Book Review

Kenny and I are leaving for Washington State June 29th. We are driving our car and plan to pull a U-Haul trailer so that I can transport a bookshelf, a barbeque, an knick knack cabinet and assorted boxes. I decided this would be a great time to go through my craft books, weed out the duplicates, and make of list of all the books I currently own.

It has taken me 12 evenings working off and on to rearrange the bookshelves. I found several duplicate books (a result of receiving one as a gift after I had already purchased the same title) which I boxed to take up to Washington. I also organized the bookshelf into categories (1) Spinning, (2) Weaving, (3) Machine Knitting, (4) Hand Knitting, (5) Embroidery, (6) Sewing, (7) Pattern Drafting, (8) Miscellaneous Crafts, (9) Knitting novels and Humor, (11) Designing, and (11) North American Birds (I know -- birds aren't a part of the fiber art group but I like to watch them and have bird feeders all over). I added a shelf for DVD's and my notebooks. When I was done, I could actually find books I was looking for without reading every title.

I also started a swatch of the yarn I just finished spinning and plying. I decided to make the shawl as a Christmas present and have absolutely no idea what gauge this will knit up at -- hence the swatch.

Happy Father's Day!

This is one of my favorite photographs of Dan and Kenny taken on Father's Day when Kenny was five years old. Dan was on duty but had stopped by the house in his patrol car to see Kenny. Kenny ran outside, climbed into his Dad's lap and demanded I "take a picture for his room". I did and here it is.

The corn in our garden was ready to harvest so Kenny and I picked all the ears, stripped off the husks, blanched it for two minutes and sealed it all in plastic bags. All told, we have nearly 80 ears packed away. We have time for one more corn harvest before winter so we planted more corn.

The tomato plants are also producing at full peak. I picked nearly 30 tomatoes this morning and plan to simmer them into tomato sauce. We are also enjoying fresh tomatoes slices as well.

I am also pleased with the towels I am weaving. It took a while to work out the pattern. I had some trouble with the warp because it involves color changes to make the stripes. I had originally wound off for a plain white warp then changed my mind and decided to add color to the original warp. This meant that I had to remember to skip heddles when I threaded them to leave room to add the colored warp threads. It took me nearly three weeks to finally get it right. I then had to program the computer to lift the warp in the proper sequence and remind me what colors I needed in the bobbins. I started out with one boat shuttle but quickly acquired three more so that I didn't have to keep changing bobbins. The first towel went quite slow and has errors in spacing and color changes. The second towel went much faster. The third towel (pictured above) seems to be coming together better than I anticipated and is the first towel I was willing to photograph and post in the blog. Weaving seems more difficult to me than knitting, but I realize I am still in the beginning of the learning curve. And I have to admit that the last towel has actually been fun.

I also finished plying the wool I have been spinning and have now wound it into center pull balls. Last month, I purchased a wonderful shawl pattern from Anne Hanson at Knitspot called "The Morning Glory Wrap". I think that this yarn will work well for that project.

Spy Cams and Spinning

My husband had a surprise for me. He knows that I miss our home in Washington (pictured above) when we are in California so he decided to bring Washington to me whenever I wanted. Last week Dan repeatedly went to and from the computer store. When we loaded up the pickup truck, he placed a several, large mysterious boxes in the back seat. Since Dan enjoys ham radio and police scanners as a hobby, I didn't think too much of it. Unbeknownst to me, while I was at The Weaver's School, he was outside our house in the rain mounting cameras and crawling around in the attic stringing cable. On Wednesday night, Dan borrowed my laptop computer. Then, on Thursday morning, while I was in the middle of the ferry crossing between Mukilteo and Clinton, he telephoned me on my cell phone and told me to get onto the Internet. Thoroughly mystified, I dutifully plugged in the air card, connected to the Internet and followed his instructions. And suddenly, this popped onto my computer screen....

It's our yard. Eight color cameras are aimed at various points. I can see our side yard, the front yard, the woods in front of the house, our caretaker's house, the garage, the garden shed and the front door. Dan informed me that several of the cameras have "night vision" so I can see the critters that walk through our yard at night. So now, even when I am in California, I can visit our house any time I like.

Now that I completed The Weaver's School, I decided to paint our fences on Saturday. The forecast was for clear skies and a crisp temperature. Anticipating a dry day, I arose early on Saturday morning to, you guessed it......rain. And not the light drizzly stuff either, this was a full fledged downpour. When it became clear that the rain had absolutely no intention of letting up any time soon, I decided to head over to the Allyn Knit Shop and join their Saturday knitting session. I added 10 more rows to my vest, then headed home.

It was still raining so I decided to set up my spinning wheel by the front window and work on some sock yarn. Saturday is normally the day I try to set aside as my spinning day. Unfortunately, I don't always get to spin as much as I would like because of the demands of my family, my home and my profession.

I have two spinning wheels -- A Schacht Matchless double treadle and a Schacht-Reeves 30" Saxony. Both wheels are wonderfully balanced and a dream to spin on. The Matchless is in Washington and the Saxony is in California so I have access to a spinning wheel where ever I am.

The Matchless is also equipped with a "Woolee Winder" . The WooLee Winder is a custom flyer designed by Robert Lee. It has no hooks on the flyer arm, instead it uses two eyelets. One is stationary and the other moves automatically as the yarn winds onto the bobbin. This moving action winds the yarn onto the bobbin over its entire length evenly in much the same way as a deep sea fishing reel. This allows the spinner to keep spinning without having to stop and move the yarn up or down the hooks. My Woolee Winder was a birthday present to me from my sons two years ago and I enjoy spinning with it.

I had previously knitted my father a pair of boot socks from a Merino-Alpaca blend I had carded on my drum carder, then spun as a fairly thick single. The Alpaca was a variety of grays and blacks with some white mixed in, the merino was white. Although the socks do not match exactly in pattern, the socks are warm and soft. I had my father try on the first one at Christmas and he said that it was warm and cozy.

My new fiber was sent to me by a friend in Washington State. This top is a merino/icelandic blend that she purchased from a local breeder. It is a blend of reds, whites, blacks and greys. I am spinning it fairly thin as I do want ply it x2. I wanted a fairly thick yarn that I could felt into a pair of slippers/booties.

I spent the afternoon sipping hot chocolate, stoking the fireplace and watching the rain. Oh yes, I was able to spin three bobbins full of yarn and plied two of them. I laid a strand of two ply across the remaining bobbin for the picture. As you can see, the resulting yarn is maroon with grey highlights. I think it will make a lovely pair of felted slippers/booties. I can hardly wait to finish the yarn and start knitting.