Is it the yoga?

Almost a month ago a friend and I decided to try yoga. We are both active - she is a personal trainer and a Pilates instructor, I go to her classes and teach eight indoor cycling classes a week and we both cycle outdoors when we can. Neither of us had taken a yoga class before so we did what we always do - jumped in feet first and have been taking three classes a week in addition to our other activities. I think we have settled on instructors and class times that suit us and will probably continue along those lines for the foreseeable future.

I am surprised that I am making the commitment to continue because I can't honestly say I enjoy the classes. But I love the puzzle of figuring out what to do and how to do it and hours and days later my brain is still buzzing with ideas about a pose and how I might do it better. And I think I am seeing a difference in other areas of my life. I seem to be sleeping a little better and am getting even more done around the house and with my art. Perhaps the most noticeable effect is that I seem to be more resilient to stress and things going wrong. Case in point: I spent much of yesterday afternoon and part of this morning working on the centrepiece of the Ivory Tower piece. It involved making lots of components and assembling them carefully. I had all the pieces made and was mid-way through assembly when something out of the ordinary happened - the freezer paper templates wouldn't release from the fabric they were stuck to. I tried everything but the stickum was so effective that it tore the fabric. I had to start over and make a bunch of pieces again. Some of them took three steps to reproduce. At another time I would have walked away and found a way to distract myself. Instead I just got back to work without missing a beat.

I think it is the yoga . . . but the sun helps too.

Hello, old friend

I haven't written a blog entry in over a month but it isn't because I have abandoned my intention to do so. Some days it feels like the blog is a friend who I can only see occasionally. I store up things to tell it. And there's lots to tell. Let's start now and work backwards over the next few days.

Today I have been thinking about how much I enjoy problem solving and how wonderful it is to have the resources at hand to make the solutions possible. In the last hour I have:

Used three circular templates to draw circles on fabric so that I could cut out perfect pieces. I have a whole set of the templates - I don't know why I bought them in the first place but they came in handy today.

Used a cute little wheel to add an extra 1/2 inch to the circumference of one circle. Ditto on not knowing why I bought it.

Found some fantastic wide basting tape that made construction much easier. I use basting tape to make zipper installation easier. I'm not sure why I bought the wider variety.

Pulled silk chiffon and black tulle from a random bag of sheers. They created exactly the effects I wanted.

Used a lot of Mistyfuse to stick layers of sheers together. I bought a large supply of Mistyfuse a couple of years ago but had never dipped into it. I had gotten by until now on the amounts that come in small envelopes.

It is not a stash - it is a resource.

Miscellaneous delights

Coffee Caramel Crème Brûlée

Val Traversy's mulled wine recipe

The students in my two hour Zone 2 class. I asked them to list their most effective love songs and favourite anti-love or breakup tunes. I have compiled them into a fun playlist for tonight. I appreciate their willingness to go along with my silliness and to share a bit of themselves.

Clever pattern designers. I can say no more without revealing a secret.

Kendra Haste She creates lifelike sculptures from chicken wire.

Knitting, Finished #10 - Exploration Station, and mitochondrion progress

I have lots to show today.  First is a quick shawlette I made last week. It is Woven, made from a single skein of Chugiak (from Pagewood Farms) sock yarn. When the yarn arrived a few years ago I loved the colors but wondered about the very hard, tightly spun feeling of the yarn. I didn't know if it would feel good on the sole of the foot. It has made a nice drapey fabric when knit in linen stitch. The scarf/shawl is asymmetric and doesn't look great in the picture but  is easy to wear. The closeup shows the right and wrong sides of the fabric - both are interesting.

Next come something I am proud of even though I hate it. I started Stephen West's mystery knit-a-long, now called Exploration Station,  in November 2014. I participated in the knit-a-long in 2013 and loved the final product even though I had my doubts along the way. I ordered yarn from Quince - Tern for its drape and muted colours. This year the doubts crept in earlier and when we got to Clue 2 I put the whole project away. The pattern called for many rows of two colour brioche stitch. Not only do I hate doing that stitch but the photos of that section from other knit-a-long participants looked very messy. But in January I went back it, realizing that it had very nearly become a UFO. It came so close that I have designated it as #10 in my finishing series.

I came up with what I thought would be a good, but equally time consuming, alternative to the brioche stitch. I even persisted when I had to order and wait for more yarn. It is done now and is definitely not my style but it is well enough knitted that I will be happy to pass it along to someone who will appreciate it more than I do.

For Michelle - here are some photos of the mystery Stephen West project from 2013. Color Craving. It is an attenuated triangle with some other features I have never seen before, principally the large holes which run down the spine. Knit from Quince Finch.

On the needles now - Wake from great Canadian designer Veronik Avery in blue Finch. And a secret project that will be revealed later.

I made lots of progress on the mitochondrion yesterday. It is complete and ready for dyeing along with the background on which it will be placed. Then I turned my attention to making muscle tissue. I did lots of experimenting and am finally content but there were a lot of fabrics, spools of thread and watercolor pencils and crayons in the "won't work" pile before I was satisfied. Those decisions have influenced what colour I will dye the mitochondrion so I am happy to have that final problem worked out.

I sometimes envy the people who create their art by working more spontaneously than I do. Then I get to the end of a day like yesterday and realize how engrossed I was and how much fun I had. I know that my methodical 'scientific method' approach doesn't appeal to most people but it works for me and it ensures that I will have no doubts about the final product.

There's a great article in this week's New Yorker about commas. I just used it to decide where to put commas in the title of this post. I am known for deleting extraneous commas when I edit but there are times when an extra one improves meaning. 

Success

I now own 25 kg of urea and the follow-up dyeing went well. I got the red I wanted. It is perhaps a hair lighter than I had intended but that will actually work better. The work I will do on huge surface will show better and that's the important player. The red is just a backdrop. No pictures, I'm afraid. I can't capture the color properly. I hope that won't be the case when I set up to take photos for my show entry.

I also mastered the lavender and figured out the grays I want. After I made that decision I had to change another aspect of Mitochondrion but that's for the better. Once again I am grateful for my collection of odd drapery and upholstery fabrics. I was able to change a concept from gray to brown and still find what I needed. I am resisting the urge to go see if there is something better in the stores but the weather and state of the roads makes that easy. So does the knowledge that the exact fabrics won't matter once I have manipulated them.

I started the final version of the Mitochondrion piece today. It feels good to know that I have worked out all the problems. Within a day or two my evening knitting will have to give way to hand stitching. I can see the end of the road for the two pieces for the SAQA show and that's good because my brain is overflowing with ideas. The Jane Dunnewold course hasn't contained a lot of new-to-me information but this has been the perfect time for me to sit down and do some self-assessment. It is helping me clarify my goals for the next three to five years and, better yet, understand how I will achieve them.

Time = 2 hr, 34 min

Colour matters

I have done as much dyeing as my supplies permitted. I stupidly ran out of urea. I could go on without it but then it would be more difficult to reproduce my results. And that's a challenge already. I wanted to re-create some red fabric I dyed two summers ago. But I can't find my notes and so far I am not happy with my experiments. The good news is that I have something shocking in mind for the not-quite-right fabric. I am going to manipulate it and overdye it. It certainly won't go in any of the Structures projects but it could find its way into another idea I have had.

They experiments with grays worked better and I know what direction I am going to take with them. This afternoon I decided that I also need two metres of a grayed lavender. Now to figure out how to make what I have in mind. Serendipity is good but not when you have a very clear mental picture of what you need.

It is times like these that make me think that I need to follow up and figure out a way to bring Carol Soderlund to the Maritimes. The product of her entry level five day dyeing class is a workbook with samples and recipes for hundreds of colours.

Letting go

It has been a productive but sad week. I have let go of some activities that mattered to me in order to ensure that I will have the best chance to focus on my goals for this year. The most important loss was saying goodbye to my friends in FAB. When the group began two and a half years ago I only knew a couple of members. Everyone else was new to me. Now I am pleased to call all of them my friends and  have looked forward to seeing them monthly. 

We have inevitably shared more than just our fibre art. Families have grown larger (grandchildren!), and members and those close to them have coped with illness. Yet everyone stayed with the group and brought evidence of their productivity to each meeting. 

I appreciate the fact that the other members of FAB embraced what I brought to the table. It was a joy to speak freely without editing my thoughts. In fact, it was discussions at FAB that led me to insights which will persist in the work I do over the next few years. It is also because of FAB that I now own a heat gun and my very own glue gun. The techniques that require those tools will also find their way into my artwork.

I am consoled by the fact that when (not if!) we move to Wolfville I will be able to call three FAB members my neighbours. In the meantime, I will make a point of reaching out to them so that we don't lose touch.