fresh out of kumbaya

Thinking about ways cloth speaks. Banners, uniforms.

If I hang this in my front yard, there would be serious repercussions. The same if I were to hang the confederate flag. Passions run high when people are afraid.

Bonny blue

This color is being confrontational with me lately. "Bonny Blue" was discontinued some years back. It refuses to disappear. Ok.

the dregs

A cold and rainy day was a great excuse to not start my daily walking routine. Who really wants pneumonia?

There was a long-promised piece of repair work to do. Of course, mending called for the great annual cleanout of the river basket. I found things in there that have been missing for months! My favorite knife. A book of stamps. Lots of unspooled thread in nests. No mice.

So I bagged and sorted and discarded and relocated for a while. Got the mending done.

These bits were floating around under everything else. I'll keep them together and see if they strike up a voice.

That mending? About forty tiny, blind stitches.  white on white. It looks like I was never there.

2016, it wasn't your fault.

Choo choo Charlie

An over-busy day interrupted in the sweetest way. There were some early presents to play with.

Charlie's pirate hat is now an Engineer's hat. I'm worried that his fascination with trains is going to turn out like my girlhood fascination with teams of horses pulling stagecoaches and the like.

Wet and raw Georgia winter

All my houseplants are back inside now, possible residents included. The last warm-up was their last chance to make a break for it. But I am going to find some worms to put into the soil around the plants. If there are hungry frogs or lizards in the foliage, well. worms.

I set up the wandering office in the bedroom this morning so I could listen to the rain as I worked.

 It used to be that there was always a TV on in the house somewhere, droning away. The "clank, clank" opening sounds of "Law and Order" were like the chiming of a grandfather clock. I've cut  the cord with Comcast and the house is very quiet now. Too quiet sometimes.

I'm shopping for a used, old school stereo system - the kind with speakers that could double as end tables. And a turntable!

We have a lot of vinyl going to waste. As long as I still have 50% of my hearing, I'm not letting that go to waste either. Screw the neighbors.

Storyteller keeps me on task as I work.

Sweetie is the best office assistant when this is the office. She knows where and how to be useful.

DIY or call me.

This is Orion approving of a set of window seat cushions I made for his pleasure.

Tomorrow I'll be taking the featherweight and all other pertinent crap to custom fit some closet drapes at his place. There's no decorating challenge that can't be met with a few yards of store-bought batik.

And you thought I was lolling on a beach somewhere.

The Annual Crochet fail

Each year, as the chill deepens, I pull out this basket of yarn and start crocheting madly. It's five skeins of Lion brand Homespun. I love the feel of this yarn, working and finished. Soft, cushy and very forgiving of stitch errors. What errors with all that fuzziness going on and a big J hook?

I don't really know how to crochet. It's kind of a spiders-on-acid effect  with more or less "air" depending on my mood.

Over the course of a few hours while watching TV, I cranked out an irregularly shaped piece about a foot square before I had to start work.

By the end of my shift (spent at a keyboard) my right wrist was in fierce pain. Aleve and rest and leave that stuff alone!

Would anyone like some yarn?

Shop Keeping

Spent the morning ripping and packing. Fat Baggies were shipped today and I made some unassigned to owners so all I'll have to do is slap on an address and postage.

 I keep wondering if and when I'm going to run out of interesting cloth, then I find another tub out of the closet, start picking and stop wondering. I think they are breeding in there the way wire coat hangers used to when you left two in the front closet.  Believe it or not, these six are identical in source fabrics, that way it's very unlikely that you'll get two pieces of fabric alike in one order. New addition - pieces of a rayon velvet scarf in deep red shading to chestnut from my very first adventures in dyeing.

Charlie Monday

It's a Charlie Monday. We spend the whole day together working it out. He is a delightful tornado of life and love. There is no doing anything else as he expects and deserves total engagement.

Happy Thanksgiving

Mom's Christmas cactus is struggling. I have to find the right kind of soil and a decent clay pot it can become rootbound in. Any advice from experts would be welcome.

The turkey is in the oven. Our tribe is very small this year. Jake, Missy, and Charlie are over the river and through the woods. Colin has the tail end of the flu so guests were warned off. I could allow for melancholy but there's too much to be thankful for. Balance, even now. Happy Thanksgiving.

Time for work in the studio. Peel a few potatoes and then beck to revisions.