Cowl Mania

	L to R starting with top L: Clever Cowl, Blended Cowl, Fuyu Cowl in grey and "Bonsai," (middle L) Fuyu Cowl in natural and "Dragon Dance," Maurice Cowl, Maurice front view, (bottom L) Marice back view. I have been making a lot of cowls lately.  I never really wanted a cowl before, but something suddenly changed, and now I can't stop making them.  The most recent is Maurice, by one of my favorite designers.  I actually bought the pattern--also something I almost never do--as part of a trio (The Short-Row Stripes Cowl Trio).  The second and third cowl patterns have not been released yet, but after finishing Maurice, I have nothing on my needles.   To be clear, these are not all for me, and one has already gone to its intended recipient. -吴碧芙

Birdhouse in your soul

Recently Kavi has become a usurper.  For three years, Roscoe was the only one who would dare sleep in the fabric birdhouse my mom and I made for inside their cage.  For the past month, Kavi has been sleeping there every night.  If Roscoe is clever and gets to the house before him, Kavi sits on the perch below and bites Roscoe's tail.  While Roscoe is happily eating popcorn, Kavi sees the window of opportunity and captures the coveted spot. 


So we decided to make some cage improvements over the weekend.  We got small amounts of nice-looking fabric, and I made a pattern out of newspaper.  Cut.  Sew.  Iron.  Repeat.

It turned out to be kind of a rag-tag compilation because I hate the amount of precision and technique needed in sewing.  It doesn't hang straight.  It pulls in weird places.  I thought the sewing machine would break from sewing through multi-layered parts of the house.

But it turns out that birds don't care about technique, whether seams are straight, or whether the colors really go together.  I'm not planning to show this as a 4-H project or anything.  Birds just care about whether or not it functions, whether or not it's scary, and whether or not it will collapse while they are inside.  I guess it works, it's not too scary, and it appears structurally sound because Roscoe slept in the new house last night, while Kavi slept in the old house.

...And the order of the universe was restored.

-吴碧芙