wool therapy

The complexity of life has begun to wear (I know I'm not alone on this one, raise your hand if you are in the same boat? Whoa...see? There's a lot of us...) and I find myself looking for more and more of the little things to revel in.

One of those are the playdates I have with Mary where we just go out and bum around and look at things fibery (what I refer to as wool therapy since that is usually my fiber of choice) with no real stringent agenda in place. (Seriously, the question "What do you wanna do next?" is a constant comment when we go out. Its actually nice not to have anything planned out.)

Okay, maybe that's not entirely accurate. We set out with the plan to go Artisan Knitworks out in Groose Pointe but beyond that we were playing it by ear. I've said it before, its the prettiest yarn shop in the world. Don't believe me? Here's proof:

Yarn yarn everywhere. Its heaven. There's no way I'm spending any amount of time in here and not coming out with something. I picked up these two beauties:

This one is fingering weight yarn from Schaefer yarn in the colorway...ummmm....doesn't list one. But I got it because it reminded me of aged copper (the colors are more muted in person). Since I'm helplessly addicted to Anne Hanson's lace patterns, I'm always on the lookout for pretty fingering or lace weights. I think this one would work really beautifully for the Boxleaf Wrap. Mine will be a little narrower then what the pattern says (I have less yardage) but that suits me better.

The other one I picked up just because, well, its pretty.


Its from Happy Hands Hand Dyed Fiber (can't find a link) in the colorway Brown Eyed Girl. Just so you know, the color in the picture is accurate. Makes me a little concerned about what kind of brown eyed girls the dyer is used to seeing (see the purple hunk there in the left hand corner?). But I love the combination and there's a lot of yardage to work with there so when the right project comes along, I'll have just the thing.

But the wool therapy did not stop there. We have been wanting to stop by a shop close to Artisan called The Wool & Floss. Mary and I turned all geeky when we saw their section of embroidery threads. We don't have too many brick and mortar embroidery places still open around here. Its left me with having to order online when I want to replenish the stash and that totally sucks the fun out of it. So being able to see it in person was a real pleasure.

They had a big selection of DMC wool which I'd not seen before (and which I probably won't again since they said its being discontinued.) I love stitching with wool so at only $1.05 each I was able to snatch up quite a few colors:



I'm in love with them. I may have to marry them.

After that we had lunch at the Pegasus in Greektown and walked around a bit looking at things. There are several historic churches in downtown Detroit and this one, St. Mary's, is one of my favorites:


How can you not love that architecture? We wanted to go inside and look around but the masses of people all dressed up that kept hurrying through the front doors made us think that maybe a wedding or something important was going on so we decided not to. Although we've not been wedding crashers before, that could have added some fun to the day.

I love the way the church is holding its own against everything new and modern being built up around it:


So little of the historic parts are left of the city, its frustrating. Although I think that's true in a lot of cities. I had the awesome opportunity of visiting London and Paris right after I graduated from college (oh how I wish I was doing the Where I Stand essay then, think of all the awesome shots I could have got off that one week trip) and what I liked best was all the old buildings. They hung on to everything. Something that was 200 years old was considered new. I wish it was like that here in the states.

Anyway, it was a nice day and now I'm home and plan to do my slug impersonation for the next two days before I have to go back to work. Its funny, just when I'm finally starting to unwind its time to go back. Its like the Godfather line, "Just when you think you're out, they pull you back in." Except I'm not as cool as Michael Corleone.

Bloggiversary giveaway winner!

Sorry guys, this was supposed to be posted yesterday, wasn't it? I told you I was having an attack of the lazies. Actually, this was a case of forgetfulness. (If I'm not at work and constantly date stamping things a hundred times in an eight hour period I tend to forget what day it is.)

Anyway, I trucked on over to the Random Number Generator and asked it to tell me who the winner of this magazine is and it gave me number 20.



Which makes LorraineS the winner! (Note that there were two comments from the same person and it only counts as one entry so Lorraine is the 20th commenter.)

Congrats Lorraine! Send me your address at FibraArtysta@earthlink.net and the magazine will be on its way to you.

Thanks to everyone for wonderful comments, I had a great time reading them and you're all just great! :)

oh my...

Part of my attack of the lazies includes spending a lot of time on my laptop. (Well, a lot of that has to do too with the fact that when I'm trapped on the sofa trying to convince my back to be nice to me, I can put the computer on my tummy and surf the net until I go cross eyed. All hail laptops.)

I decided to surf ravelry for a bit since I've not been on there for a while and I found this:


That there is the African Adventure afghan from Horst Schulz. (that's a ravelry link)

I am in lust.

I know its wrong to consider it since I've got a couple other afghans waiting in the queue and I swore I wouldn't do afghans in pieces anymore but come on, how can you resist this???

I even love the colors of it. Even the pink. (That kind of hurt to admit that in public.) I may have to do some yarn shopping tonight...come to me, my pretty, come to me...

attack of the lazies

You know, I had a grand list of all the things that I was going to get done while on break. They were big sweeping things that I've been trying to find the time to do and it thrilled me to no end that I was going to have a chance to take care of them.

Eh.

Motivation has left the building.

I don't know what my problem is but mostly I just want to nap and watch movies. It doesn't help that my back is being stupid right now but really, I just can't seem to get my bum in gear long enough to work on anything. Artwork has been mostly just a whole bunch of stops and starts. About the only thing I've been doing is chipping away at the border on Babette #1.


I fear it will never end. I've done two rows of green and one row of bright blue. I'm on the row of darker blue and plan to do two more - one purple and one red. My next knitting/crochet project will be gray. Or white. Or beige. I'm all burned out on the color. Its making me twitchy and if I wasn't so darn close to the end I'd probably give up.

Jaws has become something of an obsession since the cable stations are showing it obsessively. For someone like me who has a water phobia, this isn't really something I should be looking at. But this little video I found on youtube kind of takes the sting out of it:

So in between watching that and doing double crochets until I'm blue in the face, I've been hanging out with my furry little friend. Dooley claims me when I am home for longer then ten minutes, he's been a constant shadow. Which finally allowed me to take a photo of him with his new haircut.

Why do I torture you with this? Because its a drastic difference. Don't believe me? Check it out.

Before (this is three months worth of no grooming due to his scratched eye):



After (he is lounging on mom's bed, hence the prolific pinkness everywhere):


I think he's just happy to be able to see and hear again, the fur was taking over.

I took him to the post office with me the other day and got another shot of him hanging out the window.


I'm tempted to give it a shot myself the next time I go out.

I've only got a few days left until I return to the rat race. I'm trying hard not to think about it. Who knows, maybe in the next few days I'll get a burst of energy and accomplish something.

Or not.

have you ever wondered?

I'm a huge fan of Jeanne Williamson's work. I'm especially fascinated with her Orange Construction Fence series. Its been so interesting to follow it as she's worked on it over the years.

And now she's doing something that I'm very intrigued by.

A little while back she decided to set up two of her pieces outside. Just to see what would happen to them when they were left exposed to the elements over long periods of time.

She's tracking the progression of time on her blog. If you haven't checked her out before, I highly recommend it. Especially on this project.

As a fiber artist I often wonder how long my work will last. Textiles seem to have a fairly healthy life span but they need to be handled with great care compared to some other mediums. It has its limits. And it looks like Jeanne is working hard to figure out just what they are.

Pretty darn cool.

You're Invited - see With One Voice at the 212 Arts Center!

The 2008 Breaking Traditions Art Quilt Exhibit is currently on exhibit at the 212 Arts Center in Saline, Michigan for the month of July.

From 212's website:

The mission of Two Twelve Arts Center is to provide a creative hub offering visual and performing artists the opportunity and working space to come together to work, create, and teach.

The Center also contributes to the cultural life of the residents of Saline by supporting a full schedule of classes, programs, performances and exhibits. We look forward to providing a framework for a vibrant and supportive arts community with varied opportunities for artists, students and audiences.

Breaking Traditions is very honored to exhibit in this stellar center. The exhibit hangs on both levels of the center and is accompanied by additional artwork from local Michigan artists that participated in the 2008 exhibit.

You can also see work from Jacqueline Lams, Sidney Savage Inch, Leann Meixner, Deb Kolar, Jean Canavan, Joan Potter Thomas, Kat Campau and Lynn Krawczyk.

There will be an opening reception on Friday July 17 from 7pm-9pm.

We hope to see you there!

higher on the right, a little closer to the left

Yesterday was hanging day at the 212 Arts Center for the 2008 Breaking Traditions Art Quilt Exhibit. Its traveling around to a few places before it finally goes home to the artists and July will be spent hanging in the lovely 212.



Lots of art to hang.

I love that place, its a converted old house. I'm a huge fan of old fashioned houses, anything arts and crafts style makes me stupid happy. So it was no great burden to spend part of the day there hanging artwork. (Its also where I snagged the most recent Where I Stand picture. I so dig big porches. *sigh*)

I was accompanied by two saints, otherwise known as Leann and Kat. Since I am broken (aka bad back), I struggle with things that involve moving heavy objects around or climbing ladders. These two ladies saved me. They hammered in nails, stood on dressers (well, Leann did although it was Kat who suggested it) and patiently put up with me standing there saying, "Nope, not level, bring it up a little on the left." I pointed and directed and stuck labels on the walls. They did the heavy lifting and I'm hugely grateful, the show looks fantastic. (There will be official pictures of it once the opening reception happens, we hung it on a sunday so there were some other things going on that made it not picture perfect.)

All hail Leann and Kat.

Afterward, Kat invited us back to her place to visit her stash. You didn't have to ask us twice. Kat is extremely prolific in her work and we were curious to see her work space. Here's one fabric wall:


Leann and I decided we needed to have a serious chat with Kat. We feel that she needs to stop being afraid to use color and needs to incorporate prints into her work, she's obviously quite repressed. (Luckily Kat appreciates our dry sarcastic humor.)

It was astounding. I could have just sat there and stared at all of it, stunning.

Today was much less fun. I had to go to the dentist to have him redo a cavity filling from three weeks ago that just wouldn't stop hurting. I was leery. I'm by no means squeamish about the dentist but for whatever reason, the darn thing rebelled against the novocaine the last time and I felt way more then I wanted to. So I asked him to make sure it was super super super numb this time and he obliged.

Its five hours later and I'm just now beginning to feel the right side of my face. Thanks doc.

I'm a bit antsy today. Not sure what I want to pick away at. I feel like making something but nothing is grabbing me and pulling me in. Its entirely obnoxious.

But Dooley dog has some excellent news. He finally got groomed and is looking rather spiffy. He loves to ride in the car and I snapped this shot of him when we were stopped at a light.



Something has his rapt attention. I'm just excited to see his eyes again now that the fur has been sheared back. (That poor groomer, she probably needed a weed whacker to accomplish the task this time. We gave her a bigger then usual tip. A good groomer is like a good hair stylist, once you find one you like you worship at their feet to stay in their good graces since they possess the power to make you look funny.)

I think I'm going to wander into my studio and see if anything looks exciting. I hate these restless kinds of days. There has to be something around here to do...