relocating!

Thanks for stopping by to check up on me. I've been busy with lots of stuff, the biggest of which is that I have a website up and running!

My website is for my artwork! Julia McMinn Evans Fine Art! That's right, time to get my art out into the public eye, and into private or public collections! Wish me luck! Send me comments! Buy something lovely!

But firstly, come and visit me at http://web.mac.com/juliamevans.fineart

Oh, and I promise that I'll get that url shortened to something a little less obscure!

Doin' the dance

Finally it's Friday! I'm always happy to retreat to my quiet studio after dancing along through life all week. I try to get into the studio several evenings a week, but my weekends are when I really feel like I can unwind and do something creative. I have finally had a chance to take pictures of the most recent FOs! I have socks on the needles, and a shell from last summer that I hope to finish up, providing I can find the pattern. I got my old rug loom warped, and will burn through some fabric and not-fit-for-spinning roving making up rugs. I've been behaving, following the stashalong rules and not adding to the stash...but that could change, because Estes Wool Festival is coming up...and I'm not makin' any promises! Some lovely things may just have to come home with me!



I don't have much new art at present, but I have a book ready to send to Chicago with a friend who has an art connection there. Yay Patty! Hook me up with the Chicago Art Scene!

Happy Easter!

It's Easter Sunday and it looks more like Christmas! The trees are heavily frosted, and the goldfinches in their spring colors are quite a contrast against the white. If the sun comes out it's going to be a fabulous scene.

I finished spinning up a black fleece, which of course has resulted in my having more yarn to work with; 7 fat skeins (probably over 2# of yarn)...but a little less fleece, so it's a win, I think. I'm in the midst of spinning a bag of merino/tencil, now, and also working through a Bullen's Woolens color-study (a UFO). I used up a skein of Mountain Colors knitting a moebius scarf from a Knitty-Gritty episode, and nearly have the rest of that yarn knit into a cap. I've reknit the cap twice, because I didn't get the gauge right (my bad; I didn't complete my gauge swatch), and I've redone the top several times, because I haven't been able to make sense of the pattern instructions. I found a UFO for a summer shell last night; I think I'll jump onto that in hopes that we will have spring and warm weather one of these days... I'm afraid, though, that when the warm weather DOES arrive, my somewhat glacial knitting progress will slow even more because I can't resist being outside!

I completed a portraiture class and have gotten artwork into two shows this spring; the most recent are in a juried show at a local Art studio! Good stuff there...maybe later this year I can move forward with developing my website and showing my portfolio to some local galleries.

One down!

My first official "from the stash" project is complete! It's the Baby Bolero from One-Skein! Plus I mended three socks when I found their corresponding yarns in the stash. Plus I finished spinning one bag of roving, and hope to finish a fleece by the weekend.

And I successfully avoided the temptation to buy yarn at a creative festival last weekend. (I bought fabric; was I bad?? It's such nice batik, will make up nicely into a summer dress and jacket.)

I had to go to the doc today, but got several rows done on the back of my Debbie Bliss sweater while I was waiting. If I stick with it and don't put another one-skein project on the needles, I should have the back done by early next week. It feels good to make progress!

I try to paint several evenings a week; I couldn't decide what to paint a couple of weeks ago, and was torn between spinning and painting. Here's my "compromise:" I painted the spindles! Like it? Make me an offer!

Well, I've gone and committed to something I needed to do anyway; it's just more fun to do it with friends—I've joined a Stash-a-long, with the intention of knitting from the stash for an initial period of three months. My apologies in advance to my friends who own local yarn shops, but as you can tell from the photo, if I don't do something my cubes are going to collapse. That's not parallax (a distortion caused by the camera lens)—that's an honest-to-goodness bow in the side of the cubes. And the bottom is already falling out of one of the center cubes.


I completed an Irish Cables bag from Vicki Square's wonderful Folk Bags book, and a pair of Garden Mitts from Louisa Harding's The Accessories Collection over the Christmas holidays. I'm on the last sleeve of a baby bolero from Lee Radford's One Skein book, so I have a good start!