Just to let you all know that I am doing the Pay It Forward freebie hand-made thing on my fibre blog http://www.woolgathering.org.uk

I’m not restricting what I will make to fibre goods only but I want to keep things tidy and not make the offer on two different blogs… Fairhand is just pointing to Woolgathering for this purpose.

On or after the nineteenth of January, I’ll be adding One World, One Heart  giveaways as well.

PS – if you pay a visit to Woolgathering, could you spare a few moments and give me feedback on the new Woolgathered magazine-style site, please? Not in terms of appearance, as I am happy with that. I am concerned about its usability, for those few people who still visit blogs rather than using a feed reader. Just leave a comment, or use the Contact form. Thanks

Sorry things have been quiet here – inspiration, time, and space have all been lacking but I expect things to gear up once PS4 begins and the days get lighter.

I have just received a copy of Papermaking and Bookbinding: Coastal Inspirations by Joanne B Kaar who lives over the Pentland Firth from me. This book is both more and less than I had hoped/expected – but very inspirational and extremely useful and I am now fired up to do something other than knitting. Perhaps this blog will come to life for a time.

I  have lots of new toys, and plans to send for some further supplies and I shall be blending current pastimes with new ones and seeking some kind of synergistic output. Hah! Sounds good, does it not?

Anyway – at long last I am going to try paper making. I really am. I am poised on the very edge and raring to go. I shall also be trying the paste method of silk paper-making and doing some cyanotype printing (though it’s aimed at fabric rather than paper) and marbling (ditto), and some Shibori indigo dyeing. I shall be quilting for a while, using some of the outputs of these experiments. Then I’d like to return to some book-binding, which I enjoyed very much. I think I see ways of combining all these crafts. Perhaps.

In the meantime… I knit

and I spin – here’s my Project Spectrum “Water” yarn.

Perhaps there is just time to make some blue and purple papers before the end of the month… if I can just get hold of some dyes in time.

Two odd things:

In Googling Grandpa Vests just now I found that my previous post came up #1 in the search rankings, despite having been posted “28 minutes ago” and also that the USAnians use the term to describe something very different – a waistcoat, in fact.

So, what does the Google world know a Grandpa Vest as? What should I search on to find a long sleeve soft cotton interlock undyed vest with button plaquet neck?

Actually, it’s 3 odd things – given the fact that I cannot find any of these desired items on the internet at all!

My beloved arrived home safely yesterday and thus I got my belated packages in the post this morning. By coincidence, both incoming swaps arrived in my mail today too.

This collaged card “inspired by the colors [sic] and movement of water” came from WeBees

and these two indigo-dyed shibori cards came from RChrispy

I particularly love the top one and am inspired to try the technique myself. I have been after an indigo dye kit for some time but didn’t quite know what to do with it. Now I do!

I spent some time Googling Shibori after I received the cards this morning and was particularly taken by these amazing works. I shall be exploring this site later on. My twin sister’s tie-dye grandpa vests of the Sixties never looked anything like this!

[ASIDE: I really miss Grandpa vests. They were the most comfortable thing that I ever wore. My favourite was a turquoise blue one that I dyed with Dylon. I never tried tie-dye, though - that was for arty people like my sis ]

Well, times change and I cannot wait to dye some Shibori cloths and then use them in multi media work or maybe quilts, seeing as how I have to learn to quilt in the coming weeks…

This make me feel better about the quilting. I could never see the point in cutting up loads of tiny pieces of manky patterns and then painfully sewing them all back together again. I mean, where, exactly, is the point in that? Talk about making work for the sake of it! Quilting per se is quite interesting, see for instance the articles by Cassiana at Too Much Wool – such as this one, though I do not stitch myself, and quite frankly have not been in the least bit interested in learning to do so hitherto.

BUT…

I begin to see the attraction now that I have these two ATCs in my hand. Blue and white, not loads of colour – just blue and white… with patterns created by me, and by the random grace of Nature herself. I imagine, at this stage at least, that I would want to quilt not to a set pattern but use the dyed patterns to inform the stitch lines instead.

I don’t know if I shall have time – but I think I’d like to do this. I’d like to dye some Shibori in time for my piecing lessons. There is a… a… a something… forming mistily in my mind.

It feels more like Art and far less depressing than patchwork quilting

And perhaps, if I can find a source of Grandpa vests… I might just have my own Sixties revival.

We had a day on mainland Orkney this week – we had to do some shopping and take the pup to the vet’s. It left us sufficient time to visit Stromness for the first time. We visited the Pier Arts Centre and an artists collective.

There were photographs.

This is one of them

I wrote the visit up at Woolgathering, perhaps it should have been here. Anyway, if you’d like to call in at the woolly place, there are a couple of postcards on offer in that post.

I blogged the incoming yarn balls from the Swap-Bot swap over at Woolgathering – it seemed appropriate to show the photos there.

Completed the packing of the PS3 “Earth” ATC swap this afternoon and will just squeak under the wire with them if I get them to the post office tomorrow.

Starting to make headway on the mess in my workroom but not much chance of making space to work in for a few days yet.

(A quick wave to Louise, to prove that I am still alive and kicking…

*waves*)

I’m mostly involved in fibre related stuff at present, so most blog activity is happening over at Woolgathering and I am fairly involved in a few other web projects and Sandaysoft hosting, and in getting The Sanday Spinners off the ground.

I do want to make a return to other crafts soon, and the days are certainly getting much lighter now. My Journals are calling to me and I want to tackle some Project Spectrum inspired work soon. But I also need to make stock for sale, and I have much PostcardX correspondence to catch up on.

I still find proper communication difficult. I don’t understand why. The thyroid thing has really knocked me backwards in that direction. I seem to do little reading of blogs and far less commenting. I still haven’t rejoined any of my groups and mailing lists. I miss all the to and fro, but still can’t bring myself to engage. It is weird.

I do a lot of knitting, though

My current obsession is needle felting and, to be honest, I can’t decide if it belongs here in general creativity or over there, in the fibre blog. Maybe it’s a bit of both.

Most of all, I have been missing my camera – but it is out of the bag now and on the tripod and I am trying to improve the shots of my woolly work. I have a great need to get out on my bicycle with my camera…

Today I am going to the Orkney mainland. I dearly would love to take the camera with me but there simply won’t be time for wandering today.

Project Spectrum “Earth” is coming up soon, though. I am determined to get out with the camera for that (green, brown, metallic – this island is made for that theme, of course – and for “Water”!) and then use the images in some more creative way in an overarching project. But what? I am leaning towards a book project at the moment. Perhaps I shall give it a needle felt cover

Question for my USAnian readers: what is Citrasolve? I want to make transfers from my laser printer and I read that Citrasolve is what I need. But I have no idea what it is or what a UK substitution would be.

I don’t see why Woolgathering should have all the PS3 fun. Here’s some fiery goodness to be looking at until something non-fibrous comes along.

This is my new drop spindle with some soy silk fibre. Not to mention my first efforts at drop spindling!

Towards the end of March I’ll produce some kind of photo collection summary of the theme to post here. In the meantime, my Flickr stream is looking very different to usual, due entirely to PS3 participation.

Some of the work that I did at Craft Group on Monday night might just fit in the theme. I want to do some finishing off and then I’ll assess the work and see what I think. I made another sheet of silk paper and three greetings cards using the papers made at the previous meeting. I seemed to be developing an Oriental flavour, with just a dash of seaweed savoury on the side

Spinning, Knitting, and The Sanday Spinners are all contriving to keep me busy and out of the workroom – but I shall be back.

Inspire Me Thursday this week is all about getting out of the comfort zone. I haven’t done much with it yet, just pootled around a few links. But I liked this link and I thought I would take the list and treat it as a meme. I’ll respond to the list and probably post my answers at ulygan‘s LJ. You see, I believe that I do not like comfort zones. I am at my happiest when trying new experiences and learning new things and skills. I hate to stagnate. In fact I think I will find it difficult to meet the Journal prompt at Inspire Me Thursday – I always tend to jump in at the deep end and try my ideas out. I think I am good at being brave (foolhardy?) I think the only ideas I have not yet tried out are the ones that remain beyond my purse or physical reach.

Experiences I’ve considered but never tried…

Here is a great journal prompt from Real Simple — Finding Your Comfort Zone, an insightful worksheet that encourages you to “create a list of experiences you’ve considered but never tried — and actually try them.”

Inspire Me Thursday

It may be that I am kidding myself.

We shall have to see what the results are.

I think that this week’s Explore prompt yields the most inspiration for me and I am tempted to go most thoroughly into this:

Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone by Aurora Mae :: “Identifying your fears, personal limits, and boundaries is the first step towards conquering them. Take a piece of paper and write down everything you have been afraid of doing in your life, everything you have envied other people for doing, and everything you fear or everything that limits you from having the life you want. List the physical things you fear, but more importantly, list the mental and emotional. Be honest.”

Inspire Me Thursday

Either way, I am in the middle of a big tidy up session in my workroom and unlikely to do anything visual/creative this week. So my journal prompt will result only in blog words this time around.

Creative stuff this past week has been restricted to a little out-of-my-comfort-zone silk paper making also involving some very-out-of-my-comfort-zone encaustic wax, and a small amount of spinning activity – but I did finally complete the spinning and plying of the three bags of Blue Faced Leicester tops that I was given last year. I plan to knit it up as soon as possible and full details will appear over at Woolgathering. I shall be getting out of my comfort zone again in the next few days and attempting to spin up some silk. My other recent departure from my comfort zone was tatting. I’ve done none of this for over a week now, but our craft group meets on Monday night and I shall be seeking answers to my questions in order to progress my new skills.

Guess who already fell from the no-spend wagon? I bought some tatting thread and a nice shuttle. I knew it was wrong but… it’s not so much that I am weak as the fact that I truly value good tools. I believe that work is easier with a properly designed and beautifully made tool and that it is easier to give something of your creative soul to the work when tools are intrinsically beautiful. I wanted a shuttle that made me want to pick it up and use it. Surely there should be an immediate tactile pleasure when picking up a tool of this type?

But that is definitely it for the year now. Ab-so-lute-ly.

      Hold me to it.

We shall be tatting again at Craft Club next week. Perhaps also the week after. My skills have leapt since Monday morning – it clicked on Monday night and yesterday I made recognisable motifs. Now I need to identify a project to work on for the next 2 to 4 weeks – and I would like it to be something that I can press into use in a wider project in my studio. Kind of a tat-and-collage process, maybe. I almost can’t wait to see what comes of this new venture.

I’m thinking about tackling this – but it looks very hard!

More on my tatting adventures at Woolgathering (1) (2) (3)