Posted in knitting, painting

Unraveled Wednesday from Here

Waking up again to new snowfall. The wind blew it all about, and it’s clear that we are in for some of the coldest weather I have ever experienced.

Not to fret, I have my yarn (and blog friends) to keep me warm. Here’s what’s on my needles today.

In December I promised Bill that I would knit him a pair of socks. At Christmas, I formalized the promise with this gift, wrapped up with a swatch of the yarn.

This yarn has been in my stash since last January. It is Regia, by Schachenmayr. I have wanted to try this classic self-striping sock yarn for a long time. It was a bit fiddly getting started. I chose to knit from the cuff down using a 1 by 2 rib pattern. Getting cast-on with four sock needles was hard and the first few round tedious. But now I have my rhythm going.

As far as reading goes, the desire to stay inside and curled up has me almost desperate for new reading material. Succumbing to the stacks of detective novels that Bill has sprinkled throughout the house, I chose StillLife, by Louise Penny. I pretty much raced through it in two days. As murder mysteries go, it was fairly gentle, with more writing about relationships than graphic descriptions of violence and cruelty. It turned out to be just what I needed to get through the long, cold nights of January.

To read about posts by Kat’s other Unravelers, visit her site and link into the party.

Posted in painting

Update on my Watercolor Journey

It’s been over a month since I worked in watercolor paint. I’m disappointed in myself for dropping out of a self-imposed daily practice. Even though I am busy with two quilts, the desire to improve my painting skills is ever present. It’s time to pick up my brush again.

To that end, I signed up for a 10 week program of in-person art classes. The instructor is Ross Meyers, who is offering the classes at our local art association. After my first lesson (drawing), I got all ambitious again, remembering that I wanted to paint some snow scenes this winter.

Winter Woods

You may recall that I am working on 4 by 6 inch pieces of Fabriano Studio cold press paper. In this little painting I am practicing with carbazole violet. I like the way that shadows on the snow pick up cool hues of blue and violet. The reference photo I am looking at is by Catherine Arcolio, who posts under the name Leaf and Twig. In her posts she combines beautiful photography with a brief poem.

The Two Of Us – leaf and twig (wordpress.com)

The second painting is another experiment with violet. I laid down a graduated wash and let it soak in briefly. Then with a rigger brush, I lifted the paint vertically.

The resulting image reminds me of snow blown onto tree trunks. I added some pencil marks to accentuate this impression.

For the next layer, I will come back with full strength violet and a rigger brush to make grasses in the foreground. I will use a dry brush technique and maybe some black paint to further refine the tree trunks.

After my next art lesson, I’ll write about what I am learning, and whether I think it is worthwhile.

Posted in Uncategorized

Oklahoma Snow Storm

Today the temperatures crept above 20 degrees for the first time in almost two weeks, so I ventured out of doors to document last night’s snowfall.

Backyard vista. Bill estimated the total snow accumulation at seven inches
Neighborhood street
Bundled up, including Wellies.
A lone snow person stands on guard.
Magnificent pecan tree holding its own against the snow
Rosemary bush, whose winter blossoms were rudely interrupted. Her fate is uncertain.

I did spend time today quilting on the Animal Friends quilt. I also prepared the quilt sandwich for the Round Robin piece, which is getting almost too big to fit under my sewing machine.

Tomorrow we may have more snow, but warmer temperatures will be here by Friday. And then, very soon, spring weather will arrive in Oklahoma.

Posted in painting

Quick Study: Winter Scene

I laid down this wash yesterday so it had plenty of time to dry. This is a weak blend of French ultramarine blue and sap green. It took mere minutes to paint.

This morning I had a firm idea of what I wanted to do. First I washed some water over the lower portion and blotted up the excess. This brightened the foreground. Using a one inch flat I brushed the sky with a stronger ultramarine wash and picked out the clouds with a tissue. The rest of the paint went on with the same brush using vertical strokes for the trees and horizontal slashes for the snow shadows.

At the end, I used the Sumi brush to work a little burnt sienna into the trees. It was this last step that caused the wonderful blooms. I love the texture that resulted.

Total time to make this impression: 15 minutes.

Pigments: Ultramarine blue, sap green, payne’s grey and burnt sienna.