Filling In

Isn't he such a handsome dog! I can't begin to tell you how happy I was to see him.

And thank you all for thinking of him.

Well, just so you know, pictures are almost impossible to upload. I don't think it's a blogger problem, more of a hughes.net or modem problem, but blog on I will and I have a few that made it on.

Just a bit more on the vacation. I did get to use the Harrisville Collingwood rug loom.

It gave me MUCH more respect for weaving rugs that's for sure. It's big, it's heavy and it does amazing things with the shaft switching. You get quite the workout too!

I made a small sample using brown and blue and the shaft switching. Of course, no pics of that. BUT, I also made some towels in a waffle weave variation. My towel is on the left. The big white and blue waffle weave towels my Dad made and gifted me with one.

There was also sewing! My Mom has an ancient Kenmore, and not in a good way.

It's just an old kind of funky running machine and now that it is getting use sewing handwovens, I steered my Dad to a newer machine that might serve well for making hems and such a little easier. He doesn't need whistles and bells, but a good straight stitch and a good zig zag are always handy. I didn't want anything too complicated because my mother uses the machine from time to time for hemming. The household ended up with a Pfaff Select 3.0. Why? It's mechanical so pretty straightforward in function, has stitches for both woven and stretch and the real selling point, the IDT system. The presser foot feeds in sync with the feed dogs like a walking foot. This means that both layers feed through together, stitching perfectly. Something nice to have with slippery or heavy fabrics especially when hemming. Bonus, we found a fantastic sale on it locally. I bought some all cotton interlock knit and made myself a swingy vest to test the machine out. The vest was fun and I fell in love with the IDT system.

I came home with all sorts of goodies, a little cotton fabric, some clothing etc. My folks gifted me with a fabulous print from a shop in Portsmouth NH. The print titled Portsmouth Tugs is the top left here. I will be taking it down for framing in the next couple of weeks. A new radio and ipod dock also followed me back to Oregon. Cambridge Soundworks makes a fine radio similar to the Bose tabletop one. My Dad had a spare complete with ipod dock ( and an extra set of Bose headphones too). I bought an ipod Nano to complete the set, green of course! Thanks Mom and Dad. I so needed something better than the 15 year old boom box with the chewed cord and wired on antenna!

In other news there, the boats all got in the water but sadly, the weather was just as crappy there as here and there was no tooling around the harbor during this visit.

They did pack me up with a lobster roll from Rowand's Fish Market. It was delicious

and made a bumpy flight bearable. You gotta love their motto too. I have two hats with it on it. One for going to town, one I wear around the farm.

In answer to Susan's comment about the Bruins-Canucks playoff series. It was a fluke goal! ;) GO BRUINS!!! Seriously, they are pretty evenly matched, regardless who wins they will have earned it.

And last, here is the Stella fix. Cute as ever.