Celebrating

International Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

Some of these were sacrificed for science.  You know -- double blind, random testing...

Akron Area Arts League

I had a great time yesterday at my second Akron Area Arts League class. Teacher, Brenda, is demonstrating a different art every Wednesday from 10a- noon at the Rochester Public Library. Last week was print making. We burnished and drew on styrofoam, we drew on Duraloc and transferred onto cards, and we learned to paint on plastic bags and transfer.  All very fun, doable at home, and something I haven't done since 8th grade!

Yesterday, though, was fun with yarn.  I just can't help it -- I love me some wool. Brenda told us she would present weaving, so I showed up with some of my early, bulky handspun.  I don't really have enough of any one color for a knitted project, and I hoped it would be perfect for weaving.

Brenda was amazing and brought examples that she taught in her elementary classes of weaving on paper plates, cool whip containers, and cardboard. We started out weaving on a 4.5" thick cardboard square. She had marked two opposite sides with seventeen 1/4" marks. We cut those, and warped the "loom" with #3 crochet thread. Then, using a long, plastic needle she had purchased at United Artists Supply, we tabby wove and beat the draw with a plastic fork! Quite fun!

I decided to try intertwining two colors half way through the weft, and ended up making a grey mountain on a deep blue background. It will be a mug rug, and I hope to needle felt a sun on there, as well.

Our second project was to be made on a larger loom. Brenda had made this from doubled, thick cardboard stuck through with bamboo, barbecue skewers. We warped the loom on one side only, put in a dowel to make a shed, used a notched ruler as a heddle, and a paint stick to help lift the warp strings… and away we went! I asked, right away, how to do Swedish rya weaving. Pretty fun! Now, I have to finish the second project before next Wednesday, so she can show me how to remove it from the loom.

Next week, watercolor! Until then, I will continue to work on four articles and four knit and crochet patterns for others, not to mention my own classes and pattern writing.

You know it is too long between posts, when...

…I have to sign in again to gain access to my website.  Sigh.

Much has been happening in the little home in Rochester. This past week I have turned in a new article for Interweave, proofread a different article for Interweave coming out soon, and had two more accepted for a December publication. Three articles and patterns are due today for a book (thank heaven I have an extension!), and I have another mitten pattern to finish off for Knitsy magazine for next month's publication. My eldest son had "parents' weekend" at his school, and my schedule was filled with concerts and classes dedicated to him and his school. My hubby was out of state, and the homeless shelter where I work had their open house. The rest of my life is continuing as normal!

Next week I'll be in Rochester, Minnesota for a Mayo family reunion. It has been 150 years since great-great-grandfather moved the family from LaSueur, Minnesota to Rochester. For some reason, the Mayo Clinic has determined that is a date to inaugurate. So, Friday night, a bunch of us relatives, and many, many more notables in Rochester will converge on a ballroom and hear Tom Brokaw wax eloquent. 

I plan on wearing Irish lace cuffs I designed based on an Irish crochet linen duster that great-grandma Edith owned. I made them awhile ago, and now they sit by my black dress, one on and one still to be applied.

Until then, it is essays and patterns, knitting and crochet.  What fun!

Here are some pictures of my eldest in his first regatta this weekend:

And, they're off!

Kautokeino, the personal touch

One of the nicest things about going anywhere as a stranger, is being welcomed into someone's home. 

Gerlinde welcoming me with cloudberries

Gerlinde Thiessen was my wonderful home-touch in Kautokeino! We met last year at the 2013 Finnfest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Gerlinde's boyfriend, Bernt, is a singer in the Sámi Jienat choir, whose members are made up of Sámi across Norway, Finland and Sweden, and works for the Sámi National Theatre, or, in Sámi, the Beaivváš Sámi Našunálateáhter. When I visited, he was on a tour with the group.  A loooong tour, which included the major cities and the northern cities of Norway, Sweden and Finland, but also… Tokyo.

Gerlinde is an artist herself. She is German, and originally came to the area hiking, I believe (correct me if I'm wrong anywhere, please, Gerlinde). Then, she hired on at an absolutely amazing silversmith there in town, called Juhls Silvergallery. That place alone could tell a story that would fill a volume! In fact, you can take a walk through by watching this youtube video:

It is obviously an amazing structure designed and built by very artistic people. The building itself is a kind of organic growth that spans various stages and developments in the Juhls' lives. Each floor is like a strata that houses a different flavor of decoration, and a different design of silver. In the oldest part -- near the workshops and the register (which was beautiful in its own right -- and made in Ohio!), the owners housed a little, personal museum -- textiles, reindeer leather and doudji, antique Sámi spoons and other items. Very interesting, and of high artistic quality. These were not for sale, but more than once, I wished I were not on such a strict budget because the silver products in the shop were of surpassing quality! But my eyes and ears would have to hold the free treasures of beauty from this northern world.

An outdoor mosaic 

Gerlinde also drove me to another silversmith in town, and a weaving and knitting shop known as Avži Design, just outside of Kautokeino.

a bridal brooch from the second silversmith we visited

The way to Avži Design

Some of May Toril's shawls that she hand wove 

May Toril is the owner and operator of Avži Design. It is on her husband's farmland. A little red shop, cheerful on the inside and out. Inside, I admired her knitting and weaving handwork, and then Gerlinde and I sat down for a nice chat with her. I learned much about the community and history, from Kautokeino's "Bible," that is, a sort of telephone directory of the generations of Sámi in the area, their ups and downs.  Seriously.  This book tells the births and deaths of everyone in the community, back, perhaps five generations.  It is like the begets of the first chapter of Matthew. And, just like that chapter, a few little zingers are stuck in there -- bits of gossip.

I learned about some people I was studying from the area, but also, more about the Kautokeino Rebellion. 

But, if I ever want to get this on my website, I will have to wait for another day to discuss that!