Snow again, hygge, Uyghur art

Overnight snow, and we woke to a white world, with the snowdrops buried again.

This called for hygge,

knitting, reading another Linda Castillo. 

Whichever blogger introduced me to her, thank you, really enjoying Kate Burkholder.

Then I thought I'd make cashew sweet potato and butternut squash soup for lunch, and started the makings.

Then realized I hadn't yet made the stock for it. 

Started that with the contents of the stock bag from the freezer and the bones from the recent roast chicken drumsticks, plus an accumulation of yellow onion skins originally saved for dyeing but might as well go here. They'll make a great color ss well as flavor.

And since I'm out of suet blocks for the feeder, the squash seeds will be well received. No doubt squirrel Butternut Boy will find them while they're still warm from the microwave.

Meanwhile lunch is now a salad with sharp cheddar from Wisconsin, really good.

Yesterday I caught two wonderful online lectures, one on molas,  blouses, also artworks, which I'll get into tomorrow, so much editing to do.

The other I did get sorted to show you, from the GWU Textile Museum, by researcher Christine Martens, on the history and culture of Uyghur felt making.

This is really important right now, since the Chinese government is harassing, forcibly moving, the Uyghur of northwest China, trying to break down their families and culture, committing atrocities.

The Uyghur are trying to preserve a valuable culture of family and art against great odds. They have a long tradition of felting, revering it, trading in it, from fleece to finished rugs and clothing. 

Martens has studied them, as a Fulbright scholar and under other auspices, too. Her recent forays were closely monitored every minute by Chinese government agents.

Here her captioning is so good, I love researchers, that it can speak for itself. Just a reminder about wet felting, I showed you this a while ago, when I made a sample in the course of creating the figure series.

It involves laying fine strands of colored roving like a painting, on a backing, wetting, rolling and applying friction and beating to bond the fibers into felt, but without shifting the design.  Very lengthy, labor intensive and skilled work

The Uyghur nowadays also use machines to assist the pressure and vibration of the process. They also use synthetic dyes, not the natural dyes of the past.

Art felt-making is considered a sacred work, an artisanal trust, with prayers recited daily. Both men and women work together, on traditional designs,  women often handworking fringes.

Let's roll pix and you'll see.

This is my tiny part in honoring the Uyghur people and trying to preserve what we know of their culture while it still exists.

Vegetable stock and figure face

I finally got that bag of clippings from Misfits vegetables out of the freezer to make stock. Added salt, olive oil, simmered quite a while.

Then I strained out the exhausted veggies, and strained the liquid once again, through fabric, in case of grit, you never know.

I tasted it and it's much like the vegetable stock I've bought from Misfits readymade. So I got a couple of quarts ready for soup. I've been meaning and  forgetting to do this for ages.

In between bouts of sneezing, something flinging new pollen around, despite wearing a mask for walking, I've managed a bit of stitching. The beginning of the trapunto work.

A local friend says these are sculptures and I should say so. I've avoided the word, from experience of nonart people being put off by arty words and not enjoying the works. We'll see.

Friend C. of embroiderers' guild  days, sent me a wonderful link to a fiber related online magazine, Tatter. I spent a while on the essays in volume 1 and was very impressed.

Here it is

While I was browsing I saw this essay about rag slippers and the significance of them.

These are more like flip-flops which I can't wear, but I realized I can make a woven pair from fabric scraps, using my weaving sticks. 

I'll use the same shape as the knitted ones many of which I've made. They'll end up quite different from these in the picture, but the same thing, if you follow me.

Thank you C! Loads more to read and learn from in Tatter.