Of easels and dyes and other things

Giving away the easel, weighed a ton, reminded me of the brief period as a teenager when I tried oil painting and, being broke, needed to invent a cheap easel.  

I found three bamboo canes, used a rubber band to hitch them together at one end,  then splayed them to stand in a triangle, one pointing forward at the top to hang a canvas or whatever I found to paint on.  Weighed a few ounces.

It worked fine until I moved on from oils, partly because of allergies, partly because it's such a dull, plodding old artform. I got much more into drawing and when I could get the paper for watercolors, did them. The spontaneity appealed to me.

And many years later I had an interesting experience with dyeing yarn. The indigo picture reminded me. I'd used beets, notoriously fugitive color, to dye yarn I'd spun, to see what would happen. I'd used a mordant, forget what, maybe alum, and the red color seemed to be, surprisingly, holding up.

Then I hung the skein to dripdry over a container. As the dye dripped out, the color went with it until I had a container of reddish liquid and -- a beautiful hank of green yarn! Natural dyeing is full of surprises. 

This saori weaving detail has some of that green yarn, faded from being in strong light. The yellow is probably onionskin, and the blue possibly Kool aid, good dye material. I wouldn't drink it.

Rainy Sunday came with a discovery of Ustinov playing Poirot on Freevee 

Look at that cast. 

And there's the Funeral Ladies book, a Foyle series 

And there's stick weaving and knitting also in progress. Plenty to do.

Here's the progress of the stick weaving, embroidery floss on darning needles. Reading left to right, you can see it's improving 

Getting the hang of sliding it off the needles, the hardest part, a bit tricky for my fingers. The trailing ends would be threaded back into the weaving but I left them out, to show the stages of learning.

9/11 is coming up and I registered for an online evening meditation session. That seems an appropriate way to observe it and the current state of the US.

And lunch notes: I roasted the rest of the carrots and potatoes with olive oil and the last spicy sausage fritter. Good discovery, long red pepper ground over carrots is very good. It's a fruity sort of grind, and is really interesting with the sweetness of the carrot. Noted for future reference.

Happy day everyone, resist and cope is the goal. And make things.

Billie agrees 

Stick weaving continued, Misfits and missing checks

The nights are getting cooler,so I'm starting to bring in plants. Here's the curry leaf plant under an arch of orchids 

And you're invited along on the stick weaving experiment.  I found large eyed sewing needles, looped threads through the holes to hold the warp threads. And quickly ran into a number of learning opportunities. I thought the fine cotton thread would make a good warp, and embroidery floss would be a nice weft thread.

I found quickly that the weft threads would not slip over the head of the needles and over the knots to arrive on the warp threads. 

So I replaced the whole shebang with embroidery floss for both warp and weft, no knots.

That worked better, the weft loops sliding onto the warp threads pretty well.  Then the skill level of the weaver was tested, slippery thread, small needles, so many moving parts. 

I did a sample, pretty uneven, the tension being tricky. The loops have to be firm enough to take shape evenly but slack enough to slide over the needle eyes. 

Soooo I slid the first sample down the warp threads, out of the way, and made another run at it.  

Much better this time. This is hopeful. So now this sample is slid down the warp threads to join the first.

The reason to keep them is to see progress and see what I need to do better.  It's a learning tool. If you keep removing your mistakes you're throwing away the bread crumbs marking the path. 

It's the usual story, the simpler the tools the more skill is required of the weaver. 

I like the possibilities here, to make motifs for bigger artworks,  or decorative parts for functional items. After I've practiced quite a bit more. And possibly found needles with a smaller eye, but which can still accept floss.

I may have stumbled on my fall project, adventures in stick weaving with a Rube Goldberg twist.

Then I wanted to do something less demanding so I cooked lunch, an adaptation of a Wil Yeung recipe, spiced roast cauliflower, which I served over brown rice with a sprig of fresh peppermint.

Here's the set-up 

The jar on the left is a condiment that came with the Indian food, thinned with avocado oil, still pretty hot and very good. Then there's cumin, smoked paprika, and a baharat mix, the milder version from the Together cookbook. All tossed with the cauliflower in a bowl, then roasted 45 minutes at 400°f. 

This was a hot mix and I didn't have the makings of Wil's cooling sauce, so I thought I'd better have rice to calm it down a bit.

Which it did, and a sprig of fresh peppermint to chew on worked nicely too. There's more for tomorrow.

Remember my experiments with beating lime juice into yogurt? That's very close to the sauce Wil makes to drizzle over this dish. Definitely noted for future reference.

Finally Misfits arrived later than usual, cheerful Rameer delivering.

These beautiful apples, Cezanne would paint them first then eat them.

This was a very small order, between my forgetting bread and the blueberries not being available. Canned goods for the food pantry. Cheese for all kinds of ideas including a crustless spinach quiche planned, now that I also have enough eggs.

And our inner little kids will love the label on the fish.

My checks still haven't arrived and I'm fielding requests from the contractor to pay them the revised increased sum.  The money's in the bank, I just can't convey it to them. There's a hefty fee if I use a credit card.  They're okay just now, but it's awkward. And I hate to have Contractor Michael waiting after doing beautiful and prompt work for me. He's okay too, but I don't like it.

I want to get this all settled then next week start arranging the new heat pump ($$$) for the condo. Always something! 

Meanwhile back at the fireplace, the last bouquet of the season from the patio.

Happy day everyone, I think I need to breathe.  Join me! And Ted and Big Ursy 

Stick weaving frenzy

Today after digging up, and presenting Gary with, what's left of the giant Russian sage, which he will plant behind his fence, I took a walk, then came home and sat. 

I read Brideshead Revisited, then listened to some Shedunnit, and woke some time later. Lunch was the last of the roasted potatoes, doused with lovely long red pepper, great hot but fruity flavor, the last of the baby broccoli and a patty of spicy plant-based sausage, all roasted together for about twenty five minutes. A few fresh dates for dessert. Good thing Misfits comes tomorrow, I'm running out.

Then I got into stick weaving mode. I experimented with drinking straws in case the Tuesday group expects me to know what I'm doing, a couple of ways. 

I noticed on YouTube one video where the weaving is done without the warp threaded through the straws. It was threaded in after the weaving.  I tried that, inserting the yarn to slide the weft threads onto it, and I don't recommend it. It was difficult to get the weft to slide smoothly and keep its tension. The sample is a bit bumpy. 

I set up with the warp threads in place before trying another way 

As you see, pretty bumpy results but worth trying just to find out.

Here's the stick weaving cast of characters 

This book is wonderful and I've recommended it a lot to people interested in a different, simple approach to weaving. It's had several printings, with different covers, but it's the same reliable teaching.

And here's the stick weaving how-to using actual purpose-made sticks. This is much easier to navigate with long warp threads than the straws. Straws work better for short projects.

I made the woven bag seen on my last post using instructions from this book, seen on the cover, and made the strap which goes all round the sides of the bag with my weaving sticks.

Then I wonder how about smaller gauge sticks, briefly thought of drilling bamboo knitting needles, but think they'd probably split.  Then my miniature making self suddenly realized: big sewing needles!

So I attached the threads through the eyes of five assorted needles and I'll try this tiny size with fine yarn, and we'll see.

Good day, and there have been some legal victories in the last couple of days.

I am now in the CeraVe owners group, thanks to Mitchell, and I'll let you know how it goes. I'm hopeful that it will help my rough itchy face. It looks okay but doesn't feel that way, just now.

And I'm impatient to get my new supply of checks since I now have three people waiting to be paid, including the contractor and a couple of individuals who shouldn't have to wait. The checks were shipped last week, but I guess the weekend and the holiday probably slowed things up.

Happy day everyone! Invent something, if possible, then you can tell us about it. And remember to resist in some real tangible way.