Pencil Circles

Stained Glass Unicorn Vomit - First Look

2012-01-26T13:19:00.000-08:00

Mind you, that is just the working title. I've been working on the ink part of this on and off for a few years now. This week, I decided to make a few more steps towards its completion and started in with the watercolor. Can you say mega-mandala. This might take a while.

I Cleaned My Room

2012-01-04T16:35:00.000-08:00

I figured that was a good way to start the new year. My little spice rack collection has grown. I was given two for Christmas with the disclaimer that they were pretty scary in their current condition and I was under no obligation to use either of them. The country-fresh maroon one (you know the color, complete with the edges all fake sanded/worn down to the pine) needed an immediate triple heart transplant. Three little metal rusty heart blobs were pried from below the bottom shelf to reveal holes, where I inserted some hardwood pegs. Then I made and attached little facing boards to each shelf so they looked complete. Some putty took care of the many holes where the overzealous factory worker did his handiwork with a pneumatic staple gun.

The lime green shelf had already received one makeover before I got it. We took care of some structural issues then proceeded to paint over the pink swirly roses and yellow sponged squares. I could have seen that color scheme in a twelve year old girly-girl's room - it was probably where she displayed her fingernail polish and My Little Pony collection. It took three coats of paint to hide all the ugliness, but they both sure came out nice.

So now, I just needed space on the wall and perhaps a shuffle of other items to better color coordinate.

So here is my corner. Ta Da!

And everything in its place... except for the huge pile of papers and crap that I put on the chair behind me.


I didn't realize I had so many colors of India ink until I started racking them.

My tall ink bottles were the inspiration for needing another rack. The original on the right was too short and too full. You can see it didn't take long to find modifiers to dangle from the little pegs.

Like a giant game of Tetris as I try to pack books and supplies into drawers and shelves.


I only have about a quarter of the table for working space - the rest is taken up by the laserjet, and the wide format scanner (hiding under the quilt) and printer.

String Theory

2011-12-15T15:23:00.000-08:00

I have this theory. It involves the complex topography of knotted string and nieces.

Do you remember making friendship bracelets? (I must admit that I still do this.) I'm thinking two of my little nieces have hit the magic age where this would be a great activity for them. So I've gotten the big packs of assorted perle cottons and an instruction book for each as Christmas gifts. I've also made each of them a bracelet to wear, plus one for a younger sister so she won't feel left out. The wide one is special free-form one - not sure who's stocking it will end up in.

These are fun to make, and really quite fascinating when you think about the knot structure. There are so many color possibilities I want to try together.

Instar - In Color

2011-12-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

I had finished my drawing, Instar, with the black pen and ink work and had called it done. A friend wanted a print, but in color. In this version I've added an over-the-top amount of color and pulled out all the iridescent paints too. You should see this baby sparkle.

My husband says it should come with a warning that the viewer might suffer from epileptic seizures upon gazing too long or hard.

In it's glory...

I'm happy to report that at least the intermediate recipient was delighted with the results.

IF: Mesmerizing

2011-09-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to participate in Illustration Friday back since bicycle (a looong time ago.) I have decided to end my procrastination today. I'm also ending a long stretch without blogging. Being the last day for this week's word, my entry was rather quickly sketched, but I submit it for your entertainment.

"Mesmerizing." I first thought of a hypnotist, but realized the way to truly mesmerize a kid was by turning on the television. BTW, these may look like my kids, but they would NEVER be caught watching a show with a purple dinosaur, so these must be somebody else's kids.

Road Trip

2011-06-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

I took the girl down on a quick trip to Portland last weekend. Plans had changed unexpectedly, leaving the weekend open to hook up with a group of fellow stitchers. We carpooled up with a friend from Pendleton, which was nice both from the aspects of companionship and cost. We also had the benefit of Sue's being raised in Oregon and knowing all the cool spots to visit en route.

We'd always just taken I-84, but Sue showed us an old Highway 30 that runs parallel for part of the trip. Not for those in a hurry, but perfect for those who want to see some nice waterfalls and cool old government sponsored park projects. Some photos for those of you who have never experienced the beauty of the Columbia Gorge:

We got a bit of stitching done. My model stitcher Carol from Seattle was there so I got to see how one of my models was coming along (I'm quite excited about it!) Did a little bit of geocaching and took a visit to the local brew pub. I'm planning a trip with my son next along the same route, except perhaps skipping the pub. ;o)

Fourth Instar

2011-06-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

A few more sections have been completed, and this piece is almost done. I made a boo-boo in the cobra and will have to doctor it with a bit of white paint. I've left it there for now for entertainment value to the type of person that likes to look for mistakes. I still have the outer side triangles and a few inside spots I want to add to. Five instars is a common number in nature, so watch for its fifth.

This is another sketch I made. I know, it makes no sense, but that has never been a limiting factor for me. I do so like cephalopods. The title is "Oct-ane." My friend Cindy is going to show me how to make etchings and I think this sketch will be the basis for that lesson. I'm excited, as I've never made prints that way before.

Third Instar

2011-06-06T06:47:00.000-07:00

More progress on this one. Still have quite a ways to go. I need to get a wide format scanner. There is a lip around the perimeter of the glass on this regular size scanner that prevents the art from sitting directly on the glass when I use the 11x14" paper block. I think it leaves a slightly fuzzy out-of-focus look.

Robot Beetle

2011-06-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

I needed to make up some samples to help advertise the Stamp Making Class that I am teaching this summer to kids. I figure the beer bottles and other things I've been recently carving are not really age appropriate. The younger kids will certainly have a share of different techniques we will practice, but the older kids will get to have even more fun by carving their own stamps.

Draw something, carve it, print it!

So, if you've got bored yet creative kids this summer in the Tri-Cities, you might want to check out the gallery's schedule of kid workshops.

Private Label

2011-06-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of an inside joke, and a bad one at that, but I thought the little ratty came out cute so I am sharing him. We enjoy drinking different beers and have recently started brewing our own. We like the Belgian Piraat Ale (see the bottom picture), and just bottled our own version from a clone recipe. My husband and BIL enjoy mispronouncing things and continued to call this the Pee-rat beer. It's still two months before we can drink it, but as it was time to label these bottles, the mental connection stuck...

Open and Shut Case

2011-05-31T17:27:00.000-07:00

I picked up this tiny pattern card "Little Wallet" by Valori Wells when I was in the craft shop last time. It seemed about the size of something I could tackle.

I had the sewing machine out over the holiday weekend, so I took a few minutes to test it out.
Cute, huh!

Second Instar

2011-05-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

I posted a pencil draft of this knot ring a while ago. I did the first round of ink work this weekend. I'm not sure yet how the remaining areas will be filled in, or even if the four corners will be the same. Final dimensions will be a rectangle of about the width and height of the diamond shape you see. I hadn't drawn any beetles lately and I missed them. It may be hard to see the two big leaves - one has eggs on it, the other has been chewed. I'm mulling about themes of circles and cycles.

Other recent ink finishes...I'm planning on adding some color yet still to the serpent.

Dancing with the Salts

2011-05-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

More geekiness, in part brought on by the trip to LIGO last week. My son came home Thursday with two friends and a goal of doing a special experiment and presentation for extra credit for their science class. Their science teacher had introduced Cymatics and showed them this video on You-Tube:

They rigged up a tone generator from the computer and I helped them cable it into the home stereo. We took a trip to Goodwill, where we found a few big speakers that could be cannibalized ($2.17 total - what a deal!) A little wiring and soldering later, we were able to dial up any frequency and crank it up. Earplugs.

It took some fiddling to get a plate system that would work, but the kids eventually ended with a system that worked and the salt did indeed dance. It wasn't anywhere near as elaborate as the video, but they could see patterns and they did change as they ranged the tones.

With this success, then my daughter described the LIGO demo where they had taped a tiny mirror to the plate in a similar setup and shot a laser pointer at it. As the sound changed, the reflected spot on the wall went crazy due to the vibrating plate! We replicated this with great success, although photographing it was less than representative.

These are called Lissajous figures. Much fun for me, as I got to play the role of technical consultant. I could also see the lights flickering behind the eyes of the kids. I hope they are sparked to further explore. Meanwhile, I must go vacuum the living room...and buy another box of salt.

I Go LIGO

2011-05-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

Spent the day as a chaperone on my daughter's AP chemistry class' field trip to the LIGO facility. The facility's mission is to detect gravity waves. It's a pair of 4km long tubes at right angles with mirrors and laser beams. You can't see the actual equipment from the outside (just the tubes - below,) but there are lots of cameras and tons of scientific instruments feeding to a control room. They were actually reconfiguring a 2km tube to it's full 4km length, so nothing was operational at the moment.

Although not up and running, the facility has a great hands-on area, where every imaginable demonstration involving waves or gravity was waiting for the many students that cycle through. We had fun with the 30 foot slinky, pendulums galore, interferometers, sound generators, lasers, etc.

This was a special mirror that is being upgraded. It may not look like much, but apparently was the very best available and ran about $150k when originally made. The coating on these was an amazing iridescent thing.

Another view of removed/demo equipment:

I have no idea how this fits into the grander scheme, but I believe a portion of the money for the real project was siphoned off to build this dalek prototype. My camera angle does not do it justice.

To finish off our tour, we heard a presentation from an MIT physics grad student there who was working on physically implementing a "squeezer" which reduces quantum uncertainty noise. This is a huge project with collaborators in many parts of the world. Quite impressive, both the young lady and the project.

Barrage Tonight

2011-05-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

We've got tickets to see these guys tonight. The group is called Barrage.

They are doing a concert in conjunction with the local high school orchestras. The kids have a clinic/workshop with them all afternoon, then play a little wee bit with them during their concert tonight. The rest of the concert is just Barrage, and the kids have their real full concert tomorrow.

My daughter certainly has the long blond hair ready for Celtic-women-esque prancing about. She's not too far off on the fiddling, either, but she (like me) can't even imagine trying to dance while playing at the same time. I'm curious what she'll get out of the workshop.

Nice Jug

2011-05-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

I was getting my growler filled today at the Ice Harbor brewery, since I had to visit their homebrew store anyway. Some kid (probably just 21) in the parking lot gives me the thumbs up and yells "Nice Jug!"

Good think I wasn't filling two of them, or he might have said, "Nice Jugs!" In which case I would have had to slap him.

He was totally correct- It is a nice jug.

Carved Bottle and Layout

2011-05-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about graphics for the bottle labels for our homebrew. We drank the first batch without fear of mix-up, but ideally we'd like to make little stickers or something to identify what's inside as we continue to brew. This is a little bottle stamp I worked on last night. I"m teaching a kid's class on stamp making this summer at the local art gallery, so it felt good to dust off the tools. I need to figure out a cheap way to secure or make 18 cutters - the class pack I'd planned on ordering has disappeared from the web store since I submitted my budget request.

I've also been working on the layout of a new bigger Celtic piece. I've got this round border penciled in. I think I will ink it before I go too much further, as all this pencil is very smudgy. I'm not too sure I like the two giant petals at the top and bottom, but small ones were in the way of the triangles I'd laid out in the background. Round borders are fun but much more tedious, since you have to draft the grid before you can draft the knot. Oh well. I'm sure you'll see more of this later.

More Paint

2011-04-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

In light of yesterday's success in reviving an older abandoned piece, I tried "fixing" another today. This one just didn't have a good color balance - too many close shades near each other. I mainly just strengthened some colors and shifted a few on the color wheel a notch. It looks better, but it's still not my favorite. I seem to run into trouble whenever I use a true red in a piece along with a pinkish red.

Mandala Make-over

2011-04-26T17:46:00.000-07:00

This is a mandala I found half-painted in one of my folders. I had set it aside, as I really hadn't liked where it was going. It was weakly colored and really just didn't speak to me. I've been working on it the last few days and (for better or worse) finished it out, darkening up and changing a lot of the colors. There is only so much that you can do with watercolors before you get mud and there is no real going back, only forward.

At least I can move it into the finished stack, where it will again wait an indefinite amount of time before something happens.

After:

Before:

Good Morning

2011-04-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

Have a cup of caffeinated sunshine.

Things Done and Left Undone

2011-04-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

Spring Break has drawn to a close and the reality can now be tallied. One always goes into a holiday week with great thoughts of getting some of those little things done. We had the whole family home this week and did enjoy some good time together, and because we just stayed at home we're hoping everyone is rested up.

Undone:
Taxes - I've got a few more days, right?
Framing/finishing - deadline for photos of the new stitching stuff for the online show is today. Today!?!
Beer - we've been planning to start a batch of Belgian brewing.
Beer bread - and I was going to bake bread with the spent grain.
Etsy - was going to load in all of the excess/unsold merch from the psychic fair.
Newsletter - part of getting ready for that online show.

Done:
Psychic Fair booth - it was a great weekend
Potatoes and onions - planted
Dandelions and other uninvited herbaceous pests - greatly reduced in numbers
Stitching - models are stitched
On-line needlework show booth - loaded, except for photos as mentioned above.
Sushi - made some
Music - made some
Knitting - knit some

Kids went back to school this morning, starting a fresh quarter. (I don't know how, but my son actually woke up before the alarm - he had been sleeping in past 1pm each day.) Husband is back at work. Dog looks a little forlorn with the nearly empty house. All the regular chores stand waiting their due: the laundry, dishes, scrubbing and vacuuming. And thus begins another cycle.

Finishes

2011-01-25T08:02:00.000-08:00

Didn't mean to be cruel and show only the backs of the recently framed pieces.
Here are two by Hannah. You will recognize (likely) Frederick the Literate, by Charles Wysocki. I forget who designed the sampler one. She's currently about half way through a tiger picture called Blue Eyes, one of those photo-realistic solidly stitched types.

And you have already seen these fronts, I just had to get them presentable for the Nashville Show. Just Rosy on top (charts at the printer now) and the Oatmeal Quaker (already available) below.

The last three items on the bed are a set of new releases. I'm not sure when I will be leaking photos of them. It's such a strategy game that I don't fully understand. Share now & get people excited? Make them wait so there is something new at the actual show they haven't seen?

I hadn't posted up all of my Christmas finishes yet, so here are some more pictures. I knit this hat for my sister -it's shown here modeled by my brother. It was by far the best received hand-knitted gift I've ever given.

Close your eyes for the next picture if you are embarrassed at the thought of animals procreating in the wild. This was the hat my brother got to keep for himself.

Boring ol' socks for my hubby:

Fingerless mitts for my friend, who might appear to be suffering from jaundice, but is not. Also, the computer insists of putting the photo upside down, regardless of the fact I flipped it and saved.

Ah, it feels good to empty the camera.

It's a Wrap

2011-01-19T14:06:00.000-08:00

I wanted something besides another cup of tea this afternoon, so I made up a glass of this stuff - Lo-Han-Kuo Beverage. We call it "Not Tea," with references to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. You can find it at any Asian grocery. As I prepared my cup and boiled the water, I found myself terribly amused at the amount of wrapping involved.

Let us peel back the layers to get to the product...

Outer plastic wrap
cardboard box containing
twelve smaller cardboard boxes each containing
a plastic bag which holds
waxed paper which unfolds to reveal
ta da: two little cubes that look like bullion cubes.

I think they really missed the mark by not having an additional layer of plastic wrap on the twelve tiny boxes. Seriously, moisture or dust or anything could have contaminated the product.

In the Dark

2010-12-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

We have a very pleasant fluorescent fixture in our bathroom. The ballast died. Went to two stores in town to find replacement, but nothing similar was in stock. Mail ordered ballast. Elapse ~ week.

New ballast arrives and is perfect fit. Yeah. But we broke one of the tube holders. Having seen them at the hardware store when we were shopping for ballasts, we assumed them easy to replace and tossed them out. Next day and three hardware stores later, found that we were unable to find the correct match. Mail order parts. Elapse ~ week. Sadly these don't fit either.

We need the snap-in models, not the slide in models like "No #1". We also learned we couldn't mutilate the tabs to force it to fit and stay in. We also need a clearance of about 1" rather than the 1cm in "No #2".

It's so frustrating to know exactly what you want, but be unable to shop for it. One positive note, the teenagers have spent much less time in our bathroom.

Squash Bread

2010-11-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

As the proud owners of a 40+ pound Giant Blue Hubbard squash this fall, we've been trying different recipes to make use of this tasty resource. Besides making "pumpkin" pie with it for Thanksgiving dinner, I tried this recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" for squash bread. It is a basic yeasted wheat bread with pureed squash mixed in. They recommend any winter squash (acorns, butternuts, etc.)

The sponge: 2 T dry yeast, 1.5 C warm water, drop of molasses. Mix and set for 5 minutes.
Add: 2 C white flour, 2 C whole wheat flour. Mix, cover and set in a warm place for 30-60 minutes.
In a separate bowl, mix 2.5 C mashed, cooked squash, 3 T molasses, 0.25 C melted butter, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 0.5 tsp cloves.
Add the squash mix to the risen sponge. Add flour 1 Cup at a time, alternating between white and wheat, as you mix the dough. When it gets hard to mix, begin kneading. Knead for 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary. You may need 6-8 cups additional flour in this step. Place covered in a BIG oiled bowl and let rise in a warm spot for an hour or until doubled in size.
Punch down the dough and knead a little bit more. Shape into loaves and put in/on greased pans. I made one bread loaf plus 18 large dinner rolls. I make dinner rolls by dividing each portion into three parts and rolling each into a ball, then putting the 3 balls into a muffin pan socket. Cover dough with damp towel and let rise for an hour or until doubled again.
Bake at 350 - 375 until done. Loaves take about 40 minutes, rolls about 20.

Very tasty. If I had remembered, I would have thrown a handful of pumpkin seeds (obviously, the peeled ready to eat kind) into the rolls as I was making them as was suggested in a different recipe I saw.

My big loaf leaned a little, maybe because it had to share an oven rack with the turkey, which was a space hog.

Hats Off

2010-11-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

In my continuing efforts to keep the Horner heads warm, I have added another knit cap to the collection. This a pattern by Anna Zilboorg that has been bastardized to accommodate using a much smaller gauge yarn by adding extra pattern repeats and sneaking in many extra rows. All in all, I think it came out quite cute.

And, for another fun finish (well, the stitching part is finished, but I've not made it into anything yet.) I got this idea from seeing a QR code made of a waffle with chicklets and chocolate chips. I know I am not the first to do this in stitches, but when the idea struck, I could NOT RESIST.

Please, please, pull out your smart phone and scan this baby! I was just so tickled that it worked. Isn't technology amazing!

Circus

2010-11-11T14:14:00.001-08:00

It's been a circus of a week. My laptop died last Wed and I've been slowly pulling my life back togerher. It's amazing how much of my daily activities were impacted.

So with many hours sitting and rwloading software and configuring things, I've had some downtime waiting for things to install. There is still much to do, but I have regained basic functionality.

This has been my knitting project for those moments. It will be the central vertical back panel of a cardigan. The yarn is noro in some colorway that makes me think of a sunset over Circus Circus.

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A Loveliness of Ladybugs

2010-11-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday must have been the perfect combination of factors that culminated in hundreds of ladybugs emerging in the side yard. I first noticed a few on the window screen, but a walk around outside revealed hundreds of them. Bwah hah ha, you aphids! Don't come around here.

Whenever I see a grouping of beasties large enough to catch my attention, I ponder the proper collective noun to be applied. A few friends were quick to let me know that it was a "loveliness of ladybugs" that I was seeing. That wonderfully alliteratively enchanting phrase apparently stuck in my head all evening. During the 45 minute wait period between my daughter being dropped off for her orchestra concert and the performance, I sat around in the auditorium and doodled. And enjoyed a lolly from the Halloween booty. (Don't worry, I didn't eat any bugs.)

I tinted it a bit this morning with watercolors. My engineered palette would probably make a real watercolorist cringe, but it works for what I do, which is all that matters. (The little letters are sharpied abbreviations for the color, so when a micro-dot runs out, I can add another drop. Well, except for that pesky Davies Gray and Olive Green that REFUSE to stay adhered once they dry.)

I've had it up to here

2010-10-29T14:14:00.001-07:00

...with the boring part and am happy to say I've moved on to the snowflake band mid-chest. This is a Norwegian ski sweater for my hubby. I will be needing a replacement project for my zombie knitting opportunities, as I will be required to pay attention on this one now.

BTW, I have no idea why the photo came out upside down.

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Last farmers market

2010-10-22T13:57:00.001-07:00

It was a beautiful day to end out the season. Said fond goodbyes to all our favorite vendors and that we'd see them in the spring. Loaded up on apples, onions, pumpkins and wine.

Hubbub is out of town for a few days, so I really didn't need much. It is such a happy community thing, though, so I never feel bad shopping there. Or in a yarn shop. Shopping for clothes (shoes especially) OTOH ranks right up there with scooping dog poo.

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Just Noodling Around

2010-10-19T06:31:00.000-07:00

I had an Amazon gift certificate I had been sitting on for a few months since my birthday. I had been feeling guilty I hadn't read any of my most recent book purchases and shouldn't buy another until I did so. I order other junk from Amazon, but it just seemed wrong to use birthday money buying the replacement part of a blender or a rubber cargo bed liner for the Subaru (my recent non-book purchases.) Then I chanced upon the ink department and knew I'd have no problem disposing of the disposable income, not that I actually was out of ink.

Arriving last night were these four little bottles of Noodler's Fountain Pen Ink. I did a quick test with a dip pen to see what I got.

But wait - four bottles and only 3 samples on the card???

Bwah hah ha! Did I mention that I also ordered a pair of black light LED flashlights? One for me and one for my son. It takes two to have secrets. It works fabulously - it's just hard to take a picture of it.

Top to bottom:

Blue Ghost Invisible Bulletproof Ink
Noodler's Blue Eel (supposed to be a lubricating ink that is good in old crotchety and cheap pens.)
La Coulour Royal (i.e. purple, but a very deep bluish one - I really like it)
Hunter Bulletproof Eternal (this one had very different characteristics out of the bottle - it seemed thick, wrote bloopily and took forever to dry. And was a third the size of the others for the same price = rip off.) This one also looked very cool under the black light - each stroke had a glowing halo around it.

And "bulletproof" and "eternal" don't have anything to do with being unsmearable, apparently. My smears won't ever fade in the light, and a check forget would not be able to remove all traces of my scribblings.

A Likely Yarn

2010-09-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

I started teaching a class on knitting Norwegian sweaters at the local yarn shop last night. I figured it would be only appropriate to have one of my own on the needles, so I started this new sweater about the same time the kids went back to school. It's for my hubby - you can see the finished goal in the leaflet. I really only get to work on it during those morning times when I'm nagging the children onward through their getting-ready-for-school routine. In its current phase, I call this my zombie knitting projects, as I need barely be conscious or I can be multitasking (i.e., the movie has subtitles).

Something a bit more challenging, but only a bit. Some socks for hubby. This is the last of a kilo of grey rag wool I had bought. After about 4 pairs of gray ones, I decided to dye the rest maroon to give a little variety. I am making this up as I go along, hence the need to do both socks at once. The calf shaping is done by transitioning the wide cabled rib into regular rib - we'll see how that goes.

Last thing to show is one half of a pair of pumpkin hats for a friend who just had twins. This has been such a cute pattern - I've probably made a dozen of them for friends and family.

Bored Meeting

2010-09-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

Was I the only person doodling in the margins during the Board Meeting? I find I can't help it no matter how much attention I am paying. The pen in my hand practically demands to be put in contact with the paper. Names and agenda items have been blurred out to protect the innocent, as they weren't boring - just meetings in general.

Mandalas - digital

2010-09-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

What I did on my summer vacation

2010-08-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

We went to Oregon! Land of Banana Slugs and good beer. We tried many good brews from the numerous breweries we visited to the interesting imports we found at a Bosnian restaurant in Astoria.

We took in the Bite of Portland Festival and tried one of the famous Voodoo Donuts. $0.75 worth of donut and $2 worth of cleverness and hype (our Zombie was a man-shaped jelly donut impaled by a pretzel.) Again, much good beer and music to partake there. Oh yeah, and you can't drive through Tillamook without stopping at the cheese factory.

Did some kayaking with my son after leaving the girl with my Mum in Newport. We also did some geocaching along the coast and in Portland, where we hooked up with my friend Tasha.

One of the few low points of the trip was to visit a "castle" that the Thomas Guide was kind enough to highlight. We RedOTFL to see it doubled as a Senior Center. And it wasn't very castle-like, in fact it was just a house. But it wasn't just any house, it was the "Flippin" House. Next door was a (less historic) friggin' house.

For those times we couldn't make up our minds we ordered one of everything - sampler style.

One To(k)e over the Line

2010-07-28T05:57:00.000-07:00

Sweet Jesus. I was sitting downtown in the railway station and was able to close up the toe of sock number 1. Because I'm doing them "2 at a time" style, it won't be long before the other is done. I do so hope the train is on time.

The pattern is a Nancy Bush Mystery Sock that was posted on Ravelry.

I've just realized I need to stage another little project before my road trip tomorrow!

New Old Stock

2010-07-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

There was a time when your only option to put words down on a paper involved steel nibs and liquid ink. If you do certain types of drawing or like to do calligraphy with the inks and paints that would clog up a calligraphy-nibbed fountain pen then, even today, you will still be dipping pens.

There are apparently vast piles of pen nibs stowed away in warehouses and basements, cast aside after the ballpoint pen came along and stole the scene. There are an unending variety in the brands and shapes, and I was unable to find details on which nibs might be good for what. You can pay a buck or two per nib at a good pen store. Alternatively, you can pick them up in quantity (usually a gross or by the 100) for $5 to $20 a box on ebay. There were some really nice mixed lots on the UK ebay, but shipping was a downer.

I knew I wanted some for lettering and for drawing, but didn't know which ones. I also wanted to have enough for the kids to play with at a calligraphy class I'm teaching next week. So I ordered a few. Boxes.

Needless to say, if any of my buddies are dip pen fanatics, PM me your mailing address and I'll share a few nibs!

In a Jam Again

2010-07-08T06:37:00.000-07:00

Friends in Benton City invited me to visit their orchard yesterday and help myself to any cherries that the pickers missed. Most of their crop took an overnight flight to Hong Kong, but they left a couple for me and for the blackbirds. Needless to say, I am in a jam again today. I'll be cranking out jam, bags of frozen & pitted smoothie-ready fruit, etc. I guess it is that time of year.

Jam I Am

2010-06-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

We've had a very weird cool spring that has rolled into an atypical summer. Just in the last few days, it has gotten HOT, which is not uncommon - we just usually ease in a bit more gradually.

As a result of this weather, our apricot tree has produced a bountiful crop of teeny cots that collectively decided to vacate the tree at the exact same hour. If you stood in the yard, it was almost like an apricot rain. The dog thought this was fabulous, as he loves to eat fruit and couldn't reach the apricots as well as he could the cherries. He also likes to roll in them.

This morning I finished up a second bout of apricot jamming, which followed closely on the heels of a big batch of currant jam and from the previous week, Rainier cherry jam. It came out fantastically tart and yummy. I contemplated trying to use the cherry pitter the cots were so small! (BTW: I use 10 cups chopped fruit, 1 box regular pectin, 1 box no sugar pectin, and 8 cups of sugar.)

We eat a lot of jam - I put a big blob on plain yogurt in the morning and the kids are great toast and PBJ munchers. A side benefit of the weather being hot is that I can start making yogurt outside too.

More Purple Goodness

2010-06-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

This is coming along nicely - left front is almost done. Yarn is Andean Silk from Knit Picks. It's very soft and drapey - and intensely purple. Pattern is from Classic Elite and looks cute but is very pissy. There is shaping at the neck, at the armholes; there are hourglass darts in the lower section; there is a small lace pattern. Nothing is challenging, but I get so tired of counting rows for each bit of business simultaneously. Decrease 6 times every 2nd row, then 4 times every 6th row, blah blah blah. When I get to the buttonholes on the right front, I'll have one more thing to track. I'm looking forward to my next project - I'll pick one where I can just sit and relax and knit.

On another knitting note, I visited a local wool shop yesterday* (Sheep's Clothing in Kennewick) to find that it had just been sold. The new owners have great plans for things and it sounded all very exciting. As we got talking I mentioned that I had taught classes for them about 10 years ago when they were in an old location. The guy's eyes positively lit up when he learned that I had done a Norwegian sweater class before and that I would consider doing one again.

*Like I so needed to buy more yarn. (I was actually trying to track down one more ball that I'll need to finish a different vest. I shouldn't have waited a year to decide I didn't have enough- I'll be on quite a goose chase or have a UFO forever.)

Purple Haze

2010-06-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

The weather is getting nice for sitting on the porch and spinning. I had forgotten about this project -can't remember what I was even planning on making. It is a 100% Rommledale wool roving in "Purple Haze" by Rainbow Yarns Northwest.

Multiply and I are Dividing

2010-06-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

After struggling through a few years of loading photos and blog text up into Multiply, I have decided that I'd rather spend that time more productively. I'm sure it will take a while to get all my settings adjusted here, but I'm optimistic.

This is my newest mandala painting. It is black India Ink with watercolors.