eweniquely ewe

upcycling......

2012-01-27T15:31:00.000-08:00

Since I have no pictures to share or any news other than that I've been embroidering golf towels for Sam and cousin Jim and twisting fringes on scarves so I can sell them I thought I'd share my cousin Claudia's blog and shop with you all. She's very into upcycling and is making some very fun items.

On another note - I realize getting older means a few gray hairs - I probably have around 10 now, just a guess, at the age of 56.....then a couple gray eyebrow hairs have shown up in the past year or so. But the weird thing is that two weeks ago I discovered a gray eyelash -yikes! Everyday I looked at this eyelash and covered it with mascara, it was so long, how could I only have discovered it two weeks ago??? Yesterday morning I decided I had to document this with a photo, it must be a major milestone - it was gone! So, am I more upset about a gray eyelash or the fact that I've lost an eyelash so quickly???

Slow weaving.....

2012-01-24T17:12:00.000-08:00

I only got the first scarf woven on the warp this afternoon. I wove one heart motif, hemstitched and then started to weave again and could see that there was something wrong in the draft. I guess when downloading .wif files they need to be checked over carefully just like patterns in books or magazines, errors do happen. So, I shut everything off, took the laptop to the desk to figure it out. Took a while since I don't know the software very well yet but I straightened it out and got back to weaving. I didn't really mind terribly since it was a good learning experience. I also figured out why I only have 3 full hearts and half hearts on the edges.....I threaded the point twill starting with harness 1 instead of harness 24.....yeah, wasn't paying attention to the draft when I set up a point twill threading in the software for threading purposes....oh well, still am happy, live and learn. Sorry the picture isn't great, chose a color very close to the warp for a subtle effect.

This is the handspun I've been working on - this is the first 8oz spun, have another 8oz to go. It's hard to tell in this picture but each ply is a different shade of olive. My spinning looks different spinning on the electric spinner, gradually I'll get 'the feel' to get the twist I want.

This picture isn't very good - took it through the kitchen window but it's a huge pileated woodpecker. I hear and see them all the time up high in the trees but this one was almost at ground level. I tried to quietly open the door to sneak a picture from outside but he flew off as soon as I did.

Be still my heart....

2012-01-20T16:55:00.000-08:00

This is becoming monotonous - I can't say anything bad about the AVL for a second warp....this is a good thing, an excellent thing. Today I wound a warp for 3 scarves; 8/2 tencel warp, 30 epi for this heart pattern. This is my spreading out the warp area/checking the pattern. Scarves will not be using a white weft but it doesn't look half bad. Not sure what the white is, just something left on a bobbin. This draft is out of the Complex Weavers Greatest Hits book - 'Deep in the Heart of Texas' by Charlotte Lindsay Allison.

On the AVL - a great feature is that I can put the draft in tromp as writ and it will raise each harness for threading the heddle. Thing I don't like is the texsolv heddles just because I'm slower threading them, they don't slide easily like metal ones, but can't have the weight of metal heddles on a loom with this many harnesses.

On the weather front - we hadn't had much rain at all since early June, these past three days is making up for all those dry months - it's raining pitchforks and shovels as my friend JoAnn on the coast would say. There is flooding here locally and even more so on the coast where they're getting even heavier rain...and winds to go along with it. And there's snow in the mountains.....finally.....

2012-01-18T17:56:00.000-08:00

This is the 3rd scarf on the bamboo warp on the AVL. This loom and I are making friends now that it's fixed. I'm starting to enjoy it. After I finished this scarf I moved over to the Macomber where a chenille warp has been sitting for what seems like forever, would like to finish it up tomorrow. Next warp to go on the AVL will be another twill design - this one in tencel with a heart motif - seems fitting with Valentine's Day next month.

So only one hiccup today which had nothing to do with the AVL, well sorta. The AVL bench is made for someone with really long legs, I know I'm not tall, 5'4", but the lowest of 3 settings on the bench is too tall for me. So while I decide how much I'd like Sam to cut off of it I've moved my Macomber bench over to use....I'm thinking the same height will work for both. We're having torrential rains today (much needed) and this morning while I was weaving on the AVL the lights started blinking so I jumped up from the old Macomber bench to turn everything off. Well, as I stood up the bench fell backward against the bookcase. I assumed all was fine when I righted it.....I never looked under the sheepskin to make sure. I sat down again and to the floor I went as the bench broke into pieces beneath me.....guess that fall against the bookcase did some harm to a bench that's well over 50 years old. So, here it is in pieces awaiting Sam to repair it, probably won't happen until this weekend. Other than a few bruises on my butt and a bit of a sore back I came through the fall in much better shape than the bench.

Hansen mini-spinner

2012-01-18T08:28:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to answer a couple of questions. First for Theresa - plying is a pleasure on the Hansen mini-spinner (electric spinner). It goes so quickly....which is great for me because I get so bored plying, it seems to go on forever too. I was having a little trouble at first getting the amount of twist right in my plying but I think I've got it now. And Valerie - if you need someone to enable you to buy a mini-spinner I'll help! The speed of your drafting shouldn't make any difference - there's a speed control to get exactly the right speed for your spinning/fiber. Another nice thing is that when you start it up it gradually gets up to speed. I'm not even spinning at the halfway mark on the little dial. I love this e-spinner but I still love my wheels and pedaling away on them so I won't let them gather too much dust.

On the weather front, we didn't ever get the snow at our elevation yesterday as predicted but overnight the winds, big winds, and rain came in - maybe winter has finally arrived. We're so behind in rain/snow totals which just leads to more fire danger in the summer so this is a good thing.

The Year of the Wheel

2012-01-17T17:46:00.000-08:00

Is this going to be the year of the wheel for me now that I'm speeding along with my Hansen mini-spinner? I still don't spend that much time spinning but today was our bi-monthly spinning get together/gab session and I got this beautiful wool started. This is a shetland/merino blended batt from Spor-Farm. I sure wish she'd get a website up and running since I'm always mentioning her batts in either my blog or on our spinning group blog....beautiful heathery blends. She always has a booth at Black Sheep Gathering and Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. This colorway is called Apple Tree. I'm going to ply it with another one of her blends called Olive which is just a shade darker than this. I've got a pound total to spin.

Uneventful day.....

2012-01-16T18:05:00.000-08:00

It was an uneventful day at the AVL which is a good thing. I wove the rest of the red scarf and this gold one this afternoon. Next one the weft will be purple. I kept waiting for something to happen but nothing did - maybe I'll start liking this loom afterall now that parts have been replaced and I have Melody to ask questions of when manuals fall short. If this keeps up I'll only be able to place blame on myself when something goes wrong - yikes!

Lazy daze.....

2012-01-15T17:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a weaving guild meeting, very fun to get to visit with everyone. The program was needlewoven necklaces that fellow guild member Thalia led everyone in getting started on. I didn't do it, have done it several times in the past so I took the opportunity to work on a knit/felted bag for a customer.....and visit....

I finished up the bag this afternoon, it's been felted and is now sitting by the fire to dry, it will probably take a few days. It has a little flap that will close it and I think one of my wooden leaf buttons will be perfect on it with a magnetic snap underneath. I've made several of these bags needlefelting designs on them but I don't know as if Janis wants a design on this one....will be checking with her once it dries.

You looking at me???

Some progress....

2012-01-13T18:20:00.000-08:00

There's some progress on the AVL front although slow in coming this week because I was playing elsewhere teaching a friend how to use the embroidery machine (yes, I enabled her to buy one like mine), and two leisurely lunches out with friends. And then there was more troubleshooting with the AVL.

So, this warp got wound on the back beam yesterday, threaded and then just late this afternoon I had time to tie on the front beam and start weaving. Still some hiccups like the loom deciding all of a sudden it's not raising harnesses anymore, not sure what's up with that but I got past it by rebooting the program, a few other hiccups that stopped me in my tracks too so I never got in a real rhythm until the last couple of inches so I'm not entirely satisfied with my beat, it's not perfectly even.

So, what's on the loom for my first project - a warp for three scarves in Bambu 7, not positive the colors for the next two scarves, maybe a copper weft for one, maybe purple or chartruese for the other....will decide when I get there. I found this draft in the Complex Weavers Book that comes with a CD of the drafts. This was originally Horizontal Ribbons (sorry, can't remember the designer's name right now and I'm too lazy to walk downstairs to the studio) which I turned in the Weave Point software to make Vertical Ribbons. In the turning it went from 24 harnesses to 32 harnesses.

Eventually I'll get to learning more about designing my own drafts in Weave Point but for now I'll be searching for others published patterns to weave. Learning the software and designing will take a while.

This loom is still a challenge, I get past one quality/defect/lack of documentation hurdle and another pops up....am hoping that soon all the bugs will be worked out/replaced/repaired so my only challenges are the ones I create myself! Melody, my in the field AVL techie, is incredible - when I write with a question she gets right back to me....last night she even polled other AVL weavers to find an answer to my question which solves a problem for her too, I guess we'll all learn together......although it would be really nice to have a good manual with the basics.

Latest spinning

2012-01-09T21:05:00.000-08:00

Here's the merino/bamboo blend I started spinning last Tuesday, finished plying it tonight, 8oz, 653 yards. It's my own hand-dyed roving, Baltic Sea colorway, there's still some left for sale in my etsy shop. Not sure what this will grow up to be yet......

easy to make me happy....

2012-01-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

In spite of my complaining lately it really doesn't take much to make me happy. Today it's this great pickle mix and mandarins bought at Costco on Friday. I bought 2 giant jars of the pickles and am wondering if it's enough....and the mandarins are to die for, like eating candy.

Been doing alot of thinking...still...about what direction I want to go in this year. I know in my heart it's to do more weaving like I've done for years. Recently selling roving, commercially prepared and my hand-dyed has taken up so much time. So, definitely a cut back there. Also, I've decided I really don't want to teach - I didn't do much last year and would like to totally cut it out of my schedule. As fulfilling as it can be it takes so much of my time in preparation, I'd like to spend that time doing other things. This doesn't mean I won't teach friends things when they need help or guild guild programs, I just won't be teaching classes anymore.

This week is going to be busy - two lunch dates and helping a friend learn about the embroidery machine since she just bought one....yes, I probably did enable that a bit...I'm good at that. And tops on the schedule is finishing up a few things - I have too many items that keep getting pushed to the bottom of the to-do list. Yesterday afternoon I got the 35 pounds of roving weighed, bagged, labeled and put into stock. Tomorrow I've got to do one of my least favorite chores - photography - but if I don't take pictures of my fiber goods to list them they'll never sell. And then I've got a chenille scarf warp on the Macomber that's been there way too long - need to get that woven off, scarves washed, fringes twisted and ready to sell. Then I'll get back to the AVL, want to get a 'real' warp on it.

maybe, just maybe.....

2012-01-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

Maybe I'm holding my mouth right today....well, there's a little bit of a crook in my lip but...

....things are going better this afternoon with the AVL. I know, I know, this is not exciting looking from 40 harnesses but it's perfect for working out the bugs, I can easily see that harnesses are lifting when they should. The zig-zag areas are where I was trying out the reverse button in the program, then clicked the tabby button. Did have a loose thread which caused me to think I had missed the hole in the texsolv heddle so I went back to running it through all 40 harnesses one at a time to check and they were only lifting an inch - argh! I'm not sure what that issue was but I turned everything off and started again with this pattern and it was lifting just fine. Also had some error message come up a couple times, never figured that one out and didn't write it down fast enough. So far, in this mere 8" of weaving I haven't had harnesses catch on each other as they come down...has been a major issue - this is a good thing. Do need to write my AVL guru Melody with a couple questions today.....I know she'll have the answers.

On a happier note.....

2012-01-07T10:20:00.000-08:00

My blog has been a bit of a downer relaying my loom woes so I thought I'd post a few fun pix for a change....will be getting back to the AVL in a bit, am thinking positive that all will go well. My intention is not to badmouth the company, just to pass on my experiences which I'm now hearing from others, reading on forums about others who have had the same issues but in the end all but one I know of are happy with their looms.....it just shouldn't take 3-4 months of replacement parts/fine tuning/quality & documention issues to get there. I have high hopes that all goes well today and I'm on my way to loving my loom!

Here is one of the gift items I made this year - machine embroidered water bottle cozies. I learned a lot working on the neoprene, like simple designs without heavy embroidering are best, and I learned alot about using sticky back stabilizer, like the needle gums up within seconds which causes thread to break. What I ended up doing was putting the stablizer in the hoop, tearing off the protective paper to expose the sticky part and then cutting out the actual design area and sticking a piece of regular stablizer in that hole....worked perfectly. If you have an embroidery machine I'm sure you understand what I'm talking about.

I made a few of these purses as gifts, a couple not given yet as they're birthday presents in the future. This bag, the Flip Flap Bag, has 2 hidden pockets, it's a great carry across my front bag to keep it secure and hands free. These buttons were from the day of searching through my button stash and my Aunt Fran's stash. The bag pattern is by Whistlepig Creek Productions, I found it over at Forget-Me-Knots Quilt shop on the coast. Have I said in the past I love gingko leaves???

And here's one to leave at the beach cottage - it's hard to see in this picture but the main bag fabric has seahorses on it.

And here is what damage I did yesterday at Fabric of Vision in Ashland., owner Sandi is a delight. Theresa and I had fun at the shop and then a yummy lunch afterwards....good for my mental health to have a day out. Theresa was wearing one of her great outfits sewn with fabric from the shop. The mostly white fabrics are Japanese fabrics, they're beautiful, destined to become tops and maybe a jacket, still undecided. Of course, there's gingko fabric - who knows what I need that for other than to enhance my stash until I decide. Hedgehog fabric to dole out to bobbinlacers I know....they use fabrics to protect their work and the hedgehog is the symbol for bobbinlace - I just couldn't resist. It's hard to see but that tan fabric has trees on it, it will become Christmas napkins. Unfortunately the black sheer/burn out fabric in the front doesn't show well in a phot - it will end up being a shawl with ruffled edges. Then there are the natural and black roses on netting to add as embellishment to scarves. And the 2 celtic knot ribbons which I couldn't resist - who knows where they will end up.

Major headache day.......

2012-01-05T17:42:00.000-08:00

So I started the day with positive thoughts that all would go well with getting a short sample warp on the AVL. This is something that would take me way less than an hour to do on any other loom....it took the better part of the day and I still haven't tied on the front beam and started weaving. I've been weaving since 1986, full time for most of those years, I have never felt so defeated as I feel right now trying to work with this loom.

So, warp wound, beamed, ready to start threading the heddles. The cool feature about this loom is that I can program tromp as writ in my draft and then it will raise each harness one at a time for me to thread heddles, really great when threading 40 harnesses - sounds easy peasy, doesn't it? Well, it would be if when I pressed on the foot pedal the harnesses would move - nothing! I looked all over, everything seemed connected, solenoids popped when I turned it on. So I took to reading manuals, which are lacking if I haven't said so in the past, nothing to help me. Finally I had to walk away.....started some soup, phone rang a few times so I visited with folks, got a fire going. I e'd my tech support, hubby Sam, he suggested maybe somehow the switch on the e-lift got turned off....not sure how that would happen since I control the entire thing with a surge protector but I thought maybe, so I flipped it. Still no luck. Back to the manuals - hah, nothing, what was I thinking pulling them out again. I could tell the elift wasn't on so I flipped the switch back to where it was this morning - it came on....not sure if it was stuck in the middle or if it's a bad switch, time will tell.

A few times while raising harnesses to thread heddles the harness would get caught on it's neighbor coming back down, jumping off the hooks on the top, springs would sprong on the bottom which means I stand on my head to get them back on....not a happy camper. I really wonder if there's a design flaw, there is not even 1/16" between harnesses so when one moves up the gap closes in-between it's neighbors so it will catch coming back down. It doesn't happen everytime but too often so far. I'm hoping that maybe once I start weaving it won't be an issue.....hope, hope.

So now a staple on the top of the loom is my gigantic bottle of headache meds, hoping they get put away soon. I still wonder if I've made a very expensive mistake but others are assuring me eventually I'll love this loom. For me weaving has always been a peaceful meditative process from beginning to end no matter how challenging the project.....I need for this loom to fit in to my weaving life......and hopefully one day soon you'll be reading about how much I love the design capabilities on this loom and how happy I am with it.

sheesh...wasted day.....

2012-01-04T15:56:00.000-08:00

Today has been a wasted day...at least in my mind...sure wish I wouldn't beat up on myself like that. I decided after filling orders that it was time to put the cords on the sectional beam of the AVL. This was what I assumed to be a simple quick job....NOT - although it really should have been had it not been for me doing myself in. I made a jig on my warping board to cut the linen thread to make a doubled over cord for the beam. Well, who knew that even cutting 8 linen threads, hanging them over my shoulders to pull from, that they would all tangle up in the 10ft walk to the warping board - argh. So, I spent quite a bit of time untangling. From then on I only cut 4 lengths at a time....which still tangled.

Then there was getting the cords onto the back beam which is hidden inside these wooden pieces. I found my locker hooking needle which is like a long crochet hook to pull the ends around the steel beam, not a 5 second job like I would have thought...especially when one keeps dropping the locker hook on the floor. And then there was measuring out more linen only to knock over a huge mug of ice water all over my desk, all over the phone and into a file cabinet. The phone was one of the couple in the house that are the 'old fashioned' phones so we'll still have phone when the power goes out and kills the cordless phones. At this point I felt my head was going to explode, I don't have high blood pressure but I swear it was through the roof by the way my head felt. But I kept on going....

Here's the back of the loom, half the cords on. I forced myself to finish before breaking for lunch....made for a very late lunch. I got the front beam apron on, heddles moved to the sides so it's ready to put a warp on. If you're wondering about the sectional beam, there are steel dividers that pop right in those holes but I'm not putting this first warp on sectionally, a 2 yard warp will be easy just to wind on like regular. I had plans of getting a sample warp on today but just didn't have it in me. I don't like the feelings I've had about this loom from the day it arrived, too many manufacturing issues, lack of documentation, waiting for replacement parts, lack of support until I was finally put in touch with Melody up in Portland for tech support, she's wonderful. Every other loom I've owned has been great from day one, never an issue. I know we'll become friends but it wasn't happening today...but tomorrow is a new day and a warp will be going on this baby.

Now that it's late afternoon there's no use working in the studio anymore.....spinning in front of the fire sounds way better for my mental health...and maybe a little glass of wine, just a little one...

New year....new spinning......

2012-01-03T18:40:00.000-08:00

Today was spinning get together and since I had finished up my previous roving it was time to find something new. Now I could have gone to my own stash that I've been trying to work on but heck, I've got hundreds of pounds of roving in stock for sale in my etsy shops so I went to that instead! I pulled out this merino/bamboo in my Baltic colorway, totally not colors I'd normally wear but I like them. I'm enjoying spinning it on my Hansen mini-spinner, enjoying it so much I think I'll keep spinning on it this evening. There is more of this for sale in my etsy shop......unless I decide I need to put the rest aside for myself! (am thinking I have plenty set aside already for a scarf)

Goings on at the coast.....

2012-01-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

We'vebeen on the coast since Friday, it's been great relaxed long holiday weekend. Temps have been mild...upper 50's/low 60's, sunny and blue sky........until the wee hours of the morning today when the front rolled in. It arrived with what we'd consider hurricane force winds on the east coast, some rain early on but sunny now......but still strong winds, strong enough to keep knocking the satellite dish around so we lose reception. Very sad but we must leave and head home in a few minutes, only a 2 1/2 hour drive but a world away.

My friend Kathy B found this afghan in her mother's things and thought the colors would fit right in at the beach cottage. The squares were crocheted and and all sewn together but no border and there were hundreds of ends on the backside to be woven in. I finished it up and it's been put into action keeping me snuggly warm.

Here are the new pair of socks on the needles, I decided I need a pair of pink socks. I don't have the book with me to tell you what the pattern is but I do know they're called Slouch Socks and I 'think' they come from the book, Socks Socks Socks.....but I could be wrong......

Ready to head out and say goodbye to the coast......think a stop at A&W is on the agenda to get sugar-free rootbeer floats for the ride home.

As the end of the year looms…..or here we go again….

2011-12-31T15:37:00.000-08:00

Ok, so here it is, the end of another year looms, it’s justhours away. I made the mistake of reading my blog on this day last year. I don’tmake resolutions since they just get broken but I do try to have goals. I’m alittle disappointed I didn’t do better in 2011 but I most certainly could havedone worse so I won’t lose sleep over it all.

I have done better at giving myself a break for not beingquite as productive and working every minute of the day, could have done betterbut baby steps are good. Actually whereI can really see that I gave myself that break is in my weaving, less weavingdone this year than any year since 1986. That’s not exactly where I wanted tocut back since weaving is what I love to do most but it did leave more time forsewing.

I still haven’t made those quilts for the beach cottage…..Ohwell, fabric is aging in the studio. Speaking of the beach cottage, there isvintage furniture still waiting to be painted, I did get some painted but spentmore time walking on the beach and relaxing. Oh well, life will go on….not toworry. I did get some fun decorating done at the cottage though.

As for my mental health, slowing down and saying no…..stillnot totally there but vast improvements. There are a couple times I didn’t sayno quick enough and I’m still paying for those….live and learn….although onewould have thought I had learned by now.

So, what’s in store for 2012….first on the list is getting asample warp on that 40H AVL to get the bugs worked out…..definitely moreweaving this year than last. More spinning is on my to-do list too. And maybe even those quilts for the cottagewill get made. I’ll still be dyeing hundreds of pounds of roving for sale but I’llcut back a little more in 2012 as I did in 2011…..I need to keep it fun. I’mhoping to find time to do some research on my Dad’s family, it’s one of thosethings I just haven’t been able to make the time for….hoping this is the year. Anotherthing on the very long to-do list is to revamp this blog, it’s long overdue butthere are never enough hours in the day.

It’s been a year of losses, some very sad times this year….Iknow it’s a part of life but it sure is hard to deal with at times. Life goeson, just different. And, as always I’m grateful for friends and family whostill surround me....and for all of you who come back to visit my blog and read my ramblings....

And what did Bailey have to say when I asked him his thoughts on 2012? "Sheesh Mom, you woke me up from my nap.....thoughts on 2012? more sniffing,chasing those pesky squirrels, barking, exploring....and napping on the couch". With that said it's time to make a margarita and think about putting together our cheese fondue for the evening....as always we'll be asleep long before midnight. I wish you all a peaceful new year.....

Select rovings on sale.....

2011-12-29T07:32:00.000-08:00

I've just added 4 rovings to the sale section of my etsy shop. These are colonial wool, which is what Ashland Bay calls Corriedale. Very easy to spin, great for felting. They're now 25% off until they're gone. Time to think about winter sales to clear out old colorways to make room for new.

On another note, this morning is a better morning, to start with coffee is brewed perfectly, there's nothing better than a perfect cup or coffee or tea.

...melancholy.....

2011-12-28T17:37:00.000-08:00

....not sure why but I haven't felt like posting to my blog, no pictures to share....well, maybe there would be if I took pictures of some of the things I made for gifts since I made some for myself.....just don't have the umpf in me to take the pictures....

....am dreaming of weaving, haven't done near enough this past year, the new avl awaits me, plan is to get it warped up next week with a sample/play warp to get the bugs ironed out.....too many other things going on, no time for it this week....

....have around 35 pounds of roving to weigh, bag and label (take pix of new colors) so it can go up for sale in one of my etsy shops...no enthusiam for that job either but it's got to be done, good mindless work to do while watching a movie, maybe tomorrow afternoon....

....I do wish everyone a safe and peaceful new year, I know ours will be low-key, relaxing and very enjoyable, exactly how we like it!

More buttons......

2011-12-22T16:33:00.000-08:00

More buttons!!! And I love these buttons, they're all old ones and they came with a fascinating story. I won't relate the entire story since it's not my story but they were gifted from weaver friend Nadine. She grew up in logging camps here in Southern Oregon and many of these buttons were ones that were in an old treadle sewing machine cabinet drawer. There are some really beautiful ones. And some of those are the cards aren't that old but they have prices of just 15 cents on them. I'll be finding the perfect canning jar to hold them all and will store their story with them for others to read long after both Nadine and I are gone. Of course, some may be used here and there for special projects in the meantime!

Finally this morning I finished up the last gift - socks for Sam. I can't believe how down to the wire I have gotten...whatever happened to those days when I had gifts made by autumn.......

2011-12-19T10:30:00.000-08:00

This isn't the greatest picture since it was taken with a phone but it's all we had with us on the coast this weekend. Most of the boats in the harbor were all decked out with lights, the sailboat was my favorite. Others were much more prepared with big cameras with big lenses and tripods but we gave it a go with a cell phone.

Below are some old glass floats, the real thing, that a dear friend gifted me last month, I like them in this pottery bowl, the outside of the bowl has seashells on it. Old floats have a beautiful soft color as opposed to newly made decor floats that are intense shades of blue & green.

Fa la la la la......

2011-12-15T17:25:00.001-08:00

Making headway.....

2011-12-14T18:02:00.000-08:00

Progress on holiday 'stuff'. Gifts almost done, just a few finishing touches, a few left to sew but since they're for local family stockings. I've almost got cards finished, will finish them up in the morning and get them mailed. They're not actually handwoven this year but a picture of my handwoven piece mounted on a dark green or dark red card - boundweave santas with trees and gifts.

Sun and other things....

2011-12-12T10:03:00.000-08:00

SUN!!! We have sun this morning, and it was first thing this morning - this is one of the things I'm grateful for this morning. You see, we've had freezing fog for over a week, thick fog, thick cold freezing fog. Mind you, just 10 miles away and parts a bit further east the fog would burn off during the day, not so here at my house. It's still cold but it's sunny and I'm happy!

Second thing to be grateful for this morning is not having to stand in line at the post office. I got there shortly before they opened, a line quickly formed behind me and I'm sure they were cringing at all the boxes on my rolling cart that they thought needed to be dealt with before they could post their boxes. Little did they know that my boxes already had postage on them since I do that here at home online....I'm sure I made their morning when the post mistress saw me before they were officially open, took all my boxes and I left. And I was very happy to be in and out of there in less than 30 seconds. Of course more orders have come in this morning since dropping those orders off but I'll brave the post office with those tomorrow.

So, I still have no fiber related pictures to share.....santa's elf is winding down, have some glittering to do this morning, one more gift to box up to ship, then other local gifts to wrap. Have you ever used Martha Stewart's glitter available at Michaels Craft Store? It's superfine and absolutely beautiful.

There was no time over the weekend to take the 40 harnesses off the AVL, build the new ones and put them back on - fiber related potluck parties had to be dealt with first. But Sam is hoping to take a few hours off early this afternoon so we can knock that out. As soon as I'm finished with gifts and our christmas cards which aren't even put together yet, I'll be getting a warp on that loom.

So, on the food front - a new restaurant opened in town - Pho Sur, a vietnamese place. Yvonne and I tried it out and loved it....and our cute little vietnamese waitress. I had to try the bubble tea - this is taro flavored, you can see the tapioca bubbles in the bottom of the glass, there's one stuck in the huge straw too. I liked it, definitely think it will be a refreshing drink for summer.

We had to try the fresh rolls for an appetizer, yummy! So light and yes, fresh tasting. And then we both had Pho for lunch, this is a picture of Yvonne's Seafood Pho - I had Fish Ball Pho, kind of like big fish tapioca! What we weren't prepared for was the size of the bowl - it was mixing bowl size! Wish we had known that when we ordered. I think they need a half Pho on the order - Yvonne said half pho her, half for me....... We each took home multiple servings of Pho. This place is now added to one of my favorites in town, I like that it's so light and fresh, not heavy or fried food.

Buttons!

2011-12-05T12:59:00.001-08:00

I love buttons....especially old buttons!

Aren't these beautful?

I needed many buttons to embellish my sewing projects, thought I'd be heading to the fabric store for some but decided to go through my button stash and found everything I needed. I have a pretty good stash but my cousin gave me my Aunt Fran's button collection this past year - what great buttons! Many are old, even found some bakelite ones, some newer. I spent way too much time sorting through buttons but what a wonderful morning it made after I finished up my sewing. Eventually I'll organize all the buttons by color family and store them in canning jars so I can see them on the shelf whenever I'm in the studio....but for now back into the boxes.

A glimpse into what's getting stitched.....

2011-12-05T08:49:00.001-08:00

I can't show what I'm currently sewing but I'm almost finished, maybe another hour this morning and I can then move things aside and bring out the embroidery machine again. These two selections of fabric are for me, the ones for gifts are already sewn.....a picture will come later in the month.

I love gingko leaves in case no one has figured that out yet from the silkscreening I've done with gingko leaves on handwoven fabrics.

And my current obsession with sealife/beach colors shows up here. I know, I know, there's no weaving to share - a chenille warp still sits on the Macomber but I have no deadline for it so it sits while I work on gifts. The new wood slats for all 40 harnesses of the new AVL will arrive today via UPS so hopefully I'll carve out room to take off 40 harnesses, build new ones, move heddles over and get 40 harnesses back on the loom in the next week. This is a job that's much easier with two people so I have to work around Sam's work schedule and my own schedule. Once this is done I'll be putting a sample warp on that loom to do some playing on.

I'm getting a little panicky at how soon Christmas is sneaking up on me, have gifts to finish up and get in the mail. I got my first Christmas card over the weekend - Yikes, I haven't even figure out ours yet, they're always handmade.

A little holiday cheer......

2011-12-01T17:00:00.001-08:00

I have tons of huge rubbermaid bins filled with holiday decor.....a total of 5 trees of all sizes, hundreds of ornaments, all with meaning or handmade, handwoven holiday linens and on and on.... But the past few years I just haven't felt like decorating, it just all seems too stressful spending a couple days putting it up, then after the holidays a couple of days taking it down. I gave myself permission to not feel guilt over not wanting to do it and it's worked....it's worked so well I could easily never decorate! Last year I did put a big wreath of local greenery on the gate but that was it. So, this year I've decided to do a tiny bit more. I haven't gotten the gate greenery yet but I have put a wreath out front and my two log reindeer have taken up residence out there too.

I pulled out the little 2 ft tree and put my inklings on it. I first saw inklings in an older Handwoven magazine, they're little folks made from strips of inkle weaving. Well, of course they made me laugh so I had to just take off with the idea and run with it, each year for a number of years I made one or two of them. And you can't make just one of each so I'd make a number of them and gift them to family and friends. They're now collectors pieces. I've even got family that plan on willing them to others in the family when they pass on. I haven't made any in a few years but I've got my list of ideas so who knows....maybe next year!

I love them all but some are really special to me. They all made me giggle as I was making them. So fun collecting 'props' to go with the theme, so fun to make the little faces that all end up looking different. I'm sorry the detail doesn't show in the picture, some are intricately detailed. All time favs are my geisha with fan and umbrella and samurai complete with sword and kumihimo cord - I made them after listening to book on tape, Shogun, 33 tapes! Then there's my flying nun and brigantine monk complete with a box of fudge. There's my 60's hippie and mother earth, the spinner complete with drop spindle and handspun, knitter and weaver with her weaving book (yes, actual pages in it) and basket of shuttles, raddle & yarn, alaskan fisherman, the american indian and cha cha man (mexican guy), the santa & angel, the snowman complete with felt carrot nose, a wizard in honor of my late Uncle Dave who was an amateur magician and had a wizard collection, a clown, Uncle Sam, Father Autumn with rake & leaves and a commemorative one for our ANWG weaving conference in 2001 in the conference colors.

Maybe next year I'll get back to making more, have a long list of other ideas but just haven't been inspired to get started. And yes, I guess I am a little warped and silly when I get inspired. And no need to ask to get on the list to get one......someone has to die for that to happen and we don't want to wish that, do we?

Thank you Auntie Pat!

2011-12-01T15:22:00.001-08:00

"I love my mom's birthday this year, Auntie Pat gifted me with a new sheepie to celebrate! My other sheepie, my favorite baby, totally fell apart last month and has been sitting in the hospital, the doctors have been saying sheepie might be beyond help though. Thank you Auntie Pat for a new sheepie!"

Still here.......

2011-11-30T09:17:00.001-08:00

Yes, I'm still here, just been so busy and nothing to share picture wise, so here's a picture of a clothespin llama & sheep. Both are made with old fashioned clothespins glued together to make a body, painted and then wrapped with roving. Cute, huh?

Spent a long weekend on the coast, beautiful weather, no walks on the beach. Even though it wasn't windy or stormy the waves were huge and covered the beach, we did stand at the top of the sand watching gigantic logs being thrown around in the surf, good time to steer clear to avoid getting hurt.

Spent the last 2 days working on the dreaded 'administrivia' but today hope to get to the sewing machine. I'm still working on gifts so no pictures to share.

AVL news - after Sam adjusted the magnet so the sensor picks it up the AVL is now working - so cool to hear those solenoids fire off when it's started up and to go through the treadling and watching the harnesses raise up and down. So, the latest issue are the wood harness slats, I should have known when putting all 40 of them together that those holes that were drilled crooked or not all the way through would be an issue. Harnesses are catching on each other because they aren't quite square which then means they jump off hooks, springs sprong underneath. But help is on the way - AVL is sending me all new ones (80 pieces in all). Of course this means removing all 40 harnesses, putting together new and tranferring heddles over.....but I'm starting to get excited. I'm thinking that around the time I finish up gifts I'll be ready to put a warp on the loom and start playing.

Cyber Monday

2011-11-28T08:58:00.001-08:00

I'm really very bad about promoting myself....I'm having a Black Friday to Cyber Monday sale in both of my etsy shops.....little behind in getting the word out although many took advantage of it over the long weekend. There are select hand-dyed rovings for sale in my one shop, select Ashland Bay roving on sale in my other shop. Check out the Black Friday - Cyber Monday shop section to see which are on sale.

Happy day???

2011-11-25T08:12:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to me........age doesn't really matter to me but a strange feeling came over me last night as I was thinking about turning 56. I'm heading toward 60!!! Isn't that the grandmother era of life??? Yikes!!! I still feel like I'm in my 30's....or at least 40's! How could I be the age of grandmothers?!

Give thanks.....

2011-11-24T08:58:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. My favorite Tom of all the turkeys here posed for a profile shot the other day - he certainly is a handsome, noble looking Tom and as far as I know he's not gracing anyone's table today. So beautiful in comparison to those white turkeys raised for our turkey dinners......although I don't think he's any smarter!

Pumpkin time.....

2011-11-22T17:38:00.001-08:00

It's pumpkin pie time - no, I'm not making pumpkin pie from scratch - my usual these days is picking up one of those $5.99 huge pumpkin pies from Costco - so good, inexpensive and I don't have to do a thing.

Pictures of pumpkins are on my blog because I can't show what I'm working on these days, gifts, nothing like last minute frenzy. I know, some may not think this is last minute but it is for me. There may not be pictures to show for a few weeks but I'll be working away in Santa's workshop none the less.

I'm feeling better about the new AVL today. Melody (AVL techie help) called me and we discussed my issues, she is wonderful, very patient, easy to understand and knowledgeable. Well, I was right, something was wrong, I wasn't being dense or crazy. Back in the summer when AVL sent the Weave Point software to me it turns out it was the Toika Loom version - not the AVL version. Of course I wouldn't have known this until I went to hook it up to the loom. So, hopefully tonight we'll uninstall the other version and get the correct one on the laptop, and the new updated driver too. Maybe soon there will be a picture of the first warp on the AVL....but not until Santa's workshop is caught up.

Love this Hansen spinner.........

2011-11-20T18:29:00.001-08:00

I love my Hansen spinner! I just plyed two big bobbins off my Majacraft onto the one on the electric spinner - this would have taken me 2-3 evenings to do - it was done in an hour - whoo hoo!!!! I love spinning but I hate plying. I am one happy camper if I don't think about the AVL challenge..... :-)
I have over a pound of this stuff left to spin, it's lumpy bumpy and rough.......it doesn't feel good going through my hands, I'm not sure what I'll do with it. If it doesn't feel any better to me after washing/blocking I'll pass the rest of it on to someone who loves working with it. My big skein is sitting in a sink of water and wool wash as I type, will hang it by the fire to dry tonight.

First fire of the season......

2011-11-20T15:20:00.001-08:00

This is the first fire of the season, I just got it going good a few minutes ago..going to be warm and toasty in here soon.

I needed something comforting, sit in front of the fire and crochet or ply my current spinning, trying time with the AVL. I haven't written about the progress lately on the new loom because other than getting it all assembled I haven't had time, plus I'm still waiting for 2 manuals that were promised week before last. So, today was the day we decided to turn it on to make sure it's all working.......well, can't get past page 1 of the manual, the screen on the laptop looks nothing like the screen in the manual - no where to choose which compudobby version I have, and only places to choose harnesses up to 32, I have 40 - argh! So, here I am at a standstill until I can contact AVL tomorrow....email already sent but am hoping to talk to someone. I'm an intelligent person but this is way more challenging and stressful than I expected....and I thought my only challenge would be learning it.....not the fact that manuals are non-existant or lacking. So, maybe a nice hot cup of tea and a sit in front of the fire will do me good......tears earlier didn't make me feel any better....

I love pottery!

2011-11-20T08:09:00.001-08:00

I love pottery! So does Sam. We skipped going to the coast as originally planned and instead stayed right around home so we could go to Clayfolk's annual sale. We need no pottery, I should keep repeating that to myself before we walk into the Armory for the sale. We did restrain ourselves.......we had to buy a few things, after all there's a beach house with only 2 pottery soup bowls so far. So we walked away with a cheese tray, 2 beautiful thin yogurt/fruit bowls (in the back, picture doesn't do them justice), 2 small bowls for sauces and Sam wanted a new mug. There was one potter with the most beautiful vases that were so shiny and had such a beautiful glaze in seaglass colors that it looked like blown glass......I kept my credit card in my pocket though, they were very spendy and I just didn't need to spend that kind of money.

After that we visited Morrow's which carries vintage building supplies - found a couple of fun glass light shades to make fit for ceiling fixtures at the beach cottage and an old pane window for decor over there - all bargains....sorry, all packed up to take over when we go next. This place had a gigantic collection of knobs and door handles/trim - going to be counting how many knobs I need and going back. And no website for Morrow's...they don't even take credit cards.

It's that time of year again......

2011-11-16T09:06:00.001-08:00

It's almost turkey time and the turkeys here at our house are very showy right now. They roost up in the pine trees out front at night, this morning they were very talkative. They all took off to forage for bugs except for this Tom who must be in love with Sam's truck which is sitting out there until I get the middle bay of the garage totally cleared out of Fiber Mania booth 'stuff' later today. He's a fine looking Tom - he must know that he's safe here, we're not about to eat him for turkey day.

Hoping today all the Fiber Mania bookkeeping and piles are taken care of - need to move on to finishing up a chenille scarf warp and start on Christmas gifts - yikes! I'm just starting on them!

Best day of the month......

2011-11-15T07:20:00.001-08:00

Today is one of the best days of the month, there are two of them, therapy days with the best therapists in the world.......it's spinning! I belong to the greatest spinning group around, we've been going for over 15 years, it's not a public group, just a group of friends.......a rather large group of friends. We are all always asked if others can join us but it's pretty much no for an answer, not because we don't want them but because we're so big and we have no space for another body, let alone a wheel. The joke is someone has to die before someone else can come in, so far no deaths but occasionally someone moves away, then someone else can be invited to join us. Several years ago another group formed around 8 miles away in the next town to accommodate those always asking to join our group....I understand they're now having space issues too, and then there's another group probably another 8 miles from that one. I definitely think our town could support a second spinning group so hopefully someone out there will start one up to accommodate all the folks we have to turn away. We have occasionally had a spinning in the park day where we invite everyone who wants to come but we didn't do that this last summer....must have slipped our minds.

It took all day yesterday to get roving inventoried and my etsy shops open again.....still have piles of things that need to be put away from the weekend, bookkeeping to do but today is therapy........

It's over.......almost.......

2011-11-14T08:15:00.001-08:00

Fiber Mania is over for another year - I had so much fun visiting with friends, old and new and I did really well in the sales department on top of it. It was a great success in my eyes and from the looks of all the happy folks hanging out all day/weekend long. But it's not over for me - the center bay of the garage is full of bins, props, weavings & such that need to be put away. Everything needs to be inventoried today so I can get my two etsy shops back open by the end of the day. Thank you everyone who came to this event....and to all those that stopped and visited with me......and shopped!

Fiber Mania.......

2011-11-12T18:55:00.001-08:00

Set up for Fiber Mania was Friday - I must be getting old, setting up 8 ft tables for all those booths killed my back, followed by setting up my booth and the raffle booth area.

Here's looking in my booth as folks come in the front door. Cinder block walls are ugly but there's not much I can do about those especially since they're probably 20 ft tall. Handwoven scarves are on the 'tree' on the right, I sold a number of them today which surprised me as this is a fiber festival and many that come in make their own scarves.

Here's the back of my booth, definitely think that table cloth needs a topper on it, it's kind of blah, but then it was so crowded with people all day I don't think anyone noticed. I usually use a cloth backdrop that matches the tablecloth, we built a pvc structure for it that makes it adjustable from 8-12ft. I saw these screens on sale recently and decided to give them a try, probably need both to cover up that cement.

Here's the hand-dyed roving.....those beautiful inlaid wood yarn swifts are made by someone I know, sold one today, hoping to sell more for him tomorrow.I moved things around before opening to set some of those handwoven rag tote bags up on top of the wire cubes to show off better.....and I definitely need more wire cube shelving.....

At the end of the booth is Ashland Bay Fiber as there is on the left side which you can't see. Some handwoven scarves and shawls on the rack.

I have some wonderful friends who helped me out with set up, thank you Kat and Debbie, it was unplanned but very welcome.....and then my dear friend Yvonne sat and spun in my booth today helping me out with sales and when I needed breaks. Tomorrow I'll be on my own, it will probably be a bit slower first thing in the morning so I should be ok. It's so much fun doing a fiber event in my own home town - so many folks come in that I know, many that I don't see very often, and then new fiber friends made.......I'm dead tired but it was a wonderful day of visiting along with the selling.

....and the piles are forming....

2011-11-09T16:14:00.000-08:00

.....here are piles of goods for my Fiber Mania booth sitting in the hallway to the garage.....handwoven scarves/shawls still need to be packed up but I'll do that at the last minute to avoid wrinkles......wait a minute, is that Phil the pheasant trying to sneak into the red rolling cart???

.....and here are the stacks of bins in the garage where the roving is stored - that's 2 rows deep worth of bins.....hmm, wonder if all this plus my booth display stuff is going to fit in the truck and van....wonder if the utility trailer is full of yard debris or empty......

grump......

2011-11-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to get a bit grouchy, too little creative time, too much administrivia...hmm, common complaint from me lately.....changes need to come....need to be strong about sticking to those changes.

Today and tomorrow will be spent pulling out all my booth fixtures and packing up goods so I'm ready to head to my local fairgrounds Friday to set up for Fiber Mania. Big plus - this fiber event is only 15 minutes from my house....I forget something, dh can run it over to me. Anyone reading this within driving distance please come by Saturday & Sunday from 9-5 - Josephine County Fairgrounds in Grants Pass, OR. My booth is right inside the door - stop by and say hi - I'll have a wall of colorful fiber among other items for sale.

On another note - hold up in the technology department - waiting to hear from prez of AVL who promised this week all my questions would be addressed....good thing I'm so busy this week not to dwell on a new loom not in use since I have no clue where to go next....another manual with basics will help. But other technology is on the move - finally ordered and received a battery pack for my Hanson mini-spinner so I don't need to be near an electrical outlet - I can spin anywhere on it now....well, after I charge it up.

Hmm, maybe next week will be creative.........after I inventory everything and get my etsy shops back full of goods Monday after Fiber Mania.......

Silk Scarves

2011-11-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

Oh, I am woefully behind on so many levels.....I did a little catch-up yesterday taking pictures of silk scarves for sale, still have more handwoven scarves to photograph. Am still caught up in way too much administrivia.

New Toy.....

2011-11-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

Here's the new toy I ordered last week - a Jeri Brock Turkish Spindle! Now, I didn't find this one myself, another blogger enabled me. I saw it on Fiberewetopia's blog banner and wrote her to ask about it.......not only did she tell me about it but directed me on where to buy one! I had to pick it up at the post office yesterday which made me late to my spinning get-together but I wanted to show it to everyone.....several others wrote down the name and where they could get one, and I found out my friend Cathy has one on order. I bought mine from The Spinning Loft but one could also contact Jeri Brock directly - she's on Ravelry under the name jeribrock. (that roving is some of my hand-dyed polwarth wool)

On the AVL front - haven't had time to even try turning it on yet, so busy for the next 2 weeks preparing for Fiber Mania. Also still waiting for answers to a few of my questions. Can't wait to have lots of time to devote to learning it.

It must be autumn - $5.99 pumpkin pies at Costco.......was over in Medford today dropping scarves/shawls off at the Rogue Gallery so also did many errands including a stop at Costco.....love those pumpkin pies!

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T08:12:00.000-07:00

I miss trick or treaters......for the past 19 Halloween's we've lived in rural America, on acreage, far off the road, no trick or treaters venture up long driveways (1/3 mile up and back down a steep hill here) they head to neighborhoods in town. I don't get to see the great costumes and have no excuse for buying tons of candy.....although I still usually buy a bag or two that disappears long before Halloween.

I need a drink!!!

2011-10-30T17:47:00.000-07:00

I definitely need a drink after today, a BIG drink! The loom is almost finished and Sam and I are still talking, that's a good thing. Every once in a while it got a little testy but not directed at each other but at the directions, or lack of......there were some diagrams but in two spots where diagrams would have been a huge help there were none. I can't tell you how many times I read the step by step instructions over and over for us so we could try and figure it out. We were missing two small lock collars that I'll ask AVL to drop in the mail, also no dobby manual as referenced in the basic loom manual....think it would help to have that. Few other issues we had to deal with like holes not drilled all the way on harness bars for one, Sam came through with fixes.

Here it is - the front apron still needs to be put on, as the dividers on the sectional beam. Bench is still in the box in pieces, maybe tomorrow evening....maybe......

Here's a look see at the 40 harnesses and compudobby box. Of course, we have not plugged in the laptop and turned it on yet so we're keeping our fingers crossed that it works. Not sure when I'll get a warp on it - coming into my really busy season for business so it might be a few weeks.

Coming along........

2011-10-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, so in the instruction manual AVL says it will take from 3-8 hours to put the loom together - no way! I think the 3 hours must have been for those that got it mostly assembled on a crate....but then how do you get it in the door??? It took almost 3 hours just to get all the boxes opened and figure out the parts.....and then there were the 2 parts both with #16 on them, luckily when we found the second #16 we had already used the first #16 in the right spot. All in all it's not too bad. Missing a couple little parts so far but nothing that could hold us up from finishing, I'll contact them to drop them in the mail.

So, here's the back of the loom - 13 of the 40 harnesses are put together and on the cables.

And here's the side of the loom with the dobby box - after we finish putting on all the harnesses there's another part of the box with all the electrical parts that covers up these cables. But we're done for the day, we're tired and have other things to do this evening.....hopefully we'll finish up assembly tomorrow, not sure when I'll figure out turning it all on!

And in in the beginning.....

2011-10-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

Left & right side panels put together with cam assembly......missing 2 small pieces for cam assembly but not a game stopper as far as assembly goes.......who knows, maybe they'll turn up in another box........after lunch we hook the 2 sides together.......this is not a 5 minute job........

It's here!

2011-10-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

Whoo Hoo - the AVL V-Series is here! We had it delivered to Sam's company since a freight truck could not turn around up here at the house. Hmm, looks like a lot of assembly to me.........

more upbeat.......

2011-10-27T16:24:00.000-07:00

After finishing up guild administrivia publishing the guild newsletter for the two guilds and getting the membership list updated and mailed out with the newsletter I decided it was time to turn the day around and throw out that melancholy feeling.

I pulled out my embroidery machine to play. My friend Pat had given me 3 t's and picked out what she wanted embroidered on each so I worked on those - love the results! Just playing put me in a much better mood - so much more fun to play than do what I should be doing.

Then I got a phone call from the Rogue Gallery to set up an appointment for next week to bring scarves & shawls for the Spirit in Hand Holiday Boutique that will run for over a month. I had submitted a disc with photos a few weeks ago for jurying.

And finally, I got an email from AVL saying my loom is shipping out today! Hmm, wonder when it will arrive.....it's only got a 5 hour trip up the highway to get here. It will be shipping to my husband's place of work since the freight truck can't negotiate our driveway. I've been waiting since mid-August for it to arrive - I'm so happy! Of course, the next couple weeks is so busy I'm not sure we'll have time to put it together but after that I can relax and devote lots of time to it.

melancholy......

2011-10-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Feeling a bit meloncholy today, not sure why, woke up that way........so this has turned into a really slow morning of frittering. Have had a panicky feeling lately about how much I have to get done in the next couple of months.....gifts...photography work...too much adminstrivia...too many things I really don't want to do...oh well, maybe next year I'll get a better handle on it, was hoping for this year but it's not happening.

On a lighter note I finished plying this handspun from Panda which is 60% superwash merino/30% bamboo/10% nylon. It's a dream to spin. This is a bit smaller than fingering weight, 1150 yards in all...not sure what it will become when it grows up but I'll come up with an idea soon. I only dyed 2 pounds, so glad after the first pound sold I set aside the rest for myself.

I ordered something this morning, a little bauble to lift my spirits but will wait until it arrives before spilling the beans.....at that time I'll let you all know which blog's banner I spotted it on and how that blog owner enabled me to buy it!

On another note - Tuesday a delightful group of ladies came to visit my studio and learn about weaving, the local neighborhood chapter of the American Sewing Guild. I'm afraid I strayed from talking about just weaving, afterall I do so many other fiber related things. Anyhow, very nice afternoon with some very nice people.

A bit of spinning.....

2011-10-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

A bit of spinning took place while on the coast this weekend, did some reading, lots of walking, then decided to pick up the spindle and some superwash merino I had dyed a couple years ago.....once spun there should be enough of this for a pair of sox. Isn't that a cool pillow in the background?! It was made from a bathmat - Sam thinks it's weird, actually downright scary - I love it, bought a light blue one too! Forgot the camera once again so this was taken with the phone, not too sharp....

New on the loom......

2011-10-19T16:50:00.000-07:00

I spent part of my morning putting together more felting bunz kits, this time the regular ones with the primary, secondary, neutral colors.....was getting low on them so figured since I was on a roll from yesterday's new felting bunz I might as well keep going.

After lunch I put a new warp on the loom for some chenille scarves....I needed to get something on the loom so it's not naked next week when the American Sewing Guild comes to visit. Now the hard part is not to weave them all off....I had to force myself to put down the shuttle. If I knew I'd have time to get another warp on before Tuesday I'd weave them off but I have other things on my schedule between now and then.

2011-10-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

Hmm, where have I been, no posts since last week.....spent the weekend on the coast, absolutely beautiful crisp fall weather, actually short sleeve sunny fall weather. It was a good for the mental health coast weekend, no chores, just walking, reading and relaxing. Yesterday I spent the morning with customers that came here to my studio for scarves and roving, then the afternoon spent trying to put away piles in the loom room and sewing room - next week the local chapter of the American Sewing Guild wants to come for a short talk on weaving which will include a show & tell and tour of my studio space. They came a couple years ago but apparently a number couldn't make it so they wanted a second go round. I was really hoping by now the AVL would be here so I'd have something new to share with them but it's delayed.....no word on the latest delay (nor the first until I e'd them), need to drop them a line again to find out the status.

Today was my spinning group day - spinning days are the best two days of the month.......hmm, pretty exciting life I lead here but I love it.....more often than not it's the only time I spin.......and it's good for my mental health to get together with my spinning peeps. After I got home I decided to put together some new felting bunz kits with muted colors. My other kits are more the primary/secondary colors plus natural, black, brown & gray. I thought all these soft colors might be a nice complement to the other kit. The new one is now up for sale in one of my etsy shops.

I suppose tomorrow or Thursday I better get something on the loom for the Sewing Guild to see.......

Playing catch-up.....

2011-10-13T17:20:00.000-07:00

I've been playing catch-up here....brother Chris arrived for a whirlwind visit, flying in Friday, leaving Monday so not much else got done around here other than visiting.....weaving guild on Tuesday and trying to finish up some partially finished projects since then. I did get the fringes twist on four tencel scarves, added beads to the fringes to give them some bling.

Yesterday afternoon I started making more felted bling and finished it up today. These are little felted balls that I've hung charms and beads from. The original ones I did last spring were for my spinning circle peeps to hang on their wheels during the nwrsa conference. Of course they can also adorn necks in addition to wheels. I have a yellow one hanging from my Majacraft and wear a lime green around my neck often. I added the metal chains to these, now they're all packaged for sale.....except for the gray one with earrings in the lower right corner - that's for me.

Wiley coyotes......

2011-10-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

We have coyotes, many coyotes from the howling we hear during the night. We hear them often right outside our windows, we see new coyote poop daily on our walks. I'm sure they're feasting on the turkeys and jack rabbits from the looks of the poop. But I have never seen one, they are some wiley coyotes.....until yesterday morning when three of them decided to sneak up on the turkeys roosting in the trees in front of the house. I'm not a lover of the turkeys who feel compelled to scratch around in my flower beds rather than on the other 5 acres surrounding them, if they pulled out a weed or two maybe I'd be ok with it. But I will not be a party to the coyotes eating their breakfast right in front of me.....and not in broad daylight just minutes after Bailey and I came in from our walk. So, I opened the front door, "you wiley coyotes, get out of here" while the turkeys were squalking and complaining. They gave me a glance and eventually walked off but obviously were not happy with me interferring with a fresh turkey breakfast on the horizon when one of those stupid turkeys decided to try and make a run for it. So, turkeys give me a break on the flower beds - I was your defender. Silly me, I should have grabbed the camera to get a picture......I was contemplating the gun but I really would rather not kill one of those wiley coyotes unless Bailey was in immediate danger.

More adminstrivia....and a reward

2011-10-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

More administrivia today.....all I want to do is weave, spin, sew or knit.....but never ending administrivia. I spent time taking pictures of scarves for sale, above is one of the rayon chenille scarves that I silkscreened discharge paste on in the gingko design. Pictures never do these justice. And then after taking numerous pictures, editing them and saving them I got to run the vacuum - red letter day! So, I decided a reward was due, after I dropped off orders at the post office I drove to town (totally out of the way by at least 10 miles each way) and picked us up take-out from Abu's Deli & Oasis.....the entire house smells like lebanese food.....going to be hard waiting for Sam to get home.....

Administrivia - argh!

2011-10-05T18:13:00.000-07:00

Today was yet another day filled with administrivia.....it's starting to get old, too much administrivia, too little time to create. I started out my day by printing out labels for a delivery of Ashland Bay roving, I then weighed out 8oz bags of many colorways - 45 pounds in all, then put it all in inventory. This took a major portion of my day. Here are some of the new Merino/Tussah silk colorways - I especially like the bottom two. Now these, a few other new colors of merino and colors I had run out of need to be listed in my etsy shop.

Last night while watching tv I reskeined some laceweight merino/silk yarn I had dyed, today I got the labels on them. There are two of each skein. I like the dye results - a kettle dye look.

This is a cute little shelf I found at a new little antique shop in town - it's going to be perfect for the beach cottage. I also found a little wooden box with a drawer with a carved flower - it's painted red, I'll repaint it seaglass teal......and a few pieces of inexpensive crystal including a beautiful little lavendar dish, all perfect for showing off seashells. I found this new shop after I left my spinning group heading to the grocery store....needless to say I never made it to the grocery store!

And then there's Bailey - he kept standing in front of the camera wanting his picture taken - happy pooch.

As much as I'd rather be doing something else tomorrow I need to take pictures of handwoven scarves - they won't sell if I don't list them. More administrivia..........

Back to weaving.....

2011-10-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

I've been doing too much administrivia lately and not enough of what I want to do. After busy-bee computer work this morning I decided it was time to finish off the tencel scarf warp that's been on the loom forever. I thought I had only put on enough for 3 scarves but when I finished the purple weft one there was a lot of warp still on the back beam. A quick look at my notes I saw I put on enough for 4 scarves so the last one is a rust/brown weft. All weaving finished and scarves soaking in the sink at the moment. I'm think I'll add tiny seed beads onto the fringe of these to go with the nice sheen of the tencel.

Today is a special day - it's been raining all day long! I love it. I realize many areas of the country had way too much rain this year but we haven't had rain in close to 4 months and this cool rainy weather means the fire danger level has now dropped to moderate. The end to fire season is a good thing, hoping it happens very soon.

new toy.....

2011-10-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here it is - my new toy! It's my Hansen mini-spinner. I've been playing with it today, fine tuning my storage for it and tension, etc. Of course I can't do much spinning on it right now because I've got to finish up what I've been spinning.....don't want to have a change in the way my finished yarn looks by switching methods in mid-stream. But I do have some corriedale cross hand-dyed rovings I need to spin small samples of so I get to play with it this weekend.

This rolling cart is the perfect size for storing and toting my spinner around. It's a smaller version of several larger carts I now own for carting my spinning with wheel around (and other stuff). The Hansen mini-spinner fits inside this small cart with all it's accessories perfectly with plenty of room for roving. And it's the perfect little table to set the spinner on for spinning. My bigger carts are great for toting my wheel around - I can put all my supplies inside the cart and bungee my wheel on top - helpful when going somewhere to demonstrate. Now I could buy a Zuca bag like many others with this spinner have done but I'm not ready (and may not ever be) to part with $200-$300 for it, no matter how neat it is. My cute little cart was $13.99 plus $5.49 for the lid - what a bargain. And the larger carts aren't much more.

harvest time.......

2011-10-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

It's harvest time here.....not that we have anything to harvest as we have very little flat ground on our 5 acres but kind souls share their bountiful harvest with us now and again. Sam came home with a box of vine ripened tomatoes yesterday, more than we can eat fresh so I've loaded up several trays of the dehydrator and it's now humming away.....they'll be great in soups and stews this winter. Yum, tomato/red onion/hot pepper sandwich for lunch today.......

Wool dyeing days over......at least for this season...

2011-09-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

Whoo-Hoo! I've put away the acid dyes for the season. The dyeing from the past week is now braided, weighed, labeled, photographed and most of it now listed in my etsy shop. All the merino and falkland are now up for sale in my shop, the corriedale cross will start going up tomorrow. I've finished spinning up samples of the merino and falkland, pix still need to be taken...then will start on the corriedale cross - very fun to see how they spin up.

Whoo Hoo!!!!

2011-09-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

Whoo-Hoo.....the last of the roving dyeing for months! This is the second half of the corriedale cross roving I was dyeing yesterday. I've put the acid dyes away, all utensils/pots are drying and will be put away next, two burner propane stove ready to come inside the garage for the winter.Tables will stay out under the deck for a bit as I want to wind some warps to paint....but that's using fiber reactive dyes, totally different process. I'm still working on spinning up samples from all the fiber I've been dyeing, then pix of them to add to my etsy shop listings.

Dye day.....

2011-09-27T16:09:00.000-07:00

Today's efforts - 8 pounds of corriedale cross. I love the one on the right, it's hard to tell in the picture but it looks like the felted wool fabric that's out there for sewing/penny rugs/etc - kind of heathery, can't wait to spin a sample of it. If I wake up tomorrow in the mood to dye I'll finish up the rest of it and then then acid dyes get put away for the winter - hurray!

Road Trip!

2011-09-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

Road trip!!!! Left early Friday morning heading up to OFFF, Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival, or as Sam calls it Flock & Flea. First stop my road trip friends and I made was for the New Yorker bagel (cream cheese, lox, capers, red onions, tomato) at Bronx Bagels in Sutherlin, then a quick stop at Trader Joe's in Eugene. Then off to check in the hotel in Wilsonville and back on the road to Fabric Depot in Portland. And yes, I did buy some fabric but tried to restrain myself....everything in the store was 30% off plus had a coupon for 40% off one item. Sorry no pic - still in the bag in the pile of other stuff by the door. Pictures taken were with my phone so they're just so-so....didn't feel like carrying a camera.

Dinner at Sushi Track - annual event - there were 8 of us this year. This is what's left of my spider roll -yum! We all ate a ton of sushi Friday evening.

On the drive to OFFF we pass a dahlia farm in the Canby area - this is just a small section of the fields

Here's a close up - this dahlia was gigantic

A must is the ferry ride between the hotel and OFFF fairgrounds. I think our group are the only ones who do it - everyone else jumps on the highway.....but look what they miss, we see beautiful countryside too, we would miss those dahlias if we took the highway.....

Yes there were critters to see - this is a beautiful angora goat who liked having her picture taken

And yes, I did make a major purchase - a Hansen electric spinner - yikes! It's still in the bag as I haven't had time to play with it but I did test drive the one I bought before plunking down that credit card. I had trouble with a Woolie Winder in the past and wanted to make sure the one on the spinner was smooth - it was, I'm a happy camper. Oh, plying is going to be so much nicer now.......if I haven't mentioned it at least 100 times before I don't enjoy plying, it's boring and goes on forever. I managed to only buy a few small items in addition to the spinner and thank goodness I left without buying any spinning fiber - I don't need it!

Drive home Sunday found us at the outlet stores and Trader Joe's for some major shopping - torrential downpours driving home, hard to see the road at times.

Today is a dye day but it's chilly out, too chilly to be dealing with cold water out of the hose so am waiting a bit for it to warm up.....although it's clouding up and looks even colder out there.....

No internet again.....

2011-09-22T07:30:00.001-07:00

No internet again in my little world - argh! It went out around 5:30 yesterday evening, still out this morning. Last night when I called there was the recording saying they're aware of the problem and technicians are working on it.....hmm, I was thinking those technicians were home in bed. Called again this morning, got the same message but then I thought to hit '0' on the phone to get a real live person in some other country. At least this live person, whose name I could never figure out after asking several times, was more competant than Audrey who I talked to on Monday. This gal immediately put me on hold to find out if she could get more information on the problem. I got to listen to a recording about how much faster dsl is with Centurylink since it took over/or whatever it did, with Qwest.....hmm, ours has been slower since that happened. My tech support gal, name still unknown, came back - and just as I thought - techs went home to bed because they're waiting for a piece of equipment that 'should' arrive today. So, my internet is in the hands of whatever delivery company Qwest/Centurylink has contracted with. Luckily I do have my Verizon Mifi that I use over on the coast and for traveling but I do pay for limited access each month, what I figured I'd need, not intended to be on all day long here at home. To top this off, I'm on the laptop, wanted to print something in an email and it's not talking to my printer.....it always does.....except today when I really need it.......

Current spinning

2011-09-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post a pic last week of the spinning I've been doing, plied the first of it - I'm around half done. This is Panda that I hand-dyed. Panda is 60% superwash merino/30% bamboo/10% nylon - it's a dream to spin. Have temporarily suspended spinning this while I spin up samples of the recent dyed rovings.

Hand-dyed merino roving

2011-09-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

Today's accomplishments.....merino roving........all of it was playing except the center light yellow which is my colorway called Buttercream. I adore yellow and should have put some of this color aside last time I dyed it but I didn't and it all sold....so here's some more.....hopefully I'll pull some out for me before it sells.

Argh....

2011-09-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

Turned on the computer this morning, checking mail, read 3 of them, then off to a website and down went the internet. I went through turning off/on the modem, rebooting the computer - nothing. I had orders to mail which meant postage to print.....and I needed to be at the post office when it opened so I could be back to dye all that merino I weighed out on Saturday. So, off to call Qwest......now Centurylink......argh

Me: (after listening to many computer voice generated prompts) "I have no internet, could you tell me if there's a problem here locally"

Audrey: (hmm, I'm thinking, interesting name for someone with an accent.....thinking of the movie Outsourced that I just watched, cute no brainer movie) "Let's trouble shoot"

Me: "I've already rebooted, troubleshooted the modem, all lights are green but it's not working....oh there the internet light went out, now back on"

Audrey: "Let's check that modem - what is the Qwest model number"

Me: "It's not a Qwest modem, we've gone through two of those, they're designed to fail after one year, this is a different brand that works great"

Audrey: "Not a Qwest modem? What kind is it - what is the name & model number"

Me: "Make is XYZ - I can't get find the model number (standing on my head under the desk) but I really don't think it's my modem, I've already checked it...can't you check to see if there's a service issue in my area?"

Audrey: "Can't you move your desk to get the model number?"

Me: "No it's at least 200 pounds.....can we please check to see if there's a service issue?"

Audrey: "Let me talk to my upper tech support"

Me: (on hold biting my tongue - why does this always have to raise one's blood pressure?)

Audrey: "Let's trouble shoot that modem"

Me: "It's not the modem!!!!" (now 40 minutes has passed)

Audrey: (perturbed with me) "Let me talk to my upper tech support"

Me: "Thank you"

Audrey: "There is a problem with service in your area, engineers are working on it and it will be fixed within 24-48 hours, we will call you when service is restored"

Me: "Thank you - why couldn't you have checked that 40 minutes ago?"

Off to the post office (late) to mail orders the old fashioned way at the counter which costs me more $$$. Told the gal at the counter about internet since I usually just drop my packages with postage on them - we agreed that the terrorists have it all wrong - what are they doing blowing up planes and buildings - just knock out our internet.....and cell phones! We'll come to a screeching halt and probably kill each other in frustration after talking to our providers on the phone. She added they could knock out the credit card processing machines too and really cause havoc.

Service came back on in a few hours.......still no call to tell me it's restored like promised although I wasn't sure why I needed it since I'd know it was back on.

Ok, so even though I don't agree with outsourcing since so many people here are without jobs it doesn't neccesarily mean I'm getting inferior service - I would probably get just as crummy service from someone in Anytown, USA......but it would be nice to talk to someone in the area where service is coming from. Back when I was having major problems with Qwest DSL I contacted the CEO, a friend knew of him through her former business life and assured me he answers every email personally very early in the morning - he did and the problem was fixed within a day, new equipment installed down the road.

Now back to the dye steamers to take out the last of the merino......rinsing still lies ahead of me as well as making more stock solution to be ready for next dye day.

Another dye day....

2011-09-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

Perfect weather for dyeing today, sunny and around 70 degrees. I finished up the last of the Falkland - that taupe colorway doesn't show off to it's best in the photo but it's beautiful - I might have to spin some up myself. I also had 10 skeins of laceweight 75% merino/25% silk yarn that I dyed. What's with all the blue??? Then I weighed out the next roving to dye - 12 pounds of merino.

drumroll......the envelope please......

2011-09-17T08:17:00.000-07:00

Here's what was in the mystery envelope from earlier this week.....fingerless mitts for Theresa. Back in the spring when Theresa went back east to visit her folks she asked what I'd like - I said bring me a lobster, obviously a joke. Well, she brought me some beautiful hand-dyed yarn from Lobster Pot Yarns - colorway name Lobster Bisque. I made a beautiful shawlette, The Traveling Woman Shawlette, which I showed finished and blocked in my post of August 31st. I had some 'leftovers in the pot' so I made Theresa a pair of fingerless mitts.

Off to the dye stock and steamers, more Falkland to dye today.....then only 4 more days of roving dyeing before the rains and much cooler weather hits......but the heat is coming back mid-week so those days may have to wait.....

Cool weather = Dye weather

2011-09-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

Today was a perfect dye day - cool and overcast - sun finally showed it's face late afternoon

I like the days efforts...especially those seaglass colors on the left (whoops, forgot to say that this is Falkland wool)

I love it when the pampas grass blooms....well, it may not be called blooming but that's what I'm calling it - these 'blooms' are around 10 ft tall

A bit of weaving this aft.......

2011-09-13T17:18:00.000-07:00

Back to the tencel scarf warp - red weft above using a different treadling than the first scarf and purple weft below using yet another treadling. 4th scarf will be using a bronze/brown weft, not sure of treadling yet.

Satellite dish stopped working while I was weaving - argh! I could watch dvr'd stuff........but now the local news is on and I'd like to see it but can't except for on the bedroom tv that's hooked up to an antenna. Technology!

Not much of a picture.....

2011-09-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this isn't much of a picture - what's inside this envelope will be seen as soon as the recipient gets it in the mail. Can't show it now since this person reads my blog and it's a surprise. Only hint is that there was still some left in the pot.

Too much administrivia in my life.....it's always my complaint, too little time to create, too much time spent on administrivia. Now adding to it is updating all the tagging on every item in my two etsy shops. Last month Etsy changed the relavancy of tagging so I'm not getting as many sales as usual. So, I'm learning the best new way to optimize the tagging/searches but it requires editing every single item listed - over 200 of them between the two shops. Last night I worked on a few, within minutes one of the items sold. I like the old way better........not sure if I'm saying that just because I have all this busy work ahead of me or what......

There's a new food trailer in our area - Rocco's Amore owned by Bill, my friend Kathy's significant other......Kathy's deep in it too, working away cooking and serving. They just did their first gig on Saturday at a winery event.....more to come plus setting up at lunchtime somewhere around Medford. They'll be serving up yummies for Fiber Mania in November - I'll have a tab going for the weekend for my breakfast and lunch as I work my booth. There were leftovers from the winery gig so Sam and I ate good last night - 2 kinds of lasagna, salad, italian bread, antipasto tray and the yummiest raspberry panna cotta for dessert (every bite I took I said "yum"). They also packed some espresso brownies for us to try, we'll try those today. The website is still under construction - I just took my first look at it.

Cranberry fest......

2011-09-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

This past weekend on the coast in Bandon was the Cranberry Festival. Bandon and nearby towns host many a cranberry bog....from what I can see the majority of them sell to Oceanspray. The festival was great fun - parade Saturday morning, booths, car & tractor show, petting zoo, musical entertainment - Old Town was hopping....parking was at a premium but our cottage being close enough to walk is a big plus. All I bought at the festival were some cranberry food related items and they are all very yummy....and then there was the Oceanspray booth giving away cans of cranberry seltzer and dried cranberries.

Two of my favorite places in town were having sales for the weekend. The haul above was from The Wool Co. I found a cute ear flapper hat pattern made with super bulky yarn - two yarns were bought for these projects for a couple family gifts. I couldn't resist the Noro yarn (upper left)....not sure what will be made with that yet. And then the best buy of all are all those skeins of baby alpaca laceweight yarn from Cascade Yarns. The shop is discontinuing Cascade so it was 50% off. And that chartreuse is one of my favorite colors! Not sure what these will become but scarves/shawls come to mind.

A stop was made at the quilt shop too - Forget-Me-Knots Quilt Shop. This is a great quilt shop as are many of them up and down the coast - quilting must be big over there. They've recently renovated the upstairs for quilt retreats - there's a kitchen, bedrooms to sleep 8 and bathrooms and a nice big work area for everyone's sewing machine, there are cutting tables, ironing boards, etc. It's very reasonably priced too. Ok, so what I bought - not going to describe the patterns because if I get on the ball they'll make a few gifts, couldn't resist the dragonfly fabric (for what, who knows right now) and those rolled up sets of fat quarters - love those colors! I also bought something I haven't bought in years - an actual cross-stitch kit. Usually I would buy the pattern, the fabric of my choice and I have hundreds of skeins of DMC embroidery floss in my stash. But I haven't found a cross-stitch seashell pattern that I like and I really like the one in this kit. Not sure when this will be started......too many other things on the to-do list right now but I've got it for when I'm ready. After I left the quilt shop I ran over to the Oddfellows Hall to see the quilt show, very nice. Now I'm showing my ignorance but what are Oddfellows.....my imagination isn't too flattering because I know a couple odd fellows! (update - ok I looked it up if anyone else is interested - Oddfellows)

Finally, I couldn't close without just one picture from the parade. This float holds the Cranberry Court (Cranberry princesses). I'm not sure which one was voted queen. They were madly waving at their friends standing right there in front of us. The parade was full of crowns - the cranberry court, the queen & king of cranberry food, Miss Oregon and some others I have no clue what they were. So, if we win the fun old car in the raffle here in GP for the foster kids I've told Sam that we (Bailey included) will have to be in the Cranberry Parade next year doing the beauty queen wave and throwing out tons of candy. He's not too worried since I only bought one ticket.......

Hand-dyed BFL

2011-09-08T07:57:00.000-07:00

Quite a bit of the hand-dyed BFL that I dyed last week is already sold - a big thanks to my very own spinning group for putting a big dent in it. Two of the colorways - pinks and reds are totally sold out. These are going up in my etsy shop over the next several days....there are several braids of each colorway at this point.

Back to my first love.....weaving, that is....

2011-09-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

It's close to 100 degrees out so it's definitely not a dye day so it's back to what I love to do most and haven't been doing enough of - weaving. This afternoon I wound an 8/2 black tencel warp for 4 twill scarves. Here's the first one, just some random diamonds on the one end, I'll probably vary the treadling on each scarf. Still auditioning colors for the next 3 scarves.

Mystery solved.....

2011-09-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

The mystery is solved about the Spin-Fix tool. It's definitely a skein winder/swift. My friend Cathy, aka Boom, found it on a german blog. Just scroll down a bit and there's a picture of it how it should look. All I have to do is unscrew the square middle pieces and turn one 180 degrees - then it will hold the arms out in a cross. This is great - not only do I have a fun little swift but it's very compact. It's going to live at the beach - compact swift for a compact cottage. Thank you Boom!

Seen this before?

2011-09-05T10:05:00.000-07:00

Has anyone ever seen one of these before? I found it in an antique shop for $8. It's called a Spin-Fix and says Made in Germany. It sits on top of the clamp and spins. The arms are adjustable although they're next to one another rather than in a cross design like the swifts we usually see. I'm sure it's a yarn swift. I tried searching online for any information but no luck so far. Not sure how I'll use it but it was a fun find.

Sampling........

2011-09-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

Handspun samples from the latest BFL dyeing.......it's looking like fall is coming....

Another day of dyeing......

2011-09-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

It was another day at the dyepots. Today my fibery friend Pat came over to help, I really enjoyed having company for the day and she was a huge help. She was doing everything from mixing dye colors to painting it on and rinsing it out....and then there's all the washing of tools. The heat is returning so dyeing will be put on hold for a bit, as soon as it cools back down to at least 80 I'll be back at it - have 6 more dye days to get under my belt......if I wore a belt........

Pay it forward winners.....

2011-09-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, here are the pay it forward winners of the weaving books.....I'll be emailing Sisters and Susan for their mailing addresses. Heatherabarrick & Tinkertots please email me with your mailing addresses - for some reason I can't seem to link to any contact info for either of you. cindiesam @ yahoo dot com

Weaving As an Art Form - 'Sisters'
Card Weaving & Conventional Card Weaving - 'Susan'
The Rosepath Motif - 'Heatherabarrick'
Weaver's Study Course - 'TinkerTots

Bailey picked the winners - each person entered for each book was assigned a different color dog biscuit which Bailey dashed for....unfortunately I was alone here at the time so I couldn't place the biscuits, hold him back and work the camera at the same time........it was comical.......and he was wishing there were more biscuits after we were done!

Back to the steamers......

2011-08-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

Beautiful day out, in the 70's so it was back to the steamers with 6 pounds of blueface leicester roving. So nice to finish up dyeing, replenishing dye stocks and weighing out more roving by 2:30 rather than killing myself dyeing 15+ lbs in a day. Tomorrow will finish up the rest of this fiber. Then the heat is returning so will watch the forecast for nice weather again to finish up wool dyeing for the season - still have 6 days of dyeing ahead of me.

Here's the Traveling Woman Shawl after blocking yesterday.

odds & ends......

2011-08-30T16:23:00.000-07:00

....that's how today is being spent....on odds & ends.....got the blocking done earlier, crocheted mesh scarf is now dry and looks great, shawl is still drying.....

I planned the next warp to go on the loom, black tencel for twill scarves but I never made it to the warping board. Instead I pulled out the Weave It which I've never used but bought several years back after reading an article in Piecework on the caretaker of the Cape May Point Lighthouse making an afghan using these little squares. I loved the look of it, especially since she felted it after sewing them all together. I have a history with Cape May Point - I spent summers there while growing up at the family beach house. So I had to weave up a sample square so I'd know how much yardage I would need for each so I can pick up wool or spin it for a future afghan. I thought it would be a fun project to leave over at the beach cottage to work on here and there. The Weave It on the right is an original - it belonged to my aunt, it came complete with a number of finished squares in acrylic yarn. A real funny thing about this is that this is about as simple as it gets for weaving.....and yet I'm waiting for my AVL 40 harness loom to be built.....what extremes I enjoy.

Next was crocheting up a granny square which I then ripped out to figure out how much yardage is needed for each one.....want to make an old fashioned granny square afghan too. Now I'm armed with all that information. My sample used Cascade 220 which is what I'll use for the afghan too....will watch for a sale and pick out beach glass colors.

Then I wound the skeins in my earlier post this morning into balls and found a project to start using that handspun, the Clementine Shawlette from the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits. Not sure how it will look with my multi-colored handspun, if I don't like it I'll rip it out and find another pattern to use.

Hmm, what should I work on now.........

Beautiful day......

2011-08-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful day.....a bit cooler, breezy, kind of feels like autumn.....although I understand this is temporary, will be very hot again by Friday. So, I'll take advantage of this good weather for the next 2 days - will spend Wednesday & Thursday dyeing BFL.

Just now I blocked two recently finished pieces; the traveling woman shawlette and another mesh crocheted scarf.

Here's some of my hand-dyed Polwarth I recently spun, I added in some sparkle with hand-dyed firestar. I'm not sure what I'll make with it yet, I've got 574 yards. Originally it was to be art yarn.....I added the firestar while spinning the singles, added hand-dyed silk ribbon in plying and then tried to add a binder of rayon thread with beads in another ply. Well, it didn't work, I should have added the rayon thread with beads at the same time making it a 3 ply yarn. So halfway through I stopped the 3rd ply, ran it through the wheel again to unspin it a bit and pulled the thread with beads off. Then with no binder the silk ribbon wouldn't stay put so I pulled that out. What a lesson learned........

Current reading - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Futte, futte, do, do, do, do, oh futte, futte.........

2011-08-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

Yep, that was me singing the futte futte maker song this morning while making felt balls for more wheel jewelry....or people jewelry. You can see it in my post of May 23rd of this year. It's addictive, I thought I'd make no more than 15 of them. The futte futte makes quick work of felting balls but don't ask me where to get it - no one can find it out there on the internet at the moment. I got it at superbuzzy.com back in the spring but after I showed it around and wore my jewelry this spring and summer there was a run on them. Now these balls will dry, then I'll add silver wire, beads and charms to them.

Finally......

2011-08-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

finally I've twisted the fringe on these 3 bamboo scarves, they've been sitting around here for quite a while waiting to be finished up. Phew, tags on, ready to photograph (who knows when) and sell......

Pay it forward.....

2011-08-26T14:33:00.000-07:00

I'm paying it forward.....someone gifted these to me as she's not weaving anymore, I already have them in my library so I'm gifting them to readers of my blog. All you need to do is comment to this post with which book(s) you're interested in by August 31st - there will be 4 winners. Sometime September 1st I'll pull names, thought I'd use the random generator but Bailey is thinking he might want to come up with a fun way for him to help pull the names...will be thinking on that one. If you don't have an email associated with your profile please leave me an email address so I can contact you for your mailing address. I'll post the winners to my blog after they're picked.

Weaver's Study Course, Ideas and Techniques by Else Regensteiner, it's autographed (this book is dated as far as the completed projects go but weaving techniques/structures/drafts are timeless, there is a lot of good information in it)

The Rosepath Motif Monograph by Margaret B. Windeknecht (this is a classic monograph - good explanations about rosepath and lots of drafts to use in your own projects-not the glossy kind of books out now but a great one)

Weaving as an Art Form, A Personal Statement by Theo Moorman (this book is about Theo Moorman who has this weave structure named after her, there are some instructions such as drafting and weaving but it's more of where you can go with this weave - it's great for surface embellishment and pictorial work. If you know Nadine Sanders, contempory weaver, you know she specializes in workshops in this type of weave structure)

Two books in this giveaway - Card Weaving by Candace Crocket & Conventional Cardweaving How-to-Booklet by Herbi Gray (I have many books on cardweaving but the Crocket one I consider the bible, great book for beginners, very clear to understand, easy to follow. The booklet by Herbi Gray is just a little phamplet - some of you may remember cardwoven earrings by gray made using sewing thread, used to be a booth at nw weaving conferences for many years)

Who Do You Think You Are?

2011-08-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I stole the title from the Friday evening show on NBC about stars researching their ancestries. I think it’s a fascinating show myself and it has made me wonder who I am.

So, on to my background. I’ve gotten a family tree and partial history from relatives in Michigan showing my Dad’s side of the family, I think it’s English, maybe a little Irish, Scottish, Dutch…..maybe it will be a real surprise when I have time to do more research (more to come on that in another post). My Mother’s side of the family is 100% Italian and we already know quite a bit about them. That’s the fascinating story I have to tell…..yes, I will get to the relevance of posting to my blog about my fiber life.

My grandfather, Salvatore Mazzie, my Great Aunt Angela and Bennedetto

who actually died in World War I - his likeness was painted into this picture

I grew up knowing my grandfather, Salvatore Mazzie, aka Sam, as my grandparents moved next door to us when I was a toddler, my grandfather was in my life until I was 11 when he passed away. He came to this country an illegal immigrant at the age of 19 and worked in the coal mines of West Virginia, traveled with my grandmother and my mother as a baby to CA in search of a better life, ala Grapes of Wrath, and ended up back in Ohio working in the steel mill. But the story really goes back to his parents, my great grandparents, who I never knew.

Rosina Spadafore raised her children, including my grandfather in this home, the tiny,

in disrepair center one. Left to right - a newly discovered distant cousin

Antonio, my cousin Claudia from the Seattle area, my Aunt Sandra from Big Fork, MT - Oct 2010

His father, Antonio Mazzei (spelling different in Italy) came to Canada from San Giovanni in Fiore, Calabria, Italy but alas, he died in the coal mines there and never returned to his wife and children in that mountain top home in Italy. His wife, my great-great-grandmother, Dona Rosina Spadafore (Dona is a title reserved for higher born ladies…..as much as someone in a poor Southern Italian village could be considered higher born) was a weaver! Yes, a very skilled weaver! When Antonio died he left her with three children to support which she did by weaving, she was a professional weaver!

A view of San Giovanni in Fiore from the neighbor's house

Rosina’s daughter, my great aunt Angela, told of how she wove from early morning to nightfall every day until she could no longer see the yarn. Rosina would call upon Angela, to massage her shoulders after a long day at the loom. Angela said she was a very skilled weaver. I so wish there were one piece of weaving somewhere in the family for me to treasure but I haven’t heard of any…..perhaps someone in the family has one packed away in a cedar chest that will surface one day. I wonder what kind of weaving she did?

San Giovanni in Fiore, Calabria, Italy

Aunt Angela, when not casting curses on those who disagreed with her, was talented too, she crocheted. She lived in Ohio when I was young and I visited but I can’t remember her for the life of me, I was fairly young when she passed on. From what I’ve heard she crocheted doilies and covered every piece of furniture with a doily, even those pieces of furniture covered with plastic slipcovers! I’m very honored to have a doily of hers—a tablecloth size one that resides on my dining room table every single day—it’s exquisite. My grandmother, Julia, used to refer to her as a snake-in-the-grass. Don’t cross those Italian women!

The crocheted tablecloth on my dining room table made by my Great Aunt Angela

So, I come by it naturally—who I am is a weaver with weaving in my blood. I wonder if my great-grandmother would be pleased knowing that I too, am a professional weaver. I just recently found out she was a weaver after my aunt and cousin made a trip to San Giovanni this past fall.

This morning's bounty.....and food for thought.....

2011-08-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

This morning's bounty off the two fig trees out in the front yard. Yum, figs for lunch with yogurt and honey. I looked at them the other day and they didn't look ripe, today they are perfect, some over-ripe.....but still yummy. Now I need to decide how many I can eat fresh and dry the rest. I couldn't reach them all so will get help later on that, there are still more ripening and a second set of them that probably won't ripen before frost in the fall....oh well.....

I'm trying to spend a bit more time reading, much of the time it's light reading....takes me a while to get through a book because by the time night comes my eyes are tired. Current reading - The Face on Your Plate - The Truth about Food by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, definitely not light reading. Much of what he writes is based on truth, much of it on his own biased opinions but either way it makes a person think about where their food is coming from. Didn't think I'd make it through the book based on the first chapter, but I struggled through it, now I'm in to the part of the book talking about big business and the meat/fish we eat. Very disturbing but I knew most of this, but the part about dairy cows that I picture living the nice life grazing and getting milked twice a day kept me awake at night. We are not huge meat eaters, but love seafood and fish (and farmed fish is another whole subject). I already buy my lamb locally grown from a friend, will be looking for other local sources for any other meats we want to eat. We may not become total vegans but we will try to be responsible about where our food is coming from, what its life is like before ending up on the plate and what it has consumed in its own life....as in drugs, hormones, etc. I could give up meat and have at times in the past but I'd have a tough time with my milk, yogurt & cheese......

On a scary note, thunderstorms are forecast for these next 3 afternoons. I lived most of my life in the DC/MD region of the country, thunderstorms there meant torrential rains, thunder, lightening.......here in the west thunderstorms are rarely accompanied by rain, they are full of dry lightening in an area with 8-15% humidity all summer long and no rain for months......fires happen. They say afternoon thunderstorms but the dark clouds started moving in an hour ago.....looking very ominous out there.

Been busy 'nesting' these last two days working on birthday gifts (which I can't show) and other things around the house......a little knitting and crocheting in the evenings.

What'cha up to?

2011-08-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

That's what Bailey is asking this morning - hmm, so far not much, have so much to do I don't know where to begin, a mass of in-decision, overwhelmed, and just back from the weekend at the beach where I didn't have a single thought in my mind.....it was great.

Well, maybe one thought was in my mind - has anyone ever posted pictures to their blog using an iPad? The screen just doesn't look the same, not as many tools on the toolbar in the posting section. When I click on the picture icon to upload a picture I get to the correct screen, although it looks different as everything does on the iPad, but the upload button (normally see a browse button) doesn't work. I love my iPad but it is a challenge at times. I'm not sure how we iPad owners are to know what apps we need for things we want to do - there are so many of them, thousands of them! I looked at a couple thick magazines on apps but half the magazine was on game apps, something I have no interest in....and I wasn't spending over 20 buckeroos for that. Maybe we have to be a kid to know these things......

County Fair.....day 2 & 3......

2011-08-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

First thing Wednesday morning this year's wool judge showed up. She was great, she explained how she judges a fleece and then proceeded to talk about each fleece in depth. At first there were just a few of us there that needed to be there early for her but gradually more and more showed up and were standing around listening to all she had to say.

And here are the fleeces with all the ribbons. There are some beautiful fleeces in the bunch. Since I'm still trying to find new homes for stuffed fleece sheep I brought in 8 of them today for the champions and reserve champions - the dark fleece in teh center with the biggest ribbon is the grand champion - she got a big stuffed sheep! ......sure hope no kids swipe those little sheep this evening while we aren't there to guard them.....

And on another note - just as I feared, temps increased to like normal and we have fires. As I write this there are 10 fires burning in-between Gold Hill and Rogue River, one right across the river from a friend, and not terribly far from several others I know.....one person I need to still contact who is right in the middle of it. I heard the copters out here near our house but not going over our place like usual, they were leaving where they sit not too far from us heading in the direction of Gold Hill. Hubby was caught in the fire traffic as they closed the highway and alternate route but he's now home safe & sound. If I haven't said it yet today.....I hate fire season.....

It fair time again.....

2011-08-16T17:02:00.000-07:00

Here is our display at the fair - we have a spinning circle in front of it where we sit all day long, and a few spinners and felters come in the evening too. Nothing is hanging low to keep sticky fingers from touching. Not so sure those sticky fingers want to touch the stinky fleeces......which will be judged tomorrow morning.

And here's what I started spinning today, forgot to get a picture of it so took it when I got home, the wheel is seatbelted into the van until tomorrow. It's Panda - a blend of superwash merino/bamboo/nylon - what a dream to spin........and wear on my black pants today.....stuck to them like tussah silk does......
If you look at my post of July 27th you'll see what the roving looks like and the sample I spun of it, it's the 3rd roving down on the page of those dyed rovings.

Already tired of fair food.....had to eat a yummy lion burger (Lions Club)......friend Boom had to ask the high school gal at the counter if it was from free range lions - totally threw that young girl for a loop, don't think she knew what free range meant and she really wasn't sure if Boom was serious about it being from lions. Looked around at the rest of the fair food and nothing looks interesting to me and I can't eat a lion burger every single day......

New fun thing at the fair right in front of our building - animal races - turkeys, roosters, ducks, goats, sheep, pigs all running against each other - pretty funny but the gals running it talk too much.

And just in time for fair week - the heat has finally arrived.....and I just heard on the news about several fires being fought right now.....summer has finally arrived after a mild spring and summer....I hate fire season......

Another sad day......

2011-08-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

Another sad day this summer........my Uncle Pudge, my father's brother, died today in Michigan. I will always remember him for his friendly smile, much like my father's, and how fun he was to be around when the family visited ours in the DC area and the rare times we made it up to Michigan. My heart goes out to my Aunt Ilene who has cared for him during his battle with alzheimers and my cousins Debbie & Denise......this summer is shaping up to be a pretty stinky one........

Busy weekend.......

2011-08-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

It was a busy fiber filled weekend for me....first thing yesterday morning we set up our exhibit at the county fair, we'll be spinning in front of it Tues-Sat....always a fun event (picture to follow on Tuesday). In the afternoon I attended a weaving guild board meeting....very unlike a board meeting, was very enjoyable! Then last night I was cutting up veggies for today - Sewing Sunday was at my house. So, you won't see pictures of what I accomplished, I forgot to take a picture of the big salad bar I set up for lunch before everyone attacked it and the only other thing I did was stick hundreds of stickers on flyers to be given out at the fair advertising Fiber Mania in November. But I have some pictures of what a few were working on. There was a whole lot more talking going on today than anything else.....it was lovely sitting out on the deck. Tomorrow I'll be getting ready for the fair.......I need to decide what I want to spin this week, I have my own huge stash (aside from what I sell) but there are a few of the ones I dyed recently for sale that are calling my name......I'll post what I work on later once I make a decision.....Deb bought one of them today.

Cheryl was spinning away on her Kromski wheel

Barbara is quilting squares using paper pattern pieces for a large quilt - her technique looks perfect for the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt I want to make someday

Ellie is handquilting this applique quilt - after finishing up this square she moved onto starting the last square - then the borders - it's a beauty

Deb was needlefelting catnip balls - she's thinking ahead for holiday sales

Karen was working on felting one of her little sheep, she's working on the butt of this one - look at those cute rusted horse shoe nail legs! Go see a finished one in her esty shop

Such a loss......

2011-08-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

Such a loss in my world and the weaving world......my dear friend Janette lost her long battle with cancer on Tuesday. I'm going to miss her creativity, wry wit, fun laugh and friendship so much. And my heart goes out to her wonderful husband Mark and his loss. This picture of her was from last fall when she had an exhibit at the Corvallis Art Center - she wove incredible transparencies.

This summer has been a summer of losses....makes one examine life with thoughts of not letting more days pass by not doing the things that really matter instead of being caught up in the craziness.....

Shawlette in progress

2011-08-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

I started knitting a shawlette this weekend, a shawlette is smaller than a shawl, meant to be an embellishment for the shoulders....and will keep me warm too. This pattern is Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante, a free download off of Ravelry. You can see my lifeline in at the beginning of the lace section, I'll put one in at the beginning of each repeat in the pattern as insurance. The yarn I'm using is from Lobster Pot Yarns, colorway is called Lobster Bisque. It's mostly wool with some angora and cashmere, so soft, such a pleasure to knit with. Theresa brought it back from the NE for me when I said to bring me back a lobster! What a surprise! The label says "This yarn was hand-dyed in a lobster pot and hung to dry in the salt air of Cape Cod".

Tea parties and other thoughts......

2011-08-04T09:45:00.000-07:00

   Ok, so this is not a new picture - it's from one of my tea parties a few years back. I didn't have any new pictures to share today so I pulled this one so you wouldn't have to look at only text. This was a tea party for 8 - the biggest I've ever done. And believe it or not every person got their own tiered tower of goodies......and I do believe we ate it all........drank a lot of tea..........and did a lot of visiting all afternoon.
On the bottom level we started with scones, I know one of them is lemon, one hazelnut, can't remember the other. Lemon curd, homemade peach jam and homemade clotted cream.
   Then next were the savories on the middle level, I know there's stilton/pear sandwiches with pistachios around the edge, phyllo cup with crab, cream cheese with veggies, can't remember the others. I do have an extensive tea party recipe file but am too lazy to go look them up.
   Then the sweets on the top...pecan tassies, currant tea cakes, fruit mini-pies and pudding with cream in chocolate cups. And throughout the afternoon we had an assortment of teas. I haven't taken the time to do any tea parties lately.....will need to start thinking about it again.
   So, on to what's happening fiber wise - not much. The spinning I was working on is at a standstill. I'm not sure I like the art yarn I was spinning that I had started plying beads onto but it doesn't matter at this exact moment because the poly footman on my Lendrum broke the other night bringing plying to a standstill. I still don't like the romney/mohair I started spinning, feels too rough even going through my hands. I'll probably finish spinning this bobbin and call it quits, might do ok in a felting project. My friend Yvonne will love spinning this stuff.
   Yesterday was a trying day in the sewing room. I wanted to sew a simple little top to match an outfit I made earlier in the season. First pattern I didn't have enough leftover fabric to make, second pattern the directions were all screwed up, page 2 printed on the backside of page 1 was for another pattern. I will compliment Butterick though, I emailed them about it and within 30 minutes I received a pdf with the correct instructions. Of course, I don't have enough material left for this pattern either. So, a third pattern sits out that will work but I was tired of the thought of sewing by then so I moved on to finishing up a 3 scarf warp - scarves woven and washed, fringes need to be twisted now. I think I'll plan the next warp for the loom - I need some seaglass themed towels for the beach cottage.

Kids.....sheesh.......

2011-07-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

Bailey had a seizure this evening. Boy, kids sure know how to scare their parents! He's fine now. And it wasn't as bad as his only other seizure last September. We held him and kept him calm, no stimulation, just quiet and he recovered fairly quickly.

So, that was the end to a pretty uneventful weekend of not doing much other than spinning and us watching movies - too hot to be outside doing anything. Felt kind of like a slug but sometimes that's ok, I tend to be hard on myself if I'm idle so this was a good thing that I could handle frittering my time like that.

Got the fiber I had started spinning last week plyed - plyed silk ribbons in it - but now I'm at a standstill on it because I want to put an additional ply of rayon embroidery thread with beads on it. I overplyed thinking when I then went back the other direction of the ply with the beads that it would fix the overply and be balanced - not! Tryed several different samples, not happy with results so am at a standstill on that project complete with beads on the rayon thread laying on the loveseat. So, I moved on to spinning something new on the other wheel - a crazy lumpy/bumpy roving of romney and mohair - been in my stash for a number of years. Now I know why - it's so rough feeling going through my hands. I'll stick with it though, I've got around 2 pounds of it. I like the colors but not so sure I'll like the resulting yarn - will be able to tell once I ply and block it. At worst it can be used for felting projects like nice thick knitted felted slippers.