A month late, but Happy 2016!

Well, I have been weaving, but too much other stuff going on as well. Not the fun stuff, but the busy stuff. You know….

Snow– Rain…Trying to get to Medford for lumber and supplies, including groceries. Not making it! Well, we did eventually make it but not this time. Very slick ice over the mountain, we gave up and tiptoed back down 2 mph. And a new doll… so I had to go play with the doll knitters for the Valentines KAL. Yes, I know I could have woven one, but I like to knit also. I’ll be good now. And then there’s the end of the year paper work… such fun. NOT!

So there’s my excuses for not posting. We’re signing up for the year’s fiber fairs and planning trips already and as I said, I am getting in a little weaving time. Still working on the many way to make a 6″ square. And also looking at possibly teaching a class so need short fast projects. Hummmm……

But today is February oneth and time to pay bills so I guess I’d better get on with that. At least the sun is shining today so it is a bit more cheerful if not significantly warmer. Snow tomorrow, they tell us.

Hope your winter is going well!

Looks like Fall

Nov2

We have frost warning’s and the weather page is starting me mention snow levels. The chances of it this week are slim, but it’s encouraging to see it mentioned again. We had some rain yesterday, tho not a lot. But I have been knitting on my 2 year (so far) sweater just have one sleeve to go. And today starting a doll sweater for an ‘Along’ in my doll group.

I have the tunic, previously mentioned as ‘vest’ put together but am having a problem with it. A lot of people have told me they like the colors and the length but I am not happy with either. I think it’s too long and too gaudy. I’m going to try to over dye it to dull it down some and them I’ll consider length. It’s the sitting problem, you know what that does to loosely woven or knit fabric. 😦 Take my word for it that it looks better here than it does on me. Himself was supposed to get a picture for me as my little camera is being contrary, but he hasn’t had time yet, he says. But I have also got started on my Xmas yarn. Progress of a sort… And no presents made this year. Ah well… Hope your November is starting off on a high note!

More cardigan progress

Mar29

I finished weaving the tris for the sleeve yesterday and as I had the sewing machine set up for something else, I decided to take advantage of this cool morning to put it to use again.

The woven blocks for the sweater, pin the pattern carefully over. I guess I didn’t get the photo, but next sew at the edges. Use lots of pins and give you fabric support. You want it to lay flat so it doesn’t distort. Remember this one is bias woven.

Once you have sewn all around in a contrasting color (it’s not going to show) carefully cut just outside the stitching.

Pin closely! The more the better, especially on any bias squares that have not been stay stitched. The sleeve did okay, but sewing up the sides needed lots of pins. Again, support your fabric so it does not stretch or distort. In fact, if this is your first project of this type, it may be a good idea to baste all of these seams and try the garment on, to be sure things are as they should be before committing it to the machine which is Much harder to undo.

And here it is with the sleeves in.

What’s left is the front button bands and the cuffs. However… Being the mature figger that I am, it is a little snug around the… er… hem. So I think I may have to add a bit in a A-line sort of way, to the front placket first. Have not quite thought that out yet, so still more waiting before I have a finished item. Still, making progress by leaps and bounds!

Do any of you have projects to show me? I’d love to feel I’m not all alone here!

March-ing into spring…

Mar5

Nothing to report on the sweater. I think I needed a break from brown yarn. Too much brown in the world this time of the year, anyway. Things are starting to green up and I’m sure I can see a faint bit of pink in the buds on the peach tree. The flowering quince is definitely blooming now & there are even two tiny daffodils blooming out there in the brown.

I have done some weaving but for the dolls. Little things. A KAL for Your Favorite Season. What would it be this time of year but Summer! Lexi is wearing Summer Nights and little Felicity is in the Sunshine. The skirts are the woven bits. Some Wildfoote sock yarn for Lexi’s and lace weight for Felicity’s to warp the first three layers and then woven with Lion Brand Trellis. I used the 4″ and did o1, u1 for Felicity’s skirt, which is two squares and a knitted bodice. Lexi’s short skirt is three 6″ Multi Squares and I did hers in o3, u1 which gave it a really interesting texture and showed more of the colored squares, I think. I rather like the effect and since I have a couple more balls of this stuff (I think I bought 6 in a package at the dollar store a couple years ago) I may have to come up with another project for it.

These are busy days, even if I have been ignoring brown. Randy is working long hours in the looms shop, (which means I am also) and we are trying to get the garden ready as it looks like spring is coming on early and dry here this year. We also signed up for 6 fiber fair shows this summer. The first one, a new venue for us, in Nampa, Idaho in May. then we’ll be in Hamilton, MT & Eugene, OR in June and Arcata, CA, Boonesville, CA and Canby, OR in September.

I think I am going to sell my Baby Wolf Loom and it’s accessories. If anyone is interested we can bring it along to any of the shows. I don’t want to haul it around on speculation as even tho it is a small loom, it still takes up a lot of space in the 5th wheel. If you’re interested email for details. The loom works fine, I’ve woven a few times on it but I just don’t have the time or space for it. I still prefer my little looms.

Hope you’re seeing a bright end of winter where you are.

Making a little headway…

Feb15

If I had not been doing this project publicly in front of all of you it would have been shoved in the back of the closet by this time, to languish, probably for years. I don’t know what it is, seems to have been jinxed somewhere along the way. The weaving went fine but I have un-stitched this thing more than any other project I’ve yet undertaken! And I can only blame gremlins because it’s just stupid stuff, sewn the blocks together backward, sewn the new strip in the wrong place. This last time I thought it was going to be too small so added a strip and found it was way too big instead so have taken that off now. I am going to make a button band, either woven or probably knitted so I am leaving the front alone for awhile and will go to work on the sleeves. It fits pretty well except for the front of the arm holes. I’m not sure what the problem is there, maybe it needs a dart. If it’s too wide it’s too bad. But it’s not really a big problem so I’ll just leave it for now. Here’s what I have at this stage. Stella thought she’d help a bit but I declined. She’s really good at showing her feeling are hurt but I was in no mood to be sympathetic.

I’m thinking about trying a collar. Never have but I’ll wait until the sleeves are finished. I’m getting low on yarn too, so a lot depends on that. The shape woven yoke and sleeve bits worked fine, by the way. I’m thinking about the sleeve tops themselves now…

Okay, I apologize…

Jan4

I know I have not been posting after saying I would but I figure you have all been busy with Christmas and the new year and all the other holidays this time of the year, too. I have not gotten back to my woven cardigan but in part because I have some new ideas about its construction and partly because I’ve been knitting. Yes, I love weaving but I also love knitting. I finished my MIL’s vest in time and it fit her perfectly and she loves it- really! And I forgot to get a picture of her in it. 😦

Also I have been knitting a cardigan for me. Sis was making this one and I loved it so I am combining sis’s with the vest pattern for MIL’s. Yeah, I liked that ruffle so incorporated it. Now I’m on the sleeves, except I don’t have any #9 dps so I’m going to have to take care of that first.

But I hope you are all having a great start to 2015! It’s been cold here after all the rain but now there’s no precip so no snow. 😦 Mother Nature just can’t seem to get things together.

Himself and I bought ourselves a new bed for our gift to each other. A Number Bed. It’s due to arrive this week from Salt Lake City. He built a base for it, one which will have drawers one of these days. That’ll be handy.

I guess that’s all our news and I’ll get back on the cardigan as soon as I find out if my idea is going to work. Be patient with me and let me see you weavings, meantime!

Have a happy & creative New year!

I’m sorry…

Dec2

Looks like it’s been over a month since I last posted. Time flies whether you’re having fun or not! Not that I haven’t been having fun… well… not no fun, anyway. Just busy. I am nearly finished knitting MIL’s xmas gift so thought I ought to get out the squares and see if I have finally woven enough. It looks like I may have. I might need a couple triangles, we’ll see.

laying out

It looks like this lighter cardigan may even be too heavy for this ‘winter’. I mean, it’s Dec 2 and 45 degrees out! We’ve had killing frost exactly twice so the garden is dead but the apple still has it’s leaves and the weeping willow is just now losing its. There was a bit of snow on the 7000 foot peaks before this last storm. That should have dumped a bit on the tips. Not encouraging for next years water supply. New England and the Great Lakes are hogging it all. Hey guys, we need some, too!

But back to weaving. I am going to spend as much of today as I am allowed, working on this project and will get back to you asap! Hope you are getting a lot of weaving done! It makes great gifts!

Trying freeform again

Oct11

I have tried before but it always seems to end up– well– normal. what happens to my free spirited creativity here??! I am trying to take a lead from Frida. I am starting with a rectangle of knitted fabric. This was a huge bit of knitted something a friend gave me. she had tried to make some kind of garment with it but gave up. I frogged most of it. Got 11 1/2 balls of yarn from that part, and am using the rest in this experiment. so far. I have sleeves, a shrug-like thing.

With chained underarms. Now i am exploring free from web sites. And I am getting out my little diamond to make some star or flower shapes to add in. Not very creative yet but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, I have garden stuff to tend to yet.

Rain early next week and it feels like frost is not far off. Only 65 at noon, today.

And the Giants are playing the Cardinals tonight! Go Giants!

October already!!

Oct8

Well, Sorry I’ve been so slow posting here. We’ve been to OFFF, had nice weather this year, and nice crowd, did well, met lots of interesting people, took the long way home, calling it a vacation and here we are again. Himself has gone off for the week to help a friend re-roof his Mom’s house so Cori and I are In Charge here. She’s a little confused and just a bit worried. Didn’t want to come in Monday night, but finally had to come eat dinner, then wanted out again but he still hadn’t returned so agreed to come in at last but spent the evening watching the kitchen door. She was better last night. She likes me but she’s not my dog. lol

Meanwhile, on the fiber front, I’m knitting at the moment. Working on a Christmas gift. I bought the yarn in April but am falling behind, as usual, as other projects also need doing. And one that really didn’t need doing. Himself found in the trash at OFFF this great wad of fiber, someone’s very beginning spinning, maybe a child’s even as there were two colors involved. It was very little spun, from thread size to fatter than my thumb. He was shocked that anyone would throw away something that cost as much as $5 an OUNCE! (He’d been looking at a neighbors booth and noticed some roving at that price and was shocked at that, too. This is the guy who paid $30 for a rusty old wood plane on eBay!) He gave it to me asking me if I thought it would be usable. So not being able to settle into anything the other evening I re-carded and re-spun his ‘find’ and presented him with a 1.8 oz skein of soft wool yarn. He felt justified. 😉

Have not started to wash my fleece. I bought a pound of mohair at OFFF to blend with it to make the kid fleece a bit stronger, I hope. Did I say I bought a Navajo Churro kid fleece? I want to try my hand at a little Navajo type tapestry weaving. Very basic and simple. It will be awhile before I get to that, I’m sure. Have to do a little research first. And some spinning, of course.

And I’ve been making lists of projects I need/want to accomplish this winter. Yikes! The winter better be long one! lol Well, I have my book, Weaving For Your American Girl Doll ready and will get it on the web page soon. The projects fit most any 18″ girl type doll. They start out with just the 4″ Multi square, as that is the most common sized loom people have, I think, and then there are more complicated projects, too, using more than one loom. Some you’ve seen but there’s new ones, too. I have lots of patterns to write up, people have been asking for them. It’s laborsome work so I keep putting it off, but it’s on The List now so…

Okay, there are projects to finish and I will get to them, but those two white buckets in the photo with Cori are full of wind fall apples that have to be tended to first. And because the sow bear and her cub cleaned the tree of all the good ones, these are all I have this fall so don’t want to lose them. And the tomatoes are still producing. Well, you know how it goes, but I will get back to weaving soon. Hope you’re making progress on your projects!

A couple of new old projects.

Sep23

I was rummaging and found these two. The quilt top was one of the first projects I made with our looms. I used the Tiny Weaver set, the 3 1/2″ square and triangle, to make this quilt top. I ran it though the washer and found some quilt batting and fabric for a backing and now it’s a proper quilt. I think it’s about crib size. The backing color is not ideal, but it was the only bit of fabric I could find in my stash that fit.

The other thing I found was a blouse I made for myself back in the day, too. It has used an assortment of loom sizes. The 12″ and the 3 1/2″ I think. The yoke and sleeves in this one are knitted. I can’t recall off hand what the yarn is called but it’s a sport weight (I think) cotton. It was comfortable and nice to wear but you probably notice that I am speaking in the past tense. Well, you know how things go when you ‘grow up’.

But now we’re almost ready to leave for Canby and OFFF. Randy is finishing up his 7 foot shawl loom. He promised someone (Sorry but we can neither of us remember who) that he’d have one this year. I think I am ready. Tomorrow I take the cats in to the ‘motel’ & buy groceries for the trailer and Thursday we hit the road. Keep your fingers x-ed for a cool but dry weekend!

Do come see us if you can!

Hazel Rose

My Life in the Country

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