I dyed that day (Part I should really keep track of what number I'm up to)

Hiya from a.,

My love affair with Sarah Jane continues on.  I had dyed 1/2lb of BFL earlier this week and yesterday I watched seven hours of Doctor Who (the latest season in one go - it was an intense day).  This watching made me want to play with Sarah Jane all day - though I watched Cowboy Bebop while spinning as I couldn't really take anymore Who this weekend.  The two photos I'm going to show you are the fibre and then the results.  This is about 1/2 the fibre and about 1/2 the finished product.  The colours came out such that a couple of the FLBs would probably kill for it.  Anyways here is the fibre:

On its own the fibre is incredibly bright with lemon yellow, orange, pink and shades of all those mixed in.  The result is a two ply that is  somewhere between fingering and sport weight.  Also when spun and put together the colours really softened and melded (it is still really bright, just not searing):

This is just under half of the fibre and it is just under 200 yards.  I am really pleased with the results and I would imagine that it will end up being something very cheerful.
This might be a week where there will be a few updates as I have a couple projects right on the tail of being finished and r. has a small canvas that he worked up.

And now because I am completely enamored with them, here is a photo of me in my new glasses:

See you space cowboy...

Circles

Hiya from a.,

So I finished another small/lap blanket.  Where we are living these days I can get a solid selection (at a decent price) of James Brett Marble - both the dk and chunky weight.  I figured that this yarn would work great for a blanket with all the shifting colours that it has.  I went for a high contrast, bright, cheerful look, with just expanding circles:

It's main resting place is the back of our new recliner, but here it is all stretched out:

You can really see the different shades in the orange, the blue is the subtler of the two.  As ever when you work a one piece blanket that grows each round it starts so quick and the last few rows just kill you.  You start with 8 stitches in the round and end with over 450 around (I didn't really count, it would have made me too sad).
Here you can see the blanket serving one of its practical purposes.  We have it on the back of the chair just in case in the recline position the chair has moved it protects the chair from the wall:

Finally here is the image that we woke up to this morning:

Our overlord nicely nested amidst various blankets I've made.  This cat suffers so.
Take care.

Jelly Baby?

From r.,

This is my latest painterly creation. It depicts, of course, the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space), the space/timecraft of the Doctor on Doctor Who. It is acrylic paint on prepared artboard (specifically Mona Lisa brand by Speedball). This is my first time working with artboard (thank you clearance prices at Michael's) and it turned into a very happy accident. When I was putting paint on the surface it wasn't spreading well, so I had to keep watering the paint to get it to cover the substrate, then, when I went to apply the next layer of paint I discovered the lower layer was coming up and revealing the white board. This looked really cool. So I stopped painting, flipped my brush and started scraping away the paint (SGRAFFITO!). I like the look, very German woodcut. It really is an all or nothing proposition since you only get one shot at getting it right. This means it takes longer, but totally worth it. The quotation is from Craig Ferguson, a fellow Whovian, who said that this was the central lesson and meaning of Doctor Who. I agree. This idea came to me a few months ago as a possible tattoo idea, since this very principle--and watching Doctor Who--is what got me through the last stretch of finishing a dissertation.

Space

Hiya from a.,
This is just a quick post to show you something new.  We've been settling in pretty well to our new digs, but they needed better organization as it is a small area we exist in right now.  This led to lots of measuring (thanks FLBs for the super cute measuring tape) and hmms, and I wonders, and finally a trip to Ikea.   This is the result:

On top of the unit we have a pretty bag r. bought for me and my portable spinning unit.  Going along the selves from left to right and top to bottom we have a cube for the crochet projects that I am in the middle of; my crochet books with my hooks being in that little coffee tin; fabric that is over 1 yard in cut; my bits and bobs for sewing (scissors, zippers, thread, etc); the two bins hold all scrap or small fabric; then my sewing books; finally my sewing machine.
I still have my cute little sewing table but I don't actually sew in this space, I bring my stuff elsewhere, which means that this organization suits so much better.  The taller units allow for extra floor space, which allows a certain four legged creature more space to run around.  r. has one of these units as well, though his holds our xbox, records, and comic books, but it too helped with the floor space situation.

take care,
a

Hey, it's Sylvia Plath! Can I pee in your Bell Jar?

dear friends, it was recently a's birthday which means I had to get her a gift. Because I am cheap or we're creative or some such, I made a few paintings for her and now I'm showing them to you. The first photo is the three paintings for a grouped together. The big one was her special request :Dia de los Muertos Hello Kitty. The painting is titled "Dead Cat," or at least I think it is as I looked up dead and neko in an online kanji dictionary and tried to copy them (for all I know they could say "Totoro, to-toro" or "Silly white girl playing with samurai swords" because I don't speak Japanese). Pretty straight forward really, acrylic on cardstock after a few rough sketches in my book. The flower is my take on the imperial chrysanthemum which is really hard to draw. It occurred to me this afternoon that I maybe could've tried cherry blossoms or the tokugawa holly hock crest, but a is happy so I am too. I like the mix of kawai and momento mori. The second painting was supposed to be an attempt to figure out if a technique would work for the third painting and practice with flowers or rather roses for something kicking around my head. Instead it actually turned out. The black rose is a relatively new anarchist symbol, but an elegant one, which is why I tried it. Again, pencil on cardstock and paint over the pencil. The new thing I tried was a silver wash over the whole thing. A wash is prepared by simply watering down acrylic paint until it is supertranslucent and, well, watery (at least that's how I do it). The concerns with the technique were a: how evenly would it apply and b: since I'm using mostly paper to paint these days, how much water curl would I get. I was able to make sure it was even by dry brushing after application and limited curl by mounting it to a piece of cardboard (thank you case of coke in the recycling, you died so I could be caffeinated and for DIY). It's one of the things I've done that I think is actually beautiful and not clever. Very happy with it. The third painting was the one I was trying the silver wash out for, but it didn't go quite like I wanted it. It is supposed to be a day of the dead skull representing the title character of one of a and my favourite b movies and MST3K episodes, The Brain that Wouldn't Die. It ended up looking a little robotish, and the basin that reads "Neck Juice" in Spanish ran. It ended up all right but not quite what I had hoped. The final thing is a birthday card I made for my Mom. Hand painted on paper, it is a sprig of lily in the valley, as her birthday is in May. She liked it and I thought it turned out well.