Present #5

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree

You probably thought I was going to show you a big tall Christmas tree, but the biggest one here is about 12 inches. They

are yarn wrapped cone Christmas trees, just glued on the cardboard. This might make a good idea for those thrums and extra cones that I usually just recycle. These were part of a gift from our faux sister, a very good friend.

Present #4

Besides making me a purse, my sister also made me a couple of hot pads. These are great for putting hot things on the table. I know she uses all the decorative stitches on them. How many of you have used all the decorative stitches on your sewing machine? I certainly haven't. These remind me of my mother. She used all her scraps to make pot holders. I always got them in my Christmas package and I know my sisters did too. She would put them in packages for people getting married and she always had a few made up for any occasion that may arise. I still have some of her pot holders even though she has been gone for many years. Memories.

Present #3

My sister has given me several bags over the years and I use them all-this year she gave me one that I am using as a purse. It has

a big pocket in front that fits my iPad and a smaller one on the other side that fits my phone. Doesn't she do a great job?

Present #2

My sister, who made the mittens, also made a little lady. I think she looks Hispanic but that is just my thought. She is made of wooden thread spools but I am not sure about her face and how it is made. I have her in a very special place. 

Sister lunch

Today my sisters and I went to lunch and exchanged some pre Christmas gifts. I will show some pictures in the days to come. Starting with some mittens made from recycled sweaters.

Happy Thanksgiving

Our turkey is in the oven, our son is coming over to help set up, and we are expecting about 15 people in our home. Our home was built in 1946 and people didn't have open concept houses, so we really don't have the room for that many people, some will have to go downstairs while the rest are upstairs. I even thought about renting heaters for our deck and putting people outside, but no one liked that idea. So enjoy your Thanksgiving and family. I will leave you with a picture of napkin holders my grandsons and I made with shower rings and pipe cleaners. Actually I did most of them but they look like a 6 and 9 year old did them.

Double weave

Just started the middle of the deflected double weave scarf. If you are interested in this weave and have a collection of Handwoven Magazines, check the issue for January/February 2007 for the pattern. This picture doesn't show the true colors, it is lime green and black wool. The wool is from Brown Sheep Yarn.

 

It's a dog's life

While everything is happening at our house, the dogs are just concerned about their walks and play time.

Life

It seems that life is interfering with my weaving. Today was spent with my husband as he went through his first chemo treatment. He will be having chemo every Tuesday. I am his driver and companion during this time. I have started some more scarves in deflected double weave. This is the same pattern that I used in the weaving class with Madelyn van der Hoogt, the class I took last year. The scarves are looking nice but I am just starting the pattern. 

I am still here

My sister has not been writing, she is having trouble with Blogger. I have another excuse, my husband is having health problems. But he was still able to weave some waffle weave and then he used the same tie up to make a couple of towels. We were unhappy with the waffle weave, it just waffled too much, if we ever do waffle weave again, we will do a 4 shaft weave instead.

Seattle visit

We went to Seattle on Friday to visit our son and Weaving Works. Our son took us to an exhibit in the Frye Museum. It was an exhibit of nine burial costumes which were hand sewed by a friend of his. They are all made of natural materials, silk, wool, silk covered wooden buttons and leather hand made shoes. It was wonderful workmanship.

More weaving work

Don't you love a man at work? This is my husband putting on a warp for wash cloths in waffle weave. There are 462 threads there ready for the heddles. I hope we will get close to the correct size for the wash cloths since they will shrink so much off the loom. I added 4 inches to the width and I estimated 7 inches for the length. While he was threading I made a pillow from some handwoven and made a make-up bag too. The bag is lined with iron on vinyl.

Sewing towels

I spent a little time hemming the towels my husband wove. He got 9 towels out of the warp, 6 towels were all yellow and 3 were with a white weft. I actually wish that all of them were with white since it toned down the yellow, which is really yellow. It is more yellow than the picture shows. The towel on the right has a flaw and is staying at our house. When I was ironing them, after hemming, I realized I had sewed one end the wrong way and had to take it out and redo. Let be known it is hard to take out sewing in handwovens, I did the hemming with very well matched thread hence why it was hard to remove. 

Craig's List

I love Craig's List. Last week I found 5 chairs for $100. We really needed chairs and as my son said"it's about time."

Dyeing update

I was able to dye 2 batches of green yesterday. One color is called "grasshopper" and the other was "forest green." The forest green looks a little blue and I didn't get all the dye on to the wool as you can see with the white spots. But I don't think it will matter since I am hoping to make some felted purses. We have had several days of wind, the reason that my wool is drying in the garage. Hopefully we can get more carded so I can start felting. I also need to research how to make or put on handles on the purses. I know if I was knitting a purse to felt I would make an I-cord but I am unsure what to do for just felting, so will need to find some you-tube videos.

Dyeing

Today I am trying a little dyeing. I have only dyed with Kool-Aid before using the sun. Today I have wool on the stove with some acid dyes. I will let you know how things turn out. My husband wasn't happy that I grabbed wool that had not been carded so have a little vegetable matter in it but I have promised to help him card after this is done.  Hopefully I can get a few colors of wool to felt. 

More towels

Before we went on our trip, I warped for more towels. My husband tied it on to the ends of the last batch of dish towels. He has been weaving since we returned and these are very bright towels, but the color is growing on me so maybe someone else will like them too. The other day we bought an oil painting by a local artist, the painting reminds me of our valley. The artist was selling some of his work in front of his house and it was 40% off, we couldn't resist and this is the one my husband liked.

Home

We came home today, after being gone since September 4th. Dogs were happy to see us and maybe the grandsons too. I am including more pics from the trip. Tomorrow I have to clean, wash clothes and maybe get a warp on the Gilmore.

Trip

We are in a hotel in the heart of Montreal. Since we have been on a ship, my phone coverage has been spotty. We are spending a couple of days and are flying out here on Monday. I will show a few pictures taken this week.

Boston

My husband and I spent all day yesterday in an airplane, to arrive in Boston. Tomorrow we are going on our cruise. Loved the ride, we saw some of the Great Lakes by air. One of several places we have not been to and today we went on a tour of Boston, really not enough time to see everything.But we tried. Amy

My bag is packed...

We are getting ready for a cruise. We are going to cruise down the St. Laurence River for a week. On our last cruise, we went to Alaska, when we went to pick up our luggage we discovered that everyone's suitcase is put into a large room and it was our job to find it. Of course we couldn't find ours! It was just a sea of black luggage. After much searching and getting help we finally found ours. This time I made some colorful tags so hopefully we will be able to see our luggage when the time comes. While I was at it I made 4 extra ones for a sale in November. I made these out of the fabric I got from an estate sale. Amy

Corrections

I always seem to have problems putting pictures on blogger. In my last post, that really is the Capitol building and no it isn't made of sand like my caption seems to say. The sand building is the other picture. 

Olympia

School starts in 2 days and we are done babysitting grandsons for the summer. In about 10 days we leave for Boston and a cruise down the St. Laurence river. So the next few days will involve a lot of packing and last minute details. We also just returned from Olympia where we took the boys to the children's museum. They didn't play as much as I thought so next year we will head to science museums, guess they are getting too big for the children's museum.  As we were traveling home I got a call from my niece,who was dog sitting at our house, to tell us that we had left a bag at the motel. I asked the boys what they had taken out to the car and O said that he had brought out his DS game and E said he had brought out his pillow. It seems no one thought about their bag of clothes. We will have to call tomorrow and see if the motel will mail it. It is only a backpack. Amy

Sand

Our Capitol building

building at "Sand in the City"

Estate sale

We went to an estate sale today and picked up some fabric and an angel. The fabric is beautiful cotton and I have an idea for something that I am making this weekend. I will show it next week, if I am successful. At least when I put it on the blog it will help me with follow through. The angel is a slab clay piece of folk art which has been signed. I tried to find something like it online but no luck. As soon as I saw her, I just had to have her and at 16 dollars I thought she was a steal.

snippets

Those little people are my great grandkids harvesting the first of Quentin's Sun Sugar tomatoes....he is hoping to put some in the fair this fall alongside his little pumpkins....they are really prolific so thinking he will have many to share.......and do you have grouchy family members each morning?...plant some morning glories..they are happy each and every morning...just look at these....

New man

Actual, I think he is really an old man, he is a little manikin that I bought on eBay. He is going to sit at our sale table and wear a scarf. He is a little small but I think he can do the job. The progress on the hand towels continues. Amy