At last - a use for that yarn

Many years ago my friend Joan and her family took a summer vacation on Prince Edward Island. They visited Belfast Mini Mills and had a wonderful tour of the mill. Their experience is what prompted my visit a few months ago. Joan came home with a beautiful yarn that had been produced by the staff at the mini mills operation. It was a two ply yarn, about 100 m/50 g, in a really unusual combination of colours. There is green and orange and a pinky colour. It almost glows in both skeins and balls. When I saw her yarn I asked Joan if she would mind if I ordered some to arrive by mail. She said I should go ahead so I bought three or four skeins.

Over the years both Joan and I have struggled to find a project that made best use of the yarn. Both of us have knit up and ripped out projects. A few months ago Joan asked if I would sell her one of my skeins because she had finally settled on a pattern and needed more yarn. I was happy to help by supplying a skein - I still didn't have any ideas about how I would use my lot.

Last week I had to go to a series of doctors' appointments, at the same location but separated by hours. I had finished my gift knitting but I needed a project to make the waiting bearable. I poked about on Ravelry and found an interesting hat pattern. Then I went into my yarn room and grabbed a couple of things that appealed to me. I took a heathered brown in Cascade 220 and a skein of the PEI yarn. The pattern I had chosen used two colours in two row stripes.

About ten minutes after I started the striping I realized why we had been unable to make effective use of the beautiful and unique yarn. It needs help to stand out. It needs a backdrop against which to glow. When knit up on its own it just looks weird. With another yarn it looks exotic.

I finished the hat a few days later. George will wear it and seems to like it. He went and peered at himself in the mirror the first time he put it on.

Lesson learned. The next time I struggle with an unusual yarn I will pair it with a solid which will help set if off.

Captured gifts

I have been busy making gifts. So busy that I didn't photograph most of them. A knitted cowl and a pair of bright socks got away without a picture. So did some silk/rayon devore scarves that I dyed. And a journal cover.

Here are a couple of things I did manage to capture. First an alpaca/silk scarf for one of my surgeons.

A journal cover for a friend. The appliqued bits were a challenge. I had visions of printing with bike tires but that turned out to be remarkably difficult. I had to let out a lot of air and then put all my weight into the tire to get a wide enough impression. It is scary to realize just how little tire actually touches the road when we are riding. In the end I only got one piece I liked so I supplemented with a rubber stamp with a zigzag pattern.

Flora

After I was dischargedfor the hospital I had to turn my mind to the problem of what to make family for Christmas gifts. After my bike crash in August my right thumb made it difficult to knit so I knew that I might have to crochet something, at least to start with. I cast about for ideas and for reasons I cannot now remember I hit upon a pattern for a crocheted and stuffed bear. It was not just any bear. It was large and idiosyncratic and I laughed as I looked at all the versions on Ravelry.

My mother already has several stuffed bears (realistic, not teddies) and she had also admired the rose covered bear in the Oh Canada! exhibit when she saw the photo on this blog. So I decided to make the bear for her. I ordered yarn from a wonderful Maine manufacturer in colours that I thought would lend an aged look to the finished product. When the yarn came one colour was not what I expected. Luckily I found a good substitute (in the same type of yarn) in my collection. There was a lot of crocheting and to make it more complicated the pattern called for units made with six different size hooks so there was also a lot of organization required.

Some of my friends were quietly doubtful about the project. I think some wondered about the bear concept and others did not like my color choices. But I knew I was on the right track when the time finally came to join the units together to form legs and arms and a head and body. The ears, in particular, delighted me. They were a perfect shape and very fleshy.

As soon as the project came together I began to wonder about the bear's gender but decided that wasn't up to me. And I also thought about and researched clothing. I spent far too much time seeing if I could size up American Girl patterns. Since I didn't have time to make anything I purchased two types of ribbon which my mother could choose to put around the bear's neck

I photographed and packed up the bear and the other gifts I had made and shipped them to Maine. I truly did not know the reaction it would provoke when my mother unwrapped it.

My mother opens her gifts on the solstice so I was out when she called. The message she left said something about not stopping laughing since she opened the package. Based on this photo, I would say that the gift was well-received. Better yet, my mother named it as soon as she saw it - Flora. And she mentioned that Flora needs some clothes.

Solstice poem

Every year for some time my mother has written a poem and sent it as a gift to her friends on the occasion of the winter solstice. A few years ago I became involved in designing and producing the card. I didn't know if there would be a poem this year since my mother has been dealing with some health issues for the last little while. I was therefore delighted when in late November I received a poem and an inquiry about whether I had time to design a card. My first idea was a total bust but I liked the second one well enough to take advantage of Moo.com's cyber-Monday sale.

Whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year, we all anticipate the return of the sun.


Here's the poem, reproduced with permission of the author Nancy Nielsen.

The Old Woman And The Far-Flying Bird

The old woman searched everywhere –

in a drawer full of shells

in a box full of bones

in the bookcase behind the dictionaries.

She looked in the garden

and in the gathered-at-the-river grove.

At last she called the Far-Flying Bird.

While she waited she looked in the pencil jar

and in the sock drawer.  She searched and

she slept and she waited day-waits

and week-waits and many-week waits.

No-bird waits.

One morning she heard a noise on the roof.

Far-Flying Bird!  Where have you been?

I've flown latitudes and longitudes

said the bird.  I've flown the compass rose

and the zodiac and here I am.  Look:

I found it tiptoeing back from Montevideo.

Oh thank you bird, thank you

said the old woman, and she took the sun

very carefully and put it on the windowsill.

                                                                                            Straight Bay

                                                                                            Solstice, 2014

Buzzing

Is there anything better than the buzz you get once you find an idea that will work? My concept for Photo 51 has evolved to a tri-partite piece. I have spent lots of time researching imagery and quotes and now have all of the elements nailed down. It feels right - walks the line between representational and abstract and is dense with meaning. I am comfortable with the fact that most viewers won't 'get' it.

I am happy to report that I will be able to include an ivory tower in a piece destined for a show with structure as a theme. So much for my commitment to avoid architecture.

While I was Googling I had another idea about structure. It is also based in my experience and addresses an issue I care about. I will let it roll around in my head for a while and see whether it evolves.

Pieces come together

For the last month or so I have been seriously considering how I will respond to the call for entry for our SAQA region's (Atlantic Canada) second juried show. I am excited about the prospect for the show - our membership numbers are up and the curator, Regina Marzlin, has done a great job of securing multiple venues in two provinces. I am very proud of the fact that Alan Syliboy has agreed to be the juror for the show.

Since the outset I have been stymied, as I always am, by the fact that the show has a theme. The membership chose Structures. The only thing I have known since I heard that word is that I wouldn't be addressing anything related to architecture.

Last week I realized that I wanted to do a piece about X-ray diffraction which is a technique used to determine the structure of crystals. When I went to the FAB meeting today I brought along a sample to work to test some of my ideas for an X-ray quilt. Today at FAB Regina demonstrated a mono-printing technique that permits the application of thin lines of color to a quilt. In the experimentation that followed Susan Lilley created a sample of handwriting transferred to her fabric. Everyone loved it. 

I had never thought about adding text to a quilt but on my way home the idea for the X-ray quilt gelled completely. It will be titled Photo 51 which is a reference to a photo taken by scientist Rosalind Franklin who was part of the team that determined the structure of DNA. She was ultimately not given as much credit for her contributions as she probably deserved.

I will play with the basics of this image.

And the following text, a quote from a 1951 presentation by Rosalind Franklin, will appear somehow.

Conclusion: Big helix in several chains, phosphates on outside, phosphate-phosphate inter-helical bonds disrupted by water. Phosphate links available to proteins.

As will this one.

Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.

Caught up in real life

The problem with recovering as quickly as I did is that I didn't get to enjoy many dayswriting and creating with fabric. Instead, things have returned to a normal kind of busy and then some. So far this week I have taught more indoor cycling classes than ever before, including five classes on Tuesday alone. And then there are the volunteer responsibilities which were deferred by my surgery.

Here are some things have made me happy and kept my brain spinning over the last few days when I wasn't able to write a blog post.

This song gets me singing along. It is very poppy but that's what we need as the darkness of the winter starts to creeps in. The video doesn't make any sense. I suspect that's bound to happen when an Australian band uses the name of an Apache leader as a hook for their song. Nonsense was bound to be the outcome.



I am blown away by what Zemer Peled does with shards of pottery. Follow the link and see for yourself.

Untitled     Zemer Peled

Shannon Weber creates art from objects and materials she finds in nature. It is easy to dismiss work like hers with thoughts like "I could do that." Try it. It is much more difficult than it looks. She prefers that people not share her images so go to her website to see the magical forms she creates.