trombonecat's blog

artistry

Moss. Here’s the story about the photos in my 7/20 and 12/8 posts. In 2007 we spent a weekend at a cabin near an inlet on the Kitsap Penisula. I walked down to the water either at incoming or outgoing tide. Was mesmerized by the look of small pebbles, water, moss, and a few sticks. Thought to myself “this isn’t a picture I could knit with yarn.” Then over several years reflecting back to the photo, which had become my go-to laptop background photo.

Found out that some of my knitting and crochet friends were also weavers. Became aware of tapestry weaving and decided that was the fiber craft to use. It’s a long story but I took.a tapestry class that was way over my head. Had bought a simple frame loom from the instructor. It broke after I warped it too tight too many times. Ran away from tapestry and found pin loom weaving. Did go back to learning tapestry weaving and still am learning the fundamentals. Need to set a goal to work on the water and moss view in a tapestry.

Back to moss. Okay, that “AI thing” is telling me there are more than 700 different species of moss in the Pacific Northwest.

life

I try not to sweat the small and medium stuff. But last Saturday my cell phone was missing in our home for four hours. Definitely was frazzled and of course found it in a spot I hardly ever place anything on.

Many people here in western WA have a lot more problems than me. The atmospheric rivers have impacted some parts of the small city where I live. Farms, some with livestock, roads, businesses, homes and apartment buildings are impacted. And more adverse weather is forecasted. Had a new friend email me, asking how I was doing — that was special.

reading

Am listening to the longest downloadable audiobook to date for me — Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Road and Black Freedom during the Civil War. Published in 2024 and extensively researched and written by Dr. Edda L. Fields-Black, it’s 792 pages long and 25 1/2 hours long. Will need to renew the library audio book copy at least once. Began to read more history before taking a trip to North Carolina in mid-fall with a friend. The sad reality is my schooling didn’t cover much about slavery and the horrific treatment of blacks before, during, and after the Civil War. I still feel inadequate but am glad to be finally reading more about slavery in the United States. Acknowledging the writers and researchers who are continuing to seek out primary source materials that have yet to be shared. As well the libraries with resources which are accessible to the public.

this week’s photo

Photo is of a 4-inch square pin loom. What’s pin loom weaving?
From Wikipedia: “Pin weaving is a form of small-scale weaving traditionally done on a frame made of pins; the warp and weft are wrapped around the pins.”

More blog etiquette I’m working on:
— Have changed the “books” theme to “reading.”
— Sticking to posting on Mondays.
— Shared about this blog with one of my Facebook groups, plan to share more broadly with this week’s post now up.
— The other person in my life is not on social media and I don’t mention them by name – thanks for respecting our privacy. And, will likely say “friend, neighbor, fellow weaving friend, etc” rather than mentioning names of people.