Making this post has made me realize two things: A. my life is very dull and onesided B. My mind is even narrower because of all the things I don’t think to take pictures of. I also realized B is perhaps just an excuse to not admit completely to A. I obviously can’t count either.
I don’t mean dull as in being bored or not doing many things, which I obviously do if you’ve been following along, but they do tend to revolve around the same. I seem to mostly be looking a plants and the sky and nothing much besides! Of course, that’s what we’ve got to look at out here. I need to drive to the “city” (18 km) for some bits and bobs but most importantly more hydrosulphite to make blue, but I never thought of taking pix there. We usually just go to the mall, quickly scoop up what we need and head back home. Not really worth looking at.
How often do you do extraordinary things?
microlandscape
Talk to me, now!
Probably one of the last days to dry laundry outside
Now that nature is ever so slowly making a transition towards autumn – I can’t believe I’m saying slowly, the summer has gone by like a Formula 1 – I find myself getting ready to change my activities too. I’ve been doing a lot more with the garden this year and some clearing away of stuff from the barn and yard; this has basically set back all of my creative pursuits, in fact I didn’t even get started on the ponies yet either (They’ve been on a very long break while I was on sick leave for over a year).
Of course I’ve been plant dyeing all summer, but I see that as a different kind of creative, more like a science project. While I think I would have done quite well in research of some other type (except it didn’t occur to me* until recently, so that’s another botched career 😉 ), I do get fed up with the chemistry bit. I still have stuff I want to do, some is urgent before my woad, weld and indigo get too cold, but it’s not my main focus anymore. No, I am of course talking about all the artsy fartsy craft stuff.
The problem for me is always getting back after a break. I get all restless and frustrated, so angry I could spit, even, that I don’t have time and people are bothering me and if only I lived on a deserted island I could finally get down to creating masterpieces 12 hours a day. What happens if I do get a week on my own? I get headaches or cramps. I zone out and click the interwebs. I get really tired and take naps. I daydream, I read books. Go pull a few thistles. Have coffee to wake up and start up Photoshop and Writer and pull out my inspiration folder and then go click blogs and Ravelry until I’m ready for another nap. I’ve been talking about procrastination several times and after a break it always hits me bad.
It’s not that I haven’t got any ideas I could work on, I just seem to think that – I don’t know what I’m thinking actually, everything just feels sluggish and outside of my grasp somehow. I mentioned 2 months ago about doing chores first and then being too tired for the fun bits, well, that still applies. Except now I seem to be slowing down on both counts. I must be needing a break and I suppose I ought to listen….
So, during the meanwhile, I’d like to figure out what to do to get on another roll. I don’t care if it happens to be spinning, weaving, painting (which I’m leaning towards) or writing, I just want to get cracking. I’ve done all the things I’ve previously suggested, so I need a new trick.
Some people say you should simply pretend to be making art until you are. Or pretend to be some person you admire and then go do what you imagine that person would do. I’m not much of an actress, I can’t even lie properly, but I suppose as long as I’m only imposting in my own head it’ll be alright. Right? (I can’t stand fake happy and chirpy; I’m not grumpy, just not very exalted most of the time) But you know, whenever I do get out my paints and just do something without being “there”, nothing interesting ever happens. I don’t suddenly fall into the flow, from pretending to create to actually doing it, I really do feel like I’m just faking, doing uninspired and completely useless exercises, and by the way the laundry needs to be put out to dry.
Apparently I can’t even fake something properly! And then we all know the next step, don’t we. “It’s no use, it’s not like I’ll ever develop any talent in my lifetime anyway”. “Needing space and quiet before I can create is just an excuse to hide that I can’t do it at all”. “It probably isn’t what I’m meant to be doing”. “Wasting my time, wasting my life”. – “Hey, wait a minute, that’s not the story I wanted to fake!”
Does faking really work for the larger multitude, ie do I just suck at it, or is it simply that pep-talks don’t work for more than 5 minutes on average? Faking is supposed to work without believing I think, which is good, because I suck at faith too. Otoh I have no trouble believing all the dark secrets about myself, the uselessness, unworthiness, ugliness etc. I know I’m not the only one, I just think it’s amazingly impractical that we should be hardwired to support all the negative stuff like that.
My intuition is telling me NOTHING of where I should be going right now. But staying put also doesn’t feel very fantastic. So I keep pushing even though I can tell I’m not doing it the right way. Maybe life’s simply not meant to be fantastic… But I’m not sure I can put up with that for very long. That would in fact, be faking it bigtime, and we already established that I suck at that.
Ok, I’m not even sure where I’m going with this piece. I’ll just press the button and move on now. Have a great weekend all! I’ll either be hauling straw bales or visiting a sheep market.
*strangely enough, since I’ve always been the one to bury myself in piles of books in a quiet corner, taking notes and attempting to suck up any and all data of my chosen subject. Some of my friends even complain that they can’t ask me a simple question on horsefeed for example, because I give them a whole lecture where they just wanted a name. Yes, I would have made an excellent geek, I even have the dress sense to match!
Of all the plant presentations I mean. I think I am…. Those “other” posts that I half promised seem to have scooted way down the to do list and my brain is running in circles.
Phragmites australis, birch left
So luckily I’m running out of plants to try right now while it’s season to pick. Just tried a batch with Common Reed, very nice green! It’s time for birch leaves, remember that it’s easiest to strip young trees for some reason. I don’t think I’m going to this year apart from the couple of skeins I did to overdye. Goldenrod is coming in, but I think I’ll just toss some in the freezer to see how that goes.
I have weld, woad and Japanese Indigo growing in the garden, but you either have those or you don’t, so I’m in no hurry to report… Madder likewise, I have a set of experiments lined up for that with various mordants.
weld patch – vau/farvereseda
And I think that’s it! I’m going to use some of my remaining Tagetes and Coreopsis to make watercolours, that is, if I’m not too stressed, I feel a bit fluttery inside as well as having a wedding to attend the coming week. We’re trying to get a few things tidied up around the place and I’m awaiting hay and straw for the ponies.
One of my looms is done, for my first piece I won’t be making a tapestry though, but a rug to put under my spinning wheel. Or possibly it will be a bathmat. I’ve been twisting 8 strands of cotton yarn to make something resembling rep weave (ripsmatta). Just have to find a calm spot to warp up and I’ll show you. And no, I won’t be making anything as fancy as that image, I believe you need something like an 8 shaft floor loom for that, not a navajo style frame loom.
Spinning, I really feel I need to start spinning again, but I also have this urge to paint. So I’m holding off on both until other projects are done, so that I don’t go completely nuts and split into a million little pieces. I left some fleece soaking in a tub outside for so long it started to go green! I have no idea if I can save it or not, it is of course the best bits that I started out with.
My quick knit holey sweater really is quick, or rather it would be if I had the time to actually work on it. The yarn seems to go on and on and on, I think I’ll have half the body done when the first 2 skeins finally run out. I was worried I didn’t have enough, so that’s why I chose the large needles, but I could have probably gone with smaller. And then it would have taken a lot longer. 😉
And I painted the flagpole. Way overdue. Windshield corner where the hedge died is all done! And seems to be helping, not that it’s been very important last week with temps up to 30 C.
So, a stream of silly chitchat and various musings await – at some point. For now, I’ll go clear all my dye pots off the stove so the kitchen can look like human habitat at least for half a day.
“Trat” i hovedet af en hest
Er I ved at være trætte af mine planterapporter? Jeg er. Det blev slet ikke til at skrive om noget andet, selvom jeg har en hel håndfuld kladder og emner.
Men nu er det vist ved at være slut med sæsonbetonet farvning og planter der bare skal høstes lige NU, tagrør var det sidste i rækken. Gyldenris plukker jeg vist bare og så må årets eksperiment være, hvordan de holder sig i fryseren. Vau, Vaid og japansk indigo har I enten eller også har I ikke, de kan ikke findes i naturen, så det haster ikke. Det er en god tid at høste birkeblade, husk at det er nemmest at ribbe de unge træer. Men jeg tror jeg springer over i år, bortset fra de par fed jeg har lavet til overfarvning med blå (ok, jeg burde også have lavet et til overfarvning med krap, som jeg har linet en række eksperimenter op med til senere, den er jo tørret).
Min ene væv er færdig men jeg skal ikke væve gobelin pÃ¥ den i første omgang, derimod en efterligning af noget der pÃ¥ svensk kaldes “ripsmatta”. Hvis det skal være rigtig flot skal man vist bruge en avanceret skaftevæv, sÃ¥ det bliver bare noget med 8 snoede bomuldsgarner og sÃ¥dan lidt kludetæppe stil. BademÃ¥tte eller tæppe til min rok sÃ¥ den ikke glider.
Jeg har virkelig lyst til at bÃ¥de spinde og male, men jeg kan mærke stressen blafre rundt indeni, jeg afventer hø og halm til krikkerne, der er lige et bryllup i den nærmeste familie som skal overstÃ¥es og 1000 ting der burde ryddes op her pÃ¥ matriklen og jeg kan mærke dampen allerede er begyndt at ligge pÃ¥ lavt niveau hos os begge. SÃ¥ jeg mÃ¥ lige vente… HÃ¥ber dog at jeg har overskud til at teste noget indkogning af tagetes til at bruge som akvarelmaling, kunne det ikke være super cool?
Men jeg har dog fået malet flagstangen for første gang i 10 år. Den knækker muligvis en dag i et stormvejr, men så tager vi den derfra. Vores plankeværk som læsted i stedet for den hæk der døde er også færdigt.
Min hurtige hullede striktrøje skrider fremad, dog ikke så hurtigt som jeg håbede men det er mest fordi jeg ikke får gjort noget ved det.
PÃ¥ et eller andet tidspunkt vender jeg frygtelig tilbage med mere sluddersladder. 😉
You’ve probably seen my pix of yarn drying in the sumac tree in the front garden, it’s so easy to use, good branches. Today it’s really been put to work! It’s my montly headache day, but I felt perky enough to do some “dumb work” as we call it here.
On Sunday I put out the rest of my Gotland fleeces to soak in a tub before scouring, today they are promising a quiet sunny day so I filled my carrot bags and hung them up to drip dry the dirty water before getting the soapy baths ready.
I’ve also started mordanting my tapestry yarn, I’m going to keep a “regular” batch as well as some of the other forms of mordanting I’ve been contemplating.
Some cotton yarn that has been scoured, waiting for the next step.
And some small test skeins for a test tapestry. I had a bunch of purples and blues already from a colour blending test session, I wanted some black as well and as an afterthought did some greens and yellows on some strands that had already been cut for more testing which never happened. Only plan is to use a lot of white (remember my dream?) and then wing it row by row. Will probably end up needing more black. 😉
Next batch of fleece soaking: WensleydaleA tiny bit of colour is finally happening outside
Uldtræ
MÃ¥nedens hovedpinedag i dag, men ikke værre end at jeg fÃ¥r lavet lidt “dum i arbejde”. Vinde garn op, binde snore pÃ¥, bejse uldgarn og vaske bomuld i soda, sÃ¥ det hele er klart til plantefarvning. Puh, det er kedeligt, men det skal jo gøres hvis man vil have lov til at lege.
Uldtørretræet blev også lige læsset med gulerodssække med gotlandsham, som har ligget i blød siden i søndags, det kan lige få lov at dryppe det snavsede vand af inden det skal i et varmt sæbebad.
Og så smed jeg for sjov et par garnstumper i syrefarve, til evt. brug i mit nye eksperiment gobelinvævning. Har nogen andre stumper fra testfarvning jeg også kan bruge bare til at øve mig med.
First one felted and stitched up ready to fill, but I want to add icord loops or something to have the option of hanging them from a hook. (if I can find a suitable location away from cat paws) I decided to try out the dye with regular laundry detergent, twice. Original yarn included in the photo. It turned out rather larger than I expected after my blanket adventure, but I liked the fabric the way it was, so didn’t want to give it another go at a higher temp.
Second one felted and ready to be stitched. Yarn is dyed with madder exhaust and Dyer’s Chamomile. Also washed with the clothes and detergent.
Third one – yarn chosen but the shape hasn’t presented itself to me yet. Possibly a cube. Originally all three were going to be like the first, but then the second wanted to be different and I obliged. Apparently my inner self does not want to be classy, and for now I’m listening – as long as it’s actually saying something, fine! Even if it means the house will look like a cirkus… Skeins are dyed with Dyer’s Chamomile and Weld (the lighter one).
I’ve decided to just finger pick everything to get rid of the tiny bits of vegetable matter, then loosely blend on hand cards, which I hate but really doesn’t take such a long time as I imagined. To be spun into yarn for the tapestry testing, and when I’m done I have a huge box of Dorset that I’ve plant dyed which needs the same treatment. I thought I said something about not production spinning?!
Sample loom 1 done:
Seems to be working fairly well, I’ll be testing various widths of warp, how many meters of yarn go into xx cm of weaving etc. I tried at first without nails, just wrapping around, but I think it will work better with nails on the front. Possibly because the frame is so small, pulling the warp up from the back really makes it very taut. As well as being fiddly to adjust the gaps. .
Ugens fiberprojekter
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Nålepuder af plantefarvet garn undervejs: Første er klar til at blive fyldt, og så skal jeg lige have lavet en løkke i toppen til at hænge den op, inden jeg kan sy den sidste kant. Garnet er farvet med vaid.
Nr. 2 er filtet og klar til at blive syet sammen (kraprod og gåseurt), den sidste er der fundet garn frem til (gåseurt og vau). Jeg har vasket det sammen med tøjet og almindeligt vaskepulver, noget plantefarve kan ikke lide den behandling, men jeg ville lige prøve at se hvordan disse, normalt ret farveægte typer holdt sig.
Jeg er endelig gÃ¥et i gang med den sidste klargøring af min Suffolk ham som jeg gik og sjatfarvede i sommer. Det bliver pillet fra hinanden med fingrene for at blive fri for plantefnuller og hÃ¥ndkartet løseligt (hvilket jeg er herredÃ¥rlig til, men det gÃ¥r faktisk hurtigere end antaget.) Ja, og sÃ¥ er der naturligvis den kæmpe kasse Dorset jeg har plantefarvet, som skal samme vej…
Og så har jeg lavet en miniature væveramme til at lave lidt garn- og tekniktest på.
