new and old

While I may be whining about being done with the cold and ready for spring this sudden surprising relapse into winter finds me happy and excited. 

Our beautiful New Mexican desert is transformed into a winter wonderland! The clouds were chasing over the mountain, everything looked so fresh and bright and somehow full of promise! I guess you can call me a desert rat now  - after seven years in New Mexico! Moisture - be it snow or rain - promises growth and  flowers in the spring - soon!!

When I'm at home I rush through chores just to get them done quickly. Then I can allow myself to get back to knitting on my sweater. 

The body is done, pieces assembled and I managed a perfect neck binding. The first sleeve is halfway done, I'm getting there!

While I was rummaging through some drawers the other day, I found this small hooked piece, a zippered pouch, which I had finished some time last fall.

I am so pleased with how it turned out, but I must confess, the hand stitching annoyed the heck out of me.

The hooking part was really fun - a managable size and just letting go with various materials and enjoying the play with colors.

 I had dyed the red and purplish grey for the backgrounds and the rest is a mix of strips, yarns and various fabrics, whatever I found that worked together! 

If you have never worked with other materials in your rugs - I can highly recommend it!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to the fireplace! Be well, friends!

Flashback Saturday

All of us bloggers take plenty of pictures, even more since photos went digital. I have lost pictures with computer crashes, but just recently I have found pictures and I want to share them for more reasons than just because the are so darn cute! 

I discovered them on my online photo site Shutterfly and at some point Shutterly must have changed rules for users, because - what used to be not possible - I could get them back from the site to my computer.

Here are some of my favorites.

Lewis at the time was into nature, specifically bugs and had watched this little guy transform from caterpillar to butterfly! 

 I really enjoyed looking at the "old" hand knits, too.

My mom made this cardigan and it was a favorite for a long time.

The earflap hat grew with Fiona, lol, I believe she wore it for 4 winters - would you believe it?!

She did have a sweater that matched the scarf - all hand spun - unfortunately no picture of that.

I loved this sweater - made from space dyed hand spun merino wool, I still remember how soft it was! I believe it was one of my own early dye attempts!

Same sweater here..

Makes me realize that our lives are not just measured in years that pass oh-so fast, but also in what we create and what we are passionate about, may it be butterflies, tricycles, spinning, knitting and oh yes, definitely pictures as well!

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

Blue Changes

A little while after I was done with my dyeing yesterday I found some forgotten strips, that I should have thrown in with everything. In the end this turned out to be a good thing because it gave me the chance to really compare the old to the new strips. 

When I looked at the mellowed out wool pieces on the drying rack I was initially disappointed because besides evening out the shades I had also tried to go altogether lighter and I thought it did not happen.

But once I compared them side by side - above two strips are the new blues (one of them originally a houndstooth) - I found a real distinct difference!

I am very happy with the result!

Won't have a chance to pull some loops until tonight, it will be exciting to see!

The Quest

Do you as an artist feel like one day you will be There? You will have achieved your goals and your work will be perfect? I seriously doubt that there is one of you out there who answers yes to that question. I am sure that even the teachers among you will be the first to tell me that they never stop learning. 

Since I started my journey into rug hooking three years ago a whole new world to express myself has opened up. I fell in love. Rug hooking gives me a creative outlet where I need to slow down. I have to pace myself, think about my visual goals and how I can achieve them. And oh boy, is there much to learn.

I wanna tell you about my biggest learning experience in 2012, which at first sight may seem minor, but  makes a world of difference. check out the two pumpkins, ignore the different frames. Anything click?

Omg - first go (above) I hooked a solid brown stem. Nice enough. Teacher told me it does not work, because I have a dimensional pumpkin, so I pulled out just a few loops, added some checkered brown (below) and 'bam' - there it was, my biggest "yes, I get it!" of the year - such small changes lead to making it right - wow! Can you tell that I am still in awe..?!

(yes, this is one of my UFOs and I will transform the pumpkin soon into a little pillow!)

At times I knit, spin and sew more, but the urge to pull some loops is great and grows with time. The internet feeds to that. When you browse the blogworld, you see so many beautiful creations that inspire, just look at my bloglist on the side!

 The other day I threw all of my three unfinished rugs on the floor so that every time I walked by I got the visual input and was reminded to think about where I wanna take them.

In the end I focused on the large rug with my kids drawings. I dyed up blue woolens for the background. Not sure if the color would work I started working around my first finished motives.

 This morning in our small rug hooking group we discussed it, because I just wasn't sure.

 Turned out my blues were too busy, as a background too distractive from the kids designs.

So we jumped into action and went from piles of woolen blues, some white and a tad bit of green...

 ....... to the dye pots...

...and got this!

 Shades of a more uniform lighter blue!

I ended up "marrying" all my blues and yes, I did pull out what I had previously hooked.

Now I am not-patiently-at-all waiting for my new colors to dry so I can pull the blues!

What are you learning these days? 

this morning

It is all about the light.

Just like Visty I feel that the light has a special quality these days. But you have to hit the right moment.

On the breakfast table just before it got cluttered with the typical chaotic setting before school:

And this is what I see when I step out my back door. Especially gorgeous this morning with the sun just peeking over the Sandias (East would be on the right side on the picture - obvious, when you pay attention to the shadows) and the tips of the mountains covered in bright white clouds:

I can tell, this will be a beautiful day!

Silly Ike, rolling on his back, feels exactly the same way!

goals and plans

The wheel is spinning.
Nine rosy ounces have been spun, plied and washed. I still adore this yarn and wish the color would work for me.







I remembered that I had already made a piece of clothing from a previously spun sample and searched the archives.
A sweater for Irmchen in 2008.



The actual yarn color is somewhere in the middle between the sweater and the finished skein. I'm working on the color thing, got me Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and have yet to get started with it, I'm thinking next week when the kids are back in school.

While I am stalking the mail man, I pretend to track my package of blues across the country as it makes its way from Virginia. Since Pat mailed it on Wednesday I have been wondering where it is. Maybe it is spending the Sunday in Arkansas? Or Tennessee?

My goal is to have my roses all spun up by the time the two pounds of blue fluff arrive, so I don't need to feel guilty, when I dive into the blue right away. Another rosy nine ounces of finished yarn are soaking in hot soapy water right now (I use Eucalan in case you wonder), but there is still some more raw fluff waiting at the wheel.






I also have to confess, that I started a new project. Spring did it!

This week, when temperatures went up into the 60s, we were about to head out to the playground and I had to decide what project to take. I was in the mood for spring and summer colors and fibers, so the bright pink cotton from the stash (thank you, Goodwill, for high quality Italian yarn for a ridiculously cheap price!) was a quick choice and I decided to give it a go with a pattern from an older Verena, that I've had on my to-do-list for a while.

Now the plan for this is to knit at least a few rows every day, to keep it growing steadily. So far I more than stuck to my plan and I really like it.

Speaking of growth reminds me. - I bought an Apricot tree yesterday.

Two years ago we planted a fig tree in the protected area in front of the house, apparently it would not do good with our heavy spring winds anywhere else, and right now I'm holding my fingers crossed that it made it through our tough long winter.Until now it did not carry any figs.

I have always wanted a real fruit tree, maybe apples, cherries, peaches or - apricots. A tree that grows big and strong, where the kids can climb onto, or tie a hammock into the branches, but so far the time never seemed to be right.

That we are finally planting our tree shows me how much our family has grown roots and how much we look forward to our future here.

Right now I cannot imagine living anywhere else than the Southwest. I am still so in love with Albuquerque and New Mexico!

favorite Friday

Once a year in October Albuquerque belongs to the balloonies.

For one week in the mornings we get to enjoy the view of the city with the sky filled with plenty of beautiful colorful balloons, high count of this year being close to 50 at a time - according to Fiona.

This is just the 3rd October that we have lived in Albuquerque, and I believe we are on the way to develop a new family tradition.

On Balloon Fiesta Friday we get up as early as 5.30am, leave the house without breakfast (ouch), take the shuttle bus from Hoffmanntown Church to the Balloon Fiesta Park, get a breakfast burrito (me)/funnelcake (Lewis)/cinnamon roll (Fiona)/snack from everyone else (my friend Doris, who is visiting from Germany right now) and watch the rise-and-shine of the special shape balloons.

It is a spectacular sight!

As to be expected I was thrilled to see some German balloons.

One of them had the shape of what was possibly the Reichstag in Berlin and was promoting a famous beer brand.

There was also a balloon shaped like what we call a "Bembel", a pitcher traditionally used to serve applewine in Frankfurt/Hessen, which is really close to where I was born and raised, yeah.

However, I must admit, that I find it odd, that Germany was represented by nothing but alcohol sponsored balloons. Germany may be famous for good beer and whatever other alcoholic beverages, but there is so much more, that makes Germany special.

Trust me.

lost words

(The guy was wearing a cowboy hat and he could spin, too!)

What a day

This was my day and it was good!

Thank you all for remembering, for calling, singing and emailing!