Is it only the second week at uni?

I think I'm beginning to settle into my new routine, although you might not think it when I show you what I've achieved! 

The books of the week are not hand-made, but instead a hand-picked selection for my essay. 🙀 (Plus one about knitting.)

I think all of us mature new textile students were panicking about the essay, but the staff have been very helpful. The general advice we were given was:

1. to pick a topic which was relevant to our studio practice - 

this is my studio practice so far - 

2. if possible, to include works of art we'd seen in real life

3. to keep it simple.

I'd been thinking of something like 'trees in art' but decided that was possibly a little too large a subject for 3,500 words, so I'd narrowed it down to Graham Sutherland's trees - plus, after watching the excellent Mr. Graham-Dixon last week on the subject, a dash of Paul Nash. Not that I've seen many Sutherland trees, but we did potter over to Basingstoke last week to catch the Artists' Rifles exhibition there, which included several Nashes, both John and Paul - though not many trees. 

However my tutor suggested, that, as I want to explore disability issues, I consider looking at outsider art. I wasn't too keen on the idea to begin with, but when I thought about it, it grew on me. I saw some examples by Judith Scott, Ray Materson and Arthur Bispo Do Rosário, at an exhibition at Compton Verney some years ago, so that met criterion 2. They were all textile artists, which sort of met criterion 1, and the fact that they were all institutionalised but for different reasons suggested an essay structure, which helped with criterion 3. Plus there seems to be a lot about them on Google. 😺 

You can tell I've downloaded IOS8, can't you? Don't worry, the novelty will wear off pretty soon... In fact, after I discovered I can no longer use my favourite editing app, iPhoto (that is the iPad iPhoto, not the Mac iPhoto which is >,^*}#]#<>*^) the novelty wore off very quickly.😿 

But I digress. This week I got into Uni for one and a half of my planned two and a half days. Wednesdays look as if they are going to be pretty busy with lectures and tutorials, which means I've got to focus for the other one and a half days on the things I can't do at home - like relearning machine knitting. I was going to have a go on Friday but starting research for the essay took over. University libraries have changed a tad since I was last in one, and I had fun exploring. 😻

I have managed to finish my strange socks, and I have resisted starting another pair, as my studio practice makes excellent subtitle knitting.

I've been procrastinating about finishing the shawl, as I've been so tired that reminding myself how to add a lace edging, (which I do know how to do) has been quite beyond me. The upside of the tiredness is that I am still sleeping well, and I will tackle the shawl this evening as, apart from the excellent Mr. Graham-Dixon, there isn't much I fancy on TV.

The big piece for Visual Marks was also been on hold as I hadn't had time to heat up the soldering iron. I did that today and cut out 66 petals, before having another look at the flowers I'm using for inspiration and realising they don't have heart shaped  petals. Tough, they do now...👹

On organisation: more than you wanted to know. Probably.

I was reading my last ever subscription copy of Quilting Arts a couple of days ago. (It and I seem to be moving in opposite directions these days - one of us likes representational, naturalistic art quilts, and one of us doesn't much. If you feel the same, I recommend 'Fiber Art Now' which is much more wide ranging and goes from strength to strength.)

But I digress. When I first glanced at QA, I found one interesting article - on Melinda Lin's organza pieces - but then I realised that Lynn Krawzyck's item, which is superficially about making a little pouch, contains some good suggestions about organisation. She distinguishes between two types of creative ideas, which she calls 'Fun' and 'Big Goals': she says fun ideas are necessary to stretch our creativity, but big goals are the more involved, artistically important, and goal oriented ideas. She gives criteria for picking your big goals, and describes how she uses index cards to break down big goals into smaller steps, and prioritise organise, and monitor the steps.

For some reason I can't remember, I have a lot of small pink index cards (plus a few blue ones). I had been thinking of using them for ICAD, but they are really too small and too pink. Krawzyck's idea seemed a better use, especially as I will need to be more focussed when I become a university student again.

Krawzyck uses pouches to hold her cards, but I remembered seeing an index card 'book' - you can guess the rest. Some scrap card, a recycled painting, Bondaweb, double sided tape, some elastic and two book rings, and I have two books. The worst bit was punching the holes, and I was very relieved when I realised I didn't have to do them all at once.

While I was making the books I was pondering on my love of organisational techniques - nicking adapting other people's, and developing my own. And now, for my benefit (clarifying my ideas) more than yours, you are going to suffer a diatribe on the subject, so you may wish to switch off now, or at least scroll down to this week's obligatory textile content.*

I am not always organised, but I can be if I need to be. I had to be at work - young people's progress, and part of the college's finances depended on it. I was reliant on other people keeping good records, so I had to develop systems that were simple for others to use, and which allowed me, and others, to extract the relevant information easily. Other people, including auditors, told me I succeeded.

One of the things I learned at work was that if something isn't staring them in the face, preferably leaping out and biting them, people will miss it. (Like the auditor who told me that a student's assessment record was missing, when the top piece of paper in the file was headed 'Assessment Record'. It wasn't the type we usually used, so he missed it.)

When I started the Foundation Degree, on a couple of occasions I lost marks because the marker thought I hadn't done something when I had. I got all bureaucratic and made some forms, to record things like time management and planning. I don't suppose anyone ever read them through, but they were bright green, clearly labelled and collated, so they were hard to miss, and my marks improved. Plus I knew where I was with my work, and what I needed to do to keep to schedule.

Of course once I finished the FDA I stopped all that, but I still keep records - of ideas, of what I've done, what I could do, and what I want to do, of materials and techniques I've used, etc. etc. etc. For a long time this was mostly scribbled notes in sketchbooks, printouts in folders, and lists on scrappy bits of paper, but it just wasn't organised enough for me. So over the last year or so, long before I thought of going back to Uni, I've begun to try to sort it out.

A few months ago I discovered Bullet Journalling. I don't use it to the extent that its creator seems to - although I might if I was still working. Nor do I use the recommended Moleskin notebooks with squared paper - I did track some down in Paperchase but jibbed at the price. Guess what, I make my own with squared file paper. (The squared paper really is better, I've tried lined and it's not as good.) 

I use the technique in a monthly journal, where I summarise what I've done and what I want to do, in real and textile lives. I use it in two disposable notebooks, substitutes for the scrappy bits of paper. I have one upstairs and one downstairs. In those I record ideas from books, and flashes of inspiration (!). And I also use the technique in themed sketchbooks, where I collate relevant ideas from the notebooks at the back of the sketchbook. Notes on the techniques and materials I've used also go in the sketchbook, on the relevant pages.

The system does involve quite a lot of rewriting, when I transfer uncompleted activities from one month to another, or from the notebooks to the sketchbook, but I like that because it makes me evaluate the ideas or activities and weed out the dross.

I've recently discovered 'Sticky', an iDevice app which sticks virtual Post-It notes in virtual notebooks. I like it because I can make notes when I'm web surfing, when I have my phone, but not my upstairs/downstairs notebooks. I can add hyperlinks, websites, or photos from the Camera Roll, and, I realised this week, I can use the camera phone within the app to add photos direct. I can save notebooks as images, which means I can print them and add them to the sketch book.. I like it so much I paid for an upgrade to allow unlimited notebooks.

 

I realised that I had folders and scrapbooks full of printouts and images, which I never looked at. Now I save articles to Pocket (where I do occasionally look at them) and images into a digital journal on the desktop (where I don't look at them).

But the gap in this system, which I was unaware of until I came across Lynn Krawcyck's article, was that I didn't have a system for planning and monitoring Works In Progress. Possibly because since I finished the FDA I haven't really had any serious WIPs to plan and monitor.  I do make To Do lists, far too long and on scrappy bits of paper that get lost. (The aforementioned green forms had a space for a To Do list, never longer than three items and carefully monitored.) As I see major WIPs in my future, I also see a need for a structured system for their planning. I have no idea if task management will be on the marking criteria at Uni - I rather suspect not - but, as I think I have made clear, I like having structured organisational methods - plus an excuse reason to make books...

Don't be fooled into thinking that I am one of those people who is completely organised, and lives in a neat and tidy house. I am not. Neither my house nor my workroom is tidy. I have too much stuff in too small a space and although I try to keep it under control, in the throes of creation everything comes out and ends up draped and dropped everywhere. It does get put back again when I've finished - and the next lot comes out. Nor am I so organised that I keep records of what fabrics, yarns and threads I have. That would require a major audit, plus keeping on top of what I import - although recently there has probably been net emigration, rather than immigration, of books and materials from Cheese Acres - a lot has gone to charity shops and the National Needlework Archive at Greenham. I've still got too much though. 

If you are still reading, what do you think? Do you share my need for bureaucracy or do you think I'm completely nuts? Do you have any organisational tips to share?

*Obligatory textile content.

After my last post, I pulled back the too long sock, and started again. It may still look too long, but I have tried it on and it is OK. The ribbing pulls it in, so it looks long and thin, but on my foot it is short and fat. Just like the rest of me, really.

How to set priorities and manage your time. By an expert.

I knew this was going to be a busy week, including as it did a birthday do, two childminding days and a meeting of Visual Marks. 

The birthday do (mine) was at Winchester Science Centre (followed by cake at home) and I think that a good time was had by all.

I can't comment on the quality of the Visual Marks session because I led it this month, talking about using mind maps, word association etc. in designing. We played an adaptation of 'embroidery consequences', which I found here. As a result I have to make a 16", oval collage, which includes lace and felt, which is inspired by the sea, and, which, fortuitously, is sea green in colour. And as it was my idea I feel obliged to have a go. Add all that to the book of the week, the work for Contemporary Textiles and the ongoing knitting, and I had plenty to do.

Unfortunately I had forgotten that an on-line course I had signed up for started this week.

The course is Dionne Swift's 'Drawing for Textiles' and having previously taken her 'Developing Sketchbooks' course, (it was good, that's why I signed up for another one) I knew that she would be giving us plenty to do - and I couldn't start till Wednesday.

So in the best principles of time management I made a prioritised list.

1. Dionne's course - daily exercises of up to an hour, to be done this week.

2. The book of the week - for this weekend.

3. My piece for Visual Marks, plus making some stamps, both for next month.

4. The self-imposed nine part series for Contemporary Textiles Workshop, which is so far away I'm not   

    even sure when it is - certainly after Easter...

5. Knitting - no time pressure. (Whew!) 

Knitting is an evening, slumped in front of the telly recovering from the day activity, so it gets done no matter what, and I managed to finish the mittens which started off as socks, and start another pair of socks. (The mittens, and the cowl I made earlier, will, of course, ensure there is no repeat of last year's end of March snow.)

So what did I spend Wednesday and Friday doing? 

These, for CTW.

Plus I've got the makings of two more, and then there's this, using a twisted cord I made earlier. It seemed like a good idea at the time. 

I know what it makes me think of, but if W thinks I'm making another and wearing them, he's being uncharacteristically optimistic.

To be fair to myself, I have spent today having fun layering blind contour drawings, tracing shadows (when there were any shadows to trace), and drawing curved objects using 30cm or 10cm straight lines. Next up is drawing with different media on a long stick, and pattern making with extracts from the drawings - but I've got an app for that... Next week we move on to textiles.

After that I was knackered - so I thought I'd make the book. Earlier in the week, in a fit of optimism, I had pulled out my Tarot Artists' Book Ideation Cards, which suggested I make a manifesto based (!?!), whimsical book, with an asymmetrical, innovative structure, in neutral, muted or pastel colours, including transparency and pockets or windows, using high tech techniques and abstract, non-verbal or garbled text, and collaborating with another artist for the images. So no pressure there. 

Needless to say, I decided to ignore all that and make something really simple and quick. I pulled out Esther K. Smith's 'How to Make Books' which has some interesting versions of simple forms, and spotted an 'instant book' made from an envelope. Good, I have envelopes. 

I happened to choose one with a window in it.  

You may be able to see where this is leading...

A transparent window! That's two of the nine Ideation Card criteria!

I went back the list. 

I thought I could describe it as whimsical, and the colour was muted, so that's another four out of nine. But it wasn't asymmetrical. Could I fold an asymmetrical one? Three books later (you can see them bottom right - the first book, one try-out which worked, one attempt at the real thing which didn't work because I didn't follow the techniques I'd tried out, and my final successful attempt) I had my book. And I decided it was innovative. So that was six! I was two thirds of the way there!

The next problem was to decide what 'manifesto-based' meant. Well, I still don't know, but I know what a manifesto is, so I wrote my own, and used Wingdings to type it out (high tech and garbled text in one go!). I was rather pleased that the Wingdings symbol for the first letter of the title is a bomb, it seemed appropriately manifesto-ish, although mine is entirely peaceful.

So there was just the collaborative image. Well, I can't claim that whoever designs clip art for Microsoft knew s/he was collaborating with me, but, with some difficulty, I found an image which suited my manifesto and added that. (Microsoft were very happy to sell me an expensive copy of Word for my Mac, but whatever I paid them clearly was not enough to persuade them to make it easy to find or download clip art from their website...)

So much for my quick, simple book!

Tomorrow will be spent drawing with things on sticks and making stamps. Or not, as the case may be.

* i assume that you, gentle reader, recognise irony when you meet it. 

I'm glad I had those socks to work on because...

1. in my flurry of finishing I'd left myself without any sitting-on-the-sofa-listening-to-the-TV/Radio 3 embroidery (and in case, last night's TV was Alistair Sooke on Egyptian Art, which required watching as well as listening, for at least two reasons). (Andrew Graham-Dixon tonight, for those who prefer their art historians a little more mature.) And because...

2.  Good job I finished some the new ones last night.

I've started another pair, as although I have accomplished several things today, starting any sitting-on-the-sofa-listening-to-the-TV/Radio 3 embroidery was not amongst them. 

I did pin the Traveller's Blanket together, which should provide several weeks of sitting-on-the-sofa-listening-to-the-TV/Radio 3 embroidery, but before I can start work on it I have to do a bit of design exploration - like working out how many little patches I can get out the fabric. And before I could do some design exploration I had, of course, to make a sketch book.

I've fallen in love with the single section case binding in Heather Weston's 'Handmade Books', so that is what this is. The images come from scans of my fabrics, but the printer was running out of ink, so the colours are a little bit duller than in real life.

After my pinning and book making, W. dragged me out for some fresh air at Hillier Gardens, where I took some photos in the winter garden. When I got home I played around with my new favourite app, 'Waterlogue'. Before-and-after images above.

Let's hope that tomorrow I manage to start some sitting-on-the-sofa-listening-to-the-TV/Radio 3 embroidery - except that it's subtitle reading night, so I shall be knitting whether I have embroidery or not...

Repetition, again.

After my less than exciting efforts last week, I've managed to come up with a few things I like. 

This is more Evolon, coloured with transfer paint on one side and metallic paint on the other, then soldered.  Still a learning opportunity - I attached it to the red fabric before I soldered it, and some of the gold paint was transferred to the fabric. It didn't look bad, but I decided to cover it with some of the worm-like strands of cheap purl I bought when I was doing City and Guilds, and never used. Yet more stashbusting!

For some reason it makes me think of military uniforms.

This is a photo I took at the  ducky goosey place on one of our twice weekly visits.

I used an app called Griditor on the photo, printed it on Evolon treated with Inkaid clear, which made it a little stiffer, chopped it up with the soldering iron, and sewed the bits down on somthing which feels a bit like leather but probably isn't. Oh, I had previusly treated the 'leather' with bonding powder and copper foil. I tried several experiments with foil today and this was the only one that worked, the others were - shall we say 'lacking in sublety'? Even another attempt with bonding powde, on Evolon in this case, came out much too heavy.

Another photo - this one was of a shelf of books, believe it or not. The app looks like Decim8 but might have been something I've got on Big Mac, I can't really remember.

It's backed with wadding and hand dyed cotton. I cut out some areas with the soldering iron and then machined it down. Quite a lot of machining has been going on for someone who professes not to like it, but you will notice that it is not free machining.

And finally, two old aquaintances revisited. I decided the soldered buttons could be improved, and fortunately the little metal template I bought from Art Vango on the assumption that it was meant to be used with a soldering iron had two petal shaped holes just the right distance apart...

The caterpillar like thing on the righ is the holes from the unsuccessful soldered holes in Lutradur experiment, just strung at random with red beads in between. It feels lovely and is very drapy. No idea how I could ever use such an idea, but a least the holes weren't wasted.

Speaking of caterpillars, the VHC and his big sister are due to descend on us tomorrow, so little in the way of needlework will be done until we return them to their doting parents - unless Babybel brings hers.

The forecast was for sunshine...

Wensleydale fancied a trip to Stourhead, so off we set on another Tuesday trip, passing the Stones on the way. No, not the Rolling Stones, these Stones.

(I have to confess that there has been a certain amount of editing of this photo.) 

As we got nearer to Stourhead the weather got gloomier.

(There has been a certain amount of editing of this one too.)

D

As we got nearer, I began to wonder if the place was on fire (no editing apart from a crop).

The good news was that the house is, as far as I know, still standing.

The bad news is that we never got near enough to find out. Half the population of southern England seemed to have decided to go to Stourhead too. Wensleydale and I are impatient souls, and when we realised that we were in a traffic queue to get onto the road that leads to the road that leads to the car park - and the queue wasn't moving - we decided to go to Kingston Lacy instead.

This involved a scenic drive along the back roads of Cranborne Chase - and very scenic they were. (A touch of tilt-shifting.)

We stopped off for a very good smoked salmon sandwich at Cranborne Manor Garden Centre, and found no queues and no trouble parking at Kingston Lacy.  Perhaps the autumn colour wasn't quite as spectacular as ar Stourhead, but there was some - and we had probably left it too late anyway.

There were also roses

mysterious doorways

pumpkins

and lost wellies.

Bet you don't get all those in World Heritage Sites.

And on the way home I got to take more of my signature photos of the car wing mirror - which only needed cropping.

(All photo fiddling with Snapseed and Color [sic] Accent.)

Another experiment.

As promised, the green Sheila Hicks-inspired binding has been coiled into a bowl. I am ambivalent about it - I love the combination of colours (the contrast between the wool and the perlé cotton binding is not as pronounces as it looks in the photos), but I don't like the floppy, about-to-fall-apart feel. Previous experience suggests that embellishing it might firm it up, but I think that may destroy the variegated colours.

The underlying problem is that the cord itself is too soft. It is firmer where it is bound, but if I bound it completely I'd hide the variegation - and I might as well use washing line, as I did for the first one, which is still my favourite.

I think I prefer that technique to this one, but before I make up my mind completely, I'm going to try another experiment. 

I thought I'd get stuffing. 

You might think from this image that I have completely lost any taste I ever had - but this is, after all, an experiment. (If you like orange, yellow, blue and magenta together, I apologise to you. I don't.)

Heaven knows where I got the knitted ribbon from, but last night its time came. I spent an hour stuffing it with some orange threads I also didn't see myself using anywhere else - I know it was an hour because I was watching the Vuelta at the time, although the stuffing stopped when it got exciting.

The other ingredients include a spice jar top for the centre, inspired by Lois Walpole, orange perlé, and some beads - although I will admit I'm not sure about the beads...

Watch this space.

Tonight's app is Haiku - another Jixipix app, so you know it'll be good - and different. There are lots of options which can be adjusted in various ways, and a magic 'randomise' button.

I love both of these versions of the landscape

It wasn't so successful with the portrait and flower, but still interesting.

Still here...

though my productive life seems to have slowed down again. This is due to:

• Watching a lot of cycling
  
• A cold (Thanks VHC!)
• Watching a lot of cycling
• Doing other non-creative things

and did I mention watching the cycling?

Now all those adrenaline rushes are over for a while - we did try the BMX but didn't get hooked, although now I know why I keep seeing young people on bikes which look far too small for them. I'm hoping we get some coverage of the Vuelta and the Tour of Britain, but I'm not very optimistic.

During the cycling I made several scrunchies - it was something I could pick up and put down when things got exciting. I would have shown you a photo - but someone spotted them on her morning here and they disappeared off to nursery with her. One in her hair, one on each wrist and one on each ankle...

I have been fiddling around with this. The idea came from Jae Maries' book 'Contrasting Elements' - photos and fabric and stitch. It's stalled for a while because I think it needs a bit more stitch, but I'm not sure what - or where. Quite like it, though.

I've also been mucking about in sketchbooks (yes, plural) one for the 'mapping' homework for the course I've finished [still no formal results :>(] and one more general one, which was originally intended to be about my (also stalled) basketry experiments, but morphed into somewhere to try out almost anything. Also 3D pieces don't fit very well in a sketchbook,,,

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and there's this - which, as I had the embellisher out, emerged after reading an article by Jane LaFazio in issue 45 of 'Quilting Arts'. It was going to be green, in keeping with the mapping/landscape theme, but then I found a little collection of blue embellishing stuff (looked like a kit I'd forgotten about), so it turned blue. LaFazio suggests machine embroidery after felting, so it got some. It's not quite as purple as it appears, and looks like an aerial photo of the sea to me, so perhaps it fits in with mapping after all.

 

 

 

Now, like this piece and the Jae Maries one, its's waiting for me to come to a decision about hand stitch.

The embellished pieces are especially interesting/challenging because I would like to preserve the double-sidedness of them, but I'm not sure how, apart from the rather cliched roll them up into a cylindrical vessel thing. Anyone got any bright ideas?

 

 

After the cycling finished one evening, I tried another app, Fotoffitti, which sort of Banksyfies your photos.

You can change the background, image colour and intensity, but not the shape, so odd sized images get truncated. However, I like what it's done to the tree from the landscape.

 

As before, I found it hard to get anything I liked from the portrait ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the camellia turned out quite abstract. Bits of this look like cross stitch, so I wonder what would happen if I put it through an app which pixelated it?

Another one trick pony, but an interesting one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Success!

One quilt top finished. My learning experience with this was that 'symetrical' is not the same as 'identical', even with four patches.

It's not my greatest design ever, but it is bright and colourful, it was made entirely from stash, and it's a generous cot size.

Plus I found enough fabric and wadding to finish it, when I get round to it.

I know that in the Cheese Minor household quilts are loved and used, just like they should be, so I'm sure this one will be too.

More success too in the cycling - a very exciting, attacking race from the women. I wasn't going to watch it, I was going to assemble the quilt layers - but we sat down to watch over coffee, and couldn't drag ourselves away.

Today's app is 'Dynamic Light' - simple to use, with a couple of dozen filters, which you can adjust a bit.Some of them I can't ever imagine using, but some are interesting, especially if you want to do dramatic things with skies.


I love this photo of Littondale, whatever I do to it it seems to come up well, although this is a bit bright.

 

On the other hand, I am finding it difficult to do anything with this, with any app or any filter - it's difficult to avoid ending up with something over bright. I like this slighlty fuzzy look, but the colour is a bit super-saturated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the same with this one - which is why I liked yesterday's very subtle pink. I need to take more time over these, and ger more adventurous with combinations of filters.

One thing I'm learning while I bore you with these apps is that on the whole, you get what you pay for. Most free ones are very limited, and several seem to be the same app with a different name. I've learned not to bother if the illustrations of the filters on the app store involve pictures of trees.

'Dynamic Light' was 69p - and a bit more interesting - and the Jixipics apps, which are about £1- £2, are the most interesting of all. Just wish I could afford some of them for Big Mac as well.

Can't comment on anything more expensive than that, I haven't gone completely app happy!

I had hopes...

of being able to show you a finished quilt top - but it was not to be. Despite it being a very simple one - basically a panel with borders - I have made so many mistakes that I have decided that it is wine o'clock and left it till tomorrow. I had sworn off quilting for ever, but a Very Hungry Caterpillar of my acquaintance has his first birthday next month and I thought he might sulk if I didn't make him a quilt - his sister, after all, has two...

I also had hopes of celebrating a notable victory in a cycle race, but that was not to be either. Not even Cav could pull that one off. Definitely wine o'clock.

However, the VHC's big sister did win one of her races at nursery sports day on Friday, and she has a certificate and a rosette, which is much much much better than a gold medal in the eyes of her adoring family. (All the children got rosettes and certificates, but we know she won.)

Here is the gold medallist and her baby brother - who isn't so much of a baby any more, and who would definitely have won the eating race if there was one.

This is an app called Dramatic HD, which I like quite a lot, on account of it being - er - dramatic. It's another app from Jixipix - I want the whole set and what's more I'm prepared to pay for them, although I do keep a watching brief and grab them when the price drops. (I'm not a quarter Yorkshire for nothing.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See what I mean about drama? You can change the location and direction of the lighting effects.

 

 

 

 

The filters are primarily black and white, but you can add subtle colour if you wish. Definitely a good app if you like B&Wish images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So a win some, lose some sort of day - let's hope that both I and the UK cycling team do better tomorrow.