Note from Kathleen
My sister in law, Kathleen Alcocer, writes regarding my last entry:
I’ve got three of my “ancestors” in the juried student art show at my uinversity, even though we were only supposed to enter 2 things. I got around that by entering 2 of them as a diptych.
Plus, three of the body parts I did were juried into an exhibit in St. Augustine. So, even though I’ve only *just* finished all these works, they’re getting out there pretty fast. So, that’s nice.
You go grrrl!!! (Picture is of Kathleen and Pedro’s house… this place is art, too. See the archways, even for the parking area? And you should see inside, it’s so colorful. Kathleen’s favorite color is orange so the place is sunny inside and out.)
Socks and Sweater, Progress but Slow
On the knitting front: Sock for possible publication done and blocked, and it measures as expected (halleluia, I often have gauge problems).
Also, I worked just a little on my eternal sweater (started early September, put away for months at a time, resurrected last Saturday at the Yarn for Ewe Knitters’ night out). I did about 3-4 inches on one arm, then thought it smart to do a little on the other arm (gauge worries again) and realized that a) I am out of the purple yarn for that arm, and b) the yarn I was going to use is a different dye lot, which I knew a long time ago. So I un-knit four rows so that I can alternate skeins for a while but that made me worry about the other arm where I had knit at least 10-12 rows more, and whether I should change dye lots at the same place on both arms.
I have to remind myself that I swore I didn’t care how this sweater turned out, as long as it was reeeeeeeeally warm. It will be really warm. After all, it is two strands of worsted weight Lambs Pride wool/mohair, knit as one, at 2.85 sts/inch. It’s like a very thick blanket!
I could make one arm different than the other, as so many sport garments do, with a stripe of the turquoise on one arm perhaps. Or not. I have never had a dye lot problem before, because I do sox so much… and the one adult sweater I did, I had a whole bag of yarn when I needed less than half of a bag.
So here I am unsure of where to go. To the naked eye, indoors, the purple dye lots look very much the same, but I know that sunshine shows every difference. For now the sweater is back on the “sit and wait” burner. Again. And it was cold enough today that I could have worn the thing if it were done!!!
Dyeing Day Tomorrow
The good news is that my night computer class somehow has no students in it tomorrow and next Thursday. That’s not so great for my short-term cashflow, but it will allow me a night to dye yarns. I am still behind on production (there are at least three folks waiting for me to dye them some specific yarns that I haven’t yet dyed) and it will feel good to do what I must do to get that work done.
Plus, once I have a block of time that big (my afternoon class ends at 3pm) I can get real work done. I’m somewhat relieved to be given that block of time. I have to stop by Altu’s restaurant between Foster Center and home, but since I typically stay up until past midnight, this will be a nice chunk of dyeing time. Yippee!!!
Interesting Website: Mailart and More
Oh, if you feel like surfing a little, you might like to check out this site my brother’s wife Diana sent me. (Does anyone else dislike the phrase Sister in Law? It isn’t specific enough… Kathleen is my sister in law because she’s the sister of my husband… Diana is my sister in law because she married my brother. And Judy [I haven’t mentioned her here before…her primary artform is quilting] is my sister in law because she married my husband’s brother! For some reason I really dislike the vagueness of the label “sister in law,” but as always, I digress.)
The site has some mail art, which is why Diana thought I would be interested. However, there are some other pretty interesting conceptual things there. Unfortunately, some of the pages are very hard to read, either because of tiny text or difficult color contrasts… but the pictures are worthy of some time, I think. Interesting point: I went to maybe 10 of the pages on this site, and it does not mention the name of the artist at all. That seems a bit in line with the mailart philosophy, where folks often take on a mailart pseudonym… there is a biographical paragraph but no name!