Again

Yes it is me again. I was looking at our "stats" and it said that only 2 people looked at our blog today. Seriously! We have more relatives than that, family is just not doing their job. Just saying. Woke up today to snow, after reading several other blogs (see I read blogs), it looks like a lot of people woke up to snow. Strange day. Our snow is not going to last long since we had a nice sunny day today. I took pictures of a couple of things that I got for Valentines. I got 2 different kinds of cupcakes. One type I can't show you because I ate it. It was delicious, chocolate with peanut butter in the middle. Thank you Diana. The other cupcake was actually a pot holder. Super cute and I have been hanging it in my kitchen. Love the orange color, thank you Charlotte. From Gail, I received a little bag with a zipper top that she made. Actually all the things I am talking about were homemade. She included a few little things in the bag, some stickers that my grandson really enjoyed and a little something she made.  I will show them later. I am having such problems with my camera. It seems that all I can take are blurry pictures. I have talked to a clerk at Costco about it, but he didn't know what is the problem. The problem could be me, but I just can't get a clear picture.
Until tomorrow,

Little cupcake pot holder

Amy

Me Again

Yesterday was our day for lunch, so my two sisters and a friend met at Olive Garden. We had not met for Valentine's Day, so we saved our Valentines for that day. I haven't taken pictures of what I received but will tomorrow. I asked why they were not blogging and found out that Diana had loaned her camera to her daughter and Gail was having internet problems, so it is me again. I have been having some internet problems too and when I called my wifi provider the man who answered just couldn't get over the fact that we have been customers of their telephone service for 38 years.  He went on to tell me that that was a lot older than he was and then he asked if anyone in the house had any tech ability. I told him that that would be me, I am sure that he thought I must be too old to know anything about computers. When I got home I had received a package in the mail of a book that I had ordered from Amazon. I love how you can choose a used book seller from their website. I ordered a used book but it doesn't look like it was used. The book was "Weaving Designs by Bertha Gray Hayes." I really like the pictures of her actually weaving and drafts that she designed. I enjoyed reading about her weaving during the second world war and naming her designs with words like Jitterbug, Victory and new 1940 words like Superhighway and Turntable. And knowing that she sold her little cards with original designs for 25 cents. But the people who put this book together with her designs could not find a picture of her. They included a picture of a group from the 1940 National Conference of American Handweavers and said that one of the pictures is probably her, since she attended the conference but they didn't know which person. Well that is just sad. Remember to label your pictures, you may have a book published after you are gone and by golly you should have a picture of yourself in it.

On The Looms

Gilmore 8 shaft

Fringe twister-my husband made it for me

What is on the looms today? On my little Rasmussen table loom, which has been set up as a direct tie-up with treadles, is a start of a bookmark warp with black cotton. On the Gilmore 8 shaft is the last of the shadow weave scarf warp which is waiting to have another warp tied on. On the Hammett rug loom is the second IPad sleeve. I am also including a picture of a fringe twister that my husband made for me, I need to twist the fringe on the scarf.

Rasmussen 4 shaft

IPad sleeve

Amy

We Have Come A Long Way

Today I was cleaning out some boxes in my sewing room. Which by the way is a total mess. In one of the boxes I found a letter addressed to my mother-in-law from 1944. This was before she was married. It says:
To Whom it may concern:
   This is to advise that Anna Marie Harris has been in our employ for the past several months and has always performed very satisfactory services.
   The work that we had her doing is really a man's work as it required someone who can arrive on the job around 6 am, and for that reason we found it necessary to hire a man to take over this work.

Wow, this would never happen today, well it may happen but no one would put it into writing! I wonder why my MIL would have kept it for years. I think I may frame it.
Amy

Same old

I am continuing with the scarf warp and have about 28 inches to go. I hope it is not too big since it should be about 72 inches total.  A few weeks ago I got a package that I had ordered from another weaver. It was a bobbin winder made from a sewing machine motor. It has a sewing machine pedal that controls the speed and I have been putting it to work on this warp. It is working very well. I have been looking at industrial sewing machines on E-bay and I am surprised that people are putting old Singer tread type machines as industrial machines. So instead of buying one, I may just use the old one that I have in the basement, I will have to do a good oiling on it but maybe it will sew my IPad sleeves and I won't have to use my newer machine. It is an electric machine but all metal.

Okay, I  rotated this in IPhoto but here it is
showing up sideways! 

I read Diana's list, but it looks like a lot of work. We haven't made our spring garden list yet but my husband has ordered some seeds. He has become very interested in growing some mushrooms and spent the day yesterday making agar. He is hoping to clone some mushrooms from the store. I will keep you posted on this.
Amyt

making lists

I make them all the time....some as just reminders of what to do tomorrow and others about spring time jobs and even things I want to accomplish in life.   Sometimes I come across them and can't even remember what I wrote about...when did I want to buy circus tickets???...I will have to learn to date them.   This is the spring one for this year and probably it could be longer.   I have crossed three things off of it...a powerful feeling.   Many of these jobs will have to wait for Jake or the neighbor boy to help me.   I can remember once when Aunt Esther said that Mom's Aunt Maggie decided to list all she did in one day to show how hard she worked....Esther said she even wrote, "swatted 2 flies".                        

Shadow Weave

I have finally gotten my shadow weave scarf all set up and I have started to weave. I got the pattern out of the January/February 2012 Handwoven magazine. It is on page 46 and the only thing different is that I used 8/2 bamboo instead of tencel. However mine is not as wide as the one in the magazine, but still should made a great scarf. I am hoping to use it at an auction, so I am trying not to make too many mistakes. I have been taking pictures of all the steps so that people would appreciate how much work went into it.
Amy

New Book

I am still working on my rug loom trying to get the IPad sleeves off the loom. Since I am using a stick shuttle, it seems to take forever. I received a new book this week. I had ordered it off of E-bay and it is a beautiful book on double weave. I probably won't be doing any double weave now, but I am ready, I have the book. Tonight we have both our grandsons overnight. Their mother is going to a class in Seattle and their dad has to work on Saturday. I am hoping to do some Valentine art with them while they are here.

Some day-Double Weave

Amy

Busy Day

 Lily saying, "Stop following me with that camera!"

Today started with an hour of exercise. A couple of hours of volunteering. A little bit of weaving, I have tamed the bad, bad, warp but have not started weaving yet. I have made a little progress on the IPad sleeves. Tomorrow we will not have our grandson to babysit, so maybe I can get a little more done on the weaving. I have been busy reading scandinavian mystery writers: Jussi Alder-Jenson, Arnaldur Indridason, Jo Nesbo, Kjell Erickson, Henning Mankell Hakan Nesser and of course Steig Larrson. I only wish that they would write more and more was translated into English.
Amy

New Warp and Bad Warp

I have started a new warp on my Hammett loom which went so smooth, wonderful. I warped it with some wool that I have had for a long time. Then I started weaving-this warp is going to be some IPad sleeves. My son got one for Christmas that his wife bought him that was just felted with a leather flap. As soon as I saw it, I thought I could make that but probably didn't need to felt it. So I am trying this warp and making a warp that is about 9 inches wide and 22 inches long. I really wanted to make it the wide way but didn't have enough warp. My other loom is waiting for me to double check the heddles because it has a problem that I have  to find before I start weaving, hence it is the bad warp.

My rug loom ready for the IPad sleeve weave.

This is my "cheat" sheet on my Gilmore loom. You can
see I have colored coded for a dark warp. Even with my cheat
sheet I have made a mistake somewhere. I have already added one
heddle to correct one mistake.

Bad Warp, bad, bad warp.

Amy