Rain, Goldenrod, Madder, and Paper

I woke up to rain this morning, which makes dyeing fairly useless since nothing would dry in this wetness to save it's life... So, I took a day off from it! I rinsed out the Goldenrod and Madder pots, left a few pieces of shibori silk to exhaust dye in the goldenrod, and poured hot water on my gladiolus and my marigolds. And, other than an alum mordant this evening, that was pretty much the extent of it today.

So it's an art residency, what do you do when you're not dyeing!? Well, that's a good question.

I did at least an hour of Pilates. Mmm pilates.

I went to the Stonehedge Yarn Shop on the Stonehedge Farm and Fiber Mill to hunt up some really local, really soft (more importantly white/cream) wool, since I was almost out. They were super nice and gave me a small tour of their fiber mill facilities!!! So awesome and also appreciated (I mean, they didn't have to).

I then watched Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog and put ties on the pile of yarn I had just purchased (and sang along of course).

I untied and re-tied 2 pieces of multi-dye shibori silk. I think I'm going to dip at least one of them in the indigo tomorrow...

I made a very loose schedule so I have a general idea of how much more I can get done (starting with the things that must get done and working backwards).

I made and devoured baked kale.

How to make Baked Kale:
1. Purchase some pretty leafy kale from your local farmer's market.
2. Wash it and trim off all the icky parts.
3. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.
4. Cut up roughly into manageable pieces, removing the larger stems.
5. Rub it with olive oil.
6. Put foil on a baking tray and put all the leafy kale on top of that.
7. Sprinkle the kale with sea salt, pepper and garlic powder (be liberal with the garlic).
8. Bake 20 min, until it's all brown and golden but not burnt.
9. As soon as you can pick it up with your fingers, devour it.

I got my week's veggies delivered (yay veggies!!!) There was swiss chard (omg yum).

I watched the Red Violin and spun some dyed skeins into balls, made dinner, drank some wine, made peanut butter cookies, tried not to devour all the peanut butter cookies.

I cut a new cut paper piece that's been kicking about in the back of my head for a while now. I'm not sure it's finished, but I need to let it sit for a bit so I can look at it. I started with a figure sketch of the curves and hollows of a woman's hips and over-imposed the pits and hollows in a limestone cliff face I found hiking at John Bryant State Park.

I also (just now) found out my friend and fellow artist Elle Perez has her website up for her new traveling project: The Outliers Project Check that shit out.

Pictures and recipes to come-- the rain is messing up my interwebs, so no uploading them tonight. :C