bee creative

blended worlds

2 torn pieces of paper + 2 photos, blended + a filter + a bit of sketching = something else than the beginning but not really an ending.

 

assignment #5 and an update

Assignment #5 is to make or mend each week, with the idea that a project is finished. It was not accomplished during the first full week of the month but if I hurry it will be for the second. Tomorrow I hope to finish the edges on this jumper (dyed in walnut) and attach pockets (maybe the original color?).

An update on the rest of the assignments...

Assignment #1

A collage is happening everyday. 

Yesterday while looking at a photo of water lilies I was inspired to make my own.  I've been thinking about how there is an essential shape to anything that the human eye identifies and labels. 

Assignment #2:  January's dye jar is brewing away happily.  I occasionally tip it and wonder what color is being absorbed into the fabric.  The water is a lovely golden tea color. 

Assignment #3 I am on track to finish Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit by the end of January. A friend (Nancy at pomegranate trail) recommended Silence by Earling Kagge which I checked out as an audio book and have been knitting to.  There is much that I like about this book including the following definition: "Wonder is the engine of life."  

Assignment #4 The sweaters.

Sweater number one is at about 8 or 9 inches. At 15ninches I'll start the sleeves. This will be a short cardigan intended to wear with dresses and tunics. The length is based on a favorite sweater.

A lot of the knitting on this one is happening on the bus or on lunch break. It's mindless knitting...knit one way and then purl the other. 

Sweater number two is cast on and moving forward. Right now it is my "at home project," for when it is quiet and I can concentrate. There is another new skill with this one that was not considered...reading a chart for the color pattern (yes I had to start twice).  Once the yoke is finished it will pretty much turn in to around and around we go and will take the place of sweater number one as the on the go project. 

The colors of this one make me think of sunlight moving through the forest. 

At first I thought the goal of 4 sweaters might be ambitious but it really seems doable.  Part of this is choosing the right project for the right time of day.  Which is really the truth for all of these assignments I've given myself...

smile!

Or maybe pucker up?

One of the assignments for the class I'm taking.

There's also this:

Thinking about something similar to this on cloth. 

assignment #2 plus another sewing/dye project under construction

A few posts back in the comments I mentioned the idea of gathering a collection from the garden and processing it in a jar (India Flint style, Stuff, Steep +Store)  once a month for a year. Starting next January 2020, I'll open one jar a month.  Maybe I'll even make it continuous...open one jar and then process another. 

Another form of field note....

Here it goes:

January's collection:  a fern, some yarrow, fennel, sorrel, black berry, a few lingering rose leaves, dandelion, vinca, the last of the loganberry leaves, sage, st. john's wort and two different types of ivy. 

A few of these things aren't usually around this time of year.  We've had a few hard frosts but not enough to have them die down.

The water in the jar is a soft tea color so something certainly has color. 

..........

Another project under construction:

As part of one of India's classes I was able to take part in a challenge offered by Beautiful Silks. For the cost of postage we were sent about 5 yards of silk to play with. 

This includes some of all the silks that were sent except one.  The last one I don't want to dye as I like it just the way it is. I'll be making a cowl that could be worn with this to "dress it up." 

Something I've been considering a lot is how to make a wardrobe that is everyday but that something small could be added to a few items that would make it "special occasion." Part of my goal to have a sustainable wardrobe.

A little closer look at the bottom.  The bright green is dye from the top piece of fabric that ran, the rest eucalyptus and onion skins.  The two light fabrics were first dyed in my fresh indigo vat. A little bit of that turquoise remains.

I love the random flow of colors in this, a collage of color.

wonder

I've set myself a few assignments for the year 2019 and a word for the year; wonder.  Wonder to me is part curiosity and part joy. I want to approach these assignments from a place of wonder.  To consider what if from a place of joy. To wonder how about how things connect. 

The word wonder comes with a question. 

One I haven't quite formulated yet.

Assignment #1 is to make a collage each day. It could be digital, paper or cloth. Or a combination. This is yesterday's collage.

Collage is something I love creating but it's also about zero waste.  A good way to use up little bits.

Daily practices can be hard for me but they are good so I keep trying.  To help keep the momentum up I decided to take Year of the Collage.

grateful

Grateful for skills that transform...

One of my grandmothers gifted me this yarn.  I've had it on the table for awhile, waiting to know what to make with it. 

Earlier this week I thought shawl.

This morning I thought wings...

Thank you all that stop by, whether you leave comments or are silently there.

Grateful for community. 

wool weather

This morning sunshine... The moon on the horizon. 

Tonight, heavy rain. Very unlikely to see the moon in the sky or stars to wish on. 

A zero waste project. 

The top layer is the batting from a wool comforter that felted beyond practical use as a blanket.  It was a gift from Mom and Dad probably 25-30 years ago. 

The next layer wool from Jude.

And then a bottom layer of wool I felted. 

After it's dry there will be more stitching and then...

well that's to be continued.

process, product, purpose: peace and plenty

I might be revisiting my alphabet challenge here...this post brought to you by the letter "p."

Random thoughts, some I am surely revisiting:

• Process is best when it involves play.
• Cooking, knitting and hand-stitching are equally about process and purpose for me.  Stitching by machine is mostly about purpose. 
• Perfection in process is not something I enjoy. 
• I'm not very interested in products, but am very interested in purpose.
• This blanket is a giant prayer flag, or maybe a cloth hug. 

Fabric leftovers from nine different articles of clothing I made for myself, from other quilts, one piece a gift from a friend, and fabric from my grandfather's work shirts.  Originally I was going to make a quilt of pieced squares using the shirt fabric + scraps from my collection.  It's been in process for a long time and I decided enough of that, time to do something with it. 

The quilt square is called "Peace and Plenty." I chose it partly because they seem appropriate when I remember my grandfather.  He was, among other things, a gardener and a musician. Somehow these things go together in my mind. 

I wonder how long it will take for Lola to nest in it? 

making fabric...making visible

Making something useful, making meaning, making sense, telling a story...

Current bus project, cowl to be. 

Seed stitch (mostly), for spring.  The yarn on the left is hand spun by a friend, the blue green hand dyed by someone who lives in the area where I was born, a gift from Mom and Dad; the red/pink on the right local hand spun, and the brown I'm using for the sweater in progress used double with the thinner yarns; also local.  I'll add in some of my hand spun and a bit of another yarn given to me by Jude.   

Lunch break stitching.

The brown is plant dyed cotton, I don't remember what.  The blue is "wrong" side facing out.  This square was started during one of Jude's classes.

I'm trying to take something like this for lunch breaks. 

 

There is a third term from the Reggio approach I want to mention... "The Hundred Languages of Children."

 

The part that caught me today in the 100 languages poem is this part:

"They tell the child that work and play, reality and fantasy, science and imagination, sky and earth, reason and dream, are things that do not belong together...."Loris Malaguzzi (translated by Lella Gandini)

 

"THe Hundred Languages of Children" reminds me of a video that is a favorite:

More and more I think that those of that make need to make our projects public, especially for children.  They need to know about gardening and cooking and how things work and how they become...

 

 

knitting tip...knowing when not to

 

I've posted this before, that I like to bind off edges of my knitting using a crochet hook. Using the crochet hook just like a knitting needle but utilizing the hook to make it easier to pull one stitch over the other. 

I probably mentioning that most people either knit or crochet; rarely both.  

As I was binding off the bottom of my sweater (I'm on the sleeves now!) I thought about other things we think about as either/or and about how that doesn't need to be...

Tip: Use a slightly bigger crochet hook than your knitting needle.  This makes the bind off loose.