Thursday, July 18, 2013

October...


This has been a crazy week. Summer is always like this, and I think the truth of it is that summer is my least favorite season, and I am much less tolerant when I am hot and sticky! Yes, S.T.I.C.K.Y!  I live in the desert of western Colorado. I live here for a reason, and that reason is that I lived for the first 28 years of my life in the humid mid-west. I never enjoyed humidity! It doesn't even make my naturally somewhat-curly hair curlier; it makes it go limp, joining the rest of me. Humidity has no perks, as far as I am concerned.

This past week has been humid. I know that, because, number 1: We have a swamp cooler to cool the house, and it DOES NOT WORK well when it is humid, and number 2: I have a humidity thing-ee to tell me the humidity of a room, to make sure the one room that my guitar is in stays a bit more humid to keep it from dry-damage. I've not needed to use a humidifier in that room all week, and, in fact, my guitar is showing signs of too much moisture. 

Not only has it been humid and HOT, but we've had huge booming thunderstorms for the past three nights, and I get absolutely no sleep with a big, hot, hairy, shaking dog sitting on top of me in the bed (next to me is not close enough.)

SO... it's been too hot and sticky and I've been too crabby to go into the studio to weave, though I do have a looming deadline (yes, pun intended.)

I took this week to finish sewing all the slits (from the back this time) on the October tapestry. (Oh, if only it was October! One of my favorite months. No, my all-time-favorite month.) I also blocked it, though since I've been weaving with the marvelous reed-holder on my loom that my husband made me, it came out almost perfectly flat and square! I blocked it anyway, and the next step will be to mount it, like the rest of the calendar tapestries are mounted. 

This fall, during my favorite month of October, the local Art Center is hosting a fiber exhibit, and they want 8 tapestries from me. I have 7 calender tapestries woven, and one on the loom, barely begun. So I need to just ignore the heat and humidity and get in there and weave!




This coming week, we will be going to Boston for a week, so no weaving will get done again. I am hoping the humid weather will pass through while we're gone so I can weave frantically when I get home. That is what it will take, no matter what the weather or the state of my crabbiness.

And I will also get a decent, not-on-the-badly-lit-dining-table photo of the October tapestry soon, too. I promise.

4 comments:

Susan said...

Wonderful tapestry which captures the clear light of October (in the west). So you're trying to escape the humidity by coming to Boston? Well, enjoy the now-mandatory air conditioning! But it does help us humidity-dwellers to keep weaving in the summer.

ringadal said...

I can certainly relate to the feeling about humidity. We are all suffering. My son has been playing soccer twice a day in this heat and humidity and taking 3 or more showers a day! I went out to touch up our front door in the evening last night and was completely soaked by the time I finished, yet another shower. I grew up in the H&H, but have to say, I will be glad for the front that is supposedly coming through this weekend to drop the temp and humidity down. Good luck with staying cooler. We are off to Cape Cod, so hopefully it will be nice further north.

Lovely tapestry! I can also relate to the shaking dog. One of ours jumped in the car yesterday because she knew a storm was coming and sadly we couldn't take her with us because of the heat. On the other hand, I had the puppy barking last night because a lightning bug scared her and was keeping her awake!

Fall will be here soon!

Anonymous said...

7/20/2013 8am DST on the East Coast....ha-ha-ha--right on target comments!...I, too, hate July...in the NYC area we are in the 7th day of upper 90's (car dash reading 103)...please keep showing the final STEPS OF THE Tapestry...most illuminating for me...I am working online with Cornelia Gardella now and sometimes we refer to your blog....so you continue to help me in facing all the "little parts" like the tree leaves and branches...what is routine to you is most helpful to me...thanks from JANET

K Spoering said...

Oh, dear! I don't like hearing that I'll be going to more oppressive heat!
But I'll be with all my kids and grandkids, so I can endure most anything!

Janet, I'm glad to hear that I have been helpful to you! Sometimes I'm not real sure that what I post is of interest to anyone but myself, so I really appreciate when you leave comments!

Thanks to you all, and let's all stay cool and keep taking multiple showers (I'm there, too.)

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