beach r & r

I just can't seem to find time to post and really, do I have anything new to say or show, nope.  But here are some pix from over a week ago over on the coast. We don't know if this is Misty's first time to the ocean since we adopted her at 8 months just a few weeks ago but we're guessing so by her reaction. The little waves on the river inlet had her crawling on the ground, I couldn't get my phone out quick enough to catch that picture.

She's watching birds here - she's definitely a birder

Oh, the water - who knows what would have happened had she not been on a leash

She's definitely a water dog unlike our past two goldens that only liked to get their legs wet but nothing else and they weren't about to swim.

Not sure what caught her attention here

And here she is back at home laying under the sewing table as I'm working at the adjoining table. I had to put the sewing machine pedal up on the table so she wouldn't lay on it.....this does make sewing difficult......but she's so danged cute when she sleeps.  Her coat is just starting to come back in on her stomach from being spayed a few weeks ago.

Ice dyed scarves

I finally did the photography work, such as it is, for the ice-dyed silk scarves that have been hanging over my ironing board for weeks...….finally couldn't stand moving them one more time to use the iron so bit the bullet and took photos so I could list them in my etsy shop.

Here's one batch - all are 8" x 70" - there are a couple I almost kept but I already put aside a few for myself, in reality how many would I actually wear.

Here's another batch of the same size silk scarves other than the blue/grey one second from the top on the left - that's an infinity scarf. There are other infinity scarves already in my shop.

And here are the rayon/silk devore scarves. These are a little bigger being approximately 13" x 70". They're a lovely weight, so light and airy.....and the burnout devore designs are wonderful, they can be seen better in some close up shots in my etsy shop.  All these scarves are now available for sale HERE.

No weaving going on here with a puppy but hoping to get the loom warped in a few days...…...behind a closed door to keep paws out of all those threads that will be hanging until I get it wound on the back beam. I have gotten some time to work on a few gift projects but really much of life is consumed with a big puppy who is learning more day by day.

Barn Quilt

Yesterday I took a workshop on painting a barn quilt by Suzi Parron.  I picked the pattern Ribbons because it reminds me of weaving. It's painted on plywood with exterior house paint.  The back is only primed so I need to paint the back before we hang it outside. I'm very pleased with my quilt square and would love to do more...…….will be putting it on my very long to-do list for sometime in the future.

Still for a minute.....

Here's a better picture taken this morning on our walk. She was still for a minute because she heard a dog barking off in the distance. Visit to the vet today to check on her spaying incision - bit inflamed but ok. X-ray to check for the missing wooden clothespin she munched down. Nothing showed up although sometimes wood doesn't show in the xrays - vet not concerned. Picked up Heartguard, got her dog license, talked about still feeding large breed puppy food. For being as petite as she looks she still weighed in at 53 pounds. They've got her in their calendar for when shots are due so we're all set up. Got home and placed a Chewy order - wonder how long it will take her to figure out what Chewy boxes look like...….

New family member

Yesterday we welcomed a new baby into our home - she's an 8 month old golden retriever named Misty who needed a new home. After losing our old golden Bailey we didn't feel like it was time yet but here was a golden needing a home so it felt right. Her owners are older and ill and just can't care for her any longer - heart wrenching for them. We found out about her through our neighbor Jill, mom to golden retriever Rio. Misty is beautiful, she's so sweet, she's also into everything. She's so busy I can't catch a good picture of her so here she is napping and getting all rested up so she can go 'shopping' around the house for something to get in to again. I'm sure she'll be full of energy again soon. She's a handful but then isn't every puppy. We're hoping she doesn't eat too much 'stuff' and get in trouble because she sure wants to grab everything and chew it up. This morning it was a wooden clothespin unrolling a roll of toilet paper and trying to eat that. At least she's housetrained so we don't have to worry about that. Wish us luck...…

Grown up tie-dye

I love ice-dyeing but had only done scarves and shawls up until recently where I ventured out into socks, fabric (for future sewing/quilting projects) and now a couple of tops for myself.....I think.

I love the way this bronze/brown top turned out and plan on wearing it this coming week. There was no rhyme or reason to how I scrunched it up on the screen for ice-dyeing. Even Sam was taken by how lovely it turned out......

….but he agreed I must have lost my mind when I dyed this one. These are not my colors....at all.  It's pretty but just not me. Will have to give thought as to whether I keep it or try to find someone else it would suit better.....or just wear it around the house and not care that it's too baby blue for my tastes.

In case anyone is interested I bought these tops from Dharma Trading Co.  Great place to find blanks for dyeing - it's where I've always gotten my scarves and shawls to dye. They also have tons of dyes, lots of surface design supplies plus much more. And they have super quick shipping.....for me it's 1-2 days since they're just south of me in California.

I'm in one of those places (in my pee brain) wondering why I bother blogging. I started this blog in 2008 as a way to help promote my handwovens, roving I used to sell and other creations. I don't think it did much promoting as many who follow me are other weavers, spinners and sewers/quilters. I still follow many blogs and enjoy reading them but there are also many that don't post to their blogs anymore, just to Instagram or Facebook. Will give thought to the future but not today.....too much else to do...…..

Beam me up scotty........

Weaving a scottish tartan pattern at the moment in 'old natural dye types of colors' for a secret project to be unveiled after the holidays. Using 10/2 perle cotton for warp and weft. Fun to be back at the loom, been too long, life sometimes gets in the way and I'm making an effort to get back to spending lots of time in the studio again......I need it for my mental sanity! 

This & that..........

 I've been doing more ice-dyeing...….it's stacking up waiting for me to do the photography work. I also bought some socks from Dharma to ice-dye. Here are two pair above the ice-dyed rayon/silk devore scarves. They take the dye so well - I love them.  Today I have a batch of 8 pair of socks ice-dyeing along with cotton fabric underneath them to be dyed for whatever projects may come along, mostly probably quilting projects.

 It's that time of year again to make gift bags.  I leave them out on my table to work on here and there when I have a bit of spare time.  I generally take my own bags when grocery shopping but occasionally I open the back of the car and there aren't any in there......so I save the bags to recycle. I wonder if Trader Joe's ever thought this would happen to their bags when they printed 'reusable recyclable' on them.

 Here's one of the finished bags, this is the larger size.  Yes, they aren't beautiful holiday gift bags but I like them. I do still have to hit up the Dollar Store every once in a while when I run out of my homemade bags.

Here are the cows this morning, from left to right - Gwinevere, Stan, Ollie and Moo Latte.  They are not actually staring at me, they're staring at the guy on the roof trying to pull the chimney stack out. Today the new gas fireplace install is happening although we're in a holding pattern waiting for the gas company to arrive to shut off the gas as these guys aren't allowed to touch the main shut off and we don't have a secondary one outside.  Back to the cows. It looks like the piece of property behind us has sold and there will be houses built - it's going to be a sad day when I no longer get to see and talk to the cow gang...…….and I instead hear construction work going on and have houses behind us.

Infinity scarves......

I just got the infinity scarves listed in my Etsy shop. I really love these circular scarves - they can be worn so many ways. I think I've only got 3 more to dye so will have to make sure I dye one in my colors to keep.....although there is one of these I might change my mind about selling.  

Twelve more scarves to photograph, more waiting to be dyed, and I've got some devore silk shawls to dye too...…..and some socks which are just for fun to give away.'

These infinity scarves can be found in my ETSY shop.

Ice dyed silk scarves........

Worked on some dreaded photography work yesterday - here are 6 of the recent ice-dyed silks scarves. Have other photos to edit of some infinity silk scarves.  Then more in the queue to dye and photograph. These scarves are now in my ETSY shop.

Ice dyeing in progress......

 I hadn't planned on it but decided to ice dye 6 more scarves this morning - they're now 'marinating' or the official term is 'batching' until tomorrow morning.  I can already see some of the scarf above under the melting ice - I think it's going to be a beauty...….

 This one is interesting looking, not sure if that's good or bad.....

…..this one the scarf is toward the top of the picture under the melting ice, it's going to be another beauty, I think.  Then on the bottom part of the picture there's some cotton fabric, that was white on white design, that the ice and dye are dripping over. My quilter neighbor gave me 4 pieces of fabric to try under the ice dyeing.  This one looks beautiful. Two of the others look pretty good but the 4th one is up in the air - it's a pretty big piece of fabric to be bunched up plus it may be a poly blend - it looks strange where the dye is hitting it - who knows, it may wash out to white tomorrow.

I have more scarves to dye, some shawls and even a couple tops, summer tops for me that I never got around to dyeing in the spring so I could wear them this summer...…..

A bit of this and that

 I'm working in Santa's workshop when I get free time so I can't really show what I'm working on but here's a glimpse of some sewing going on. I have a stash of lovely ribbons I'm putting to use.  After the holidays I'll show complete pictures of what I've made.

And here's some knitting - I'm coming down the home stretch on knitted gifts for a few family members. During our trips back and forth to the coast I work on the hexxie quilt squares, very fun project for down times like riding in the car. Some ask me how I do that kind of work riding in the car - I couldn't if I didn't wear Sea-Bands for motion sickness - they're great, I can stitch, knit or read in the car wearing those puppies.

Where did the year go?  I've made our holiday cards and am now working on gifts but the first part of the year seems lost, not much accomplished. Too many appointments for us and other family members......what happened to the days when I spent all day in the studio creating???  I thought I'd get back to that this year after the move but it still hasn't happened. There's always hope for next year......

Another project crossed off the list......

We've crossed another house remodel project off the very long to-do list. This room is actually kitchen dining nook but I've taken it over for my office, orchids and pottery......we have bar seating and a dining room, we don't need a third eating area. The before picture isn't the best since our old chair is right in the foreground, this pic was taken months ago...…...I didn't take it, I forgot to take a before picture so this is one Sam had taken early on.

See that drop tray ceiling?  It's a monstrosity. All the ceilings in the house are 11-12 foot except for here. What possessed the builder to put in that heavy drop ceiling???  We knew it had to come out.

Just a couple weeks ago Sam, a friend and my cousin took that drop ceiling out - it was built so well the house could have fallen down around it and it would have still been there. Here it is with new insulation before drywall and texturing. Unfortunately I didn't get an in process photo - plastic hanging down with around a foot of blown in insulation and drywall trash laying all around.

And here it is finished - it looks so much better. I have since put décor on the desk shelves, I decided it should be handmade baskets for the time being....not sure if that's what will stay. I even question if I want to keep the hutch on the desk or put art on the wall above the desk instead. I've also given thought to painting this furniture. No need to decide now.

Next project up - new gas fireplace and mantel. The old gas fireplace puts out 0 heat, zero, nada, nothing. This winter we'd love to swivel around in our recliners to read or knit (me) in front of a cozy fire.

Last week's spinning......

The county fair is over for another year - we had the best time spinning everyday and visiting with the public...…and chatting and chatting amongst ourselves.  It's amazing that we never run out of things to talk about after spinning together all day long. 

I was close to finishing up spinning some other fiber so didn't want to take that as I'd have to ply and didn't feel like plying the entire time.  This is the last of my hand-dyed roving in my stash, it's a merino/bamboo/nylon blend in a colorway I call bandana. I am ready to ply 2 huge bobbins I spun on my Hansen (electric) mini-spinner which was so easy to roll in and out each day in it's Zuca rolling tote. I have no clue what it will grow up to be, it may have to sit on the shelf and marinate for a while until the perfect project comes up. I wasn't sure what it would look like spun up, I really like it. 

Ice dyeing.....

 I finally got out the dyes to do some ice dyeing so I could show a neighbor how it's done. We each dyed 2 scarves and a pair of sox.  I love the way my sox came out although they are a bit lighter now that they're dry. I can't wait to try some more sox.....also have more scarves, shawls and a few tops in the queue to dye...….maybe next week......

 I love to watch the dyes migrate as the ice melts - it's always makes such interesting patterns on the ice.

So much more fun to see on full size cubes rather than crushed ice.

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

It's that time of year again, county fair time. This morning we put up our spinning display - come Wednesday we will be sitting in front of it in a big circle spinning the days away. Always fun to visit with the public but by the time the fair is over I'm exhausted from being 'on' for days on end. 

Shameless plug......

I entered a tea cozy contest and voting is now open.  If anyone likes my cozy they can go vote for me at The Larkin Tea Co website. There are lots of other really cute cozies too but I obviously am not plugging those.  Mine is called Happy Dancing Sheep.  Click HERE to vote.  I probably won't win but I'm a winner regardless as they sent me a bag of loose leaf tea and a subscription for an online tea magazine just for entering.  I may have to think ahead in case they do this contest again next year.

The cozies all had to be knitted.  Mine was knit out of handspun yarn and felted, then I needlefelted the dancing sheep and flowers on it.  I use it all the time.

This and that.......

 Our d-i-l saw the snap bags I use for my Kindle and the power cord and said she'd love some so I stitched those up today, will get them in the mail headed back east early this week.

 She's getting an extra small bag because the first one I made was too small for the power cord. I hope she likes my fabric choices, I love them.

 Working on planning out some holiday weaving - can't say what my projects are at the moment......

…...but it's sure been fun to have time to spend planning projects...….

…...and yes, these 3 projects are all related...….

I've also done some gift knitting but can't post that for a few months......I'm about to start some more gift knitting that I can work on in the evenings while we watch tv.

More rag runners......

Someone asked me for a table runner to go with her new furniture/décor so I finally put a warp on (she's waited for months) and am giving it a try. Special orders are difficult for me because I don't really know what someone is envisioning. Hopefully one of these will work.

The warp has two shades of aqua, a light green and gray....perfect for her colorway.....but getting fabric to end up weaving to match is more difficult.  I love the one above.

This one is much more subtle but I like it also.

This one turned out much lighter than I anticipated - still very nice but not sure if it will work.....

This one using a gray print is not long enough for her table but I had warp left so I wove it - maybe I'll keep this one for myself.

As I look at these photos I realize that they really don't show the colors in the warp or even in the fabric very well - much more attractive in person.

R & R weekend on the coast..........