The Caped Crusader

Thank you everyone for the great Blaze Orange suggestions! Bartlett Yarns makes a true blaze orange, Harrisville makes a bright red orange called Poppy, I'm thinking a few threads of a bright turquoise thrown in with the subtle shades of bright orange to make it all really pop. A cape was suggested and if I do my pattern right, a cape would work both as an over the shoulder garment for me and a rump rug for the horse. The rug ( it's really a blanket) also called a 3/4 blanket or sheet, is basically a rectangle with a large U cut out to fit under the sides of the saddle or over your thighs to keep them warm too while keeping the horses lower back and rump warm. When it gets hot, you roll the back up into a small blanket roll and tie it behind the saddle. The shape would work for both of us. It will need to be preshrunk and well brushed to be durable enough for the horse and since I am doing a couple of blankets soon, I will be doing a fair amount of sampling. A few handled for an eye towards this cape is easy enough. Since you all have such great visual powers please add to the cape a hot pink riding helmet since that's what I ride in always.

On a disappointing note, it doesn't look like my new to me loom will be picked up anytime this weekend. We're expecting rain, sleet and snow and Idaho Falls is expecting worse weather with snow. I didn't know that they were so high at about 4700 feet. Learn something everyday!

Gene will be home tonight and while we will all be happy to see him, one little Chihuahua will be especially delighted. He has missed Gene and been a bit sulky. I'm happy to hand the little terror over to his chosen human.

I did a fair amount of spinning yesterday. I love my wheel and it was a pleasure to sit down and quietly spin for a good long while. The fiber in the basket is hand dyed wool from Cindie over at eweniquely ewe. The beautiful rust brown on the bobbins is BFL from The Copper Moose in Vermont. Both great fibers to spin. 

The wheel is a Timbertops Leicester and was a 50th birthday present from Gene  in 2008. I know, it's marked as such under the table along with James's inscription. This is one of the very last that James and Anne Williamson produced and to me, at least, is quite special. The company has now been sold to a couple in Wales I think, and they will be producing some of the line with plans to add more as time goes on. Timbertops had a lot of different models, all lovely. I hope the new ones are just as nice. I would love to add another one someday.