Tag Archive | 12″ squares

Oops… I have been slack again. Sorry!

Apr6

It’s already April. My birthday is passed. I thought I had a post for that in the files for later but if so it seems to have disappeared. Oh well… But I had two parties this year! My Bunko to host is in March but only a week before my birthday. So I used the occasion to give myself a Surprise Birthday Party! I was a little nervous about how the 11 would take it but they all seemed to get a kick out of it and helped me eat my self-baked birthday cake and sang the traditional song to me while I blew out the single candle! I wanted to put all 84 on it but as the event was held at the Fire Hall I was afraid I might be arrested for arson!

Happy Birthday to me!

My 2nd party was lunch with two friends at the Trailhead café. It was two days before my April 1 birthday since the café is not open full time yet. That was fun and I got a Chocolate Cherry torte with another candle on it and gifts, too! The best gift was lunch with friends, of course! And on my birthday, Hubbie made breakfast for me to start the day right. It was a lovely day, too. I hope I get another one next year.

Lately I seem to have mostly been dealing with business emails and teaching at fairs stuff and email program fixes so spending too much time on the computer. I have ignored all work related stuff the last couple of warm sunny days and have been out pruning and pulling weeds and trying to clean up the mess in my flower beds. This winter was hard of growing things! But there are daffodils and crocus blooming in the lawn. The snow last week pushed the daffies faces in the mud, as happens every spring about this time! Tradition, I guess you could call it, but they sprang right back up when the sun came out the same day and melted it all off again. The last puff of winter, I hope! We’ll still have frost but the white stuff should be staying Up Top now.

Himself is getting the garden ready. He does the heavy work out there. My tomatoes which I planted a good month too early need to go in the ground soon. They’ll have to be covered but I hope they’ll survive it.  Other than that I am trying my hand at making Orange Marmalade. Never tried this before but I ended up with more oranges than we are likely to used before they start drying up. And I do like it so it seems a good idea. I hope it is!

It now has to set for 12-18 hours my Ball Blue Book says. Interesting.

As for weaving, I’ve been working on getting things ready for the classes I have signed up to teach.  Several peg looms classes this year and a few others. Our first fiber fair this year is in Farmington, Utah. The Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair. We missed it last year but this year I will have two classes, Beginning Peg Loom Weaving and Beyond Plain Weave, a class for weavers who already know how to use the continuous weave looms. We’ll take a look at pattern weaves, colors, a bit about how to design your own patterns and some lace weaving, too.

The next fair is Fiber Fusion NW in Monroe, Washington. I’ll do the same two classes there since this is further from Farmington than most weavers want to travel, it’s not going to be a double for weavers. Then Lambtown and Oregon Flock and Fiber Fair in October. But between all this will be a bigger garden this year. The garden did not do well last year so I didn’t get much canning done. I don’t really look forward to canning in the hottest part of the year, which is when stuff gets ripe, of course, but I do like to have the pantry full come fall!

We stopped at the going-out-of-business sale at Joanne’s, of course, and while I was looking at potentially useful sale items he bought this rose for me. He says he went though them all to find the most real looking one. I guess he found it, as my friend  thought it was real when she saw it the other day. Of course she was across the room from it, but still, it is a lovely rose. And a lovely thought from Himself!

I hope you are all enjoying some signs of Spring where you are! My Sis in Florida is moving into summer already! I’m not ready for summer yet, gotta work up to that but will be delighted to see Spring!

Meanwhile, keep your looms polished and your garden gloves dirty!

Some stuff for kids…

Feb16

If your kids are restless in this snowy wet winter weather here’s a few little projects that might keep them interested for a bit. A little discrete help or advice from Mom might be a good thing, as always. My philosophy for kids and adults as far as that goes, is that making it yourself makes it more interesting and valuable.

Bitty Bear is made from one densely woven square

There’s more and of course you’ll want to try any idea that appeals to you! These two are offered for inspiration, the pictures and charts are pretty self explanatory.

I have a lot more that I’ll get organized but this is just a start for today. Have fun!

It’s snowing here again this morning….

Christmas Eve…

Dec24

Still morning before, actually, but close enough. Somehow I got involved with my stash storage/bedroom. Was not my intention to spend today that way! But things happen. It started out with Himself commenting on how hard it was to get to the movie storage with all my projects piling up there. So I started “organizing”. That’s a thing I never have been very good at but one thing lead to another and here I am. Nowhere. Yes, I got the pile of projects next to my chair cleared out so he can find his movies but we aren’t going to be able to go to bed tonight until I get this taken care off. It wasn’t bad enough with just my stuff but now I have a bunch of Rosy’s unfinished projects that I thought I could finish for her. Hummm… But it was getting a little crowded on my side of the bed as things kept piling up. Can’t get out to Le Shed these days as there is still snow in spite of the rain. And that hasn’t helped, making things slushier and harder walking. I’m probably going to have to tackle the closet, too, in order to make room for the stuff on the bed! It is a vicious circle, isn’t it?! That old ‘going though life But first’. I’ll put this away But First I have to straighten out the closet!

And to further complicate things, I found Rosy’s set of cable needles which I hunted for a couple weeks ago for some project I’ve already forgotten. And in that bag was a couple of letters I sent to her in 2021. Newsletters I was writing back then for our new customers. I would like to do that again if I can figure out how to go about it. Kind of a chatty ‘what am I working on now and here’s a couple ideas for you’ sort of thing.

I know we all have UFO’s stashed away somewhere, it’s just a natural side effect of crafting. But I think some of us get carried away. I got an Idea yesterday and spent the day working it out. I was quite happy with the results but now I have another newly started project in the quay and am feeling guilty about that! Ah well… I think I am going to have to be immortal if I am going to finish all my projects! I’m sure at least some of you have had the problem! Wait! Maybe I should get out my small animal trap and see if I can catch one of Santa’s elves tonight! It would be a big help. Elf magic ought to get most of this stuff taken care of! Gosh, I should have thought of that years ago!

However,  I still need to recover our bed so I guess I’d better just wish you Happy Christmas and get back to work!

Wishing You a Happy Christmas!

Hazel & Randy

 

In hot central California…

Oct6

In hot central California..

Its Lambtown in Dixon. There were 7 enthuiastic weavers signed up for my lace class on Friday. We spent 6 hours exploring possibilites for the 4 inch looms. We also discovered that the one extra pin on the Multi loom does make a slight difference for weavers using that plastic one. And since the old Weave-its & Weavettes are also short corner pins, for them as well. But its not a big difference. If my row ends o1, u1, those will end o1. Or if it works better for the pattern, you can modify the start instead. Be creative… or buy a proper loom! ;-D

The other exciting thing this weekend is that Jane Grogan is here! If by any chance you are not aquainted with Jane, she is a well known teacher on our looms from Michigan & a friend. I will have a picture of us weaving on a peg loom, but will have to add that later. This afternoon I’Il be showing more weavers how to get going on tbeir peg looms.

We’re having a last blast of summer heat here in Dixon. Its predicted to hit 100 today. But they are keeping it cool in Madden Hall to encourage shoppers to remember that even here those lovely wool yarns  will soon be timely and weaving sweaters and socks comfortable again!

We’ll leave here on Monday morning, Katt will have to spend a few more days in the Weaverville Pet Motel, while we explore highway 88 & Carson Pass. Up there where the high for that day is predicted to be 68 degrees! A few degrees cooler than home. A ’few feet’ higher in elevation, too, of course! It sounds like a lovely place, just the right sort of vacation spot for a mountain girl! But then its home to finish the tag ends of the garden & making sure the woodshed is topped off and the summer tools put away… you know the sort of things that need doing before winter sets in.

But now it looks like its time to go to work. I’ll post pictures when we get home. Hope you are keeping cool & dry!

 

 

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!

 

 

August!

Aug6

Summer is nearly over, heading into fall. Boy! This year is going fast. I have managed to get some of my List done this summer. I think I have the lace class for Lambtown ready and the Peg looms class as well. I am working on the fleece rug, that’s for Show and Tell. I bought this pound bag of clean skirting from a shepherd at Fiber Fusion in Washington this spring and am weaving a rug with my 22″ peg loom. I want to be able to take to show students in my class at Lambtown this fall. It’s very lush! Peg looms are so easy to weave and are a lot more versatile than you’d think. I’ve woven hats and bags and dog leashes to name a few. It’s not yet as long as I want it. I intend to full it some once it’s finished. Haven’t decided yet how to go about that.

Randy met another yarn lady from Trinity County today at the rest stop coming home from town. She expressed an interest in pin looms so I’m hoping she’ll join Pin Loom support Group.   Even tho she lives at the other end of the county it’ll be nice to have another ‘local’ person who weaves on pin looms!

 

The moles got into the garden and dug up one of my good winter squashes. Looks like one might survive but the other didn’t make it. I hope it stays out of the rest but am not holding my breath. The squashes are about the only thing that has done well this year. We got a late start because of the weather and being gone taking care of my sister. He did managed to get a pretty nice corn crop tho. The peas were doing okay until the hot weather. We only got a few bean plants but I have a two year supply canned up last year so that’s not going to be a problem! lol But I have to buy chard and kale, none of mine germinated this year. I think it was new seed so I’m not sure what the problem was.

The weather has been moderate here the last few weeks. We’ve had some days over 100 but also some under that number. In fact the forecast for this week is there and I’m looking forward to that. And my ‘lawn’ is blooming! It’s self heal and a few others. The bees love it and it is pretty. Actually my lawn is more plants than grass, tho there is quite a bit of that, too. We call it a meadow. In the spring it’s crocus and daffodils and then ox-eye daisies and red clover. Now the self heal and thyme is blooming. Bees love that, too. We have assorted Butterflies, different kind of bees and wasps, also other insects I can’t name, as well as hummingbirds and a bunch of other feathered neighbors. I am fond of the Stellar Jays. A lot of people think of them as noisy pests. I admit they are noisy but pretty and funny. They are smart birds.

 

Looking out the window, I see orange on my peach tree. I think its too early for them yet but I guess I’d better get out there and check. This might be the poor tree’s last crop. I can’t remember how old it is, they don’t live forever like apples, but it is getting old and has had a rough life the last few winters. I have a pretty nice crop on the little jam plums. I haven’t picked any, letting the jays have them this year since I inherited quite a bit of plum jam from Rosy. But I do look forward to the peaches. I’m wondering if I need to get a new tree already or if I can wait. This is some of last years crop.

Okay, I guess I’ve chatted on enough for this time. I hope you’re all safe and not too hot or too wet and not on fire at all!

    Back to playing with yarn! Happy weaving y’all!

 

 

It’s June already

Jun8

Well, this month didn’t start out well, with sis dying on the 7th. Ten days before her 78th birthday. The day she shares with my son’s 56th. Well, life does not go as it ought, does it?

But we went to Fiber Fusion in Monroe, Washington, and did well. I taught two classes and had 15 students altogether, all of them quite enthused about learning to weave and learning more about weaving on their square looms. Marion, who is vendor chair, took time off from her busy days to take both! Thank you Marion, I’m glad you found the time for some fun in all your hard work for us!!

 

The trip went well except for a couple small adventures. Every trip needs at least one of those, right? On the way up there was a loud crash-bang and we were showered with glass! I thought we’d been shot at! Randy pulled off the freeway and we discovered that a tiedown strap had broken and the buckle had hit the back window of the truck. It took out the whole drivers side slider. So we ended up with a garbage bag and some cardboard as a back window for the rest of the trip. And sometime during the return trip the brakes started malfunctioning. They worked, but not like he thought they should but we made it home safely and when he took it in to the shop yesterday they found the problem and fixed it. On the way home he ordered the new window, so we ought to be back in working order before Black Sheep Gathering the end of this month.  The only other thing of note was that when we left Monroe it was 63degrees and raining. when we got to Coffee Creek it was 99 and bright sunlight! But we’re adjusting!

We stopped at sis’s on the way home. I promised to help BIL with Rosy’s stuff. Started cleaning out her pantry. Rosy was a adventurous cook and there are products and seasonings that he will never use, some even I had never heard of. I brought some home  and some will be offered to his neighbor who has been cooking for him now and then but what David doesn’t want will be offered to the food pantry. And I picked up a fleece that I want to get ready to try to sell at BSG. There are a LOT of fleeces, Rosy was a Spinner. I loved that as I got a lot of very nice yarn. She knit and wove some but spinning was her first love. She was generous with her yarn, too. Her wheel is a Schacht Matchless double treadle and she has all the accessories to go with it. She has even more things to go with it than I guessed! And she has an Ashford traditional as well. We’ll have to pick up the wheel on our way up to Albany as the trailer was full on the way home. I still need to deal with her clothes, too. I’m putting that off. So if any of you are interested in these wheels and are going to be close enough to pick them up at one of the shows, let me know. I’ll figure out a price meantime.

Since we got home we’ve also been working on the getting the garden in. It’s late this year. but it is what it is. Or will be. and yesterday a doe got in the yarn (somebody left a gate open) and ate off my prized and babied tomatoes so all I have left of this is a stalk with one leaf each. Not a happy camper! They may come back but very late. I started these from special seed and we took them along on the trip to make sure they got enough light and water. They were doing fine so I put them out in the yard in a partly sunny spot to harden off. Very not happy! But I got a lot of other things planted today. And pulled my kale. I just planted it this spring, had not gotten one cutting and it has gone to seed. It was a new variety but should not have done that, so I guess I’ll go back to my old one, if I can remember what kind that was.  I don’t think I saved any seed but maybe there’s a couple volunteers out there, I’ll look this evening once it cools off.

Okay, enough of The History of Our World Part I. I hope your summer is starting out better than ours and will continue in a happy state!

The yard got a bit overgrown while we were gone. It’s  not a traditional Lawn yard, anyway, it’s our meadow but still usually a bit neater than this! But everything is blooming and happy so I guess that’s okay.

 

On the right is where our houseplants spend the summer. Usually safe from marauding herbivores.

  

 

2024… so far.

May14

“Cheer up, look for the bright side, they told me, things could be worse. So I cheered up, looked for the bright side… and things got worse”.

   

My baby Sister died May 7, 2024.  I was able to spend her last month with her but that did not make it easier. My sister and best friend, we emailed daily, sometimes several times. She ignored my advice on important subjects and I ignored hers but we enjoyed sharing none the less. She was a spinner with a huge stash of fleeces and yarn. I have her handspun now and will treasure using it. Her wheel I’ll sell, I hardly spin anymore and have my own anyway. She was also artistic and the best cook in the family. She loved animals and her little dog, Evie, will live with Rex and miss Rosy as the rest of us do. Our brother John is making the urns for her ashes, I know she’d be pleased with that gift.

and 

So now we have to move on. That means Fiber Shows. Fiber Fusion in Monroe, Washington is the first one this year. Two classes, Weaving a dishcloth, a beginning class,  and on Sunday it’s Beyond Plain Weave, but the link does not seem to work for me today. I’m sure you can find it if you are going to be in the area. Our next one at the end of May-first of June is Black Sheep Gathering in Albany, Oregon. I don’t have a class there this year. Then we get the summer off before OFFF and Lambtown in the fall. I’ll have classes listed at both of them & some new projects. The summer means, of course, garden and canning so not really a summer off!

 

Dishcloth and more… and beyond plain.

  And a new loom! Peg, Jr.

Well, I guess that’s all for now. This morning I am canning Rhubarb, something I have not done before, and putting pins in Fine Sett looms. And will try to get a walk in at some point. The sun is shinning and it’s a beautifully warm day here in Coffee Creek. I hope your day is bright as well.

 

Another January about gone…

Jan29

February coming up. That’s Spring in some places. In other places it means winter is underway. Strange how the world works. Just random thoughts generated by the weather these days. We’re having another sunny day. We didn’t even have have a fire last night. I slept great! When he stokes the fire for the night he doesn’t want to get up to a dead fire so I roast all night with the covers kicked off while he’s bundled up to the neck. Go figger. Ah well, they do say opposites attract. I think that must of been the case with us.

But Cat thinks they are soulmates and loves it!

But on other subjects, we’re threatened with heavy rain this week leading to lowering snow levels on Friday. Sun’s shining today, tho. We took a ride up the road  so Randy could check on a customers place for them, all’s well there. Coffee Creek is roaring along nicely, raising the lake level daily. Well, I haven’t been up that way recently but it’s probably getting a little help from Trinity river. But so far they are not sending it elsewhere so the possibility is there that we might have a lake once again this summer! That’ll be good for everyone here as well as visitors. Which are also good for everyone here!

But I guess we ought to talk about Weaving. We have a couple new looms in the works, not ready for debut yet. But I can show you one. I call it Peg, Jr. I’m think of offering a class at one of the fairs using the peg loom and thought it might be fun for parent and kid so we came up with this one with just 7 pegs. Kind of like straw weaving but with a base.

I had him shorten the pegs since this photo & wove a long 3 pin belt which I then rolled up and stitched in place… a pin cushion! And a scarf in the making.

Anything else? Well, I’m thinking it’s about time to get the coles started. I did buy a new seed tray and a bag of potting soil. Now I just have to find space for it. The biggy. I guess maybe the xmas cactuses will have to move next door. And I have a lot of pumpkins in storage that need to be used pretty soon. Can’t seem to find much to use them for. We don’t need a regular supply of pies and we tried pumpkin soup and, while it was not bad, it didn’t really inspire more.

But Valentines day is coming up. That’s always fun! Mug Rugs!

So that’s it for the end of January. I hope you all got the year off to a beautiful start.

An ideal life!

 

 

Thank-full!

Nov26

Yes, We are thankfully full of turkey, ours was on Saturday as the bird was still frozen on Thursday so we had ham then, which made Himself happy as he much prefers it. Costco has a good ham, too, so I enjoyed it as well. And I am thankful that there is ‘punkin’ pie left over. This one was made out of one of sis’s butternut squashes, yummy. But mostly I’m thank full that the job of cutting up the carcass is done and the meat in the freezer and the bones  in the soup pot! My favorite part of turkey is a big pot of soup! I’ll be canning some of that later this week. As mentioned he’s not a great fan of turkey or soup, both of which I love so I can it in pint jars and have lunches for half the winter! Well, maybe not half, but there is another turkey in the freezer!

 

I have been doing a bit of weaving. Did some domestic stuff, dish cloths. Needed some new ones and wanted to try them on the 10 1/2″ loom. It’s been popular with weavers but I’ve always used the 12″ for my dishcloths. So I figured while I was doing it I might as well use up some of the cotton stash and weave a couple fancy ones. The first two I wove on the 12″ using my “grease rag” colors. That yellowy looking one is actually brown but my camera decided to “improve” on it I guess. I used the Random pattern (which you can find in Pages) for the blue one and the Red and white is the small hounds tooth, which is just two rows of each color, repeat.

   

And then I decided to get out a peg loom and my big bag of selvages from Pendleton Mills and weave a couple chair pads. I haven’t done much with this loom so they didn’t turn out too well. Pretty wonky in fact! neither the same size or the same shape. I need to work on my tension on this loom. I am thinking about weaving a third one just to see if it might match either of the first two! lol I haven’t woven in the ends on the last one yet.  Sis suggested they are correct because they have two different sized butts to accommodate!

 

Other than that I’ve been working in the shop a bit. He’s been making peg looms as we’ve had a bit of a ‘run’ on them lately. We had to make a trip to Medford, Oregon to buy the thick oak boards to make them and just about bought out dowels at Lowes. It takes a lot of dowels to fill the 36″ peg loom and he makes & drills each one by hand. Not a job he looks forward to. He says he gets cheated with these looms as they are labor intensive and my part is just sanding and oiling the big part. Well, that’s okay as my labor on the rest of the business makes up for it, I think! But together we get it done. Today he spent the early 24 degree morning in the shop and now he’s working on the trailer ramada again, trying to get the roof done before the weather changes for the worse. He  wants to get the trailer under cover before snow fall if he can.

So life just goes on. Cat is getting a really thick coat, ready for winter. He has grown into a big heavy  man, no longer the cute skinny teen we first adopted. Himself says he’s fat, but I think he’s just Big. Come spring he’ll have enough ‘angora’ to stock a spinner! I have never seen a cat with markings like his but yesterday I ran across his near twin! This one is shorter haired and not as cute ;-D and his markings are not identical but the same sort of pattern. I like the child’s drawing, too! She captured the cat’s sad expression very well! I wonder if it was a foundling, too.

 

   

Well, I guess I’ve been chatty enough for one morning. I hope you have all been able to find something to be thankful about and are looking forward the December! I’ll leave you with one last bit that we all need reminded of occasionally.