Monday, June 28, 2010

fending off shadows

If you need to disappear into a book to hide from the gloomy clouds that are hovering nearby, it doesn't matter if the clouds are out your window or in your collar bones. It is imperative that you at least find a good book.

May I recommend The History of Love by Nicole Kraus or anything by Anne LaMott.

If you need me, I'll be riding out the storm with Elegance of a Hedgehog.

~ LS

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Summer Musing

I went rooting around on YouTube today. Looking for nuno felting tips on bigger projects, like seamless coats and dresses. Found some surprisingly bad stuff. Not the end-product, but the actual videos. I'd love to make my own how-to video, but now there are so many... I feel like I did in musical theatre; like I missed my era. I had a better teacher and am a better teacher than these women (and it is all women) I've seen so far. I also haven't found anything yet that isn't a scarf. I'm pretty sure I know how to make those.

I haven't settled into the summer routine yet. Not sure when I'm working and when I'm mom. If it's a beach day, when do we go? Before I do some felting or after? I'd forgotten how much time goes into calling friends' parents to coordinate playdates. Time away from getting anything else done. The schlepping is down a bit this year, due to Spring baseball instead of Summer baseball. But that also means the boredom level will rise for the baseball player soon. I'm all for boredom actually, but when he sits reading for 8 hours a day, he cannot get to sleep at night. I am so wishing we had a pool. Swimming wears them out but good. I have to factor in beach time VERY soon. Are there beaches where you don't get sand in your suit?

I did manage to lay out a scarf and get over an hour's worth of rolling done on it. And I managed to try out some new recipes for dinner. I used my new Woolynns debit card for the first time today. And I discovered that my children will barter butternut squash for sweet potatoes (the latter being the tuber of choice). I'll take it.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Going Deep into the Roving

Just when I think I'm out of ideas, new pictures and colors and designs pop into my head. I may have to head into clothing to see these creations come in to being. I've worked three dimensionally before. The mental work of understanding seamless purses that first workshop --- there's a front and a back to the inside, and a front and a back to the outside? That no longer phases me so much. What pulls me up short now is should I actually re-invent the wheel or do I do a little research into techniques first?

Photos soon of recent creations will be followed by tales from this mysterious path that is pulling me. Fiber and color and design and function will collide brilliantly, I hope. If not, as Mark says, someone will like it.

~ LS

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Why do this?





I started Woolynns because a good friend told me I was going to sell the scarves I was beginning to make. She did not encourage or ask; she informed me I will be selling them. That was over two years and 100 sales ago. I feel like I am painting with wool and silk when I'm working. Laying out fluffy wool roving on beautifully dyed silk; finding used silk scarves to cut up and piece together with other silks; laying swoops and swirls of yarns to different effect --- all of it feeds a part of me I didn't realize was hungry.

The muscles I use felting it all together reminds me of my years of baking bread; three and four loaves at a time, kneading all that dough worked my arms, hands, upper body. I have transferred that work into wetting down and rolling a scarf in bubble wrap and a towel for over an hour (in shifts), rubbing the fused materials against a textured surface until the wool shrinks and firms up. Where once the end result was fantastic warm bread for my family, now I get a one-of-a-kind piece of wearable art.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Really?

So it looks like I've succumbed. Me. Blogging. I don't know why the world needs this blog yet. I do know I've been told to do this more times than I can count. I'm waiting to figure out what I have to say to the world, which is odd since I rarely am without words.

I spend much of my time teaching: teaching my daughter how to use a sewing machine, teaching my son how to handle the latest crisis, teaching pregnant women about their bodies, teaching new moms how to find faith in themselves as moms, teaching 8th graders about acting, teaching someone with injury how to find relief. Lots of words.

I prefer when I get to learn. Today, I am learning how to shift into summer schedules as one child finished school and the other will be done in two days. I'd rather learn how to make something new out of silk and wool. I guess that learning will come tomorrow.
After I learn how to make fish stock.