Here they are lined up on Grandmother’s porch to say Goodbye! Oh no! 😥 Stephanie called last eve to say they had arrived safely and I talked to Karen this morning. Said the flight went well and they even arrived early. But, boy, is it quiet around here today! This blog is going to be a lot slower and less interesting now when it’s just us old folk again! 😦
Oh well, I have a couple boxes of “mementos” left under the beds and behind the dresser and in the yard! :laugh: I’ll get them packed up and to the post office in a week or so.
Meantime… Karen wants her looms… NOW, Mom! 😉
Heehee… I’ve hooked her at last!

Here they all are with their works in fiber. Shane is holding his handspun llama yarn rake-knitted pillow. He did the carding and helped spin and then knitted it on the knitting rake all by himself. Chris was our main weaver man. He wove the squares and made the bear and he wove from acrylic all the triangles to make his blanket. He also made his own set of Tiny Weaver looms with a little help from Grumpa.
Mac used Lion Brand Bulky and the knitting rake to make his dog a blanket. He got quite a way along and then decided to enlarge it to fit Cori (the real dog), instead of Midnight (the stuffed one). The result you see on the right. It turned out nicely, tho, because his clever Grandma saw at once that with the addition of a nice wooden button, the result made a fine cape for Midnight! Cori isn’t very fond of clothes anyway so was persuaded to let it go. 🙄

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She got it finished. She used three 14″ squares, woven every-other nail with her very bulky first time-spinning handspun yarn. She and Stephanie spun the yarn and Kool-aid dyed it. Karen wove the squares and I crocheted the strap for her. She says she wants to use it for carrying fat file folders around the school.

Here’s a couple of “mug rugs” I made with kitchen cotton, warping it square and then weaving cut lengths to make the hounds-tooth pattern. You can see the crochet cotton that I chained around the edge. You have to hold the thead under the loom so it’s a little awkward at first but once you get the hang of it it goes quickly and it is tight enough to hold the threads even in the washer. I think htese are cute. Experiment!

We spent the weekend camping in the mountains! lol But it was further up in the mountains and even Jack found it relaxing! Since he didn’t have to roast his dinner on a willow stick he didn’t even bother to get up for it! 🙄

Yesterday Karen Kool-aid dyed the yarn she and Stephanie spun and it’s now balled up and ready to weave on her 14″ mahogany square loom. She ‘conned’ me out of my square and then sweet-talked Randy into making her a matching tri. I guess it pays to be related to the lil ole loom-maker! The sad part is that she only has a week left here. They leave next Wednesday! OOOOOH! I miss them already!

Karen decided that her handspun was too thick to weave every nail so she wove every other. I think skipping every thrid or fourth would have worked. She wants to felt this carry all bag, when it’s woven so it might work out just fine this ‘thin’. The colors work out nicely.

We took our berry baskets and went out to the patch this morning. It’s early in the season yet and it took about a half acre to get this many, but it’s a pies worth with, maybe, a milkshake on the side! 😛

The redwoods are still an awe inspiring sight, even after all the times I’ve seen them. The kids were flabberghasted and delighted! We hiked trails and had a great time finding ever bigger ones! They bought burls to take home and grow their own giant Redwood tree in Georgia. I wonder how long that will take! 😉
And then we went to Blue Lake to the Hardwood store and bought some lovely exotic woods to make looms of! Watch for the results of this excursion!

Mac has just spotted his first hermit crab! They found anemones, snails, shelled critters of all kinds, little fish and big crabs, all sorts of fancy sea-weed, but no starfish this time.