Endurance and Revival

I haven’t posted for a bit mostly because I wasn’t feeling very positive for several weeks in fact I felt pissy  and didn't feel justified in whinging all over you all. My knee was fine but I was so wiped out all the time. It was very frustrating, feeling good when sitting like a lump but not having any juice when I stood up. Ya, ya, I know, three surgeries in a month is enough to suck anybody dry but I was even too tired to read and daytime tv sucks so bad. I started watching Ancient Aliens. And I liked it….somebody save me. 

 

But this week I’ve got enough energy to wear out my new knee! Today it is sore from pushing at physical therapy and I'm happy about it. About last week I got some of my energy back. Not all, I still get wiped out but I can do stuff, yay! I can vacuum, I’ve finally been up to the barn and I can drive for more than an hour, I can cook dinner, and empty the dishwasher and best of all I can take a shower and not have to sit down immediately. I can even shop for a while without using an electric scooter.  My left knee (the one that isn't replaced) can't keep up with the new shiny right knee, I will have it replaced Oct 15th. (Here I go again, although it should only take one surgery this time.)

So to catch you all up on what I've been doing on the fiber/fabric front: since it was cool enough to get into the studio a few times, I made 2 pairs of bike type shorts. I took my favorite pair that was wearing thin, laid it on the fabric and cut around them then sewed ‘em up on my serger. Took less than an hour each, they fit great and cost 1 yard of fabric. Gave me a lot more confidence in my pattern making skills, making elastic waistbands and using my serger.

And I'm working on some really cool embroidered pictures from the classes I took with Judith Baker Montano at Quilt Knit Stitch two weeks ago. I'm working on two, a landscape and an underwater scene. Her method uses lots of layers. I still working on the backgrounds which use small light and uncomplicated stitches on top of the fabric shapes that define the landscape. I'll be adding many more layers of heavier stitches as I work to the foreground.

I Went to a Fiber Garden Party

Yesterday I went to a Fiber Garden Party, lots of fiber, spinning, and eating as is common with my  friends so of course it was a fun day! We gathered at Betty Neer’s home in Ranier. Her family has lived there since the mid 1800’s and played a large part in logging and developing the area. Her home is perched on a large rock bluff overlooking the Colombia River. She says the dirt is only a few inches thick but she has extensive gardens with some of the biggest dahlias I have ever seen. Betty maintains all the gardens herself. When she treated us to a tour of her home we got to see her indoor swimming pool, she says she works out an hour a day in it. I can believe it, she is a strong and interesting woman.

This Fiber Party was also Area 6010 of NwRSA’s quarterly spinning meeting so we had a little guild business to take care of, like electing an area representative. I volunteered to organize our meetings while Audrey Sinner volunteered to be Area Rep, Lyn Ward agreed to continue as our Alt Rep. Shelia January, Diane McKinnon and Marlyn Balzat volunteering to help with whenever needed we voted Audrey in. Yay .

With the business over we helped ourselves to our potluck lunch, salads, homemade pickled beets, squash casserole, deviled eggs, crackers with cream cheese and mango preserve, peach berry pie, and rhubarb crumble topped with whipped cream. Thus fortified we got to the meat of our meeting- the Fiber Garden Party.

Now what is a Fiber Garden Party you ask? We each brought at least 8 oz of colorful fiber, (most of us brought a lot more than 8 oz, a LOT more). It could be any fiber, coarse or fine, from batts to locks, wool, silk, Angora rabbit, mohair and camel. We took it out of various bags and basket, pulled it apart and threw it on Betty’s clean kitchen floor. Poor Betty, it was quite the mess.

We stirred up our big pile of fluff, roughly blending the wide variety of fiber and then we ran it through Shelia’s picker. Diane sat at the end of the picker with a gardening fork raking the fiber from the bottom of the picker into not one but two large garbage bags. We took turns pushing the picker.

 Each of us got to take home as much fiber as we brought. The intention is that it will be spun into art yarn, bumpy lumpy and full of color and texture but there is nothing saying that the fiber couldn’t be run through a carder to smooth it out. I can’t wait to see what everyone makes with it.