Glove One done, Ikigai

 I found an audiobook to knit by

which accompanied me through Glove One and untangling the remaining yarn ready for Glove Two. After I'd done that I fell asleep for a while, the usual result of being unoccupied with a task while an audiobook plays.  The narrator is so calm and restful it's like having a cat reading to you.

Then later, the first glove is finished

Thank you for the kind comments about the little gallery of a few of my fiber art pieces. Here's a bit more about some of them. And since the light's better, maybe a couple of better views. And an explainer about the sawblade loom.

I thought Ceres deserved a better shot. I was too tired to climb up and get her off the wall then, but now I've managed it and here you can see her better.

 

Technically, this is one of the better fiberworks I've made. Ceres, aka Demeter, goddess of corn and other grains. 

I started at the top, adapting a complex Victorian knitted stitch pattern called Wheatsheaf. 

This is knitted, two-dimensional, then I moved into crochet for the full belly, and you see that it becomes three dimensional as the roots develop. This was a single skein of yarn.  It's about grain and fertility, as you see.

And the rigid heddle piece is the only one I did before giving the loom to an eager beginner. There are tons of experiments in this piece. Then I concluded this loom was too restrictive for what I needed to do, and passed it on.

Charleston, one of the red pieces, I wove on a cardboard loom I made, partly because I don't like red. But it's not what the artist wants, it's what the art wants. 

So I tried to make it frivolous and silly, with ribbon and interesting patterns, leaving the top of the warp bunched like shoulder straps on a dress good for dancing the Charleston. 

The dress needed red. The weft threads are mostly fuzzy, not out of focus -- some are hand spun, some are unspun roving.

And here's the saw blades, donated by contractor friend Michael, which I used for the circular parts of some works. They're too blunt for his woodworking, but you still have to handle the points with care.

I used some hand spun to show you how I threaded the warp. Back and forward over the teeth, progressing round the circle. Then you start weaving from the center.

Here's the back, showing how you just catch the teeth. Once it's woven you slip one or two threads off the teeth, a bit tricky,  and the rest come off more easily, giving you a circular weaving and an empty loom for the next project.

Anything can be a loom. 

Rainy here today, but I did a bit of indoor exercise, and made broth from the remains of the game hen, ready for soup. 

Then I made a pot of soup, game hen broth, diced tomatoes, chickpeas, fusilli, enough for six meals starting with Sunday supper.

Happy day everyone, the best loom of all is the enchanted one, our brain, where the magic shuttles work.