Spring? and Plans

Mother Nature was doing spring cleaning, and she found...some leftover winter.


To answer Elmsley Rose's question - yes, there is another project planned. This is what it looks like now:


(You're right, it doesn't look like anything - at this stage it is just bits of ironed cloth. It has been at this stage a couple of weeks and I'm starting to get ready to do the next bit...I seem to not like the orderly preparation stage, and I expect I will progress much more rapidly once I get to the fun part.)

Of course, there are lots of other things I could work on, instead - here is a peek into one of my new drawer units (a lot of organizing happened in January) - one collection of unfinished embroidery things:


Unfinished projects are truly a lot more inspiring when they are in a drawer, easily accessible, rather than stacked in small boxes and baskets, which always end up under things or in another box.

And lastly, soon I hope to write the long-planned post, which has to do with this item (now finished, but that picture is for the "real" post):


Oh, and P.S. Monday I was looking at Sharon B's blog Pin Tangle and this time I feel compelled to do Take a Stitch Tuesday, even though I'll be over three months late starting. It will get me to test out all those stitches I've read about but never tried, and make samples like I've been kinda wanting to.

And that REALLY is it. I need to go to bed. Good night!

"Historic" Embroidery

A couple of weekends ago I finally finished the teeny tiny last little bit of the interminable lion embroidery. I *think* it might actually be my first embroidery - the first one started, at least!


The main point was to try couched/laid threads, as in the Bayeux Embroidery. At around this time I read Heraldry for Embroiderers by Vicky Lugg, and was smitten by the heraldic lions. I made a lion...and it came out rather unsatisfactory (bad edges).

It is on (14 count?) cotton,and I decided the cloth didn't look very appealing at all, and I should embroider all over it. Problem one: using leftover weaving linen. Bad idea because 1) you have lots and lots of short lengths (and since this was before I knew about starting/ending threads with no knots...lots and lots of knots) and 2) it quickly wears to the point of fuzzy catastrophic failure. Problem two: huge difference in density between lion and background. (And I didn't remember that when I made the "white pods" embroidery!)

Anyway, I plugged away at it for intervals, but it has been dormant now several years, practically done. I gave up on a few things I wanted to do - it has enough issues that there was no way to "fix" it, and so many knots that it would have been impossible (I really wanted claws).

Oh - and to fix the bad outline around the lion, I twisted two colors of embroidery thread into cords, and couched them down.

Also done, shades of white/stitch variation sampler. Some of the effects only show if you are at an extreme angle (picture two). My hands-down favorite is the diagonal satin stitch. My hands-down unfavorites are left as examples of what not to do.



I suppose eventually I will lose track, but today is eight weeks without kitty.

Transportation Update

Just over a month ago I finally got another car (a miserable thing to do on one's birthday, but that's how the schedule worked). I'd had my old one just about 10 years.

Good-bye

Hello

Stats at the changing of the keys:
1990 Honda Accord LX 253,062.9 miles
2010 Honda Civic VP 35,534 miles

In some ways I was very sorry to part with my old car. I drove it long distances around New Mexico - to my first ever camping trip by the Gila Cliff Dwellings near Silver City, and to Santa Fe and Taos and Roswell. It drove in AND out of Chaco Canyon, and up through Navajo Country; Hovenweep and Arches National Monument in Utah, and Mesa Verde in Colorado. I drove it when I moved from Las Cruces to Portland, Oregon, and I drove it on a trip up to Canada, and on a bunch of SCA camping trips in Oregon and Washington. I moved four times while I had it.

And gradually, things stopped working...it is now nice to have heat, defogging, an overhead light, a non-leaky trunk and glove compartment, and to not be worried about (is that my tie-rod end about to go)??? The Civic is a *really* basic model...I kind of miss my automatic locks (really? There are new cars with push-it-by-hand locks?) but it is nice to have heat and defogging. And it is much peppier to drive, and has an excellently small turning radius.

One week and one day since losing the beloved kitty.


The last few weeks have been very crummy anyway. Missing Princess makes it worse except that the ongoing obsessive worry about her health is over.

Fare Thee Well Princess

I have two blog posts planned but not done, and this is not one of them. Today my sweet kitty died. The last few months have been a gift - once food & medication were solved, she ended up having a lot of really good time, especially the last few weeks. She napped in different places, looked out the door a lot and went out on a few balcony patrols (yesterday was a good one). She collected me in the morning and at bedtime and even went to bed before me a few nights, climbing up her "stairs" of boxes since she wasn't very springy for the last month or so.

She had a nifty tent box the last few weeks, but recently felt good enough to come hang out near me like usual instead of in the box, whenever I would actually sit still for more than 40 seconds.



Fluffy banner tail enthusiastic kitty explored the box yesterday when I trimmed off the in-the-way flaps. (They were only in the way for a human, not a kitty.)


(It's really hard to draw kitties, especially from memory, but you get the idea; the second sketch is better proportioned.)

So she had quality days until today, when she succumbed to the non-food-related health problem (she was at least 16, and may have had a stroke at some point). I'm glad she didn't linger but I'm going to miss her so much.

Thanksgiving & Indigo

On Thanksgiving I was grateful for the usual things - family and friends, having a job that pays for books and food and a place to live and internet access - but also that I still have kitty. We had a couple of very bad days.

The shibori class is now over. I barely managed it, but I did end up with a narrow length of handwoven which is now turned blue and patterned.

Stitched and tied:

Dyed, not quite dry:
Untied and unstitched (but not yet rinsed; the color will lighten slightly - and the color is *not* accurate; it is definitely dark blue, not black):


I also dyed some of the same cotton yarn so that I will have matching yarn to make a hanging braid; part of this is going to be a small wall hanging. The rest will be assorted very small things, yet to be determined.

I don't care if Wednesday's blue...

...at least if it's because of indigo.

Here are a couple pieces from last night. They all spent about the same amount of time in the vat; the color difference is because they are different types of fabric.



Squares - okay; circles - okay; but the triangles really tweak my horror vacui gene.

This is the sample handwoven - I *really* like it. Too bad it's so small...and wish me luck that I can get some more woven in time for the final class next week.



Food again. If you like kiwi fruit, you should try kiwi berries. They taste like kiwis, they look like kiwis, but they're only this big!



(Meet Antler Man; I don't believe he has appeared here before, but he gets around. While you're there, take a look around at some of the great photos. Not by me, just to be clear.)

Seasonal Libation, and Several Sundry Tidbits

Alas for the long hiatus - although I've had my delightful, completely functional new computer fully-installed for well over a month, it is the first time I've hooked up the camera to it. I suppose I might catch up eventually.

Seasonal libation:


Something completely different - a "Romanesque broccoli" which caught my eye at the grocery store (what is that? oh, that's PRETTY)



I'm taking a class wherein I have access to indigo, so I've been making things blue:


And I managed to weave a bit of fabric - these are the samples (washed and unwashed) - the intention is to weave more and dye it blue. At this point I'm dubious I'll get it done; we'll see. I'm still having difficulties from having several fingers not quite in, not quite out of joint. Weaving is not too bad; tying knots is, so the set up is irritating, as is preparing fabric for dyeing.



And, to round things out, a kitty picture. Recently this Nap Box has returned to favor; nose in the corner is one particularly-Princess posture.