I'm back!

Well, back to blogging. I haven't actually gone anywhere. What I did do was take time to focus on making a very special project my #1 priority - My Fitness Project, a centerpiece of which is my goal to lose about 40 lbs. I'll confine details and ongoing progress reports to my decluttering blog and you can read my first post on it here.

Meanwhile, all sorts of things are going on for me and around me. Good things, I'm pleased to report, like having some things on display and for sale in the gallery at Arts Illiana. The monthly poetry readings I cohost at Coffee Grounds with my friend Sarah Long continue to be well attended (a record number of people have already signed up for tomorrow night's reading.) I have the opportunities before me of more of my work being displayed at other locations in the fall and winter, and, next year, a possible fiber arts show at a local gallery.

I've fallen into facilitating Lit Night twice a month at ArtReach. Here's a picture of me facilitating a few months ago. ArtReach is a great free community art-making space. Lit Night is an opportunity for people to share their written art with others and I bring interesting activities to inspire more.

I'm still working with The Maple Center in memory of my son Patrick. I'm serving on the board, doing a variety of things. My primary mission, however, is the promotion of the expressive arts as a healing modality. The major project is our annual workshop Creating a Path Through Loss: The Arts as Healing Tools. This year we just don't have the funding to do the full, day-long event. So we are going to create a half-day event on a shoestring to 'hold the space' and focus on fundraising for the 2010 workshop.

Here's a project of The Patrick Burkett Memorial Fund at the Maple Center that puts the FUN in fundraising - Solmate socks!:

You can buy these through Martha at RiverWools or at The Maple Center. I will also have some in the fall at the booth we're doing in the Crossroads Arts Fest. For a pdf download of the flyer, just click on the link on the Maple Center home page.

Lots of links here and not many pictures...I'll close with a couple of "stuffies" that Raven & I made a few weeks back on one of our Tuesdays together. The basic idea of these is in an article in the latest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors.

Cat by Raven

Angel by Zann

2009 International Freeform Fiber Artists Show

It's up, it's live! Myra Wood again did an amazing job pulling everyone together and organizing the web pages. A great big public thank you, Myra!

Take a look:
http://www.freeformcrochet.com/2009/Pages/main.html

Artists are listed alphabetically by first name in the index link top right.
As a "Z", I'm way down at the bottom, next to last.

I'm taking my time looking at each one, and there are some amazing pieces. I'm just thrilled to be in such good company!

I'm not gonna post my pieces here - ya gotta go look at the show!!
And I think there will be a book eventually - all profits going to Women to Women International.

Namaste,
Zann

Handfasting Cord for Andrea & Thomas

Today is my 24th wedding anniversary and it seemed wonderfully fitting to get up and spend some time working on the handfasting cord for my friends Andrea & Thomas to use in their upcoming June wedding.



A handfasting cord is used in the pagan ritual of handfasting, and is apparently the source of the saying 'to tie the knot' in referring to weddings. I say "apparently" because there seems to be a variety of knot associations with marriage customs from all sorts of cultures and religions.

I felt very honored that Andrea & Thomas entrusted me to create this important part of their wedding ritual, in their colors of yellow and purple. After experimenting for quite awhile, I decided on a 4-strand braid, using 7 different cords, braid and ribbons.

I thought it would important for me to stay very mindful during the actual braiding, to keep Andrea & Thomas in my thoughts, along with my blessings for their lifelong happiness together. In order to stay focused, I made up a little chant:

over under in and out
in love and light a cord i weave
that hands clasped within its circle
remain forever cleaved.

Now "cleave" is a peculiar word - it means both 'to split' and 'to stick together.' I, of course, was using it in the latter meaning!

I finished the cord itself this morning. The next part will be adding charms and dangles that Andrea & Thomas chose. There will be a Green Man charm on one end and a Goddess charm on the other.

Here is a link to Gaia's Handfasting Cords - her cords are just beautiful and provided inspiration for us to draw upon.







Happy Anniversary, Paul - I love you!



Our wedding was tiny, in our home. Flowers from the back of one of the vans of the flower sellers in the Zayre's parking lot in Coconut Grove - $10 got us two overflowing laundry baskets full of flowers. Dress from Pier One. Two bottles of Veuve Cliquot Champagne and a deli platter from Publix. Vows (from the Quaker marriage ceremony) before a notary public friend took maybe one minute.

Ian, Paul, me, Shaun, 24 years ago today...

blessed be,
'zann

Bullion Rounds - More than you ever....

...wanted to know.

Back in January when I was preparing to teach freeform crochet at a daylong retreat, I decided I wanted to devote some workshop time to the bullion stitch. Many freeform crocheters use it extensively, some not at all, but it's a stitch that adds texture and sometimes movement to a piece and is certainly worth learning. At this time, I tend to use it sparingly and less in rounds than in clusters of it here and there. But I reserve the right to change that tendency at any time!

It's a difficult stitch to learn and requires practice to achieve co-ordination between all the elements involved: wrapping yarn numerous times around the hook, keeping the proper tension, and manuevering the wraps so that one can pull a loop through all the wraps smoothly. I vividly remember sitting in my LYS wondering if I would ever be able to do this stitch, and pretty much deciding I would be a bullion stitch-less freeformer.

Eventually (I think after reading Prudence Mapstone's explanation in one of her books and doing something just a little differently) I had a total Whoo-Hoo! moment. One minute I was completely inept with this stitch and the next I was able churn them out, to "swoop" the stitch. Swooping bullions means one is able to draw the picked up loop through all the wraps in one fell swoop. I can now make a bullion with pretty much any yarn and any hook, though my favorite yarn to do them is a relatively smooth singles or non-splitty plied yarn and my favorite hook to do them with is my favorite working hook - Clover SoftTouch.

This post is mostly for those who already have a working knowledge of the bullion stitch (also called roll stitch.) If you don't and would like to learn, there are tutorials online with good photographs and there are videos. Here are three to get you started:

http://crochet.about.com/od/learnmorestitches/a/bullion.htm
http://www.healmyhands.com/how_to/bullion_stitch.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciaJwMW3Wys


As started making some bullion rounds for the workshop, so that I could have some examples, I discovered something that fascinated me. There are two distinct ways to make bullion rounds (and two combinations of each that actually make four ways.)

I started noticing that when I made bullions using the directions from Prudence Mapstone and Renate Kirkpatrick, my rounds were smaller, more raised - like little Bundt cakes. When I used directions from other designers and from directions in vintage books, my bullion rounds were larger and flatter. I decided to refer to the latter as Traditional (on the left below) and the former as Modern (on the right.)

the backs:
These rounds were made with the same yarn, same hook, same number of wraps, same number of bullions but you can see that there are significant differences. In addition to differences in diameter and height, the bar from the final locking stitch lies differently - in the Traditional, it tends to nestle between the bullions and in the Modern it lies against the back center of the bullion.

The point is not that one is the "right" way to do the bullion stitch or that one is superior. The point is that we can consciously choose one way or the other to achieve a different effect.

Here are my written instructions for each type, using only 5 wraps (you can, of course, use many more)
:

#1 - Traditional
Right side facing
There is one loop on hook
Wrap yarn around hook 5 times
Insert hook in fabric, draw a loop through
Yarn over hook, draw through wraps and the original loop, leaving 1 loop on hook.
Yarn over hook, draw through remaining 1 loop.

#2 - Modern
Right side facing.
There is one loop on hook.
Wrap yarn around hook 5 times.
Insert hook in fabric, draw a loop through
Draw this loop through all wraps, leaving 2 loops on hook
Yarn over hook and draw through remaining 2 loops.

As you can see, the difference lies in the last two steps, in either doing a yarn over or not, and in how many loops you have on the hook before your final locking stitch.

If that wasn't more than you ever wanted to know about bullion rounds, this should do it for you:

The third and fourth variations come about from combining those differences...i.e.:
#3
Right side facing.
There is one loop on hook.
Wrap yarn around hook 5 times.
Insert hook in fabric, draw a loop through
Yarn over hook, draw this loop through all wraps, leaving 2 loops on hook
Yarn over hook and draw through remaining 2 loops.

#4
Right side facing
There is one loop on hook
Wrap yarn around hook 5 times
Insert hook in fabric, draw a loop through
Draw through wraps and the original loop, leaving 1 loop on hook.
Yarn over hook, draw through remaining 1 loop.

Fronts of the four variations of bullion rounds:

Top: Traditional, Modern

Bottom: Combo #3, Combo #4

Backs of the four variations of bullion rounds:

Top: Traditional, Modern

Bottom: Combo #3, Combo #4

Sides of the four variations of bullion rounds:
Left to right: Traditional, Modern, Combo #3, Combo #4


and I think that's all I have to say on this subject!

my, what a month that was!

Doing NaPoWriMo, writing and posting a poem every day for 30 days, was quite an experience and I learned a great deal from it. I would venture to say that it has changed my writing process for the better. And I now have new poems for Third Thursday readings. Speaking of which, a very nice article was written about the readings. I think it captured the spirit of the event well. There's even a picture of me and Raven doing the duet poems.

I've been sick for a week, and am still not very well. But I did go to the doctor yesterday and start on antibiotics for bronchitis, getting it before I let it get the hold it had on me last year. So I'm hoping for daily improvement, if not by leaps and bounds, certainly by measurable increments.

I sent off my squares for the CODEPINK Mother's Day action. I didn't have time to anything more than plain garter stitch squares, but I'm pleased to think my little contribution will be part of that big banner and the vigil.
and next week will have to send pictures for the 2009 Challenge of the International Freeform Crochet Guild which has moved to a new page (scroll down to see previous year's challenges.)

I have a lot of projects on the needles and as soon as I'm feeling better I plan to look them over and see which ones I feel like finishing. I have a case of startitis equal to or greater than the Yarn Harlot, who just did her own review of some of her queue.

Namaste,
'Zann

(NaPoWriMo) No. 30 is it true that people

is it true that people

sometimes hand down the ashes
of their dead

on purpose,

or do they just happen to leave them
behind

for others’ decisions

because they could never bear
to let them go
in their own lifetime,

because they couldn’t imagine
the right time or perfect place

that could hold
such beloved ashes forever

for them?

--Zann Carter (04.30.09)

(NaPoWriMo) No. 29 in illness i am so present

in illness i am so present

i can hardly imagine

wellness.

i focus on my breathing,

not in the way focus-on-breath
becomes meditation

but in the way that one watches
for signs of deteriorating conditions:

wheezing
asthma...

in illness no plans can be made
can only be unmade,
responsibilites unraveled

until guilt festoons the room,
though everyone says they understand.

don’t ask me to decide anything.
do not seek my wisdom today.

“tapioca pudding & fresh strawberries”
will be my answer to every question.

in illness i am easily tipped over,
too close to all the grief,
crying about my mother.

yet i am absurdly happy

because i washed my hair yesterday
because it spreads out, clean and soft,

on the white pillow around me.

--Zann Carter (04.29.09)