Sherri Woodard Coffey

I know, I know…For folks who live in the northern part of the country, this kind of weather forecast is nothing.  For us here in Texas, it’s severe.  Pipes freezing, water-main lines breaking, etc.  At least we’re not expecting much of anything in the way of precipitation, but winds up to 30 mph!  Now that I’ve got some really good firewood stacked up, I plan to stoke up the stove and weave.  Have a new bag of birdseed for the feathered friends, too.  These temperatures mean leaving the water dripping at night, staying in,  and green chile stew in the Crockpot. 

By the way, I used the snipping tool in the Windows Accessories to get that small screen shot above.  I’ve used it for screen shots of work on my computer, but not from a website.  Works pretty well.  Everyone probably uses that all the time, but I’m just now getting familiar with it.  Pretty nifty.

  I’m going to have to either get a cover/bag for my new Kindle or I’m going to have to make one.  Today I looked at pattern books for the first time in ages.  I finally ended up buying Vogue 8407, thinking that the journal cover might work for the Kindle.  In this picture it is in the upper right corner.  Think what you could do with some of your handwoven scraps with these little bags.  Or small pieces of leftover, fabric handwoven or not.  Now, whether I can resurrect my sewing skills to even attempt something like this, well, ….  And, as I am asked when I go off on a tangent like this, “Is this a good use of your time?”  Maybe a cover from Amazon or even these cute ones would be a better use of my time.  I’ve never bought anything from an Etsy store—should I go for it?

Today firewood is being delivered, so a warm fire and weaving is in the future.

Notice the design for the bead weaving

Yesterday the perfect Christmas present arrived in my mailbox.  After much futzing about to get it opened, I discovered a wonderful surprise.  My daughter-in-law Tina is a bead weaver, and has many creative ideas about how to use her work.  I received a fabulous fabric–covered box with a very special bead weaving on top.  Notice how it looks like a rug—design, fringe, and all.  It is perfect in every way. Perfect colors, perfect design.  How she has the patience to weave with beads, I’ll never know.  Of course, that’s what they say about tapestry weavers, too! 

Interior of box

Tina also does really great jewelry.  Many years ago she gave me a brooch that I really love to wear at the neckline of a blouse.  And then there’s the pizza made from beads.   And these hairclips are wonderful, too.  Both Tina and Chad are entering fairs in their area.  You may remember the Yarn Guardian, one of the critters constructed by my son. 

This year he gave one of the critters to his grandmother, who was absolutely amazed by the zipper he’d inserted in the base.  And all of the cousins had to check out the glow-in-the-dark eyes he makes from Fimo clay.

You can tell I’m really desperate: I picked up a Threads magazine—actually two because there were articles that interested me in both issues, and, no, they weren’t on sewing.  One article was about pin weaving, something that I keep thinking I will do for those times that you just want to vege out in front of the TV.  The pin weaving illustrated in the article looked somewhat like tapestry, thus appealing to me.  If you look at the Table of Contents, it is listed in the Embellishment section.  There is also an article about constructing a jacket out of double knit wool which has been felted—and, yes, I know that technically the fabric has been fulled—really, really fulled!

The other magazine has an article called:

THE MAGIC OF NUNO FELTING
by Linda Veilleux
Mix silk and wool; add water, and blend

There is mention of a centrifuge, including a source.  Several years ago I seriously looked into getting one, but all I could find was industrial ones, which is overkill for my situation.  This one sounds much more doable, great for the after-dyeing process of the yarns.

Look at the pictures in this article, if you pick it up, and notice how big the plastic pattern needs to be to make a seamless jacket of felt.  Because the felting shrinks the fabric so much, the jacket pattern has to start out almost as tall as the person is in real life!

It will be a week Friday since I began coughing.   The cough then turned into a bull-blown cold. I finally broke down and took some Nyquil two nights ago, which brings to mind this old Alvin Crow song.  Here he is playing at the Broken Spoke in Austin, Texas, a pretty famous honkytonk (in certain circles).  Reminds me of some good times listening to Alvin at the White Elephant Saloon in the historic stockyards area of Fort Worth.  Warning, if you go to the site, make sure your sound is down.  I tried to look at the history part, but was bombarded with a telling of the story.  This used to be a locally owned joint, but I’m not so sure if it is now.  Seems way too commercialized now.

I know I keep saying this, but, really, tomorrow has to be a weaving day, right?

I am totally giving up. The cold has won!

Contemporary Aboriginal Art

Collection of John and Barbara Wilkerson

The Smithsonian Magazine has an interesting article about aboriginal art in Australia this month. I don’t quite know why, but I am always inspired by art from any indigenous group. The picture on the right especially appeals to me, perhaps related to that spiral thing again. There are many more pictures of the collection in the online article and in the magazine.

I am going to try and embed a video here and hope that it works. If not, there will be a huge blank spot, but you can go to the web page and see it here instead, if you’re interested. It’s about installation work made from found and natural materials. You might want to be somewhat close to Dallas if you want to apply. I saw some work similar to this idea when I went to Omaha last May. Good idea, lots of possibilities.

Now, back to my napping, and all the other activities that go with having a cold.

Today I have been laid flat by a cough and maybe a cold… or maybe I’m just really tired from getting practically no sleep for the last two weeks.  Whatever the reason, today was a “water haul” as we say here in Texas to describe a non-productive day.  My accomplishments were three: a trip to the Container Store, changing the sheets, and starting the dishwasher.  Tomorrow I plan to begin the day weaving, then move on to other more mundane things.  The focus issue is still with me, perhaps related to all the emotional turmoil of the last month, but that has to change also.  I wish I had some interesting pictures to post, but, well, there’s nothing interesting at all right now….or maybe there is something interesting.  I received the Kindle for Christmas.  As a lover of all things tech and books, I have really debated whether this would be a worthwhile investment. So, off and on for the last couple of days, I have played around with this device to see what it can do.  One thing I do know, it’s way too easy to get books fast and spend lots of money.  You can get samples of books to see if it’s something you want to read, and, since we’re planning a trip to Belize, I wondered about getting a travel book on the Kindle.  It would be lighter and the search makes it easy to find a particular section or site.  I got a sample of a travel book, but decided to check it out at Borders when we went for coffee.  There’s just something about holding a real book… but the Kindle version would be so much easier to pack.  I also tried the local newspaper, but rejected it after realizing that many of the columns I enjoy are missing in the Kindle version, as are the Letters to the Editor and the Obituaries.  It sounded like a good deal—no more early, cold mornings going out to get the paper!  So the verdict is still out on whether I’m going to warm up to this Kindle.

White Christmas in Texas?  Yep, it happened.  After our stockings and presents here, we drove to my mother’s for the big family celebration.  The 25-mile drive presented us with the vision of many cars along side the highway.  Most had been draped with the ubiquitous yellow police tape, I think to indicate that a particular car had already been investigated.  It was a very careful drive, as it was hard to discern frozen areas very far in advance.

Christmas and all other family gatherings are quite noisy in my family.  There’s usually about 25 of us in attendance.  Beck and Zane see all these relatives once a year, and every year I am amazed at how well they do.  This year they were happily entertained by playing chess with the various cousins.  Chess clubs in schools are wonderful!

After returning home, we had an early supper, packed up, and set the alarm for 3:45 AM in order to get everyone off for the 6:27 flight.  As much as I disliked the inconvenient time of their departure, turns out that it was probably for the best.  They had a connecting flight in Chicago, where I understand there were problems because of weather.  Luckily, they boarded the plane and only took off about an hour late.  It is very quiet in my house now.  No more little voices calling, “Grandma…”  No more play talk as the little boys reenact Star Wars adventures and make up new ones.  No more noisy dice as we play Yahtzee.  No more arguing about who goes first when beginning to play Blokus. 

The boys love to sleep in the big chair in the living room, all wrapped up in their blankets or sleeping bags.  They read quietly under the reading lamp and then turn out the light with not a peep out of them until I fix them hot chocolate the next morning. 

So, we took down the tree tonight and plan to have a “normal” day tomorrow.  Except, of course, for the mountain of laundry that must be done.  Normal for me means that I will weave a bit, do laundry in between breaks, and get a little vacuuming done.  I also like to sit down and plan my week on Sunday evening. Another picture of the snowman must be taken in order to document the sad demise of the snowman. This is all part of a “scientific” experiment that I promised to do for Beck.

I did find a surprise this afternoon.  Beck left me a sticky-note message in my office.  Very nicely expressed and much appreciated. 

We still have snow on the ground here, and it’s not looking like it will be warming up any time soon.  Wood to bring in, weaving to be done…

Yesterday I got photos from the zoo ready and took them to be printed, a real decision process for me because I would have liked the boys to pick out their own.  After several tries at paper cutting for the right size, I finally got everything ready for the boys to paste in their pics today.  They’re really cute, and I hope their parents will be pleased…how could they not with such wonderful pictures!  I’m still in love with the looks on their faces with the birds.  Below are the photo albums in all their glory.  Bit of a zoo theme, except for the picture on the front, which is of them in front of the Christmas tree after they’d gaudied—er, hmm—decorated it.

It is such fun to have them here.  We’re making cookies this afternoon.  Tomorrow it will be cinnamon rolls for Santa Claus, even though they keep telling me there is no Santa.  I choose to disagree.

Not a lot of weaving being done around here, just creating memories.  Even though yesterday was the first day of winter, it was a beautiful day here in Texas, so we took the boys to the zoo.  Here they are riding the train and observing something amazing, I’m sure. Below, you can  see the joy on their faces as birds sit on their seed sticks in a special area just for delighting kids.  It was wonderful to see their faces!

At the same time I was enjoying the boys’ excitement, I was also looking at design possibilities.  Painted on the wall was this design:

  And, of course, there are the possibilities of animal designs—great for the graphics of weft-faced ikat.

And the bright colors…

I am hoping to get pictures printed today in order to make crafty accordion-folded picture albums for their parents—if I can figure out the directions.