Showing Off

I certainly don't have anything to show you at this point, but a weaver near and dear to me certainly does!

My Father, who had his first rug warp on the Harrisville Collingwood loom interrupted this winter due to surgery, is both feeling well and weaving beautifully. I have been getting progress reports and pictures as the rug moved along until yesterday when it was finally completed and thrown down for daily use.

What a beauty! I am unsure of the sett, maybe 6 epi and I know he used shaft switching. The warp is linen ( 11 or so yards are on the loom) and the weft is three strands of Harrisville Highland for each pass.

As you can see, the rug itself already has a following! The two cherubs would be Foxy and Omar, true queen and king of the domain. They made final finishing a tad tricky I'm told.

Now my lazy butt has been planted in a number of places, the blanket warp is almost completely threaded, I am over half way through filling up a bobbin with some really pretty variegated green lace weight singles and the sweater sleeve is just about at the decrease stage. I also found a pillowcase pattern for Hannah's next warp. For those that have saved or acquired old Handwoven's, it's in the May/June 1989 issue, page 45, a two block basket weave. They have done it in 10/2 natural cotton, but I am going to be using 20/2 organic unbleached for a finer texture. This pattern will use all of the Louet's 8 shafts.

Nothing to report farm wise. The mud is so nasty at the gate area I've been driving Bob up to a back part of the paddock to dole out hay morning and night. On my way up I spring the girls loose.

They race past Bob and through the wooded area, bleating, bells ringing and crashing through undergrowth loud enough to wake the dead or at least get the dogs barking in the house. Ah, music to my ears, but not always Gene's! The snow was an overnight wonder a couple of days ago. Lasted through the morning and then melted down to brown. I did get to enjoy it if even for only the wee hours of the morning.

And speaking of dogs, my friend Linda ( who I really need to call and say Hi to) sent me this gem. Kudos to the advertising people for Pedigree. I don't feed your food but I appreciate that while you make commercials that cause me to cry and part with cash in other ways ( Adoption drive) you also make ones that put a smile on my face. I think all you dog owners will enjoy this really lovely minute and half.

Thanks Linda, I thought I caught all the good ones during Westminster, but you sent me the one I hadn't seen.

Footnote, I hope all the New England visitors are able to read this post. You guys had quite the wind event and I hope you are all safe and sound, warm and dry and have your power back.

Curling, It's Not Just for Watching

In fact if it hadn't been for all those curling matches I probably wouldn't have been able to sleep half as much as I did. Let me back up to bring you up to speed (that would be slow) on the lost ah... last week. Two words: Sinus Infection. In fact the sinus infection from hell. I can't remember a time when I really did nothing but feed animals and the rest of the time spent in bed. Now I did read a little bit, knit a little bit and the daytime Olympic programs had some decent highlights but beyond that, a lost week. It wasn't until yesterday when I woke up feeling more myself. The blanket threading went from almost zero to over half threaded, the sleeve has grown inches and I even managed to catch a bit of the night time Olympic figure skating. I say a bit because NBC's coverage has me nuts. If they are going to do us on a delay, even in the same time zone, can't we get more than 10 minutes of something else besides skiing at a time? As usual, great Olympics, lousy coverage. Nuff said on that front.

I did however feel the need to dust around my studio and organize a little. The shuttles for one thing needed to be cleaned and have a little polish, and they make such a pretty collection, I couldn't resist showing them off just a little.

From left to right ( towards Rodger's pointy little head):

The first four are all Jenkins shuttles, of which the quilted maple is my most loved shuttle. It was my first shuttle and I wish now I had bought both the quilted maples ones available.

After the four Jenkins shuttles comes a Bluster Bay Shuttle in Curly Black Walnut. This is a nicely made shuttle also, but I deduct points because the rod that holds the bobbin only comes up enough to allow the bobbin on and snaps back, making it harder to thread through the slot. A small thing I know, but all the Jenkins have an upright position you can put the bobbin rod into making it very easy to thread.

Next up is a Schacht low profile shuttle and while it is not my favorite it is colorful and comes in quite handy for the Woolhouse Carolyn table loom.

Following is one of two Schacht End Feed shuttles and these are my second favorites.

Last, but not least, is an older LeClerc shuttle and I like this little one a lot. Nice weight, feels good in the hand and well finished. If I only had a choice of the mass produced Schachts or LeClerc boat shuttles, I would go LeClercs, hands down, better weight, better finish at least judging from these older shuttles I own.

Next up are the rug shuttles although I have put my second little LeClerc shuttle out because it's such a pretty dark color. The two rug shuttles on the ends are LeClercs, both bought used. The two in the middle are Schachts, one rug, one ski shuttle.

Other than the stick shuttles I was gifted in January from Sue, this is it in my collection. A little something to cover most circumstances!

Now, you can see a little progress on the blanket. I managed to get just an inch or so past center before I quit for the day on loom stuff. Today I'll try to make good progress in the second half. Three of the drawing batches of yarn have shipped out, three are packed and waiting on the next trip to town, so winners, they will be to you soon.

On farm news, after a glorious week of lovely sunny weather that I didn't get to enjoy, it snowed yesterday and last night. Looks like about 5 inches. The snow amounts here have been pitiful and we are very happy for anything we can get.

I got a good look at the phantom cat I saw a few weeks back. One morning while zoning out at my desk (and trying to swallow an antibiotic the size of a horse pill) I saw him/her. Looks well cared for and my bet is it has a home it goes to. Someone (Juno?)

left me a mouse on the front porch as a get well gift. I have but the mouse........

I clipped Dennett down. He grows such a dense coat that when he starts to shed it gets matted, so it's easier to just clip him, then vacuum and brush like crazy for a while.

Unlike most of my dogs he enjoyed his bath too. Of course in his 17 years he's had a lot of time to get use to them. For the last week we had our own little Olympic sport, Syncronized Snoring, he on his bed right beside me on mine. :-)

Three, Three, Three Times the Fun

Or work. Once I start really in on the threading it will be work. Warping the triple width went surprisingly well. Not a single thread broken, didn't take endless amounts of time, a no tears wind on. The one modification I did make was changing out the raddle. It was only a slight delay figuring out how to attach the 1/2" sectioned raddle over the built in Louet Raddle, which I taped up so there was no chance of threads catching on it.

I still kept to the same epi I used for the first triple weave blanket.

Stats on this one are:

Harrisville Shetland for both warp and weft (the white is a bit of Pendleton wool I have).

Triple width, plain weave, 6 shafts, 6 treadles

30 epi in the reed (10 epi would be the single layer sett)

33 inches should yield close to 99 inches opened.

990 ends plus fishing line at selvages and folds.

Gene was extremely helpful with the beaming on. I simply couldn't have done it without him. A weighted warp would have been fine with just about any other material, but the Shetland wool at this density likes to really grab itself and twist up, snagging on the raddle , so having eyes watching was a necessity. I get the back of the loom by the lease sticks, another place where it all likes to snag and grab. Sorry no pictures of my helper. Once we get into it, we're into it. This one was on in a little over a half hour.

The rolling table was extremely handy.

The last knitted sleeve grows slowly. I have about 10 inches done and really need to get a move on it. The sweater needs to be sewn together before I can finish up the neck ribbing. Sewing up a sweater isn't my least favorite task, but it certainly isn't high up on the list of things I like to do. It's always rather slow and tedious.

On farm news, I have deemed it dry enough to get Cooper out for the first ride of 2010.

While he can be a little heavy in the bridle and sometimes feels like a slow moving freight train, he's always dependable and patient and is the best horse for both building confidence and seeing just how out of riding shape I'm in. No doubt we'll both be winded by the time we get back to the barn.

Library & Weaving Room Additions

Just because I'm destashing yarn doesn't mean the weaving room and library are stagnant. Heavens no! My list of things to add to the knitting and weaving books is constantly being lengthened. A day of rest quite often means perusing my titles and dragging many books from my library out and day dreaming about doing this and that.

Anyway, during my trip back east I looked high and low for some toy knitting books. I have so much "scrap" yarn left over from both knitting and weaving projects I thought it a good way to use some of it up. The whole of New England must have given toy knitting books for the holidays and not a SINGLE one on my list of two could be found. It wasn't until I got back and tucked into my own LYS that I found them both. Oh click my heels there really is no place like home! Titles added are:

itty-bitty toys by Susan Anderson

Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss

and a new Charlene Schurch sock book jumped into the recent pile too: Sock Club.

Some really nice challenging sock patterns in this one.

Of course I also found a weaving book last summer at Loom With A View in Newburyport that I kicked myself for not picking up at the time. My Dad had some yarn on order that came in while I was visiting and he felt good enough one day for a quick drive out there. Betsy didn't have the book in stock but could order it and have it shipped to OR. So that's what we did. It is:

Zati The Art of Weaving a Life by Susan Barrett Merrill

Now Leigh over at 5 Acres & a Dream is 100% responsible for the next purchase. I have whined for years that finding a suitable book for our funky little mountain micro climate is impossible, but not any more. Her blog and suggestions of places to look sent me on a thorough scan at Amazon which yielded:

What Grows Here? Mountain Gardening in Northern California

A book that covers our short growing seasons and higher elevations. Now I know we aren't in CA but we share the end of our mountain range and we are only 20 miles from the CA border, if that. Our climate is MUCH more like Yreka than it is Portland or Bend. I am doing a happy dance over this book. It is a self published book, spiral bound and with laminated covers and good readable print and drawings. It addresses just about all our problems.

Finally, I would like to direct you to the cart all the books are on.

Hannah ( Louet Hollandia) loom has no shelf, nor a very big bench. (The bench BTW is an AVL . Thanks to Dawn for that information!) So, I am without a place to put my shuttles and bobbins and the usual necessary debris that collects in a castle shelf. I was on the lookout for some kind of cheapy plastic thing but walked into our local Bi-Mart and there, assembled, with a big sign saying last one, hugely marked down to $19.97 was this lovely little reasonably well made rolling wood cart. Score!

The bonus is when it's not in use, it rolls nicely under my little work table and doesn't take up floor space.

I hope everyone is having a delightful Valentines Day, spent with the one you love doing just what you want to be doing!

Bring on the Winners!

I am awed and delighted by all of you animal lovers. While I do love fiber, I love animals more, so it's easy to share some of my booty for good causes. Thank you one and all.

I wish I had a giveaway prize for everyone, but I don't. The worst part was picking out of the basket and seeing all those name slips still inside.

BUT, there were 6 winners which is 5 better than 1, 4 better than 2 and you know the rest of the math!

Without further ado those winners are, in order:

Batch #1 Sharon at In Stitches

Batch # 2 Jennifer at Finding the Real Me

Batch # 3 Sue at Life Looms Large

Batch # 4 Julie at Homespun Fiber

Batch # 5 Laurie in Maine at Socks have No Thumbs

Batch #6 Lady of the Loom

( all the blogs can be clicked on in the list to the right plus a bunch more!)

So gals, PLEASE send me your addresses so I can post this whole heap of yarn off to you. My e-mail is: camprunamuck at hughes dot net

Packages will be packed and shipped sometime next week for delivery.

I know that the shelters and rescues will get gifts from you all that will also be needed and enjoyed.

To those that didn't win and those that promised donations even if they didn't want to be in the hat. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! And Remember, I plumb my stash o' stuff pretty regularly, so check back, you never know what might be up for grabs!

Bring On the Torch

Tomorrow is the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics, in case you didn't know! :-) I for one will be tuning to see the figure skating, skiing, luge, bobsled ( is there a Jamaican team this year?) speed skating and curling. Okay, the curling is good to nap too, but it looks like it could be quite fun to play. I do have broom skills and you can read that any way you wish! Sweep or fly you never know!

To every Olympian, I raise a toast in recognition of all your hard work to get to where you are.

Now lest you think I've been lallygagging, I assure you, I haven't. The towel run is off the Hollandia ( Hannah is her name), washed, dried and ready for pressing and hemming. They are decent for home use. The weave tightened up quite a bit, but no, the double dented thread is still showing although lessened. So, basically no matter what resley even if you know it's going to shrink to high heaven. I'm sure my mentor Nadine would have told me that, maybe even bit her tongue not telling me, but some things you just have to experience for yourself! Lesson learned. Pictures coming soon.

A brand new Prayer Flag warp has been measured out and is waiting on the Murphy Loom. It was hard starting this.

I have two flags to do first off. One for Rudy and one for Angel and I know it will be emotional writing out the prayers. In good healing way though.

I have also started in on the second triple width blanket warp. Think stripes which might become plaid depending on how my supply of Harrisville Shetland color Suede is looking.

What fun would weaving be without a few little surprises I ask? I am going to warp this through my loop raddle instead of the built in one on Hey Baby ( Delta). I think it will be easier on the threads warping on in inch sections instead of the 6 ends per itty-bitty spacing on the Delta raddle. I liked the hand on the first blanket and wanted to keep the 10 epi (30 epi in the reed). This blanket will be 99 inches wide with 990 ends total plus the fishing line for fold and selvage edges. The picture only shows part of the stripe sequence which will be yellow,blue,white, dark green and tan. Remember, the stripes will show as 1/3 the number of end in 3 spots on the completed blanket.

Farm news might as well be a mud report. Brown, deep and predicted to last a good long while. Small efforts on the laundry mound. A short round of toenail trimming. Gene is taking Pogo to the vet ( she is a saint I tell you) to have his nails clipped as I will no longer put my fingers in jeopardy. Don't think I haven't dreamed of a little plywood pillory or a set of stocks for the monster. Pogo is lucky to have such a patron as Gene. Me too!

I'll be posting the drawing winners tomorrow. In fact, there will be a sixth batch, since I culled just a bit more from my stash. Really, I am blessed to HAVE so much to be able to spread it about.

Blogoversary Give-Away and They Aren't Aint's Anymore

First off CONGRATULATIONS to the New Orleans Saints for their first ever trip and win to the Super Bowl. It was one of the best Super Bowl games so far and I don't think anyone, Colts or otherwise really begrudges a win for you and your city. Wish I was closer because you guys really know how to party. :-)

Okay, I'm a few days late on my first blogoversary ( Feb.3), but only because I've been sorting and cleaning out my stash. I had a little party of my own. I got to pet all of my stash yarn and we had a few crazy games of give me that skein back with the dogs. Miss Bea is one stealthy thief! The rest of them could be on America's Dumbest Criminals.

I am giving away batches of yarn. I'll pay for shipping but I ask on the honor system you donate something to your local animal shelter or rescue. It could be toys, food, volunteer time, cash, fostering whatever, but something. I know there is a lot of heartache in the world, but for this one giveaway I am specific that it goes to animals in need. That's it. Leave a comment on this posting, all names are going into a hat and will be pulled out and matched for the basket of yarns in the order they are listed here. First name, first basket, second name, second basket etc....

Batch One:

Scads of Silky Wool: 22 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool in various colors. Enough for about 2 sweaters really.

Batch Two:

Everything BUT the Kitchen Sink: 3 Skeins of Creative Focus Worsted in Color Jeans, 2 Balls of S. Charles Sabrina color 21, 3 balls of Rowan Tapestry color 179

1 skein Great Adirondack Tribbles in color 519 ( Hopscotch), 1 skein Berroco Trilogy color 7620, 1 skein Berroco Quest color 9812, 1 ball Rowan Big Wool Fusion color 05

1 skein Jamieson's DK 891, 1 skein Scottish Campion color Emerald and lastly 1 ball Louisa Harding Kashmir Bay color 10.

Batch Three:

Damask: 12 balls of Rowan Damask color 42

Batch Four:

Sock it To Me: I skein Y4S lamb/camel in color Hunters Glen, 4 Skeins Froehlich Special Blauband 2 color 40, 2 color 58, 2 balls Cascade Fixation color 9349

1 skein Meilenweit Trend color 6050, 1 skein Twisted Fiberart Ariel Organic Stripe custom color from a sock club, 2 balls Panda Cotton color Faded Jeans, 1 skein Lorna's Laces in purple to greys, has lost it's tag but untouched other wise.

Batch Five:

Cotton: 5 balls Debbie Bliss Wool/Cotton color 602, 3 balls Jo Sharp Soho Summer in color 212, 1 skein Classic Elite Four Seasons in color 7676, 2 balls of Lana Grossa Caramella Print in color 603. These don't appear in the picture because I rooted them out after lying in bed thinking about my other hidey holes. 2 skeins Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece color Truffle ( dark brown),2 skeins Cotton Classic 1 in color 3227(tan) & 1 in color 3525(yellow), 3 skeins Plymouth Naturale in Royal blue, pale yellow and light blue. Two have lost their tags but the skeins are complete.

I'll do my names in the hat Thursday night and announce the winners on Friday!

Cleaning Off the Nightstand

My January trip meant a fair amount of reading, both on the journey and during the visit. Some books from my list and others that popped into my hands unexpected.

The Devils Brood by Sharon Kay Penman was just awful. Both dull and long and unfinished will go into the giveaway pile. On the other hand Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel left me wanting more. I loved it. I also found a new to me mystery writer. C. J. Sansom and have consumed two of his books so far, Dissolution and Dark Fire both set in Tudor England. A P.D. James mystery kept me entertained during the flight back, Devices & Desires. It was a good choice for a long trip and I thoroughly enjoyed it along with Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell & Know by Alexandra Horowitz

Now usually when books are removed and the stacks reordered I still have little room on the nightstand, but with my early birthday gift from my parents that has all changed. (Yes, Half Broke Horses is still there waiting and Heaven and Earth is being consumed at a very slow rate.) For future reading I have a new Kindle 2 and I have to say, I am really happy with it. ( threading hook for size perspective)

Last night I downloaded two books, instantly and I don't have to think about where to put them after they are done. If I want them off my Kindle I can delete them but they will always be on my Amazon account should I want to download them again. It's not perfect, I still covet my knitting and weaving books and have no desire to have those on the Kindle, but for the usual consumption of reading material I am smitten. Another bonus for me is not having tired hands holding open a large book

and of course, when I travel I can take as many books with me as my heart desires and not have a carry on that weighs a ton. That leaves much more room for knitting projects on the go! The case ( Courtesy of Kindle Chaos) I found for it is pretty nice too.

Padded but with perfect cutouts for the controls. It is a flip style with an easel stand so I can rest it on my chest when reading in bed or have the read to me feature on which allows me to knit while reading.

Not all books have the text to speech option but the FREE Sherlock Holmes books I downloaded do as do many others.

Oh the two books downloaded....The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland and Sovereign by C.J. Sansom.

Maiden Warp

Finally, after a long tie the treadles session, we're up and weaving on the new to me Hollandia, who still hasn't found her name.

She is a bit fussy with her tie up in comparison to Hey Baby, but not any where near as contentious as tying up the Barbara V loom. It was, after all, our first time too.

This loom came with a bench. I don't think it's a Louet bench but it is beautifully made and I love the end pieces that allow me to tip it and lock it in at a slight angle. It is a thoughtful and well executed piece of equipment.

As always, Jack just has to get into the picture. I lifted up the sheepskin so he HAD to come over and check it out.

The 8/4 rug warp sett at 12 epi MIGHT be a little open, but my experience with cotton is that it shrinks quite a bit and I'm thinking a tighter sett could make the fabric too stiff. I made a threading error, fixed it with the addition of homemade heddle and another warp thread hung off the back. I stopped short of re-sleying.

If it was a longer run (only 3 yards) or gift towels, I would do it. For use in our household, they are just fine and I'm not so sure once the whole thing is put in the washer and dryer to shrink and finish it might be a none issue all together. Unlikely, but hope springs eternal. A little more sampling to do and then I will start in on the towels proper

Yesterday was like most Fridays; my town day. It was an easy and quick one, two stops. Websters ( of course) and the grocery store. Ah yarn and food, the sustenance of life. ;-)

I didn't need any yarn, but this beautiful Lantern Moon yarn ball container came home with me. It's a silvery mocha although it was very hard to choose with so many pretty colors.

I have been looking at the pottery ones here and there on Etsy, but being breakable have held off. A silk one will handle the wag of a tail or a curious nose pushing it around with dignity, not to mention a butterfingers knitter!

The best part of the whole trip was the ride down. Just after the summit I rounded a corner and there, in the middle of the road was a big beautiful Bald Eagle. He saw the car and strutted his stuff over to the side of the road, wings out just to let me know if we tried anything he was all business. I was watching to make sure he wasn't hurt in some way. After getting to the shoulder he still wasn't comfortable with me there, so took one good running leap and swooped up into a fir tree where he literally lorded over me. I parked the car on the shoulder and watched him for a good five minutes.

He preened, opening that wing span for a birds eye view. Not a feather was a miss and

after showing off, he took off in search of thermals and food . Looked like a promising day for both.

While we have a good population of eagles it is always a treat to see one so close and this one was a good healthy looking specimen, mature and in great plumage. I secretly wished he would drop a feather or two from the preening, but no such luck.

Bag Be Gone

Well, actually bag be unpacked, AND put away. Geesh, took almost a week. Now, house wise it's on to the heap o laundry, but unless something of interest crawls out of the pile, it's hardly blog worthy, even for me! ;-)

What is blog worthy is the progress I'm making on my Dad's sweater.

Did I make my end of January goal? No, but considering how busy I was only having one more sleeve to knit up and finish work to do, not bad. Likely I will ship it out by the end of February and if New England, cooperates he might get a wear or two before packing it away.

The new Louet Hollandia is proving to be as wonderful and easy as the the Delta although minor differences do exist. One is the raddle, it does not have a built in one but came with a lovely home made one which fits on the arms going from the castle to the back beam. These arms fold up allowing you to fold the back beam up to the castle just like Hey Baby. You can just see the raddle resting on those arms right behind the castle

While nice, it isn't my favorite position for the raddle. I like it on the castle, so I took it and clamped it there like I do on the Murphy loom and proceeded to start a getting-to-know-you warp. These will be simple cotton towels with a rosepath design border. With 14 treadles I can go to town with some of the fancier border patterns but I have chosen one using only 10 treadles at present.

If I feel ambitious, I might do one that requires 13 treadles. I'll decide once she's threaded and sleyed. For those who are interested in looking at the possible selections they are out of "A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns from the Friends of Handwoven" edited by Carol Strickler, pages 30-33 and I am looking at patterns 135 and 138. Warp is 8/4 cotton, ( Maysville rug warp) sett at 12 epi. Weft will be the same. I have a fair amount of this stuff and since I am switching over to perle cotton for the prayer flags, I figured I would give it a try. The towels off the loom will be 18"x24". They are patterned after a runner that Sue at Life Looms Large wove at Christmas time. Hers is rep weave but the color blocks were my inspiration.

The breast beam unbolts instead of lifting off two metal splines, which is a tiny bit more trouble, but I can easily get a chair in as close as I want for threading, just put the legs between the numerous treadles.

On the Delta I have to use a rolling chair as the foot rest is set too high to place a regular chair in there with it's stretchers/wood dowel thingies that keep it stable. A rolling chair allows the base to slide under the foot rest at least until it hits the chair seat pillar.

Another blanket is in the planning stages for the Delta, and also fine cotton pillow cases for the next Hollandia warp. Both will be plain weave but no doubt challenging in the number of warp ends. The blanket again around 930 and probably close to that for pillow cases in 20/2 cotton. I would love to do fine linen pillowcases someday, for myself and for gifts. While many people love silk, I find the crispness of linen delightful.

In farm news, no additional cat sightings, but our cats have been terribly overfed by Gene. I swear they look like fat little ticks, not lean, hungry hunters of mice. The horses had their hooves trimmed Tuesday. Imp shot up in what is close to his last growth spurt. All of a sudden he's lengthened and lost that short backed colt look and seems to have gained an inch in height. He'll be 4 this spring and a baby no more. Let's hope it's a short adolescence!

Finally...the Fiber

Well, if you are from the Boston area you might say fib-ah! Which ever way you say it, there is a lot of fibery goodness to be had in the Northeast and I have just scratched the tip of what's available to New Englanders. My shop of choice when in Beverly, MA is Yarns in the Farms and every bit of my purchases came from there this time.

My mother fell in love with the sweater I am making my Dad, so add a third sweater to knit from that pattern, this time in a Briggs & Little yarn, Atlantic in Sea foam.

I had never seen this yarn before but I'm sold, it's lovely stuff in beautiful colors.

Next up is a sweaters worth of yarn for myself.

The dark plum and green yarns are Dream in Color Classy colors Gothic Rose and Spring Tickle respectively. The variegated yarns are both Araucania Hand dyed Toconao Multy in colors 414 and 410

and it's all to make Tink's Racing Stripe Sweater.

The two smaller skeins of natural and cocoa brown are Bijou Basin Ranch's Bijou Spun

Yak down and cormo wool ( 50/50) in a dk or sport weight. This is petting yarn right now.

The lovely array of LeClerc stick shuttles were a gift from Sue.

I was thrilled. I did try to share them with my Dad, but he has plenty already. I didn't have a single one of this type so it was a delightful and useful addition to my weaving room. Thank you Sue.

I didn't buy any yarn for weaving, I have so much right now and knew a largish order for 5/2 perle cotton was making it's way cross country from WEBS for when I got back.

On farm news, it's pretty quiet although it seems we have a new visitor to the barn. A grey tiger striped cat much like Juno. I just caught her this morning and while cautious, she went and hid right around the corner of the barn as compared to taking full flight. Why have I dubbed her a she, well, if it was a tom, I'd be able to smell him easily, so either this cat has been neutered or it's a female.

The horses all look well and are happy the treat train has arrived home although they are not enjoying the heavy duty mud we've had. Goats all good. Morning feeding is a bit quieter without Angel. She and Smoochie use to enjoy running the dog fence line together as I brought the tractor up to the paddock. I could see them( and hear them) racing in the pen lights. Smoochie still wants to go out, but now looks for his pal in her crate, turns and then walks to the fence line and sits. Breaks my heart to see it and there is very little I can do. The pack is in flux, losing a member means everyone needs to reestablish an order of sorts. It is what it is and I am an outsider looking in.

And for those in the US, Happy Groundhog Day!