Handspun & Handknit

We went to Gatlinburg last weekend, and Lorelei got to try out her mittens & hat. I wanted to make her something out of handspun, and she chose a blue/gray combination of some Louet that I had spun and chain plied:

I still need to make some I-cord to keep the mittens together, but she loved them:

When I first started creating art, I wanted to change the world. Later, I realized I was changing the world. . . mine.

Very cool - meditation & drawing all in one - anyone can do it: http://ping.fm/OjVZk

New Blog!

I have a new blog - not for knitting, but for teaching. I pulled some old posts that relate to the theme of the new blog, teaching art, and added them to it.

I will be done with grad school in a few weeks, and I hope to get to update them both more frequently!

The new blog is Teaching Art in Alabama.

This Summer

This summer went by entirely too fast! We spent a week at the beach and Miss Priss loved it - she is very much a beach bum. She had a pirate party for her birthday. It was a lot of fun. If anyone is taking kids to Panama City Beach, the Pirate Cruise was the best money we spent all week. We can't find enough good things to say about it.

During July I participated in Ravelry's WIP Wrestlemania. For those who don't knit, a WIP is a work in progress. I have way too many, and I got about 12 of them completed during the month. I played on Team Tardis.

I also painted a butterfly for Decatur's public art project, Arts Aflutter:

I am also painting a rain barrel for a similar project in Huntsville.

That's all I have for now - I have been putting most blogg-ish stuff on Facebook, so my blog has been neglected!

Plexiglass Drypoint

I am planning on spending 6 weeks with my Art II class on printmaking next year. I wanted to create an intaglio lesson plan - we have a small, seldom used press. I had heard of using plexiglass for engraving, but didn't know if it would work well with water-based ink. I did a little playing around to try it, and it will be fine for high schoolers.

I've never done anything but collagraphs and relief printing, so this was new to me. I did a little doodle & some scribbles to see how it would work.


I added waterbased printing ink:


and scraped it into the cracks with a piece of plastic (an old driver's license):


Then I wiped off all the excess ink with old phone book pages:


My brand new press didn't work right, but I managed to get a semi-decent print - the only bad part is it's very light. Once I get my press fixed (or replaced) I will experiment a little more and see if I can get it darker. Maybe if I don't soak the paper. See how light it is?


It only bled in a couple of places, though. I should be able to tweak it to use in class.

Uneven Spinning and Other Things

I finally plied and skeined (is that a word?) my Finn wool. I have about 750 yards of what (on average) is around a DK / sport weight. I think it's enough for Miss Priss a sweater. A very "handmade" looking sweater.

The color is more accurate in my last post - the lighter blue areas are really a light blue-green. I am still on a learning curve with the woolie winder - this is so loosely plied it is going to be like knitting with two energized singles. I am learning. I thought about running the whole thing again to make it more balanced, but I am too short on time (lazy).

Indiana was irritated that I wasn't out there to pet him.

I am also making progress on Miss Priss' dress, but I don't think I'll have time to get it finished before the wedding this Saturday.

Ignore the poor composition of the above photo. My lunch was on the stove and I was in a hurry. I have divided for the armholes and started on the right back. I measured it on her and it seems like it will be fine, which is good because I couldn't find a yarn locally that I could get gauge with and still have a nice fabric. I have too much going on this week to expect to finish it. But I can hope.

I haven't done anything much for my sculpture class, and it's past midterm. In order to work on my sculpture, I have to have a space to work. In order to have a space to work, I have to clean up my sunroom/studio. My life is one of those sliding puzzles - you know, the ones that have four columns across and four rows down and the sixteen spaces are filled with fifteen little tiles that you are supposed to slide around until you have a picture. I have to go through lots of steps before I can complete anything, it seems. Here is a small portion of my sunroom:

Scary, isn't it? I am only posting this because when I posted pictures of my sewing and weaving areas, my husband said, "that would be a lot more impressive if people knew what it looked like when you started." I like having clean places, but when facing deadlines and due dates, sometimes stuff gets spread out. And then it gets piled back in the room where it goes, but not put away (because that takes more time). I have to remember that if I would take the time to put things away, it would save me a lot of time later.

Okay, back to work!