Conversations

"I wonder who is singing this song?"

"Better Than Ezra."

"Ok, so they are better than Ezra, but who is singing this song?"

"Better Than Ezra."

"Yes, I get that you think they are better than Ezra, now who is singing this song?"

"Better Than Ezra. That's the name of the band. The name is Better Than Ezra."

"oh."

Conversations...

Two men riding along in a car with a two-year old riding along in between them.

"I wonder who made that equipment?"

"I don't know, but I wonder that too."

"I know who made that equipment..."

two men now silent waiting for two-year old answer...

"God made that equipment."

two men still silent.

"yep, you're right, He did."

Conversations...

"I'm going to my friend's surprise retirement party."

"OMG! Does she know?!!!"

well at least its not a coffee cup office photo...

hello, finished knitting Moonraker and though I was tempted to do a coffee cup office photo, I refrained.

Its been bright and sunny here so I took an outside photo. There's actually a lady bug climbing up the middle branch although I believe at this point in the photo she's under a leaf. I was hoping to catch her in the photo too but it didn't happen, sigh.

Wedge Weave...

...in all it's brightness.

I am studying simultaneous contrast colours. You certainly notice all of the colours used.

I find it fascinating that if you take apart the two ply and mix the singles with other singles you can obtain up to 39 different colours. Truly fascinating to me. I am using 4 types of reds. 4 types of greens. 1 purple for the high contrast and 4 types of greys --- all light to dark except the purple.

Happy Weaving.
Good Day,
L

The rest of the story...art

This:

became this in a floating frame:

...and gifted.

Good day.

Knitting...

Knitting a shop sample for an indie dyer. the pattern is Moonraker.


Its fun. I get my knit on. Don't have another shawl stashed away that I don't use. I didn't have to purchase and pay for the yarn or make the stressful decision about which colours to use, which gives me a migraine. I get to wear it until August and then must give it to the owner. All in all, a win-win situation.

I'm horrible with photos. Although I kinda like the "office" look below:

Ok, I realize that's just more proof against me, but...

Good day and happy knitting,
L

and now for the rest of the story...embroidery, knitting, felting...

here it is in all its gory...ahem, glory.

My "Mary Poppins" satchel done.

It's huge, it's big, and it's bright:

I have mixed emotions about it.
Happy knitting,
L

Have you ever noticed.....?

when you look down at your feet that your toes are all curled up in your sandals or shoes like they are gripping on for dear life just in case gravity fails and you're thrown off?

what does it mean?

I think it means you're stressed about something. You know, that something.

...or you need to change your diet. Too much caffeine?

Just a thought...

I think I'll change my diet.

Good day,
L

So, Why would you do this?

When you travel abroad and illegally bring drugs into a country that has the death penalty for drug trafficking, you have agreed to play Russian Roulette with that country. When I travel I greatly respect that foreign county's laws and research them before I go. Even taking in prescription drugs that are legal can be dicey. I realize this and respect the law.

Indonesia

I won't make any friends by stating that I agree with Indonesia. I have experienced first-hand that legalizing Marijuana has ruined where I live. And yes, alcohol creates the same problems and it is legal, go figure. and yes, I have drank alcohol and am the first one to raise my hand and state, "Hi, I'm a hypocrite."

I will also state, drugs and alcohol cause A LOT of problems and if you stay away from them you have a lot less problems.

I hope President Joko Widodo stands firm with his capital punishment law. I am really tired of people not taking responsibility for their actions and not wanting to be held responsible for their actions. I am also tired of the bleeding heart organizations that make a huge stink about the death penalty when there is no stink to be made. Don't get me wrong, I believe in protecting those that should be protected. These people are not them. The children that are born addicted, the people who die because someone else is on drugs and caused their death are.

The people that did the illegal drug trafficking where all for taking advantage of the extremely high payoff if they got away with what they were doing. Trust me, I worked in a medium security prison and speaking with the offenders, they were all about the payoff and smugly informed me that they had no remorse because the one time they were caught there were 10,000 more times that they were not and are very smug about this fact. Smug, smug, smug. Grrr.

I hope Indonesia stays strong and I wish more countries were like them.

I'm tired of the smug attitude and not being held responsible for your actions, and the organizations that protect them, aren't you? I wish we had the death penalty for drug trafficking here.

Good day,
L

I lurvs it here...

This:



Is today.
No need to say anymore.

Good Day!
L

dear friend...

I'm feeling a tiny bit melancholy, and have recently been going through old photos.

This is one of my all-time favorites - July 2011:



The cat has transcended and I miss her. Her name is Mix.

The dog is still present and she is a wonderful companion. Her name is Kasey. Kasey loved Mix. Mix did not share the same feelings.

Send me all the news,
L

Conversations...

"You can tell us."

"No, I'm not supposed to tell."

"Did mommy tell you specifically not to tell?"

"well... no..."

"Then you can tell us."

"Well...ok, but you have to promise to forget it after I tell you."

Conversations...

"I wonder what these little green things are?" "They're too dill-like tasting to be peas."

"They're capers."

"What???" "How could you possibly know that?" "You cannot possibly know that."

Shrugs.

"Oh Waitress, can you tell me what those round green things are in my food?"

"They're capers."

Conversations...

"What is this???," "and what does it do?"

"a Turkish spindle, and you use it to make yarn."

"What???" "you don't know what that is." "how could you possibly know what this is and what it does?"

"I know, because my mom has one and uses it to make her own yarn."

"oh."


These are mini ones (and I luvs them):



Good day,
L

embroidered...and felted...

embroidery is finished and its now felted. It's still ugly (sigh), although it is period correct for my 3rd person interpretation volunteer gig.

Waiting for the hex frame to finish and put it all together. wish me luck.

Front and back:






Happy textiling.
Good day,
L

knitting news...embroidery.

hello,

I'm making this pattern, and have knit the bag in the round, which you're NOT supposed to do - but I don't like knitting all the parts separate and then felting and then trying to sew it all together, which gave me nightmares (and a headache) just thinking about it. I figured out how to knit it in the round while doing the colour work and am happy with the results. I now have to embroider the flowers, etc, which sadly I lost steam on this project because it was supposed to be done in January 2016 and is still not done. sigh.

here's a photo of the knitting done:



and here is a photo of the red flower embroidery:



only two more flowers to embroider and then I get to hard felt this puppy. Very excited to see how much it shrinks as it is currently huge!

I call this my Mary Poppins Satchel. I am looking forward to finishing. Its also period correct (I checked)(late 1800s) for the 3rd person interpretation volunteering that I do. I'm tired of carrying a flour sack with all my stuff in it and thought this would be cool.

Happy knitting,
Good day,
L

lost at sea...dear friend.

I'm feeling a little lost at sea these days.

need I say more???

Send me all the news.
Good day,
L

what did you do recently???...

was the question asked...

My answer:

I made art. Specifically I drew two apples that happen to look like tomatoes. sigh. oh well, I still like them.

here's the photo from which I was drawing:

apples

and here's my pencil drawing before I blended it (possibly ruined it after the blending incident):

and here's my apples (tomatoes) now after blending (recovering):

It's all a learning process and I am happy with the results. I find it fascinating how the values changed once I started blending. And using an eraser changes values too. I'm still a newb and discovering the value process and the value of not blending too.


Happy art making,
Good day.
L

knitting news...

oh yes! I've been a knitting freek! take a look:
mosaic

cables

a oolio cabled vest

some coolio double knitting - just learned how to do this.

HATS GLORIOUS HATS!!! - twined knitting

colourwork

mittens!

all done in the last 4 months. yay me.
happy knitting,
Good day.

Bernie Sanders is a big fat liar...

I cannot stand Bernie Sanders advertising at the moment, talking about the banks and wall street and how these entities need reined in because they are out of control. Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black????

Need I remind him that its him and his buddies in Congress that CREATED the so-called "out of control" to happen? They created the laws and wall street was told to follow them.

Congress and the Office of the Presidency are the ones out of control. Congress and The Presidency are the ones that created the laws, laws that wall street followed that caused the bail outs to happen.

Congress and The Presidency are out of control. Congress and The Presidency are the ones who bailed these entities out.

Please, Bernie....have a little control over what you present as truth and give me a break. Or better yet, I'd like a bailout myself.

In fact, Congress could have essentially paid off my mortgage and every other middle classer and still had money left over but instead they chose to bail out the wrong entities and not even have them pay back the bail out money. Seriously??? who does that???

Congress and The Presidency are out of control and are not for anyone but themselves, why else would you exempt yourselves from laws you enact. They all need fired.

----

And next they'll need to bail out the health care industry because they were out of control, created a monopoly in healthcare, and placed into law a healthcare act that no one can afford.

Good day.

art...

Here's a few items I've been drawing since my class in late September 2015:

I really enjoy drawing tissue boxes (Dec 2015. such fun and it gives me good practice with drape of the paper tissue.

Love love love this drawing (Nov 2015). These are my favorite boots to wear and you can tell by all the character lines they have that they've been worn a lot!

Anatomy studies:

Interestingly enough, I don't even see the people. I see lines and values is all. A nude body has such wondrous beauty.

This next drawing is one of my favs:
oak leaf (Dec 2015)

I have since picked up more oak leaves and have made an interesting study of them.

So many things to draw, so little time.

Good day,
L

Fashion...

I recently got hooked on "Project Runway" (cool show) - old re-runs checked out from the library and "11 minutes" which is a really cool documentary about the first season's winner. I recall in one of the scenes where someone stated that it was ridiculous to get so worked up about fashion and that there were certainly much more worthwhile issues out there.

Interestingly enough I've been researching fashion through the ages and ran across a similar statement in one of the books and the author stated that fashion is definitely a worthwhile cause and an important part of who we are. It was stated much more eloquently and was really meaningful. Due to my complicated nature, I tend to agree with both statements.

Books:

"Icons of Vintage Fashion"

The only issue I had with this book (and I think its a big issue), it that this book only has one garment from Halston and one garment from Bill Blass. Really??? both of these gentlemen had long careers in fashion. Halston for over 30 years and Blass for over 50 years. and only one garment from each??? Seriously??? I am shocked and disappointed. Halston designed hats for Jackie Kennedy - please don't tell me you couldn't find a photo that could be used. grrr.

Otherwise this book was incredibly interesting. Again, what??? only one item from Bill Blass and Halston???
I really love the book cover photo. Its the first time a woman is seen in a men's suit and was a huge rage - good and bad.

------------------

"Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture"

This book is incredibly interesting as it not only reviews Vuitton but goes into a quick description of the hundreds of collaborations with others in the fashion industry and additional industries. He really took labeling and gave it a whole new art form as well as the not so normal collaborations. Fascinating read.

I also reviewed "the September Issue" which was an interesting documentary on Vogue.

Happy textile-ing,
L

thank you Amazon for the images.

dear friend...

It's been awhile since the last post...

Bonne Annee....(there's supposed to be a mark over the first 'e' but I forgot how to insert that)

Happy New Year! such that it is. I feel a little like Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh. Apropos, I guess since he is my favorite character. I am not happy and I am not un-happy these days.

The holidays have been interesting with much merry-ness. I spent the day with my mother and daughter for Christmas. My mother and I have been doing a Christmas morning for a long time now. The day went into afternoon, which was a surprise for me as I am easily overstimulated and then begin to forget to refrain from saying everything that comes to mind. When around others I must conscientiously remind myself to keep my mouth shut for fear of offending anyone. I ended the day without offense which is always a plus for me.

The new year brought a surprise as I was actually invited to a long-time neighbors home for a New Year's Day feast. Crab legs, salad and lots of great trappings (appetizers). We spent most of the evening playing a video game called "Band Hero" or something of that like. You have a drummer, bass, main guitar and a singer. Its a little like Karaoke only you get to play the instruments too. You get boo-ed off the stage if you don't hit your notes, which happened a couple of times. I did sing a couple of times and got a rating of 97% which I believe to be quite generous since I was off key for most of the songs. It was a bit over stimulating (since I don't have a television) and I was surprised that I lasted until midnight. All in all a fun evening and I didn't offend too much but it was getting "dicey" there in the end.

As for me, lots of knitting and drawing has been completed in the past few months and I took a kumihimo braiding class that was interesting.

I also decided that I would start sewing my own pants since LEE decided to change my favorites. Made in Egypt now instead of New Mexico ---the fabric used from Egypt is much lighter and cheaper looking and certainly not as sturdy. sigh, and grr. Wish me luck with sewing as I am not that great at it. I suppose I'll get there though.

I recently went skiing Sunday, Jan 3rd. Remind me to keep going on the last day of the New Year weekend. Everyone is traveling home instead of to the ski slopes. yay! It was a wonderful ski day, sunny and bright and no one on the slopes. Ski on ski off is just the way I like it. The Broncos were also playing so that helps immensely as this state is a big football state.

I have to see when the Super Bowl will be and go skiing that day too. I love football!!!

Well, dear friend send me all the news,
Good day,
L