The year of the hat...

I say it will be the year of the hat...no not just for Easter and weddings...all year long.  Thank you Prince William and Catherine Middleton.  Check out Kate's hat designer, Vivien Sheriff.  She also says interest in hats are on the rise.  I anxiously await the renewal of the hat.  I love hats and plan to make one a month for the rest of the year.  I made the hat and purse in the lower right in March and it just does not have a wedding in it's future, it is more for a blistery Winnie the Pooh type of day for walking with the dog.  Wear a hat today and feel glamorous.     

Tabernacle Colors

I just delivered the cloth I wove for dear friends Linda and Carl.  Linda wanted a cloth to cover a serving tray she uses in the colors in the Tabernacle.  Read Exodus 26,27 and 28 in the Bible for clarity.  The blue symbolizes the human body, purple the royal Messiah, scarlet suffering and yellow is glory.  I hope they enjoy the cloth during this season of Lent and use it often in their home tabernacle.   

Happy

Today, five years ago, daughter Amy married Jono.  What a happy day!  I still see her father walking her down the aisle and it sends chills down my spine, the sheer happiness on every one's face.  During the several days of celebration in Portland, Oregon I got away for a walk and came across a delightful yarn shop called Lint in the Pearl Distract.  It was the start of Spring and they had in the window these little terra cotta pots filled with knitting kits of felted flowers from Pick Up Sticks.  I choose one to create and celebrate the day.  I can still hear my daughter's father in law or out laws as we call them...saying " what will you do with that when it is done".  Hmmm it took me 5 years but the Iris is done and it is my new pocketbook. 

Celebrate and be happy today--Amy and Jono have been married 5 years.

  

P.S.  My scarf has been found. 

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Irish Blessing

I did a needlework for my mother with this blessing on it ages ago.  I always have loved the words.  

An Old Irish Blessing

 May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.



 

Janette C. Merriman woven tranparency of wool warp, weft and inlay.



Moral

I am feeling sad today...I am missing my favorite handwoven hand-dyed scarf.  See left.  I lost it last weekend in Talent Oregon when I went out to dinner to celebrate my Dad's and Sister's birthdays.  I had it wrapped around my neck in perfect fashion.  It showed up just right in the photographs of the birthday bash.  When I went to get dressed the next morning my scarf was missing.  We went back to the restaurant...not there.  Striped the bed, tore the house apart...not there.  Emptied the suitcase once again...not there.  Checked the car...how could it be there...not there.  I put an ad on craigslist...no response.  I guess I will have to forget about it...it is gone forever.  I really will not be able to make another one...it was a hand-dyed warp.  On the positive...I could make one I like even better! 

Moral of the story:  Double tie your scarf as Jennifer Moore will show you in this you tube.  

The funny thing is I was just boosting I never have lost a scarf when Barbara Setsu Pickett gave a presentation at the Contemporary Fiber Arts Guild last week and she commented that the way to tie a scarf doubled will keep you from loosing one of your new scarves.  She and her son have a line of shibori scarves out called Mihara.  They are BEAUTIFUL!

Peace Be With You



Linen warp and weft with wool inlay

I just got back from mailing off my most recent transparency titled, "Peace Be With You".  This piece was a commission so I knew when weaving it I would not be keeping it.  I hung it in the window here at the house for a week or so prior to mailing.  I have a hard time letting go of a weaving that I have worked long and hard at designing.

Mary says, "Happy New Year"

Mary, a glove bunny, was made to celebrate the year of the rabbit.  Mary has a basket of carrots fresh from the growers market.  I have named her Mary after our local mountain peak.  The first bunny I owned was stuffed  and  I kept it in a cage in my bedroom.  My two sisters would insist I feed it raw carrots and during the night the bunny would eat the carrots gone.  I wish I could remember her name.   The second bunny I owned was named Shasta.  My family had just visited my grandparents for the first time in Northern California, Yreka.  We flew into Medford, Oregon from Pennsylvania and I experienced the great mountain of Shasta in her beauty and grandeur from Interstate 5.  Even in the middle of summer she still had a layer of snow on her top.    When we got home from the trip I got a live bunny with a white hump on her back and I named her Shasta.  She was beautiful but she always ran away while I was at school and I would spend the afternoons looking for her.