a mingled yarn
Yesterday morning was foggy. I rather enjoy fog in the woods, it’s eerie, otherworldly. In these conditions, my mind easily conjures faeries…
Later, when I was flicking through the photos I’d taken, I couldn’t help being struck by their graphic quality – the picture above is merely cropped, nothing else, – but to me it looks like a pencil and charcoal study on a textured watercolour paper.
And this is where I was walking.
)O(
I’ve set myself a little challenge for 2014.Â
I’ve been walking more or less the same route, at roughly the same time of day, for just over a year now (taking the Delinquent Dog for his morning constitutional). Our walk goes through a wood and down a lane and every day, we pass hundreds of trees.
Now I love trees, but I don’t very often stop to really look at them.
And then at the beginning of January, one morning as we walked down the lane, past this particular oak tree, the sunlight caught it and for the first time, I was struck by its lovely shape. I took a photo.
The next day, the weather was dreadful and staring at the same tree, it looked different. I took a photo.
And so that’s when the idea came to me – Â this year, I shall take a photo of that particular oak tree, every time I walk past it.
The pictures above are from the first couple of weeks – Mother Nature trying out her various lighting effects…
I’ll post a few each month.
Happy stitching.
)O(
The recent high winds, have wrought havoc in the hedgerow along the lane where I walk the Delinquent Dog. Three times since November the lane has been blocked by fallen trees.
The farmers have done a good job of removing the debris, but this gnarled and rotten old trunk has been left at the side of the field, no doubt a wonderful home for tiny wildlife. I’m just fascinated by the shapes and textures. Every day I seem to see something different.
)O(
The end isn’t in sight – yet – but I think I must be over half way by now….
I ripped it out of the frame this morning to take a quick picture while the sun made a rare appearance.Â
The giant clips I bought a few weeks ago are a tremendous hit. If you are working to a pattern, or have worked out in detail exactly which colour you want where, then it might be possible to roll up the canvas on a traditional frame and just work the parts that are visible as you get to them, but that’s not the way I like to do it. I’ve realised that I stitch in much the same way that I paint – so I need to be able to see the whole design all the time (or near as damn it). Â This is much easier to do with the new clips, because they’re so easy to put on and off – they also cope well with the extra thickness of the stitched areas – my old clips (the ones that came with the frame), simply ping off as soon as the canvas gets too thick.
Working with a lot of 4ply knitting wools in this piece has made me start to plot what I’m going to do next. I’ve completely fallen in love with the texture and the stitch definition of these wools, they are a dream to sew with and ideal for the tiny hole size in the linen scrim that I’m using. So I’ll be on the look-out over the coming weeks for the colours I’ll be using on the next piece. I haven’t quite got as far as a proper plan, but the little grey cells are certainly having fun.
Happy stitching!
-)O(-
We were at Raglan Castle a few weeks ago. It’s the sort of castle that forces you to look out across the landscape and up at the towers, but the floor of the Great Tower had me captivated…
Looks like a giant piece of crochet in pebbles.
-)O(-
If you’re interested in historic places, you can read about Raglan over at my history blog, Mists of Time.
I’m sorry if windows aren’t your thing – do feel free to click away now – we’ll still be friends.
But the thing is, as you’ll probably have diagnosed for yourself if you come here often, I have something of a window habit.
Queen Elizabeth I is supposed to have said something like…
I would not open windows into men’s souls.
… a reference to her not wanting to probe into the religious beliefs of her subjects – but I can’t pass an interesting window without those words running through my mind.
Because isn’t it a beautiful image – the window as a gateway to another place, and that other place being the magical realm of our souls.
So please forgive the frequency of windows slipping in here – I find it difficult to pass them without being compelled to look through to the other side.
-)O(-
Oh, and if you were wondering where those windows are – they’re from a rather remarkable gothic folly at Stowe Landscape Gardens
Highly recommended at Hallowe’en!
-)O(-
In meditation, we’re encouraged to still the mind, to quiet the chatter of myriad thoughts and achieve clarity.
Today I find my mind is struggling to find clarity – instead it resembles thousands of shards of coloured glass.
I love stained glass windows – occasionally for the designs, but more often for the impact on my senses of the kaleidoscope of colour.
Window in Bath Abbey
-)O(-
The word of the week here is WAITING….
Perhaps that should be anticipating.
I’m waiting for some new crewel threads to arrive for the current project – I’d sorted out the yarns I was going to use for the rest of it, but the tapestry wools were just proving too thick for the scrim – not fun to deal with, so I’ve ordered a selection of solid colours to complement the delicious 4-plys I’m already using.
My excitement at embroidery actually making it to the TV last week, has set me off feeling experimental – so I’m also waiting for a delivery of different canvas materials – I want to see what I can do with some alternative base fabrics – well it’s good to flex those creative muscles from time to time. I know I’m never going to be a proper embroiderer, but give me a piece of loose-weave canvas and well – who knows…
I’m also waiting for some extra long and strong bulldog clips to arrive – these will – I hope – make it easier to clip the thicker parts of the worked canvas to the frame (this is what passes as technical stuff around here) – suffice to say, the air can get quite blue around me when the plastic clips ping off the frame, leaving the canvas floppy and recalcitrant – I’m pinning great hopes on these new clips.
And a BTW – I’m eagerly anticipating the arrival of my new field guide to mushrooms (readers at Mostly Motley will remember) – found the recommended title online second-hand and a bargain to boot – thank you Catherine.
In the meantime, happy stitching.
-)O(-
I’m not normally in on Wednesday evenings, but last night was an exception.
While I stitched away, I watched two programmes on BBC Four; Guilty Pleasures, about luxury in medieval England, and Fabric of Britain, featuring early medieval opus anglicanum  embroideries.
The trouble with stitching and watching TV at the same time, is that I don’t really see very much, although I hear most of it. Last night, the two programmes seemed to fuse in my mind – they appeared to meld into a single exploration of luxury and colour in medieval times.
Seeing the  crisp bright colours of the Lindisfarne Gospels and the intricate, sensual textures of the opus anglicanum vestments, twanged something deep inside. We tend to think of our early ancestors living a bland existence, but these programmes proved the opposite – they loved colour, they loved pattern and they loved glitz.
And I have to admit I think I retain some of those medieval genes – I might prefer to live in a more neutral colour scheme, but in my art, colour and especially a need for luminosity always seems to come through.
Time and time again, I find myself drawn to stained glass – it sums up so much of what I feel.
-)O(-
The picture above is a detail from a stained glass window at St John Baptist, Claines, Worcestershire. If you’d like to see more of the windows there, hop over to my history junkie blog, Mists of TIme – I’ve just put up a new post about our recent visit.
It’s very nearly the end of the month, so I thought I’d show you a quick update on the current piece I’m stitching. I haven’t given it a proper name yet, although the astute amongst you might be able to see a tree hidden in the pattern, and I suppose tree might feature in the name eventually, but I’ll wait to see if it shows itself more clearly as I stitch, or whether it decides to remain obscure.
So don’t get too excited, this is slow art remember…
Nearly two months in and perhaps a quarter done.
I know you’ll be questioning the sanity of anyone who opts to use tent stitch only on a piece that’s the best part of 2′ square, but what can I say – it feels right to me, or should I say it makes me feel right, because there is undoubtedly a soothing sensation that comes with the act of stitching something relatively fine. And after the textures of the last piece, the urge to create something smooth was undeniable.
Many of us find a peace from the process of stitch – in its many forms – and this is especially true for me in this piece. There is nothing extraordinary about filling little areas of scrim with yarn, and yet, inch by inch, as I sew, the focus of my mind changes and I know I’m calming down, feeling tranquil. It’s that transformation that I love – the fact that at the end I can see a little more filled in canvas, is just an added bonus.
I continue to be delighted with the way both Natalie and Victoria’s knitting wools are performing, they stitch brilliantly, but best of all, as the tiny sections of colour grow and you stroke your finger over it, it feels soft and warm – it’s sensual.
I’ve started to incorporate a few sections in silk. It’s much more of the prima donna to work with – there are creative tantrums, but I want the occasional shininess to slip into the piece and silk does it like nothing else, so in it goes – in moderation.
So there you are – at this rate probably not going to be ready by Christmas, but that’s ok.
Happy stitching!
-)O(-
Dew-covered webs, twinkling in the early morning sunshine.
It looked as if Mother Nature had pulled a hair-net over her while she slept.
By mid-morning, they were gone.
Dreaming In Stitches 