Painted buntings and inkles

On the inkle, I have abandoned the dancing warrior. The floats were horrendous long and I was having a hard time translating the Peruvian warp draft to the Bolivian. So I went back to a known Peruvian draft and modified it to the width that I already had on the loom. 

In the garden:

This morning we saw this colorful little fellow

You are probably saying ... uh what am I supposed to be looking at. Well, it's a painted bunting. See his little blue-green head and salmony-orange chest? No? Well, here...

Now do you see him? I have never in my 40+ years in South Florida ever seen a bird like this. But there he was, chowing down on the sorghum seeds out back. Which gave me the idea to maybe plant some wild bird seed out back. 

And speaking of chowing down... here's one of our baby caterpillars eating his little weight in milk weed. I guess the leaf under him is the Caterpillar Rest Room

Here's the results of all that yummy milkweed

Here's the sweet potato I planted just a short week and a half ago. So it's good to clean out the veggie draw in your fridge once in a while. 

With the rain comes...

GREEN. Lots and lots of green. The ferns have pretty much taken over the back part of the lot.

The new butterfly and veggie bed is looking more full. Beans in the back

And new sweet potatoes 

This is some random sorghum. I think the birds planted it... if you know what I mean. 

And the older butterfly bed 

In the Studio:

I was feeling a bit under the weather last week so I haven't gotten much done in the studio. I am however, ready to tackle block weaves again on the Kessenich. I'd like to work with a back ground of black and try to make the blocks colorful in descending size. I saw how I wanted this in my head when I was just about to fall asleep the other night, so I'll see if I can make it come out like my dreamy vision. I mapped it out on graph paper to see if everything would fall into place. I don't always trust my math.

Working at 6 epi, single, with floating warp.

These will be the colors... not a great picture.

On the inkle ... working on a pebble weave band. I have warped using the European method, according to Ms. Atwater. It's the way I learned and feel most comfortable with. This pattern is called the Dancing Warrior

 And you can see his little warrior feet starting to dance!

And last... I decided to dress up this block weave sampler with an inkle that I did not too long ago in the checker pattern.

Got to get outside once in a while

We have been doing a bit of gardening lately. Decided to build a combination butterfly/bee and veggie bed next to the back porch.

We'll be adding more pollinator plants, and the back of the bed will be for pole beans and banana peppers.

Looks like someone has already moved in.

Farmer Jerry watering the new bed.

Some random sorghum growing. We had a bird feeder in the back and I have a feeling one of the birds planted this... if you know what I mean.

And lastly, the mint, parsley, etc. is doing well despite the temps in the upper 80's.

Haven't been doing much in the collage realm lately. I've been busy learning a new weaving technique; Andean pebble weave on the inkle loom. And I finally understand it! Woooo hooo!! I've been watching the video, Supplementary Warp Patterning by Jacquetta Nisbet and at first she might as well have been speaking Greek. But it slowly became clear.

This is also a good source for learning this technique: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox1cD_9MnIk

This past Monday in Messy Art: Friendship bracelets.

Apparently I was the only dinosaur in the room who knew how to do macrame or even knew what macrame even is. The mothers looked at me like I had sprouted another head when I asked them if they had ever made macrame plant hangers. Ok, I'm a relic but the kids loved it once they got the hang of it.

Materials: yarn, bull clips, masking tape and a fun pencil (which the kids got to keep).

You loop the yarn over the pencil like you are casting onto knitting needles like so... two colors:

Then really it's just a series of square knots alternating back and forth. Make a number 4 - over the tail - under the middles - and through the 4. Simple right?

I learned to do this when I was 12 and loved it. The kids of course picked it up quicker than the moms.

Well that's all we have for now, right Levon? ....  Levon? ...