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We frequently watch Sky Art's Landscape (or Portrait) Artist of the Year. And it generally inspires me to grab at some art supplies while we watch. Today's color study uses a handful of dark plum purples and some yellows.
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I want to fiddle with colored pencils to capture all these colors. This is what i did instead.
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So far i think my only Idalia disaccommodation will be an Amazon shipment that was due on Thursday. Wednesday there were warnings that the overnight rains could lead to flash flooding. Schools were cancelled, which seemed ridiculous, and the delivery notices went through some churn. So, i think it might have been an initial cancel of deliveries that jumbled some packages, a decision to resume, but some confusion as to which package is where. (It includes the shoe dye applicators, shoe polish, and shoe laces. I sure hope it makes it over this long weekend.)
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Just made another batch of fig leather. I think i am going to begin treating batches as shelf stable. Also, i need to eat it instead of other sweets with afternoon coffee.
--== ∞ ==--
Breakfast cereal: i soaked some of my raw buckwheat groats -- which creates a really goopy gel around the seeds -- rinsed, drained, let dry, then roasted. It has the texture of grapenuts with a reasonable flavor. Kasha isn't soaked in advance, so this is different than that. I might stick with making this myself. It occurs to me that i could season it before roasting - mesquite powder comes to mind as a pleasant sweetener.
Also, found several versions of buckwheat bread like this: https://breadtopia.com/gluten-free-fermented-buckwheat-bread/ . Makes me wonder about making crackers with similar batter, or just toasting this bread until cracker crisp. I suspect the goopy gel is what makes this work.
Took today off because it's so lovely. Still on the couch.
--== ∞ ==--
Just made another batch of fig leather. I think i am going to begin treating batches as shelf stable. Also, i need to eat it instead of other sweets with afternoon coffee.
--== ∞ ==--
Breakfast cereal: i soaked some of my raw buckwheat groats -- which creates a really goopy gel around the seeds -- rinsed, drained, let dry, then roasted. It has the texture of grapenuts with a reasonable flavor. Kasha isn't soaked in advance, so this is different than that. I might stick with making this myself. It occurs to me that i could season it before roasting - mesquite powder comes to mind as a pleasant sweetener.
Also, found several versions of buckwheat bread like this: https://breadtopia.com/gluten-free-fermented-buckwheat-bread/ . Makes me wonder about making crackers with similar batter, or just toasting this bread until cracker crisp. I suspect the goopy gel is what makes this work.
Took today off because it's so lovely. Still on the couch.
Frivolous analysis for the day: i have a pair of "Wichita" Lizflex by Liz Claiborne leather shoes from pre 2000. They're well made leather slip on loafers with a low heel. Not the substantial arch support i am used to but walking around today in them, they seem like i could wear them on a work trip. In pale pink and thus looking a little dingy.
( Thinking out loud )
OK, the more i think about it, i think i will polish up the pink shoes in the short term, refurbish the funny pale grey green pair of suede boots to navy. Then, someday, get the kit of pearlescent leather paints and start painting up some shoes and bags. But, i actually have pink tops to wear with grey slacks, and the pink shoes will be OK for that.
( Thinking out loud )
OK, the more i think about it, i think i will polish up the pink shoes in the short term, refurbish the funny pale grey green pair of suede boots to navy. Then, someday, get the kit of pearlescent leather paints and start painting up some shoes and bags. But, i actually have pink tops to wear with grey slacks, and the pink shoes will be OK for that.
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After work on Thursday and Friday i was very sedentary. At some point in there i developed a very painful sore throat. Friday i went to my sister's briefly in the evening for a small gather. Her daughter was off to an end of middle school dance (and left before i arrived), and her son had a school art show. I then returned home to collect Christine, and we drove to the art show and supported W-- in his art.
While W--'s distorted body parts did not speak to me, his artist's statement put them in a context in which i could see them.
Saturday evaporated.
I did play with paper and made a A6 notebook of art paper separated by what was sold as tracing paper but was cheap tissue paper, and had a couple pages of standard bond paper printed up for a table of content and notes. Adobe's InDesign is ... not so easy to use because it does bizarre things with groups and layers that look like bugs to me. But i have made nifty fiscal year calendars and little weekly notebooks for work that may bring some order compared to the scraps-of-paper or stacks of random 3x5 card notes that i have been scribbling for work. Because the notes are SO transient, i hate using a "nice" notebook for them, but the scraps were somewhat less than useless because the context was completely lost. With a little 16 page pamphlet i have enough white space for the week, plus five pages for the work days, and a "table of contents" front page. The little sketch book is nice enough for pleasure in using, small enough that it's not intimidating, and short enough that i can keep it for one thing.
I have a rather nice blank book that i am using for experimenting with colored pencil color combinations. Saturday i experimented with a warm yellow + cool yellow + lavender grey as the final in my series of warm/cool primary plus similar color (crimson+poppy+process red, true blue + ultramarine + black grape). I'm making little "Interactions of Color" panels à la mode de Joseph Albers and doodles. I'd bought "101 textures in colored pencil" by Denise Howard, and i'm experimenting with that (using my color choices, not hers). I'm hoping with these exercises i can develop a sense of what i can make with colored pencils.
Yesterday afternoon, i did get out and mow a little bit, disturbing some very young bunnies. I left the main patch where they were unmown. I weeded some, disturbing another young bunny. I wonder if bunnies are to blame for the absence of some of the squash seedlings, but it's more likely some combination of old seed and gardener inattention. Just like packets of zinna and cosmos seed seem to have produced one seedling each. Fie.
I'm hoping mowing has helped me get back to the yard.
Meanwhile, i have the worst sore throat i can remember. Are my symptoms due to [contagious condition of your choice] or due to surgery recovery? Fie. My throat doesn't have any tell-tale conditions that scream "strep" or "tonsillitis" compared to Google images, but omg did my sleep get interrupted. I think that when i plugged the heated tube in i didn't remember how to correctly adjust the humidity, so it may be i need more moisture in my night air. It could be due to irritation in the saline rinses for my nose. Nothing seems to help. Christine realized how bad it was when she nudged me to use the throat spray i hate, and i told her i already was.
We now have two game things. Christine has replaced our 18+ year old XBox with the latest Playstation and she bought Stray for me. I'm not sure how well I will do as this is no my usual choice of amusement. She also bought a thing i had seen on Etsy when i went to look for a backgammon board. It's a laser cut triple game board for the Babylonian royal game of Ur, Aseb/Twenty squares, and Senet. The first rules Christine found for Aseb required tossing a 4 with the throwing sticks (that are not thrown) to move your first piece on the board. Christine went a whole game without throwing a 4. I don't think we will use that rule again. It's probably more fun when friends are looking on and gambling on whether you will EVER get a 4.
Christine [5/21/23 12:33]
W--, I enjoyed your art display. You might find some kindred spirits in two of my favorite artists: Gerald Scarfe (The Wall) and Francis Bacon (1909-1992).
W-- [5/21/23 18:58]
Thank you! I haven’t looked into Gerald Scarfe before, so I’ll look into him, but Francis Bacon is one of my favorites! You may enjoy perusing some of Zdzisław Beksiński—he’s who I would call my favorite artist.
While W--'s distorted body parts did not speak to me, his artist's statement put them in a context in which i could see them.
Saturday evaporated.
I did play with paper and made a A6 notebook of art paper separated by what was sold as tracing paper but was cheap tissue paper, and had a couple pages of standard bond paper printed up for a table of content and notes. Adobe's InDesign is ... not so easy to use because it does bizarre things with groups and layers that look like bugs to me. But i have made nifty fiscal year calendars and little weekly notebooks for work that may bring some order compared to the scraps-of-paper or stacks of random 3x5 card notes that i have been scribbling for work. Because the notes are SO transient, i hate using a "nice" notebook for them, but the scraps were somewhat less than useless because the context was completely lost. With a little 16 page pamphlet i have enough white space for the week, plus five pages for the work days, and a "table of contents" front page. The little sketch book is nice enough for pleasure in using, small enough that it's not intimidating, and short enough that i can keep it for one thing.
I have a rather nice blank book that i am using for experimenting with colored pencil color combinations. Saturday i experimented with a warm yellow + cool yellow + lavender grey as the final in my series of warm/cool primary plus similar color (crimson+poppy+process red, true blue + ultramarine + black grape). I'm making little "Interactions of Color" panels à la mode de Joseph Albers and doodles. I'd bought "101 textures in colored pencil" by Denise Howard, and i'm experimenting with that (using my color choices, not hers). I'm hoping with these exercises i can develop a sense of what i can make with colored pencils.
Yesterday afternoon, i did get out and mow a little bit, disturbing some very young bunnies. I left the main patch where they were unmown. I weeded some, disturbing another young bunny. I wonder if bunnies are to blame for the absence of some of the squash seedlings, but it's more likely some combination of old seed and gardener inattention. Just like packets of zinna and cosmos seed seem to have produced one seedling each. Fie.
I'm hoping mowing has helped me get back to the yard.
Meanwhile, i have the worst sore throat i can remember. Are my symptoms due to [contagious condition of your choice] or due to surgery recovery? Fie. My throat doesn't have any tell-tale conditions that scream "strep" or "tonsillitis" compared to Google images, but omg did my sleep get interrupted. I think that when i plugged the heated tube in i didn't remember how to correctly adjust the humidity, so it may be i need more moisture in my night air. It could be due to irritation in the saline rinses for my nose. Nothing seems to help. Christine realized how bad it was when she nudged me to use the throat spray i hate, and i told her i already was.
We now have two game things. Christine has replaced our 18+ year old XBox with the latest Playstation and she bought Stray for me. I'm not sure how well I will do as this is no my usual choice of amusement. She also bought a thing i had seen on Etsy when i went to look for a backgammon board. It's a laser cut triple game board for the Babylonian royal game of Ur, Aseb/Twenty squares, and Senet. The first rules Christine found for Aseb required tossing a 4 with the throwing sticks (that are not thrown) to move your first piece on the board. Christine went a whole game without throwing a 4. I don't think we will use that rule again. It's probably more fun when friends are looking on and gambling on whether you will EVER get a 4.
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Last Saturday i spent hours on Amazon and YouTube learning about clip on hair extensions and then bought a gazillion, mostly for my niece's 14th birthday but also for me. For E-- a whole rainbow of colors, plus tinsel, plus something that i thought was close to her hair color -- and was spot on! -- and high lights for her hair color. When we gave it to her on Wednesday, she was so very very delighted. I have many colors and some tinsel, too.
I wish my scalp was happier and less miserable with skin conditions.
Does it say something about my tolerance for itching that a cluster of five poison ivy blisters does not itch? Or is it that the mystery bug bites have taken all the itch in my system? Ugh, all the itch.
Today i shopped for my brother and his wife and my other niece. I've getting them each a mesh zip up bag, a phone mount that is supposed to work on planes particularly well, and these straps that are sold as baby toy tethers but, you know, could tether other things for adults. I don't know if the gift will make sense. The few airplane seat organizers i found were almost OK or way more than i meant to spend.
I'm shipping it to Singapore. So there's that.
I'd gone down a rabbit hole looking at notebooks and stickers yesterday, to the extent of making a chart with notebook size dimensions. Dear Amazon, your search is BLEEPED. I've decided i am going to try A6 sized saddle stitched notebooks to replace the trifold 3x5 cards (9x5, technically) i've been scrawling on during work. I was also looking at stickers yesterday and saw a whole book of FEELINGS and i thought that would be great for young niece S--- who might benefit from naming feelings? Although she may just stick the stickers everywhere. She is an impulsive child.
So i was looking for some binder bands like are used to put together traveler's notebooks and could not find any appropriate for A6. So now i am buying 100 m of ten different colored elastic cords and crimps. And i'm buying lamination sheets to make my own covers.
Traveler's notebooks are seem to have some of the flexibility of filofax and ring binders, but also the straight forwardness of having things bound. One gets these small saddle stitched bound notebooks and uses elastics to bind them together inside a very simple cover. Of course the tactile intense thing is getting a gorgeous leather cover that takes on a patina with use: maybe i will use them enough to want to do that someday.
For now, i realized i had some 10x8 botanical photos i did years ago (before moving here). I've cut them down to a size that will work to make a cover for A6 notebooks, and lined them with some gorgeous 12"x12" "scrap booking" paper with which i made pockets: one for me, one for my niece S--. When the lamination sheets get here, those will protect the photo and the edges somewhat.
I've little eyelet punches with metal reinforcements i bought AEONS ago -- i will see if those will work with the elastic. I'll lace up the bindings. Then i'll slip our notebooks in and, voila, weird gift from the aunties.
That's kept me busy most of this rainy day. I can't believe it's after 8 pm. I haven't really done paper things since i moved here.
I wish i knew where the box of pretty washi tape went.
Meanwhile, plants were supposed to arrive on Wednesday. They have been put on the wrong truck, they have been forgotten, and then some third thing happened. I called today, and the person said they would try to track them down so they get shipped on Monday. POOR PLANTS. The warehouse is not climate controlled. We've had warm days. Fie.
I wish my scalp was happier and less miserable with skin conditions.
Does it say something about my tolerance for itching that a cluster of five poison ivy blisters does not itch? Or is it that the mystery bug bites have taken all the itch in my system? Ugh, all the itch.
Today i shopped for my brother and his wife and my other niece. I've getting them each a mesh zip up bag, a phone mount that is supposed to work on planes particularly well, and these straps that are sold as baby toy tethers but, you know, could tether other things for adults. I don't know if the gift will make sense. The few airplane seat organizers i found were almost OK or way more than i meant to spend.
I'm shipping it to Singapore. So there's that.
I'd gone down a rabbit hole looking at notebooks and stickers yesterday, to the extent of making a chart with notebook size dimensions. Dear Amazon, your search is BLEEPED. I've decided i am going to try A6 sized saddle stitched notebooks to replace the trifold 3x5 cards (9x5, technically) i've been scrawling on during work. I was also looking at stickers yesterday and saw a whole book of FEELINGS and i thought that would be great for young niece S--- who might benefit from naming feelings? Although she may just stick the stickers everywhere. She is an impulsive child.
So i was looking for some binder bands like are used to put together traveler's notebooks and could not find any appropriate for A6. So now i am buying 100 m of ten different colored elastic cords and crimps. And i'm buying lamination sheets to make my own covers.
Traveler's notebooks are seem to have some of the flexibility of filofax and ring binders, but also the straight forwardness of having things bound. One gets these small saddle stitched bound notebooks and uses elastics to bind them together inside a very simple cover. Of course the tactile intense thing is getting a gorgeous leather cover that takes on a patina with use: maybe i will use them enough to want to do that someday.
For now, i realized i had some 10x8 botanical photos i did years ago (before moving here). I've cut them down to a size that will work to make a cover for A6 notebooks, and lined them with some gorgeous 12"x12" "scrap booking" paper with which i made pockets: one for me, one for my niece S--. When the lamination sheets get here, those will protect the photo and the edges somewhat.
I've little eyelet punches with metal reinforcements i bought AEONS ago -- i will see if those will work with the elastic. I'll lace up the bindings. Then i'll slip our notebooks in and, voila, weird gift from the aunties.
That's kept me busy most of this rainy day. I can't believe it's after 8 pm. I haven't really done paper things since i moved here.
I wish i knew where the box of pretty washi tape went.
Meanwhile, plants were supposed to arrive on Wednesday. They have been put on the wrong truck, they have been forgotten, and then some third thing happened. I called today, and the person said they would try to track them down so they get shipped on Monday. POOR PLANTS. The warehouse is not climate controlled. We've had warm days. Fie.
20131112 Mom in Monterey Bay
Sunday was blissfully rainy: i can't remember when we last had a whole day of rain. I'm sure it was this past winter, but it doesn't come to mind. I edited a number of photos of mom with the latest version of Lightroom. Wow, it sure has come a long way in sorting out the focal object from the background. I had another photo of my parents watching the sunset, side lit, and i was easily able to select them and increase the exposure on them so they were no longer dark silhouettes. I was shooting "to the right" -- over exposing the image -- so i had the pixels to do it, but correcting the image years ago would have been a painstaking labor. Not so now.
I think looking at photos of family continued my blues to some extent -- it's had me aware of how separate i've been and continue to be. It's harder for me to remember how hard it was for me to be around Mom now.
I also did some sketching while sitting with Christine on the porch -- i look forward to getting the new colored pencils. Although the yellow over blue communicated green, it still looked like an old fashioned print with a misregistration of the color layers. Also, tall pine trees are tall. I am pretty sure that even at two grids wide and twenty grids wide, the tree sketch had shorter proportions than reality.
And then i did math! I want to fit three color wheels onto a page 20x33 units and needed to figure out the maximum radius. A radius of 5.5 (diameter 11) would clearly fit, but wouldn't be the maximum. I used trig! And solved a quadratic equation! OMG actual math! (Answer is a radius of 6.3.)
The next thing i am working on is how to draw the wheels. It's easy to divide the circles into 12 using the protractor and geometry, but it puts a line on the vertical axis: there is no "top" wedge. Is it worth the bother constructing a different axis than the dot grid on the paper? I invite your thoughts as to the "top" wedge of a color wheel.
I suppose i could have ridden the bike under the umbrella last night, but i'd started a novel and wanted to finish it: the fourth book in Bujold's Sharing Knife series which i had started years ago.
Poll #27246 Color wheel
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4
What color goes at the top of a color wheel?
What color is on the top color's right, viewer's left?
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Wednesday's "feels like" due to humidity adds ten Fahrenheit degrees (18 C) to the 93°F (~33.8°F) predicted temperature. We had a splash of rain last night, but i kept draining the tank to the garden over night, it's been so dry. I'm not sure there was enough pressure to get to all of the rows.
14:34 YAWN. I do not know why i feel so tired. It does seem i had three apnea events an hour last night instead of 2, my average. So, that?
Insert long break to work on a zentangle. I now feel a little more alert. But also like the day is completely lost.
I'm using the apparently cheap colored pencils (the cores keep breaking) marked "elite BOB beste qualität." I can't find anything online about these pencils, even using German Stifte or Bleistifte. I wonder how i acquired them.
Tuesday, as part of my extended vacation, i went through and identified warm and cool primaries and a CMY-ish set of primaries and experimented making color wheels, with rings representing tints and shades as well as intensities. When my prismacolor pencils get here i will make similar color wheels.
One of the things i enjoyed with acrylics was getting to know my pigments and having a small palette from which i could mix what i need. I suspect getting tints - a hue mixed with white - is harder with colored pencils than it is with paints. I never made a color wheel, but Golden paints provides hand painted charts to show how their pigments behave under load and as a glaze, demonstrating how transparent they are. Mixing charts are also available so that one gets a sense of how powerful pigments are: for "Yellow and blue make green," one might need ten times the amount of yellow than blue because yellow is a wimpy pigment compared to the blue. I'm curious how the pencils will work.
Essentially, i'll make the same for myself for the pencils, experimenting with how they blend. I found a worksheet -- https://www.ridgefieldschools.com/cms/lib8/NJ01912890/Centricity/Domain/761/Colored_Pencil_Drawing_Techniques_Vocab_and_Worksheet.pdf -- that appears to pull many skills together. I think i could spend a year building up a guide to each pencil. And given i've bought two different hardnesses of many colors, there will be different effects with those, too.
14:34 YAWN. I do not know why i feel so tired. It does seem i had three apnea events an hour last night instead of 2, my average. So, that?
Insert long break to work on a zentangle. I now feel a little more alert. But also like the day is completely lost.
I'm using the apparently cheap colored pencils (the cores keep breaking) marked "elite BOB beste qualität." I can't find anything online about these pencils, even using German Stifte or Bleistifte. I wonder how i acquired them.
Tuesday, as part of my extended vacation, i went through and identified warm and cool primaries and a CMY-ish set of primaries and experimented making color wheels, with rings representing tints and shades as well as intensities. When my prismacolor pencils get here i will make similar color wheels.
One of the things i enjoyed with acrylics was getting to know my pigments and having a small palette from which i could mix what i need. I suspect getting tints - a hue mixed with white - is harder with colored pencils than it is with paints. I never made a color wheel, but Golden paints provides hand painted charts to show how their pigments behave under load and as a glaze, demonstrating how transparent they are. Mixing charts are also available so that one gets a sense of how powerful pigments are: for "Yellow and blue make green," one might need ten times the amount of yellow than blue because yellow is a wimpy pigment compared to the blue. I'm curious how the pencils will work.
Essentially, i'll make the same for myself for the pencils, experimenting with how they blend. I found a worksheet -- https://www.ridgefieldschools.com/cms/lib8/NJ01912890/Centricity/Domain/761/Colored_Pencil_Drawing_Techniques_Vocab_and_Worksheet.pdf -- that appears to pull many skills together. I think i could spend a year building up a guide to each pencil. And given i've bought two different hardnesses of many colors, there will be different effects with those, too.
Tags:
As Christine puts it, "We so badass, we can answer phone calls and use paper." It was a very 2005 technology day.
I now have screen recordings of pings of 8.8.8.8 and the modem's DSL 1 & DSL 2 status pages when a call is placed to our number. The pings fail to connect and DLS 1 goes to "poor" and "not available" and we loose internet. Such fun. But our new call screening telephone is plugged in. Callers must say their name and push # before it rings through to us. We have added some known phone numbers who should be able to ring through, as well. And we have a dial tone calling out.
And we have set up a very nice hand-me-down color laser printer from my sister's family and we can print in *color* for the first time since... a decade? Two decades? We gave up on ink jets; getting photos printed at drugstores or online photo printers from digital files was far better quality.
Anyhow, it looks like i will be on calls to tech support at CenturyLink tomorrow. Joy.
I was looking for a readable copy of the surgeon's paper on the butterfly graft this morning, and the Springer Verlag site's preview called out one of the references: Nestor, James. Breath the New Science of a Lost Art, 2020. So, i poked at that on Amazon and thought about acquiring it. One of the adoring reviews is from someone who is an advocate of the "Modern humans faces are all flat because we don't chew enough hard things" which has some fringy elements to it. So, i checked Overdrive and it's available there -- and also Overdrive recommended is a book of what you can do to select your baby's sex. Eyebrow raising, that, while also triggering all sorts of problematic flags.
Among all the... seemingly fringe... health topics was also a Zentangle book -- Krahula, Beckah. Tangle Art Pack, 2012. I checked it out and spent time while Christine watched a troubling Kenneth Branagh Wallender episode reading and actually learning. Best trick was not from the book, but reviving a Helix 0.5 mm pigment pen by leaving it in a cup of hot water. I'm using a notebook i started in 2012 with the livescribe digital pen. Fine, i'll fill it out with these doodles. Ahem, tangles. I have mixed opinions of the Zentangle practice, and it isn't exactly where i want to head. But i suspect it is good practice with line and shading. I have also been reading The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling which is more where i would like to head. I think the Zentangling is complementary.
I now have screen recordings of pings of 8.8.8.8 and the modem's DSL 1 & DSL 2 status pages when a call is placed to our number. The pings fail to connect and DLS 1 goes to "poor" and "not available" and we loose internet. Such fun. But our new call screening telephone is plugged in. Callers must say their name and push # before it rings through to us. We have added some known phone numbers who should be able to ring through, as well. And we have a dial tone calling out.
And we have set up a very nice hand-me-down color laser printer from my sister's family and we can print in *color* for the first time since... a decade? Two decades? We gave up on ink jets; getting photos printed at drugstores or online photo printers from digital files was far better quality.
Anyhow, it looks like i will be on calls to tech support at CenturyLink tomorrow. Joy.
I was looking for a readable copy of the surgeon's paper on the butterfly graft this morning, and the Springer Verlag site's preview called out one of the references: Nestor, James. Breath the New Science of a Lost Art, 2020. So, i poked at that on Amazon and thought about acquiring it. One of the adoring reviews is from someone who is an advocate of the "Modern humans faces are all flat because we don't chew enough hard things" which has some fringy elements to it. So, i checked Overdrive and it's available there -- and also Overdrive recommended is a book of what you can do to select your baby's sex. Eyebrow raising, that, while also triggering all sorts of problematic flags.
Among all the... seemingly fringe... health topics was also a Zentangle book -- Krahula, Beckah. Tangle Art Pack, 2012. I checked it out and spent time while Christine watched a troubling Kenneth Branagh Wallender episode reading and actually learning. Best trick was not from the book, but reviving a Helix 0.5 mm pigment pen by leaving it in a cup of hot water. I'm using a notebook i started in 2012 with the livescribe digital pen. Fine, i'll fill it out with these doodles. Ahem, tangles. I have mixed opinions of the Zentangle practice, and it isn't exactly where i want to head. But i suspect it is good practice with line and shading. I have also been reading The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling which is more where i would like to head. I think the Zentangling is complementary.
Tags:
So, doodles just to stretch some of my many cramped metaphorical and real muscles. I'm pleased, although i don't know that i want to stay with the sketch. I don't know if i will ever get past dabbing the virtual paint on with the brush tool and then smearing it into shape as if it were finger painting. It's fine for the doodles but i don't think it's that good for any graphic design work (Spoonflower fabrics).
I took a half day Friday when the tree guy showed up and topped the dead pine near the powerline. It will allow the tulip poplar to continue to grow, and woodpeckers to continue to work on the tree. Duke power wouldn't leave a snag nor would they work around trees (but instead cut any other trees that were in the way, including a large old redbud and a cherry). I am still irritated a year and a half later. He'll come back and get some sweetgums down that are crowding the back porch, and agrees the large cherry is no threat to the house. I was exhausted from the couple hours i spent out in the dreadful humidity.
In Clerk of Meeting news, i am struggling with the fact that the onsite worship folks decided to change the rain plans from what is minuted. No harm was done, in that i don't think anyone showed up and was surprised by the change, and the people who are particularly concerned probably stayed home due to weather. But it just distressed me. If no one had recognized the existing decision, it would be one thing, but to recognize the decision and then have a few people by email change their mind....
So close to walking away.
The felines continue to have incidents: I'm pretty sure both Marlowe and Edward are involved and wonder if this is partly about Marlowe ambushing her seniors. We are also considering moving the bespoke litter box to a new location and see if that helps.
Software developer stuff: I've been preoccupied with reactivating newbie skills of git (a way that software engineers keep versions of code, store them in a external site providing backup, and collaborate on changes) and markdown (yet another text markup language -- not to be confused with YAML which stands for Yet Another Markup Language). And i'm learning to use Visual Studio Code as an editor. Some of this learning is because my old skills have become completely obsolete: i wasn't able to get the editor i have used for decades, emacs, to install on the latest version of the Mac operating system. Visual Studio Code, a free Microsoft product, has delighted me as a replacement.
I'd spent some time in January making use of "Jupyter Notebooks," a easy way to use python code to analyze data and report on it. I've poked a little at the best practices for storing the notebooks in a git repository: nothing has jumped out as an answer. I'll just shove them in, i guess. I do see that there's a metastructure, JupyterLab, that binds up multiple notebooks.
I spent all weekend writing a processing program that will pull files in, split them into months, and create "cleaned" by the month files, with the nice addition of keeping track of which files have been processed by which version of the script.
I took a half day Friday when the tree guy showed up and topped the dead pine near the powerline. It will allow the tulip poplar to continue to grow, and woodpeckers to continue to work on the tree. Duke power wouldn't leave a snag nor would they work around trees (but instead cut any other trees that were in the way, including a large old redbud and a cherry). I am still irritated a year and a half later. He'll come back and get some sweetgums down that are crowding the back porch, and agrees the large cherry is no threat to the house. I was exhausted from the couple hours i spent out in the dreadful humidity.
In Clerk of Meeting news, i am struggling with the fact that the onsite worship folks decided to change the rain plans from what is minuted. No harm was done, in that i don't think anyone showed up and was surprised by the change, and the people who are particularly concerned probably stayed home due to weather. But it just distressed me. If no one had recognized the existing decision, it would be one thing, but to recognize the decision and then have a few people by email change their mind....
So close to walking away.
The felines continue to have incidents: I'm pretty sure both Marlowe and Edward are involved and wonder if this is partly about Marlowe ambushing her seniors. We are also considering moving the bespoke litter box to a new location and see if that helps.
Software developer stuff: I've been preoccupied with reactivating newbie skills of git (a way that software engineers keep versions of code, store them in a external site providing backup, and collaborate on changes) and markdown (yet another text markup language -- not to be confused with YAML which stands for Yet Another Markup Language). And i'm learning to use Visual Studio Code as an editor. Some of this learning is because my old skills have become completely obsolete: i wasn't able to get the editor i have used for decades, emacs, to install on the latest version of the Mac operating system. Visual Studio Code, a free Microsoft product, has delighted me as a replacement.
I'd spent some time in January making use of "Jupyter Notebooks," a easy way to use python code to analyze data and report on it. I've poked a little at the best practices for storing the notebooks in a git repository: nothing has jumped out as an answer. I'll just shove them in, i guess. I do see that there's a metastructure, JupyterLab, that binds up multiple notebooks.
I spent all weekend writing a processing program that will pull files in, split them into months, and create "cleaned" by the month files, with the nice addition of keeping track of which files have been processed by which version of the script.
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Better control of how the background does not bleed through the transparent shapes. More fun palette, although at the end it seems very 80s.
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Tuesday i was weepy. I don't know exactly what it was about. Family, mortality, surely was a pert. Reading the NYTimes "partial" obituary of Cokie Roberts and it's linked 2017 interview with her and her husband about their 50 year marriage teared me up. I could shoot the Adobe Illustrator developers who have inconsistently implemented color changing from swatches (what works for fills fails for strokes) and the swatch system! Geeze, louise. Work stresses me (due to my procrastination expectations of self etc, and my belief that they will all soon find out it is all a facade.)
I took the afternoon and poked at county history, will take Friday and will go play in the woods with my niece. Hopefully that will help.
I used a UV flashlight outside in the moonlight on Tuesday morning - absolutely fascinating to see occasional fluorescence and color shifts. Violet leaves are a dark dark magenta-burgundy, brassica leaves' dusty bloom fluoresces blue, and there's something on the dying stems of miniature roses that fluoresces orange.
I went out in the evening and tried to take photos with my phone. Unsurprisingly it responds a little differently than my eye-brain system and overwhelmingly just recorded purple.
This morning when i went out i was quite startled by the hoot of an owl. Single loud hoots -- not the familiar who-cooks-for-you-ish rhythm. I didn't let the cats out; Carrie barked once in her startlement.
I made a natural deodorant yesterday: baking soda and my mint glycerate. The glycerate is OK to add to water as a flavor and sweetener, but i think the ice cubes with mint seem a more agreeable delivery. It didn't take much glycerine to mix in with the baking soda to make a paste with the consistency of the average deodorant. So, no big chunk of plastic -- but, boy, do i miss the delivery system of that big chunk of plastic. It looks like cardboard tubes are available to fill and use as a push-from-the-bottom delivery system. I have established its reasonably effective for me, so i think i will buy the tubes and see how well it works over time.
Regarding my speculations from public records: i've become interested with the idea of a "novel" from fictionalized public records. Whether the records would be in facsimile (and art book, like Griffin and Sabine?) or it would be simply text, i don't know. I did come up with a fictional county & county seat -- Beauford, Norfield County named for Earl of Norfield, of the County ---, George Beauford. I don't know what County in Great Britain he should live in. The Earl of Chatham was from Kent. I decided my fictional county seat would be at the fall line of the Cape Fear, where Moncure is now, but fictionalize the confluence. The "port" might make for a more interesting alternative-history with a bit more records about early arrivals and departures.
The plot line -- it's harder to come up with something other than the usual two family lines and how they shift politically through history. A Quaker family from the Revolution and Civil War whose scion is now an adamant "[Confederate] Flagger," a wealthy aristocratic settler whose scion is a progressive community leader, an enslaved person whose descendants have become local politicians. This is why an artbook with reproductions could be more interesting than a novel.....
I took the afternoon and poked at county history, will take Friday and will go play in the woods with my niece. Hopefully that will help.
I used a UV flashlight outside in the moonlight on Tuesday morning - absolutely fascinating to see occasional fluorescence and color shifts. Violet leaves are a dark dark magenta-burgundy, brassica leaves' dusty bloom fluoresces blue, and there's something on the dying stems of miniature roses that fluoresces orange.
I went out in the evening and tried to take photos with my phone. Unsurprisingly it responds a little differently than my eye-brain system and overwhelmingly just recorded purple.
This morning when i went out i was quite startled by the hoot of an owl. Single loud hoots -- not the familiar who-cooks-for-you-ish rhythm. I didn't let the cats out; Carrie barked once in her startlement.
I made a natural deodorant yesterday: baking soda and my mint glycerate. The glycerate is OK to add to water as a flavor and sweetener, but i think the ice cubes with mint seem a more agreeable delivery. It didn't take much glycerine to mix in with the baking soda to make a paste with the consistency of the average deodorant. So, no big chunk of plastic -- but, boy, do i miss the delivery system of that big chunk of plastic. It looks like cardboard tubes are available to fill and use as a push-from-the-bottom delivery system. I have established its reasonably effective for me, so i think i will buy the tubes and see how well it works over time.
Regarding my speculations from public records: i've become interested with the idea of a "novel" from fictionalized public records. Whether the records would be in facsimile (and art book, like Griffin and Sabine?) or it would be simply text, i don't know. I did come up with a fictional county & county seat -- Beauford, Norfield County named for Earl of Norfield, of the County ---, George Beauford. I don't know what County in Great Britain he should live in. The Earl of Chatham was from Kent. I decided my fictional county seat would be at the fall line of the Cape Fear, where Moncure is now, but fictionalize the confluence. The "port" might make for a more interesting alternative-history with a bit more records about early arrivals and departures.
The plot line -- it's harder to come up with something other than the usual two family lines and how they shift politically through history. A Quaker family from the Revolution and Civil War whose scion is now an adamant "[Confederate] Flagger," a wealthy aristocratic settler whose scion is a progressive community leader, an enslaved person whose descendants have become local politicians. This is why an artbook with reproductions could be more interesting than a novel.....
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Have i complained about the drama that is my brother's family's visit? If not, just know it is drama. In Friday's episode, Dad is at his limit of dealing with my mother's meltdowns. (I mentioned he ran away from home last Saturday?) My sister went over to their place early to attempt to detox the situation, i went over with Carrie in time to arrive a bit after my brother did. He's recovering from some surgery of the mouth and was avoiding percosets and thus was having to cope with pain. Carrie needed to run, so we all ended up sitting under the (youngish) pecan tree in their pasture, with Elijah the horse drinking lite beer out of my cupped hand, Carrie racing around like a crazy think, and the rest of us having a long relaxing bit of chatting.
Mom couldn't remember what fireflies were called, but was delighted when she noticed them. She said she hadn't seen them for a long time. I note that they have fewer than we do. I assume the large pasture mono-culture of bahaia grass is not conducive.
I also notice how sandy their soil is: they live in a triassic basin, stretchmarks on the continent. My sister L, just across the Haw river has great soil -- because it's so rocky and no one could farm it to death. Me, i'm pretty sure the topsoil long washed away with poor farming practices and i'm stuck with clay, clay, and look, more clay! I complain, but it holds water well, so once a plant gets roots in past the brick horizon -- my term for the hard rock-like surface that develops as it dries out -- they don't need that much watering. And i can tell that i am creating happy soil in the garden: it's clearly becoming more crumbly and less clay-clod like.
Today, the drama gets underway with the arrival of my brother's clan on a red eye from California. That just sounds great: a bunch of already rambunctious kids, now sleep deprived. My sister will be taking her kids over as soon as reasonable for cousin time. I will be avoiding the gathering until dinner time.
None of this sounds as drama worthy as i hinted. Especially not the soil digression. The way my mother creates her own stress --she had my father cleaning windows in advance of the arrival, and they fought over the bucket to use -- has a good bit to do with the fact that they have deeply antagonized my brother's wife and that my brother's two youngest kids are perceived to be entitled brats. I will witness that the adopted daughter is a spoiled princess. And all the kids together are somewhere on the tornadic scale of destruction. However, my mother and sister talk about my brother's younger son as if he was a psychopath. My mother worries my brother's sons will take advantage of my sister's daughter. This seems rather over the top to me.
Inhale. Exhale.
Also, sneeze and sniffle. Something has overpowered the Allegra to give me allergies.
Meanwhile, i really ought to go dig potatoes and fix the chipper. The flashlight plus magnet on a stick revealed that the screw is NOT in the area between the plate and the housing wall that is too narrow for the magnet to fit. Thank heavens for small wins.
I did try the sewing machine last night: i am delighted with it. Yes, my old machine is probably more rugged: this machine clearly has much more plastic. On the other hand, this machine is much more quiet and much lighter, so i can imagine it being less of a production to get it out and (more importantly) put it up.
I think my first work will be to overcast the edge of some rags made out of stretch corduroy from old pants. I've been using them as disposable rags recently but they seem to have great absorbancy and a wonderfully soft texture. If i can keep them from shedding the little cordoroy plush bits, i think they'd make good rags for a longer term. (Oh, they might make good liners for my tea tray despite clearly showing the tea stains.) The next project that isn't mending will be to finish a scarf printed with one of my California flower images. Then i have tea towels and matching produce bags on the list as Christmas gifts. I'm planning on printing up the fabric with a repeating image of colorful corn kernels. I'm hoping i can adjust the image so distortions from the cob curvature and camera perspective are removed. If not that, i will go take a picture of our giant chicken sculpture, Alice.
Mom couldn't remember what fireflies were called, but was delighted when she noticed them. She said she hadn't seen them for a long time. I note that they have fewer than we do. I assume the large pasture mono-culture of bahaia grass is not conducive.
I also notice how sandy their soil is: they live in a triassic basin, stretchmarks on the continent. My sister L, just across the Haw river has great soil -- because it's so rocky and no one could farm it to death. Me, i'm pretty sure the topsoil long washed away with poor farming practices and i'm stuck with clay, clay, and look, more clay! I complain, but it holds water well, so once a plant gets roots in past the brick horizon -- my term for the hard rock-like surface that develops as it dries out -- they don't need that much watering. And i can tell that i am creating happy soil in the garden: it's clearly becoming more crumbly and less clay-clod like.
Today, the drama gets underway with the arrival of my brother's clan on a red eye from California. That just sounds great: a bunch of already rambunctious kids, now sleep deprived. My sister will be taking her kids over as soon as reasonable for cousin time. I will be avoiding the gathering until dinner time.
None of this sounds as drama worthy as i hinted. Especially not the soil digression. The way my mother creates her own stress --she had my father cleaning windows in advance of the arrival, and they fought over the bucket to use -- has a good bit to do with the fact that they have deeply antagonized my brother's wife and that my brother's two youngest kids are perceived to be entitled brats. I will witness that the adopted daughter is a spoiled princess. And all the kids together are somewhere on the tornadic scale of destruction. However, my mother and sister talk about my brother's younger son as if he was a psychopath. My mother worries my brother's sons will take advantage of my sister's daughter. This seems rather over the top to me.
Inhale. Exhale.
Also, sneeze and sniffle. Something has overpowered the Allegra to give me allergies.
Meanwhile, i really ought to go dig potatoes and fix the chipper. The flashlight plus magnet on a stick revealed that the screw is NOT in the area between the plate and the housing wall that is too narrow for the magnet to fit. Thank heavens for small wins.
I did try the sewing machine last night: i am delighted with it. Yes, my old machine is probably more rugged: this machine clearly has much more plastic. On the other hand, this machine is much more quiet and much lighter, so i can imagine it being less of a production to get it out and (more importantly) put it up.
I think my first work will be to overcast the edge of some rags made out of stretch corduroy from old pants. I've been using them as disposable rags recently but they seem to have great absorbancy and a wonderfully soft texture. If i can keep them from shedding the little cordoroy plush bits, i think they'd make good rags for a longer term. (Oh, they might make good liners for my tea tray despite clearly showing the tea stains.) The next project that isn't mending will be to finish a scarf printed with one of my California flower images. Then i have tea towels and matching produce bags on the list as Christmas gifts. I'm planning on printing up the fabric with a repeating image of colorful corn kernels. I'm hoping i can adjust the image so distortions from the cob curvature and camera perspective are removed. If not that, i will go take a picture of our giant chicken sculpture, Alice.
Yesterday i went through craft boxes. Paper, paint, pastels. Bits of wood, and mirrors, and test tubes and things saved from this that and the other. A pump to make a water fountain. Some sort of home automation stuff from pre-internet of things days.
I have consolidated a good deal, but there was a bit of ache as i declared certain projects abandoned, picked out stitches, or tossed things in the trash. It's not all quite ready to move, and i still have things to list on freecycle, but i am happy with my success in the purge. I wasn't ruthless: i'm happy to have kept things that i think will be fun to use with the kids. I am lighter by a bit. One reality is that these days bits for projects are easy to find on eBay or such: hoarding treasures isn't quite as necessary.
--== ∞ ==--
One of the Meeting kerfluffles, based on my being sharp with a newcomer when she interrupted worship during meeting for business (and her not understanding what was going on), may finally be at an end. That person had, last week, posted a notice that newcomers aren't actually welcome to Meeting for Business. This has caused quite a stir, and retriggered for me the guilt i feel at having not been more gentle but has also made me feel a bit bitter. I apologized sincerely, but this person seems to be carrying misunderstandings. She's finally posted to the list again, and her misunderstandings are clearly pronounced (we were not going to vote, and certainly not on whether to hear from her). I hope our worship and ministry committee will get its act together and post a statement about expected behaviors at meeting for business.
Not holding my breath for that, though.
I will be recording clerk today, so i need to clear my mind of this frustration and focus on the business at hand.
I have consolidated a good deal, but there was a bit of ache as i declared certain projects abandoned, picked out stitches, or tossed things in the trash. It's not all quite ready to move, and i still have things to list on freecycle, but i am happy with my success in the purge. I wasn't ruthless: i'm happy to have kept things that i think will be fun to use with the kids. I am lighter by a bit. One reality is that these days bits for projects are easy to find on eBay or such: hoarding treasures isn't quite as necessary.
--== ∞ ==--
One of the Meeting kerfluffles, based on my being sharp with a newcomer when she interrupted worship during meeting for business (and her not understanding what was going on), may finally be at an end. That person had, last week, posted a notice that newcomers aren't actually welcome to Meeting for Business. This has caused quite a stir, and retriggered for me the guilt i feel at having not been more gentle but has also made me feel a bit bitter. I apologized sincerely, but this person seems to be carrying misunderstandings. She's finally posted to the list again, and her misunderstandings are clearly pronounced (we were not going to vote, and certainly not on whether to hear from her). I hope our worship and ministry committee will get its act together and post a statement about expected behaviors at meeting for business.
Not holding my breath for that, though.
I will be recording clerk today, so i need to clear my mind of this frustration and focus on the business at hand.
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Happy weekend.
I'm going through photos from February, adding observations to iNaturalist and editing the "studio" photos.
The goal is to feel ready to both start planning next spring's collecting trips and taking china photos.
--==∞==--
My attempt to stain the crazed lines is not resulting quite in the results i want. I've moved on from the fluid acrylic paints, but i have a feeling i really need to warm up the teapot to open the cracks enough to get strong pigment take up. I'm trying markers right now.
--==∞==--
We went to see the David Foster Wallace movie, End of the Tour. Intense and saddening. OK, depressing. But good. It was nice to get to know the guy, even if it was third or fourth hand. Christine really has enjoyed his work.
I'm going through photos from February, adding observations to iNaturalist and editing the "studio" photos.
The goal is to feel ready to both start planning next spring's collecting trips and taking china photos.
--==∞==--
My attempt to stain the crazed lines is not resulting quite in the results i want. I've moved on from the fluid acrylic paints, but i have a feeling i really need to warm up the teapot to open the cracks enough to get strong pigment take up. I'm trying markers right now.
--==∞==--
We went to see the David Foster Wallace movie, End of the Tour. Intense and saddening. OK, depressing. But good. It was nice to get to know the guy, even if it was third or fourth hand. Christine really has enjoyed his work.
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I have had an idea!
I have a large set of excellent quality vintage china. It can't go into the microwave due to gold paint, and i'd rather use pottery. It's from a company that produced scads and scads of designs, so while the quality is high, the collector value is low. I'd been thinking i could find an antiques store that might take them off my hands, but i had the realization that i could package them up into small specialty sets as gift sets. I could even create matching napkins, tablecloths, or tea towels (using spoonflower's fabric printing?), &/or buy gold flatware.... Well, minimally, i can make sure the packaging is attractive and "gift ready."
I've spent time today (recovering from some emotionally demanding decision making) poking at boxes and shipping and fabric design etc.
And thank you all for identifying the ficus! As just a mass of leaves, i didn't register ficus -- but given how it dramatically dropped leaves when it was moved, you'd think i might. Since it takes bonsai well, i pruned it back to a more tree shape. There are many small trunks in the center, so i think it will be a little grove. (Or dead.)
I have a large set of excellent quality vintage china. It can't go into the microwave due to gold paint, and i'd rather use pottery. It's from a company that produced scads and scads of designs, so while the quality is high, the collector value is low. I'd been thinking i could find an antiques store that might take them off my hands, but i had the realization that i could package them up into small specialty sets as gift sets. I could even create matching napkins, tablecloths, or tea towels (using spoonflower's fabric printing?), &/or buy gold flatware.... Well, minimally, i can make sure the packaging is attractive and "gift ready."
I've spent time today (recovering from some emotionally demanding decision making) poking at boxes and shipping and fabric design etc.
And thank you all for identifying the ficus! As just a mass of leaves, i didn't register ficus -- but given how it dramatically dropped leaves when it was moved, you'd think i might. Since it takes bonsai well, i pruned it back to a more tree shape. There are many small trunks in the center, so i think it will be a little grove. (Or dead.)
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Friday was a rare "start the day at 6 am" day. I celebrate just how out of practice i am. I ended up reading a novel from when i stopped work into the evening, missing a number of plans, missing some meds....
Saturday i met a friend for brunch, which was lovely. We were having a quite unseasonably warm day, though, and the car was very warm as i ran errands afterwards. I wilted. At home, i just listened to an audiobook and (along with some time yesterday afternoon) brought a crochet project started AGES ago (is 2008 possible?) to DONE. It's a finished object! Woohoo! The sleeves are terrible, and i think it is about as unflattering as possible, but it's done. Next on my list is to finish a lace-weight sweater which is 98% complete.
OMG, Ravelry says "Started October 27 2007"
I suppose i should count this as a major victory. I've a great desire to finish projects up this year, and this is a good start.
Yesterday i cooked up some greens (kale, carrot tops, and spring onions) and then froze them for meals when i get back.
This morning started a little earlier than usual, thanks to feline misadventure, but since i am boarding a plane for Ohio mid-morning to head for a three hour time shift, i welcome the early start.
I've been dragging my feet all weekend on anything that looks like getting ready for this trip. I'm sure it will go well. I just want to stay home with Christine.
Saturday i met a friend for brunch, which was lovely. We were having a quite unseasonably warm day, though, and the car was very warm as i ran errands afterwards. I wilted. At home, i just listened to an audiobook and (along with some time yesterday afternoon) brought a crochet project started AGES ago (is 2008 possible?) to DONE. It's a finished object! Woohoo! The sleeves are terrible, and i think it is about as unflattering as possible, but it's done. Next on my list is to finish a lace-weight sweater which is 98% complete.
OMG, Ravelry says "Started October 27 2007"
I suppose i should count this as a major victory. I've a great desire to finish projects up this year, and this is a good start.
Yesterday i cooked up some greens (kale, carrot tops, and spring onions) and then froze them for meals when i get back.
This morning started a little earlier than usual, thanks to feline misadventure, but since i am boarding a plane for Ohio mid-morning to head for a three hour time shift, i welcome the early start.
I've been dragging my feet all weekend on anything that looks like getting ready for this trip. I'm sure it will go well. I just want to stay home with Christine.
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I was turned down by iStock photography for topical instead of technical reasons (ie: flower photos not needed). It's OK, as far as i'm concerned, because i'm not doing stock photography right now. I suppose i will still pull ten shots together for shutterstock, but - again - not holding my breath.
--==∞==--
No laundry done yesterday, but i did complete one of the two nightgowns i'm making. The bodice is crocheted and knitted, made up as i went along, with my first attempts at shaping with increases and decreases in the knitting. It's a C or D quality in the knitting, but as an experiment, quite a success. (I hate ribbing.) I cut out and seamed the skirt with the goal of using as much of the fabric as i could. I didn't do a particularly good job there, either, as i figured the quality shouldn't surpass that of the top. I am very happy with the design, made up wholesale by myself.The fabric of for the skirt was a rectangle that had a long side 2*N+X. I folded it in half twice and cut it at an angle so that stitching the five panels together i would create a top circumference of N, flaring out to a much larger circumference. It works quite nicely! I would have thought that the straight edges of the panels would not look even -- and i had decided i wouldn't care -- but it actually looks quite even.
The second nightgown's bodice is in progress. This one has a crocheted collar line, and a raglan design with a knit lace. The knitted increases at the corners are not so great. On some corners they are even, but other corners have mis-stitches and irregularly large gaps. I began experimenting with crocheting the corners every few rows and then knitting around the crocheted increases. The lace and the straight lines look good, though. I'm just knitting the armholes together at the join: i think a crocheted stitch would have been wiser. The knot wouldn't stretch as much as the knit stitches.
--==∞==--
I'm ready to go back to work, although not looking forward to it. It's the interactions with people that dismays me: i could stand a month of hermitage, i think. On the other hand, i wonder if my emotional shields drop so much that i forget how to balance engagement with others. I closed meeting yesterday, and the speaking at the end seemed to wipe me out.
--==∞==--
No laundry done yesterday, but i did complete one of the two nightgowns i'm making. The bodice is crocheted and knitted, made up as i went along, with my first attempts at shaping with increases and decreases in the knitting. It's a C or D quality in the knitting, but as an experiment, quite a success. (I hate ribbing.) I cut out and seamed the skirt with the goal of using as much of the fabric as i could. I didn't do a particularly good job there, either, as i figured the quality shouldn't surpass that of the top. I am very happy with the design, made up wholesale by myself.The fabric of for the skirt was a rectangle that had a long side 2*N+X. I folded it in half twice and cut it at an angle so that stitching the five panels together i would create a top circumference of N, flaring out to a much larger circumference. It works quite nicely! I would have thought that the straight edges of the panels would not look even -- and i had decided i wouldn't care -- but it actually looks quite even.
The second nightgown's bodice is in progress. This one has a crocheted collar line, and a raglan design with a knit lace. The knitted increases at the corners are not so great. On some corners they are even, but other corners have mis-stitches and irregularly large gaps. I began experimenting with crocheting the corners every few rows and then knitting around the crocheted increases. The lace and the straight lines look good, though. I'm just knitting the armholes together at the join: i think a crocheted stitch would have been wiser. The knot wouldn't stretch as much as the knit stitches.
--==∞==--
I'm ready to go back to work, although not looking forward to it. It's the interactions with people that dismays me: i could stand a month of hermitage, i think. On the other hand, i wonder if my emotional shields drop so much that i forget how to balance engagement with others. I closed meeting yesterday, and the speaking at the end seemed to wipe me out.
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Huzzah! The Quarterly Install -- the deployment of new releases of many of the Whale's products -- went off with no phone call to me last night. Huzzah, huzzah.
My old blogs and my website at my domain name have been offline for a week as the (mac mini) server they were running on was shipped to our home. Christine set up the machine on our network last night, and so i am slowly porting content to an Amazon bucket. Hacking the old html and getting them up onto Amazon feels like spring cleaning. I'll be ready for "positioning myself" once i figure out what i'm trying to do.
I just mentioned jojoland rhythm yesterday but didn't explain why the yarn is so special. It's a four ply yarn where the colors shift: the yarn might start as a three strands of blue green with a strand of wheat, then shift to a strand of wheat, two of russet, and one of blue green, then a russet, a blue green, and two purple blues ... These shifts go over many many yards, so there might be four or five shifts in a hundred yard ball -- but there are dozens of color combinations in the color pattern! Each ball doesn't necessarily have all the colors. We picked this colorway for the red: i don't think any of the balls i got have the red in them.
My old blogs and my website at my domain name have been offline for a week as the (mac mini) server they were running on was shipped to our home. Christine set up the machine on our network last night, and so i am slowly porting content to an Amazon bucket. Hacking the old html and getting them up onto Amazon feels like spring cleaning. I'll be ready for "positioning myself" once i figure out what i'm trying to do.
I just mentioned jojoland rhythm yesterday but didn't explain why the yarn is so special. It's a four ply yarn where the colors shift: the yarn might start as a three strands of blue green with a strand of wheat, then shift to a strand of wheat, two of russet, and one of blue green, then a russet, a blue green, and two purple blues ... These shifts go over many many yards, so there might be four or five shifts in a hundred yard ball -- but there are dozens of color combinations in the color pattern! Each ball doesn't necessarily have all the colors. We picked this colorway for the red: i don't think any of the balls i got have the red in them.
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