Tuesday, knitting group, Textiles and Tea

But first, my horoscope explains my downfall

Guilty, guilty, guilty!

I can't claim to be concerned, though.

Yesterday I trimmed a low hanging bit off the Japanese maple that kept catching my hair, and here it is, in water, raising the tone of the joint.

Next to it is a bird's nest Gary found in his downed tree. It has ribbons and bits of paper woven in. Not sure what bird made it.

And Accidental Afternoon Art in the living room

 

The weaving is one I made years ago from yarn I'd spun and dyed.

This morning I decided on a new approach to krokbragd. I ditched the YouTube teacher, switched from the frame loom to my lovely handmade handheld Hokett tapestry loom, and found a much better YouTube teacher 

She's speaking in Spanish, old video, no translation, so I'm learning Spanish at the same time. It's not the Spanish you learn in class though -- I'm learning weft and warp and threads and design and other weaving language. 

Here's the result, much better 

As you see, the flower motifs are appearing.

The Tuesday knitting group was short a couple of members but still lively with a brand new person wanting to learn crochet 

 

Here she is with her first chain

Downstairs the beginning crochet class members exhibited their work which looks advanced to me, after half a dozen lessons 

Home to Textiles and Tea with a great person, fizzing with energy and making everything with great skill. She's also a beloved teacher and supporter of artists. 

She's credentialed in book art

Also she's endlessly ready for fun

Here she's showing two extremes of making. 

Left a silk dress -- she designed the fabric-- had it printed by Spoonflower, then made it from an old Simplicity pattern. 

She  contrasts it with LMEM, a robot figure about a foot tall, with movable parts and a door that opens. She created this real life figure as advertising for an AI company! They went with the real thing.

eyeglass cases with embroidered appliqued animals

She's written and produced children's books, the illustrations being her handmade animals

And this dress she designed, to show how to create a complex image from simple beginnings. The design started as a stack of random papers arranged diagonally showing part of each, then mirrored, and manipulated with software to create what looks very complex. Printed by Spoonflower

she makes boxes using fiber art techniques on paper components.

These dresses were in a museum exhibit, all made from six inch squares of paper

with Spoonflower she literally wrote the book! Now out of print and needing a search if you want to buy it.

This was a breathless and exciting episode with one of the nimblest, most inventive minds I've ever encountered. She has such talent and she's also a happy person!

So that was today. I had egg 'n chips (roast potatoes) for dinner and danced in the kitchen while I waited for the potatoes to crisp up.

Happy day, everyone, a very pleasing one for me, I hope yours was good too. Or at least okay.