Early Autumn

I came downstairs this afternoon and saw my poor Charlie trying to enjoy the outdoors. I noticed the other day how mature he is in comparison with his kitten picture in my heading. And while I'm at it, I've been asked about that picture. He was asleep on the warp beam and I thought it was so cute, I ran downstairs for our DSLR. As soon as he heard me come back in, he popped his head up and I was able to snap it, thanks to the camera speed. That's the floating warp he managed to catch in his mouth.

He was a skinny oil-covered starving kitten when someone found him on top of a tire in a truck wheel well and turned him in to the SPCA. I'm always sad that he can't have his heart's desire - access to the outdoors - but I remind myself that that is why he's still here.
He keeps me company when I blog. All of his little 8-pound self. This evening Ian and I were reading on the front porch, and Charlie laid on the window sill behind us and piteously mewled.

I hadn't charged my Kindle in a month so it died, leaving me with my library book. I was cool anyway, in spite of it being an August evening, and so I went indoors. It worked - Charlies' not dumb.
I wove all day, in between loads of laundry. I finished the last set and wove my sample pinwheel. So this is what it looks like - the American flag! I had thought it would be a sample, but the light went on. I'm running out of time for my craft fair. I'm stuck - this is it. Love it or leave it? I don't love it.
So on a more positive note, I leave you with Alexia at her Aunt Lynette's house and the mysterious jack-in-the-bean stalk plant. What makes me laugh the hardest is the wooden spoon in her right hand. Apparently Aunt Lynette has a naughty dog? We're not sure because any story from Alexia is, well - a story.

Best Laid Plans

I had planned to meet my fitness coach at 2:30, Melissa was going to come to the gym and swim with me afterwards, and then I'd hang around town until 6:30 to watch Alexia at judo. The phone rang early. It was my friend Lori, she's in town, could we have lunch? She and Joe moved across the street when she was pregnant with Mike, and in spite of moves and life changes, we have remained friends for 27 years. DD Chrissie used to babysit her boys! We ate close to the U where she works so she could join us.

She's en route from Tampa to San Diego. Joe is a boat pilot and skipper on a yacht tendered at Point Loma. They'll live there until they move yacht to Puerta Vallarta for the winter - lots of visiting in a very short amount of time.
I had an hour to kill so went to San Rafael Park and walked the labyrinth, then read my Kindle until it was time for my appointment. Melissa called and begged off, saying she needed to recover from her workout yesterday and Chrissie said Alexia didn't finish her homework, so wasn't going to judo. Yikes!

I had a fabulous swim, less gasping and more breathing. Driving home I realized that the shoe tree is full of shoes again. (I posted several months that there wasn't a single shoe on it, someone had removed them all.)
People really have a lot of fun with it. Last year when California widened the shoulders along this stretch, they put stakes and orange tape around the tree to ensure it wasn't harmed during the road work!
I cut and sewed a set of strips this morning and wound them up this evening. I'm going to weave it before I cut anymore. Theresa said she leans toward "go bright or go home." I may have gone a little over bright. I should have time tomorrow to find out.

And so

We are finally getting our hay shelter up. We get our hay from Dave Brazil in Susanville. He's going to deliver hay to Mim next week and bring us more to fill 'er up. We're smart enough to know that we can't lift up the shed top, so will snag some of our younger family members at The Gathering. Mickey Mouth yelled at us the whole time we were putting it up. I swear he's a dogsheep.
These are the fabrics I selected for the third set of placemats. I was a little concerned that the pastel salmon isn't trendy, but I decided to go ahead.
This is how the colors showed up after I sewed the strips together and wound them into pinwheels. My mother used to say - in for a penny, in for a pound. I'm in for the pound and have started the third set of placemats on this warp.
I'm afraid this was a gamble that I lost. I have decided that I need inventory when I'm at a craft fair, and that's what this will end up being. I don't have many bright fabrics but I'll be putting them in the last set.

I was happy to snag this photo of Eddie. He's a rescue and seems to think a camera is a gun. He's a fabulous dog. I couldn't help think that in six weeks all this growth will be frozen and we'll be moving into our next season, possibly with a fire in the woodstove. How quickly this year has gone.

Reading:
On the Kindle: Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical mysteries and the art of diagnosis by Lisa Sanders.

From the Library: The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht (named by The New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty)

In Paperback: The Delta Girls by Gail Brandeis. I planned to say I'm reading this, but I started it yesterday and finished this afternoon. It's not great literature, but it was wonderful reading - one of those books that you totally tumble into. Now I have to wait another three years for her to write another book :(

Hemstitch

I want to share with you how I do the hemstitch. I taught myself from Virginia West's book Finishing Touches for the Handweaver. I opened her book and followed her photos and descriptions until finally it sunk into my head. I throw four shots of warp thread as weft. If I'm starting the project, I leave 3 times the width of the weft on the first row, and if I'm finishing the mat, I leave it on the last row. I start with my needle going under four warp threads, right right to left. Remember that this is for 12 epi and it would be probably six or more for dishtowels.
I bring up my needle and cross over the same four warp threads, snug it up a little and then put the needle back down to the backside.
Only, I don't push it through all the way, but using the needle at an angle, I go under at the point and back up two warp rows away, which is also the same place I pulled my needle up when I started this bundle. I'm essentially wrapped these four warp threads in three movements. I say to myself under four up, over four down, under four up two rows away.
I use both hands on top of the work for the first several bouts to keep the tension, and after about five, I put my left hand under the work and push up the group of threads with my left hand. This is when I start to fly. I think the first five bouts take as much time as the entire rest of the the 13" mat.
We haven't really reached fire cracker summer temps, so the llamas are still finding things to munch on. I've given up on the tomatoes ever getting ripe. The tent? Ian scrounged it and is testing it's pieces parts. We're just about three weeks away from The Gathering over Labor Day Weekend. One friend called it Sparking Boy, a derivative of Burning Man that same weekend. It's an assembly of family, friends and neighbors - lots of tents and trailers - I call it turtle accommodations, BYOT. It's become a time of coming together. More later~

More Place Mats

I've finished the first set and if they don't sell, I know exactly who will receive them as a gift. These are the colors of DIL Missy's kitchen. I'm proud of my kids for setting and eating at a table. It's becoming a lost art in America.
I chose lilacs for the second set, hoping to invoke a shabby chic feel. I'm afraid I second guessed myself because they're so washed out that they just look shabby. All the strips are cut, sewn and rolled into pinwheels so thus it shall be.
I'm so impressed by the finished appear-
ance of the hemstitch, with four warps wrapped in each section. I timed myself. It takes just six minutes to hem one edge. That is a fraction of the time the tied fringe took and much easier on my fingers, plus it uses less warp. I'm a convert.
I went to Mill Ends Fabrics today. I thought I'd show you what rough condition some of the ends are in. The pink one on the right has blue dye splashed on it, the middle one is stamped "sample" and someone drove over the blue piece on the left. I spent $11 which means I got 11 yards. Plus Benita just said she's got more destash cotton to send me - wow!!

I was doing more fitting things into one trip as I was on my way to swim at the gym and then afterwards meet up with my friend Hermi who lives in Las Vegas but comes to Reno once a year for the Friends of Nevada Wilderness board meeting. We got sandwiches at Pub N Sub on 12th and Ralston, for you Reno folk, and then went to San Rafael, my favorite regional park nearby, sat at a picnic table under the tree canopy and visited to a couple of hours. We were roommates at a fiber retreat at St Mary's Art Center in Virginia City about five years ago and have kept in contact, thanks to the virtual world.

She's from Switzerland and at that time she was the only person I'd met who knits faster than me. I've since met Virva from Finland who also knits faster than me - those Europeans. Since the retreat we've also both become weavers so we brought some of the things we've been doing to share. I always feel like a million dollars when I climb out of the pool after a swim and then to spent a couple hours with Hermi made the afternoon even richer.
I came across this the other day when I was digging through folders, trying to find an email about place mats that I had printed from Hiliary and made notes on. I ran the Journal Jog, a local run fun, in costume and this picture was in the newspaper. I bought a print and gave it to my mother who "taped" it to the wall over her sink. It's a wonder it survived. It brought back a lot of memories.

'Twas a Lovely Day

I was thrilled with how this long-sleeved bolero looked after I finished it. I thought the "desert sunrise' color pathway from Great Balls of Fiber spun up into the suggested colors, but the problem is that I don't apparently wear a long sleeved bolero, ever. It hangs in the closet next to my trip knitting sock-yarn short sleeve cardi which I wear all the time.
It became a repurpose causality.












I decided a short-sleeve cardi is more useful than a closet space hog. It's going to be stripey - oh well.





I've placed the fabrics for my rag rugs to-be on the table and every time I walk through the dining room, I adjust them, trying to decide which ones to use for the next set of placemats.


I asked Ian to pick some pickling cucumbers from the farmers market yesterday while he was picking up tomatoes from the Hmong farm. No one has tomatoes like theirs. We got pickling cucumbers in our CSA basket this week, so I've made refrigerator pickles here, and now I have to decide what to do with rest. Maybe snacks? I also made pesto today as our basil wants to bolt. Yummy aromas on both counts.

As of this evening, I'm leaning towards this group of fabrics in the foreground for the next set of placemats. My stock it low - I really need to make a trip to Mill Ends Fabrics and visit their dollar bin. I get crazy rejects, stuff that didn't get colored across the whole role or maybe a truck drove over - I try to check in about once a month. It's a little under four yards for a set of four placemats and it's kinda satisfying to know that this fabric gets a do-over.

I'm adding this almost as a post-script. I commented on Facebook that I didn't realize it was possible to spend to $62.00 on a bra. I had gone to Macy's for a fitting and walked away happier, but poorer. I was astounded by the comments back, all saying they were great fans of Wacoal, which is the brand I had just been fitted for and had never heard of before. I thought I'd pass that one on.

Much Better

I woke up this morning exhausted after having dreampt all night about fixing the warp. I decided that the worrying was worse than the fix. Since I was only adding an extra inch, I didn't check for threading errors and I should have. See the bundle of three warps an inch from the left? That fix was pretty annoying and required a string heddle. I really liked working the hemstitch against the flexible blind slat. It went quickly.
I sewed all the strips this morning and cogitated about how I could fix my problem, if there were any short cuts. I hated to pull the warp all the way forward and then rewind it, but if I weighed the inch separately, I'd have to fool with letting it forward for all 16 placemats. I decided that would probably take more time than the proper fix. I'm using two fabrics from the destash box that Benita sent me, as they both had the same value of green - about two yards of each.
The first mat is done. The coolest thing about hem-
stitching is that when I take these off the loom, I only have to cut between the slats and they are finished. No fringe to tie! I can't remember who suggested this, but thank you!! I have a craft fair on the 28th and I think these will easily be finished in time.

A Pre-August Day

A tropical weather system has moved in bringing with it thunder-
storms and lightening strikes. We could smell smoke most of yesterday afternoon. Sandy called to see if we were okay. She said driving into the valley they had seen smoke near our house.

We learned today that one wasn't lightening caused. Tom's grandson had drive him to his appointment for the epidural shot to treat back pain. Coming home, he saw the fire at our neighbor's place and called it in, then went home, got on his tractor and drove back to cut a fire line. He figured it was that or let it get out of control before fire responders arrived and maybe burn us all out. I wonder if he'll tell his doctors. He's really amazing, my water-witching friend.

Greg and Kat had purchased some marginal hay, perhaps cut wet? It combusted on their hay trailer and burned down their horse shelters as well. It could have turned out so badly, given the winds accompanying the weather activity. I'm so sorry for them. In addition, Kat was bitten by a snake while walking her dog just a couple weeks ago. They're cool people and I hope they don't get discouraged.
The sunset last night was spectac-
ular. I read in bed until midnight, finishing The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler. It's getting a lot of hype, but my suggestion? Forget it. It's the most badly written book I've read in years. I wanted to know how it ended and could have used those hours so much better. Not worth it, hours of my life wasted.

On the Kindle: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It's for book club and it's the perfect use of a Kindle because I need the dictionary, plus I can make notes as I go. I'm surprised to find that I'm liking the book, but then I was also a Thomas Costain fan. OOP ( that's library-speak for out of print).

From the library: Heat: an amateur's adventures as kitchen slave, line cook, pasta-maker and apprentice to a Dante-quoting butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford. I'm not sure why I keep reading, but I just do.

Both are infinitely better than my waste of sleep last night.

It's really too hot to do anything outside after about 10:00 so I decided to get some placemats woven. I was uncomfortable with the dummy warp and measured it more than once yesterday. I didn't realize that apparently some of it slid back onto the floor. I plead mental illness. This warp is just too narrow and there's nothing to do for it but to unweave, rechain the warp and add the missing width. But not today. I'm rather stab myself with scissors.

Summer Heat Came Today

I am continuing to spin Shetland with a goal of having a natural dye day. These skeins are Ollie, who used to be moorit, and Mickey, who is oatmeal. I an now spinning Robbie, who is a white dual-coated Shetland wether. My goal is a natural dye day soon.
It's too hot to go outside, so I spent some time reading about dyeing with plants. All my information has come from Anne Bliss's book, North American Dye Plants. It's pretty straightforward. She has one recipe for everything. I'm so sorry to see it's out of print. The more I read in my two new books, the more I realized what I don't know. I don't want to ruin my handspun yarns! I'd like to get some pretty natural dye colors for hat kits.

I see I haven't mentioned that I joined the fitness center associated with our hospital and healthcare system. I went on Tuesday, had an interview with Sue, my trainer, a wellness specialist and also a woman exactly my age. I have prepaid and committed to a year at this point, recognizing that it's getting hard to get up from my yoga mat, it's time to be proactive. I've missed swimming, they have a saline pool and that's where I started. I spent 20 minutes bashing through a lap swim and another 20 minutes catching my breath. I have an evaluation scheduled with Sue on Tuesday. This was a spontaneous decision and I don't know what's next. It does mean I have to drive to town more often than I would like, but I'm also looking at it like a prescription that I don't have to fill. I've decided to ask Sue about exercises to strengthen my back so I don't tire so quickly when weaving.
I decided that since it was so stinking hot today, this would be perfect to wash and dry the rag rugs. They are a completely different color today than they were yesterday!

And because it's so stifling hot, I thought it would be a good day to wind a warp and tie onto the existing one. Now begins the part I don't like. Trying onto an existing warp. I put in my earbugs and went to work. I'm more aware of lyrics when music isn't just background noise. Eric Clapton shot the sheriff and Neil Young shot his baby, down the by the river. Yikes!
I was spreading fabrics and colors around, trying to see what I want for my next sets of placemats. I cheated a little. I went to Hiliary for inspiration. I can't think of a better thing to do when trapped indoors by weather.
My weaving assistant was a total no show. He completely crapped out on me. I'm on my own for selecting the colors.

Another What?

Yesterday morning I was racing around, trying to leave on time for church, when the phone rang. Tom says - 2:30, burgers and dogs. Wow - blink, blink. Two parties in two days? Three in two weeks???
They live above us on Porcupine Mountain so is this their view due west. They've grown all the trees for shade, as we have - none are native.
Tom is a water witch and is showing Ken how to hold the rod so they can try it. Ken really was skeptical. Tom taught me how and I have my own rods, but it's mostly for amusement when they point the fountain and water lines. Tom can douse for depth and location. Ken really didn't know what to think.
This is their view south. I've shown it from our house but it's just different from up higher. We've said many times, there really are no bad views out here.

As were sat around talking, I mentioned that we'd noticed a leak in our pressure tank this week. Tom and his brother Bob are uber mechanics, the kind that corporations hire to keep their buildings running. We ended up with a pump & well guy they know today and glad of it. With delay, it could have cost us a new pump - we got off light. So glad we had that conversation!
I added extra twist on Saturday, one twist per foot of yarn, but I couldn't overdye it since we needed to leave for Carol's party. I got that done yesterday before Tom's party! I added a little purple in the dye bath, but there was so much residual blue dye that I got a completely unexpected color. It is fabulous! Both skeins weigh 3.5 ounces since it's Panda - I think that's wool, bamboo and silk? Not sure and I'm sure it's lovely.
These are my fair entries - for the Nevada County Fair in Grass Valley. (There is no Nevada State Fair, this year or many ever$$) They're boxed up, in the car and ready to be mailed tomorrow. Barbara Sue is taking them in with her entries so I can participate.

I'm going to drive over on Sunday, the last day, to demonstrate with the Foothill Fiber Guild. It's about a five-hour round trip drive and it will be worth it. It is the best fair - beautiful, full of Gold County lore, 49er history and old mining equipment - on the top of the regular fair fare.

If you live within driving distance, I urge you to catch at least one day. The dates are August 10-14 and you can get more information here.

Hanging

I promised Alexia if she wouldn't cry when she had to come home with me after judo, that we would get her a mani-pedi before I took her home after daddy got off work. (That's her term for manicure/pedicure.)

Van has a daughter Alexia's age and she was wonderful with her. Lexi got flowers on her big toes and glitter on top of her fingernail polish. DD Chris says she catches her admiring her nails every so often. We went to lunch at Red Robin afterward and then for more soft-serve yogurt. Color me exhausted.

I had an interesting personal email about the arrowheads in my last blog post, from a friend who is an employed archeologist and also the person I've known the longest in my life. We've been friends since we were six! I hope you don't mind Stan.

"I just read your most recent blog and saw the pictures of your 'arrowheads.' Very Interesting (I sound like a character on Laugh In) You have a couple of potentially old artifacts there. The one that is tapered at both ends maybe one of two types, it is difficult to be completely sure from a photo, but I think it is a Kennewick leaf shape projectile point that dates to 11000 to 9000 B.P. Another possibility is Early leaf, 8000 to 5000 B.P. The other point base maybe later, but I can not tell its type from the picture. Anyway, if I am correct there should be a very early site somewhere in the area. A local archaeologist may tell me that I am way off base, but I sure don't think so."

We live in a valley rich in history, long before there was an America. Thanks for the reminder Stan - just wow!

And thanks to those of you questioned my decision to reduce my fiber activities. You made me think carefully over the past several days and I've come to realize that what I mean is that I don't want fiber deadlines. I don't want to feel that I "should" finish something, start something or get a warp on my looms. I'm not going to "should" myself.
For instance, I entered one of these skeins in the Nevada County Fair (Grass Valley, CA) but they're underplyed to my taste, so I wound them back into balls and added more twist today. I 'm not satisfied with the color and plan to dye them. And then the phone rang. Carol told Ian that she wanted us to come "hang" on the front porch this afternoon. I thought - I have enough time - I really should overdye some samples, and then remembered. I'm not mailing my entries until Tuesday. Don't should yourself!! I read on front porch until it was time to go.
So we were with Carol, her father-in-law Ron, Kerry and Ian - just shooting the breeze, talking about things off the top of our heads - news, books, just hanging. It's still lovely though I hear the firecracker weather is finally supposed to arrive next week.

Carol and Harry live on top of the world. Their driveway scares me but I think it's worth the price of this view. Kerry and I were looking at the berry bushes in the backyard and redtail hawks were hunting right over our heads! I could hardly concentrate.
We were still visiting when the sun set. Ian went home to feed the dogs and still we stayed on. After three weeks of travel and a week of babysitting, it was good to be in the quiet company of neighbors.

And then some more neighbors came. I do miss the cultural activities we enjoyed when we lived in town, but they don't hold a candle to living in a community with friends.