Ruched

nifty

Pretty nice birthday gift I'd say.

When I was in grade school the calendar+MLK Jr day+inauguration came together just right so I had a week off of school.  It  was so awesome I remember it 25 years later.

My Mom gave me a huge stack of dishtowels and napkins, pre-washed, ready to go in the towel and napkin basket.  Score.  Somehow I do laundry, laundry, and more laundry and there are never any clean kitchen linens.  What gives?

She also found a quilt for herself at the same store, and I should post a photo.  It reminds me quite a bit of Jane Brocket's quilts.

Byrd gave me a spanky new camera, and it was a combined xmas/bday gift.  Oh, and he taught Merrick to say "Happy Birthday, Mama!". 

a little more magic

At the end of the day, when the sun is just low enough to pass under the patio roof, but still peeking over the trees, it catches the disco balls on the chandelier and the room lights up with a thousand gold dots.

Merrick and I "ooh" and "ahh" for a bit, then he says "Turn!", so I spin the fixture on it's chain.  The trick only lasts a few minutes, but oh, what a special time.

circles

Merrick experimented with circles and "washable" markers while I made some progress on my sock.  He's only been drawing circles for about a week, I know it's a new stage and I need to look it up.

I made several mistakes on the sock and had to go back and fix them, then fix my fixes.  Argh.  The striping yarn just delights me, so I keep going back.  This little section covers my toes.

A playsilk held up by five balloons.  This was a collaborative effort.  Last week we ran out of the string that came with the Xmas balloon kit so I gave Byrd a plastic bag, thinking he'd cut it into strips.  He tied a balloon to each handle and it just happened to be weighted just right to float.  It was magical, it drifted a bit with each pass of the dogs, could be set turning, could hover anywhere, etc.  It almost seemed alive.

The playsilk was Byrd's idea, he came up with it Friday night, and he fiddled with the balloons until each was filled just right, then he experimented with weights, adding and removing scraps of paper to change the shape of the silk or how it moved.  It was a total engineer project. 

Merrick lost interest after the balloons were filled and tied on, though he did think it was funny when the silk landed on his head like a hat.

I looked at this several times before realizing it was a flattened paper grocery bag.  See the little divot in the top left?

I don't love it, but it's quilty, interesting, and inspiring.

I wonder if she made the blue sun/flower stamp?  Several years ago I watched a short documentary about this art center, and it was amazing to watch how the artists worked, what materials they chose, how they put things together.

funny things

I saw two things this week that made me laugh hard enough to get squinty-eyed.

A dog in a hat via Belgian Waffle

A health film/Bollywood-style musical via Poppalina

I adore elaborate embroidery...

...or whole cloth embroidery, or covered cloth embroidery, what's the proper name for this stuff?  Fabric that has been embroidered so heavily that the ground is barely visible.

I think all textile people are tactile, and embroidery like this just calls to my fingers "Pet me!".

detail of a girl's cap, couching above, cross stitch below

detail of felt floor-cover, embroidery is Bhukara couching.  The contrast in textures is so pretty.

shield-shaped panel, double chain stitch on velvet, more contrasting textures

I saved the best for last.  Detail of a woman's dress.

The yellow crosses are needlewoven!  Aaagh.  Awesome.  Gorgeous. Something about the sort-of-doublecloth, making a new fabric on top of an old one with tiny embroidery threads, complex work in miniature is just so beautiful to me.  All of this work lends such a sense of preciousness (value), and makes a beautiful end product. 

I'm thinking of some show quilts that I've seen that are all about technique and obsessive piecing and surfaces that look dead or lifeless to me when I view them as a whole.  I'd consider this dress obsessively embroidered, but it still has so much life and joy.

Detail a little to the right of the above.  More needleweaving and other fancy stitches.  This dress could also be a stitch dictionary.

three color and two b&w from...

(Whoops, blurry, too late to retake it)

Seminole patchwork

Shang dynasty China

India

Ainu, I think.  I'll check on it.

I love the way the pattern of his tattoos continues on his garment.

just photos

The sock is going slowly, it's like knitting with dental floss, so just photos today.

sock progress

This tiny little thing has taken me at least an hour, maybe two.  Yikes.

I'm still working on step one, step two is the foot and that looks doable.  The heel flap, step three, will require some time with YouTube I think.

I like it so far, and it's not so challenging that I can't watch Gossip Girl in the background.

socks!

Oh yes, it's time.  I found a pattern I liked at Patternfish and got needles and yarn at a new to me local yarn shop, Bobbin's Nest Studio. 

The pattern is written out in words rather than knitting code, and there's a diagram that corresponds to the letters in the instructions.  It seems more like a sewing pattern to me, and it's very easy to understand the structure of the sock right from the beginning.  The toe starts out something like "cast on x, then kf&b on first and last stitch until there are y stitches".  Much easier for me than row-by-row instructions.

The yarn shop was very nice, they carry fabric and yarn, be still my heart, and the class space is lovely.  If my sock attempt fails they have a sock class on the 24th.  Oh, and I know I need another set of circulars, they're here somewhere.  I'm not sure how I misplaced them so quickly...

that sweater class

So here's the sweater we're supposed to be making.  It's about the right size for a stuffed bear.  You can just see Madame Irritating's elbow on the left.  I've decided to try a class at another yarn shop.  This other place makes baby-sized sweaters, and that's more appealing to me.

I had planned to take a picture of my work so far, but it's an unfinished sleeve, not much to see.

We had dinner with friends tonight.  The fellas played a little golf before dinner to unwind.  I didn't realize they were coordinated until I pulled out the camera.