Tag Archive | life stuff

Hazel Rose Looms 20th Anniversary!!!

OKAY! It’s Monday and time to start Weaving! We’ve gathered up our square and Triangle looms and found the perfect yarn and we’re ready to weave! The Pattern is posted below, You’ll also be able to find it on my project page at Ravelry and on the facebook Pin loom group.

Be sure to enter for the weakly prize by posting a comment about the WAL here on my blog. name will be [picked at random at the end of the week. This weeks prize is a set of Packing forks the regular and the small sizes, one will be one of Randy’s arty ones! Very handy tools to have in your kit!

Red Bird Pattern.

It’s a Party! There’ll be weaving and pictures and projects and prizes and chatter and fun!!

First an anniversary story.

A little History…

I’ve been reading about companies moving their manufactories back to the US and it got me to thinking. Randy & I have been making small looms for nearly 20 years now and all those years have been right here in the US. Right here in Trinity County, California, in fact. We started out in Grandmother’s garage. We now have our own shop but it’s less than 100 yards from that old garage so we haven’t moved far. In the beginning I told Randy that I would not publish our web page until he had at least a dozen looms made that first time and last year we made over 1700 but it’s still just him and me.

Some people may think they see too much of me ‘on-line’ but it’s what I love. I belong to many groups, to a bunch of Ravelry groups, as well as facebook, even twitter, tho my internet and ‘dumb’ phone won’t let post there. Most of these are about yarn in some way. I knit, crochet, weave, felt, spin… you name it. It’s what I like to do, just as you do or you would not be reading this here. And I like making the looms. I think we do a good job with them and I think the fact that we’re still doing it after 20 years proves that a lot of other people think we do a good job, too. I use the same looms we send to our customers. Well, almost. I usually end up using the ones he doesn’t think he got quite right. You know, what some other company would call ‘seconds”. It has an extra hole drilled in the wrong spot or the grain of the wood caused it to develop little hair line cracks when I put the nails in, that sort of thing. But they are still good looms and sturdy!

Yeah, if you ever manage to wear out your loom or find a flaw in it, send me an email. We’ll make arrangements to repair or replace, depending on what’s wrong. For instance, if you drop your loom in the driveway and then back over it, we may not be willing to replace it free but we’ll try to fix it if you think it might be done. I’m still using the very first looms he made for me and they are going strong. And I don’t really treat my loom tenderly; they kick around all over and get tossed in the car to go to shows or just on trips with us. They aren’t hung neatly on the wall like my sister’s but are piled in a box in the closet. Sturdy!

And if you need something special made, Randy’s your man. Several of the looms we make started with a weaver saying, “Can you make a….”. Randy says, “I can make anything.” And so far he’s made good on that bit of boasting, I have to admit. He made a tiny purpleheart trapezoid for a weaver and recently made a long thin loom that will be used to weave purse straps. Our Diamond looms started with a customer request. And the Multi’s were a result of another company dropping their version of the old Weave-it looms. Weavers kept asking so we finally gave in. Now we make 6 sizes of Multi squares, three rectangles, and two triangles in that style.

We ship the looms, not all over the world, but I can count at least 10 countries I have shipped to. If you are in England, Canada, or Scotland there are shops carrying them. There are weaving teachers giving workshops using them, too. We are quite proud of our little looms and are just tickled pink by the number of people who also like them. If I sound like I am bragging, well, I guess I am. We’re not in the same category as Schacht or Ashford or LeClerc or any of those Big Guys but I think we have a quality product in our nitch. We want to make weaving tools as beautiful as the projects weavers make on them.

And we are lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful parts of California and get to work from our home. How could it be better? I try to post on the blog regularly and there are pictures of our part of the world. Take a look and then go look at our looms and see if I exaggerate.

I learned about this kind weaving from my sister who built herself a 6′ triangle for weaving shawls. I was visiting her and she showed me how to do it and I went home and ordered Carol Leigh’s 7′ adjustable loom. I wove a few shawls, Okay, done that. And the loom set up in my small house took up just too much room so one day I got inspired and got some finish nails and some scrap plywood from Randy’s construction stuff and made myself and 7″ tri. I was able to weave these small triangles while sitting in my chair in the evenings.

The first rough loom. It worked, even if it wasn’t pretty!

The square came next, thus the first Quilt Weaver set. It was very rough and ugly but worked fine. Sometime later, things were looking down for us, his big job for the summer was canceled when the people found they could not afford to build after all, and the K-8 school where I was aide and art teacher was losing students and had to cut back my hours, so we were feeling sorry for ourselves. I jokingly said, “Well, we can always make looms.” He asked to see what I was talking about and – it just grew from there. We haven’t looked back. When we first started he made one loom at a time. Today he cut out and assembled 30 looms. My Dad used to say that when you make something for money, it’s not fun anymore. Well, I don’t know if loom building is exactly fun, but it is very satisfying. And it’s also satisfying to know that we are helping other people learn the art and enjoyment of weaving.

I think that sometimes we should remember that the people we buy from on-line, especially in this yarn line, are not corporations for the most part, but people, almost neighbors, no matter how close or far they live from us. There’s a weaver sitting at a floor loom in the back bedroom weaving dishtowels to sell, with the timer beside her so she doesn’t forget the roast that’s in the oven for dinner. A spinner on the porch spinning yarns for sale while she watches her kids playing in the yard. A couple of knitters working on lace scarves to put up on etsy, I know a weaver who is weaving I-pad cases on our looms to sell at the spring craft sale in her area. It’s the same with the gal who spins or the family raising sheep or alpaca. This is all true. It’s that huge village and we all contribute to it whether we sell or buy or just share what we make via donations to charity or pictures posted to group, blogs or even facebook.

But now I’d better get back to work, neighbors are waiting for their looms!

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!

I think September is the start of Fall…?

Sep1

At least I hope so. The Weather Wizards have been speculating on La Nina, telling us we may get a colder and wetter winter this year. What a wonderful thing that would be. I’m afraid to believe it, tho because if they are wrong it is going to be just too disappointing! Anyone who has been watching the goings on out in the US west know we are drying up and burning up. Here in Coffee Creek we are under Evacuation Warning and the fire is creeping closer. We have the trailer parked in the driveway and are loading what we want to save. Have you ever had to make decisions on what you want and what you have room for? Then you know what it’s like around here these days. Not only that but we don’t know we are going to have to leave so meantime we have to go about our lives. There are still looms to make, the garden to tend and veggies to can, he has unfinished jobs… It’s hard to pack what we need to take if we have to leave when meantime we have to live here and need those things for that! If you can figure that out!

Space station photo. I tried to mark the fires for those in the area. Not guaranteed, tho.

Here’s a picture of the fires on Aug 2 from the space station. That was before the Haypress fire (ours) got over the hill and down into Coffee Creek drainage. Since that time it’s been creeping down toward us. The canyon is filled with smoke from it and from the rest of the fires in N CA. But the fire people tell us that’s a good thing as it keeps the fires down, less oxygen for them. Also for us! But I don’t think we’re going to be able to count on La Nina to arrive in time to save us so we’re just going to have to count on the fire crews and our own resources. And your good thoughts or prayers!

But meantime…

Bread and Butter pickles from the basket of cukes.

Looking up at a Tall sunflower!

Meantime since I was disturbing the dust I decided to run all these dust collectors through the dishwasher. My, they are shiny!

He mulched the potatoes with straw and now we have a crop of wheat! I can make potato bread! ;-D

Himself thinks these old games are worth a lot of money to game collectors, but I think those guys want unopened new “old”
games and mine have a lot of miles on them! I played and so did every kid that came around. It was fun but I expect I’d get Zelda slaughtered these days. If I could figure out how to hook it up to the modern TV. But it just goes to show what you can find when you start digging out dusty corners. I didn’t find my wedding rings, tho. 😦

Is it history?

Weaving content is still missing for the same reason. But there will be projects in a couple of Little Looms magazines next year so is that something to look forward too?! I hope!

Meantime get out your dancing shoes and give us a rain dance or two!

The neighbor brought her kids over for lunch.

Yeah, still summer.

Aug14

Local fires. Coffee Creek is the yellow oval on the right. It’s about 14 miles mostly bad dirt road.

https://zoom.earth/#view=41.058244,-122.847436,12z/layers=fires

But while the fires aren’t all that near, the smoke is! It was really bad yesterday. We were closed up and it got hot and muggy in here but we could breath at least. Today the smoke is higher and I have the house open to get some new air in here. I can’t smell it today at least. Not a good ‘aroma’.

I took these pictures this morning. The smoke is starting to settle now so I’ll be closing up soon.

Where we can’t see Bonanza King Mt.

Where we can’t see Morrison gulch.

I think we’ll be safe, at least for some time yet, You really can’t predict where these things will go and until we get a good rain they won’t be out. They are usually pretty good at protecting small towns, tho we’ve seen examples where there is just nothing anyone can do. I’m looking on the bright side. but if it happens and we burnt, I seriously doubt I could bring myself to come back. That would be a issue I hope we don’t have to face.

On the more cheerful side, I’ve finished with the peaches. We have a bowl of sliced in the fridge for dinner and then we’re done for another year. I’m knitting a “meet dress” for my new used American Girl Kirsten. That’s been interesting making up the pattern as I go along. As you can see from the pro photo, I have a way to go! I’m thinking I may embroider one row of little red flowers on her bodice but no way are they going to be all over!

The long view of the garden that’s my potato bed ther in the front. his corn, cucumbers on the trellis and really giant sunflower out in the middle. it planted itself, likely with the help of the jays last year!

The kale and green beans make a nice back drop for some pretty zinnias in the garden.

Hope your August is going well!

Summertime…

Jul4

The livin’ may not be easy for everyone, but up here in the boonies it’s not too bad. The garden is thriving. I picked peas this morning. There is something so satisfying about shelling peas. The one chore I actually look forward to.

Shelling peas.

Big bowl full

The zucchini are in full stride too, of course! Tomatoes growing, beans- bush, climbing, and lima- blooming. I’ll be sweating away in the kitchen with the canner soon. Not a chore I really look forward to, but the results are satisfactory.

I am weaving, too, a couple projects I intend to offer to magazines so won’t show those yet. But I was doing some stuff with Log cabin that turned out pretty well. They’ll make nice coasters or, well, about anything else you might want to make!

Diagonal weaving on the weave-it loom. Plain and log cabin.

Same thing in Green. This one done of the Multi 4″ square.

Still hoping to make it up to Sis’s this year, but will be a couple months yet, it seems. I’m getting a new knee middle of this month and then there’ll be some visits to the Torturer to learn how to use it, but I hope to get though that part quickly. I go in the 13th to get my lecture from the surgeon on being too heavy, but I have actually been losing. We’ve been walking up the hill every morning. Made it to the top again with only one stop to pant , this morning!

So I hope you all have a sense-able 4th of July weekend. I want you to all stay safe! Both heath-wise and fire-wise. There’s been a lot of air traffic around here this morning that I am hoping is just precautionary. We can save our fireworks for New Years when there is snow on the ground. They look even prettier then anyway!

Meantime…Happy Birthday USA-I hope you are around for another one!

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!

Whopee!

Apr7

The new Little Looms magazine just came out and I’m in it! They wanted my little Onsie, woven on the 4″ square Multi loom. This is only my 2nd time being Published. A few years ago Handwoven had one of my doll dresses in it. I think I’ve caught the Bug! lol I’ve got a list of subjects and dates for projects and am busy planning!

But here’s the Onsie.

If you have a new baby coming, child, grandchild, friend, you might like this one. It’d make a great shower gift, too! (Link above to magazine, or check your local book store-if you can do so safely.) I used the 4″ triangle, too, but I think you could use the square and just fold it. However, we would be happy to sell you a 4″ triangle, they are very handy! The theme was Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. Mine is named after a flower so in the Veg category. This magazine only comes out once a year but I’ve already submitted & had accepted my project for next year.

Hey! Remember… You knew me when!

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!

Almost done with November, Already!!!?

Nov23

Yeah, time is flying again! Don’t know how it does that, seems we just started this month. sigh. Well, I dont’ have much to say, been trying to keep up orders and clean up around the place in preparation for winter. Which the Weather Wizards say is to arrive mid week! Needless to say we aren’t ready for that, either. Well, the pantry is pretty well stocked and the wood shed is over flowing this year so the important stuff is done anyway. Garden clean up has not gone so well, better get myself out there today. It was 26f this morning, tho, so I think I’ll let it warm up just a bit first.

Have an appt Dec 2 to see a surgeon about knee re[placement. I think I’m changing my mind about that, tho. It has not been bothering me this summer or fall. At least not to that degree. I have never liked the idea of someone cutting on me, at least not to that extent. My doc has ‘froze’ off those mysterious growths that old people get but that’s pretty minor. Well, I’ll go talk to the man, anyway.

Here’s a couple pictures just to spruce up this post. I’m sure I’ll be [posting some snow pictures later this week!

Drying some persimmons from a neighbor.

The first rain in a couple months. It did end up really wetting these rocks, tho most was gone the next day.

Maybe a little smile. 🙂 But turkeys here are safe from us at $2,99 to $6.99 pound. We’re having beef- it’s cheaper!

Have a lovely holiday! Don’t forget the Thanks part! No matter how it’s going there is still something to be thankful for, we need to acknowledge that!

Indian Summer?

Oct22

No, I don’t think so. Thermometer says it’s 71, that’s a nice temperature, I guess. The day started out at 35 and a fire in the wood stove. Nothing summery about that. Lovely, tho. I canned 9 more pints of apple sauce. I think that’s about 18 so far. Many more apples to deal with. I need to put some in the freezer for pies. More applesauce. He wants to try his hand a cider. I’m thinking of drying a few, maybe chopped bit for adding to oatmeal or snack mixes. Below are from Noel’s tree, not sure what they are but good. Crispy, sweet tart. Good for cooking or eating. There’s 3 lugs of these, two of the Romes and a half bucket of Hyde Kings. Plus the pears are still hard tho turning yellow.

Sarah and Rachael came by the other day to visit. It was good to see them . She’s bought a house in Weaverville so will be almost a local! Rachael is 13 now, hard to believe. Karen’s been gone 7 months. We’re getting old. My mom told me it would happen, tho I didn’t believe her, of course. On the brighter side, they brought me a pumpkin! A decorative one this time, prettier than my wagon load. Not going to carve it, we get no trick- or-treaters up here. The school in Trinity Center has posted a map showing houses and groups who will have treats to pass out. So the kids all go down there where the houses are closer together. Can’t blame them I guess, but I used to enjoy seeing them in their costumes.

Himself just brought home another load of fir fire wood. And some oak. A neighbor took out a bunch of fallen and broken firs this summer after the storm last winter and offered it to us. Can’t say no to free firewood, but I think we’re working on next year. He doesn’t leave this winter’s wood supply until fall like he used to. The wood shed is almost full plus this.

Well, That’s pretty much all I have to say. I’ve done a little weaving on my winter pants project but have been spending most of my time in the shop or the kitchen! But it’s a quiet time of year. Summer folk and hunters all gone home. Our closest neighbor has moved down south, San Diego or someplace at that end of the state. Well, Noel’s here but he comes and goes. Here now, asking for apple pie! lol I gave him apple cake. I can do that in one bowl without counter space that pie crust’s take. The kitchen is full of canning stuff now. Pies later.

So anyway, I hope you are all enjoying a lovely fall. It’s been the prettiest one we’ve had in a few years. And, of course, I never remember to take my camera when I go out. But I guess Autumn leaf pictures are like sunset pictures, it’s the immediate impact that counts and it never translates into photographs.

Happy Halloween!