Tag Archives: Rachel Wilder

Saturday Craft Circle

Knoontime Knitting

I got some new yarn from KnitPIcks called “Oceana” in the “Spirulina” colorway. It’s worsted weight, 54% superfine alpaca and a new fiber, 46% SEAQUAL (R) YARN, which is reclaimed plastic from the ocean. It’s got a nice loft and halo. I tried several needle sizes (4 was way too small and 9 was way too big); size 7 seems to do the trick.

Here’s the detail of the “Vertical Lace Trellis” stitch from Barbara Walker’s stitch guide, volume 1 (the one with the blue cover). I really like how it is coming out. It’s got a great drape, and the halo makes it soften.

Here’s the completed swatch. I’m thinking of making a top-down cape or poncho, haven’t decided yet. We shall see.

Friday Night Musings

Knoontime Knitting

I was chatting with a friend online this evening and shared a picture of my pin loom weaving box and realized I hadn’t shared it on here. I haven’t shared much on here recently at all, really.

As we collectively learn to navigate our catastrophically changed reality with COVID, it’s important I think to realize the collective stress we are under. It’s attractive to fantasize about all the “things” we’ll get done in this new in-between-time, but the reality is that stress seeps into everything like poison into a creek. Particularly for us here in the States, that new reality is horrific: as of this writing, over 150,000 dead and 5 million infected.

I find it hard to focus. I am, though, keeping up with crafts. Oddly, I haven’t been pin loom weaving this month but knitting – I’ll post some pics of that at another time. What I wanted to share for now is a glimpse into my pin loom weaving because it’s something I can do when my body is too stressed, my hands too sore from stress, and my brain unable to count for lace repeats.

As I shared the pics with my friend today, I remembered that I’d started weaving for a purse to replace one that my mother crocheted. It’s a project bag and it got so ratty and falling apart but I didn’t want to get rid of it. It wasn’t out of a pleasant sentimentality, since my mother was a horrible child abuser, but I still held onto it out of emotional attachment. I finally decided that’s goofy, I don’t want to drag around such negativity with me – particularly with my art.

And thus the idea for a knitting bag was born. The weavies are done, and next up is to sew the pieces together.

On the rigid heddle weaving front, we’re getting ready to start our weavealong in the Yarnworker School of Rigid Heddle Weaving. (If you’re a weaver, why not join us? More info here.) I’m so excited because I’m experimenting with some endangered wool called Churro. I’ll post pics of that at another time. But I was noodling about my weaving tonight and recalled reading about Morse code weaving in the Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom by Syne Mitchell. I decided to look it up again and there’s a Morse code translator! Check it out, here.

I thought it might be fun to try weaving a poem, and I even have one picked out to play with. I’ll keep noodling it and if it comes about, I’ll share pictures with you.

What are you up to these days, Dear Reader?

Playing With My Pin Loom

Knoontime Knitting

Today I took some time for Sunday crafting while I was watching and participating in the BotanicWise Allies for Plants and People Symposium. This year, the Pin Loom Weaving Support Group held a Weavealong hosted by TexasGabbi of Turtle Looms. The weavelong ran for six weeks and, though I did not finish on time due to the stress of the global pandemic, I’m still plugging away at it. I made all the weavies called for in the weavealong, but I used to be intimidated by sewing the weavies together – part of the weavealong instructions.

I’m happy to say that I no longer am intimidated by this process! I’ve successfully sewn Week 1, Week 2a, and Week 2b weavies together. And today, I worked on the extra project for Week 2, embroidering a weavie.

This caused me some consternation, because my very first textile art was embroidery. I could not settle on a design I liked. I dithered and hemmed and hawed, and overthought, and finally, today, decided I’d had it: JUST DO IT, as Nike says. Right? Right.

Only problem was, when I started to embroider on a finished weavie, I couldn’t get it under tension. It was flopping all over the place because the weavies are such loose-weave fabric, and I don’t have a small enough embroidery hoop. A friend suggested putting the weavie back on the Zoom Loom, and thereby under tension. I tried that, but fabric off a loom settles and it’s next to impossible to get it back to its former state.

Then it hit me: why not make a new weavie?

Voila.

This time, I switched back to my main color, a lovely charcoal grey marino wool blend. Then I used my CC3 color (contrast color #3), which is a light grey variegated color, also a marino blend. I used a detail of a pattern from Alice Starmore’s book, Celtic Needlepoint (if you haven’t checked out her work before, you owe it to yourself to visit her site that she shares with her talented daughter Jade Starmore, Virtual Yarns). I added the year and then took it off the loom. I’m really pleased with the final look of it. When it came off the loom, the threads relaxed and came together, so the needlepoint really pops.

Next time, I’ll share some of my herbal adventures. I have some lemon mint infusion steeping on my counter overnight and tomorrow, I plan to make a mint syrup.

What about you, Dear Reader? What are you making?

Slow Craft

Knoontime Knitting

Image of pin loom woven squares.

Fast. 5G. Upload speeds. Download speeds. Streaming. Faster cell service. 24/7 news cycle. Always-on. Technostress is stress induced by computer use. “Its symptoms include aggravation, hostility toward humans, impatience, and fatigue. According to experts, humans working continuously with computers come to expect other humans and human institutions to behave like computers, providing instant responses, attentiveness, and an absence of emotion.” (1)

I don’t know about you, but I find that all exhausting. I use technology and have done since I was a teenager. But I find myself called to slow down in my craft pursuits. Take weaving, for instance. I enjoy pin loom weaving, which is what the picture above features. Popular in the 1920’s through the 1940’s, pin looms can be used to make clothing, housewares, toys, and other useful items. The standard size is a four inch square, though makers have created pin looms in a variety of sizes to satisfy inquisitive weavers.

What is it about slow craft that’s calling to us? There are now craft revolutions all over the U.S. and around the world, such as Seattle’s Urban Craft Uprising. Makerspaces are independent and now even part of public libraries. People are merging craft with technology, bringing new ways to old.

And for many of us, slow craft is the antidote to fast culture. We sit and chat, or watch streaming shows or listen to audiobooks. We meditate using fiber or wood. We dream on the canvas or with words on the page. We journal and take pictures with our smartphones. There are even classes on how to be a better photographer using your cell phone. All of which is designed to help us to slow down, stop running, and be in the moment.

The act of creation is a radical act. It’s saying to the world, this didn’t exist before but I’ve made it so. It is rule-breaking, not rule-following. It’s not necessarily rebellious, it’s simply outside the known. Sometimes it comments on the known and sometimes it finds the known irrelevant.

During pandemic, I’ve found myself returning to my pin loom. It calms me in ways that even my knitting can’t – it turns out I can’t count during times of high stress. I don’t have to count to weave a pin loom square. My pin loom group is on Facebook (fast technology meets slow craft) and hosted a Mystery Weavealong that went for seven weeks. It was such a relief to get off work, wander over to my nest on the lounger, and weave squares. Not because I had to, or because I had something in mind – the mystery part of the weavealong meant that I literally didn’t know what I was weaving until the very end – but because the act of making squares settled my mind and let me feel productive but not pushed to finish any particular project. Just make a square. Which color? The instructions told me. And through that practice, my mind calmed.

 

Resources

(1) Laudon, Kenneth C and Jane P Laudon: Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, c2007, Chapter 4, pg 156.

Make Something Monday – and I Cleaned Out a Bin!

Knoontime Knitting

IMAG0459

Yesterday, I got a wild hair to rummage in my craft storage bins for some yarn that I bought waaaay back when I first started to knit.  I put it away, thinking I’d make a sleeveless sweater or something for the holidays.

Only, I’d bought four skeins, which isn’t enough for a sweater.

And so it’s languished in the bin for ~cof~ years ~cof~.  I also got some very difficult, fussy eyelash yarn of an eye-catching red.  I tried mixing it with this gorgeous stuff and it looked awful.  Rather than looking like a fur border, it looked like, well, a mess.

I’m not sure what magical alchemy happened yesterday.  Mercury is retrograde; maybe it’s that.  No clue.  But in I walked to my office, let my fingers do the walking through my binventory (I made up a word!!), and voila – new project glee.

Only one problem.  What the eff do I make, if not the sweater I’d been procrastinating?

IMAG0460

The yarn is a lovely, skooshie Plymouth 24k in a red and gold, complete with gold flecks.  I could do a rectangular shawl with thin tassels, (once I learn how to spell tassels ~fail~).  I could do a necklace or beads.

Hmm.  That’s actually not a bad idea.  I have four balls of it; I could use three for a triangle shawl and the one remaining ball for some jewelry.

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I started with a garter stitch border and then started yarn over increases three stitches in on each side.  When I had enough of an edge to make the point strong, I started two yarn overs in the center.  I’m going to do Little Arrowhead Lace from Barbara Walker’s Volume I, and then in the center, I think I’ll do budding branch once I have enough on either side of the center spine.

Oh.  As I’m writing this, there are really two centers, one on either side of the spine.  Hmm.  I can do buds, but have them mirror each other.  Facing center, or facing out?  I’ll noodle on that, but I’m thinking facing center.

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I got pretty far yesterday.

And I did not allow Kolya to eat the yarn.  Or chew on the needles.  Or steal the project bag so he could gnaw on the plastic.

Right.  I decided to be a textile artist in a house full of cats.  Brilliant.

What are you making this Monday?

Zed

Knoontime Knitting

And so, Dear Reader, the A to Z Challenge has come to an end.  Thank you for coming along on this journey with me.  I hope you’ve enjoyed wandering the streets of my daily round, looking for letterforms in nature and the built environment.  I have to say, it’s changed how I see the world around me and even given me an idea for a book.  But in the meantime, I’ve got not one but two images for you today, one in nature and one in the built environment; a fitting close to my challenge this month.

And remember, May 9th is the A to Z Reflections Post Day, and the Linky List is open from May 9 to May 13.  Keep an eye on the main A to Z Blog Challenge page for more info and updates, and of course come back here on the 9th for my reflections on my various posts.  Also, if you’ve visited me and I haven’t responded or visited back, please forgive me; I’ve had a nasty cold and do plan to catch up to everyone over the coming days, I promise!

2016-04-30 The First Letter Z

2016-04-30 The Second Letter Z

My theme here at my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

 

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

The Fork In the Tree and the Path Less Traveled By

Knoontime Knitting

2016-04-29 The Letter Y

I think, by this point in my walk, the couple about twenty feet behind me were convinced I was bonkers.  I kept stopping, after all, to stare into the hedgerows or up at trees.  I even back-tracked to get the correct angle to snap this lovely letter “Y” for you.

And in case the title sounds vaguely familiar but isn’t quite coming to mind, it’s from this snippet:

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

My theme here at my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

 

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

X Marks the Spot – Even If It’s Tardy!

Knoontime Knitting

2016-04-29 The Letter X

I almost have my groove back!  It’s at about 65%.  I felt good enough to go to the gym yesterday and walk two miles, even if I did come home and pass out.  Then today I met with my kick-ass trainer, and he kicked my ass.

Sorta what I pay him for, but still.  My iz poopded!

BUT…  I wouldn’t leave you hanging, Dear Reader!  I got my last three alphabet photos on the way to the gym!  Above is what happens when X Marks the Spot – just ignore the litter.  (I hate it when people litter, don’t you?)

My theme here at my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

 

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Weird Sky

Knoontime Knitting

2016-04-27 The Letter W

I lucked out.  With my cold, I haven’t gotten out to take photographs for the last handful of letters I need.  I took this photo of the sky a few weeks ago when it was threatening to storm, and got a great shot of the sunset in the process.  And look!  There’s a W in the tree!

Score.  Totally meant to do that.

My theme here at my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

 

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

V! V-I! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!

Knoontime Knitting

2016-04-26 The Letter V

The title of today’s post comes from the one-and-only cheer I remember from high school.  For some reason, any time I hear the letter “V,” that’s what I hear in my head.

I particularly like this shot of the tree because it’s an evergreen; in my mind, this is what trees “should” look and smell like.  As long as I’ve lived here in Chicago, I’ve never gotten quite used to the idea that deciduous trees drop all their leaves in winter, nor that dead leaves smell very different than a carpet of fallen needles.  There’s nothing quite like the tang of tannin.

Trivia tidbit for you:  in the winter, you can make a tea from evergreen needles and it is very high in Vitamin C and other things that help your immune system fight off colds.

And since I have a cold right now, I figured that was kinda relevant.  ‘N stuff.

My theme here at my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

 

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo.  Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Write on, and Happy Blogging!