I finished a knitting project today. That's a long dry spell for finished projects considering I made Laura's sweater way back in May! It's a winter hat for Avery, and there are three or four other babies in my life  who could use these for winter, so I may whip up some more. I am not crazy about the little elf point, so may do more rapid decreases at the very top of the hat next time. One of the many things I dig about Avery is his willingness to wear wool. Julian is very sensitive and not interested in even the softest Merino, but Avery can wear it all, and I was pleased, considering how nice and toasty this will be this winter.  Here's a shot of the hat and Avery's round little head:

It's a tad snug, but with ties to tie under his chin, it will be just right. I think I did the decreases incorrectly, something about the "sl 1, k2tog tbl, psso" didn't work out quite right, but it looks ok, and as the post title suggests, Avery doesn't really stand around to allow close inspection! The yarn is natural Kraemer Yarn Jeannie that I hand dyed and the pattern is here. It's a great pattern, and so satisfying to begin and actually complete something! To get a photo, I enlisted Michael's help, and we bribed Avery with sweets. Here's what most of the photos looked like- blurry, happy, sticky baby!

Also moving on is my attention span- having trouble sticking with the rug! Now that it is getting bigger, it takes longer to go around the whole thing once, but It is coming along, I looped my way though a whole sheet and am currently looking for more material to rip into strips. There is a fabric store close by that has a table of fabric that is $1.00 a POUND- and I am thinking about checking out that place instead of messing around with the comparatively expensive sheets from Goodwill. I had the realization that Christmas is now less than 3 months away, and if I want to make gifts for everyone, I need to get crackin', so I am going to do some thinking about that this week.  

My creative progress is inversely related to Laura's- she is getting more and more done, I am doing less and less! Not for lack of trying or planning, I am scheming about yarn for a winter sweater, and plan to start working in earnest on starting that soon. As Laura mentioned that she is headed down the slippery slope of buying clothes from thrift stores for recycling fabric, I have been snapping up wool blankets and cotton sheets for crafting use. I can't help myself and now have a half-dozen wool blankets in crazy colors. They whisper "rag rug" to me, and I have been researching the best way to turn them into a floor covering. Before using that good wool, I am messing around with a cotton sheet, and found a good tip here about ripping many strips quickly. (Bad rugmaking directions though, I think she wants you to buy the pattern!) Wouldn't this make a fun wig at Halloween? I could be blond for a day.

A few months ago, I tried a plain braided rug technique, and it was a train wreck. I ended up with tangled fabric and a wimpy, floppy rug. I knew I didn't want to go back  down that road for this new project.

I read about all kinds of rug-making here and was intrigued by the "Bohemian Braid" style rug. It's like a braided rug in some ways, but the fabric strip is looped and knotted to make a solid, sturdy rug that doesn't require sewing together. Sign me up! The only trouble is, most people want to sell you the pattern, and I couldn't find any free instructions. I pride myself on my Google research skills, but I had trouble finding directions for this folk technique. There were the crappy photos from the old HGTV show linked to above, and I had about given up when I found this article, from "Bittersweet," which was like the Ozarks version of "Foxfire." The technique is also called "toothbrush rug" making because people often sharpen the end of a toothbrush to a point to use as a large needle.After much reading-aloud and only a moderate amount of swearing, I figured it out. It was one of those things that was tricky at first, but now is mindless. Just what I need for Sunday afternoon- mindlessness that is!  I cut off the end of a paintbrush and drilled a hole in one end and it worked just fine. Here are the first few rows. You actually braid a 12" strip and use that as a foundation row. Both sides look nice, but I think this is the back of my rug.

One tedious thing was sewing the strips together, but I remembered a tip that same HGTV article that said you could cut a slit in the ends and pull one end through to half-knot them, and that really sped things up. Eventually, it was approaching rug size, at least for Julian's almost-6-year-old feet:

From then on, I just kept working, strangely pleased with my new skill, and now it's big enough for my feet, Birkenstock tan lines and all:

I am going to dye the whole thing blue when I am done and am shooting for a small rug to put in front of our kitchen sink. It's so squashy and comfy, it will maybe induce me to actually do some dishes. By the way, do you see our new flooring underneath the rug? The house painting is almost done, and we laid laminate flooring in our living and dining space. It looks great. Anyway, I am very pleased and am going to go look for more sheets tomorrow- this one's almost all used up!  

Even though I want to share what I have been up to, I feel “brag-y and boss-y” as Sister Bear of the Berestein Bears sometimes says. (Oh the joys of having kids, instead of quoting some cool, obscure film I’m quoting a children’s book, and a lame one at that…..) Despite feeling brag-y, I’ve got to tell you about the amazing opportunities I’ve had lately. The second weekend of September was a particularly good one. Thanks to the Woodford Reserve Scholarship from the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft I recently received, I got to go to the American Craft Council’s South Eastern Conference at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Whoo Hoo! Strider was trying out for the husband of the year award by hanging with the boys for 2 ½ days so I could participate in the conference unencumbered. ( FYI we’ve got Eli who is 3, and Isaac who is 1 and still nursing, so we still travel as a unit of 4.) It was wonderful to be at Arrowmont. My kids really enjoyed these big bells: 

Arrowmont has a lovely campus tucked into the hillside above all the craziness of rampant tacky consumer ism which is Gatlinburg. I really wanted to go to the conference because of the two day classes that made up the bulk of the event. I got to take Figurative Expression in Cloth taught by Akira Blount. I’ve been an admirer of Akira’s work for years, and when I saw she was doing this class I jumped at the chance. (And then jumped online to get complete an application for the KY Museum of Art and Craft’s scholarship.) I felt a bit conspicuous, because we were the only folks there with kids, but we were welcomed by the other attendees and the Arrowmont staff. There was a juried show that went along with the conference; the opening was the first night we were there, and the next two days were packed with learning all I could! My class was made up of some interesting women; it was fun to get to know each other as we worked. 

Heads that Akira brought as examples, all in different states.

The dolls started in my class. Mine is second from the left. I working on giving her arms, hands, and clothes!

I left with two dolls well under way, and some new contacts made, hooray!

I have been lucky to have a bunch of great art experiences this summer. Most recently, Saturday, I met several women artists; Mary Nearing, Jennifer Reis, Pat Choate, Deborah Knittel (and Deborah’s inventor husband) for lunch at an Indian restaurant in Lexington. We met to get to know each other and talk fiber stuff. I got acquainted with Mary at the American Craft Council’s South Eastern Conference in Gatlinburg Tennessee earlier in September. (More about that later….) Mary was so friendly at the conference and was kind enough to invite me to this gathering. Katie and I have been longing for more fiber accomplices; it was great to meet some new folks. Jennifer shared a couple of projects she is working on; sumptuous thickly embellished wall pieces. After lunch I headed to Michael’s craft store to check out Martha’s (Stewart) new line of craft supplies. Pretty cool stuff. Actually, it was all so lovely and tidy, I felt like I needed to go outside and just sit down and enjoy the beautiful fall air. I wanted it all. Why does certain merchandise have the ability to make me feel so inadequate? I am not a scrap booker, do not agonize over gift wrap, or desire to create boxes for my home made baked goods. Technically, I don’t need any supplies to keep creating all the satisfying projects I have started. And yet these beautiful supplies appealingly packaged make me ache to own them. I guess they’ve hit this targeted customer right on the head. I managed to escape having picked out just one thing:

I plan to wax this and use it for embroidery projects.

O.K., now, I don’t know why this is but I am kinda reluctant to talk about the art projects I am working on. I don’t know where this comes from. Maybe the super competitive studio atmosphere of the first college I attended? A fragment of an idea from the book The Artist’s Way? My innate neurosis? I suspect it is a combination, as well as the reality that I don’t get a lot of time to do my own thing, so when I do get the opportunity to work I do so feverishly, without stopping to take photos or even call Kate and check in with her about my latest obsession. Obviously, this makes for spotty blogging. I hope to share the creation of my next piece, to keep a step by step record of my progress. I actually think it will be helpful and will allow me to better develop and refine my ideas as I work.

I have a bunch of projects going, from crafty to arty and everything in between. The artwork is my Alchemy Series. Since I graduated from college I’ve made art quilts, which were satisfying in some ways but even art quilts have parameters in which you need to work. Increasingly, I was chafing against these parameters; quilts just weren’t working for me. I started making fiber vessels a year or so ago when my baby, Isaac, was 6 weeks old. I was giving so much of myself to him; I ended up feeling hollow, poured out. The image of an ironstone pitcher floated into my consciousness while I rocked and nursed him one night and was very persistent. I couldn’t stop thinking about this pitcher and how I might construct it. I ultimately did, completing much of the stitching while holding my sleeping boy. This was my first vessel; I have since created 3 more. I love old bottles and lab ware and have sketches for more fiber vessels inspired by these things. Working this way is so freeing and exciting. I feel like an explorer, coming up with new ways of combining materials. Most recently, I did this bottle, inspired by old brown glass:

It is 11” tall and 6” wide, and hollow like a “real” bottle. The fabric is silk hand dyed with black walnuts. (It is the silk shirt I mentioned in my thrifting post.) I used 3 different colors of embroidery floss for the stitches. The lining is 100% wool felt. I am considering stitching beads to the surface, to give it a glassy shine. I know trying to evoke glass with cloth is a bit of a reach! Here is a detail of the neck:
 

I am also working on a label and cork for it....