Tag Archive | Hazel Rose

Sept-Trying again..

Maybe the internet and I will get along better today. You think?! Doc says, Yes I did break my finger. He gave me a new splint and congratulated Randy on his. He also said I’ll need to wear this thing for a month!! Trying to make apple sauce today. I can halve them with the cutting board and big knife but coring realty puts a strain on that finger so Himself will have to take over that slot for the time. But I’ve got the first pot cooking. The Squeezo wall take care of the clean cores.

I spent most of yesterday in town what with Doctor, Chores for Himself, and my own list. Traffic was horrible, with fire hold-ups still north of town and Weaverville’s first traffic light being installed on the other end of town. Took forever to get from place to place so I didn’t get anything done on the shirt yoke.

But we got a lovely cool wet rain! It was so relaxing that I didn’t mind sitting at two road work stops on the way to and from town, just relaxing with the cool and wet and dim landscape. It was great. And hopefully did some damage to the remaining fires as well.

I’ve made and modified the pot holder. Have two more made and one test woven. It’s a light commercial “worsted” woven on the 5″ Quilt Weaver Square. So a test for both yarn and loom size. The dark on on the left is the first one I made using the 7″ and it was a little too long. I rewashed it to felt it a bit tighter and then cut it off shorter. The red one and the one on the skillet handle are both handspun felted max. You can see the pot with the apples there on the left, too.

But now I think it’s time for some lunch and by then the apples may be ready for the next step. Hope your day is moving along smoothly!

Weaving a Pot holder

Sep4

Okay, finally here’s some weaving content! When packing up the kitchen in case of evacuation I used all my potholders as packing material between breakables. Clever, huh? Yes, but I still have to cook meantime! The too thin commercial pot holder that was left is cute but I may as well use my barehand and burn scars are not cute! I I dug out some yarns and the 3.5×7″ Quilt Weaver rectangle and wove a few. Two are Brown Sheep’s Lamb’s Pride 80% wool, 20% mohair and a skein of my own handspun, unlabeled, of course. That’s how I know it’s mine. Rosy, my spinning sister, labels hers with fiber type and yardage. Anyway, I wove two of each yarn and felted them in the washer with some bath mats. Not a good choice by the way as they incorporated a nice bit of white fuzz onto my blocks. But as I am not after pretty with this project I didn’t let that stop me, just something to keep in mind!

So now I see that the Brown Sheep felted up nice and tight, the hand spun less so but still good. I decided that the Brown Sheep were going to be a little too small for my project and that both were still a little thinner than I wanted for a pot holder. So I sewed the smaller ones to the larger to make my holder a double thickness. Then I used a blanket stitch to sew the two pads together.

Those of you who use the original non-stick (cast iron) skillets know how hot that handle can get but I think I’ve fixed that now! I’ll tell you after breakfast tomorrow!

It’s not pretty or cute but it looks like doing what I need. It ought to be pretty fire proof too, so hopefully I won’t set the kitchen on fire! However, I think I’ll make another and make it just a bit shorter. And maybe this time I’ll go for cute as well as safety!

Trying again…

May6

Not only am I not techy, I think I have the Anti-techy gene! But I’ll keep trying! I think I have figured out how to do this… maybe.

It’s springtime so we are doing all those springtime things, garden, cabin, jobs for Himself, garden, project writing for me, spring cleaning, garden… lol You know how it goes! I have several projects going on the looms and am trying to Organize, Wow! That’s a huge word for me. Always has been but even more so these days. I just find that I really don’t want to, I just want it to all go away and leave me alone! I guess most of you can understand these days. Mostly I’m okay as long as there is no deadlines. You’d think that at my age the only deadlines I’d have would be those I give myself but that hasn’t worked out for me for some reason. Probably goes back to that word- Organize. Should have taken care of that a couple decades ago. Ah well… Time to quit bitchin’ and get on with it.

Garden seems to have come up most in the above list. Climate and weather warming up early so naturally the gardening bug hits. Still too early tho for most things. Got peas growing- slowly it seems to me. If they don’t hurry they’ll get caught in the big heat before they’re ready. And the tomato plants are outgrowing their temp pots before it’s time for them to go in the ground. I think that’s going to be next week- ready or not!

The iris are blooming up a storm now. These were the first ones but there’s more colors now and the morels below were a bit of a surprise! I think I counted about 26 of them in the lawn. I don’t plan on cutting them. They’re welcomed to do their thing. Everything seems to be blooming very abundantly this year even tho we are in a drought, the state tells us. I guess fire weather has already impacted some parts. It’ll be here soon, too. Meantime yard and woods are all blooming and lovely.

Weaving is making progress, too. Have several projects done or in the works for publishing and have started swatching for my cardigan. I have a bunch of nice wool, I’ve knit and frogged a couple cardigans already and am now determined to weave another one like my raggedy orange one. I over fulled (felted!) my 2nd swatch. Too much time elapsed after the first one so didn’t remember what I’d done to get that one perfect. Got another square woven so will try again today. Once I get that right I can get an estimate of how many squares I’m going to need. I still have another knit sweater I can frog if I need more yarn.

Been playing with pattern stitches for the Quilt Weavers. It is more difficult to get them for that loom than for the Multi for a couple reasons. One- it is woven diagonally and it is a much larger/wider set. The diagonal edge needs special attention so that it stays woven to make a selvage edge. That leaves less room in the center for the arty work. And a lot of stitches are lacy which makes the sett even more important. Too loose and you have no definition, it just looks a jumble. Too tight and the opposite makes your lace disappear, makes it look solid. And the tightness is partly the yarn you use as well as your tension and stitch. Does that help make it plain? lol

Here’s a couple. Lacy but not very stable. Both using a heavy yarn. They’d very likely be more stable once stitched together, but both need some work. My cardigan uses a simpler pattern. More a texture stitch than a lace.

The right is the fulled one, the other woven of frogged knit yarn, unblocked. I’m going to try machine fulling it as I think that’s what I did to that first one. Should have taken notes, hummm?

Well, I think that’s enough for today I need to get some work done. Have a lovely day!

Happy St. Pat’s day!

Mar9

Here we are in March again! St. Valentines day is gone and Easter is coming. It was spring yesterday and today started with winter white! St Pat’s day is right in the middle. I started weaving this little project awhile back but time got by me and now it’s nearly here, But this one is a quick one so go ahead and start!

Have a happy March!

Shamrocks

© HazelRoseSpencer 2021

Small HazelRose SweetHeart Loom

100% wool worsted weight yarn, green.

Weaving needle

Notes:

You can weave this with man-made fibers but it will be bigger as it will not felt. You’ll need a washing machine to felt this. These are useful as well as decorative. They work as a doily under a tea cup or soup bowl or as a mug rug to protect your furniture from drips. They are quick to make and make nice little hostess gifts as well.

Felted they will measure about 5″ or 12.5cm across.

Instructions:

Weave four hearts.

Weave in tails leaving about a half inch of yarn hanging out. Once these are felted you can clip these ends. This helps make sure nothing comes undone.

Sew two hearts together on one side. Twice.

4.Sew the two sets together.

Crochet a double chain* to make a stem. Connecting it just off the underside edge, weave in ends.

Felt. I put these in a small laundry bag and washed them in hot water with a couple bath towels. Smooth them out when washed and lay the flat to dry. I did not put them in the drier. When they were dry I steamed them flat and trimmed the ends. These are sort of felted to the back so you would not have to clip them but I think it helps them lay flat.

Crocheted double chain:

Pull loop though to the back, chain 2.

Insert hook into stitch on the left and pull a loop up. Chain though both loops on hook. Repeat until your chain is as long as you want it. Fasten off and weave ends into chain to hide.

To use as mug rug, using a good fabric glue & glue the Shamrocks to a piece of non-skid backing. Cover the top with a bit of saran or foil and place a moderate weight, like a book, on it and let it set for at least several hours. Cut around the non-skid, making the backing just a little smaller than the wool so that it does not show from the front. Check your glue label for washing instructions. The saran is to keep any glue from accidently getting on your weight.

February again. 2021

Feb6

We did have some winter, 30″ of snow almost two weeks ago and bits and inches later which mostly melted off as fast as they fell. We still have 10 or so inches of that first one left on the ground.

I send in my seed order early as the companies are advising us to. And plants which I had set the ship Date at the end of March. Got my onion plants the day after the snow storm. What the heck? Not shoveling out the garden so I can plant onions in February! Lady at the seed company apologized, said their shipper thought we lived in south California. Isn’t that was zip codes are for? But she ordered more to be shipped early April and promised to hold the rest until then also. Hope so. The garden this year will be almost as big but different. Cutting back on tomatoes for one thing.

We go to town today to get or virus vaccinations. We’re luck to live in an area where there is not much of this plague so are comparatively safe. We do wear our masks and maintain social distancing. We go to the Grocery and the gas station and the hardware store, that’s about it. If we need anything else, there’s Amazon. I can use stash yarn for the nest 20 years and not run out so am good there, too! lol

I have been weaving on the large SweetHeart loom. The plan is a cowl using Crochet to joining and fill out a bit tho I have yet to discover if this will work. Maybe this way.

It’s already June!

Jun4

Yes, I know it’s been 6 months coming but it sure seems to have gotten here quickly. I suppose some of you stuck at home don’t see it that way, but I hope you’ve been able to stay busy and moderately happy. All this has not changed our lives much here in the country. Both of us retired, more or less, and pretty much stay at home people anyway. We do miss going to the fiber fairs, all of which have been canceled this summer. But I hope we can get in one trip up to visit sis a little later.

Meantime, I just turned in my two projects for Handwoven Mag so am taking a bit of a break but getting out a knitting project I started a year or two ago! It’s tee for myself. Cotton, top down, all stockinette, what they call mindless knitting. I can sort of watch a movie or listen to Himself talk and still knit without getting lost. Hope that Vee is not too deep for an old lady! It’ll have elbow length sleeves.

Other than that it’s the garden. Himself is doing most of that this year, the physical labor anyway. I’ve started a lot of plants. We lost our first cukes and cantaloupes to a lot of rain and a late frost. We’ve been in the 90’s all week and now they tell us we may get more frost Sunday night! Yikes! What is Mother Nature up to?!

Long shot of most of the garden.

Beans. Bush and the Limas just coming up. Pole bans are a couple inches up there 6′ trellis, too.

If we make it past this week end we’ll be okay, as what’s out there is looking pretty good. I potted up sweet potato starts yesterday but they’ll have to live in pots probably for another month. That should give them time to develop nice roots. And (knock knock!) he has managed to get carrots (so far) growing this year! Something for some reason we have not been successful at the last few years.

Carrots & Radishes

I guess that pretty much covers it for today. I walked this morning by myself as Tsuneko says the earliest she can go is 11 am, she usually goes at 1pm! That’s way too hot for me! It was over 80 the last time we walked and I just can’t deal with that. So I went about 7:30. It was not quite 60 by that time but I worked up a sweat!

So I guess I’ll knit a little more and maybe read. Himself says they are knocking off for about 4 hours mid day as it is too hot to work on that deck project during that time, too. They’ll start up again about 3 as he says it’s in the shade by then. Seems like we old folk just can’t deal with the heat.

Hope all you are doing fine with whatever temperatures you have!

I think it’s springtime!

Apr19

Did I say that before? Well, I think it really is this time. Our lows have been in the 40’s and the garden is already growing. the early guys anyway. Flowers, too. And the trees are leafing out. All but the oaks, but they are always last, not really trusting kind of plants. Kinda like my Pop, he said don’t plant out until the Oak leaves are as big as squirrels ears. Yes, for most things but the peas like it early! And the daffies have been blooming, they never want to miss the last snow! But the tulips are now blooming on my new bulb bed, too.

And Grandmother’s favorite wild flower. She said they look so cheerful in the lawn, the first to bloom in her yard. They always make me think of her. She was Randy’s grandmother but we cared for her in her last 20 or so years and I was closer to her than to my own grandmother so I just leave the in-law part off. A great lady. Too bad the new owner does not like them and has killed them all off, along with the wind flowers and English daisies. Only hawkweed left out there now. I suppose it is pretty too but way too invasive.

And The PUD says the power will be out from 8am to 4pm on Tuesday so I am designating Tuesday as Weaving day! Got my bins ready!

The Mystery Weave Along using the 3.5″ Quilt Weaver Square and a couple projects for patterns I’m writing up. I think it’ll be enough to keep me busy all day! But weaving today, too, working on some color designs for the big triangles. And I badly needed a haircut so I figured I may as well re-dye it, too, as I cut most of the pink off. Himself & dog have gone firewood cutting, you’ll see why I like to do this when everyone is gone! Now, while the Kool Aid is doing it’s thing, I’m going back to weaving!

Looks like we’re staying home for Easter.

Mar23

I was thinking about that and remembered I had woven some bunnies in days of yore so headed out to Le Shed to see what I could find. The lavender bunny was the first one I made and that back in the first year we were making looms. Back when I was doing a newsletter. I’m not sure where that went, just kind of faded, I guess. But this 20 year old bunny is still hanging in, looking a bit worn but still identifiable! He’s pretty simple so I think you can probably figure out how I did it by this little sketch.

This sad little guy came sometime later. He does have real rabbit ears tho drooping like they are here they look more like bear ears in this photo. The back view shows them and how I gave him a tail. It’s just a cotton ball sewn on. He’s also made with two triangles but I just tied off his ears and gathered his neck a bit. The rest was playing with some needle sculpting. Wasn’t very good at it but he does sit up and shows a bit of legs and arms. His nose is a big French knot, and I gave him glued on goggle eyes.

The third bunny is the newest one, only a few years old. I used some fuzzy yarn for him and a square and a triangle. As it happens, I did write this one up! It’s a downloadable pdf file. Hope you enjoy this one!

Bunnies

February Nearly Over….

Feb21

It’s been a heck of a month. Way too much going on, things that were not what I was hoping to see in the new year. But this too shall pass… I hope.

And speaking of passing… Winter seems to have passed us. My son in Georgia was telling me his yard is flooded and now they are predicting snow for his area. Meanwhile we have to turn on the sprinklers, the yard is drying up! We had a nice snow just at Thanksgiving, but hardly a drop of anything since. It’s going to be a hot dry summer if something doesn’t change fast. And there’s no sign of it doing that. But we may get the garden stated early. Is that looking on the bright side?

I mentioned (for the umpteeth time) to my sis that I really need to post to this blog, but nothing worth writing about has been happening. She said forget writing about the exciting, just write about your life, what you do. Or something to that affect. So: I have no loom project going. Well, one old one that I’ve been ignoring. I just can’t seem to come up with any ideas that get me excited about anything. Have not knit a doll thing in over a year. I started knitting a sweater for myself last summer and it’s been idling in a bag by my chair. But I found a new project today. It’ll be also one that takes years but this one I start off knowing that. I’ve saved my bits and pieces forever. Every now and then I get the box down and tie them together, making some interesting yarn. And I just happened to see a pattern that is perfect for it. So I have cast one for my Waste Not Sweater Tee.

Official title of the pattern is Fresh Berry Tee by Universal Yarn Co.

Other than that I have moved all the bulbs from misc pots scattered around the yarn into the deck bed. I intend to move my best iris into that bed as well and will also plant heat loving annuals there. Veggies moving to the garden spot out in the sun, as none of them seem to thrive here anyway. And I redid the rhubarb bed and spread manure on it and the asparagus bed. I weeded it first, some strawberry plants were taking over. Don’t know what they were doing there to start with. There’s couple other raised beds out there that are mostly weeds that need to be taken care of. I hope I get to them.

Well, I made bread, cooked rice for the dogs dinner, walked a lap this morning, did dishes, made the bed, labeled the storage bins in the pantry. You see what I mean about excitement! lol

I can tell you about Randy’s hike the other day. He told me he’d probably be back before 4 pm. It was after 6:30 when they showed up. He said they’d misjudged the route and he figures they ended up hiking 10 miles up to the Twin lakes& back, labeled Ponds by the USFS. He says they are Frog farms! lol But scenic. However, both him and Dog were mighty sore next day. Neither in shape for a hike like that. Stella spent most of the next two days laying in her bed, but she’s up and around today, seems to be feeling frisky again. Himself isn’t quite frisky but not so sore. But here a couple pictures.

This pretty much shows how she felt by the time they reached the little lakes!

One of the “frog farms”.

The ice on the right gives you an idea of temperature. He says it’s about 5000′ elevation. The reflections are vivid!

So that pretty much covers life in Coffee Creek in February. I hope you are not too cold and wet or too cold and dry where you are!

Happy New Year!

Jan1

I do hope you all have a safe and comfortable start to a prosperous and reasonably happy 2020! A little verse we should keep in mind.

But now is the time for Resolutions! Right? Like maybe changing a few, well, shall we lay less desirable habits? Like being a little more Organized. I know that it is not literally a 4 letter word, but has been pretty much in that category for me for most of my life. Looking for a loom this morning, I found this stuff in the basket by my chair. All but the jar of Ricolas, the new Territorial seed catalog & His shoes and newspapers. Needless to say, the loom was not in there! Not in my loom case, either. So I guess I’ll start this morning putting all this in it’s proper place. If I can find that place. Trouble is they are not projects., just experiments. I think he gave me a new shoe box, I suppose I can label that Weaving Experiments. Then that leaves me to find a place to store the box. Hopefully where I can find it again when I need it. Like I apparently did not do with the missing loom!

Ah well, I guess the other fun thing I get to do on new years Day, is bills. Oh well, it’s my 1st of the month job. He does the taxes and is a great wood worker but he really sucks at financial matters beyond that. We all have out strong points and he is Very Organized. It’s rare that he can’t find something no matter how long ago he had it. I, on the other hand, have to rely on luck when hunting something.

But there you go. I think the weather wizards are using the same system for forecasting the weather. And Mother Nature is using a roulette wheel to decide! We go from a huge surprise snowstorm right before thanksgiving, I mean nearly 4 foot, to rain ever since! Temperatures have run from 14 degrees F to nearly 70! And it’s raining this morning and 38 degrees on Jan 1. I don’t even want to think about Australia while I am whining about our weather. I would happily send them our rain and the foot of snow that’s left if I could.

Well, on the brighter side, trying to heed the advice picture I posted above, we are looking forward to adding a new loom to our line up this year. It is our 20th year in the loom business! It’s has been an interesting 20 years! We’ve met some wonderful people and done more traveling that we ever thought we’d do. It’s been fun for the most part and we’ve both learned a lot! Our only disappointment is not being able to interest the kids in the business. Well, they have their own lives, our parents were not delighted with our choices, either, but we all manage to make it work to our best comfort. Anyway, keep an eye out for our anniversary announcement sometime later this year!

And I hope your year is starting off the way you wanted it to! Best Wishes!

Hazel & Himself

Just the two of us!