Mother's Day Cards

So while I wait for my yarn to start my next weaving project, I had time to finish a couple of Mother's Day cards well ahead of time.

On one I used papers from Webster's Pages.  This technique is great for building up an area and creating lots of dimension.  It's basically paper tole.  You take multiple copies of the same image and cut elements out and stack them up to create a 3 dimensional effect.  I've even done this with photos on a scrapbook page and the effect can be really effective.  Remember this the next time you accidentally print more than one copy of the same picture.

The thing to take advantage of with this technique is that other elements on the page can be stacked on top to create a dimensional scene.  In this case the hibiscus in the lower left hand corner is an element from the other side of the 6x6 piece of paper which other wise would have been discarded.  Use pop-dots to separate the layers. 

This card was also made with 6 x 6 papers from Webster's Pages and a stamp from Memory Box.  I used a Pergamano embossing stylus to shape the flowers after colouring them with copic markers.  I used my Spellbinders to cut the circle and the small leaves.

Weaving a Couple of Place Mats

So today I am 12 days post surgery and I saw my orthopedic surgeon.  He was smiling ear to ear when he saw me sitting with my knee bent normally.  I like making people smile.  So needless to say, it's all good.  I can walk without crutches, not far, but fairly normally.

So all this time I was spending on my butt was not wasted.  I have read a few books, namely John Scalzi's Old Man's War series.  I have tried to work on my knitting, but the socks I am knitting for my youngest are in a horrible yarn, horrible colour and are driving me nuts.  It's not that the colour is bad, I just can't see it on the needle.  The yarn itself is a 3 ply wool/nylon blend, but the twist is very loose, and being hard to see, I keep picking up just half the strand.  ARGH!

So when the loom arrived last Thursday, I immediately put it together, in short spurts, warped it, in short spurts, and began weaving.

So now I have two lovely, accidentally square place mats.  I am very happy with how these turned out.  I used some left over Bernat Handicrafters cotton and a 10 dent heddle.  My selvages were even ok.  I would call this success!

Five days post ACL Surgery

So today was a good day.  I saw my surgeon, Dr. Dwyer, and he changed my dressing, took away my big knee brace, and was quite happy with my progress.  I should say seemed, as he's not what you would call effusive.  Then it was off to my physiotherapist, Marcel, at the MacIntosh Clinic.  He was pretty happy with things too.  Very little swelling, bending to 90 degrees and straightened to zero, able to contract quads, and lift leg.  I can walk with weight bearing and bending my knee, but still with crutches.  I'll have to get rid of those.  It hasn't been a complete cake walk, but the pre operation conditioning is so far paying off.  Tomorrow will probably be an icky day, as today I have done alot, so there will be some stiffness and soreness.

Added to this is the tracking information on my loom.  It looks like it will arrive tomorrow.  I can't wait!  I tried to get my husband to stop at Lettuce Knit in Kensington Market.  We drove right past it on the way from the hospital where I saw the doctor to the Athletic Centre where I go for physio. He stared straight ahead and said I didn't have the time.  Oh well.

And on top of that my grades were posted on ROSI and I did really well in both Medieval Latin, which I expected, and in Medieval Book, which I didn't.

All of which makes for a red letter day. A!

First day post ACL surgery

There are tons of blogs charting the post surgery progress of people who've enjoyed this particular process, so I won't add tremendously to the body of work already produced.  I will say so far so good and Percocet is not nearly as good as promised.  I took one last night before bed with an additional just Tylenol, but in all honesty was no better than just two Tylenol.  Oh well, I guess I can strike junky off my potential job list.

Good news is that I placed my order for a Kromski Harp at woolery.com.  A very nice sounding man left me a message on my answering machine to say the heddle blocks I had also ordered would not be in until early next week.  He promised they would get out my order as soon as possible.  As I chose USPS economy, I can expect to wait 6 to 10 business days for it to arrive.  In the meantime I did receive two weaving books from Indigo.  One is a bit older, Hands on Rigid Heddle Weaving by Betty Lynne Davenport, but a good standard for a rigid heddle loom, the second though seems like a lot of fun.  Great photos, great patterns, and great instructions in Weaving made Easy, by Liz Gipson make me wish I had knuckled under and paid for Fedex, which incidentally was cheaper than USPS, but in my experience comes to my door with nasty extra surprises.  So for now I will read, and knit and wait for my loom.