Patrick's birthday

Poetry-4th Annual Brigid in the Blogosphere

detail from a goddess painting by my friend Linda Jeffers

It's that time again - February 2...Candlemas, The Feast of St. Brigid... Brigid, the Celtic Goddess of poetry, healing and metalcraft. This will be the fourth year that the day is celebrated by having a blogosphere-wide poetry reading.
The invitation is here.

detail from my poetry shelves

Freeform Cuff No. 1

Pictures will do the talking today.
I'll just say: Noro Kureyon, 3.5mm hook, 2 vintage plastic buttons.

Clean Socks & Freeform Bracelet

A very quick post - Sophia will be arriving any minute and I think that will limit my computer time drastically.

This was a lovely sight to me: a whole bag full of freshly washed handknit socks:
I want to thank Martha of RiverWools for assuring me that my socks indeed can be washed in the washer. For the longest time I was hand washing them and besides the time spent, they just didn't get as clean as I'd like. So. I pop them in a laundry bag (I like this one by Woolite) and put them in a cold/cold wash et voila! The spinning helps enormously as well, as it gets lots of the water out and they air-dry pretty quickly.

Here is my worktable in its current state:
I am working on freeform crochet here. And here is a freeform bracelet:

This is in ArtYarns in a Handpaint Stripe colorway (#136.) I have to say I loathed this colorway in the skein, but liked the way it worked up in freeform. And the yarn itself is very nice to work with - it's soft and kind of springy, and makes a rather sturdy crochet.

The interesting thing about this bracelet is that I created it essentially all in one piece. It just sort of flowed forth, beginning with a 36" chain. I crocheted back a ways with slip stitch and then I began to create the circles that form the design, then made the band by again creating a few inches of slip stitch cord and crocheting back and forth on both sides of it, formed the loop for the clasp, and finished by wrapping the remainder of the chain around the band. I secured it on the back side.

Sophia has arrived, so I'm done here!
Namaste,
Zann

Short Row Experiments

I was looking through one of a myriad of 'bits 'n'pieces' boxes I have and found these. Sometimes I'm just amazed when I find something interesting I've written or created and never really done anything with - I often think, I did that? Why didn't I continue the exploration? Then again, engaging in the process without concern about outcome (product) is both a learning experience and a Zen experience of being-in-the-now.

I was using Silk Garden and creating a variety of short-row triangles. I varied the number of stitches in my short rows - where the tri is biggest and has that neat curving edge I believe I wrapped-and-turned after just one stitch.

In the detail above, I don't remember how many stitches in the short rows, but I was also doing a 3/3 rib.

Actually, I just realized that these experiments (as well as the Blossom Shawl in Knitty) inspired the Short Row Wedge Wraps I did in Kureyon. I very lightly felted these. Here's one:
ah...process AND product.
Balance is good.

Namaste,
Zann

Ottoman Art Gallery & What's on the Needles

I love The Ottoman. We do have another ottoman, but it's just "an" ottoman.We've had The Ottoman for more than twenty years. The accompanying sofa and Big Chair passed on years ago, but this guy is firm and spry, and admirably performs many tasks. After doing duty as the Christmas Ottoman, it became the Ottoman Art Gallery:
Sophia and I were up in the Goddess Room looking at buttons and I thought she might like to glue some to a card....well, that was a brilliant idea. Not only did she like that, but we would up spending hours snipping felt, yarn, magazines and catalogues. We glued, we talked, we laughed. We had to make ourselves stop to eat supper.

House with Squirrel by Sophia

Sophia Glides By by Zannma

Sophia will be here overnight soon and I think I will get together a bunch of things for us to have a mixed media creation fest. As for The Ottoman, it's now serving as a laundry sort-and-fold table. Bless it's multi-tasking heart....

WHAT'S ON THE NEEDLES
Well, I'm almost hesitant to write about works-in-progress because it seems like I never finish things I post about here. Never mind that I never finish a lot of other things as well. In any case, this is a New Year and perhaps I needn't hang on to that tendency (that's as close as I'll get to any sort of resolution!)

I, of course, have an inordinately high number of WIPs, but will present today only the newest:
This is the Tapestry Shawl, a pattern by Jill Vosberg of Just One More Row.

I'm making it in recycled sari silk, as in the picture, but it can be made in anything that gives gauge and comes out loose and drapey.

Recycled sari silk makes for an interesting knit - no two skeins are exactly alike and some are very dramatically different, although there is usually a predominance of red/purplely color. It's not actually made of recycled saris - it's made from the scraps left over from the production of saris. And it's not like knitting with silk yarn - in fact, it can be a little rough on the hands. And sometimes there's pokey bits of debris in the yarn. And sometimes you come to a very, very thin spot and sometimes a very, very thick, hairy spot. But oh, the resulting fabric is soft and the colors rich and faintly shimmery.

I've purchased it at my lys and also online at Paradise Fibers and The Wool Peddler. At the latter, there are great pictures of the color ranges, and you can choose between tightly spun or more loosely spun, and even ask them to try to choose skeins with or without certain colors predominating. Also they have a page of tips for handling recycled silk. And you can find the above pattern, along with others, at Wool Peddler's shawl pattern page.

I do not work for The Wool Peddler.

Namaste & Bright blessings,
Zann

Putting Away the Decorations

That's it -- those three items were all that I put up to honor the season, a wooden door wreath, a shiny gold star meant as a tree topper (no tree, just a Christmas Ottoman with presents on it) and my beloved Mary-descending-a-trail-of-Stars Advent calendar. The little cardboard Mary is moved along each day.

Anyway, it was a very strange Christmas with nothing at all as it was in the past. Paul and Molly on the way back from Michigan were stranded for hours on the highway in that awful ice storm of the 23rd, no one gathered here at the Solstice, and some family upheavals happened.

And yet...it was okay. I had some quality solitude, cleaned and organized my spiritual space, The Goddess Room, and worked on centering and grounding.

I have many new tasks and am letting go of others that do not serve me well.

One thing I want to do is pay more attention to this blog. It certainly serves me well - I have been blessed with readers who are amazingly compassionate, inspiring people. I want to keep this connection with them.

So I'm going to be tidying up this space a bit, updating the sidebar, and will be making some better-late-than-never posts in the next few days.

I am certainly working on my art - freeform is where I want to focus - but some of the things are Secrets which I can't post...the things I'm working on in preparation for leading my first-ever freeform workshop, and the things for the 2009 International Freeform Fiberart Challenge (we're not supposed to reveal them until the online show goes up--in May?) You can see other years (I participated in the 2007 challenges) at www.intff.org.

I'll close this post with a Happy New Year's wish to all (in keeping with my current better-late-than... theme) and a picture of Clover peering out at the bleak winter landscape from the cosiness of the window seat in the Goddess Room.

Namaste and brightest blessings,
Zann