Q1 '20 Finished Things (6)

For Q1, I clearly did a small subset of what my goals were... between an overly aggressive list and being distracted by the pandemic, I still managed to complete 6 things:

Wove a Rebozo from the yarn I dyed in Fresno.

Created a small and a large mosaic piece during my Esalen Class.

Knit a pair of socks from 20 year old yarn.

Knit the Lake Breeze Sweater AND put a zipper on it.

Finished the 2nd table top to match the first one .

This totally cracks me up

I also had some progress on:

The eye mosaic: I have some of it glued down and a plan for the rest.

The Festivus quilt: I've got a number of blocks completely quilted, working through those.

Shadow weave fabric of my own design for the study group: It's slow to warp, as I'm lacking the concentration, but I'm about 1/2 way through the warp.

And these are still on the list:

Finish the woven jacket with the knitted sleeves (I need some courage)

I need to do some other sewing thing (I have a top pattern I want to trial)

And I need to pick up a spinning project.

For Q3, I also would like to start an ikat project and start knitting something.

March Cookbook Challenge and Table Top

The March cookbook for the cookbook challenge was Julia Child's The Art of French Cooking. Tonight I cooked duck a l'orange! It was darn tasty. We'll be eating that for a few days... I think if I made it again soon I could do better but we still enjoyed it. I'll need to freeze or render the duck fat...

And since I'm limited in how many times a week I can go to the grocery, I asked Scott for another challenge; he picked Fiery Foods that I Love. I made the Spinach, Arugula and Meat Pie; it's pretty much a spicy tamale dough filled with spicy beef, spinach, etc. It's about 5 meals for the two of us, so most of it will go into the freezer tomorrow.

It needs a couple coats of sealer and then a glass of wine!

My Darling Husband hasn't decided on the April cookbook, but I think we have enough food in the freezer to last awhile...

Between  cooking, weeding the yard, and looking at exponential graphs, I haven't gotten much done; I'm still working on the Festivus quilt, but I grouted the second table top today! I'll do some analysis on what I would have done differently, but I'm VERY pleased with it. I had a few edge tiles pop off while grouting; I taped them on and later glued them with Liquid Nails. Tomorrow I'll fix the grout on them, and start sealing it; it'll be ready to be mounted to the table by Tuesday, the last day of the quarter.

What's next? DH has asked for a table by the grill to rest his glass of wine on when I grill for us... and I need a new table top by the Adirondack chairs. I ordered the table bases, which will be awhile as no one is working; and I have two substrates but no design. I won't know if I have enough glass until I come up with a design.

I have nothing to report on the fiber front. I've been so focused on the Festivus quilt and the table top, and cooking and gardening, that I haven't done much else. Hoping to get a warp ready to weave this week!


ETA: Just realized I never noted the Feb challenge. It was the Commanders Palace Cookbook. I made a gumbo and their cornbread which was awesome but it set off the fire alarm and nearly got the fire department dispatched.

Sheltering...

We're a week into "shelter in place" due to the Covid 19 virus; my darling husband has been home for a week longer than that. You'd think being stuck at the house would make me more productive, but I've been cooking a lot more, and doing house cleaning and yard work! 

So what have I been doing? 

• I finished the socks. They're a little loose but should shrink a bit in the washer.

• I finished the green sweater but haven't taken any photos. DH says it looks fabulous, but honestly had I tried it on in a store I would have reached for the smaller size. It's wonderfully warm though... I may try to shrink it up a bit when I wash it next.

• I've swatched the Razzle poncho but haven't hit gauge yet. It's a little frustrating.

• I'm threading the loom with my shadow weave project; at 35 threads per inch it's slow going and I'm not motivated. I have 6 of 15" threaded so far and should try to do a little bit every day.

• I'm working my way through the Festivus quilt; we're watching a lot of Netflix in the evenings so I think I'm getting a lot done; I need to spread it out and check my progress. I'm working on all the blocks, then will do the setting strips, then the border. 

• Lastly, I'm spending a lot of time in the mosaic studio. I finished all the motifs on the table top and spent about 3 hours working on the border yesterday. Can't wait to finish! I also have a couple of small 3-D pieces in progress, more on them later...

Double indirect method of a motif: applying the motif to the substrate

This is the second part of how I'm using a double indirect method using Frosty contact paper to transfer a part of a mosaic (I'm calling it a motif) to my table top substrate. I'll be switching back and forth between photos of a red and a green mosaic, sorry!

The green motif is complete and laid out on its Frosty. Cut a second piece of Frosty about the same size as the first and laid it sticky side down on the motif, then rub it onto each piece of glass for extra adhesion. After that, flip the piece so you're looking at the backside, and carefully peel off the Frosty; if you press down on the pieces and roll the Frosty back on itself, you have a better change of the pieces staying in place. 

Apply thinset thinly to the area on the substrate where the motif is going; use a notched trowel to thin it down a little more. Note that if you're using transparent glass, you may need to back butter the glass pieces so you don't seen the scratch lines through the tessera.

I used a piece of cardboard like a pizza peel (thank you Emily for the idea!) to slowly set the motif onto the thinset, adjusting position as needed. Don't drag it around too much but you can adjust it a little.  Press all of the pieces lightly into the thinset. Give it a little time to dry, then peel off the frosty very carefully, doubling it back over itself and pulling slowly. The thinset should be goopy enough for you to reposition tesserae if they're not where you want them.


Wait a bit longer until it's stiff but not set, and check all the grout joints to make sure you don't need to do any cleanup. You don't want the thinset to come up further than 1/2 up the tesserae. Also clean up around the edges of the motif if your thinset goes beyond the edges of your motif.

I did all 4 of the larger motifs this way with a minimum of fuss. The red and green motifs were applied to the substrate in less than 15 minutes! The smaller ones didn't need it. Three more motifs and I'm ready to fill in the background.

Double indirect method of a motif: getting the motif ready

I learned the "Frosty" method of mosaic from Ilse and Wilma last fall at the workshop in Watsonville. It's a double indirect method, pretty much the same as using tile tape, except the Frosty can be peeled off before the thinset is set and the tiles can be repositioned if needed. I'm not going to detail the double indirect method, or how tile tape is used... Maybe another time but it's readily available information so I'm going to skip it here.

Getting the Frosty ready

One of my frustrations on the last table top was getting some of the motifs to look round enough. I did all of those with the direct method, where I laid out the pieces on paper first, then move them one by one to the mosaic. Anyone who's ever done this knows that the pieces never sit in the thinset they way they do on paper. Why? I'm going to suggest it's my lack of experience but I don't really know.

I thought I'd try a modified method of the Frosty method for them and see if they could be applied to the table top as sub-pieces, hoping this would help me keep things round. I've done it so far on 3 motifs and love it.

Tape to table, sticky side up,
start putting down glass.

I sized the Frosty to be a few inches larger than the motif on all edges so I can handle it easier when I apply it. I drew a circle the same size as the motif from the table onto the back of the frosty, then traced with my Sharpie so I could see it on the other side. I added some axis lines and marked the center. I didn't use a protractor, but I think I came pretty close to eighths.

I then flipped it over, removed the backing, and taped it sticky side up to my table. I added a center and some red squares and then drew in a few additional ideas.

All done and previewed on the table top!

 I kept cutting and placing glass. The stickiness of the Frosty holds the pieces in place while I work, but I'm still able to reposition or replace pieces. For example, I started with a black center, but didn't care for it, so swapped it for red before eventually settling on yellow (see below).

Once the motif was finished, I previewed it by laying it in it's place on the table top. Hypothetically I could make a whole bunch of motifs if they were all the same size, then place them as I saw fit.

I'll describe the steps to use thinset to adhere the pieces to the table in another post.

The black center was okay, but
not what I really wanted.

Next I tried a red center, meh.

Loving the yellow center.

Frog Buddy

In progress workspace

I attended another one of Wilma Wyss's classes at Esalen last week. I like making something there that reminds me of Esalen; this time I chose the little frogs in the frog pond, in their honor and also as a homage to the Pacific Tree Frog that was living in my compost pile earlier this year.

I started with the little photo to the left of this photo; traced it in it's original size, then enlarged it manually by 250%. I used the double indirect method to lay the glass pieces then applied them to the 12" x 18" substrate and grouted.

Here's the finished mosaic, grouted and ready to be sealed. I'm ridiculously happy with it.  This is the best work I've ever done and frankly I'm not sure I could do better. It took me about half a day to work out the design, 2 full days to cut and lay the glass, a hour or so to apply it, then an hour or so to grout the next day.

My Frog Buddy

I ask myself why I can work so fast at Esalen, but so slowly at home. I think the key is that I have a deadline at Esalen, and no other responsibilities. So... will try to finish the table and the eyes this month.

I also brought socks with me; I nearly completed a pair from some yarn I've had for 20 years or so. Turns out you can amaze people by knitting while walking or knitting while not looking. On other fronts, 

Coffee at the edge of the world.

• I've been looking for a zipper for my green sweater and finally ordered one on the internet a couple days ago. 
• I've picked out two new knit projects (quarantine projects, if that happens). 
• I'm ready to put my shadow weave project on the loom
• I accidentally bought 2 yds of a lovely indigo and white rayon fabric at Hart's in Santa Cruz while looking for a zipper, and would like to make a top of it.

Here's  a photo from Esalen; I had coffee one morning at the edge of the cliff. Such a pretty place! And a drawing I made one morning.

First finished object of the year!

Over the last couple of days, I finished weaving the V Rebozo, took it off the loom, finished the fringe, wet finished the fabric and sewed it together. I'm sitting in the living room right now, wearing it, and can't wait to show it off at knit night! 

The mohair in the warp was really sticky and I have quite a few yarn floats; I repaired the longest of these and will leave the rest. If I weave with mohair again, I'll space it farther apart.

Now all my looms are empty... But I've started winding the warp for my study group shadow weave piece.

Other project statuses:

I'm working my way through the Festivus quilt top; I'm on the 5th block. I'm putting simple circles with crosshatching in some of the background spaces of the current block and will go back and do the same on the others. Still debating what to put in the setting strips (the blue strips between the blocks) but I have plenty to work on before I've made that decision.

I'm nearly done wth the knitting on the green wool sweater; I''ll be taking a class in two weeks at Stitches West that will hopefully explain to me how to put in a zipper, then I can finish it. 

I just got an order of glass from a couple of mosaic supply companies; mostly was wanting the crystal round pieces for the table top. I have 2 motifs (one big, one small) ready to set on the table and another partialy complete (Photo). The first table is now in use! but I've lost a couple of the small brown tiles from the edging. I'll repair it this week but need to ask at the next mosaic meeting about what folks are using for table edges.