Checker Huggie Earrings, Definitely Ska

While I was on on roll making huggie earrings, I went with a bunch of checker options. Checker is basically a baseline in my own wardrobe so it's nice to have the go-to black and white ones along with some colors depending on what I'm feeling like that day. The original black and white ones I was wear sold over the holidays so I had to start with a new pair of those.

Black and White Checker Huggie Earrings

My obsession with checker melds somewhere within my love of ska or "two-tone" music and love of nice even numbers, particularly multiples of 4. You may notice these are all 8 beads wide, the checkers in 4s. It's just very satisfying for me to work this way. 

Black and Blue Checker Huggie Earrings

I'm getting into whatever colors inspire me. Orange has been on the forefront for the last year: 

Black and Orange Checker Huggie Earrings

Purple is a staple in my life along with checkers: 

Black and Faceted Purple Huggie Earrings

I also made a pair of lime green and black ones, but Bruce has been playing on my table in the studio and I think he must have hid them somewhere on me. I have been digging around for them hoping to get them posted (or make a new pair) but alas, I'll just have to wait for them to turn up in a studio cleaning session. I am on to beading other things to send to the Crooked Tree Arts Center Shop in Traverse City.

Rainbow and Trans Support Beaded "Huggie" Earrings

I started making these small close-to-the-ear-lobe earrings based on the "huggie" earring trend I was seeing a year or two ago. It turns out they have become my got-to earring when I need some color and pattern but I don't want anything dangly. This design is super functional and out of the way and lends itself easily to checkers and stripes.

Rainbow Stripes with Dark Silver bar top

I started with rainbows, and then began dabbling in some of the trans pride flag colors (but pastels are a little difficult for me to work with), I feel inclined to do most of my beading this year along this vein. It just feels like my subtle way of supporting my friends and fellow humans whos rights are being questioned in this current political climate. 

Rainbow and Black Checkers

I've actually added all of these designs to my website. Some will be "made to order" since I will be sending a few off to galleries. If you order a pair of those, give me a little grace, I have a full-time day job too. 

Rainbow and Dark Silver Checkers

All links to purchase from my website are on the subtitles and the bottom two photos if you're interested. These have been really popular lately when I've done pop-up shows.

Rainbow Stripes with Black bar top

Trans Pride Flag Colors with Dark Silver bar top

Weaving Update: Perception

My larger weavings take some time so it's time to celebrate that I'm past the half way point on my current word-based double weave. I have a lot of additional ideas for this one. It doesn't seem...chaotic enough. So I'm thinking about adding bead embroidery and sequins for additional texture on this piece. I haven't done true bead embroidery on my weavings so I'll have to weave a sample piece I can play with. This fabric is a little loose and airy and beads can get heavy quickly. It's just a thought right now.

The middle of this weaving is all orange and black.  It fades out into other colors on either end, but the orange is the central glow. I'm laughing at my younger self because orange wasn't really a color on my creative radar and I kind of hated that my high school colors were orange and black. Here I am staring at orange and black while I weave and it takes on a new brilliance for me. I'm surrounded by orange on a daily basis due to my day job and it's definitely ended up taking the front seat as a color I like to work with in my fiber art in this moment. 

This piece is "Perception" and it calls back to a time in my life where everything felt like it was spinning out of control and what someone else viewed was completely skewed from what was actually happening. I knew what the lies were but the gas-lighting and drinking had gone on for so long I had lost all trust in myself. I have my confidence back...along with some extra that I had never had before in my life. 10 years makes a big difference when you start going in the right direction. I used to joke that it takes me 10 years to get over something, but now I really think it's true. The dramas of my past and the artwork ideas sketched during that time have started to come into physical existence. The first being "Playing with Fire" last spring. Once these ideas become a finished piece of artwork I seem to just...let it go. 

Bruce "helping"

Perception feels timely for this year too. I'm delving into my artwork in the safety of home and friends because I feel on-guard out in the world. Some days I still expect to open my back door to go outside and see the world on fire. I'm working on accepting and moving on, or moving...got my passport updated and have found myself looking into how to immigrate to Canada or what it would cost to move a house of furniture to Europe (mainly for my looms)....I think between myself and my husband we finally have our studio/offices set how we want them and have our equipment upgraded to what we've been dreaming of (my looms, his gaming and music) so I'm not desperate enough to move. I love our house, property, Lansing and our cozy little kitty-filled home.

Gratitude is celebrated regularly here in our home, there was a brilliant full moon this month and I love how quiet and haunting the snow-covered night and shadows feel in our back yard. This giant tree casts the best shadows. 

Night & Day Cowl (Is this Ska?)

I'd been eyeing some checker-esque cowls on Ravelry and with Bryan's help finally picked one out to knit myself for my birthday. The Night & Day Cowl by Andrea Mowry was the perfect project to become obsessed with. I'd usually take a little more time knitting something like this but I had 2 or 3 days of being sick which landed me on the couch knitting when I wasn't sleeping off whatever has been going around. Thus, I knit this up in 12 days. 

I had gone to Woven Art to get the yarn for this project and Meg was super helpful with suggestions, as was Bryan. I landed on a Rowan Felted Tweed in black and Berroco Renew for the off white. I bought 2 balls of each but ended up only needing one of each. I almost used all of the white, but not really since I had done a sample swatch with it too. I had plenty left of the black tweed.

When I initially read knitting instructions I feel a little overwhelmed, like, I-cord edge? That sounds hard. It's literally part of the pattern, I just needed to start knitting, follow the, very clearly written out, instructions and it comes together beautifully.

One of the reasons I loved knitting this is because it uses stitches/rows in 4's for the "checkers." I love multiples of 4. Nice even numbers that my brain is drawn to. My favorite number is 4. I try to keep to multiples of 2s and 4s in my own artwork because it's just so satisfying for me. So, this pattern was a dream. 

Lois models it's progress

This pattern isn't true checkers, so is it ska? Sarah says it's ska-adjacent. It's much easier and faster to knit than checkers and gives a nice illusion of them. I enjoyed knitting this so much I offered to knit Bryan one, his is on the needles already. 

Bryan's colors are both in the tweed

I still keep a pair of socks on my needles for when I'm on-the go. The pattern is just too easy at this point and it rarely takes my attention from a meeting, movie or coffee dates so I'm on my 38th pair of socks (which I started knitting when I started going to AA meetings) which I'm thinking I'll wear at the I Voted for Kodos show in Chicago in May. I'm excited about these socks, the pink is black-light responsive...and it's weird being excited about pink. I recently saw a post that said "girlhood is realizing the "I hate pink phase" was never actually about pink" and that resonated so deeply. I like pink, but on my terms, don't you dare get me something pink, especially a pastel pink. It feels like pressure to be girlier and clearly I'm not alone in that lifelong fight. My last tattoo my artist wanted to add pink, and I balked, but let it go because it's his art style that I wanted, we discussed my issues with it and visa versa, he's always liked pink because of the neon pink in motorbikes he's had...so there's some pink in my colored thigh tattoo.  I could rant about pink for forever, so we'll leave it at, this pink I like, especially with the black. 

Pink and black stripe sock in progress

2024 Books (and some 2023 of note)

This is my reading pile. The weaving books are mostly reference/inspiration, 
there's Shuttle Spidle and Dyepot magazines that I need to catch up on,
and regular reading that I try to get to.

In 2024 I finished 75 audiobooks (I'm including one I just finished but started December 2024). I used to think I couldn't get into audiobooks, but my friend Amy suggested I try the library app and I'm hooked. 

I'm not listing the "for funsies" books that give me a break from the self help, non-fiction, informative ones. The fun books this year there was a lot of Apocalyptic/Post-Apocalypse books, Fantasy and Romantasy.  So, lots of the authors Margaret Atwood, Davis Yoon, Sarah J. Mass, Scarlett St. Clair, Naomi Novik to name a few.

This list is the books that stuck with me, that my mind still goes back to parts of them and I have been suggesting to others when I get into deep conversations about creative work, life, music, being human.

Fiber Related: 

Worn: A People's History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser

Circe by Madeline Miller (fiction, but Circe is a weaver who completely drew me in as a character)

Physical books added to my studio library (included in the above picture):

Textiles of Ancient Peru and Their Techniques by Raoul d'. Harcourt

Easy Weaving with Supplemental Warps: Overshot, Velvet, Shibori and More by Deb Essen

Woven Optical Illusions: Pattern and Design from Four to 24 Shafts by by Stacey Harvey-Brown and Katharina Kronig (Thank you Kevin and Hannah for the gift!)

Inspirational/Creativity:

How Music Works by David Byrne

Eat a Peach by David Chang

Braving the Wilderness by Brené  Brown

Punk/Ska Related: 

Sellout by Dan Ozzi

Tranny by Laura Jane Grace and Dan Ozzi

Other Perspective/General Self Help:

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman 

Pageboy by Elliot Page

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, From Here to Eternity and Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? all by Caitlin Doughty

The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama

The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris

Burnout by Emily Nagoski, PhD and Amelia Nagoski, DMA

Tranny by Laura Jane Grace and Dan Ozzi

Just Listen by Mark Goulston

Outliers by Malcom Gladwell

2023

Other Perspective/General Self Help:

Drama Free by Nedra Glover Tawwab

Think Again by Adam Grant

Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown

I grouped these based on where I would put them in my personal listening genres. I feel like I learned something that added some sort of depth in my being from each of these books.  This list is mostly for me to be able to look back on but I might as well share it here on my blog. 

2024 Wrap Up

Mad Caddies show at the Sanctuary

This year seemed to start off rocky for us, so I felt prepared for anything the second half of the year which went pretty smooth from my recollection. Sometimes I can't even remember yesterday so, the whole year has been...a lot.

Trip to Seattle for Madness and enjoying the city

First, the good stuff, concerts concerts concerts. I'm counting at least 14 shows, with over 50 bands, not including the amazing 3 days of Riot Fest. Three of the shows were bucket-list bands for me: Madness, Save Ferris and Fall Out Boy. I wasn't sure we'd ever see Madness as they rarely leave England these days, so we took an impromptu trip to Seattle to see them when I saw they had a few dates in the States. Save Ferris is touring again, yay! I have always wanted to see Monique Powell perform live and she didn't disappoint. Lastly, I'd just not gotten around to seeing Fall Out Boy in the early days so having them as a headliner for Riot Fest made me feel like my heart was going to burst out of my chest. I also took a bonus solo trip in October for an I Voted for Kodos reunion show in Madison and LOTS of catching up and reconnecting in person with they guys. It's so good to see them playing again.

"Yes, And" installation

I started and finished my first ever commission for one of my word-based weavings for the First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor. I used part of the money from being paid for "Yes, And" to purchase a Baby Macomber loom whom I've named Monique. I now officially have all the looms I need at this point in my life. Monique will be great for sampling, workshops and smaller pieces. 

Color change detail of the current weaving on Beatrice

As far as projects, I'm working on a new larger word piece, I finished another small weaving earlier this year, helped Sherri (my fibers professor and mentor) figure out a sample for an ancient Peruvian double cloth, knit 5 pairs of taller socks, 2 hats and 2 tops. Of course there was plenty of beading in there, "Golden Boundary" won a second place at the Michigan League of Handweavers Biennial Exhibit and had been my mantra for much of the year.  

WeaverBee was the best roomie for Convergence!

I taught enough hours at Convergence Conference this year to get some of my hotel room paid for. I also had a great roomie and made sure to introduce myself to weavers that I admire, in the past I've been a bit too shy, I'm thankful to start getting over that anxiety. 

Door install done, it was a long day and I'm happier here than I look 

(Also the door is painted avocado green now)

I installed my first exterior door (an reinstalled the storm door) and it went much better than I expected it to. I talk about it every day at work, it was nice to put what I've learned into action. That was my only largish house project. I wasn't really outside much, I was inspired to be in the studio more this year. The gardens and weeds will all be there next year. I do need to get back to my door fence soon though, my door collection is taking up far too much of the garage.

Spinning coffee filters into yarn

Side house projects remind me to learn and play. I started spinning coffee filters and stitching over knit stash yarn using some different techniques and materials.

Sewing leaves with a darning foot

Morgan, Clark, myself in my studio

Well, you've made it reading this far, to the rough stuff...we had the emotional roller-coaster of finding out we were pregnant and then coping with a miscarriage. It's the first time anything like this has happened to me/us and I'm so lucky to have Bryan with me to navigate these sorts of life situations. There was this extreme joy and excitement and then the drop into intense loss. We're doing ok. I have a great support system and even signed on for some therapy sessions to address it when I (finally) realized it hit me harder than I thought. 

We miss you Morgan

We lost Morgan, Bryan's cat of 21 years and me being his stepmom for almost 8 of those years. I've never had to be part of making the tough decision of putting an animal down, we didn't want to, and held off for maybe too long. Our vet was compassionate, sincere, and repeatedly assured us that Morgan had lived a very good, very long life for a cat. 

Bruce (thinks the elliptical is a cat tree)

The Universal Cat Distribution System seemed to know we would be down to 2 cats and moved Bruce in under out front porch 2 months before we lost Morgan. We think Bruce had been someone's kitten who had gotten kicked out, he came to us with his paws all ripped up, skinny, awkward, but super friendly. Once we had the vet check him out that he was ok to be around the other cats we moved him in.  He's been a joy and a pain in the butt since he's still a kitten and getting into everything. We're glad to have him and so is Clark, who is his play-buddy. Lois hates him, we hope that levels out eventually. 

Clark is my snuggle buddy

Lois (is always cold this time of year)

All in all, we've had a really good year despite losses, which are part of life. Bryan and I have been together 8 years, married for 2 and it's flown by so fast it hardly seems like we've been together for very long. On my drive into my AA meeting this morning a Harry Chapin song came up on my iPod called "Let Time Go Lightly" and life with Bryan has been a lot lighter and way more fun. 

Riot Fest Day 2