And Life Moves On

Our visit seems have had a couple of common themes, food and brew pubs.  Lunch this day was outside at Ten Barrel.

And this day we ate at Good Life where Petey got another beer glass for his collection.  I only saw my younger son Matt twice during the trip as they were scrambling to move from the house they were renting, which had sold, into another rental.  This lunch was one of only two visits.

Lunch at Riverbend was capped by fried Twinkies wihch grandson Logan had no trouble putting away.  The service was terrible but the food was good.

This lunch was the only time we were all able to get together.  Matt and his fiance Julia have signed a rental agreement with Julia's best friend from 1st grade and her husband.  I've heard about them for years but this lunch was the first time I got to meet them.  Obviously Becky is as big a goofball as the rest of my kids with her drink glowing on top of her cell phone.  I'm hoping their shared living arrangement will be agreeable to all and help them save money.

Laura Cunningham had to come to Bend for shoes for her new job and joined us for lunch at Worthy's, which is one of our favorite places.  It's always good to see Laura.

Worthy grows their own hops so Petey took this picture of us outside of their greenhouse.  We had beautiful weather the entire time and crammed a lot visiting into a few days.  It's always hard to leave and now we've been home for over a week.  Time flies!

Today is bittersweet.  I received my finalized contract from Handwoven and the article for proofing which I did this morning and have returned it with corrections.  It's beautiful and the towels are even prettier in print, if that's possible.  And the other hand, we had our neighbor Tom come down this morning and dig a large hole with his backhoe.  Chrysann Collatos, a large-animal vet, will be here this afternoon to euthanize our three old and ailing Shetland wethers.  It's the end of an era.

What an Eventful Day!

I've been working through the exercises in Marg Coe's tutorial for Fiberworks and can see that I'd like to try weaving something with more ends per inch, but in order to do that, I have to learn how to warp from the back.  I tried warping three ends per dent from the front and ended up with both sleying and threading errors.  I reread Chandler's chapter and started dressing Maudie Mae from the back.

I have to admit that lease sticks are pretty handy.  I always warp from the front, holding the cross in my hand but next time I'm going to use these.

The front beam doesn't come off on Maudie Mae so even though I took out the reed to reach the heddles, it was still a reach.  The front beam comes off on Arthur so the next time I warp from the back will be on him.  I like using a blind slat to give me a firm edge for hemstitching.

I've got my answer.  Plain weave brings out the qualities of a novelty yarn.

Yesterday was shearing day.  It's almost May and normally by this time their coats are huge, but they're about half the normal size because of the warm winter.

I had to make a trip to town so missed Devon.  He talked to Ian about their fleeces and said it's a combination of the warm winter and that old sheep just do grow shorter fleeces.  We've had them start to roo their fleece a couple of times when we sheared late but Devon said that he hasn't been seeing that lately.

"In some primitive sheep (for example in many Shetlands), there is a natural break in the growth of the wool in spring. By late spring this causes the fleece to begin to peel away from the body, and it may then be plucked by hand without cutting – this is known as rooing. Individual sheep may reach this stage at slightly different times."  Wikipedia

Devon came early because he was about to leave on a road trip.  It turns out that Devon Strong is more than a rancher, farrier and shearer.  He's an acknowledged leader in the field of Biodynamics and has just returned from being flown to conference in Switzerland, and he's attending one in South Dakota next.  Who knew?!!

By the time I got home, he and the fleeces were gone.  Ollie is starting to get brown again.  Weird.

I'm currently spinning from an older fleece and I'm sure he's darker than this now.

I checked out his fleece and while it does seem darker, but it's also shorter, and with the sunburned tips, it might be a lost cause.  I'll skirt it next week and wash up a sample.  I'm curious.

I had an email waiting for me when I got home from Handwoven magazine.

Dear  Sharon,

Congratulations! Your project Turned Taquete Towels was chosen as one of the winners of the 2015 Handwoven for the Home challenge. We’ll do the photo shoot shortly and then commence with production. Sometime soon, one of our technical editors will be assigned to your project and may be in touch if she runs into any questions.

Between your submission essay and the materials you sent, Handwoven editor Anita Osterhaug should have enough information for your article, but if there’s anything you want to add, just let her know. I will also be in touch about your contributor information and our contracts person Sonja will email you contract information. Once we have everything together and in layout, Anita will send it to you for final review. That should be in mid/late-June, so please let us know if you will be away in June and we’ll work around your schedule.

Congratulations again, and thank you so much for being a part of this year’s Handwoven challenge!

All the best,

Christina Garton                      Anita Osterhaug
Associate Editor                      Editor, Handwoven

What an eventful and auspicious day - holy cow!

Tying up Loose Ends

Son Josh called earlier this week and asked if we could come to Bend this weekend instead of next, because it's the last weekend of the school year and a lot of fun things are happening.  Our house sitter was able to make the switch and so we're trying to tie up loose ends so we can leave early in the morning.  I just finished winding this warp and set it aside.

These are the colors I decided on.  I used as much of the fuchsia as I could and then substituted the hot pink for the rest.  I tried to buy more of the fuschsia from Webs but it was a discontinued color.  I'm going to be there the end of this month and will see if I can something close to it.

That's my last warp on turned taquete for a while.  I made towels from this draft about four years ago and plan to weave them again next.  I'll use white warp and bright weft and I'm thinking I might try a black warp and bright weft after that.

I bought three giant cones of cotton at the last guild meeting. Lorene priced them at $5 and I couldn't resist.

I used two of the cottons and I got this far toward a couple log cabin baby blankets.  I spent most of yesterday in Truckee at the outgoing and incoming guild board meeting, and today I'm packing and getting ready to go. I'm taking starts from our yard; some of them are day lilies from our house in town that I planted when Josh was in junior high school.

I'm going to finally tackle all the skeins of handspun yarn this summer.  I have this bag full and two full bins.  I'm going to color them with natural dyes and weave them into lap robes.  I'll decide what to do with the lap robes after they're woven.

And when I was at the board meeting, I picked up my bag that was part of our guild's participation in the bag project at the Conference of Northern California Handweavers. I was quite surprised and pleased at the judges response to my stumbling bumbling conversion of a horrible scarf into a little money bag. She said: interesting technique, blending made interesting colors lovely, nice design, good use of material, and very creative.  The strap is kumihimo and I'm packing it for the trip.  It'll hold a cell phone and credit card so I won't have to carry my heavy purse when we go out.  Perfect timing!

Devon came by on Saturday afternoon and got our little guys sheared so that's another task on the to-do list - skirt fleeces!

Okay, there's no more putting off the last loose end.  The final load is out of the drier and that means I have to go pack!

A Day in the Life

Devon was supposed to be here and shear our guys on Saturday but when it started to get dark, I knew he wasn't going to make it.  He called at 8:30 where he was just finishing up at a ranch in Loyalton, 45 minutes from here.  He said he'd still come or he'd do it in two weeks when he's back in our area.  We elected for two weeks and fortunately the weather still isn't hot.  These guys will be glad to be relieved of their huge coats.

The weather was really pleasant Sunday so I hung up my sun catchers and read on the front porch.  Ian called Carol to see if she'd like to come over and sit out with us, maybe have a beer.  She was doing yard work and glad to take a break.  She is the library director in Fallon so is only home on the weekends.  She and Ian always talk libraries and she and I always talk books.  She told me about a website called NetGalley.  It's for professional readers, and apparently as the facilitator of a library book club, I am one.  It took a while to build my profile and request some books.  You get to read a book before it's released in exchange for writing a book review.  You wouldn't believe how many books are coming out soon.

I got approved for two of the books I requested and just finished reading Jennifer Weiner's upcoming release, All Fall Down.  I've never read her before because I thought she was a romance author.  While written in a breezy style and with humor, this is a very serious book about addiction.  I hope her other books are as engaging because she's written ten others.

Chrissie and I are just a month away from our trip to Massachusetts.  I've struggled with what to do for a wedding present.  The kids have lived together for a couple of years and don't really need anything.  I finally hit on the idea of buying one of Erik Holland's paintings of Nevada.  John was conceived and born here, it just seems fitting.  Erik had about four dozen paintings to choose from but when I saw this, it was the one.  I love the cottonwoods in the fall.  This is the wedding present.

I can see by my Etsy statistics that my scarves aren't drawing any attention at all.  I have had good success selling hats in the fall.  These are the colors of my cat and a hat is in progress.

And here's my cat, in a box where she shouldn't be.  I had planned to list more towels in Etsy today and left the lid off, but then got sidetracked making soap and writing my first book review.  She was just doing what cats do when they find a box.  The lid is now on.

I just finished knitting with this strange yarn.  It's three strands of linen and cotton.  It was really stiff and had a tendency to slip off the needles when I'd set the work down.  When I finished knitting my project, it was absolutely hideous.

But after it was washed and blocked, it turned out great.  Melissa gave me more of this yarn in off-white and I'm just going to make the same pattern.  After that, I'm pretty much out of knitting except for hats.  That's a heck of a state for a knitter.

TaTa April

I had another pupil Saturday and this time we made the class three hours.  It was three hours last time but I only got paid for two.  Her name was Melissa and it was her 63rd birthday.  She treated herself to the class in celebration, her husband bought her this Ashford Flip Loom some time ago, and since she wants to retire in two years, she decided to see if this is a hobby for her.  Over beating is such a temptation but by the time we wrapped up, she was starting to get it and I think she did great.  I just hope she'll work on it again and relax a bit. 

I can't imagine teaching a large class.  One pupil exhausts me.  I spent a good part of Sunday sewing.  About 4:00 I decided it was time to take my book and knitting basket onto the deck, put up my feet and enjoy what was left of the afternoon, when two nekkid sheep wandered into my view, looking confused and bewildered.  I know I was.  This is Mickey Mouth and he's talking to me.

I came back in and asked Ian if he knew that Devon was coming and that he had been here.  Is he still here?  Well now, that was a very good question.  I hadn't thought of that, and yes he was.  Our guys are so small and used to him that he easily does it by himself.  He was just putting his stuff away so I offered him a beer and we kibitzed on the deck for a while and then he was off to the next stop.  He's like the scriptural wind - he blows whither he will.

 This is what I sewed.  It's the Schoolhouse Tunic by Sew Liberated.  The fabric is from Jimmy Beans and it washes up like a dream.  It's the second one I've made and plan to use it for when I'm a substitute librarian.  Two of them are two outfits in my wardrobe that I didn't have before.

Speaking of wardrobe, I recently purchased The Wardrobe Wakeup: Your guide to looking fabulous at any age."  I know - odd thing to buy in retirement, but I've thinned down my closet a lot and was looking for some tips to make everything count.  My favorite tip so far is to sort all clothes by color.  I can't believe how effective that is - I found a lot of things I had forgotten I had.  Man, do I have a lot of black tops. 

I finally finished my sweater.  I decided I wouldn't start the new sweater from Diane Soucy's pattern until I knitted this one from her stash sale about 15 years ago.  I'm glad I went back and reknit the tops and fixed the problems.  I like the look of the black line separating the two colors.  I haven't decided about the collar.  It's kinda high and I have a feeling won't be comfortable.  So it's still not totally done.  I'm pondering for a day or two.

I had to drive in this morning to deliver some soap.  I sold a couple dozen bars to a potter I know who wants to put them on soap dishes and sell them together at his open studio show this weekend.  We ended up chatting way too long - we always seem to do that.  I wanted to get up to the storage unit where DS Matty, girlfriend Julia and middle-school friend Dave were loading up a U-haul.

When I got there they were down to trying to fit in the last weird pieces.  Out of my purse came the trusty tape measure that Amy gave me years ago.  They hammed it up with their dirty hands, but tomorrow is the big day.  They'll be on the road, Matt towing his truck behind this rig and Julia driving her car with their pets.  They've made the decision to relocate to Bend, Oregon where his brother already lives.  I'll miss them but I know that Bend is a very good place to build their future.  Sigh.

To get my mind on something else after I came home, I decided to card up some mixed batts.  I brought down a lot of miscellaneous stuff last week and have been looking at it for days. 

Here are the first batts and I'll start spinning them in the morning - merino, llama, silk and Angelina.  I omitted the Angelia so had to go back, add it and card a second time.  These are over blended for my taste, but this is only 2 ounces of fiber.  I'm just getting started.  Now I just need to perfect my art yarn spinning techniques.  I'm signed up to learned that at the conference next month but I want to know now.

Books Read in April:

The Night Circus,  Erin Morganstern
The Messenger, Daniel Silva
When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead (Newbery Award)
Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (Newbery Award)

BC

BC - before cutting. I finished the towels early this afternoon and pulled off my cloth onto the floor, and realized that really - this is just yardage. I could do yardage. My sewing machine gave me fits on the last set of towels, after I let the spool run empty. It got caught in a loop looking for that tension and I had to reset it constantly. It's been sitting for a couple of weeks and today it worked fine. Sometimes I wish I hadn't given away my mechanical sewing machine.
I found the photo of the pond that was my inspiration for these colors. It is in the greenbelt where the foot of our property sets and how thankful I am that the early planners preserved this for all of us. It's hidden - I'd have to show it to you.


I hope you can see the reflections in my towels. I called this series Desert Pond. I kept thinking I could catch Tide Pool, but I know I was missing some colors. I didn't have reference pictures from our visit to Strawberry Point, and it just this minute occurred to me that Amy would have some - shoot. We went there together and she takes a gillion pictures. I'm selling these at a small venue craft fair for the Red Rocks Hounds Hunter Pace on Saturday - must be set-up by 7:00. Ouch.
These are the colors I've chosen for my next set, the Hyacinth series. I started winding the bouts this afternoon because this is my least favorite part of weaving - I wanted to get a head start. Ian got up from his nap and asked if I knew Devon was here.
Even the dogs didn't know. I came racing down the stairs and grabbed the camera. He was on our last wether when I got there. He told me he'd be here the 18th or the 19th and he shears if we're here or not. Ian had kept them penned in today, in case and also left fleece bags.
I adore Devon and for those of you who know his mom, Helen McFarland, she's now 82 and has been experiencing back pain for degenerative spine. She recently received an epidural which has eliminated the pain. Her husband Jim suffered a stoke last year and is recovering very well. They're still in Topaz on Walker Forks Sheep Ranch. Oh, and another piece of news - Devon's vegetable-oil truck is no more, sad to say.
We have nekid sheep! Devon said that Oliver was starting to roo and his fleece is pretty gummy, just a heads up when I get to skirting. I'm a little disappointed since he has started getting darker, after a spell of getting white - shaking head.
It has been blustery and gray forever. The only thing growing here are the rabbits. Ian came in the house after Devon left with three loaves of bread from Village Baker in Ashland, Oregon. He said they call him to pick up stale bread so he got a 100 loaves this time. I put them ours in the freezer for toast. He says he uses what he can and feeds the rest to his fowl. I love my community.

Hey! Hay.

Ian and I drove up to Bird Flat Ranch today for hay.
It's just six miles on the other side of Doyle. Tim and his son Luke run the whole thing by themselves, though Tim has been working this hay operation for 30 years. The ranch itself dates to the around the 1920s.
I think the ranch is beautiful and couldn't stop taking pictures, kicking myself for not packing the DSLR. The Garrod Family has a history of ranching in America dating to 1892 in the Bay Area.
We had a conversation about horizons. Tim said when he first moved here, it took some adjustment to accept the open land and lack of trees. Now when he goes to see the family in the Bay Area, he can only tolerate it for a short time before the claustrophobia sets in - Luke agreed and I know exactly what they are saying.
I've driven by hay before and just made a mental note. Oh, there's a lot of hay. Up close it looks a lot bigger.

The closer you get, the bigger it looks.

The scale of our 4-banger Toyota against the mass of hay absolutely dwarfs our poor truck.
Tim loaded seven bales and said he could load more if we wanted, but you can see the hay is sitting pretty heavy in the back of the truck. It's been a long search for good hay, but we've found what we were looking for. The hay is good, the animals don't waste any and it's $4 cheaper than in town. They don't deliver but that's okay. I'm already looking forward to going back.
I think this is beautiful and sometimes I have to stop to remind myself - I'm here because this is where I live. I'm not on vacation. This beautiful land is home.

In the middle distance are sheep. They also have a herd of Polypay they raise for meat and hides. As we were leaving Luke gave me a fleece to sample. He's hoping to be able to find a market with hand spinners and recoup some of his shearing expenses. I was glad to oblige and will give him feedback the next time we're there.