Progress!

Well, my new loom room is painted! The last session of painting was actually pretty much fun - with the window repaired and the room looking so much better, I can actually start imagining what it's going to be like when it is finished, and that thought is really exciting.

Here's a view looking back toward the closet. Plain beige color - navajo white trim (you an see that on the ceiling shelf above the closet opening.)


And here is the stack of boxes containing the new maple floor. :-) Eldy and Sam are planning to install that for me Friday. Looms should be moved by the 4th of July!!

And to continue with the colors of June thing.... here's a better photo of a jacaranda - I think the purple looks even lovelier on a gray day.

And last is one of my other favorite colors - the agapanthus begin to bloom in June, and are in full bloom by July 4th, which seems appropriate - they've always looked like fireworks blossoms to me.
P.S. There is a long hallway leading to my new loom room . Eldy suggested using it as a gallery wall for my weaving. That's fun to think about, too!

Colors and Change

Between adjusting to full-time work and preparing for the recent concerts, it's been a while since I've posted here. Well, the concerts were a great success. We got standing ovations for both performances of the Benjamin Britten War Requiem, and the whole thing was a marvelous and amazing experience. The job is working out well - I really like the people I work with, and I'm enjoying the work. The hardest part is figuring out how to have time for the volunteer things I enjoy doing as well as the fun stuff. By the end of the week, I usually have cumulative fatigue that makes it hard to get much done over the weekend.

On the home front, I'm still in the middle of restoring the room that is becoming my new loom room. It's kind of hard to see much in this picture - Eldy patched the holes in the walls. We had a company come out and measure the broken window so the glass can be repaired (I think that's what the gizmo on the floor will be used for.) I painted the ceiling, and in a few minutes will start painting the walls. The new window should be installed within a few days. Then we'll buy the new Pergo flooring and install that, and Eldy is putting in new base molding. Then it will finally be ready to move the looms in. That in itself will be a big project - my Megado will have to be disassembled and then moved and reassembled. I've done it once before, when I first bought the loom. This time I'll have help so it should be faster and easier. I can hardly wait!

Now for a side bar. Sue, author of one of my favorite blogs - Life Looms Large - frequently has a "colors of the month" project. I'm not great with my camera, but since she started doing this, I will confess that I'm better at "noticing" the colors around me. :-) And this month I finally captured at least a few photos to share.

So here are the colors in my part of San Diego in June. I even captured them in sunshine! If you are familiar with San Diego, you know we experience what is called May Gray / June Gloom this time of year. We often have a heavy marine layer which makes things very humid, but keeps us nice and cool. By late afternoon, though, we get our beloved sunshine!

These are the typical colors you see in the landscape - sand, sagey green, and gray-brown bark.

We even used those colors when we painted our house - sand colored stucco, with sage green trim. (When we first moved in, there was no landscaping anywhere, and we called our house the sandcastle, so these colors seem especially fitting.)

But we do get some luscious colors in the landscape this time of year. Here's one of my favorites - the purple of the jacarandas that are blooming right now.

And the intense orange of cape honeysuckle that seems to be blooming almost all year round.
Stay tuned for the upcoming pictures of the loom room as it becomes a reality!

Change and Patience

This will be another post with no photos - sorry about that. :-)

I'm finally settled in the new job. The first week was very rough (I had to resist the temptation to go out to my car and just drive home.) The second week was better. By the end of the third week, I was fairly comfortable, and confident that I can be a productive member of the team. Luckily, everyone has been friendly and supportive and very very nice, and I'm so thankful for that! It's been many years since I worked full-time outside of the home (I telecommuted for my last full-time position.) It's an adjustment!

On top of starting the new job, other big changes have been afoot at our house. My son Matt did move out - he's living in a lovely place with several roommates and is happy. Sam, my youngest son, got a new job, too - working at an auto parts store. He's only worked a few days, but apparently really feels at home there and is happy with his job.

Now to the issue of patience. Remember when I said Matt's old room will become my loom room? Well, that is still the case, but it turns out a LOT of work has to be done before that can happen.

• repair two holes in the wallboard
• repair one broken window
• replace the ceiling fan (and probably the light tracks on the ceiling, too)
• install new closet doors
• paint
• install new laminate flooring

So although the shell of the room is there, it's going to take a while to get it functional and ready for me to move my looms in. I keep reminding myself that yes it would be wonderful to move in now, but yes I will be rewarded for my patience. Having to do all those things nights and weekends will make it take some time, but my goal is to have a wonderful weaving studio by Bastille Day (my birthday.)

Unfolding

two fuzzy spots, two tiny beaks
new life emerging in this nest
proud mary sitting very still
creation beneath her growing
God unfolding ever slowly

safe in stillness but not in flight
mama reclaimed as hawk repast
sometimes a wave does not reach shore
but early rolls back to its source
new life spark retreats from brown fluff

these forms will not take playful flight
nor hungry beaks call plaintively
yet from the stillness love gathers
back her innocent joyful lights
to fling to newness form unbound

Whistle While You Work!

Yes! My background check is finally complete, all the paperwork is signed, and I'm cleared to start work at my new job on Monday! I'm a little nervous, a lot excited.

I feel like I'm about to become a real grownup again. :-) I am looking forward to meeting new people and working as part of a team. Maybe my reawakened brain cells will get me rolling in other areas, too.

Another interesting development is afoot - looks like my oldest son will be getting his own place and moving out in May. I'm a little sad about that - I will really miss him. But... :-D ... here's the good part. Right now, my big loom is in the dining room. The dining table is in the corner of the family room (where it has become the resting place of "stuff" as we come in the back door.)

So very soon, I will have a loom room! The big loom will move up there, and perhaps even the smaller loom if there is enough room. The dining table will go back in the dining room. I anticipate creating a wonderful weaving studio, and enjoying being able to entertain occasionally in the dining room. I've stumbled on some great worktables on the web - I'm thinking of purchasing some Ikea base cabinets and topping them with a wooden table top. Before I start on it, of course, I need to measure the room, the looms, and make sure I have enough space for everything. Having my own studio has been a long time dream, and it looks like it will become a reality soon. I hope so. :-)

Iridescence Sampler 2

Here's the second sampler from the workshop - the one where we branched out from plain weave to see if we could achieve iridescence with other weave structures. The iridescence still shows up, thought not as clearly as it does with plain weave, in my opinion. We were to pick 2 weft colors from the first sampler - colors which gave good iridescence in that sampler, and which gave an effect that we personally liked. I had a hard time choosing, because so many colors had such a neat effect, but ended up deciding on blue-green and yellow-orange. I picked the first because I liked it so much, the second because I thought the exploration would be good for me. Both were colors which were split complements of one or more of my warp colors.

This picture shows 2/2 twill. Still fairly iridescent, since there's a balanced amount of both warp and weft colors. This isn't the greatest shot, since it is "head on."

Here's a 1/3 twill. The other side has the weft colors so dominant that I don't think you see much of an effect, though I did like the blending on this side.

Clasped weft was fun to play with, and the part below that in this image is 3 color iridescence - using both of my weft colors in the same shed. I think that may be my favorite. (And, as you can see, it's plain weave.)

Last, but not least, here's a crepe weave example. I liked playing with the crepe weave, which feels, in effect, like various ways of alternating plain weave and twill picks.

And to polish this post off, as Sue requested in the comments - here's a picture of the inside of the little needlecase. :-)

Iridescence Sampler 1

Here's a picture of my first sampler from the Iridescence workshop with Bobbie Irwin. You can see a little of the effect here, especially at the folds. My warp colors were violet, red-violet and red. She had us weave 3" sections with each of 24 different weft colors - a color wheel of 12 basic colors, then a wheel of 12 alternate colors (some with slightly different blends, some tints or shades.) Since it can be almost impossible to tell what weft color was used in some sections, she had us save enough to make tassels to hang off the side of the sampler.

This image is darker, since I tried with the flash disabled - makes it easier to see the iridescence in some parts.

This little needlecase was given to me by a friend, Kathy S., years ago. Whenever I take it to a workshop, I get lots of oohs and aahs and comments.

The little shell is done in stumpwork embroidery, and I just love it. I mean - it's got a shell and it's purple, what's not to love! I'm no longer in contact with the friend who gave it to me, but another friend thinks she might have the instructions somewhere. I think I've figured out a way to do it, but I hope she finds the "real" instructions. (Looks to me like you embroider the 9 "spokes", then putting a bit of padding behind the shell, needleweave around the spokes, as if doing a God's Eye. I'll share here if I try that and it works.)

Next, I'll see if I can get some good pictures of the second sampler - the one that incorporated weave structures, and for which we selected 2 weft colors to alternate.