Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas

Christmas is a bit delayed here at our house this year. We usually do a big Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve but it snowed half the day here at our house and weather was iffy for the evening - possibly more snow & ice so we postponed that until Saturday. It's just fine, no reason for unnecessary worry about family driving.

I thought I'd post some of the gifts I made for family & friends this year. First off are our Christmas cards this year - I have pictures of two of them since the trees vary a bit since the warps were handpainted (dyed) and then woven. And yes, I hand cut all the tree shapes out of cardstock.
Here's another knitted felted tea cozy, this one decorated with needlefelted leaves & vines
I covered journals (these are just a few) with all sorts of papers for friends & family to keep their thoughts, dreams or ideas in. My spinning group got glass magnets - one with our logo and then others with various pictures of fibers. And for another gift I filled glass balls with spinning fibers, these the signature fiber from a past NWRSA conference, I added some glitzy fibers to it for more sparkle.











A friend who moved up to Corvallis earlier this fall got a special gift. Two of us were over helping her pack one day and while packing the kitchen I opened a drawer and found it full of twist ties, bread closures and rubberbands. I got hysterical because there were so many of them, more than a person could ever use - recycling taken to the max. The night before she and her husband took off she gave me a gift - a box of twist ties, bread closures & rubberbands! Well, I knew I couldn't let that go so I really took recycling to the max and made her a necklace and earrings - all I added were some jump rings and a few beads. I'm hoping she got a big laugh when she opened the box yesterday morning.
I made two quilted afghans this year both in golf themes. Hubby Sam's is the one in the grey/black colorway, my cousin Jim (whose name I had in the family gift exchange this year) is the forest/deep red colorway. Jim won't get his until tomorrow since we delayed Christmas Eve dinner - hope he loves it as much as Sam loves his.






And finally some of the fingerless mitts I knit and a new knit hat for Sam



Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Soysilk


The latest project on the loom - an advancing twill scarf in soy silk. The warp is a space dyed soy silk, the weft a solid brown. If I had more of this on the shelf in the studio I would have liked to have had more contrast in the weft, like a rich dark chocolate brown but I don't. This project is actually part of a guild program for March and I only bought enough soy silk for two projects, the other dark pink. It's very expensive, as in way more expensive than real silk.
Traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner has been postponed due to nasty weather..........was snowing the first half of the day, has now changed to rain but will be changing back to snow this evening. Not good traveling for family to get up to our house or to get home traveling over a mountain pass.
Another bummer for the afternoon is that my server connection to msn is down so no email - horror of all horrors! I do have the yahoo account but only use it in emergencies..........this may be one if the server connection doesn't come up soon.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Banana Silk







Oh my, this banana silk yarn is an experience. I'm finally starting to work on a guild program for March that will be on some of the newer fibers out there to use.......some I've used for years but other weavers in my guild haven't so those will be covered too. The banana silk yarn is new to me, it's similar to recycled sari silk yarn only not as nice. I wove two skinny scarves out of it using 10/2 perle cotton for the warp, the banana silk would not be suitable for warp even with big eyed heddles. The scarves are still drying so I'm not sure what the end result will be, hoping for soft. This yarn is very weak, nubby, overtwisted and sheds while weaving...........and it took forever to get the fugitive dye out of it in the washing process. Oh, and it had sharp little prickers and sticks spun in - hopefully I got most of those out. Not something I'll buy again but it was good to try it for the program.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Yum cookies


Just finished what small amount of cookie baking I'll be doing for Christmas and they're not the traditional ones the family makes. Some almond coconut macaroons and some chocolate cookies rolled in Oregon hazelnuts (thank you Shirley) with a bit of frosting and a hersheys kiss in the center - all I have to say is yum! Perfect snowy day activity.

Morning Snowfall

This is the 4th significant snowfall in 6 days - still snow on the ground from previous days. Looks to be 5-6" this morning and still snowing hard. The temps have stayed below freezing for a few days now. Need to bring that hummingbird feeder in to thaw - always a few stay for the winter, also heard the birds chirping so need to clean off the birdfeeders and make sure they have some yummies too, maybe put out the suet. Nice to know we don't have to get anywhere today other than figuring out how to get the trashcan down the steep hill to the road for pickup tomorrow morning - driveway is 1/3 mile all downhill curves with steep drop-offs. Going to get a beef stew going in the crockpot, fire is warming up the house, might even bake some Christmas cookies today..........would love to get to the spinning wheel or loom room. As long as we don't lose power I'll be a happy camper.

Monday, December 15, 2008

More Snow!


This is our third morning waking up to a substantial amount of snow. It's so still out this morning.............well, it was until Bailey decided to start barking at a big buck meandering through the property. I decided to take pix out the front door this time. That's the wood shed - it's completely full, hopefully it will last the winter. We've already used a cord of wood that was under tarps in front of the shed. This morning the snow is very heavy, yesterday morning it was sparkly and light. Hoping the 4wd Tundra can navigate the steep 1/3 mile driveway later today as we need to ship something. All this snow keeping me home has helped with getting Christmas gifts finished up.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Gecko tea cozy


I thought I wouldn't be able to post any pictures of Christmas gifts I've made until after the holidays but s-i-l and b-i-l couldn't wait and opened their gift. Part of it was this tea cozy that I knit, felted and then needlefelted the gecko on. They live in Florida and they're decor is margaritaville - thought it would fit in just perfectly.

Snow


Woke up to snow this morning - weather forecasters hit it on the head this time. Predicted to snow through the weekend. Even with 4wd Sam can't get down the drive - all ice underneath it. It had let up a bit when I took this picture but now the flakes are gigantic again, snowing hard. Good day to stay inside by the fire with a cuppa tea and sew or knit - still working on Christmas gifts.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Pacifica Winter Arts Festival

Well, it's over for another year - very fun time yesterday in my booth at the Pacifica Winter Arts Festival. I got to visit with many old friends and new when I wasn't busy writing up sales. I wasn't sure what to expect with the economy but it ended up being a great sale. Higher priced shawls and scarves didn't sell as well but medium priced items sold very well. Some items are back up in my etsy shop for sale, more here in the studio in stock............and hopefully at some point this week photo taking to get more items up in etsy to replace those that sold yesterday. But first it's back to gift making - Christmas is sneaking up on me way too quickly.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Fiber Update

Yes, I'm still here, I just haven't had anything much fiber related to post to the blog lately, I'm working on Christmas gifts so I can't post pictures of those until after they've been opened on Christmas Day.

Yesterday my spinning group met here at the house - very fun day. For our entertainment I had saved a dvr'd of the show Dirty Jobs (Discovery Channel) of Mike Rowe out working on a sheep ranch in Colorado shearing, docking tails and castrating. It was a little barbaric but watching his reaction to performing these normal ranch duties was a kick.

A reminder to everyone that I'll be at the Pacifica Winter Arts & Crafts Festival this Saturday, Dec 6th from 10-5, if you're local please come by to visit, it's a very fun event. I'll have handwoven shawls, scarves and towels.......felted bags, belt bags and soap...........knitted items, handmade jewelry...........and for those of you that are fiber minded I'll have my hand-dyed roving and sock yarn.

As for my Etsy shop - from December 1st -25th every box of purchases that leaves the studio will include a small thank you gift as a holiday gift.