3.07.2006

big yellow ball

You'll never guess what I saw this morning! The SUN!!! The sun is out in Michigan, there are no clouds and I actually heard birds... BIRDS!!!!! Ahhh... there is life in this cold dreary state. I still had to scrape my windshield this morning, but it was so sunny that I didn't have to wear my mittens and hat, and I didn't say a bad word when I stepped outside.

I started fixing the skirt last night. I decided to use a darning needle and a contrasting color yarn to thread thru all the stitches on the last correct row, then remove the needle and pull the stitches out. The lighter yarn is helping to keep all the stitches from just running all the way down to the cast-on edge, though it's still kind of a mess and a pain in the ass. it was hard to tell which row to pick up all the way around when I was switching between picking up purls and picking up knit stitches.

Back to school tonight to work on my latest project. I am using remazol dyes along with reactive dyes to create a variation on this weaving.

So far, I've painted the 45-inch piece of fabric with black remazol dye, and it has taken me about 5 hours to draw the design onto the fabric with a chalk pencil. I drew it free-hand and then made stencils from the drawing. I am going to use an avocado green, rusty orange, some kind of purple and a yellow for the design. Most of the background will stay black, unlike the drawing. The reactive dyes on top of the remazol will discharge the black and put the color in it's place. After it is dyed and steamed/washed, I plan to layer it with a black backing and echo quilt it, by hand. My goal is to enter it in one of the big quilt shows as a whole-cloth quilt. Which it is, since it's one big piece.

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