Drying feathers and a Loud Chirp!

When it became unavoidable, I took to working on the last drawing project on our back porch. This project is on 4 foot by 6 foot paper so it's a bit more challenging (and aerodynamic) to work upon outside.

Thursday afternoon, I'd given up, cleared the dining room table, and moved the drawing project inside to attach/stitch on paper - painted and plaited to represent my family tartan (Royal Stewart) knowing that the cats would be delighted and HELPFUL. {sigh}

Just after I moved inside, Mikale, loitering at the back door, brought to our attention that two youngling birds had fallen (blown) into our ancient swimming pool. It was too late for us to help one of them, but the one I scooped out by hand was still alive.

His eyes were closed and he was shivering. Maybe gasping. I wondered if birds could cough.
There was water on his nostrils and his breathing didn't sound good. I was belatedly concerned about my putting my scent on the young wren and wondering if his parents would take him back. However, my spending the day playing with paint, water and washing my hands only when I paused to hang clothes on the laundry line might be useful in minimizing my scent.

I wanted to keep him warm so I tried to shield him from the wind as we sat in the sun at the West end of the porch.
I blew gently on his nostrils...kinda crazy, I know.
I also tried to help him dry off, using an old sheet that had been in the back yard for the Winter months shielding pipes from freezing and pending a launder before summer storage.
I hoped it would smell very little like "human" and it did seem to draw off some of the pool water.

Eventually his shivering slowed down, although his eyes were still closed. His back dried and his wings were beginning to dry when I noticed a good-sized lizard crossing the rocks about 6 inches from my feet. The bold lizard made me realize we'd been sitting there for a while.

I still had paint on my fingers -
my thumb-nail was turquoise. 

The wren opened his eyes soon after and I sat very still. He wasn't quite sure about me but his breathing seemed better. He looked around a bit, relieved himself in the palm of my hand {wry grin}, and then he surprised me with a loud chirp!

His parents quickly replied and they landed nearby on the jasmine (I could only see movement in my peripheral sight - I was still trying not to move/startle anyone).

I watched him stretch his wings, chirp more with his parents, and he finally took wing from my hand and flew to the top of our wall where a parental-wren joined him!

Yes, of course I cried. I couldn't help myself and I wouldn't care to stop such a response.
It also put my grumbling discontent about my drawing project into perspective.  ;-)

I know it's a bit of a long-shot, but I hope he doesn't have any residual effects from his near-drowning aside from enough sense to avoid swimming pools in the future.

UPs - Event Heads-Up and Catch Up

Greetings and Salutations!
My humble apologies for being absent for...jeez...over a month.
Here's a variety of updates and an Event Heads up:

Event!
I'm not sure if I have previously included in the blog a notice of this Stellar Free Concert:
The 11th Annual Music and Memories Concert will be tomorrow, Saturday, May 11th (6:15 PM - 9 PM).
I understand the Mayor has declared that day to be "Cancer Wellness Day"!
Yes, the concert is free however, any donations, silent auction, or raffle proceeds benefit the Academy for Cancer Wellness' Under-Insured Cancer Patient Endowment fund and Wellness Grant fund.

I have attended this concert for the last few years and have enjoyed each one.
Many of the professional musicians that donate their time and talents to this event are from our Tucson Symphony Orchestra and the Arizona Repertory Singers. I think they take this opportunity to perform pieces you may not hear at the Symphony performances. That is correct - this concert is not all classical music. Charming, fun and interesting!

The concert will be at the Grace-St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams.
Hundreds of door prizes are also distributed. During intermission cookies are served along with punch and a selection of chinese teas from the nifty Seven Cups Teahouse.
I think it is an amazing evening of music benefiting an excellent charity.

School
For the most part I have been hip-deep in projects for my Fiber Arts Degree. We are nearly done with the Spring semester and, although I haven't been doing "finals" (as in tests), I have been doing a variety of projects for all three of my classes.
I'll try to do individual posts on those projects but I will say I was able to include knitting in my final project for the Mixed Media class. A knitted bag with plaiting. It came out pretty well, although the handles are a bit long. Over-all, I'm pleased.

CooPurr discovered I was working with WOOL and
he plopped himself right down!

 An "aside" under the School topic - Podcasts. I have been listening to A LOT of podcasts as I worked on my projects and I have adopted a new method for Podcast-listening. It is my habit to go back to listen to the beginning of an adopted podcast and work my way forward. I have "caught up" on several of my favorites but I have been languishing in the past on many others. So...I have started to listen to the podcasts in two times - past and present. {wry grin} This way, I can feel included and be current - on Raverly, current topics, KALs, events, etc. And I can also enjoy the entire podcast - from beginning to end. Eventually. ;-)

My grateful thanks to the lovely souls who create and share their charm, time, expertise, and general cleverness in their Podcasts. Thank you all for keeping me in such very good company: Heather at CraftLit, Paula of Knitting Pipeline, Jasmine and Gigi of The Knitmore Girls, Dr. Gemma of CogKNITive, and Brenda of Cast On. You are appreciated more than you know!

Health
In case anyone is curious, the Little Brother continues to pursue good health. He excels at controlling his Diabetes and his doctors keep decreasing his insulin dosage. Woot!!

My health...pretty decent, actually. For the most part, unemployment/school seems to agree with me.
I did over-do it with late-nights/standing for many hours working on school projects last week and on top of that I got to experience my first-ever, real reaction to my weekly allergy shots. Jeez.
I'm alright but looking forward to some down-time before the Summer semester begins.

Knitting
Not a lot of recreational knitting here...

School-Knitting:
As mentioned in the School section, I did some knitting for my Mixed Media final project so there was some concentrated school-knitting there.
Also - a pair of for-Holiday-gifting Fingerless Mitts were completed via between-class knitting and a 2nd pair are nearly done. But I haven't knit a stitch on those for weeks. Mostly I've been dashing from school project to school project...
Oh.  Yeah - Please see the "School" update section. Sorry.

Recreational Knitting:
As per the last blog-post, I did finish the Scarlet Shade of Shades of Grey Swirl Coat around Spring Break.

There has been a smattering of knitting on the Origami Pullover, a pair of fingerless mitts, and some minor headway on the Lenore Socks (started years ago). 

I did pause briefly in the school endeavors to cast on the "Comfort of a Friend Woman Shawl" for the "What Else Would Madam DeFarge Knit?" Knit-a-long. (I'm a bit behind...)

Gryphon re-exploring my fulled knitting bag I originally created when he was a kitten
(he would play and sleep in the under-construction bag).

Cats

The Monster Cats are doing fine and they continue to be a major source entertainment and the focus of  any tweets I send out.

As you've probably already noticed, I've included (rough iTouch) pictures of two of the Monster-cats.
To round out the Cat-inventory and finish up this post, here's ginger-cat-brothers Nikoli and Mikale!

Kitty-TV has been showing "Bird!!" a lot lately. ;-)

And...Sweet-faced Mikale.

A Finished Swirl

I am currently experiencing a rare bit of delight.
{Note - I am still "glowing" about this project. I think it must have something to do with the size, scale, time & success involved in the completed project. 

Updated 4/7 with more pictures I'd forgotten I'd taken...}

I finished a project.
A Knitting project.
A BIG Knitting project!
And it's even a BIG Knitting project with a great story!!

The great story was related in last year's July 20th blog post: "I'm up to the Sleeves! Ack, Yarn Shortage. Yay, Ravelry Miracle!".

That blot-title pretty much tells the tale.
Two ladies in particular came to my rescue and provided me with the exact color and shade of yarn that I needed to finish my Swirl Coat.

This blog post is dedicated to Smallfields411 and Althea.
Without their generous spirits, my swirl coat might still be languishing in yarn-shortage purgatory or even frogged back down to skeins-in-waiting.

Again, ladies - Blogs and words cannot express...my heart-full, grateful thanks.
You are my heroes and the tales of your kindness will be retold with each wearing of my Swirl Coat or visit to these blog posts.
Blessings be on you and yours. {Happy sigh}

So - here is the Rest of the Swirl coat story: 

  

The yarn search and happy conclusion occurred in July 2012. 
This was just after the Little Brother had moved back to his own apartment near the end of the diabetes-stuff and about the time that my own medical adventure started. Ha - followed by the beginning of the Unemployment Adventure. {Jeez, 2012 was an "interesting" year. sigh}

Anyway...it was too big to carry around so I only worked on it at home - sporadically. I finished knitting with the 1/2 skein I had left from my original yarn and then started working with the yarn from Althea and Smallfields411. I specifically wanted to use yarn from both of them because I loved the idea of yarn/generosity/karma/vibes from these generous souls being included in this project. 

The coat was put aside for holiday gift-knitting and taken back up after Christmas. I think the actual knitting on the coat was completed in mid-January. Then I had to find time to finish and block it. 
About then I started attending classes for the Fiber Arts Degree Adventure. {grin}

I made some weekend time to finish it but, in re-reading the brief finishing instructions from the "knit, Swirl" book, I found I needed to block the coat first and then seam it up. 
OK-then...I needed water and daylight - and more time.

After another "pause", I made time in mid-March (Spring Break) to do the blocking. 
Outside. Away from "helpful", t-pin-stealing, yarn-chomping cats. {sigh}

I soaked it {twice - adding a little vinegar to the 2nd soak}. 

I squished out the extra water (by sitting on the coat rolled up in towels) and undertook the blocking. 

Blocking that took Quite-a-While - arranging, measuring, pinning, re-arranging, re-pinning.... {arrrrrrgh}. 

I covered it with a sheet to minimize any possible wildlife helpfulness and waited for it to dry.

The following week, I invested a bit of time to pin it together so I could seam up the sleeves/bodice/collar. 

And over the next few days, I actually performed the seaming. 
Several times. Because it took some finagling. 
Some of the excess coat {wry grin} was caused by my removing two welts to make the sleeves much smaller around {which turned out to be a very good idea}. But it took me a while to get the extra knitting to meld in with the seams. 

But now.......it's done. 
And it fits!!

Ok, the sleeves are a skoch too long {even after the instructor at Kiwi re-calc'd the pattern to shorten the sleeves for my T-Rex-esque arms} - but it's nominal.

{grin} My finishing timing is rather silly. We're not likely to get another cold spell to allow me to WEAR my new coat for 7 or 8 months. 
But still - I am delighted. And thankful and tickled. 

I'm off to work on homework. I have 3 school projects due next week. 
But large knit-project-wise, I'll now be pursuing my February Lady Sweater. 

With a little more confidence and a completed coat to my name.
Thank you again, Smallfields411 and Althea. 

Seriously?!? But I swatched!!

I feel BETRAYED!! 
{Yeah, that looks better when I spell it right. Back to the tirade...}
{Oh - whilst you're reading this, would you please apply a melodramatic and slightly whiny tone to the tirade?}
{Thanks.}

I was virtuous - I swatched. Several times! {kinda}
At the January Bear Cabin Retreat I cast on to swatch.

I measured in 3 different places on the swatch as advised by Gwen Bortner in the gauge class I took with her a couple of years ago!

{Apologies - I edited/correct picture inserted on 3/30 when
I realized I'd posted the same gauge pic twice.} 

I didn't initially get gauge {too many stitches per inch} so I changed up a needle-size and swatched some more. Which left me with just slightly too few stitches per inch. {SIGH}

I figured I was in the ballpark and cast on, considering that it would probably work for this project - The Origami Pullover. It has a poncho-like roominess with nice drape-potential. And it's all 1 x 1 ribbing so I figured it would be ok. {i.e. inherent stretchiness}

{Sigh}
Alas, I knit for about 18 inches on the smaller "front panel" and, although I liked the resulting fabric, the back of my brain whispered "You'd better re-check your gauge.".  So I did.
And {ACK!} - I was getting significantly more stitches to the inch!?!

Which also meant I was even shorter of the expected width for the required gauge and I began to wonder if I would have enough yarn.

Well....that's not fair! 

Um, Minor Point {confession}: In all fairness, I feel I must note that I didn't actually cast off to make an actual separate swatch square...or wash the swatch. Or keep it. Ok, I did take pictures, but still... 

However (!!), the above point should have absolutely NO bearing on the fact that gauge and the universe betrayed me when I was virtuous, semi-methodical, and I had faithfully swatched!!

Ok-then. Moving on. {wry grin}
I swatched some more (on my 18-inches of wrong-sized knitting) with a larger needle and I was back in the vicinity of the pattern-gauge. Actually, I was literally at gauge. Bizarre.
Ripping ensued and I started over.

Well see what happens next in the adventure that is my knitting.
But, based on previous experience, MY gauge isn't to be trusted.

Graceful finger art (Not by me)

I recently became smitten with the art of Judith Ann Braun.
I became intrigued when I saw a picture of part of a wall she'd done in an Artist Daily blogpost: "The Art of Your Fingertips".

Some further exploration lead me to Judith Ann Braun's website and I went from intrigued to smitten.

Smitten with her version of a "Pride and Prejudice" T-shirt (scroll down when you get to the web page {I'm also fond of the "in training" shirt}). ;-)
Ms. Braun said "Edirp and Ecidujerp" is Pride and Prejudice spelled backwards, something the honorable Jane Austen was fond of doing in personal letters!"

Smitten with her Text Art - this one in particular:
"Oh May I" (far left text when you get to the web page.)

{No, I personally don't aspire to draw on the level of Jane Austin's writing, but I love that Judith Ann Braun (a real artist/person who can draw) would have this thought!}

And I am quite smitten with her Charcoal finger art.
She has had installations in the Indianapolis Museum of Art ("Without Pleasure All We'd Have is a Bunch of Stuff Vibrating") and in the Chrysler Museum of Art ("Diamond Dust", 2012).

This video shows her creating part of "Diamond Dust" in the Chrysler Museum of Art:
"Without Pleasure"

Another "Diamond Dust" video from the artist.
{Love the fluttering grace of her fingers. I am boggled at how her brain works that she can create on this scale with deft, slight finger movements. Wondrous and excellent!}

I spent a bit of time exploring her website and videos. Pretty cool.
Another favorite: "My Five Minute Life".
(I can't get this video to embed, so you might want to take 5 minutes and go be charmed by Ms. Braun).

I thank her for her clever art, for sharing herself with us, and I wish her good health and continued creativity.

Why Charcoal Reminds Me of Fulling Wool

Why does charcoal remind me of fulling wool?
Drawing with Charcoal, like fulling {felting} a knitted item, is extremely forgiving. And both hide a multitude of sins!

Yep, we recently experienced the medium of charcoal in my Drawing class. I've decided I rather like it.

I knew of charcoal drawing implements but I didn't know from whence it came.
"Vine" charcoal used in drawing is from grape vines!
There is even a knot in one of the vine/charcoal sticks I received from the teacher.

Cool, huh?

The teacher gave us a half-sheet of Grey Canson paper for our first charcoal drawing.
He had us cover the paper in charcoal.
No, seriously - scribble allllll over the paper.
And then we smeared it around with a paper towel.
Fun start. I liked it.

He had us draw an apple, and then a cone. And we visited shading a bit more.
The Cone became a....well, a jigger. Then we were to add a box and a window....corrections and highlights effected via paper towel (and a special grey highlighter/eraser-thingy made just for charcoal).

The teacher augmented this a little so I can't
take all the credit for this drawing.

I was pretty tickled with how easy it was to correct/remove/shade with charcoal.
My clueless strokes looked rather good - almost as though I'd done that apple shading on purpose.
Kinda fun.

We sprayed a fixative on the drawings so they wouldn't smear. Because, as you'd expect, charcoal smears wonderfully.
And yes, I did to to Target one day after class {with a smear of charcoal running from my left cheekbone down to my jaw} to purchase a very inexpensive spray fixative alternative to the high-end artsy kind.

I purchased my first-ever can of hair spray. {wry grin}
The DH was mildly excited with the purchase of hairspray too.
He says you can use hair spray to avoid corrosion on car battery contacts/cables. ;-)


Homework: Charcoal Still Life on a full sheet of Canson Paper with a border.

Does the subject matter look familiar?
Yep, I drew the same bottles/cat statue on the bottom shelf of the IKEA baker's rack/plant stand that I outlined in graphite for a previous homework assignment.

I did try to include the Christmas Cactus leaves on the right side of the drawing but I couldn't quite figure out how to do it in charcoal. (They were unrecognizable as black spikey blobs).
But hey, didn't I do an excellent job of rubbing out my cactus-leaf drawing attempt?!?
{grin - the teacher did comment on shading in that corner being a little too dark...}

I have to confess, I liked that drawing more before I applied the white-pencil highlighting. I think I over did it some. Ah well.

The last charcoal drawing assignment was to place 12 hand-sized, complete cones on a full sheet of (pink) Canson paper.
The teacher quickly altered the assignment to allow other shapes and some creative drawing. I felt challenged enough with basic shapes and shading (but there is one spot of whimsy in my drawing...enhanced by the teacher.).

Did you see it? {hint-it's upside down}

We've moved on into perspective with graphite (pencil) now.
But I'm hoping we'll revisit charcoal drawing. I think it is kind to rookies.  Not unlike the fulling wool. Both charcoal drawing and fulling wool seem to flow well, hide mistakes, and finish magically.
Charcoal is the "felting" of the drawing world. {wry grin}

Of Graphite and Negative Space

So - my drawing education continues.
Don't get your hopes up {grin}. My drawing has not improved, I'm just learning about more drawing tools and techniques.

We continued with more Still Life stuff and there was some shading and perspective discussion.

Actually, this was imagined still-life with spheres added later at the teacher's add-round-things-with-shadows request.

This was the result of the next homework assignment:

"Draw three things from your kitchen plus a Sandwich".

So I chose a Hawaiian quilt-patterned oven hot-pad
{because I'm a clueless ninny that didn't consider how HARD it would be to draw}
and the Lunch that I'd packed for the next day - which included a sandwich.

I did my best to draw it and tried to apply the new shading/perspective stuff we'd been shown.

The teacher offered some suggestions on how to do the shading behind the yogurt/apple better and indicated his concerns about all the background shading I'd added (I tried to explain everything had been on a dark background).
He seemed pleased that I'd drawn a "pita-bread" sandwich instead of regular-bread sandwich.
{Harrumph - it wasn't pita-bread! It was a wheat-round...bread-thingy.
But yeah, OK,  in my drawing it does look like pita-bread.} ;-)

We dashed through more technique/practice in the next class:
"Thumbnail" sketches of a variety of sections of two long tables of white-painted "still life" bottles, cans, jars, etc.

 Yes, the one on the bottom right is particularly sad. {grin} He had us draw it without looking down at our paper.

The one in the upper-left became a larger-scale in-class drawing {because it had to include flowers and I liked the grouping}. I think he sent this one home with us to tweak/finish too.
(Click to em-biggen.)

 

Near the end of class, we had to draw a section of the white-still life items in reverse to show the Negative Space. The examples included the shadows from the items being left white. And for some reason this concept boggled me and I had a hard time with this exercise.

{And my subjects appear to be listing to the right - or
maybe it's my photography? Hmmmm.}

We were assigned homework to do a "negative space" drawing of 4 or 5 items from our home.
Bonus! He gave us a ginormous sheet of paper to take home to draw upon.
(Of course it was raining when we left class that day... {grin}).

When looking about my home for resident "still life" clusters to use in my drawing, I realized I have a lot of junque, uh, dusty..., uh, Potential ART subjects around my home. {sigh}

I chose to draw this bottom-shelf of an IKEA bakers-rack/plant stand:

It turned out to be quite a challenge for me, but I think the resemblance between Negative Space drawing and still life isn't bad:

{The interesting pattern in the shading is courtesy of the ancient cardboard puzzle-caddy
I used as an easel to accommodate the ginormous sheet of paper}

So...I'm learning.
I think most things I've drawn are recognizable - which is more than I had thought possible!
All-in-all, I think it's going reasonably well {but I need to pick less-challenging stuff to draw}.