Thursday, April 8, 2010

What’s Going On?

New River outside KitchenIt’s been a very eventful few weeks. Rhode Island had 17 inches of rain in March, 9 of it in 36 hours last week. The flooding has been called catastrophic. 

All the rivers overflowed, houses and businesses underwater, the sewer treatment plant was flooded, the 2 major suburban malls were flooded (one of them employed 4,000 people, who are now unemployed) and the major highway was closed, as were many secondary roads and bridges.

backyard pond Here’s a good slideshow.

We are fine, because we have underground rivers running through our basement all the time, so we have french drains and sump pumps. But it was very stressful, and it’s sad to see so many people’s lives ruined in one way or another. One photo is out the kitchen window at the water flowing past, about 12 inches from our foundation. The other is in the backyard. Fortunately we live on a hill, so the water flows instead of just collecting.

IMG_5324 This week brought another kind of excitement. I had a small basal cell carcinoma removed from right next to my nose. It’s the slowest growing form of skin cancer, so no worries, but I ended up with more stitches than I expected, and now I’m all swollen and bruised. I walked to the library today, in my disguise.

What have I been doing in my studio? Well I’m still working on my tapestry diary every day. I highly recommend this experience, I am learning so much, and it’s very un-stressful since I have very few expectations. March Rain DaysI get to try out something new every day. I learned a new way to weave raindrops last week.

Sometimes I just weave a plain parallelogram if that’s how I feel. This shows the tail end of February (note polka dots for the last day of every month), then all of March and the first week of April. I wove stitches for Tuesday, and purple bruises on a green background for Wednesday. The heart is for our 33rd wedding anniversary.March and April I have also been working on my latest Chaos tapestry, which I noticed, from an old entry in this blog, I started a year ago. YIKES! I’d better get on with it. Chaos Edge in ProgressThe title of this one is “On the Edge of Chaos,” which is what it will say at the top, but right now you can only see the bottom which says “Chaos on the Edge.”   novelty yarns

It’s circular. On the Edge of Chaos on the edge of chaos on the edge. I hope it’s not as crooked as it  looks in this photo, I don’t think so. Whenever I take a photo I see imperfections I had not noticed before.

I’ve been using a special black and white boucle yarn in this series, and I just discovered another one that is more white. ChaosonEdge detail You can see each of them in this photo, but mixed with white.

It’s fun to see how many different kinds of black and white marks I can make with different yarn combinations. 

 

blackwhiteboucleI am also getting ready to start some more of the small Chaotic Fragments pieces. I’m thinking of introducing a little bit of color, but no sure exactly how I want to do that yet.

 

Technorati Tags: ,

5 comments:

Tommye McClure Scanlin said...

Who is that mystery woman who haunts the library? I think maybe you've got the subject of a tapestry here, Jan.
Good luck with the mending... and as I mentioned at the other blog, so glad it was the "good" kind.

donnaloraine@comcast.net said...

Wishing you speedy healing Jan! I had a similar run in 5 years ago. It was /is on the left side of my forehead and it looked like I was shot in the head when they were done( I almost lost an eye, could have been the one eyed weaver) Now a frankestein scar and bangs to cover it. C'est la vie.
Love that black and white mix. And the diagonals on the diary piece open up all kinds deign potential in the overall piece. Love it.
Adios,
Donna Loraine Contractor

Jan said...

Thanks for the healing wishes....fortunately faces heal quickly, although with the dark purple bruises, I look like a Zombie right now....EEK!

Donna, I guess these skin cancers are very common, I keep running into people who've had them. Yours sounds like it was particularly scary!

I've always enjoyed weaving these diagonals, they began years ago as multicolored lazy lines using up leftover yarns, and who knows where they will end up!

Jennifer said...

Jan - you have had such an eventful month! I'm gald to see you have kept your spirits up with the disguise to head to the library and your weaving! I am so inpsired by the journal. I'm thinking I will start one next year once I have all the photos from New Zealand processed. It's looks to be an amazing experience. So what does one do with such a tapestry when it's finished?

Edith said...

Gosh Jan you've been having rotten weather haven't you? Glad though that you are not overly affected by it. As for that mysterious Lady -- yeah definitely agreew ith Tommye that you ahve a wonderful subject and theme for a tapetry here!! Really you look terribly distinguished. Love the scarf and hat...very '20's!!
And your tapestry diary is looking really really good. Briulliant idea!!