There's always something to do. 

Having gifted the 14 color merino wool vest I worked on off and on from March to March and then on to the following October- many small projects clamor to be next. 

shoes: 

-resole new taupe ankle booties

materials: shoe goo or contact cement, natural or gum color rubber sheet 

-outdoor soles for canvas dance booties

materials: shoe goo, vibram furoshiki outsoles

-reinforce leather laces in barefoot sandals

materials: shoe goo, leather thong, sandal sole

-replace tennis shoe cork insole with wool footbed

materials: leather shoe, insole for tracing, blanket weight wool

category: socks

-knit ankle high socks 

next step: put half socks back on size three needles

-repair shrunken geek socks

next step: put socks and remaining Boulder yarn in project bag

category: christmas

anemone hat for mom

next step: put hat brim back on size 7 circular needle

bulkyish hat for Nick

next step: find size 7 dpns

reflective tape for cycling?

stranded hat for Dad

next step: set aside chosen colors in a project basket or bag

category: outerwear

rain jacket

apply nikwax, learn to put in ventilation, maybe reflective tape

Keto Chocolate Cookies

I am magic! I made okay keto cookies with no recipe! I was more craving making cookies than cookies, and was prepared to end up with a gritty mess and having discovered something that doesn't make good cookies. These came out waaaaay better than they had any right to, tasting and feeling basically like brownies. I think this is due to the cocoa butter.

Here is the recipe:
When I say a scant quarter cup I mean I scooped some with a quarter cup measuring cup. So like, an unknown amount that is less than a quarter cup. I was skeptical of the erithritol for being way sweeter than sugar, the cocoa powder for being bitter, and the coconut flower for absorbing a million times its weight in liquid.

scant 1/4 cup coconut flour
scant 1/4 cup cocoa
almost no salt
4 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp cocoa butter
scant 1/4 cup erithrytol sweetener
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 Egg

Combine dry ingredients by themselves and wet ingredients by themselves, starting with the fats, and then add the dry to the wet, stir, scoop onto a lined tray and bake at 350.

San Francisco Skyline in Oil

Middle Harbor Shoreline Park has a ton of interesting industrial views. Cranes, the long overpass-like approach of the bridge, tons of cargo containers. It was hard to pick one. But the Bay bridge curving into the San Francisco skyline pulled me in.

As you can see, it was an aggressively gray day.

A Rainbow from Black, White, Yellow, and Red

 My first two paintings of the Zorn palette were rather dark. I knew from swatching when I first heard of the palette 6 months ago that there were more possibilities. But I could not get them. So I took trying to paint from life out of the equation and just mixed a simple rainbow.

This rainbow is so calm and balanced!

A Rainbow from Black, White, Red, and Yellow- Zorn Palette Day 3

A Fresh New Limited Palette (From the 1800s)

I love a limited palette. I love drawing something in water soluble ink and then coaxing a mid tone and deep tone out of it with a water brush. I love painting with just shadows. I love painting the sea and the sky with just the white of the paper, a warm blue, and a green blue. I love mixing the green of a potted plant and the terra cotta of its pot from yellow, cyan, and magenta. This basically is because I can't work all the colors at one time.

When I try and match each bit of a scene to the right thing in my paint box, the result looks artificial at best, jarring at worst. (A great tip when you've completed a painting and this happens, is to grab a little bit of one of the main colors and find somewhere to dab or smear it into the other main color. This makes it more cohesive immediately.)

 My plan to get to where I can use all the stunning colors that look so beautiful in a swatch (they make watercolors out of gemstones now!), is to learn a new to me limited palette. This has been on the to do list since summer, so 6 months, including 4 months that I took off to work on my art. Thanks to the COVID-19 quarantine, I am not only off work, but also off the gym(s), off traffic, off visiting friends and family, off shopping. I am using some of that time to learn the Zorn Palette.

I plan to work in all genres. The palette is most suited to portraits but I prefer to work from life and have no model aside from myself.

Zorn Palette Exploration Day 2: Botanical

 Having learned from day 1 that I could not coax a full range of color out of red, black, white, and yellow, I set myself up for success by choosing a subject that is already those colors. I sat in the garden observing when it was overcast and blending when it was sunny and I had to put on sunglasses. I am not trying to learn a new palette with a gray filter intermittently over my eyes.

 Lovely, vibrant, healthy succulents!

I really tried to capture the little edge highlight on each leaf. I had to paste it on thick to keep it from blending with the underlying color. Because in life it is so thin it might be something to add later with a little rigging brush, but then how do I keep track of where those highlights go? I also found it difficult to put in black shadows. I would apply the black, and doing so would blend it into the burgundy, making it disappear. I think the most successful part of this painting is the background. I did not invent it but copied it as best I could from life. The bluish gray of the wall, the light toned brown of the dirt in the background, the shaded red lip of the terra cotta, and the business of the soil in the foreground.