I don't know...trying to keep up with my blogging is just another something to accomplish. I guess right now if I can manage once a month I'm doing pretty good for me!

I'm working hard on trying to make progress on my cutpile weaving. I'm using my brother's yarns (see the shawls woven in August for our sister's wedding). Still only available in gold/rust, they are lovely colors and the shetland-silk combination works well.

This is how my weaving was looking about a week ago. It's going to be a bag, and the design is a spiral. This spiral works counter clock-wise and symbolizes Rebirth. The other panel on the bag will reverse the colors and direction and will symbolize Spirituality.







Left: More progress this week


Left: I used thrums, mostly, from the weaving of the shawls

The piece is warped on a Mirrix loom, and I was having trouble with it truncating (going flat from the pattern). So I removed some of the weaving, including the heading of soumak, and re-distributed the warp over the spring which serves as determining the sett - I took out the spring for a wider sett, replacing with a spring for a closer sett, and am very happy with the results. Now the problem is in the fell - it is not level and I think this is due to uneven tension. Do you see how it frowns? Lower at each selvege edge. I've been trying to build up with more knots at each side, and to my inexperienced hand it feels like the tension is even, but it must not be. So I'll try adding a shim under the warp at each end to see if more tension will even things out.

To follow: Super bulky weight knit vest with zipper, and shrug from Noro silk garden variegated yarn!

My friend Sharon,and her DH Ian are having an open house today! I was so excited because this is the first Saturday since Christmas and one vacation, that I've had off from work. So many friends will be there, plus 1 dog who needed rescuing that Sharon and Ian took in, and I haven't seen him since. I loaded up my truck with the spinning wheel that needs major dusting off, fiber from 15 yrs ago that I am determined to spin and knit up (although I REALLY need to get spinning something that will be used in cut-pile weaving to be shown off at SOAR - and this could be this fiber's destination. Sometimes we don't know until we actually spin it up where it will land).

Sharon & Ian came by my shop yesterday and were so happy I'd actually be able to join up with them and mutual friends. Then - SABOTAGE! I worked for about an hour this morning (between working at home and at the yarn store, never mind the travel in between), then stopped by the ranch to give our horse a bucket of grain and to check up on her. She's an old gray mare, and in this part of the world, gray horses are very suseptable to melanomas. She's got lumps and bumps and is about 20 yrs old. We've recently noticed a growth in her ear. Gross to look at, but more importantly, irritating to her. Vet is coming next week and I am anxious about what treatment to follow - major surgery is not a possibility because of age. Minor - yes, if it gives relief, but for how long will she have relief and at what cost? Sadly, these are factors....

Back home and catching up on cleaning and organizing. I've been hugely stressed lately with tons of work at the yarn store (hundreds of orders online which is a GOOD thing, right?) But short-handed and too many hours put in already this past week. So trying to throw things together for the outing at Sharon/Ian's - stop to get gas and the final blow: I've locked my keys in the truck, as well as my cell phone. Fortunately, not my wallet, which has the AAA card. Call Mike - he tells me where the hide-a-key is, but I can't find it. Never put back after the last brain fart, apparently. Call AAA, and they tell me 30 minutes to 2 hrs, even after I've told them I'm blocking a business (gas pump at 7-11) Call our daughter Amanda from the pay phone. Leave a message. Thank goodness the tow truck guy shows up in about 15 minutes. I'm in the truck in 30 seconds or less, give the guy a tip towards a Big Gulp as he says he's really thirsty, and call Mike & Amanda (who never got the msg) to tell them I'm ok. But not on my way. I'm crying at this point - I'm angry at Mike, AAA, and myself. Who is to blame? Me, of course. Stressed out, I sabotage myself and human nature being what it is, want to blame the rest of the world. By now the Open House is winding down (will be 45 minutes to get there, by which time it's over, for the most part).

So - disappointing. I stopped by the market to pick up stuff for the dinner I'd hoped would be provided at the O.H. Ian is a master bbq-er, so far as I know, and the thought of meeting up with that darned dog, plus the other folk I haven't seen in forever...well, more whining won't get me anywhere! But comfort food! Poor Amanda has been valient in shipping orders from the shop - she feels good in the morning, but I think she's got a mild virus/flu going and fever at night. What comfort food for the 2 of us tonight (Mike is going to the UNR football game....yawn....and HE is the major cooker guy around here)? I am no fan of breakfast, unless it is for dinner, so waffles and maple syrup and sausage....YUM!

My apologies, Sharon, Ian, Amy, Linda, Lucky (aka Eddie)....

Phoebe's Blanket

For her birthday, Phoebe picked out a color of Kureyon for me to knit this blanket from (#148). I wonder what I would have done had she asked me to knit it from say, a pastel, or (uck) blue. I have nothing against these colors, and right now am knitting a baby hat from some very softly colored yarns. Blue, you ask? I am not in my blue period right now. Check back in a couple of years.




So this brings up the question: When you are knitting something for that special someone, do you surprise them, or let them choose?


I surprise them. The exception is my husband. He is quite particular and since we do share the same space (he would differ - I and the loom, spinning wheel, books, fiber and yarns occupy the house - he just owns the space around the various tv's and his recreational toys like his motorcycle, 2 dirt bikes, and his wonderful hunting dog) it's a little hard to have something as a surprise. In Mike's case, the first sweater I knit for him was a sucess in a TKGA contest, but a disaster for him. So I get to wear it! The next sweater I knit for him (which is the most current, done this winter, a mere 10+ years after the first one) I definitly got all of his input before even starting. And at that I had to re-do it twice. But it was worth it. He wears it and loves it and that is what matters. I have found that anything larger than a hat requires approval. And if there is a color I don't/won't knit (like black these days, since my daylight knitting time is very limited), it doesn't come up as a consideration. I'm lucky to be able to bring the yarn home (oh - please - do NOT bring your DH to the yarn store! It is too painful!!!) for his approval. Get the yarn, if he doesn't like it you can always exchange it (at Jimmy Beans Wool) anyhow.

OH! Major digression! Back to the blanket!

7 squares sewn up in 1 day, just 9 more, then a border. Better find more yarn to create that!!

Pleated Skirt


I knit this skirt from the Blue Sky Alpaca pattern called (what?) Pleated Skirt. It recommends their 100% Alpaca sport weight - I - Allie the Fiberist - having trouble following any pattern to the word started out by deciding to knit it from Rowan's Cashsoft DK. I thought it might work out a bit better with this yarn, being a little more wash-friendly (Cashsoft is machine washable, but I hand washed anyway - not a lot of skirt here, but a LOT of work went into it!)and having perhaps a little more elasticity. The jury is out on that one. Amanda, daughter #1 is modelling, and she said that it stretched a bit today - this is the 2nd wearing. So we'll wash and let it dry and it'll be good enough for the next wear or 2. She spent a day working at Jimmy Beans, and if that's not enough to wear a person out, it'll at least stretch a skirt out, fer shur.










Do you see the kinda dead stuff at Amanda's feet? Yep - you got it - Zone 1!!










I didn't mention in yesterday's blog that the model for the shawl is daughter #2, Katie. She's a natural, dontcha think? Especially since it was into the 90's and here she is sitting in the sun with a wool/silk shawl draped over her and Mom and Uncle directing!

I still haven't started piecing the blanket squares together - maybe early tomorrow I will start, before heading out to the Fair in Grass Valley, CA. So many friends to see and all their good work! 100 miles from here, and the trip will be a pretty one.

I've figured out how to post some pictures - we only have 3 computers here...my main working one doesn't recognise the cable connection from the camera all of a sudden...oy...gotta get Ramsey the computer genious on this one!

My sister, Meg, and her partner of 14 years, Clay, got married this past weekend on 8/5. We lashed pontoon boats together, we ALL took the plunge to celebrate! I wove 2 shawls from our brother Gus and his partner, Bruce's Shetland sheep's yarn. Blended with 5% silk, it has incredible sheen and drape and the colors - a rust and gold, are almost irridescent in their interaction. Gus & Bruce have a magnificent farm in central Massachusetts: Swift River Farm (www.swiftriverfarm.com) Gus performed the ceremony and of course, this being in California, the weather was perfect. Oh - I did encounter about 2 mosquitoes =0)

This is my last floor loom, or low warp, weaving project. From now on my weaving is cut pile combined with tapestry. So the loom is going away, making space. Hopefully a good thing, but not necessarily. I've found that Nature Abhors a Vacuum. So does any household I've ever lived in....

I'm getting so tired of all the bad news in the world - it makes me sad, angry, depressed. And really cuts into any creativity I might have! So for now I've got the radio off and pondering my next projects. Or should I say those projects already begun and seemingly hanging out there in space!

Two are the most immediate to tackle: first, a knitted blanket I've been working on for daughter Phoebe. 16 squares knit from Noro Kureyon in a log cabin pattern. They measure 14" each and all are knit up. Now comes the sewing together. I guess what is holding me back is that I have to lay them all out to see who gets sewn up next to whom. This is daunting not because I don't have the space, but because as soon as I lay them out, they will get covered with Maggie fur which is constantly flying about! Winter is on it's way, however, and Phoebe being in Michigan right now is going to need this blanket before too much longer....

Second, a cut pile woven bag from handspun silk I started at SOAR last fall. I plan to have it finished by this year's SOAR, so I'd better get crackin'! Or should I say, knottin'!

But first, I have to get out into the yard - a major irrigation leak and if it's not fixed, those plants in Zone 1 (it's like the garden has zip codes!) will soon be suffering.

Then off to work at Jimmy Beans Wool.