Archives

September– Autumn?

Sep4

I guess it must be autumn since the Poison Oak is turning red again.

The maples are still a kind of green, tho.

Our garden was pretty much a bust this year. I got maybe a half dozen tomatoes so far. There are quite a lot of green ones on the Rome and a few on the (un)Early Girl. Cut 4 scranny, miss-shapened bell peppers and harvested on ice cabbage, the lone survivor.  The squashes were doing good until the mole arrived and started digging around the roots. I did get one nice acorn, which we had for dinner last night, and there’s still  a butternut out there alive. Even the Zucchini Were pretty much a low producing crop this year. We had a fairly good crop of peas early on, but the beans refused to even germinate. My beets did germinate but failed in the end, too. Have a couple cukes producing but they are bitter. None of my kale, which has never failed me before survived. Oh well, Good thing last year was a bumper year, I still have canned things from then. We’ll try again next year. I have to admit that it was not a good gardening spring with being gone with Rosy so much so it may not be all the early too hot weather, which we are blaming it on.

But at least I didn’t have to spend the summer standing watch over a pressure canner! There’s always a bright side, isn’t there!

We’re now getting ready for the fall shows. First will be OFFF in Albany, Oregon Sept 21-22 and then shortly thereafter is Lambtown in Dixon CA, Oct 5-6. I don’t have classes at OFFF this year, thankfully, but two at Lambtown assuming anyone signs up. I’m offering a beginning peg loom class and a full day Weaving Lace. Lace That Shouts instead of Pale Pastel Whispering lace! Well, these patterns work for both, really, but I think more people today want to see bright colors and there’s no reason lace has to be saved for traditional weddings or baby things or old ladies nighty’s. When I was a teen you did not wear sequins or rhinestones on your jeans, in fact, you did not even plain wear jeans to school or church like I see today. But these days you can wear pretty much anything you like so why not lace? I can dye my hair pink or purple or even green if I should want to, another thing you just Did Not Do back then. I love that I can now. So we’ll be weaving some colorful lace to decorate jeans, tee shirts, or even those baby things. And if you are planning an unconventional wedding… Go for it!

   

In the Peg Loom class we be making a headband, it’s a fairly fast project and also a useful product, practical me has to include that virtue. But the loom is good for much more. This is one I did this summer. I bought some cleaned skirtings from a shepherd at fiber Fusion NW this spring and wove this rug on my 22″ Peg loom. It is so lush! Soft and thick and, I think, nice looking. I am not sure how well it will wear but I joined an peg loom weaving group on face book and see that this is a very popular rug among those weavers so I’m thinking it must hold up pretty well or it seems there would be some mention of that.  Anyway, here it is. I didn’t have all the weft tails cut when I took this, but you can see how cozy it looks. I can picture my always cold feet snugged up on that this winter!

  

So… what else? Well, I want to find time to dig up my over-crowded iris and transplant them to a mostly barren flower bed in front of our rental BnB cabin. There are iris out by the mailbox that were planted by the snow plow digging them up from the neighbors across the road and they are thriving and blooming each spring without the hand of man (or woman) helping at all so I think being in this mostly ignored flower bed and maybe being watered a few times in the summer, they ought to thrive nicely! There are day lilies that need thinning, too, but they seem to like more water so not sure they’d like it in that bed and frankly, I’m running out of room!

The weather has been pretty nice lately, highs in the upper 80’s, but they are ‘promising’ us 100+ later this week before that elusive rain they see in the future that keeps disappearing is set to arrive… again!! lol But be that as it may, I think I am nearly ready for winter. Not prepared, just ready, if you see the subtle difference! I hope you are also looking forward to the future. I hope it’s going to be a brighter one. This world could use some bright and we can help if we refuse to follow the nay sayers and Walk on the

Sunny Side of the Street! 

with Louie Armstrong, this was a big hit for him years ago.

Or maybe you like Frankie?

Cyndi Lauper

Well… not my decade! lol

How about Willie Nelson?

Actually l like his version.

But judging by how many popular singers have recorded this song, I think it tells me a lot of people are looking to walk in the sunny side! I hope you’ll find me there!

 

 

It’s summer time…. July

Jul26

Hot last week, not quite as hot this week, repeat… We’ve been going to as much as 107 one week down to 89 the next and back again so far this month. Last heat spell was not quite as hot, which is a good thing. But mostly we stay indoors when it gets extreme. Mornings and evenings become time for outside tasks. The garden is pretty sketchy this summer, What with the last start and the extreme weather early on, it didn’t get planted on time and some things just don’t like the temps, I guess and aren’t doing well. But we are eating zucchini now at least! lol My chard and kale wee among those that didn’t like conditions so I’m having to buy my greens this year. But the black berries are starting to ripen.

Been getting some weaving done and working in the shop. I have two classes at Lambtown and have been getting stuff done for those.

Invited Cousin Dan down for dinner last night. Pizza. But just before he arrived the oven which was preheating, started smoking, and we discovered something under the bottom, was afire! Flames coming up though the vents. It got a little exciting for a bit, but Cuz enjoyed the fun, too. Turned out Katt has not been doing his job! A mouse had been stealing from his dry food bowel and, for some reason, storing it in the oven, just under the burners where it proved to be quite flammable. And it hadn’t been there long as I baked bread 5 or 6 days before and it was fine. But we got that out and we ended up baking the pizza in the Silver Fox Cabin oven. Good thing it was not rented this week! But we had a nice dinner and visit in the end so… all’s well that ends well, as the bard said.  A little excitement for the day, humm?

  It was pretty good.     Katt is heck on rubber snakes even if he does sleep though mouse raids.

My old peach tree has lost another branch so not going to have much of a crop from it this year, wither. it lost several last winter. It is reaching the end. I guess I’d better start looking for a replacement. I think I’ll try to find the same kind if I can find the name tag and identify it. it was a good producer for a long time in spite of spring weather, bloom time when it wants to rain or have a late freeze.

From August 2022.

Still missing Rosy. It just makes no sense that she should leave before me, being the youngest of us girls. I send her an email now and then but so far she hasn’t answered. It’s the pits.

  We were just goofing off,

 

Christmas Cards, weaving your own.

Dec2

These are fun to make tho if you have a lot of people- Special people- on your list you might want to start a bit sooner than December 2!

But I’ll share a bit if what I’ve done here. You can take it and run with it on your own. You can use this same method for making cards for birthday, Easter or any other celebrations, of course. Or a pretty patch on an item of clothing.  Maybe pretty patches like we used to make back in the day, once this ugly fad for torn up jeans fades! You can reclaim these garments!

But I did this on the 4″ Multi loom. First you need a graft to fit your loom. I did this for you so you can just print these out and design away! The red dot is the center of the loom to help place your design so that it will fit. You want at least one stitch as a border, more is better, especially of you plan to attach these to other squares. I made a baby blanket using this and some cute little animal pictures. I also added the one with the centered circle in case you ae doing round ornament type projects.

Here’s a couple  simple charts you can start with to give you an idea how to go about this. Penguin is worked on a white background, the gray squares here should be black, the snowman needs a color to let him stand out. I just suggest weaving the square with some pale aqua, an icy color then stitching the white for his body. You can do it the other way if you want, stitching the back ground to outline  him. You can also use a running stich to kind of outline him. I arbitrarily added a bit of bright pink in his scarf but I have to say, it can and should be done better, You decide!

You can work these with a cross stitch, even a single ‘cross’ might work,  like needle point. This will depend on the size of yarn you are using. You want a solid coverage without distorting the pattern. When you are looking for patterns search Free Cross stitch Christmas patterns. Also look at the same but needlepoint. Like this one. You can work any of these either way, just be sure to coordinate your yarn sizes.

  

I worked the little penguin using the half cross, or needle point stitch. I think it turned out okay except some of my colors are not the best choices but what I had to work with. His feet and beak should have been a darker yellow, more ‘school bus’, and my green is a bit too dark. I worked little French knots for his berries and I like that. I think I may do a bit of detailing on this one. He also looks very sad, It’s his eyes, not sure how to cheer him up but I’ll make a few sketches and see what I can work out. Since there is a limited number of squares here details are a little difficult to fit in. I also worked the stitches in his white parts. I was thinking about letting the back ground white do it, but I thought that looked too unfinished.
Hoping someone else will work him and share!

Here’s some I have done, I didn’t keep track of them all, tho, too bad. If you are unfamiliar with embroidery There are lots of instruction on line, I expect. Also Gabi had a WAL on the subject some time ago and she may still have links to that information. Here’s the one I made in that WAL & c couple Xmas squares. The gnome is  on the 4×6″.

       

This was a mug rug for my MIL. In case yo can figure out my symbolism its the sun coming up in the coffee cup.

These were for my baby blanket, (except the last one) which I also can’t find a picture of.

Well, I hope you get some inspiration out of this post and will let me know what you make, I always love to see your projects! Let me know, too if something is unclear more info is needed.

 

It’s October– time for Lambtown and OFFF!

Oct1

Fall Fiber Fairs are Fun! 

Sometimes it’s cool enough to have us thinking wool! Sometimes not quite that cool but we can feel it in the air and we can see it in the leaves of the trees! Stores are done with Halloween candy and stocking up on Christmas! lol A sure sign it’s autumn.  Apples are ripening and it’s time to make pies and can applesauce for your winter oatmeal. But hey! we’re almost ready and it is time to start weaving your gift list.

  

We’re heading to Dixon and Lambtown in a couple days. I have 10 weavers joining me for a class on Friday. It’s my first all day class so something new to look forward to. We’re going to have fun! I hope! The scarf is just the start! We’ll be real Scotsmen before we’re done! and almost immediately after that it’s Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Albany, Oregon so if you can’t make Dixon I’ll see you at OFFF!

 

 

 

 

Must be fall, the poison oak is turning red!

Sep14

 

And while the bush beans are about done, the pole beans are just hitting their stride! I’ve already canned around 120 pints. Now I’m bagging them to take to the local Food program, along with some cucumbers which are also turning them out. And he just picked 4 lugs of pears and says that not all on that tree and there are two more trees! lol This is kind of funny in a way as in the past few years we were lucky to get 6 pears off the three! But I have pears in the dehydrator now and will be canning pears and making pear butter. They are ripening rapidly. I had two for breakfast. Delish, I have to admit. I just wish canned pears were as tasty as fresh.

And just out of curiosity, I looked up the nutrition comparison between apples and pears. It appears they are a lot alike but pears seen to have just a bit of an edge. They have more fiber and only just a few grams more sugar. I always thought of pears having a lot more sugar but at least the ones they tested did not seem to. These are Bartletts that Grandfather planted many years ago. But speaking of apples… They are about ready to pick, too. I want them to be ripe but we have to get there before the bear does! I’m surprised they haven’t hit the pears yet. Maybe because this has been such a productive year, they are finding plenty of food elsewhere. I hope so!

One of 4 lugs I have to deal with!

Other than that I am working on my class stuff for Lamb Town next month. Took Cat to the vet so get him the rest of his shots so he could spend a week or two in the Pet Motel while we attend the last two shows of the year. If you are in the area we’ll be at Lamb Town in Dixon, CA. and also the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Albany, Oregon. I had intended to let him just live outside as he’s used to doing but there is rumor of a lion in the village so I guess that wouldn’t be fair. He is pretty good at hiding in the snow but stands out pretty good in green grass. And I think that’s probably true even if you only see in black and white as I understand some/most animals do. He’s not going to like it but I doubt he’d like going to “dinner” with the lion, either!

Speaking of Cat, he was getting bored with his toys so I got the Cat Burglar out. It was a favorite of past critters and was a hit with Cat, too. He went from his pink Tribble to the cat burglar and had a great time! The stuffed squirrels that you can see under the dining table have lost their place for awhile!

          

So meantime I am trying to keep Sis cheered up after her knee surgery. It isn’t much fun for the first couple days.  I haven’t heard yet this morning and am hoping that means she’s getting some good Zzzz’s. Mine is still working and hope it will continue doing so. I have been able to lose a few pounds this month which ought to help it some.

Okay, I guess I’d better get back at it. Hope your September is not too hot or too wet! It’s pretty nice here in the Trinity Alps!

It’s July– already!

Jul9

And what a month it has been. It started last month! But that’s all water under the bridge. speaking of which, the “spring” run off is still running off! It’s been a good spring and early summer for water. Still snow on the north sides of the peaks, haven’t seen that in July in a long time! The yard and garden loves it. And the weather has had a couple hot spells but mostly has been pretty temperate but it looks like that may be coming to an end. This morning’s forecast threatens us with up to 110drgrees f. this next weekend! Yikes!

Sis is coming down and we’re going to play with dyes. I was hoping to talk her into a longer stay but I’m pretty sure that won’t fly once she hears about that! She thinks 80 is hot! Ah well..

The people at Lambtown want me to advertise my class this October on my social media. Does a blog qualify for that? If so I hope you will think about joining us if you are within reach of Dixon, CA. They always have bus service from the bay area if you live down that way. We’re going to be weaving Tartans!  The scarf is one of the simpler projects you can use your tartan designs for. Can you imagine weaving your own kilt?! Me neither! That’s something like 35 yards of fabric, but we’ll have useful and wearable projects you can weave. This class is mostly about how to take a floor loom woven pattern and translate it into a useable pin loom pattern. We’ll be using the Quilt Weaver Looms. mostly 12 inch and 14 inch squares, tho I will include the 10.5″ and even some that may work with the 7″ square. It’s going to be fun!

Meantime, the garden is the main topic. The peas are blooming again and we picked the first summer squash this morning! There are lot of green tomatoes, some peppers, the beans are starting to flower and we have little cucumbers! Going to be a busy canning season, too!

I hope you are all having a great summer!

My 2nd for the WAL

Mar3

I finally finished her blue dress and the jacket. I’m not sure the blues are a perfect fit but i am quite happy with both. I especially like the jacket. I used some yarn by Universal yarn company called Uptown worsted. It is 100% acrylic and wonderfully soft but still holds stitch definition well and is just nice to work with. I turned the neckline out on this jacket to give it a bit of faux collar. I’m not sure about the sleeve length, I may go back and work a little edging to make them a bit longer.

   

 

Some Weavers have ask about the SweetHeart blanket Heart Valentine Block.  That is basically a woven design that you can put together into a blanket

\

This is mine.

This one was made by Penny Tennerman and given me by her daughter.

.

Progress…

Mar1

I redid my seams so she now has sleeves. This is only pinned together as you can likely see but I am making progress. I do think I like the vertical alignment of the floats better but not enough to disassemble the whole thing!

 

While rummaging in my loom basket, I also found the 1×6 Randy made for me some time ago. Just for fun I used it to weave her headband and I really like it for that! It’s needs two plus the few rows of garter stitch. I did this blue on in plain weave as it seems a bit flimsy with the pattern stitch, but I did a 2nd using some Red Heat worsted, it was tight weaving but I did the pattern stitch with that, giving it a bit of ease, and it worked fine that way.

So I am happy to see some of you are making progress, too. I did get a head start of you all so ought to finish first, tho I can see that’s going to be close, too! lol

I’m deciding what I am going to offer as a bonus pattern to finishers.

It’s begining to look a lot like…

Feb28

… the dress!

Here’s a excellent example of what not to do. Yes, assembling your blocks in strips is a good way to put this dress together but do remember to leave the top seams open for the sleeves! Once I got all three strips assembled I found I had no sleeves so had to do some un-sewing! Also, and this really is a matter of your own choice, pick one side of the pattern, making sure they are all the same side. The original dress had the floats running up and down, but I put this one together with them running side to side. Not intentionally rather from not paying attention. But, as I said, that really doesn’t matter.

WAL Official start today….

Feb28

I was late, however, due to our snowfall and power failure. The Great Guys from PUD got out there in the cold and snow and got it back working in just a few hours!

I have some pictures to share, unfortunately my camera decided it it needs a battery recharge this morning of all times! lol But I posted things yesterday so you should all be busy weaving squares toward this dress.

Just thought I’d share a couple other outfits I’ve woven for your inspiration and, hopefully, enjoyment!

This one is an attempt to weave a version of Molly’s meet outfit. It used the 4×6″ Multi for both the top and the skirt.

Addy is wearing one using the 4×6 and the  2″ Multi looms. I think this yarn is Caron’s Simply Soft. It’s on the heavy side for these looms but not bad. It’s also brighter colors than it shows here. I called it Festive.

     

And a Hoodie for Dean. This one used the Quilt Weaver looms. I gave it those Kangaroo pockets and a zipper. I’m afraid this hoodie is probably more for warm than fashion. For that, I think it needs to be black and have a deeper hood, for hiding in. It has knitted cuffs and edgings. I should have shortened the sleeves as well.

         

Kanani is wearing a cropped version. Her cargo pants are also woven.  She has way too much hair for the hood so it is just a collar for her. Here she is weaving on her ridged heddle loom. She is weaving a small afghan using some textured stash yarns.

There’s lots more. Once you get going with this you can easily design your own and they can also be embellished in anyway you like using knit, crochet; you can embroider or add beads. Sky’s the limit.