This and that.......

Been doing a bit of this and that lately. Haven't been setting any records, don't really care. Having a hard time getting motivated to start certain projects but I'm not idle...….

I bought a few runner kits from Jordan's Quilts - these kits are so fun, so easy, all fabric cut precisely. They also have directions online to take a kit and make placemats so I also made 4 placemats. This set looks like winter to me so it will be put away to be brought out next winter.

This is the shawl out of handspun that was recently finished - I finally blocked it.  It's the Pretty Basic shawl pattern although I kept going on the lace section on the bottom making it much longer than the original pattern. This pattern is no longer available on Ravelry from the designer.

Yesterday I sewed this sleeveless top from some rayon I had in my stash. A very comfy and crazy summer top. Our 90 degree weather has now gone back to the 60's but it will be hot again very soon.

In the grocery pick up last week I was given way too much of certain produce, bananas being one of them.  This is not a great picture but these are incredible banana crumb muffins. I mean really good, really really good...…...but don't expect healthy, they have their share of butter and sugar. The recipe says it makes 10. Muffin pans are for 12 so not sure why it makes only 10 but they ended up huge. If anyone else makes this recipe divide up to make 12 muffins. This is what I call a saver recipe - one I will be adding to my recipe collection. It's one of the best banana muffin recipes I've tried.  You can find the recipe HERE.

And now a few pix of what's going on in the yard.....here is my little garden, it's already growing

One of the apple trees is loaded with 'baby' apples - we should have a bumper crop as long as we can keep Misty from eating them - she's already eaten 2 baby apples off the other tree pulling branches off along with them.........I was not happy.........

These are the red grapes, there are also green grapes

I didn't realize this was a lilac, it's not shaped like the ones I grew up with

And the rest of the pix are of the roses.  I have 15 rose bushes - here are 12 of them, two aren't blooming yet, the other one the picture was fuzzy.  These bushes are taller than me and are covered with hundreds of blooms. I'm thinking I should have cut them back further back in February, still learning about roses. 

Onward to another project......

I had plans of putting another towel warp on the loom but that cone of 8/2 black cotton had other plans. I spent hours figuring out the color order for a draft, then started winding the warp making constant color changes. I got around 5" wound before I cried uncle.  The black, of which there were quite a few stripes, kept breaking - it would break if I looked at it wrong.  Sam found me sitting on the floor trying to repair a break at the bottom peg only to find it breaking over and over again as I tied a knot, I was ready to cry but just got myself up and walked away.  An hour later I went back, pulled everything off the warping board and sacrificed it to the weaving goddess, aka trash can.  At that point I decided I needed to do something different...….

…..and here it is - a quilt wallhanging kit I bought months ago. It has 12 different barn blocks which will be separated by sashing and star cornerstones. I'm loving the look of the blocks I've sewn so far up on my design wall.  And yes, I made the design wall too.  It's a big piece of felt that I hung using command hooks and office binder clips - it's in front of the sliding closet doors in my sewing room. Easy to move out of the way or remove and so much better to see the quilt in progress.  I can't wait to get to the sewing machine today to work on block #6. I'm getting better at matching my points, still not perfect but I'm learning, matching points and working with bias pieces is new to me. Although not perfect I'm happy with my blocks.

I'm still working on my shawl a bit in the evenings. it's slow but coming along. This is my handspun, merino and merino/tussah blends that I blended together on the blending board - a total of 8 different colorways.

Handspun projects....

 I cut the shawl woven from my handspun off the loom today, twisted the fringe and washed it, it's now hanging to dry. I didn't agitate it but did think it might full a bit more than it did. I'll check it after it's dry and see if I need/want to full it a bit.

Yesterday at my spinning group I started another shawl.  It's the Pretty Basic shawl pattern I've knit in the past. I wanted to link to this shawl pattern on Ravelry but it's now discontinued and no longer available......glad I got it when I did...….

This and that.......

 I finally got a decent picture of the shawl that I blocked last week, the one that I spun the Inglenook Fibers 12 days of Christmas fibers for. Love how it turned out but in this heat won't be wearing it until fall or winter.

And here are the hexxie pieces hand stitched together so far. They're in sections with the flower and part of the white background. I was laying them out to see how many I'll need for an afghan size. I'm thinking 5 flowers across and 9 flowers down but will decide for sure after I get more stitched. Im undecided if I'll put half flowers on the edges or if it will all be white.....will decide that later too.  No stitching at the moment, finger is still sore but I'll be ready with the stick on thimble once it's recovered.  Don't ask me why pictures with the phone sometimes turn when I upload them to blogger - it's not this orientation on my computer. Technology...……

12 Days of Christmas

This morning I blocked the shawl I spun and knit from the Inglenook Fibers 12 Days of Christmas spin-a-long. It's hard to see the colors sitting on the rubber squares plus the shadow of the house at the top of the picture but I'll get a better pictures on my mannequin once it's dried. It will be interesting to see how the asymmetrical shape works on the body.

Hanging in there...........

I finally decided to knit the 'Be Simple Variations' asymmetrical shawlette using the 12 Days of Christmas handspun. It will be interesting to see how it turns out as it goes from color to color. It will also be interesting to see how big it ends up. I knit this shawlette using fingering weight yarn but this is more worsted size knit on bigger needles. I'm hoping it turns out big enough or I'll be ripping it out and trying something else. I am knitting on this when I'm not totally exhausted in the evening.

I'm hanging in there with the house buying project although I'm overwhelmed at times......many times. If all goes well we will be signing papers on the new house this week. I finally finished going through the entire house as I refuse to box up and move things I haven't used since we moved to this house 15 years ago. I've started packing so the house shows better............as in packing the weaving and sewing/crafts rooms as the rest of the house shows just fine. We have some work to do on the deck which Sam has started. Not sure when we'll get this house listed but am hoping it's in the not too distant future as we don't want to have an extra house for very long.

I've heard interesting comments from those around me about our move. Friends are feeling bad for us because we're downsizing - huh??? The new house is only a tiny big smaller so I wouldn't call that downsizing, we are downsizing from acreage to a neighborhood and no one should feel bad for us over that - it's what we want to do, it's a choice, we don't have to move, we can stay right where we are but we are ready to take care of less and have more time for the things that are important to us like weaving, spinning, quilting, sewing, beading, knitting, golfing, fishing, walking on the beach, etc, etc, etc.....   So dear friends, if you read this, please stop making those comments as it's starting to get on my nerves. Other than having to go through all the pains of buying and selling, which seem to be much worse this time than ever before, we're very happy...........we're both thinking about now that we don't ever want to move again but who knows what the future holds......

What I've been up to......

Hmm, what have I been up to this week..........other than adminstrivia, which I've grown to hate.  Well, I've been out several days, one of them very fun getting together with a friend to lunch and start watching the new season of Frankie & Grace........or is it Grace & Frankie???  I can't remember, doesn't really matter.  I have pulled together all business and personal tax stuff but am still waiting on some 1099's - this is the earliest I've ever gotten it done. I've written a grant proposal for my weaving guild.......not submitted yet as I need to ponder on it a bit more. And I finally did a little work on my handout for the boundweave program I've got to present next month - I just can't seem to get my mind wrapped around what I want to write and what illustrations/photos to include.......to make myself feel like I've done something for it I did type up the bibliography this morning. This afternoon I started pulling many cones of cottons off some shelves, 4/2, 6/2 and slubs - time for them to move on to other homes. Eventually they may end up in my etsy shop but first I'll see if there are any takers here locally.

I needed to start another knit shawlette as I needed something mindless to work on while watching Frankie & Grace. This photo doesn't do this yarn justice - the color is much softer in person - I'm loving it.

In the evenings I've been working on a cross-stitch for the beach cottage. I've just got the border to finish up, charms will get attached on all the starfish. After I finish this one I'll pull out another one I already stitched with a shell theme - I'll need to add the charms, block the fabric over foam core and then get them framed.

This and that.........

I haven't written all week because I just don't have anything to say or share.........in one of those moods where I wonder if I'll keep with my blog or not, but no decisions need to be made one way or the other, I'll just post when/if I feel like it.

A few nights ago I started knitting the Bella Shawl by Annie Lee-Baker. I was using one of those hand-dyed knit blocks with a color gradation. I love the colors but did not like the way the knitting was looking. The knit block is unraveled to knit it into a new project, well it leaves crinkles in the yarn, which in turn makes for messy looking knitting.  I pulled it out yesterday evening and wound it all into a skein, it's been washed and is now out on the blocker drying. In the meantime I still wanted to knit one of these shawls - it's a fun to knit pattern. So in my stash I found some Berroco Boboli Lace and started knitting last night and since I have 2 balls of it I may make the shawl a bit bigger.......I actually call patterns like this shawlettes since they're not full blown shawls. It's hard to tell in this photo but the colors are incredible and will look striking when worn over black. After I finish knitting this one I'll start on the one using the knit block color gradation yarn.

I started working on our holiday cards - they are not woven this year, instead they are fabric and based on quilting - no pix until after the holidays. I've worked on some small gifts, have some more to get to but am not inspired at the moment.....the story of my life right now, no inspiration or motivation - I think summer got to me this year.

On the fire front - since a bit of rain over a week ago and cooler temps the growth of numerous fires has slowed. They are still fighting them and we still have smoke but we've had some relief. Rain is moving in this week which should help even more with the fire fight. It's been a heck of a summer - more than the usual fires, lots of smoke, and so much heat most of the summer that I never got outside to do any dyeing.......maybe it will happen before winter hits, maybe not............I won't fret over it..........

This and that........

Not much happening here on the fiber front, loom still not warped and have no desire to do it at the moment. Many skeins of handspun are sitting out for a woven afghan project.....once I get off my butt and get it on the loom.

 I did get the knit Saratoga Shawl blocked yesterday. The pattern and yarn came from Greenwood Fiberworks. I used Yakity Yak yarn which is superwash merino/yak/silk. Jury is out on if I like this on me. It's ok on my mannequin which must be a size 0000 but on me, not so sure, it's really quite small. I think I need to try it on again over a black dress.  I also blocked another Pei Cowl knit out of my handspun but I put it in our education fair display on Saturday before I took a pic of it.

I finished up the small felt applique stockings which should hold a gift card.......I say should because I haven't tried to fit a credit card in one of them yet. They turned out cute. A lot of handwork that bothered my smarting hand more than spinning or weaving does.

Still hating fire season - way too many weeks left of it.  Saturday evening I heard sirens and the horn honking of the fire trucks - they stopped way too close. I called a friend who lives close by and whose husband has a scanner - yes, grass fire just over the hill on a street coming off the side road behind us. And Bailey and I were alone as Sam and a friend were on the coast to do some work on the cottage and golf. Talk about panic time. I was preparing to pack up the car and leave if necessary. A few hours later she called back with an update that all was quiet on the scanner, a spreading fire averted. They were more on the ball than I - they had turned on their sprinklers and had opened their gate in case fire fighters came to tell them to get prepared to leave. We have sprinklers mounted on wood to set up on the peak of the roof but they're not up there right now, Sam only puts them up if we may be in dangers of flying embers........hmm, might have to think about that this week.

The fire close to us, Shan Creek Fire, continues to burn slowly. I've found very few details on it compared to other fires in the region but this morning there is 20% containment (that's new info since yesterday) but it is actively burning with flanking, torching and uphill runs in steep terrain. As of this morning there are now structures threatened - not us, I'm assuming those actually on Shan Creek Rd but I don't really know. The smoke smell this morning is horrible - I had to scan the sky to see if there was another fire close by when I walked out the door - not seeing anything so it must be a shift in the wind this morning. I wish updates were more often but they are better than in year's past - I am grateful for them.

Now off to try and get something done today other than letting fires consume my thoughts.........

Yakity Yak

Friday we took off for the coast, got back Wednesday afternoon. It was a great holiday weekend away. I did no work on the cottage, not a lick of work unless you count some house cleaning - but no painting - whoo hoo! I went to the spinning group one day, did some knitting, visited with friends, mostly lots of walking and going to community events (wine walk, parade, concert in the park, fireworks, etc) all within walking distance of the cottage. Mostly we just enjoyed the 60 degree weather compared to the 90+ in the valley just 80 miles to the east. I could get used to slowing down and not worrying about selling.........

Here's the shawl I started while over there. One year at Black Sheep Gathering I saw this shawl on a mannequin at the Greenwood Fiberworks booth - the Saratoga Shawl. I had to have it........it was free with purchase of 2 skeins of yakkity yak yarn (60% sw merino/20% yak/20% silk)......which was spendy but I wanted the pattern so I bought the yarn (of course now you can buy the pattern alone on Ravelry). I had a little problem figuring out the loops only because the photo with the pattern isn't big enough to show that they're loops and not holes created in the knitting. And it's been so long since I saw the sample in person that I'd never remember how it was knit. I went to Ravelry and saw others shawls from this pattern, some close-up pix, that showed the loops. Then the instructions made total sense. Now this is pretty mindless knitting - I'll be working on it in the evenings when not spinning. Nice to finally pull this yarn and pattern out of the closet......no need to buy more yarn here, have plenty of stash to work from. If I like this shawl on me once finished I'll be making another using my handspun.

It's only the beginning of July and I'm tired of fire season......we still have around 3 months left before the first rains, if we're lucky. A fire started around 5 miles away an hour after we returned home yesterday, they jumped on it quickly and got it out, thank goodness. A copter went over the house just a bit ago heading west.........my ears are trained to hear those copters coming from miles away even with the windows closed and air conditioner on........have I said it yet this week? I hate fire season!!!  My heart goes out to those in the midst of big fires elsewhere in the west.

Peace and other things..........

Peace - don't we all wish for it these days, and tolerance and kindness. Such sadness with the latest attack. I love this peace sign fence along the harbor in Bandon - what a creative way to fence in the yard. We spent 5 days on the coast, the weather couldn't have been more perfect - we left coastal temps in the low 70's yesterday to come back over the coastal range to 92 in the valley, today it's forecast to be 98. What happened to spring this year???

 I started a new shawl while over there. The colors start out dark burgundy and progressively gets lighter until it reaches a hot pink.

 We (mostly Sam this time) did some work on the guest bath - it's now finished. I should have taken a before picture. I painted the vanity and a mirror, we put in a new sink, faucets, lighting and pulled out the sliding glass doors on the tub/shower and put up a shower curtain very similar to other curtains in the house, a sheer with shells and starfish on it with a shell trimmed valance. I haven't painted that shelf on the wall yet as I'm not sure if I want to and if I do, what color.....so it stays for the time being. I can see those coral seahorse handtowels have to move elsewhere in the house, I've got some handwoven towels that will match perfectly.

Here's another view. I found this mirror at a second hand store, it was originally part of a dresser. I painted it to match the vanity that I painted. The knobs on the vanity are starfish. Sam built the new countertop with formica and a wood trim that was painted. I should have taken a close-up of it, it's sand colors with a bit of teal in it. The sink has a rope look trim, it's so pretty. It took me a long time to find lighting that I liked, something simple and not too expensive.........we are doing work on this house on a budget. Now we're working on the master bath - sink is pulled, drywall fixed where the big mirror was removed. I've started priming the linen closet and vanity.  The new floor and new baseboard had been the project before we started on the bathrooms.

The inside of the house will be completely done after the master bathroom is finished. I can't believe it. We'll eventually move on to extending the front porch a bit and adding a deck area to the front of the house - we do have a big older deck already across the back. Then finally yardwork. This will take a while as we like to play when we're over there too............

Ginkgo Shawl

I wanted to finish the ginkgo shawl last night but just couldn't knit the last 2 rows and bind off - too tuckered out. So, this morning I did something so unlike me - I knit, usually knitting is reserved for evenings and knitting/spinning get-together's. I had a goal to get it blocked today as the temp would be 90 and very dry - the shawl will be dry in a matter of hours. I could have waited 'til the weekend when it's supposed to be 100 but then I won't want to be outside putting those blocking wires and pins in. I hope I love this shawl after it's blocked, I like it now but I want to love it. The ginkgo leaf is in the foreground, I guess I expected it to show up a bit more. I was picking autumn colors but I do wish I had picked colors closer in value. If I love this once finished I have plans to spin yarn to make another using plum and chartreuse.....unless I change my mind......which may very well happen......

This pattern is the Ginkgo Shawl by Connie Peng from yellowcosmo designs. It can be found on Ravelry and bought there.......I noticed it was $4 as opposed to the $6 I paid locally.....will remember to check on Ravelry first in the future. It was fun to look at others who have knit it and the color combinations they picked out. Some added more ginkgo leaves, which I loved. Some knit the leaf in a totally different color, loved that effect too. Ideas for the next one I knit...........

Re-entry is the pits.......

We're just back from 6 stormy days on the coast. It was great but 're-entry' always sucks. We're both thrown into trying to play catch-up with work, phone calls, the emails we've ignored while being gone. I've done all I can do today, will pick it back up tomorrow morning when I pull and box up orders to get in the mail.


Sam was pulling up vinyl and underlayment in preparation for new flooring we'll be installing. It's slow going but coming along.  Since I determined working with a crow bar was a one person job I went to the spinning group at The Wool Co and spent time weaving. We did get in walks in-between squalls, we had hurricane force winds but were able to manage not to get wet until this morning........as far away from the house or other shelter as we could be the skies opened up - we got drenched..........although Bailey didn't mind.

Here's the cottolin towel warp I was working on - very beachy colors - this one I used the seaglass aqua for the weft. I'm still working on this stash of cottolin although it's getting smaller. Maybe 2 more warps and all that will be left will be small bits on the spools.

Here I used the sand color for weft. Forgot to say - this is a 4 harness point twill.

Sure wish I had mentioned to someone before I decided to tie this new warp on to the previous warp. A friend would have reminded me that I don't tie on to warps because I can thread the heddles and reed much quicker. It's been years since I've done it, hopefully I won't forget how much I dislike it so it won't happen again. And then there was one warp end that the knot came undone as I was winding on the back beam.........now there's a warp end with a weight hanging off the back of the loom.  I won't get into warping methods because weavers are very divided on this subject.......other than to say I'm a back to front warper and tying onto the previous warp is too much like front to back with tangles as the warp ends have to travel both through the reed and heddles - argh.

But I got it on and started weaving on a new towel warp. I like these colors although they're not very spring/summery. They'll actually go well in my kitchen in the woods here so I'll keep a couple.

I started knitting another shawlette, this one using my handspun. I got a little further on it on the drive home.  This yarn was spun from some of my hand-dyed merino/bamboo - it was my Baltic colorway.

Feeling blah.........

Not sure why but I'm feeling blah today. It's not the torrential rains because I'm loving them, every rain drop and snowflake up in the mountains is good for fire season this year. I had a great past two days, one of them spent with my spinning 'peeps', the other spent with a friend knitting and watching episodes 4 thru 6 of  The Borgia's on Netflix........can't wait for our next get together to watch the next 3 episodes.


I had planned on winding a shawl warp today but I just can't seem to do it - what I want to do most is nest at the loom but by the time I finished up other mundane chores and pulling roving orders to mail I just didn't have it in me to start winding a warp.

And then there are 4 knit shawlettes waiting to be blocked. Although not productive at the loom I am productive working on holiday/birthday gifts. But who feels like getting on the floor to get the first one blocked........not me, at least not today.........

So I've pulled another ball of yarn to knit yet another shawlette, not sure how this one will look at it moves from color to color - will be fun to find out. I am pretty excited about getting gifts made early this year - no panicking for me come November this year. I might just go turn on the Sunday evening episode of Downton Abbey and get this shawlette started and not worry about being productive at the loom today...........

Handspun handknit shawl

Here's the finished handspun, handknit shawl after blocking. Too bad the morning light doesn't do the colors justice out on the covered deck. Colors are more true to life in the photo posted two days ago when it was being blocked. You can see an excellent photo of the handspun here. I knit it much bigger than the original pattern because I didn't want a little shoulder warmer, I wanted a full fledged shawl. This is my finished item for the fair display challenge but I'll be wearing it between now and August.

I'm trying to decide between knit shawl patterns for the black alpaca/colorful silk blend I spun up recently. You can see a photo of the handspun at the same link as the handspun above - it's the second picture down. I need to get something on the needles - I like to knit while we watch tv in the evening.

This morning when I went downstairs to the studio to wind the alpaca/silk yarn into balls I got sidetracked in the sewing room. My machine just came back from being cleaned/yearly maintenance but in the 2 weeks it was gone I had filled up the space with piles of 'stuff'. I started in on the piles, reorganized some other things to get them off the table for good but I left it in chaos as I've got other pressing things to do - will get back to it soon which will make me happy when I start sewing some quilted placemats for the beach cottage, so much nicer to work without the clutter.........not to say there won't still be some clutter as there's not enough room for everything but it will be a vast improvement. Now what to do with that pile of Altoids tins that were for a project that I no longer want to do........maybe someone else will want them.........they're great for storing needles, stitch markers, etc for my knitting bag but I have what I need.......

Shawl on the needles....

I've just started knitting a shawl using the handspun from the blending board rolags I created.  I found this free pattern, Prism Shawl by Tanis Lavallee, on Ravelry. I want to knit something I could do while talking and visiting, something pretty mindless.  This fit the bill and it's pretty.  Random stripes of stockinette stitch, purl stitch rows and then a lace row thrown in every once in a while.  I'll decide what goes where as I'm knitting - love it. The only time I'll need to read a graph is for the border at the very end of the shawl.

Shawl - almost ready for a milk run

The Milk Run Shawl is almost completed. I'm in the process of binding off now. Took two pictures trying to get the ruffled edge but it only shows so-so in photos.

Had a minor crisis knitting two evenings ago - the cord on my 60" long circular needle pulled out of the end when I only had around 10" left to knit on the last row. Many stitches fell off, and there were yarnovers in those stitches - yikes! So, I gingerly set it aside and shed a few tears wondering how to tackle the repair without having to back out several rows of probably around 1000 stitches (I made my shawl much bigger than the pattern). Yesterday I superglued the cable back in, which I knew wouldn't work for any real knitting but thought it would be ok for trying to work the repair. I kept going back and forth in the area where the stitches had dropped and eventually got everything close to being correct. In the yarn over areas there might be twists in the wrong direction but it will never show because it sits to the back of the ruffle. So, now I'm very carefully binding off with hopes the superglue holds the cable until I'm finished - 1/3 of the way through, so far, so good.