Art – Page 18 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

This is where I am…..

Posted on April 18, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

My computer has lulled me into complacency. It has been a really long time since we have had any problems to speak of. But our cable modem is out and RoadRunner (after over an hour on the phone) said they couldn’t come out, even to look at it for three days. So I am reminded of how vulnerable my little cyber-world is, although i am currently hooked up to a neighbor’s computer.

No computer gave me a lot of time to knit last night and I’m about two-thirds of the way done with my market bag, which is my modification of the Alterknits pattern, but done to use up some leftover skeins of Peace Fleece.

I have forgotten to show you this week’s yarn on Midday Faire, and if you don’t mind, I’m going to show you a few different pictures because it has been color nirvana around here. First off, this lovely Merino, in which one ply takes up the dye at a different rate leading to some beautiful play in the colors.

And then, there is this lovely little piece of fluffy goodness:

Best of all, if you are in stash acquisition mode this week, there are still a few skeins left, including one last skein of the Geisha sock yarn and some cotton. There are also some very cool stitch markers here and here.

I am knitting on the bag and doing other silly things like sorting and labeling my horrendously large collection of circular needles, because I am really supposed to be putting together my class supplies for Art & Soul East, and I’m overwhelmed. I’m only going to be there for three day classes and one night class, so you would think I could cope. I’ve printed out some images for Terry Berg’s poloroid transfers class and dyed some roving for Belinda Schneider’s felting class. I’ve also picked out some of the fabrics and trims I want to take along for Leslie Riley’s fabric book class. But I seem to keep putting off the real work of putting together basic supplies and negotiating with myself to see which of my favorite pairs of collage scissors and how many different pigma pens get to make the trip with me. I have to pack everything up and send it all on in the mail to Karen, who is driving, since I have to fly in directly from a business meeting, and I’m concerned that the folks at TSA might have issues with suitcases full of little tins of paint, so the safer route seems to send it all with Karen. You would think a woman who can marshal four children into taking their allergy medicine and doing their homework every night could manage this small feat, wouldn’t you? I think I’ll go to bed instead.

Tuesday Thoughts

Posted on April 17, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

It’s Tuesday, and I have a lot of things that I should be doing. Instead, I’m getting by with the bare minimum. I remembered to drop off cupcakes for 8th grade play practice. I sent a report on upstream and handled some personnel matters. I even called the doctor to make a check up appointment for one of the kids.

Aside from that, I’ve spent a great deal of time today with CNN on; listening, waiting for more information about the tragic deaths at Virgnia Tech. As a proud graduate of the University of Virginia, I have spent a good bit of time rooting against Tech at sporting events and even saying bad things about them. But today, my thoughts aren’t any place else but with the students and their families and their professors. I feel so sad for everyone. It’s such a tragedy. It’s so hard to contemplate that life is going on like normal for all of us, but not for them.

This morning, I hugged the 16 year old hard before I let him go at the bus stop. He patted my head and mumbled something sort of consoling and ambled off to the bus. I double checked to make sure that the 8 year old had her good ballet shoes, the comfortable ones that let her point nicely, before she left for school. I forget to double check her shoes a lot of the time. And I was overjoyed to see my baby at lunch. So sweet. So cute. He melts into you when you hug him. At 4, he still thinks his mama hung the moon. And my 14 year old? Well, I spent a lot of time wondering how I’m going to stand being 1,000 miles away from him when he goes off to school next year. I have no idea how I’ll find that in me.

For the rest of today, I’m trying to go on with all the little things. I’ll go home and put red beans and rice on the table for dinner. I’ll give the little kids their baths and read our favorite story books, Albion Pig and Pelle’s New Suit. I’m going to knit on my market bag, cast on to swatch for my Purple Rain socks, and maybe even ponder the fate of the Anny Blatt yarn I showed you last week, which I think is destined to become a mini-Clapotis for summer. I’m going to do all the little things one does when trying to assert normalcy.

But I feel a bit more vulnerable than I did before the shootings at Tech. I feel sadder. I feel old. I’m grateful for my own children’s safety, but I feel guilty for thinking like that in the face of the tragedy so many other families are facing. Still, I’m enormously grateful for what I have today.

Art For Shirley

Posted on April 15, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

My friend Shirley (you have to go see her blog! her art is beautiful) made a house-shaped book for our art journal round robin. I have been mailing to shirley for the last year or so in this round robin, so I never get to see any of her work. But having her book here has more than made up for that!

This book is an incredible gem in a round robin where the artwork has been nothing short of inspiring. Each of the pages (or in the case of many of the artists, a series of pages) are unique and inspiring. Lou McCulloch’s admonition to "be authentic" really speaks loudly to me. I love every set of pages in this book and Shirley is in for a huge treat when it comes home to her in a few days! It includes work from all of my favorite artists, and I suspect from hers as well. I’m not going to spoil the surprise, but I do hope she will scan and post all of the pages before she binds the book so that everyone can see it.

I did two pages, with a cut-out on the first page that lets you see through to the text on the second page. The text on the second page is actually printed out onto a transparency that I splattered with paint and sewed onto the canvas page. It has a nice, almost three dimensional look, which, of course, made it difficult to get a good scan.

This is the first page

And this is the second page

I hope Shirley is going to enjoy her book as much I have!

Saturday, in which the Maine Coon Cats contemplate knitting and art

Posted on April 15, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

Hermione is dreaming of learning to knit socks.

As best as I can tell, she believes that she can absorb the entire process through osmosis if she naps at the keyboard. I wonder if she’s going to insist on using the cashmere? She seems to be that kind of cat.

Hermione also helped me out today by playing art critic and helping me decide which collages needed hanging.

Harry (the dark blob in the lower left) was far too concerned with his immaculately groomed coat to be one whit concerned with new art going on the walls. He sort of reminds me of the other man I live with. (hi honey!)

The kittens were also more than willing to help out with reskeining some yarn that I dyed. I graciously declined their help.

It was a good day to be a cat in our house. But then, I suspect every day is a good day to be a cat in our house. In fact, in my next life, I believe I would like to be a large, happy, fat cat, who lives with a family a lot like ours where there are always important jobs for a cat to do.

Dinosaurs, professional woes, and a winner!

Posted on April 12, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

We have a winner! Ollie drew names out of a hat and came up with ….. Darya!

I’m pretty sure I have your address D, but if you see this first, email me with it, and I’ll put your ribbon in the mail. I can’t wait to see how you use it in your art!

Dinosaurs. I neglected to show you pictures of the dinosaurs that graced our front yard for the Judge’s birthday. Here they are, being befriended by Squirt, who I don’t believe has appeared on the blog before.

Does it come as a shocked to know that I don’t get to knit and make art all day long? I have to work a day job, to support those habits. Sometimes, my knitting gets to come along with me and I take a certain pleasure in knitting in odd, out of the way places. This morning I got to knit in a new place — during oral argument before the Alabama Supreme Court. I have to digress to tell you how cool it is that we now have a woman Chief Justice on our Supreme Court, an experienced, qualified jurist who is also a mom. I was observing argument this morning and decided to knit. And I was relatively discreet. I had on a suit and pumps. No obvious baby spit-up adorned my lapels. I even had on make up. And I sat there and knitted away quietly and intently focused on the legal arguments in the way knitting helps one focus.

I think I’m going to have to find a new knitting bag for these occasions, though. Somehow, this one didn’t quite complete the suited, pearl earring look.

I think it may have been a dead give away as I walked in with it that I wasn’t like everyone else there.

But, I did get a good bit accomplished on my market bag.

I also got a few more rows done on the Giotto Tank. It has been slow going for me — I’m not sure why. Perhaps it is the moss stitch pattern or perhaps it is one of those knitting black holes and suddenly, in an instant, I will be at 11" and ready to work on the shaping. In any event, it’s pretty and I thought y’all would enjoy seeing how this ribbon yarn knits up.

It’s Tuesday, Which Means There Is New Yarn….

Posted on April 10, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

***Before posting, a note: If you have come here looking for the ribbon I dyed to share with other collage artists, please scroll down to the next post and leave your name there. I’m going to draw a name to share the ribbon with Wednesday night.

Now, back to today’s regularly scheduled business. Yarn.

It’s Tuesday, which means I am listing new yarn for sale at Midday Faire.

Today’s colorways include:

Aran Weight Blue Faced Leicester in the Coalition Colorway

Merion Roving for my spinning and felting friends in Melon Ball.

Peace Fleece in Pink and Brown

And still more! I’ve also made some stitch markers from sterling silver wire and Swarovski crystal.

Thank you for letting me show off some of my colorways. The profusion of colors in my cottage garden has left me with nothing but colors in my head. But, you know what’s in my garden this morning? It’s the Judge’s birthday (46), and I was awakened by my four year old exclaiming, "Mama, there are meat eaters in the garden!" And there were! Thirty plastic tyrannosaurs and a sign that says "Happy Birthday, you old fossil." Happy Birthday Honey! I love you.

The Letter R

Posted on April 9, 2007 by Joyce Makes Art

I haven’t had a lot of time in my studio lately. It has been beautiful spring weather here — better suited to knitting at the park than art in the studio. And most of my time there has been devoted to a couple of swaps I’m in at the moment.

The Paper Whimsy group is doing an Alphabet Fat Book. My letter is R, and the word that kept sticking in my mind, despite my best efforts to use romance or renaissance or rejoyce, was REAL. So this is my R page.

And here is the back

These are the unembellished pieces, but a girl has to keep some secrets, right?

Because I’m feeling like it today, I thought I would do this: while dyeing yarn over the weekend, I also dyed up some fibers to use in a few collage pieces. My favorite was this eyelash fiber, that is touched with the softest of pale pinks and dove grays. It is very subtle, and I absolutely adore it. I’m going to make a little 1.5 ounce skein, just enough for one of my wonderful art friends to have lots of fun with. Leave your name (with an email address attached so I can find you) and I’ll let the kids draw a random name to send this little bit of art fluff off to. Happy Spring!