Indecision

I've wound this warp for dish towels for DS Josh and DIL Missy as a house-
warming gift. Last Sunday was the first day in their new home in Bend, Oregon. Josh had been living in their 5th wheel for the past three months and was thrilled to be in their house. A 5th wheel in snow and below-freezing temps is no fun. His new job is great, but living in the trailer wasn't. Missy worries that he won't want to camp in it anymore.

The warp is hanging on the front beam of Maudie Mae. That's the name that I decided on today for my 24" Gilmore, because she's been around for quite a while, she's smaller and maybe not as fast as other looms, but she's still capable - still got it in her. So - the warp is hanging on Maudie Mae because I can't make my mind up.

Josh and Missy picked up Goldie for me from Ken. They were camping in that area and just put everything into their 5th wheel. They fell in love with Ken and when Missy relayed his desire that I weave my first project for him, she started to cry. She was very moved by him and his story. I know she would mean a lot to her if these towels were woven on Goldie.

Here's the problem. I just finished tying onto the dummy warp and drawing it onto Goldie's back beam. If you're thinking about using a dummy warp, 8/2 cotton isn't substantial enough. I thought it would be, but when I drew the knots through the heddles, I had about a half dozen warps snap. I think I would still use one with handspun yarn, but maybe use 8/4 carpet warp - or silk.
I used a Fibonacci sequence and a complex 24 heddle threading. It was a lot of work to get this far but I'm not in love with this project. And. I still have to sley it in the reed. In addition, I just got a confirmation from Webs that the five cones of cotton I ordered have been shipped. I love Missy's towels and am chomping at the bit to start. I'll sleep on it and hope I wake up with a new perspective in the morning.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to remember how to crochet so I can make some snowflakes for the Christmas tree.

A Whole Lot of Spinning Going On

I finally finished the silk that I have been spinning in the mornings for the past several weeks. It took forever because I wanted to spin it thin enough to Navajo ply. When I first learned the technique, I thought it was Rainbow ply and I still think of it by that name. It seems apt to me.

Then I decided to spend a few minutes finishing up the hat that I was commis-
sioned to knit several days ago. The skein ran out and I realized it was the last one. Ordinarily I wouldn't feel compelled to make a hat so fast but last night was the third at below zero. Liz works at the Red Rock Hounds horse stables and I know she really needs it. She moved here from Santa Monica this year and is especially struggling with the cold. I have knit hats for a couple others at the stables and they suggested she contact me.
It took me about an hour to make this skein and in doing so, I realized that I only have one more bump of Mickey. I have three of his fleeces in the garage. Someone needs to skirt them and send them off for processing. I chose Mickey for her hat because his fleece is the softest of our wethers. I love to spin Shetland, but that was a whole lot of spinning for one day. The fulled skein was dry this evening so I went back to work.
And here's the completed hat, roasting by a not-open fire. Interest-
ingly, the browns are both from Ollie, whose lovely cocoa brown is fading into coffee au lait with age. I'd call it graying, only it's not gray. That leaves tomorrow for laundry and weaving - maybe shoveling snow, since it's forecasted again.

A Promise Kept

I finished my purple flannel pajamas today and just in time. The sleeves of my shower curtain PJs are only elbow length because that's when I ran out of shower curtain. We heat with the woodstove, but Ian had to finally turned on the furnace for a while this morning. I need warm PJs. I used to sew all my clothes but haven't made any in at least 20 years. I can see that more sewing practice is required before I cut into handwoven cloth.
It was -9 this morning when I took this picture. Ian gets up before me and said it was -14 then. Today is supposed to be the last really cold day and then we will be close to freezing the rest of the week. That's when the dogs will start tracking in mud - good news, bad news.
By this afternoon it was a winter wonder-
land, that is, if you got to stay inside. DD Chris got stuck in her driveway with the front wheel drive wheels frozen in the gutter. We IMed for quite a while but came up with this solution: towels in front and behind front wheels, then rock the car back and forth to break the inertia. It worked and she cabled her tires right in the middle of the street. Even so she almost got stuck going back into the driveway. Ice is treacherous! I feel so much better, knowing that she is driving on cables.

I've been wanting to show off this specta-
cular Thanks-
giving cactus - it almost looks like an orchid. The starter was a gift from an elderly neighbor, one of the first to build out here, and wonderfully welcoming of us when we came. She died two years ago and I enjoy having this memory of her.
I have another memory that I am honoring. These towels are the first project to come off of Goldie. They are going in the mail on my next trip to town. Not quite two years ago I received an email (I'm the email contact for our guild), asking if I would advertise a loom for sale. Instead, I bought it. I had several email exchanges with Ken, the widower, and learned that he and LeeAnn had bought the loom in upper state New York and that actually both of them wove on it. He as an engineer liked the design process and she enjoyed weaving.

They had both retired from California and bought a new home in Gardnerville, which is south of Carson City, Nevada's capitol. They had been in their new home three months, ordered new furniture which hadn't even arrived, when she was killed in a traffic accident. The loom was still packed from the move. DS Josh was going camping in that area so went by and picked everything up and put it in their 5th wheel. Ken asked me if I would consider gifting him the first project that I wove from the loom. I said yes, but never seemed to find time to weave while I was working.
Ken included a lot of stuff and initially I gave some of the extras away. The whole box of yarns went to Virva, a Finnish weaver who lives at Lake Tahoe, and I forget where the frame loom went. But then I stopped thinking about it as time went on. I had woven a couple of samples on Goldie, but I feel the Texsolv heddles are what really made her mine and allowed me to enjoy her. Now I'm back to thinking about it.

This Schacht inkle loom was part of the package. I even took a class, but never even finished my project. I realize that I'm just not interested, so I asked Amy if she'd like it. She teaches inkle and could use it for a student loom. She said yes! I sent the wire heddles last week to Bonita for use in her student studio. LeeAnn's warping board went to Jeanne - why do I need two? I think the only things left to disperse are the books that Ken included. He and I are both excited about the towels - a promise kept. I just wish I would have used another color besides yellow. Deb Menz says a little yellow goes a long way. Why didn't I listen?!

Be Careful What You Pray For

You know how we always joke about - Be careful what you pray for - you might just get it? We've been in a long drought in the West and "pray for snow" has become a standard byline for skiers, and everyone else for anyone for that matter.

We got it in spades, but we didn't pray to get it all in one day! It started falling last night and this morning, the schools and all government offices were announced closed. The University was the last to determine closure, a huge relief to me since my daughter works there and was trying to get cables on her car. A foot of snow is a fourth of her car's total height!
Our neighbor Tom called this morning to say that he'd be making the old fogies run for all us senior citizens, clearing driveways so we could get our cars out. He loves to play with his tractor and we appreciated the offer. Snow is forecast for all week.


He did in a short time what would have taken us a very long time. He's an awesome neighbor. DD Chris says he is the best. Ever. I had to move to the hinderlands to realize genuine neighbors - the kind where you go inside each others home and talk on the phone. Ever.

I started winding a warp this morning, but decided instead to work on my practice sewing. It seemed likely the power would go out, so I decided to sew until it did. It didn't. It's dinnertime now and 14 degrees outside. More sewing tomorrow~

In the (Weaving) Saddle Again

I cannot believe what helping Jeanne with her loom as done for me. It was like taking a weaving vitamin or something. I wove these off today. This was that white warp that I wound a year ago because I wanted to see what it would look like with colored weft. I didn't think I liked the Ms and Os when I was weaving, but finished - I love the texture. These are going to be super absorbent dishtowels. I won't do white again. I can't really see it but it doesn't do anything.

All my dishtowels always seem to be different lengths. I just haven't been able to measure accurately. I read in Laura Frey's blog this week that you can cut a strip of ribbon the desired length of your towel, pinning to your weaving as you go. When you're out of the ribbon, the towel is done. These three are all the same length!

Jeanne blogged about our experience on the Jimmy Beans blog and included a very important piece of the experience that I had omitted. Charlie was a dedicated snoopervisor. Do all weavers have cats? They must be our familiars.


These are the very first cones of yarn that I ever bought. They were in a liquidation sale and a friend helped me pick them out. I'm not eve sure that they all the same thing, but one of them has a 5/2 sticker inside. There was about a yard left on the loom after I cut the towels off. I'm rethreading and going to use it as a dummy warp so that I can get three more towels from this cotton. I'm setting it at 18 epi. I hope that works.

DIL Missy stopped by this morning on their way out of Nevada. My grandsons were confused because they left Nevada, entered California, but were suddenly back in Nevada. California is like - just across the road. I'm confused too. Quick visit, hugs and kisses - but when Missy got to the car, she smelled cat poop. She also had their dog and three cats in the car, two cats in one carrier and one had messed. What a mess. She had to give them both bathes in our laundry room sink before they could resume the journey. Josh just messaged that they have arrived. Missy is diminuitive and that massive Suburban was piled to the gills. The final leg of this journey to Oregon has ended - what a day for her.
Ian loves to feed the birds, so during the day, we get to enjoy songbirds and at night we get the ground-feeding quail. I juststand in the window and watch them. I couldn't resist this photo tonight. Do you see the rabbit?

Last night we went to the Red Rock Hounds Christmas party. They throw this party for our valley every year as a thank-you for letting them ride through our properties during their fox hunts. (We don't have foxes.) They ride English saddle and wear hunt apparel, with the Master of the Hunt the sole wearer of red. The party is always a wonderful time, and last night Rita Mae Brown was there. It turns out she's a Hunt Master. I got to meet her and visit for a bit. I had to admit that I've not read her books but that's because I'm unable to enjoy the mystery genre. It was awkward for me, but not for her. She knows so much about authors and writing history. We ended up talking about literary authors who tried to become screen writers, and in the end she suggested a book that she knew I would love because I'm a Fitzgarld fan. I wish I could remember what it was!!

An Awesome Weaving Day

Jeanne was given this little itty bitty loom by a woman who came into the Jimmy Beans shop. She said it belonged to her mother and would Jeanne like it. Jeanne had it in the back of her truck when she were at Allison's for a spin-in a couple of weeks ago and it was a mess, covered in cobwebs and the feet water stained.

We squose everything out in my studio so we could have a work area and we started with an 8" warp. The original owner was from Stockton, California and had commissioned this loom from Mr. Gilmore. It's so light that Jeanne can carry it by herself.
Jeanne cleaned it and polished it up. It's an admirable little loom - I could like to own it. I told her to get Debra Chandler's book, which she did, and she read the preliminary information. She was primed and ready to go. I took Bonita's advice and showed her how to warp from the front since there are fewer steps. Jeanne sailed through it. We had mistakes which are wonderful because they are learning experiences, but we caught them in time so that when she pressed on the treadles, there were no sleying or threading errors. It was awesome.

We chose Birds Eye twill and here's the beginning of the fabric. We were about five hours into the project at this point and Jeanne's eyes were looking south towards home. The light was fading with the short December day and that was a lot of learning to pack into one day. I had so much fun. Her enthusiasm was infectious and I am antsy to get back to my own projects. Thanks Jeanne!!

Birthday Day

I had to spend the day in town and was able to take DIL Missy to lunch for her husband's birthday. My poor boy. He's sick and alone in Oregon for his birthday, living in their fifth wheel for the third month. Having lunch with his wife was awesome - sorry Josh. He gets his wife and kids back this weekend. They get to move into their house after tomorrow and Missy drives up on Saturday. It's a hard transition, but Bend, Oregon is awesome. I highly recommend Bend, but I will miss them terribly.

I am seduced by the full moon every month. It is so breathtakingly beautiful. When it's warmer, I go outside to gaze but it's below freezing tonight.
I pulled over a couple of places, and as always with digital photo-
graphy, there's a surplus of images. I fooled around with enhancing these but decided to show them as I shot them. It wasn't even 5:00 in the afternoon.

We got our tree up yesterday. It literally takes me hours. Ian and I string the lights together but I hang each ornament. Every ornament is a memory. Gary and I talked about decorating trees today when I got my haircut. I told him that we don't decorate. We hang memories. I bought a little Guggenheim when we were in NYC and that's the newest memory that I hung.

Charlie loves this season. He doesn't get to go outside so he loves it that the outside comes to him. I gave away "surplus" ornaments to a young lady who had her first tree this year so ended up looking for interesting new ones on eBay yesterday. I bought out an estate sale of Campbell Kids ornaments. Guess what my last name is :)

Holiday Cheer

We babysat five-
year-old Alexia last night. We watched Mama Mia and she danced all through it. Afterwards I read her two stories - she collapsed into sleep at 9:30 and slept until the same this morning when our lab Sammie licked her in the face.

We made cookies after breakfast. These are Snickerdoodles with sprinkles. We waited until Mommy could come because Snickerdoodles require cream of tarter and someone's grandmother ran out.



It's so hard to wait until cookies cool. All that work to form the cookies into exact balls, roll the balls in sugar, smoosh into sprinkles - and then, sigh. Wait. They passed the test - phew. Grandmother skills were on the line.



Papa put up the tree and we began to get out the Christmas boxes. We have a small collection of Woof n'Poofs - Christmas stuffed characters, mostly Santas. They're handmade in Chico. Lex is straightening out Santa's mohair beard. She got them all out and then carefully wound all their music boxes.


We've given into Alexia's enthu-
siastic and artistic directions. Why not - isn't this about kids? And we have a little help from the first floor, though it's not clear where center is. We have an open house on Christmas Eve. I asked Ian if we should fix this but he likes the Lexie Shrine.

Checked and approved by the artistic director.

Thanksgiving plus Christmas Trees

We had a wonderful Thanks-
giving and followed it up the next day with the hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. This year we are five vehicles, eight Forest Service permits and 14 people, including four small children. Our tradition is now in it's 7th year.

Ian has our tree, and while I know he's disap-
pointed that I picked a smaller tree, I think it will be nice not to have it dominate our house for the whole month of December. It's in the garage, dripping - coming inside house tomorrow.

SIL Paul, DS Josh and grandson Logan were going down to saw another tree. I begged for a pose and this is what I got. Goof balls. Ian and I have had the surprise and joy of seeing our adult children become really good friends. These two boys are just silly, or in the words of one grandson, "thilly."
DD Marji and DIL Missy are hauling up one of two trees that will be going back to Redding. Paul and Margi cut an extra tree for his parents. We have the permit, of course, and while no one is checking, we think it's important to buy a permit for every tree - support your local sheriff.
Because I'm the photo-
grapher I'm never in pictures, I asked Ian to shoot me. Why is my right hand in my pocket? Because I don't know where that glove is - I shoot pictures with my right hand. Also, notice that my coat is open from the bottom. That's because I hide our Nikon DSLR camera inside my coat. I'm oh-so-wet.
We are all so wet and we are so cold and we are having so much fun. One of the things that Ian and I give thanks for is that our combined families are now genuine family. Christmas present? This is it. DIL Missy is with "cousins" Elise and Evan. Our grandkids know each other as cousins and that makes my heart soar.


This is our group. Thanks to our neighbor Liz, I get to be in the group shot - at least my yellow coat does. She took a great shot and I'm glad because we had a great time. We went down to Chilcoot and had a meal at the only eatery - and that was great fun too. Great~

Happy Thanksgiving from Sage Creek Farm~

Frustration

Frustration. I thought today was going to be a chill day before cooking for Thanksgiving but when I turned on my computer this morning, I had a message from Joe Winter - Pottery sale this weekend, bring soap. Gotta go back to glazing.

I thought it was next weekend and I was going to stop by Office Depot to print more soap labels *next* week after my haircut. Since I needed to update labels to match new stickers I ordered - two hours on the computer. Then walk dog to mailbox to send letter. I'm not exercising the dog - it's me.

Drive to town, buy five books - University bookstore having a 40% booksale today only. Get home at near dusk.

More frustra-
tion. I knitted this pair of socks from Tofutsies yarn and have probably worn this pair a dozen times. I was stunned to find this one in the laundry, minus the sole. I have knitted and worn dozens of pairs of socks. I have never worn out the sole, more likely the heel. I checked the soles of other socks and I find a felted web, probably from heat and friction. Not happy.

Just Another Day in Paradise

Ian and I drove the ten miles up to Doyle, California today to mail some packages at the post office. Here's a little Doyle humor. To give some perspective, Doyle is located 40 miles southeast of Susanville in Long Valley at an elevation of 4275 feet - our house is at 5,000 feet. It's 45 miles northwest of Reno and has a population of 1,175. In other words, there isn't much Doyle in Doyle, other than the gas station and post office.

This is another once upon a time place in the high desert. The area is highly agri-
cultural, mostly beef cattle and hay, no boom and too much bust.


Once a thriving church, this structure is now the lonely sentinel of the local cemetery.



We drove into a ranch on the way home because a roadside sign advertised hay for sale. They've been in the hay business for a long time, by the look of things. We wrote down the phone number on their sign to call from home.














Since there's no place to eat in Doyle, we decided to drive down to Chilcoot. We snagged friend and Chilcoot denizen Toni, who was cleaning llama poo and took her with us the local and only eatery. She forgot that she had her house phone in her pocket so got some interesting noises. Have I mentioned how much I love retirement?

We got home to a phone message about a great hay deal and ended up ordering a ton. How about them apples?