The Year of the Monkey

 Yesterday we went to Jacksonville for the Chinese New Year Parade. It turned out to be a beautiful day after it poured overnight.

 I love the dragons - so fun. There's a big history of the Chinese in this area due to the gold mining - not necessarily good times.

 I tried to get some pix of the hula dancers since two of my spinning friends were dancing in the parade but I only had my phone and I didn't get good pix of them. These 3 dragon pix were the only good ones I got out of the bunch.

 When we got home I got to work on stringing beads for the kits for the bow weaving program I'll be teaching at my weaving guild in April.

Stringing these size 8 beads on 5/2 perle cotton is quick work using a dental flosser. Of course putting together the number of kits I need will still take a number of hours to complete but it's a mindless, good watching movies on Netflix chore. Would love to get back to this today but today is sit down in front of the computer with Turbo Tax Home & Business day - argh.........

Summer shawls........

I finally washed and twisted the fringe on some summer shawls in beach/sand colors. A mix of cotton and rayon slub in tans, peach, pale aqua and off white - very comfortable on the shoulders on a chilly summer evening. Now up for sale in my etsy shop.

After I weave off the scarves on the Macomber a white summer shawl warp will be going on. Need to get another scarf warp on the AVL too.  But for the immediate I'm back working on the bow weaving program with putting together warp & bead kits for guild members.  A very time consuming chore but it will be so much easier than having all guild members stringing beads at the guild meeting - I can work on it while watching movies/shows on Netflix.

New book

Yesterday a box arrived from Amazon with the new Robyn Spady book - 'Weaving Innovations from the Bateman Collection'.  I've only had time to flip through it so far but from what I can see it's a beautiful book jam-packed with information and drafts for weaving. I can't wait to sit down with it in the next couple of days.

Last month I also subscribed to Robyn's new digital magazine, Heddlecraft which looks to be incredible........but then after taking two workshops from Robyn I wouldn't expect anything less from both her book and magazine. She's easy to understand, very knowledgeable and probably the most organized and easy to understand weaving instructor I've ever taken a workshop from.

Robyn also has a blog - check it out for invaluable tid-bits on weaving.

I hope both her book and magazine take off.

A bit of the irish............

 Today I played at the embroidery machine stitching towels - I love the Mendhika style shamrock above......in my etsy shop just in time for St. Patrick's Day.

I love this delicate shamrock design. These are also for sale in my shop. Am thinking I need to embroider a couple for my own house. Somehow the holidays come and go and I've never gotten out any décor - towels are easy.

I stitched a few other towels but those are for gifts so I can't post them here.

Slubs........

Finally some time at the loom. Yesterday I got a summer shawl warp on the loom, today I wove off the two shawls. Hard to capture the colors but overall it looks like sand - I can see wearing this on the beach.......maybe I will have to keep one to wear on the beach!

Slubs - argh. I put in occasional accents of novelty rayon slub yarn - love the way it looks but what a pain one of them was. The peach slub would go through the heddles, occasionally needing a little coaxing but the other slub yarn, a variegated one with the pale aqua color would not even go through the heddles. I had to make string heddles to accommodate it........luckily there were only 8 ends as that's all I had of that yarn.

Anxious to see how these look after being washed.......maybe tomorrow..........

Change of plans

 Change in plans yesterday in the ball of yarn I planned to use for the next shawlette. I was just a bit too worried about how the striping would turn out. I wasted a lot of time fretting over it before I pulled out this ball of Zauberball singles in reds. Yes, this will make a striking shawlette.

Current fruit infused water in the pitcher - mandarins and limes.......very light and fresh tasting......I need to buy some other fruit and some mint soon........

Feeling blah.........

Not sure why but I'm feeling blah today. It's not the torrential rains because I'm loving them, every rain drop and snowflake up in the mountains is good for fire season this year. I had a great past two days, one of them spent with my spinning 'peeps', the other spent with a friend knitting and watching episodes 4 thru 6 of  The Borgia's on Netflix........can't wait for our next get together to watch the next 3 episodes.


I had planned on winding a shawl warp today but I just can't seem to do it - what I want to do most is nest at the loom but by the time I finished up other mundane chores and pulling roving orders to mail I just didn't have it in me to start winding a warp.

And then there are 4 knit shawlettes waiting to be blocked. Although not productive at the loom I am productive working on holiday/birthday gifts. But who feels like getting on the floor to get the first one blocked........not me, at least not today.........

So I've pulled another ball of yarn to knit yet another shawlette, not sure how this one will look at it moves from color to color - will be fun to find out. I am pretty excited about getting gifts made early this year - no panicking for me come November this year. I might just go turn on the Sunday evening episode of Downton Abbey and get this shawlette started and not worry about being productive at the loom today...........

This and that.......

We spent the past 4 days on the coast. While those to the east are stuck in frigid temps we had mild weather although the second 2 days were drippy and foggy.......but nothing that kept us from walking the beach.  Friend Teresa and I met for coffee and then went to a meet & greet with knit/crochet author Susan Bates at The Wool Company. I bought one of her books and a couple single patterns, also bought some yarn to knit a gingko shawl which I already have the pattern for.........more to come on that once I get it started......after I do a bit more gift knitting.

While Sam was removing some tile and getting a final coat of paint on closet doors I wound a warp for more cottolin towels. Beach colors that will be woven in a broken twill design. I also finished knitting another shawlette - now there are 4 in the queue to be blocked.  Next time over I'll tie on the front beam and start weaving.

And what did Bailey do?  What he does best when not walking the beach or people/dog watching off the front porch...........

........yep, can't pass up that comfy couch.......

Flavored water

A few years ago at the ANWG weaving conference in Bellingham, WA the cafeteria had big containers of cold fruit infused water. Each container, each day, was something different. Walking in the cafeteria that's where I looked first, what kind of water would there be that day.

I've always put lemons and limes in my water but up until that conference I had never considered using apples, blueberries, strawberries, melons, peaches, etc.  Since that time I've made my own glasses of fruit infused water but when on Amazon one day I saw these pitchers with a separate section in the middle for adding the fruit so you're not fighting with it trying to pour the water in your glass. And lo and behold there are many books out there on the subject.  So, of course I bought myself a pitcher and book.......and bought a couple more for gifts.

The water I made for tonight's dinner & card playing with our neighbors is pear with cinnamon stick. I'm anxious to see how it tastes. It's only been melding for an hour in the fridge so far, a small taste looks like this combo will be a winner.........at least for me.  According to the directions the fruit will last for several days, many fillings of the pitcher - I haven't tested that theory out yet.

I'm not a soda drinker so this will be a nice way to change up my glass of water. I can't wait until we have fresh fruit this summer...........

So unlike me..............

It is so unlike me to sit and read all afternoon but that's just what I did.......in front of the fire........with hot cocoa........and popcorn. I had planned on winding a warp after dealing with administrivia and mundane chores but instead I gave myself permission to goof off.  It's not that I don't want to weave but I also want to do other things.  I tend to be driven when it comes to selling fiber but it's coming to a time in my life where I want to enjoy doing so many other things........there's limited time, if not now, when will I do these other things???

Yes, I will still sell my handwovens but I will be slowing down on the spinning/felting fibers which are the beefy income part of my business. Then I'll have the time to focus more on the handwovens, not just for sale but for myself.........there will be more time to design drafts to weave, drafts that have been in my head but have not gotten any further than that.

So, today I sat and read a book!  I finished 'Everything I Never Told You' and I'm just starting 'The Book Thief'. Both of these became available on the same day through Library2Go for digital download so I do have a deadline to read them unless I wanted to put one back on my list. Usually I'd be beating myself up for not being productive but I'm quite ok with it today....hopefully I can keep up with this slowing down and enjoying life a bit more.......and yes, I will be back at the loom shortly.......

And Bailey was quite ok with all this - he was laying just out of site in 'his' chair to the left of the fireplace.......

New giftwrap

The past several years my go-to gift wrap is Trader Joe's paper grocery sacks that I sew into gusseted gift bags. I've found some more gift wrap in a drawer in my bedroom dresser.  Old t-shirts.........old t-shirts, many of them never worn, that won't ever be worn because I don't like crew neck shirts......I don't like that tight feeling around my neck.  I always wear scoop or v neck tops - no turtle necks for me either.  So, it's time to clean out that drawer so my other drawers can be spread out and not stuffed to the top.

This is my test gift/tote bag. It's not 'as' functional as it could be because years ago I had cut this t-shirt off and re-hemmed to be waist length rather than below the hips......I still didn't wear it due to that crew neck. So, this bag isn't as big/long as it could be..........but it was a test so that's ok.

I first cut off the sleeves leaving the sleeve seam intact to add strength to the handles. Then I took a plate to mark a half circle and cut a scoop out of the neck. I would have made it a bit deeper if I wouldn't have cut the fish heads off.  Then I turned it inside out and sewed a bottom seam and gussets at each bottom corner. That's all there is to it.

Here it is holding 16 yards of cotton fabric all folded up. So, even though it's not as big as I would have liked it's still holding quite a bit of fabric and weight.

Now off to clean out that t-shirt drawer..........I've got some really great shirts in there that may have been worn once, or maybe not at all..........

And yes, I've gotten sidetracked from something I should be working on........gathering tax stuff together, personal and business........

Fish soup

In my Italian family (on my mother's side) we celebrate Christmas Eve with the Feast of the Seven Fishes - our first course is fish soup. My grandmother's peasant recipe for fish soup is basically broth, tomatoes, celery, onions and cod. It's yummy but my cousin Jim came up with an even better recipe......sorry Nani, wherever you are but Jim's is better........  I'm not sure if he made it up from combining ingredients out of several recipes or if this was a recipe he found.  This one calls for cod and it's great but tonight in addition to cod I added a bag of Trader Joe's blended shellfish (shrimp, bay scallops, calamari rings). It was outstanding but in the future I'll just buy the shellfish I want to add from the fish market - I'm thinking the shrimp, scallops, clams and crab in addition to cod. We have more than enough leftover for tomorrow's game watching.........yum.   I hope you try it.........

Fisherman's Soup

6 slices of bacon, chopped

2 tbs butter

1 large onion, chopped

3 ribs of celery, chopped

2 cloves minced garlic

3 tsp Old Bay seasoning

3 tbs fresh chopped cilantro

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (I didn't have any tonight so I used a bit less dried)

1 bay leaf

1 pound tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (I didn't have any tonight so used a can of chopped tomatoes)

2/3 cup white wine

2-3 cups fish stock (I used a whole box which was a bit more than 3 cups)

11 oz potatoes, diced

1 1/2 - 2 pounds skinless white fish fillets cut into chunks (I used 1/2 pound cod and a one pound bag of mixed shellfish from Trader Joe's)

Fry the bacon until crisp. Remove from pan, drain off most of the fat, leave just a little.

Add butter to the pan and cook onion and celery until soft, add garlic and herbs and cook for one minute. Add tomatoes, stock and wine and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add potatoes, cover again and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until the potatoes are almost tender.

Add chunks of fish and other seafood and bacon pieces. Simmer gently uncovered for 5 minutes or until fish and seafood are cooked.

Garnish with additional fresh chopped cilantro and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.  You don't have to do this but it really makes the soup.

Auditioning........

I'm auditioning yarns for a warp of summer shawls.........may still have to work on these selections......hopefully the warp will get on the loom soon if I can put down that blasted bow loom........if it can be called a loom as it's just a 1/4" 48" long dowel........

It's addictive.........

.....bow weaving that is.......well, chocolate is pretty addictive too but I'm trying to stay away for it at the moment.....not sure how long I'll last......

I wove a couple more bracelets that go around the wrist twice - findings and toggle clasps still need to be put on them.  The top one is using another variegated yarn.  So far all the bracelets I've done are with 6/0 seed beads because I wanted lots of examples to put on tables when I teach fellow guild members how to do this. But I had to try a bracelet using all different kinds and sizes of beads from my stash - that's the bottom one in the sea glass colors. I love it and might have to do a few more using a variety of beads.  I just placed my order with Shipwreck Beads for supplies for the class and found a toggle clasp with a seahorse and one with a mermaid so I had to order both to audition for this sea glass bracelet. I do need to break this addiction and get back to other weaving........soon......

New roving in shop

I've spent the past two days fondling roving..........only it's not as fun as it sounds. I've been weighing, bagging, tagging, updating inventory and listing in my etsy shop - too much administrivia. Thank goodness for Sam's help since working together makes the job 3 times faster than me working alone.

I've got some new items like the green bamboo (above left) and these 5 new colors of merino.  The rest was just restocking sold out fibers in my shop.  Check out what I've got to offer here.  Of course I couldn't resist setting aside a couple colors for a future project - Mink & Plum - I need to decide what else to mix with them.......that will come when I'm ready to start playing with the blending board or drum carder......too much else on the to-do list at the moment........

More bow weaving...........

A bit more bow weaving going on here

A hat band using variegated cotton spacing the beads out a bit more. I have a shelf full of hats in the closet but I never wear hats........might have to start making an effort to wear them this summer.......or find homes for them to clear up closet space.

I bought a couple bags (50 in silver tone, 50 in gold tone) of key fob pieces last year with plans of making key fobs out of inkle woven and card woven bands but, like many other things in my life, I just ran out of time. Today I scrounged up a few pieces of leftover inkle bands and gave it a go to see how it worked out before I used a piece of the beaded bow weaving (on top of cotton strapping).  Sam created a 'process'........something he's famous for.......for me to close the fob ends using a vise with a couple pieces of wood on each side as to not mar the fob end.......worked great. I'll have to do some more inkle and card weaving this year so I can make up lots of key fobs............

I have a few more bow weaving samples I'd like to make, then it's on to putting together the kits for guild members and creating a handout..........then it's back to the loom for other weaving..........

Bow weaving

I'm such a bad weaver at times. I took a class on bow weaving with Marilyn Romatka last June at the Black Sheep Gathering and never finished my project on the bow loom. I thoroughly enjoyed the class, Marilyn was a great teacher, easy to follow and understand and delightful but once I got home I just couldn't get back into it. And this is bad because I got a scholarship from my guild to take a class but in return I had to come back and give a program on what I learned - my program is in April and I hadn't done a thing up until 2 days ago.  I decided before another warp goes on any floor loom I was going to start weaving samples on the bow loom and get moving on this project. You see, I'm not one to do this type of thing last minute..........I'm one of those that likes to be prepared well in advance so I don't get last minute panic attacks.

So here is my double wrap around bracelet from the class last June - I love the way it turned out.  Next up was to make some bracelets that just go around the wrist once as samples for my April program. This will be a hands-on program and I want everyone to be able to finish it before they go home.........unless they visit a lot........then they're on their own to finish up at home. To make sure everyone gets moving quickly on weaving I'll be preparing the warps and threading the beads on........it's not something that takes very long but it can be a challenge for some people. So one day I'll put on a movie or two or three and sit and thread warps..........we have 45 guild members....yikes. And then I'll make the bow looms out of dowels, paper clips and duct tape.

Next up was this chartreuse - my favorite color.......I'm using 5/2 perle cotton..........

......then 3 more........these are all awaiting the jewelry findings. I might make a couple more bracelets so there can be one on each table for people to look at as they weave their own.........

.........this one is just started - I'm using a variegated 8/2 cotton from my stash and I'm spacing out the beads. I really like it. Originally it was to become a hat band but I'm thinking it might end up being another bracelet long enough to wrap around my wrist twice..........I'll decide for sure once I get more woven.

So, an activity I was dreading has now turned into an activity I can't wait to get back to tomorrow. I'm going to try some thinner cotton, maybe 10/2 with smaller beads........maybe I can find more novelty/space dyed yarns in my stash to try out.

Now to think of more uses for these bands - I've already thought of bracelet, necklace, headband, hatband, trim on clothing or bags.........a friend just told me someone she knows made a lanyard to hold her scissors so I'll add that to the list and most probably make myself one.

New towels in the shop

We spent some time on the coast, in the crazy horizontal rain, so I went to the loom and finished up the cottolin towel warp over there. My goal of weaving off the huge box of cottolin is coming along......of course now I'm left with some strange colors that I'll have to figure out how to put together.

Very spring/easter themed towels.....of course they'd be good anytime of the year.

They can be found in my etsy shop.

 

 

New books

 A box arrived this week with some new books I'd had in my Amazon wish list for a while. I can't wait to knit up some of the new shawl patterns in these books.

Friends JoAnn & Dee gave a guild program for their guild on the coast weaving ribbon to put in travel mugs. JoAnn sent me pictures and I immediately remembered I had 2 similar mugs in my stash that had been there for years and I was considering giving away..........not now, thought I'd play........

 I pulled ribbon from my stash and started weaving it overtop a piece of doublesided fusible. Not sure why pictures turn the wrong way when I've taken them with my camera, even though when I edit them they are fine...........oh well.........

Here's the finished mug - color is off, again from taking the photo with my phone. That will teach me for being too lazy to run up the stairs for the camera. Sometime this week I'll do the other mug - I've got some sheep ribbon to try out for that one.

Bits and pieces in my life........

This week I'm spending most of my time getting together with friends.......well, with the exception of the dreaded tooth sharpening (cleaning) stuck in there. I have several get-togethers planned for the month so although I won't be getting much weaving done I will be having fun.

Right after Christmas I started knitting on a Ione Shawlette in blue - that one is done, awaiting blocking. I've got this one in progress in this pretty rose color. Both of them are in a merino/alpaca/silk noil blend I picked up a couple years ago at a local yarn shop sale, I think it's a Louisa Harding yarn. I'll eventually show these again after I get them blocked......whenever that is........the two recipients of these don't read my blog so I'm ok posting them. My goal this year is to work on holiday gifts throughout the year - I'm not sure how long I'll keep up with it and not get sidetracked but already I'll be miles ahead of where I was this past holiday gift making season when I was in panic mode come November.

Last week at our spinning get together I started spinning some Ashland Bay merino I've had in my stash for a while. It was one of their specials a few years ago and I had the sense to put some aside for myself.....which I often forget to do before limited colorways sell out.  I had wanted to get some blending done on the blending board for spinning but that didn't happen so pulling from stash was a good thing. Not sure what this will grow up to be - I've got a pound of it to spin.

Now off to knit and gab/catch up with a friend that just drove up the driveway........decisions, decisions......can I knit on that shawlette without errors, resulting in ripping and correcting errors while watching a Netflix movie and gabbing. Yesterday another friend came over to sit and knit and catch up and I had trouble concentrating on the lace pattern while gabbing and we weren't even watching a movie. I might have to pull out the simple sock knitting or spin instead..........