Pine Trees

Well, let me tell you that tying up 11 treadles on a countermarche loom with a puppy and cat as helpers is time consuming. Even without the "helpers" it took some time. My Dad puts his Louet Spring up on buckets to do the tie-ups and I think I'm going to try the same thing with Hannah Hollandia next time around.

Hey Baby Delta is just too heavy to consider it.

The towels are in process and so far, I'm pretty happy with the pattern.

I am only going to do the border on one edge. I want these to be working towels and I think the pattern at both ends with the floats might render it less sturdy.

We'll only know after a hot wash and dry how it all works out. The organic cotton shrinks like crazy, so while it appears sleazy right now, it won't be once finished. The only bummer is I have to share the temple between this warp and the pillow case warp. I need another temple in this mid-range 22-30 inch size. For now I'll make do.

Stella has graduated from the baby bed (crate) to the big girl bed (ours). She is not yet an accepted member of the Bed Tack Gang, but she's carving out her little niche inch by inch and bad acting growl by growl. She's a noisy little sleeper, lots of moans and little grunting sounds. It makes Gene and I giggle. I have also found a way to play ball in the morning without anyone having to hear the loud rubber ball bounce around.

While I was organizing the studio buffet, I can across two large felted balls that I've had since I took a dye class at the Webster's.

They are perfect and once I'm done with the game I pull them up and give Stella her little not stuffed zebra. It's just too slimy right now for a picture, trust me on this.

On farm news, the weather has been surprisingly cool. The highest temp this past weekend was 62 degrees F during the day. It RAINED yesterday, most of the morning and part of the afternoon. Temps never got any higher than 55F and Gene started Rube up to take the chill off of the house. Summer will be swinging back through later in the week, but it looks like cool nights from now on.

Dandy cut his left rear lower leg and while it isn't deep it's a pretty angry looking wound and we are flushing it daily with cool water, keeping it clean and applying antibacterial agents. It obviously stings. He holds the foot up tight while I'm working on it but has never offered to strike out with it, even when I had to give it a good cleaning out when first discovered. He's always the gentleman. Yes, the doled out treats are truly deserved.

No bear sign, but I am vigilant as we start moving into fall. The raccoon has visited once or twice and left empty pawed. We saw the most beautiful fox trotting down our driveway Saturday afternoon. He trotted into the barn to see if there was anything of interest and then trotted out in a typically foxy manner. It's sad to see my early morning dawn get later and later. I'm back to the hat and headlamp routine and have made a point of making a lot of noise when I head out the door.

Summer, like August, is waning. There is so much frost on the trees this morning that they look flocked for Christmas. I'm hoping for a long crisp fall, promising a good cold snowy winter. The dogwoods are already changing color. Stella's puppy summer is almost over. I've enjoyed it. So too, has she.

When the Poodle Hits the Pond

I got the Murphy scarf warped, threaded, woven and finished yesterday. It was a very fast 10" wide scarf with about 80 ends total. I wanted to try a multicolored yarn as weft this time and some Curious Creek Fiber's mohair and silk boucle had been trying to grab me every time I walked by it.  Yesterday was the day to ball it up and let it do it's thing. Hence the title of this post. I have to say, I much prefer vertical striping and when I use this again (and I will use it again), I will do so in the warp. However, the scarf feels wonderful, nubby and soft all at the same time with that silk sheen coming through on the mohair loops.

This will go into the humane society heap of scarves. Gene loves it but feels it might be too girlie for him to wear, plus as he said, he would wreck it catching the loops on stuff. I've seen what he does to hand knits . I know this to be true.

Yesterday mid morning I ran out of yarn for the saddle blankets. I had forgotten how weft faced saddle blankets and wool rugs are and bought nowhere near enough of 

the dark natural brown. The nice gals at the Websters have tucked into their magic holding closet 8 more skeins of the same dye lot for me to pick up when I get to town.

I had some problems with the selvage and there is a big old skip there in the blanket

which I fixed by hand weaving the last of my yarn into. I broke a couple of teeth on my

temple. When they say to remember to loosen the warp some before placing, they mean it. I really should have a

metal temple for this project with heavier teeth instead

of the finer one I have. We'll limp along until another can be procured. Thankfully all fixes are under where the saddle goes and none would cause any chaffing problems for

the horse. I am enjoying the weaving itself and have a few horsey friends I would like to gift with a saddle blanket. I think the next go round I'll use a heavy twine that Harrisville makes for the warp. I'm not in love with the 8/5 linen at all even though it is traditional. I used this for a tapestry I started on Barbara while I was refurbishing her fabric frames. It is nice to use, strong as all get out and doesn't have that loose twist that I find so annoying with the linen. The beauty of making anything yourself is you get to have it your way!