Development of a painting

This afternoon I holed up in my garage to work on a canvas that's been waiting for me for too long. Many years ago, when I first learned to use a brush, I used acrylics. They're easy to mix, have great coverage, and are pretty forgiving to work with. Somewhere about 10 yrs ago they got boxed up and put away. Today I dusted off the box and gave them another chance.

I thought you might enjoy a step-by-step (sort of ) showing the birth of this painting:

Hm......adding book pages was fun, but I can tell I'm used to using washes and watercolors! Can you believe I went thru 4 years of art school and this is the first canvas I've ever painted on!? No kidding! I'm not 100% pleased with this composition, but it was good practice for other techniques. I still have some ideas kicking around in my head that I want to try out, but first I need to replenish my paint supply. Most of my acrylics are not very good quality, and it was a bear to work with them. They felt sticky, goopy, ugh. Good tools make life much easier.

My husband loves it - must be the book pages featuring a conversation between Luther & Zwingli as well as a bit about Bucer. :) 

Maryland Sheep and Wool - the takeaway

The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival came home with me - in a small way. 

I forced myself not to stop in or even look at the auction tent - I caught glimpses of beautiful spinning wheels and looms from the corner of my eye. Someday, the right spinning wheel will find me. It's like waiting for the right guy to show up in your life....much patience and restraint needed in the meantime!

There is sooooo MUCH YARN and other fiber goodness that one could blow their entire savings in a gluttonous frenzy. Aware of that, I decided to approach this festival like a museum curator - searching out just the right pieces that would round out my collection. I also took along an 8x11" bag and limited myself to whatever it could contain.

I've been trying to spin a bit more, both on my great wheel and the drop spindles, so some fiber was in order. The multicolored batt on the left seemed to have a well-combed preparation, perfect for the great wheel. The yellow ball is basic 100% merino. The bottom fiber is 100% silk - I was hunting for something new to tackle, and this silk called to me. Now to figure out how to spin it!

Black Laceweight Merino - for a gift. I suspect this JaggerSpun is a mill end, thus the handmade label.

 Malabrigo - oh how I love thy colors! One of my goals was to find a yarn I've never knit - and this famous brand fit the bill. I'm a bit wary about how a single will wear (pilling??). This will likely become a scarf or cowl for a gift.

 50/50 merino/silk "Solo Silk" from a vendor from Texas (I'm so bad at remembering names!). The colorway is a bit more subtle of a gray-neutral-cream than what the photo shows. I fell in love with a (free!) scarf pattern and decided to knit something for myself. I'm usually drawn to red or blue yarns, so picking this colorway was branching out for me. This is for the "try something that pushes my color envelope" category.

And some non-fiber goodness: heavenly delicious Maple Cream from Justamere Tree Farm (and the kids don't like it! Wahoo! It's all MINE!), an antique egg darner which will be put to good use, and ceramic buttons from Melissa Jean Designs to go with a sweater on my to-knit list.

Maryland Sheep & Wool Fest - Part 1

Saturday found me at the fairgrounds in West Friendship, Maryland for the annual Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival! Every form of wool was present, but first you had to fight the crowds. No worries, friends of sheep are quite pleasant to be around.

 Cuddly alpacas (did you know they hum? Hmmmm?)

Some very hard working sheep dogs (and very stubborn sheep)

 This is Fred, the sheep

 Brand new wool, um, I mean lambs, born that very morning, yet unable to stand - awww!

super cuddly angora rabbit - with nasty, pointy teeth! Just kidding, she was so calm her owner held her on her lap and spun the hair directly from the rabbit! I want one!

There were all forms of four-legged wool - didn't see any llamas, camels, bison, muskoxen, or yaks, though (but I did see the yarn made from them, even 100% dog hair yarn - ewww). I'll show you the products from these beauties in my next post. 

Little Red Riding... beret??

Back to the knitting this weekend. This was a super fast and easy knit hat with a lace pattern just around the crown. The pattern shows the hat as a beanie or watch cap style, but I blocked it over a plate to give it some beret-like slouch. Tight fitting hats over big hair never work for me! I tend to look like the big bad wolf after pulling off a wool hat, but this one is pretty loose so I think it won't leave flat hat hair.

Old Fern Hat (Ravelry link)

frisbee? sea urchin? hat? 

It's very difficult to take good hat self portraits! 

Red hats are like a pair of red shoes.... every gal needs one

even Grandma sports it with style!

The yarn is basic but serviceable Lion  Brand Wool Ease. I think there's enough left in the skein to make a second one or a matching cowl in this lace pattern.

Preparing for a High Feast

We are getting ready to celebrate Easter - or Resurrection Day, as I prefer to call it. The word "Easter" is derived from the name Roman fertility goddess, Ishtar. And what better sign of fertility than a rabbit, right? Thus all the bunnies and eggs that the merchandisers push at us. Now I've eaten my fair share of Cadbury Eggs and chocolate bunnies and enjoyed every bite, but this day is about new life in a different way.

Every Sunday we have a special meal as a family to celebrate the Lord's day and Him coming to life, conquering sin and death. We light candles, haul out the nice china, and try to make food that everyone likes. (It's hard to celebrate when you have to muck down peas, right?) We practice polite table manners and generally try to be joyful. Oh, and to remind the kids that this is a sweet day, everyone gets chocolate or candy on their plate - and, are you ready for this - they get to eat that first! Yes, 'tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. But Resurrection Day is the day to celebrate the promise of new life He gives us! So we do it up BIG. I want the kids to remember that this is an extraordinary feast....so all the stops are pulled out. Pressed linens, candles, flowers, cloth napkins. No cutting corners here - the best to glorify God!

We eagerly await our celebration tomorrow! May yours be blessed, too!

Another small quilt

A spring quilt for a special girl is in the works! I had an unusually large amount of pink and aqua fabric in my stash, mostly Jennifer Paginelli fabrics, and it was time to move them out. As much as this color combo is overdone (gack! I even dressed in pink/blue today!), it does work well together, especially for a little girl.

In a dark room on a gray, rainy day, this is where it stands. I realized that several prints aren't even represented here. That doesn't really matter because I'll probably move these around a ton before settling on the final layout anyway.

Blue Skies Shawl

Blue Skies Shawl - Ravelry project page here.

Approx 660 yards of yarn!

73" x 18" at deepest point of curve

I started this project so I'd have some brainless knitting to do on a long flight to Ireland and back last fall. A nice garter stitch shawl with just enough stripes to keep it interesting. But before I got back to the States, I ran out of yarn. An online friend sent me what I needed. Thank goodness for the internet!! When the lace edging was 80% complete, I ran out again (!). So I completely ripped out the lace. The same online friend had more yarn - so I finally got around to reknitting the lace, which only took about 4 days. So this project yielded a bit of frustration and took several months instead of a couple weeks.

It's very cozy - and large! At 73" from tip to tip, this shawl is perfect to wrap up and snuggle in! Great for sunny, but chilly, spring days.