Still not weaving....

I am still not weaving.  I am going to work on fixing my cartoon today and maybe get to warping a loom. I did fix my washing machine and it is running great.  Now, I am a little hesitant to wash my horse laundry in it, but on the other hand, I was doing that for a few years.  We have had the washer for five years and it just now clogged up, not bad for all the farm laundry I do.

In the meantime, we got a puppy.  So, she is keeping me a bit busy.  It is the last week of school, so there have been brownies to bake, exams to monitor, and thank you notes to write.  Here is a photo of our new puppy and her foster mom Elsie.   She is yet unnamed, and is a Spinone Italiano, a very sweet and cute little girl.

I am also gathering supplies.  I have been accepted into Helena Hernmarck's workshop at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis.  I am very excited about going.  I ordered my warp today, and will get my loom ready next week.  I bought all my yarn last week.   The workshop isn't until the end of July, but summer camps, and other activities mean little time to do things without children.  Better to get it done early, rather than panicking at the end.  Now, while my little pup is sleeping, I am going to work on my cartoon.

Instead of Weaving....

Instead of gathering my yarns, warping my loom and starting my new tapestries, I was doing this today.

I was doing laundry Wednesday night, and went to put things in the dryer and they were soaking wet.  I tried just spinning them, but they remained soaking wet.  Then, I got an E21 error code.  I knew that if I waited for a repairman it would take near a week to get one here, and the last time it was a door latch problem that he fixed in less than 30 minutes and cost me $375, more than 1/2 of what I paid for the washer.  My husband is on crutches with a  broken ankle, and besides, I have a degree in mechanical engineering.  It can't be that hard, can it?  Google and youtube to the rescue.  I looked up my error code, found a youtube video showing how to repair the pump (awesome video from repairit.com) and off I started on my morning long odyssey.  I got the dryer off of the top, yes we stacked to save space, but what a pain it is to get to the washer parts!  I got all the doors off, could they make repair any harder?  Yes, yes they could.  I got down to find the pump knowing that the problem is a blockage somewhere.  I started with the hoses.

Okay, now I am beginning to see why people sneak their horse blankets into laudromats.  I pulled that big clump out of the hose, then went to get the pump out.  I found out there was a coin trap before the pump and pulled that out and it was full of coins, bobby pins, and hair, lots of hair -- dog, horse and human!  I cleaned everything out with water, reattached all the hoses, got the sump back on with its three connectors, which took me 20 minutes of struggle, a lunch break with my daughter who is home sick with a fever, and another 20 minutes of struggle.  I plugged it all back in and lo and behold!  it works.  Okay, so the washer tried really hard to get the water out of my clothes, but the pump was shot.  So, I tried to buy local, and couldn't find any repair shops in our town with the pump, and went back to google and found a part and had it shipped overnight.  So, here I sit waiting for the Fedex truck.  

I have to say though, we bought this washer in 2007 and this is the first time I have had a clog and have washed my horse blankets for a couple of years now.  But, the designer of these washers are definitely men who do not have to do laundry on an ongoing basis.  Why put a sump that is supposed to catch stuff that will kill the pump in a totally inaccessible place such that it can't be cleaned out?  Besides that, there was no filter before the pump.  All of that dirt that my kids accumulate in playing on our farm, playing soccer, and playing in my sand riding arena is now deposited in the pump.  So, what we really need is design company of women engineers that know how to do tough laundry to design a new washer with features that we all want. 

Now, I have to go back to the laundry room to take out the pump before my replacement pump gets here. Keep your fingers crossed that my washer works after this.  Our laundry basket overfloweth and my son has a soccer tournament this weekend and no clean shorts, socks or jerseys!

Peony Cartoons

I drew and colored my cartoons.  I see some problems, but now I am debating whether to fix them in the cartoons, or whether I fix them in my choice of yarns.

In the blooming peony, I colored in with a purple which was too dark.  In the middle section with the dropping petals, there are two problems:  the peony seems to float in space, and there is a disconnect between the bottom background and the upper background that makes the drawing look unconnected.  I might just work on those in yarn selection rather than recoloring.  Recoloring the drawing means I need to go and buy another couple of art markers.  The final picture of the seed pods also has a green that is too dark and I really need another couple of greens to make the drawing work better.

I love the markers.  I have used pencils in the past, but I think I like the markers better, although they are expensive.  Now, on to warping my looms!

Inspiration

After finishing my tapestry for the Pacific Portals show, and my long project, the Sand Pail, I have been taking a break from weaving.  I just haven't decided what I should work on next.  There have been lots of things in my head, but nothing that just jumps out to inspire me.

We have been having lots of rain here, and the colors of spring are fabulous.  Everything is a beautiful rich green, and after a rain in the morning light, the water and sun combine to make everything look fresh and dew covered.  Yesterday after I dropped the kids off at school, I took my camera out for a walk around our farm.  I am hoping today to take these photos that I have played with on photoshop and start sketching to end up with my cartoons that I will weave from.  I think I will make a triptych with the flower shown below with the petals beneath it as the big centerpiece, and the two other pieces half that size.  I am not sure about the sizing, but I will work on it and give an update.

 After that, I am thinking of working on a vegetable garden series.  So much has been done with these, but maybe I will find something to new to say.  I have started with this photo of a head of lettuce and a strawberry bloom.  I love the light shining through the leaves.

An On-time Finish

Two years ago I struggled to finish my piece for the Small Format show at the ATA (American Tapestry Alliance).   This year, I actually finished a week ahead of time, was able to ship it out without having to pay for overnight fees.  Last year, I had to call around and find more yarn, I ran out and the local yarn store that had carried it, discontinued the yarn.  Yeah! for the web.  This year, I had yarn left over.

This piece measures 9 3/4" X 9 3/4".  It is of a Pacific rockfish that swims off the coast of California in kelp beds.  I really enjoyed weaving this piece, and think it is one of my best pieces.  I used beads for the eye, and embroidered the outline of the eye.  I decided not to weave the kelp leaves in the tapestry, but make some type of quilted leaf.  In the end, I took leftover pieces of silk organza from another project, cut out the leaves, roll-stitched the hem, and then took other pieces, rolled them up and couch stitched them to the leaves to form the ridges that you see on kelp leaves.  It was a really enjoyable piece.  Hope you like it.

Winter Weaving Frenzy

It seems that the only time I get any significant weaving done is in the winter.   We live on a farm, so the gardens are dormant, the weather is usually cold (not so this year), the grass is not growing, and the weeds are at rest.  Therefore, I am not called outside to weed, mow, and pick things.  I do have school activities, but my commitment varies from week to week.  These last couple of weeks I have had some time to be able to finish one long term project that I wrote about previously, and I have now started on my entry for Pacific Portals.  The tapestry I did two years ago was a change for me.  So once again I am trying a new thing with this tapestry.  The design is a bit more graphic than what I have done on other tapestries.

My fiber arts group has an exhibit that travels called Wish You Were Here.  There are selected travel photos that we use for inspiration then develop pieces based on these photos.  The piece above was inspired by the following travel photo from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.  It also fit with the Pacific Portals theme, so there we are.  I know that Joan Griffin is also using this photo as an inspiration for her Pacific Portals piece.  I can't wait to see what hers looks like!

On a different topic, which is just fun farm stuff.  One of our young hens (hatched in May) left an extra large egg for us.  You can see the size of her normal egg at the bottom and the extra large egg at the top (OUCH!).

One end was not quite fully formed and as you can see below was a little wavy and it was oozing egg white.  We decided eating the egg was dicey since it was oozing, it could mean bacteria could get inside the egg.

At dinner, the kids and I were telling dad about the egg and took it out to show him, then all of a sudden I said, "I bet it has a double yolk!"  I had heard of them, but never seen one.  Sure enough, when we cracked the egg, that is what we found!  Our lucky dog got a double yolk fried egg for dinner that night.

A four year journey

I have been on quite a journey with a tapestry that I just cut off my loom.  I started the design of this tapestry four years ago while still in a cast from having my arm broken by my horse.  Yes, he is still with me, but a much calmer individual as he emerges from his youngster hood.  I started a long distance tapestry study with Pat Williams through the American Tapestry Alliance.  My daughter, my youngest child, had started to preschool, and my son was finally settling into elementary school, and for the first time in 7 years I had a bit of time to myself.  I wanted to improve my tapestry weaving, which I had started learning from Joan Griffin.  Pat helped me to hone my design from a number of options that I had.  She was very wise in guiding me to develop my own voice rather than helping me to follow her voice.  I love her whimsical and humorous tapestries, but that is not my voice and she helped me to see that.

I started with a photograph of a lonely sand pail abandoned in a sandbox.  One of my children had taken the photograph, which was a bit crooked and bit out of focus, but I loved the image.  I drew and redrew the image until Pat and I decided that it had been honed and ready for using.  I started weaving it with Joan in a workshop that she held in June of 2008.  I learned a few new things, and then came home and started weaving.  In between, we renovated our house, I herniated a disc and spent 5 weeks in bed two  summers ago unable to weave for months because I couldn't sit and lift my hands, we had other losses in our family, and life continued on.

I reached the sand pail part of the weaving and spent months struggling with it.  I wove and rewove it 8 times, then finally got it so I was happy with it in March 2010.  Then I got to about 7 inches woven by February 2011 and realized that I was really pulling the sides in.  So, I lost 3 inches or so that I unwove.  Since then, I have not posted any photos.  I have been weaving when time allowed so that I could finish this piece.  It was hanging over my head and preventing me from developing other large project.

Today, I am done!  I have cut it off the loom, but I still have to finish it and mount it, but I am pleased with it.  It is not a large tapestry (113/8" X 13 1/2" ), but it has been a real learning journey for me.  When I mount it, I will post the final photo of it, but here is a photo of my finished sand pail tapestry, as yet unnamed.

Thank you so much to Joan and Pat for their help and their encouragement.  Now I can really concentrate on my new tapestry for the Pacific Portals show in LA!  That one can't take me four years, it is due in LA by March 15 and can only by 10X10" max, and I have already woven 4 inches on it.  I will show photos of it later.