the dreaded last 20 cms

the hardest part of weaving IMO.i always get stalled there, with the next project always on the backburner and it takes me ages to complete.   ¯\ ( ツ ) /¯ 

the new izakaya in town  was a good lunch date with the peers. authentic japanese not wannabe japanese food.

we are such otakus spent most of the time

talking about  language stuff.

i guess since no one else appreciates the quirks of it  beautiful antique kimono on display at the entrance.

neki desu 

 

adhd

working on this one, still more to do.started yet one more time to study coding in an on line course.

never been able to go beyond the explanations of the enunciations no matter how interested i am in learning to code.let's see if this time the going back to japanese, aka some discipline, helps.

i can only envision myself writing code to animate my fractals, that should be enough push.

neki desu 

 

awol is a misnomer

in suffering mode.for one, intense cold ans snow on the hills with all the plants already out.clematis with buds ,momijis with tender leaves out,and jasmine budding. <( _____  )>

on the other hand indoor xmas cactus after discovering it is not actually a cactus,hence watering ,doing well.

however the real pickle was turning the studio into a tabletop photo space and photograph 2 series of works, one of them white. (>人<) two weeks of shooting with lights popping out having to reach out for amazon. all done  next comes editing and uploading to the page.since i update about every 2-3 years when i come back there are lots of new features which i have to learn.years ago the platforms were user friendly for no geeks like me, now they've gotten extremely pro and you need to hire one to do the work.which is like putting your kid through college. let's see if i can continue or i should start contemplating closing the page down.

neki desu 

 

the last of the first

this is the last piece from the first warp, the second warp is already up .

this is a slow  but enjoyable project.a reflection on the temporal paradox concept. amplifying the exam on  my last 15 years in barcelona living as a functional hikikomori -minus the hoarding mind you    (^o^) . all those people and blogs that supported me during those years are now gone, as my hikikomori days.you can't change the past or else you incur in a temporal paradox.

have a social life now and living among nature and not cement highly helps.

neki desu

 

husband-san b'day

eggplant with tempeh, cheese slivers and mallorcan sausage.

chicken rice unlike no other, made with a native breed of chicken, not your regular pale faced ones.

lemon crumble with tiny merengue kisess.

and wine of course. a feast in one of our favorite restaurants.

neki desu 

 

the fogs and first hellebore

was missing those lovely foggy days  bcse of these abnormal temps.

first hellebore is out. this is not surprising as they bloom in winter.

neki desu

 

something's not right

second week in december and there are leaves on the trees. 20º over the weekend. the powers that be keep pushing back the agenda till 2030 and honey, there's not going to be anyone here in 2030. not even the ones who made all the money pushing it back.  ⋋__⋌  

was clearing the veg table and there was 

this lonely one, last one of the year.

small but grateful for the energy it put into growing.

neki desu 

 

normal weather at last

snow on the range, the cold has arrived. rainy northern spain . we're green again, back to that it-hurts-your-eyes-green.bring out sweaters and goretex boots.there's life after the summer from hell.

neki desu 

 

saturday's labor

7kgs of fruitcake glory again.second time after the pandemic.it is such a big job , even with a helper,that i  had parked it. every year it's a source of wonder how i did it for 30+ years in my tiny barcelona kitchen.

soaking in rhum until xmas.one of the animated xmas cards already done,one to go.decors are going up next week ,so is the grocery shopping for the festivities.we're just two and it is a production. wonder about the production for a family let's say of five.

and thus begin the long weekend turned into a week here. bcse there are two bank holidays many take the whole week off . consequently europe is flooded with spaniards everywhere. the more pecunious take to south east asia or even japan. 8 days in japan minus two of travel time is something i would never ever do.

neki desu 

 

we're green again

after an extremely hot and dry august rain has visited during the past weeks and temps have become normal again. hope it's dry for the fireworks tonight.

neki desu

 

out of commission

for the past weeks with a neck to forearm tendinitis.not pleasant.the first week doing computer work was excruciatingly painful so i stopped. dedicated that time to memorize some japanese verbs and structures.the bad news is that the guy who had excellent vids following the mina no nihongo book took them all down.he was very good explaining grammar and it is a big loss to the self study community.

(╯︵╰,). thinking about switching to the japan foundation marugoto program but still not clear. the ever falling between the cracks classification student and i have a severe dislike for placement tests.

the ailment has somewhat subsided i can do 

menial stuff. 

making ferrous print paste was one .

 this incredible goo was used on the scarf above and left to dry, then it was dunged in wheat bran chalk bath to fix it.

the iron which escaped to  the dunging solution  shifted the color somewhat towards a rusty yellowy rerd,but the bonus is that it will be more light resistant.

this piece will grace my neck bcse i don't think there's anyone  willing to pay for a 2 month process.

neki desu

 

survival kit

surviving yet another heat wave with iced matcha fizz. the north has had temps in the mid 30s, beyond unbearable.

ive been  exhausted lying around not moving and bingeing on j dramas.getting on the vertical means dizziness.one more day and temps will go back to normal with rain on the map.those poor fields and meadows are totally fried.

neki desu

 

those girls never fail

🎉🎉🏉

neki desu

 

the summer of the res

re read, revisit ,re study re try and everything else in between. this is no laughing matter. after so many years of using my to go weaving program i have discocered many other functions to work with paralell threadings and networks.

i even went back to alice schlein's seminal network book and re read it discovering many ideas that i had just glossed over. i am re studying it in depth this time. 

as with dyeing all these years i had gotten results but the depth of it had escaped me. i am at a curious point now  revisiting what i thought i knew .

on the other hand not related but in a way it is i have started looking up words in the dictionary directly from japanese. at first i'd look up a word in english to get the japanese equivalent. now after countless dramas i hear an unfamiliar word,stop the streaming and look it up. it's a great reinforcement and after hearing it a couple of times it's already set in the  hardisk of my  mind.

i am planning my fall weaves with all those madder and benibana dyed silks. the anticipation is building up. novel ways of using my weaving program promise summer fun.

neki desu

 

new iterations mean

more spinning. getting  blank paper damp and ready to spin as per instructions.

written paper is another ball game,i've broken almost all the rules in order to get thread.paper can't really be wetted or the ink runs and turns the paper greyish. it looks ok,but it bothers me.i've been trying different flavors to get what i really want.

 although i've cut myself some slack i hereby confess that this is not my favorite part of the process as i find the cutting stressful.im not a spinner so i can't find the proclaimed zen about it.

  ¯\ ( ツ ) /¯

trying to get as much done before we're hit by visitors. spring is almost solidly booked.

neki desu

 

beware of having too much fun

it can have consequences. all that fun painting and printing and fumbling with the warp brought unruly slacking threads .  hence weaving is slow and painful.

however whe finally completed it's going to look good,said she. in the life in general dept.

all the season's stuff is done but i am feeling slugish.this year no xmas cake due to the cost of power.it's been substituted by coconut tiramisu.perhaps this will become the tradition.

neki desu

 

cochineal

is beyond awesome.  less than five minutes in the dyebath and the printed mordant has already taken lots of color.

my cochineal is of the vinage sort  (￣ω￣ ) got a whole kilo a long time ago  when husband-san had a project in the canary islands and traveled every week. after some research a producer was located and he sent me a kilo!! w /out even including a bill!! goes w/out saying i contacted him and transferred money. those were the days.

anyhow as it takes so little to get saturated color that i still have a lot. the bugs were plump when i got them , now they are like currants, but still operative.

this background will be cleaned along w the other pieces. i really have to plan the use of electricity because our bill has doubled. i rather eat than dye-mind the spelling-if i need to choose.

turning a page i started tai chi yesterday. was really looking forward to it but getting up earliish and not being able to have a leisure breakfast has always been hard on me.i need bround three hours to  do the stretching and  wight exercises eat,read the papers,now include wordle both in english and spanish, now i have to rush out of the house.it's a good thing is  just one street away.

neki desu 

 

the science behind

scouring. i had always eyeballed everything being the kamikaze that i am. however now i am starting to weight the fabric ,record and derive the formula for the soda ash and synthrapol. can't wait to start the actual dyeing as i foresee an improvement in colors and cost effectiveness.

the murks above. i am using a whole lot of  locally sourced cotton fabrics, and some vintage linens from my mother in law.

the cellulosics already dried and pressed.

on with the silks which have been in my fabric bin as long as forever. got many at a closeout sale of a store during my barcelona years.

turning a page my nephew& wife are coming this weekend to visit auntie and uncle.need to prepare so i am taking a short break until next monday.  friday vid will be a scheduled post.

neki desu 

 

o hisashiburi ne!

it's been days of fierce heat so i've been laying extremely low. since the studio is on the top floor it became a nice little oven. first two weeks in august were overly torrid with lots of wild fires.i could just move my hands because any other movement was too much effort.northern spain is not used to 40ºtempsand nights of 24º

once the heat subsided work started. will be posting along the week the last two weeks work. finally my computer was set up and now i have my programs and my stuff handy again. hallelujah!

neki desu