New Plan

I'm still trying to get my spinning mojo back.  I've been working on this skein for the past couple of months, but the problem is not the spinning.  It's that I haven't any idea for an end use.  I don't wear sweaters so that's out.  This will be warp for a scarf - not very exciting.

Then this morning one of the weavers in the 4-Shaft Facebook page posted this of a cloak she make from her own Jacob sheep.  This breed has multicolored fleeces and many horns.  She separated the fleece into three colors before spinning and used commercial warp.  She got her ideas from the book Woven to Wear by Marilyn Murphy.  I promptly ordered it from Amazon and it will be here on Monday.  Now I'm excited because now I have a plan.

This lap robe is the only project I am currently working on.  It's from one of our Shetland sheep and while the sett might be a little too loose, I'd rather err on that side than too tight which I've already done with disappointing results.

The other morning I was racing around, trying to get out of the house when Maddie started calling to me.  She misses our time together in the studio.  Me too.  The school is an hour from here so with the two-hour round trip, they were nine hour days and left me no energy once I got home.

We have had scattered showers and thunderstorms for the past week, all most welcome.  We had a good rain two nights ago and this morning awoke to this.  The Sierras aren't getting much in the way of snow and the drought continues to weigh heavily on everyone.

Wednesday I posted the following story on Facebook:

My last two classes today were both second grade and pretty squirrely. We were about 15 minutes into the last class, with 15 minutes to go until the end of the day when a loud, close clap of thunder stopped everyone in their tracks. There was a moments hesitation, then to a student they rushed to the windows to look out. I told them to get back to business - it was only a sound. In the next minute the sky opened up and rain poured from the sky. The kids went crazy. I wanted them to hear it on the library skylights so gave the universal quiet sign. They stared in disbelief at the thundering skylights and then once again rushed to the windows. If we had been a boat, we would have capsized. I started to bring them to order. then thought - how many times in their seven years have they seen a gully washer like this? I mean, I get excited when it rains. Why shouldn't they? We got our business done, albeit a little loud with lots of dancing, and that is why I like to sub.

Then my friend Carolyn sent me a story of her own:

Loved the rain story today. The exact same thing happened to me years ago in California when our 7 year drought ended. My first graders had never seen it rain like that. We had to stop the lesson to go outside in the corridor and watch the rain come down. They were so excited.

The next morning I bumped into the 2nd grade teacher whose class had come into the library before the storm. I asked her how it went for her in their classroom that last period. She said they had the very same experience. She tried to restore classroom order and then realized that for some of her kids, this was the first rainstorm of their lives. I'm sure people on the East Coast have no idea how this feels.

Some Catching Up to Do

I finished the dishtowels and got them in the mail last weekend, though I was racing around like a mad woman trying to get them shipped before I left for my book club.  I'm happy with them, especially with the tracking in this plain weave - not happy enough to weave this fiddly pattern again though.

I received an email on Sunday from a blog reader in Florida, asking me to clarify why I didn't like the Texsolv heddles on my Dorset.  She also has a Dorset and had been thinking about changing her heddles to the Texsolv.  I learned when I visited Gayle that there are two generations of Dorset studio looms.  The first, which mine is, was made from a light wood and is a very light and portable loom, also why I needed heavier heddles.  Gayle has the second generation Dorset and it's very heavy. I explained this in my email response and then offered her mine.  No one in my guild could put this size to use and I had planned to offer them in a blog post, but she beat me to the punch.  I dropped them in the mail Monday on my way to work.

I had been called to sub last week for a librarian who was in the middle of a family crisis and when she called me from California Sunday evening it sounded like she was also in the middle of a personal meltdown.  She didn't leave lesson plans and while trying to explain her schedule to me, she let me know that the library was a mess.  "The books are flat - flat on the shelves."  And indeed they were.

I have never seen anything like this and don't quite understand how this happened.  For one thing, her narrow shelving is probably original to the school library which is 50 years old this year.  I had my work cut out for me and managed to wrestle it into shape in between class visits.  Friday she had seven class visits as well as a lunchroom duty.  I have no idea how she has time to run a library.  When I turned the lights out and closed the door, I had managed to shelve all but one row on a shelving cart and the books were sorted and in order.  It was the best I could do.

My sole weaving project is pretty uninteresting and looks a lot like medical gauze.  I've woven these scarves several times in the past because they do well at craft fairs and I have one coming up this Saturday.  I need to finish weaving these four so I can dye and press them.

I'd like to finish the fourth of these cowls so I can dye them at the same time as the scarves.  My daughter asked me if I could knit seven of them as gifts for her belly dance troop.  Actually she asked me what I'd charge since she didn't want to spend more than $20-$25 and so that's what I'll charge her.  I bought this Merino at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Show about ten years ago.  I only purchased a pound of wool and have never been able to find a project for the yarn.  I'm pretty happy to finally use it. The roving was a blend of butterscotch and natural so they're going to look great after I dye them.

Time to start a new project!  I'm finally going to be able to put the information I learned in my workshop to use.  These Tencel yarns are analogous on the color wheel and I'm hoping will produce an iridescent cloth.

Someone on 4-Shaft Weaving suggested that next time I wind a solid warp that I first wind a small cone and hold two threads together.  I don't have a cone winder so this is my adaptation - a large bobbin in a heavy shuttle.  It took forever to wind that bobbin, which is when I decided that this is week I will order the electric bobbin winder - before I experience a repetitive motion injury.  I am very much looking forward to working with color again.

Substitute School Librarian

The Verdi library is where I've been this past week. It's a joint use facilty, a partnership between the department of wildlife, the public library and the school district. Verdi is a small community west of Reno right on the California/Nevada border. The school is equally small, one classroom for each grade, and all the children know each other. It's my favorite school to sub for even though it's an hour from our house. Nothing is close to us and I enjoy the change-up and challenge. Days are a mixture of class visits and kids coming in on recess and lunch hour. They're a reading group!

The school is located on Bridge Street, named for the one-lane bridge that crosses the Truckee River which flows from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake. I took this from the bridge looking west at my own peril. It's a busy bridge!

The department of wildlife has supplied "wildlife" as part of the decor. I was straightening books on this shelf of easy-readers and didn't enjoy the frog just above my eye level, sloshing around in its jar. One of the children asked me if it was real and I said yes. She asked me if it was dead. I said yes.

This cougar nicknamed "Top Cat" is perched above children's fiction. Children who have attended here are accustomed to the wildlife and other than the frog question, it was largely ignored until the kindergarten class visit. I was ready for the children to settle down so we could begin story time but I was sadly mistaken if I thought I could begin without first addressing the wildlife. One girl asked me if he was stabbed or shot - not sure why that would make a difference. A friend who used to work here when the library was flush and could afford a fulltime staff told me that she always told the children that the animals died of old age.

And then there's the mountain goat perched over the staff desk. I'm standing in the area of adult books and had to shoo some sixth graders away from it - they got themselves into a giggly scared state, insisting that the goat was winking at them. I found the wildlife a little creepy myself. A third of the building belongs to the department of wildlife which also serves as meeting space for the community. I was a little unsettled one afternoon when their staff had a table piled with rifles that they were checking and blank firing, getting ready for the hunter safety course. I found the stack of picture books that I was reading against the clicks of weapon checks an odd combination.
I read dozens and dozens of picture books, reacquainting myself with old favorites and looking at some new ones, getting my story times in order. The librarian I was subbing for was actually present but testing children in the computer room for learning competency which is why this is such an unusually long sub job. Each morning I'd pick up the key from the office and return it at the end of the day. Friday as I was leaving the principal come in, gave me a big hug and said "We love you!" It's that kind of school.

Posted with Blogsy

A Day in the Life

A week ago the bitterbrush hadn't bloomed.  It always comes after the desert peach, but when I walked the dogs on Tuesday, it was everywhere and it felt like it happened overnight.  The frost I feared did come.  No apples for us this year.

I couldn't resist sharing a picture of our lazy llama, laying there stuffing her face

I'm cutting it really close to getting everything done before the craft fair Wednesday.  This stack of towels has been washed once.  I need to hem them, wash them again, press them on my mangle and attach labels.

I also want to get two scarves woven from this warp, my fluffy granite look.  I need to finish weaving, twist fringe, then wash and press them.

I subbed at Elmcrest Elementary today, an older school and also from our old neighborhood in town. It's a nice school and it goes to show that neighborhoods matter.  The librarian left me a book processing project which involved a lot of standing.  I was pooped when I got home so decided to reknit a sleeve and chill out. I think it will look better after it's been finished - it's the one on the right.  I did two decreases and took it down by over 20 stitches.  I tried it on and had Ian take of picture of me in it because I could see that it's going to work.  The sweater looked good but I did not.

I'm subbing again tomorrow but the project is done and I'll have more class visits, ie., more fun.  I also have playground duty - not fun.  Plus it going to be 51 degrees so I'll have to dress accordingly.  There was a message on my phone asking me to sub for a junior high school on Monday.  There is *no* way I want to sub for those grades just six weeks from the end of the school year. I didn't return the call. The 6th graders I had today reinforced my decision.

Christina and I are planning to go back to Massachusetts in June for John's wedding.  John is my oldest grandson.  My daughter got pregnant with him when she just 15 years old and gave him up for adoption - it's a long story but I blogged about it here.  Actually, that was the post about when we first met him in 2009.  Then last March we went back to MA when his baby girl was born.  Now we're going back for the wedding.  We plan to buy our tickets on Tuesday which is when Southwest releases their specials.  I doubt there will be a special on a Reno to Hartford CT flight but you never know.

Teaching

I only had one student for the first ever rigid heddle loom weaving workshop at Jimmy Beans Wool.  They've just started carrying Schacht products.  Sandy is a yarn rep and purchased her Cricket last year at TNNA.

Because she represents Lopi and has a lot of sample skeins, she chose to weave her first scarf using it.  Lopi is from Iceland, from Icelandic sheep and is generally considered a fiber for outer wear.  It's overdyed, which means the dye is applied to natural colored wools.  It's lovely in appearance but is a bit hairy and not really apt for weaving but her colors are working up beautifully.  Sandy chose a yarn that is "sticky" meaning the fibers interlock and unweaving to fix an error is nearly impossible - what an ambitious yarn for a first project!  She did great.  I told her that we all have one selvedge better than the other and suggested she evaluate what she does on the left side since that's her good side and then try to repeat it on the right side.  The right side was looking much better by the time we left. 

These are the samples I wove over the past month.  I've been busy!  They're remodeling at JBW, making room to display bolts of fabric and in the corner there will be a little shrine, a display area for the Cricket.  If you weren't aware of it already, JBW now carries fabulous cottons.  Check it out here.  I have one pattern already cut out and ready to sew from Kaffe Fassett fabric, but I've been too busy.  I'm retired - I should never utter those words!

At the same time, I'm trying to get the shop loom warped and ready to leave for customers who'd like to throw a few pics.  I'm using the Lamb's Pride yarns that Schacht provided in the kit and it's ironic that they're the same colors that Sandy is weaving.  She chose to stand - it does give more control.  She was pleased with her work and the loom, but said she'd work on trying to do it seated after she takes it home.  I had a great time and I hope I planted a seed in Sandy's fiber journey.

There's an opportunity to participate in an arts event this summer.  I just got the email, but I would need a portable loom.  I think it's time to get serious about finding one, even if I have to drive to bring it home.  If I can't get it in the back of Eleanor, then it's not the loom for me.

I just finished three more days of subbing in a different middle school library.  In this school, the librarian is also responsible for teaching junior great books so I've had a session each day.  Just one session of loud hormonal teens a day is a challenge.  I admire the teachers who do this every day, every week.  It's like herding cats, but then I love cats.  This is a neat age.  Though I do wonder how they managed to turn "why" and "please" into a whine.  It sounded the same at all four middle schools I subbed for this month.  How do they do that?!

In the Monday class, one of the mouthy boys taunted a boy passing through the library, disrupting us all.  When I told him to shoosh, he said - Whaaaat - that's Just Smiles, the crazy guy on Facebook.  He added more but I just wanted him to stop disrupting.  Today my aide in the last period was visiting quietly with a couple of students and I heard Just Smiles in the course on the conversation.  After her friends left, I asked her about it.  She told me that Just Smiles is a student at their school on Facebook who is scary and has been threatening students but no one knows who he is.  He keeps changing his profile picture and she said he has even posted a picture of a dead body.  I asked her if she had spoken to her counselor and she said she hadn't because she's scared.  I put that all into an email and sent it to the librarian who will be back tomorrow. 

We take teachers and school staff for granted because they've always been there and we expect they always will be.  We need to pay them for their dedication and sacrifice.  I've learned in a short course that keeping 24 13-year-olds on task for an hour is no small feat.  People throw the word hero around quite loosely too often it seems to get attached to a sports figure.  I think teachers are heroes.  That's my thought for the day. 

Gotta pack.  We're leaving in the morning for San Francisco - it's Grandparents Day again and we get a weekend with the fantastic Noahsan.  Can't wait!

Fenking

It's been too cold to make soap. My supplies are in the garage so I set up there to measure oils and mix the lye.  My soap oils are solid and even the olive oil was semi-solid when I was getting started..  I had to set the oil on the deck in the sun to thaw before I could begin, but here's ten pounds of Lemon Bar and it smells fabulous.  I doubled the essentials oils - this may be my favorite.  Trendy artisan soaps haven't tempted me.  I like great lather and I don't want to itch.  I need to make twenty more pounds of soap soon because it takes a month to cure.  I won't have time to make soap for another ten days and that worries me. 

I hope I never tire of how the inter-
lacements of color works.  When these two towels are finished, I'm not sure anyone would realize they come for the same warp.  The green muddies the purple to nearly a brown.

I got a panicked text from my daughter - did you see my email?  I checked and found her frantic request that I pick up Alexia from her Grandma Karen's and take her to her fencing lesson. Mike had to work.  He would normally have finished up on Saturday but he's fencing in a tournament.  She's the one in pink.

Lulu has tried many things - judo, ballet, gymnastics, but she is passionate about fencing.  Her daddy is an accomplished and competitive fencer.  She said in the car when I asked about her interest, You see - I have my daddy's body so I'm sure I'll be good at his sport.  She's eight years old!  If you know anything about fencing, you can see that her stance is perfect.

Her lunge is the best in the class.  She is methodical, often holding up the class.  Initially I was concerned that the instructor had to remind her to catch up and then I saw the look on his face.  He knows she's a good pupil.

From exercises they go to fencing with facemasks and noodles.

And on to body protection and swords.  Ian has gotten the biggest kick out of DD Chris and husband Mike, a belly dancer and a sword fighter.  And their daughter follows suit.  Her older brother used to call it fenking when he was a toddler and we still do.

Today I subbed at a middle school library, the newest in Reno. These were the nicest and most interesting kids yet.  It was "hat day" so if someone paid a dollar, they could wear a hat - very fun.    This is an entitled $$ school  but the students wear it well.  Every period the library had a teacher with a reading class and they couldn't have behaved better.  The highlight was during second period when a student Mariachi band came in and asked if they could play for us. 

Oh, and I do have one student for my rigid heddle class tomorrow.  I'm going to teach it like I mean it and then leave the warped loom and samples in the shop, trolling for prospective weavers.  My grandma used to say - How can you have mo'lasses when you ain't had no'lasses. And I say, how can you have mo' weavers when you ain't had no weavers.

Marching On

It's March in the high desert, the snow is gone and many mornings are warm enough to walk the dogs.  This is my least favorite time of year.  It's dry - this is desert after all, but it's still cold.  There are still days where it hurts to breathe and the dogs don't get walked, something they are obnoxiously capable of complaining about.

I finally got a new warp on Maudie Mae, the first one in two months.  Spring colors - I'm exploring a hyacinth palette from a Google images photograph.  At this point I realized that in correcting a threading error, I had left an empty dent.  Melissa said, what you weave will stay woven for a long time so it was unweave, repair and start over.  Dang, I hate that.

Moving on, I can see how the values of the hues are shaping up.  If I had my value finder when I was arranging the order, I would have shifted the dark purple so that the light values weren't in a set of threes.  I really do love how color and value work.  This is my Prozac.

I'm really excited about the cutting board I just bought at Costco.  For 30 years I've used the counter cut-out on the left for pie crusts and for kneading bread.  My mother found it when she was taking a walk through an area where new homes were under construction.  It was in the waste pile so she went back with her car and picked out two - one for me and one for her.

The surface is fantastic and I have no idea what I would have done without it all these years, but the problem has become the particle board undersurface.  Over 30 years and with exposure to moisture, it's disintegrating - deteriorating quickly.  The last couple of times I baked bread, I had to clean up a whole kitchen counter full of sawdust.  I tend to hit Costco - in and out - too much temptation, so I don't know why I was in the kitchen aisle. 

A shopping misadventure - I drove out to Jimmy Beans after book club on Tuesday.  I said - I need to knit an adorable baby sweater that I can knit in nine days.  Skye was awesome.  She thought of this book,  - all patterns are from Cascade 220 Superwash wool, which is affordable.  After I got home I realized two things.  I hated the colors I had chosen and I hadn't bought sufficient yarn anyway.  So back I go to rectify the situation.  My class for Saturday didn't fill so I think I'll stop by after subbing on Friday.

On yes, subbing.  I got a phone call yesterday from a friend who asked me to sub for her and I shall - next Monday through Wednesday.  It's middle school so I'll be teaching two classes of great books.  Is that awesome or what?!  Years ago she was my boss.  She's leaving me real library work to accomplish while she's visiting her son.  Pinch me.  Life is good!!

'Tis the Week before Christmas

I used to stand at the ironing board to fold the hems under, pin and steam them.  Then I realized that if I wove the ends a little longer I could fold them without ironing which meant that I no longer have to stand to do it.  Sitting at the ironing board is so much better!

 This is what the towels look like before I wet finish them with the steam iron.  It's a tedious process so I'm waiting for my mini-mangle to arrive to finish the rest of the towels I've woven.

The lady who had originally ordered towels in this colorway never got back with me so I sold them at a craft fair.  Then last week she emailed me about "her" towels.  Fortunately I had rewarped and was on the last towel.  I figured since everyone liked the colors I should do them again.  These are the ones I shipped off to her.

I subbed twice this week for my friend Vicki who wanted to attend her daughter's college gradu-
ation.  The week before Christmas is rough and her third grade kids were pretty rambunctious.  I had playground duty that 22-degree morning.  The girls had worn party dresses, tights and pumps for the performance and were popsicles.
People seem to think that parents of ESL students aren't involved in their childrens schools but there was SRO in the auditorium and it was stifling.  I think of Vicki as the stagecoach driver.  She's got the reins on all those students running through her fingers and she keeps them humming along.

I got home and sat down with my laptop to zone out for a few minutes and discovered that I had sold these three hats in my Etsy store.  They're going to Sharon, MA!  The buyer asked if I would be willing to go to the trouble to expedite shipping - she would pay. So I drove up to Doyle this morning and got them off - $33.20 for Express shipping!  They'll be there on the 22nd.

Sammy has never ridden in the back of the car.  It wasn't feasible with three dogs but I realized today that I could take the two dogs with me.  Sammy was a wreck.  She was sure we were going to give her away.  Even after all the time she has been with us, she's still insecure.  I played music loudly and it did help some.

I only have natural colored hats in my Etsy store and haven't done much dyeing lately.  I decided to overdye these two and use them to replace the hats that sold.

I overdyed the lighter hat in raspberry.

I overdyed the darker hat in teal.  The hats are more interesting when I space dye the yarns so will do some of that tomorrow.  Today was recovery from two days with 23 excited third graders.  When these dry I'll take photos and put them in my shop.  Maybe I'll knit hats on our trip to SoCal in two weeks.  Or maybe I'll knit them this weekend.  We're supposed to get a foot of snow and I'm sure that means the power will go out.