harvest time.......

It's harvest time here.....not that we have anything to harvest as we have very little flat ground on our 5 acres but kind souls share their bountiful harvest with us now and again. Sam came home with a box of vine ripened tomatoes yesterday, more than we can eat fresh so I've loaded up several trays of the dehydrator and it's now humming away.....they'll be great in soups and stews this winter. Yum, tomato/red onion/hot pepper sandwich for lunch today.......

Wool dyeing days over......at least for this season...

Whoo-Hoo! I've put away the acid dyes for the season. The dyeing from the past week is now braided, weighed, labeled, photographed and most of it now listed in my etsy shop. All the merino and falkland are now up for sale in my shop, the corriedale cross will start going up tomorrow. I've finished spinning up samples of the merino and falkland, pix still need to be taken...then will start on the corriedale cross - very fun to see how they spin up.
 

Whoo Hoo!!!!

Whoo-Hoo.....the last of the roving dyeing for months!  This is the second half of the corriedale cross roving I was dyeing yesterday. I've put the acid dyes away, all utensils/pots are drying and will be put away next, two burner propane stove ready to come inside the garage for the winter.Tables will stay out  under the deck for a bit as I want to wind some warps to paint....but that's using fiber reactive dyes, totally different process.  I'm still working on spinning up samples from all the fiber I've been dyeing, then pix of them to add to my etsy shop listings.

Dye day.....

Today's efforts - 8 pounds of corriedale cross. I love the one on the right, it's hard to tell in the picture but it looks like the felted wool fabric that's out there for sewing/penny rugs/etc - kind of heathery, can't wait to spin a sample of it. If I wake up tomorrow in the mood to dye  I'll finish up the rest of it and then then acid dyes get put away for the winter - hurray!

Road Trip!

Road trip!!!! Left early Friday morning heading up to OFFF, Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival, or as Sam calls it Flock & Flea. First stop my road trip friends and I made was for the New Yorker bagel (cream cheese, lox, capers, red onions, tomato) at Bronx Bagels in Sutherlin, then a quick stop at Trader Joe's in Eugene. Then off to check in the hotel in Wilsonville and back on the road to Fabric Depot in Portland. And yes, I did buy some fabric but tried to restrain myself....everything in the store was 30% off plus had a coupon for 40% off one item. Sorry no pic - still in the bag in the pile of other stuff by the door. Pictures taken were with my phone so they're just so-so....didn't feel like carrying a camera.

Dinner at Sushi Track - annual event - there were 8 of us this year. This is what's left of my spider roll -yum! We all ate a ton of sushi Friday evening.

On the drive to OFFF we pass a dahlia farm in the Canby area - this is just a small section of the fields

Here's a close up - this dahlia was gigantic

A must is the ferry ride between the hotel and OFFF fairgrounds. I think our group are the only ones who do it - everyone else jumps on the highway.....but look what they miss, we see beautiful countryside too, we would miss those dahlias if we took the highway.....

Yes there were critters to see - this is a beautiful angora goat who liked having her picture taken

And yes, I did make a major purchase - a Hansen electric spinner - yikes! It's still in the bag as I haven't had time to play with it but I did test drive the one I bought before plunking down that credit card. I had trouble with a Woolie Winder in the past and wanted to make sure the one on the spinner was smooth - it was, I'm a happy camper. Oh, plying is going to be so much nicer now.......if I haven't mentioned it at least 100 times before I don't enjoy plying, it's boring and goes on forever. I managed to only buy a few small items in addition to the spinner and thank goodness I left without buying any spinning fiber - I don't need it!

Drive home Sunday found us at the outlet stores and Trader Joe's for some major shopping - torrential downpours driving home, hard to see the road at times.

Today is a dye day but it's chilly out, too chilly to be dealing with cold water out of the hose so am waiting a bit for it to warm up.....although it's clouding up and looks even colder out there.....

No internet again.....

No internet again in my little world - argh! It went out around 5:30 yesterday evening, still out this morning. Last night when I called there was the recording saying they're aware of the problem and technicians are working on it.....hmm, I was thinking those technicians were home in bed. Called again this morning, got the same message but then I thought to hit '0' on the phone to get a real live person in some other country. At least this live person, whose name I could never figure out after asking several times, was more competant than Audrey who I talked to on Monday. This gal immediately put me on hold to find out if she could get more information on the problem. I got to listen to a recording about how much faster dsl is with Centurylink since it took over/or whatever it did, with Qwest.....hmm, ours has been slower since that happened. My tech support gal, name still unknown, came back - and just as I thought - techs went home to bed because they're waiting for a piece of equipment that 'should' arrive today. So, my internet is in the hands of whatever delivery company Qwest/Centurylink has contracted with. Luckily I do have my Verizon Mifi that I use over on the coast and for traveling but I do pay for limited access each month, what I figured I'd need, not intended to be on all day long here at home. To top this off, I'm on the laptop, wanted to print something in an email and it's not talking to my printer.....it always does.....except today when I really need it.......

Current spinning

I forgot to post a pic last week of the spinning I've been doing, plied the first of it - I'm around half done. This is Panda that I hand-dyed. Panda is 60% superwash merino/30% bamboo/10% nylon - it's a dream to spin. Have temporarily suspended spinning this while I spin up samples of the recent dyed rovings.

Hand-dyed merino roving

Today's accomplishments.....merino roving........all of it was playing except the center light yellow which is my colorway called Buttercream. I adore yellow and should have put some of this color aside last time I dyed it but I didn't and it all sold....so here's some more.....hopefully I'll pull some out for me before it sells.

Argh....

Turned on the computer this morning, checking mail, read 3 of them, then off to a website and down went the internet. I went through turning off/on the modem, rebooting the computer - nothing. I had orders to mail which meant postage to print.....and I needed to be at the post office when it opened so I could be back to dye all that merino I weighed out on Saturday. So, off to call Qwest......now Centurylink......argh

Me: (after listening to many computer voice generated prompts) "I have no internet, could you tell me if there's a problem here locally"

Audrey: (hmm, I'm thinking, interesting name for someone with an accent.....thinking of the movie Outsourced that I just watched, cute no brainer movie) "Let's trouble shoot"

Me: "I've already rebooted, troubleshooted the modem, all lights are green but it's not working....oh there the internet light went out, now back on"

Audrey: "Let's check that modem - what is the Qwest model number"

Me: "It's not a Qwest modem, we've gone through two of those, they're designed to fail after one year, this is a different brand that works great"

Audrey: "Not a Qwest modem? What kind is it - what is the name & model number"

Me: "Make is XYZ - I can't get find the model number (standing on my head under the desk) but I really don't think it's my modem, I've already checked it...can't you check to see if there's a service issue in my area?"

Audrey: "Can't you move your desk to get the model number?"

Me: "No it's at least 200 pounds.....can we please check to see if there's a service issue?"

Audrey: "Let me talk to my upper tech support"

Me: (on hold biting my tongue - why does this always have to raise one's blood pressure?)

Audrey: "Let's trouble shoot that modem"

Me: "It's not the modem!!!!" (now 40 minutes has passed)

Audrey: (perturbed with me) "Let me talk to my upper tech support"

Me: "Thank you"

Audrey: "There is a problem with service in your area, engineers are working on it and it will be fixed within 24-48 hours, we will call you when service is restored"

Me: "Thank you - why couldn't you have checked that 40 minutes ago?"

Off to the post office (late) to mail orders the old fashioned way at the counter which costs me more $$$. Told the gal at the counter about internet since I usually just drop my packages with postage on them - we agreed that the terrorists have it all wrong - what are they doing blowing up planes and buildings - just knock out our internet.....and cell phones! We'll come to a screeching halt and probably kill each other in frustration after talking to our providers on the phone. She added they could knock out the credit card processing machines too and really cause havoc.

Service came back on in a few hours.......still no call to tell me it's restored like promised although I wasn't sure why I needed it since I'd know it was back on.

Ok, so even though I don't agree with outsourcing since so many people here are without jobs it doesn't neccesarily mean I'm getting inferior service - I would probably get just as crummy service from someone in Anytown, USA......but it would be nice to talk to someone in the area where service is coming from. Back when I was having major problems with Qwest DSL I contacted the CEO, a friend knew of him through her former business life and assured me he answers every email personally very early in the morning - he did and the problem was fixed within a day, new equipment installed down the road.

Now back to the dye steamers to take out the last of the merino......rinsing still lies ahead of me as well as making more stock solution to be ready for next dye day.

Another dye day....

Perfect weather for dyeing today, sunny and around 70 degrees. I finished up the last of the Falkland - that taupe colorway doesn't show off to it's best in the photo but it's beautiful - I might have to spin some up myself. I also had 10 skeins of laceweight 75% merino/25% silk yarn that I dyed. What's with all the blue???  Then I weighed out the next roving to dye - 12 pounds of merino.

drumroll......the envelope please......

Here's what was in the mystery envelope from earlier this week.....fingerless mitts for Theresa. Back in the spring when Theresa went back east to visit her folks she asked what I'd like - I said bring me a lobster, obviously a joke. Well, she brought me some beautiful hand-dyed yarn from Lobster Pot Yarns - colorway name Lobster Bisque. I made a beautiful shawlette, The Traveling Woman Shawlette, which I showed finished and blocked in my post of August 31st. I had some 'leftovers in the pot' so I made Theresa a pair of fingerless mitts.

Off to the dye stock and steamers, more Falkland to dye today.....then only 4 more days of roving dyeing before the rains and much cooler weather hits......but the heat is coming back mid-week so those days may have to wait.....

Cool weather = Dye weather

Today was a perfect dye day - cool and overcast - sun finally showed it's face late afternoon

I like the days efforts...especially those seaglass colors on the left (whoops, forgot to say that this is Falkland wool)

I love it when the pampas grass blooms....well, it may not be called blooming but that's what I'm calling it - these 'blooms' are around 10 ft tall

A bit of weaving this aft.......

Back to the tencel scarf warp - red weft above using a different treadling than the first scarf and purple weft below using yet another treadling. 4th scarf will be using a bronze/brown weft, not sure of treadling yet.

Satellite dish stopped working while I was weaving - argh! I could watch dvr'd stuff........but now the local news is on and I'd like to see it but can't except for on the bedroom tv that's hooked up to an antenna. Technology!

Not much of a picture.....

Ok, so this isn't much of a picture - what's inside this envelope will be seen as soon as the recipient gets it in the mail. Can't show it now since this person reads my blog and it's a surprise. Only hint is that there was still some left in the pot.

Too much administrivia in my life.....it's always my complaint, too little time to create, too much time spent on administrivia. Now adding to it is updating all the tagging on every item in my two etsy shops. Last month Etsy changed the relavancy of tagging so I'm not getting as many sales as usual. So, I'm learning the best new way to optimize the tagging/searches but it requires editing every single item listed - over 200 of them between the two shops. Last night I worked on a few, within minutes one of the items sold. I like the old way better........not sure if I'm saying that just because I have all this busy work ahead of me or what......

There's a new food trailer in our area - Rocco's Amore owned by Bill, my friend Kathy's significant other......Kathy's deep in it too, working away cooking and serving. They just did their first gig on Saturday at a winery event.....more to come plus setting up at lunchtime somewhere around Medford. They'll be serving up yummies for Fiber Mania in November - I'll have a tab going for the weekend for my breakfast and lunch as I work my booth. There were leftovers from the winery gig so Sam and I ate good last night - 2 kinds of lasagna, salad, italian bread, antipasto tray and the yummiest raspberry panna cotta for dessert (every bite I took I said "yum"). They also packed some espresso brownies for us to try, we'll try those today. The website is still under construction - I just took my first look at it.

Cranberry fest......

This past weekend on the coast in Bandon was the Cranberry Festival. Bandon and nearby towns host many a cranberry bog....from what I can see the majority of them sell to Oceanspray. The festival was great fun - parade Saturday morning, booths, car & tractor show, petting zoo, musical entertainment - Old Town was hopping....parking was at a premium but our cottage being close enough to walk is a big plus. All I bought at the festival were some cranberry food related items and they are all very yummy....and then there was the Oceanspray booth giving away cans of cranberry seltzer and dried cranberries.

Two of my favorite places in town were having sales for the weekend. The haul above was from The Wool Co. I found a cute ear flapper hat pattern made with super bulky yarn - two yarns were bought for these projects for a couple family gifts. I couldn't resist the Noro yarn (upper left)....not sure what will be made with that yet. And then the best buy of all are all those skeins of baby alpaca laceweight yarn from Cascade Yarns. The shop is discontinuing Cascade so it was 50% off. And that chartreuse is one of my favorite colors! Not sure what these will become but scarves/shawls come to mind.

A stop was made at the quilt shop too - Forget-Me-Knots Quilt Shop. This is a great quilt shop as are many of them up and down the coast - quilting must be big over there. They've recently renovated the upstairs for quilt retreats - there's a kitchen, bedrooms to sleep 8 and bathrooms and a nice big work area for everyone's sewing machine, there are cutting tables, ironing boards, etc. It's very reasonably priced too. Ok, so what I bought - not going to describe the patterns because if I get on the ball they'll make a few gifts, couldn't resist the dragonfly fabric (for what, who knows right now) and those rolled up sets of fat quarters - love those colors! I also bought something I haven't bought in years - an actual cross-stitch kit. Usually I would buy the pattern, the fabric of my choice and I have hundreds of skeins of  DMC embroidery floss in my stash. But I haven't found a cross-stitch seashell pattern that I like and I really like the one in this kit. Not sure when this will be started......too many other things on the to-do list right now but I've got it for when I'm ready. After I left the quilt shop I ran over to the Oddfellows Hall to see the quilt show, very nice. Now I'm showing my ignorance but what are Oddfellows.....my imagination isn't too flattering because I know a couple odd fellows! (update - ok I looked it up if anyone else is interested - Oddfellows)

Finally, I couldn't close without just one picture from the parade. This float holds the Cranberry Court (Cranberry princesses). I'm not sure which one was voted queen. They were madly waving at their friends standing right there in front of us. The parade was full of crowns - the cranberry court, the queen & king of cranberry food, Miss Oregon and some others I have no clue what they were. So, if we win the fun old car in the raffle here in GP for the foster kids I've told Sam that we (Bailey included) will have to be in the Cranberry Parade next year doing the beauty queen wave and throwing out tons of candy. He's not too worried since I only bought one ticket.......

Hand-dyed BFL

Quite a bit of the hand-dyed BFL that I dyed last week is already sold - a big thanks to my very own spinning group for putting a big dent in it. Two of the colorways - pinks and reds are totally sold out. These are going up in my etsy shop over the next several days....there are several braids of each colorway at this point.

Back to my first love.....weaving, that is....

It's close to 100 degrees out so it's definitely not a dye day so it's back to what I love to do most and haven't been doing enough of - weaving. This afternoon I wound an 8/2 black tencel warp for 4 twill scarves. Here's the first one, just some random diamonds on the one end, I'll probably vary the treadling on each scarf. Still auditioning colors for the next 3 scarves.

Mystery solved.....

The mystery is solved about the Spin-Fix tool. It's definitely a skein winder/swift. My friend Cathy, aka Boom, found it on a german blog. Just scroll down a bit and there's a picture of it how it should look. All I have to do is unscrew the square middle pieces and turn one 180 degrees - then it will hold the arms out in a cross. This is great - not only do I have a fun little swift but it's very compact. It's going to live at the beach - compact swift for a compact cottage. Thank you Boom!

Seen this before?

Has anyone ever seen one of these before? I found it in an antique shop for $8. It's called a Spin-Fix and says Made in Germany. It sits on top of the clamp and spins. The arms are adjustable although they're next to one another rather than in a cross design like the swifts we usually see. I'm sure it's a yarn swift. I tried searching online for any information but no luck so far. Not sure how I'll use it but it was a fun find.

Sampling........

Handspun samples from the latest BFL dyeing.......it's looking like fall is coming....

Another day of dyeing......

It was another day at the dyepots. Today my fibery friend Pat came over to help, I really enjoyed having company for the day and she was a huge help. She was doing everything from mixing dye colors to painting it on and rinsing it out....and then there's all the washing of tools. The heat is returning so dyeing will be put on hold for a bit, as soon as it cools back down to at least 80 I'll be back at it - have 6 more dye days to get under my belt......if I wore a belt........

Pay it forward winners.....

Ok, here are the pay it forward winners of the weaving books.....I'll be emailing Sisters and Susan for their mailing addresses. Heatherabarrick & Tinkertots please email me with your mailing addresses - for some reason I can't seem to link to any contact info for either of you.  cindiesam @ yahoo dot com

Weaving As an Art Form - 'Sisters'
Card Weaving & Conventional Card Weaving - 'Susan'
The Rosepath Motif - 'Heatherabarrick'
Weaver's Study Course - 'TinkerTots

Bailey picked the winners - each person entered for each book was assigned a different color dog biscuit which Bailey dashed for....unfortunately I was alone here at the time so I couldn't place the biscuits, hold him back and work the camera at the same time........it was comical.......and he was wishing there were more biscuits after we were done!

Back to the steamers......

Beautiful day out, in the 70's so it was back to the steamers with 6 pounds of blueface leicester roving. So nice to finish up dyeing, replenishing dye stocks and weighing out more roving by 2:30 rather than killing myself dyeing 15+ lbs in a day. Tomorrow will finish up the rest of this fiber. Then the heat is returning so will watch the forecast for nice weather again to finish up wool dyeing for the season - still have 6 days of dyeing ahead of me.

Here's the Traveling Woman Shawl after blocking yesterday.

odds & ends......

....that's how today is being spent....on odds & ends.....got the blocking done earlier, crocheted mesh scarf is now dry and looks great, shawl is still drying.....

I planned the next warp to go on the loom, black tencel for twill scarves but I never made it to the warping board. Instead I pulled out the Weave It which I've never used but bought several years back after reading an article in Piecework on the caretaker of the Cape May Point Lighthouse making an afghan using these little squares. I loved the look of it, especially since she felted it after sewing them all together. I have a history with Cape May Point - I spent summers there while growing up at the family beach house. So I had to weave up a sample square so I'd know how much yardage I would need for each so I can pick up wool or spin it for a future afghan. I thought it would be a fun project to leave over at the beach cottage to work on here and there. The Weave It on the right is an original - it belonged to my aunt, it came complete with a number of finished squares in acrylic yarn. A real funny thing about this is that this is about as simple as it gets for weaving.....and yet I'm waiting for my AVL 40 harness loom to be built.....what extremes I enjoy.

Next was crocheting up a granny square which I then ripped out to figure out how much yardage is needed for each one.....want to make an old fashioned granny square afghan too. Now I'm armed with all that information. My sample used Cascade 220 which is what I'll use for the afghan too....will watch for a sale and pick out beach glass colors.

Then I wound the skeins in my earlier post this morning into balls and found a project to start using that handspun, the Clementine Shawlette from the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits. Not sure how it will look with my multi-colored handspun, if I don't like it I'll rip it out and find another pattern to use.

Hmm, what should I work on now.........

Beautiful day......

It's a beautiful day.....a bit cooler, breezy, kind of feels like autumn.....although I understand this is temporary, will be very hot again by Friday. So, I'll take advantage of this good weather for the next 2 days - will spend Wednesday & Thursday dyeing BFL.

Just now I blocked two recently finished pieces; the traveling woman shawlette and another mesh crocheted scarf.

Here's some of my hand-dyed Polwarth I recently spun, I added in some sparkle with hand-dyed firestar. I'm not sure what I'll make with it yet, I've got 574 yards. Originally it was to be art yarn.....I added the firestar while  spinning the singles, added hand-dyed silk ribbon in plying and then tried to add a binder of rayon thread with beads in another ply. Well, it didn't work, I should have added the rayon thread with beads at the same time making it a 3 ply yarn. So halfway through I stopped the 3rd ply, ran it through the wheel again to unspin it a bit and pulled the thread with beads off. Then with no binder the silk ribbon wouldn't stay put so I pulled that out. What a lesson learned........

Current reading - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Futte, futte, do, do, do, do, oh futte, futte.........

Yep, that was me singing the futte futte maker song this morning while making felt balls for more wheel jewelry....or people jewelry. You can see it in my post of May 23rd of this year. It's addictive, I thought I'd make no more than 15 of them. The futte futte makes quick work of felting balls but don't ask me where to get it - no one can find it out there on the internet at the moment. I got it at superbuzzy.com back in the spring but after I showed it around and wore my jewelry this spring and summer there was a run on them. Now these balls will dry, then I'll add silver wire, beads and charms to them.

Finally......

finally I've twisted the fringe on these 3 bamboo scarves, they've been sitting around here for quite a while waiting to be finished up. Phew, tags on, ready to photograph (who knows when) and sell......

Pay it forward.....

I'm paying it forward.....someone gifted these to me as she's not weaving anymore, I already have them in my library so I'm gifting them to readers of my blog. All you need to do is comment to this post with which book(s) you're interested in by August 31st - there will be 4 winners. Sometime September 1st I'll pull names, thought I'd use the random generator but Bailey is thinking he might want to come up with a fun way  for him to help pull the names...will be thinking on that one. If you don't have an email associated with your profile please leave me an email address so I can contact you for your mailing address. I'll post the winners to my blog after they're picked.

Weaver's Study Course, Ideas and Techniques by Else Regensteiner, it's autographed (this book is dated as far as the completed projects go but weaving techniques/structures/drafts are timeless, there is a lot of good information in it)

The Rosepath Motif Monograph by Margaret B. Windeknecht (this is a classic monograph - good explanations about rosepath and lots of drafts to use in your own projects-not the glossy kind of books out now but a great one)

Weaving as an Art Form, A Personal Statement by Theo Moorman (this book is about Theo Moorman who has this weave structure named after her, there are some instructions such as drafting and weaving but it's more of where you can go with this weave - it's great for surface embellishment and pictorial work. If you know Nadine Sanders, contempory weaver, you know she specializes in workshops in this type of weave structure)

Two books in this giveaway - Card Weaving by Candace Crocket & Conventional Cardweaving How-to-Booklet by Herbi Gray (I have many books on cardweaving but the Crocket one I consider the bible, great book for beginners, very clear to understand, easy to follow. The booklet by Herbi Gray is just a little phamplet - some of you may remember cardwoven earrings by gray made using sewing thread, used to be a booth at nw weaving conferences for many years)

Who Do You Think You Are?

Ok, so I stole the title from the Friday evening show on NBC about stars researching their ancestries. I think it’s a fascinating show myself and it has made me wonder who I am.

So, on to my background. I’ve gotten a family tree and partial history from relatives in Michigan showing my Dad’s side of the family, I think it’s English, maybe a little Irish, Scottish, Dutch…..maybe it will be a real surprise when I have time to do more research (more to come on that in another post). My Mother’s side of the family is 100% Italian and we already know quite a bit about them. That’s the fascinating story I have to tell…..yes, I will get to the relevance of posting to my blog about my fiber life.

My grandfather, Salvatore Mazzie, my Great Aunt Angela and Bennedetto

who actually died in World War I - his likeness was painted into this picture

I grew up knowing my grandfather, Salvatore Mazzie, aka Sam, as my grandparents moved next door to us when I was a toddler, my grandfather was in my life until I was 11 when he passed away. He came to this country an illegal immigrant at the age of 19 and worked in the coal mines of West Virginia, traveled with my grandmother and my mother as a baby to CA in search of a better life, ala Grapes of Wrath, and ended up back in Ohio working in the steel mill. But the story really goes back to his parents, my great grandparents, who I never knew.

Rosina Spadafore raised her children, including my grandfather in this home, the tiny,

in disrepair center one. Left to right -  a newly discovered distant cousin

Antonio, my cousin Claudia from the Seattle area, my Aunt Sandra from Big Fork, MT - Oct 2010

His father, Antonio Mazzei (spelling different in Italy) came to Canada from San Giovanni in Fiore, Calabria, Italy but alas, he died in the coal mines there and never returned to his wife and children in that mountain top home in Italy. His wife, my great-great-grandmother, Dona Rosina Spadafore (Dona is a title reserved for higher born ladies…..as much as someone in a poor Southern Italian village could be considered higher born) was a weaver! Yes, a very skilled weaver! When Antonio died he left her with three children to support which she did by weaving, she was a professional weaver!

A view of San Giovanni in  Fiore from the neighbor's house

Rosina’s daughter, my great aunt Angela, told of how she wove from early morning to nightfall every day until she could no longer see the yarn. Rosina would call upon Angela, to massage her shoulders after a long day at the loom. Angela said she was a very skilled weaver. I so wish there were one piece of weaving somewhere in the family for me to treasure but I haven’t heard of any…..perhaps someone in the family has one packed away in a cedar chest that will surface one day. I wonder what kind of weaving she did?

San Giovanni in Fiore, Calabria, Italy

Aunt Angela, when not casting curses on those who disagreed with her, was talented too, she crocheted. She lived in Ohio when I was young and I visited but I can’t remember her for the life of me, I was fairly young when she passed on. From what I’ve heard she crocheted doilies and covered every piece of furniture with a doily, even those pieces of furniture covered with plastic slipcovers! I’m very honored to have a doily of hers—a tablecloth size one that resides on my dining room table every single day—it’s exquisite. My grandmother, Julia, used to refer to her as a snake-in-the-grass. Don’t cross those Italian women!

The crocheted tablecloth on my dining room table made by my Great Aunt Angela

So, I come by it naturally—who I am is a weaver with weaving in my blood. I wonder if my great-grandmother would be pleased knowing that I too, am a professional weaver. I just recently found out she was a weaver after my aunt and cousin made a trip to San Giovanni this past fall.

This morning's bounty.....and food for thought.....

This morning's bounty off the two fig trees out in the front yard. Yum, figs for lunch with yogurt and honey. I looked at them the other day and they didn't look ripe, today they are perfect, some over-ripe.....but still yummy. Now I need to decide how many I can eat fresh and dry the rest. I couldn't reach them all so will get help later on that, there are still more ripening and a second set of them that probably won't ripen before frost in the fall....oh well.....

I'm trying to spend a bit more time reading, much of the time it's light reading....takes me a while to get through a book because by the time night comes my eyes are tired. Current reading - The Face on Your Plate - The Truth about Food by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, definitely not light reading. Much of what he writes is based on truth, much of it on his own biased opinions but either way it makes a person think about where their food is coming from. Didn't think I'd make it through the book based on the first chapter, but I struggled through it, now I'm in to the part of the book talking about big business and the meat/fish we eat. Very disturbing but I knew most of this, but the part about dairy cows that I picture living the nice life grazing and getting milked twice a day kept me awake at night. We are not huge meat eaters, but love seafood and fish (and farmed fish is another whole subject). I already buy my lamb locally grown from a friend, will be looking for other local sources for any other meats we want to eat. We may not become total vegans but we will try to be responsible about where our food is coming from, what its life is like before ending up on the plate and what it has consumed in its own life....as in drugs, hormones, etc. I could give up meat and have at times in the past but I'd have a tough time with my milk, yogurt & cheese......

On a scary note, thunderstorms are forecast for these next 3 afternoons. I lived most of my life in the DC/MD region of the country, thunderstorms there meant torrential rains, thunder, lightening.......here in the west thunderstorms are rarely accompanied by rain, they are full of dry lightening in an area with 8-15% humidity all summer long and no rain for months......fires happen. They say afternoon thunderstorms but the dark clouds started moving in an hour ago.....looking very ominous out there.

Been busy 'nesting' these last two days working on birthday gifts (which I can't show) and other things around the house......a little knitting and crocheting in the evenings.

What'cha up to?

That's what Bailey is asking this morning - hmm, so far not much, have so much to do I don't know where to begin, a mass of in-decision, overwhelmed, and just back from the weekend at the beach where I didn't have a single thought in my mind.....it was great.

Well, maybe one thought was in my mind - has anyone ever posted pictures to their blog using an iPad? The screen just doesn't look the same, not as many tools on the toolbar in the posting section. When I click on the picture icon to upload a picture I get to the correct screen, although it looks different as everything does on the iPad, but the upload button (normally see a browse button) doesn't work. I love my iPad but it is a challenge at times. I'm not sure how we iPad owners are to know what apps we need for things we want to do - there are so many of them, thousands of them! I looked at a couple thick magazines on apps but half the magazine was on game apps, something I have no interest in....and I wasn't spending over 20 buckeroos for that. Maybe we have to be a kid to know these things......

County Fair.....day 2 & 3......

First thing Wednesday morning this year's wool judge showed up. She was great, she explained how she judges a fleece and then proceeded to talk about each fleece in depth. At first there were just a few of us there that needed to be there early for her but gradually more and more showed up and were standing around listening to all she had to say.

And here are the fleeces with all the ribbons. There are some beautiful fleeces in the bunch. Since I'm still trying to find new homes for stuffed fleece sheep I brought in 8 of them today for the champions and reserve champions - the dark fleece in teh center with the biggest ribbon is the grand champion - she got a big stuffed sheep!  ......sure hope no kids swipe those little sheep this evening while we aren't there to guard them.....

And on another note - just as I feared, temps increased to like normal and we have fires. As I write this there are 10 fires burning in-between Gold Hill and Rogue River, one right across the river from a friend, and not terribly far from several others I know.....one person I need to still contact who is right in the middle of it. I heard the copters out here near our house but not going over our place like usual, they were leaving where they sit not too far from us heading in the direction of Gold Hill. Hubby was caught in the fire traffic as they closed the highway and alternate route but he's now home safe & sound. If I haven't said it yet today.....I hate fire season.....