Hot, but new ideas anyway

Today the cleaners came but it was too hot for me to go out, and I stayed home but out of their way. They're like a tornado, rapid movement in all directions, no chat, they know the house so well. In an hour and a half they were done, and the house is shining.

Meanwhile I finished that woven belt, with the slot to thread the end through and modeled it. 

And I'm planning on the next adventure. This was a good day to work indoors, and I'm going to try out a thing I've been interested in for ages and why not now.

It's a warp weighted loom. This is the way weaving was done before the horizontal loom was introduced. It's a vertical setup where the warp threads are hung with weights to create the tension.

Penelope wove on this loom when she was unweaving daily. The Bayeux Tapestry, actually an embroidery, was worked on fabric woven on the warp weighted loom.

I love simpler ancient techniques relying on a lot of common sense and ingenuity before engineers started complicating the issues in order to simplify the process for the worker.

Anyway here's what I'm thinking.

Here's my yarns, and I checked to make sure the yarns could be threaded on the heddle. I'm using the rigid heddle rather than the string heddles you see in the reenactment pictures.

I need a plan and this is the back of the envelope idea as of now, sketchy as you see.

Since I need to set it up vertically, i think I'll use this rod across the door of my supply closet.  First I'll remove the curtain, which is an Indonesian handwoven piece. Then I'll set the rod up firmly enough to withstand the weights.

I'll attach 120 warp threads 60 double lengths with larks head knots, to the rod, reaching the floor, thread them through the heddle,  then attach weights to bundles of the threads near the floor.  The weights will be the one pound soft weights from my leg weight set.

So far so good. I fact if it works, I'll just leave it in place as a new curtain across the doorway.   I'm studying a lot of videos to make sure I've got the gist before I get on. There's a heddle issue to figure out.

Meanwhile one of the friends who now has a piece of my art, this one an embroidery, sent me a picture of it in its new home. Her kitty Sesame helped, but Pumpernickel jumped out of frame at the last second.

And there's an updated bouquet 

Added to the usual suspects are baby's breath and dayflowers.

Happy day everyone, remember your yoga 

Misfits, art, shrimp and treachery

Today a friend came over to pick out an artwork. A hiccup here and there with the timing, but she got here before I had to attend to the groceries.

We had a lovely visit and she went home with a stitched piece, or nue (provide your own acute accent) and stump work, butterflies and moths on a black silk ground printed with metallic copper paint.

It includes a Luna moth which has a special significance for her daughter. She'll send a picture when she hangs it.

Meanwhile I did the stitching on the fronts of the linen jacket, which I like a lot more now.

More stitching might happen. 

Then Jeff arrived with the Misfits box.

The last image is a true still life. As you know, the still life is about the short trajectory from youth to maturity to death and decay. 

Green bananas youth, ripe apples maturity, last week's overripe plums near decay.  No dead pheasants, favorite of old European painters. 

Anyway here's the week's Misfits selection. Sad news, I had splurged on a Tony's Chocolonely, and it was, sob, unavailable. 

However there's Bananaz, cans to share with the food pantry, lovely Envy apples, crisp and juicy, beautiful yellow tiny potatoes to be perfect roasted with the chicken thighs.

Yogurt and honey, desserts, raisins for snacks or maybe baking. Maybe I'll bake Garibaldis with them. It's a raisin filled pastry known to school kids as flies'  cemetery, moving along.. fair trade organic sugar supporting the good guys, mixed green salad. 

To the right, a pan of Cajun shrimp cooking, thanks to Sandra for a terrific recipe. One thing and another I didn't get rice organized, but it was a good lunch with a green salad, so it worked.  

The shrimp were small though the recipe wanted large, but you go to lunch with the shrimp you have, and this was great.

I had to make a Cajun spice mix, not hard, I had all the ingredients, and this is now a go-to for shrimp. And those chicken thighs too, I now think. 

And my reading is 

About Jane Boleyn, sister-in-law and lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn.  Back to the Tudor court.

Speaking of horror movies, I caught a Xerces Society online presentation about pollinators and all kinds of insects and arachnids. Those guys lead a brutal life. 

However, the society has a very undemanding approach to its members' observation practice

See the first recommendation!

And, this one's, seriously, a life and death issue, please go here and listen. 

Ash is a wonderful trans person, brilliant costume designer, historian, fearless defender of every human right, and they've just put out this compilation of videos full of knowledge, suggestions, lived experience and high value.  One thing they suggested for cis people was to spread this information, hard earned, on whatever platforms we can. On it, Ash!

 

I've followed them for years for their historical knowledge, clothes design -- made a couple of skirts based on their information -- and for their killer sense of humor. They're also kind and forbearing when people mean well and say the wrong thing. Anyway, it's long, so get a cup of tea or a piece of stitching and listen. There's stuff to see, too,but the words are vital.

Happy day everyone, full one around here, and now for tea and Gregory on the deck.

Plans, and nature laughs

Memorial Day weekend is the start of the summer season, pools open, shore passes re-up, at least that's the idea.

However here there's a three day rainy forecast, pools not yet open, shore not looking like fun. And here was my weekend plan, maybe not yet 

My seeds complete with squirrel deterrent doings.  But the squirrel is still getting his daily apple core

I did get a walk today, to make a pinch of it, and I love all the tree-lined walkways in this development. Like this one

Curved paths are interesting to walk.

I also have indoor plans anyway, here's my thinking about a narrow band pattern based on the sweet William I'm so excited about 

And my new loom is supposed to arrive tomorrow, so my plans there are to weave a cowl or two to send to the knitting ministry. Weaving is currently easier on my hands than knitting.  

This morning a friend came over to collect the cotton plants I started from seed she'd given me. Here's her two, repotted and wilting but they'll recover 

And here are their siblings, soon to go outside when the weather's warmer

She also had a great time studying the art on the walls and took two pieces, one gold work, one with stump work animals and dyed sections and two levels, cutouts showing another work underneath.

I'm happy to see work going into good hands, in this case to an area of her house where she has stitched work including her mother's lovely embroidery. I'll be in good company.  My art giveaway is going well. All the less for Handsome Son to deal with after I'm gone.

Happy day everyone, good things going on. Happy weekend, holiday or otherwise.

Art goes on, and orchids too

Sunday afternoon and Monday morning were about doing art obligations. The main job was to select the artwork to enter into the group show per invitation.

I decided on one of the ink drawings I did in July, the hibiscus. It's pretty good, and I feel it's appropriate to show what I'm making now, rather than old stuff. It's about forward movement, not history.

Then the hated task of finding, choosing, cleaning and taking apart a frame to use. A sectional metal one, silver color, was the best available choice. 

Then came the fun of unscrewing it, and removing the spring clips without getting one in my eye, and breaking the glass, easily done, ask me how I know, then cleaning the sections, then polishing the glass, then mounting the drawing on a backing, then finding all the tiny screws again, assembling it all and rewiring it with the wire hangers slid (needed pliers)  into the new position, and getting the spring clips reinserted under the sides. Then sitting down for a minute.

Then came the online paperwork, title, size, date, price and artist statement about the art group, upload of image.

The occasion is the 32nd year of the local artists group, which I founded and ran for several years before a staff member was hired to manage the gallery among other things.  I'm considered a legacy member, too funny.   

So the piece is official, chosen, 

There she goes. I also helped write the overall blurb for the exhibit, and that's done too. The current organizer did most of that but wanted a bit of support.

This took an astonishingly long time, and I don't exhibit now for a reason -- I need my time and energy for other things. But this was special.

I also needed to think what to take with me to Tuesday's knitting group, and ended up dumping out and organizing several project bags.  I plan to crochet together linen squares and pinloom woven squares somehow, to do my version of a fusion quilt.  

In the course of organizing I found my big sewing needles, crochet hooks, mixed knitting needles,  that cardboard lucet and several pairs of missing scissors. Also some little experiments, which I tossed.  

The thing is that I supply each project with its own tools then lose track of them, and end up using kitchen scissors because I can't find stitching ones. 

And there were balls of yarn, now untangled and bagged all together.  The crochet hooks are now with the project that needs them and the rest I put upstairs with their set.

There were bamboo knitting needles of all sizes everywhere. Now they're with their same size friends, wrapped with rubber bands. And with the needle gauge, saves guessing.

This orderliness will last long enough for one project anyway.

Meanwhile the orchid is quietly tending to its knitting. 

Look at those negative spaces. It's a marvelous shape, locking together background and positive areas. I need to draw it again.

The weather turned very wet and colder overnight, 60s in a couple of hours, down from 90s.  I ended up doing a few things outside but not walking for once. It was surprising to feel chilly. 

Happy day everyone, try not to get things so befankled that you need to sort before you can make. I'm a bad example.

Fridgescaping, art, ducks, fall copper

 Fridgescaping, my minimalist take. This is after shopping. Just sayin'.

In the container at the bottom is this, cooked Saturday from Yeung Man Cooking

Here the cartoon is nice, and the quotation is everything

Art is not to make a living, it's to make a life.

And in order for our lives to continue as planned, democracy work continues. I write a few cards then rest my hand a while, then resume. I've timed it to be done in time for the mailing date.

Today's art is setup, the latest color combinations chosen, ready to stitch.

Meanwhile I went for a walk, lovely sunny weather, saw fall copper, goldenrod and some white fluffy stuff 

And at the pond, the little flock of wild ducks is back. Briefly. As soon as they spotted me, one warning quack, and they were off 

Back at the ranch, the pioneer lady is ready to make a gallon of clothes washing liquid.

 

It suits my budget and I know what's in it, no scented additives or whiteners other than what I put there. This recipe gets the laundry as clean as the expensive stuff. The container at the back is empty. It's what I use as a dispenser, disregard the label.

So that's where I am at the time of writing.

I finished Clever Girl, and find that Tessa Hadley is the only writer I've found whose novel and short story writing both work well for me. 

Alice Walker, wonderful essays, but novels not for me. Anne LaMott, great nonfiction, oh dear on the novels. Hadley, more of both,  please.

Happy day everyone! You do you.