Last show trip of the year!

Oct3

Well, the show are fun and we meet a lot of nice people but I am rather glad to be home for awhile. We’re getting our first rain of the Autumn and there will soon be a frosty morning greeting us. Good time for sitting by the fire and weaving!

Here’s a few pictures from our trip.

Hitchhiker doll Merida had to pose beside a Redwood like any tourist!

And she got her portrait taken with the looms at the CWFF in Boonville. She’s wearing the dress I wove for her, my version of a Celtic design for this Scottish princess.

And naturally she would want to be included in the picture at Cape Blanko, in Oregon on our way up to OFFF in Canby. Here she is with Randy and Stella, watching the whales spouting around the point from the lighthouse.

At OFFF a weaver who was enjoying our looms brought us this bouquet of the Dalias she grew herself to honor our booth! Thank you, Sara! They lasted all the way home, brightening the camper, too!

After the shows we went a little further north to Visit Mt Rainier Nat’l Park, which we had not been to before. The first day was clear and sunny and gave us some wonderful pictures. The next day the clouds settled atop the mountain and it could not be seen. But the park was still beautiful with the fall colors seeming to stand out even more in the fog.

Then we were heading south toward home. But we still had our Tour Guides along the way! 😉

And almost home we saw our ‘local’ volcano, Mt Shasta, wearing her fuzzy winter bonnet! And the wind was blowing up the dust along the way.

So here we are, at home, enjoying the rain, trying to catch up on orders and planning our trip to Medford to stock up for winter. Randy is working in the wood shed as well as the shop and I am weaving on a couple projects in the evenings while the game is on.

Go Giants!

Home again!

Jun27

Here we are, back where we started from and happy to see it. We had a great trip but coming home is always good, too. My own bed! Well, the bed in the 5th wheel is also mine, I guess, but I like this one better! I have a limited amount of pictures on my camera. There are more on the tablet if I can figure out how to get them here I’ll post more. Meantime, here’s what I have of our trip so far.

We stayed at a campground on the Salmon river in Idaho, outside of Riggins. This old one lane bridge is being replaced. We did not take the trailer over it, just drove down to explore. In fact, we didn’t stay in the campground just in the parking lot in front, as the camp was closed due to a fire that they had there just a month after we stayed there last year.

Here is the view from our trailer park at the outskirts of Moscow, Id. It is a pea field. some were just starting to bloom. I have no idea what kind of peas there were but there were thousands of acres of them and also of many kinds of grain.

This is our booth in the 1912 highschool building in Moscow. It is a community hall now days and the new hi is just up the street. That’s where the classes were held. We met many weavers and maybe converted a few more! A very nice, well organized event. Thank you, Shelly of The Yarn Underground who sponsored it and did a great deal of the work involved.

This is Linda Echenrode of All things Fiber in St. Maries, Id who also had a booth. Linda carries our looms in her shop and she showed me the poncho she is working on using many sizes of Multi looms. My photo does not show much of the incredible pattern work and detail in Linda’s weaving. It is beautiful! If you are anywhere near there be sure to stop in at her shop and ask to see it!

And if you have not seen these windmill ‘farms’ you are missing a sight. I know some people think they are a blight but I think they are beautiful! I did not get a good photo as there was no good place to stop when they were in view. There are fields of them in several states but this was Washington. Rolling hills with grain fields and these atop.

Here we are now on the Mt. McKinley pass looking at the Sisters. We camped nearby and nearly froze! I did get Himself down to around 5000′ before he stopped so the morning temp was just barely below freezing! lol Very beautiful. Large lava flows in places.

There are falls on the McKinley River. Thick moss and the roar is deafening. It’s a beautiful river. This is the upper fall.

These geese were standing on rock just below the lower fall.

And here they are from below, looking up at their back sides.

Here you can see how close they were to the fall and the fury and all the mist. I guess it’s a goose thing. ??

This is the lower fall.

That’s it for today. Here’s a little ‘hitchhiker’ I picked up at a Goodwill in Bend, Oregon while we were waiting to get a new fridge installed in the 5th wheel. :-0 !

xo Hazel

Is it May already?!!

May10

Well, as you probably suspect, I have finished none of the projects I’ve shown here, lots of excuses, no real reasons. Just didn’t get around to it in most cases. But a couple weeks ago there was a county wide yard sale, one of those semi-annual things up here where you go from door to door, and town to town. We never left Coffee Creek but I bought a new “doll”. This one is taller than me but I immediately set about weaving her some clothing. Here is Madelyn wearing her new pencil skirt and Diamond Block top.

The skirt is woven using the 6″ square Mutli loom. It’s lined as well to help it hold its shape even tho Maddie doesn’t sit, I thought that a good idea. The top is made up of 7″ Quilt Weaver Diamonds. This photo shows it not quite finished but you can see the diamonds better. I worked a row of sc and a row of reverse sc around the neckline to draw it up just a bit. Maddie is very thin so almost as hard to fit as I am, being rather wide. I used some stash yarn to weave this set. One of the ideas I’ve had– you know the ones that lurk in the back of your mind and only come out in those middle of the night waking periods– is to weave an evening dress. I have absolutely no use for this kind of garment but I’m thinking that Madelyn may yet end up with one!

Meantime, I think a couple more practical items are in line. I am trying to work up some ideas for a clothing weaving class. It just seems to me that since we have all these looms we should do more with them than the occasional couch pillow or baby blanket. The little easy dust collector items are cute but really, how many can you use? But clothing is something we all need all the time and can be both practical and pretty! Anyway, that’s my idea.

And speaking of practical, it’s also gardening season and here’s my first go at growing broccoli. How ’bout that!

Hope you are having a green & growing spring while still getting in some weaving time!

March already

Mar25

Well, it’s been a awhile since I’ve posted. Sorry about that, but it’s been the season of the Doldrums. Not fully winter with all its beauty and not fully spring with all it’s beauty. That in-between stage with lots of mud and rain and mud and warmish today and back to freezing tomorrow… you know.

And then we had that slide a few weeks ago that cut us off from town. So today, since they have the higher route plowed and open (it’s usually closed for the winter) we decided to go to Redding. The view from the top almost makes the trip worthwhile. We truly live in a beautiful country. I only hope we can keep it that way. Between SP & the pot growers clear cutting and spraying defoliant.

It was a sea of fog in the valley, but the ‘sea’ looks very different from above. Looking back west toward Billy’s Peak and home. That’s the last peak there on the right. We live at the foot of it.

Looking east we can see that Mt Shasta has a nice white covering, too. Elevation for Billy Peak is 7275′, while Shasta is 14,180′ which will explain the difference in the depth of the white part.

But in town I got some new yarn, which Jane Grogan (Teacher from Wisconsin) pointed me to. It might be interesting, at least. It’s a Red Heart yarn called “Scrubby” and is supposed to make face washers and pot scrubbers. I have a hard time imagining one for both uses! lol My face gets dirty, but not, I hope as dirty as my pots and pans! Well, I will weave up a couple today and give them the Test and let you know what I think about this. I think Red Heart is taking this opportunity to turn it’s reputation for scratchy acrylics into a virtue!

The sun is out this morning and the primroses, daffodils and forsythia are blooming. The weeping willow is leafing out and the buds on the peach are getting fa,. signs that spring may arrive after all! Hope you are getting those good signs where you live as well!

A month late, but Happy 2016!

Feb1

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!

Thankful-day!

Nov26

Hope you all have family and friends to share your day with. That is one thing we can all be thankful for, I do hope.

We celebrated this event last week with family. It was great and I am daily thankful that I have them, even those times when they tick me off, as family will do occasionally. But even then, I am glad I have them.

And they were very gracious and told me they loved the hats, which I hope was true and if it wasn’t I am thankful that they said so, anyway! Here’s the bunch.

Bless us, every one!

Happy Thanks Giving!

Nov14

And I hope, for all of us, a grateful one. In spite of our griping, we all have many things to be thankful for. I am thankful for family and for having some of them here this weekend & next. I’m thankful for hubbies swearing away in the kitchen, putting down badly needed new flooring, and thankful for my early xmas present, a new camera! so I can show you all what’s happening. He’s a little blurry since I shot just as he was getting up off the new floor but you can see that he is hard at work. It’s going to be nice! There are occasional advantages to being married to the contractor. 🙂

But I have been weaving, too. My Florida sis and her dh are among the expected guests and I kind of thought they’d be a little chilly up here, even tho the forecast says the snow level probably won’t get below 4000′. But, just in case, I made us all new ear flap hats! If you are on Ravelry you may have seen them already but I am going to share here anyway. Himself is modeling. But I wore mine walking the other morning when it was 24 degrees and I can tell you, they work! And they are all, excepting the maroon one which is handspun wool, at least partly acrylic. All the earl flaps are a thick chenille-like acrylic/nylon and also very warm. If you think you might like to make one, you’ll need two 12″ squares and two 7″ triangles for the flaps, folded in half. The rest is trim.

So I hope this helps you have a warm Thanksgiving walk!

The other thing I am grateful for is having so many wonderful sharing weaving friends! Thank you all!

Hazel & Randy

Home again…

Oct1

We had a great time on the road this last of September. Down to Booneville for the California Wool and Fiber Festival where we met some old friends and made some new ones, then up the coast to Oregon. We spent a couple days playing on the beach. The Oregon State parks are very nice, we had power and water, hot showers, all the amenities as well and lovely trails and beaches.

From the high places we watched the California Grey whales spouting, there were lots of them. That was pretty neat, even tho we couldn’t really see them close up. I got to sit in the sand and listen to the breakers.

Then we went on up to Canby for the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. Meg Stump had taught a pin weaving class on Friday and recommended us to those of her students who didn’t have their own loom or who wanted to get a few more sizes. We met a lot of new weavers and, of course, many who had previously bought looms were coming back for more or for advice or just to chat. The weather was perfect and it was a lovely weekend. I bought yarn but did not spend all the profits so that balanced nicely, too! I think this one is going to be my Christmas vest.

I have been asked to teach next year, people seem to be interested in hints on how to make their own clothing with the looms, so I will be spending my winter deciding how to go about that. If you are one who does this and would like to share hints I’d love to see your work and hear what you have to say about the process.

And here’s a little fun thing that came home with me. Appropriate for this trip! Meg Stump’s mermaid! Isn’t she cute! She has a pretty little shell in her briefcase. Meg says she’ on her way to work. We get to guess… What kind of career would attract a mermaid…?

Our Summer Trip

Jun23

We’re home again. Two weeks on the road is at least a week too much! lol We had a great time and met lots of people and made some new weavers and increased the stash for some others. Here’s one weaver who brought her project to BSG to share. Love that! Also the one from last year at OFFF. Pat Cane does some extra by weaving in strands of the opposite colors to blend her triangles very cleverly together. Isn’t it lovely?! I love seeing the projects you all weave!

I made a new doll dress with squares I wove demoing the looms here at the show, too. And met another Dolly weaver who bought my pattern book. Nanette has promised to share when she gets something made for her Granddaughter! Here’s mine.

But besides the two shows, Big Sky Fiber Festival in Hamilton. Montana and Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon, we visited the country along the way. I have so many pictures I could not possibly share them all but here’s a few. What a beautiful country we live in!

On our way up we stopped at an alkali lake in Eastern Oregon. A “rain” storm and a sunset.

Then we picnicked on top of the world in Montana.

On the way back we camped in a great park on a lake near Sandpoint, Idaho.

And I almost got a photo of the paddle wheeler on the Columbia Gorge coming home, on the border of Oregon and Washington. We were in Oregon, looking back at Washington across the way. I took this out the truck window across the railroad tracks.

We had a great trip but, as always are glad to be home. the garden has gone wild with summer coming on so will have some catching up to do there and are working hard to get orders shipped out as well. Randy has looms to make and contractor jobs to do as well. But we’re home now until September…

Hope your summer is filled with fun and not too hot!

Getting ready

May18

We’ll be leaving for Nampa, Idaho on Friday so are busy getting thing organized. If you pardon my using that word in is loosest sense! Well, Himself is Organized. I’m just hoping for the best, organization not being one of my strongest traits. But I am making lists.

Meantime, I have had interest in the Baby Wolf but no one so far has claimed it. We will not load it up unless someone asks us to bring it along.

And we’re getting the garden in while it is rainy and a little cooler, giving things a good start. I’m trying some Alaskan corn this year. We never get a good corn crop as it just is not warm enough here but this one claims it likes it a bit cooler. It seems to be doing well so far! X your fingers for it!

Corn

And the roses are as lush and beautiful as ever! My deck looks like there’s been a wedding with all the petals there!

If you get a chance to come to Fiber Train in Nampa, I do hope you’ll come by and see us. This is our first year there with the looms and we are looking forward to visiting this historical city.

Hazel Rose

My Life in the Country

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