"Hipstamatic" homelife

This post is inspired by Barefoot Crofter's seven days posts, which one of these weeks (or months) I may actually manage to do regularly, and in sync, with her.  It's a lovely idea.  I'm a bit in love with my hipstamatic app on my iphone. As you can see below...

Yes, I choose to beat my eggs with a hand cranked egg beater AND I own an iphone. 

Actually, my breda found me an electric beater at the Transfer Site (more on the magic of the transfer site in another post) - and I thoroughly look forward to using it to cream eggs butter and sugar for cookies, rather than beating that by hand...

Dogs in the kitchen.  Intent.  *Sure* that they must be getting some of whatever it is mama is making.  Even the broccoli.  They eat it. No joke.

This is the latest off my loom.  Actually off a loom at the Guild studio.  It is a double weave piece, meaning that there are two separate layers of cloth, with the layers exchanging places.  The warp (verticalthreads) are purple and copper.  The weft (horizontal threads) are copper on one side, and black on the other side. The first part of this warp was used for the sunburst placemat I traded for the metal art at the craft show earlier this fall.  It was much more geometrically regular. 

 There are six pattern blocks here, because it uses half tones (mixing dark and light warp threads in one pattern block).  The latest Handwoven magazine featured a double weave with 4 pattern blocks on 4 shafts and made a big deal about how cool that was.  I couldn't help but feel a teensy bit superior.  My weaving teacher keeps telling me I should submit things to Handwoven for potential publication.  She suggested both this and the tea towel and napkin set (coming in a post soon!) I made for my friend's wedding.  

This one I thought up while working on that first peice, and listening to Symphony Cast on NPR.  What if I thought about the pattern blocks as instruments or as notes in a measure?  What vitality and movement that would have! So that's what I did.  I was thinking of that part in "Fantasia" near the beginning, where Mickey Mouse is conducting the orchestra, and then animated sound waves come on screen and morph with the music?  I was thinking about that, too. 

So thar she be.  I call it "Symphony in D(oubleweave)"

This is my loom in the beginning to feel put-together studio.  It is in a dormer, so as I sit on my bench, I can look out into the yard.  Or at the insulated curtain when I get that made.  You can see I'm beginning warping my next project.  Its a bridesmaid shawl for my sister, only two years after my wedding when it was supposed to be done.  Bridesmaid gift, how about that?  The yarn is Jaggerspun merino/silk from Halcyon in a dark green.  I'm going to use an 8 shaft complex twill (this is actually the first time I'll be using all 8 shafts of my loom - I kept planning 4 shaft projects); and I'm going to use a dark blue weft of the same yarn, so that the pattern will be more apparent.

A view of the dog yard from the parking spot.  One day it will be a pasture, and the dogs will be re-fenced to a smaller area.  Then there will be a horse and sheep greeting me over and through that fence, and that gate.

The house.

The yard again.  You can just see the moon in the trees.  It was bright and big and beautiful, and didn't show up at all in the photo.

Misha.

My kitchen window.

In the pot you see oregano, that I brought in from the front porch (I planted it in a decorative pot this spring intending to do just this).  It is still growing, despite the rapidly shortening days.