Tag Archives: camaj fiber arts

home, sweet.

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a whole cluster

of nice things happened today.

my ‘brick house’ boheme sari ribbon yarn arrived from camaj fiber arts

(to knit a silk  ‘water under the sky‘ for my very own),

my 4 yr old helped me pick out

a few new blooms for the backdoor garden

which has begun to emerge from under about 5 yrs of overgrowth,

i used the antique shoe brush that my dad gave me for the first time

(i am totally old-school when it comes to shoes,

it’s leather and polish all the way),

and a box arrived from

‘for the makers’.IMG_5184crop

this month is

a ‘test-run’

 for me.

will i really

make the time

to create, if

all the ‘ingredients’

come nicely

wrapped

up all in a box?

we’ll see.  so far, it’s just the first month, so more on that soon.

baby boy and i got the plants in before the rains came down,

the brush is perfect in all its antique quality,

and the box…i’ll crack that open

later tonight and see

how it goes.

not too shabby for a monday as i’m left

feeling very grateful and at peace with just about everything.

‘later’ taken from 20:25 of proverbs.

in the groove

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i was enjoyingc775a2_b6b62d75f815518b923c40c1a654fb39.jpg_srz_p_150_74_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz

the camaj fiber arts’ website

(silk, silk yarns and sari yarns), when i stopped short.

on the screen in front of me was bright yellow soffsilk for spinning.

it was called, of all things, ‘funky monkey’.

my head immediately ran to

‘chunky monkey’, which used to be one of my

two favorite ben & jerry ice cream flavors.Capture

needless to say, the color had my attention

and i began to wonder ‘why’ the color had that name.

honestly, i expected something to do with bananas.

i clicked to see and found an explanation

which tickled my funny bone and had me

c775a2_12207271d4f84e558fbee2160e2d7ac8.jpg_srz_p_800_403_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srzgrinning for days.

because under

the soffsilk colorway

‘funky monkey’

it simply said:

‘if i had a monkey, i’d want it to be funky’.

and now you’re smiling, too.

no use trying to hide it from me.

i just know you are.

‘bright’ taken from 11:17 of job.

pictures and logos from camaj fiber arts.

‘water under the sky’

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the summer i was fourteen years old,

i spent two weeks immersed at language camp.

IMG_4170cropthis meant only french

spoken, all the time.

the thing is,

most of us campers

knew very little french.

we’d whisper

in english

in our bunks at night

or behind

the counselors’ backs

trying to stave off

the deep feelings of homesickness

that were only intensified by the language gap.

in an effort to connect IMG_4158

(and to calm us down),

our cabin leader ingrid

would quietly sit

humming

while she brushed

our hair until it shined.

she would then

do different

braids each day.

french braids (of course),

dutch braids, pigtail braids and my favorite, fishtail braids.

four of us had long hair then and became known for our daily locks.

we loved our matching braids and we ate up the attention.

IMG_4173shadewe were so far

from home and from

our own sweet mamas.

even now,

braids

make me feel hugged.

this piece

of my history

is the inspiration

for today’s

new pattern.

‘water under the sky’ feels to me like a warm hug around the neck

and the fishtail braids are like emotional comfort food.IMG_4165sat

don’t you dare let

the braids scare you.

there are clear

step by step directions.

if you want more,

fishtail braiding

is easy to find

on youtube,

and tomorrow you can

to enter to win

enough yarn to knit and braid, your own ’emotional comfort’.

see you then…

1st and 3rd pics: julie asselin’s ‘yotta’.

‘water under the sky’ taken from 1:9 in genesis.

2nd and 4th pics: camaj fiber arts ‘boheme sari ribbon yarn’.

things coming this week

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you’ve been patient.

so patient, as my designing has taken every detour in sight lately.

this week, finally, i can share some new patterns.

three new patterns to be exact.

it’s april, right?

so when it rains, it pours.

now i don’t have ‘sneak peeks’ per se.

instead, i have a ‘behind the scenes’ shot from during

the photo taking for each new pattern.  ready?

for tomorrow’s pattern, this is my youngest testing out

the remote attached to the camera to see if the set-up is working.

and yup, he pressed the button to take this picture all by himself.

IMG_4392cropthe photographer for wednesday’s pattern

was my 14 year old.

she said she just ‘couldn’t resist’ taking pictures of the yard

in between taking pictures of the knitting.

IMG_4333crop2last, but in no way least,

is friday’s pattern.

picture this, i’m making

some slapped together kind of dinner

when i look out the window and the light is gorgeous.

the ground is wet from rain and i’m in my slippers and the food’s on the stove,

but i’m running out (zig zagging to find dry spots) to the kid’s clubhouse to take pics.

a designer’s gotta do what a designer’s gotta do.

i didn’t even burn dinner

too badly.

so this last shot is me balancing on the base of the clubhouse

trying to keep my feet dry long enough

to catch some of the light.

IMG_4280cropthree patterns in four days, starting tomorrow…

‘least’ taken from 14:7 of job.