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.

A bit of progress.........

 Remember way back last December 25th when I opened the first package of the 12 Days of Christmas spin-a-long from Inglenook Fibers?  Well, it didn't take me too long to spin it all, but it took a while before I found a pattern I wanted to use for the resulting knit shawl. I finally finished it up a few weeks ago but going outside to block it in this smoky hazardous air quality wasn't happening. Yesterday I decided to just set up a table inside to do the blocking. Here it is finished. The pattern is called Be Simple Variations - it's an asymmetrical shawlette.

 I decided to paint the loom room and sewing/craft room before unpacking boxes. I knew once it was all unpacked they would never be painted, I mean never. I painted a bright white which is great since so much of the walls will be covered up and there's only one window in each room. Unfortunately my loom room is a bit smaller than my last one so two pieces of furniture won't fit in and it's a bit tight but I'll make it work. Here's one view of the room.

Here's a view from the other corner. I still need to buy shelving for the closet to store all the books and magazines and whatever else. Above the closet is a 3 ft deep shelf - I'm going to put things I don't use as often up there like my table loom (workshops only), inkle loom, marudai, drum carder, etc. It will take a ladder to take them down but that's ok, they'll be out of the way when I'm not using them.  There is going to be a tv mounted up high so I can see it from my chair at the table and also from each loom. What you can't see is the view out the window is the side yard with roses all along the fence. 

 Here's the sewing/craft room - I've got two tables in there so I have space to work on 3 machines, my Bernina QE440, my Bernina 1350 Serger and my cheapie Brother embroidery machine.....which does a great job. I have another cheapie Brother but it's in a carrier to take to workshops.

Here's looking in the other direction. I didn't get a picture of the closet but it's the same as the loom room with the storage shelf above. Maybe it will be a good place to store roving.......not sure yet.

I plan on starting to unpack all the boxes into these two rooms this week. I'm anxious to be able to find things and get on with weaving. I've got several special orders to weave. I've got some sewing projects I want to get to with making café curtains for the bathrooms and then a special order of embroidered towels.

We have the worst air quality in the nation - the fires just keep burning and it's not just the fires close to us but it's the entire northwest. It doesn't matter which way the wind shifts, there's always smoke. They are making headway on our Taylor Creek Fire - it's now 38% contained. The Klondike Fire, only 5% contained, is getting close to meeting up with the SE corner of  our Taylor Creek Fire. For safety reasons (for fire crews) both fires will now be under one command. It's going to be a long fire season - what's really scary is that we haven't even entered the worst part of fire season yet. We've always had fires but nothing like they've been the last 10+ years - now it seems to be the norm to live with smoke the majority of the summer.

12 Days of Christmas

Finally a photo of the finished 12 Days of Christmas shawl, this was handspun and handknit from fiber from the 12 Days of Christmas fiber from Inglenook Fibers. I spun them in order starting with the gold at the top which was day one. I'm very happy with my finished shawl. I knit until I ran out of yarn and only had 3 feet left by the time I bound off.

Making progress.......

I'm making progress on the shawl, coming down the home stretch. It will look much nicer when blocked and all the holes show up, especially along the bottom few inches.....intentional holes, not mistake holes. If I were not following 'the rules' of spinning each packet of this 12 Days of Christmas fiber I may have rearranged the colors but this is how they came, so that's how I spun them.

I've been having hand problems the past several months so I'll have to let it rest a day before knitting again.....or weaving. I guess overuse is catching up with me............

Take two

Well, yesterday while sitting and watching Frankie & Grace with a friend I pulled out the 12 Days of Christmas shawlette that I had knit on size 6 needles. By yesterday evening I had gotten almost to the point of where I was yesterday morning. I decided to be brave an go with size 8 needles figuring size 7 wouldn't make that much difference. I'm so happy with it now, so glad I started over. Size 6 needles was perfect for the size of yarn if I wanted something like a sweater, but for something drapey like a shawl it wouldn't work. When this is blocked it will be lightweight and the holes will show. I'm on color 3 of 12 at this point. It's looks darker in this photo but that's only because of the lighting - it really looks closer to the first photo colorwise.  Now I can't wait to get more time to knit on it..........

What to do???

Decisions, decisions.........oh, what to do. Remember starting on December 25th I started spinning the Inglenook Fibers 12 Days of Christmas fiber?  Then I finished it up by plying it with rayon embroidery thread? Well, I loved the look of the resulting handspun but it was laceweight and I started many a shawl only to rip them out, I just didn't like the look and was kicking myself for not originally spinning fingering weight yarn. So, last week I Navajo plied it - a risk since I'd be putting more twist in it but it worked out ok. I started the Pretty Basic Shawl pattern the other evening. Now the issue. I'm using size 6 needles but am now wondering if I should have used size 7 or even 8. It's not a big deal to rip it out because it knits quickly. I tried stretching it out to see how it might look after blocking and still can't decide.........decisions, decisions............ 

Love this shawl

Here's the shawl that was blocked yesterday - I love it. I spun the yarn out of some mystery fiber I received in a raffle basket at a conference. This will make a lovely spring shawl but I think if I wore it over brown it would work for autumn too. I might have to knit this pattern again in the not too distant future..........but first back to mukluk knitting for holiday gifts........

Shawl spending time on the deck.......

This morning I finally got around to blocking the last shawl I knit out of my handspun. It's now spending time on the deck until it's totally dry.........which won't take long in 10% humidity, 90+ degree weather.........still thankful every single day that we no longer live on the east coast where we were born and grew up, that humidity was a killer.......of course the trade off is living in an area of high fire danger since it doesn't rain here for many months at a time. 

And yes, you're right I have not been complaining about fire season, yet, it started a couple months ago and will be for at least a couple more months. A couple of ODF copters flew over the house heading west yesterday afternoon, no buckets (for water) though, not sure where they were heading as I haven't heard of a fire in that direction.  I hate fire season..........

Spinning and knitting...........

 This is what I started spinning last week - 531 yards.  I got the hand-dyed roving in a raffle basket a couple years ago. The only info on the business card from the farm was that they have American CVM Romeldale sheep - so is that what this fiber is? I don't really know but that's what I have to go on. When I started spinning it I thought it felt rough so decided it might be destined for handknit socks but after washing it, it's softened up and I might knit a shawlette out of it. The colors are lovely.

I don't think I posted this shawlette when I first started knitting it. It's out of some of my handspun, a blend of soy silk and merino. I'm coming down the homestretch on the knitting, then it can be added to the pile of other shawlettes that need to be blocked.  I'm doing great on working on holiday gifts for this year although I'm loving this one so it may end up being a gift to myself.

Next up on the needles will be a gingko shawl with some commercial yarn........this one is for me. It is definitely autumn colors - if I love knitting the pattern I'll spin to make another one in everyday colors - I'm thinking a plum and chartreuse.

A mini weaving studio

I finally got a small weaving space carved out at the beach cottage. This bedroom used to have 2 twin beds but there have never been 2 guests staying in here at the same time so only one bed has been used at a time. Out goes the second bed and in comes my small Macomber loom.

It's turned out to be a really comfortable, welcoming guest/weaving room. I hung the quilt that was on the other bed and love the way it looks. There's even room for my extra spinning wheel in this room. My shuttles and other small tools are stored in the two little boxes on the magazine table. Bigger weaving items are hidden under the bed and will come out when I'm weaving.

I put all my little Cape May, NJ houses up on the quilt rack, they look so much cuter there than in the window seat. From the age of 13 thru college I spent my summers in Cape May Point, NJ at my parents beach house - my fondest summer memories are from those years and I get to be reminded of them seeing these and some books I have on Cape May even though I'm on the total opposite coast. I can't wait to get a warp on this loom, it's going to be a lovely space to weave in. I've brought all the cottolin over there so towels will be on this loom for quite a while.

I started knitting a new shawl using the black baby alpaca/silk blend I spun recently. I'm stuck. I'm not so sure I like it but I don't think it's the pattern, it's the handspun. It's much hairier and fuzzier than I was thinking it would be and I don't like that. So for the moment this will sit until I decide if I want to continue on or rethink how this handspun will be used.

This is a Vellela vellela jellyfish. Starting last year I was seeing the clear sail/cellophane looking top of these jellyfish all over the beach but I thought it was trash, not from a living creature. Then I saw photos of them on two different blogs from beaches north of us.....and this past weekend I saw an intact one so I snapped a photo. Apparently the clear cellophane looking part acts as a sail on the ocean. These aren't anything like the giant jellyfish from the east coast that I got stung by more times than I'd like to remember.

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.......

Lace of a different kind.....

 Last night I finally finished the shawl I was knitting - I'm very slow at it as I just do it here and there while watching tv or while visiting at my spinning group. This morning I got it blocked - it's still pinned to the foam blocks drying. The pattern was a free one I got via Ravelry called the Prism Shawl by Tanis Fiber Arts (Tanis Lavellee). It's a great pattern to knit while visiting as it doesn't take very many brain cells. I have around 600 yards of this handspun left as I went a little crazy while working on the blending board and spinning it - eventually I'll come up with another project for the rest of it. It will be great to wear over on the coast where it can be pretty chilly in the summer, especially early morning or in the evening.

Yesterday a box of shoes arrived via UPS - whoo hoo.  These are one of my favorite shoes these days - Jambu. I already have the red and chartreuse ones with the cut out flower design. I was actually looking for a navy pair but they were sold out in my size so I got the light tan and two different styles of black (I wear a lot of black). I'll keep a lookout for the navy to come back in stock. Jambu's can be bought on Evine and Amazon - I'm sure lots of other places too. Evine has great prices on them, that's where I bought these. Gotta love cute and comfy shoes.......

Blocking a shawlette

This morning I decided I should get the shawlette recently knit blocked. The pattern is Brome from the book Free Spirit Shawls.........it's a great book. I knit it out of some of my handspun, between a dk and worsted size - merino in the Baltic colorway from Ashland Bay Fibers. It's a great color to go with jeans. The garter stitch area at the top is done in a series of short rows, wider in the center, dwindling down to practically no garter stitch area on the ends, just couldn't capture it all in the picture from my angle. Next I want to knit the pattern Framework out of the same book - it calls for fingering weight yarn - first I need to decide if I want to knit it with commercial yarn, some of my handspun stash or spin something new.......there are some roving colorways calling my name so who knows what I'll decide..........

New on the needles......

New on the needles - an autumn shawl. It's the Milk Run Shawl styled after the shawl Kate Middleton wore while pushing a grocery cart. It's very simple garter stitch with increases on the edge and down the center back, there will be a ruffle along the entire bottom edge of the shawl. I want something very simple since there are so many color changes in my hand- dyed handspun yarn. This is one of those handspuns that for some reason I didn't write on my tag what fiber it was, I occasionally find one of those on the shelf....I think this is colonial wool which is like a corriedale. The pattern is available on Ravelry as a free download.