A bit of this and that...........

I'm still in that spin up the stash mode - some of the fiber has been in my stash for at least 15 years - time to move it on to new homes or spin it. This was from something I carded on the drum carder at least 15 years ago - not sure what the fiber is but it's soft, maybe mohair just from the hairiness of it - definitely dyed silk added to it. It's very soft. Will make a nice couple of hats or I might save it to mix with other handspun for a woven blanket at some point - in the meantime it will go sit on the shelf and marinate with the rest of the handspun.

I can't believe everyone doesn't want to discuss curling with me anymore.  I've still got 3 curling matches dvr'd to watch - the men's final, and two medal rounds so please don't tell me who won what as I've managed not to hear the results yet.  Yesterday evening we watch the women's medal games - was so thrilled that the young British team (Scots) won the bronze, they worked so hard and are so serious about it all. And yes, was happy for Canada winning the gold - they deserved it after winning all the round robin matches and the semi-final. 

I checked out the curling schedule at the ice rink in Klamath Falls (over 2 hours away) because I'd love to see curling in person but the leagues play one evening a week and we will not be driving home from Klamath Falls at night over the mountain pass in the winter (the rink closes the end of March for the season). My goal for next year's curling season is to hopefully get together a group of friends to go over for the 75 minute beginning curling lessons - only $10 each - I think it would be a hoot.........and we could do it during the day rather than at night, and hopefully we'd be able to work around snow. It's not something I'd take up with no local rink with a curling sheet but it would be fun to experience sliding on the ice, throwing those stones and sweeping....wonder if there's such a thing as a gutter ball in curling, if not I may invent it.........

It's that time......

Yes, it's what I've been waiting for - curling. I've been dvr'ing Olympic curling and watching it here and there when I have time - right now it's on the little tv on my desk as I work on administrivia. The US team conceded to the Brits in the 6th end (that 4 ends before the end of the game for those of you not familiar with curling).  In the 4th end the Brits scored 7 out of 8 of their stones - yikes!  I had to watch what the US did, or did not do, again because I couldn't believe they let that happen - they just fell apart....and the Brits are good, very good. I've been enjoying the curling but really don't have time for it all - they're televising so much of it this year and my dvr hard drive only has so much space on it.......wish I could get it all recorded and watch it over the next couple months........that may happen with the second half of the games........

I never got to putting the painted warp on the loom Monday as planned, yes, life did get in the way - family stuff. And then yesterday Sam and I did some remodeling shopping.  But today it is raining pitchforks and shovels and I am staying in - heading to the loom now............

Clear skies

Clear skies seen from the deck this morning - whoo hoo. We have been stuck in freezing fog for around 2 months. Yesterday afternoon the skies cleared and the sun came out....now this comes with a red sky warning for fire danger - the winds are what cleared the fog out will also spread fires and in this area all winter long folks have burn piles going. Fire danger in the winter in Oregon??? Unheard of but we're coming off a drought year, lowest rainfall on record, and have started 2014 the same. We're all hoping for rains this winter and spring or it will be a scarier fire season than last year not to mention folks having trouble with wells. But for today I'm rejoicing at being able to see Mt Sexton.

Interesting entertainment tidbits the past week........I attended two movies at the theatre, I usually average a movie every 1 or 2 years so this is a major thing. First movie was Saving Mr. Banks - I loved it. It reminded me that at the age of 9 my birthday party was taking my little gal pals to see Mary Poppins, now I know the story behind it. I definitely need to watch Mary Poppins again. Movie yesterday was August: Osage County.....incredibly done, tremendous acting, but what a downer, not my kind of movie. 

Keeping with the entertainment theme we went to the community concert Wednesday evening, we were entertained by The Diamonds singing 50's-60's music, very fun, we really enjoyed them. I got tickled at one point when some Bobby Darin songs were sung- it reminded me of a campy lounge act at the Ramada Inn in Rockville, MD back in the mid-70's......some of us used to hang out there after late nights at work while in college.

And now on to curling - who of my friends and family would have believed that I'd be on the cutting edge of curling becoming more mainstream in the US. I read it about it everywhere these days and now there's a curling club a 2 hour drive from us. This past week I found out from a friend via an article in the Wall Street Journal that there is a 2014 calendar called Men of Curling. I'm not the type to be interested in buying a beefcake calendar but I might just have to for the entertainment factor I'll get seeing the faces of my husband and cousin.......and the net proceeds go to charity.

I've gotten very little time at the loom but did spend some time this week weaving on the name draft warp which is now cut off the loom. I'm hoping to get another name draft warp on the loom today, one more to go after it for the guild program. I need to spend time working on my handout and WOW factor - there always has to be a WOW factor with a guild program but that won't be divulged until after the program in April as some guild members read my blog.

On another note - still having issues with blogger loading my photos. I seem to be able to get around it moving to a different computer and then it takes several trys. Have not found a solution and no responses in the forums other than the one a while back about blogger not supporting the newest version of IE. I've followed suggestions to clear cache and cookies. This issue is getting old. (just checked community forums again and many others are having the problem, no solution....wonder why not everyone is having a problem)

Relaxing and a sigh of relief.......

Oh yes, I watched curling today - I know those that know me well are probably getting a good laugh over me being so enthralled with curling but it's my sport. Last night the finals for the Olympic Trials were on tv so I dvr'd it to watch when I had time. The US team beat out the Czech team to make it into the Olympics - they were so happy, it was fun to see them win but I felt so bad for the Czech guys. I'm already looking forward to watching it during the Olympics.....if they broadcast much of it, certainly not a sport that's at the top of the popular list.

I can't just sit and watch tv, I have to be doing something and that something was knitting the foot on the second sock. I was wondering if I'd get these done in time to put them in Sam's Christmas stocking as he'll be with me all the time starting this evening through Christmas. Finishing those was my sigh of relief. They are wrapped and in the stocking.......well, didn't actually hang the stockings so they're in a gift bag......a Trader Joe's brown shopping bag recycled into a gift bag.......

 This was the spinning I started yesterday while the power was out. It's from my stash, bought it several years ago from Janis Thompson of Dyelots up in Eugene. It's Karaoke - a blend of merino and soy silk. Soy silk is not one of my favorites to spin but the resulting yarn is lovely. I don't know what it will grow up to be after spun.

 

Here's some  roving I spun last week, just 4 oz from a Inglenook Fibers batt. I generally don't buy novelty batts because I don't tend to like spinning lumpy bumpy yarn but I thought I'd give it another try......not sure how many tries I have to give it before I stop spinning novelty yarn......so much happier spinning nice smooth yarn but I'll find the perfect project for this because it is lovely spun up. I spun it so it goes from one color to the next. It's plied with black quilting thread.

 

 

Curling revisited

I've gotten numerous emails about curling since my post - I'm not the only one who loves the sport. Cousin Claudia posted a comment to my post with a link to the Colbert Report of him visiting the US Olympic Curling team and giving it a try - very funny.  Here's the LINK if anyone is interested. Yeah, yeah, most of you aren't interested but I know a handful of you are, those closet curling enthusiasts that you are.  Cousin Claudia also mentioned that there may be a curling club up in Seattle - I googled it and there is - Granite  Curling Club. You can bet if I'm up there I'll be checking it out and maybe even giving it a try......might have to be a trip Sam and I make rather than one of the fiber events as my fellow fiber peeps I travel with may not be quite as enthralled as me to give curling a try.

Update:  as if you were waiting for with bated breath for this update - I googled Curling Clubs in Oregon and there's one in Portland around 4 hours north.......and then there's one in Klamath Falls, a couple hours to the east although that one didn't have much on it's website as far as when they're even open and the page with info on curling was in some other language....kind of strange.....

Curling.....and other things.......

Anyone that really knows me is aware that I am not especially sports minded, I'd be quite ok if I never watched any sports on tv but in this house during baseball and football season I do see my share.....or rather I knit while listening to it. Not that I don't love attending a baseball or football game in person - growing up and later I did attend many an Orioles and Redskins games. I dated someone eons ago that had season tickets for Washington (DC) hockey and basketball - hockey was fun but I don't like basketball at all, really don't like it, really really don't like it, relationship was short lived.  But a couple Olympics ago I discovered Curling - oh my gosh, this is my sport.  If we had curling sheets here we'd have to go curling like other people go bowling (oh, don't get me started on bowling - yuck, sorry bowlers). So, what brings this up you ask? Or maybe you didn't ask and don't care. Cousin Jim called me over the weekend to let me know that the Olympic trials for curling are this Friday thru Sunday on the NBC Sports Network - I quickly went to find it on the satellite guide and put the shows on to dvr. I can't answer why I'm enthralled with curling, is the big granite stone? the sliding on the ice? playing with brooms? or is it the crazy outfits some curling teams wear?!! I'm still just learning all the nuances of the game as I usually only see it during the Olympics but I'll be watching these trials so when the Olympics come I'll be familiar with the teams and players. Yes, this is all pretty crazy but it's fun.

On the fiber front - still not too much happening here, no weaving at all but I've been knitting and felting up a storm and doing some sewing for gifts, which of course I can't post pictures of on the blog. I was out for all but one day of the past 14 so not much accomplished here lately......I'm hoping to make a big dent in the gift creating side of things this week. The business, weaving and roving sales are going great......a little too great on the roving side as it takes too much time from the creative side of my business.....but it is good income.

Pet peeve of the day - 5 recorded junk phone calls today. Are there no consequences from the feds or state for these calls? We're on the federal and state do not call lists but they just keep coming - I could have lowered my credit card interest rate 5 times today........if I paid credit card interest. There's at least one call a day, sometimes two but today was a record with five.......maybe they figured more folks would be off work for Veteran's Day.........thinking of that a Happy Veteran's Day to all those out there who have and still are serving.

Spinning and curling............

Last night I finished up the final of the roving I pulled into colorways originally shown in the February 7th post. There are 430 yards of this blue colorway. Now I'll need to think about what project these 4 colorways should be used for, of course, I have a limited number of yards so will have to ponder on this.

Curling yesterday was very exciting - I was really hoping the Canadian women's team would win the gold but they ended up losing - they played great though. At this very moment the men's game for the bronze is on tv - Sweden vs Switzerland. Right now the cute young Swedes are ahead at the beginning of End 10 - I hope they can keep that lead although it would be very exciting to go into overtime........but I still want them to win in the end. I can't believe I have fallen in love with this sport! 3pm brings on the match for gold/silver medals - I'll have to dvr it since we have to go out mid-way through.

More curling............

As I watch the cute little Swedes losing the curling match (is it called a match?) in End 9 I feel for them but they are young and have gone so much further than expected - and the Canadian team is incredible so I would have been surprised had they not won. But the Swedish team still has a chance for the bronze on Saturday..........yes, I have it written down when the women are playing tomorrow for medals and when the men are playing Saturday. I just read comments from Theresa and Susan on my last post where I talked about curling - had me smiling. And yes, congrats to Canada for how well they're doing in the Olympics!

So, on the weaving front I did get that other warp woven, the white T-105 cotton covered polyester thread. Now I can think about projects I 'want' to weave - first off being a quick chenille scarf a customer mentioned wanting if I ever wove teal and salmon together, then fingertip towels for a multi-guild towel exchange.

The UPS truck was here a bit ago with 2 boxes totalling 89 pounds of Ashland Bay rovings - some new colors and a number of replacement colors for those I've sold out of. It's always fun to open those boxes but it also means lots of time spent weighing out fiber and packaging it in 8 ounce bags.

After I cut the warp off the loom I remembered I hadn't sewn on the leather handles I ordered from Homestead Heirlooms for the grazing sheep bag I knit and felted. Below is the finished bag. This pattern was out of the book 'I Heart Felt', I made a few changes to the pattern as I went. The handles were hard on the fingers to sew on but they are oh so nice and had great instructions on how to sew them on with the wooden buttons on the backside. Many thanks to my friend Kathy for telling me about the two gals who do this leatherwork. When I ordered the handles I also ordered some leather oak leaf pins complete with little wooden acorn embellishments.

Why can't I devour devore?

I am having the hardest time with this devore guild program - I love devore, commercial devore, but not so thrilled with this woven devore. I'm sure (I hope) once I'm finished and have burnt out designs in the handwoven scarves I'll look at them and think they're beautiful but for now I'm avoiding it all together...........I've even been cleaning out and organizing drawers, cabinets & closets instead of weaving! That's unbelieveable for those that know me well. My new incentive is that nothing else goes on a loom until the weaving is done for this program. I'll still have the burn out work to do and my program handout but that's ok, it will be fit in here and there before April 10.

But yesterday I did get back to that soy silk/bamboo warp on the loom - it's off, sample is waiting to be burnt out. I wound a warp and have it almost threaded through the reed and ready to start weaving on today. This warp is white T-105 commercial cotton covered polyester sewing thread. It's rather thick, similar to a 10/2 size. I took a picture but it was pretty boring looking so you're seeing one little corner on the entertainment center in the studio instead. Back to this T-105 - what is supposed to happen when I apply the Fiber-etch (burn out gel) is that the cotton will burn out leaving only the polyester and will result in see-through areas in the fabric. This is different from what I've been doing so far weaving with 2 different fibers (threads) - this is one thread that contains two different fibers. I understand it won't be drapey, like for a scarf, so I only put on 2 yards to sample. It will remain white since disperse dyes are needed to dye this fiber combo. I have boatloads of acid dyes and fiber reactive dyes.....I don't need to add disperse dyes to the cupboard for one sample of something I may not weave with again.

On another note - I know curling at the olympics is being made fun of, great humorous article in the sports section of our local paper this week not to mention nationwide comments. Up until this last week I've probably seen less than 60 seconds of curling in my life. I'm loving it! For those that know me, they know I'm not exactly a sports fanatic, far from it, but I'm loving this curling. Right now the women's semi-finals are on, this afternoon the men's semi-finals. Yesterday was an exciting play-off game between the young (cute) Swedish men's team and the Brits - the cute young Swedes won, they play the Canadians tonight who are top notch. Sam couldn't believe it when I told him all about the game in the evening. I'm not sure what it is about curling that I love - maybe it's something that I could see trying, maybe it's the accents of the commentators - kind of Canadian/Minnesotan, who knows but I know I'll miss it when it's gone. If we travel to Canada in the future (likely) I'll have to plan our trip around a curling tournament to attend, like our trip to Seattle planned around the Mariners/Orioles game.