Tuesday, August 29, 2023

In the pipeline...........

More socks in the pipeline for holiday gifts.  I'm having fun knitting all the socks and my hands haven't cramped up yet so that's a good thing. 

Love these lavendars and purples

These are very fun, have finished the first sock, this is sock #2 of the pair

We spent a few days on the coast escaping the smoke of the valley.  There was still a bit of smoke on the coast and inland just a mile from the beach there's heavy smoke. We have a big fire just to the south of us spreading most of the smoke but then there are also fires to the west, east and north. The AQI (air quality) has been hazardous for weeks, it's ugly out. I hate summer/fire season. 


Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Comedy of Errors.........


 Many thanks for Peg for sharing this draft in her late July blog post. I just started weaving on this today and love the look although it is fiddly but then she warned it was......lots of color changes and I haven't gotten a rhythm yet, also always trying to make sure the colors get carried up the side for their groupings. 

But it was a comedy in errors getting this on the loom - I'm blaming it all on the prednisone I started on Saturday for intense sciatica pain. It is helping quite a bit but I'm wondering what will happen when my 9 day course of this med is over, will the pain return???  I'm waiting on the scheduler to get me in with PT so hoping that happens soon.  Now back to this project.  I wound the warp, got it wound on the back beam yesterday. I threaded the heddles. Then I sleyed the reed - I'm using 24 epi in a 12 dent reed only I didn't double check which reed was in there and it's so close to my 15 dent reed. You can guess what happened - I got to the end of sleying the 'wrong' reed and sat back and could see it immediately so I pulled all 476 ends out, put in the 12 dent reed and re-sleyed.  I got the warp tied on the front beam and started to weave to make sure all was correct - nope. But it wasn't a threading error, I had 3 out of 10 treadles tied up incorrectly. I have NEVER used the wrong reed and NEVER tied up treadles incorrectly in my 37 years weaving so I've determined it must be from prednisone brain, if there is such a thing.  At least fixing treadle tie-ups is much quicker than dealing with a threading mistake. 

I stopped to watch HGA's Textiles and Tea zoom presentation at 1:00 and now am having a hard time going back to the loom, just can't seem to focus. While the presentation was on I did cut out fabric for 4 tote bags for gifts (maybe one a gift for me) - I'll get to sewing those another day as I need a color of thread I have none of........isn't that always the way it is.........



Sunday, August 13, 2023

Phew........

Phew.........these cross stitch ornaments took a long time to stitch and put together. I realize that I'm getting older when it gets harder to see 32 count fabric to stitch on even with reading glasses and an Ott light with a magnifying lens. It was a real challenge at times. I had thoughts of making more for a few gifts.....not happening!  These will look great at the beach cottage, not just for the holidays but all the time as decor. Now back to working on holiday gifts. 



 

Friday, August 11, 2023

Another start...........


 Another pair on the needles of the socks I'm knitting for holiday gifts.  I finished pair #2 the other night, started pair #3 last night. I love how this one is turning out.  I'm using a solid gray for the cuff, heel and toe.  Getting a lot of sock knitting done in the evenings while we watch Suits on Netflix - we're hooked. 

In other crafts I'm working on small holiday gifts here and there.  Hoping to get a warp on the loom soon but need to finish up a couple of other projects first, feeling very scattered. Would love to get holiday gifts finished up in the next 2 months so I can get back to a wall quilt I had taken a class on. 



Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Moving right along.......

I'm moving right along knitting socks for holiday gifts. I finished the pair I started last week, now have another pair on the needles. Also working on some other small gifts. 

Not much else to say.  It's hot, but not as hot as it could be, that's coming this weekend. Just like every summer we're in extreme fire season - fire just a bit to the west occasionally throws some smoke in our direction but it's mostly blowing the other direction. Counting down the days until the end of fire season. I hate summer.