A Quick Side Trip to Italy

The end of the annual visit always feels like the day after Christmas. The little let down that the holiday is over. It makes for a great time to throw oneself into a project (or two), so I took myself off to Italy yesterday. It's no secret that there are certain places in this world known for excellence. Paris fashion, Irish Linen, Shetland wool yarn, Turkish rugs and Philly Cheese Steak to name a few. Well, nothing is nicer than Italian woven fabrics, at least to me. When I went to Italy in 1995, I brought back yards of Valentino fabric and even by today's standards the yardage cost was dear. Today I am lucky enough to have someone bring fine Italian fabrics locally for purchase. Sandi at FOV (Fabric of Vision) out did herself this fall with some beautiful bolts and I made some great purchases at good prices.

I wish the computer could allow you to feel these fabrics. The drape is like liquid silver, the hand soft and smooth. This is wool meant to be worn next to the skin and season spanning in weight.

Double sided twill Peacock/Navy wool

Honey Comb type weave in Black and White. Very very soft.

Pinstripe wool Grey/Brown and Cream with a blue/grey cast. I'll be using the less shiny reverse side for some of my garment.

I spent yesterday cutting out 3 pairs of pants and one Japanese cotton fabric for a blouse. I have a lot of sewing lined up and it's a good thing. We're expecting the first true snow of the season and about 5-6 days of unsettled weather starting tonight.

In other news, the rabble is settling down after the visit. Robin still expects his daily walk and I've been accommodating him.

He is one terrific little terrier! Our walks now are just about all off leash, he sticks close to me and even when he sees something like a wild turkey, doesn't run off. I'm SO impressed with him and even more thrilled to have a hiking companion again. Fat Sam and Lexie were my steady hikers for many years. Peter also has been a great little guy to take on walks, but he is almost 17 and not up to the hard long hikes of old. Charlotte is reliable but never really enjoys the walks. Stella has many charms, but walking on the leash is not her strong suit and she would be gone in a heartbeat off leash. Robin was 6 months on October 28th and I am looking forward to many many miles together. I allowed the breeder to pick this pup for me from the litter of 3 boys and can't be more pleased.

Parting shot: Did you say close up?

They're There

Yep, Friday night we had our last dinner together at the Peerless Restaurant. As always the food and spirits where first rate and conversation and dessert lively. All too soon the meal (and the visit) were over. My folks flew home to Massachusetts ahead of the Nor'easter that came up the Atlantic coast. They woke up Sunday morning in their own beds to some of the white stuff and a downed branch in the driveway. I spent Sunday wishing for a longer visit, thinking about next spring and being grateful the Patriots game was blacked out.

We had a wonderful visit, the shopping was good, the eating and drinking...better!

Both my Mother and Father are great cooks and each did a few fabulous meals. I will say, my Mom gets points for always doing the clean-up and Dad for doing the daily run down the mountain for supplies except on Sunday's of course! ;) It's amazing what we can dream up when we all get together.

Robin and my Dad took to one another and each day the two would head out for a stroll. The donkey's got some extra attention too not to mention lots of carrots. Stella

got her fair share of ball throwing each day and Smoochie, who adores my Mother more than anyone he knows, lavished her with attention.

There was also some sewing, Mom picked out some neon green corduroy at Fabric of Vision and I whipped her up another Quincy top.

Got one done for myself too!

Dad got some wonderful hand dyed Tencel yarn at Webster's and will be making a beautiful scarf or two from it. Just grand stuff from Prism. Here's my hank.

His was in greys, blues and bronzes. Sorry no pictures. As is typical, I put the camera away during these much anticipated and enjoyed visits and go with the flow.

I managed to get a prayer flag done and sent home with my Mom that was requested last spring. They are so time consuming and I have to be honest, writing out the prayers always makes me rather depressed since it was a Rainbow Bridge flag.

The towel warp is again being woven on, but not too much. I need to get those rolling as the holidays are just around the corner and I need a lot of towels!

The horse shelter is slowly moving along too. Gene completed the digging and form building Sunday and will be getting rebar today and pouring the concrete foundation tomorrow. From there it's all simple building and I hope goes quickly.

Parting shot: Small-Medium-Large.

They're Here!

And that means that I am usually not blogging but enjoying every moment I can during the two week stay. Worse, I have no pictures to post. You will have to take my word for it that the top I made my mother fits and she likes it and that the wool runner is packed up in my Dads bag so it isn't forgotten when the visit ends.

The loom is weaving again some more Celtic towels, the sewing room isn't being totally neglected, food, beer, wine and football all are being enjoyed.

Parting Shot: A sniffing nose gathers some interesting moss!

Able to Leap Small Gullies in a Single Bound

Yeah, sure, They can try to keep me quiet with their bandages and bags and inflatable collars.

But my nose is good.

My hearing and eyesight keen.

I could go for miles wrapped paw or not.

And I'm smart too. It's nicer to just stay close to home, walking with someone who loves me

and has treats... ;>

Let's Play Dress Up

Oh heavens, Robin isn't the only one wearing some gear these days. Who would have expected wet snow on October 5th? Not me! But there it was, snow here in the air and snow actually sticking just a bit higher up. And now I have three Miniature MEDITERRANEAN Donkeys. I'm pretty sure it doesn't snow where they are originally from and donkeys with the exception of the Baudet du Poitou,have a pretty skimpy coat. Hence my having to go out and dress the donks yesterday.

Brand new waterproof coats with warm linings came out of the packages and onto the donkeys. And they were pretty good about it too. I didn't get kicked and the only one who appeared never to have been blanketed was Sugarfoot. The girls stood like like little troopers while I adjusted and crossed back leg straps. Sugarfoot needed a bit of a lead around with just the neck and belly strap buckled but finally relaxed enough for me to do the back leg strap cross.

He got carrots, they all got carrots and then went and wandered around their paddock admiring each others new clothes. They hopefully stayed warm and dry last night as the temps dropped to below freezing. I will undress them today once it has warmed up.

Robin is doing well although his maid is becoming weary of bagging his wrapped foot for the wet outdoors. He is so good though and while he'd tear that bandage to pieces if left for very long on his own, he minds his manners about it for the most part.

I've put a little infant sock over the whole wad to keep it clean and he seems less likely to want to chew that.

We'll change it today and check on the nail growth. Once he has a bit of it over the exposed bone he'll be good to go without the bandage. About two weeks.

I managed to carve out some time from cleaning and puppy care on Sunday and had a fabric cutting bonanza while I watched and listened to football. Lord knows there is enough of it on Sunday! A couple of shirts have been completed, another three are cut

and waiting for marking and then I can start in on them as I have time. The first of the completed shirts is a second rendition of the grey tie blouse. I opted not to do the ties and did a better job of grading.

It fits very nicely and I love the soft interesting print. Yesterday morning we had a disaster with it though. I was serging one of the side seams and the fabric from the side front got creased and serged under it. Now mine is an old serger, fast and powerful and cuts quicker than you can take a breath. A large V cut was created in the front panel. I creatively patched it after shedding some tears and truth be told, I like it better. I LOVE happy accidents.

The second top is my standard TNT (tried and true) Hot Patterns shirt.

I did the collar for the first time and I like it. Of course I cut it way down along with the stand to be more like ready to wear.

That is my main gripe with just about all shirt patterns. The collar and the stand are too big. I took this down by almost half. Next time I may trim it even more and do a button down collar.

The loom is all back and ready for weaving.

In fact I might get to some of that today after I put my portion of cleaning time in. I loved that one dark brown/mink colored towel and think I will do a couple of them for myself.

The folks will be arriving next Saturday and we're both getting excited. This Saturday hay arrives and that should excite everyone outside. Hay is costly this year, less growers since the livestock market has tanked, especially horses and those that are, sell out of their barns and fields in small tonnage amounts. Fewer farms are offering delivery. We're paying about what we did last year for hay. Buying less with just three horses but spending more. The donkeys don't eat enough to really add into the equation, much like the goats.

Parting shot: "More cut carrots, Please!"

The Collar of Shame

Oh it is so sad, my tale of woe. ;) Yesterday was the big day for Robin. On Weds he had injured a toe on his front foot digging. We figured it was a thin slice in that little space between the bottom of the toenail and the pad. Well, it seems he peeled enough of the nail off below it's bed that he actually exposed the bone underneath. The nail had to be cut back, lots of antibiotics and of course, a bandage. Oh joy! Try keeping that on a 5 month old Jack pup.

He had a baby tooth pulled, he was microchipped and of course, he was neutered. He was quite a doped up sore little mess of a dog when I rescued him from the vet yesterday afternoon. As it seems all dogs do, this morning he has made a remarkable recovery. Bouncing, jaunty, ready to take on that vet wrap and his appetite is back!

My Version of Storing Nuts

And you thought I might be talking about Robin didn't you? Well Robin got a reprieve

until Friday because I am a dope. I thought his day was Wednesday and the farriers was Tuesday. Seems they were both Tuesday. Oops!

My version of nut storage has to do with fabric and yarns. At the beginning of summer I took in about 20 pounds of cotton yarn in all flavors and colors. All either 8/2 or pearl 5/2. Through the summer I have made some lovely fabric purchases too for fall/winter sewing. Compared to weaving and knitting, sewing goes fast, inventory can drop quickly and face it, good fabric is hard to find these days unless you have a great store near you or a good online fabric vendor. I have both.

For those that are looking for an online source for fabrics of interest and quality for garment sewing, try Gorgeous Fabrics. They have wonderful service, and each of the fabrics gives a good idea of weight, a pattern or two that would work well with it and coordinating fabrics, along with the pantone color, fiber content and even recommended needle size and type. A lot of information that makes buying on line MUCH easier. And of course, my local favorite Fabric of Vision with their interesting selection of garment fabrics.

Here is my little fall array of stash waiting to be made into some kind of wearable wonderful. It's been procured over the summer and contains a nice selection of blouse, jacket and pant weight materials.

And a new pattern done up in some nice Birch Organic cotton.

I am in love with this collar and will have to do this pattern again, a little longer with a shaped hem and no ties. I like the ties, I didn't think I would but they are a very specific look and I don't need a lot of tied blouses in my wardrobe, one or two maybe.

But a good looking shirt with a nice soft collar detail can be repeated again and again with variations. For others that like it also, it's Kwik Sew pattern #3620.

And please note the beautiful yarn on the chair.

This is more Kauni with the long color changes producing a lovely shading effect. I loved the naturals on the overshot gift piece and I'm going to try these teals on a dark warp for something different. Websters is still the best place I know of for beautiful yarns

The horses like to spend time watching the donkeys.

The donkeys spend time watching the horses.

The barn cats Buzz and Juno appear religiously for meals. In the barn.

Gene spends time taking the shelter down to rebuild it as a barn

closer to front of the paddock for my ease

and Dandy just wants you to note how handsome he is.

He spends his time standing in the pasture posing.

Parting shot: Only a true friend lets you nap on them.

Replace or Repair

This is a repair household that's for sure. To that end, we installed, and I use that plural loosely, a new cook top. Our old one had been used and abused. Gene dropped a cast iron dutch oven chipping the corner, everyday use furthered that chip into a series of cracks. Finally, it just looked like the whole thing was going to give way and ruin the elements below. It was truly time for a new one. We looked into replacing the whole unit with a new one. Down draft cook tops are expensive and over the last 10 years the prices have stayed pretty much the same, about $1300.00 to start in electric. I can't say any of them are worth that. It was a solution to a problem when we built the house and still holds as the best one. There is no gas out here and neither one of us was thrilled with the idea of a propane tank large or small. Electric was the easy option. Now I don't mind the old fashion calrod units myself, but near impossible to find them with the down draft option and we opted not to have a hood hanging over our island and the venting that needed to happen above. It was easier and cheaper to vent out the basement level. So, we had to stay the course set and thankfully, a replacement top is still made. I guess I'm not the only one to crumb them up. What a production getting it changed out though.

I think it took Gene about 3-4 hours and cleaning everything was just plain nasty. You would be surprised at the places grease and grime get into on that appliance. But it's all in, it looks just about like the old one, it has no cracks and it works.

The cost savings was about a thousand dollars (not including what labor would have cost us if Gene couldn't do this repair), so it was worth effort. Good job!

In weaving news the towels are done and sold. I don't know what the three of them brought but last bid was $60.00 for the fire department. I spent all of Friday weaving.

Okay, I self interrupted many times for dog walks and donkey and horse petting, but by 3:00pm, the towels were in the dryer and yesterday morning early they were serged, hemmed, well pressed and tagged for auction.

I have to retie my warp and then I can weave on this wonderful pattern at my leisure.

In farm news, the donkeys are all happy. They spend hours chin to shoulder grooming each other. They rest touching even when lying down and they share hay so nicely.

It does my heart good to see them all relaxed and happy. I am rewarded every time I go out with soft little brays of greeting and sometimes a full blast or two. The girls are quite talkative. This brings me back to their names. Star is staying star, but Lady Jane

is not. Martha at Thistle & Rose Handweaving pointed out what a tragic figure Lady Jane Grey was, and it's true. I always try to give sweet names, because I have found my animals live up to them. Imp was one and Boo wasn't the bravest horse around. To that end we have changed her name to Ladybird, and it will just have to do. :) Thank you Martha! I'm glad you pointed it out.

Robin will be bidding farewell to the furry dice next week. It's that time already! Those five months have gone by in the blink of an eye it seems. Like his sister Stella, it appears that we will be helping along some stubborn baby canines while he's under for the neuter. Nothing is ever simple.

Parting shot: Say Cheese little ham