It's a Fiber World after All.

I keep meaning to update on my experiment with sewing thread for weft.  Since it's so thin I didn't think polyester thread would matter but it does.  The hem is rippled and when my weave/study group suggested I use a basting thread to draw it up, then pin and steam it,

 I did.  It was still pretty puckered but after another wash and dry and steam press, it's not bad.  Another time I'll weave 1 1/2" and use cotton sewing thread for the hem but otherwise I'm pleased.

My second monotype class was Monday night and Julie started by demonstrating how to roll multiple colors on one plate at a time.

You can how it works on the inked plate to her left.  Our instructions were on how to use found materials to create pattern.  It's nice to have three others in the class because we learn from each other.  The first week we used the reduction approach, the second week was the additive approach, and this coming class we'll combine it all together.  I forgot to take pictures of our completed projects but I found it much more time consuming and frustrating.  Anything laid on top produces white space on the print, unless you ink it which is tedious.  For instance on my first print I inked the plate with burnt sienna and scattered leaves on top which produced a burnt sierra print with white leaves all over - not interesting!

The next night we met up with son Josh and DIL Missy for Evan's fall band concert.  Sitting on those hard backless bleacher seats is not for the faint of heart!  Nevertheless, I was grinning half the time and smiling the rest.  This is the intermediate band and to the left of them is seated the intermediate orchestra.  Next up were the advanced band and orchestra- so many kids in music and so many musical instruments!

Wednesday was our guild holiday meeting /party and now we won't meet again until January.  We pack so much into three hours, overindulging ourselves since we won't see it each now for two months.  I sat with Lindsey who just moved here last February and started taking weaving lessons from Patty Huffer.  I had met her at the double-weave workshop that Patty taught, so she in turn introduced me to Bobby, who was a brand new member, had just joined that day.  In the course of conversation I realized that Bobby was the woman who came my table at our show-and-sale and said she had just finished weaving a set of towels from my pattern.  We laughed about that and then she whipped out her phone to show them to me.  Beautiful!!

After a long spinning drought, I have finally pulled out my wheel and I'm back at it.  I realized that the five scarves I sold were all with my handspun yarn as warp.  I had forgotten how enjoyable it is to spin with my cup of coffee in the morning, certainly more pleasurable than reading Facebook.

Thursday evenings I "sit the store" which what I call my volunteer position of "ambassador" at the A6 gallery.  But it's more than just tending the store, you need to be prepared to answer questions and show visitors around, answer the phone and ring up sales including credit card sales, which is a first for me.  Last night was super busy.  There was a large origami class in session when I got there at 3:00.  We cleaned up just as the evening's OSU college students started to trickle in to get an early start.

Somewhere between then and 4:00 when the lecture started a woman popped in to drop something off for the fundraiser auction next week.  She introduced herself to me explaining that she's on the board, so I said - oh, are you a printmaker?  She's a potter who fell in love with prints.  I told her that I'm a weaver who has fallen in love with prints.  Do you spin? she asked.  We had an interesting exchange about spinning as she's a former spinner who stopped, lost interest and got rid of her wheel.  But she wants to spin again and someone has loaned her a wheel which she can't get to work.  The short of it is that she's going to bring it in to the studio in two weeks when I'm there again and I'll bring oil and fiber.  I'm not an adept wheel mechanic so I hope I can get her up and running.  What a coincidence!

Falling Down the Rabbit Hole

I loved the woodcuts class so much that I jumped at the chance to take an introduction to monotype class offered by Julie again, this time on three successive Monday nights.  I've been interested in monotypes every since I saw some of Richard Diebenkorn's at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Monotype differs from Monoprint in that only one print can be made from a prepared plate.  Julie is instructing on how to apply the first coat of ink to the plexiglass plate.

I inked the entire plate in black and then experimented with different implements and spatulas to see what effect they would make.

I liked the effect I got by using a sideways stroke with a spatula so extended it until I had a cityscape.

Here they are, hanging to dry.

I liked the effect I got by scraping the ink off with the spatula so used it to make flowers.

I liked the ghost print I got in woodcuts and had one more piece of paper so ran the plate a second time. I really liked the unexpected and really cool effect from the wrinkled felt pad on the press.  You'll see it if you click for big.  We are printing on wet paper here where we did the woodcuts with dry paper.

There were three other students in the class and this is their work.  This coming Monday we're going to be print using layers of ink and found items like feathers and leaves.

This is the piece that I submitted to the members-only Holiday show next month.  It's the same way I feel about entering weaving into the Fair - it gives me ownership of the event.  I sat the studio yesterday from 3:00-7:00.  Dawn came in about 5:30 to get ready for her OSU class and was terribly agitated.  Two students were expelled from her son's middle school on Wednesday and on Thursday two more were expelled and six were suspended - for taunting the Latino students, making fun of them and telling to go back to where they belonged!  The news covered it today, with the teachers and administration saying that it would NOT be tolerated.  It's only a couple of days since Americans elected a bully to the White House and it's already starting in the schools.  

The good news of the evening was that my piece is one of the 20 that the juror selected.  I titled it Saturday Night because it's the excitement of the weekend when you're young, going out on a date, dancing, meeting new friends. The show is titled Red and you're supposed to complete the statement "Red is......."  I said "Red is what you paint the town!"

We took it in to be framed before the Veterans Day Parade today.  Most of the members take their work to Denise and I learned the hard way this morning that in the future, I need to take a piece in and get an estimate of the cost so I can include it in the price.  If this sells my profit will be $6.00! 

I'm pretty excited that my first piece to show is in there getting framed along with the pieces from the legitimate artists.  I think I'm the only student submission.

First Annual Show and Sale

The Central Oregon Spinners and Weavers held our first annual Holiday Show and Sale this past Saturday in the Environmental Center in Downtown Bend.  The building is this lovely old house which by it's nature had limited interior space and light, but that didn't seem to be too serious a problem because between 10:00 and 4:00 about 250 people came through.  The vision and planning came from Linda Gettman, one very organized and energetic woman,  She divided the room up into individual spaces marked with tape so all we had to do was show up and install our stuff.

The corner is the 6'x9' area that I shared with Mary Wonser and Gillian Burton.  The entire show had a boutique feel to it, something several of the public commented on.  My little table is under the window but my booth-mates made space for my scarves on the center display and boy did I appreciate that.  Booth fee depended on the size of the space and our area split three ways was only $42 - cheap!

By placing Mary's shelving display unit at an angle Gillian had a small table in this wedge on one side and I had the wedge on the other, and Mary's stuff was on Mary's rack.

This was my domain.  It was a little difficult to get in out out of the area but I appreciated the bright window as the lighting in the interior of the room wasn't the greatest.  One woman was looking at my towels and commented to me that she had finished weaving this draft.  I said yes, that's my pattern.  She said, no - I got it out of a Handwoven issue. I laughed and said yes, it's my article!  It tickles me when this pattern appeals to other weavers because I love it still.

Mary rearranged her scarves and offered me the hangers on the left.  There was a ton of excitement and positive energy during the show and I was glad that my side of the shelving managed to attract some shoppers.  Actually I think the towels drew them in and then when they turned around they got a face full of scarves.

I was using a the PayPal Now scanner on my iPhone but after I had rung up four sales it froze my account saying that suspicious activity had been detected.  I get that I haven't used it since last March but since I'm putting money into the account, I don't understand their worry.  Mary covered for me and let me put $200 in sales on her Square.  I've since gotten that resolved and it was the only hitch in the event.

I took this to display with the rest of the scarves which I had modestly priced at $50.  When I got there I change my mind and added a 1 in front of it, making it $150.  I figured that way I could display it and still bring it home to wear this Christmas.  It sold early and was the transaction that froze my PayPal account.  Mary to the rescue!  Laura Fry chided me on Facebook saying that she starts her scarves at $100.  I've learned my lesson.  I will raise the prices on my scarves before I show them again.

I had the surprise of my life when our two friends from Reno, Celia and John, popped into my space.  I had checked into the Environmental Center on Facebook which also provided the location and address.  They were driving from Seattle to Reno, saw the post and thought why not?  They stayed about 15 minutes, long enough for a quick visit and a towel, and then got back on the road.  Our first guild Christmas sale was a hit.  Now we need to do it again next year.

Another Hobby?!!

I took a woodcut class over the weekend at A6, a local printmaking gallery.  This is the fruit of my labor on Saturday, my sketch on graph paper, my carved block and my first print.

This is Julie Winter, our instructor, no relation to Joe Winter the potter.  We used this press to emboss our images.  The student woodcut is there in the gig and Julie is getting ready to add printing paper.

We hung our prints on this magnet board as we finished them.  It's a green studio so everything has to be environmentally sensitive.  My experience years ago was with oil-based inks which were beyond messy and difficult to clean up.  I found these soy-based oils to be a dream by contrast.

The other four students in the class have prior experience and art degrees.  I felt like a poser when Lisa sitting on my right whipped this out from a sketch she spontaneously did of the display area of the studio.

This is mine in contrast.

MaryJane on my left really fought with her print so these three were the only ones completed and printed on Saturday.

Jim, a graphic artist, took his home to complete and printed it on Sunday.  The idea was to complete and print our first block on Saturday and then to carve two complementary blocks and print them on Sunday. 

These were the steps that Sue's prints took.  The images are bottom to top.  (Sorry - my laptop has lost it's cursor so I'm managing with touch screen which I've never done before.)  She carved a block for red and a block for green but when she printed them together they became brown.  We weavers know what it feels like to accidentally cross complementary colors.  Brown!

This was my second block when I stopped to eat lunch on Sunday.  I'm so glad I took a pad of graph paper or I would have been lost.  I decided since I'd done diagonals on my first block that I'd do circular shapes on my second one.  I outlined the circles with my water bottle.  I think that's where the pattern started - I reached for a drink of water.

This is the results of my three blocks.  The top print is my first one and then because Julie stayed an extra hour after class, I ran my prints again but reversed the original black block which is the bottom image.  It really changes things.  I held up my graph paper to the light as I was planning my two blocks and my plan held up.  I'm glad I stayed the extra hour even though I was beat because it was a good lesson on orientation, something Julie brought up earlier in our class.

I only own one brayer so was thoroughly entertained by this collection drying by the sink.  I think I'm hooked.  I'm lucky to have a print-making friend in Reno who is fielding my questions.  I've ordered a catalog from McClains, a printmaking supplier right here in Portland.  

I'm not replacing weaving but I am supplementing it as a hobby.  I'm no longer able to weave for hours on end - bummer!  Weaving does pay its own way which is a big plus in a hobby, that and the love of it. I can't explore printmaking any further until after this weekend though.  It's our guild's first annual holiday sale - someone needs to tag and price all my stuff.

Falling in Love with Knitting Again

I got an email from Diane Soucy a couple of weeks ago saying that she and Fred were going to be coming through Bend on their way to the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival.  She didn't know yet what day they'd be here but she'd call when they arrived.  We had to play phone tag and work around my physical therapy appointments but we hooked up at the LYS - how appropriate since Diane is a knitwear designer!  They had never been to Bend before so next we drove over to the downtown area and I gave them the cook's tour.  Diane hit every shoe store :-)

They came back over to our house and we visited some more. They were leaving the next morning but when I sent her a picture of the Kelbourne Wool that I won last year from the Handwoven home textile contest, she said it could be a fantastic sweater.  They were shopping but would come by on their way out of town.

I knitted like a mad woman to get this swatch and Diane showed me how to design the sweater to go with it.  It's going to be fantastic just like she said.  I'm knitting from both ends of the ball with this yarn and will start knitting the raglan from the top with just one color, then the next skein I'll hold two different colors together and on down until I've used all five colors.  I can't wait to start except I need to finish my other raglan first.  It's a good thing the World Series is going on so I will have plenty of knitting time.

We trotted out to their trailer so she could show me samples, and also let their dogs out.  For those of you who know Diane, yes she still has Boston Terriers and yes, she still have three of them :)

I went from not being interested in knitting to falling in love with it all over again.  Twenty years ago Diane turned me into a "maniac knitter" - her term, and it's so good to be back.  This sweater is from variegated yarn.

This is the sweater she wanted me to see because it's what she has in mind for my Kelbourne Wool. She bought the yarn at a show and it's from Happy Fuzzy Yarns.  Scroll down to Gradient Packs. There are five colors in a pack and the yarn is as nice as Malabrigo.  I see something like this in my future, only with different colors.

Yeah, the picture is staged.  We thought it would be funny to sit with our knitting on the sofa.  They're bird watchers too so while we visited we watched the scrub jays fight over the corncob feeder that Ian hung outside our living room window.  They cleaned out one cob so he hung another.  I think we're easily amused.  And a good visit was had by all.

Changing Seasons

I'm attending an evening session of beginning tai chi and like to go to the school early so I can watch the Washu kids.  Washu is a form of martial arts and these are the beginning students.  They're fun to watch and it's encouraging to me.

Master Chen is teaching more than martial arts.  He talks to them about body, mind and spirit.  Neither Ian nor I ever anticipated that tai chi would become such a large part of our lives when we signed up last January for the five-week introductory class through the community class.  Interest is growing and last week was the beginning of COCC's fall five-week session.  The classes are packed!

 I had never seen vine maple before we moved here and these beauties are everywhere.  Our yard is filled with color and migrating birds. This week marks our first anniversary in this house.

Temperatures are still pretty moderate and since we haven't had a hard frost yet our yard is still in the changing over stage, different trees and shrubs are losing their leaves at different rates.  Our huge aspen tree is just beginning to turn but our red maple has lost all it's leaves. And that shrink-wrapped stuff on palettes is our firewood.  The guy we bought it from brought it in from the road on a forklift.  No cutting and stacking for us this year!

These trees belong to a neighbor down the street.  He's going to have a lot of leaves to rake and I'm so glad it's him and not us!  We have plenty already but Ian is trying to do a little at a time to keep up.

The towels are finished and I'm never repeating this colorway again.  It's the last project and with a few housekeeping items, I'm ready for the holiday sale in two weeks.  It's a first-time event.  I'm sharing booth space with two other weavers and have no idea how we'll even set up.  I'm looking at it as a trial run for next year.

This is Ponderosa Elementary School and it's where I've been assigned as a volunteer with Smart (Start Making a Reader Today).  Thursday was my first day and I'm assigned two kinders to read with for the rest of the school year.  All the volunteers went through orientation the previous week but even so the first day was chaotic.  Once a month all the students receive a free book to keep and the October book happened to be that same day - excitement!  The program is 25-years old and has proven to improve reading skills by the third grade.  It's a combination of reading, talking about the book and developing critical thinking skills.  One of my students was an excellent listener and the other has a ways to go. DIL Missy suggested it to me and I love it already.

This is how we vote in Oregon.  Ian filled his out and took it to the mailbox right after breakfast yesterday morning.  I did mine just before lunch and set it on the counter.  Ian headed off the mailbox with mine and I said, hold on a minute Buster Brown.  I'm going to cast my own ballot, thank you very much.  It's nice not to have to go to a polling place but I still want the experience of casting my *own* vote.

And I'm finally knitting again with enthusiasm.  I bought a cone of Bartlett Yarn last spring but never found the perfect pattern.  I spent some time on Ravelry earlier this week using really tight parameters and finally found exactly the cardigan I'd like to wear.  It's not the knitting that's a problem, it's finding something that I will actually wear and enjoy.  The pattern had a link to Interweave and a magazine called Love of Knitting which I bought for $6.99 and downloaded.  I've never heard of this magazine but it had several patterns that caught my eye that might translate into later projects.  It feels good to knit - I've missed it.