Sunday, January 25, 2009

Robert Burns

It's Robert Burns Day, the national poet of Scotland from the 1700's. To celebrate we had haggis, mash potatoes and turnips, peas and a bit of scotch.

We did not follow the formalities of the traditional Burns Supper.

We did however eat haggis.

Our version came in a can and required four minutes in the microwave. It kinda looked and smelled like a lamb flavored dog food. It actually did not taste bad; seemed like a combination of lamb liver, oatmeal and spices. Just goes to show how easy it is to exceed the lowest of low expectations.

I survived haggis and was able to weave another day.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Beetles Out and About

Here are some photos of pieces from My Beetle Collection. These plus others are currently being exhibited at the library at the LA Arboretum. The exhibit will be up until the end of March. They are designed to be realistic but artistic and woven with sulky sewing thread.



The pieces look especially nice coupled with baskets.


The Arboretum did a lovely job of hanging the exhibit.


So check it out if you are in the Pasadena area.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Back to Pulling

Well, the holidays are over and its time to start pulling again on my tapestry spiral.

Now that I am focusing on this, I have found a good way to pull that seems efficient and as quick as I can make it without making a mess. You may recall this woven tapestry material is over 13 yards long and there are 32 warp ends. That is a lot of warp to pull.

The crossed out boxes on the spreadsheet indicate a triangle that has been pulled. It indicates I am about half done.

I think it will still take several more weeks of pulling before its all pulled. I am alternating between weaving my tapestry of Uranus and pulling this spiral. Both need to get done soon. Then it will have a bunch of finished, steaming, tweaking and mounting.


PS it really is not as neat and tidy a process as this photo would imply...