I am LOVING it!

This turned taquete blues warp is amazing! I like it with a solid color weft.

But I love, love LOVE it with a multi-colored weft.

I’m half way through my warp of 8 towels. The yarn arrived for the next pair of custom baby wraps, and as soon as I get the towels off the loom I’ll start winding the warp for that.

September 30th, 2014 | 

Making decisions

I think I mentioned that I have never before done any fall garden cleanup. Usually by now I’m too busy, too tired, too over-it-all. I changed that decision this year because my house is on the market & I think my gardens have to look at least somewhat presentable regardless of what month someone might stop by to look at it.

Never having done this before I wasn’t really sure how to go about it. I’ve got the weeding & mulching down pat, but what perennials should I cut back & what should I leave? I consulted some websites and a friend who’s a Master Gardener. Then I started working, and came up with a rule of thumb that works for me.

If it’s a plant that I actually do trim back in the spring or one that I should trim back, then I’d cut it back now. In the first category are things like my peonies and red hot pokers, in the second things like my Siberian iris and daylilies.

I think this rule of thumb makes sense. The things I’m purposely leaving standing include all woody/shrubby plants and anything that I really want to promote, things that I hope will spread their seeds over the fall and winter and reproduce themselves. And o course, the biennials like foxglove and the things that provide winter interest (grasses) or bird food (echinacea).

My yard is definitely looking much more presentable.

Gardening decisions, weaving decisions. I have to make decisions all the time. I wrote about all the decisions I had to make with those turned taquete towels, how many changes I went through. In the end I really like them and will start winding a new warp today. Although I know that others like to sett 8/2 yarn closer, for me 24 ends per inch is great for a thirsty towel. Here are the fiv good towels I got out of that troubled warp, washed, dried, & hemmed, but not yet pressed.

See that not great treadling decision in the left quarter of towel 1?

Towel 2 has variegated blues/greens/purples weft.

Towel 3 had a solid light blue weft.

Towel 4 has a solid dark green weft with varied treadling patterns. I’m liking those little areas...

...so I do more of that with towel 5 (solid dark blue weft). Hmmm...I actually like towel 4’s design better.

Here are the colors I’ll use for my new warp – 8 instead of the 4 I used for the first time around. This involved about a zillion decisions — blues or oranges? Which blues? In what order?

If I’m willing to change warp colors regularly – and I will for at least some of them – here’s how beautifully gem-like they’ll be.

Wait! Maybe I should make scarves like this!
No. Stick with your decision and start with the towels, Peg. You can make scarves later, but you need towels in your stash now.

September 29th, 2014 | 

New things

Let’s start with the loudest, and the cutest.

I was working at the Macomber late this afternoon, when all of a sudden there at my porch door was someone looking in at me and saying, “Hi! Let me in, please.” After a double-take, I realized I had a visitor.

I opened the door and she didn’t run – sort of trotted to the other end of the porch while Red did his, “Who the heck are you?” thing. I put Red back in the house and kitty came right to me for some pets. Sweet little thing. A medium-hair (not long, not short Siamese with lovely blue eyes.

So I came inside and got a little bowl and put a small handful of Red’s food in it (small dog = small bites dog food). She gobbled it up. I gave her another small handful. Gone. A third small handful – gone again.

I’d made myself some chicken vegetable soup for dinner, so I gave Red about 1/3 cup of it in a bowl in the house and kitty abou 1/3 cup of it in a bowl on the porch. She ate it all – green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, every bit.

I made a few phone calls to see if a neighbor knew where she lived. Nope.

I went back out on the porch, with Red this time, and they calmly said hello to each other. Not a hiss, an arched back, or a grow I brought out a towel and put it in the wooden box that lives on my porch and showed it to kitty. Not interested. But I noticed whe I picked her up that she weighs nothing. Looks healthy enough, but I’m guessing is young. She was happy to have me pet her, fine with me picking a burr-ish thing out of her tail. She was okay with me prodding her front feet to confirm my guess from watching her eat – she’s been declawed. I’m guessing she’s been spayed, too.

That tells me that it’s not likely that she was ‘dropped off.’ Has happened plenty of times in the past, usually with a very pregnan female. This little girl is not pregnant. I’m thinking something happened that she got lost.

I’m not going to let her in the house this evening, ‘cuz I’m betting she’s used to a litter box and I don’t have one. If she’s still here in the morning I know my friend M wants her. That’s fine with me. I’d probably keep her myself, but I’d much rather M have a pe than that I get a cat while I’m trying to sell my house.

After I got kitty fed and made her a bed I came back inside and put the sauce/salsa I’d had simmering for hours into jars for thei hot water bath.

I used a recipe from my neighbor. She calls it chili sauce, but I think it’s more like a salsa. In addition to the usual culprits – tomatoes, onions, peppers, sugar, vinegar – this recipe has fresh peaches & pears in it. Yum!

Oh, yeah. Remember up top I told you I was working at my Macomber? I’m making great progress on the custom shawl – a silk gebrochene.

Can you spot the treadling error? It’s in the third medallion from the top. I didn’t see it till I was at the computer with the photo, at which point I’d already woven much more than you see here. I’m calling it a design element.

I tried to get a good shot of the underside but didn’t succeed. I think I like that side even better than the ‘top.’ You’ll have to wait till it’s off the loom to see it.

September 16th, 2014 |