Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Inglenook Fibers 2021 12 Days of Christmas Spin-a-long
Monday, January 4, 2021
Just when one thinks life can't get worse..........
Just when we think life can't get worse or more stressful it does. Dealing with a declining family member, younger than we, who is 4 hours away at a hospital in Portland, who we would like to get back down here to where he lives so he can be near family for his last days, weeks or months is stressful......and then there's covid on top of it all. Each day we think it can't get worse but it does.
Getting anything done is almost impossible as it's hard to focus. I finally got 10 towels off the loom which were started a month ago - that must be a record length of time it's taken me to weave a warp. They were finished last week but then sat waiting to be hemmed. Finally yesterday I decided I needed to do something for myself and get them hemmed. They are done awaiting photographs when we get some good natural light again. They are two block twill towels with 2 shades of green and natural in the warp - then coral, teal and lavender used as wefts. I love them all but the lavender really calls to me. These will eventually be in my etsy shop for sale.......after the photography work/dreaded chore.
I still have hope that 2021 will end up being a better year for all of us but I'm beginning to wonder. Between family health/mental declines (more than one family member), covid and politics who knows what will come of the year. And I still fear the worse politically even after January 20th when Biden & Harris are sworn in, I think the unstable individual in the white house will continue to wreck havoc, for years, long after he's dragged kicking and screaming out the front door. I rarely say anything political on this blog but sometimes I just can't keep it to myself........this is all I'll say right now.
My wish is that everyone have a safe and peaceful new year.........
Saturday, December 19, 2020
Life sucks at times.......
Monday, December 7, 2020
MIA.......
A couple weeks ago I plied this yarn that had been on bobbins for a year. It's bamboo, merino and nylon. I'm not sure what this will grow up to be yet, it's sitting on the shelf 'marinating' for the time being. I am thinking about starting to spin something fun and colorful - I think I said that in my last post but it hasn't happened yet.
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Handspun
I have been away from the spinning wheel for a long time, over a year. I was missing it so this last week I plied what had been on bobbins sitting all this time. The first is this Ashland Bay merino in the Rose Quartz colorway. I've got 3 big skeins in a worsted weight so am thinking a hat, cowl and fingerless mitts for a gift. I've also plied some merino/bamboo/nylon but it's not been washed yet - picture to come once I do that. Now I feel like I can start spinning something that's been waiting in the wings, something fun, something colorful........I've short listed choices, just need to decide on which but first I'll knit this up.
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Pastel rainbow
It's hard to be motivated to do much these days, too much stress in life with an aging mother with memory issues (putting it mildly), a cousin, who lives locally, who is very ill, covid and politics. I think what's hard is that I have no control over any of these. The only thing I can do is try to limit my news watching to help with what gets thrown at me concerning politics. We did vote - dropped ballots off in a drop box right at the courthouse on Monday and since Oregon has been doing vote by mail for many years successfully I have no concerns about my vote being counted. I hope everyone else has voted or will be voting soon.
Friday, October 9, 2020
Weaving again..........
In spite of having no motivation these past months I did get a towel warp on the loom. It's a variation of one of weaver's favorite towel patterns - friendship towels. I've only gotten one towel woven but I'll get to the other 9 soon. I'm loving the gray background - might have to keep a couple of these for myself. I'm using the same gray as in the warp as weft here but I might try a couple using a blue/gray weft.
I've got another towel warp planned in muted natural colors. I've been loving the brights and colorful lately but looked at a couple huge cones in naturals and decided they've got to be used soon.
I hope all are being safe out there, wearing their masks and distancing.
Sunday, October 4, 2020
mask making.......
I finally broke down and made masks but not for us........we just use commercial ones.........although I may need to eventually make us something more stylish. These are for little Head Start kids. They will go in the tote bags we sew and fill with goodies for them, they get them for the holidays. When I say 'we' I mean our local neighborhood group of the American Sewing Guild. These are a little different - the elastic goes around the back of the head rather than around the ears - I wouldn't want this design as it would screw with my hair but it's good for kids.
Nothing much to report here as I'm really not doing much.......I'm just not motivated and I've decided I can't worry about it.
Friday, September 11, 2020
Life changes in a blink of the eye......
As if it weren't bad enough last night I got an email via the neighborhood email 'tree' - some guys started a fire at the railroad tracks just blocks from us. It was put out quickly, not sure the status of those that started it, was it an accident or was it on purpose, hopefully they were caught so we can sleep at night. If a fire starts right around there we may not make it out safely.
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Funky Fence
Friday, August 21, 2020
Blue
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
Dog days of summer.........
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
This and that.......
Friday, July 31, 2020
This and that.............
This one, currently in progress, I'm using a green weft. I haven't decided what other weft colors I'll use on this warp, will figure that out after I weave 2 green ones.
A weaving friend helped me make driftwood looms to teach the kids across the street how to weave. I had encourage them to use found items of all kinds along with wool yarn but they both chose to only weave with wool in solid stripes. Theirs are still sitting on my front porch along with the yarn waiting for them to finish them - short attention spans. Tapestry style weaving is not my thing but it got me enthused to give it a try. The driftwood is held on a frame of scrap wood while I'm weaving. Once I'm done I'll take the screws off and it will just have the driftwood at the top and bottom of the weaving. I'm using yarn, some commercial, some handspun, fabric strips, shells and since this picture I've started adding sealife buttons. Don't know if my driftwood is too big, guess I'll find out once it's done. There are no rules. I'll hang it out in the yard when I'm done.
On the house front more work has been finished up. We took out the arches between the living and dining rooms. That's hubby covering up furniture before taking a saw to the arches. We actually took them out and built new stud walls, they had been that way for several months but we didn't want the drywall guy in the house due to covid. Notice how I keep saying 'we' - well, it's the collective 'we' as I only watched.
We threw caution to the wind and had the drywall guy come. We could have done the drywall ourselves but could have never matched the texture on the walls so we let him do it all. I must have wiped down the knobs and anything else he may have touched 10 times while he was here - hopefully he left no virus germs in our house. Like this look so much better. Next up, at some point, we will be painting - white ceilings, light gray walls, white trim, all new baseboards throughout the house. Once all that is done we'll tackle the new flooring. Long term projects. Notice the new black tv stand in the after pic? Our oak entertainment center was overwhelming for that wall so it now sits in the garage waiting for us to sell it, we got a new wood console, painted black, distressed. Much happier with it, the other one fit much better in our old house.
In spite of our governor being very conservative in loosening up covid restrictions too many in my area still refuse to wear masks even though they are mandatory they seem to think it violates their civil rights. So we have increases in cases, not as bad as other areas of the country but still scary. I took my mother to two medical appointments this week and have been having anxiety attacks since wondering if I could have possibly been exposed while sitting in little exam rooms with questionable ventilation. I hate feeling this vulnerable and paranoid but that's life these days.
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Be kind
This is the quote today on Bonnie Hunter's blog - Quiltville. I follow her quilting blog, she's a quilter, author and designer. There is a new quote each and every day - some of her own, some from others. It's always a wonderful way to start the day seeing the quote at the end of her daily post. If interested in quilting check out her blog and website. So today take this quote with you - be kind to everyone, we could sure use that in our country rather than being divided and being exposed to so much hate.
On another note our new deck is almost finished, just one more 3 ft section to go in near the steps, waiting on extra brackets for the railing. We knew when we moved in this house 2 years ago we had to replace all the deck railing as it was rotted and we knew we wanted to make it a bit bigger as it could only hold 2 chairs and the grill. What we found was that the entire deck structure was not built with pressure treated wood so it all had to go.
Here's a look out the sliding glass door at the new deck. We chose a composite decking from Fiberon, no staining or oiling in the future. Sam worked really hard building it and is thankful for 2 friends that helped at certain points where he needed a second set of hands.
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Flowering.....
Friday, July 17, 2020
I am remiss......
On the rainbow towel warp I wove one with black cotton as the weft and have kept it for myself. I would have woven more with black weft but I just didn't have enough left on the cone. I finally listed some of the others off that warp in my etsy shop today and one has already sold.
I've been working on some sewing projects but I can't show them as they're gifts but here's a sneak peek at one of them. Having some fun with wonky stars again. I am not a good machine quilter, you'd think I could keep in the ditch doing stitch in the ditch but I can't...…….but I can put on a mean perfect binding!
Two quilts are off being long arm quilted. My barn quilt that will hang on the wall opposite the dining room and another quilt that is a house warming. I'm hoping to have them back within a week so I can get the bindings on them and ship the one off just in time for family moving into their new house. Will show pix of both when I get them back and bound.
In the evenings I'm working on my gift ornaments for the year, sorry no pix of those until the end of the year as to not spoil the surprise for those getting them.
I embroidered these golf towels for a neighbor/Sam's golf buddy, who loves vintage cars/trucks - he was so kind to help out on our deck project when Sam needed an extra set of hands. The embroidery pattern was a bit thick for towels but they turned out ok. Would have loved to have used the vintage truck patterns but my best sources for patterns is not making smaller ones that my machine can stitch - I have a 4"x4" limit. I wrote to both the companies and was told by each that I could buy myself some software and re-digitize them myself or split the designs into 2 using software I would have to buy and stitch half, then rehoop exactly to the tiny stitch where it should be and finish the embroidery - hah!
On the home front we've been putting in a new deck. Pictures and story of that to come when it's done...….which should be any day now as Sam is now putting up the railings.
Me??? Dig a hole to China in the backyard??? Did that dirt on my hose give me away??? If she's not digging holes to China she's pulling apples off the tree, pulling blackberry vines thru the fence to eat, thorns and all, or pulling the occasional branch off a rose bush. Thank goodness we have a fence on the side yard to keep her out of the garden, grape vines and plum trees. How can a dog that's perfect in the house be such a one dog destruction crew in the yard??? Someone should tell her it's not very flattering to be so close to the camera - it makes her nose look big...……..