Rambling Warps

The Joy of Pepsi

Well, I broke in the new moleskine this afternoon at Pizza Hut... would have been nice if I had my pencil sharpener (I was limited to using the pencils that happened to be sharpened) and a paintbrush to help spread the water, but using my finger worked out okay & gave me an idea how the paper was reacting to the water & rubbing...

Seems like when I rub water onto the paper, it crumbles a little, but could be that I'm just feeling the rough surface of the paper and nothing was coming off... while wet, the paper buckled a tiny bit, but when dry it flattened out.

I'm thinking that the paper in the watercolor moleskine might be better suited for colored pencil...I don't think this paper would be good for soaking washes, just gentle washes...I think I'll use the watercolor colored pencils because I like the way they feel when I am working with them & like the option to add water to give a washy shadow...

If I decide that I want a watercolor sketchbook, I'll just make one once my Dick Blick order arrives with a few different 140 lb watercolor papers...it's not hard, I made a little book with Stonehenge (and think I like doing watercolor on it better than on the moleskine.. have not heard of anyone doing watercolor on Stonehenge paper, but maybe I just didn't see threads about stonehenge in the wetcanvas.com watercolor forum...

The Missing Sketchbook

I would have had a picture or two to show from yesterday, but the sketchbook (the 9x12 that has the road sign drawing) has gone missing...when I'm done with this blog entry & checking email, I'll turn things upside down in attempt to find the book... it's probably under or behind something...

Last night I did some drawing practice with the animals in that sketchbook: one was a few attempts of sketching the dog, who NORMALLY is a motionless layabout, picked that time to move his head from one side to another, sit up and eventually demand a walk... at 2am... I did manage an attempt to draw a picture of him yawning, which will be fun exercise since I'm not even going to TRY to get a photo of it, besides I don't get the same thrill from drawing from photos than I do from drawing from real life...

The other picture I drew was of our oversized cat, Liberty...he's probably part Siamese-part ragdoll... he was laying down on his back with his head near my right elbow & I was attempting a contour drawing of him and looking over my shoulder/elbow...it was awkward but fun... Charles Reid's book "Watercolor Secrets" talks about doing contour drawings... I love that book... the introduction for it was written by Gene Wilder (actor, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, WIllie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, etc.)... he took lessons with Charles Reid and the book includes a painting he did of his wife... need to look around for some more books by Charles Reid, he is definitely an inspiration...

Obligatory Knitting Content

I'm making a little more progress with the fixation spring fling socks... I worked on them on the way down to town today while Gary drove... ONE of these days I'll get them done! I've got about an inch above the heel mark and will do a bit more before attempting the heels themselves... want to try them before I get TOO much of the leg done so that I can frog back if I want to... maybe I'll take a picture tomorrow... not that they look THAT much different than when I last took a photo, just a bit bigger and the colors have gone from nearly identical toes to a not very identical foot and have been nearly identical the last few inches and are just now starting to become not-identical again...wheeeeeeee... not going to let that matter with this pair!

UPDATE: missing sketchbook found

It wasn't really missing: it was where it was supposed to be... was in the front of the lined up books on the floor where I keep books I want to grab by my side of the bed..only it wasn't supposed to be standing up in line with the others but on top, easy access, etc... there was a paperback book or something folded in with it (they fell down together apparently) so I couldn't recognize the thing...

Myabe I'll take a picture or two of the drawings, if the pencil lines are strong enough to be picked up...

I don't have a working scanner at the moment, but it seems like the pictures I've been taking of my drawings have been picking up colors & lines fairly closely, so I won't worry about it for now...not even sure where we'd put a scanner at the moment....the grownup computer center is crowded enough as it is!

EDM #86 road signs in the ghost town I live in

Every Day Matters challenge #86 is to draw a road or traffic sign... well, in the town I live in, there are several road & traffic signs in a 2 block stretch...
I walked down to the post office, taking pictures along the way, getting ideas for TONS of street sign ideas... including trying to get 2 different speed limit signs in the same picture (a 45 and 30 mph sign, but I concluded that the only way to do that might be to get up on the roof of that post office and I don't think we'd get permission to do that!)

I finally settled on a picture that includes several road signs... I used a 3B pencil, and did a bit of erasing with my kneaded eraser, which explains the messy look of the picture:

Another view of the same road & traffic signs...

I did the drawing standing across the street from the road signs... the brownish stain at the bottom corner of the picture is from sun reflection, not the actual page...

I'm still out of practice with this stuff and this is the first time that I went out drawing in public in years...will try some color renditions of this picture OR I may try out some of my other ideas... after walking around, taking pictures & such, I finally said to myself "okay, I'm gonna stand right here & draw what I see across the street"... it wasn't so hard, lots to think about but was less of a brain cramp than trying to figure out how to get the 2 mph signs in the same photo!

This and that (from earlier today)

This time I'll post something more interesting than just a list of stuff I'm selling...

I still have a few cones of yarn left & several skeins of worsted weight yarn... the sport weight sock yarn went pretty fast... will have to go through and update what is left...

Not a lot new knitting wise, though I've been working on the spring fling socks from time to time... when I was at the Rethinking Education conference over labor day weekend, I had actually gotten a pair of short row sock heels done but frogged them because I thought the socks were just a TEENSY BIT too short... I put in a few more rows and have decided I'd like to try the afterthought heel to see if I like it... so right now I have 2 socks with about 1/2" past the row where I put in a different colored yarn which will be snipped when I'm ready to do the heel...will try doing that once I get a little more done on the leg...

Weaving wise, I have an idea for a tapestry, but don't know if I will do it or not.

I've been collecting the supplies I need to do some watercolor painting... I bought way too many brushes on eBay yesterday: there was one auction that had 2 or 3 of some of the brushes & I will either put some of them away for another day (or the kids) or will sell them... the others were a more varied set than the large batch, containing a fan brush, mop brush, etc...

I joined the Every Day Matters email list on yahoogroups yesterday... you can get more information about it by clicking here

Briggs & Little Yarns on sale

I'm selling the following yarns for $3.25/skein or $30.00 for 10...this is lower than the price before I had to raise my prices... you'll still be able to special order these yarns from my website but at the new prices...if you email me I'll figure out your total with shipping & can either send you a PayPal invoice or can give you info to mail your payment...

Heritage:

Light blue 4 skeins (1 dye lot)
Light blue 2 skeins (different dye lot from above)
Light Green
Paddy Green
Pink
Pink (different dye lot from above)
Sheep's Grey
Sheep's Grey 2 skeins
Med Grey 2 skeins
Dark Grey
Gold
Navy 2 skeins
Ragg 2 skeins
Hunters Orange (pending)
Yellow

Tuffy:

Oatmeal
Oatmeal 4 skeins (different dye lot from above)
Forest Green
Green Mix
Green Mix (different dye lot from above)
Cocoa 3 skeins
Blue Jean (pending)
Blue Jean 3 skeins (different dye lot from above)
Green Mix
Green Mix (different dye lot from above)
Oxford
Blue Mix 4 skeins
Ecru
Smoke
Red Mix 3 skeins (pending)

Durasport:

Blue Jean (one left)
Forest Green (one left)
Oatmeal (SOLD)
Smoke (SOLD)