A week in my life!

 

It's been a fairly busy week...just normal stuff...dogs, hubby, knitting, cooking...more cooking...cleanup...more cleanup.  You get the picture!  Knitting is coming along, although I haven't knitted in a few days.  I'll be starting on the lace pattern next.  It's on the bottom as well as about 3 or more inches of lace pattern on the sleeves.  

Thanksgiving was different for us this year, as it was for most of the states!  We did get to do a Zoom video call with Darrin and his family.  Poor Dawn woke up with a severe migraine!  She still cooked dinner for her and Jeff...Amber came home from school this past Tuesday and will be home until after January 3rd.  Good to see some of the kids at least!

Thanksgiving dinner was just for Bob and I (and I made a dish for our neighbors dog sitter who was watching their 3 dogs until this weekend).   We each cooked for ourselves rather than take a chance ad expose each other to Covid.  You just don't know!!!

Turkey is always good and I made a new recipe for Cornbread stuffing, which I loved.  Bob wasn't so sure as he is not one for change!  HA  I did make half and half cornbread and toasted bread cubes.  And I made a sweet potato pie which turned out really good too! 

Of course the girls are depressed because it's been raining so much that they don't get out for their walks.  I am starting to do our lessons from the Recallers online class I did several years ago with Susan Garrett's dog training classes, which I loved!  I still have the DVD and my book from the class so I can at least give the girls some exercise once or twice a day by doing a lesson or two!  And I did 2 miles on the treadmill today - not as much fun at all compared to walking with my bud, Donna!

Bob's son and wife, MaryJo visited the grands in Indiana for Thanksgiving.  Hope they are safe from Covid.  I know the four of them are super cautious so I am sure they'll be fine.  We just didn't want to take a chance. 

This is the first year in over 18+ years that I don't have the Christmas tree and decorations up!  I am planning on pulling out the decorations on Sunday as long as the shoulder can handle it...but that's a whole other post!  It's getting better...I'm just not patient and trying to sleep at night is worse than it was just being an old lady!  Pain wakes you up and you can't get back to sleep...but it could be worse.  So keep moving on, right!

Hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving and were safe!

The knitting saga continues!

Still working on my knitted cotton T....dogs were laying up on the sewing table, I'm watching taped episodes of The Voice...knitting along....when all of a sudden.....no more stitches!  WHAT!!!????  Keep in mind, I'm knitting in the round so there should be a continuous flow of stitches! This is what happened!

The cable broke off from my needle!!!   

OMG...thought I would lose my mind...first off I had to 'capture' those stitches before I totally lost them!  So out came some stitch holders as well as some of my double pointed needles, yada, yada!  

And after I shut off the radio and my hubby from talking....I was able to get all the stitches back on another cable in the right direction.  For those who knit, you'll know what I mean by that!  Whew!!!  

I have a long way to go...sleeves need more length and addition of lace pattern as does the main bottom of the top will have lace but I'm on a roll now!!!  Until the next malfunction occurs!  It's actually funny as my sister is making this same pattern.  She's had to rip out several rows for different reasons so we're always comparing to see who has the next 'mishap'!  She'll be finished way before me and I'm hoping neither of us have any other major problems.  

And yes, the Signature Needle company is sending me a new cable!  They are a great company and I love their needles....just a fluke!

Screen printing crows

This past summer, in Hilary's online class, we worked with adding  pencil/crayon/etc. to a photo we transferred onto our dyed/painted papers.

I've shown these before on my blog..

They were each fun to do and a perfect practice for my next project.

 Playing this weekend with my thermofax crow screen.  I had a reverse thermofax screen made of the original picture from my friend in Florida.  I just love this picture..not sure why...but I do!    

I printed this piece earlier this week and decided to extend some of the areas with paint.  See why our summer lesson gave me the inspiration to work on this print!  

Even with this printed on fabric,  I didn't think threadwork would be enough on its own to enhance the tree/limbs, hence the use of paint. 

  I just wanted to play with the screen to see if it's going to work out for another project. 

And my finished square.  It's only 12"x12" so I won't put on canvas...but I will finish with machine quilting.  And maybe add some more limbs!  Love playing!!!!  

On the arm front...I had my eval on the shoulder...think it's rotator cuff tendonitis.  I have exercises to do twice a day and 2 PT's next week and 1 the following week.  I am sleeping better at night, thank goodness...only waking up every few hours like normal but not waking up to so much pain you want to cry!  Makes me feel like a wimp!  Still knitting...but that's for another post!!

Back to screen printing

 My PT appointment was rescheduled (ugh!) so decided to do some screen printing.  Our lesson this week is to work on our design either in fabric or paper(s)...then the addition of silhouettes.  Since I'm not sure of which design I want to use.....figured I would just play with my thermofax screens of the crows.  I had a reverse image made from the original by Jane Dunnewold.    So this is my playtime this week.  

Yes, I am hung up on the 'crow' stencil.  These were printed on poster board

This was a small patchwork piece I made up for a design I was doing for the 12"x12" challenge.  I wanted to see how well the thermofax screen would print up.  I'm quite happy with it.  Next I'll use paint to draw in more of the tree(s) and large trunk.  Well, at least that's what I'm thinking I can do!!!

This was a wax screen I had made in Hilary's online class several months ago.  These remain on the screen and I love being able to just print with them and not having to come up with a design!  Actually this is on fabric, which I had printed the crows on but I didn't do a good job so the print wasn't that great.  It's a good background piece now!

These are on paper...bottom one is overdyed and reprinted with the thermofax screen.

The reverse crow print.  Just love this.  I'll over dye this paper along with some above.  

So a fun day and didn't take all that long.  Now to decide what I really want to do for our year project.  Might take me two years to decide!

Just in Quarantine Mode!

 

Geeeezzzz....I know I've been busy as usual but guess not much to show on my blog.  I am knitting, somewhat...have had an issue (PAIN!!!) with my right shoulder/rotator cuff...ugh...start PT this week.  Can't lift my arm to even put a cup of coffee in the microwave!  Learning to use my left arm more...see there's always a positive side to everything!  HA   I did stop knitting for a few days but will sit at night, if dogs let me to knit my cotton T!  Here's where I'm at right now....I have a long way to go...there's lace on the sleeve and lace on the bottom of the T...I may finish by next spring at this rate!  

Our weather was beautiful with temps in the mid 60's and higher some days but this week we're back to cold!  28 degrees a few mornings and temps up to 40's during the day.  Which means our 2 mile walks have been put off...dogs only get one walk a day if that!  HA

This is me getting ready for a dog walk!  It takes me 5 minutes to get all bundled up!  Hey, it's cold out thre!!!

Dogs can be ready in less than a minute!  It's suppose to get up in the 50's and sunny this week...before the rain comes back.  I'll settle for a few nice days.  I miss walking with my bud, Donna and our talks.  We can sure chat a lot in that hour it takes us to walk 2 miles.

I am hoping to do some printing on fabric and paper this week but we'll see how PT goes with the old shoulder first!!!  Until then, I'll just continue   being quarantined!  Which is fine with me!

Thermofax and silhouettes

 A few weeks ago in Hilary's online class, we were playing around with creating and possibly using silhouettes.  I posted about some pics I was using as well as a silhouette I printed on transparency film.  I used it to overlay on top of a paper collage which you can see here:  crow transparency overlay.  

One of the ladies in our online group suggested I get a thermofax screen made and that's what I did!  Actually, I had two screens made by June Dunnewold's online service.  I have to say they were great at making sure the jpg I sent was going to work properly and then quick service!!  I was dealing with K Wayne and this person was fantastic!!!  I definitely would recommend their service if you want some thermofax screens.  

Here is the  willow thermofax screen (I had both images made in two sizes -  5"x7" and 8"x10" - finished sizes) 

This is the crow screen better known as Bill's Crows, HA.

  Hilary did suggest (after seeing some of these prints) that I should have had a reverse image as well.  DUH!  I may have to dig into the old grocery $$'s and get each image in reverse!

I decided to play with the screens and almost forgot what to do or, really, what to use!  I started off with some paint but decided to use my thicken procion dyes instead.  Of course, I/we always have some thicken dyes left don't we!

Sure...I figured I'd just go for it and print on top of one of my paper collages...wrong! 

 Not a good result but I can use paint and brush in areas to make the image better.  At least I think I can!

This was another painted/dyed paper I had.  I only printed on this piece twice.  Not bad....just playing.

This was a screen print/overdyed paper I wanted to try printing on

OOPS!  Well, I did get one area covered!!!  I'll try to over print on this one.  The paper is coated with a wax type material to keep the dyes on the paper from running.  I think that's the reason I didn't get a good print.  But really...who washes their paper collages!  HA

This was the larger screen used to print on paper.

I mixed some blue along with the black and I really like the image.  These were the smaller screens printed on 9"x12" layout paper.

These were printed on some old soda soaked fabric I had in my dye room.  I'm hoping the image will keep as sharp as it looks now but to be honest, because I wasn't thinking!  Or remembering...I didn't batch these...I just laid the fabric out to dry.  Guess we'll see when I rinse it!

This was the willow screen I used.  It printed out very well too.

Next up I decided to print on another paper collage...

I had better results with these print.  Now to extend out the trees and branches using paint or a paint stick??  Who knows...but I'm on a roll!

Happy Birthday to my SON!

 

Someone had posted this on FaceBook and I thought it was wonderful!!  

Darrin has grown to be such a wonderful son, brother, husband, father and friend.  So proud of the man he has become!  Love you!

Yes, I am a bit of a nut when it comes to knitting!

 I've been working off and on trying to start my latest knitting project  (you can see that post here).  I also mentioned I had contacted Susanna, the designer, to ask about a new stitch, which I didn't know how to make.

 Well, I mastered that stitch and so glad I had the sense to ask her!  I'm familiar with the M1R and M1L but didn't know how to knit M1BR or BL...which, for those who don't knit just means to knit in the row below right or left.  It really does make a nice pattern for the sleeves for increasing and creating a raglan sleeve. 

This pattern is worked from the top down...the ribbing is actually a yoke/cowl and now I'm working on knitting the front/back and raglan sleeves.  

 Now for the "nut" part of my title.  I knit mostly at night while watching TV and at times have either added stitches or dropped a stitch because I wasn't careful...yes, that's being honest.  

I happened to look at my current piece and WHAT!!  How did that hole get there without me seeing it!!!  And look at the stitches above the hole!  What is that!!!

So, what else to do but rip out!!!  I actually thought I could rip back to the hole but then I started to look/count the sections and holy heck...I was off in two sections.  Instead of trying to figure out where I messed up I decided to start over.....Yep...I ripped out entirely and start over.  I'm so glad I did.  

 

After I ripped out and started over, I was concerned about the sleeve and front/back sections and the increases for the stitch count, so what else is a gal to do!  Make up a cheat chart!  Yep...I figured out how many stitches in each of the 34 rows for the section I'm working on now!  And it's working out great!!!  Haven't dropped, added or missed my M1BR or BL (yet!). 

I know this is silly for those of you who knit all the time but being self taught I have to do what works for me and this is working!  Took some math!  HA  But I'm on a roll now!  I may just do this for any other section that's adding so many stitches in the sections.  A little time consuming but for me it's just what I need to keep on tract!  Yes, I get sidetracked easily!

More paper collages

 Hilary's online class is working with some techniques we've "played" with in our past lessons, which is always fun to do.  It was soy wax time last week but I decided instead to play around with paper collages.  This is a weak area for me to create collage work from inspiration I get from pictures. 

It so happened my DIL, Kris, took some great pictures a few weeks ago from their back patio area.  I was really taken by some of her photo's so thought I would give it a go and try to make a paper collage!

I played around with different papers, although the colors are quite muted in this piece.  And my results...keep in mind, it's not suppose to look like the photo.  Thank goodness, because that won't happen with me!  HA

I didn't like the green strip so I removed it in the next photo.

I was happy with this piece.

I was talking with a friend of a friend in Florida who does beautiful photography about a picture he had posted.  I just love this picture!!  Again, it's not to replicate a picture - which I couldn't do with this great shot!!  The color and landscape Bill captured is just fantastic in this picture!

I was given permission to use his photo to create a collage from.  

We are basically using shapes and color, except I didn't have the right colors to use in my piece.  

So, next up, we've been working at adding silhouettes to our collage work.  Well, I thought originally at using Bill's original picture above and cutting out a stencil of the tree.  Well, it was too fussy to cut out and he sent this to use as a stencil!  How great is this!

I printed out the picture onto a piece of transparency film so I could overlay on fabric or paper.  

Here are the paper collages above with the addition of the stencil!

This is just the overlay transparency film...I've ordered thermofax screens of the crow stencil so I'll screen print on the collage then I can extend some of the tree bark and limbs with paint.

The stencil makes a big difference on this piece doesn't it!  Well, it would if I had laid the stencil on straight!  

Can't wait to start some screen printing!  A huge thanks to Bill for the use of his wonderful photography!