ArgoKnot – Page 114 – A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life

>Found Time

June 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment

>It feels like I haven’t had a moment for anything spontaneous in months. I’ve done lots of outrageously wonderful and fun things lately, but it’s been all pre-scheduled and hurry, hurry, hurry! This weekend was to be no exception. It’s both my 31st wedding anniversary and my husband’s birthday. We had family come down for CT to have dinner Friday, and it was wonderful to sit in the back garden among the foxglove, peonies, iris and cranesbill as the evening turned to night.

To celebrate our anniversary, we spent Saturday at the Cloisters as you’ll see below. It was ‘garden days’ with special tours planned every hour, some focusing on medicinal plants, plants for scent, and general tours. We arrived in time for one of the general tours, which included a stop inside in the room with the ‘Hunt for the Unicorn’ tapestry series. (I’d already gone in there to make sure I had my own visit since I never go to the Cloisters without visiting the tapestries!) I had not expected the tapestries to be included in a garden tour, and it was a pleasant surprise! The docent did an excellent job talking about the works. Everything she said about tapestry weaving was very accurate, although not terribly detailed (after all this was a garden tour), and she did a very credible job talking about the plants depicted in the tapestries and the sacred/secular underlying meaning of unicorns in medieval lore. It was an unexpected highlight! We finished the day with dinner at our favorite restaurant, which just happens to be in our town!

Today I was busy making plans for the another round of relatives who were coming for lunch, when we realized that we’d all misunderstood each other about where lunch was taking place! I was waiting for them to arrive for lunch in the garden, and they were waiting for us to arrive at our typical half-way meeting place on the shore of Long Island sound in Rowayton. It was too late for either of us to jump in the car to get to each other, so I’ve got an unexpectedly free afternoon! The first thing that comes to mind is spinning! And secondly, doing a little research on how to use the weld I have flowering in the garden this year, and the woad seeds I’ve just managed to obtain (not willing to admit where I got them just yet…..)…..

So….without delaying anymore….I’m off to spin!

>Photo Collage!

June 4, 2008 | 2 Comments

Scenes from my garden in early June

>Launched into Summer

June 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment

>Well, I have not managed to learn how to make a photo collage. Everything technical is such a steep learning curve for me!

The garden is looking quite nice….the peonies have just opened, along with the pinks and cranes’ bills and Siberian iris, while the bleeding hearts are fading. My weld is huge and just about to bloom so I’m looking forward to some dyeing! Hopefully I can rejuvenate my indigo vat and get some wild lime green like I saw at Vicki Fraser’s studio two years ago!

My catalog for ATB7 arrived in the mail just before Chris’ graduation. What a wonderful surprise to find part of Buddha’s face on the cover! I’m very honored!

Wedding plans abound, Convergence is just around the corner, I’ve got homework from my Pre-Columbian workshop with Susan Martin Maffei, and three tapestries in various degrees of completion (one that is still in the design stage). My knitted kimono is almost done! It’s sewn together and the knitted band is about 1/2 done. I’d like to wear it to the wedding shower in mid-June….next weekend! Yikes! I’m partially done with a silk kimono style vest that tempted me at the MD Sheep and Wool. It’s a kit from Just Our Yarn. The only downer for me right now is that somehow I’ve caught a summer cold that’s been making the rounds here.

>Time in a Bottle

May 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Can you believe the Saturday crowd at MDS&W this year? It’s downright scary! There are so many spinners now, we could really make a difference in the world if we organized!

Holy smokes! It’s been six weeks since I’ve posted here. I think my little hour glass of sand has all leaked out…..

My younger son the physicist has graduated, I’ve been to The Maryland Sheep and Wool, seen the “Blue” exhibition at the Textile Museum in DC, had a much needed visit with my parents in VA, and spent almost a week away celebrating Memorial Weekend by sailing around Eastern Long Island Sound. Maybe I should try to do a photo collage…..

>Hurdles

April 14, 2008 | 2 Comments

>There are times when I am decidedly anti-social. I’ve been underground for a couple of weeks now, due to some extremely emotional things in my life which I’m just not willing to write about here. When things are weighing heavily on my mind yet I don’t feel I can write about them, it’s hard to write about anything! So I’ve been underground.

One of the things I find therapeutic for anxiety is spinning! I haven’t spun in over a year, but during the past week I’ve been glued to my wheel. I had bought some silk top from Carol Weymar in two beautiful colorways. I neglected to take a photo of the fiber before I started spinning the green/blue/brown top. The interesting thing is I was attracted to this colorway because it was so watery: blues and greens with only a hint of copper/browns here and there. Yet the finished yarn is decidedly earthy, not watery. I still like it….alot. My skein is just shy of 400 yds. and I’m hoping it will make a very pretty (and small) Swallowtail shawl. I spun this entirely worsted and made a 2-ply.

I began spinning the second colorway yesterday. I finished the second bobbin today. There is only about an ounce on each bobbin, so it’s not a great deal of spinning. This time I spun from the fold and used a modified long draw. I am letting the second bobbin set and will refrain from plying until tomorrow. I can’t wait to see if the yarn is loftier than my worsted skein, and I can’t wait to see what happens to the color. I love all the bright pinks and corals mixed with blues and purples, but I don’t know if I could really wear this colorway! I wonder if it will mute a great deal when it’s plied.

My younger son turned 22 last week, and I went to spend the weekend with him in Rochester (NY). The highlight of our time together was a tour of the laser lab that he arranged for us. The University of Rochester has the largest laser in the world. That must be a little known fact. It was an incredibly impressive machine, but since photography was not allowed I cannot show you just how impressive. They are using this laser to work on fusion, and I hope they figure it out soon! Meanwhile I’ll include a shot of my son’s much smaller laser lab where he works when he’s not in class. It looks quite disorganized although he assures me this is how all labs look!