Stitching My Story

View From a Happy Day...

 

An early morning run with my BFF, followed by an iced mocha and a backwards-knitting discussion. The woman is downright AMBIDEXTROUS when you put a set of knitting needles in her hand.

A bit of embroidery-- continuing on with the blind contour hand drawings and trying to decide on a quote to put on the pocket.

A new bobbin full of hand dyed wool, along with the realization that I need to occasionally step away from the cool side of the color wheel.

View From 1/3 of the Way into Spring Quarter (Or... why I love being a student again)

Fifteen things I've learned about oil paints so far this quarter:

1. Professional grade paints have more pigment than student grade.
2. Dick Blick has great prices on oil paints and supplies.
3. Do not pour solvents down the drain.
4. There is no "color shift" when oil paint dries. It looks the same dry as it did wet.
5. Winsor and Newton makes water-soluble oil paints that don't require solvents.
6. "Mass Tone" means painting that is opaque with no show-thru from below.
7. "Glazing" is a thin, transparent layer of paint.... often layered over other colors.
8. Dipping your brush in solvent before beginning to paint helps protect the ferrule.
9. The ferrule is that little metal bit on the paintbrush between the handle and the bristles.
10. Winsor and Newton "brush cleaner and restorer" gets acrylic and oil paint out of clothes.
11. All color is relative to other colors around it.
12. Each primary color has a "definitive bias". On bias primaries lean toward their secondaries (remember that whole purple problem I was having a few weeks back?). This is why you need SIX primaries instead of three. I love the PUNCHINESS of on bias colors, but off bias colors can be quite beautiful and sometimes seem more like colors one would find in nature.
13. Freezer paper makes a great, inexpensive painting surface and "palette".
14. Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow lean towards Orange/ Hansa Yellow and Cerulean or Prussian Blue lean towards Green/ Alizirin Red and Ultramarine Blue lean towards Violet.
15. When mixing color, start by adding a TEENY TINY bit of the darker color to the lighter color.

 

“The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.” Marcus Aurelius

I've been getting some of my work ready for a display on campus. My favorite part was pulling out all of my hand-dyed fabrics and ironing them into this little bundle of color joyfulness! The polka dot ribbon came from a store I love to visit in Seattle: Watson and Kennedy.

View from the Spinning Wheel...

It's always so suprising when what you start out with....

... begins transforming itself into something else with the spin of the wheel.

Even more change when two single strands are plyed together.

Soft, squishy, colorful, hand-dyed, handspun, knitting-happy merino wool!

View from the Dyepot....

Once I get the urge to spin, the urge to dye is never far behind...

First I mix dye powder and hot water to make dyestock.

Then I soak the wool in vinegar water and arrange it in a moat around a plastic bag in a bowl (ala' Gail Callahan's Book).

Next I add diluted dyestock.

... and tie up the bundle and microwave it.

Then it gets drained in a collander.

... and layed out to dry.

Uh oh. I hate wearing gloves!

Brightly colored happiness! After it dries, I'm off to the spinning wheel.

In a Spinning and Dyeing Mood....

 

I just ordered new dyes from Sheepish Creations on Etsy, pulled pounds of snowy white merino roving from a box, and oiled up my spinning wheel. I love fall!!!

New Etsy Banner and some Hand Spun Wool...

 
 

A Painted Canvas Journal...

One of my goals for fall has been to spend 15 minutes daily drawing and writing. Sometimes it's easy and I do more... sometimes the "15:15" staring up at me from my daily to-do list FoRcEs the marks onto the pages of my journal. Either way, I find that following through on the commitment changes how I feel about my day much the same way running does. I feel a sense of accomplishment and my busy head quiets a little bit.

I made this journal with nice heavy pages. It holds a pencil and pen for both drawing and writing. Tossed in my bag, I am ready for my daily tasks anytime.

Wanna join me? It doesn't have to be drawing or writing, and it doesn't have to be two different activities. My BFF committed to 15 minutes of piano practice a day.

How would you fill 15 minutes?

Thoughts Over Coffee....

 I admit it. I'm a perfectionist. Far, far, far from perfect, but a perfectionist none-the-less. I don't like messy parts of the story. This trait frequently gets in my way and holds me back because every story has messy parts.

And honestly... I'm not sure how this new coffee gig is going to play out.

My BFF says I probably needed the summer off between jobs. She is a VERY smart cookie. I'm guessing she is not far off the mark.

I am finding that....

I like coffee, but mostly I like my coffee. I'm not sure if I like making other people's coffee.

I have a lot of respect and admiration for the culture, people, history and philosophy behind the company, but I'm not sure I need to be on the service side of the counter to fully appreciate it.

I like the paycheck, but I'm not sure I'm willing to exchange the time for the money right now.

I opened my journal today and it landed on a page where I'd scribbled: TRUST YOURSELF AND LEAN TOWARDS WHAT FEELS RIGHT. The problem is, lots hasn't felt "right" since dad died.

The universe seems to have shifted and is now tilted ever-so-slightly off center. This sort of messy alignment is not easy for a confirmed perfectionist to deal with. The current chapter of my story is feeling more than a little messy some days.

Signs of a Really Good Day...

A project-full sewing table....

 

... teeny bit soggy running shoes outside the door....

...a visit from the amazon fairy....

and less than subtle messages from the universe.