Brag night at Not Just Yarn

Here is a glimpse of my Wednesday night knitting social at Not Just Yarn in Brattleboro. This was brag night as several of my friends are making baby gifts for my granddaughters!

Art cloth round robin T Shirt

I joined an online group named complexcloth. It is artists who create art cloth using complex cloth techniques. Jane Dunnewold is the leader in this field. Her work is fabulous. Check her out at http://www.artclothstudios.com/.

Here is a photo of the t shirt in its 1st phase- died in MX Procion Lapis blue shibori style. 6 more people get to do their thing so wait and see - oh la la la!

Deconstructed Screen Painting

Finally, back to the studio! I spent last week- a few minutes here and there, preparing to do some deconstructed screen printing. Except for one piece, I love all the results.

Here are some photos of soda soaked pink dyed fabric. Ummm. I think this will become one of two baby quilts!

Fair Isle Handbag

My oh my, it feels good to finish a UFO! Here is my Fair Isle handbag. This was a KAL on the yahoo traditional knitting list. Liz Lovick created the Fair Isle pattern in a sport or fingering weight yarn. But this yarn is grown and spun right here in Cheshire County so I had to use it. And I didn't want a hat, I wanted a handbag. Thank you Liz for the inspiration and design.

Creating this was a good finishing lesson for me. I did icord bind off and finishing for the first time. Lovely and fun! Then I had to cast on stitches on the bottom to do an I cord seam - live and learn, I should have done that cast on with waste yarn - life would have been simpler.

I designed the front flap- nothing special - used my painted fabric that I planned to discard for the lining. Other things I planned and did were I reinforced the button hole with the blanket stitch. I purchased the handles and never before machine sewn those but I think, since there are no knitting police, this turned ok.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Christmas Day we left Logan Airport in Boston for Ocho Rios, Jamaica. This was our first trip to the Carribean. Learning about new cultures, food and having total relaxation was the reason for the vacation. It was an education. But the good food: Indian cuisine, Jamaican jerk chicken with some delicious rum drinks - oh my! And to sit on the beach and look at the beautiful water! Just a treat.

The houses all have wrought iron grilles. Some of the architectural details are very interesting. Their so called arts and crafts are all Indonsian imports. Didn't need to spend money there.

The gardens are fabulous. Their gardens are filled with our house plants (or maybe the other way around!)

Came home New Year's Eve to a snowstorm. No Problem, as they say in Jamaica!

New England Weather

As most people know, 9 days ago we had a horrific ice storm. Almost a million people lost power.

In the Monadnock Region, there are still more than 20,000 people without power. So many folks tell me how they are getting through it: wood stoves, cooking on the grill, using generators which are not such a hot commodity that they are being stolen, etc. Check it out at http://www.wmur.com/.

This photo is atop Manning Hill in Winchester, NH where the houses around it had no power until today. Fortunately, I was not directly affected.

To add insult to injury, we had 12 inches of snow in the last twenty four hours. It is still snowing. Another 18" is on its way. Thankfully we are going to Jamaica on Thursday morning!

This was a terrific day to finish my loose ends. I am swapping cards which have some thread painting through the Thread Society elist. Perfect opportunity to test my skills. I really loved this card. I freehanded on the machine the word Peace which is hard to read but it is there!

The process I used was needlefelting yarns both by hand and on the machine. I did my thread painting, added some beads, etc.

Here is the result.

Next: The card to the right is a little quote about taking some time to enjoy the tea, live life now, etc. This is for my special friend in Delaware. And here is another I did using my canvas, old sewing patterns, scraps of painted fabrics, metal wrapping paper and paint.

And so all my gifts are done. Now to pack for our trip! That is of course, in between, snow blower and shoveling time tomorrow. Sure wish I had time to snowshoe!

Fuller Craft Museum

Last Saturday I took my friend Janet to the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA. She is a crochet artist extraordinaire.

The gateway to the actual museum is lovely. Even in the brown mud season of this month!

We both wanted to see the Crocheted Prayer rugs by Xeonibia Bailey. Three exhibits were breathtaking.

This is Janet creating a crochet Mandela to add to the crochet exhibit.

The teapot exhibit was fabulous. My friend, Irene Reed, created two of the teapots in this exhibit.

After we visited the exhibits we shopped the Wearable Art Sale. Such gorgeous and reasonably priced things. It was a very inspiring visit.

Following our museum tour, we ate lunch at the "Not our Usual Joes". Then on to Boston.

Our destination was the Fort Point Arts Center. After riding around South Boston and within 1 mile of the same area for an hour looking for it- yes, we asked three cops and no one knew where it was - we parked the car.

The Children's Museum was very busy. We checked out the recycle shop. No great finds that day. Headed off to Trader Joe's and home. It was a very fun day.