Come join me at 4-F
That's where I am today....
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
The Eerie Walk Of November
Down through the bush, one step after the other, I went. The wind was blowing quite rudely. Overhead trees were swaying and the grey clouds passed swiftly by. Squeaking branches sounded, off in the distance. The dogs gallumped along through the bush.
I quickly discovered that when the wind is that high, perhaps a tramp in the bush is not the best idea. There was a loud crack and quite close by, down came one of the towering pines, no longer majestic, with branches brittle from Pine Beetle kill.
November is usually cold and grey with fog around here. Usually the fog covers everything in a fine coating of frost that eventually turns into dripping stalactites of ice. Not this year though. This year, the wind has been blowing pretty much constantly. Dreamer, our horse, raises her tail in disgust, and gallops around her paddock as if she can run with the wind.
I thought yesterday morning when I woke up and looked out the window and couldn't see anything for the grey cloying fog, that the typical November weather had come at last. But by lunch time, once again, the wind had come up and was blowing.....blowing... blowing....
November is not one of my favorite months, I do have to be honest. Somehow, I feel adrift, with nothing but Christmas boring down on me. Even Ideas on CBC last night, which normally I really enjoy, was boring. I had spent the day clearing out boxes full of wool and UFOs (unfinished projects) which is a boring job indeed, and then when I started to develop a headache I thought a walk in the forest.... my beloved forest.... would be good. With trees threatening to fall on my head, I decided that the walk would be better shortened rather than lengthened. So far this week I have managed to wash a fleece, wash a second small amount of fleece, clear out two rather large boxes of junk, unravel a scarf, start another scarf and ravel it out three times, finish two necklaces and one bracelet, dye some sock yarn, organize the level 4 fibres that I will need, find a baggy full of bison (which I just spent a fortune on ordering from the States), ply a ball of silk, cable a skein of novelty yarn, and worked on two paintings. Still, I feel like I have done nothing.
It's November. I know it is. November always leaves me at loose ends.
Rather like my walk of yesterday through a forest of wind, where trees were falling on all sides, November descends upon on me....
Perhaps I should raise my tail, and run with the wind...
I quickly discovered that when the wind is that high, perhaps a tramp in the bush is not the best idea. There was a loud crack and quite close by, down came one of the towering pines, no longer majestic, with branches brittle from Pine Beetle kill.
November is usually cold and grey with fog around here. Usually the fog covers everything in a fine coating of frost that eventually turns into dripping stalactites of ice. Not this year though. This year, the wind has been blowing pretty much constantly. Dreamer, our horse, raises her tail in disgust, and gallops around her paddock as if she can run with the wind.
I thought yesterday morning when I woke up and looked out the window and couldn't see anything for the grey cloying fog, that the typical November weather had come at last. But by lunch time, once again, the wind had come up and was blowing.....blowing... blowing....
November is not one of my favorite months, I do have to be honest. Somehow, I feel adrift, with nothing but Christmas boring down on me. Even Ideas on CBC last night, which normally I really enjoy, was boring. I had spent the day clearing out boxes full of wool and UFOs (unfinished projects) which is a boring job indeed, and then when I started to develop a headache I thought a walk in the forest.... my beloved forest.... would be good. With trees threatening to fall on my head, I decided that the walk would be better shortened rather than lengthened. So far this week I have managed to wash a fleece, wash a second small amount of fleece, clear out two rather large boxes of junk, unravel a scarf, start another scarf and ravel it out three times, finish two necklaces and one bracelet, dye some sock yarn, organize the level 4 fibres that I will need, find a baggy full of bison (which I just spent a fortune on ordering from the States), ply a ball of silk, cable a skein of novelty yarn, and worked on two paintings. Still, I feel like I have done nothing.
It's November. I know it is. November always leaves me at loose ends.
Rather like my walk of yesterday through a forest of wind, where trees were falling on all sides, November descends upon on me....
Perhaps I should raise my tail, and run with the wind...
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Time Of My Days
Like a giant rib cage in the sky, are the clouds this morning. As the sun rises over the horizon, the sky turns from a molten grey to a vivid purple and orange. Sun rise always is phenomenal!
I thought I would post some pictures of what I have been working on in the last few days.
Jewelry....
Washing fleece for Logwood baby blanket.....
Paintings.... watercolours to be exact....
The last painting requires a little explanation. This painting was done from a photograph when Daughter #2 was little. It was a photograph I had of my sister and I and and our friends when we were little. The photo was taken not far from my Grandparents house. I had worked many long hours on this painting as it was to be a gift for my sister. She's the second from the left and I'm the little tot partially covered by the grass. When I finished it I laid it on our dining room table to be taken to the framers and when I came back Daughter #2 was standing on the dining room chair with a pencil lead in one hand and a crayon in the other. You will notice the scribbles in the top left hand corner. I was horrified and of course took the crayons away from her. she was too young to understand the amount of work she had just spoiled in two seconds. I wanted to cry. In a fit of rage I tore the painting up later that evening thinking that I could never repair the painting. But afterwards, I kept all the pieces and stored them away in a portfolio where they have been sitting ever since. Little did I know at the time that had I not torn it, (yes, sometimes my temper gets the better of me.... these moments are sporadic... but every so often... well, I do have to say that I can be quite impulsive sometimes!!!) there was a product on the market that could have removed the pencil and crayon marks..... sigh! Anyway, it has been sitting in my portfolio, a constant reminder of my stupidity in leaving it on the table in the first place. This week I glued it back together. I am using a soft eraser to remove the crayon marks and am touching up the glued areas with my paint brush. I'll let you know how this restoring project turns out. (For those of you who say why didn't you just paint it again.... let's not even go there.... I am not a perfectionist and while this painting could be duplicated it would never be the same.) I am using acrylic on watercolour to cover the rip marks. I'm not sure if it will work but I sure hope so. If it does work then I will frame it and hang it in my new and improved bedroom.
The sky has turned to a dull grey... no wind.... I'm off for another day of nursing Daughter #1 and working on wool.But first I have a beading project that won't take long to finish....
Stay tuned for that.....
Jewelry....
Washing fleece for Logwood baby blanket.....
Paintings.... watercolours to be exact....
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| Muskox... started about five years ago and is now being finished. |
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| The Daughters.... painted from a photograph.... background is only penciled in yet... lots of work left to be done. |
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| Friends..... a painting I did years ago when my children were young. |
The sky has turned to a dull grey... no wind.... I'm off for another day of nursing Daughter #1 and working on wool.But first I have a beading project that won't take long to finish....
Stay tuned for that.....
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Last Night
The night was dark, the night was velvet. I lay warm and safe in my bed. Outside the wind blew, the roof rattled, the house shuttered, but all was safe under his watchful eyes.
Orion came to visit me last night. There... outside my window was my favorite constellation, peeking through my window, reminding me that far greater things abound in this universe than merely me.
How vast and rich this universe is.... how lucky I am to be a part of it....
Orion came to visit me last night. There... outside my window was my favorite constellation, peeking through my window, reminding me that far greater things abound in this universe than merely me.
How vast and rich this universe is.... how lucky I am to be a part of it....
A Long Day In November
The wind is blowing once again. The clouds have been amassing for another onslaught, and while the temperatures are unseasonably warm (+8 degrees) those swirling clouds in the mountains remind me that only last week we had the ground covered in snow. Once again the onslaught of winter is encroaching. Now that Halloween is over, Christmas is making itself known in ways that squeeze my heart with fear. I have done a little online shopping, but for all intents and purposes the bulk of Christmas shopping lays ahead in the dim and hazy future.
Daughter #1 has been home for the last two days as she tries to get over some illness that is making the rounds in our community. She has been sleeping a lot and so I have been trying to stay quiet in an effort to not disturb her. I have been beading, (working on Christmas gifts) I have been washing fleece and I have been purchasing cashmere. Plans are going ahead for my 150 hour project for the level 4 homework. My plan is to make this....
I am using a combination of cashmere, silk and merino wool, and my plan is to use percentage dyeing to get the effect of fading from yellow in the centre of the back to peach at the outer ends. I must be nuts to try this. Meanwhile I have to finish the level 4 homework. Even though it is a summer pattern and is shown in a lovely cotton yarn I felt that it would be awesome as a wrap for a black pants and top combo.... thus the cashmere/silk/wool blend. I think that the effect will be lovely. Stand by on that project.
Also, I have been washing fibre for the Logwood baby blanket that has been in the planning stages since back in the summer. I thought I would have a little trial with Logwood since I have never dyed with Logwood before. So the first thing I did was go to the Maiwa site and see what they had to say about Logwood and dying. Then I went to my trusty scarf drawer and found a plain white cotton scarf. First it needed to be washed and scalded, according to the Maiwa instructions. Then it needed to be subjected to a mordant. Then last but not least it needed to be dyed in a Logwood dye bath. I am at the scalding stage. Meanwhile I have a sink full of wool from Fanny (one of my sheep who happens to be a Shetland/Merino x). I will spin the water out of it on the spin cycle in my washing machine as soon as I have all the grease and suent out of it and then I will pick and card it. Once I get it to that stage then I will spin yarn from it, fairly finely, I think, but not lace weight as that is too fine for my pin looms. Then I will skein it, wash it, and prep it for the dye pot and then I will follow the directions for the 25 shades of Logwood. I'm truly looking forward to that. But meanwhile life is all about level 4 right now. I'm still waiting for the Bison to come from the states and if it doesn't come soon I will begin spinning my samples that I need for the cashmere section.
With all the work I have done today with beading... washing wool.... scalding scarves.... and planning projects, and knowing that I woke in the night last night feeling queezy, and knowing that I might end up with what seems to be affecting Daughter #1, has left me feeling not overly energetic. It has been a long day.... and all this wind seems to be zapping me of my energy too.
A long day in November?!....
But it feels good to get things accomplished....
Daughter #1 has been home for the last two days as she tries to get over some illness that is making the rounds in our community. She has been sleeping a lot and so I have been trying to stay quiet in an effort to not disturb her. I have been beading, (working on Christmas gifts) I have been washing fleece and I have been purchasing cashmere. Plans are going ahead for my 150 hour project for the level 4 homework. My plan is to make this....
Also, I have been washing fibre for the Logwood baby blanket that has been in the planning stages since back in the summer. I thought I would have a little trial with Logwood since I have never dyed with Logwood before. So the first thing I did was go to the Maiwa site and see what they had to say about Logwood and dying. Then I went to my trusty scarf drawer and found a plain white cotton scarf. First it needed to be washed and scalded, according to the Maiwa instructions. Then it needed to be subjected to a mordant. Then last but not least it needed to be dyed in a Logwood dye bath. I am at the scalding stage. Meanwhile I have a sink full of wool from Fanny (one of my sheep who happens to be a Shetland/Merino x). I will spin the water out of it on the spin cycle in my washing machine as soon as I have all the grease and suent out of it and then I will pick and card it. Once I get it to that stage then I will spin yarn from it, fairly finely, I think, but not lace weight as that is too fine for my pin looms. Then I will skein it, wash it, and prep it for the dye pot and then I will follow the directions for the 25 shades of Logwood. I'm truly looking forward to that. But meanwhile life is all about level 4 right now. I'm still waiting for the Bison to come from the states and if it doesn't come soon I will begin spinning my samples that I need for the cashmere section.
With all the work I have done today with beading... washing wool.... scalding scarves.... and planning projects, and knowing that I woke in the night last night feeling queezy, and knowing that I might end up with what seems to be affecting Daughter #1, has left me feeling not overly energetic. It has been a long day.... and all this wind seems to be zapping me of my energy too.
A long day in November?!....
But it feels good to get things accomplished....
Monday, November 1, 2010
A Trilogy Of Celebrations
I'm feelin' it. All Hallows Eve is over, and what a celebration!
We don't usually do much on Halloween. Teapot and I always took the girls out on Halloween and walked all over town with them as they trick and treated with hundreds of other kids. In the last few years we would pass Halloween at my parents house as our older children walked the streets themselves. Since we live outside of town nobody ever comes to our house on the evening of Halloween so we have not decorated our home for a long time. But this year Daughter #1 felt that she had outgrown this trick or treating and even though her friends were heading out she had decided to stay home and watch movies. We were going to watch Bram Stoker's Dracula... the 1992 (4?) version with Winona Ryder, but in the end I couldn't get it in time for us to watch it so we hit the local movie rental place in an effort to find something that would similarly scare the poop out of us. We hit on Van Helsing.... which was not as scary as we thought, and Constantine which was a little scarier. We had dinner on the couch as Daughter #2 and Teapot headed off to town for the annual foray into trick or treat land. Teapot decided in the end to come home and join us on the couch for dinner and a movie. At 7:45 p.m. we headed off to pick up Daughter #2 who was to meat us at the school with her friend. we picked her up and headed off to the airstrip north of HH where each year the volunteer firefighters put off a really cool fireworks display in an effort to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis. We got there just in time to watch the fireworks display and let me say that for a small town of approximate 1100 population, it was awesome.
After that we came home and watched the rest of Constantine.
Today is All Saint's day, a day that the Roman Catholic church in the celtic regions of Europe, concocted in an effort to combat the pagan celebration of Samhain. Tomorrow is All Soul's Day and it too was included to get those pagans of old under control. I don't really care what the reason was for these celebrations but it marks the passing of the summer... it marks the passing of the sun. We are now well and truly into the second season..... the season of the dark, and I for one am certainly feelin' it. This is the time of year that I truly dislike. It is the time of the year when I feel the full moon so much more strongly... and I feel the dark afternoons so much more poignantly. And I don't mean this is a mental thing. It is that for sure but my body responds to the lack of light too. I begin to lose my energy, I begin to sleep harder, deeper, and longer, and I begin to gain weight. (I also start to really panic about Christmas but we won't go there). Life, as I enjoy it in the summer, changes now and I really don't start to feel good until the return of the sun in the spring. (Usually around the end of February)!
Today is a day of getting work done. I need to finish a couple of pieces of jewelry.... for Christmas gifts. I need to dye some yarn for socks. I need to take care of Daughter #1 who is home today from school with a stomach flu. (I'm thinking she might have had too much junk and candy yesterday.) Either way, the year moves on and so must I.
Happy All Saints Day.
We don't usually do much on Halloween. Teapot and I always took the girls out on Halloween and walked all over town with them as they trick and treated with hundreds of other kids. In the last few years we would pass Halloween at my parents house as our older children walked the streets themselves. Since we live outside of town nobody ever comes to our house on the evening of Halloween so we have not decorated our home for a long time. But this year Daughter #1 felt that she had outgrown this trick or treating and even though her friends were heading out she had decided to stay home and watch movies. We were going to watch Bram Stoker's Dracula... the 1992 (4?) version with Winona Ryder, but in the end I couldn't get it in time for us to watch it so we hit the local movie rental place in an effort to find something that would similarly scare the poop out of us. We hit on Van Helsing.... which was not as scary as we thought, and Constantine which was a little scarier. We had dinner on the couch as Daughter #2 and Teapot headed off to town for the annual foray into trick or treat land. Teapot decided in the end to come home and join us on the couch for dinner and a movie. At 7:45 p.m. we headed off to pick up Daughter #2 who was to meat us at the school with her friend. we picked her up and headed off to the airstrip north of HH where each year the volunteer firefighters put off a really cool fireworks display in an effort to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis. We got there just in time to watch the fireworks display and let me say that for a small town of approximate 1100 population, it was awesome.
After that we came home and watched the rest of Constantine.
Today is All Saint's day, a day that the Roman Catholic church in the celtic regions of Europe, concocted in an effort to combat the pagan celebration of Samhain. Tomorrow is All Soul's Day and it too was included to get those pagans of old under control. I don't really care what the reason was for these celebrations but it marks the passing of the summer... it marks the passing of the sun. We are now well and truly into the second season..... the season of the dark, and I for one am certainly feelin' it. This is the time of year that I truly dislike. It is the time of the year when I feel the full moon so much more strongly... and I feel the dark afternoons so much more poignantly. And I don't mean this is a mental thing. It is that for sure but my body responds to the lack of light too. I begin to lose my energy, I begin to sleep harder, deeper, and longer, and I begin to gain weight. (I also start to really panic about Christmas but we won't go there). Life, as I enjoy it in the summer, changes now and I really don't start to feel good until the return of the sun in the spring. (Usually around the end of February)!
Today is a day of getting work done. I need to finish a couple of pieces of jewelry.... for Christmas gifts. I need to dye some yarn for socks. I need to take care of Daughter #1 who is home today from school with a stomach flu. (I'm thinking she might have had too much junk and candy yesterday.) Either way, the year moves on and so must I.
Happy All Saints Day.
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