Audience

PiaChit Chat

On Thursday I asked what you would like to see on my blog, mostly in terms of images. The response was underwhelming in numbers of actual commenters (thanks to those of you who do, I always enjoy your replies), so it doesn’t represent any kind of average (or perhaps silence is agreement), but it raised a question for me:

What do you do if you have an audience and they want something different than you do?

The snarky reply would of course be that there will be a new audience for a different content, but blogging for me is all about communication and not so much marketing myself as being “interesting”. Otoh I want to be me, I can’t see myself getting excited about the things some people expect or like if they’re not on my own list of interesting. I like to take pretty pictures, daily snapshots don’t really give me a kick unless they describe something in the text (not even then – but sometimes you need them). Such as documenting my dinner or the view from the car window – nah.

There’s the subject of being the only one who thinks what you write is interesting, I guess there would probably be instant feedback on that one, so we don’t go there. 😉

I’m still in the process of finding out what I’m doing with this and whether to weed certain things out. Do I want many+short or few+long? (ok, you there at the back shouting few+short, zip it!)

There’s no denying this blog is a “project”, I’m exploring various things about me, you, on and off the record. It’s not just a coffee club where we chat about the latest celebrity gossip. (there might be cake – if I can figure how to make one that is gluten free, non-fattening and still tastes GOOD. Because we do like cake. Alas I don’t have any pictures of it.)

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An everyday image. This is how I heat my office! And a small rock collection. Incidentally the one in the middle could be a weaving pattern, I have just the plant dyed yarns to match. Office chair anyone?

We removed the electrical heater in the kitchen to give me a safe outlet for the computer. The fuse for the kitchen goes if we use too much machinery in the garage! (well, one specific piece actually)

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Next week I’ll be contradicting myself entirely and document some of the things I’m thinking about doing, as per request. Useless sketches and all. In one or more installments. How long to you want them? 😉

Office chair v. 1

PiaFelting

And by now the clever reader has already suspected there will be a v. 2! Indeed!

This project has been underway for some time, years in fact. My office chair is very old (1995), it’s also very comfortable, very versatile and very expensive. I can’t get a pretty one that is anywhere near as good as this, even when it squeaks a bit. So I’m holding onto it tooth and nail, even when it started looking like this:

stol1I tried to repair it, meaning to make a full cover to go over the top and THEN make something decorative out of yarn, which could be taken off and washed.

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But then I procrastinated and could not decide on a design. Then I broke my sewing machine and then I went on a very long sick leave and didn’t care.

In the meantime it just got more beat up, so when I finally did finish the first cover (which had been sitting around for ages, all needled up) I thought we needed some extra padding, and voila, my cover is too small and slides off. I’m test sitting it right now without the foam padding, and that seems to have improved the issue. I don’t even know why I wanted padding, as I usually sit on my left foot. Which I guess is why the chair looks like it does in the first place!

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Incidentally the fabric I used attracts cat hair really well! Duh. That’s just me and my “use what’s at hand approach“.

I started off knitting a quick to-be-felted cover from plant dyed yarn, Hollyhock to be precise + a couple of Coreopsis.

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You may remember how I fiddled the pH to get all those different colours. Then you throw it in the machine, at 60° no less, with a soap that you’re not quite sure is neutral. Well, it wasn’t. Which is fine, I like green.

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And it’s too small as well. I’d reckoned on that but wanted it as tightly felted as possible, so I’d threaded some cotton string around the edges, figuring I could pull it out and use the holes to pick up more stitches. I may or may not do that, since all the cats really love it. But it’s a good surface to use, sturdy and easy to clean. I see cat bed production in my future.

I have other plans brewing, but with my sewing skills it may take me a few versions to get something that actually works. In the meantime, my chair at least does not look like something from a scrap yard. Not as much so.

Not much of anything

PiaChit Chat

A couple of weeks ago I had a million things I wanted to write about, words and ideas were in a queue. In fact I was on such a roll that I thought I could take a break and not be stopped!

Well baahaa. Come Monday and my head was completely empty. That was Monday before last. It appears that if I don’t go with the flow, the flow goes on without me and when I look up, the view is different. Right now, my brain is doing textiles, no words. Apparently I have no say in the matter. I’m doing a lot of things, they’re just not what I thought I’d be doing. I’ve not even been reading anything.

Ok, I do know what happened – last week I had some really bad headaches. And these happened. I guess I should have known that would throw my focus.

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So we took your seat, you weren’t using it!

I hope I can get back to what I wanted to say on Focus and Intention. Or perhaps what I had to say wasn’t all that important and I was therefore saved by circumstances. 😉

I do keep up the Bullet Journal. It’s not a planner, although it has dates and lists in it, I see it more as a suggestion. I write things down as I think of them and they may get done sooner or later. An upgrade from my previous napkin/post-it/envelope note system. And that works pretty well for emptying my head, I even remember to write down some of my design ideas.

I also work pretty hard on not postponing the little things. Yes, the wash room is cold, but you can go pick up the laundry, it takes 15 seconds. Yes, you can put that crochet hook back where it belongs NOW and not just leave it where you’re standing. All those things that are a tiny bit inconvenient right now but won’t kill you. I even finally whipped out the new sewing machine that I got ages ago when I broke my old one mending horse blankets. I simply could not face it if there was issues with the thread tension or something and I’d have to fiddle for ages and not get it quite right. With some things, I can do that dance forever if I feel out of my league. Well I made myself do it and while not as good a machine as the old one, it does, in fact, sew.

Now I’m in a bit of trouble because I’ve also run out of photos for my other blog. I could use some similar shots and whatnot, but we’ll see if I can keep it up. No painting has happened here since before xmas break, that’s the one thing I need the most quiet and the longest time to wind myself up to, and I just don’t seem to get it very often. So I have to dive into the old photo archives again. Because weather. Yuck. Why didn’t I spend all autumn making huge ponchos and hoods and cowls and sweaters from super bulky yarn on size 10 mm needles? Facemasks. Don’t get me started on the mud, at least we seem to get a short break from that now.

Come to think of it, I’m not doing too well in the quote department either. Do I really have to start writing more bad poetry to fill in?! I mean, it’s not like I can give up on the project less than half a year in… Can I?

I’m thinking of weaving things but I can’t show you the inside of my head. (I should be making more colour sketches, so I don’t forget) So many preparations, warping tapestry looms takes days when you get tired. And make mistakes. I’ve learned tonnes already. But I don’t know what to show you to make this post a little interesting. What would you like to see?

(And then I was saved by Pat Tyler. Off to play with orbs! I see collage-mandala potential here.)

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