Staying Home, Staying Safe

I lost interest in hand spinning after we moved here.  The first meeting I attended was a spinning meeting but somewhere along the line weaving took up all my time and I put my folding wheel into it's bag and stashed it in a closet.  The guild's spinning study group is doing such interesting things that I've put my wheel back up and given myself a spinning station. 

I used to have close to a dozen bobbins but now can only find four.  I had to clean off a couple so I chose two that I don't remember what the fiber was and I'm back at it.  I know what's all on three of these and in order to keep it that way, I've slipped a piece of paper in each with the name of the fiber.  We're going to be doing some natural dyeing and I'm making yarn in preparation.

The wheel is upstairs and I'd left the area to get something, don't remember what.  When I came back I found my cat snuggled in the plastic bag of roving - scared me to death.  I left the roving attached to the wheel, feeling the area was safe from Delaney but never stopping to think that it's not safe for Maddie.  It's in a Maddie-safe place now.

A couple of years ago someone in the Linocut Friends Facebook group posted a template for a hand printed Christmas ornament.  I'm sure I have the photocopy somewhere and I know it's in a file somewhere here on my laptop, but it's a good thing I carved the block way back when.  I forgot all about it until yesterday and decided it was time to finally make some prints.

What got me started was finding a some scraps of Hosho paper from an earlier project.  I only bought inks in primary colors so it was easy for me to decide on red.

I printed eight yesterday and let them dry overnight.  I ruined two trying to figure out how to assemble them.  Good thing I have PVA glue because it dries really fast and is made for paper.

I hung the ornaments on the Thanksgiving cactus using sewing thread.  That's how light they are.  I think it looks like the plant is still blooming.

I think they're absolutely charming and wish I had printed more.

I mixed up what I hope looks like Delft blue and printed all the leftover paper.  Tomorrow I'll cut and glue them and hang them on our tree.

Maddie brought a ball of yarn downstairs and when she got bored with it I gave it to Delaney.  She has been entertaining herself with it for the past week, even pretends that she's knitting with it.  And so it begins :-)

 

Not Very Much

I have been weaving this month - honest.  But not very much, and in fact, I've been so exhausted that I'd have to say that "not very much" could be my tag line for this month.  Melissa called from SoCal about a week ago and when I mentioned being tired, she instantly asked if I was using my SAD light.  Doh!  What a thing to forget when the days are so gray.  Today was my sixth day to use it and unquestionably I'm feeling better.

We bought a smaller tree this year and we have both really enjoyed it because we can see all the ornaments.  The memories they bring are priceless.  Since we don't have presents under the tree we have put our Woof 'n Poof santas there instead.  Chrissie and Alexia found this Christmas llama online and it has joined the ranks.  I'm sure you can see Maddie in the cat-sized space we left just for her.

Apparently she didn't approve because the next morning we came out to this.  We've made a better space for him and have had no reoccurences.

We had Christmas Eve at our house again this year.   This is our fifth Christmas here in Bend and I'm glad we made the move to join the boys.  A baby changes everything!!

We're still watching Delaney on Thursdays and Fridays.  We've gotten complacent about childproofing the house since she has shown no interest in crawling or walking.  She is quite content to sit and play and, boy, is she a talker.  I'm looking forward to 2020 and all that is to come.  Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

The take-up and shrinkage on my runners took me by surprise.  I’m going to repeat this in different colors and figure out how much warp I need to get the results I want.  This is too narrow and too short.



I liked the colors on this runner, just not the size.



In fact, it’s the size of a towel.  I’ve woven the same dish towels for way too long, and I have a long way to go to knowing what I’m doing with this overshot, but they were fun to weave.  I want a runner and placemats.  Back to the drawing board!



I saw these guys on a morning walk last week.  There are bowls on the walk there which I assume have been left for the deer, maybe water? I’m still having problems with my left forefoot and have an appointment to see an orthopedic surgeon January 17th.  It hurts to walk but having cabin fever hurts more.



It started snowing on Christmas Eve, which we celebrated here with family and friends.



And we awoke to a White Christmas, celebrated with family at Josh and Missy’s.  The new tradition is king crab legs and green salad.  It’s very good tradition :-)

I’ll leave you with this New Years Wish.

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness.  I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're swonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can.  And I hope somewhere in the next year you surprise yourself.”  Neil Gaiman

 

Some days are like that

Last weekend found our family once again standing on Wall Street for the Christmas parade.  I have visited the Columbia outlet store several times and now have adequately warm clothes to do this and enjoy myself.

The trombonist on the right is grandson Evan and the instrument is the same one my son played in high school.  I find that touching.  Tomorrow night is Evan’s high school Christmas concert and that about wraps up the year for him.  This Thursday is my final day reading to kinders through the SMART program and that wraps up the school year for me too.  My kinders have been a pleasure this year - I can understand what they say!  Sometimes I forget how young a five-year-old really is.

Saturday was about getting the tree dressed and ready for Christmas Eve company.  I don’t know why we didn’t think to put our collection of Woof-and-Poofs under the tree before but they look like they belong there.  And I still had time to do half of the Christmas cards.

I think they’re just as festive as wrapped packages, and since we stopped exchanging gifts years ago, the tree needs a little something under it - besides my cat.

Yesterday was our last play of the year at Cascade Theatre Company.  It was a radio play of A Miracle on 34th Street which we thoroughly enjoyed, but then we’ve enjoyed all their plays.  Ian and I had arrived a little early so were delighted when part of the play was watching the cast and crew get ready, as though this really were a radio broadcast, like announcing “15 minutes to air.”  They even had an Applause sign that lit up when it was time to applaud. Afterwards it was out to eat with our friends, talk about the play and laugh.

My first priority today was to finish the Christmas cards.  We’ve sent photo cards from Vistaprint for the past five years.  It’s pricey but we also enjoy receiving them.  This was a double-sided card so I used this shot I took in our front yard for the front side.

It took us FOREVER to pick the three photos for the back side, wanting them to say something about our year, and these were the winners.

There was still some time in the afternoon by the time the cards were done so I finished warping Arthur for table runners but the light was beginning to dim and since this is my first try at Overshot, I need better light, a fresher outlook and more patience because these pics need to come out.  By the time I had gotten this far I understood my mistakes, which is good sign.

I thought the light at least would be sufficient to clip the threads on the tartan scarves but it was a close call when I nearly clipped the scarf.  It’s time to let unfinshed things remain unfinished today and let them go. The scarf will be received by Christmas but the table runner won’t be ready.  Some days are like that.

'Tis the Season

I finished Olivia's "Girl's Victorian Coast" from the KnittingPureandSimple pattern of the same name.  In my haste to finish and ship, I neglected to take photographs.  This is from Diane's website

I made it in size 4 which used almost exactly three skeins of Plymouth Encore.   I bought five skeins so have returned two to Yarn Barn of Kansas for store credit.  This is all I had left!  Olivia's mommy chose the color which is a good thing because I would have instinctively gone Bright!

I finally got the huck lace lashed and loaded.  I love it when I have something like this.  Life has gotten really hectic of late but if I have ten minutes before I have to leave, I can weave on this and it always makes me feel better.

On the other hand, I haven't gotten any enjoyment from the Crackle towels I'm weaving from the September/October 2016 issue of Handwoven.  Progress is painstakingly slow and full of errors.  I started on the second towel and only got a couple of inches before I had already thrown an error.  I'm having to change treadling sequences every inch and juggle three shuttles.  This has tied up all my end-feed shuttles and I have to share one between this and the huck project.  I decided to unweave to the hem and see what would happen if I just used one shuttle.

The colors on the loom are so pretty.  It's hard not to get enthused when I see them - until I sit down and get to work.

I discovered that I actually was having fun with a single shuttle though I'm still struggling with the four treadling sequences and the "pattern 1, pattern 2, tabby 1, pattern 1, pattern 2, tabby 2" sequence which changes at the same time as the treadling changes.  So far I've only made one error and am glad I didn't go with my first instinct and cut the mess off the loom.  The last two might actually be good towels.  At least I have learned something.  I've learned that three shuttles are not for me.  Trying to keep the threads untangled and free them from catching the apron rod or breast beam was just wasn't my cup of tea.

Maddie has made a little nest for herself with the gifts for our Angel Tree girl.  Her requests were so sweet and simple that it brought tears to my eyes.  I got a great winter coat for her on sale at Macy's for $20 so was able to add in a couple of adorable t-shirts too.  I need to turn everything in soon and boy is Maddie going to be sad.  Actually, she'll just turn her attention back to making toys out of Christmas decorations.

We've just had a cold snap over the past 36 hours which has been hard on Sammie.  She puts off doing her business outdoors for as just long as she can.  And just like that, the cold snap has ended with a high of 40 and rain predicted for today.  You know what that's going to mean for anyone driving after the sun goes down.

It snowed all day yesterday for a total of about 8" before it stopped.  It made for an interesting drive to my A6 studio volunteer shift yesterday afternoon.  Fortunately for me Bend is pretty diligent about plowing the streets so the worst of it was our residential roads and that was pretty entertaining even at 10 mph.  This is my last evening shift and I'm moving to Mondays at 10:00-2:00.  I need to go in this coming Monday at 9:30 for a school tour.  I'm looking forward to it.  Kids get so excited about print making - it's fun.

And It's December!

The irrigation district releases water into the canals about once a month during the winter months to allow ranchers to refill their cisterns and stock tanks.  I couldn't resist the nice weather to take a walk and enjoy the opportunity.  It doesn't last long and then the canals are pathetically empty.

After cutting Christmas trees for the past 14 years we have lost the enthusiasm for this tradition.  Tree lots are abundant here and when you think about the $10 tree tag, gas and meal afterwards, the $30 for a tree seemed like a deal.  Ian found this lot behind a church, well organized and well priced.  We have a new tradition!  Weirdly all three of our families came to this same conclusion - phew.

Dawn asked me to attend the two fund raisers and "say a few words" about my experience at the A6 gallery.  In the sake of time she offered to excuse me and just introduce me as she told my story.  Fine by me!  I've learned that there are 40 major donors in Bend and 800 501C3 organizations struggling for the same dollars.  A6 is branching out into the schools and hoping to partner with Parks and Rec. I am so thankful to be part of this organization.

As always, December piles on the activities.  We all met downtown Saturday for the annual Christmas parade and to see Logan march in the Bend High band.  I thought the Thanksgiving parade was astonishingly big but this was double that.  Bend loves to love Bend.

Afterwards we walked over to JDub for lunch where the paper table coverings and cups of crayons provided silly and endless amusement and also let us celebrate Josh's birthday two days prior.

And this is the sitchiation in my studio.  I am once again back to one weaving bench.  Josh redid my Gilmore bench last summer, replacing the broken screws and regluing everything.  I took it back to him at Thanksgiving because it was simply unsafe.  He says he'll have to redo the whole thing, sand it back down, reglue and screw. I almost want to buy a second Schacht bench and just let the other one go - expensive firewood.

Maddie is pretty enthralled by the tree.

And then we did this to it!  This is a Douglas fir, totally new to us, fragrant with soft tips.  It's a smaller tree and between reduced size and soft tips, there are a lot of ornaments that I looked at but had to put back in the box.  The tree is about memories, so whether or not I was able to hang them all, I got to enjoy them all.

And that was Christmas!

I finished another set of towels in between other things.  The weather is gray a lot this winter and weaving really is great therapy

I decided under the conditions that I need to work with some brighter colors.  I knew I was low on the dusky lavender when I started this,

But I didn't realize I was this low.  It was three days before Christmas and since I warp from the front, the rest of the warp was already sleyed and silly me, I have no back-up cone.   What a close call.

The kids came over for our first Christmas Eve in this house.  Evan wanted to play Apples to Apples and improvised using the coffee table since the dining table was set, but we played some more on that table after the dinner dishes were cleared.  It's one of our standard go-to games.

I don't want to knit hats for sale anymore and haven't taken any to craft fairs this past year.  I'm tired of storing them and had planned to take them to Bethlehem Inn for the homeless.  Then it occurred to me that first I wanted to offer them to the kids.  Take as many as you want I said.  So they did.  We had a lot of fun and I'm happy to have my hats where they are appreciated.  Josh wanted to know if he could take hats to his drivers and I said absolutely!

 

Christmas morning was absolutely beautiful and we appreciated the timely break in between storms.  I took a walk out in the field wearing my 13-year-old Haflinger's with Vibram soles, the only good footing I own at this time.  I realized when I got home that the cracked sole had leaked snow into the cork and then to my foot - time to get serious about boots.  I couldn't walk in the LL Bean boots I ordered and I sent them back.  The $30 Costco boots I bought were good for cutting Christmas trees and not much more.  Ian found a review on Keen boots, and since I already wear Keen shoes, he has ordered a pair for me.  Fingers crossed!

We had a delicious roast beef Christmas dinner at Josh's - 12 at their large table.  The entertainment was Evan and his Grandpa Fremeyer's gifts - drones.  Trying to predictably fly them provided much hilarity for us and anxiety for the dogs.

The previous owners left a lot of junk but they also left a couple boxes of Christms ornaments, some that we chose to use ourselves.  I wasn't crazy about these cutsie figurines but when I found the Myrtlewood crèche and put them together, I was very pleased.  It really does feel like home now.