Aglets

Here are the laces looking for an aglet solution!

A brief search of my blog shows that there are no indications of my growing obsession with aglets!!!  What are aglets, you might ask? According to Wikipedia, an aglet is a small sheath, often made of plastic or metal, used on each end of a shoelace, a cord, or a drawstring.  

My quest has been to figure out how to finish a card woven band for a bootlace. John Mullarkey, at a class I took from him at Stitches West in 2017, suggested saturating the lace in glue and then rolling it between two fingers until dry; then perhaps coating with nail polish. John's laces look fabulous; really; but I was hoping for a different finish.  Google query yielded Ian's Shoelace site which is phenomenal;  there are a bazillion ways to thread your laces, tie you shoe know, and sure enough, a section on aglets for those who have lost an aglet or wish to shorten their shoelace. 

So I ordered a hot air gun, and a bunch of heat shrink tubing. I initially tried 3/16" (5mm) clear dual wall with adhesive... it looked lovely, though a little clunky, but would not fit through the thingy the lace goes through. What are those called? There's got to be a word for it. So I enlisted DH's help, and he ordered me a set of different sized heat shrink tubes. One of the tubes barely fit and had to be coaxed on to the laces and pulled by a string, but it seems to be the right size; without a metric ruler, I'm guessing it's either 2.5mm or 3mm diameter. And it fits his boot!

5mm on top (pudgy) unknown but suspected 2.5 mm (svelte) on bottom, untrimmed!

A brief history of the laces... I decided that my DH needed cool bootlaces for his hiking boots, which double as his scooter boots.  So right before I went to Esalen, I warped up the loom to make them,  and ASSUMED that three yards of lace was enough. Sadly, I need approximately 10 feet, so despite all my rapid work, I only have one lace, plus a whole bunch left over. At least I have plenty to play with the aglets!  So I'll need to warp up again for shoelace #2. And since DH uses the scooter to bring me coffee on Sunday mornings, maybe I'll use the remained for a tie on a coffee thermos bag?

Mat! and summer top!

Last weekend,  I took another Navajo weaving class from Linda Teller Pete and Barbara Teller Ornalez... What a amazing pair of sisters, and another amazing class. Here's the mat I made; it's about 7 by 10 inches. Note that the bottom square are done a whole lot better than the top squares!!! I got better as I went along :) The only thing I didn't care for about the class was the speed at which we had to work... there's a lot of techniques that change as you work from the bottom to the top of the mat, so you need to finish in a very intense 3 days.  Still, a very amazing class from two amazing women, and I loved my classmates. And! I bought a loom, so more to come!

I've also been trying to make a top for my sewing class. When I made a muslin from the commerical pattern (Simplicity 8061), I realized it needed some adjustments. First I lowered the darts. Then noticed that the armholes gaped a bit... I added a dart at the front armhole, and walked it down to join the french dart... then raised the back shoulder to eliminate the back armhole dart, and redrew the armhole to compensate, which made the armhole gape more. Ronda, our instructor, suggested back darts which make it lay amazingly smooth on my back! But that made the front gape. And adjusting the back shoulder seam made the shoulder not line up where it should, and after I fixed that the bust dart was too low again. so I redrafted it to a lower point. What a lot of changes. I made four muslins, then constructed the top out of cheap material I didn't care about ruining. The husband's comments? It's flattering, and seems well constructed, and it fits really well. I'm thrilled enough to use the same pattern on some batik he brought me from Indonesia :) All in all very satisfying.

Minor progress on my hat, on my skirt, and no progress on weaving. I wound a couple of warps for the upcoming Kathrin Weber dye workshop, but need to wind 3-4 more PLUS label the bejeebers out of them. Slowly but surely I'm working through being over-committed!

Nothing to do with fiber or food!

I just got back from a five day Mosaic intensive taught by Wilma Wyss at Esalen... Fabulous class, beautiful venue...  I learned so much!!!

After making a test piece, we sketched a design. I challenged myself to make it representative of something at Esalen. I thought about poppies; they're just starting to bloom. Then I though about Monarch butterflies, which were everywhere, and resolved to mosaic a butterfly. Then I went back to the art room, where folks had been choosing colors, and making sure they had bountiful glass for their mosaics and there was no orange left... So I resolved to use the colors that I had. This view inspired me.

Which became this sketch. Wilma helped me simplify the design and gave me suggestions on how to run the grout lines to make it interesting.  A quick perusal of the glass that was left made me decide on a grey sky, green ocean and purple hills.

I also dived into Wilma's scrap bins and found some blues for the ocean and some browns for the hills. Richard, my Esalen big brother, donated some blues as well. The big step was freeing myself to quickly and un-fussily place the ocean tiles without pre-planning... 

Finally, I debated the grout. A lighter grout would have served the sky better, a darker grout better for hills and sea. I picked the dark and have no regrets. I am thrilled beyond belief at how it came out.

And Esalen? I feel I should say something. Such a stunningly beautiful place filled with exceptional caring people offering love and respect.  And I heard over and over how people don't feel alive outside of Esalen, that they can't create the same sacred space in their everyday, that their community in the outside world is unexceptional or non-existent. One woman wailed that she could not bear to leave Esalen and go back to her old existence. How sad that is to me! I find myself wondering what the world would be like if these people brought all this wonderful energy and community home with them?

Q1 2018 Completed Things (4)

Feb: Pale blue pajama top, just waiting for night time!

If you know me, you'll know that that I never feel like I'm doing enough. This blog is one way for me to visually see some of what I'm getting done! I'll update this post through the year (in quarterly bites) to show what's getting finished, as it gets finished, using small photos if it's pictured elsewhere in this blog.

Esalen Mosaic Landscape

January: Nothing finished all the way in January... lots of work done through.

February: Lots of work, again, primarily in quilting, sewing, and knitting. For finished projects, there's this pale blue all cotton flannel pajama top; I used Tumble Dye spray dye on the flannel to get the gradient affect; it's subtle and I love it. It features both flat felled and french seams, as well as a Hong Kong finish on the lower hem and double binding on the sleeves. The collar seam is enclosed using a facing-less technique that was a little fussy but effective. I'm wearing this all the time.

Small Navajo rug, now in the collection of my DH...

March:   I completed the above smallish mosaic at a Wilma Wyss workshop at Esalen; I've treated the grout so it's now suitable for hanging outside.

And I finished this little mat from a Navajo Weaving class with Lynda and Barbara...

And Yay! I finally have a pattern that will work for my sleeveless summer top. I cut and sewed it today out of come cheap (but cute!) sale fabric from Joann's; it's got typewriter keys all over it and I want to call it "My Sister the Author". Since it worked and got DH approval for cuteness, I'll cut and sew the same out of some lovely batik he brought me from Indonesia. Then I'll have two super cute and unique summer tops to add to my wardrobe.