Sunday, March 29, 2015

Sometimes It's Good to Be Wrong



I love being wrong in a good way. The feral cats, Wynken, Blynken and Nod are still around. I have seen the twin tabbies, W & B, now Nod is another story. She is small, black and older so that much more feral and adept at hiding, especially when one doesn't really go looking. I put the trail camera on the deck for a couple days and was surprised with this kitty capture.



That is Wynken, I can tell by the stripe pattern and the ear notch.

And lets not forget the lovely fox, getting his or her egg.


No sign of the raccoon on the deck but the little devil did manage to make a small mess in the tack room. No food for him in there overnight but he was looking! The trail camera is down there for a few days. I want to see if Nod is around and also how frequent the raccoon visits are.

But lets move on to much promised fiber stuff. I had a fun time sewing up my Whack-a-Mole cotton linen blend fabric into a #64 top.



  The bright yellow hard hats on some of the moles inspired this appliqued little band on the back, sort of a rogues gallery of moles.



 And of course it pairs well with the black denim skinny pants. A very comfortable and flattering look.

The bulk of my free time went into weaving pursuits. The Gem warp has been woven off and the items finished.  One runner and two place mats were made specifically for my parents.





I got a sweet towel out of the warp



and a single place mat (not pictured), which is fine. I can use it in the center of my table. One can always find a use for a pretty table mat! Instead of simply turning under and hemming I wanted to try a fabric binding. Honestly, I like this treatment better and it makes the items truly reversible. These are all finished off in linen fabric that has been washed and dried. The binding has been cut on the grain, not the bias. I wanted it to stabilize the hand weaving and it does.

I finally got the Macomber ready to weave. I started last weekend to put heddles on the frames that had had them removed only to find the bundles of heddles that came with the loom where the wrong size. I'm guessing no one checked and I didn't when the loom first came. So to make a long sad story short, I ordered 1600 new inserted eye heddles from Georgia Yarn Company on Sunday last week, had them in hand on Wednesday and installed them on Friday.





 Fast ship and well priced. Thank you Michael!

Early Saturday morning found me at the warping board doing the maiden warp for old St. Nick



 and by 10:00 a.m. I was spreading it through the raddle and lashing onto the back apron.



 By noon the warp was wound on and I had started threading.



This Macomber gets a gold star for being uncomplicated and easy to navigate the warping process.



The towel warp is an 8 shaft twill and some of the towels will be for the Greensprings Fire & Rescue silent auction. Their annual meeting and fund raiser is May 16th this year (details in the newsletter section).  At least I got a heads up in time!

Today I'll spend finishing up the threading on both Murphy and Mac. Tomorrow I need to spend some quality time in the garden weeding after house cleaning. Spring has arrived.

Parting shot: Jack in recovery mode. Let sleeping dogs lie. ;)

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Narwhals! Narwhals!

OMG, the most persistent ear worm ever!  I simply couldn't get rid of it so I made it one of the ringtones on my new smart phone. They are, after all, awesome. ;-)

Last week was one of those weeks. The horses had their second round of shots and both came up lame and off their feed. Thursday morning required another vet visit for Banamine shots. Or should I say one shot. Cooper saw Vet Gail and Gene heading for the gate and took off. No way he was going to be caught.

But where was I? Well, earlier in the week, Jack must have had a heated discussion with another of his housemates and had a pretty swollen infected muzzle. Likely got clipped by a tooth on the inside. Of course, being Jack, there simply wasn't going to be a lot of poking around to see while he was awake. Since he was going to have to be sedated it seemed a good time to have a dental done
too. So Thursday morning I was heading to the vet to drop off a hungry, grumpy dog. My vet and my parents are about a mile apart, so I spent the day there doing the last little bit of unpacking. The boxes of books all got emptied and organized onto the bookshelves. I did the same with my Dad's yarn stash in the closet, fetched my Mom from her food shopping excursion, and a few other errands with the folks around town. At 3:00pm Jack was wobbly but ready to go home. So home we went. Horses are better, Jack is doing well and almost finished with his antibiotics.

Oh and I let the feral cats out of the tack room. Haven't seen them since Friday. Wynken, Blynken and Nod, may be Gone, Goner and Gonest....sigh. I'm hoping they will investigate and come back and make our property their home range. We don't leave the light on at night, but there's food out for you guys every morning.

I have some pics that aren't downloaded yet, and others I need to take, so consider this a quick update.

Parting shot: A very serious Hazel Rose.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Terriers Gone Wild

Holy hair covered comfy chair Batman, a troop of terriers acting like, well, terriers!!!

This one dispatched a mouse in a half a second flat and now comes to the moniker, Mouse Murderer.
It is yet to be determined if he will be come a serial killer and thus be bestowed the title "Mass Murderer".


This one dug out of the pen yesterday afternoon and gave her Mom and Dad heart failure. You can be sure the fence line has had extensive attention.


These two, no matter how many balls are available, always want the same one.


Quiet time up in the bedroom has now been replaced by TTW (Territorial Terrier Wrestling).


And this one will spend hours with hackles fully raised barking out the window at a grey squirrel.
He is often joined in this activity by 8 of his closest friends.


BTW, for those that also have one (or more), of these, it is MUCH easier to scare the rodent away than get the dog to shut up. Just saying.....

So spring has officially arrived here at least. Everything is shedding, a lot. The daffodils are just about to pop and since the winter has been so mild, the deer have moved back up, eaten the tulip leaves growing in the garden and nipped a few other things. Let the games begin!

Interesting clouds and fog roll into and out of the valley. These were taken Sunday on my drive down  to town early in the day.







I did manage to sew a pair of skinny jeans out of a lovely black Italian denim I bought a little over a year ago. I held onto it in hopes of the perfect pattern turning up and I'm glad I did. The new TNT Jocole Skinny Pant pattern is proving to be a winner for a lot of great fabrics in stash. Pics will have to wait, the pants never even hit Rhonda, they went directly to being worn and are now in the laundry.

The Gilmore warp is almost done and a new warp went on the Murphy this weekend.



It is hard to see but the warp is black, deep midnight blue and cream. It should be fun to weave.
Threading has stared and it is 16" at 24 epi (5/2 cotton) the pattern is Saterglantan Pattern from Davison's book page 35 for those interested. Likely runners and towels from this.

Parting shot: Three in Repose (Charlotte, Pogo and Hazel Rose).

 

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The Year of the Horse




Which of course was last year, when this lovely woodcut print was imagined and produced by Oregon artist Midge Black. It was one of the lovely birthday gifts I received in this, the year of the goat, as in Old Goat, which I am. ;-)

Seeing as it was an eclectic year for gifts, rather than show you the gift itself I would post some of what it does.







 As you can see, our deck is a night circus of sorts.  The foxes and the raccoon where on the deck at about the same time. If you missed it, you can just see the second fox of my much prized pair in the last pic. They are looking for sunflower seeds, which the birds tend to scatter on the deck. The trail camera is now on the back 40, up where the horses look when they look worried in the early mornings. Maybe we'll capture something enlightening.

I also need to pick a class to take from Craftsy since a dear friend surprised me with a gift certificate for one. SO MANY to chose from....

And lastly, something pretty to grace the bed.



 I just adore these 50's sort of colors and prints and the quilting is itself so beautifully done.



Big enough for every one to scoot under for a mid afternoon nap.

And in-between naps we have gotten a bit of sewing done. Three of these wonderful raglan sleeved #64's from the Merchant & Mills pattern



 I love this pattern so much I just might make 64 of them, who knows!



 I think it's the built in pockets that make it so much fun to sew.



 I have some nice linen in stash and I think we'll play around with sleeve length for some summery variations.

The runner on the Gilmore Gem warp is now just being finished up.



 Placemats will follow and then maybe end with a hand towel or two. We'll see how far this warp travels but I am happy with the colors and the simple pattern.



I find myself most often drawn towards four shaft patterns. In weaving, for me at least, less may be more.

So birthday week was filled with lots of fun, love and some great gifts too. I have many blessings to be grateful for.

Parting shot: And speaking of blessings I can certainly name this one. JACK!