Towels

The cottolin towels that came off the loom at the beach cottage.....finally washed and hemmed......still in need of pressing and photography work.  Phew, this load of towels in the dryer totally filled up the lint trap, I had to empty it part way through the drying.....this cottolin certainly does put out the lint on that first washing.

I wasn't sure how these would turn out - I have a boatload of cottolin and it's my goal to weave it all off into towels in the near future. The goal is to not buy more colors to add to the mix which means I'm using varied amounts of a limited range of colors.........which means to make long enough warps I may be mixing colors I ordinarily wouldn't. I wasn't sure about these when I started weaving but I love the finished towels. Not sure what color combinations will end up on the next batch.........

Rain!!!!

It's raining!  I'm doing the happy dance. This doesn't mean fire season is over, it's going to get dry and hot again in a couple days, but it is a huge relief......the rainy season can't be far off.........

And yes, that's a huge wood pile now getting wet in the rain - but it will dry out again. The wood shed is filled and that is 2-3 cords of overflow. We'll get it covered after it dries out again.

Stress

Thank you to all who wished me well with my cataract surgery.......it didn't happen. This morning at 7am I was to have cataract surgery - I was all prepped, IV in, ready to go but my blood pressure went sky high, which is not normal for me. I do have white coat syndrome but nothing like this, usually just on the high side of normal. I kept trying to remain calm hoping it would come down but it wasn't coming down enough and they gave me a lot of time to relax. So, they then brought Sam in to see if that would help - no go..........and he almost passed out from low blood pressure, he was worried to death about me.  So, I was off the table, he was on hooked up to the monitors. His finally got back to normal and they felt ok with letting us leave. So now I've got an appointment with the regular doc to find out what the issue is - once my BP is under control he'll give the eye surgeon the go ahead and I'll reschedule.  This sure wasn't the way I expected my day to go.  Now I think it's time for a nap since I slept very little last night worrying about the upcoming surgery and then had to get up at 4:30 to get there in time.  Best laid plans..........life does go awry at times.........

I'm still here........

.....just been gone so hadn't posted. I didn't take many pictures this past 9 days but here are a few showing what I've been up to.

The major reason for the longer than usual trip to the beach cottage was to paint - argh. I've painted so many houses over the last 38 years - I'm tired of it - I don't want to paint anymore, but it must be done. Since we bought this house 5 years ago we've been slowly updating/fixing it up. We need to get the nasty smelly carpet out of there and lay some composite flooring but first we need to paint all the windows, doors, trim, baseboard, doorjambs, etc.  I love stained wood trim but this was an ugly dark color so we decided to paint it white. What a job!  First a deglosser to clean it off and prep it for paint, then a primer, then at least 2 coats of paint, in some areas 3 and even a few spots needed 4. Here's Sam taking down the blinds in prep for painting.

Here's Sam putting the blinds back up after we painted - we painted every single window/trim and door jamb/trim in the house. The doors are started, baseboard to come on another trip over but that's a quick painting job in comparison to all the windows in the house....much of the baseboard we pulled out to paint.  Unfortunately we can't do anything about the black windows and grids that are in-between the panes - we just have to live with those.  I love how much bigger the rooms look now. I should have taken a pic of the hallway - it must be only 14 feet long, very narrow and it has 6 doors in it - yes 6 doors!  It looks so much better without all that dark wood.

Here's the dining room put back together....ignore those leaves all over the floor that were blown in the back door.

I don't remember if I posted a pic of the quilted placemats actually in use or not so here they are.

I may have shown one of these tables before, just had to share again as these are my favorite types of tables and I have several of them and will buy more if I see them at a good price. I remember my grandmother having one by her back door when I was growing up. Sam says I brake for any kind of small table but especially these. I don't know what era they originally came from - the 30's or maybe 40's???  Anyone know?

I finished knitting a pair of sox - my second in this colorway as one pair are a gift.

I started another pair of sox just because there always has to be a pair of sox on the needles.

Started another secret project with dropped stitches.

I snuck in a few hours to weave and finish off the towel warp over at the beach cottage......that day I was really tired of painting.........

Here's the pile of towels just pulled off the loom, different colored wefts, some plaids, some solids....now these need to be washed and hemmed.

Fire over near Bandon Dunes Golf Resort this past week while we were at the beach cottage (pic pulled from the local paper website). I had been painting windows on the back side of the house, finished up and walked to the front door and saw smoke enveloping us. Silly me not having fire on the mind over there - they can just as easily have fires as we can here in the valley. Fire started on the beach by someone with an illegal fire, it caught the beach grass and gorse on fire which is highly flammable. Luckily the fire was put out quickly before spreading.  The town and miles around it burned to the ground in 1936, from 30 miles inland right to the beach.

Final shot of wind surfers.  Sorry it's so hard to see, we were far away and I only had my phone with me to take the shot. There are windsurfers with the sails on their boards and there are the ones being pulled along by kites. This spot is famous for windsurfing - it's just north of Gold Beach, around an hour south of our place.

So now I deal with, as I call it, re-entry - have much to do as I have cataract surgery this week and since I'm not getting the standard lens but getting a premium one that will give me a better range of vision and correct my astigmatism I have some restrictions on close up work/reading for a week. Last night after getting home I pulled and boxed up orders so they're ready to mail tomorrow. Today I will be tackling the huge Ashland Bay roving order that came in over 2 weeks ago that I ignored......I'm out of way too many colors in the shop so I must deal with it now.

Towel warp ready to go

The towel warp is ready to go after we finish up our painting job this next week and after my cataract surgery. In spite of being out of the studio too much this week I did manage to get the AVL and Macomber looms both warped so I can get right to weaving after surgery.  All I have to do is tie on the front beams, throw a bobbin in the shuttle and start weaving. Feels good to have gotten this done.

Now if only a fiber fairy would show up at my door to deal with the roving order that arrived on Monday........roving needs to be weighed, bagged, labeled, put into inventory and relisted in my other etsy shop. My shop is out of so many colors but I can't see when I can fit this chore in the schedule - it might be 2-3 weeks so I apologize in advance to my roving shoppers. If someone is interested in a color not currently in the shop please contact me through my shop - I can then let you know if it's in stock waiting to be weighed out and I can move that color to the top of the list when I get to that chore.

Missing in action......

Yes, I've been missing in action lately. It's taken a while to get over the 'county fair crud' respiratory infection most of us demonstrating spinning at the fair got. But Monday I could feel I was on the road to recovery - by Tuesday I was feeling almost normal. I can't remember the last time I got sick, as in what year it was. I'm paranoid about getting the flu after getting it around 15 years ago - I cannot get the flu shot as I'm allergic to eggs so I'm constantly washing my hands, using sanitizer wipes provided at stores for the carts, etc.  Who would have thought demo'ing at the county fair we'd all get zonked.  I lost the week at home demo'ing at the fair and then I lost a bit more than a week after the fair - I'm now trying to play catch up.

This week I'm trying to fit in warping 2 looms, it's hard as I've got many appointments outside the house. Yesterday morning I did get a painted tencel warp on the AVL. This warp is for 2 scarves, each one starts with a golden brown, goes to rust, a dark red and then very dark chocolate brown. It will be a gamble on what colors I choose to use for weft as I'll only be able to see what that weft looks like at the beginning of the scarf on the golden brown, not how it will look with the other colors.

Today I'm going to try and get started on winding a warp for the Macomber.  I have a deadline. Starting Friday we're into a bit over a week of painting - argh. Then I have cataract surgery (hurray) and with the lens I've picked that will give me a range of vision plus correct an astigmatism I have reading limits for a couple weeks so while I can weave, I won't be able to do close up work like threading the heddles and reed. I'll be limited in all close up work and reading.......although I can be on the computer as that's an arm's length away. So, the push is on to get warps on the looms. I could quickly get another painted warp on the Macomber today before I have to go out.......but I wanted to put on a long towel warp but that's taking a chance in getting it done. I need to make a decision shortly, like in the next 30 minutes. It really put a snafu in my schedule getting sick at the fair.......

On another note - we are still in fire season but it's starting to feel like fall - when I looked at the thermometer a bit ago it was only 42 out, the air is crisp, no smoke as it's all pushed to the west at the moment. The heat will return but fall weather is on the way.....rain can't come soon enough...........

Ginkgo

Yesterday I did muster up enough energy to twist the fringe on the ginkgo scarves and do the photography work.......then I ran out of steam and finished up the photo editing this morning. These scarves are now listed for sale in my etsy shop.........well, the purple one isn't yet as someone asked me for a purple one, if she doesn't end up buying it, it will show up in the etsy shop.

When I look at this photo my mind immediately dreams of autumn - it can't come too soon this year. Beside being ready for the end of fire season autumn is my favorite time of the year. I can feel it coming - the temp this morning was 48, crisp, cool and lovely.......if you ignore the smoke.

Whatever this 'county fair bug' is - it's gotten us all down. I'm feeling much better, not much coughing now, just no energy. I have too much to get done to be down - this is getting old.

Slow day......

I knew it would be a slow day with the county fair respiratory bug but I didn't think I'd end up prone on the couch again which is what happened mid-afternoon.....and the coughing started up again, ribs aching.......but I'm still better than yesterday.  Late this afternoon I washed the 4 gingko scarves and put them out over the deck railing to dry - with our dry hot weather that took all of 30 minutes. Maybe tomorrow I'll work on twisting fringe - that won't take much energy.....if I'm short on it again tomorrow. Need to get over this bug, have to much on my to-do list to be down........

Spinning at the fair

This is what I spent 4 days spinning while demo'ing at the county fair. It's some of my hand-dyed merino/tencel roving. I know a lot of people don't like yellow but I love it and I think this will make an elegant spring/summer shawl........and maybe I'll even have it knit by next spring or summer.....maybe. Would love to have enough energy to finish spinning up the rest of that roving this evening and then move on to plying another evening this week. Not only does this look like butter but it spins like it........

The toll keeps rising - another sick one from the fair, and another has an appointment this afternoon with her doc. I'm feeling rundown and still not up to par but at least today I'm not laying prone, coughing and headache not as bad.....just not getting a terrible amount accomplished........

Dropping like flies........

We're dropping like flies in the aftermath of the county fair. The majority of us demonstrating at the fair have come down with a respiratory ailment - one has already gone to urgent care and  got a diagnosis of pneumonia - two others are going to urgent care today and will report back to the rest of us. It was very strange that we suddenly got sick within a day of each other. My professional weaver/spinner's diagnosis was legionnaires' due to the cooling system in the building........and based on the fact that I recently saw an update on the news about it in NYC. But, honestly, I have no business saying that - it just sounded like something that could happen to us all very quickly. As of right now I don't have it as bad as others - headache, scratchy throat and a cough - my cough isn't as bad as it was 24-48 hours ago. On my way home from taking down the fair display this morning I did pick up another bag of cough drops and will be relaxing and drinking hot tea with honey today.

County Fair Display

This year's county fair display is much different than year's past. I issued a challenge to our spinning group to get more of the group motivated to have something for our display rather than just a handful of us - 17 of our group participated which is incredible.

Back last fall Iput several roving color combinations for everyone to vote on their favorite to use as this year's fair theme. The colors that got the most votes were Hyacinth, Berry and Kiwi (Ashland Bay rovings). Rule #1 was that these three colors had to be used in a project - they could be blended, spun on their own or other colors or fibers could be added to them. They could be spun, felted, knit, crocheted, woven, whatever - the sky was the limit. Look at the incredible collection we came up with all starting with the same 3 colors - all different techniques. I think it was a huge success. Yesterday was our first day demonstrating spinning at the fair - the public seemed to really enjoy looking at our display and visiting with us.

The highlight of this year's fair are the sea lions - they have a show several times a day, other times you can have your picture taken with them.....for a fee. I watched a couple getting their picture taken with 3 sea lions hanging over their shoulders, big smiles on their faces hamming it up for the camera........the sea lions, not the couple. I'm trying not to think about whether or not the sea lion show is humane - hopefully they aren't constantly traveling and get to spend time in some big tanks as opposed to the ones at the fair.

Final gingko scarf

I finished up the final gingko scarf this morning, this time the weft was sage green. I have extra warp on the loom to still weave off - will be using a charcoal grey with hopes of including that woven piece in a purse. Temps today are to be over 100 - it was already getting too warm in the studio so I'm done weaving for the day.

Whoever designed this AVL V Series loom must be left handed - that little screwed on block of wood that will hold a couple pencils and scissors is on the left hand side of the castle - very awkward for a right handed person. I could move it to the right side but hate to leave holes in the wood.  Might have to check to see how much another simple little block of wood with a couple holes and slot in it costs so I can install a second one.....or I could work on being ambidextrous.....nah......too much work, easier to buy another one.

 

Taking a chance

I'm taking a chance here weaving purple gingkos - I really like it, very subtle. I was contacted by a prospective customer about purple when I mentioned I had a black warp on the loom and what colors I was considering for wefts. I don't know as if she'll be interested in buying once I've got it ready to sell but I'm taking a gamble that if she doesn't someone else will. One more scarf to go on the warp - maybe tomorrow.

I'm slowing down my weaving a bit to do other things and I'm enjoying it. I'm still really driven to produce so it's a challenge but I'm working on it.....trying to keep that nagging voice in the back of my head telling me I have to be productive all the time at bay. I'm also considering a big change in the selling of roving to free up even more time for creative ventures - sometime in the new year I may put that part of the business on sabbatical for a few months to see how it goes.........still in the thinking stages on this as it's a good portion of my income. I've had some ideas of drafts I want to create for the AVL for around 4 years but just run out of time to sit and design them - hoping to free up more time for that along with other fun creative tasks.

So, now instead of weaving on that last scarf I'll go paint my toe nails a bright hot pink.

Red Gingkos

In-between mundane chores I did get another gingko scarf woven today - this one in red

 

 

My favorite leaf.....

I put a black warp on the AVL last month with plans of weaving more gingko leaf scarves. Today I finally got them started. I auditioned many weft colors, a small glimpse of that is on the bottom in this picture. First scarf up is a coppery brown weft. I think another scarf will be red, a sage one and possibly a purple one. Someone visiting my etsy shop asked about purple so I might give it a try and hope that someone buys it if she doesn't. It will be very subtle. I'm loving the coppery brown one above. Not sure when I'll get back to this warp - have another warp to wind and get on the Macomber and also have many warps to wind for future dyeing/painting.

Lemon Blueberry Bread

Ok, so this is a terrible pic but this lemon blueberry bread is the best. I've been wanting to make it for a few weeks but either I'd have blueberries and no lemons, or I'd have lemons and no blueberries........finally yesterday the stars aligned and I had both.  I think I originally got this recipe out of a Country magazine years ago but don't quote me on that.  I bet it would be good with fresh raspberries too.

Lemon Blueberry Bread

1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
3 tbs lemon juice
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tbs grated lemon peel
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Glaze: 2 tbs lemon juice and 1/4 cup sugar

In a mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, juice and eggs. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; stir into egg mixture alternating with milk. Fold in peel and blueberries. Pour into a greased 8x4x2 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes or until bread tests done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine glaze ingredients. Remove bread from pan and drizzle with glaze. Cool on wire rack.

Notes - when I made this yesterday 2 lemons gave me exactly the amount of juice I needed but that will vary depending on your lemons.  Also in my convection oven it only took 50 minutes to bake.

Hmm, still have more blueberries.......think I need to pick up a couple more lemons.........

More freebies.

I've got a few more giveaways for anyone in the US or Canada - just leave me a comment with what you're interested in and a way of getting in touch with you. I also still have a few other items from my post of June 25th that are still available - the Hummingbird applique pattern, the Notion Nanny pattern and the Welcome Quilt pattern.  I'm working on passing on things that someone else may be interested in rather than letting them languish in my studio.

This pattern has been spoken for - it's no longer available
Sewing Bird pattern - pincushion. This is really cute - I made several of these for gifts

Veronica Pocketbook - I never made this one

The Urban Knitter book by Lily Chin.  I got this in a raffle basket and won't use any of the patterns but maybe someone else will. It's autographed.

I spent a good portion of my day ridding the studio of paper. Tons of old catalogs will be heading to recycling along with a huge bag of old weaving guild newsletters. I found I never have gone back to look at them so no need for them to clutter up the space. I also had several notebooks from Convergences and ANWG conferences - I've never opened them since putting them together. I now have a nice supply of empty notebooks and many page protectors that I can use for weaving project records. Hmm, what shall I tackle next.........

Not happy about big copter flying over - can't see any smoke plumes and haven't been able to find out if there's a new fire.....hoping not.  It was the giant snorkel copter that sucks water in to drop on a fire rather than using a bucket.  It went over yesterday but was gone quite a while before coming back so I was assuming it went to a fire west of us in Agness......but this was a very short trip before it came back over the house.  And it's such a big copter it shakes the house, there's no missing it flying over. Have I said yet today that I hate fire season..........well, you haven't heard it but yes, I have said it to Bailey, our golden, he and I discuss the heat and fire danger every single day. Approximately 7 more weeks of fire season.......it may very well be longer than that but we often have at least one good rainfall toward the end of September that makes me breathe a little easier.

Handspun merino

I finally washed and blocked the merino I had been spinning. The top 3 skeins were my hand-dyed plied with Ashland Bay merino in the Seafoam colorway, 1,125 yards. The bottom skein was the same hand-dyed plied on itself, 122 yards.....I was lazy and didn't feel like spinning more of the seafoam for that so just decided to have a little constrasting yarn by plying it on itself.  Not sure what this will become when it grows up - it will sit on the shelf and marinate a while.

Free chenille

UPDATE: The chenille is spoken for - it's found a home - hurray.

In my continuing effort to find homes for 'stuff' as I'm feeling like it's all closing in on me I've got a GIVEAWAY.  This is rayon chenille, 500 yards per pound, so it's fairly thick. I bought it years ago but in reality I don't weave with this size of chenille so it's time for it to find a new home and be turned into something wonderful.  It feels incredibly yummy which is why I've hung onto it for so long but how long can I keep it around just for fondling.  The skeins do have 2-3 ties on them but they may be a challenge since the skeins are so large and chenille worms so rather than selling this I'm giving it away for the cost of shipping via USPS Priority Mail (Canada it will go First Class).  Just put it on a swift or squirrel cage and take it slow winding it into a ball - it may or may not take a little patience.....since I haven't wound any into balls I'm not sure, it could go quickly with no issues.

I've got 3 skeins of this - first to claim any or all of them gets them......I hope someone wants them......please, please......
1 lb 4 oz skein
1 lb 4 oz skein
1 lb 5 oz skein

If you're interested drop me a note with your email so I can send you a Paypal invoice for the shipping costs. Don't forget to send me your mailing address too. 

NOTE: this is open only to US or Canadian folks

Glorious day.....

It's been a glorious day - the wind shifted and we had no smoke.......and the temps in the 80's. I've been soaking it up as the wind may shift again by tomorrow bringing the dense smoke hanging over us.

No pictures as I've just posted them on my page for stuff for sale. I've put some Henry's Attic yarn there and some hand-dyed French braids. It's my on-going cleaning out of things I haven't used and don't see myself using - they need to find new homes. The Henry's Attic yarn is lovely but I wove with it for years, time to move on. These are all original skeins, no yardage ever used.  If you're interested in checking them out just click on 'Other Stuff for Sale' under Bailey's picture at the top of this blog. These will also show up in my etsy shop when I get a chance to list them.