Sunday, September 17, 2017

Kicking it into high gear


This is the costume I'm wearing for the 1885 time period of Silver City.  It's really a remarkable work by some anonymous volunteer seamstress, but I've given my notice and the 29th wil be my last day for this season.  SMART starts the first week of October for the 2017-2018 school year and I will once again be reading to kindergarteners on Thursday afternoons.  I've told the museum I'd like to return after the end of the school year and once again be a living history interpreter.  I have absolutely loved it.

Many years ago I bought this box of various bits of Jamison jumper-weight two-ply wool from Alison Judge for $80 but I have never known exactly what to do with it. At some point organized the mess into related colors but the many grocery sacks are almost as messy and disorganized.  I finally have a project that is perfect for this yarn.

I'm knitting miniature Christmas sweaters for our guild holiday sale which is the first weekend in November.  Mary, Gillian and I are once again sharing a booth and I think these will be good eye candy.

Mary suggested I display them on a Christmas tree so I ordered one from Amazon which came today.  Cute!

I've been lollygagging about but now it's time to put the pedal to the metal and get serous about weaving some saleable inventory.  I've finished these dish towels which I washed and pressed today.

And I wound this warp today and have it ready to go on Maudie Mae tomorrow.  I only have one raddle so have to take it from the scarf I've weaving on Arthur.

This scarf.  Mary weaves a lot of chenille and is comfortable with the crazy twisty nature of the yarn.  I on the other hand am a newbie and wish to goodness I didn't pick a two-shuttle weave when I'm still trying to master the peculiarities of chenille.  I'm not going to weave more chenille for the holiday sale since we're boothmates and I don't want to put myself in competition with her.

I took another class from Bend Art Center last week on a technique I've been trying to figure out on my own called chine colle.  This class came along at just the right time.  At the intaglio press is Sterling Gorsuch, our teacher, with Helen his class assistant (and also mother of Nick who my granddaughter Alexia took flute lessons from). I'd take another class from him in a heartbeat.  Six hours was not nearly enough time for the material, but I'm going to practice the techniques so I can be ready for his next class.  He is from Portland so I don't expect it will be until next spring.  Fall is here and we'll be back to freezing roads in just a matter of weeks.  Yikes, this year has flown.

This my favorite of my pieces from the class.  I am fine tuning the juggling between weaving and printmaking.  I love both and wish I had more time for both.  Helen said she has discovered the secret to being a successful artist and that secret is -Time.  It is always in short supply, isn't it?

4 comments:

Deb said...

Where'd you get the cute sweater patterns? I do an ornament exchange with about 20 people and I'm tired of knitting Christmas stockings, so I'm looking for new ideas.

Any help would be appreciated.

LA said...

Your wee sweaters will be a big hit! It looks like you have enjoyed knitting them, also! Love the new towels!!!!

Michelle said...

Well, I think you are doing a LOT of amazing work of all kinds!

Sharon said...

The sweater pattern is a free download on Ravelry - Mini Sweater Ornament. I'll put a link to it in my next post.