Tag Archive | yarn

Looking forward to Fall!

Aug16

We had a couple trips in the spring, to Great Basin Fiber Arts Festival in Utah and to Washington for Fiber Fusion and then we had the summer off. Well, kinda. There’s the garden! Don’t want to be without my fresh, pesticide free veggies, which means canning in the hottest part of the year. But it’s worth it when I see my pantry stocked so prettily!

Made cucumber relish yesterday. For today I’ll put some of our huge crop of green & yellow beans in the dehydrator,  already canned plenty of those, and make a Buckle. I found a recipe for that old fashioned dessert. I have peaches for it unless he brings me more black berries. I have a stock of blackberry jam, of course, and had to tell him stop! lol But only temporarily until I got caught up with what he has already brought. I have them for lunch with toast or in my breakfast cereal.

        

Too many beans and cukes, they out produced all the rest! I am pleased with my onions this year. I’m sure Rosy is proud of me. I always got my onions from her as I never had any luck with them. But now I have to do it on my own so tried extra hard. They aren’t going to win prizes at the fair but they are the best I’ve grown so far! There are red ones in the bottom. We’ve used quite a few already

  And I actually grew some okra this year. I thought that this big it would be tough, but it was not!

But back to trips! Heading to Washington again end of September! I have the kits ready for the Spokane classes. If you are in that area, check out https://spokanefleeceandfiberfestival.com/. It’s a new Festival but Katrina is working hard to make it a good show. I have two classes but there are other good teachers having classes there too, not to mention a flock of vendors with fiber goodies you’ll want to check out!

 

Well, it’s clouding up which makes it a nice cool day. Which after the heat of last week is rather enjoyable! But I have to spend some time in the shop, too.  Weavers are waiting for their looms!

Hope you are seeing signs of fall at your place! No red leaves yet but the asters are blooming!

Wishing you happy!   Hazel

 

 

 

A little Post Script.

Apr12

It must really be spring this time!  Look at all the sunshine and blue sky! It hit 79 today! The cottonwoods are leafing out. So is my weeping willow. The oaks are always conservative and wait, just in case. Phooey on them! It’s spring!

 

We planted the tomatoes out this morning and planted peas and beets, too.  Onions and Kale next as soon as he gets the bed ready.

     

Yes, I know it’s early yet. We will have covers for the toms at night, just in case. But it’s nice to sit on the garden bench and feel too hot!

The other thing is packing for the Great Basin Fiber Festival in Farmington, Utah. I think we leave on the 20th.

  

Okay… Hope you’re having some spring at your house!  (or fall if you’re in the other half of the world!)

Hazel

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….

Tomorrow is Feburary already

Jan31

But we are getting some winter today. All we’ve had since the Big Snow at Thanksgiving is some cold weather, sometimes into the 20’s. Today is mostly slush alternating with real snow. The Wizards are not sure. Their forecasts, even this morning’s, contradict each other. We might get a couple days of slush or we might get buried!  We can use more of a snow pack in the upper reaches, not sure I really want more here.

I planted my tomato seeds this morning, getting ready to send in my seed order so already thinking spring. Speaking of seeds, if you like saving your own seed, or growing heirloom plants, you might like to check out Seed Treasures.  They live in Minnesota and sell the seeds they grow so if you live in snowy areas you know you are getting seed for plants that are hardy.

But meantime, I am learning that there is more to weaving on the peg loom than at first meets the eye. I got my circle chair pad woven but there are a few things I need to pay more attention to. I got the warp lengths right but had a difficult time pulling the warp through the outside rows. I’m about to start the 2nd pad so will be paying more attention to that. But all in all I think it came out pretty well. I used fabric strips with some stash Aunt Lydia rug yarn for warp. Thought I’d better add a bit about the 2nd picture. I did not skip  pegs, I just found that slipping the center pegs thought before the end pegs helps keep them from coming off the loom while you are moving the warp up.

Thought I’d make another batch of the Boston Brown Bread. It turned out nicely last time. This bread is not baked, it’s steamed. I was a bit leery of that but it came out right and is pretty good. Himself like it but asked for no raisins so this time I left them out of his but added them to mine. I tired it with cream cheese, which the writer of the recipe said was “required” to be authentic, but frankly… no. I’ll stay with a little butter and some applesauce!

Okay, Gotta go back to chores. Hope you are having a comfortable and cozy day!

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.

 

Christmas Cards, weaving your own.

Dec2

These are fun to make tho if you have a lot of people- Special people- on your list you might want to start a bit sooner than December 2!

But I’ll share a bit if what I’ve done here. You can take it and run with it on your own. You can use this same method for making cards for birthday, Easter or any other celebrations, of course. Or a pretty patch on an item of clothing.  Maybe pretty patches like we used to make back in the day, once this ugly fad for torn up jeans fades! You can reclaim these garments!

But I did this on the 4″ Multi loom. First you need a graft to fit your loom. I did this for you so you can just print these out and design away! The red dot is the center of the loom to help place your design so that it will fit. You want at least one stitch as a border, more is better, especially of you plan to attach these to other squares. I made a baby blanket using this and some cute little animal pictures. I also added the one with the centered circle in case you ae doing round ornament type projects.

Here’s a couple  simple charts you can start with to give you an idea how to go about this. Penguin is worked on a white background, the gray squares here should be black, the snowman needs a color to let him stand out. I just suggest weaving the square with some pale aqua, an icy color then stitching the white for his body. You can do it the other way if you want, stitching the back ground to outline  him. You can also use a running stich to kind of outline him. I arbitrarily added a bit of bright pink in his scarf but I have to say, it can and should be done better, You decide!

You can work these with a cross stitch, even a single ‘cross’ might work,  like needle point. This will depend on the size of yarn you are using. You want a solid coverage without distorting the pattern. When you are looking for patterns search Free Cross stitch Christmas patterns. Also look at the same but needlepoint. Like this one. You can work any of these either way, just be sure to coordinate your yarn sizes.

  

I worked the little penguin using the half cross, or needle point stitch. I think it turned out okay except some of my colors are not the best choices but what I had to work with. His feet and beak should have been a darker yellow, more ‘school bus’, and my green is a bit too dark. I worked little French knots for his berries and I like that. I think I may do a bit of detailing on this one. He also looks very sad, It’s his eyes, not sure how to cheer him up but I’ll make a few sketches and see what I can work out. Since there is a limited number of squares here details are a little difficult to fit in. I also worked the stitches in his white parts. I was thinking about letting the back ground white do it, but I thought that looked too unfinished.
Hoping someone else will work him and share!

Here’s some I have done, I didn’t keep track of them all, tho, too bad. If you are unfamiliar with embroidery There are lots of instruction on line, I expect. Also Gabi had a WAL on the subject some time ago and she may still have links to that information. Here’s the one I made in that WAL & c couple Xmas squares. The gnome is  on the 4×6″.

       

This was a mug rug for my MIL. In case yo can figure out my symbolism its the sun coming up in the coffee cup.

These were for my baby blanket, (except the last one) which I also can’t find a picture of.

Well, I hope you get some inspiration out of this post and will let me know what you make, I always love to see your projects! Let me know, too if something is unclear more info is needed.

 

Heading into winter now…

Nov8

When I go back through my photos, looking for inspiration for this blog post I find the same thing all summer and it’s not weaving or yarn of much any kind. Garden, canning, veggies and fruits, even a few flowers and lately apples and pears and apples and apples and…

                   

There’s more apples. These are the Romes, best after a bit of frost. The Hyde king as the earliest, good for eating and baking and making applesauce. The unknown from the neighbors tree are a good firm tart cooking apples but also tasty if you like a tart apple. There’s a few more what I call wild trees, that produce good apples. No telling their linage but they all produced magnificently this year! As did the pears. It’s the same with them. There are a couple we know are Bartletts but there are others that are older trees. The pears are good but they do produce stones, those hard little “rocks’ that form around a bruise or the core so their use is limited if you don’t care for grit in your pears! However, there are plenty of good ones so we mostly leave these for the bear and whoever else likes a sweet fruit.

I could have posted more baskets of green beans, they were another prolific producer this summer. Along with cucumbers! Way more than we could use. I dried some and added them to the mix. Rehydrated and added to soup or a scramble you can’t tell them from anything else. I dehydrated most everything that grew in the garden this year. I put 11 quarts of dried Veggies in the pantry  a couple weeks ago. The garden is pretty much gone now. There are still carrots and the celery plants Sis brought me are still looking happy. They haven’t really made stalks as we think of them, but lots of tops which have a good celery flavor. I’ll dry some of that, too. It’ll serve as parsley if nothing else!

But there has been yarn happening.  This spring there was a happy class of beginning weavers making dish cloths over in Farmington, Utah, and five weavers joined me at Lambtown in Dixon Ca in October to weave Tartans. That was interesting and fun as well.  The skirt is a project of mine. Not entirely successful, still not finished, I just have to give a little more thought to it! The scarf is more successful and a lot easier project! The samples shown from the class are family tartans the weavers wanted to copy. It’s challenging to take a floor loom woven tartan pattern and translate it into diagonal continuous strand weaving, but these ladies were doing a good job of it. I’ve recently heard from one who is still working on her project. I hope they all are!

  

The fiber fairs are over for this year. We’re looking at next year, thinking about adding one or two. Himself wants to “take a trip” in the spring. He’s exploring via Google Earth to find the interesting places to go within our reach. Our reach has a time frame as we do have stuff to do here as well.  It would be interesting, I think, to be one of those vagabonds who live in their RV and just go from place to place. But not in the present 5th wheel! We’d need  a larger and roomier ‘home’. And even the ‘previously loved’ ones are pretty pricey, not to mention Big. We need a Tesseract! But it’s not practical, anyway. We have to be here to make looms, I don’t see being able to take the shop with us! lol And Cat wouldn’t like it. He likes his outdoor time which he wouldn’t get on the road. So we’ll take a week or so and then come back and take care of the garden and the rental cabin and the shop, and get ready for the next fiber fairs! And I might submit to magazines again, maybe, that takes up a lot of time.

But meantime, we’re heading into winter. What that will be like is anybody’s guess. The weather/climate experts are so far covering both sides! I love it. You might be cold and wet or you might be warm and dry! I think I could have predicted that! But hey, they are trying to predict nature so I guess we have to give them a break. They have fancier equipment to work with now days but Grampa’s arthritic knee was probably as accurate at predicting. But whatever it is, we’re ready. Wood shed and pantry well stocked. What else do you need?! I hope you have a lovely cosy one whether warm or cold! i’m looking forward to some snow… but not before Christmas!