Hold it with your thumb.

I had an anxiety attack last night, and didn't get to sleep until 2:00. I am writing this because it is remarkable, in the old sense of 'worth noting,'  because I have been feeling so well lately. It was the old bogie man of self-doubt, and the voices played on a continuous loop - I should have done this, why did I do that, why did I say that, I can't possibly do this and so on. Today, I feel fine and am preparing for class tomorrow at Hillcreek Yarns in Columbia, where I will teach my Felted Flower Class, with a bit of Dragon Eye thrown in. Everything is in order, and I am sure it will be super. Also, I am looking forward to getting paid. 

I am working on a few new things, one being this felted bracelet.

Clicking embiggens. It's an idea in progress.

Also, made two new berets. Haven't made a hat in a long time, so it was fun. I have been trying to work with the idea that, as in opera, More is More, so I am adding beads and layering different elements. 

I hope to teach this in Fulton before Christmas, at the Art House.

I have always personally favored simplicity, so it has been hard. I feel clumsy. Maybe that is where the anxiety is coming from.

Here is a purse from last week. I don't know. It's colorful and busy, but not my style. I do like how I did the handles, though. 

Whenever I make felt rope, I am reminded of the opera singer from The Fifth Element. 

Blue Bird of Happiness

Class is over and I am home. I feel competent enough to clean and lube a machine, to set the hook timing, and change out a few parts here and there. I am not ready to totally disassemble and reassemble a machine. Out of four machines, I have made two whole again. Another is a puzzle, and another needs a part that I don't feel comfortable changing out just yet. So, I guess I should be happy with that - but I'm not. But I will get over it.

Thornton, from Canada, Ray White, Billy from South Carolina, Amanda from the Penland School of craft, David from Knoxville. Not shown is William from Illinois. 

Ray White, Instructor.

As I look at these pictures, and remember the progress the other students made, I do feel better about what I accomplished. I was right up there with them in most things, so maybe with some time and more and different machines under my belt, I will feel more competent. (I hate being and/or feeling incompetent. I want to be head of the class. I want to be the smartest, and it's a blow to my pride when I am not.) I was a solid B student and I got my certificate.

The red socks are knit. These are from yarn I dyed last fall. They have gone to a friend with size 10 feet.

I heard sad news from a friend over the weekend. He and his wife came home from their lake cottage to find their 24 year-old son dead from a heroin overdose. My friend had told me his son had talked suicide at times, but he was in therapy and on medication for depression, so he was hopeful that his son could get well. He also told me his frustration about that son, who couldn't seem to finish projects or stay out of trouble or keep a job. His other son was never a problem - good grades, good kid, good worker, good husband, good father. It makes me sad and I feel their pain. It's horrible. I know he wonders what he could have done to prevent this tragedy. My friend said he is sure it was an accidental overdose because he had bought new speakers for his car that morning and was making plans for the future and he had been doing better and all that. And I won't tell him otherwise, but I doubt it was an accident.

This comes 6 weeks after another friend lost her 18 year-old son in a truck crash. So much sadness.

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

Here I am in beautiful downtown Pilot Knob, Missouri, in my motel room. Sewing machine repair school begins tomorrow. I am excited.

Also, grateful to my guild, The Columbia Weavers' and Spinners' who have kicked in $1000 toward my tuition and expenses. If I eat frugally, (there is a fridge and a micronuke in the room, I may not be out much, out of pocket. I have promised to give a program about the history and mechanics of the sewing machine, and to also hold several free or low-cost clinics for guild members.

I have a borrowed MacBook. I have wifi. I am set.

Now with More Flavor!

I keep making things. But Blogger has decided I can't upload photos.

And now Blogger cooperates.

Layers of adornment.

Another purse thing, this time with no flap and different handles.

And felt lariats. I have made more and better since I took this shot this morning. 

I messed around with wire working, but I think the flowers are better.

I have another purse drying downstairs in the basement. I am worried that the basement is too cold for felting, as I am having all sorts of little problems working down there. I can just as easily, and maybe betterly, make things at the kitchen table, but I have gone to some trouble to make that space livable. Anyway, the new lariats look much nicer than these two.

News is that I have been contracted to teach 3 different felting classes at the Art House in Fulton, beginning in October. They requested a bio and a headshot, (almost wrote head shop,) so I asked an actual photographer to shoot me. 

I liked this shot the best.

Magnet Proof

Socks don't really take much time to knit. I just haven't sat and knit often enough, apparently. Just kitchenered the toes and wove in the ends, after maybe 6 months since the first cast on. Now, I feel the need to have another project. It's rather like finishing a book that one has slogged through, and once the final page is turned, one cast ones eye toward the bookcase.

Speaking of which, I am reading about the Battle of Hastings. It's about more than just the battle, thank goodness. It's difficult to imagine just how hard life was for the average person back then. Not that being rich was much better - maybe just a better class of misery.

Ten Years After

So, yeah, as if I don't already do too much useless stuff, I go to a basket class every month here in town. I started a slightly-scaled-down version of a quilters' basket, although it looks more like some sort of explosion in a wood working factory
.

It's nice to have a class with little thinking required. Ok, do this for nine rounds and so on. Pat Moore is wonderful and patient teacher who charges by the basket, not the class.

Nobody registered for my Baggie Dyeing Class. I had forgotten that it was Old Threshers', a three-day extravaganza that is more popular than the county fair. I had been secretly hoping that I could cancel - I didn't feel particularly well. Just tired, mostly. I worry that I won't feel well during my sewing machine tech training, but I will do my best to soldier on. It's too good of an opportunity to miss.

My friend Pat, (just Pat,) who has worked with Windows her entire career tried to turn towards the light by buying a Mac book, second hand, but she has thrown her hands up in defeat. Nancy, would you and Sweetie like to buy it? Even though we can't afford it, we said not yes, but Hell Yes. I'll be able to take it with me to class, but first I will have to get a mouse. I cannot bear using that touch pad thing - it drives me ca-razy.

Another purse. Gray gradient, with a lavender lining. I like the

gold and purple flower. It's the first one I made downstairs in my new basement studio, so it meant standing. (I made the table high enough that I don't have to bend over, using pvc pipe lengths on the legs.) I am used to sitting at the kitchen table. So anyway, I screwed up somehow and this purse has ridges at the sides. I made it a Design Feature and using dark gray wool, I stitched a line to accentuate  the mistake. 

And because I don't already do enough useless shit, I have been fiddling around with wire work jewelry. The Tree of Life looks as though it has been struck by lightning - more of a Tree of Death. But parts of it aren't bad. Click to embiggin.

The little things made with flattened marbles make me happy. Left to right - side view pendant, back view earring, front view pendant, front view earring (on another piece of glass for stability,) and front view pendant-to-be. Those are cats from a Booth cartoon from the New Yorker.  For scale, that one is about 1.25 inches.

The weather has turned lovely. It was 62º when I walked the dogs this morning. I needed a light jacket.

Made by Professionals

Simple little flowers. They make me happy. Teaching this class in a couple of weeks.

Applied the vinyl lettering to this sign today. Ordered it online, and when I received the package, I relealized that CENTER straight across wouldn't fit, so I had to futz with it a bit to make it work. Sweetie added a handle to the top and two locking casters in order make hauling it to the street corner a bit easier. We already had the frame with blue plexiglass, but we weren't using it. The Art Center is actually on a state highway, but just off the busier road that passes through town. We are trying to give us more of a presence.

Copperplate is our font and blue is our color.

I'm supposed to be teaching at this art center tomorrow, the class about baggie dyeing cotton. I only have one student signed up, but she really wants to dye some wool fabric. Had a couple of people who couldn't make it this Saturday, and asked if I could teach the class again. I am out nothing - everything I planned to use, I already had - dye, fabric, baggies.

I'm very tired today. I have a 3/4 felted purse on the table in the basement, but I don't think I have the strength to deal with it. My feets hurt, too.