Tieing up Loose Ends

This the part of soap making that I like the least - everything is covered in oil and is slippery. I have to be careful to not let things slip out of my hands. I made soap again yesterday and when I starting cutting the block into bars today, I could see that the soap had serious problems, so got out Cavitch's and started trouble shooting.

It's so hard to make soap this time of year when the garage and the supplies in it are so cold. I came to the conclusion that the lye had cooled way too low and saponification simply didn't happen -it needs heat which is why the soap is wrapped up for 24 hours immediately after pouring. She said to throw it out. Ouch! Ian did it for me $$$$$$$ to spare me more pain. I can't make anymore until the coconut oil gets here from the Soap Salon in Sacramento - I'm out. It's only the second time in over 12 years that I've had a batch fail. The thermometer I've used all these years broke while I was making the lemon soap so I was trying to use a different one. You know why they say, live and learn? Because it's true!
Oh well. I did get a decent picture of the scarf by putting it next to the dining room window for natural light. It's only been cold enough twice this winter to need a scarf. I hope I get to wear this one.

I caught this while walking Buster this morning. It's a beautiful lovely day when it shouldn't be, but I'm hearing that from just about everyone.
I thought I would explain why there's an 1850s barn loom in our backyard. It had been in my brother and sister-in-law's gift shop in Washington but was taking up too much room, so Bob disassembled it and brought it to me. He thought I'd like to weave on it, but I have no space for it either. The pieces sat on the ground for a year or two. In the end it turns out he didn't bring me all the pieces.
Finally Laura and I decided to find instruc-
tions and put it up in the yard. We found pictures online but nothing really specific. We finally discovered that the pieces have notches and we just had to match the correct notches together. We never did find the pieces for the beater bar.
The pieces were really heavy and in our struggle to erect and stabilize it at the same time, the beam slipped off on conked me squarely on the noggin - it about knocked me out. It has weathered badly in the last eight years so Ian reinforced it with t-posts. He's added bird feeders and Christmas lights.
I've started weaving on the towels. This is my first experience with a block weave. I made mistakes right from the start so decided to relax and just keep this towel which gives me the freedom to treat it as a sampler. I'm pretty sure I'm beating too hard so when I can get back to this on Saturday, I'll try to change that. This really is too busy for my taste, so I thought I'd experiment with more weft shots in a block and also fewer colors. I'd also like to do one with a solid weft, in fact, maybe a couple with solid wefts. I'm using the same five colors in the weft as in the warp - too much. Hmmm, maybe since I've just started, I'll made the middle a single color and then put these same blocks on the other end. Or just make it solid from here on. Rae Stuart says she only puts her pattern on one end since only one end gets displayed anyway.

A Trip to Town

Ian spied these guys on our drive into town. They really blend in well with landscape. This is at an icy pass about 6,000 feet, overlooking Bedell Flat. We call this spot Bedellview - an absolutely treacherous point in a storm.
These are pronghorn antelope, and I think they are beautiful. When they startle, they prong like deer, only they can't leap the cattle fence you see there. It's my understanding the fence has a high lowest wire which they can go under. I've never seen dead antelope here so I hope my source is correct. Before the fence was erected, we often saw dead cattle here. Picture me shrugging.
Yesterday I absolutely had to make soap. I have to make soap twice this week so I made Lemon Bar first since I was concerned about how long my fresh lemons would last.
This batch was the farthest I've ever pushed my soap to trace so when I poured into the mold, it was clumping. It looks and smells fabulous but I really had to sculpt to get a flat smooth surface.

We had appoint-
ments in town today so didn't get home until early evening. The soap gets hard after 24 hours so I absolutely had to cut it. Waiting another day really strains the wire on my cutters. I'm moving the block of soap into bars of soap, and boy does it smell fantastic. I'm so proud of this recipe because I didn't find inspiration for it anywhere but inside my own head.
I worked on this in the car and I finally finished this scarf tonight. It was supposed to be my trip knitting at New Years but the yarn is so dark I've had a terrible time following the pattern. I was often caught in the position of reknitting. This is also Madeline Tosh and I know I will wear it, but it's just not going to ever photograph well. I will never knit yarn this dark again - ever. I would however knit Madeline Tosh in a heartbeat. I wore a MT scarf to town today and was glad for the comfort.

Catching Up

This is an installation piece that Erik is working on. He told me that Diana was going to be late and since I had read until midnight to finish Sleepwalking through History to loan him, which I consider to be of current and critical political interest and he being a rabid activist - so we chatted. That's my unfinished hotel painting to the right - we'll get to it next week.

A couple of artists, including Craig Smyres, dropped in - it is a studio loft after all - and so there was this level of comfortable exchange. Diana and I kept working but I so wanted to see Craig's work -some of it is lost-wax bronze casting - so Erik got us a free pass. Craig's work and Craig are awe inspiring and I wished I could have spend more time chatting but he keeps the temps in his studio unbearably high because he has muscular dystrophy and is very thin. He made me feel like a million dollars and Erik said that Craig has talked him through many traumas. I'm not sure I can afford it, but I hope to be able to acquire a piece of Craig's work - just because.
Erik assigned this week as repair week - we would take a look at the previous pieces, find the elements that weren't successful and make them work. I was frustrated at the two-dimensional aspect of this painting and said I wanted to get it to lie flat. It looks less like the photo but more interesting than the photo. Erik's approach is more interpretive than literal, and that's fine with me since I have the photo.
While we were there and in between visitors, Erik was working on getting this together so that I could post in on my blog. It's going to be an installation piece about what Americans feel are values gone into the crapper- this is as far as he got.
I spent several hours today dressing my loom. I realized that the comments about this being Charlie colored warp were oh so very true when I was clearing off the old warp from the back of the loom. The new warp was dangling from the front beam, and when I'd jostle the loom, I could have sworn that Charlie was walking under it. It's true. I'm weaving my cat!

King Charlie. He scored the prized place.

Well Darn It

I didn't realize how big the hole on the bottom of my sock was until I for some reason walked in my stocking feet, which I don't do often since they slide around and I slide around on the hardwood floors. Two pair of Lorna's Laces and two pair of Noro Kureyon are probably experiencing their last winter. I'm not darning - nope. No thank you.
I took a month off from spinning to let my elbow heal and have resumed, but trying to remember and implement the instruction I got from Sara - it's been a while. She uses her right hand like a tensioning device on a sewing machine and does not pinch. It is SO hard to not pinch. I really have to concentrate. On the positive side, a bobbin fills up really quickly. On a negative side, I'm drowning in handspun yarn so need an outlet if I'm going to be that productive. I'm back to thinking about weaving with it. I'm not sure what a practical cloth of Shetland wool would be, so for now I'm still thinking.
I'm practicing with Robbie who is a double-coated Shetland wether. Because this is essentially long draw, I'm getting a lot of halo on his yarn. Also I'm still not getting the control I used to get by pinching, which is why I'm practicing.
This is more recycled yarn. I had originally knitted it in a cowled bolero, but the wool itched the back of my neck and I never wore it. I have a couple of these and use them as house smocks over long-sleeved t-shirts - just the right amount of added warm. I have to say that I'm losing interest in spinning multicolored rovings. They're fun to spin, hard to use.
I've started another scarf in the same pattern as I knit for the bronze scarf, which I finally needed to wear this week. We had some genuine February weather - finally! Anyway, this is the yarn that won me a blue ribbon at the Nevada County Fair last August. It's awful purty.
I am a big Chris Van Allsburg fan, which dates back to my days as a childrens librarian. If you're not familiar with this book, it's simply 14 beautifully rendered spooky pictures with a statement, leading one's mind into the rest of an imaginary story. It's been often used by teachers for writing exercises. I saw a review of this new release in the New Yorker. Fourteen prominent authors have contributed stories to complete the captions. If you remember this book, I'd say do not pass go, get a copy from your local library. I bought it from our Sundance, our local independent bookstore, because I want to read the stories to Alexia. Both Tabitha and Stephen King are contributors, Sherman Alexia, Cory Doctorow - that leaves 10 more. You should go find out who they are : )

Monday Monday, So Good to Me

I went to the fitness center for a swim before my art class on Friday. I love these signs that are scattered around the St Mary's campus. And if my son is reading this, the last sign is for you :) I had run some errands, including buying a roll of contractors paper since I couldn't find corrugated paper rolls and was looking forward to being buoyant in the water.
I told Erik that I wanted to paint a building but when I was setting up I realized that I had left my reference photos on the dining room table. I had taken them out of my art supplies to do some sketching and so I had to use one of Erik's photos. I'm not that familiar with the building and the photo wasn't clear. With that handicap, I'm still coming up with a reasonable representation. I'll finish it this week and then will paint the building I had wanted to paint next week. This was a really ambitious project - way over my head - but I wanted to try it in this small class because I knew I would need a lot of help.
Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day. It was only 47 degrees but the birds were singing their hearts out and since the wind wasn't blowing, I put on a sweatshirt, a down vest and my mitts and read on the deck. I've had a very hard time finishing A Tale of Two Cities, though I can say that I will never think of the French Revolution in the same way. It's a powerful and effective book. Book club is tomorrow so I was cutting it pretty close.
This is the third and last sampler from Robyn Spady's workshop in October. The threading is for Overshot. I struggled with the same warp again and finally came to the conclusion that I do not like UKI. I'll stick with with Valley Cotton from Webs in the future. It was insanely sticky. The cut ends would cling to each other and it refused to slide. Four warps didn't get tied in and because it was a sampler, I threw in the towel and but them off. It's not working for me. I'm going to cut it off, add in the missing warps, resley and do it right.
But first I need to have some weaving fun and am warping with all these colors for dishtowels. It's a block pattern so I'm randomly picking up a cone - well, probably not quite randomly since I'm alternating dark and light. I was almost late to my CERT meeting tonight because I couldn't stop. Oh, and my security clearance just came through. I just need to be fingerprinted and then I'm O-fish-al.

And in case you were wondering, Charlie is still the boss.

Unplanned Plans

Yesterday was one of the oddest days I've had in years. I haven't been to the gym in six weeks so Melissa and I agreed to meet up for a water exercise class at 10:00. I drove about five miles on our two-lane road when the conditions of rain last night, followed by snow became apparent by tire tracks on the road shoulders. I didn't think I was driving too fast, but I've seen too many accidents to chance being one. Around the bend and up out of the canyon, I was stopped by the string of vehicles. And more were quickly pulling up behind me.

Our road is an alternative to the highway and it was clear that the highway had been closed. I waited about five minutes. A pickup in front of us pulled out and drove up the winding road on the wrong way. I waited another minute, and when he didn't come back, I did the same. It was beyond scary to drive on the wrong side of the road in icy conditions, but when I got to the top, I realized that the problem was that the trucks didn't have chains and couldn't get up the hill. The only driver chaining up was the UPS guy - he was also also the only athletic looking driver. Think about that for a moment. I actually made it for class and then swam for another 20 minutes.
Errands later, the last thing for my day was to visit a guild member's studio. It's been in the offing for months so I was really happy to finally get to hook up. Rae has been very successful with her dishtowels, and since she weaves on a Gilmore loom, I've wanted to see how she works.
I was especially taken by her method of winding on, because she warps from front-to-back, and obviously quite happily. She has a roll of corrugated cardboard, and then she weights it's draw on. I think this is the missing piece for me.
Rae's towels are fantastic. She uses 5/2 cotton from Henry's Attic so I asked her if I could share her next order and split the shipping. That's what is a killer out here - shipping costs. We are so far away from suppliers on the East Coast.

I love how she has supple-
mented the natural 5/2 warp by laying in 8/2 colors, right in the dent. I loved seeing her work, but I especially loved having the opportunity to make a new friend.
Rae keeps saying that her studio is just a recycled bedroom, but she has made the maximum use of her space. My studio is also a recycled bedroom and not nearly as functional as hers. I came home with the recognition that I can do better.

I got stuck in traffic on the highway, after miles of road closure and accident warnings. I've seen devastating accidents over the years but I wasn''t prepared for this one. It appeared that a cyclone had landed on one specific truck. It's the same accident that caused the trucks to divert onto our road this morning.

I took pictures and then decided to not post them. It was as if a grocery cart had exploded over the landscape. Trucking is a tough business. It hurts because we have friends and family in trucking. Someone's dad/brother/father/son isn't going home tonight. It hurts.

And tonight it is a beautiful night, full moon, three planets in the sky. Life is quirky.

A Happy Post

This is Diana, my classmate, new friend and ham. She painted a still life Friday. We're working in Erik's "living room" but his whole flat in the Riverside Artists Lofts looks just like this - every bit of it. Messy spaces agitate me, so I'm surprised that this is a comfortable place to work in.
I chose to work on a photo I look of Long Valley Creek, about a mile from where we exit the highway. I wanted to paint water this week and I'm terribly disappointed at how flat the painting is turning out. I was torn between this and painting a building. As I was leaving, Erik said, how about this - we paint your building next week and then the following week, we'll work on the first four paintings and address the problem areas.

This is the first class he's offered in his studio and he drummed it up on Facebook. He assures me he's going to do it again, I'm not cut adrift at the end of these sessions. I haven't felt like such a helpless beginner in years - I get frustrated.
So I turned so something I've done since I joined 4H at the age of 10, sewing. You can see how huge that sample was that was missing from my yardage. The fabric was so wide that I was still able to work around it.
I finished the t-shirt today and realized how much skill I've gained since I sewed the first one. I bought eight pieces over two trips and, unlike the last project, I love this fabric. Good choice, Sharon.
This is the next piece I'm going to sew and I've put it in my laundry hamper, even though I did preshrink it when I bought it. It's just been sitting so long, it could use a little airing out. One more piece, and I've done with tyranny of the single knits.

I did wrestle a warp onto Maudie Mae for the last of the Spady workshop samplers, but it's not a happy story. I'll save it for another day. This was a happy post.

February, whatever

Buster and I went for a walk yesterday afternoon. It's such unusually beautiful weather and a shame to waste. We went north since the previous walk past the wolves spooked me. I'm sure their holding pen is secure but the male wanted to eat us both, and boy could he leap up to demonstrate his desires.
It doesn't look like a storm on the horizon or even in the thought of the horizon. I just wanted to show what rain does here and why we prefer snow, which sits and sinks.
I thought you'd like to see our place on the last day of January. It could be September. Notice the red lump in the pen. That's our llama. She is not dead, that's just the way she sleeps

It doesn't feel like Septem-
ber. It's cold and even in the afternoon, this little collection pond still has ice. I think it was 37 when Buster and I left the house, but with no wind, it was really quite nice.
I sleep like a log, but Ian is an early morning man. He said the wind came through here and when he finally got up, huge snow flakes were falling. He estimates that we got an inch in about 40 minutes. I awoke to Narnia, but out came the sun and wiped out all the rain/snow and the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again. That's the way we like our snow. It's not the first day of February that we had expected, but under the circumstances, I'll take it.

This is the pattern I've chosen for my newest project.

It's underway from recycled yarn. This is a three-ply Merino, which in it's previous life received a blue ribbon from Judith MacKenzie at Black Sheep Gathering. I only wore the sweater a couple of times. It looked like a knitted sweatshirt.
I finished that scarf from Madeline Tosh Light and it's fabulous. I love the pattern, I love the soft yarn and I love color gradations. Yea me!

And McKay loves her new hat, which makes me happy too.