Making Stitch Markers

This past weekend I had one of my pajama party weekends. This is where my friends Cyndi and Shirley come down from Salt Lake City for the weekend. Its a pajama party because we don't get dressed unless we want to. I invite a few other friends over and we have a great time.

One of the things that often happens in these weekends is the stashes of yarn come out and new projects get planned.  My friend Cyndi on the right is a knitter extraordinaire.  She is great at designing and coming up with ideas. That is Shirley in the background.

I came up with a project that w all could do.  We made beaded knitting stitch markers. The instructions can be found here.  This is the first batch I made. I made about 20 more the next day.  So I have a great collection now. We also do a lot of spinning and knitting too.  Its a great time and I always either get a lot done or come away with ideas for new projects or get help with something that I might be stuck on.  Always a great time.

How did you spend your weekend?

Kate

Easter Sky - My Version

On 12 X 12 canvas a simple imaginary landscape from my Expressive Landscapes course.   I am still reworking the one I posted early.  I am finding this kind of painting hard to do.

I finished my Tardis socks a couple weeks ago.  They turned out pretty good.

I spent Saturday on the phone with Sarah and Kyle.  She got really sick while they were camping. Told her to go to the emergency room. Turned out to be appendicitis. She had surgery at 9:00 that night. The appendix had not ruptured but the surgeon said if it had been a couple hours it would have ruptured.  It was really inflamed. She is home now recovering.  It sure was hard being so far away and not being able to be there in person.

I did the ice bucket challenge to support ALS awareness and research for a cure. Here is the video I posted on Facebook.

I really encourage all my readers to donate to ALS, it is such an awful disease. Donations can be made at http://alsa.org

Knitting, Weaving and More

Since I haven't been doing much art, now what might I be doing you might wonder.

This is a hat I just finished knitting.  I wish you could feel it, it is so soft. Its made from Noro Silk Garden which is a silk/wool blend.

Here it is being modeled but the color is not real true which is why I showed the first picturee.

A side view show the entrelac pattern and the bobbles. I bought the yarn back in January when I visited my sister.  We both made the same hat.

WEAVING

This is my loom all warped and ready to begin weaving. I am making dishtowels.

These are some of the colors I'll be weaving with.




Here is what the pattern look like.  Its a bird eye twill.  I'll be changing the colors every inch or so.

SEWING

I have been making these Soup Cozies, they are like a potholder for your bowl that you cook in the microwave. That way you don't touch the hot bowl, plus you can hold it on your lap and its an insulator.  I am selling these to make some spending money for my trip.

I have made 15 so far.  I'll sell them at the Snake River Fiber Festival in May.

Each side is a different fabric. That way you can use both sides if you want.

Plus its more fun to make them that way. I am selling them for $12. If you are interested leave me a comment or send an email.

October Calendar

Here is my October Calendar. I used some sheets of stationery that were not as big as my journal so I added collaged papers to fill in the empty spots.  I used a leaf stamp in five different colors for the days of the week. A simple but fun design.

I am in a swap for a Day of the Dead art card.  I decided to make a decorate skull. I used fluorescent paints and markers on watercolor paper.  This was so much fun to make.  I started with the outline of the skull and just starting adding patterns. So much fun to make.

My Weekend

My friends Cyndi and Shirley came for the weekend. I have this sweater that I have not been working on for very much.  It is an extremely complex patterning.  There are traveling stitches, complex cables and moss stitch. One of the cables way back at the beginning was twisted incorrectly and I figured that it was too late to fix.  The fact that the cable is made with twisted stitches kept me from even trying to fix this. Cyndi offered to drop down the entire section and fix the cable and then re-knit all the remaining ones.

This is what it looked like on her lap. Seeing all that loose yarn is really pretty scary. They wouldn't let me look. I had complete trust in Cyndi so I was ok.

Here is the sweater all fixed. Now I can start working on it on it and not feel bad looking at the mistake. Thanks so much Cyndi.

So how was your weekend?

Great Basin Fiber Festival

I had a great time at the Great Basin Fiber Festival in Salt Lake City this past weekend.  I didn't take many pictures but I have a few to show you.

This is one of the treasures I bought. Its a blend of camel and silk in a color called Arcade.  I am thinking of using it to weave with/  Plus with all that color it will really be fun to pin with.

I was very excited to see this. Its naturally colored cotton from Peru in a color called Chocolate. It is really beautiful in person. There is a lot of color variation,  I think it will spin up beautifully.

I was in a class with my friend CJ so we got a pic of ourselves together.  We were learning techniques for spinning yarns on a drop spindle.

One of the things that is so great about attending one of these events is all the cool things you see just because you are sitting by someone.  I was right by the Salt Lake Knitters Guild Booth when I saw this shawl.  The colors were just lovely but I loved that you could wear it two way.  This of course is the traditional way.

In this view the wearer has turned it around so it like a scarf or cowl type garment.  I love the idea and found out the pattern is on Ravelry so I will be adding it to my collection soon.

Whenever I attend one of these events my head is always full of great memories and some wonderful new ideas that I want to try. New inspiration is always great no matter what kind of creative pursuit you have.

A Peek Into My Sketchbook

I finished these Rose Tyler fingerless mitts quite awhile ago.  They are a prettier color in person. I have not ever been able to photograph teal colors well.

Now I am working on a pair of Tardis Socks. So yes the Dr. Who craze continues. If you know nothing about Dr. Who, he is an alien who looks human who travels through space and time.  His ship the Tardis looks like a police box but is a lot bigger on the inside. He usually finds a earthly companion to travel with him.  He is the last of his race. Its a British show that is celebrating its 50th anniversary.  That is a long time for anything especially a TV show. I found the show a little quirky at first but I have learned to really love it. It has engaging stories and great characters, but you would probably have to like SciFi to like it.

This is as far as I have gotten.  I am working on both socks at the same time.

A Peak inside my Sketchbook

I am participating in a 30 day sketchbook challenge in a group on Facebook. There are prompts every day but you don't have to do them.  Day 1 was fish.

I wasn't excited about day2's prompts so I played with some birds. It is so much harder using pen. Big mistakes with the wood pecker.  I would have erased and started over if I could  but I just let it go.  I think sketching in pen is a great exercise in letting go, in being imperfect.

Day 3 had the prompt of a stack of dishes, well I thought that will be easy.  Well it easy to set them up but not so easy to draw.  My bowls came out pretty good but the plate and sauce looks nothing like what I was looking at.  Oh the joys of sketching.  It really is fun.  I think it was Danny Gregory who said that when you sketch something you learn about it, get to know it.  I think that is so true. Do you sketch regularly?  I highly recommend it.

Happy Birdies

Its been a rough few days, on Thursday I had an emergency trip to the dentist which led to a visit with a root canal specialist on Friday. My worst dental experience ever. I was having dental surgery to clena out an abcess and deal with a problem root. The novacaine was not working so I had to endure the surgery with nothing. It was a horrific. Recovery has been slow too. I can eat a little better now but my mouth is still sore. what an ordeal that was.

Needless to say there has not been much art created around here. I have been drawing and coloring in these little birdies on old book pages. I think they look happy.

I started with a shape in charcoal pencil and used various mediums to color them in.

This one I modeled after the Eastern Blue bird. I gessoed the page first and then used gelatos. I think the gesso makes the color come out richer.

This is a piece of watercolor paper that I am playing with. I started with golden fluid paint and Daler-Rowney Inks. This is just a first step, I'll be adding many layers after this one.

I've been into knitting a lot this winter. I really fell in love with Dr. Who and there are some fun things to knit from the show. I decided to start with these

Since I am not a pink kind of girl I chose this yarn, its a merino wool/mulberry silk blend in a beautiful shade of teal. The yarn feels so luscious.

My friend Cyndi from Salt Lake and I were going to do these at the same time.  I decided to head over to Ravelry, its an awesome site for knitters and crocheters. I thought I'd start a group where we could knit this together. I never imagined that 58 other people would join in. What fun. Its great to see these fingerless mitts made in so many different yarns.  I am having  fun with it.

I ended have to start over several times but now I think I have got the hang of it.

Ramblings

Thought I would feel great and back to normal today but alas, still feel yucky. Here is what I have been working on. Lady Violet's Dinner gauntlets.  They are inspired by something Maggie Smith wore in Downton Abbey season 1.  They are still unfinished as we get only a small clue each week.  I think we will be working on a lace cuff next week. They have been fun to make so far.

I ordered myself one of these necklaces with my word of the year on it. It will be a great reminder for the whole year. They are from Liz Lamoreaux, I think she does a beautiful job.

I have been prepping some canvas with gesso but haven't felt good enough to paint yet. Hopefully soon. I have been attempting to do this post with my iPad which has been challenging to say the least. How is your day going?

Sunday Sketches and Downton Abbey

I've been down with a cold and feeling quite miserable but I managed to make a sketch to share today.  As usual other sketchers can be found at Sophia's blog.

Tonight Downton Abbey begins, a series I have been looking forward to. I decided to participate in what is called A Mystery Knit A Long or KAL. The one I joined is tied in with Downton Abbey.  The colorway of the yarn is called Christmas at Downton. I found out about it on the knitting and crochet site Ravelry.

This is what the yarn looks like.  I think its quite pretty. We get our first clue today and will begin making a mystery project. We will get clues every week the show airs.  Initial info told me it has something to do with what the Maggie Smith character wears.  I'll keep you posted on what I end up making. It should be fun.

Lots of Slippers

I had friends from Salt Lake up for a long weekend. We ate and spun and knitted to hearts content and watched a lot of Dr. Who. If you like SciFi shows you will like Dr. Who. My friend Cyndi loves it too so we enjoyed watching episodes we had not seen on Netflix.

My friend Cyndi had this great slippers pattern so we all made them. First you knit them and then felt them. This is how they looked before felting. There is also a little sheep I made awhile ago but never finished.

Here are all the slippers all finished. I made the ones with the teal colored yarn, on the upper right. These were really fun to make.  You can use up a lot of small amounts of yarn.  I will be making more of these. I'll show the sheep once she is all stuffed and embellished. It was a great weekend I had lots of fun with my friends.  How did you ring in the New Year?

Waking Early

I am not a morning person, I stay up late and I get up later than most people.  This morning I woke up early after having gone to bed earlier than usual.  It sure changes the scheme of things. I have been cleaning the studio and working on small projects. like adding new labels to some of my paper drawers. I love how they are easier to read now.

This is today's face, actually created yesterday. The dress is created with Carb Othello water soluble soft pastel pencils. I like adding just a little bit of color sometimes, it seems to mix things up a bit.

This is the cabled hat I started awhile ago.  I would have posted sooner but it is hard to photograph.  The picture does not do it justice at all.

The close up of some of the stitches. I think there is a real art to photographing textiles. The hat is very soft and warm. I know I am going to love wearing it this coming winter.

In The Construction Zone

While I have been recovering I have also had construction or should I say de-construction going on in the house. We are removing this old fireplace insert and installing a new wood stove.

Here all the bricks have been removed and the insert is out but there is a whole lot more to do. There is another big steel piece that needs to come out.  Luckily Dave is doing all this work and not me.

Now we have a big whole that needs to be filled in with brick and mortar.

Each day Dave worked on this while I stayed outside away from the dust and mess.

Now the wall is filled in and next it has to have a backing and then brick and then the stove can be installed. It is amazing how long this takes.

I know this does not look much like a hat but it will eventually. I work on this while I am outside away from the construction mess. I have been beading too, but there is not much to see of that yet so I will post a pic later on.

My studio is just a mess, as you can see my work table is full of every possible supply, This is one of the backgrounds I worked on today. I have been playing with Inktense blocks, they are a fun way to lay down lots of color. This has many layers and more depth than the picture shows. I have a few others started too.  I am just waiting for them to dry before I can keep going with them.  Sometimes I use a heat gun and other times I just like to work on several things at once and let them dry naturally.

My friend Cyndi is coming for the weekend.  Its time for the Snake River Fiber Fair.  Its a chance to see old friends, be inspired by others, buy wonderful fibers and finished goods and more. I am looking forward to it. Have a great weekend.