Ha Ha Ha, Strange Neighbor!

I received my first W2W2 envelope, from Margery, yesterday and saved it as a reward for working on my sketchbook today. Here it is, with a special van Gogh card and a yarn with his colors spun by her, some silk tops, a lovely letter, car color chart, (I had fewer than these color choices for my yarns when I started weaving, believe it or not!), a poem by her friend, a cute clothing label, and a lovely notebook with a handwoven cloth cover.

I love the card, from Minneapolis Institute of Art, as I was just reading yet another psychoanalyst's version of van Gogh's life, where he discussed the olive groves and Vincent's identification with Christ. I believe the yarns in the woven piece are handspun by Margery, but they are very very fine, and I love the weave structure that has plain weave areas and longer float areas to create texture; I'm going to ask her for the draft. I can just see it in soft gray wool, something just for me!! (The colors in the notebook cover are a little more saturated and richer, and overall, a cool blue.)

For more W2W2 links, please check the bottom line of the post linked above.

* * * * *

I did work on my sketchbook today, and I finished a few pages, but the majority are still being worked on, and two are totally blank. Because I chose the theme "Strange Neighbors" and such strange folks as Vincent and I are on my mind, I may be sticking too close to the theme and making the book as a whole... boring. Tomorrow, I shall concentrate on just the visuals, I think.

* * * * *

I know some of you have been experiencing mind-blowingly weird weather and in some cases dangerous extremes. While not to the same degree, this morning I heard on the radio we may be having winter-like temperatures this week; Jan/Feb is the hottest time of the year here, so, weird!!

This is the view I now see when I open the front door. In September, after I came home, I cleared the entire area above the retaining wall, (it goes about thrice as wide further to the left, and twice as deep as the patio, to the boundary,) including the viney weed, and dropped the rubbish down the retaining wall, until the heap was as high as the wall.

All that rubbish has flattened, some of it turning into OK compost perhaps, but the heap contains weedy bulbs and seeds, so they will be discarded. In fact, some weed grew out of it, as well as some growing back from above, and now I have a nice continuous,,, thingie! (I have more of the yellowy shrub all the way across, now partially obscured.)

Planning, looking at, or posting pictures of our place right now feels like binge-eating before a diet. I am so looking forward to this fall/winter's mad gardening, although I will do some tidying between now and May. I think. Unless I find more interesting things to do. Like making a new warp.

Half and half again, with Doni's cashmere-mix; beige on one side and pale terracotta on the other.

Day 5 and Half of Day 6

We got up a respectable hour and Ben left for work super early because of a client request he knew about from last year. This holiday, we didn't do much; didn't even pick berries. Ben wanted to go out a few times, but I wanted to stay home cocooned. Didn't attempt much of the house-tidying list, either. We started to get up later and later, and staying up later; we took naps and read, and watched films.

Major problem on the loom; I came up with an 8-step recovery plan this morning but I'm going to sit on it to make sure it's the right move before I act on it.

I've been trying to work on the Sketchbook Project sketchbook, but don't feel terribly keen. I prepped a few pages badly yesterday. I don't know why I enjoy postcard collage so much but not the sketchbook; it's hard work and I never know when to stop. Remind me if I even hint at wanting to sign up again. I made one postcard, and printed and packaged Mom's new address labels and "I've moved" postcards while supposedly working on the sketchbook.

On Saturday I woke up to a horrible dream that is funny in retrospect. Sister, Ben and I are upstairs at the parents' place trying to pack what Mom's keeping, and pick out anything we want from the rest. Mom had clearly gone through the stuff and everything is in two groups but Sister and I can't tell which lot she wants, and Brother and Mom have gone AWAL. We need to hurry as the girls' room/weaving room this is only the first we're working in, and I know Brother is going to be not happy with our progress. Among the pile of stuff found were gazillion Chinese Tea sets, which in real life Mom doesn't have. Cute, delicate, but at least a dozen sets! Oh, gee. Sister sanely decided she's not taking anything home, but I have to pick up everything

After a day, though, this got me thinking. From what I know, Chinese tea sets have smaller cups, a matching porcelain teapot, sometimes on a matching porcelain tray. Japanese tea sets are cups only; saucers, teapots and teapot potholder all come from different places, and it's in the matching of different material and sources that show off one's aesthetics. Ditto with the kimono "outfit" as a whole. It takes more skill to match less expensive or varied-value items nicely than to clash expensive items, naturally. But first and foremost one must aim to highlight the attractive/endearing parts of the season at all times.

I think it was in the 80's matching dish sets and kimono outfits, (kimono and accessories,) came out, but they never took off as they appear "wrong" or "ugly" by Japanese aesthetics. So we buy Western-style dishes in sets sometimes, and color-coordinate our Western-style clothes in the, well, Western way as we understand it, but Japanese dishes and cups are collected in bits and pieces and even "sets" come in pairs or five, (not six,) in the same style/shape but in different colors/motifs.

If you have a Japanese kitchen, you have gazillion little dishes and cups, and learn by observation, for e.g. never to use glass dishes/bowls except in summer, or to use earthenware for Japanese brown teas and porcelain for green teas unless the constituents of the gathering dictate otherwise.

I got this far. I'm not sure what this means in my weaving, except it appears I don't really have "my" colors any more, and I'm more open to all kinds of styles and colors now. Or to paraphrase, I see merits in a wider variety of work. But I'm not sure if these things are connected, or it's something else altogether...

Day 3, 2014

I have been gazing enviously at blogs reporting Day 1 and Day 2 activities of 2014. I had a great Jan 1 waking up to a thunderstorm, visiting with Yoko, and getting a sitting on the loom. Came Jan 2 and the sun was out and I had a total nada-day where I only got some reading done. But today, I got up to roaring wind and typhoon-like rain, managed some housework, finished the red piece and started on the green piece. I just hope I get more than every other day of productive days this year.

Yes, the weft is a dusty green indigo, pretty hideous to look at while weaving, particularly under florescent lights, but the contrasting hues make the cloth shimmer/glitter in different lights, so I'm fairly confident this will be an interesting piece. (But impossible to photograph today; - the reds are less yellow and more saturated, the "blue" is more yellow.) I am treading on thin ice, though, as I don't know how long the warp is and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed I can weave at least 150cm. Fingers, toes and arms crossed.

But it's almost the end of Jan 3 here, meaning I have 11 days left to work on the Sketchbook Project sketchbook, so the next little while weaving is going to be my reward every time I work on that. (And after the sketchbook comes it's tax returns, but I'm staying in denial for now.) 

A Day in the Life of Looms

Or Loomsday, as Cally coined it.

Happy New Year; I wish us all a lovely, colorful, and even-tensioned 2014 and more peace and tranquility on our planet. My year started with a roaring thunderstorm, so I could not have gotten to a better start. And we had a lovely visitor, Yoko, who graduated from our local Polytechnic 15 years ago; she is enjoying the shortest holiday I heard of, even for a Japanese traveler, of four days in New Zealand, but we got four hours of her time catching up. I love former students visiting us, and my shorter cashmere piece now has a lovely new home.

Without further ado, here are my babies, in their natural, (i.e. messy) habitat. Yoko commented my place didn't look that bad in my blogs, so here they are, the honest truth.

 RH in the corner, but it is not unloved exactly. I have some plans for joyweaving on it.

Klick may look like it has the same old blue cotton warp on it, and well, it does, but I have two warp beams on this so the loom gets used for samples and experimentations. I just took off the red "Friendship" warp off recently. The box above contains the yarns I was going to use for my dad's ruana.

8-shaft sample loom ex-polytech. Yes, the same cotton warp since P2P. I want to weave this, but every time I go into the stash room, I start cleaning the room or pick up a good weaving book/magazine and never manage to weave on this...

 The overworked 16-shaft. Much loved, much appreciated, in need of some TLC.

4-shaft jack, also ex-polytech. I have a couple of wonderful plans for this one; one involves the shiny orange silk yarn, but the other requires me to learn card-weaving, so that will come later. Beyond is mandarin tree I started from seeds some years ago; it nearly died twice in droughts and I'm trying my third resurrection. I don't do bonsai, but this tree is around 10 years old because it keeps dying and I keep bringing it back to life.

And for more aesthetically pleasing views, please visit:

Cally at Bonny Claith
 

Margreet at Woodyarn

Rose at Weaver Rose

Neki at A Movable Feast

Sampling at Sampling

Marion at Atelier 44 -> Atelier VandenBosch

Margery at She Treadles

Mette at Mette Frøkjær

Desirée at hemvävt.net
(If you have problems commenting there, go to her FB Page.)

Peg at Weaving a Gem of Life 

Laura at Weaving a Life

Sandra at Sandra's Loom Blog

And Dianne at Dianne's Loom Talk

2013/2014

2013 was an unusual year. A stash-load of sadness, regrets and good ideas coming too late with Dad's passing aside, Ben my Rock notwithstanding, I appreciate the rest of my family anew. Sure, they aren't as lovey-dovey as I like; they see me as a mildly-demented aging hippie; and they are so busy, with their own work and family lives, but also plain Japanese busy-ness. But they are reliable when it counts, and we can laugh together. I am thankful for them.

I may envy others' luck, opportunities, or experiences, but I have everything I need to do what I want to do right here, right now. I still covet knowledge, but I have ideas on how to get this.

Recently Ben and I watched a film called "Searching for Sugar Man". I don't want to tell you too much about it, because it's one intriguing and enjoyable watch. What I found awe-inspiring was the Sugar Man's composure, "grounded" as described one of his daughters, the ability not to let factors outside oneself topple one's balance. I am going to look for that kind of peace within, and once found, hold on to it. I'm starting this tomorrow.

Thank you for your company in 2013; I look forward to our 2014. 

Sampling is the Best Part

I don't think I've ever sampled 30+ wefts for one warp, though you know, I might have; this project was becoming a color conundrum, but I think I've reached a decision. These samples include yarns I don't have enough of to weave a whole piece, so some of the best-suited wefts are not available, but I'm thinking of one of the darker reds (a) for the longer draft and one of the greeny indigos (b) for the rounder draft. After a little more tweaking of the drafts.

One color I really liked was the glittering orange silk (c) but that's a stiff thread and the resultant cloth cancels out the softness of the cashmere-mix warp, so I have a different plan for this thread.

One of the difficulties with this warp was that the two sides look so different in different lights. To recap, one half consists of Red(dark)+Orange, while Red(light)+Pink makes up the other, the two reds being the same color but from different dye lots. The Red(dark) and the Orange are close in value but ever-so-slightly different in hue; I think the Red(light) and the pink are darned close in hue but quite different in value.

In brighter sun or under florescent lights, the R+O half is wonderfully saturated and yummy while the R+P half looks slightly faded, but in the evenings or when cloudy, the R+P half is ever so nuanced and rich and interesting while the R+O side looks too straight-forward. I hope my weft choices will look interesting all around, but they also feel like the two least bad ones.

* * * * *

It rained a little yesterday. Though other Nelsonians may tell you we have had rain over the last several weeks, they lasted between 10 seconds and 20 minutes, followed by hours and days of strong wind, so we needed prolonged and not-torrential rain for the soil. This morning we have had mist descending, in between bright sun, Unfortunately, in other parts of the country, we had floods! Watching the recap of 2013 in the news last night, I learned New Zealand had at least as dramatic and extreme weather as Japan this year. As I know many of you did. Nelson appeared twice in the short footage.

* * * * *

Sister just texted me to say she's going to Mom's to dismantle and pack the looms. It would have been me taking pics and marking all the pieces and Ben taking them apart and packing if we were there. She's keeping as much weaving equipment and yarns as possible, and definitely all the books.

In between their busy family lives, Sister and Brother have been spectacular helping Mom prepare for her move and she's been the envy of her friends. May 10 next year would have marked our 44th anniversary at that family home, but she's moving in less than two week, four months short of the anniversary. So while everybody is feeling the rush, I'm the only one feeling a sad and sentimental about all the changes, even though I lived in that house for the shortest time, about 13 years, I didn't particularly like the train line it was on, nor, really, the house itself. I just like being home especially when the rest of the troop were all there. 

Yeah, Let's Do It!

A Day in the Life of Looms 2014 is on. Take pics of your loom/s on New Year's Day, (one per loom), post and send me links to your blog posts by the end of Jan 1, 2014 your time. Here's what we did in 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010. And promise me you won't laugh, no matter what I post.

Saturday

Last night, I couldn't sleep, so I rocked myself in the hammock watching late night cop shows. Ummmm, yes, we have a hammock in our living room during summer; years ago when we bought it we first assembled it in the living room, and ever since it lives in living room during summer and is stored it away in winter.

Anyhoo, I thought I felt something akin to drowsiness, so I went to bed, where promptly I found myself wide awake. After a while Ben stirred so I told him what happened, and he laughed claiming I'm like a baby! Oh well. Perhaps. He went promptly back to sleep and I about half an hour later.

I've been working on the Sketchbook Project sketchbook. I think in the Mixed Media/Art Journal speak, I've done most of the backgrounds, but it's pretty intense; as with writing and drawing, I never know when is the right time to stop and when I need to work more. I didn't like what I did last year I don't even have one photo from it, and can't remember what I did. Of the choices of themes this year:

• Strange Neighbors
• Borders and lines
• A simple place
• Accidents
• Found!
• Dudes and latitudes
• To the last page!
• First aid kit
• Say words out loud
• Paper airplanes
• This list...
• Atlas of...
• Greetings from…
• 32 Days
• This is not about you
• This is not about me
• Undecided

I'm going with Strange Neighbors, which is me, the non-gardener. But as usual my contents don't adhere to the theme, and more like a non-sense book. My only goal is to make the pages interesting-looking.

Ah, the sample. It's still wet, being just out of a spinning cycle, so the colors are not accurate and in the photo I can't see the orange and pink halves too well. But here's the thing: I'm not crazy about the pink being lighter in value than the other three, and while working under florescent lights I didn't want to call too much attention to the difference in values of the two halves, but more hint at it. The right value for the weft has been my main concern, and the draft needs further fine-tuning, but I'm looking forward to the sample drying.

Mom's moving into her apartment in a fortnight. 

There is So Much Dr Who on the Telly, It Must be Christmas!

This spring/summer has been windy, but Christmas Day was an Oz-and-Back-Again doozy. I made two pillow cases for Ben's new super-sized, high-tech foam pillow out of an old flannel sheet; I have goodflannelphilia and severe misobadflannelpathy. Buoyed by getting two more or less rectangular bags using the selvedges to maximum advantage, I sorted my large-but-not-unreasonable fabric stash dreaming up other possible sewing projects. Brave. Even daring.

But since the Sketchbook Project sketchbook needs posting no later than January 15, I think I'll work on that today. Unless Ben wants to go tease the Boxing Day sales in town. We need a king-size duvet cover; we got one last week, until I noticed I was trying to put a freshly-laundered queen-size cover on a king-size blanket; though our bed is queen, we've always had two king blankets, no queens, so I don't know what came over me, but this kind of mistake/confusion makes me feel terribly old and stupid.

Delete incident. Fun link.

Today would have been my parents' 58th anniversary. Dad was the hopeless romantic; Mom ever the pragmatist. Mom put up a lot with Dad's idiosyncrasies, he demanded much in his last two decades, but I always thought Dad loved Mom more. I should have said so to him. I understood Dad perhaps very well because we were so alike, but I didn't tell him because I thought he knew. Even if he did, I think it would have been nice for me to say and for him to hear, as it would have been vice versa.

Hear me up there? 

The Night Before the Day After

We started Christmas a little early. We had coffee and panattone for breakfast, and truffle pecorino omelet with dark greens and cherry tomato for lunch. Pecorino smelled wonderful, but we didn't "get" the fuss over truffles; we may need to experience them in a different format next time. And Ben made me fluffy lime cheesecake; that is, cheese is fluffed up, not the lime. 

It's been a cool, cloudy day in Nelson. Some Kiwis call this gloomy, but except for the midday blinding sun, it's my next best thing to a winter's day. We've been promised rain for some days but 30 seconds last night and three minutes this afternoon is about all we had. Perhaps a little more overnight after Santa's visit.

I looked inside three boxes of VHS tapes that sat in the corner of the living room for, I was going to say half a dozen but probably closer to, a dozen years; I've meant to dispose them all these years, save the one or two of my nephews and one documentary on two weaver brothers from Kyoto. (We still have a working VHS and a record players all hooked up.) It turns out I had six from my sister's family, and a little over two wine boxes filled with documentaries, samurai shows and Japanese comic shows Dad recorded for me in the 90's, all with TOC in his tiny handwriting, some with evaluations, and two with notes in big letters: "Skip hh:mm ~ hh:mm; it's worthless; don't waste your life." Typical. He really did love doing little things for us.

I'm not ready to biff them so I asked Ben to keep the VHS player, and we're storing the two wine boxes in the storage under the stairs; next step, tidying and culling the contents of that storage. But we are making progress. I put up a To Do list for the next couple of weeks on the fridge; lots to do, but most are very tiny things. And we are playing and relaxing a lot, too.

And I finished assembling my W2W2 envelopes. They can go out on the 27th, I think, when the post office reopens.