Pleasurable passtimes

 My friend Melissa flew up a couple of weeks ago for a quick visit, taking advantage of the promotional prices from Alero, a new airlines that has just begun serving Redmond and several other secondary markets, like Burbank which is her airport.  We only had two full days and made the most of them.  This photo is from our visit to the High Desert Museum.  Our favorite thing was the outdoor wild raptor show.  Highly recommended!

She's been painting every day and has started moving into mixed media and collage.  I showed her how relief printing with lino works and she loved it.  We ended up doing this on two of our afternoons.

We printed a couple dozen of these Christmas ornaments which she'll assemble when she gets home.  They wouldn't travel well otherwise.  She's coming up again the end of August and by then I will have completed a two-day woodblock class so will have more to show her.

I finished this sweater for Delaney which she loves.

The buttons are perfect, from Skacel.

I started another sweater for her using the variegated yarn that a friend gave me.  I bought the muted peach to go with it as the single ball wouldn't be enough.  My friend messaged me last night that she found a second ball of the variegated and though I don't need it, I have accept it for a different project.  I sampled for over an hour trying to find a pleasing way to blend the two yarns.

I realized when I turned the work over to purl that the wrong side is the answer.  The wrong is the right!! 

Our-soon-to-be-17-year-old granddaughter Alexia is with us again this summer.  She has stepped up her knitting game and enjoys knitting with the Knitterbugs when we get together in a park.  She knitted this shell from linen, not quite a beginner project, and she nailed it.

It fits her perfectly and she is going to wear it this Wednesday when we meet up to knit.

I've done very little weaving in the past few months, other than a workshop.  I decided to return to Turned Taquete again and experiment with squares of different combinations of the same hue.  I'd like to finish in time to have something to enter into the fair this year.

It's too hot to weave in the afternoons but instead of using the morning time, I've chosen to sit outside and enjoy the fresh cool air.  I've worked hard on the yard and like to sit out with my coffee and either knit or read.  The summers are short here and I'll have the rest of the year to weave.  That's what is going on here.