July in pictures.
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Just thinking…
It’s July and too hot to be doing much with yarn. I am working on a project for a book to be published by somebody else. I hope I can get it done in time.
But meantime, cleaning up the kitchen this morning, I got to thinking about dishrags. Lots of people weave them on the looms, Sis is one of them. I have also done it but mostly for the how-to pictures. I have clung to my sponges. But awhile back Sis gave me a stack of her old faded ones to use as rags in the shop or somewhere. I just shoved them in the kitchen towel drawer. The other day I got a bug to clean out the overflowing drawer and remembered seeing on someones blog that she had a basket in her kitchen filled with old dishrags, etc to use as clean up rags and save paper towels so I got out one of my hand made baskets (arthritis won’t allow that anymore) and put them all in it. And have started using them for that purpose. And I think I am converted! They are easy to rinse out and hang on the edge of the sink to dry. It was too easy to toss the sponge into the sink where it probably grew some really nasty stuff. I know I went though a lot of them. I remember reading in a “green” magazine that it was actually cheaper and more energy efficient to use paper towels. The author if this piece having proved to herself that the manufacture and delivery of the paper towels saved more energy that the washing of dish cloths. I am going to equate the making of the paper towels with the manufacture of yarn, energy wise. And I refuse to think of the “energy” spent weaving the cloths as effecting the global climate, so will skip to the washing. If you ran a batch just for the dishrags, yeah, that would count, but who does that? You toss the in with whatever batch seems appropriate to your style of doing laundry and as that energy would be used with or without the cloths that also can’t be counted against your ‘carbon footprint’. So it seems to me that the handwoven cloth is going to come off ahead however you look at it. There’s a little water used to rise the cloth but I usually rinsed the sponges and often the paper towels as I use the tough ones so that can’t add to much.
And more to the point… The dishrags woven with kitchen cotton do a much better job of cleaning! That’s really the part that converted me. I am going to have to weave a few more of these handy bits. I’ve had some people tell me they use them as wash cloths, too. I’ll have to give that a try next.
Finally finsihed!
The Tri top is done. I wove four 12″ squares and sewed them in pairs. Folded in the sleeve openings a couple times and fitted the sleeves in until they looked right. Pinned them in place and tried it on, adjusting until I had the look I needed.
Then I top stitched the sleeves in place.
After that I turned it inside out and cut the excess fabric and zigzaged the seam.
Here it is.
I tried to take my picture in it but the do-it-yourself-setting on my camera has quit doing it. All I get is a fuzzy one so will have to wait until Himself and do the photography with his big mulit-talented camera. But here’s the fuzzy view, for what it’s worth.
I think it turned out, in the end, okay if a less than flattering design for me. The color is nice and the texture of this soft cotton is very nice.
And, by the way, the beans are coming up! Hope things are springing up where you are!
Is it a blouse or is it a cat blanket?!
That’s still up for grabs. I am working on the sleeves. I think the problem is that the shoulders are too wide. This is going to turn out to be one of those cut and sew projects after all. But meantime the weather has warmed up and we got the bean tower in and the beans planted. It’s 80 degrees on the deck. Yum!
Something else today…
Well, I wasn’t happy with the sleeves i made so I’ve ordered more yarn and put the project on hold until it arrives.
Meantime, Randy is getting the new garden shed up and I am sorting and moving the contents. Some to stay and some to go.
And since it’s gotten warm finally, I planted out the winter squashes and pumpkins. The peas are getting big, too!
Assembling
Got the top pinned together and am sewing up the shoulders and sides. Fit is pretty good, near as I can tell but… same ole same ole… It needs sleeves. No, I need sleeves. I think this would be cute as a sleeveless top on someone with firm young arms. Mine need sleeves. Not sure how I’m going to go about that but will be working on it. Here it is so far.
The front I assembled using a slip stitch in the darker yarn. The back is just an overhand stitch in the same yarn. I decided that if I was going to be wearing a target, it should be on the front and not the center of my back! More later!
A hail of a spring day!
Hail, rain, wind and all the while the sun shinning! lol Well, not all the while. It did gloom up now and then, too. And never did get very warm. Took my morning walk and then came back in and went back to weaving. Lookee there… it’s hailing again! I always feel sorry for the poor critters out there in that stuff. I remember many, many years ago walking home from school and got caught in a hail storm. Tried hiding under a hedge but finally ran to the nearest house and begged asylum. The lady let me come in until the storm passed. That was actually 60+ years ago and I remember it vividly! I hope all the critters can find a safe place to ride out these showers!
But back to weaving, the suns out again! lol I decided to make the center front yoke in the second color and weave it in a twill. I think it’s going to work.
Easter weekend
No weaving going on this weekend. My hands are now too grubby to touch yarn! Gardening and spring type yard work instead. For instance, here’s Randy filling the new garden box with compost and dirt. He sifts all the rock and roots out first, lots of work but it makes a nice growing bed. The tomatoes will go here this year. He also put up the pea trellis, tho they haven’t quite reached that high yet. 😉 A bumper crop of rhubarb in the back there. The bed to the right will have summer squashes and cukes eventually, they’re still in the baby seed bed, but growing nicely, as are the onions in the left photo. I planted three kinds this year, the regular yellow, also some white and red which I haven’t tried before. The bushy plant is a perennial celery. Kind of a cross between celery and parsley, I guess. It has the celery leaf flavor, and that’s what I like. It’s in its third year now.
But I will show you the squares I wove last week from the stash picks. I am leaning heavily to the one on the right. It’s the easiest to weave and I rather like it’s texture. I think it’ll make a nice summer top. But it won’t be a fast one because even being easiest, it is still a slow yarn slow work with. I don’t seem to have the labels handy but if I haven’t said what it is, I will when I get back to it.
Meantime, I am enjoying a nice summer this spring. Hope it’s a warm sunny weekend where you are!
A sure sign of spring!
Guess what we’re having for dessert tonight! Yummm!!!!
Still at it.
Beautiful day today. Peas not up yet but I see one tomato peeping though. These heirloom Oxhearts are going to be a little late since I managed to kill my first little ones, but I like them enough to try.
But I finished weaving and have it about half assembled. Not sure how much I’ll get done this weekend since I’m going to have to be in the shop but I’ll work on it when I can. It’s coming along. Hope you are getting some done on your project.
But meantime, Randy bought these lovely glass solar mushrooms for my birthday. The weather is finely nice enough for me to put them out to try. So pretty! They come with pegs for sticking them in the ground but that’s not going to happen. I’m going to have him make a base for them so they can sit on the deck, safely and prettily. He got them at Lowes, if you like them, too. They are quite bright.
Hazel Rose 