A night at the museum

The Fort Wayne Museum of Art has a monthly event on the second Thursday, when they are open in the evening (and free admission!) There is usually a "curator's talk". This past Thursday, we lucked out and heard three of the artists whose work was in the exhibit.

The exhibit was titled "Paper Made II" and represented about half of the entries to said show curated by the magazine Fiber Art Now. One of the artists present not only exhibited a dress made from National Geographic maps, but wore a paper dress and carried a bag woven from paper. Another artist had a wire and copper mesh piece that had been dipped in flax mush; over time, the copper oxidized and "ate" some of the flax and the artwork continues to evolve. The work of the third artist present was this huge series of nested rings of paper that were suspended from the ceiling; one could walk under and around the piece for different perspectives.

I apologize for not getting names or taking more photos, but the gallery was a bit crowded and a second group was scheduled to come through. I did find some inspriration from this piece, although I would not use paper but yarn (of course), probably felted. The grommets and chains show how a similar piece could come together.

One of the other spectators was wearing what I will described as a "stash sweater". I wanted to chase her down for a photo, but she escaped before I had a chance. The front was blocks similar to a log cabin quilt but larger; the back knit from many colors. More inspiration.

Knitting: Progress on the zebra socks is slow, but I keep plugging along. One of the dishcloths is finished; I think there is enough yarn left over for a slightly smaller second one.
Needle felting: One of the local art spaces is having a fundraiser and is asking for holiday ornaments to sell, so I started one (after the program as the recent spinning guild meeting featured needle felting).
Spinning: All the Romney is spun! And almost all three-plied! There is just a bit leftover that I will chain ply.

My SO and I continue our accountability group. He is a photographer who greatly edits pix in Photoshop and has been grinding out one each day. I don't complete much, but I'm motivated to do *something* each day. That was the goal.

Perseverance

I subscribe to the New York Times online, which gives me access to their puzzles. One of my favorites is Spelling Bee, where the player identifies as many words as they can from the provided seven letters (one of the letters is designated as a "must have" in each word and there is at least one "pangram" that uses all the letters). One's level is determined by the percentage of words one finds. I usually make it to "Amazing" on my first go-round of the day, eventually achieving "Genius" by lunchtime. Once in a great while I find them all and am crowned "Queen Bee".

I have various strategies for figuring out the words - looking for prefixes, suffixes (especially -ed and -ing), compound words, etc. - but mostly my high level of achievement is from pure persistance.

Persistance is also needed in fiber arts. I've learned it (more or less) for knitting and crocheting and spinning, but not so much weaving. Until this tote bag project. Once the loom is warped, the actual weaving (at least, if it is plain weave) is a piece of cake... as long as one sticks with it. And it doesn't take that long. The body of the tote bag involved an hour a day for three days; the strap I finished in one day (with a break or two). And then that part was done.

Now comes the hard part, for me: finishing. The number of WIPs in my project list on Ravelry is testament to my lack of perseverance there.

Knitting: Turned the heels on the zebra socks. For some reason, I started knitting a dishcloth, from yarn I dyed with dyes left over from the tie-dye program at the spinning guild.

Spinning: I've taken to spinning a bit, then plying a bit, to work through the last of the Romney.
Weaving: The tote strap wove up nicely on the inkle loom; both it and the fabric went through the wash today.

For an audio book, I listened to John LeCarre read his novel, The Constant Gardener. Then I checked out the hardcopy version of the book from the local library and was surprised at how long it was. Well, it turned out the audio version was abridged. Boo!

Hello, darkness, my old friend

Daylight savings time ends tomorrow. THANK GOD! I am not one of those people who likes to be out and about until 10pm during the summer, prefer the morning light. So I am looking forward to what will now be early dog walks and early evenings when I can just sit and knit (or whatever) in the dark.

Knitting: Speaking of knitting, I am making progress on the zebra socks, about ready to turn the heels; and I was right - they are turning out weird, which I decided to embrace.

Spinning: More Romney has been plied; I feel like I am in the homestretch.

Weaving: With much swearing (and Annie MacHale's help), I managed to warp the inkle loom for the tote bag strap.

Last night was Trick or Treat here. Instead of locking the pets away while I jumped up to answer the doorbell periodically, I sat in a rocker on the front porch and knit. Before my time, this neighborhood had lots of kids. Now - not so much. A total of 16, including a few that were a bit old to be begging for candy. I think that is an all time low.