Coffee, Tea, and Spinning

(No, I wasn't doing the spinning {I'm still resisting taking up spinning - for now}.)

Last week, I met one of my Weaving classmates from last semester for tea at a Coffeehouse that was new to both of us. We visited the Cartel Coffee Lab - the location on Campbell.

It was Stephanie's suggestion - and I think, a good one. 

We both had tea {I believe she brought a cup with her - clever and green!} and I tried the coffee cake. Her omelet looked good and was handily consumed so I think we can offer 2 "thumbs-up" on the Cartel food and beverage. (I plan to take the DH there for coffee - his AM beverage of choice.)

We were also appreciative of the wood-n-iron tables, chairs, benches - which I understand the owner constructs. It was an open, pleasant environment {with sparkly lights!}.
Oh - and they recycle!! {Which deepens my positive impression.}

As usual, I brought my knitting - working on the Comfort Shawl and the heel flap of the Jaywalker Socks.

Stephanie brought her spinning wheel AND she gifted me with a lovely sampling of her handspun yarn! {Happy Feet!! Thank you again!}
And I discovered Stephanie has an Etsy shop: SpinstressInTheMakin.

(As always, please click on the pictures to enlarge. Disclaimer - these pictures do not do these spun fibers justice. {Woof - getting a semi-accurate picture of red stuff is always a challenge…}) 

This is Forest Stream:
Love the blue and blue-green in this. The plied color contrast makes me smile!

 

And Frankenstein: 
Ok, I know purple and green are supposed to give off a Halloween vibe, but this yarn has me thinking of blooming flowers in rich brown earth. Spiffy!

 

And my tactile favorite, Red Whisper:
{The red in the sunshine is the closest to color-reality.} Yummy. Soft. Excuse me whilst I go pet that skein a little more. {Happy sigh.}

 

I knit and Stephanie spun the majority of the time we were there and she very patiently answered my ignorant questions about spinning and fiber.

Graceful hands creating a fine yarn. Pretty cool. 

 

Now, I've mentioned before that Knitting in Public is pretty much an every-day thing for me. People will stop by and ask questions, usually commenting that they "don't have the patience to knit", their "Grandmother used to knit", and {wry grin} I'm often asked if I'm crocheting. ;-)

 

Stephanie's spinning drew a variety of people over to admire her work, the wheel, and to ask questions. One very young man-ling had no interest in watching - he wanted to hands-on spin the wheel himself! Some people asked about the yarn she was making, what she would do with it, how the wheel worked, where to get one (Grandma's Spinning Wheel), and more than one person asked if she was working on a Loom. {grin-er}

All in all, it was a excellent outing and we're plotting another in the future.

{Updated later to add - I've heard from several Crocheters that when they are crocheting in public they are often asked if they are knitting. {grin}}

A Bit O'Knitterly News and Followup

Well, the Winter break between semesters is almost over. {sigh}
I'm excited about the new semester (weaving and ceramics) but a bit daunted at the expectation of extended and focused creation of original artful projects.

I'm also a'wishing that I'd accomplished more on my between-semester to-do list. Ok, I did accomplish quite a bit…but not as much as I'd hoped {I haven't even seen the 2nd Hobbit movie yet!!}.
{Tsk - sometimes there's just no pleasing me.}

I did accomplish a fair bit o'knitting:
I knit several fistfuls of fingerless mitts for family and friends. {grin-I was knitting them and giving them away too quickly to take many pictures!}
The Peekaboo Mitts pattern is a quick knit and fits most everyone nicely!

Pretty much anyone who didn't get a pair of fingerless mitts last year got them this year.
I also knit a few of these cabled mitts knit to gift away: Mitt Envy is the pattern.

 

I still have one 2013 Christmas gift on the needles - a 2nd Knotty but Nice hat like this one:

My lecture/between-class knitting for part of last semester were hats for the Podcaster Throwdown - Halos of Hope knit-a-long. In a very good-natured competition, several podcasters asked their listeners to knit hats for Chemo patients. Last week I washed and shipped the 3 hats I'd knit to Purlescence Yarns for delivery to the Halos of Hope folks (for the Team Knitmore Girls and Team CraftLit Podcasts).

The pre-wash photo. 

After I finished and delivered the majority of the 2013 Gift-knitting, I giddily enjoyed finishing off the "Hitchhiker"scarf. I was initially drawn to it for my perception of the curved/pointed "dragon-tail" end of the scarf. I became more tickled with the pattern when I found the points on the scarf represent "the answer to the question about the universe and everything" from Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"!! (The picture on the left is a more accurate color representation.)

 

Follow-up topics: 
The Origami Pullover. Last year I started knitting upon the Origami Pullover. I mentioned this pullover in the blog a few times, even posting a semi-rant when I realized my stitch gauge swatch had misled me {it lied} and I had to re-start the silly thing over again. I finished the smaller of the two rectangles and had happily started the larger rectangle when reality set in regarding how much there was yet to knit and how few balls of yarn were left. {sigh}

The moral of my Origami Pullover project is - don't just ask the sales clerk (who is holding the pattern you've yet to read) how many balls of yarn you need - check the pattern and do the math yourself.
The knitting has been frogged and the yarn and pattern await new pairings.

The 30-day Sweater Challenge/Tofu Tee.
{Ha - 30-days! grin} Um, well, the Tofu Tee is still under construction. In a lame stretch of the 30-day perspective: I didn't say the 30-day challenge would be consecutive days. {wry grin}

When the blog last heard-tell of this project, I had swatched, cast-on, knit for a bit and then I'd ripped it  out to change the yarn color progression.
After that blog-post, I made some headway but then ripped back again to avoid having to partially repeat the color sections when I got to the right shoulder. I got past the mid-way point on this Tee before it was abandoned for rampant Holiday Gift-knitting.
I'm looking forward to finishing it off…within 30-days. ;-)

Lastly - as previously reported, the Preemie Hat pledge from my Year 5 Blogiversary Post was fulfilled (and then some).

Preemie Hats about to be soaked. 

I found that the Old Pueblo Knitter's Guild (the local chapter of TKGA) collects preemie hats for delivery to local hospitals.
I attended the January OPK guild meeting and I got to hear an excellent presentation by Yumiko Alexander of DanDoh Designs.  I {and pretty much everyone at the meeting} became smitten with her clever, fun, and beautiful designs. "Fluid" was an apt description from the fellow knitter I sat next to for the meeting. One of my favorites of her patterns was Wavy Leaves. Oh, and Forest Weave is unusual and lovely. Then there's this vest pattern she's still designing. {happy sigh} I suspect Ms. Alexander's presentation will inspire an interest in projects that contain both knitting and crochet.

I also dropped off the preemie hats knit by myself and DrLeonesse.

I think there were 14 tiny hats in this bag.

Hmmm - I guess I do accomplish more than I realize. ;-)

A Few Clever Pre- and Post-Holiday Ideas

Greetings and Salutations! How you be?
Oh - Merry Christmas, Happy New Year…Happy Holidays in general!

School finished a little over a week ago and then I dove into finishing knitted gifts, wrapping stuff, doing some baking (cardamom cookies {from a 2004 Sunset Magazine) and real pound cake (from my German Godmother, Elsie)}, delivering the baking and wrapped stuff, exercising to offset the baking-sampling, cat-sitting, and {grin} I'm still writing/mailing my Christmas Cards. Ah, well.
Whilst I am seriously enamoured of the Yarn Harlot's "End As You Mean To Go On"/everything-clean-tidy-caught-up for the new year concept, the actual implementation of such order in the week following Christmas is pretty much beyond my comprehension.

I aim to do better next year! {Oh, that's tomorrow. {grin}}

Inspired by my own challenges, ideas from friends, and bolstered by the recycle flyers from the city,
here are a few clever pre- and post-holiday ideas:
Do you-all have any to add? Please do share!

Holiday Cards - Gift Tags

• I'd like to resurrect something a friend and I used to do. We would meet the first Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving and get our Christmas Cards started. {I'm sure you understand my current interest in resurrecting this tradition…{wry grin}} We'd have lunch and hot chocolate and enjoy each other's company!
• I liked the clever suggestion from FizBirch Crafts that the Cards could be trimmed down post-Christmas to be used for gift-tags next year! 

Christmas Tree - Trimming & Recycling

• A friend of mine recently commented that she may not put up a Christmas tree next year. Although she loves having the tree up and seeing all the ornaments and visiting the memories they represent, with the kids out of the house, it's just her doing the trimming/enjoying. I offered a suggestion based on something another friend of mine used to do - have a tree-trimming party. Enjoy friends, sharing stories and memories and the trimming of the tree. Pot Luck, brunch or dinner - it would be an excellent way to kick off the season. 
• TreeCycle! The City of Tucson has had a Christmas Tree recycling program for 15 years! {I'm a little proud of our Recycling pursuits.} There are 9 locations that will accept Christmas trees through January 12, 2014. Is there a TreeCycle program in your area? 
• And just a few more Holiday Recycling options courtesy of the City of Tucson. Essentially it's a Holiday-perspective on our regular City recycling.
  My favorite tips are:
  #2.   We can recycle "Wrapping paper with non-metallic finish or glitter".
  #11. "New Electronics? Then recycle or donate the old. Visit KnowWhereToThrow.com to find the recycler closest to you".
   (World Care also does electronics recycling events occasionally.)

I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year! 

Please have fun and be safe!

{See you "next year". I have to go write up some more Christmas Cards.} ;-)

Things that made me laugh today...

Last week, I tripped over the copy of Mark Twain's semi-autobiographical "Roughing It" that I had been reading but put aside for a while. This morning I was reading a bit and this part made me laugh so I thought I would share it with you.

The setting from the Table of Contents:
"Chapter XXXI
The Guests at "Honey Lake Smith's" - "Bully Old Arkansas" - "Our Landlord" - Determined to Fight - The Landlord's Wife - The Bully Conquered by Her - Another Start - Crossing the Carson  - A Narrow Escape - Following Our Own Track - A New Guide - Lost in the Snow…..171"

The Setting from me (and Mr. Twain): 
Our hero, Mr. Clemens, and a few other gents have been trapped by a flood for a little over a week at Honey Lake Smith's Inn on the Carson River. They are attempting to leave because "life at the inn had become next to insupportable by reason of the dirt, drunkenness, fighting, etc.".

The waters have receded and after a failed attempt to cross the still over-full Carson river (where the canoe overturned, saddles were lost and another night had to be spent at the inn) our group is again attempting to leave.
But now it is snowing heavily. Following the instincts of Ollendorff they set out for Carson City, assured that if Ollendorff were to "straggle a single point out of the true line his instinct would assail him like an outraged conscience". After a short time they come across some tracks in the snow and Ollendorff is positive his instincts have them going in the right direction. The company hurries to catch up to the folks ahead of them on the trail.

These are the comments made me laugh out loud:
"Boys, these are our own tracks, and we've actually been circussing round and round in a circle for more than two hours, out here in this blind desert! By George this is perfectly hydraulic!
Then the old man waxed wroth and abusive. He called Ollendorff all manner of hard names - said he never saw such a lurid fool as he was, and ended with the peculiarly venomous opinion that he "did not know as much as a logarithm!""

{Happy Sigh} Gotta love the wondrous mind and writing of Mark Twain.

And a more modern collection of giggles - "I'm Climbing Up the Christmas Tree NEOW 2013" by Shorty and Kodi.

{This pretty much embodies why I haven't put up a tree since we got Gryphon aka The Gryphon-ator.}

What a difference a year makes!

Hola, Folks.
Crimony! It's been over a month since I last posted a blog. Sorry about that.
When I consider that I posted a blog nearly every day in November and December of 2012 and then I look at the paltry number of posts for this holiday season…
{sigh} Ah well.

However, when I consider that since last November/December I have been actively pursuing a Fiber Arts degree, that I have met a wide range of radically interesting and inspiring people in the last 10 months, and that my creative interests have bloomed dramatically in 2013…

What a difference a year makes. {Happy Sigh}
But I do miss writing on the blog and seeing from whence visitors come and if comments are left. As I'm sure you've guessed, I have been spending a great deal of time in the Ceramics and Weaving labs. And I am generally very pleased (and surprised) with the results of my time. The semester is nearly over and my Ceramics and Weaving projects are done/turned in/pending grading. I still have some more work to do for the Clothing Construction class so I'm not done yet.

But a little bit of down time before the next semester is up-n-coming and my to-do lists are being jotted/revised and "Blog" appears often on those lists. A fair amount of knitting and UFO pursuits are plotted as well.

Until the next blog "to-do" is fulfilled, here are a couple of quick pictures from the school adventures of the last few weeks.

Two "nose-level" views of my final project from my Weaving I class:

The collection of pots that came from the 2nd Glaze firing in Ceramics I:
{Yes, I like throwing pots on a potter's wheel!}

And…here's 3 more pictures.
These are the photos I entered in the 11th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest.
I know - it's ok. I don't actually expect to win.
{grin} I've seen the winning pictures from the 2012 contest.

However, I'm glad I did it. It's something I've never done before and I like the idea of trying even though I'm well aware of how remote the possibility of winning is. I'm mostly hoping that one of my pictures might be deemed interesting enough to be posted on the Smithsonian's Photo of the Day.
The finalists will be announced in March 2014 and the winners and Reader's Choice Winners will be announced in Spring 2014.

You've seen this picture before. I included it in the September 28th "More Landscape - this time in ink. Plus Photos from an Inky Dark Night" blog post. I took the picture a little after midnight with a flashlight held between my knees (so the camera could "see" to focus) and whilst dodging a large sphinx moth. {grin}

I tweeted out this picture in October after pausing in the breezy pre-sunset afternoon to take the picture at the Pima College West campus. This was taken with my aging iTouch - and the Smithsonian has a new category this year for photos taken with phones-n-such. 

Hmmm - I'm not sure how well this will come through on the blog (or to the folks at the Smithsonian).

This is a 360 degree picture taken with my iTouch and the Occipital 360Panorama app as I stood in the back of my little pickup truck and viewed alllll of the sunset-drenched Tucson valley and sky. It was spectacular and the photo doesn't quite do it justice.

You can also view this photo on the Occipital Website as a larger "flat image or in the original 360 degrees (use your mouse to click-drag-shift the image left/right). 

I plan to post again soon. Hope your holidays are going well!

The Color & Composition Final Project - in Triplicate

Continuing the belated Spring 2013 Fiber Arts Degree posts with the last of the Spring 2013 Color and Composition Class Posts:

Our final project for the Color and Composition class required visiting the same drawing 3 times with different mediums or effects.
For my picture-in-triplicate, I chose to use the shadow outline from my Drawing class.

Part I of the Triplicate Project: More fussy-cutting.
The first step of our Final project - we had to emulate the Color-Aid Adventure and clip un-patterned, colored sections from magazines, cut them to match the pieces in our picture and then glue the cut pieces over our picture.

I pulled out a variety of magazines and looked for pages with larger sections of solid colors.

I pulled pages I could use to generally emulate the color reality of the original photo I took of myself standing in my back yard squinting into the sun.

The fussy cutting ensued and a magazine collage was created. I tried not to get toooooo crazy in selecting a lot of colors because it would have an effect on Part II of the Triplicate Project.
{Again, sanity was retained during fussy-cutting due to the stellar efforts of Heather Ordover of the CraftLit Podcast and the excellent presentation of "Jane Eyre" read by Elizabeth Klett. Thank you, Ladies!!}

Part II of the Triplicate Project: Paint Mix-n-match.
As I understand it, the core colors used in magazine ads are the same as the paints we were instructed to purchase for the class.
The 2nd Part of the Triplicate Project was to mix paints to match the solid colors we'd clipped from the magazines and paint the drawing to match the magazine collage. If we matched 12 or more colors, we would earn an "A" for this part of the project.

{I added notes a la "Paint by Number" to this version of the drawing.}

So, the experience gained in creating the Grey Scales/Color Wheel earlier in the semester was applied to mixing and matching a lot of paint to quite a few magazine clippings. Kindly, our instructor reviewed our paint mixing efforts and would nudge us in the right direction. Her color sense/eye for color was like magic. Or more than one occasion I'd be reallllly close to a match but stumped and she would say "This needs a little yellow" or "Magenta" - where I didn't realize that color would be involved.

{wry grin} Fussy cutting paper suddenly seemed a lot easier than mixing paint to match over a dozen colors. Moreover, I realized the larger paint brushes from the supply list didn't do much to enhance my meager drawing/painting talent but then, the paint-by-numbers kits attempted as a child had never turned out particularly well for me. ;-)

Per my notes/clues from the instructor - there is
yellow and magenta in the "brick mortar" paint!?! 

I was a little off matching the shirt colors but I did earn an "A" on this part of the project. {Whew!}

Part III of the Triplicate Project: Originality/Composition {not so much original}.
The third part of the Triplicate Project was to recreate the drawing as an original composition; applying something we learned in class - transparency, light, texture/ pattern shading...
One of my favorite "revelations" of the Color and Composition class - the explanation of light at various times of the day:

• Dawn - Strong, diffused light. Bright with low contrast.
• Noon - Strong, directional light. High contrast in value, hue (to an extent), & intensity.
• Dusk - Low contrast in value, hue, & intensity. Dark and dull. 
• Moonlight - Dull, light colors (a lot of white in them).

I traced the now too-familiar squinty self-portratit onto an Illustration Board and started mixing paints.
My original intent was to utilize the above light explanation to change the colors/light/time of day in my picture to a Moonlight scene.
That intent devolved down to trying to add shading based on my introduction to shading from the drawing class.
The result - my "Creative" portion of the Triplicate project was a bit stunted and beyond my abilities.

The class review noted that the wall in this painting looks like it's about to topple - on top of me. {grin} I got a B+. {Happy dance!} Probably for the time/effort I put into it. {Certainly not for my painting talent.} {wry grin}
Ah, well. I did learn a lot. Mostly I learned that I have A LOT to learn about Color. And that I'd like to learn more.

Sock Club and a Local Yarn Bombing Favorite

Earlier this month, I stopped in at Kiwi Knitting to visit Lynn {owner of Kiwi and purveyor of fine yarns and good company}, inhale some yarn fumes, and attend the monthly Sock Club meeting. It was pretty much a stellar day.

We had an unusually large group attending the informal knitting time that is Kiwi's Sock Club.
{wry grin - we do not police projects to ensure socks are being knit or that only sock yarn is being knit upon}.
We were joined by a few spinners and a ?sweater? class of some sort. T'was a fun and fascinating gathering of personalities, yarn, and talent.

I always meet interesting folks in our local yarn shops. A few Sock Club meetings ago, I met a nifty non-knitter who came in - with her 2 dogs - to have them measured for sweaters. ;-) And then it turned out we share Ceramics Lab at college and now we see each other often. {Typical of Tucson's 2-degrees of separation...)

The day of the October Sock Club meeting, a young lady/school teacher stopped by Kiwi to pick up some more yarn - having just come from a "Hooping" class. Of course, we asked what Hooping was - "Hooping? Is that the dance/gymnastics stuff I've seen in the Olympics?". She explained it was for fitness and dance and her passion was evident.  Not only did she bring in her adult-sized, colorful and perfectly-balanced-with-weights Hula Hoops to show to us, she did a Hooping routine for us outside in Kiwi's front parking lot! I think she was rather good and very graceful. It seems the routine she showed us is being developed to go with her Halloween costume and she will be preforming it for her students!

Whilst researching links for this post, I came across this charming and graceful video (Sapir is Hooping 2) that reminded me a bit of the live Hooping demonstration we were gifted with that day:

{I actually got pretty well distracted with quite a few videos on the Hooping.Org Blog.}

On Kiwi Sock Club day, I also took the opportunity to snap some pictures of my favorite local Yarn Bombing installation - The Kiwi Bicycle. It can usually be found near the front door unless it's raining and then it can be found in the classroom/kitchen area. I understand a variety of knitters contributed to it's creation and that new pieces are still occasionally added.
{As always, please click on the photos to enlarge.}