Getting through the smoke

I planted basil from seed last spring and thought it would never grow, and when it did, bugs ate the living daylights out of it.  And then all of a sudden it grew faster than the bugs could keep up with.  I've never been so successful with basil and made my first batch of pesto yesterday.  I put it in ice cube trays and freeze it so I can have pesto all winter.  I'll make another batch tomorrow and I think I'll still have enough for a third, and this is just from the four plants that survived.  I ate it for lunch yesterday with linguine and it's delicious.

It was smoky enough that Linda Evans moved me inside yesterday to the Spirit of the West exhibit.  The area Ethan and I sat in is modeled after Silver City, Idaho in 1885 so it required a new costume since I was moving back in time by about 20 years.  I'll try to remember to get a picture of me standing in it next week.  One of the volunteers in the prop department made this and it's an impressive piece of work.

School is back in session and the number of visitors has slowed down more than usual because of the smoke.  Ethan always takes a book when he's in the role of a living history interpreter.  He's a medical doctor and also doubles as a dentist.

But when you open the book you find something else.  He said this has saved him during the low times,  especially during the winter.  He think there's another one in the prop department and will try to locate it for me before next week.  Linda is talking to me about changing my living history interpreter role, possibly a schoolteacher or seamstress.

I finished my wool scarf and couldn't be more pleased.

I have another skein of this ultrafine Merino from Webs that I bought several years ago when I visited their store in Northampton.  It was on sale for $16, a deal I couldn't pass up, and it's just been sitting here, waiting for me to get inspired.

But first there's another chenille scarf in the offing, this one woven in Log Cabin.

Meanwhile work continues on the dish towel warp.  The error and repair really took the wind out of my sails, but I'm closing in on the end of finally.  What you see here are two kitty hacks.  I have the supplemental warp in a large beer stein to keep it from being batted around.  The second one is less apparent.  She loves to chew and tear up my packing paper so it's hanging in two slings which automatically rolls itself up as it comes off the beam.  I would have had to buy new paper a long time ago without out this handy little trick.

We've had some rain and though yesterday was still smoky, today was much cleared with the first sunshine we've had in weeks.  I was thrilled to pieces to finally be able to take a walk.  You can see the bank of smoke in the distance which still obscures the Cascades.  The forecast is for a return of warmer days with more high pressure on Monday.  But for today I'm thankful.  It did wonders for my spirit.

Under house arrest

Today is Labor Day and for eight years we celebrated it at our place in Red Rock Valley with Burning Man-style camping with our family, friends and neighbors.  It was so much fun that one year everyone chipped in and bought us this monument because it never occurred to anyone, let alone us, that we would move, but indeed we did, and 2014 was the last year.   We brought it with us when we moved, the only remaining relic of those times. This weekend we're hunkered down at home, along with many people in our region as smoke from the 25 fires wavers between very unhealthy and hazardous.  The good news is that the smoke is acting as a cap reducing fire behavior to some degree, whereas clean air could have the potential to move fire very quickly, so I try not to complain.

I'm thrilled with the rayon chenille scarves.  I struggled with the selvedges and finally put a floating selvedge on the right side which cleaned things up considerably.  However, the first one is too messy to sell and I'm thrilled to keep it.  Now I understand what all the hype about chenille is and I'm planning to weave more.

I immediately wound another warp, this time was some ultrafine Merino yarn that I bought at Webs years ago.  I'm sure it was meant for knitting shawls, it's very springy, and is certainly meant for knitting of some sort, not socks.  I wanted to see if I could warp from back to front this time without referring to the Web's video.  I didn't rush and thought through each step carefully.  It was on in no time and error free.  I can safely say that I am a convert.

I'm weaving as many hours in the morning as my back will let me, about three most days.  I think I'll keep doing scarves on Arthur and dish towels on Maudie Mae.  At this rate I should be well on my way to restocking my inventory for the Guild holiday sale in November by the time the fires are out, sometime in October.

I finished two more bears and found them far too fiddley for my taste.  Quoth the raven, nevermore!  Maybe some baby hats?  There's still a lot of Cascade 220 bits and pieces in that basket.


Someone asked me about these rod holders that I used for my "supplemental" warp.  I hope these pictures are adequate if you want to order some from your own local woodworker.  They were designed to hold the warp on the front beam for warping from the front.

My scarves have all been priced at $100 but I've had a nagging feeling about that so spent a couple hours on Etsy the other morning, reading descriptions and noting prices.  I'm getting ready to catalog and price these for the sale and have decided that I'll feel better pricing my smaller and simple scarves at less than that, maybe $75 or $80?  I wish I could go for a walk because that's the kind of stuff that I would noodle out while walking.

The living history part of the High Desert Museum wasn't staffed last Friday because of smoke so I stayed home, but I know I need to empty these bobbins before I go on this Friday.  They hold 4 ounces and are massive and neither of my lazy-kate's are wide enough.  This morning I spotted this drop spindle lazy-kate that I bought from Ken Ledbetter at the last Black Sheep Gathering I attended.  I haven't used it much, I haven't used my drop spindles much.  However, it was ideal for my perpose.  I skewered both bobbins with the pins from my Kromski lazy Kate and ran the singles through the eye which provide some tensioning.

It turned out pretty darn good considering my poor fiber preparation and all the talking and interruptions that occur while I'm spinning.  The next thing I need to do before Friday is prepare more fiber!  I have no idea what I'll do with the yarn and will cross that bridge when I come to it.

This was the headline in yesterdays paper and his face says it all.

Smoke gets in your eyes

I thought that this warp would be a good time to try BtoF warping again since I've been away from towels for over two months.  I was pleased by how well it went though I did have to refer to the Webs YouTube video throughout.  It wasn't until I had woven a bit that I saw this glaring error which had nothing to do with warping and everything to do with operator error.

I couldn't think how on earth I was going to remove and replace that stripe of red with 10 ends and nine yards of the turquoise and then I remembered the Supplemental Warp class that I took from Linda Gettman last year.  It made a tricky repair manageable.  I was able to do this without referring to my class notes and was back on my way in no time.  However it was time for my volunteer shift at the gallery so weaving had to wait until today.

i took this photo from the front of the Bend Art Center in the Box Factory.  You can't see the iconic smokestacks of the Old Mill in the distance and my car had a layer of ash.

This is what the sun looked like at 4:00.  It's as dark and gloomy as winter and outdoor activities with parks and rec and also the school district have been cancelled.  It burns your eyes and throat and you can taste it on your tongue.  The hospitality industry which banks on tourism over the Labor Day weekend has taken a big hit.  I'm sure the trickle down will be felt by more than just hospitality.  I mean who wants to go to the nursery in this or call a landscaper or an irrigation guy or repair the fence or deck that you wanted to take care of before winter.  The smoke at this level will be with us into next week along with 100 degree temperatures.  I have no idea how firefighters work in these conditions day after day after day, but I'm so glad that they do, and I'm so glad we bought a house with air conditioning.  Our Tacoma family visit planned for this weekend is cancelled and if we can get a house sitter, we'll go up and see them instead.

 My scarves feel stiff and I remembered Cindie Kitchens telling me that they respond to fabric conditioner, and though I finished weaving these scarves a week or two ago, I couldn't remember to buy the conditioner.  I finally got some, washed and pressed these and am really happy with how soft and drapey they feel.  I'm now washing previous scarves to see if they respond as well as these did.  This was the last warp from my painted warp workshop and I expected to like this one the most and I like it the least, too much contrast in color.

Since I was trapped indoors today I decided to warp Arthur with some of the chenille that I bought from the Yarn Barn mill-end club.  I've heard a lot about the yarn and like the way chemille scarves feel so jumped in with two feet.  I called them to get their advice on sett because I've heard lots of different opinions on how to work with it.  They said to use 15 epi and plain weave.

Because I had warped from the back I felt confident that I could go through the steps without the video this time.  I'm so glad I stuck with trying to learn this method.  There are more steps but once you get to this stage, the yarn is tensioned while sliding through the lease sticks plus through the raddle with the rubber bands.

The first I encountered the famous "worming" characteristic of chenille was right here and I knew this wasn't going to be as easy as I had though.

This is what "worming" looks like and it's a pill.  With every throw of the shuttle I have to verify that the yarn has passed through the shed without folding up on itself and it happens a lot.  I had to unweave several times to straighten the yarn and it really slows down the progress.

This is what it looks like and if it's as soft as other scarves I've felt, I think it will be worth it.  If not, I have a lot of yarn that I need to figure out how to use.  There's always the Guild Weftover sale next July.

Books, Books, Books

I've done so much reading that I'll only list those that I think you might like, if you get a minute to sit down after Christmas:

Spider Woman's Daughter by Anne Hillerman - Tony Hillerman's daughter has picked up where her father left off in the Leaphorn/Chee series.  She is a capable wordsmith and has also introduced Navajo weaving and local art to the dialogue.  I say I don't read mysteries but this series is an exception.

Benediction by Kent Haruf - This is considered the end of a trilogy.  I don't know about that, but his writing is absolutely lyrical, as always.  It's a small book if you're looking for something satisfying and quick to read.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Samsion - I loved this and gobbled it up quickly.  At first I thought he was trading on the TV series The Big Bang Series, until I realized that it was originally a play in Australia and he wrote it first.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter - This was a nice piece of escape fiction.  I am one of the 1200 people who gave it a rating of 4 stars.

The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg - I picked this up at Costco in hard cover and then used it for my "white elephant" exchange at our book club Christmas party.  I had a little trouble getting into it at first as I thought her lead character was a stereotypical Southern belle, my bad. Yes, it's chick lit but with the underlying theme of woman pilots in WWII.  Fabulous!

Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - This is not a quick read at 755 pages.  I bought it on my Kindle for $7.50 thinking that's a pretty good deal for that much book.  It's a lot of book, any way you look at it.  One reviewer said that he felt like it was five novellas in one cover.  My criticism would be that she should have written it as a trilogy. Her writing is brilliant and I would have been so much happier if she had written it as three books so I could look forward to the next one.  I find myself still thinking of it, wishing there were more.  Oh well, I'll just back and read her two earlier books.

Coming Clean by Kimberly Rae Miller - I read this on my Kindle from the Amazon Prime lending library.  It's a fascinating and horrifying insight into the lives of hoarders.  She's living proof that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson - I read this on my Kindle checked out from our public library.  He's always worth the read and somehow I had missed reading this life and times of Des Moines, Iowa in the 1950s, also the life and times of the US of A - sobering and humorous.  It makes me wonder how we've survived ourselves so far.  In all of my books I also read Command and Control by Eric Schlosser.  I didn't recommend it because it gave me nightmares, about how close we came on many occasions to blow ourselves up.

Speaking of blowing up, Ian and I heard an explosion just before 5:00 on Monday.  It even woke Madeline up.  We looked at each, trying to think of a source.  Finally Ian thought it might be from the Army weapons depot at Herlong, to the north of us.  About 5:15 I let the dogs out to pee and saw a fire truck making it's way up Red Rock Road, so stepped out to take a peek.  Brrrrr - so cold but the shooting flames held my attention until I turned into a Popsicle.  Ian came out too but we could only see the flames shooting above the hill to the north of us.  I called Sandy, a CERT (certified emergency response team) team lead who lives closer the fire.  She hadn't heard the explosion but once she stepped outside, she saw it and heard the fire engines.

 
This is what greeted fire trucks when they arrived.  The house was completely engulfed in flames. The picture was released by the fire chief and was promptly posted to the local news.  We immediately started getting text messages from worried family and friends so I posted something on Facebook, explaining the situation, that we were safe.

Sandy took this picture the next day on her way to town and sent it to CERT members.  There is absolutely nothing left.  The owner was home, was treated for smoke inhalation and is lucky to be alive.  We are all in shock.  There is some thought that the recent installation of a new furnace might be to blame?  Sandy and I have already requested a VFD training on how to live safely with propane.  The good news is there's a huge rally from the community to help the owner get back on his feet.  His horses and dogs were unharmed and he's moving on.

Playing Catch Up

I hate it when I make things harder for myself than I have to.  I've been trying to figure out how to make art yarn.  After spending the past ten years making all my yarns uniform, I want to shake it up.  I've read a couple of articles and I've tried several techniques, but it wasn't until a couple days ago that I realized that I had this book in my library.  I'm sure it's been there for ten years and it's never been opened.  It's fantastic!!  Reading it could had saved me so many hard lessons.  And she's a weaver so talks about using art yarn as weft.

Varney suggested knitting your yarns into samples.  She was thinking like keeping a notebook, but these hats are my samples.  I've been pretty random in my fiber blending and have used varied spinning techniques.  I still have so much to learn.  The huge hat in the center bottom was from my Lexi Boeger class at conference on super coils.  I think it's safe to say that is a technique I probably won't repeat.  It's heavy.

Since I really want to use my yarn in weavine, I was anxious to get a warp on and weave some practice scarves.  I'm having a hard time understanding how to enterlace different grists of yarns in weaving. It's bidirectional so not quite as simple as knitting.  A couple of years ago a woman contacted me and said she was no longer weaving, did I want some of her stash.  Well, duh.  I met her at an agreed place and she gave me tons of undyed cones of yarn.  This warp is from that stash.  I don't know what it is.  It's about the same grist as my 8/2 dishtowel cotton and it's shiny.  The warp is a variegated thick-and-thin cotton someone gave me to get it out of her house.  Hmmm.  I'm using a M and W pattern and I don't know how it's going to wet finish, but I suspect it's going to feel like a dishtowel around my neck.

So the second scarf on this warp.  I don't know what it is either.  I bought it from a friend who was selling at the conference tailgate market.  She said needed to destash.  Does this sound familiar?  I bought four cones from her at $5 a cone.  This is one of them and I think it's rayon.  I have a feeling that after wet finishing, it's going to feel like a strip of upholstery around my neck.  I hope I'm wrong because it's pretty.

There was so much going on the week after we got back from vacation.  We had to drive into town to return the rental car and buy some groceries.  The next day we had to take my car into town for service, which is why we took a rental car in the first place.  I forget how fracturing those trips are - always have to allow two hours road time.   I had an email on Monday from my old running partner, asking whether or not I was going to be able to make the brunch on Friday?  I didn't realize we had one, but yeah.  My head is still reeling.  Four of us who were friends from 30 years ago sat and talked forever.  We had belonged to a tight group of several dozen and then life spontaneously changed and we all went our own ways, many of us out of state.  I was exhausted after I left but I felt really good.  I was thankful that I had scheduled lunch with my favorite woman on the planet - my daughter!

I needed some steadying fiber karma.  I've dabbled in getting a towel warp on Maudie Mae and realized that I was hung up on the final step.  I like to lash onto the front beam on a wider warp, but  I hate pulling through the lash across all the bouts. I realized that if I use a bobbin from my Kumihimo kit, I can wind all the lashing cord onto it and reel it out as I move across.  I was done in a couple of minutes.  Zounds Batgirl!  I'm awesome!!

And just like that, it started again.  This was about 1:30 yesterday and the fire appears to have started on Hwy 395, a north/south corridor between Reno and Susanville.  We are exactly halfway between both.  There were a couple of fire planes on it, but they seemed to think they were going to knock it down quickly with the absence of wind.

And they were wrong.  By late afternoon, we had a steady steam of fire planes flying over the house since we've also in the flight path to the Stead airport, home of the Reno Air Races.  That's another story.

With an unusual absence of wind, the fire crept down into the valley.  That's not two demon eyes you see.  It was an uneasy sleep last night.

I snapped this shot of a group of fire trucks at the base of the seven sisters.  That's why they call that formation.  I was overwhelmed by the support and took no more pictures because I'd be in the way.  There were semis on standby, having brought in the dozers that worked through the night to establish the fire line that kept the flames from our valley.

There were over a dozen more support vehicles, including sleeping units at the top of Red Rock Road.  I crept through the maze to get onto the highway and choked up as a firefighter waved me by.  I'm so grateful that they go out in this miserable heat to keep us safe. 

My DIL Missy is in town with my grandsons to help her mother post surgery.  We visited for a while, checked out some knitting, and played a rousing game of Apples to Apples - more goodness.  I left to see my doc and polished off the day by stocking up at Costco.  It was 102 when I left there and I got soon heard one of the disaster alert messages on the radio for flashflood warnings.  Huh?  I hadn't driven another five miles when the sky opened up.  It was like driving through a car wash.   By the time I reached our highway, my temperature gauge registered 66 degrees.  Welcome to the high desert.  I can image the fire crews were doing a happy dance.  The smell of smoke still lingers tonight.  Heroes?  You know my answer.

Good to Know!

I know, I know - two blogs in one day but we're leaving in the morning and my laptop is not.  Ian and I talked about renting a car when I was at Spindle Camp.  Two things I learned from my cabin mates.  Barbara Sue us asked if we knew that we can go through Costco for a rental.  None of us did.  Hermi said to make sure that we're not paying the airport pick-up tax.  We didn't know about that either.  Ian arranged a rental through Costco at Budget rental and at a site away from the airport.  With Costco we saved $75 and not paying the airport tax was another $60.  Good to know!  We chose a midsize, they said "like a Dodge Avenger" but what we picked up this morning was a Kia Soul..

A ferocious thunderstorm came through on Sunday with plenty of lightening and thunder and it sparked a fire in the south end of Red Rocky Valley.  The crews stayed on overnight to tend the hotspots, including a helicopter.  In the afternoon, a second system came through.  It soused us with blessed rain and the fire guys were able to go home. 

Last year I blogged about a fire abatement program we participated in, offered through the Fire Safety Council.  They brought in Bobcats specially equipped with a "masticating" apparatus on front.  They chewed up much of the sagebrush around our house and planted native grasses while they were at it.  This spring the area where the sagebrush was has filled with a weed called tumble mustard.  We wondered if it would be equally flammable.  You can see in the photograph above that the lightening strike was above Tamara's house to the right.  You can also see where she had the fire abatement done.  That area is a neat square.

This house didn't participate in the program and it's thanks to helicopters and hand crews that they didn't lose it.  The winds accompanying the thunderstorm and the winds generated by the fire were horrific.  I'm a believer.

Whadda Day

Our ISP has funneled the email part of their service through Google and I'm trying to follow directions to get my computer and phone to work. I turned on my computer this morning, anticipating a call to our ISP for assistance, when suddenly emails began to download, and download. In the end, I had something like 800 emails. I couldn't deal with it as I had lost a contact in my eye last night and wanted to have my eye doc see if he could see it since I certainly couldn't. I decided to make a Costco and Trader Joe run to justify the gas expense.

My friend Melissa called while I was driving in and we ended up going for some Macy's therapy. She needed some cheering up and we always have fun at that store. Today we browsed handbags. You have to laugh at the price tags, if nothing else. When we left the mall, she said I smell smoke and so did I. I returned Melissa to her coffee house, got my eyeball checked, then did my shopping.

There was a reason we smelled smoke. I listened to NPR and every half hour got an update on the fire. It started south of Reno and was being fanned by the terrific winds, pushing in the storm front supposed to hit tonight. I had to fight the car door to keep it from being ripped off its hinges. Gusts in excess of 70 mph were reported at the airport and flights were being delayed or cancelled. My last stop in Reno was Costco and when I came out, the smoke was choking. You couldn't see the mountains and barely the sun.

I snagged this image from Facebook. Like the rest of the country, we've been warm and dry, until last week when night temperatures hovered around zero. They confirmed 3,000 acres burned, 20 homes lost and one fatality. Horse evacuation has been a crisis. The fairgrounds can hold 400 and outlying ranches are offering accommodations. Our VFD truck was headed south as I drove home, about 5:00. It's Thursday, our VFD guys have worked all week - and now they're fighting a fire all night. I'm concerned and I want them to be safe. I wonder how that works when they're supposed to be at work tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I got a text from Ian when I was at the grocery store - last stop before home. He'd heard that North 395 was closed both ways due to a pile-up, and warned me to take surface streets. It turns out that fifteen vehicles and two semis had collided in white-out conditions when the gusts blew alkali across the highway, reducing viability to nothing. Eight are hospitalized. Whadda day. I was glad to get home in one piece.

As for the massive email downloads - I was able to take a look at it this evening. It was all the email that I had sent or received from my smart phone, dating back to 2009. Think about that when you put something in an email. It's out there. Somewhere.
On a more pleasant note, I finished another UNC school spirit garment, this time a hat for our grandniece. I'm going to suggest to her mother that she take the Christmas hat and trade McKay for this one. I think it will be cute for the two kids to have spirit apparel.