Spring Trip

We spent our 28th anniversary and his 60th birthday on the road. Had a great time, too. Visited Death Valley.

and Las Vegas along with many other places along the way. I have way toop many pictures to share here, tho.

We say Donnie and Marie and they were great. What energy they have for people who are no longer really young!

We walked The Strip by night, a year-round Marti Gras! But we also spent time in the desert, quiet, cool and peaceful for the most part. It started to get warm by the time we got home and the streams are up and running today with the temps in the 80’s!

This is Walker lake, the most colorful lake I ever remember seeing. We spent an afternoon and night here. You will swear this is a painting but it is not and i did not do anything to the photo, it is just as it really looked.

and here we are at Burney Falls on the way Home.

Winter Beauty

Mar21

There is even beauty in the winter doldrums. This is my Port Orford cedar that we rescued from a mud slide years ago. It’s sibling didn’t survive but this one is now, I’m guessing, around 25′ tall. It has lovely lacy branches and when wet and foggy is even prettier. Next to it is the rhododendren, a little flattened by the winter snow load, but it’s perking up even now and will be blooming before we know it, big red bundles of flowers. So, forgive my sniveling. The world is still beautiful if we look for it.

PLowing

Jan24

Randy spent most of yesterday digging us out. The county had just finally made one run up Coffee Creek road about 10:30 am but he’s already done ours little road and driveway. I understand some of the spur roads are still not dug out. that little loader we bought 20 years ago has certainly earned it’s keep! But we were happy to see the snow, winter was not looking good before this.

Weaving the Norwegian Slippers

Jan14

I saw this done with knitted squares and of course thought right away, I can do that with the looms! And I can. Sis made a pair that turned out nicely to fit her. I put mine in the washer and went away to cut put soles and they felted up to the maximum and look nice but do not fit me. Too small. The pair i made using the 3.5″ loom are also tightly felted and child size but I don’t know what size. They are about 5″ long. I used some squares I had in stash so the “pair” don’t match. But now I know what they will do, anyway.

I used the 7″ square loom. for the largte ones and the 3.5″ for the small ones.

Happy New Year!

Dec31

I hope you all had a great christmas and are going, tonight, to have a Happy and SAFE New Year’s celebration! The old folk here in Coffee Creek will have a quiet one at home. He’s gotten a cold somewhere and tho we were invited to a party I guess we ought not go spread the germs around. I have my fingers x-ed that I can get by without it.

But we enjoyed ourselves in Sausalito with Randy’s step-mom. It was a nice treat for a couple of country bumpkins! She took us to see Beach Blanket Babylon which has been running in San Francisco since 1974. It’s a sort of satire and is updated frequently so is really entertaining. We loved it. Here’s the pair of them waiting in line. Don’t he look cheerful?!this is why the kids call him Grumpa!

Of course we went to see other sights, too. The Bridge, of course, from up on the hill above Ft. Baker. It wasn’t exactly foggy but there was a mist.

The houses in Sausalito are all stacked on top of each other. No kidding! These are the ones that look directly out into the bay. MIL lives up the hill a couple blocks and I do mean UP!

And we got to the beach. Well, I have to admit we only got to the parking lot. The wind of icy cold and gusting. The spume off the waves was flying back out to sea! The gulls had to flap just to stay in place and had to tack to make headway! So I took this picture from the car. yeah, I’m wimpy!

And Sheba was nice enough to model the coat I knitted for her and didn’t even seem to mind it so I guess that was a success!

AD: Christmas spcecial

Dec6

Free Shipping on some orders
Order between now and December 10th and if your order is $100+ I will refund your shipping! Continental states only.
Questions? Email anytime!
Also I have heard from weavers in other parts of the world that they would like to buy a loom but that the shipping is prohibitive. It is very true for most of our looms, I cannot deny that but the small Flat Rate Priority Mail shipping box will hold several loom sizes and the cost is $13.45 US to any place I have shipped yet. I understand that some postage rates are going up again soon so I thought I would post this list of looms that will fit in this box. I wish I could offer free shipping to you but I’m afraid that is prohibitive for me, as well. But here is a list of our looms that will fit in the small flat rate box. I tried to think of all the combinations that will fit but email me if you have any ideas.
The cost of the flat rate box within the US is $5.00.
Happy Holidays!
Hazel
http://www.hazelroselooms.com

3.5” Tiny Weaver Square
3.5” Tiny Weaver Triangle (Unfortunately, not both)
2” Multi Square
4” Multi Square
2×4” Multi
2×6” Multi
4×6” Multi
4” Multi Square & 2” Multi square
4” Multi Square & 2×4” Multi
2” Multi square & 2×6” Multi
2” Multi square & 4×6” Multi
2” Multi square & 2×4” Multi
4” Multi triangle
http://www.hazelroselooms.com

Rope again…

Nov29

I tried it again, and I did ‘card’ it some tho mostly that just made a mess of my hand cards. But I think it did help some and I made little rolags… sort of… from the results. So this is today’s rope. It is finer, tho still rough. Part of that is that the fiber is still not entirely fiber, some is still needles. I need to further process it without breaking up the fiber too much. But it’s better!. I spun this on my thigh. Our local Indians did not have spindles, they were hunter-gatherers so the ropes they made were probably made this way. I haven’t gotten any cedar bark yet.

Top is first try, bottom next try, and better.

Rope!

Nov28

I’ve seen bark rope in museums and I think I have finally figured out how the Indians did it. I’ve tried this before without luck, both with pine needles, green and dry, and cedar bark. Nothing but disappointment and splinters. But I found this wad of fiber in the road and discovered that it was pine needles, rained on and run over many times by passing cars. An epiphany! Of course I could not find my drop spindle so I remembered a more simple way and hip spun a bit then attached it to a hook and off I went. This sample is plied back on itself. It’s also very rough and shaggy but it’s rope! The fiber was not completely processed, there were still some nearly whole needles in it which ought not be there but I did this in a hurry. I’ll gather more and see if I can card it a bit better so it can be drawn out more evenly. And I’m going to hunt up a bit of cedar bark and lay it in the driveway!