Violet and Wooley Tails

I love ripping silk yardage into strips, then knitting them...but what to do with those pieces?

Awhile back, a friend from church had given me a box full of mixed fabrics.  I reached for the silk first.  There was this 2 1/2 yard piece of fuchsia crushed silk that I knew would be nice in a scarf, so I overdyed it in violet and starting ripping, knotting, and knitting away.

I took some multi-colored wool yarn and made a crocheted chain out of the whole skein, then felted it in the washer.  I cut it into different lengths and tied the pieces on the scarf in a very random pattern.  Success!

 Here's the photo of the whole scarf.  I wish it was as good as the detail one, but you can see how cool it turned out.




I have 5 more knitted pieces to add tails to.  It was a cinch to "chain" full skeins of white wool yarn, then dye it along with my roving and chiffon fabric, which is usually the silk of choice for nuno-felters.

I love this look!   

Upcycled Art Cloth?

It's been hanging in our livingroom for 2 years, wondering if I was going to do anything else with it.

 It's a piece called "From the Dark Earth" which I completed, I'm thinking, for one of our exhibits at Emmanuel. I started with some black cotton sateen to which I removed some of the black with discharge paste.  I  added color with Caran 'd Arche pastels, wanting to represent the crazy growth that I'd seen in a garden somewhere, and how pollen seems to fly everywhere in the spring (Jason sneezing). It's never been out in public since 2009, and I believe it's now screaming for more attention!  Aching to be quilted, perhaps, then mounted on canvas.

It could be a nice focal piece for the Greenwich Village Art Fair coming up next month here in Rockford. Yes, I'll go and get some wool batting at the store tomorrow, and make a plan to attack it with some major quilting lines.

On another note, I saw the new cardiologist last Friday, and was quite impressed with him.  He answered my questions and said that he thought I would be needing that valve replaced in 3-5 years.  I was relieved to hear that, although he does want me to get my knees done before that - "I want you to be feeling really good and in tip-top shape for the valve job!"  I'm now hoping that the less invasive "Core Valve System" that he said is soon to be approved by the FDA in the U.S.will work out for me, timing wise. I do need some further testing, starting out with a nuclear heart stress test (no treadmill, thank God, because of my knees). He's put me on a medication to calm the arrythmia down a bit, and Lipitor, which I guess is proving to delay the progression of aortic stenosis somewhat.

In the meantime, I'll be felting lots of scarves and planning my display for Greenwich, and hopefully working on a few more of my "Hands" series pieces also for the fair.  Oh, and one more thing...Jason has been accepted to Green Mountain College in Vermont, starting classes August 26th, so Jeff and I are helping him get ready to go.  Gulp, my baby...