Checking in...

I thought I was going to write that I have only been working on poetry and that's why I have neglected the blog. But then I looked around for some photos and see that I do have some visual art to share.
I will make my poetry be the subject of another post.

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures that show what I've been up to in recent months. Now I'll try to post a few comments.

This is a Jane Thornley piece, the Holey Cowl.  I used only 3 yarns and almost all of the color change is Mr. Noro's doing. I believe it's Noro Kibou- very cotton-y.

I would say that I have worn this more than I have worn most of the things I have knitted.  It has been a totally perfect and practical piece. I usually wear it around my head, draping down like a scarf under my winter coat. It has kept me warm and deeply satisfied my freeform aesthetic.

This is a scarf I am still working on, it's my traveling project, the thing I grab to amuse myself when I'm out and about.  I started a plan to name my projects - just give them whatever name occurs to me.

Meet Bartholomew. He's random stitching, a bit hole-y as well and yes, Mr. Noro. Kibou - or possibly Taiyo DK.

 

I found myself desiring to add some new skills to my expressive art journey - painting, mixed media. I took an online course through Brave Girl University - Katie Kendrick's Layered Impressions - no longer available there, but she does have it as an eBook on her website.

It was fun, I didn't do nearly all the activities, but it was a great way to start familiarizing myself with tools and materials.

I decided to go ahead and plunge into an even more intensive course of Katie's - Grit and Grace. I have barely begun that, though it has been weeks. Part of my problem was that my studio space is in the basement and some of the materials really need to be used with good ventilation. So I am putting off immersing myself until the weather is warm enough for me to work on my back porch.

I did do this as one of the first week's mark-making exercises

Then there was the making of a deck of cards with Mindy Tsonas' Inner Alchemy Circle. I joined in for the Air Coven cards (Earth and Fire have already been done and Water is upcoming in April)


I carved a feather stamp to be the symbol on the back of all my cards. We were given 28 archetypes for which we were free to collage, draw, paint images on our cards.  I chose to go simple - one central image for each card primarily.  It was fun and I hope to make more cards. I think I am going to have to forego the Water Coven  because I have a great deal of pending workshop activities along with keeping up with my poetry and submissions of my work to various publications.

The Outcast.

The Teacher (this from a National Geographic article on how a group of people were teaching baby cranes to do things so they could live in the wild. They had to do everything dressed as cranes...)

The Hermit.

 

FINALLY, finished my Stephen West blanket. This is the third winter I've worked on it. I managed to knit myself a frozen shoulder the first winter, two years ago. I worked on it a bit last winter and this winter I was determined to finish it. Very carefully - using a pillow to support my right arm.  I really loved working on it when it got big enough to cover me nicely.  It is heavy, and very smooshy. 

 

Here it is, posing on the back of my sofa (please ignore the messy bookshelves).

What I also loved about this blanket was that I was able to use a lot of the enormous stash of Noro Kureyon I have. I have come to admit that Kureyon, as color-spectacular as it is, is just too rough to use for anything that has a chance of touching skin.
HOWEVER - please note that combining it as I did here (held double with the Noro), with a soft, non-scratchy yarn, has the potential to mitigate the roughness. I used Encore, which is acrylic/wool blend and one of the few synthetic yarns that gets past my natural fiber snobbery.
In any case, this blanket is snuggly goodness.

Crafty fun with my granddaughter. This is Sister Dazzled-By-The-Light, a nun from the Order of the Hair of the Holy Spirit.

Time out for a nasty weeklong cold, finally vanquished when I remembered about nasal washing with Nasopure (better than neti for me) and keeping our humidifiers going.

From my stitchery sampler, where I practice things - I was ecstatic seeing that I could stitch and do tiny French knots after my cataract surgery.

 

Work-in-progress. I think of this as textile collage....

Scraps from fiber artist Deborah Lacativa - after washing and ironing them.  I am such a process person. I get an incredible amount of pleasure just looking at these random, hand-dyed scraps and then from touching them, smoothing them, ironing them.  I've used a few in the piece above.

 

I have definitely been neglecting any significant weaving, but one day I decided to do a quick piece, thinking of Sheila Hicks and her almost-daily practice of creating small weavings on her simple frame loom.

 

And finally - a freeform mystery.
I am working diligently to tidy up my studio and a lot of other places where things have accumulated.
I am not at all sure where I was going with these bits and pieces, but it looked kind of intriguing to me.

It feels good to have created a post.

Next time, I'll write about where I'm going with my poetry.

Namaste.