Seraphim complete!

I am happy to announce the successful birth of my Seraphim Shawl. Finishing an actually useful shawl is quite a triumph for me (having started and not completed at least a half dozen). Here it is being blocked on my futon bed. I don't have carpeting, so it is the only pinnable surface large enough. Even so, the ends had to be pinned off the edges of the bed. The yarn is 50% mohair, 50% wool that I bought as pre-dyed roving from BearDog Yarns at Black Sheep Gathering. The color was listed as "Spring Leaves". My original plan was to spin the yarn for a sweater, but I am much happier having it as a shawl. I like the way the variation of color worked up. Part way through knitting it, I realised my row guage was way smaller than the pattern called for so I added about 20% more pattern repeats. The result is an extremely generous sized shawl. Better over large than over small!
I wanted to take a pretty picture of it outside, but it is still cloudy and muddy and wintery-looking, so the best I could do looks pretty pallid. Trust me, the color is far more vibrant.Now back to making curtains. I have the fabric cut out and need to start sewing.

Meanwhile, here's a preview of another project:

The Art of Surprise

Or rather the magic of surprise art. I am very fond of good landscape design, and one of the prime tools of great garden design is the little secret pockets where one can turn a corner and find a hidden surprise, maybe a little fountain, or a piece of sculpture, or even just an exceptional plant. This same principle is found in clothing design when the designer lines the inside of a jacket or purse with a special fabric or color, only to be seen by the wearer, or in brief flashes. I have a plain black nylon tote bag that when unzipped reveals an inside that is blue sky with puffy white clouds. I smile every time I look in it.

When I decided to decorate my little trailer, I knew I would be adding lots of hidden bits of art. For the most part they would be satisfying only me, but why not? Under the table lives a board that serves to extend the bed area. This board is only visible when the table is put down, but before the cushions are turned to make up the bed. A night time picture was appropriate. I'll see it briefly each night as I make up the bed. A little art just before bedtime should encourage technicolor dreams!

Woman vs. Machine

Anybody who knows me at all well knows that sewing and I do not get along. In fact, I will go to great lengths to avoid it, knitting everything possible in the round to avoid seams. Several years ago, in a fit of good intentions towards decorating, I bought a reconditioned sewing machine. I took it home, placed it in a corner of my fiber room, and there it sat until tonight.

I am proud to say I met the beast and I conquered it!

I found this cool purple cotton chenille fabric at Windy Moon Quilts in Reno. It just had to become pillow covers for the trailer! I like how it is sort of both vintage-looking and quirky at the same time. Being 100% cotton it feels great. I bought all they had. When I put it through the wash for preshrinking, it sent purple fuzzies out the dryer vent and across my front yard. After minimal experimentation (and only 1 broken needle) I knocked out covers for 3 pillows - 2 huge ones and one smaller one. I am pleased and proud of how they came out.


Tomorrow I attempt curtains.

Table in place

I promised a picture of the table in situ, so here it is. Now imagine it after I have covered the white pillows with purple chenille and hung dark purple shade-like curtains. And hung pictures in the painted frames I made. OK, that's hard to imagine, so stay tuned for more pictures at a later date.

Lace interval

The trailer table is finished and installed (pictures coming soon), and there are lots of other trailer projects to dive into, but it is time for a diversion. I am currently obsessed by lace knitting. I don't think of myself as a lacey person, and noone would think of me in delicate, girlie terms, but the urge to knit lace is overwhelming. Perhaps it is the magic that appears when you block a shapeless tangled-looking mass and it turns into an intricately patterned airy garment. Recently I have been working on this Seraphim Shawl. (As you can see it is still in the shapeless mass stage.) Just as my efforts began to flag, I encountered the recently published "Victorian Lace Today". This beautiful book inspired me to launch into the shawl's lace charts with enthusiasm and to order up the pattern for "Delicato Mitts" from Knitspot.com.

One of my favorite pieces

In addition to picture frames to match the trailer table, I also made a coat rack. The original plan was to install small iron hooks on a board that I would then hang. While installing the new cabinet knobs, I had a flash of inspiration and rushed back to Home Depot for more knobs. I am mighty pleased with the finished product and can't wait to hang it.

All the varnishing is done, so it is time to turn to the soft stuff. As soon as my kitchen table is cleared of the detritus from the last projects, I will bring out the sewing machine that is languishing in a deep, dark corner of my fiber room (Yes, Sharon, I really do intend to sew.) I'll start simple with the pillow covers and work my way up to curtains. I wonder how you thread the thing...

Tada!!!
I have a few other pieces to do, then I'll seal them all with several coats of varnish. The varnish will deepen the colors and exentuate the texture from the burn lines.

Despite the cold, I installed the new cabinet knobs and drawer pulls in the trailer today, and hung a string of bright-colored folkart birds. Time to start looking for curtain fabric...

Purple complete!

Only green to go.

Happy discovery!

I am still working on painting the purple background of the trailer table. Meanwhile I am collecting other bits and pieces of decor. I scored a great purple thermal blanket on clearance. I also found some really funky shaggy purple spherical pillows, also on clearance. Today I zipped over to Home Depot at lunch to look for replacements for the rather boring pretend-brass cabinet knobs and drawer pulls. I had a particular design in mind, but that was blown away when I found knobs with the same vine design I have been painting on the picture frames and table! What was the chance of that? I can't wait to get in and install them this weekend!

The Problem with Purple

Tonight I started adding the purple background to my trailer table. From my experience with painting the spinning wheel, I already knew that purple is difficult to apply evenly. On the plywood it is even worse! After struggling to paint just a corner, I was ready to cry. It was looking like I had ruined all that work! The various grains either sucked in the paint without giving time to spread it evenly, or barely took the paint at all. What a mess! I forced myself to say my recently acquired mantra over and over: "It is what it is... It is what it is..." And I forged on. After all, folk art is supposed to be... um... folky, right? And the lighting is kinda dim in the trailer... Happily, I learned from the spinning wheel project that the application of several coats of varnish makes mistakes look like intentional style effects. Really, I meant to do that.. Really..

Trailer table progress

After a visiting the family for the holidays, I am back home and working on the replacement table for my little trailer. Before Christmas I completed burning the pattern, so the next step is paint.
Before launching into painting such a large surface, I warmed up by woodburning, then painting, a set of six small picture frames to match the table. They should help to coordinate the colors and flowering vine theme around the inside of the trailer. The frames have the same 4 colors that I am using on the table.

Here is the table with the red applied...












And with the yellow...

Tomorrow night I start adding the purple background, then I will paint the thousands of little leaves green. And finish off both table and frames with several coats of spar varnish.


One last note about Christmas projects: This year I decided to needle-felt an ornament for each member of my family. As you can see, I have a very large family!

As the dust settles....

The dust is starting to settle from Christmas excitement and thoughts are turning to the new year. What will be my resolutions? What do I need to finish up from 2006? And what new adventures can I plan for 2007? While I contemplate these important questions, here is a project I completed in time for Christmas.

This pillow cover is made from commercially-spun thick and thin yarn. Since I had limited time, I chose to knit the pillow cover on the bias. Yes, I know there are just as many stitches regardless of the direction, but starting at the corner with just a few stitches allowed me to avoid knitting a swatch. I just increased until the garter-stitch fabric was an inch or so narrower than the pillow insert, then started decreasing along one edge, while still increasing along the other. When the longer edge was twice the length of the pillow, plus some, I changed to decreasing on both edges. The result was a long rectangle. I picked up and knitted 4 inches of rib on each end, then sewed up the pillow cover so that the overlap would be in the middle back of the pillow. Stuffing the pillow inside, I found that the overlap wasn't enough to avoid gapping, so I added three matching buttons. The buttons are small enough that they can be pushed through the ribbing without making buttonholes. With one extra skein I made the 4 tassels. Result: one soft, yet interestingly textured pillow.

Wishing for Peace and Good Will for All!

I've been so very busy dealing with the detritus of a busy year that I keep forgetting to relax and enjoy the holiday season. To remind myself I look at the ornaments on my tree, each of them a record of special friends and good times, vacations and other travels through life. Some are made by my talented comrades in fiber art, others were picked up as souvenires to remind me of trips to special places, and still more are symbols of my shifting enthusiasms over the various stages of my life. All-in-all, my tree serves as a personal resume that tells all about my life, yet can only be read by me.

Happy holidays to you and yours!! May the new year add a few more treasured memories to next year's tree.

Snow day

I had major ambition to do my Christmas baking today but I woke up to enough snow that a trip to the grocery store for a necessary ingrediant was not to be accomplished. Instead there was plenty of shoveling, then time to work on more burning of the trailer table. After about 6 more hours of work my hand is cramped and sore, but I am victorious in having completed burning the pattern. Although I did burn "2006" onto the bottom, I probably won't complete the painting and sealing until into the new year. It will be nice to install my first bit of customization into the trailer and make her really mine!

Table progress report

I'm moving along on creating a new table for the trailer. I spent several hours Monday evening drawing the design in pencil. Tonight I started the woodburning. I completed the general structure of the vines and the center part of the sun design in about 3.5 hours. I still have thousands of little leaves to burn and the rays of the sun before I can start painting. The grain in the plywood makes even burning pretty difficult.

Enough for tonight. I'll press on tomorrow evening.

One size only fits some

I have just committed to having the little trailer road-ready for an event in March. That leaves lots to do in a short time. One of the projects I am doing for her is to replace the splintery-on-the-bottom-and-boring-on-the-top table with something more, well, artsy. It has to fit into the slot between the benches and be strong enough to function as part of the bed, so I settled on 3/4 inch plywood. For added strength I will add the angle iron pieces that are attached to the current table. After careful measurement I went to Home Depot for plywood, woodfiller, and an orbital sander. Being an optimist, I figured the only difficulty in choosing a power tool was being confused by a myriad of accessory options. Instead I learned a depressing fact: they don't make them for people with small hands. An orbital sander requires the user to grasp the top of the tool to control it. It was immediately clear that almost all of them are made for large-handed gorillas. Only one was small enough for my hand - the Black & Decker "Mouse". This is a cute little thing that would make serious tool guys sneer. It looks more like a propless helicopter than a mouse. It works well enough and has cool "Gel" pads that cushion the hand from the vibrations. I sanded the table top, rounding the edges and corners. I applied wood filler to the gaps in the plies along the edges, and will give it a sanding with a finer grit when the filler dries. Then I get to do the fun part - designing, woodburning and painting. Meanwhile, I have learned that sawdust sticks remarkably well to flannel pajamas.

Yesterday was the spinning guild's annual Holiday Party. Along with a fabulous potluck, a silent auction, and general merriment, we had an ornament exchange. I was happy to see that several needle-felted ornaments had resulted from last month's workshop. I do believe I made the score of the day, since I ended up with this fabulous felted dog made by Connie. She is modeled after Connie's dog, Sophie. Isn't she fabulous!?!

Must go work on holiday projects while the wood-filler dries...

Christmas Secrets, Glorious Yellow, and Knitting at the DMV

As the holidays grow larger on the horizon, my spare time is taken over by secret Christmas projects. No pictures or details will be given out until after the magic morning. You'll just have to check back.

Meanwhile, I have found myself short on yellow so last night I mixed up a dyepot with a generous amount of "Sabraset Sun Yellow 180". I threw in a mixed mass of white wool including romney, merino, and some alpaca. I stewed the stuff in the crockpot on low for a couple of hours. The resulting color (after rinsing) was the most glorious yellow imaginable! Unfortunately the picture doesn't come close to its full glory. There was still plenty of dye in the pot, so I threw in a mixed bunch of... well.... pretty ugly pastel stuff. The blue turned to a nice green, but the best transformation of all was the pink mohair curls that turned a beautiful russet orange-gold. The dyepot still wasn't exhausted so I threw in more white and and left it slowly cooling in the crockpot overnight. The result was a lemon yellow - not as glorious as the first batch, but good enough to allow me to save the first batch for a special project.

Saturday I took my new little trailer to the DMV for VIN inspection and registration. This should have been relatively simple. It took over 4 hours. The VIN was nowhere to be found and the nice inspector's computerized engraving tool refused to engrave through 53 year old petrified paint. He ended up dusting off an old toolbox full of metal stamps and hammering the VIN into the trailer tongue with a heavy mallet. (The folks in the cars behind me in line looked kinda testy, but noone honked. Perhaps that was due to the obvious presence of traffic cops.) Once inside, the DMV officer mistyped my drivers license and, due to the arcane complexity of the DMV's computer system, it took several supervisors and a couple of hours to keep my trailer's plates from being mailed to some guy named Roger Marsh. This is where the magical stress-relieving properties of knitting came into play. I just sat back in my chair and knitted. Although I did not, as predicted by one frustrated employee, finish a sweater while I waited, I was able to remain calm and breezy.

Trailer Retrieval Saga

During the week of Thanksgiving I went to Arizona to visit the folks and collect my little travel trailer. Here she is in Arizona. Isn't she cute!?! She'll be even cuter when she has been spiffed up with a new paint job.

In the past week or so I have learned a lot. Here are a few of the things I have learned:

1. Trailer hitches come in a vast variety of heights, even if the guy at U-Haul who installed your hitch neglected to mention this fact.
2. Trailer tires cost more than regular car tires.
3. Soon after learning fact #2, Murphey's Law guarantees that other expensive auto repair will suddenly be required.
4. Single-axle trailers are a bit tricky to back up.
5. When you mention you are buying a trailer, people you don't even know show up to give you advice on how to back it up.
6. Your ability to back it gracefully is inversely proportionate to the number of people who are watching.
7. It is important to have trailer bearings repacked, because a former owner may have done it himself and bungled the job.
8. If you carefully park the trailer in a back corner of a parking lot, leaving just enough room to pull out, other drivers will think you know something special and carefully wedge their SUVs into the narrow spots at either end.
9. When you finally find coffee during the long trip across the Nevada Desert, it will come in a cup with a mysterious, yet persistant dribble.

She is now comfy and cozy under a tarp in my driveway, waiting for spring.

Spring leaves for winter knitting

I have been longing to knit with handspun. There are many fabulous commercially spun yarns to choose from, and I have regularly fallen prey to their wiles and now own bins and baskets full of them, yet they never give quite the satisfaction that comes from knitting with my own handspun. So with a holiday weekend ahead of me I pulled out some lovely handspun that was waiting patiently in my fiber room for just the right project. I bought the fiber at Black Sheep Gathering a couple of years ago. It is 50%-50% wool-mohair from BearDog Fibers. They called the colorway "Spring Leaves". I kept passing it by as I wandered about the Market, telling myself that I had absolutely no need for it. It wormed its way into my conciousness and just as we were leaving the last day, I dashed back in and bought all they had. Not as much as I would normally buy for a don't-know-what-the-project-will-be project, but enough for something. I spun the fiber up into an approximately fingering weight yarn, to get as much yardage as possible. Still I had no project in mind and the yarn was put away for future inspiration. The inspiration came from Birdsong's Blog. She recently made a "Seraphim Shawl" using a pattern available from http://mimknits.com. I admired it greatly and purchased the pattern. "Spring Leaves" sounds just right for the leaf-patterned lace border. I have started the shawl and it is working up quickly so far. It starts at the back of the neck and worked outwards, with the lace knitting at the end. I am taking it on faith that I have enough yarn, since I neglected to McMorran it. (Taking chances makes life interesting, right?)

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving is fun and safe. Me, I'll be overeating and knitting with happy, fuzzy, green handspun.

More Tiling

Wednesday I finished up the Tile Mosaic class that I took through the Washoe County School District. Having learned a lot from my mutant cow trivet, I created and completed a sun design on a wooden tray. I found the octagonal wooden tray for about fifty cents at Salvation Army. I was attracted to the unusual shape. The tile used for the design came from a gold painted flowerpot, a ceramic halloween pumpkin, and a ceramic duckie box from my bathroom. I tried to purchase yellow tiles at Home Depot, but apparently yellow is out of style - not a yellow tile to be had! So the duckie gave its life for art. Well... craft, anyway. I planned to cover the sides with tile as well, but I ran out of time.

I still need to practice some on my grouting technique, but I feel confident that, with a bit of preplanning, I can tackle the bathrooms. I just need to choose a color pallette and start accumulating the right stuff to smash.