looked up a recipe for ketchup that calls for tomato paste...

Anyway, here's what I did:

1 six ound can tomato poaste
1/2 cup vinegar (I used regular cuz we were out of our cider vinegar)
1/2 cup apple juice (instead of wine since we were out of that also)
1 onion chopped
4 cloves garlic crushed & chopped
1 bay leaf
1-1/2 tsp sale
freshly ground black paper
2 TBSP worcestershire sauce
Tabasco to taste
1/2 cup canola oil (we were out of olive oil)
2 TBSP splenda
6 whole cloves (which I got out of an Indian spice mix I made)
1 or 2 TBSP prepared mustard (we were out of the dry powdered)
1 tsp mustard seeds crushed
a couple pinches of basil
1/2 tsp ginger

put all of the ingredients in a large saucepan or kettle & mix & bring to a boil, lower, cover & simmer for about an hour until the sauce is thick enough.

This makes 2 cups & I questioned the need for a large saucepan because there weren't even 3 cups of ingredients in the mess, but it wasn't a bad idea to use the large saucepan...

I made some mashed potatoes using smart beat margarine and milk... we didn't have sour cream or yogurt so I used half a lime and that gave the potatoes a nice tang!

Not exactly a non-fat meal..but it's not what we have every day... in case anyone's been wondering about my weight loss progress: I've been maintaining my weight and that's good enough for me until I get the motivation/momentum to start trying to lose again... I might check out Dr Phil's book and see what it has to say about losing weight... or I might do South Beach, which makes more sense to me than Atkins... I don't think starving our bodies from carbs is a great idea: we NEED carbs...

Sock Knitting

I tried to start my 2nd sock using the 3.0 and 2.75 needles and I'm not entirely sure I like the LOOK of the short row toe using wrapped stitches... I like wrapped stitches better than yarnover stitches, but still don't like the way the picked up wraps look... but I LOVE the way the short row toe goes together... but I think I'd like to find a rounder toe... I'll go ahead & use this toe, it might be a comfortable toe...

Drawing

I can't wait until my colored pencils get here... I still have not heard from the seller, but I went ahead & clicked on the link to pay with PayPal... I just hope that the seller doesn't back off on the sale because the final bid was so low...it looks like this seller may be fairly new to eBay... they only had about 4 positive feedbacks and had been on eBay for 1 month...guess we'll see what happens!

I did do a portrait copied from an old portrait that I did back in 1979 using the Crayolas & 4 prismacolors that I have...it came out okay..I definitely need a lot of practice!

Happy 4th of July!

Hope everyone is having a safe & fun 4th!

The boys watched the fireworks from our front yard and saw some halfway decent fireworks.

Tomorrow we're going to smoke a brisket and a few other things as well. I have a wonderful cookbook called "Water Smoker Cookbook" and will make some smoked baked apples from this book and we may make some smoker party mix. The only problem with the smoker party mix is that it says not to use water, maybe we'll use our regular grill for it instead and smoke some oak scraps from the shop.

Revised: "Weaving in an Inkling"

A few days ago, I found out that Diane Bachman's book "Weaving in an Inkling" has been revised and reprinted. It's much nicer now, more readable and sturdier than the 1st edition. I will be carrying it on the Weaving Rainbow website and should be getting my first batch of copies in about a week.

Knitting

I finished my Hunt Valley Cashmere square designed by Pat Tanton Hewitt... apologies for the lousy photo: 1: the square is shown before washing/blocking... 2:this photo showed the stitches the best of the bunch, right over the curved arm of the couch... the light wasn't that great in the other pictures. Hopefully I will get some good photos of the square after it's all done with washing & blocking... 3.there is no 3, so here is the picture:

Flacon doily

And here is the Flacon doily... all the knitting is done, I think I still want to crochet one more round of loops on the edge... then it will need to be washed & pressed again... I'm not sure what I'll do with this doily, but I had fun making it. Now I can use the needles (3.75mm) to make socks since the 2.5mm needles made too boardlike a fabric with the sport weight yarn. I may even end up going up to 3.0mm needles, we'll see!

The pattern is from Nurhanne's site: http://nurhanne.com/ scroll down and click on yarnover to find the pattern listings.

Drawing

A blast from the past: I did this drawing back in 1979:

Much better than my latest drawings, but I think I'm getting a little better. I've been experimenting with colored pencils. At the moment, I was only able to find 4 of my prismacolor pencils, but won a set of 48 on eBay for a pretty good price this morning, and hope to have them in my hot little hands by the end of this week. I also have a bunch of Crayola pencils...they're okay for now... I have a workbook that I got over 10 years ago that I never used. It's by Bernard Poulin and is out of print, so I won't use the actual worksheet pages, but will use my own paper for the exercises... have already been doing some of the exercises with my crayolas and the 4 Prismacolor pencils I already have... fun!