Last post of 2017

My hair felt like a mop so I went back and had Christina cut off another 4” and also thin it out.

She blow dried and styled it, something I won’t be doing and it resulted in Hilary hair!

This is what it looks like IRL (in real life).  I’m still experimenting with gels, mousse and nothing.  Curly hair is still a new experience for me. I keep wondering if it turned itself curly, will it turn itself uncurly?

I’m still struggling with the Summer and Winter draft, it’s very slow going.  It’s Sarah Jackson’s pattern which I bought in a Handwoven collection.  Since it’s such a popular pattern I figured it would be a no-brainer but it’s been a very steep learning curve for me.

I started to get a better handle on it when I put each treadling pattern on a sticky note, but still it’s a two-shuttle weave and just managing them instead of juggling and dropping them has been a battle.  And to throw them from the side they exited from last instead of crossing over the top leaving a huge trailing loop. Unweave!

There are five towels on this warp and the first one is a mess though it’s not as bad as the Crackle towels I tried to weave and didn’t even bother to hem.  No wonder I couldn’t weave Crackle.  It has three shuttles and I’m barely managing to control these two!  I’ll hem the first one and use it myself.  This is the third towel and has one color used throughout, either as tabby or pattern.  It’s finally getting interesting.

I no longer have to count out loud but I think if I had used very different colors, I would have been able to keep track a whole lot easier.  I’m going to try it again, just to get a better handle on this draft though it’s too time intensive to weave for sale.

Meeting weekly with the Knitterbugs, a group of ladies who knit, has encouraged me to knit again.  This “Where’s Waldo” sweater is from a blog give-away that Teresa Davies did a number of years ago.  There’s more red yarn then white so I’m knitting the body and sleeves at the same time until I run out of white, and then the rest will be red.  It’s a rather fun project, another Heidi Kerrmier pattern.

This is my latest print, a linocut of a beached tuna boat, the Edith.  I put her back out to sea, gave her a little dignity by turning back the clock.

New Tricks

The problem was me!  I was reading the threading order as the treadling order.  I had done the same thing when I attempted Crackle and somewhere in my subconscious that trickled to the surface.  It looks much different when you do it right.  I have very little time to weave this month so I’m glad to have this on track for when I can get back to it.

I’m going to back to where I started in printmaking, to LinoCuts.  It’s what attracted me in the 70s and it’s what attracted me last October.  I’m doing a series of “exercises.” The good news about these is that I can do the carving during my four-hour volunteer shift since they’re Interruptable.  I’m going to participate in a group buy of the photopolymer plates after the first of the year and have several photos that I’m anxious to print up and ink in color.  Until then, I’ll doodle on.

So this happened on Friday morning.

This is how it looked styled by my hairdresser Christina.

And this is what is looks like styled by me.  It has continue to become more curly every since my accident four years ago.  Curly hair is an entirely new experience for me but it’s nice to have the weight of all my hair gone, plus it used to take hours to dry.  It’s still thick but now it’s dry within 90 minutes.  I’m learning a new way of life, new tricks for this old dog!

I had penciled myself in for three hours of printing time in the studio and went there after my haircut.  Paula was cleaning up, getting ready to leave and asked me if I’d like to try her palette, colors that are totally her but that I’d never think to put together in a million years.  I was planning to print a chine colle plate so said, why not?  Sure!!

I’m glad she asked.  It pushed me completely out of my comfort zone and it was a great challenge for me.  More new tricks.

Eating my words

I know I just declared that I was going to return to warping from the front and boy do I love these colors - can’t wait to see how Summer and Winter works.  But switching my style of warping was kinda like switching horses in the middle of the stream.  Not a good idea.

I double checked my tie-up and that wasn’t the problem.  It had be in the threading.  This is Sarah Jackson’s pattern and I originally had decided to warp from the back so the complicated threading would be exactly as the she had written it.  That’s when I switched horses.  That’s when I fell off into the stream.  I thought I was going to have to cut it off but messaged her and was advised to put a cross in the back behind the heddles, and cautioned me to be sure it was tied securely to the loom before I undid the tension.

Having done the two methods so close together in time was actually a very happy accident.  I realized how much easier it is to thread the heddles from the front and it’s at an angle that is much kinder to my neck.  I just got my mind made up for me!

It’s been at least six months since I’ve made soap but we are out.  I’ve been low before, but never out!  I know I’m low on supplies and realized that I don’t have enough lye or palm oil to make another batch after this.  This is about $150 of soap were I to buy it, but it’s about more than just economics.  I like my soap better than any I’ve ever used.  I have another six months before I have to fold up shop or buy more supplies.  Meanwhile, we’ll have soap in about three weeks.
About a month ago I joined a knitting group and am surprised to find how much I’m enjoying these ladies.  We reserve space in Jackson’s Corner from 1:00-3:00 and people come within that time.  Some eat, most order drinks.  I discovered that one of the ladies is my neighbor who likes to talk walks around our area so tomorrow morning we’re going to meet up and walk at 10:30.  It should warm up to about 30 degrees by then.  I’m looking forward to having the company!

Eating my words

I know I just declared that I was going to return to warping from the front and boy do I love these colors - can’t wait to see how Summer and Winter works.  But switching my style of warping was kinda like switching horses in the middle of the stream.  Not a good idea.

I double checked my tie-up and that wasn’t the problem.  It had be in the threading.  This is Sarah Jackson’s pattern and I originally had decided to warp from the back so the complicated threading would be exactly as the she had written it.  That’s when I switched horses.  That’s when I fell off into the stream.  I thought I was going to have to cut it off but messaged her and was advised to put a cross in the back behind the heddles, and cautioned me to be sure it was tied securely to the loom before I undid the tension.

Having done the two methods so close together in time was actually a very happy accident.  I realized how much easier it is to thread the heddles from the front and it’s at an angle that is much kinder to my neck.  I just got my mind made up for me!  

It’s been at least six months since I’ve made soap but we are out.  I’ve been low before, but never out!  I know I’m low on supplies and realized that I don’t have enough lye or palm oil to make another batch after this.  This is about $150 of soap were I to buy it, but it’s about more than just economics.  I like my soap better than any I’ve ever used.  I have another six months before I have to fold up shop or buy more supplies.  Meanwhile, we’ll have soap in about three weeks. 

About a month ago I joined a knitting group and am surprised to find how much I’m enjoying these ladies.  We reserve space in Jackson’s Corner from 1:00-3:00 and people come within that time.  Some eat, most order drinks.  I discovered that one of the ladies is my neighbor who likes to talk walks around our area so tomorrow morning we’re going to meet up and walk at 10:30.  It should warm up to about 30 degrees by then.  I’m looking forward to having the company! 

Clear Sailing

The package that I mailed to Redding California on the 10th arrived yesterday, the 28th.  I can’t imagine how that happened but it’s there and I’m relieved.  And there hasn’t been any further problems since Instagram took down in the imposter account.  All things considered, it’s been a great month and I can hardly believe there’s only one more left in 2017.  Holy cow!!

A wrench in the works

These new colors from Brassard are even better than I could have hoped for and man, does the yarn have a nice feel.  I won’t be replacing my UKI cones as I use them up even though I love the colors.



These are the cones I’ve selected for my first foray into Summer and Winter and I’m going back to warping from the front.  I just think I get better tension but at least I’ve done warping from the back enough times that I can consider it one of the tools in my toolbox and would thankfully use it for patterns using finer yarns.



We are still having warmer than usual weather for this time of year, still no snow on the ground though it’s sure nice not to have to drive on it!  This was Thanksgiving morning.



We went to Josh and Missy’s again for Thanksgiving dinner and were joined by a herd of eight deer and here are five of them.  They really are fun.



My group critique is this coming Saturday.  Pat Clark has offered a class a month from September through November to help us find the inspiration to create our own work.  She calls it “Creating with Intention” and the November theme was “You.”  She gave us a list of questions to help direct our ideas, like “A sense of place you feel most comfortable in.”  It took me about a week to pull my thoughts together but from the beginning I knew that books had to be a part of it, and initially I had tried to incorporate actually printed book pages, but in the end I realized that I wanted it to be my big chair in the corner of the living room where I snuggle down to read every evening.  Another question was “Do you recall any memory of a place or events that were important to you as a child?”  Music!  My mother played piano in our home and at church.  We couldn’t get a radio station out where we lived so she bought me a record player and a dozen LPs of classical composers which was the music I grew up listening to, my music appreciation.  So this is the “self portrait” that I will be presenting to the class.


I’ve enjoyed posting pictures of my work on Instagram.  That’s it’s purpose, just to share photos.  Wednesday morning my messages blew up with people informing me that I’d been hacked in Instagram.  My moniker is sagecreekfarm and the imposter was sagecreekfarm1.  The content of the imposter’s messages was all over the place, one involved a money scheme.  They were repeatedly reported to Instagram by me and by my friends, and it wasn’t until Friday that I got a message from Instagram that the imposter’s site had been taken down.  It was an unpleasant experience and I went through my Followers to make sure I knew who everyone was and deleted those I didn’t know.  That’s when I discovered that Melissa, who had visited me in October, also had a clone account which we both reported.  I promptly made my account Private and continue to post, but the experience has left me very wary.


Meanwhile, on Veteran’s Day weekend I mailed off a package for Ian’s brand new great grandson, a handwoven baby blanket and bath towel.  I hadn’t heard anything from the kids so messaged Darrah, the mom, to see if they had received it yet.  Nope.  I thought it got lost over the holiday weekend and hadn’t saved the email with the tracking number and was fit to be tied.  Cindie Kitchens explained that we have access to our shipping history on the USPS site.  In small letters in the upper right of the page is a message, Hi Sharon.  When I hover my cursor over that, the shipping history appears in a dropown menu with complete information on all my transactions.  And it had been delivered on the 16tth, delivered but not received.  I have to assume that the package is gone and am working on another gift for the baby that I will mail to his grandmother in Susanville.  It’s a disappointment.

Keeping busy

I finally finished the autumn colors warp and cut it off the loom.  They’ve been through a wash and dry cycle and are cut apart now, waiting for me to hem them.

It finally occurred to me to work on warps ahead of time on sunny days.  I’ve been winding my next warp a little at a time so it’s all ready to go on the loom.  These are the wild colors I just got from Brassard, and I love the feel of the yarn, soft and silky, and so unlike the harsh UKI.  Some of you commented that I should find a way to use those bouts of colors that didn’t fit in the last warp, but unfortunately I don’t have enough yarn for ten more towels.

I bought an ebook with Sarah Jackson’s Summer and Winter towels after seeing her post on Facebook.  Many weavers have done this in their own colors and I think it’s time for me to try it.

I’m going to use colors I already have since I’ve never done this weave structure before.  That way I won’t feel terrible about making mistakes which no doubt I will.  A couple of these cones have been around so long that I had to dust them.

I was making great progress on Alexia’s sweater and had knit past the waist shaping, with only 6” left in the body.  Two things bothered me.  I had gone up a needle size to get the correct gauge and the knitted fabric just looked sloppy to me.  The other thing was the shaping - even with waist decreases the sweater was looking like a sweatshirt.  So I ripped it out.

I bought this Heidi Kirrmaier pattern on Ravelry instead.  Sammy got anxious while we were at grandson Evan’s band concert and ate all seven pages of the pattern, all but this piece.  I’ve since reprinted it and we’re working on Sammy’s anxiety - poor girl.

I havie to do some serious knitting to make sure this is done in time for Christmas, but it’s knitting at the gauge recommended by both the yarn and the pattern and the improvement is worth it.

I took a two-day photo-etching class at the Bend Art Center this weekend.  I really like the process and since photography was the first art that I took classes in, this is much more comfortable for me than electro-etching.  In fact, I just don’t think I’ll continue with electro-etch. I’ve learned a lot of different techniques this past year and am trying to pick what I want to focus on.

Yesterday we learned how to make a plate through a photographic process.

And once the plate is made, it’s good for about a hundred printings.

We spent most of yesterday learning the process and today was all about application of it.  These two prints are from two different plates.  The lighting is very low in the “dark room” which makes it difficult to register the transfer film with the treated plate.  The transfer film has the image of the photograph on it and has to be made in advance by a local print shop.  I truncated the ships masts on the print on the left, so I made a second plate with the same photograph on the right and this time got everything in the frame. The class was four hours yesterday and four hours today, and in that time I was only able to learn the process, make four plates and print them on the press.

I stayed an extra hour today and dabbled with adding some color to the plate, but we had to clear out in hurry to make way for a class at 2;00. I had six photographs printed on transfer film and really would like to make plates of the other three.  I think we’re going to do a group buy of the plates which will bring the price down and pay for shipping.  It’s the best way to get supplies, the only way!

Dark days are here again

Alexia’s sweater is on the needles.  I started a larger size and realized that it wasn’t going to fit her for years!  This is the smallest size and will probably be snug but that’s in now instead of the sweatshirt baggy fit.  Even with the setback, I’m confident I’ll have it completed in time for Christmas.  The color is growing on me.

I sold 16 more towels through Facebook after the guild holiday sale so am once again trying to make more towels.  This is my busiest time for sales and I only have about a dozen left with nothing in my favorite color ways, so I thought I’d do another neutral fall palette.  It got a miserably slow start when I realized how deficient I am in cones of those colors and completely out of chocolate brown!

It’s hard to judge color on dark days and I finally had to admit that these two bouts are dogs and pulled them out.  Both of the greens have too much blue so may end up in the landfill.

I’m on the third towel but they’re so lackluster, I’m having a hard time wanting to sit down and weave.

Meanwhile I have these waiting in the wings.  I participated in a group buy of Brassard yarns from Canada through my guild.  Enough of us shared the order that the cost came out to about $7 for an 8 ounce cone which is $14 a pound.  The yarn is every bit as nice as Valley Cotton from Webs and the colors make me weak in the knees.

I bought seven colors and will use six of them in my next warp.  They remind me of zinnias.  Such happy colors.

I’m down to about a half dozen pairs of shoes and that’s because in the past couple of years my shoe size has gone from 40 to 41.  I think of shoes as an investment and keep them for years and years.  The two pair of Danskos that I just had to part with were 20 years old and still had at least another 20 years of wear.  But I digress.  I picked these up at Macy’s this week.  They’re a new line from Clarkes called Cloudsteppers, so named for the cushiony insole.  I’ve wanted some multi-purpose winter shoes and I’ve got them.  My tall boots still fit but after two years of tai chi, my calves have grown and they’re too tight!  I’ve been feeling besieged!  Ian suggested I take them to the shoe guy and see if the calf can be stretched since they’re leather.  It’s worth a try.

Meanwhile with the shorter and colder days I have turned once again to relief printing and just started this Lino cut today.  It’s part of a challenge to create a piece inspired by myself and from the list of thoughts I chose this one.  What best describes your comfort zone?  That’s easy.  Reading in my overstuff chair!

And speaking of books, I came across this in the latest BookPage while eating breakfast this morning.  I finished “Seven Days of Us” just yesterday and absolutely loved.  The setting is a family of four who are quarantined for a week at Christmas.  The holidays are a notorious challenge for most families under the best of circumstances, right?  This family hasn’t had a Christmas together for quite some time and the hope was that this one would be special.  It’s special all right.  To ensure nothing goes wrong, each has a secret that they feel they can’t share, to ensure that nothing spoils the holiday.  But the secrets have a way of leaking and finding each other.  It was absolutely delightful and I was so sorry when it ended.  Two thumbs up!