too bad

 embedding is disabled for this historical tiny jewel. check out barry manilow at the piano!yes, he was there with the divine miss M, goddess of high camp.(more on camp: do read susan sontag's . notes on camp)

http://youtu.be/ydCudZmj2NA
 have a good weekend!

neki desu

first two inches

up and weaving. the first two inches are always the most exciting part. the linen stole aka raindrops is going through the mordanting process and there is not much to show.

this morning i woke up to a newspaper filled with good news, both national and international. don't remember when was the last time that happened.  on the other hand i received  a disquieting  notice from yahoo.

youtube co-founders chad hurley and steve chen have acquired delicious from yahoo

you won't believe the stir in cyberia. you are required to give permission to move your saved bookmarks to avos, the new company. so good for cloud computing! sounds great but you are always at the expense of someone else's whims with those wordy, obscure TOS and privacy policies. can't do anything except migrate (>o<)
after  i plant two coleus a red verbena and a lobelia it's back to the loom.and still working on the plastics.

neki desu

on sewing resources

now that i'm on a mission of stash reducing by weaving fabric i'm keeping an eye on patterns and related paraphernalia. did i say stash reducing? one of my wishes is to be as minimalistic and  frugal as  the oriental people. well, at least before the chinese economic miracle.but i digress.

i have come across a myriad of interesting sewing resources that i'll share. yes!! it's all 'bout sharing (^_^)

directly from  my pal Rubi's sideboard a  sewing blog .she's not only a fun read, but also a wealth of resources.

perusing the internet-sounds more importantly serious than surfing doesn't it?- found the new to me neu mode patterns- pardon the redundancy. i liked  the patterns i saw because they are more tailored and with less flounces and frills than burda's. also the styling looks well, more stylish-this is getting to be a redundancy competition. i'm sure vero already knows about them.

 relative to style if  you go for julian roberts  someone along those lines, but a tad more wearable IMO is marcy tilton. besides her patterns her web also has fabrics, cool silk screens for surface design and some very  good tutorials.
i am hoping that at some point my long rectangular knitted things can be turned into something wearable like one of her skirts. sigh.

now i only have to finish this morning's set of errands and sit at the loom. 3 meters of loom controlled shibori are waiting to happen.

neki desu

i can do plastic too ! II

a detour from all the natural wholesomeness. laminated plastic on poly organza, puff paint, iridescent paints- my much beloved golden interference oxide green no longer manufactured-and machine stitching.there's a border coming up, but the concept still needs to be tightened up.btw the dark background is not part of the piece, it is just redundantly  the background.

cleaning now and doing errands later today, pay offs for being away.the weather is still yucky. not missing much ru-chan (^_^)

neki desu

awol but not idle

machine knitted linen shawl

went to tarragona. the weather was yucky, but the food was never disappointing. uploaded some photos here. because the light conditions were not ideal i spend a lot of time dinging with the hrd setting of my camera.think i like it.

back home and full of energy and ideas. yucky weather too. poor people who had the week off and had made reservations at a beach place!
i stayed inside and produced the first controlled distress knitted number that you can see above. love knitting linen!!the baby's going to be dyed with brazilwood which is already steeping in alcohol.
being good and patient and waiting a week for it to develop. i'm using caesalpina sappan, but apparently most of the brazilwood around
is caesalpina echinata which gives lighter colors.


the table loom is already warped but i broke one of the tieing cords and will have to go buy more tomorrow. managed to sample a bit before it broke and the weft is going to be a 30/1 cotton. one inch sample and it   bulged and collapsed in water. (^_^)
the louet is slowly being threaded. it is so stressful and messy to add heddles to a  half threaded loom. life's too short so i de threaded added the $%&** heddles and started threading again.anger management courses should use looms as part of their therapy.i also have to take it slow because i'm pretty much terrified to hurt my cervicals .

working on some plastics too. more about that tomorrow.





neki desu

amusements

bored stiff after threading, tieing on etc etc.it's a good thing weaving is my passion because setting the loom is not a chore to get passionate about.

i spent time during the weekend generating fractal images for my amusement. the one above was particularly successful and led to various what iffings.

like this animation for example. sorry, it was huge and had to compress it with a great deal of loss of quality. but you get the idea don't you? also wanted a transparent background, but was unable to work it out (>x<)

the image was generated in apophisys 7 worked in kaleider and recorded as avi and translated into gif with animation shop.

it was furthermore printed on lutradur for a t textile treatment which is still not too clear.

there were other amusements as vero was in town and we went for a drink. or two.while trying to avoid any place with a tv set because there was a big barça madrid match . i even got to see the dress in person and it's prettier than in the photo.amandine,her daughter,  is a great help too (^_^)

and to round out the amusement. strange country this where i live. instead of easter bunnies they have easter monkeys! mona is the name of a traditional easter cake, but the word mona also means female monkey (^_^) the pastry shops are displaying all their creations and it is  a sight to behold.

neki desu

lily pool

finished! still threading though. and after that adding heddles. fun-NOT!

   

details from lily pond. i'm really pleased with the way this series is turning out. creating something from technically discarded swatches. the silk bourette was  bundle dyed as an experiment using red  and orange onion skins, artichoke leaves and stems and purple cabbage which surprisingly gave the teals.

 in the life department two days ago i got a package from a friend. we exchanged goods(goodies) and as a result i'm going to be one stylish lady in a felt skirt (^_^) 

 and  here's a weekend gift for those with long hair,or kids or both: an adorable kid doing a demo on how to machine knit a scrunchie.

 have a great weekend!

neki desu

this year

the freesias were heavenly. immune to pests and plagues.
i keep on threading while humming this.
although if you really think about the lyrics.......
they were great, however.





neki desu

an english rock group

look at those warp ends! and i had no better idea than warp back to front. an activity i have engaged in few and sparse occasions. the good news is that it is relatively thick yarn and threading goes fast. i'm also stopping after each 24 end group and reeding the yarn, tough for a person who wins hands down the non controller championship.

and the dice fell on the woven shibori side. point draw ▲▼ ground in twill and the draw threads as well.

and true to murphy`s  law  the heddles arrived this morning.

neki desu

two looms and stitching

the two  looms are beamed and sitting prettily. the dobby's waiting for the heddles to arrive.

the table loom with the white overtwisted cotton is waiting for me to make up my mind for the threading. this project has to be simple because the looms is hand manipulated. i've always refrained from textures as the main point in a project  because i think that's a no brainer in weaving. but this one being an overtwisted warp it fell  in that category. the quesion now is whether to keep it relatively simple and then dye afterwards or go along the woven shibori path. i could get two colors with woven shibori.....

not liking to be idle i'm continuing with the knitted samples pieces. this one is two different swatches dyed and pieced together. if i remember well the dyes were artichoke leaves and purple cabbage wrapped in the silk and left lying around. don't remember how i got the tans. then on to  some machine stitching . was having some issues with the hand stitching and decided to go for the solvy stabilized as a backing. when dissolved it will help the piece keep the soft drapey shape it has.

yesterday treated myself to a flick and saw inside job. came home to read this

neki desu

vitoriosa

que a vida pode ser maravilhosa- ivan lins

have a wonderful spring weekend !



neki desu

dumbfound

sometimes when you think you know it all the  universe gives you a jolt and you fall back into place.

after years and years of weaving i'm short of heddles. if that's not weaving 101 what is it then?

put all in halt and ordered some more heddles. in the meantime because i want to weave i'm warping this overtwisted 20 cotton singles and feeling  grateful i kept my table loom. it weaves 80 cms so  the table part  is relative.

also pondering that it seems like the world is being conducted by 25 year olds with too big paychecks and too little life exposure - don't want to say experience, but you understand.

there's a trend of mending or changing  what works perfectly well thus creating havoc and all sorts of malfunctions.

neki desu

o hanami

at nakameguro.photo by chosuke / ちょうすけ

  物の哀れ mono no aware

neki desu

finished

 it is very satisfactory to make something out of the samples. any sample. maybe  that's why i've never been keen about sampling at the loom. too much work, wasted yarn and time. not very effective way to gain knowledge methinks , although hats off to Cally Booker sample queen extraordinaire.

going back to machine knitting i am forced to sample because i am teaching myself and cannot assume that a yarn that i know from weaving will act the same way when knitted.if there are two terms it means that yarns act different. learned from sampling that loosely spun cotton will knit( at least mk) in a bias that blocking won't remedy.

also finished. aphids

the little critters that were hurting my plants.

decided to park ecology and go all the way with a

vile critter effacer.apparently they were laughing out loud at the neem oil . after i sprayed the plants i checked and they were covered with tinygrains as if it were sand!

to celebrate i might treat myself to coffee and croisants here. what she says in the review  about the atmosphere take it with a grain of salt. it is the atmosphere that really makes the place.
and i consider myself  lucky to have it in my neighborhood

neki desu

bad hair day yesterday

 

can't remember when i had the last one .must mean i was keeping things in perspective and i lost it. reflecting  thought of all the people who are roughing it. that's what stitching does, calms and soothes and helps in thinking clearly.

continuing with finding a utility for the knitted samples, aizome , assemblage and stitching.

my way of saying thank you. have a good weekend.


neki desu