New spindle spinning

Since I finished up the last spindle spinning I thought it was time to pick out some roving for new spindle spinning.........and a spindle I haven't spun on before other than to try it out. 

This is a sweet little Turkish spindle from Jeri Brock Woodworks. It weighs 7/8oz/24gr. There is no website listed on the tag but if you're interested she is on Ravelry under the name jeribrock (I did not buy directly from her but from a shop a few years ago). It spins beautifully.

The fiber I'm spinning is from Crosspatch Creations - it was the Special NWRSA Spinners Blend - The Spinning Shepherdess colorway made to celebrate the 2006 conference.........yep, it's been in my stash since 2006, got buried behind something else on the shelf. I've got 4 oz of it to spin, should take a while as I don't spindle spin that often. This type of spinning is always a challenge to me - the blend is not meant to produce a smooth yarn, it's going to have lumpies/bumpies due to the nature of the batts. Crosspatch always has fun batts - this one was only available at the conference but check out their site for others.

I've also picked out some merino/bamboo/tussah silk roving, my own hand-dyed, to start spinning on the wheel. Will post a picture of that once I get started on it. Actually, here's a picture of it in my etsy shop - I really should try and get a better picture, this one doesn't do it justice, the colors are lovely and sheen incredible.

Finally time to weave...........

 Finally I got back to that bamboo warp yesterday - here is scarf #2 on the warp using a purple weft.....

 ......and here's scarf #3 using a black weft......Unfortunately none of my photos of this scarf were good - it's much prettier than it looks here.

I picked up these 2 skeins of sock yarn at The Wool Co in Bandon on Saturday. Whoo hoo - look at those bright colors, the socks will brighten up any dreary winter day. I'm almost tempted to start both pair so I can see how they'll look but since I've got another pair of socks on needles and a hat I'll restrain myself. Hmm, wonder if they'll glow in the dark..........

Fairy garden......or not........

I love the little fairy gardens folks are putting together so decided I needed to give it a try.....minus any fairies. I toyed with doing a beach themed garden but as I looked around the house I found a few items that would make a great bird themed garden like the little pottery birdhouse I've had for years sitting in the flower beds out front on a bamboo pole which has finally disintegrated - it's the teal with red roof birdhouse on the left. And then the little plant poke brown birdhouse on the right and a fun Francisan plate - only one I've got picked up for 50 cents. The only thing I bought was the little birdbath sitting in front of the plate. If I run across the perfect little bird I'll buy it to add to the garden. This past weekend I picked up some stones and pebbles off the beach to make walkways. Today after my tooth sharpening (dental visit for cleaning) I rewarded myself for making it through that appointment by buying some plants. I decided to put in a few herbs so as I trim them for the garden we'll also get to eat them - chives, rosemary and Italian parsley. There's some lobelia for color and a cute little ground cover in the foreground. It makes me smile......

More spinning...........

Finally finished some drop spindling that I've only worked on here and there. This was some of my own hand-dyed superwash merino. I've got 350 yards - maybe a cowl......who knows........not my best spinning but it will look great once knit. It's super soft and I love the colors.....in spite of blue not being my color.............

Spinning myself dizzy..........

When I go to my spinning group Sam always tell me to have a good time and not to spin myself dizzy.....it should actually be gabbing myself to exhaustion!  I've been working on this handspun for a long time as I've only spun on it when in the group and that's in-between catching up with friends. I finally finished up the 2 bobbins I had spun on my Majacraft Little Gem and last night I plied them on my Hansen mini-spinner (electric spinner). I got 504 yards of fingering to DK weight yarn. It was spun from Sporfarm (The Dalles, OR) batts of 2/3 Shetland/1/3 Fine Wool in the Sea Mist colorway.  Her batts are so pretty, such soft colors......not as soft as I would have liked once spun but still very lovely.  I'd give a link to her website except she doesn't have one but she does always have a booth at Black Sheep Gathering and Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. Not sure what this will grow up to be.......will sit and visit with the other handspun on the shelf for a while.  Now to pick out the next fiber to spin..........maybe some of my own hand-dyed.

 

 

Echo Weave book

This is what arrived in my mailbox today - Weaving with Echo and Iris. I've been waiting for Marian Stubenitsky's book to come out in the English translation. I've been fascinated with what echo weave I've seen but there is so little out there written about it........until now. Hoping to sit down with it soon and go through it page by page - I've only flipped through it so far and it's a beautifully published book - well worth the money. If you're interested here's the link to Marian's site.  I was so glad it fit through the slot in our locking steel mailbox otherwise I would have had to go to town tomorrow to pick it up at the main post office.

Bamboo

I did get one hand-painted (dyed) bamboo scarf woven today in-between everything else I needed to do. I think this run of scarves will look great worn with blue jeans, not to mention blue, purple or black slacks or dresses. I used a navy bamboo weft on this scarf, next one I'll use purple, maybe black on the final scarf.

My small gardening effort..........

This morning I fit in my small gardening project for the year - some pots on the deck - half as many as in the past but I'm good with it. We took off some of the drip tubing since I cut back the pots but there's still one left that I may put a pot under for a fairy garden.

I bought 3 hanging baskets - they come in to BiMart each year in time for Mother's Day at bargain prices. This year's color scheme is purple, yellow and white.

I've got 4 of these deck planters - I planted them this year with Compact Safran, Calibrachoa Volcano Gold, Plum Pudding Petunia easy waves, Bacopa Big Dark Blue Falls and Crystal Palace Lobelia. Hopefully in the near future these will start growing and overflowing the planters to cover the brackets. Each year I tryout some new combination.

Here's looking down the deck - the 4 planters, basil in the corner and hanging baskets. Usually there are numerous pots along this deck railing but have scaled it back this year.

Here are the basil plants - the best starts I think I've ever bought. I thought I bought 3 varieties but found just 2 when I planted this morning - Italian Large Leaf and Nufar. Must have zoned out when putting them in my cart.

Unfortunately I don't have a veggie garden like I did at the last house - very little flat ground on this property. I've experimented with tomatoes and peppers on the deck in pots but they've never done well, this area doesn't get enough sun for most veggies. So, I go to my local stand or the grower's market to shop for fresh veggies all summer. Very sad - my 2 big fig trees out front look to have been done in by the extreme cold we had back in December - no buds, no leaves, just bare trees. We're not taking them out yet though, I have hopes that something is living underground that will send up new shoots - if we don't see anything by winter we'll pull them up. They were good producers - what a shame.

Now off to the loom........

Surprise in the mail......

This is what I picked up at the post office today - a giveaway from Alisa Burke's blog where she gave away something fun every day for a week to celebrate her birthday last month. I thought I was just getting a wood burning tool but look at all the fun wood I got to embellish - oh boy!  This is going to be fun - I haven't used a wood burning tool since I was in elementary school - yes, that was a long time ago, around 50 years ago - yikes! No doubt you'll be seeing what I create on the blog but since I have a number of ideas for holiday gifts they will be squirreled away 'til the season and won't be shown on my blog for many months. If you've never checked out Alisa's blog you should hop on over there - she's very talented and creates new fun stuff every day, she also sells her art in various forms, has online classes and classes in her studio up north on the Oregon coast.

Huh???

Yep, that's what I said "huh???" as I was trying out wefts for a painted warp. Draft chosen was the simple 4 harness Wall of Troy (which I love) but as I was auditioning wefts I could see a problem in the treadling - can you see it in the black and purple weft areas?  I double checked, triple checked my tie-up - it was correct, treadling was correct, threading was correct although I knew it wasn't a threading error........it all matched up to the book (Davison's). So, out comes my own weaving records to look at what I had written down for some other scarves I had woven in this draft - the tie-up is different on my records. Obviously I discovered the error in the book back then but neglected to make a note in the book.....notation now made......tie-up corrected and the navy blue sample is what the weave structure should look like.

No weaving happened today other than getting the warp on the loom, wefts auditioned and error fixed - it was time to spend time with Mom. Hoping to get to the loom tomorrow although there are a couple other things on the schedule.

Renovation is underway.........

I'm still here, haven't posted in a bit because I really didn't have much to post. My brother came out for a visit so there was family time and then we took off for the coast for a few days right after he left. While on the coast we celebrated our 31st anniversary and worked on a reno project. I'll show you part of what we did - kitchen side of the wall will be posted after it's done. This was not all done in the 3 days we were over there, it took several visits as it takes time for drywall mud to dry between coats. Ignore all the ugly flooring as we'll be replacing that once we get all the other work done throughout the house.....which means it will be a while as we only work on the place here and there.

This is the living room side of the wall we worked on........well, to be honest mostly Sam worked on, other than me lifting a paintbrush and roller I supervised. This was the old coat closet.

Here it is with the closet trim and door removed and the drywall cut away from the kitchen side. We're putting another cabinet in that space. The kitchen is small and lacking cabinet and drawer space - we found a great 96" tall cabinet in a second hand store with lots of shelves and drawers.

See the bottom part of the cabinet?  Shortly after this picture was taken the top part of the cabinet went in, then drywall on the living room side.

Yes, missing many 'in progress' pix but here's what it looked like yesterday morning. The closet is gone and we cut an opening in the wall to open up the area. I'm going to look for something fun to hang in the top part of that opening, maybe a glass mermaid or such.  (Ok, so this electric leather recliner - very comfy but not what I was looking for - I was looking for a used vintage looking chair and ottoman, maybe something I'd slipcover - lesson learned, don't take hubby along - he saw this on clearance and wanted it.......not exactly the décor/look I'm going for.....but he is a good sport with all the vintage décor so giving in on the chair didn't seem like too big a deal)

Here is that wall again looking in toward the kitchen. Soon that cabinet (see it hanging down through the opening?) will be coming out along with the bulkhead it's screwed to - that will open up the kitchen to dining area tremendously. I will also be painting all the kitchen cabinets white, hopefully this summer. So the area behind this little table (yes, I bought another bargain little table) and mirror is the new/used cabinet in the kitchen. That wall is now finished on the other side but I haven't painted the cabinet yet.....hopefully next trip over, then I'll have more pictures to share.

So here's the hallway looking toward the bedrooms.  We stole a part of a big closet in the guest room for a new coat closet. Sam cut the opening, put the closet trim and door in and then had to divide the closet and drywall over part of the wall in the bedroom.

Here's that new coat closet.  It's not totally finished as only the first coat of drywall mud is applied inside, more coats and painting needed. We hate the color of wood in this house - eventually I will be painting it all white including the doors, those kitchen cabinets and the bathroom vanities. Poor Bailey's bowls don't usually sit there, they keep getting moved around the kitchen as we work - confuses the poor pooch.

Now it's time to get back to the loom, planning projects and weaving.

May Day Discount

To celebrate the first day of May I'm offering a 10% discount in both of my etsy shops - the coupon code, MayDay2014, needs to be used at the time of checkout. And this offer isn't only on May Day - it's good through Sunday, May 4th.

My handwovens, felted items, etc. are in this etsy shop.

Roving and all fibers for spinning, felting or crafting in this etsy shop.

Don't know about the rest of you but it's going to be 90 degrees today, going to set records, not my idea of perfect May Day weather..........but it could be forest fires, floods and dealing with tornado aftermath as elsewhere in the country so I'm counting my blessings...........

A bit of this and that..........

I spent some time weaving and finishing up weaving recently. First are the tencel scarves based on Iranian Tilework. I had the hardest time capturing the color and sheen in photos - did my best - which is not always very good........actually sometimes pretty bad..........

Teal with Red/Purple - love the iridescence in this color combo

 

Teal with Navy - when weaving I thought this might be boring - I love the color combo, love, love, love it

 

Teal with Seafoam - love this one too - much more subtle

 

Teal with Ruby - this is the one I originally wove to fit in with the theme of Iran for my guild challenge for the year - these colors make me think of the middle east - the photo doesn't do it justice - it's lovely.

I had woven these merino/tussah silk scarves a early last month, finally got them washed and fringes twisted.

These were both woven with my handspun, warp and weft - I wove 2 of the second one but now wished I had woven 2 of the first design as I like it better.

 

Next up are the white chenille shawls - they just came off the loom yesterday awaiting washing and fringe twisting. I picture these as wedding shawls........sure hope someone else does and buys them. I put on enough warp for 3 shawls in white rayon chenille, of course I didn't have enough of the white chenille left for weft - above I used a 6 ply rayon for weft - it should turn out lovely after washing.

Here I used a slubby/nubby rayon/cotton yarn for weft - it looks like tiny fresh water pearls all over the shawl - it's really pretty.

This shawl I used a ecru/natural weft - this will look lovely with those off white wedding gowns. Of course these aren't limited to wedding shawls - was just the thought behind doing them in white - they'd be nice anytime to keep the chill off the shoulders.

 

All of these will eventually end up in my etsy shop........once completely finished and photographed.

 

My heart goes out to all those affected by the tornadoes and floods this week - so very scary.

 

 

Finally off the loom.........

The Iranian Tilework inspired scarves are finally off the loom waiting to be washed. I will say that AVL bench is a butt killer and I've got 2 sheepskins stacked on top of one another on it plus my own ample padding - not sure why it's so uncomfortable compared to the bench I use with my Macomber. Will have to work on making it more comfortable.

This is scarf #3 - I used a navy tencel weft. The white grosgrain ribbon pinned on the edge of the scarf is my measuring ribbon for scarves - I have it marked at 65", 68" and 70" and then the midway point of 35" (for a 70" scarf) in case I'm reversing the treadling at the mid-scarf point.

And here is scarf #4 using a seafoam green tencel weft

 

Next up on the Macomber are white and variations of white chenille shawls. No time tomorrow to get that warp wound and on the loom but soon.

 

 

Re-entry is always tough........

Re-entry into the world here in the valley from the world on the coast is always tough. I won't go into the mundane details but it's a killer sometimes.....but we had a nice 5 days on the coast even with the torrential rains for 2 of those days. Bailey didn't have such a good time - the front steps 'bit' him - we're still not sure what happened but we think he dove off those 2 steps to rush over to the fence to see the neighbor dog and had a tumble. He's been pretty hurty but today is starting to feel a bit better, he either wrenched his back, pulled a muscle or sprained something.......and I have to say he's quite the weinie when he's hurting.

I brought my little cardweaving loom along and did get one warp on it and woven off on Monday. I chose a very simple pattern as I wanted the change in color to be the highlight rather than the patterning - I used 6 colors plus black. This is destined to become a strap for my camera which only has a wrist strap on it.

What I love about this pattern is that it looks like knit stitches - not sure if it's that noticeable in the photos or not - it's created by alternating Z twist and S twist threaded cards.

Shells from the first day's walk on the beach. This was a good haul of snail/hermit crab shells. We ran into Loren, my favorite old beach guy, he gave me some yellow agates and tidbits of info on all sorts of things beach related - I really enjoy him. We were to stop by his house at some point to see all his 'stuff' but after Bailey fell we decided we'd do it next time.

Finally weaving........

Finally weaving today in-between other household chores and running orders to the post office - I ignored the phone when it rang which felt great - no one left a message so my only assumption is that it was telemarketers. I was even in one place long enough to listen to a book on CD.

I'm back to that tencel warp I put on the AVL a couple weeks ago but had only gotten as far as to audition wefts.  Here's the first scarf - I love this color combination.

And here is the second scarf. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that this design is based on Iranian tilework - I pulled the country of Iran in our guild challenge so I'm to create something inspired by Iran. This is the resulting warp. And I think this color combination is the one that will best represent the country.  I still have 2 more scarves to weave, I thought I had picked out weft colors but have since changed my mind.......will get back to that warp next week.

In the pink........

Isn't this a beautiful dogwood?  It was up the street from where our spinning group met on Tuesday, I just had to capture a picture of it. I love the older neighborhoods in town with the established trees and plantings - so colorful this time of year.

Not much happening here fiber wise - life gets in the way - why does that keep happening??? It never used to. I did get 17 sheep towels embroidered for a June wedding - I had already done 20 of them for the same wedding and the gal said the guest list is growing and she needed more - they're being used as bread basket cloths.  Today I'm hoping to get to the loom to weave on that scarf warp. Guess I better take Bailey for a walk and get moving.........

Let's try again.......

Here's a box of discount coupons for my etsy shops along with a roving sample all to go in the NWRSA (spinning) conference goodie bags.  I gave discount coupons to be put in the bags a couple years ago and didn't get one sale from it - don't know if they were just tossed or what, those didn't have a sample in them.  I'm hoping it works this year - luckily I've got very little money or time into preparing them.  I sell tons of roving through and out of my etsy shop - other discount coupons get used - not sure why the coupons 2 years ago weren't effective. I think it's worth trying again..........need to get these in the mail soon. 

 

Not much else happening here - I did get 12 towels hemmed and up in the etsy shop for sale, also took time for some photography work to get another 5 scarves listed for sale.  Saturday was my guild presentation on name drafting - I think it went over well.  Everyone (except for one tapestry weaver) was busy at work designing their name drafts and I've heard from several since Saturday that are already planning projects and one actually got her loom warped already.  I always figure if at least one guild member goes home and does something t's a success - it's so exciting seeing how many got inspired by the program. I think everyone always enjoys a hands-on program rather than always a lecture. I'm hoping to get back to the scarf warp hanging out on the AVL tomorrow and possibly get a white chenille shawl warp on the Macomber for wedding season. But not today - today is my twice monthly spinning get together - always fun to hang out with my fiber peeps.

 

I feel like I'm teasing my blog readers with talk of a discount coupon so I've just gone and created one just for you  - use this coupon code  BLOG2014 at the time of check-out in either of my etsy shops and you'll get 10% off - this coupon is good thru the end of the year. My shop with handwovens, felted items and embroidered towels is HERE - my fiber/roving shop is HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yum

Yum - this is what was for breakfast this morning - not the usual fare in this house where it is a choice between oatmeal, cold cereal, yogurt/fruit or bagels which are the special breakfast we have when on the coast.  There are no eggs made in this house, no french toast, no frittatas, no quiche - I have an egg allergy. I can handle a bit of egg in baked goods but too much and my throat will close up. I had this mix in the pantry from when I bought a few things from a Tastefully Simple party.....I didn't attend the party but my cousin in Michigan was hosting one so I ordered to help boost her party sales. All that's needed is a cup of water to make the muffins themselves - good thing no eggs needed as I rarely have them in the house.  The topping did require melted butter, box called for 1 stick, way too much, have lots left, if I had another box of this I'd use a half stick. Sugar high at the moment......hoping I don't crash in an hour or so.

Handwoven towels......

I actually got to spend quite a bit of time at the loom yesterday afternoon - 6 towels woven. Maybe this afternoon I'll get to finish up this warp and move back to the scarf warp.

Two towels using blue for the pattern - I like it with the grey & white stripes.....



....next up purple......

 

.......next up yellow weft.......ok, so this is not my favorite but has anyone noticed how there is so much yellow and gray being used together in house décor these days?  Thought I'd make some with the hopes that someone out there with those colors in their kitchen or bathroom will love these towels.  Today will go back to weaving more with black pattern weft, and possibly red ones or more blue..........

It was so nice to get a number of hours in the studio, life this past year has interfered with that way too much, felt good to be weaving away and listening to a book on cd.....hoping to get back to weaving as much as I have over years in the past........definitely need it for my sanity!

It all comes out in the wash.........

Yesterday afternoon I got a couple hours at the loom, got the towel warp tied on and some towels woven. This is an overshot pattern, Royal Crown, one repeat of the pattern in the center and then a small border on either side. On the other end of the towel I put one row of the small border. I used a black pattern weft for the beginning towels - I think they'll look great in a gray kitchen especially those with stainless appliances. I won't be using black on all of them, maybe blue on a couple, maybe purple or red.  For the non-weavers out there what I mean by it all comes out in the wash is that handwovens aren't finished until they're washed - once these towels are washed they'll shrink and the pattern will show up even more, not to mention that washing gets rid of all the spinning oils from the commercial spinning process.

A romp on the beach.........

We spent the past 4 days on the coast - relatives came to visit from Montana, they used to live here in SW Oregon.....they were the first of the family to move here from the east coast back in 1980, if I remember the year correctly.......many of us followed over the years and then they had to escape us all. Montana is beautiful but we won't be following them there, too cold and snowy for us.

Sandra & Monte have had several mini-dachshunds over the years, this is the new addition to their family, Gia, a long haired mini.  They've done a good job socializing her as doxies can sometimes have snippy personalities - she's a real cutie and loves everyone, humans and dogs.  We weren't sure how Bailey would react to a dog the size of a squirrel (he hates the dreaded squirrels who taunt him) but he did great and really enjoyed having her around. He even let her pounce on him, paw at his face and give him kisses - I think he loves her and I know she's in love with him.  I'm not sure how much Gia weighs but Bailey has to weigh at least 10-15 times more than her. I tried to capture some fun shots of her loving him up but she's so darned fast I'd just get her tail in the shot so pix from the beach are as good as I could get.  Tonight is a family dinner back here in the valley so they'll be loving each other up again before Gia heads back to Montana.

It was Gia's first time on the beach - she loved it

 

She pretty much stuck by Bailey learning the ropes

 

I think she was a bit puzzled by the rolling in the sand and kicking legs in the air

 

In the end - two pals heading back to the house after a day of frolicking on the beach