I can see the finish line

Tomorrow night is my last critique, then we will bring all our stuff in again next Tuesday if we need to do more work on it over the weekend. And next week I have one more physics class and then the final. And that is it. The end. Finished. I dun gradiated colledge.

So here is what I am taking to the critique tomorrow, I'm calling it "Red Striped Rail Fence" Title subject to change pending appraisal of it's cheesiness. (I always think my titles are cheesy and have considered just having a billion "untitled" pieces.)


and the detail shot


I haven't shown any pictures before now because I only JUST figured it all out at about 8:00 tonight. I am pretty pleased with it. I'd like to do another one, pieced maybe instead of fused, and I'll dye gradations specifically for it, these aren't perfect gradations, but they work.

I started to take some pictures of my sewing room after this week of frantic "gotta get a freakin' quilt outta all this fabric I dyed" fusing, but I am too embarrased. it's bad. Real bad.

In knitting news, the latest socks are finished and have been worn, but not washed yet. Hand wash only ya know.
Started on the felted bag with the green and maroon Manos. It's almost done, needs a front pocket and a strap. Then I'll felt it this weekend. After that is done, it's the skirt, and only the skirt.
I Candice, do take you Olympic Skirt in a monogomous knitting relationship. I promise to work with you until you become the beautiful skirt I know you can be. I promise to knit around and around for what will seem lilke an eternity and then knit some more, purl too. I promise to be faithful. I will not cast on socks. Even though that Twizzle is SCREAMING to get some action, you are my one and only knitting project. God help me.

Oh and skirt, I hope you know there will be a frenzy of dpns and sock yarn the minute I'm done with you, so, you know, don't get too upset.

Thank you all for your nice comments regarding Olive. Honestly I expected at least one a** to comment saying that I did the wrong thing and I am a horrible person. And I guess if that is what you do think, thanks for keeping it to yourself. And I'm sorry to those of you I made cry. T'wasn't my intention.

It's time to tell the story

Today is the day the finalists of the Quilting Arts Magazine Calendar Contest are announced. I have changed the homepage on my browser to the Editor's blog, where the finalists will be posted, and am checking it obsessively. Whether I make it or not, I thought today would be a good day to finally tell the story of my entry. This is what I wrote and sent in with my entry. I've added pictures for the blog that were not included.


In December of 2004, I decided I was ready for my first dog. I started reading as much as I could about training puppies, comparing different breeds and talking to people who have had experience raising good dogs. My boyfriend Ryan and I went to the Detroit Humane Society the day after Christmas. We walked past rows of cages with adult dogs in them, and could see down the hall there were cages with animals that would not be adopted for one reason or another. We found our way to the puppy room, it was a small room with stacks of cages against three walls, there were quite a few litters of puppies that were 6 weeks old, and only a few puppies that were older. The top left cage caught my eye. A 12-week old female, white with huge black ears was whining and wagging her tail, so excited that we were talking to her. We grabbed her paperwork off her cage and went back up front so we could take her out and play with her. The employee took her out of the cage and we went into a little room where she jumped all over us and licked our faces and was so happy. I loved her instantly. We kissed her and put her back in her cage and told her we’d be back in a couple days. Back up front I took care of the paperwork and was told to come back on Wednesday, after she had been spayed and given the routine veterinary care.

We went back on Wednesday to pick her up, I think we waited in that waiting room for hours and hours, but it was probably only 15 minutes. A doctor came around the corner holding my puppy and I could see that she recognized me. Her tail started wagging and her ears laid down against her head. As soon as the doctor put her in my arms she peed all down the front of me. I got some final instructions and signed more paperwork and we were on our way home.

The first week was rough. That may be an understatement. The first week was a nightmare. I had no idea what I was doing. I had taken the week off work so I could stay home and get my puppy, who I had decided to call Olive, acquainted with her new surroundings. I spent a lot of time on the phone with my mom, my sister, and with Ryan, usually crying. I was having feelings like I had made a mistake. I didn’t know how to raise a puppy. I wanted to work in my sewing room, but every time I sat down, Olive peed on the floor, whined or needed some other attention. I don’t know what I was expecting; I guess I thought puppies slept a lot. This one sure didn’t. At the end of the week I had decided to stick with it, to keep working with Olive and she would be the best dog ever.

The next couple months brought lots of good things, along with bad. She was potty trained by the age of 4-1/2 months; she hardly ever chewed anything she wasn’t supposed to; she could sit, lie down, come when she was called and we were working on ‘roll over’.

Olive was about 8 months old when the aggressiveness started. It started with just some barking, whether we were outside with another dog in view, or inside looking out at another dog outside. The barking developed into growling and snarling. It got so bad that when she would sit by the window and see another dog outside, she would jump all over the window, sending the vertical blinds all over the place. At first, I would pull her by the collar and talk to her calmly. After a while, when I reached for her collar during one of these “freak-outs”, she would turn and snap at my hand. I refused to let her become the alpha dog in this house, so I kept pulling her back and was more firm with her especially when she snapped at me. Nothing worked. After about a month of this, and three separate attacks on Dakota, the 10 year old German Shepherd Husky mix at my parents house, we were on a walk with Olive and happened to pass by a woman in front of her house. Olive started barking at her dog through the fence, and this struck up a conversation with the woman, who happened to be a dog trainer. She worked with Olive for a few minutes and thought she could be a good dog with the correct training. As the woman was talking a man with two Jack Russell Terriers walked by. Olive, predictably, stood on her hind legs, barked and snarled and leapt at the dogs across the street. The woman stopped mid-sentence and just said, “oh my”. I told her how often that happens and that she has started to snap at me and other people who take care of her. Her unfortunate recommendation was to have her put down. Dogs with that much aggressive tendency are just not safe.

As we continued on our walk, I talked with Ryan and my parents, but no decisions were made. I was assured that they would be there for me whatever my decision was. I wrestled with every possible option available, but could only think of one thing. What if Olive hurts someone? I knew I could not keep her, but if I took her back to the Humane Society, she would be adopted to another family, possibly with another dog or small children. I couldn’t let that happen, so I made the awful decision to have her put down.

The morning of June 22, 2005 I left for work after a lot of kisses and scratches and hugs for Olive and quite a few tears. My mom came shortly after I left and took Olive home with her. My dad picked her up and took her to the vet. He had already made arrangements so that they could come in the back door, where she wouldn’t come in contact with any other animals. As soon as the vet laid eyes on her he told my dad he could see why we had been having so much trouble.

It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Olive was my responsibility. I volunteered to be her sole caretaker and give her everything she needed. I felt like such a failure, I would look around at other people walking their dogs and get sad and jealous. So many people have dogs, what is wrong with me that I couldn’t keep mine? But I have slowly realized that it wasn’t my fault. I did everything I could to keep her and take care of her so she could have the best life, and so that I could have a great companion as well. But I see now that sometimes, no matter how hard you try; some things just can’t work out the way you want them to.


My quilt is a portrait of Olive sitting in her favorite spot by the window keeping watch over the yard. I used hand-dyed fabrics and some commercial fabric and over-dyed commercial fabric. It was fused and then hand and machine quilted.

One over a quarter century

I made it past the quarter century mark. At 10:22pm EST I turn 26.
So far, I've gotten cards from Ryan's family, and two skeins of sock yarn from his mom Gayle. She knows me so well. The card on top there is from Ryan's 3-1/2 year old nephew Joey, he told me he picked that card out for me because that possum is smiling. He had the cutest little grin on his face and was bashful and so proud of himself at the same time. adorable.

Saturday was Joey's little sister's baptism and at the last minute we decided we should bring a gift, and hey, why don't I make her a rosary. So this was my Saturday...

• 9am wake up with knitting pattern in head and have to sit in bed and knit for a while to test it out


• 9:30 get up and dressed, go to Ryan's to pick up his dad's rosary that I was going to take apart and use the cross and mary part for Matteson's rosary, and so I could get the number of beads right


• Stick around and talk cars with Ryan and my dad... well, not so much talking on my part, but listening and thinking about how cute it is to watch my dad and Ryan hang out and work on Ryan's car


• 11:45 leave Ryan's and go to Bead Store. I decided at the last minute it might not be a good idea (karma-wise) to take apart someone else's rosary. I got lots of good advice and bought new findings for the rosary and pretty glass beads, even though I probably had everything I needed already at home (minus Mary and the Cross)


• 1:00 get home, gather rosary ingredients and metal working tools and ipod. I did not buy any eye pins or any findings, all the pieces were twisted and cut from sterling silver wire. each bead has it's own little link, hand made by me. Only the best for our little Matteson.


• 3:15 finish rosary, whip off iPod and clothing and get in shower, get dresssed, do hair and makeup, put on shoes and grab a bag of pretzels (didn't have time to eat) and get in the car to go to Ryan's and then to the baptism.


• got to Ryan's right at 4:30, he got in the car and we headed to the Church

I just got back to work; I met my mom and dad at Panera for lunch and I got another present! Knitting Rules, by Yarn Harlot! Wahoooooo! I guess this means I have to finish "Secret Life of a Knitter" right quick. Tonight I have school and then Ryan and I are going out with another couple to Applebee's for $2 beers and 1/2 price appetizers. I'm a cheap date. Unless we're going to a yarn store.

Success with Remazols!

A week or so ago I did some more work with the remazol/reactive dyes and this batch turned out pretty darn well, as far as the process actually working correctly. The colors did some funky stuff, which is to be expected with this process.
This picture shows four different designs. Starting on the left, I painted the fabric with green remazol (liquid reactive dye from Pro Chemical) mixed with Basilen Fixing Agent (by Jacquard, not sure yet where we buy it, it is supplied to us at school, I'll have to find out before the end of April and the free supplies (aka school) is over for good), oh, mixed in print paste and soda ash too. After that was dry, I mixed up a chartreuse, yellow orange and grass green and used my finger tip to dab it on randomly onto the green... as you can see, green remazol + green reactive = blue.

The next piece has two different designs on it. I painted it with the turquoise remazol first, then mixed up three different shades of blue/purple reactive dyes. The colors on this one turned out exactly as planned. On the left side of the fabric, I used a squirt bottle to just randomly squirt all three colors all over the fabric, and then used a plastic fork to move the dye around and mix it up. On the right side, I used the squirt bottle to make swirlies. These both turned out really well, the halo effect is very cool between the reactive and remazol. should have taken a close up... maybe I'll add one in the next post.

The third piece, all the way on the right was not at all what I expected. I painted it black with remazol, then used GREEN to make big leaf-ish shapes all over, just with my fingers. Then went back and put some of the yellow orange down the center of each shape. So, yet another funky and unexpected outcome: black remazol + green reactive = purple.


These are just some fabrics I already dyed a while ago that I overdyed. Far left was bright green and fuschia, I got it wet and scrunched it into a container and poured diluted bleach over it (like the low water immersion technique). Then once I saw it was acutally doing something, I took it out, rinsed it and put it in Anti-Chlor for 5 minutes and then washed/rinsed it out. The middle one started out a light brown/tan low water immersion and then I did low water again with a reddish brown that is now more red-orange. And on the right is the same light brown/tan low water fabric that I screen printed with purple.


These are 2 6-step gradations between green and blue. I sorta forgot that when you mix blue and green you get turquoise. I'm not a huge fan of turquoise, but I'm sure I'll use these for something. I used the instructions from Elin Noble's book, Dyes and Paints. Except I do mine flat on the table with a paint brush, instead of standing in front of 6 buckets for an hour stirring them all.

That's all I have for ya at the moment. Just wanted you to know that I am actually doing stuff when I say I have school at night.

maybe more than you bargained for

How far would you go to use a 20% off coupon at a really great yarn shop? 25 miles? 100 miles?

What if you had a "20% off your whole purchase" coupon for a yarn store that was 614.3 miles away from home? Is it worth almost 10 hours in the car (one way) plus about $40 worth of gasoline, at least two fast-food/on the road meals, and a sore ass? I still want to say YES! sign me up! when do we leave?! Besides, travelling and shopping helps the economy, I haven't seen Shannon in a month and the yarn shop in question just happens to be less than a mile from her apartment, and the most important argument, I NEED more yarn.

*** WARNING***change of subject with no segue***

So last Saturday I went to see a psychic. This was not a cheesy, read your palm, crystal ball gazing, tell your future type psychic. She is a "metaphysical counselor". It was such a fun and eye opening, emotional, goose-bump inducing, tear producing experience. It was an hour of her telling me some things I knew about myself already but maybe weren't obvious, she introduced me to two of my spirit guides, I learned just a little bit about past lives, my relationship with my immediate family and something about this "power" she kept referring to that apparently I have but am afraid to use. That part confused me. She told me I am an old soul, and that this is definitely not my first lifetime as an artist.

Of course, I have been thinking about everything she said a lot and coming up with SO many questions I want to ask next time. So much so that I want to make an appointment to see her again, like, RIGHT NOW. I want to ask about Olive and why that experience happened to me and why it had to turn out the way it did and what I was supposed to learn from it. (I realize I have never really explained the whole Olive situation, it will come. in due time.) I also want some help with my headaches, and I wonder if she could help me with that. I have questions about what she told me in our session on Saturday about the greif I carry and how I can heal it. She told me that I have a "long thread of grief running through my emotional core" and that it is old and not necessarily mine. She said I have a way of "helping" people grieve, but it's not much help for them or me because I take it from them so that I have to deal with it, and they can't deal and get over it. That may sound like foooey, but it totally makes sense to me. I am always the first one to start crying... even BALLING at funerals, movies, tv, radio commercials... seriously, On-Star commercials should not make me cry, but they do, and it doesn't matter what day of the month it is. The best example of this is when Leah's mom Michele got sick, and sicker and passed only 6-months later, I was a wreck. I couldn't even tell my boss and co-workers I'd be gone the day of the funeral because I would lose it and look like a bumbling idiot trying to get the words out. So I had to email them, and I even asked in the email, tactfully, but with the basic message being, don't try to talk to me about it. Most of them complied; others didn't and got the bumbling idiot I knew would come out. Of course I am sad and miss Michele, but I think bigger than that, was that I can so easily put myself in someone else's place, that I was feeling Leah's grief. I was worried about her and how she would handle it and get through it. And of course want to help her in any way I possibly can. As soon as I saw her speak at the memorial, of course I cried through the whole thing, but I felt better after because I knew she would be ok. Wow, this is going off to a place I wasn't prepared to post about. I guess I'll just finish it up with, Leah, I am sorry I took some of your grief from you and I apologize in advance for giving it back to you, when I figure out how.

That was a little too heavy for a fiber art/knitting blog, dontcha think? So, let's end with some appropriate content. School tonight, dying gradations and color ranges for the impending quilt. I think it'll be a tree... that's the idea in my head at the moment. I was working on some Remazol/reactive dyes for the quilt, but they didn't turn out like I thought. So they'll probably get scrapped. (just not used for this project, not thrown away or anything, who do you think I am?!) I'd like to do some potato dextrin and a little more remazol this semester, but I think I'll proabably run out of time. Critique is the 20th, so that is coming real quick!

Well, now what?!

One of the many things I've been drooling over lately is some Twizzle sock yarn by Mountain Colors. I've drooled over ebay listings for $18 plus shipping, I've touched it and squeezed it and rubbed it on my cheek at Flying Sheep in Ann Arbor... but the price of $21 for a pair of socks just seemed too much. I've searched for other places online that might sell it for cheaper, but no luck. So I just kept drooling... until yesterday when I had a realization. I went to a yarn shop with Leah on Saturday with the intention of getting two skeins of Lorna's Laces that I've also been drooling over for quite some time. When they didn't have any colors I liked (was holding out for either Motherlode or Tuscany and all they had was camouflage) I bought $50 worth of Manos del Uruguay solid(ish) colors for a felted bag instead.
Then we went to another yarn shop on the other side of Grand Rapids and they didn't have Lorna's sock yarn either, except for two skeins of the bee stripe socks and one lonely skein of Iris Garden. So I wasn't going to get anything, until I spotted the Twizzle. This store had a whole shelf full of it, at least 3 different colorways. I picked up one skein at a time, of each different colorway and squeezed. I must have this yarn today. but... $22 for a pair of socks? then I realized that Lorna's is between $9 and $11 (depending on what store you are in) for one skein... and me, being the math and physics wizard that I am, now understand that two skeins of Lorna's is the same price as one skein of Twizzle. And you only need one skein of Twizzle for a pair. TA DA!!! I now own one skein of Twizzle sock yarn in the colorway Elderberry.
But... now what? I have to find something else to drool over. That shouldn't be hard though.

Ok, ok... You got me, I am still coveting and drooling over the Lorna's Laces in Motherlode (and Tuscany). I can't help it. I am addicted to sock yarn... and I know I'm not alone. It is just the most perfect thing. You know exactly how much you'll need without having the pattern with you. Socks are relatively cheaper to make than a sweater or sometimes even a scarf. And they are useful, especially in Michigan where winter seems to last from October through April.

As you can see on the current pair of socks, I got a little carried away with the pattern and should have started the heel about an inch ago... rrrrriiipppppittttt

I had a wonderful weekend at Leah's house. We knit and shopped and watched RENT and we listened to our tapes of the Psychic we both went to, her two weeks ago and me on Saturday. We made gluten-free lasagna per Leah's dietary restrictions and a yummy salad and we made gluten-free brownies which were surprisingly wonderful. We also found a very good but very expensive chinese buffet for lunch on Sunday. mmm... crab cheese. too bad we didn't know we were going to end up there, or we would have brought zip-loc baggies... pretend I didn't say that out loud... we would NEVER do that!

So here we are,
Leah, learning to knit in the round... this picture is posed, she really is having fun learning to knit with 4 needles.

And here I am working on the modular scarf Leah taught me to make!



No pictures of us together though, the dogs couldn't get the zoom or the lighting right to take one of us... they were having a little trouble holding the camera; no thumbs, ya know.

Thanks George

Now that I am officially into the last third of my LAST semester, I have finished the first project. (except for the hanging sleeve. Dammit, I just wanted to go to bed before midnight ONCE this week... ok?)

(sorry for the not so great picture)

Two weekends ago, I started quilting the X's. I straight stitched along the diagonal in one direction. Then I laid it out on the living room floor and layed the backing over the front. Pinned it really well, and then marked the top of the quilt so I could cut a long strip in the backing along the top. I used my seam ripper to cut a somewhat straight line thru JUST the backing fabric. Then I sewed around all four edges of the quilt and used the hole to turn it inside out, iron it and wunder under the hole closed. Then, as usual, I folded it up and left it for two weeks. Yesterday I decided was the day it gets finished. This week (although no different from all the weeks before it) has been extremely boring at work. There is just not enough here for me to do for 8 hours, plus, I am only here from about 11:30 till 5 on the two days I have school in the morning and there is still not enough to keep me busy for 8 hours. It is so frustrating to be stuck here with nothing to do but screw around on the internet, just for a pay check (for those of you who think I'm crazy for this last statement, just try it for a month or two, or 3 years, it gets boring fast). So that boringness is what motivated me to get the quilt done last night. So when I got home, I ate dinner and knitted on my sock for a bit until Good Eats was over, then went to the sewing room. I was in a mellow mood so I put George Harrison, All Things Must Pass into the stereo. So it was just me and George, finishing up the quilt. He is my favorite Beatle, definitely the cutest.

Here is one finished sock and a start on the 2nd of the pair. I really like the way it turned out. I'm glad I didn't do the regular ribbing pattern for this yarn, I think it would have striped funny and pooled. I haven't succumbed to S3 yet (second sock syndrome) because I get so excited to actually wear the socks I am making that I want to finish both so I can!

Progress on the skirt is nearly immeasurable. I think I've done one or two rounds this week. The stitches keep increasing every 3 inches, so now the rounds are over 400 stitches probably and it just takes forever to get around to the marker again. It's hard to stay interested.



This weekend is going to be SO FUN! I am going to the psychic on Saturday and then from there on to Grand Rapids to stay with Leah! We are going to knit and watch RENT and go to the yarn shops there and I am going to teach her to knit in the round and it will be just me and her and her two dogs, Billie and Jada. Girl time!!! fun! We have been looking forward to this for weeks! She signs online to talk to me while I'm at work and we just keep saying that we want it to be the weekend already! "Let's fast-forward this week so it can be Saturday FASTER"

It's funny, I always think I never have enough to blog about, but it always ends up being a long post. Maybe because I just sit here and ramble on and on, like a free-writing excercise... but not.

not much to report

Not much of anything exciting has been going on, so here is a random bulletted list

• I got an 89% on my second physics test


• I have a desperate NEED to buy yarn online today


• I got the RENT DVD for Christmas/birthday from my friend Rachel last weekend!


• I finished the Ugg booties and started a second pair. Second PAIR syndrome is MUCH worse than second sock syndrome


• I am now realizing how close the end of the semester is. Which is also the LAST SEMESTER EVER!


• I have somehow built my bank account back up to where it was 3 years ago. I have not even tried, other than the not so successful "no new yarn in February" law. I just have been too busy with school and work and homework and family stuff that I haven't had time to go shopping. I got my tax refund, and I get paid 3 times in March! wahooo! All of these things make me think I can buy LOTS of yarn online, RIGHT NOW!


• I get to spend time with Leah for 3 weekends in a row! That hasn't happened since at least 1998


• I am going to go see a psychic and talk to my Spirit Guides on April 1st (never done anything like that before)


• Starting my third and final textiles project for school tonight. It started out as an idea for a city skyline with all kinds of fabrics dyed with different processes, but now I am thinking a more abstract/geometric not quite foresty scene... just a row of trees. We'll see.


• I have turned the heel and starting on the foot (after gusset decreases) on my sock


• Shannon's birthday skirt has been neglected terribly since the end of the olympics. The end of May will come quickly and I will wonder where March and April went and why the hell I am rushing to finish a small and short skirt that I had 3 months to work on.


• No pictures in this post because Ryan has my camera. He wanted to take pictures of his car engine before he started taking it apart so he would know where all the pieces go later.

I'll write more later when I have pictures and something interesting to say.

New cure for Migraines

Anyone who has known me for more than a week knows that I get headaches... a lot of headaches. Eye strain, stress, not eating well or often, sleeping in an awkward position, wearing my hair too tight, wearing a tight hat... all these things will give me headaches, but not consistently of course. So yesterday, I felt one coming and took two advil at about 5:00 on my way to school. I got home around 8:00 and ate some dinner and the thumping in my head was slowly getting worse. I took two more Advil and went to bed at around 11. I woke up this morning with a POUNDING head, it was probably about 5:45, but I didn't look at the clock. I laid there for a while with the song "Captain Vegetable" from Sesame Street stuck in my head. (Yes, I have the kind of memory that can't remember the formula for the Force of Gravity, but I can remember a song from a show I watched 20 years ago; which is why I am an artist, not a physicist, doctor, or rocket scientist... I'm getting off topic.) So, I laid there for about 15 minutes and kept thinking, "the alarm will go off any second... I... am captain vegetable... eating crunchy vegetables is good for me... and it's good for you so eat them too, eat celery and carrots by the bunch! 3 cheers for me, captain vegetable!!!! CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH! ok, any second now my alarm will go off." So after the alarm didn't go off, I got up to take something for my head. It was 6:00 or so. I took two excedrin migraine and got back in bed. Usually the strong stuff takes at least 20 minutes to work, so I laid down thinking I'd fall asleep, sleep for 40 minutes till the alarm goes off at 7 and have no headache.... 20 minutes later I just got up. I couldn't fall back asleep with the pounding, my eyes were wide open, and I was daydreaming of a knitting pattern to draw up. So I sat on the couch, watched the news and finished one of these Ugg booties for Matteson. The other one just needs the trim sewn on and the seam sewn up. By 7:30 when I was uploading these pics (when I should have been getting ready for school and work), my headache was gone. So there you go, Excedrin Migraine + Ugg Booties = Miracle headache cure.



Last night was the critique for my remazol whole-cloth quilt, it went very well. No one had any suggestions or things they had issues with or wanted changed. Which is good, because there is probably nothing I could do about it if there were. Most of the people that had been watching me work on it the past two weeks hadn't seen it finished yet, and when they saw it hanging, their mouths dropped open and they gasped... so that's a good sign! I am quite pleased. Here is a detail shot of the hand stitching that I've started. I told the teacher there is no way I'll have it done by mid-April for the last day of class, but I told her my final goal is to send it to Quilt National in September, so I will definitely finish it by then. And I'll bring it in at the end of the semester in-progress. (please excuse the chalk lines in the photo)



One of the many things on the needles now, a new sock. 100% wool, hand-dyed with plants and stuff from Natural Dye Studio . Using a pattern from my sock-shaped sock book.

Where did the color go?

Here it is, in all it's painstaking "glory"... my not so colorful wholecloth quilt top.





Three weeks ago when I applied the black undercoat, I made way too much dye, so I prepared two 45" square pieces. I decided one would be left black, except for my signature,to use for the backing; and the other I would do the quilt design on. So here is a shot of my signature on the backing fabric.


THAT is what the colors should look like. Bright and happy, showing no black thru the colors. I have no idea what happened. I did everything exactly the same. The problem was in the actual application of the dye, I know that for sure, but even that isn't giving me any consistant evidence of what to do next time.

It's not so bad... it's not what I expected or hoped for, but it does have some redeeming qualities. The design is very successful, symmetrical, and even. It shows off my squeeze bottle skills. And at least all of the colors are dull, instead of having all the rust orange color be bright (and correct) and the other three colors not turning out, then it would be really bad. I think it is successful enough to continue with my plan to hand quilt it. I'll buy batting this weekend, layer it and baste it. Probably will start quilting it so I can have an example to show at the critique on Tuesday.

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.

Spring break!

I am back in Michigan and I am so glad I took the whole week off work. It's like going on vacation and then coming home and having another one where you get to sleep in your own bed and take advantage of your free time and get some stuff done. It's great. Even though I pretty much wasted yesterday. I don't know what I did, but the day is gone and I don't have much to show for it. Anyway... Here are pictures from Pisgah National Forest.





It was beautiful, it was a little chilly, especially so close to the big waterfall, but the sun felt great and we were just so excited to be outside and not thinking (or saying to each other) things like, "ahhh, I am sooooo c-c-cold" or "F*** it's FREEEEZING". See, we're outside AND smiling!



I got to go to a lot of yarn stores and I spent A LOT of money. $60 of it was my christmas gift from Ryan though, so that doesn't count. Isn't Ryan just the best for tolerating so many yarn stores in only 3 days! On our way home we had to drive through his hometown where his family lives, so we stopped in for a visit. When they asked him what he did on his vacation he said, "whatever Candice and Shannon wanted to do". What a guy.



Shown here (clockwise from upper left) is 3 skeins of pima/tencel (probably for socks), 2 balls of soy silk (maybe for socks), 1 skein of laceweight merino that I will be dying, maybe for a shawl or something, 1 lonely ball of a mix of fibers just to have, 4 balls of variegated chunky wool that I will weave for a scarf, 2 balls karaoke wool that might be a scarf, or something to felt, and the most exciting of them all, one ball of Trekking XXL sock yarn! I have been searching online to buy this but just haven't bought any and now I have some!!! I can't wait to start these socks, but they are in line after a couple other pair.



The solid fabric is 100% silk noil, the printed tree fabric is cotton.

I was leisurely knitting on the olympic skirt when I came to a section of knits that had one extra. I was about an inch past the last increase round. At first I thought maybe I had just accidentally been knitting instead of purling on that one stitch for the last 5 rounds, so I laddered down. The stitches came out and then stopped. I must have increased one extra stitch in that panel, so I have to frog about an inch of the skirt. I haven't touched it since Monday, I need some mental recouperation before I attempt to frog. So instead last night, I finished my first pair of socks! This entry is already chock full of pictures, I'll save the socks for another time.

Roving Reporter

Just a quick one, Ryan and I are in North Carolina for a few days for Spring Break. THe weather is only about 10 or 15 degrees warmer here than Michigan, but it's enough. Plus, we've seen the sun every day so far.

Here are some pictures I uploaded before we left and never had time to write about and post. First is the finished Olive calendar contest piece. I'll take pics and send them out when we return to michigan in a couple days.



This is my Olympic knitting as of Thursday I think. Unfortunately I only managed to get to about 14 inches before the closing ceremonies. I am a little bummed, but, I got pretty close, and now it's pretty close to done and I still have more than two months before her Birthday.


Here is a picture of the stuff I got at the Fiber Festival two weekends ago. Not sure now what any of it is, but it's all handspun and pretty and soft. No plans for any of it. The roving is silk. I don't know how to spin yet, but some day I will, and I will spin silk.


Yesterday we drove to Pisgah National Forest and walked around and looked at the waterfalls and rocks. I have pictures on my camera, I'll save those for another post. Today we are on our own because Shannon has school until 4:00. We aren't sure what we're doing today, maybe walking around downtown. There's also a motorcycle museum about 30 minutes away that he wants to go to.

I am using my sister's laptop right now. It's a PC, at home I have a Mac. She has all kinds of options for fonts and colors and stuff... why don't I have any of that?!

ahhhh... so nice to only sit in front of a computer for 20 minutes instead of 8 hours. It's going to be a great week!

Full of Smartness

First, here is a better picture of the X's quilt, hanging under the gallery lights at school.



Apparently, a deadline is a great motivator for me. Unfortunately, it gets me motivated to work on OTHER things. So, right now there are 8 days, 22 hours and 13 minutes left of the knitting olympics. I have 5 inches of the skirt done... on my way to 17. One would think that I would be using any extra time to knit... the skirt. Yeah.

This is what I did Wednesday after work, along with load another 10 or 15 albums onto my iPod. The pink will be on there too, but less of it. it will be sortof like a sunburst coming from a point at the lower left, not in the corner. I don't know how else to describe it, so stay tuned.

And here is the skirt, shown here with it's competition, the almost finished second sock, two skeins of noro that somehow showed up at my door while the "no yarn in february" law was in effect (shut up... two words for you: Close-out sale). And two balls of yarn that may or may not be the next pair of socks.


Wondering what any of that has to do with today's title? This news deserves a fanfare, a drum roll, cheerleaders, man-servants feeding me chocolate, a bottomless glass of wine, and a basket of puppies just for me.... Are you ready? Are you just on the edge of your seat? bwa ha ha ha......

I got a B on my physics test.

Hell yeah!

scarf story

Boss guy: I like your scarf, did you make it?
Me: yep
Boss guy: I figured, I don't know where anyone would buy one like that
Me: What? a skinny useless scarf?
Boss guy: Haha, yep
Me: This was the first thing I ever knitted
Boss guy: Oh yeah, How old were you?
Me: .... 25

All in one piece

It took most of the day Saturday, but all my X's are now attached to the background.


I started to lay it out over the weekend and I didn't like it. First, I eliminated all of the turquoise, blue and bright red X's. That helped a lot. Then I decided to complicate it further, because that is the way I am. I am always the one in class cutting out tiny pieces or using a squeeze bottle to dye 1/2-inch yellow circles and then going back to put a purple dot in the center of each circle.

All of the X's were cut with mitered points. Since my grid background is not 100% perfect, the mitered points of course didn't line up right, so I had a brilliant idea to cut all of the points off. Although this made the process of fusing the X's a little more difficult and time consuming, I think it turned out great! The tiny squares of negative space that are created where the X points meet are much more interesting than a mitered corner. See for yourself...



In order to get everything lined up, I used my little tacking iron to fuse just the center of an X to the background, then once I had four points that met each other, I trimmed each X and fused them down.

Sunday I did some more test dying for Chris and she is looking everything over this week and is going to let me know what she wants and how much. Which means I have to figure out how much to charge... I hate that part.

The olympic knitting is coming along well... I have about 3.5 inches of the skirt done and the i-cord drawstring started and it's about 6 inches long. The timing is actually working out pretty well. I was telling my mom over the weekend that I must be crazy for picking such a big project to knit when I have so many other things going on. I'm feeling the need to write out my school/work/homework/dying for Chris schedule and hand it to people when they think I'm over-reacting or exaggerating about how busy I am. But, I just had a physics test on Monday, which means no homework until Wednesday and I am just finishing up the time consuming part of the X's quilt, so I actually do have a little free time to knit. And as long as I knit about an inch or two per day, I'll have it done with time to spare.

Next project for school is going to be a Whole-cloth quilt... deconstructed. The plan, which really is not a plan, just an idea in my head is to use Remazol dyes along with reactive dyes just like that black yellow and purple quilt I linked to above. I am going to use a big, maybe 40" or so piece of fabric, and paint it with the dyes in some sort of traditional quilting pattern like a whole cloth quilt. The combination of the two dye chemicals work against each other and have sortof a bleach and over dye action. As in the black yellow and purple fabric I did before, I painted the whole piece with black Remazol, then after it dried, I went back with a squeeze bottle of yellow reactive dye and drew the circles all over, then went back with a squeeze bottle of purple reactive dye and put a dot in the center of each cirlce. The result is black with yellow and purple targets all over. So that will be the Whole Cloth part, then the plan is to cut it along the diagonal in strips and swip swap the order and sew it back together. That's the deconstructed part.

Trouble with the law

It is only six days into February and I'm already having a hard time with the "no new yarn in February, in Michigan, excluding the fiber festival" law. and I am thinking of adding another exception to the law. How about, "no new yarn in February, in Michigan, excluding the fiber festival and excluding things that will be knit as a gift." I found this great **** yarn on ebay that I think will be perfect for something for ****. And her birthday is after my semester ends, so I'll for sure have time to knit them when I'm done with all this physics crap. That's it... hang on... I'll be right back.

Last Thursday and Friday evenings, I ironed and fused all my fabric, all 15 half yards of the green gradations, plus about 15 quarter yards of the accent colors for the "stitches". I discovered it's amazing what you can do when you follow the instructions. I always have my iron set to cotton and with a medium amount of steam. I hardly EVER change it. So I was wunder-undering all my fabric, and my iron ran out of water. For some reason I didn't add more water and then later noticed how much better and easier it was for the WU to stick to the fabric all of a sudden. Whatayaknow... someone already knew that and wrote it RIGHT ON THE PACKAGE!!!!

Saturday morning I cut out 200 4-inch squares of all the background fabrics, and then last night my mom helped me start cutting out all the X's. I still have about 50 or 60 to do, I stayed up until 1am tracing all the X's and we got a good chunk of them done. They are all ready to be cut now, and I'll be doing that tonight as soon as I get home at 6. Then I will stay up until the whole quilt is assembled onto the batting so I can take it all in one piece to the critique tomorrow night. Since I have to be at work from 8:30 until 5 every single ^(#^%)*@#$@ weekday, tonight is the only chance I'll have to do it. Then hopefully she'll understand if maybe the whole quilt doesn't get completely quilted until the end of the semester. It's going to be about 60 inches square when finished, so that will take me a while to quilt, and hopefully being able to do a little bit at a time throughout the next month and a half, I'll be able to bring it in again to show at the final critique.

So the plan of attack as of right now is to get my physics homework done today while I'm at work, so that I can have the whole evening tonight at home to assemble the quilt.

Pictures to come... And here they are!

My swatches and paint chips. My color matching abilities impressed me. This is the first time I've tried to match something like that. Some matches were more successful than others.

The quilt all laid out on the batting and fused.

Shown here with a few X's laid out.


I overdyed this commercial fabric... Any opinions on the pink for a border?

Happy Birthday, the Money and the Math

I got a call this morning, and Ryan's new neice was born a little before 6am. Happy Birthday Madison! Now the little booties I made will finally have some feet to keep warm! I am not going with Ryan tonight to see her though, I have been sick for a week and a half with this sore throat and cough, so I don't want to chance getting the new babe sick on her first day out of the womb! Instead, I am going to my parents house to dye fabric, make a mess in my mom's kitchen and maybe get THEM sick.

So last week, I was reading Crazy Aunt Purl and she had an excel file set up for a budget. I downloaded it, and because I am a nerd sometimes (get that, a nerd that doesn't get physics or math) and thought it would be fun to track my money. I didn't really do anything with it, just saved it without adding any of my own information to the budget plan. And then Monday, when I realized the first of the month was coming and I need to get my rent figured out, I signed onto do my online banking to find my checking account had $4.53 in it. And my savings had just enough to still have money in it after I transfered enough to cover my rent check. Great. Wonderful. Superb even. That brought to my attention that I need to start being a little more careful with my money. I REALLY wish I had thought of that oh, you know, 3 years ago when I had over $3,000 in my savings account.

So I started with January, and filled in as many of the fields in the excel budget as I could. By my calculations, I spent around $500 more than I made this month. YIKES!!!! Ok, let me explain myself... I spent about $160 on (hopefully) a year's worth of contacts, about $85 on Rx's for three months, $117 on school books and my graduation fee (yes, you have to pay $90 to graduate, and that is not to pay for the diploma, I still have to buy that) and from there my explanations get a little fuzzy, not so legitimate and necessary for sustaining life as I know it. Ok, so... Mervynn's was going out of business, so I had to go. And I had to cash in on all the deals and steals, like, a new pair of tennies for $30 (they were half off!) and a couple new bras that were also 40% off. And then Ryan had a gift certificate to use at Old Navy, so I went with him and spent about $60 on a new coat, a sweater and a dressy sortof sport coat/blazer (that sounds bad, but it's very feminine and cute and I don't know when or where I'll ever wear it, but it only cost $6.97).

And that is not even counting the YARN... OH THE YARN!!!!!!!!!! Let's see, that trip I bribed myself with a couple weeks ago cost me about $45, I've been yarn stalking on Ebay a lot lately too, so in January I wracked up another $55 worth of stash items from Ebay alone. Yes, I spent almost $100 on yarn in January. I didn't include in there the $35 I spent at Elann.com to buy the yarn for the Knitting Olympics which is also my sister's birthday present. That I see as legitimate because I have a plan, it's a gift, and I resisted the temptation to keep adding items to my cart, "I'm ordering the yarn for Shannon's skirt, I might as well take a peek at their sock yarn and, ooh, this looks pretty, and oooh silk..." and so on.

So now I am officially on a budget. I will not be buying yarn in February, I will not buy shoes, I will not buy clothing. There is just one (ok, two) exceptions. February 18th is the Fiber Festival in Chelsea. There will be yarn and I have to go and I'm not promising I'll leave empty handed. In fact, I promise I will NOT leave empty handed. So that is it! No buying yarn in February, in Michigan. So that means, when Ryan and I are on vacation in North Carolina at the end of February, my yarn diet is rescinded.

Physics is still kicking my nether regions. I am really wishing I hadn't taken this class, but I have to keep movin' on it. I was pretty proud of myself last night. Usually I try to get all the way thru my homework before I call Shannon, so I can ask her all the questions at once, instead of calling her umpteen million times in the span of two hours or whatever it takes. So I got through my Lab assignment in about 2 hours, all on my own. Then moved on to my homework from the lecture portion of the class. Got that done in less than one hour and only had ONE question for Shannon! That's right, I understand Kinetic AND Potential Energy. Take that PHYSICS!!!!!!!!!! HA!!!!

This Sunday is the PuppyBowl, I know you all are as excited as I am. Mom and I will be knitting and watching the puppies chase each other around the football field (and giggling, but that's a given).

olympics

Ok. I'm in. I have a feeling I'll regret it, but I've already sent the email. I am officially an Olympic Knitter.

I'm knitting Skating Queen from Knitty out of this Rayon/Cotton yarn.
I just ordered it today from Elann. I will do a swatch and wind all my skeins into center pull balls before the opening ceremony. It officially starts at 2pm EST on that Friday, so I will probably bring something to work with me that day, maybe I can start on the i-cord for the drawstring and leave it here for the two weeks during the olympics and work on it whenever I get a chance.

As for school... I am renaming "physics"... from now on I will refer to it as "The Class That Makes Me Cry". I skipped my textiles class last night, partly because I've been sick this week but mostly because I had a bunch of homework due this morning. I started it at 7:20, after dinner and dishes. but of course, I sat on my living room floor and tried to do a lab and homework questions while watching Good Eats, Unwrapped, and two hours of American Idol. at 10:00 I turned it back to the food channel, thinking it would just be background noise, since I didn't care about the show... at 10:30 when only one more question got answered, I turned the tv off and moved to the couch because my butt was numb from sitting on the floor. After getting through almost all the questions on my own, at about 11:30 or so I called Shannon for help on one question that I didn't understand, but ended up going over about half of my homework with her and changing my answers. These are one of the many many times I wish she wasn't 10+ hours away. At least she's still in the same time zone. Shannon, could you tell I was holding back from crying on the phone? I know you wouldn't have judged me for crying, but if I had started, it would have been ugly.

All I can do is just struggle through this class and get at least a C- to pass it so I can graduate. But there is one little brain cell that keeps telling me, "find out when the last day to drop this class is, you can just give up, there's still time" But I WILL NOT GIVE UP, if I give up, I'll just have to take something else in it's place, but then I won't graduate until next FALL!!! that is UNACCEPTABLE! or as Super Nanny would say, "unasseptible". So Shannon, you can look forward to many more calls, and possibly tears. Thank you in advance! You're the best!

And some sad news... I haven't touched my sock or any yarn at all in 3 days. There will be knitting tonight, oh yes there will... and if not... ya'll better watch OUT!