Shiny Shiny!

The lovely silk warp is threaded and awaiting sleying on Hey Baby!. I can't get over how shiny and difficult it is to get nice pics because of that. But I did my best since it is such a pretty warp. I might name it Sister Goldenhair, because that's what comes to mind when I look at it. It warped on like a dream. Unlike the fine cotton warp, the silk has weight and body and threading it was easy too. The pinwheel pattern will be quite subtle since I've chosen a variegated and a solid both with the same sunny yellow, but I'm hoping the greens and taupe's in the multicolored yarn will carry the day.

The scarf worked out to be 10" when all was said and done although it might get a little narrower if I decide to sley a bit closer. I have enough on for a wee bit of sampling.

Rhonda the dress form saw a little activity yesterday too. I pulled this lovely Colette pattern from my binder and started a little fitting to see which size I should commit to.

The fabric I'm using is a soft shot cotton woven like a color changing silk. Tan on the warp, dark indigo on the weft.

If it had the silk shine it would do that iridescent thing, but is still quite pretty with the shade of tan shot through. I like it. The Colette pattern itself is a treasure. Printed on heavy card stock the directions come in book form.

Just a beautiful idea and the patterns are all geared for curvy figures. Of course I am past curvy and might be heading towards lumpy, but you get the idea! Here I'm trying to decide if I want to change the neckline to a sweetheart style or leave the keyhole. Either way the front neckline is too high for my comfort and will be graded lower.

The Postman brought some fabric yesterday.

The gold I'm disappointed in, it's a bit brighter than it seemed on screen, but the grey cotton twill pant weight fabric is just perfect. I LOVE it. It has a deep magenta stripe running through it

I'll be trying my hand on my first fly front pants and will probably save this for when I have a good working pattern. Maybe sacrifice the yellow for a muslin. The hot pink floral is for a another blouse pattern which calls for a light stretch cotton. It'll be a bright one for sure.

We've had snow on and off since late Monday night/early Tuesday. Quite the change from our spring like 3 weeks of sunshine and temps in the high 40's and 50'sF. It also means an interesting slide down the hill to town this morning. The horses have enjoyed it though. We've both caught them through the day running and playing up a storm. The goats, not so much but they were wandering pretty far looking for browsing. Better than hiding out in their hut or under the trees with the horses.

Parting Shot: Hey, where's my bone!

And Valerie, it's musical bones around here but plenty for all.

Bea's Knees

If you've been following the blog, you'll know that about 2 months ago Miss Bea blew one of her pretty little back knees out. Left hind for those exacting folks. :-) As a result,

we had to find a vet who does a fair amount of orthopedic surgery. Our family vet does not. Around the same time my Websters friend Carol had her beautiful husky Anyu do the same thing. Her vet does do the surgery and what could be better than a personal recommendation. Anyu had her surgery and is recovering beautifully!

So Bea and I headed off to see the vet yesterday for a consult and x-rays. She talked to me the whole way there. She wanted to let me know that she was excited about a car ride, lonely that no one else was coming and what the heck was this deal with being in the crate in the back seat. I turned up the radio. I think we had maybe a two minute stretch where it was quiet. I had to leave her as the leg and hip x-rays require her to be put under a light anesthesia and kicked around town waiting for the call to come and retrieve her.

Once back at the vet's we went over the x-rays. She does indeed need a ligament replacement and while she has maybe 20% that isn't ruptured, that will not hold out for much longer. We scheduled her in for the 14th of September, she'll have surgery and stay overnight for observation.

I can say that it was a very quiet ride home. The meds certainly conked her out for the day. I came home and placed her on a chair, with a favorite blanket to nest in. She slept for hours. No Busy Bea yesterday instead we got Blurry Bea!

PS: That black spot, it was me and my feeble attempt to get rid of red eye. I guess I got rid of the chairs red eye too!

Big Sigh of Relief

Last week I found a really ugly small growth on Miss Bea's right rear leg. Irregular in shape and rather angry looking. I was sure this had to go and very worried that it could be cancerous. She's of an age when these things start, at about 12. An appointment made for Tuesday and I had planned to leave her for what I thought was imminent surgery.

Dr. Beth takes a good look, scraps around and looks at me and states it's a wart. A WART!!!! No need to remove it unless it starts to bother her or we have her in and under for something else. Needless to say, I bundled my little blonde bombshell back into the car for the ride home faster than you can say "How much do we owe you?" She got a big late breakfast and Gene has dubbed her with a new nick name, Bumpy Bea!

 The monks belt curtains are in progress. I got a lot done yesterday. About 30-40 inches with the one run of decorative pattern which will be a few inches above the bottom hem. I had to measure the window, decide where I wanted the pattern to sit, add hem lengths etc. My easy way of doing it is to take a string measured to length and knot where the elements go, pin it in to the selvage edge and start weaving. I just slip the big pin out and stick it back in at the start of the second panel and so forth. I like the pattern very much, but I have used an open & rather sleazy sett on this and the floats on the monks belt are rather long. For this application it will work fine but if I wanted pillows or something that will get far more abrasion and use than just hanging around, I would go to a MUCH tighter sett. I could see the possibilities of this border pattern on some pillow cases, using something in 30/2 range. 

The saddle blanket has languished a bit. I do have some wonderful wool coming for more blankets and the process of acquisition is quite wonderful and unique. When it gets here I'll explain more and offer some pics!

Lastly, it has done nothing but rain here. Just awful weather. The paddock is now a sea of mud. The horses are getting their hay delivered by hand up the hill so they don't have to stand ankle deep in the muck. We are all feeling a bit moldy and housebound.

Thank heavens for weaving and knitting ( and Miss Bea's wart) because riding is out for a while yet.