Bailey and Spot
Bailey’s very lean, and so he gets cold easily. He was shivery after going outside, so I wrapped him up in a blanket. Spooky (also now called Spot) came and cuddled up with him.
Peony still in progress
This is the peony embroidery, still in progress:
I’ve gotten a lot more done, but it’s still got about a third of the flower to go. I just finished dyeing the silk for the leaves/stem, so I can work on that once I finish the petals.
This is the cool part about working with silk – when you move it, it catches the light.
In progress: peony embroidery
I’ve had embroidery on the brain for a while now. I’ve been doing more thinking than stitching up to this point, and I’ve finally made some silk I’m happy with so I’ve started work on a project.
This is a sample for me to get my hand around working with the silk; by about the third petal, the silk was finally starting to talk to me and tell me how to work with it. I’ve looked at videos, read books – but I find with any tactile technique, having the actual stuff in my hands is the best teacher. This is about half the weight of the embroidery silk I had made previously; it’s four (instead of 8) of my forty-denier (or so) filaments, with a light twist that I can then work back out during the stitching. Dyes are Jacquard acids.
The peony underway. I started by drawing the peony freehand onto the silk, based on a piece embroidered by Young Yang Chung (photo taken from her book, below) and then stitching the outlines and starting to fill with long and short stitch. The main thing that took me a while, was figuring out that I could make LONG stitches… some of them an inch or more – to get the look I want. I’ve been looking at photos and actual pieces of Chinese and Korean embroidery, which is the look I’m after; they take some surprisingly long stitches, which brings a lot of sheen to the surface as the light reflects off the long silk.
More photos, and discussion about stitch patterning
Kid & Ewe
I’m going to Kid & Ewe & Lamas Too this weekend. I’m guessing that it’s “Lamas” meaning “Members of Genus Lama” so that includes all the South American camelids – rather than Lamas of the Tibetan variety.
I’m going to be doing two workshops (or one long workshop in two parts, depending on how you want to look at it) on tablet weaving – the first covers how to warp and do basic patterns like stripes, checks, and solids, and the second covers three decorative techniques: double-face, Egyptian Diagonals, and Brocade.
Who else is gonna be there? I know some of y’all go – definitely stop and say howdy if you do!
Me and the BEEEEZZZZZ
This was a very cool, magical experience for me – but definitely not everybody’s cup of tea. Don’t click here if you’re squeamish about the BEES BEES, I said, BEES!
We're Down to the Final Three….
We’ve placed seven of the eleven kittens and we’ve trapped the mommas and taken them to KittiCo and gotten them fixed, vaccinated, tested, etc.
We’ve still got three kittens that need homes. They’re sweet little kitties; they’ve been handled since they were about four weeks, and they’ve been living inside for most of a month now. One (Tiger, brown tabby male) is from the litter I took to the vet for worming and flea treatment; he is about a week or so ahead of the others in age. The other two (Spookey, black short-hair male, and OG, red tabby male) haven’t been wormed or flea treated, but living inside with the other kittens has gotten them pretty flea-free. They use the litter box just fine, are easy to handle, etc. Please let me know if you know of any homes for these little guys!
marriedtothesea
Saw this on Married to the Sea, loved it!
MORE Kittens!!
We had a cat deliver kittens under our back deck. We have placed all but one… little Tiger.
This is Tiger. Tiger is about 9-10 weeks old, litter trained, flea-treated, and wormed. He’s been handled daily since about 5 weeks, and he’s lived inside with us for the past three weeks. He’s energetic and has a good disposition. He’s ready to be somebody’s kitty. He’s a really precious cat, but we have 3 (we’re keeping one kitten, and already have two other rescue cats) plus three dogs. Our house is FULL.
We are also helping to place another litter which Momma Kitty’s adult daughter, whom we call Pretty Kitty, had across the street. The folks there have been feeding and handling these kittens for almost 5 weeks. Since we took away Momma Kitty’s kittens, she’s been helping to raise and feed her daughter’s litter, and she brings them over to our house for additional food. These are all boys. They’re a little younger than our litter; they’re probably 8 weeks now, eating solid food all the time and so far as we can tell no longer nursing. They haven’t gone to the vet, but appear in good health. We flea-treated Momma Kitty (who is the grandmother of these kittens), and it seems like it’s cut down on their fleas – they do have a few, but not many. Yes, we are working with KittiCo to get Momma Kitty and Pretty Kitty spayed, and we’ll neuter our kitten when it’s old enough.
(Momma Kitty on the right, Pretty Kitty on the left)
click here for more info on the litter-from-across-the-street!
Garage Sale
GARAGE SALE!
Chris and I are planning a garage sale this weekend, Saturday 9/1 only, 8 AM to 3 or 4 PM or until we got hot and tired and people stop coming by. NOTE: was previously scheduled both days, but now is Saturday ONLY.
Those of you in DFW – if you wanna drop by, please email me at oakenking (at) gmail.com and I’ll give you directions. We’re in Farmers Branch, near I-35 and Valwood. We’ll have signs up at Avenel Street and the corners of Bee and Albemarle, plus probably one on Josey, Valwood, etc.
ANYONE IN THE SCA, I’m planning on putting a bunch of fabric stuff, feast gear, etc., in the sale. We’ll see how deep I end up digging – there may even be stuff like art supplies or fabric paint.