Quiet Days...

I spent a very quiet day, with no agenda...nothing. I am not a shopper, so I did not nor have I ever participated in the Black Friday ritual. I think it is stupid myself. I prefer making my gifts or at least put a little more thought into them. I can't stand the mall during regular hours so I can not envision me getting up at some unnatural hour to go there. I also don't buy the pumping up the economy spin either.

Instead I painted for a good amount of the day and really enjoyed myself. I ate, had tea, talked with my friend on the phone, had pie, found my Christmas books( purely because I was searching for something else) and finally had popcorn and watched a Christmas movie, The Family Stone. I worked on my sleeve knitting and finally on the 3rd of 5 repeats and finished increasing, so humbly, I am on my way. Read previous posts to understand the humility...

When I opened my Christmas book box the top book was a gift from my friend Karole last Christmas. Last year she was excited about a book of readings for advent, Watch For The Light, and easy to see why. The authors of the writings were some of the best spiritual thinkers and writers, such as C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Annie Dillard, and Dorothy Day to name a few. My copy is special because she gave it to me for Christmas last year, during Advent. A few of us received it because she so wanted us to share in the gems she was reading...Anyway I pulled it out tonight and I had to thank her again. A book is like that...I felt like I had just opened the gift again.

Have a good night and thank you for reading. Peace...

Another Grey Monday...

Here it is the Monday before Thanksgiving and it feels very strange that I am not having dinner here. I am a little disoriented with the change...not sure how I feel about it. It happened because of all of the changes that took place in my house over the past few months. It began with my husband and son playing at remodeling my kitchen last November, yes a year ago. It never got really finished, it should have never been started...and that's all I am going to say about that. Then I moved my studio into the living room during the summer. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but as soon as I did it I knew it was a mistake...too late, I gave up my original room. The room I am in now just is not conducive for quiet thinking or planning and carrying out whatever, I am less productive than ever...My family still thinks living room... they walk in, open the blinds or the door, stop and talk, the wood stove needs to be fed , it is off the kitchen, just a wrong move...so I am still working this out...a cause of much frustration to be sure. The ideal would be an addition on my home, but of course, that won't be happening...Too bad, because it looks great in my head.

So dinner will be at my daughter's house and that will be OK. Has to be as not much I can do about it now. It did not go unnoticed by my kids that the house shrank considerably this year. I will still be doing some cooking here and schlep it all over there.

Picked up my knitting this evening and made some significant progress for which I am pleased. So if I can keep up the pace...

I'd like to end my post today by sharing a nice story I read online today that will make you smile...

Have a good evening. Thanks for reading, although I don't think anybody is...In any case, peace to any one who happens by...

Getting my ducks in a row...

On September 8 my 2 year old water heater began leaking...I say the 8th, but that is when I found the puddle in the basement, in the room where all my fabric was stored. At first I thought it was yet more water from a tropical storm that had passed through the previous weekend. We have been having water, mildew and mold issues for years. We finally decided to do what should have been done a few years ago...strip the basement, gut it, no more finished space. The only way to clean and remove the mold was get everything porous out of the space. I had wool, yarn, fabric and various fiber tools stored down there...the upshot of all this is I emptied it, trip after trip, up and down the cellar stairs only to put it all on the deck...a horrible mess. Only to have to protect everything from rain, sometimes unsuccessfully. The realization that I needed to make some decisions about my stuff, where my focus lies,what to keep, what to sell or pass on to someone else, etc. was overwhelming...Some was ruined by mildew and continued dampness, some was washable. A lot was pitched. But what came through all of this loud and clear was the amount of unfinished or planned projects that never made it. The plans for fabrics and yarns all came back to me as if I had just purchased them...I thought, shoot, I wouldn't have a storage problem if I had just made what I had planned when I bought it. So almost 2 months later, the basement is a basement, nothing more. It no longer smells. I have nothing down there that is porous. I was ruthless with reducing the 'stuff' and only kept what I could store up here and what I absolutely had to keep because I either loved it or it was needed to do what I love...but with the self imposed rule of no more...must use what I have and to actually finish the projects started and rip out the ones I just didn't like. The deck is finally cleared, things sold are gone, fabric( I was a quilter and still make them for special babies) was all washed and hung by hand so as not to have to iron it all...all means 12 large plastic bins, separated by color. Yarn and fiber also was washed and repacked. I still have a few things in my studio really tying up space but ran out of bins and I absolutely refuse to purchase any more...enough. So I have to come up with uses for the left out of bin fiber...not a bad thing, a challenge really,a good thing. So here is one of those projects that got stalled. So I am happy to say the first sleeve was finished last night and I will cast on the second sleeve tonight. I have also been washing sweaters but in so doing I see the things that make me crazy like a too tight bind off, or in one case I changed a sweater from hemmed to picking up and ribbing...well I picked those stitches up and twisted everyone one of them, has annoyed me for years...so I have begun the annoyance removal project. It is satisfying to finally fix something and then wash it without thinking, gee, I really need to fix that. So here it is, ribbing ripped out and re-picked up, correctly this time. It has been washed and ready to wear. This Meg Swansen's Spiral-Yoke sweater available from Schoolhouse Press. It was in a Wool Gathering #46.
Then the Traveler's Sweater from a old Knitter's. The issue focused on cardigans. I had bound off the sleeves too tightly. Drove me crazy for years...Fixed, now to be washed. Great sweater now really comfortable.

Then there is this little number. A Green Mountain Spinnery pattern. I thought I was going to run out of yarn while knitting it so...made it too short. But I did not run out of yarn, no I did not. I ended up with a whole skien left over. So wondering...



All of this amuses me seeing how I have not been knitting for a long while. So it is good. I have been helping my daughter as she is a new knitter and it was enough to jump start me.

Sunflower Days

My sunflower bloomed today with more to follow!





When I looked at my photos yesterday I could not believe how far from shore I had gotten. How did I get this image one might ask?

Well, I am asking that as well. But no I was in this green kayak that belongs to my friend, Anne, who let me borrow it.





Although I live in the Ocean State I am not a great lover of the water, I fear it because of a few mishaps as a child. So this was a big thing for me. My daughter and her small group decided to do more together so they went kayaking, dinner in the town, back into their kayaks and back to one of their homes for s'mores. Then I was invited last week and I held my breath and said sure. I felt safe enough as there were 9 of us and I had a very good life jacket on, but I still held my breath. I learned on the job about paddling, depth, beaching, boating rights of way while kayaking in Wickford Harbor.
We had the best time and ended up back to the starting point for s'mores and drinks.
So fast forward to Sunday after church and my daughter who has gone out and outfitted herself last week to continue this new adventure, decides we should go kayaking.
Boy, I don't know about this, it is just us...But we went, took her 16 and 19 year old sons and borrowed kayaks were there along with oars and jackets. We just stayed close to shore as opposed to traveling into town as we did last week. We stayed out all afternoon and it was great. Shoving off...

Yes to new things...being brave..taking safe risks(what is a safe risk)I know what I mean...breaking out of my safe box. It has to be the haircut...
I also played volleyball last week and made it through the whole game, in a dress, barefoot(birthday party)in a horse field. Have not played since high school. Got the picture? But play I did. We even had a whiffle ball game and I played that as well. Has got to be the hair...Had a ball, no pun intended. We just had the best time. We laughed more than anything. What was really nice was there were all ages on the two teams. Fun

I have been harvesting and always say to myself I am going to paint this...Well I did and I am even going to post it, another risk...
Have I been weaving or knitting? Knitting my socks, too hot for anything else plus I haven't been sitting still long enough to knit, although the thought occurs to me I could knit in the kayak...I did finish the blanket yesterday.
Here is a shot of it being cut off the loom and the ends bing tied in an overhand knot in groups of 4 ends each. Today I will finish off the ends and wash it and set it out to dry. Great breezy dry day for it.
Have a great day and thanks for reading...

Surprise!

Now I can post the photo of the finished knitted item. It was a gift for our very pregnant Nuala, the secretary of our knitting guild. She has three little boys and this little one is a girl. She offered to have the July meeting at her home and one of our members suggested a baby shower, a surprise. We all loved the idea and it was just the best. I really looked forward to this and enjoyed the knitting of the sweater for the baby and possibly because Nuala is just a great person. The baby received woven wash cloths,hand knit and machine knit sweaters, hats, socks(real socks)shawls for nursing, felted booties. We just threw ourselves into this and had the best time. The baby is due September 1. Nuala states she will be at the next meeting, August 8. Funny aside, the next meeting is at the home of our resident midwife...how cool is that. Hmm...

Belonging to guilds have enriched me. I have been apart of my spinning and knitting guilds for close to 15 years, and weaving guild alittle less on and off. The comradery in learning and trying new things is invaluable, not to mention we become apart of each others lives. We are as diverse as we can be in age, beliefs, married, single, widowed, ect. and yet we pretty much just blend and it is something I am really grateful for. Some of our groups have smaller spin off groups, probably pun intended...and those groups have kept me personally afloat in some very real ways in the past couple of years and I guess today I just want to say a public thank you to them, they know who they are. We share, encourage, laugh, untangle balls of sock yarn that beagle #2 tried her hand at, we are just there... So it was with great pleasure to share Thursday night with my guild and Nuala's family.

Here is my next wound warp. 392 ends of cotton novelty of which I dyed some. It will go one the loom as double width and it will be a baby blanket. I am stuck on blankets and shawls and my lttle tapestry deal is still on the other loom.

Have a great day and thanks for reading.

Full Days

It has been a productive week and satisfyingly busy although the refrigerator is still sporting it's duct tape and still I procrastinate. I think because I know it will be a domino thing. I can not even write about it because then I must think about it, and then I'll be off looking at boring refrigerators...
Saturday our spinning guild was invited to a farmers market at Casey Farm. It was wonderful, the weather, the farm, the people and my fellow spinners. Many people came over to stop and talk and ask questions. One person was a alpaca farmer wanting information on what to do with his fiber. He actually went home and brought back some of his wonderful fiber and gave all of us some to spin and knit or weave. It was incredibly soft with much crimp. Looks more like a super fine wool doesn't it? It feels as it looks. I weighed it on my trusty food scale, 8 oz. He is hoping we like it and will come back for more. He is a very nice guy. The farm is Shadow Pines Farm, Alpacas. and can be reached at: shadowpinesalpacafarm@cox.net. He will be happy to answer any questions. Tell him I sent you.
Then another person came up to us and offered lama to us, free. Someone gave to her, she does not spin. So I brought home two lama bumps.

It turned out to be a fun day with going to lunch with two of my spinning buds but when we parked the cars what was facing us but Knit One Purl Too Yarn Shop in Wakefield, RI. So of course we detoured before lunch. After lunch we walked a little and came upon glass blowers. We were mesmerized.
Sometimes it pays to park the car and walk around. We watched this process for a while. They were making a set of hand blown drinking glasses that were beautiful. Watching them was like attending a ballet. Each had a part to play in this dance.
I finished the shawl. It's fiber is hand spun, hand dyed wool and a commercial mohair blend whose colors just went so well with the hand spun. It was a quick weave as I needed the loom for the next item. My other loom is busy with a tapestry sampler on it. I am trying to learn a new technique. I weave, and unweave, and weave again and sometimes unweave that as well as I go through each new section. Slow going but I want to learn it so I am motivated. I have not been able to spend allot of time on it this week because it has been so hot and humid and I needed to finish a knitted item that had a dead line. It is finished. Just needs buttons. Those will be on today and then I can take a photo.
Have agreat day and thanks for reading.

Watermelon Days

How hot was it? The following photos of the dogs and watermelon are for a friend who states dogs don't eat watermelon when I tell him Maggie and Amy do, although that isn't really a big deal, they eat everything, they are Beagles after all, it's in their DNA.




It has been a varied week, weather and activity wise. It started by the temperatures rising to the point that I went and got my hair cut. Simple and quick as that. It was 95 degrees...one looses all rationality at those numbers. I was having my usual issues with blogger. Figured some things out only to loose pictures and links...so of course in the midst of total frustration and sweating and feeling like I have been sent through a blast furnace my hair was the first to go. I could no longer stand the heaviness of it. Only suppose to be a few inches, chin length. Well unless my ear lobes have moved...Anyway getting use to the "new" me, I don't like change. This took two trips to hair salon, one for the mistake and second to fix mistake.
In the knitting part of my life I remember just last week writing about lists and things to do and prior to that priding myself for working from stash. Well, we all know what pride comes before. My first mistake was thinking I could go to a yarn shop and come out without a bag. Last Saturday I went to a knitting blogger meet-up at Sakonnet Purls. I did have a post about it with the appropriate links but Blogger was having hiccups so it was lost. I met some new to me bloggers who live locally and some bloggers who are already friends; Kristen, Cindy, Debbie, Kimberly, Erika, and Sarah. I found Noro for 4.00 a ball. Sorry, I was not able to just say no. It came home with me, all 5 skeins. More plans. Then blame the heat, the meet-up, the bad haircut and I needed to pick up yarn for a weaving project. So two more yarn shops were visited on Thursday or was it Friday, whatever, the same damage was done. Then yesterday, Saturday off to our monthly spin in at Rhode Island Handspun and I came home with 2 magazines, Wild Fibers and the new Interweave Felt, a drive band for my Louet, 3 packets of Cushing's Dye and more yarn. That's it, I am taking my keys away from me and hiding my debit card.
On the knitting front I am finishing a large shawl for one of my DD to wrap up in for TV or reading for her birthday tomorrow. I started it a while ago with no real plan for it but occasional my DD would comment on it's color or how nice it was. With that in mind it became Cheryl's. Then there is a gift for someone else to get finished .

I am warping both looms, one for a shawl out of some hand dyed homespun and the other for a tapestry sampler I would like to try.
To finish this week I have duct tape keeping my freezer tightly closed. That you really do not want to see. Yes, I am suppose to be refrigerator shopping and consumer report reading, oh God, spare me. That is assuming I have a subscription to consumer reports, which I don't. So I procrastinate and wish I didn't have to deal with this.
Have a great day and thanks for reading.

My Life Is Full

I make lists in my head, on paper, and really my stash of fiber or fabric or weaving yarns are all a list of things planned, therefore, to do. So with that thought in mind I get overwhelmed just looking at my stuff. I'll pick up a piece of fabric and think ,oh yes, that is going to be a bag, the yarn in that bin is going to be a blanket or a sweater...and so it goes. I visit my basement "store" and come upstairs arms full of the projects that were intended, and once again they are revisited. Some of them actually make it to the sewing machine, knitting needles, or the loom. Some sadly go back down to the basement when the pile grows out of control again. Is anyone with me on this? So today I post those that made it from plan to reality with a catcher thrown in for fun, no pun intended.
The first item is a messenger bag out of decorator fabric from Butterick B4247.
Next I found this paw print denim and thought dog mat, so 4 years later we have a dog mat for what else but the lazy girls , Amy and Maggie. My design, no pattern. I used layers of thick quilt batting I had( a store I tell you) and just made an envelope and stitched. It is washable as they have been known as the mud sisters as well. But the important thing is it is off the list as well as the bag. Gone, space clear in my head...Feels good.

Then I attended my grandson, Anthony's championship ballgame last week. Very important. He is the catcher and very serious about baseball. But alas, he is a Yankee fan, poor thing and I am a Red Sox fan. We have had some interesting conversations about this, but I love him anyway, he is the best. Oh and the game? They won it, so on to citywide championships later in the summer. He will be unbearable.
Funny story about Anthony's arrival almost 13 years ago...wow. I had two looms in my living room, a 22" Harrisville and a 54" Glimakra it was a long room and I could pull it off, at least in my mind, I pulled it off. My daughter, Anthony's mom didn't agree. So when I wanted to have the baby shower in my home she absolutely refused, no looms at her shower, thank you very much...Life is funny, shower came and went somewhere else. But the night she went in to labor the only way she could get comfortable was sit on the Harrisvlle loom bench and hang onto the Glimakra back beam. And hang on she did until we left for the hospital. I did not let the irony escape either...
The last photo is the finished story cloth. I presented it last night at a Muse and Mingle at my church. A time of talking about inspiration and questions about what we think art is , etc. Good inspiring night...This project was very moving. As I wove and handled each piece of someone's life and thought about what the fabric was...a piece of a husband's shirt who has passed away, wedding dresses, ribbons with meaning, quilt pieces, yarns from specific things made from them, fabric pieces from clothes worn for special things the person loves to do, stones, jewelry, and memories. I was blessed and humbled by this piece of weaving like nothing else I have ever done...
Thanks for reading and have a great day and I hope you get to enjoy the beautiful summer weather. I am off to a meeting for local knitting bloggers at Sakonnet Purls.

Finishing

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This has been a hard week, for obvious reasons and some not so obvious. Things that do not make any sense at all to me and yet totally understanding, to some degree. Then there was the storm, the northeaster, the giver of water to one's basement. The loss of cable, phone and electricity all in one day was just too much. So one night while out doing my 3 mile walk, I thought I couldn't wait to get home and pick up my knitting, I just needed to sit and knit and not think about anything too terribly important. I needed the comfort of the familiar, the needles, the wool. Knitting is one thing I can control...So with that said I finished the left side of my sweater and started right in on the right. Of course I ripped it back once and restarted as forgot to reverse it all...Walking does not cure everything.

Then there was Saturday Spin In so I cleaned and polished my spinning wheels and finished a project I had been spinning for a while. I hesitate to say how long. It is Merino roving multi color that is primarily black, plum and with specks of color. It is plied and waiting to be set. I had planned to weave it. Still thinking about what. I initially wanted to make a triangle shawl on the floor loom with it, but I have already done it with some stash yarn. I used an online pattern from Handwoven. It was easy enough until the point when I had to do the technique that makes it a triangle, a little hard to explain. I unwove it a couple of times and finally finished it but I had to cut and sew to fix the tension problem. So I do not want to try that again. So it will be a shawl I think. Also at the last meeting of our spinning guild we were given some white and black wool from one of our member's sheep. We are to spin it and make something. If I could add the picture without upsetting everything I would. So instead imagine a puff of white and a puff of black

Also the blanket is off the loom. It is finished, washed, ends twisted and stray yarns trimmed, not in that order. I am tired, end of a long day and I fight with blogger to place words and photos. So much to learn, very frustrating. So I have been avoiding posting it all week.

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  I can't let this post end with out a Maggie shot. There is another dog in the house, Amy. I do not get good shots of her yet. Her eyes do weird things in the photos. She also just normally sleeps, on her bed, on the floor, no theatrics...she's eleven(77) and she just can't be bothered with me and my camera. Well, neither can Maggie. And yes, there is a bit of a weight problem...One DD said that Mag looked like an engorged tick. I thought that was a little mean. A bratwurst,maybe, but not a tick...We are working on the problem. I have been measuring her food and keeping the cats food up high. She is a tough one. This is her favorite activity. But she is the but(no pun intended) of allot of jokes around here.
  
This week and this post is finished. I learn a little more with each post but it is frustrating. If anyone knows how to get rid of those silly dots which have elongated to posting space needlessly...Ah, I am going to bed, that dog is looking very comfortable. Thanks for reading and thanks for all the comments. It is encouraging. Have a great day!

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Lady Eleanor

There she lies, the wrap, not the dog, after a wash in Eucalon and a spin and blocking. And yes, I occasionally make a quilt when the need arises. I finished yesterday. It is now dry and I did wrap up in it and it feels very nice. I have not decided if I want a crocheted trim as the pattern displays it.

But then, yes, here she lies...also on a quilt. No matter where Maggie finds herself she always looks so comfortable and she gets down right cozy. It is her assumption that if something of comfort is left lying around then ofcourse it must be for her...quilts, furniture, anything soft. She is also very tactile. As I said a few days ago she teaches me about relaxing. Look at her...doesn't she cause you to just want to grab a blanket and a book and possibly a dog and go hide somewhere. That chair is near the woodstove...need I say more.

I thought I'd show my weaving progress so far. I have maybe another yard or so to weave. Then the twisting of the fringe and finishing with a wash. I'll show a before and after photo. I am planning a wrap from some handspun yarn for the next project. I am trying to keep something on the loom at all times and have a warp ready to go and have something in the planning stages, atleast that is the plan. Have a good day and thanks for reading.

I finish one sock and started the second. Always feels good to finally be working on sock number two. It is Wendy's pattern, from the toe up. Trekking sock yarn on size 1 double points. Great pattern.

Then there is the Lady Eleanor Entrelac Wrap from Scarf Style by Pam Allen. This is nearly finished. I am using Patons SWS and I am amazed how the colors seemingly changed as I went from block to block. I couldn't have even planned it better. I love the feel of this yarn-70% wool and 30% soy. It was been comfortable to use if that makes any sense to you, it does to me. I am very tactile as I think most fiber people are, so it has to feel good, very soft. It will be very soothing to wrap up in.

Then last is an Aran sweater from an old Candide pattern being knit with Bartlett yarn, one of my favorite yarns. The back is finished and I am working on the left front, now at the armhole shaping. I found the trick to Aran knitting is to try to pick it up every night or when ever you knit, but the point is as you work on it daily you tend to memorize the stitches and that allows you to sail on up the fronts, back and sleeves without constantly checking the directions. So there you have it.

I was told about a book by a friend Saturday and was able to find it at the library. I love the library, one of my favorite places. I have been loosing myself there since I was a child. I think of it as my personal bookshelves that just happen to be a few miles away. The book is : Three Cups of Tea

by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

Have a great day, thanks for reading.