Archives

Summer Fun

Jul24

The first picture is the local swimming hole in the Trinity River and Grandson Justin taking a leap off the rocks. A thing I could never make myself do! It’s a nice deep hole with wide shallows for the little ones and a shady sloping sandy bank for the mom’s and Dad’s in lawn chairs. The water is no longer quite as snowy cold but still fresh and fairly fast flowing. A popular afternoon site.

The second picture is taken in Hell’s Gate on the Rogue River in Oregon. We went on the Jet Boat tour with sister and her dh. I could not get far enough back to get a good picture and it is a goal of the pilots (with encouragement from the tourists) to get us as wet as possible. I did not want to chance soaking the camera. But I have to admit, I also enjoyed the wetting as it was a hot afternoon. I missed one shoulder with the sun block and it is quite bright this morning! lol

But we had an enjoyable visit, got a bit of shopping done, and are now home again.

Another project finished!

Jul11

I finished my baby blanket, woven on the 6″ Multi square loom. I used Paton’s Cotton top (from stash & discontinued) and Knit Picks Crayon cotton to assemble it. The finished size is 38″ square, which I’m told is a good size for a receiving blanket. I was hoping for crib sized but found I was short on a couple of the colors. This took a bit over a month to make, I did not work on it every day but stuck to my resolve not to start another project until I finished this one. I tried out a few fancy edgings but in the end just worked three rounds of sc and a row of picots. What I did not want was any lacy holes for little fingers and toes to get caught in. I think it’s pretty without them.

I am quite happy with the finished blanket. It’s for a young neighbor having her first child. I ran it though the gentle cycle of the washing machine yesterday, I had to be sure it was machine washable. I have to admit I was a bit nervous about this.  picturing it coming out with gaping holes so that I’d have to rush off to town to buy her a gift before the shower! It came out just fine and tho it did not shrink, it fluffed and is really soft and ‘huggable’. I am delighted and hope she will be as well. (The picture enlarges if you click it.)

Nearly July

Jun29

July is almost  upon us and summer is just getting started. Well, by the calendar, that’s correct, but it usually starts in fact a few weeks earlier.  It has gotten warm finally.  Well.. hot actually but I’m not tired of it yet! lol  The deck is going up slowly as time allows and we’re getting looms made. Justin, our oldest grandson is here to lend a hand for the summer & we’re enjoying his visit as well.

I was sorting though some stuff and found these. They came with some loom things I was given by a widowed neighbor. His wife had been a weaver and there were some nice shuttles as well as a bobbin winder which I was extremely happy to see.  but I haven’t a clue what these things are. They seem to have been made with standard doctor sized tongue depressors.  If you know, would you tell me please?

Happy Birthday, Hazel Rose!

Jun18

Hazel Rose is celebrating her first birthday! She and her parents live in Oregon and Hazel came by to visit with us at OFFF last October. We wanted to help celcbrate her 1st birthday so sent along this little doll woven on the looms, of course. She seems to like it so we are happy, too.  Thanks Mom for sharing the pictires!

Progress

Jun16

Check below.. I found my flower!

I think I have nearly enough blocks to start assembling this blanket. I’d like it to be Crib sized or nearly so but need to research how big that is. I have ordered the white yarn for assembling but it has not arrived yet, should be here any time. It’s coming from KnitPicks, their Crayon, which should match this discontinued Paton’s Cotton Top. I hope.

It’s been cool enough in the evenings that we’ve just been staying indoors listening to the Giant’s games on XM, so I am getting more weaving time. I pretty much have the garden, such as it is, in and waiting for some warm growing weather. We had two optimistic days in the 80’s and now it’s back in the lower 60’s. 😦

But I am also getting things straightened around so our grandson has a place to stay. He’s arriving next week to spend some of the summer helping Randy build our new shop.  But as there has been a snag in those plans it looks like he’ll get to help build the new deck first & anything else that needs doing.

Hope your summer is both warm and going smoothly!

It may start being summer soon…

Jun12

I got a little matchy-matchy here maybe but I think it’s going to be pretty. Started out with three Eggplants, purple stems and green leaves, but I needed some fillers and went over to the nursery looking for herbs but ended up with a variegated  sweet potato, green with a purple edging on the leaves, a bright fuschia geranium, and the other thing, one of those new petunia looking plants whose name escapes me but this one has purple flowers. It’s portable so I can move it to mow and, like I said, I think it’s going to be pretty once it fills out. My whole garden this year is in pots and …er… stuff. lol I have Pop’s old cement wagon with tomatoes and nasturtiums, more tomatoes in large brightly colored tubs (the tubs were given to me) and assorted other veggie plants in large flower pots. The peas are in the flower bed and not doing as well as I had hoped. Peas do well in cold weather so I thought this would be the year for them. I actually built a fire yesterday as it got down to 39 Thursday morning! In June!

Well, sorry I have not been posting like I ought, Randy has been gone this week and Cori and I have been goofing off. She slept in to nearly 8am yesterday!
But he’s on his way home this morning so I am scurrying around (Yes, I am!) putting up the yarn projects I have scattered around and washing up my sink full of dishes. I really have been goofing off! lol

Just wondering…

May25

Just wondering if it really matters if we are vegetarians or not. This vegetable knows it is spring. It was growing roots in my fridge and had little leaflets on top. Trying to grow, still obviously alive. But I had to kill it for our dinner. Well, Nature made it so and I can’t eat sand.

I think it’s the rain rain rain rain rain rain that’s bringing on these dreary fits! The world is certainly green and that’s good but oh so wet. The lilacs and iris are beginning to look a bit worse for wear. The cats have been suffering advanced Cabin Fever, but when I let them out this morning, they declined and went back to bed. I wanted to, but we had looms to build. I know, in a month or less we’ll be complaining about the heat.. happens most every year. Still… right now I can hardly wait!

Hope you aren’t too soggy.

Home again

May8

Well, I’m sorry I did not keep my promise to post here while we were on our trip. I forgot to put up links for myself and I could not log in to my admin to post. You might just guess I am not really computer literate.  But we are home again and I have just made sure that I have the links I need the next time we go tripping! And I have tons of photos, of course, which I will not post here. Well, I’ll post some but not the ‘tons’.

The start of our trip was rather white and cold. This was a morning in Nevada where we stayed in a state park. Nice place but the weather wasn’t the greatest! lol

This is a waterfall in Zion National Park. There was just too much to see to even take it all in in one visit. Everything is too BIG!

These things are called HooDoos. They are the hard parts of the sandstone that was left after the rest washed away. This is Red Canyon and my favorite part.

This guy is apparently quite used to tourists in Brice Canyon park, as he sat there and let us take his picture until he got bored with the process and flew off to spiral heavenward on an updraft above this colorful canyon.

While we had snow in the beginning, the desert was blooming beautifully by the time we headed home. I took a bunch of flower pictures but this cactus was among the showy-ist

Met a great lady in this shop in Hatch, Utah. An artist after my own heart! I bought a ‘trinket’ in her shop and we talked art. She’s learning to spin and is taking rug weaving lessons from an Indian gentleman who raises sheep nearby. The town of Hatch is on highway 89 if you are in that part of the country you should not miss a chance to stop and browse her shop!

This is Mount Tom, taken from an over-look as we headed home out of  Bishop, CA. We drove up to Sabrina, not at the top but waaay up there. This is the Sierra Nevada range. There are gobs more pictures but  I think this is enough. You ought to go visit the desert someday, if you can. It is beautiful country to see, but I am happy to live just where I do.

Pretty!

Apr11

I ‘borrowed’ this photo that my daughter sent me. She’s bragging about 80 degree sunshine there in Georgia with the dogwood blooming. I had to send her in exchange a photo of my budding weeping willow in the falling snow! 😦

Oh well, it is not (so far) sticking but I just went around the yard yesterday taking pictures of the blooming spring flowers. I noticed this morning that the old peach and the purple plum are blooming. No crop again this year! My new little peach tree is better bred for the area, I guess, as it is being conservative with it’s buds. Well, I hope you saw the sunshine today!