Knitting on the Rogue River

If you’re reading this and plan on attending Black Sheep Gathering this year then you might want to play Black Sheep Bingo. All of the details can be found on violinjodie’s blog. If you’re in Ravelry join the Black Sheep Gathering group for more details on who’s going, what classes everyone is taking, whether they’re a vendor, and where everyone is staying. This is a chance to make connections with all those Ravelers and bloggers that you’ve only met in the virtual sense. There are prizes involved (I’m donating stitch markers). So be sure to sign up and play!

My weaving guild is having a napkin exchange. Weave 8 napkins and get 8 back, all different. Sounded like fun and I’m always up for anything fibery and fun. Well, in my experience and overzealousness I’m unable to participate this year. :o(. I wanted to weave shadow weave napkins using 8/2 cotton. Since I made the dishtowels without incident I thought no problem. So I wound 7 yards of 8/2 and warped my new to me 8 shaft loom. And that’s where the problems started. I totally screwed up the warp and had tension problems from hell from the start. Part of the problem was the sectional beam that I didn’t warp correctly. After struggling with the warp and trying to weave anything useful I finally decided to rewarp the loom. When I tried to undo the warp from the sectional beam I started getting a tangled mess so in frustration I cut the warp off, took off the sectional parts and rewarped what I had left.

I ended up with 2 unequal napkins with mistakes and a swatch using a third color. On to another learning experience. Stayed tuned for Overshot Pot Holders.

Last weekend I had the good fortune to participate in a weaving workshop taught by Jannie Taylor on loom controlled lace. Besides learning about lace weaves it allowed me the opportunity to weave on several different looms including a computerized AVL. Following are some images from the workshop.

16-shaft AVL - I Love Huck Lace Butterflies

8-shaft Canvas Weave

16-shaft Louet Loom - Huck Lace in a Mist

4-shaft Rasmussen Loom (the one in the foreground - it’s mine) - Swedish Lace Blocks

More Pictures

My favorite loom from the workshop was the 16″ 8-shaft Woolhouse folding loom, probably the Mimi. Folds flat, easy to use, and good shed. I’m in the process of deciding how much loom I really need. The Woolhouse loom might be perfect for me for quite awhile.

Finally I leave you with an image I took on my way to work yesterday. Table Rock was in the clouds and looked awesome. Just wish it was a better shot.

p.s. It’s snowing outside right now.

I couldn’t be more pleased with the fit of the sweater I finished for hubby. And to prove it here’s a couple of pictures.

After 15 months of knitting it’s a relief to have it all come together so nicely. And such a handsome guy to knit for! This pattern wasn’t especially difficult to knit, just a lot of knitting. Design is by Nancy Marchant and was featured in a previous issue of Knitter’s. Don’t have the magazine next to me right now.

A couple of weekends ago I got to see my daughter who lives in Colorado. She was featured in a special concert of the Jefferson Baroque Orchestra that she helped form. She flew in on Thursday afternoon and spent the next 3 days rehearsing. Sunday I went to the concert in Ashland which included a visit to Web-sters and introduction to a couple of Ravelry friends. After the concert Heather and I spent time catching up and stayed up very late since she was flying out the next day. On Monday we went to the mall to visit my younger daughter while she was at work, went to Middleford in Medford so Heather could buy sock yarn, and had a nice lunch at a local Thai restaurant before I dropped her off at the airport. Too short! But she is planning on coming back for Black Sheep Gathering.

Thank you to all for your comments about my brother. There are no guarantees in this life and I only wished he had lived his life differently. Enough said on that.

Here we are on New Year’s Eve. It was the perfect evening for us, we were home by 10:30.

In my long absense from blogland I’ve been busy weaving, knitting and dyeing. Starting new projects and finishing old ones. The dishtowels were finished and gifted to both my mom and sister-in-law. The Opal Tiger socks that were started just after Stitches West last year were finished about a month ago. I’ve woven a couple of scarves for myself. One from a rayon rickrack yarn purchased at Black Sheep Gathering last year and the other a handspun hand dyed scarf. More recently I completed the sweater I started for my husband for Christmas 2006. Just in time for his birthday. 2007 was a year of firsts for me - I made soap for the first time, knit my first pair of gloves, learned to weave on a multi-harness loom. To accommodate my new weaving hobby I bought two floor looms and increased my weaving yarn stash. Another first for me was joining one of the local weaving guilds.

I joined Ravelry last July but have only recently been active. What a great resource for spinners, knitters, crocheters, dyers, and weavers! You can search by yarn, find patterns for just about anything, meet up with like minded fiberholics in forums, join groups, or participate in knitalongs. It’s all in one place instead of cruising the net looking for fiber prOn just log into Ravelry and look at what other folks are spinning, crocheting, knitting, weaving, or dyeing.

Besides fiber adventures we have been howling at the moon when the cloud cover gives us a break. My husband bought a new telescope and every clear night has been out looking for galaxies, the moon, and whatever he can focus on. It’s great and we’ve been able to get some decent pictures of the moon.

Here are some pictures of what I’ve been up to lately.

1. GreenScarf-017, 2. Dyeing Weekend, 3. mp3Bag-004, 4. KnitDyeReknit-005, 5. Urchin-002, 6. Dyeing Weekend, 7. Dyeing Weekend, 8. Dyeing Weekend, 9. pincushions001, 10. mugRugs009, 11. mugRugs008, 12. mugRugs004, 13. mugRugs003, 14. knittingMarkers005, 15. knittingMarkers003, 16. Dyeing Weekend

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

1. WeavingProjects-006, 2. WeavingProjects-003, 3. WeavingProjects-001, 4. WeavetteProjects1, 5. Rayon Rickrack Scarf, 6. Tiger Sock, 7. New Gloves, 8. woolMohair, 9. SoapDay-003, 10. SoapDay-007, 11. SoapDay-013, 12. SoapDay-008, 13. SnowDay-002, 14. Wonder, OR, 15. moon1, 16. urban Camo Socks

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

Yes, I’m still around. And, yes, I’m still computing. Last September I received a call from my mom that my oldest brother (not older) was in the hospital. While I’m not clear on the details, he either had a heart attack or a diabetic episode, the final outcome was fatal. I did get to see him before the end but not before a stroke had left him mute and essentially unable to communicate. That whole experience made me more introspective than usual and blogging was relegated to the unnecessary. Well, I’ve decided to re-enter the land of the blogging with a birthday tribute to my brother Cliff. (Dayton, if you see this I hope you don’t mind me using this photo.)

This is my brother. He started growing the beard when he got out of the Air Force in the 70s and never shaved until they shaved him in the hospital.

This is me and my brother in September 2006.

The two of us again. And him in the first grade. So many things I wish I could say to him now, so many regrets and lost opportunities. Maybe next time. I love you.

The hubby has returned! He got hired full time by a local medical clinic so he’s back! I’m so happy! Happy dance!

While he was in Eugene he started bike riding again, taking a cruise 2 or 3 times a week. Eugene is such a bike friendly town and he really enjoyed his rides. He enjoyed them so much that he bought me a bike so I could ride with him. The bike is a Raleigh Venture in metallic red fade. We’ve gone on a couple of rides and it’s clear that it will take me a bit to get back in the groove of bike riding. But it is fun and fairly cheap entertainment. Can’t wait to get back into that bike-riding groove.

On the trip home with the 5th wheel hubby had some concern about the truck. Was it going to make it over the passes between Eugene and home or break down? Even if we made it home okay the truck didn’t have any more trips pulling the 5th wheel left. So, the 2nd day he was home we bought a new pickup. A Ford F250 that has everything he wanted except 4-wheel drive. The great part is that we got it at a used price with only 7000 miles and a year old. The bad part is that we traded not only the old truck but also the new Corolla for the new pickup. We’re down to two vehicles but we do have our bicycles.

Weaving Dishtowels

While I haven’t been knitting or spinning much I have been weaving. My current project is dishtowels in 8/2 unmercerized cotton. They’re the Keep it Simple towels from Handwoven’s Top Ten Towels on Four Shafts. What a struggle I’ve had with the warp. It’s the longest warp I’ve done so far, over 4 yards, and the widest, 490 ends - 24.5″ wide. I warped from front to back (2 ends per dent), didn’t use lease sticks, and lost the cross a couple of times. Needless to say, parts of the warp is a twisted mess that I’m only keeping at bay by using the lease sticks hubby just made for me. I’m halfway done with the three towels I’m weaving and hopefully I’ll use all of my warp and won’t waste any. The weft for the first towel is 8/2 cotton, the second towel is size 10 crochet cotton. Don’t know how the crochet cotton towel will wash up yet. It’s all an experiment for me at this stage. The third towel will have 8/2 cotton weft.

The next project I’m planning is a rayon scarf. That should be just as challenging as these dishtowels.

I’m also looking forward to weaving a couple of rag rugs. The LeClerc Fanny that I bought for $50 is almost weaving ready. Just need to hook the lamms to the shafts and away we go.

Here she is, the newest addition to the family with her auntie Nicki. Born August 11, 2007 weighing 8 pounds 6 oz and 20 inches long.

My step daughter is going to have a baby in August and recently had a baby shower. Which got me to finish the project started months ago.  I had most of the afghan done (machine knitted) and just need to add the edging. Finished just in time for the shower.

I made the edging up as I went along and amazingly it turned out pretty well.

Hubby had to work last weekend so didn’t get to work on the trees in back until this weekend. The two top images were taken after the third picture. The youngest and hubby did a lot of work this weekend to get it cleared out and ready for the man with the chipper.

The green leaves you see in the foreground belong to the downed oak. What is standing is a dead fir tree. But not for long.

Here’s the deak tree once the oak and the spruce have been cleared away. And here’s hubby climbing the dead tree to tie a rope to it so it can be cut down. Without my permission, or knowledge, I might add. (My daughter took this picture.)

Here’s the ground crew. My youngest is crouching behind the other two.

It’s coming down!

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