Heal My Life

Laugh till you Pee

Okay, you've got to read it - the Best of Craigslist.  No matter how down you are - you'll be lauging till you pee in no time!

No, I did not eat the ants - This is a post from the list:

I can't believe I ate ants for you - w4m

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Date: 2008-02-21, 9:27PM CST


When you had a small group over for bbq at your place I pretended I didn't notice the tortilla chips had ants all over them and ate them anyway. I didn't want to cause a scene in front of your friends and make them question the sanitary quality of the food they were about to eat. Now that I have gotten absolutely nowhere with you I deeply regret this decision.

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Freeform Peyote Blackbird Bracelet 2

Freeform Peyote Blackbird Bracelet 2,
originally uploaded by Claudia Dunitz.

I just realized that I hadn't blogged since Miss Lucy died. That's two weeks on a dead chicken. Not cool. So I have been busy, and I've had a dental emergency, AND, I have finally, finally, learned to do the peyote stitch!!!

Thanks to a wonderfully talented gal, Marty Sewell, who is a bead artist and teacher and a fellow member of my art quilting guild, I am BEADING for real, with not a lot of mistakes!!! She is incredibly patient, and believe me she seriously needed that patience with me. She doesn't teach often, but you should keep and eye out and run don't walk to take a class with her.

Check out some of her work with Ann Severine

And I promise not to wait so long to post again, I actually have some good news and new projects to show you!

Goodbye Miss Lucy

Miss Lucy,
originally uploaded by Claudia Dunitz.

Yesterday afternoon, we lost Miss Lucy to a predator. It happens here, there are predators galore and no matter how many preventative measures you install, one of the Wiley beasts or birds of prey slip through eventually. So even though it broke my heart, I was prepared because I knew it would happen sooner or later.

We believe it was a bird of prey that took her, because first; as Alpha, she was the smartest and fastest of our little flock, so a ground attack would have claimed one of the slower girls. Second, she was the blond - highly visible from the air. Besides, there was no blood, just scattered white feathers.

Then this morning, Sulei found the biggest owl pellet I've ever seen. As it turns out, it came from a great horned owl. They hunt skunks, so a chicken would be right in their game category.

Poor Miss Lucy - I hope she didn't suffer. She was a very cool chicken, and always seemed to have one leg up on the other girls. She laid the largest egg, ranged the farthest, found the food first, and bravely chased the wild birds from the chicken feeder. But I suppose, as in the rest of the animal kingdom, daring and bravado only get you killed; it's the animals that maintain the best flock and herd behavior that survive.

We'll all miss you Miss Lucy - perhaps you'll come back as a human.

Tree Bark Samples

Tree Bark Samples,
originally uploaded by Claudia Dunitz.

These are my first technique trials for the new art quilt series I'm working on. The series does not yet have a name, but it's based on several old cottonwoods along NM 73.

It took me a few tries to come up with a sample with which I was satisfied, but finally I was happy with poly organza layered over lightweight tyvek, stitched and painted heavily with Pebeo expandable paint mixed with Jaquard Textile Paint - opaque brown.

The sample was pinned loosely to a board and heated with a heat gun, slowly, both front and back until it dried, puffed and distorted. YAY!

Now I can move on to the weeds.

I WON! and Why I Got a Spinning Wheel in the First Place

So does anyone know WHY I wanted a spinning wheel in the first place?  No?  Well that's okay, don't fret about not knowing that my deepest darkest spinning desire is to learn to spin coiled yarn, something that is practically impossible to do with a spindle (at least for me).

To that end, you'd think I'd own Pluckyfluff, the book, but NOoooooo, I've been denying myself trying to get my singles even enough to ply together, a sad, and I'm afraid, rather hopeless goal. So - no Pluckyfluff and certailny no Intertwined (the new book). 

But anyway, I didn't start writing this to moan and groan about my poor spinning, I started this post to tell you that I WON SOMETHING (I NEVER win anything)!!!  And not just any something, wait, that sounds weird, but a really AMAZING something from a really cool blog!!!

I won a copy of Intertwined, Lexie Boeger's new book from Stef at Craftside!!!

   

Be still my heart.  I have lusted for this new book and for her original book Pluckyfluff since I first got my spindle, but I was determined to learn how to spin evenly before I got into the cool stuff I REALLY want to do.  NOW, sinceI didn't go out and buy the book to twmpt myself - I don't have to wait!  Thank you Stef, you MADE my day week  month!

So Craftside is very cool blog about all sorts of crafts.  Also, a very dangerous blog as since I've been over there, I've spent a freakin fortune some money on new craft goodies.  Todays post is about a book and technique.  The book: Mixed Emulsions, Altered Art Techniques for Photographic Imagery by Angela Cartwright.  Stef tried the technique on a photo of a shamrock and she tells you how to do it step by step.  Very cool indeed.  Don't wait, go over there and learn how to spend more money of craft supplies create cool craft things! Craftside.  Go. Now!  You'll love it!

Any Hereptologists Out There?

salamander_2,
originally uploaded by Claudia Dunitz.

Sulei found this little critter yesterday in the mud of our pond. It was dead when he found it, so this photo is as good as it gets for ID purposes. There are a couple of close ups over at Flickr if you need to see more. Sheeesh, the things that dog drags in.

New Mexico...

I took the photo, www.bighugelabs.com did the rest...

Stupid Knitter Award

What is the one thing you should never do when you make a completely idiotic knitting mistake?  Post your question to the knitlist where over 10,000 knitters will have the opportunity to point out your stupidity and you will wake to a mailbox full of gingerly phrased suggestions that you read the entire pattern.

So I'm knitting the Ballet Neck Cardigan by Annie Modesitt.  Now before I go any further, let me say that I've been knitting for over 30 years, and generally, know what I'm doing.  Right.  It only goes to show you that you are NEVER too old or experienced to make ridiculously idiotic mistakes and then repeat them endlessly in a hopelessly unstoppable loop which seriosly feels like the ninth circle of Hell, oh wait, it's just that the wood stove has gone out and the house is freezing.  Note to self: Put more wood on BEFORE sitting down to knit.     

I knit the first six rows, no problemo.  Then, I'm reading the pattern and watching a movie (how hard can this be, it's a movie I've seen before and a simple lace pattern). Five rows in, I discover a major error.  I've left out a bunch of YO's and the pattern looks like a plate of spaghetti.  Stop. Sigh, Rip.  One of the things I always tell beginning knitters is to STOP KNITTING AS SOON AS YOU SEE A MISTAKE!  I tell them that in knitting, the error grows exponentially, just like in engineering measurements.  But the key to that advice is that you actually have to look at the knitting while you're knitting it.  Right.

So I rip and start again.  I get through the first bobble row and turn to purl back.  What's this?  A MISSING BOBBLE!  How in the name of the Ford Fairlane did that happen?  Let me guess; I was watching another movie.  Okay.  So I rip back to the pearl row beneath the bobble and fix the problem.  All clear - right?  Wrong.

I keep looking at the edge of the sweater and since there's only one garter stitch, the thing is curling like, well, a stockinette edge.  This can't be right, I think to myself, STILL not reading the pattern all the way through.  The pattern must be wrong.  Annie is off her proverbial rocker and those people over at IK Knits have failed to set her back to rights. So I call my daughter.  She doesn't have the pattern in front of her, but suggests that I read the free download version as opposed to the version in my older magazine as there may be an update I missed. So I look, and the download version is the same as the magazine version.

Still, I don't read the pattern all the way through.  I'm very unhappy with the way the selvage edges look.  I experiment with crocheting an edge which actually looks lovely, but I'm still not satisfied.  I decide to write the knitlist for help.  And instead of waiting patiently for a response, what do I do?  Yep, you guessed it, I rip the thing back down to the garter rows.  There, I tell myself, that's better, I'm just going to knit all the edge stitches in a garter stitch.  So instead of waiting for an answer from 10,000+ knitlisters, I knit another four rows, and like a good girl, I put the knitting down to watch La Vie En Rose (which was wonderful by the way).

Fast forward to this morning.  Every other email in my box is from a knitlister gently suggesting that perhaps I might consider reading the pattern all the way though, at which point I'll discover that I'm to pick up and knit garter bands on both selvedge edges....

I have to rip out, for the fourth time, the Ballet Neck Cardigan.  I have never had to rip anything as many times, well unless you count the feather and fan socks which drove me to distraction until someone on socknitters kindly suggested I use stitch markers, as this sweater. I sincerely hope that it''s gorgeous when it's done.

The Moral: Gosh, there are so many I don't know where to start.  But how about this; READ THE PATTERN ALL THE WAY THROUGH NO MATTER HOW MANY YEARS YOU'VE BEEN KNITTING AND NO MATTER HOW GOOD YOU THINK YOU ARE.  Sheesh. 

Long Weekend Activities

A long weekend, wow - I remember those!  When you work for yourself, you rarely get to take them "off".  Just one of the benefits of being self-employed.  But this weekend we took all for ourselves!  Which meant that Anthony got to make some furniture (photos to come), and clear some brush and work on the chicken coop and make steamed buns, which were out of this world yummy.  And I got to, well, it's easier if I show you:

This is Thorpe.  I knit it in the large size, don't ask me why, the earflaps hung to my shoulders.  I was bummed until Anthony suggested I felt it.  And Voila! It fits like a charm.

Then I worked on Carmen, a new bag in hot summer pinks and yellows.  I had done the layering of bits back in NY and transported her rolled up in a tube.  I cut and laid on the sheer top layers, pinned them in place and free motion quilted the sandwich together.  Tonight, I'll burn through the sheer top layers on the back between the quilting lines and reveal the bits underneath. 

I can't wait - I just love setting fire to things. It's the best part!

 

 

Then, I brushed Sulei, and I brushed him and brushed him and well, you get the idea.  I have to do something about that straw.

 

And I ate Anthony's yummy steamed buns, and we ate our first EGGS with toast made of Anthony's English Muffin Bread and mulberry jam from last years canning.  And it was all so delicious. We feed the chickens amazing organic feed and give them fresh ground veggies every day and the yolks were a gorgeous deep orange. 

And so our Sunday breakfast was made up of all things we made or raised or wild-gathered ourselves. And I have to admit that it was so satisfying to know that we provided the entire meal in one way or another.  Self-sufficiency is just so darn cool.   

First Eggs!

There have been a lot of firsts around here recently, but none can compare to Anthony finding our girls' FIRST EGGS this morning!!!

Yes, they really are this absolutely gorgeous bluish green.  I'm so excited!!!

More egg photos here.