Category: tiny house

woodshedding

Published on by Jen3 Comments

This summer I decided to wood-shed in the tiny (wool) house, which is a little walk into the woods (beyond Juno), and spend the days in the company of some primitive hand tools like drop spindle, hand carders, and a dye pot. I have been dyeing up a lot of wool in the tiny dye kitchen, experimenting with colors to call my own, re-inventing the wheel in so many ways. Most of all I think that I love this space for what I can achieve with short light photography.

At times I am exhausted of my obsessions, and I worry that I am just a dilettante. But heading into the dog days of summer I dive deeper into refining my creative pursuits, as I try to convince myself that textiles are not just a hobby, but a way of life. I am relishing the isolation, the hours of silence, the palpable feel of time, as I keep walking down to the tiny wool house, two or three times a day, sometimes just to think.

June is almost over and even if I haven’t made any significant finishes to show for the last couple of months, at least I’ve put together a hodgepodge post about some of the tweed tests I’ve been working on.

Knotty

Published on by Jen2 Comments

Ikat is on my mind in recent days. I bought the book, watched the videos, and naturally soon thereafter I would want to go down to the tiny (dye) house where my indigo and madder are waiting patiently for me, and start tying knots!

A lovely artful video on one family’s kasuri making . . .

Another artful video from the same dye house, more extensive footage with no vocal. . .

Things going on . . .

Published on by Jen7 Comments

jenjoycedesign© sneak-peek.JPG

I am lifting my June 1st deadline for new sock pattern. It was merely a fun self-imposed goal which is clearly unrealistic at this point. I am glad to report that all things going on are incredibly exciting, although labor intensive, only least which is knitting ten-at-a-time socks. There will be eight socks in my forthcoming ensemble, which I’ve decided can happen any time because socks are not a seasonal thing. There are no Spring Tees this year either, but no guilt on me as I am so near to being able to move my new collected Tools Of The Trade into the loft room (ahead of house completion) that I am beside myself, nearly frozen with anticipation.  I will be taking some time refurbishing some antiques I collected, and sewing some things on my January Acquisition — a 1947 Singer sewing machine — needing to make a couple of curtains for the new house, start a quilt,  and generally get to making things.  In summary, the sock pattern will be ready when it wants to be. I’m taking my time and enjoying, and have had to balance the two aspects of my productive self; part of which is a lumbering old ox, and the other a spirited thoroughbred colt that wants to run. All aspects of life must be allowed to just be. That said, as in recent mornings lately, now I am off with Emma in the caboose, to garden on latest project, which is reviving an archaeological find of an old road in the woods near by,  to be a short but secret walking lane!

Out woolgathering . . .

Published on by Jen14 Comments

Emmerson, Henry Hetherington, 1831-1895; Wool Gathering
Wool Gathering, 1883 by Henry Hetherington Emmerson

wool·gath·er·ing
/ˈwo͝olˌɡaT͟H(ə)riNG/

 Indulgence in aimless thought or dreamy imagining; absentmindedness, daydreaming, reverie, musing, preoccupation, absorbed.

I have learned a new word and it rather defines me in my life as though I invented it. Meandering in thoughts, as if walking through hilly meadows collecting tufts of wool, I do ponder, always one thing or another.  I guess, it is ” woolgathering ” that I am up to; contemplating life-to-be when our house is finished being rebuilt.  I am embracing the woolgathering, and in more ways than one.

In the painting, there are three women stuffing found things (wool) from bushes, or the  ground,  into their bags.  One of them and her dog seems to have come upon and surprised a small group of sheep.

I am bemused by gathering actual wool too.   Knitting in a frenzy ten-at-a-time, on my new birch wood dpns, and writing and testing a new pattern, and collecting wool in yarn form (mostly sock yarn presently) and in dyed roving form (for blending on my remade blending board) and to spin on my wheel (a gift, which is destined to be freed from a tightly packed shed)  … to fulfill that quest which consumes me.   I gather wool, thoughts, ideas, and the tools of the trade for the work in the territory ahead.   Woolgathering is just what I do for now.

I am definitely a woolgatherer (noun), out woolgathering (verb).

What are you woolgathering about?

Franny & Zooey

Published on by Jen16 Comments

jenjoycedesign© Mt Veeder Raven.JPG
I have been thinking of names for our pair of lovebird ravens, predictably a famous couple, and  Franny & Zooey comes to mind.  A fictitious pair of genius siblings who are perfectly worthy of these smart trusting birds, and well, its just that I’m a fan of Salinger.    Here’s Zooey, on the wood pile, right next to our tiny house ….
jenjoycedesign© Mt Veeder Raven 2.JPG
jenjoycedesign© the-male-raven 1
He is preening and watching over his shy lady Franny, who walks on the ground at a greater distance in the Charcoal Forest.
jenjoycedesign© the-male-ravenjenjoycedesign© the-female-raven

But distance is relative, because I tell you folks, I was 20 feet away at the most, quietly inching forward ever so slowly before Zooey caught on to me, and took flight.

jenjoycedesign© the-male-raven-taking-flight
Beautiful birds, I just can’t get over them.
They have so far snubbed my yarn offerings by the way!