Tag Archive | weave

Once a UFO

Dec6

Now it’s nearly done. Just has to have a trip though the washer. After that I’ll decide if the bottom of the yoke needs stitching down. I think I pinned this in place before the Big Evacuation and it’s just been out of sight out of mind since. It’s kind of long on me, too, so I may have to re-hem it. I like these shirts. I got them on sale at WalMart in Yreka a few years ago. There’s a green one and a red one left. They’re well made men’s shirts so have sleeves of a decent length. I prefer those without the band but liked this color in spite of that. The yoke is sock yarn on the 4 & 2 inch Multi Looms. I just place the assembled yoke over the shirt, pin in place, sew it down with the machine and cut away the parts I don’t want. I left the shirt fabric under this one to gvie it a bit of heft.

 

 

We’re supposed to have rain today sometimes and snow next weekend. Good time for shop work except…! He’s gotten a case of food poisoning somewhere and has had to spend most of the last two days… well, you know where. But he has gotten some stuff done in the shop. If you have an order in, please be patient, we’ll get them done as soon as we can.

Trying to stay warm these December days! Hope your December is going well!

Winter work…

Nov6

It’s November even tho with temps in the 60’s as high and the lows just in the low 40’s it doesn’t really feel very wintery. Well, except for the rain and gloomy skies. And gloomy husband. He doesn’t do well in continual darkness and besides has jobs that need to be outdoors in dry weather so that’s adding to the frustration. I’m fine tho it worries me a bit that it’s not getting cold. We are still picking pole beans and when I cut greens yesterday there was a bee buzzing around in the borage. Not normal winter conditions for these mountains. Well, I guess we’d better start getting used to the “not normal”. They are suggest a vague possibility of some snow on Monday. Not holding my breath!

But meantime, with the WAL coming to an end, I got out my cardigan project. My favorite orange sweater is wearing out. When even Himself notices it’s sort of ratty condition I guess it’s time!  So I’ll be weaving 12″ squares for some time. I’m reusing a frogged knit sweater that turned out to be a bad idea, mostly a bad fit. And I have another one that is in line for frogging as well. I guess I’d better stick to weaving! lol I balled this yarn up but it hasn’t been washed before weaving with it. I’ll find out if that’s a good idea.

     

But today I have to finish up a batch of apple sauce and sand a couple looms as well. The sweater is going to take awhile to finish.

  And there’s enough apples  left for a pie.

 

Last Week….

Nov3

Looks like I was mistaken about the enduing date! The WAL will end on Wednesday November 11. That adds a couple more days for those of you who need a little more time to finish! Go! Go! You don’t want to miss a chance at this prize!

The last Week of the Anniversary WAL. It ends Monday midnight. that gives you 5 1/2 days to get your red bird finished up. Remember, you don’t have to make anything of it to qualify as a finisher, just need to have the chart woven and assembled. Of course I’ll be delighted if you do manage to get it made into something so try for it! How about adding a waist band and making it a Hostess apron for your Thanksgiving get-together?! A  little old fashioned maybe retro!, but I remember Momma wearing her prettiest aprons for those festive occasions when she had to be in the kitchen as well as in entertaining guests and family. But in any case I hope to see a few more finishers getting a chance at our BIG PRIZE!!!

A few pieces woven on the fine set. the lacy bit used the Croquette. It’s about the size of #30 crochet thread, I think. Has a bit of metallic sparkle which never shows in photos.

Post a comment to let us know how you are getting along with your project!

Sharing a nice letter from a weaver!

Oct26
Jody gave me permission some time ago to share her little story with Weavers here. I know exactly how she feels about weaving on the loom and I know a lot of you feel the same way but it is really nice to hear you say so from time to time. I hope this WAL has inspired some of you to dust off your looms and enjoy this relaxing and creative craft once again.
“Hazel please forgive me, but I must tell you a  story about your looms.     I don’t know when I purchased a 12” loom from you, maybe 2 or 3 years ago.   I really can’t remember, but I had such a great time in the evenings making these wash cloths.   I loved them and I loved weaving them.  You would not believe the number of wash cloths I had made.   I gave them to my daughters, to friends as Christmas gifts in a basket of goodies.   One of my friends absolutely loves them for her facial wash cloth.  Well anyway, I ran out of steam as it turned out as I was making them day and night.  I put the loom back for a while.  
Jumping forward to this past year.   My husband and I had decided to move up closer to our youngest daughter–she is 42 years old.  I have been working on our house, downsizing, packing away things to make the house a bit more appealing to prospective buyers.   Well a year ago this past August I fell–ouch—I am 73 and have strong bones praise the Lord for that, but they tell me I had very deep extensive bruising and it would take a while for me to get back on my feet- maybe about a year.  I was tickled when I finally could get up and start accomplishing some cooking and cleaning and packing again.   Me being me has to have a project of some kind going.   I decided the perfect thing would be to make some more wash cloths, besides all mine were looking pretty sad.  Well, I searched high and low and could not find my 12″ loom.  😦   So I thought okay I know it is here somewhere and since I can’t find it I will order another loom.   I saw you had the 14″ so I ordered that thinking WOW that will give me a larger size to create larger cloths.  So I ordered it.  When it arrived I immediately started making cloths again.  After making a half dozen or so I decided that these were a bit too large for what I wanted.   Finally I gave in—I told my husband, the best way for me to find my 12″ is to order another 12″.  haha.   So I did.  I was as excited as a kid on Christmas day when my 12″ arrived all safe and sound.   I immediately sat down and started making wash cloths.   I don’t know why, but all my worries go away and pleasant thoughts dance through my head as I weave.   I have several rigid heddle looms, but they are a bit awkward with me sorting and packing, but this little loom is just the right size, easy to move from room to room and so relaxing.   No, Hazel I have not yet found my other 12″ loom, but  that is okay as it will show up one day.  In the meantime,  I have this 12″ to keep me relaxed and happy.  Thank you for sharing this craft and thank you for being so prompt in sending this wonderful product.
Take care and may God bless you and yours,
Jodi”
This dishcloth is mine, just an illustration of the kind of weaving Jodi was describing.

Raining fish and frogs!

Oct21

Well, not really. Used to do that once in awhile when I lived in Florida years ago, but never seen it here. But we are all delighted to see it raining hard enough that the Fire Service people are considering the fires to be OUT!  

I finished my Antimacassar yesterday but was not able to load it here and it kept timing out. So I’ll try again! I added a 14″ triangle to the top to hang over the back of the chair to keep it in place and still let the whole picture show. I’m not really very happy with the additional stuff on the top left but not unhappy enough to rip it out and do over. Worked a SC in white around the edge just to finish it off neatly. Now I just have to find a shiny black button to give him an eye. Sister insists that he needs one in spite of the fact that it’s probably not going to show.

So I hope you are all making some headway, maybe even starting to assemble? Hope to hear some progress reports!

Remember, this weeks prize is a 4″ Multi triangle loom! The dusty one in the photo is mine, you’ll get a new un-dusty one!

Row two is the most complicated bit and that is really not that hard once you look at how it’s put together. It’s just overlapping triangles!

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.

 

 

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.

  

 

 

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!

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!