Changes

Local birds have are indicating that it's time to migrate.  I haven't seen geese along the canal trail in quite a while but I hear them overheard, going south.  I don't know what ducks do but they won't have the canal much longer as it will be shut off at the end of the irrigation season.  Two of the smaller irrigation companies have had to shut their water off early.  We're feeling the drought especially hard this year.

I could hear our neighbor Lee and his granddaughter Robin pulling up potatoes this morning while I was knitting on the patio.  They were excited to show it to Ian to see if he's ever had one this big.  Nope!  Robin calls it her potato duck; it really does look like a duck without a bill.  Boy was she excited.

I was off by a day - thought it was Saturday which was disappointing.  My two days of free time suddenly shrank by half.  I have been working on this shawl all week, a little at a time, so today I wove long enough to see what it's going to look like.  This is my first time with Shadow Weave.

This is the warp for the Color Confidence workshop taught by Zoom from Sarah Jackson.  She provided all the yarn and even wound all the 3-yard warps herself.   I look forward to seeing the colors and patterns build when I start weaving Our first session is September 14th at 2:00.  

This year is flying by.  I have one more week of PT for my knees and do the 15 minutes of home exercises before I even get out of bed.  I've walked the last three mornings with Ian and am back up to two pain-free miles.  My last bone density test was not good so I'm tackling the exercises and walking as if my life depended on it because it does.  

I'm filling in as our guild's newsletter editor until elections in November.  Our 89-year-old dedicated editor had wanted to give it up for a long time.  I kept hearing that I needed to do something so I did.  I took in on.  Did I mention that I'm president this year?  The year of a pandemic and Zoom.  I took the lead from the Portland guild and chose a virtual platform called Mailchimp to get us moved into the 21st century.  I've never enjoyed learning software and this was no exception but now that I've tamed the confusion, I find it pretty agreeable to work with.  

We watched Delaney three days last week.  Son Matt has always wanted to own his own tile installation company.  His birthday is Wednesday and this week marks the beginning of his dream come true.  Both he and Julia are the company and we are taking on two extra days a month so Julia can focus on office work.  It scares me to see him leave such a successful job as a production manager but he's already got work lined up through October.  

Oregon is holding steady on Covid-19 infections and I do my best to not take risks.  We went out to dinner last evening for Ian's birthday and browsed our favorite indie bookstore afterward where he ordered a book.  One day at a time.

 

Finishing things, starting things

I don't make soap to sell anymore but I like it too much to stop making it altogether.  I've discovered that one batch makes enough to get us through a year, and it's that time again.  I looked at the upcoming week and realized that yesterday was the day.  The kitchen is pretty small so I have to put things away after I get them out, which really is no different than my weaving studio.  

I've made soap for over 20 years and things change from year to year.  I still use the equipment I started with with the exception of the electric stick blender.  Now soap is poured into silicon molds and if I were starting out now, I'd invest in some.  The palm oil and sodium hydroxide I was using yesterday were completely new to me.  I was nervous about the volume of the flaked lye but since I measure by weight, it turned out to be soap in the end.

I wrap it up in one of my favorite quilts and let sit for 24 hours before I cut the bars.  And then the bars cure for a month before they're ready for use.  We only have a couple bars left so I felt the ticking clock.

I started this morning by attending church on our patio.  I must admit that it's mighty nice to take my coffee and iPad outside and be there.

I've signed up for Sarah Jackson's Prayer Shawl weave-along.  This was a difficult warp for me so I only did it in increments so I could stay focused and even then I had to redo more often than I wanted.  It changed from light/dark to dark/light and the heddles changed direction with the color change.  Clearly I need more practice with this.  I finished the last of it this afternoon and recounted everything again.  I'm sure there are lurking errors anyway.

I also finished the Summer and Winter dishtowels.  I made too many threading errors.  I probably should put on more warp and do it again, but this evening I'm tired of them.  I had dangling loops on the backside of two towels which I started trying to stitch in place, but then decided - the heck with it.  I'll hem them and use them as hostess gifts.  They look good from the front.

I'll wash them with the towels this week and start hemming.  I have 16 towels to hem which is more than a little daunting.

I took away the automatic pencil that Delaney loved and have substituted three fat crayons.  She was pretty angry at first but is getting along just fine with the switch.  I'll see how she does with the little pads this week and maybe tape some butcher paper to one of the walls as has been suggested to me.  The problem I see if that she might not understand the difference between the paper and the wall.  I figured these little pads are good for this week at least.  And the good news, I've found another work-around that I think will still be effective after Google does their upgrade in September.  

 

Not Dead Yet

Last night the Blogger platform repeatedly froze up and it's been problematic loading pictures for months so I just assumed the worst, that they had closed their door to me.  I came back to it a little more rational this afternoon and still couldn't load pictures by drag and drop from the desktop, but I've found that I can access the photos that I have clicked the heart on.  If I stop blogging it will be because I made that decision, that the software has me stymied.  So here goes with my new workaround.  

This is the yarn that I spun from roving in the three ANWG conference colors.  I tried to spin each one approximately the same and these came out close to sport weight.

Before I started knitting I checked the value by saving my photo in a gray scale.

This is my swatch.  I found a pattern in Homespun, Hand Knit for a slip-stitch honeycomb pattern for mittens.  Once I found that pattern my plan became clear.  Hat and mittens!!  Now to actually do the work.

This is the third of six towels in Summer and Winter, a Sarah Jackson pattern in an older issue of Handwoven.  I haven't woven in two months so am doing some catch-up in the way of making mistakes.  Some I caught and fixed and others are part of the cloth.  I figure if it took me two towels to see them, it's not going to be glaringly apparent to a non-weaver.  Sarah has a Prayer Shawl weave-along that starts on Monday but I have to clear this loom first.  It's pretty clear that I'm going to be starting late.  

I can't weave the days that Delaney is here, at least for now.  The looms are upstairs and we have a child gate in the stairs.  I'm in physical therapy twice a week for chondromalacia,  I'm hoping to rein this in before the degeneration leads to knee replacements.  

Delaney has discovered how to put pencil and paper together and loves to "write" in my notebook.  It's one I've used for at least ten years to jot down project notes.  She is very possessive of it now that she pulled it from my knitting basket along with the attached pencil.  If she's content, then I am content.

I wonder where her fascination with pencil and paper and with her own library will lead.

And I wonder if Blogger and I will still be friends tomorrow.

 

Sayonara Muchachas Maybe

The overarching sweep by ICE did not go unnoticed.  The New York Times covered it yesterday - read about it here.   I learned today that Rachel Maddow covered it last night on her show.  We know that the two men snatched by ICE have outstanding warrants, which are normally handled by the local police.  ICE was belligerent and uncooperative.   There's so much confusion.  I for one am very unhappy with the performance of the new chief of police.  I realize it was only his second day on the job but he didn't act very chief-like in my book.  The protestors started gathering at 1:00 and he was absent and silent until 7:00, and he said the swat team presented because they had been on a local exercise.  Believe that?  Meanwhile pickup trucks are removing mailboxes in Eugene and Portland.  'nuff of that stuff.

This might be my last post.  Blogger has changed so much that I am unable to post photos without a protracted workaround.  I am an Apple user and they have made in increasingly difficult to post photos without transferring them to a Microsoft friendly platform.  I do believe that WordPress is Apple friendly, but I'm not sure I have anything of interest to say anymore.  For now, I'll press the Pause button.

Outrageous!

 I haven't woven in two months and you'd think that in quarantine I'd have all the time in the world.  At least I thought that, but I feel busy but I sure don't have much to show for my time.  I decided to try something new and warped for Summer and Winter, a pattern I found in Handwoven.  I'm discovering that there are more threading errors than the one I found and fixed with a string heddle.  I don't have a sales outlet but usually around Christmas people contact me to buy towels as gifts.  That's what I have in mind for these.

I just started on this way overdue post when the news alert came in that two unmarked buses from ICE are in Bend rounding up people to deport.  We just got a new police chief sworn into office just last week.  He was second in the command in Portland where the police department has a reputation for rough stuff.  The city manager had the sole authority to hire Chief Krantz, over widespread protest from the community and from the District Attorney.  It didn't take him long to show his true colors.  The ACLU is on it's way but won't be here for a couple more hours.  Meanwhile, local protesters have surrounded the buses to prevent them from apprehending any more victims.  In Bend!!  

Midsummer Dream

Alexia said goodbye to us this morning after nearly six weeks.  I miss her already but the quiet is nice this afternoon.  Her parents came on Monday, the day after we got back from the coast.  They spent the first night in a hotel which was a real treat, just the two of them, no kids.  They have worked from home since March, calling their small patio their cafeteria, their place to take time out.

This is the first time my daughter and son-in-law have stayed with us.  Usually they stay with her brother but they have a full house.  It was so nice to have five days of visiting, mornings on the patio, talking.  Bend has had a serious uptick in Covid-19 cases since the 4th of July.  They're putting more restrictions in place, but the kids met in a video arcade when they were in college and spent a whole day in the one we have here.  It's really not too hard to space those arcade games six feet apart.  They said everyone wore masks.  Too bad it took a month to figure that out.


Lexi and I took a trip to see a group of Yachats galleries after Joe Winter mentioned one of his potter friends shows in Earth Works.  He told us to say hi to Steve but it wasn't Steve's day to work.  We toured the gallery instead and got the biggest kick out of this coffee table, only $4,500 for the discerning collector.  We did find one of Joe's huge pots with wooden handle, recognized it from across the room.


We both spent money at Touchstone Gallery.  She bought a hand-dyed silk scarf to wear in her hair and I bought these little booties for Delaney.

She and I played Crazy 8s every night, sometimes until 10:00.  She actually dealt me this hand and I took a photo to show her later.  Yes, I won that round.

Monday Matt and Julia invited us up to Redmond for kababs from their new smoker, another nice time with family.  Delaney needed some time out with her books, something she does periodically.  She loves to turn the pages and hasn't ripped one yet.  It's those little toes that captured my heart.


This is the sad face of a little girl who has molars coming in.  She climbed up by herself into the chair but it was soon clear that it was time for baby Motrin.  She has taken some steps but still prefers to crawl.  August 3rd she will be 16 months old.  Wouldn't it be nice if we woke up tomorrow morning to the announcement that a vaccine is ready and available???

Good job

Alexia finished her intensive three-week precalculus class and these are the pages we printed out for her work, printed double sided.  They jammed a semester class into 15 days.  She was exhausted after it ended and slept a lot for several days.  She got a 94 for her grade.  Good job!

I told her that if she was going to be serious about knitting she really needed to join Ravelry.  She did a lot of pattern searching in preparation for this visit and I had the perfect yarn in my stash - Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.  This is her first garment, rated medium difficulty.  She followed the details meticulously, even the eight-stitch i-cord straps.  And another good job!!


Our house is small and the girls had to share a bedroom, which meant that Alexia had to be up and out of it in time for Delaney's 10:00 morning nap.  Delaney still isn't walking but crawls like a champ.  She isn't really interested in going places but prefers sitting activities, reading her books which she does several times a day and investigating things I'd rather she didn't.


We've come to Yachats as a get-away in spite of COVID.  We're staying in the same Air B&B we used two years ago and can walk to the beach from it.

It's hot inland this week so foggy on the coast.  Things are quite different in this virus era but everyone wears a mask and keeps their distance.  The food here is just as good as we remembered.


We've taken several walks in search of agates.  The beaches in this area are known for them.  And this is what the "sand" looks like.  I call it pre-sand because it's really just tiny stones that don't cling to your shoes.


Someone had a lot of fun and left a circle of stone sculptures.  This one is my favorite.


Businesses have been welcoming though operating with reduced hours.  Most places are open Thursday-Sunday, 10:00-4:00.  I'm starting to see some pretty creative masks.  Even the seal has one.  Good job!

Unexpected opportunity

This magic handmade box holds the prints of 41 artists.  Last September I received an email inviting me to participate in a print exchange in May 2020 to celebrate Pat Clark's 85th birthday.  Pat has mentored many of us in her retirement, but during her working years she was dean of the art department at Long Beach State, also executive director at the Idlywild School of Music and the Arts, and graduate of the Cranbrook Academy of Art.  I give that background to make it clear how fortunate I am to have stumbled into printmaking with Pat the year after we moved to Bend. 

The invitation said we would be probably be making and edition of 30. I have never editioned!!   Pat said, I am inviting you to participate in an artist call.  After examining the environment of water for the past five years with my water table project, I am ready to transition.  In the spirit of exploring water, I would like to investigate the theme of FLOW with an invitational print exchange.  This exchange invites you to focus on the word "flow" using your own unique visual interpretation.  "Flow" has a myriad of meanings in addition to water flow.  Air flow, ice flow, electrical flow, flow state, the flow of time, blood flow, going with the flow and so many other terms can be utilized to inspire your personal vision.

Kelly Salber, a Paper and Book artist in Sisters made the handmade paper boxes for each one of us.  She also wrote a touching and embracing poem to accompany each box.

In the end there were 41 prints, 25% more than anticipated.  I was terrified to participate but I kept pecking away, figuring that I could always quict if I really couldn't do it.  I made a deal with myself that I wouldn't quit until I was truly in over my head.  I don't have a press so had to hand pull every print and I learned so much!!


In addition to the exquisite box we all received a magnetic board to display the prints on.  This is a photograph done by Alyson Belcher and its moody lighting reminds me of summer camp.


One of the very special things is that many of the printmakers are people I know and some of them are friends.  It's a treat to look at the piece and think of that person.  Barbara Kennedy did this one.

Alexia and I are very fond of this print done by Denise Rich.  She printed the leaves then embellished a single leaf, quite a process, times 41!

Before the studio closed 18 months ago Jane Quale came upon a technique of inking distressed cloth and running it through the press, an image that she has made distinctively hers.

This is Pat Clark's and as in everything I've ever seen of hers, I am blown away.  I have no idea how she embossed the paper or created the image on separate blocks so that when printed, it all goes together.


This is mine.  There are only a half dozen relief prints in the collection.  I got the beginning of the idea when washing my favorite vase and putting it away after the flowers had expired.  I realized that because it's clear you could see that there's no water in and I started thinking of "no flow" for my theme.  But wait, if we're in a drought there won't be flowers anyway, so what could one decorate with and I came up with recycled twizzlers.  I can't spread my inky stuff out in my work area just now but I'm anxious to get back to work.  I learned relief printing before I learned photography and I think that's why I am attached to it; it's an old friend.

Staying Close to Home

The pine drops are still growing.  I've never had a plant achieve so much height in one month,  Currently they're about 33" and are developing what appear to be buds.  This is an intriguing plant.  it's growing in sand with no water.

I'm continuing to spin 30 minutes each morning and have finished the rust, green and yellow rovings.   I had finished my spinning but hadn't finished my coffee son this morning o decided to use that time to look up some things that have been on my mind lately, like what colors attract bees.  The answer I got was purple, violet and blue.  And just then a bee landed on my roving.  I guess I have my answer!


We decided to donate our old truck to Oregon Public Broadcasting in exchange for a tax writeoff next year.  They told us they'd need a second donated vehicle before they would send the tow service down from Portland, so we moved it onto the RV pad to wait.

I got a phone call midweek that they finally had a second vehicle and would be down on Saturday to pick it up.  Ian pulled it out into the yard which made it really easy for the tow driver to hookup.


The driver had it ready to go in no time and I felt an inexplicable sadness as I watched it leave our lives.  It was Ian's truck and I rarely drove it, but it was part of our lives for 25 years so perhaps it's not quite silly that I was sad.  We drove it into the Sierras and cut Christmas trees.  He and our dogs had a ritual of driving around the valley and what I think I'll think of the most is their erect pointed Heeler ears visible through the back window.  It was the height of their day.


Now my wilderness is my ornamental gardens.  They're so much work and they give so much back.



And my wildlife is apt to be a cottontail who isn't afraid of me in the least.  Thank goodness I've continued my practice from the high desert of planting things that rabbits aren't attracted to - for the most part.  Bunny and I are in disagreement about a Standard Phlox that he wants and I've put chicken wire around.  I have a feeling I'll cave and remove the wire.  It's ugly. 


And the deer are back.  So far we've only seen one fawn but I'm sure there will be more.  These guys look like they're waiting in line for the porta-potty.



Our granddaughter Alexia is with us for about a month.  Usually we have trip plans but COVID-19 has pretty much put the kabosh on that.  Plus, she has to take pre-calculus as an online summer school class in order to be ready for fall.  It's really intensive.  She's on her laptop from noon until 4:30 and then has several hours of homework.  It's only lasts three weeks but the accumulative hours equal a semester.  Her paper piles grow by the day.  There are 28 kids in the class. 

The last day of class we're going to pile in the car and go to the coast to spend a few days in Yachats, Oregon.  It's the same Air B&B we stayed in two years ago.  We thought about going up to Tacoma to spend time with family but then Washington got spiking occurrences of the virus.  We're playing it safe and staying close to home.


I'll miss Delany while we're gone.  She is getting quite good at "reading" her books so I've moved them to the shelf with her board books and I let her use them unsupervised.  We're not far off from her sitting for a story.  It's fun having two granddaughters in the house.