Wild Flowers

I spun up a couple of my batts this morning and this is my singles.  Next I plied, or rather bound it, with a silk thread.

 

 I took my camera this morning when I walked the dogs, hoping to catch some wildflower shots.  I'm always surprised to see them thrive in dry sand.  This is desert lupine.

We are inundated with wild mustard, which looks kind of pretty right now, but when it's dry will become a serious fire danger.  It's overwhelming.

Mim posted a picture on Facebook of the fiber she recently dyed.  Robin and I decided we needed to see it for ourselves and buy some, of course.  She picked me up at 11:00 and I made her stop the truck a couple of times for wildflower pictures.  Mim's end of the valley is wetter and the Mules Ear are prolific.

As are the wild iris.  Mim's husband Bob hates them because they're useless.  Cows and horses won't eat them, but they really are pretty. 

I have no idea what these are but they remind of a Victorian postcard.  I've only seen them on the road to Mim's.

And here they are close up.

These are some of the things we wanted to tempted ourselves with.

Robin and I stayed too long, talked a lot and spent too much.  We had a great time.

I chose these rovings to make into future batts.  I bought one of them to take to my class next week.  I'm taking Spinning Coils from Lexi Boeger at the Conference of Northern California Handweavers.   I'm looking forward to have someone show me how instead of trying to figure it out on my own.

I washed my skein and let it hang to set the twist.  It's in my bag to take tomorrow to the weaving group.  This is the closest I've come to intentionally spinning art yarn instead of accidentally getting something weird.  I'm finally starting to get the hang of what  my hands need to do to get the results I want and I'm pleased.

Clean Up

The fourth and last looper rug is done.  I think I might have had room for a fifth on the cloth beam, but I'm glad I didn't warp for it.  I want to clean up my mess and try some scarves.

This is the mess I'm talking about.  One side of a looper is a raw edge where it was cut from the loom.  I have looper lint everywhere and suspect I will for months to come.

I hauled our heavy vacuum cleaner up the stairs, shoved Lilith back to the wall and sucked up this mess.  And then of course, since that part of the rug was clean, the rest looked messy.  I ended up vacuuming everything and I realized when I moved Maudie Mae and found a half inch of lint that it's probably been over a year since I've done it.

 I recently realized that when I used this kind of knot (I don't know what it's called) when I lash onto the front apron rod, when I'm done weaving, I can quickly pulled it open and I don't have to cut anything.  The loom is clear in minutes.

I bought eight ounces of silk noil in my Yarn Barn order.  I've never worked with it and didn't know that I had just purchased a life-time supply.  Not knowing the first thing about it, I thought I'd just do some lumps using Gaywool dyes.  It only took a few crystals in hot water for a lump.

Today I blended more stuff together.  I've spun up my other batts and I'm still learning how to make ugly yarn.  My soil noils are on the left behind the pile of silk.  The lavender fluff is mohair and the white wool is badly processed, neppy Cormo which actually does well in these blends.  I'm using the last of the dyed roving I bought from Mim and need to get over to her place soon for more.

These are my first batts.  

These are the second.  I left out the mohair but added sari silk.

These are some of the yarns I've spun up and want to weave.  I'm driving over to Nevada City on Tuesday to attend the Not 2 Square weavers interest group.  Instead of taking something I've woven to share, I'm planning to take these yarns and ask for advice.  The drive will be five hours, round trip but I've talked my neighbor Kerry into going with me. 

Ian loaded up the bark from the firewood he cut and was taking it to dump.  The dogs waited in the cab while he went back into the house.

Was that the front door?!!!

Oh it was and he's coming, he's coming, he's coming.  It's been two minutes!!

Oh happy day, we're going to haul the bark away.  Happy dogs.

Haste Makes Waste

This is haste.

This is waste.

I haven't changed my tie-up in over a year but I recently changed to standard tie-up for one project.  I went to change to the Texsolv system yesterday and realized that I didn't remember what it is for the turned taquete draft.  I dug out the old newsletter from my file box and in my hurry to get started, I didn't stop to make sure I was using the right one.  There are two drafts in the newsletter and I used the wrong one.  

I realized today what needed to be done.  I wasn't happy about unweaving but I was thrilled with the ease of the new system.  The lady at Yarn Barn suggested that I leave a length dangling from each lam but I thought that was too messy.  Forget messy, I'm doing it.  Changing is just a matter of moving the peg from one cord to another - that's it.  Minutes!

Now we're cooking with gas.

I posted a picture on Facebook of my looper rugs and a friend from the library book group asked to buy one.  She didn't even flinch when I quoted her $50 so I guess that's the price.  I took it to the meeting yesterday and she sent me this picture last night.  I called them bathmats but she wanted it to put under her husband's chair to preserve the carpet.  I never thought of that, but it's a great addition to their family room.

Desert Peach and Bitterbrush bloom at the same time.  Ian caught this pretty display on the side of our road with his cell phone.

Last year we participated in a program funded by a grant through the Fire Safety Council.  They brought in two bobcats with "masticator" attachments and ground up about half of the brush on our property while spreading native grass seeds at the same time.  It was really dry and barren looking through the winter, but this is the greenest spring we have ever had. 

Cherlyn, the gallery manager from the Artists Coop, called me Monday and asked if I would think about making some soap labels that would contribute the Rock Art show in June.  I thought about it while walking the dogs and decided to draw them on my iPad.  But first I had to learn the program.  They are in order from left to right as I made them, getting steadily worse.  I used InspirePro which is a neat program but there are so many things to chose from:  graphite pencil, oil crayon, air brush or paint brush, and what width, what kind of brush, what recharge rate and more.  It took me four hours to make these - most of Monday afternoon.  I wanted to photocopy them yesterday when I was in town so Ian can take the labeled bars to the gallery tomorrow when he goes to the dentist.  I'll revisit the right image.  He's never prone in the petroglyphs. I was running out of steam - he looks like road kill.

In Flux

I took my three bobbins of singles to the guild meeting on Wednesday night.  This was the last meeting of the year and it was also show-and-share.  I'm the newest weaver in the group so didn't pull these out until after the meeting.  I want to weave scarves from my handspun yarns but I need to know so much more.  I placed an order with Yarn Barn last week and was disappointed that they don't have 60s/2 silk which is what I had wanted to order for binder for my singles.  Guess what?!  The trunk sale at the meeting was for hand dyed 60s/2 silk from Just Our Yarn.  I bought the skein on top at a dear price.

I just dove in.  I taught myself to spin from Karen Raven's book and apparently she is left handed because I spin left handed.  That means all the articles I read and videos I watch are backwards, but somehow about halfway through the last skein, my hands caught on to the concept.  I have a long way to go but I'm not nearly as frustrated about my spinning as I was.  Now if I can only figure out how to translate this yarn to weaving.  Warp?  Weft?  I suppose I'll have to do it and find out for myself

I have the Fiesta warp on Maudie Mae and it's interesting how the colors influence each other.  You need to click to see the red.  I'm stuck at this point until next week.  One of the things I ordered from Yarn Barn last week was Texsolv tie-up.  I am not doing the Gilmore tie-up one more time.  It's just too gymnastic and requires flexibility I no longer have.  My order arrived but without the pegs that will make this happen.  They weren't on the order invoice.  I called in a panic.  They're shipping but not charging shipping.  I love those guys.

This is what Gilmore tie-up looks like.  Mr. Gilmore invented the jack loom in the 1940s and this system dates back to then.  It's archaic.  You have a piece of clothesline dangling from the lam tied in  a single knot and then a piece of clothesline coming up from the treadle, which you tie in an overhand knot and slip over the knot from the top.  Are yours eyes glazing over yet?  And then each has to be adjusted until all the harness are lifted to a uniform height.  We are not amused.  I'm crippled by the time I'm done, and that's why I'm done with this system and I should have ordered the Texsolv at least a year ago.

Ian and I have been talking about where to put our battered wicker furniture.  It's second hand from a neighbor who moved away.  I realized today that one of our trees is big enough to give shade so took out one of the chairs and the table from the garage as a test drive.  This is the nicest afternoon we've had this year.

I read for a while and then had Ian help me bring out the rest of the set.  I can't explain it, but it's not the same as reading on the porch.  My book and I were in another place.  We only have one more day before the weather gets back to normal but I look forward to a summer of afternoons here. 

This the time of day that the birds come to feed and they fussed and scolded me, trying to get me to leave.  I saw them run a rabbit off earlier today.  The California quail were more forgiving. 

Two Kindle Touches, that's what you see here.  Since Massachusetts and seeing Paul's Paperwhite Kindle, I've been lustful.  It means reading in bed without a heavy book light.  I was sitting on the front porch yesterday morning when Ian came back from the mailboxes with two packages.  One was our onions, the other the Paperwhite he bought me.  He gets the hand-me-down Touch.  He says likes his original hand-me-down and has given my "cast off" to one of the kids.

Reading is so rich.  Books and information are in in a state of flux and we're just on the crest of this wave.  My job in resource sharing involved the physical shipping of articles and books and that was just five years ago.  It's an exciting time but a lot depends on licensing agreements.  As for virtual delivery, we need to keep our eyes open - pun intended.  Meanwhile, I have a stack of physical books on my nightstand as well as the four I've checked out from the library. 

Color

I finished the looper bath mats and I'm thrilled by them.  I posted a picture on Facebook and one sold to a friend from book group.  I have enough loopers for four more and then I have to decide what I'm going to do next.  The loopers are pricey.   I'm trying to decide if I can sell enough of these to justify ordering more loopers.  The postage is killers.  Groan.  I think what I sell pays for my materials.  I suppose there are worse hobbies.

I picked up our CSA box after my dental appointment today.  This is our first basket this year and it's our first year to participate as a single family.  In the past I've picked up weekly boxes which we split with our neighbor.  This year we're on our own so bought the bi-weekly subscription.  I have learned from past experience that we will be challenged to eat all of this in two weeks.  By the middle of summer, we'll be getting twice this many veggies. You don't realize it,  but produce is dense food.  Tonight we polished off the Swiss chard, accompanied by a ham steak.  Uber yum.  The carrots were planted in hoops houses last fall and the yellow ball is spaghetti squash.

Baby Steps

It's been a while since I have warped Maudie Mae for towels.  I have looked at these colors for a couple weeks, but it wasn't clicking for me.

When I substituted the red, I knew I was ready to warp.

Aren't these crazy colors?  I have the warp hanging from the front beam ready to go, but it's been stormy the past couple of days and it's really hard to see without natural light.  I'll wait for some sunshine. 

I'm still working on the sock looper rugs.  Lilith is right in front of the window so I'm just going to weave here, until we get more sunshine.

I'm working on making up my own miscellaneous batts for spinning.  This is some of the stuff I'm drawing on - it's wool, mohair and sari silk.

These are the batts I'll spin tomorrow morning.  I've also added some badly processed Cormo.  I bought the fleece and had it processed it almost ten years ago.  It was expensive and I've just hung onto it.  I didn't know how to use it but didn't want to throw it away either.  We'll see.

I finished the scarf project.  I learned a lot but I don't have a scarf.  The green will be my "sewing with handspun" cloth sample for the weaving conference at the end of this month.  I'm thinking they might both be the samples and that's okay.  I'm confident that my next scarf project will produce a wearable scarf.

For those of you who have encouraged me to write the story of my daughter's high school pregnancy and her baby's open adoption, I just want to say that John's dad and I are taking baby steps towards doing that.