Blog - Page 11 of 100 - Sherri Woodard Coffey

Listen to yourself

Cartoon with color ID

Why oh why don’t I listen to myself? I started a new green combination and thought it just didn’t look right, but of course, it had to be. After all, hadn’t I written down all the colors on the cartoon as I did the first piece? So, how could it be wrong? After weaving three inches, it suddenly hit me…these are the wrong colors!!!! I found the right group and took out three inches. Do you know how long it takes to weave three inches in tapestry? And how long it takes to undo three inches of tapestry? A long time–and then you’ve got to go back and redo that three inches with the correct colors. Fiddlesticks! But it’s done. The loom part by the end of the month! Yes, I know the end of the month is creeping ever closer, like tomorrow.

Ingrid’s Totally Awesome Color Thesaurus Group

Since I’ve been working with greens, I went back and looked at the green part of The Color Thesaurus. Ingrid, the creator, has decided to make a poster. I definitely want this poster! If you want to know more about the project, you can sign up here. In fact, you might just want to sign up just to get the “thanks” message. Anyway, I think I’ve used all the greens in her thesaurus, except for pistachio, sage, and seafoam.

If you haven’t seen this video, it’s been tagged by some as everything you’ll ever need to know about color theory. It’s supposed to be embedded, but if it doesn’t come up, click on the first link.

La teoria del coloreLa teoria del colore in 1 minuto e mezzo //

Posted by I Pirati Grafici on Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Hodgepodge

A yard in town

We had a huge hail storm here last week. The ice falling on my roof woke me around 4:30 AM. Actually, I’m not sure if it was the storm or the fact that the ceiling fan was not whirling that work me. The electricity was out. Then the hail came. I went back to sleep. Because of the storm clouds and no electricity when I got up, the house was dark. I read the newspaper (without my morning coffee) by flashlight. Then I decided to go to town, as I could do nothing around home. The streets in town were covered with leaves and other small tree stuff. Very surprisingly, the yards looked like they were covered with snow. After buying coffee and reading a bit (the bad thing about e-readers is the battery that might not be charged). I needed to go to the grocery store, even though the power was still off, so that I could prepare the gravlax for our monthly spice dinner. I left everything in an insulated bag with lots of ice and waited. Finally, around 3:00 PM the power came back on.

Listening to books while weaving does not completely stop the mind from wandering. Ideas for other weavings, stuff that needs to be done (aka the to-do list), stuff I want to do (aka run away and/or get outside and plant), the news, family, etc. I am well into the second piece, averaging 4-6 inches per day. Not bad. I weighed my remaining yarns and have determined that I will need to dye more H and G. There will be more about that in my newsletter this month. And also about gravlax. Sign up here.

Screen shot

Total change of subject–a new favorite artist: Jill Powers. The piece on screenshot above is beautiful and it really is quite large–52 x 47. I would love to take her workshop in April, but there are no hotel rooms available. Silly I know, to consider going to Boulder for a one day workshop, but see above about running away.

The hailstorm destroyed my lonely bluebonnet plant and its lonely flower bud, so I’ll have to make do with what I find along the highways. We do love our bluebonnets and other wildflowers here in Texas. Blame it on Lady Bird.

Short trips for wildflowers (with pictures): http://www.star-telegram.com/living/home-garden/article66911077.html

The wonderful wildflower farm in the hill country: http://www.wildseedfarms.com/bloom_update.php

Weave, repeat, repeat, repeat

Almost done!

Weaving for four hours per day does not leave me with very much to say, as I repeat myself. I did dye one more color to add to the others. The piece on the loom will be finished in about 10 inches. Then I get to do it again to make the second piece. Before starting on the second piece, I am going to weigh all the different colors, so that I can have an idea of how much I’ve used and know if any more dyeing needs to be done. I did dye one more color to add to the others. However, the pace will have to suffer a bit this week, as real life has a way of interfering. It’s spring and the ~~grass~~ weeds need mowing already and I want to plant a few things.

At least I listened to another interesting book.

Memory Man

The main character in Memory Man has two brain conditions, disadvantages of advantages, depending on one’s opinion. Actually, they might be called neurological phenomena. He has hyperthymesia and synesthesia. I’ve written about synesthesia before. It’s the phenomenon of seeing colors and letters in color, perhaps the number 3 is always blue, or vowels are green. Hyperthymesia is a new on for me. It is the condition of possessing an extremely detailed autobiographical memory. The character in the book, Amos, refers to it as the DVD in his head. He also said it’s a movie that he can’t get up and leave. Both of these conditions happened to him after an extremely hard hit while playing football. Amos is not a very likable character in the beginning of the book, but becomes more likable and interesting as the book continues. Maybe better with a suspension of belief. As it turns out, this is the first book in a series. The next one will be published in a few months. Obviously both of these conditions were interesting enough to me that I looked them up.

Rainbow Happy Trails™ Groundcover Rose

After finishing the first parament and mow the weeds, there’s planting to do. The roses above arrived during all the rains we’ve had lately, and they’ve got to be planted. They’re bare root, something I’ve never handled before. I got them from Breck’s. Aren’t they pretty? I read about them in Fine Gardening magazine. By the way, does your library have periodicals? Mine now has a huge selection of magazines, which probably means that I won’t be buying/subscribing as many. Not a bad deal.

Weaving and not much else

Bluebonnet

The latest project is now halfway complete on piece one. Since that’s pretty much all I have been doing, there’s really nothing to write about, unless you count the itty bitty bluebonnet plant I discovered while weeding. A couple of years ago, I threw out some wildflower seed balls that the boys and I made. Nothing happened the first year. Nothing happened the second year. But this year there is a bluebonnet plant, a lonely solitary plant. Making seed balls info can be found here and here.

Besides listening to books, the idiosyncrasies in the color of the hand-dyed yarn keeps my attention while weaving. I noticed yesterday how different the colors looked between the singles and the plied yarns. These photos don’t really show the differences as distinct as they really are, but here they are anyway. The plied yarns are very tightly twisted and have a great sheen to them, so the differences might be because of light reflection, but I think it’s based on how they take up the color. Even if you cant tell from the yarns hanging out before being needle woven in, you can see in the woven portion that there are varying shades.

Singles vs plied

About the book—I am listening to I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. At first I thought this book is not going to do. It’s slow to really get started, but as I listened, the action got faster and faster, and I wove faster and faster. Funny how that works. It’s a spy thriller, and it’s very long. The audio is divided into three parts. Most of the books I listen to are divided into two parts.

What I’m listening to

By the way, I’m trying very hard to update the blog at least once per week, most likely on Wednesdays. That doesn’t mean I won’t have a brainstorm or just be brimming with all kinds of weaverly or personal stuff on other days. Some days/weeks there’s lots to say, but when I am at the loom all day for days, well, there’s only so much to say about that.

It’s a green day

27 skeins of balled up green

Have you ever spent a day balling up skeins of yarn? Except for the tangles in the new yarn I’m trying, a pretty boring experience. I tried doing it while listening to a book. Works most of the time, but then the squirrel cage gets to going so fast that it rattles noisily and I can’t hear the audio. And about those tangles…all that glorious kinkle that I wrote about earlier, just doesn’t seem to want to disappear, no matter how many times I pop those skeins. I start winding and all of a sudden, my winding yarn is under another strand and just won’t release. So, I cut and tie and move on. Until the next time, which means that balling up 27 skeins of yarn took a looooong time. Now, those skeins that I wound myself? Perfect. Even though they are with a singles wool, perfect. Love my skein winder.

More yarns, more kinkiness

Here’s the weaving so far. Sorry about the head shadow, but at least I caught that I took a picture of my thumb! You can barely see the new color I just started on the right. Now my fear is that all these greens, although they look so distinct in balls, won’t look that way in the final weaving. Gotta have something to worry about, right?

So far

I’m curious — How many of you belong to a guild of artists/artisans? Weavers, potters, painters, quilters, etc? Do you belong to a group that meets and has programs? Do you have a guild sale? My guild, Fort Worth Weavers Guild, has finally obtained non-profit status and we are now allowed to have a sale again. We used to have a sale along with our biennial show, but the lack of non-profit status and the state sales process caused us to stop. We’re back! We will have our first-sale-in-a-long time April 27. But for now, I’d like to know about public events your guild/group has. Shows? Sales? How do you plan it? Carry it out? Share and maybe inspire and/or help all of us.

Busy making color

The yarn I mentioned before, the Mobelatta, kinks, even though it’s a 2-ply yarn. I have this very interesting happening in the dye process. Below are just a few of the greens I’m trying out. There will be more to fill in holes in the colors I want to use. And some of the below will be deleted from the plan.

Some of the greens I’ve dyed

Here are some more. Yes, extremes in color, but I wanted to show how kinky after rinsing and still wet. From here, I have to find the center of the skein, and give it a few good pops to kind of stretch all the kinks out.

More yarns, more kinkiness

Here are two skeins side by side, one after the pops and the other in its natural kinked self. What I have found interesting is the way the dyes take in the yarn. The color seems slightly wavy as the yarn is. Most be because it kinks up in the dye pot. I like the way it looks, and so far in my sampling, it weaves up beautifully.

Kinked and un-kinked

Another week, another lesson, and success

Rice paper-Who knew they had an attractive weaverly design.

Things did not go as planned last week, except for improving my diet. Success in that area, well except for one meal. Tasted good, but not pretty to look at. I made the shrimp summer rolls from Skinnytaste. It was the first time I have ever used rice paper, and I was not very successful. I think, because I reduced the servings for the recipe, I over stuffed the rolls, so a knife and fork was necessary. One of the things I’m trying to accomplish with this healthier food project, is to be able to put some things in the freezer. That way, when it comes to dinner time, and I don’t feel like cooking, I can grab something homemade from my freezer. It’s definitely a work in progress.

The plan had been to dye every day, thus finishing up all the yarn needed for the upcoming project. But before I moved forward with that, I decided to test some yarns on the warp I’m using. Lone Star Loom Room has Mobelatta, a very tightly twisted 2-ply wool yarn with a nice sheen. I really like the way it wove up; my only complaint is that the ties on the skeins are too tight for dyeing, so first up was to redo all the ties. I plan to use three strands at once, so I decided to combine the Mobelatta with a singles of the type of yarn I use all the time (2-ply Crown Colony). That meant I had to use the skein winder because all the yarn of this type is on a huge cone from R&M Yarn. They don’t have it on the website currently, so I hope it will be available again. But that huge cone leads to the next step.

Yarns clipped to arm. Notice the curves on the arms to “hold” each skein?

So to backtrack a bit–In 2010 I bought an electric skein winder from Crazy Monkey Creations. My fuzzy mind seems to remember that there was a wobble when I tried it out, then life got in the way, and I didn’t get it out again until a couple of weeks ago. This was THE week to use it! I balled up some of the yarn, because this thing can make three skeins at once! My third skein was coming from the huge cone on the floor. Notice those clips for the ends of the yarn? The guides to place them in the correct part of the arms? A thoughtfully designed machine. The operator, however, was not so clever. Singles yarn kinks. Coming out of those center-pull balls did not mean there was smooth sailing of unkinked yarn. It just kind of went back on itself until there would be a clump of yarn finding its way to the skein.

Counter works now

Then there was the next problem: the counter didn’t work. I had no way to know how big my skeins were in terms of weight for dyeing. So I contacted Benjamin, the genius behind this machine. He suggested that a new battery was necessary. I carefully laid the thing back and removed the counter, took out the battery, and went to town for a new one. Glory hallelujah! The counter worked! I then took one of those disastrous balls of yarn and wound it onto a spool and made a skein electrically. The conclusion is that when the arms are set for a two yard skein, 250 revolutions will produce a 100 g skein. Perfect! Now I just have to warp the loom. Not a problem, right?

So, all in all, a good week. Didn’t get everything done, but learned a couple of things, and I’m back on track with dyeing and warping. And I love this skein winder! By the way, the design for it looks to have changed a bit since I got mine, along with the price.

What’s going on in your world? Accomplishments? Lessons learned?

Random thoughts

Wildflowers (detail)

I have a full week of dyeing ahead of me. My spreadsheet is ready, skeins are labeled, dyes are on hand…time to get started. The mornings are a bit cold for it, but oh well, the colors need to be dyed.

Greens spreadsheet

I have finally decided it’s time to make that appointment to visit the doctor. I am just not feeling very energetic, and that bugs me. Now which came first, not energy or no healthy diet, but that has to be addressed too. So, healthy menus have been planned with the hope of freezing extras. I’ll let you know how that goes. I plan, but then don’t want to cook or eat what I’ve planned. I think rigorous discipline is needed. Wonder how long it will take to develop and if I have enough time left to actually do that? Anybody have any hints?

a picture of the reed

A couple of weeks ago, the program at Fort Worth Weavers Guild was on the ondule reed. I only knew vaguely what it was, so this was an interesting program. One of our members, Margaret A, has begun what seems to me as an in depth study of fan reeds, experimenting with different reed configurations, setts, weave structures, the depth that the reed is held as it beats, etc. She has compiled a very nice notebook with samples of all her efforts, some more successful than others, as would happen naturally with experiments. I always admire the many different and talented weavers out there and the kinds of weaving they do, even though I don’t want to do it. A couple of sites that may be interesting are: http://byrios.blogspot.com/2010/04/weaving-with-fan-reed.html and http://peggyosterkamp.com/2011/01/fan-reeds-fascinate-me/. A more informative site is here===>http://www.woolgatherers.com/FanReed.htm.

An example of the weaving from the above reed

I was looking at some handmade weavers tools by Alexandra Iosub on Etsy and saw some nostepinne. Now I’ve seen the word before and knew it had something to do with preparing yarn, but not what exactly. So naturally, I looked it up. The low tech way of winding a center pull yarn ball. Hmmm And just in case you wondered, here’s how to pronounce it. Isn’t the internet a wondrous thing?

As I write this

As I write this, key wat is simmering on the stove, part of the spice-of the-month-dinner for this month. Yes, it was really for November, but we’re behind. I’ve written about these dinners before. I’m also attempting to make injera, not with great success though. It fermented well, but the cooking is a problem. I can’t seem to do what the recipe said. Update: We ate the injera, which is not much in itself, but really fermented. It really went well with the spicy beef stew I made (key wat) and the spicy lentils and rice dish my sister made.

Greens in an order of some sort

I’ve also been organizing (kind of) the greens I may use for a commission. I labeled each sample with the dye formula, hoping to simplify the process a bit when it’s time to weave. I will be using different yarns for this projects, as it needs to be thinner and more flexible. Since I had these yarns all laid out, I decided to change the picture to black and white, just to see the values. It’s interesting to see those sometimes–there’s nearly always a surprise. From looking at this grouping, which do you think will be the darkest? The lightest?

Greens, same order in gray values

Combination of both greens and grays from Instagram

Here the two pictures are combined. I’ve written and drawn on the picture to show which ones surprised me a bit. It’s also interesting that several of the colors are so close in value, although very distinctive in their color form. The same is true for this piece. Some of the grays are so close together that they are hard to distinguish, especially in the lower right section, yet they work. If I had been working with gray scale, I might have woven something completely different–or not.

Deep, Cool Water–gray scale on right

I haven’t decide which greens will be used yet, so the color order is also not decided. After the colors have been decided, I will dye all the yarns, then lay them on the floor and make decisions. Of course, there will also be colors in between the skein colors, as some of the colors will be combined to make new colors. That’s the beauty of weaving, right?

Do you pay attention to gray scale? How do you use it?

The mess before the organize

Cartoons all piled up

This was on my task list for the week. I’ve been struggling to keep all my cartoons organized in some way, to no avail. They’ve been rolled. They’ve been cut up and rolled. Enough already! It was driving me nuts! So I dug them all out and started folding, clipping and writing what each one is. Then I placed them in a large multipurpose bin from the Container Store.

Multipurpose bin from Container Store

And here’s the result. Tah dah!

Partly organized

Containers for freezer and cabinets

Do you ever start a project and find that it becomes gigantic and all-consuming. Another of my plans for the week included de-cluttering a room in the house a bit at a time. And I thought I knew where I would start, go next, etc. No where on the list in my head was the kitchen, but that’s where I started. First with the freezer. I did a Google search for organizing freezer drawers, the off to the Container Store I went. My freezer has a drawer and a sliding shelf. There’s an ice maker, but don’t use it, so that drawer came out. On the shelf I placed clear plastic bins to separate frozen vegetables and fruits. A couple of smaller ones are used for already cooked things in bags, like beans and lentils. (It’s pretty much impossible to cook for one after cooking for several. I think I’ll write a cookbook.) In the drawer I put two tall shoe boxes (without lids) from the Container Store, which leaves room at the back and sides for other things, like the huge ice pack thingy and frozen cheeses. (By the way, those plastic bins like the shoe boxes come in all sorts of sizes and are handy for many things.) But did I stop there? Of course not! I moved on to the upper cabinets where I keep envelopes of seasoning things, yeast, and teas. Part of the reason to even go there was the teas. I could never find what I wanted. More Container Store shopping for some handled storage baskets and a narrow pantry bin.

After all of this, I’m still in a mess. You know, the part where you empty all the cabinets and create more mess than you had before. But it’s getting done, bit by bit.

Doing any organizing? Good fridge or freezer suggestions?