....and the piles are forming....

.....here are piles of goods for my Fiber Mania booth sitting in the hallway to the garage.....handwoven scarves/shawls still need to be packed up but I'll do that at the last minute to avoid wrinkles......wait a minute, is that Phil the pheasant trying to sneak into the red rolling cart???

.....and here are the stacks of bins in the garage where the roving is stored - that's 2 rows deep worth of bins.....hmm, wonder if all this plus my booth display stuff is going to fit in the truck and van....wonder if the utility trailer is full of yard debris or empty......

grump......

I'm starting to get a bit grouchy, too little creative time, too much administrivia...hmm, common complaint from me lately.....changes need to come....need to be strong about sticking to those changes.

Today and tomorrow will be spent pulling out all my booth fixtures and packing up goods so I'm ready to head to my local fairgrounds Friday to set up for Fiber Mania. Big plus - this fiber event is only 15 minutes from my house....I forget something, dh can run it over to me. Anyone reading this within driving distance please come by Saturday &  Sunday from 9-5 - Josephine County Fairgrounds in Grants Pass, OR. My booth is right inside the door - stop by and say hi - I'll have a wall of colorful fiber among other items for sale.

On another note - hold up in the technology department - waiting to hear from prez of AVL who promised this week all my questions would be addressed....good thing I'm so busy this week not to dwell on a new loom not in use since I have no clue where to go next....another manual with basics will help. But other technology is on the move - finally ordered and received a battery pack for my Hanson mini-spinner so I don't need to be near an electrical outlet - I can spin anywhere on it now....well, after I charge it up.

Hmm, maybe next week will be creative.........after I inventory everything and get my etsy shops back full of goods Monday after Fiber Mania.......

Silk Scarves

Oh, I am woefully behind on so many levels.....I did a little catch-up yesterday taking pictures of silk scarves for sale, still have more handwoven scarves to photograph. Am still caught up in way too much administrivia.

New Toy.....

Here's the new toy I ordered last week - a Jeri Brock Turkish Spindle! Now, I didn't find this one myself, another blogger enabled me. I saw it on Fiberewetopia's blog banner and wrote her to ask about it.......not only did she tell me about it but directed me on where to buy one! I had to pick it up at the post office yesterday which made me late to my spinning get-together but I wanted to show it to everyone.....several others wrote down the name and where they could get one, and I found out my friend Cathy has one on order. I bought mine from The Spinning Loft but one could also contact Jeri Brock directly - she's on Ravelry under the name jeribrock. (that roving is some of my hand-dyed polwarth wool)

On the AVL front - haven't had time to even try turning it on yet, so busy for the next 2 weeks preparing for Fiber Mania. Also still waiting for answers to a few of my questions. Can't wait to have lots of time to devote to learning it.

It must be autumn - $5.99 pumpkin pies at Costco.......was over in Medford today dropping scarves/shawls off at the Rogue Gallery so also did many errands including a stop at Costco.....love those pumpkin pies!

Happy Halloween

I miss trick or treaters......for the past 19 Halloween's we've lived in rural America, on acreage, far off the road, no trick or treaters venture up long driveways (1/3 mile up and back down a steep hill here) they head to neighborhoods in town. I don't get to see the great costumes and have no excuse for buying tons of candy.....although I still usually buy a bag or two that disappears long before Halloween.

I need a drink!!!

I definitely need a drink after today, a BIG drink! The loom is almost finished and Sam and I are still talking, that's a good thing. Every once in a while it got a little testy but not directed at each other but at the directions, or lack of......there were some diagrams but in two spots where diagrams would have been a huge help there were none. I can't tell you how many times I read the step by step instructions over and over for us so we could try and figure it out. We were missing two small lock collars that I'll ask AVL to drop in the mail, also no dobby manual as referenced in the basic loom manual....think it would help to have that. Few other issues we had to deal with like holes not drilled all the way on harness bars for one, Sam came through with fixes.

Here it is - the front apron still needs to be put on, as the dividers on the sectional beam. Bench is still in the box in pieces, maybe tomorrow evening....maybe......

Here's a look see at the 40 harnesses and compudobby box. Of course, we have not plugged in the laptop and turned it on yet so we're keeping our fingers crossed that it works. Not sure when I'll get a warp on it - coming into my really busy season for business so it might be a few weeks.

Coming along........

Ok, so in the instruction manual AVL says it will take from 3-8 hours to put the loom together - no way! I think the 3 hours must have been for those that got it mostly assembled on a crate....but then how do you get it in the door??? It took almost 3 hours just to get all the boxes opened and figure out the parts.....and then there were the 2 parts both with #16 on them, luckily when we found the second #16 we had already used the first #16 in the right spot. All in all it's not too bad. Missing a couple little parts so far but nothing that could hold us up from finishing, I'll contact them to drop them in the mail.

So, here's the back of the loom - 13 of the 40 harnesses are put together and on the cables.

And here's the side of the loom with the dobby box - after we finish putting on all the harnesses there's another part of the box with all the electrical parts that covers up these cables. But we're done for the day, we're tired and have other things to do this evening.....hopefully we'll finish up assembly tomorrow, not sure when I'll figure out turning it all on!

And in in the beginning.....

Left & right side panels put together with cam assembly......missing 2 small pieces for cam assembly but not a game stopper as far as assembly goes.......who knows, maybe they'll turn up in another box........after lunch we hook the 2 sides together.......this is not a 5 minute job........

It's here!

Whoo Hoo - the AVL V-Series is here! We had it delivered to Sam's company since a freight truck could not turn around up here at the house. Hmm, looks like a lot of assembly to me.........

more upbeat.......

After finishing up guild administrivia publishing the guild newsletter for the two guilds and getting the membership list updated and mailed out with the newsletter I decided it was time to turn the day around and throw out that melancholy feeling.

I pulled out my embroidery machine to play. My friend Pat had given me 3 t's and picked out what she wanted embroidered on each so I worked on those - love the results! Just playing put me in a much better mood - so much more fun to play than do what I should be doing.

Then I got a phone call from the Rogue Gallery to set up an appointment for next week to bring scarves & shawls for the Spirit in Hand Holiday Boutique that will run for over a month. I had submitted a disc with photos a few weeks ago for jurying.  

And finally, I got an email from AVL saying my loom is shipping out today! Hmm, wonder when it will arrive.....it's only got a 5 hour trip up the highway to get here. It will be shipping to my husband's place of work since the freight truck can't negotiate our driveway. I've been waiting since mid-August for it to arrive - I'm so happy! Of course, the next couple weeks is so busy I'm not sure we'll have time to put it together but after that I can relax and devote lots of time to it.

melancholy......

Feeling a bit meloncholy today, not sure why, woke up that way........so this has turned into a really slow morning of frittering. Have had a panicky feeling lately about how much I have to get done in the next couple of months.....gifts...photography work...too much adminstrivia...too many things I really don't want to do...oh well, maybe next year I'll get a better handle on it, was hoping for this year but it's not happening.

On a lighter note I finished plying this handspun from Panda which is 60% superwash merino/30% bamboo/10% nylon. It's a dream to spin. This is a bit smaller than fingering weight, 1150 yards in all...not sure what it will become when it grows up but I'll come up with an idea soon. I only dyed 2 pounds, so glad after the first pound sold I set aside the rest for myself.

I ordered something this morning, a little bauble to lift my spirits but will wait until it arrives before spilling the beans.....at that time I'll let you all know which blog's banner I spotted it on and how that blog owner enabled me to buy it!

On another  note - Tuesday a delightful group of ladies came to visit my studio and learn about weaving, the local neighborhood chapter of the American Sewing Guild. I'm afraid I strayed from talking about just weaving, afterall I do so many other fiber related things. Anyhow, very nice afternoon with some very nice people.

A bit of spinning.....

A bit of spinning took place while on the coast this weekend, did some reading, lots of walking, then decided to pick up the spindle and some superwash merino I had dyed a couple years ago.....once spun there should be enough of this for a pair of sox. Isn't that a cool pillow in the background?! It was made from a bathmat - Sam thinks it's weird, actually downright scary - I love it, bought a light blue one too! Forgot the camera once again so this was taken with the phone, not too sharp....

New on the loom......

I spent part of my morning putting together more felting bunz kits, this time the regular ones with the primary, secondary, neutral colors.....was getting low on them so figured since I was on a roll from yesterday's new felting bunz I might as well keep going.

After lunch I put a new warp on the loom for some chenille scarves....I needed to get something on the loom so it's not naked next week when the American Sewing Guild comes to visit. Now the hard part is not to weave them all off....I had to force myself to put down the shuttle. If I knew I'd have time to get another warp on before Tuesday I'd weave them off but I have other things on my schedule between now and then.

Hmm, where have I been, no posts since last week.....spent the weekend on the coast, absolutely beautiful crisp fall weather, actually short sleeve sunny fall weather. It was a good for the mental health coast weekend, no chores, just walking, reading and relaxing. Yesterday I spent the morning with customers that came here to my studio for scarves and roving, then the afternoon spent trying to put away piles in the loom room and sewing room - next week the local chapter of the American Sewing Guild wants to come for a short talk on weaving which will include a show & tell and tour of my studio space. They came a couple years ago but apparently a number couldn't make it so they wanted a second go round. I was really hoping by now the AVL would be here so I'd have something new to share with them but it's delayed.....no word on the latest delay (nor the first until I e'd them), need to drop them a line again to find out the status.

Today was my spinning group day - spinning days are the best two days of the month.......hmm, pretty exciting life I lead here but I love it.....more often than not it's the only time I spin.......and it's good for my mental health to get together with my spinning peeps. After I got home I decided to put together some new felting bunz kits with muted colors. My other kits are more the primary/secondary colors plus natural, black, brown & gray. I thought all these soft colors might be a nice complement to the other kit. The new one is now up for sale in one of my etsy shops.

I suppose tomorrow or Thursday I better get something on the loom for the Sewing Guild to see.......

Playing catch-up.....

I've been playing catch-up here....brother Chris arrived for a whirlwind visit, flying in Friday, leaving Monday so not much else got done around here other than visiting.....weaving guild on Tuesday and trying to finish up some partially finished projects since then. I did get the fringes twist on four tencel scarves, added beads to the fringes to give them some bling.

Yesterday afternoon I started making more felted bling and finished it up today. These are little felted balls that I've hung charms and beads from. The original ones I did last spring were for my spinning circle peeps to hang on their wheels during the nwrsa conference. Of course they can also adorn necks in addition to wheels. I have a yellow one hanging from my Majacraft and wear a lime green around my neck often. I added the metal chains to these, now they're all packaged for sale.....except for the gray one with earrings in the lower right corner - that's for me.

Wiley coyotes......

We have coyotes, many coyotes from the howling we hear during the night. We hear them often right outside our windows, we see new coyote poop daily on our walks. I'm sure they're feasting on the turkeys and jack rabbits from the looks of the poop. But I have never seen one, they are some wiley coyotes.....until yesterday morning when three of them decided to sneak up on the turkeys roosting in the trees in front of the house. I'm not a lover of the turkeys who feel compelled to scratch around in my flower beds rather than on the other 5 acres surrounding them, if they pulled out a weed or two maybe I'd be ok with it. But I will not be a party to the coyotes eating their breakfast right in front of me.....and not in broad daylight just minutes after Bailey and I came in from our walk. So, I opened the front door, "you wiley coyotes, get out of here" while the turkeys were squalking and complaining. They gave me a glance and eventually walked off but obviously were not happy with me interferring with a fresh turkey breakfast on the horizon when one of those stupid turkeys decided to try and make a run for it. So, turkeys give me a break on the flower beds - I was your defender. Silly me, I should have grabbed the camera to get a picture......I was contemplating the gun but I really would rather not kill one of those wiley coyotes unless Bailey was in immediate danger.

More adminstrivia....and a reward

More administrivia today.....all I want to do is weave, spin, sew or knit.....but never ending administrivia. I spent time taking pictures of scarves for sale, above is one of the rayon chenille scarves that I silkscreened discharge paste on in the gingko design. Pictures never do these justice. And then after taking numerous pictures, editing them and saving them I got to run the vacuum - red letter day! So, I decided a reward was due, after I dropped off orders at the post office I drove to town (totally out of the way by at least 10 miles each way) and picked us up take-out from Abu's Deli & Oasis.....the entire house smells like lebanese food.....going to be hard waiting for Sam to get home.....

Administrivia - argh!

Today was yet another day filled with administrivia.....it's starting to get old, too much administrivia, too little time to create. I started out my day by printing out labels for a delivery of Ashland Bay roving, I then weighed out 8oz bags of many colorways - 45 pounds in all, then put it all in inventory. This took a major portion of my day. Here are some of the new Merino/Tussah silk colorways - I especially like the bottom two. Now these, a few other new colors of merino and colors I had run out of need to be listed in my etsy shop.

Last night while watching tv I reskeined some laceweight merino/silk yarn I had dyed, today I got the labels on them. There are two of each skein. I like the dye results - a kettle dye look.

This is a cute little shelf I found at a new little antique shop in town - it's going to be perfect for the beach cottage. I also found a little wooden box with a drawer with a carved flower - it's painted red, I'll repaint it seaglass teal......and a few pieces of inexpensive crystal including a beautiful little lavendar dish, all perfect for showing off seashells. I found this new shop after I left my spinning group heading  to the grocery store....needless to say I never made it to the grocery store!

And then there's Bailey - he kept standing in front of the camera wanting his picture taken - happy pooch.

As much as I'd rather be doing something else tomorrow I need to take pictures of handwoven scarves - they won't sell if I don't list them. More administrivia..........

Back to weaving.....

I've been doing too much administrivia lately and not enough of what I want to do. After busy-bee computer work this morning I decided it was time to finish off the tencel scarf warp that's been on the loom forever. I thought I had only put on enough for 3 scarves but when I finished the purple weft one there was a lot of warp still on the back beam. A quick look at my notes I saw I put on enough for 4 scarves so the last one is a rust/brown weft. All weaving finished and scarves soaking in the sink at the moment. I'm think I'll add tiny seed beads onto the fringe of these to go with the nice sheen of the tencel.

Today is a special day - it's been raining all day long! I love it. I realize many areas of the country had way too much rain this year but we haven't had rain in close to 4 months and this cool rainy weather means the fire danger level has now dropped to moderate. The end to fire season is a good thing, hoping it happens very soon.

new toy.....

Here it is - my new toy! It's my Hansen mini-spinner. I've been playing with it today, fine tuning my storage for it and tension, etc. Of course I can't do much spinning on it right now because I've got to finish up what I've been spinning.....don't want to have a change in the way my finished yarn looks by switching methods in mid-stream. But I do have some corriedale cross hand-dyed rovings I need to spin small samples of so I get to play with it this weekend.

This rolling cart is the perfect size for storing and toting my spinner around. It's a smaller version of several larger carts I now own for carting my spinning with wheel around (and other stuff). The Hansen mini-spinner fits inside this small cart with all it's accessories perfectly with plenty of room for roving. And it's the perfect little table to set the spinner on for spinning. My bigger carts are great for toting my wheel around - I can put all my supplies inside the cart and bungee my wheel on top -  helpful when going somewhere to demonstrate. Now I could buy a Zuca bag like many others with this spinner have done but I'm not ready (and may not ever be) to part with $200-$300 for it, no matter how neat it is. My cute little cart was $13.99 plus $5.49 for the lid - what a bargain. And the larger carts aren't much more.

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!