A Day in the Garden

For various reasons, I really needed to have a good day yesterday. And as the Henry Moore exhibition and the Scarecrows in the Garden wrap up this weekend, I thought Thursday would be a good day to get myself down to Piedmont Park. So that's what I did.

I got down there about 10 AM, late enough to avoid the morning traffic. For those of you not in the Atlanta area, there is major construction in midtown where the 14th street exit used to be and will someday be again. Consequently, driving in midtown is not for the easily flustered. Half of what you knew about navigating no longer applies. And the Cuddly Hubby was away on a business trip, so the Garmin was with him. I read the maps and took the back way in on North Avenue, left turn onto Piedmont and on up to the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

The scarecrows never fail to delight. It is always worth the hassle to go into the city to see them. I know that citizens of New York and Los Angeles like to think of themselves as the most creative people in the Unites States, but between Dragon*Con and the Scarecrows in the Garden, I can show a lot of proof that Atlanta is full of clever and creative minds. There were plenty of good/bad? puns in the scarecrow names. One entry had several crow-themed dvds, such as Dra-crow-la. Another featured Julia Child making Crow-kill St. Jacques. Several schools had entries, including a large (8 foot? 10 foot?) dragon made from flattened soda pop cans. Many, many scarecrows incorporated recycled materials. One scarecrow had a wheelbarrow full of "flowers" made from plastic water bottles and aluminum cans that had been cut up with tin snips. Atlanta Knitting Guild had a scarecrow a couple years ago. I like to think that "Oz" may not be in Atlanta anymore, but he is certainly not forgotten. (Oz now "lives" at the American Textile History Museum.) Not forgotten when there are entries like Ba Ba Ba:
This scare-sheep was created by the Visitor Services Team at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. The head is made from wrapped yarn. The sheep sports a knitted beret and a knitted scarf. It is surprising, too, how well the knitting holds up out of doors for a month. Several scarecrows that used papier-maché had not fared well during this abnormally wet October.

I also liked this entry for how well the robe was decorated:
My apologies to whoever entered it, as I forgot to record the name. I do recall it was one of the local schools. I very much like the play of shape on this robe, as well as the contrast in value between the more open center and the darker stripes on the sleeves. And these is something very late-Matisse-like about it. Nice use of positive and negative shapes, too.

And speaking of using positive and negative shapes, the Henry Moore sculptures were definitely worth a look as well. My favorite of the exhibition is Large Two Forms, which is displayed over by the aquatic plant pond. I didn't take a picture of it because it is far too complex for that. This is a truly three-dimensional sculpture, very different from every side and even at different distances. You would have to shoot video to even begin to get a sense of why this is a strong work of art. I think it is among the best sculptures I've ever seen, certainly among the best at fully exploiting the three-dimensional nature of sculpture.

I stayed until about 1 PM, then headed out of the city. I know better than to wait until after 3 PM, which is when the evening rush begins. (On Fridays, it begins at noon.) If you go to the garden, do be aware that the new parking deck is very convenient at a price. It cost me nearly $7 to park for about three hours. On the other hand, the Atlanta Botanical Garden continues to grow as a wonderful Atlanta amenity. I initially became a member for the orchids, which I still adore. The Japanese Garden is also a favorite of mine. But there are many other wonderful settings including a rose garden, a bog garden (carnivorous plants!), and the conservatory. Next year Atlanta Botanical Garden plans to open an edible plant garden, a cascades garden, and a canopy walk through the Storza woods. I am thinking a canopy walk in the autumn colors would be a real treat, indeed!

The First Skein

The first skein on the spinning wheel is completed. I followed Jenna's recommendation and started off with a 4-ounce roving of Blueface Leister from Gale's Art. Gale is a local dyer and member of Atlanta Knitting Guild. Plus, her work is just dang gone fine. You don't have to twist my arm to get me to buy her rovings. The colorway is deep blue sea, which is a nice analogous colorway of blue-greens, blues, cool purple, and a little warm green the color of kelp. The roving is also a chocolate swirl roving, which means that it incorporates both white and black wool. Although the black wool does dull the colors a little, it also adds a richness of tone that makes the final yarn more interesting and worth the effort.

I followed advice from both Jenna the Yarn Pimp and Lydia the Spinning Goddess. Lydia reminded me that I should breath every half hour or so, as I was tense at learning the new skill. I also followed this advice by spinning only a little at a time, for just an hour or until that particular segment of the roving was completed. I figured that spinning a little at a time over several days would be as good and maybe better than trying to spin a whole lot all at once.

Jenna helped me pick out the roving. Then she showed me how to split it up. In this case, I divided it longways (vertically, as opposed to crosswise) into eight parts. If I planned to spin a three-ply yarn, then I would have divided it into three, six, or nine parts. So beginners, before you start dividing roving, decide how many plys you want in the final yarn.

Picture at left is six of the eight small rovings. After dividing the main roving into eight parts, each piece was gently wound up into a ball.

Jenna also told me to predraft. Predrafting is gently tugging on the roving or batt to thin it out. This makes it easier to spin, as you draft less at the wheel. Don't predraft too much, as you do need to draft a little as you spin. For a new spinner, predrafting keeps your hands from being overwhelmed by having too much to do with too much fiber. Predrafting and dividing also have an effect on color. If I had divided the roving only into two instead of into eighths and predrafted it to the same thickness, each stripe of color would have appeared in the final yarn for a much greater distance. Or I could have predrafted half the yarn to have long color changes, but divided the other half and predrafted to have shorter changes. This would produce a lot of mixing between colors in the final yarn. There are choices about how the colors in the final yarn will behave, and you make those decisions as you divide and predraft.

Picture at left: a predrafted roving. Notice how thin and ephemeral it appears when compared to the previous picture. Since I did not spin all four ounces on one day, I stored the small rovings in the previous stage -- divided and rolled into balls but not predrafted. I didn't predraft a small roving until I was ready to spin it. Because I was learning, it took me about 60-90 minutes to predraft and spin one small roving. So my overall process was divide roving, roll small rovings into balls, predraft one small roving, spin it, come back another day, predraft another small roving, spin it, repeat as needed.

The direction in which you feed each small roving also affects the color. This particular roving had blue at the "top" end and purple at the "bottom" end, so each of the eight small rovings had a blue end and a purple end. Since I was producing a two-ply yarn, I decided to spin four small rovings onto one bobbin and the other four onto another bobbin. Again, I made a decision about color. I could have started all four small rovings at the blue "top" end, spinning all of them beginning with blue, proceeding through the color changes, and ending with purple. Instead, I started roving #1 at the blue end. This meant that roving #1 ended at purple. Now I turned roving #2 around and began with the purple "bottom" end. Roving #3 began again at blue. Roving #4 began at purple. In this way, I alternated the color progression. I spun rovings #5 through #8 the same way. I could have mixed things up further by spinning purple, blue, purple, blue, but I was concerned that in the plying stage I would get too much color mixing and dull the colors to an uninteresting point.


I now had two bobbins, both with colors spun in the same direction. (In the picture, the first bobbin is on the left, the second on the right.) Next I put them on the lazy kate and plied them together onto one bobbin. Because they were both spun in the same color progression, I expected to get a lot of plain area in which the same color plied with itself but also some more interesting areas where two different colors plied together. As a new spinner, my two bobbins didn't come out even. That was hardly surprising. But the colors in the skein did come out as planned. I got a nice mix of plain areas and multi-colored areas.


The major downside of this first skein is that the plying is very uneven. Some areas plied together nicely, and others are very, very loose. Jenna had suggested getting a rhythm -- a certain number of treadles per arm length. I thought I had a consistent rhythm, but I think I didn't put in enough twist. So I have more to learn with the "easy" plying part of the process. After it was all plied, I adjusted my standing swift to the "two-yard" position and wound the new yarn off the bobbin into a skein. I threw a couple of ties around the skein. Then I put the yarn in my nice large aluminum steaming pot and let the yarn steam for 5-10 minutes to set the twist. Although I'm not happy with my plying skills, Jenna did point out that my finished yarn is balanced. And from the number of rounds on the swift, I think I got a little over 100 yards. It does have a nice fluffy, scrunchable texture.

And a side note about something else I learned: Do not wear velvet skirts while you spin. The delicate predrafted roving tends to get caught on the surface of the skirt. The smooth silk skirts work much better at the wheel because the roving will not catch.

And Jenna, being the yarn and spinning pimp that she is, then loaned me a copy of Deb Menz's book Color in Spinning. If you are wondering why oh why would anybody want to spend this kind of time and effort when there are so many great yarns you can just buy, read Deb's book. She shows how you can spend even more time on the preparation of the fiber, but how that can pay off in fabulous color harmonies and complex relationships that you won't find on the store shelves.

The Bed is Crowded Again

On the second of July, two furry critters came to our house to foster. I've been referring to them as "Bruce's cats" because that's who they were. Jenna the Yarn Pimp just smiles at me and reminds me that they aren't Bruce's cats anymore.

Patty, Bruce's sister, has not yet made a final decision. But the boys have been here for more than 100 days. For the first month, they hid in the basement. From Brûlée's clever choice of hiding spots, I could tell he was the criminal mastermind. Vincent just looks good on the wanted posters. Brûlée tended to hide on the bottom shelf of the holiday decorations or on a three-quarter-filled shelf of books. He would lurk behind the Star Wars novels, and then come out to have his nose and forehead rubbed if he deemed it safe enough. Vincent would cower in the corner, figuring that with his dark fur, he would just blend in and become invisible. He doesn't so much blend in as resemble a cat-shaped quantum singularity -- a vaguely cat-shaped darkness. I referred to him as the special-ops ninja. And when he ran from cover to cover, he slinked across the floor with his tail low in very good imitation of an alien face hugger.

After the Wisconsin trip, a dear friend gave me a Feliway diffuser. I set that up in the kitchen. I moved the food bowl up the stairs every couple days until the cats had to go through the pet door and into the kitchen if they wanted to eat. Brûlée started coming upstairs and tentatively exploring. Vincent continued to hide. But Vincent is a very food-oriented animal, particularly when it comes to tuna fish. Every couple days, I would leave a plate of tuna somewhere on the kitchen floor. It would mysteriously clean itself!


Brûlée and I hit it off pretty well. He isn't Copernicus, but he could be a first or second cousin. His coloring is similar but not identical. He is just a little more stocky and his eyes are just a little more widely-spaced, but it is easy to mistake him for The Dude. He has the athleticism, intelligence, and curiosity that I loved about Copernicus, although he is not interested in acquiring minions or developing his own cult. And he has a beautiful, soft, thick, scrumptious coat. As Brûlée becomes more and more comfortable with us, he is less and less worried about getting in trouble. He freely explores. He freely demonstrates his skills both in athletics and in the deadly arts. And he freely attacks the plant in the living room. I don't know what that plant said or did to Brûlée, but it had better make amends soon. Brûlée also hates avian miscreants, and is very good at tearing feathers out of the cat toys. And he loves dangly cat toys. I may need to make something with fringe just so he can attack it.

By September, Brûlée was no longer living in the basement. He was hanging out upstairs and even sleeping in the bedroom. He was waking us up in the morning and sometimes sleeping in bed with us at night. And he was doing this adorable bit where he walks over and then rolls sideways on the floor as an invitation to have his cheeks, nose, and forehead scratched. (In airplane terms, he loses roll control.) Vincent was wondering about his buddy's absence, and began to appear upstairs more and more, always with a very tentative posture and always disappearing down the cat door at the first unfamiliar sound. While he was living in the basement, I had put a fleece blanket in his favorite corner. I didn't want him sleeping on the cold floor all the time. When the flooding occurred, we got a little bit of water in our basement. The blanket got wet, so I ran it through the washer and dryer, then folded it and left it on top of the washer along with some dirty laundry that was waiting for a full load. I discovered Vincent a few days later, sleeping on as much of the blanket as he could uncover. Poor thing! And neither cat claimed either Sophia's pet bed or Copernicus' hidey-hole. So I moved the pet bed to the studio, where it affords a nice view of the bird feeder. And I put the fleece blanket over the pet bed. Vincent quickly figured out this was a special place meant for him.


So between the fleece blanket and the tuna fish, Vincent decided that maybe he wasn't in a prisoner of war camp after all. Neither cat reminds me of Sophia, with her what's-in-it-for-me attitude. Vincent reminds me of Figgy, a Himalayan cat that belonged to my mother for seventeen years. Figgy was a delicate little sweet fluff ball, but not very bright. Like the song from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, all she was was lovely. Vincent has a higher intelligence than Figgy, but he is basically just a big sweet lovely fluff ball. He will come up and press his rather pointy nose against your hand in an attempt to get you to pet him. And then he looks up with his sweet pointy face and bright little eyes like a Muppet. I believe Bruce acquired him on the vet trip when Brûlée was still a kitten. I'm sure that Vincent was little more than a puffball of a tribble. But Vincent is also pretty good about commands and gestures. He knows "come" as a gesture, as well as "hop down" and "hop up." But he does not seem to understand the commands as well if they are only verbal -- he needs the gesture to complete the cue.

Vincent has become "The Big Vince," "da Vincy," "Mr. Black Velvet," "The Big Black Love Machine," or simply "The Blob." Brûlée is the "Sweet Boy" or "Mr. Chaos" or "the Red Paws of Trouble."

And so, over the course of three months, our home is reaching a new normal that in some important ways resembles the old. I still miss Copernicus and Sophia. But now I find that Brûlée and Vincent seem to be where I am. If I sit on the couch to knit, I am quickly greeted. Vincent has taken to sleeping on my end of the couch. One night he was almost in my lap before I had finished getting comfortable, he was so eager to cuddle. Brûlée seems a little jealous at times, so I need to keep reminding him that he's a fine fellow. Sometimes he'll be next to me on the couch, but other times he is in gargoyle position on the bar, which affords him a predator's-eye view of the living room. And in the past week, Vincent has finally started joining us upstairs at bedtime. So just as the chilly autumn weather begins, our bed is warm and crowded again.