Swirls and Parfaits

Well today I did some more dyeing, lol, anything to put off cutting out and sewing the blocks for the Nested Round Robin. I started off with another boysenberry-black test. This time I did a boysenberry gradation and then added 5ml of black as an additive to each container.  I’ll post a picture tomorrow when I’m done the washout. It’s mostly purples this time, which I guess is no surprise given how the last boysenberry-black attempt went.

 Then since I had leftover dye from doing the recent colour wheels along with leftover black and boysenberry, I decided to get ahead of myself and use up the dyes on my upcoming swirl and parfait swaps.

Being in a lazy mood it was a relaxed loosy-goosy slap-dash effort. Instead of tying off the swirls as I normally do I just tossed them into bowls added dye and then because I was to lazy to pre-soak the material in soda ash water I tossed that on top after having let the swirls sit for a few minutes for the dyes to blend.

Swirls of various colours

Still having left-over dye I scrunched up some fat eighths and tossed them into tiny bowls and added the remaining dye; again tossing on some soda ash water after having let the colours mix.

Parfaits

I’ll post the pictures tomorrow after the wash-out assuming the lighting is good enough. We’ll see whether being lazy pays off or if it’s “back to the drawing board”. We’re supposed to be getting a snowstorm tonight and tomorrow morning, apparently one of the worst of the winter. My Australian blogger friends, remember me while basking in your nice sunny summer weather, sit back and have a cool one for me.

Karen

Black and Ecru Pole Shibori

Well I spent a good part of the afternoon yesterday dyeing yet again. The first project was for my upcoming Shibori swap in February. I decided that I was going to try pole shibori but this time actually do the string method. That of course lasted for about half an hour before giving up and reverting back to the easier method of wrapping the fabric around the pole and scrunching it down upon itself. The idea for the shibori using string is to exert a bit of pressure on the string so that it creates a resist and then scrunch the fabric up the pole as you go. Well I couldn’t budge the fabric so gave up. Maybe I shouldn’t have wrapped the string so tight, I’m not sure and didn’t want to take the time to find out as I don’t have much time to waste.

I did wrap some sinew around the ends of my quick wrap piece to help create a resist there but that was all I did. I decided to over-dye the ecru with black. I was afraid that the black would over-power the ecru so I went lightly with the dye, I shouldn’t have worried as there is more ecru than black.

Wrapped pole with one yard ecru.

Over-dyed pole, bright exposure on camera.

Black and ecru shibori.

I dyed the final colour wheel for my nested round robin quilt. For this colour wheel I did the dark colour wheel using full-strength dye. I’d post a picture but truth to tell the camera makes it look like a medium colour wheel so it seems pointless as I already have one of those posted.

Lastly I did a colour run for my other group’s “Make a Shade” swap. I was disappointed in the results but not surprised.  I had thought we were to do a gradation and add an additive (wow, how’s that for a mouthful) in a small amount but no we were to treat this as a make colour run so the result was that a lot of black got added to my boysenberry dye. As a result I’ve mostly black samples as the boysenberry was over-powered. Grey would have been a better choice of colour if I’d known.

Boysenberry-Better Black run, overexposed showing lighter than normal.

I’ve had a real problem with my camera today, it’s making all my rich dark colours lighter than normal, maybe the day is just too overcast and it’s over-compensating…you don’t think it’s my camera skills do you, lol.

Karen

More Colour Wheels.

I’ve been busy dyeing, washing and ironing fabric for my upcoming nested round robin. I had previously posted a medium colour wheel (scroll down) in this colour-way, Dharma’s marigold, burgundy and navy blue.  Yesterday I dyed a light colour wheel and another medium colour wheel .

Light colour wheel – Dharma’s marigold, burgundy, navy blue.

To the medium colour wheel I added Jacquard’s Jet Black to each colour. I had debated whether or not to add the black to the medium wheel because I had a feeling that the colours would be on the dark side – and that’s the way they turned out. It’s interesting how an additive will change the colours.I choose Jacquard’s Jet Black because I’d heard that it was a fairly neutral black but I’m thinking it tends to bluish black because of the way the black reacted with my colours. A few interesting greens and browns in this additive wheel.

Medium colour wheel with Jet Black additive – colour’s a bit off – too bright. 

Light – Medium colour wheels one picture shot side by side.

With the leftover dye from the light and medium wheels I tossed together a few parfaits. Using the leftover lighter dye I alternated the dye with fat eighths in a vase, six layers in total. For the leftover medium dye I added 1 ml of black to each of the remaining 1/8 cups of dye. I then added this to two fat eights of material again in another vase. The piece on the bottom received the dregs and ended up a really nice piece of fabric. I’m really regretting that it’s only a fat eighth.

Light parfait – marigold, burgundy, navy blue

Resultant colours of above.

Medium parfaits with jet black additive.

I also did an Ivory gradation yesterday. Dharma says to use the dye at half strength but I wanted to see what it was like at full strength so I just added another couple of steps to my usual six but to tell the truth they are so pale as to be almost white.  The ivory at it’s strongest step reminds me of an orange creamsicle then as it fades I get a strong sense of buttered popcorn but the kind with the fake margarine if that makes sense. LOL, you don’t think my diet’s getting to me do you?

Dharma’s Ivory in 8-step gradation.

Speaking of which, I have lost nine pounds in two and a half weeks. Sounds good but most of it was water weight that came off in the beginning. I’m down to losing about one pound every five days now. Frustrating because I’m eating next to nothing. My own fault I guess, I haven’t been exercising as much as I should but then again I have been getting the house tidier and lots of dyeing and crafts done.

Karen 

One UFO done for 2008

Well it only took me three days and 11 hours of hard labour but I finally finished sewing all the squares together on my afghan and the border crocheted. It was originally intended for my daughter when she was at university to match the comforter that she had but since she’s moved out and left the comforter behind I’m going to use the afghan downstairs in my family room where just by coincidence it matches my leather sofa and loveseat perfectly. 

I didn’t realise until I laid the squares out on the bed just how big it was so it’s a nice size to cuddle under to watch the TV. It has alternating squares of green and green/burgundy/blue fleck yarn with four bobbles on each square, which you can’t really see in the photo because of the darkness of the yarn. The bobbles add a nice touch, which I appreciate now that all the squares are sewn together.

Afghan on bed to show size.

Karen

Friend are Good :)

Nothing much doing today aside from maybe some more cleaning and working on sewing the squares together for my afghan.

 I thought I would share a picture of the little gift I received from Michelle over at Michelle’s Stitch and Paint Spot. Michelle is a mixed media artist and does wonderful work check out her site on the blogroll to the right.

I’m sitting here thinking about all of the incredibly talented people that I’ve been privilaged to meet over the Internet this past year and how inspired I’ve been by them. From the ladies over at my fabric dyeing forums to Catherine over at Calidore and all of the many friends inbetween, I’d like to say thank you. Your encouragement and enthusiam has inspired me this past year to try a little harder and to do a little more. I’m in awe of your talents and skill and just so happy to be a part of it all.

I realise this post is a little late, lol, it should have been made at the beginning of the year but that’s me…always a little behind but I get there eventually. Here’s to hoping that 2008 is a year of learning, accomplishments and creativity.

Karen

Clean Room

Well the room is clean at last…note I said the room, the closet alas is not but hey that’s another day. Today I have been dragging, I don’t know why maybe I’m getting a headcold as the ears are popping as I’m honking away into my hankie.  I swear it was only knowing I’d posted pictures of the bedroom and people were expecting after pictures that keep me going. I’ll be working on the closet when I feel better, I guess, lol.

Karen

The Saga Continues…

Well I’m still cleaning and probably will be over the next few days as slow and steady wins the race? In the email I received this morning my son said “Be careful of the bed. It’s heavy and the metal frame is a killer”. Now having seen him tote the mattress and box spring into the hall as he re-arranged his room however many months ago it was, his warning inspired visions of cut shins and stubbed toes along with backs being put out with the strain of moving said queen-sized bed.

I’m in the middle of having moved the bookcases and the hundreds of books in them, looking at all of the furniture, turtle tank (30 gallons and it “is” heavy) and desk and I’m thinking to myself – the wallpaper is about 15 years old, the carpet is 28 years old and everything but the bed needs to be replaced because it’s old and shabby. Why am I doing this because what I should be doing is to order new carpeting and redo the walls.

 Echos of my son saying…”But I like the wallpaper”…are echoing through my head and the reality of having two sons in university, a cruise and wedding planned for this year makes me realise that there won’t be any new carpet for another year so lets just get on with it. I’m looking at the bed wondering if I can move it since it is so big and my back isn’t in the best of shape. It then occurs to me why don’t I just grab the headboard and try wrestling the whole thing into place. Maybe I can drag this thing into position by brute force.

All in all it took me less than a minute and I mean “less” than a minute. It appears that the bed frame has rolling wheels attached to it. I call my son my “doofus” boy. I say it with love and affection but sometimes you have to wonder about him. Mind you he takes after his mother so what can I say?

Karen

Only A Mother Would…

When after reading her son’s email this morning about not throwing out any bits that might look insignificant…run out to the curbside before the garbage man came… to root through a bag of garbage looking for anything that might be of significance.

Jon’s junk

I don’t know, what do you think? Looks like junk to me – a rusted bolt, I mean really. I got to thinking that maybe he picked up the bolt while he was a camp counsilor, who knows. I need a box – a very big box.

On another note, here is a picture of the Nutmeg gradation that will be going out today for January’s gradation swap in one of my fabric dyeing forums.

ProChem’s Nutmeg.

I tried to get the camera to focus, used extra lighting and what not because I hate fuzzy pictures of fabric but nothing seemed to work to bring it into that extra bit of clarity. I don’t know what caused this but I’m thinking maybe the fabric surface itself? This gradation was done using P&B PFD 115″. I normally use the 45″ wide material but since I already had this one done I went with it. The 115″ has just that slightly bit fuzzier nap to it than the 45″ fabric so maybe that accounts for the slightly out of focus look I’m getting with the camera. Anyhow you get the idea of the colour regardless.

Hmmm….garbage man just came.

Karen

Clean-up

Well two blogs in one day, what is life coming to? I’ve decided to document this to provide motivation for moi. Some before and after pictures of my son’s room. The goal here is to be able to walk around the room without stepping on stuff and to clean out the closet. Normally I’m quite happy to let them live in their own mess and have for years but the clean-up is for me. I need the closet space in order to clean up some of my messes, in other words – I’m out of storage space for all my crafting stuff. So without further ado, here it is:

Jon’s room view 1

View 2

View 3

View 4

View 5

Hopefully within the next week this will all be clean and I can have some pictures of nicely stacked piles of fabric, yarn and what not in the closet and a room that you can actually walk around in.

I think I’ll be moving the bed around, why he decided putting it up against the window was a good idea I’ll never know.  Actually I do know, he thought it would be great to sit on the end of the bed to get at his desk without a chair – does he ever use his desk – that’d be a big NO! I figure he’ll be so pleased to have a clean room he won’t complain – guess I’ll find out.

Karen

Crocheted Squares

I have been working on crocheting up some squares for an afghan this past month. With six more left to do the goal is almost within sight of getting this project done. I rediscovered this UFO when browsing for some Christmas yarn in the corner of my room where I stash the excess yarn. To give you an idea of how old this project is, I started on this little gem when my daughter was in first year university. It was to match the comforter that she bought to go on her twin size bed. Well she has been graduated for a year and out working in that time. The kicker is that she went through for optometry which is a seven year program so this UFO has been sitting around for eight years, yikes!!

Not a great picture but you get the idea.

The problem is, it just seems like yesterday. Where does the time fly by so quickly? I seem to be getting old really fast. When I rejoined the gym last month it had been eight years since I last joined this particular gym. A lot of the people that were working out eight years ago are still there working out. They aren’t any slimmer or buff but they are working out. The thing is I walk into the gym and see these people and all I can think of is “boy do they ever look old”. You come to the realization that perhaps they are thinking the same thing of yourself, awk!

Karen