New Skirt

I finished my skirt and I love it! The silk gives it great drape and swing!! Polli got to see it today...and agreed I used my gifted yarn well!!

New Toy

My new Genie Portable Sewing Machine Pro Mini !! This little baby is gonna keep my marital life running smoothly!! I have two full size sewing machines, but our solar power system isn't up to running either one of them for very long! So if I want to use one, we need to run our gas generator. But then as I'm sewing away, my loving husband will remind me that it's costing me $3 a gallon to do my sewing!! LOL This little baby came with an AC/DC adapter...and only uses one amp of power! It also runs on 4 AA batteries! I was expecting something much flimsier...junky, but it's very well made with stainless steel parts...very smooth!!

It's tiny size means I can pack it right in with my knitting stuff when I travel! It's so cute!! Look, my handcarders are bigger than it is!! These normally go for $50, but I bid on ebay and got it for $19.50 and free shipping!!

So my honey won't be mad at me for draining our power system....or using up all the generator gas......or for having too much stuff packed when we hit the road!! Well....not over my sewing machine anyway !! LOL

April Socks n Things

Happy 4-20 to all of my goofy, pot smoking stoner friends!! I know this is your favorite holiday!! LOL Hope no one falls down and hurts themselves!!

These gorgeous socks are for my sister Olivia! These are another rendition of the Wavey Lace socks....done as an anklet! The yarn is from Knitpicks. I really like their sock yarns, and you can't beat their prices!! I had to do a test run of course!!

Here are the matching armwarmers to go with my hoody vest sweater, they came out great too. The cable pattern for these came from Evelyn....the pattern on Ravelry. I made the long ones, and they come up to just below the elbow.

These are shorty hand warmers...done in a sport weight wool. These are going towards my Taos Wool Festival stash of stuff! Getting a headstart is always good!

Merce's hoping for me to start producing some more radical stuff.....so we'll see what the next ones look like! She's right though, my crazy insane armwarmers were the most popular.

New Skirt

Awhile ago, when Daniel and I went to Albuquerque, we got to hang out with our friend Polli. We went out for dinner and soaked in the hottub of our hotel, it was alot of fun! Polli gave me this great yarn that she had picked up for me!! It's silk! She said she wanted me to make something sexy out of it!

So I started a new summer skirt. I'm not using a pattern...just making matching curved strips that I'll seam together and see what happens!! LOL, wish me luck! I started this April 4th.

I decided to alternate strips....with another silk blend yarn I happened to have in my stash. The colors are very earthy and I love the drape that silk has!

Footnote: About Che and my previous blog post. Thank You Carmen for your great comment. I have spent the last few days learning alot about Cuba and Castro and Che and the embargo and a bunch of history that I was woefully ignorant about!! There is so much information to take in. I didn't know who Che was before I saw Twilight's purse, but of course I had seen the image before. It's extremely hard to tell who might have been heros and who were monsters. Nothing seems clear cut. But thanks to Carmen's comment, I've set out to keep learning!

Birthday Presents

Twilight gave me this knitted purse for my birthday! It's a matching one to hers that she's carried for years now. It's Che...the iconic figure of revolution!! This is the back side.....very cool. The inside is beautifully lined and has great little pockets. She did an awesome job on the zipper.

Inside the purse...was this beautiful skien of yarn that she picked up on her trip down to the Southern part of the state. Twilight gives the best gifts!! I love them!! I can't wait to see what I'm going to do with this!

Finished Sweater

This is my completed Hoody Vest out of Knitscene. I wanted to make sure it was done before I got caught up in all my other projects!! Lupus has done it's very best to distract me from my goals, and hammer me down, but I feel like I'm persevering!! I might miss great parties with all my very bestfriends, but I'm going off the hook with my knitting and art!!! Even when I'm in bed...I can knit and draw and make lists...inbetween falling asleep.

I have two and half balls of yarn left, so I'm going to make matching armwarmers.

Lupus Update

So Lupus has been kicking my butt again! I've been in serious denial that my current treatment isn't working because I'm scared to start a new treatment. I've gotten a good handle on the Imuran, Plaquenil, and Prednisone treatment...I've gotten used to the effects. But now I have to stop being stubborn, and accept that changes need to be made. My only alternative is to stay on high doses of Prednisone, and that's just not good for my life at all.

My Platelete count dropped down to 80,000 from 126,000. And yesterday I began to develope big bruises on my body again, so we have a hunch that my levels have dropped even further since Tuesday when I had my blood work done. I go to Los Alamos next Tuesday for an appointment.

Yesterday I had what felt like a flare. I was in the middle of Walmart, talking to Twilight on the phone, and suddenly I couldn't walk right...and my brain went fuzzy...and the left side of my head began to throb. Places on my skin began to burn and itch. I didn't keep my lunch down. By time the evening started I was in bad shape!!! But I stayed in bed and went to sleep early...slept for 11 hours and woke up feeling functional. Today I feel like I'm just recovering from a nasty flu.

So I'm faced with having to do a bunch of other stuff that I'm dreading. I have to apply for a new State aid for medical expenses. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that we have a new program that will supposidly include and cover me, it's just the application process I'm anxious about. I'm terrible with paperwork and keeping "proof" of stuff that they want to see. I lost my S.S. card forever ago....and have to figure out how to get a new one before I can even start this mess. The new treatment of Cellcept is $952.16 a month....some places it's as high as $1,500.00. And that's not counting the other medications I'll still be taking. So I'm going to begin by making some phone calls today, wish me luck!!

So that's it for now!! I'll post more next week!!

The Hudson

Twilight and I started "The Hudson" sweater pattern......hmmmm...months ago! I finished first. Daniel got his for Christmas....Thebes got his the night before the show opened!! I'm not laughing at her, but, WOOT WOOT!! I finished first!! We made the guys wear them to the show so we could get good pictures of them in their sweaters together. We made the same pattern, the same size, with the same yarn in different colorways. It's Malabrigo yarn. I made mine, like the pattern suggests, as a zip up hoody. Twilight made her into a pull-over hoody with a short zipper at the neck. Both turned out excellent!! I totally recommend the pattern, but not the yarn....at least not for a man's sweater. The yarn isn't very durable, but it's heavenly soft!!

For a more close-up look, refer to previous post "Beyond the Fringe: Photo Op"

Beyond the Fringe: Photo Op

I love the few opportunities we get throughout the year, when we're all dressed up and feeling good, and we're all together!! Photo Time!!! Here is Twilight and Thebes in front of The Green Man. Aren't they the cutest hippy couple ever?? Me and my bestfriend, my sister, Twilight.

Me and my loving, supporting, wonderful Husband in front of "Spontaneous".

I love group photos!!!

Twilight, Merce, and Me

Twilight and Helen. Helen is wearing her brand new Snood, that Twilight just finished and gave her at the show!! She's so adorable in it!!

This is the whole BTF crew!! Forgive me for not listing everyone's names.

New Works Beginning

Ok, here's the beginnings of "The Grey Lady". I've been sketching and planning this large installation piece for about a year and a half....and it's go time!! Here is what I've collected over the past year with the help of Twilight and Merce, who lovingly scavenged the Free Box and the junk stores for me. This is supposed to be for next year's BTF show, which has the theme of self-portraits. Merce got the idea from me while I was telling her about the Grey Lady.
So far I've ripped out 4 full sweaters...and have a couple more to go. I have at least that many to cut apart for pieces. I put out a call to all my local friends pleading for any gray materials they might have and want to part with.

This is a smaller piece...getting the cabled background framed. This is going to be a needle felted wall hanging piece. It's about 16 x 20 or a bit smaller??

After the show, and the weather turned nice...I opened all the windows and did a major cleaning and sorting inside the studio to organize all my yarn for upcoming new works. The is the collection of yarn for "The Other Side", my next large wall hanging piece. It's so exciting to build the palette of shades, preparing to start!

Beyond the Fringe: Part 1

All photos taken by Thebes

By me, "Mother/Daughter" Mother/Daughter detail shot

By Me "Merce"

Merce Detail shot

By Twilight, "Through our pain we know Love"

By Twilight, "Green Man"

Greenman detail shot

By Merce, "Spontaneous"

Spontaneous detail shot

By Merce, "Current"

Current detail shot