Thanksgiving in the City

I left home yesterday afternoon to come spend the Thanksgiving weekend in San Francisco. People on the road were absolute idiots, I had 5 near misses, I gave thanks for making it safe to the city. Lucy and I went on a short walk through the sand dunes to Sutro Park. It was a little after 4 in the afternoon  and the sky was lit up in a warm orange glow. I kept telling myself that I should run back to grab my camera, I didn't and vowed to come out the next day and take some pictures.


After my walk I ran to the grocery store to grab a few things, I had the worst timing, it was 4:50 and I had to search for a parking space.I should've left, it was a mad house in Safeway, I got some cheese and wine and some fresh sourdough bread. I made the easiest tastiest fondue. 


This morning I woke up to Lucy doing her high pitch whine. I climbed out of bed, threw on a coat.and we headed out so she could do her business. It was a blindly sunny day out here in the Richmond district. I talked to the nicest people this morning. It a nice change to what I've grown accustomed to lately.


My biggest reason for getting away by myself is to do some writing I've been putting off. I have too many distractions at home. When I go to the library there is this creepy guy that comes up to me and starts making small talk. It totally throws off my flow. You know I don't go to the library to socialize. I've tried writing in a few other places, I've tried earplugs, but really haven't found a good spot other than my tent and here in the city. Maybe it's all in my mind, shouldn't  a person be able to write anywhere or are there spots that are more conducive to artistic expression? 


My big plans for the day were to go on a walk and take some pictures. I stayed close to home. This area is my home, this apartment is my first home, I've been walking the same sand dunes and through Sutro park for my whole life. I never tire of seeing the same scenery, it's comforting that something remains the same. 

 The view from the sand dunes

 Lucy in her new coat

 Ice plant

 Yup, that's a naked guy sunning himself at the beach.

 The view from The Cliff house

 I caught a picture of a surfer catching a wave.

 Sutro Baths

 Waves breaking at Sutro Baths.

 I've always loved this rock with the heart.

 Lion statue at the gate to Sutro Park

 In all my years of coming to this park I never noticed the elephant in the tree, till someone pointed it out to me.

 Sunsetting on Thanksgiving

 Sunset at the sand dunes.

And back to where I started from.

Fall and other colors

I went on a walk Friday before the storm blew in. I have really been neglecting my camera, and the joy that I get from taking pictures. I love getting lost in the world looking through the viewfinder. Years ago when I was taking photography classes one of the lectures was on perspective. After looking at the pictures that I took, I see a common theme, I try and fill up the whole picture with my image, I leave little room to let anything else in. No distractions, full immersion. Lately I've become very introspective, more so than my usual introverted self and I can see that in my pictures. Now the assignment I gave myself was to capture the colors of Fall.

 Once the rain arrived I moved into the Kitchen and began work on dyeing some wool with the acid dye I got. For several days I had been teasing the wool, trying to get more of the VM (vegetable matter) out to open up the wool so I could get a more even color. You would think this process would take no time at all, but for some reason it's very time consuming. To top it off my hands and wrists ache from hours of doing this.I've done a little researching on how to make a drum carder, I'm not real good at woodworking but I think I could make it work. Can you believe the metal cloth to make the carder is $45.00 a foot, it comes in 8 inch widths. To buy one it will run you at least $350.00 and to have it professionally carded is $6.00 a pound.   
 Here is my clean wool soaking in water.

Lucy girl keeping me company. She stared out the window at the wind and rain till the thunder and lightning came and scared the poor pup away.

 Chartreuse -  had one batch done and was cooling my second batch. I kept the dye from the first batch added more dye and simmered it at 200 degrees for an hour, the second batch did seem to be a bit darker.

 All my wool in the sunshine drying. I have Chartreuse, Electric Violet and Alpine Blue. I took the left over dye from the Alpine blue and added my hand spun wool. I love the lighter blue I got and this actually is what the color is suppose to look like.

 In my teasing of the wool I tried to leave some of the tight little curls.
 Another shot of the Alpine blue yarn.

Here is the rainbow art yarn before I added the silk thread.
I took the art yarn that I had spun earlier and plied it with a light grey silk thread. When I washed it the grey thread turned a little pink, I'm really happy with my first attempt.



 Before

and After. I'll think I'll ply this with silk thread like the other batch.

I think I need to take a break from Dyeing and spinning and get back to jewelry making. When I was at the Blacksmith shop with John last Saturday I saw one of the necklaces that he sells at Renaissance fairs.

Without knowing what it was I was looking at I carried it over to John and said this would look really cool with a piece of sea glass hanging down. John told me to take it home and see what I could make. OK, I said, then he told me it's a necklace made of steel,  a small piece of armor worn around your neck to keep your enemy from decapitating you.  Before I left the shop John handed me four more and said, see what you can come up with. He said he'll put some of the finished ones at the shop where he sells his creations and I could put some on Etsy.

More Kool Aid Dyeing

I was looking for dyes the other day online, I saw Joann's was having a sale, I rushed right over to pick up some dye 2.39 for 1/2 oz. I get over there and they don't have the dye, they tell me the closest super store that will have it is in Citrus Heights, I go home and give them a call to make sure they have some in stock, well they didn't, what the heck, what a girl gotta do to get some dye. So I decide to just order some and have it shipped to me. Well now frugal me has to do some searching, I found a company in San Rafael, Dharma Trading Co. I got 2 oz for between 3.98 to 5.75, I got a several different colors, fire engine red, chartreuse, electric violet, Kelly green, sapphire blue, brilliant yellow, deep magenta, forest green, blazing orange, plum dandy and alpine blue. I placed my order now I had to wait, but I was in no mood to wait, I wanted to dye wool today. I remembered I bought a bunch of Kool Aid for when the creative mood struck, well it's hear and it's not going to wait for dye order to arrive.

I grabbed a of couple hand fulls of wool from the different bags of wool I have. I soaked the wool in water while I got my jars washed and the dye mixed up.

I did a little more reading on Kool Aid dye and found out that water doesn't dilute the color. Color is based on the amount of Kool aid added as well as the amount of wool used.

I began by adding 2 oz of white vinegar, I add the color I used 1 packet for each color except for the lemonade which I used 3 packet, last time, I hardly got any color from the yellow. I filled up the jar half way with water the same temperature that I had the wool soaking in. Then I added as much wool as I could get in the jar with out overflowing the water. I put the canning jar, one at a time in the microwave I started with 4 minutes. I read that the color will completely be absorbed leaving you with either clear or a milky colored water, so when the microwave went off I would add more time if the water still had color to it.

My rainbow of color from left to right:  Pink Lemonade, Strawberry, Blastin Berry Cherry, Orange, Mandarine Tangerine, Mango, Pina Pineapple, lemonade, Lemon Lime, Ice Blue Raspberry and Grape

 In my reading I came across the process for using several different colors at the same time giving you sort of a rainbow effect. So here's what I did. I laid out a layer of wool for this first one I laid the wool in a spiral,I started at one edge and followed the edge of the pan spiraling in as I went along.Then I sprinkled the colors I wanted in sort of a pie piece sections.

I used lemon lime, ice blue raspberry, orange strawberry and black cherry.

 Next I added another layer of wool in a spiral.

Here's a little peek of the color in the middle. Now very carefully I added water so the wool was just barely submerged.

Sure looks pretty, now I didn't stop there I wanted more color. I added a packet of grape to the places that was still while. I didn't take a picture of my final product before cooking. I put this casserole pan in the microwave and cooked for 8 minutes, I added another 2 minutes for all the color to be absorbed and the water to be clear.

While this was cooking I caught a glimpse of this beautiful tree outside changing colors in the fall. I just had to wander outside and capture the image.

On my way back inside I got sidetracked with nature. I had to get a picture of the flower, I think its a Dahlia.  

My lovely healthy Aloe Vera. Vera started her life with me when I picked up her sickly body out of the gutter and planted it with my cactus, Bob.

Vera up-close.

I was so excited with my first multi colored wool, I decided to do a second one. I had to run to the store to see what other colors I could get. My second multi colored wool consists of Tangerine, Pink Lemonade Pina Pineapple, Mango, Strawberry and like with the first batch, I added more color I poured on lemon lime

Here's a peek before covering the color completely.

Here is the first batch of multi colored wool soaking in water. I really didn't have any residual color left in my clean water.

Here is my multi colored wool drying

Here is my second batch of multi colored wool, I love the colors.

It's really hard to get a good picture of all these colors, I'm almost getting a color shift. I'm using my tripod with no flash

All my single color batches of wool drying.

Once all my wool has dried I will fluff it all up. I've started this process the wools is so fluffy, like billowy clouds. It's so colorful, I love it.

My dye showed up in today's mail, yea!!. I have to finish getting this wool all processed before I get started on a second batch of dyeing.  To top it off I'll be off blacksmithing tomorrow, I need more time. I'm like a kid in a candy store running from one creative outlet to another and another and another...... Oh joy, I'm in creativity heaven