alpaca

    Last summer/fall my mother bought me three (count 'em three) garbage bags full of alpaca fiber.  There were three alpaca blankets sheered from alpacas at a nearby farm. Two are the creamy beige you think of as typical for alpacas, and one is a gorgeous dark brown.  I am ashamed to say these bags have been sitting in the laundry room for all this time, waiting for me to get up the nerve to try to spin this fiber.
    I got some advise from a spinning list  I am a part of, but still waited.   One woman told me she would spin it without any processing - without washing or carding or anything, washing any dust out afterwards.  So, I tried it.  The fiber is amazingly free of v.m. - a few pieces of hay and some seeds, but not much more.
    The fiber experience is lovely.  It is more slippery than wool, and SO soft.  I think I may be a convert.  I will never give up spinning wool - there are so many wonderful types - but I do love alpaca. If I ever get my farm, I may just have to have a few alpacas as well as sheep!

Spring Break

  I am not a person who takes breaks.  Thus, I  have to find activities which allow me to slow down  while still thinking I am "doing something."  I keep bees for this reason.  One does not go work with the bees if you are feeling jumpy and agitated.  They will become agitated if you move too fast or treat them roughly (life lesson there).  So I have to slow down to work with them.  It is good for me as well as the environment to tend to them.
   For this same reason - the need to slow down - I spin.  Not exercise spinning, but fiber into yarn. It is a relaxing task, with a tangible outcome, but it forces me to sit for a while.  I can listen to the radio, or an audio book, or just be quiet. I have not taken the time to spin in a few month.  Too many "have to" tasks got in the way.  So I took some time on this first weekday of Spring break and plied some of the yarn that I have had sitting on bobbins since Christmas or earlier.  It is not fancy - just some Icelandic wool in natural colours, but I can hardly wait for it to be dry so I can start working with it.  What I will knit it into I am not certain, but I have plans to hold a little of it out for a small weaving project I have been hatching.

the first skein is a bit more nubbly than the other two

Hanging over the dehumidifier so the extra moisture won't wreck all the books!

Show Shots from As You Like It

   I went to the theatre last night and shot over 500 photos of the show - my new digital camera is so much fun!  I have not edited any of them -  and they do need the light levels adjusted on some of them, but here are a few examples of what the show is looking like and why I have been so tired lately!  A huge shout out to Scott Segar and Matt Grenier for helping to make this set look so lovely.  You built some fun trees, guys! Thank you

Orlando being thrown by Charles the Wrestler

Charles the wrestler and Orlando

Orlando and Adam

Duke Frederick, Celia, Rosalind

A lord and Jacques 

Phoebe and Sylvius

Jacques in the forest

Touchstone and Audrey on the fabulous swing

Oliver, Ganymede and Aliena - he suspects something!!

one of Duke Senior's lords in the woods

Orlando and Rosalind - Epilogue

Audrey and Touchstone

details in the nooks and crannies

the bottom of the "touchdown" tree

Hiding the musicians we have this

My favorite tree

Some of the process

As You Like It opened on Tuesday. It looks pretty goood, if I do say so myself! Here are a few photos of the costumes in the works. Tonight is photo call for the show, so there will be some shots of the completed costumes soon.

 

 

For the Love of Books

    When I was living in Oxford, England, the most humbling event was when I was allowed to use the Bodleian Library for the first time.  The weight of the knowledge and imagination contained within the rooms of that special place was awe inspiring.  We had to take an oath in order to use the reading rooms. : "I hereby undertake not to remove from the Library, or to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document, or other object belonging to it or in its custody; not to bring into the Library or kindle therein any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the Library; and I promise to obey all rules of the Library.”
    I long to get back there to study once again.  It is glorious.  

Follow this link to see a bit of the inside of the library - as well as some other amazing book places I long to haunt!

Over extended and under paid!

   I am in the home stretch for the show.  As You Like It goes into technical rehearsals this week.  Still so much to do.  Today, between Girl Scout meetings, shopping for GS meeting, and doing all the family things I have been not doing this week because I was in the theatre, I am building a suit in purple chevron wool, for a character who, with the fat suit I already made, has a chest of 52" and a somewhat larger waist.
   I spent the past two days in the theatre painting - the floor had to be done so the lighting designer had some idea of the amount of bounce light he would be dealing with - the value of the floor is very important when designing for an arena theatre.  I had students in for a few hours on Friday, and they were pretty helpful, but I did have to spend some time correcting their mistakes.  Little things which, with time and experience, they would have seen as  incorrect, but which take a while to correct.  I wanted the rock steps to look like they were made out of granite, so they had been based grey, and I asked them to gently and lightly sponge some colours on.  When they were done I had something resembling a cheetah's fur.   My own fault, as I did not do it with them, but I assumed it was so simple that they could do it without supervision.  NEVER ASSUME!
   So yesterday, with an audio book playing, I feather dusted and sprayed 6 different colours over the floor's base colour - I think that is done.  I tempered the pattern on the stone steps. I played with texture on the trees. Now all I have to do is finish the tree texture and grade the top into darkness - tricky since this theatre has no catwalks and all must be done with extension ladders propped against the lighting grid. I have to get the vines hung, the rocks touched up, the branches and stones for the floor in place, and finish all the costumes.  The garments that were pulled are in good shape, but the gowns, suits, and strongman outfit that are being built are in various stages of unfinished.   A long week ahead? Oh yes.  Now off the computer and back to work.