Rambling Warps

Missing tapestry found...and a couple of other things..

This is that tapestry that was missing from the last entry... this one was based on one of Nancy Harvey's exercises in her book:

This is what I'm thinking of using for my locker hooking design...OR a tapestry weaving design... it might be a bit too complex for a locker hooking design.

I have another idea for my locker hooking design: either I will simplify the above picture OR will do something based on a painting that I did when I was in college... I don't think I still have that painting, but I have a damaged slide of it and have been playing with drawings of that design...it involves wavy shapes so that might not be a great idea for locker hooking either.. but I might simplify the design somewhat... have not decided yet for sure.

Puppy owners found!

And finally: some good news: we found out who the puppies belong to and brought them back on Saturday... one of them dug a hole in the fence & they escaped & went a wandering... this morning they showed up again... we brought them back this afternoon. I figure that they'll show up here again until they get things fixed up so that the pups can't escape... cute, aren't they?

A couple of photos

I finished this tapestry back in August... it was the one I did after the one I posted on the August 17th entry (that piece is temporarily missing... I will post it when it shows up):

And here is one that I have in progress:

Will take a couple more pictures of the finished pieces, then will take them off the loom & either use the extra warp for fringe or will tuck in the fringe, haven't decided yet...and will wash them and take pictures...

I didn't have to take 20 zillion pictures of the above like I used to have to with my old camera... watch out world, I may actually start keeping an active blog!!

purging & closure

Yesterday we rented a large u-haul truck to get the rest of the stuff and to also take the stuff we no longer want to the dump.. we filled the truck with most of the unwanted stuff & trash that we couldn't take to the community dumpster because it was often full...today we will take that load to the dump and then go back and get the rest of our stuff... it feels good to be letting go of so much of that stuff and the stuff we're taking still includes stuff that needs to be thrown away because we did not have enough time to sort through it and later today we'll be repacking some, taping up boxes and putting them into the truck.

We'll bring the truck back tomorrow and then will try to relax for the rest of the weekend.

I may take the boys to the animal shelter on Sunday: they have a youth volunteer program on weekends. We'll take them with the understanding that the animals don't come home with us.

Puppies

That said, last night, 3 dogs showed up on our doorstep: a mama dog and 2 puppies, one boy and one girl...the puppies look like they are part beagle and part blue heeler... we'll keep an eye on them for a couple of days and hopefully their owner will claim them... if not, we'll have to try to give them away, maybe bring them to the animal shelter: hopefully the shelter is a no-kill shelter... hopefully they will not get run over and hopefully they will end up in good homes real soon...

Maybe later I'll take some pictures. My camera finally showed up but I've got a new one on the way and hopefully it will be easier to use. It's frustrating to take a few dozen photos and have none of them come out good...a few months ago, I wrote a blog entry about having taken about 100 shots of a picture I did in colored pencil and finally the one that came out decently was taken on the gravel driveway at our old place...

I'll be so glad when we have all our stuff out of there... we'll sort through stuff and plan a yard sale in a couple of months!

this and that & the other

My Lorna's Laces rainbow socks came yesterday... YEAH! I'm thinking about making the broad ripple pattern from Knitty and just need to figure out how to adapt the stitch pattern to working toe up...

Also I'm thinking about frogging the 1 or 2 inches I've started on my Opal dream catcher socks... the determinng factor will be whether or not I prefer the toe I'm going to try for the LL socks...I've tried the short row toe & it's a lot of FUN to make, but I'm not sure if I like the way it looks...bah! I'd love to find a toe up round toe... maybe I could come up with something by looking at the instructions for a cuff down round toe & switch it around in my brain. Perhaps I could do this as an afterthought toe... hmm... I did afterthought toes for my kids when I made their socks, but that was a self defense tactic because kids grow so erratically!

I'm also half thinking about trying an afterthought heel... they LOOK like fun to make, but I want to know if they are as comfortable as a short row heel!

Other sock project progress

Have a pair of worsted weight handpainted (by yours truly) socks in progress... I was working them on US 5 (3.75mm I think) needles & am thinking of going down to US 3 (3.25mm)... they aren't coming out tight enough...

baby sweater

My cousin's baby sweater is On Hold temporarily, but I think I made a breakthrough with the button-snap issue: I was worried about the baby chewing the buttons off, so had decided to use snaps... but the thought of sewing on a button band in preparation for snaps filled me with total dread...so it wasn't getting completed to the point of being able to send it...
I saw someone else using buttons on a baby sweater & she said to use heavy duty sewing thread...so buttons it will be... now to go and choose some... I wonder if Walmart has any pretty ones, or if there are any cool little sewing shops somewhere in town! Maybe this is a cue for me to go button hunting on the web for MY website! Hmmmmmmm.... or see if we can make some....

about photos:

My camera is hiding someplace, but I've got another on the way soon... will take pix when either the new one is here or the old one shows up!

ideas...which one

I've been working on some drawings in preparation for a locker hooking piece. I am having trouble deciding which one to go with & I guess since I can't decide, it's time to do some more drawings.

Gary thinks I should use cats for the basis of my locker hooking design. His rationale is that we have 6 cats: plenty of models..

I haven't decided yet, but I'm leaning toward something geometric.. perhaps a combination... want to get a sort of stained glass feeling because of the color of the roving... there are 3 or 4 color schemes: one is a reddish/orange/violet blend, another is blue/light blue and the other is green & light green... for background OR foreground for this piece, I want to use White Buffalo roving int he straw color...

I guess I'll play with some more ideas on paper & see what pops up...

New Cat in the Fambly

On January 2nd, we all took a walk...we had not gotten very far when we saw an older kitten across the street from where we were. She saw us, started hollering & walking toward us... Evan picked her up and we decided that she had chosen us and Gary told the twins to bring her home & the rest of us went to see the llamas... Gary thought she looked like she had been dumped, although she did not look super hungry or very thin... we'll be keeping an eye out for "lost cat" signs... she settled in pretty well and now after a week with us, she is playing with at least 1 or 2 of the older cats...

Back to the drawing board now!