Remember the Sunrise

Well, here's an idea for a weaving or more.





Whoops, not quite right, but I like the larger plaid. Back to the drawing board, or rather the photo retouch, the winweave, the scanner, the photo processor and the blog. Phew!

Lap robes - 36" x 58"

Scarves - 5" x 60"

Here come the colors!

Cottons for the lap robe.










And Shimmer Chenille for the scaves.










Fiber Content: rayon Gauge (stitches/in...needle size): 5.5 on sz 6
Wraps/in: 12 Tabby sett: 10 to 12 Twill sett: 15
Weight: DK Yards/lb: 1000 Yards/unit: 1000

Chenille . . . it's been the fashion rage. And with our great selection of rayon chenille, you'll find a color scheme to fit your wardrobe. Chenille is an interesting yarn; not spun, but woven or twisted. When chenille is woven, the warp consists of closely sett groups of about 4 ends which are spaced up to a half inch apart. After the weft has been woven, the fabric is cut between the groups of warp ends. The number of cuts per inch describes the yarn. Today most mills employ a slightly different means of making chenille which involves twisting the warp ends and adding the fill. Shimmer Chenille is closest to an "8-cut" chenille. Chenille can be used for knitting or weaving, but the unusual structure of chenille causes it to behave differently then a spun yarn. Biasing and snaking are chenille's two quirks; just be ready for them and you'll not have much to worry about. Weavers can use Shimmer Chenille in the warp, weft or both. When designing your project, remember chenille's tendency to snake and choose a weave structure with few floats. Tabby actually works best. Be sure to use a relatively close sett: 10-12 epi for tabby, about 15 epi for twill. Chenille's tendency to bias will cause a warp chain to twist and be unmanageable so use plenty of choke ties to keep everything under control. If your project has loose ends always use a twisted or braided fringe or the ends will fray away.

Hand and Machine Knitters - Shimmer Chenille can be considered a DK weight knitting yarn. To overcome its biasing and snaking tendencies we recommend using a firm gauge of about 5 to 5.5 stitches/inch on size 6 needle, and avoid slip stitch patterns. Textured stitches like seed or moss actually work well to counter-act biasing and can add a nice touch. Shimmer Chenille will work beautifully on standard and bulky knitting machines.

Care - your new rayon chenille garment can be hand washed in cool water with a mild soap, if you have taken the proper precautions to control biasing, snaking and fraying. When wet, the bias of chenille yarn will be very apparent; be sure to wet block your washed piece. When dry, "air fluff, no heat" in the drier to restore chenille's wonderful texture. Always test wash a sample, woven or knitted, to see how it behaves. If in doubt...dry clean!

$6.50 for a mini cone.

Now, you have seen a sample of each of the art series.

There are the dated collages, the desert flowers series, the desert trails series and the blue pueblo series. Then, there are the nature walk color studies, and my weaving, spinning and knitting. Oh, gosh, rock tumbling, too. Tee hee.

Blue Pueblo One - The Village on the Colorado

These are little cartoons for weaving wall hangings in the folk style of Mexico, Guatemala and world-wide, I suppose. They tell a little story.

This one tells the story of a little village along the Colorado River. Behind the village all the crops have just sprouted and the silver represents the fish from the river. See, every doorway has two or three fish to eat. At the bottom is the lightning that signifies rain and there are the rays of the warmth of the sun. Above the crops is the gateway to the heavens, maybe the Needles? There is depicted the sun and the stars. All of these things help to give us good food to eat. Yummy. And, well, there is Bashas, too. The End.

Working on Blue Pueblo 2

Really fun to do. I'll post in a few, I hope.

Doing photo research.

Need sunrise colors. Aren't those colors just beautiful.













Played with my photo processor to get some ideas for Desert Flower 1 series.

"Median" is cool. Will be good for minimizing the drawing of the flower. I like "Splash," too. Have no idea how "Painting" ended up with those colors, but it is sort of cool!

This is fun.
Printmaking paper. I just won it on Ebay.

I'll post more art...

later!

DesertTrails 2

Desert Trails 2

This is a composition taken from On the Trail 1. I decided to weave it a rag rug runner or wall hanging. I'm warping the loom now in log cabin weave and I will have to weave it in clasped weft weave. Luckily I've been able to bid and win the fabric on Ebay for about $2 a yard. I did pick some up at Jo's also. I still have to pick up the brown and the tough pale blue-green.

Art Piece Finally Finished

Desert Trails 1

I've had this piece 3/4s done for awhile. I was afraid I would use up the pencils before I finished it, or worse yet I wouldn't get back in the groove to finish it. :)! The scan is not so good, but the piece is really nice.

Garden Update

One section is trimmed and planted and the garden art is progressing.

One huge cactus had fallen over so I cut it back and tried to straighten it out. That's it in the background. Seems pretty tough, so I hope it makes it. The roots were pulled up but there is a huge tap root anchoring it. Planted marigolds and cabbages. Hmmmm?The art piece is just ok, but I'll finish it. It is prismacolor pencil on wood. I'll frame it and then varathane the whole thing. Tried to paint it as if it was part of a mural since it will be viewed from a distance. Hanging it on the stone wall will be interesting.

Good afternoon!

Got Asteroid - Part II. And also Kate and Leopold. Fun to watch movies again.

Got a good start on the garden art number 1. Hold on, you'll see.

Here's the great colors. Think rugs, runners, placemats and dish towels.


Guess I'll do some wrappings.

Here's the color chart from Halcyon for 5/2 cotton. Nice for runners and placemats.



Printed this post out so I can play with the colors. Have an idea for a five color study that came with my WinWeave. It is not weaveable, but I'll use it for inspiration. I'll post some drafts in a few.

Here's some numbers for the colors on the 5/2 cotton color chart to use with my WinWeave program.

Halcyon Number - Hue - Saturation - Luminosity
137-100-60-170
124-210-130-175
150-240-255-170
172-250-175-100
123-230-255-110
109-35-240-110

Here's some samples from my weaving program:














This is my first choice.














This is closer to the colors in the flower.














Sometimes my weaving program just does its own thing. But this would be cute woven in 8/2 cotton for a skirt or skort.














Tried it out in basket weave. Seems very kitchen-y.














Whoops, printed the basket weave out in interweave which has a black background. Cool colors though. The printout is better. I'll try matching the colors.

Have to catch you later. Off to city council meeting.

Broken valve, brown water, and 9/11

I guess this post is about life going on. It's the anniversary of 9/11, but I still have the issue of a broken water valve and now discovering after the wash is done that the water is brown with dirt.

The water valve is turned off. The only impact is three hose bibs and cold water to the washer. It will definitely have to be replaced some time. But the good news is I can take a bath.

After working on the valve, it now turns out the shut off valve at the street is leaking. Old meter, old Needles infrastructure. Don't know what their excuse will be for the filthy water.

Other projects are going great. The bike is repainted blue. Lots of flower seeds are planted and other projects are going along great. Even managed to clean the VCR and watch the first half of a movie last night.

I'll post photos in a few.

Aug. 21, 2006 - STOP ATOMIC

It's navy, who knew?

Re-painting everything the color navy. Well, it isn't really navy to me, but it does match the tiles, so I'm happy. I'll post some photos in a bit. Lots of cactus trimmed and lots of seeds planted, also. Too cool! :)!

Sanding the board for the first out-of-doors art piece. This is fun!

Here's the color chip. Now, it does look navy on the monitor, but not in the bright out-of-doors. Gayle's friend said we should paint the accent color on the long wall. I wanted to paint the short wall. Sooooo, I compromised. The short wall in the dining room will be green and long wall that connects to the kitchen will be blue. The cabinets will be blue with green trim. That's it. It is decided. No turning back now, the painting has commenced.



Whoops. I forgot. Got enough paint to paint the front door "navy", too. Got a great idea for a wreath of flowers. This is, although silly, keeping my mind off the "Path to 9/11" fiasco and the problems with the Friends of the Library.

C-O-F-F-E-E-!

Taking a quick shower and going to the Mobile station for some java. It is early and still dark. I wonder if they will be open. Oh, well, it will be an adventure.

I won!

Just paid for the Mamas and the Papas Tour poster 1966 on Ebay. How cool is that?

Just a blur.

These little guys come every morning and night to feed on the nectar of B.J.'s Desert Willow. Feed like a hummingbird, shaped like a moth. Hmmmm?

Korean Literature Search

Just posted about Mira Stout's novel One Thousand Chestnut Trees: A novel of Korea on the Book Talk Forums. Actually I started a new thread looking for recommendations.

Thought I should look around the internet myself and I ended up finding some real treasures. Can't possibly start another blog, so I'm posting all of this in my journal.

Brief Outline of Korean Literature

Korean Literature Today

KLT's English Adviser, Brother Anthony

Taize Community

Books on Korean and Korean/American culture on Books for Teens

Korean Literature Translation Institute

Korean American Literature at the Korean American Museum

For Kirsten

T.G.I.T.

Managed to finally get at the leaking shut off valve near the water heater and turned it off. Voila! No more leak. Hmmmm? I'm suspecting dirt in the line might be the culprit. Here's hoping because it will be a bear to replace. I think it is the pvc line to some of the outside hose bibs. Two of them are off. One is still on. I'll have to check the washer.

Now there is a leak at the water meter at the street. Only a small one. We'll see what the city does about that!

As to yesterday's plan b. Made good progress all around. But now it is time for a snack and my nappy.

Aug. 20, 2006

Bringing photos over from Blue Flax Studio

Blue Flax Studio is going to just have the finished pieces on it. The ones for sale. Hopefully!



Doing a project of spinning one breed of sheep. A nice selection of shades of Coopworth was available. I chose this breed because it is a good fiber for beginners to spin. Here are singles in natural light grey, medium grey, and dark grey.




Kool-Aid dyed silk bells











Light grey Coopworth and red Colonial top

Monday, monday!

Remember the Mamas and the Papas?

I love to go around on Sundays and line up a bunch of projects for the next week. Projects I very seldom complete, of course. Now here come the complaints. Mondays are the worse. The garbage truck goes through on my street at 4:30 am. That is also the time it finally cools down enough to actually sleep. So I end up sleeping in and when I should feel rip roaring to start my week, I feel sleep deprived instead.

This morning, at 7:30, it's already nearly 90, so working outside is probably going to be out. Blasty, blasty, blast. On to plan b.

I'm warping the little rigid heddle loom and one of the fabrics is coming by mail, the black one. So I guess I'll do a little sampler of each of the colors as I get them. I'm anxious to see how the log cabin blocks turn out.

Here is the revised plan, aka plan b:
1. Get cat food
2. Finish warping the rigid heddle loom.
3. Post some art work.
4. Work on post on book blog for Korean/Korean American culture.
5. Read Two Koreas.
6. I think it will be too hot to saw the board for the first garden piece. Probably pass out out there. Tee hee.
7. Maybe I'll get a chance to do an 8"X8" composition for the art piece, though.
8. Clean up my email.

Then it is goodbye Monday.

PS: Remember we are into 60s retro.
PSS: I think visuals on my blogs are nice.
PSSS: Just bid on the Ms and Ps poster on Ebay.

Flower Study One Color Study

C-O-F-F-E-E-!

Just had to go to McDonald's for breakfast biscuits and c-o-f-f-e-e! Didn't have much coffee all summer because it is not good to drink it in the heat. But now...

Trying to get seeds in the ground before the t-storms but it's already pretty hot. Dang.

Mini-truck-diary:
Started ok but the idle was rhythmic if not weird.

Here Come the Colors

Our House is a Very Fine House with One Dog and a Cat...

Garden



Entry Portico
Paint the door cobalt blue. Do a wreath with emerald green ribbon and fushcia and red orange flowers. There is a nice wreath at the thrift store. Check it out. See also their ribbons. Get the flowers at the Family Dollar Store.













Living Room


















Bedroom/Studio






















Kitchen/Dining Room

















Paint the long wall cobalt blue. Paint the wrap around wall in the dining room emerald green.
Remember to put coke bottles in the window.
Make a seating of a round table and two chairs. See if two are still at the trailer by the BLM.
Get a poster of the Long, Long Trailer movie with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.



Bathroom














Upstairs Bedroom