WTF?

Not really sure what to make of the holidays this year... My daughter and I flew to Anchorage last Monday on our first ever shopping trip- just the two of us. About 5 hours into department store overload, I get a phone call from my husband that his father in Ireland just died and that he has to go home. So, he makes arrangements to drop our son off at a friend's house, gets the neighbors to watch our dogs and bales for the old country. My daughter and I spend the evening trying to cram 3 days of clothes shopping for the whole family into less than a day. Talk about burnt! We flew home the next day and the house was like one of those sci-fi movies where a team of space travellers enters a drifting craft void of all signs of life- cup of tea half finished, clothing strewn about, lights left on- that sort of thing. Like they merely stepped out for a cigarette and would be back any second.

It took a few days to settle in and get the house back in order. Tried to work on some art projects but couldn't get my brain around it. Talked alot with my husband on the phone who was emotional to say the least- tough, burly fisherman that he is- and heard all the details about the burial and could hear the music and drunken singing in the background. It was quite the wake. Anyhow, the only flight he could get home to Kodiak was today- Christmas Eve. Yesterday was clear skies and beautiful. Today, fog to the ground and its blowing a blizzard. Needless to say he didn't make it in. All flights were cancelled. He's booked for an early moring flight but I seriously have my doubts. It's looking like he may well be spending Christmas in a hotel room in Anchorage, alone. Suck. All I can say is that I hope the hotel has a well stocked bar.

Now if you think thats pathetic, it gets even better. Today I busted my 9 yr old daughter shoplifting! I FLIPPED! Yeah I remember doing stupid shit like that when I was a kid, and most adults my age have similar stories, but the fact that its Christmas Eve... She got marched right back in the shop and had to own up to what she did. Ofcourse the owner's son who works there is one of the nicest guys I know- even when he's trying to be menacing he's sweet. She was so embarrased and ashamed. So now what? Its Christmas Eve. She's officially in the top ten on Santa's naughty list! Do I fill her stocking with rocks? Cancel Christmas? Or as my hardass husband suggested: Let her open all of her presents then take every last one to the Salvation Army? I did put her to work doing chores, took away her favorite distractions: tv, video games, access to the computer, her friends and music, and grounded her from them all. Do I let her open her gifts and then ground her from playing with them as well? This sucks! Kids need to come with very detailed instruction manuals that have an extensive chapter on trouble-shooting.

Anyhow, I'd like to wish everyone a happy holiday (free of family drama -as if thats even remotely possible) and all the best in 2008! Cheers!

M.I.A.

Long time no post. Seriously- I'm not slacking off here... life has been insane since I got back from ArtFiberFest in October. Running a retail shop has meant giving up my creative time and focusing on planning, ordering, packing & shipping orders and staying on top of book keeping.

Even though I've been stocking the yarn shop for the holidays, trying to stay on top of housework and making time for family, I have managed to squeeze out a few projects that I'll post photos of soon, as well as take part in organizing an art show in our retail building. Sold a couple of my peices which was pretty exciting and also had some of my felt work selected to hang in the new Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center through the summer months. Getting ready to submit my latest felted peice for the All Alaska Juried Exhibition and finish up an article for an upcoming issue of Artitude!

On top of all that, we have been planning for the past year to make our house bigger and now it seems it's all about to begin. We're moving out of our house Jan 1st and will start knocking things down and getting the lot ready for new construction. Thought we could just build up and add on, but our house was so poorly built (originally a cabin built from salvaged stuff by a car mechanic) and added on to over the years that its not even worth trying to deal with. Nothing is level or lines up- a serious nightmare to try and engineer. Yeah, we could have just sold our house as is and bought another one, but we have such awesome neighbors on both sides and a killer mountain view in a quiet cul-de-sac that I simply can't bring myself to leave. Good neighbors are hard come by.

Now that I've gotten completely side-tracked from the original reason for this post, I'll get to the point: there is a little blurb on whipup.com about spinning art yarns!
http://whipup.net/2007/12/02/hardcore-handspun/#comments

ArtFiberFest 2007

Here's some of the stuff I made while at ArtFiberFest 2007 in Port Townsend Washington. To see more photos of this event, click on my flickr link in the sidebar. I'll post more pic's of projects made soon....

Fairytale Yarn

This was made for me by my friend Liz for a yarn/fiber swap we did back in April. I had to be very very patient- but I'd say it was well worth it!

Guilty Pleasures

I'm having to cut myself off from doing any more swaps or art projects and focus, focus, focus. Must spin more yarn.... The top peice was for a local art show called "Talking Trash" where trash had to be used in the composition. The little matchbox with ATC's was a swap I could not resist participating in as well as the mail art where you had to make your own envalopes in addition to the art. Now- Back to the wheel and to pimping out the yarn shop.

Animals Smell When Wet

Animals Smell When Wet was a spin challenge recently posted by Pluckyfluff on her blog. The idea was to create a yarn the was either water proof or water resistent without using any animal fibers. Starting today, folks can vote for their favorite entry at http://pluckyfluff1.livejournal.com/ The winning spinner will receive a skein of yarn Pluckyfluff spun that provided the inspiration for this challenge. The materials I used to create my yarn include a water resistant jacket, vintage oil cloth, polar fleece hat, plastic coated wires, plastic bag and a foam packing sheet. Please drop by Pluckyfluff's blog to vote as well as http://www.yarnmuseum.com/ to see more photos of all the entries.

Vintage Inspired

Inspired by vintage fabric sent to me in a swap with Lulubeans. Extra fine merino spun with vintage fabric, felted slubs, wool coils, recycled silk and mohair locks. Plied with vintage thread and beads.

ArtFiberFest 2007

My registration packet for ArtFiberFest 2007 arrived in the mail yesterday. I'm so excited to be attending this year and can't wait to get off island in October for a creative retreat- no demands from kids, house or husband for four glorious days. Just art, art and more art!
For anyone unfamiliar with ArtFest or ArtFiberFest, these are yearly events hosted by Teesha Moore www.teeshamoore.com Each event is packed full of fabulous workshops to choose from. This year it is being held in Port Townsend, Washington- one of my favorite towns in the lower 48. There is still space available- just visit Teesha's website for more details on workshops and how to register. Lampe's Lumps is teaching a spinning workshop there this year!
The blank doll included in the registration packet is for me to alter and enter in an unjuried show during AFF. I've never made/embellished dolls before, so this should be an intresting project. Look forward to meeting new fiber fanatics!

Journal Pages

Hard to believe its been more than a month since I've blogged anything! I've been so busy with my kids being out of school & taking advantage of the nice weather that I've had little time for creative endeavors. My sister and her 4 kids are staying here for 3 weeks. It's been a riot hanging out with my sister- she's the one person who gets me, who truly knows me and I can entirely be my eccentic self around. I wish we didn't live so far apart. It's been wonderful digging up the past and getting to relive forgotten days through stories and memories of growing up. I'm amazed that I've got 6 kids under my roof at the moment, which is rather small to begin with, and I'm not even losing my mind despite all the girly arguments and screaming toddlers! I've been creepng into my closet off and on, which I've converted into a makeshift studio, and working on bits and peices to satisfy my creative impulses. These are the fruits my efforts. The first 2 are pasted in my journal, while the other two (which are much smaller) are waiting for backgrounds to be worked into. I've managed to spin a little yarn, but haven't set the twist on any of them yet or taken any photos. More projects are in the works...

More Mail Art

The themes for these were gleaned from my swap partners' profiles. The top one was sent to Panda in Hawaii- she liked Brian Frou's artwork, fairies, stars, metallic and the color blue...

The other was sent to Tiaragoth in the UK. She fancied goth, tiaras, sparkles- I went full on girly goth with real feather boa sewn to the edges. Hope she likes!

Mermaid's Garden

Gnomes!

This was a fun yarn to create. Assembled fabric gnomes, felted mushrooms, leaves and branch- all spun up with blended wool, angelina and mossy novelty yarn bits. Plied with ladybug beads and pewter gnome charms. I have plans for another gnome yarn ( the idea has grown a little more elaborate) and have started felting up new additions. This one is on its way to Lulubeans.

Piss Off!

This was spun from recycled flannel with vintage thread and assembled fabric skulls.

Mail Art

This has been my latest distraction- I was tempted to stray from spinning by a mail art swap on swap-bot. The top postcard was sent to Lithuania and the bottom to Germany. I still have 4 more to create and send.

Garment District Competition

OK, here's one for you and your friends who use handspun yarn in your creations! It'll be limited to garments and/or anything that can be worn on the body. So it could be hats, scarves, sweaters, jewelry, socks, slippers, leg warmers, etc. It can be knitted, crocheted, woven or other, and it must utilize handspun in some way, whether it's used as trim or the main yarn. The yarn does not need to have been spun by you. Your pictures can show the whole item or a detail, but please do let us see the use of handspun in the article. Perhaps this show will be an incentive for finishing holiday projects early :) Deadline: October 15, 2007.

Here's a selections of the prizes that will be awarded:

http://www.yarnmuseum.com/garmentdistrict_prizes.html

For more details about submission guidelines:

http://www.yarnmuseum.com/submit.html#garment

Spring Eternal

Here is the yarn I started that grew into the felted wall hanging below. This yarn was made for Wooldancer in Austrailia. She and I are engaged in a seasonal yarn swap. Spring for me- Autumn for her. I had alot of fun putting this yarn together. I'm working on another yarn that will also contain branches with leaves, blossoms and buds.

Spreading the News

Pluckfluff's new book is available for pre-sale on amazon.com... Viva la Handspun Revolution!

Better Late than Never

Yeah, these photos are way over due. Here it is though- my tribute to the joys of childhood and the easter morning sugar high. Marshmallow peeps, chocolate foil wrapped eggs and jelly beans!

Show Entries

Our annual Crab Festival Art Show is happening this weekend.
The reason I haven't been blogging much lately can be seen below:


This actually started out as a yarn project I envisioned and grew into something bigger. I still made the yarn, though- 2 different skeins based on the initial concept. I've got one skein nearly finished which is part of a seasonal yarn swap I'm participating in. The other skein is still in the works. I'll post pictures of both yarns when they are completed.

Ok, this one was not so spur of the moment-inspirational where it all comes together nice as pie like the peice above. This was one of those projects that I started almost a year ago and finally got around to actually doing something with it. The background was made ages ago. The crab was a recent decision- hard to start, difficult to stay focused on and major burnout trying to complete. My head hit the pillow at 3:00 am on a school night trying to finish in time. Alarm clock went off at 7:00 and I pounded the snooze button for 40 minutes. Just glad I got it done, as I was sorely tempted to leave it till the show in November at The Fly-By. Title: Dungeness

Yarn Update

I'm pleased to announce that my yarns have been picked up by Artisan Knitworks. They are a retail shop that specializes in handspun and hand-dyed yarns. Check out their website at:
www.artisanknitworks.com

Now if I could just find some time for spinning! I've been prepping fibers, but have been busy with the fiber shop and working outside cleaning up all the winter junk and debris. Now that the snow has melted you can see all the garbage and junk the wind has left lying about- not to mention stuff that never got put away. We are planning to finally get our house built this summer, so we have to clear things out before the ground work can begin. So, major clean up and hauling stuff to storage. Keep your fingers crossed all the paperwork goes through- our roof leaks and we need more space. I really don't think the duct tape on the ceiling is going to hold out another year.

My husband is leaving soon for a month long fishing trip to the Bering Sea. Once he's gone, I'll be spinning up all those fibers I've been preparing. So far I have 9-10 yarns that are ready to go. This week I will be working up even more- I hope. I have some felted art peices to try and finish for our annual art show at the end of the month. I try to submit new work every year- it gets me motivated to felt- something I enjoy but never seem to do very often.

I finally finished the marshmallow easter peep yarn. I'll sneek some photos at work tomarrow when Liz is busy- as it's a surprise for her. We work in the same building are are constantly sharing creative ideas, venting our rage and generally wasting time together. Thankfully we both work for ourselves, or else we'd be fired for sure!

Battman Batt from Material Whirled

I spun this from a Battman Batt that Reenie of Material Whirled sent to me. It was a serious distraction from my other spinning projects that I have lined up. I spun in little vintage plastic flowers edged in metal. Super cute! There are 154 yds. on this skein.

Vintage Floral

I finally got photos of the yarn I made using a deconstructed asian floral pattern shirt. It took me 30 minutes worth of attempts to finally get the fabric to spin up. It was very slippery. I've also spun in sections and slubs of blended wool & silk. Vintage bobbles and bakelite beads were plied in with sulky holoshimmer thread.