Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Catching Up with Projects


I have been rather eclectic in my interests this week. I pulled a bunch of tee shirts out of the toss pile (stains, rips or old) and cut them into strips to use for a rag rugs. My grandmother used to cut strips like this and then crochet them into oval rugs which she then gave to for each of her grandchildren. I think she would have appreciated what I am going to do with these, too. Bill took this picture of me because he said I looked so peaceful and I never have pictures of me on the blog........I told him I was peaceful until he took the picture.
I am still spinning for the Tour de Fleece but the wool has been white so it is boring to post pics. I am also spinning my handprepared Florida Suffolk fleece and it is natural colored and so not too exciting to see either but I am making my allotted time each day. So far I have 1200 yds of the superwash that will become a woven lace shawl. (see the latest Handwoven magazine and you will know what I am planning.)
I finished the teal/brown overshot weaving. I will tackle sewing it into a few coin purses tomorrow! (I ended up weaving a yard of 8" fabric)
I warped up the loom so I can weave some more plastic bag totes! I saw this idea on one of the blogs I read but can't remember which one so if it was your idea, claim the fame in the comments! I sat on the exercise ball to warp all the heddles, I was able to pivot comfortably and it was just the right height for perfect vision! I did laugh-if you know me , you know I am allergic to 'exercise' and so to find a pleasurable use for this ball is indeed funny!


I have woven two so far today. It is so satisfying to see them roll off the assembly line! I have accumulated quite a palette of 'fiber' for weaving.

Bill has been mowing each morning this week; first our place, then the Lake Como house and then today at church. It has rained each afternoon and so the stucco work has been put on hold until it is dry-it is hard to be patient.......

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Great Day!

If your day was only half as excellent as mine, yours would have been perfect!
I was prepared to rip all the threads off the loom because I just couldn't get those warp threads untangled but this morning I gave it one last shot and------------SUCCESS! I am so glad for my patience this one more time. It is an utter delight to weave this. Both feet work different sets of shuttles, both hands have to handle shuttles without tangling, the mind has to keep the treadling song straight and well, it happens. Beautifully! (This is the 30wt thread project to make fabric.)
I was so happy after weaving, I hit the mending trail and conquered that pile. Did laundry and then did some fun sewing/quilting. It has been a long time since I have done piecing and the little crutch pocket only teased that urge awake again.
So I cut up the scraps from a quilt I made and keep on my couch and finally made the pillows to go with it.
I pieced and then quilted them and then got out the serger and put the pillows together. I have them on the couch and it looks good!
Soffets are blooming all around my house! So are the storms but hoping to get that stucco color on soon!

Happy Anniversary, Dad and Mom!


My parents enjoyed a celebration of their 56th wedding anniversary today! We love you.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Shamed to Admit It......

But I saw this bag of plastic bags on the way out of WalMart in their recycling pile and I wanted them; too embarassed to walk over and look through the pile, Bill did it for me! Now that is love.

I sorted through the pile and took out the ones I wanted.
And organized them, and the rest go back to the store. Until next time............

A Day on the Go

Leaving the old.........

and stepping into the interim. We had fun moving Matthew.........it was an easy go because we only moved his bedroom stuff and a few electronic essentials. Caleb joined us when he got off work and we had a pizza feast! We were all tired after our long day and we still had a 2 hour drive home.

I didn't do too much in the way of fibery pursuits. I cut up some plastic bags on the ride to Ocala, I perused magazines (weaving) on the way up to Lake City and played on the computer when Bill was working on Caleb's car after moving in Matthew. After we got home, I did finish plying the superwash so that I have some yarn to show for the TDF-357 yds more! (I think it will be going to a woven lace shawl!) Very easy on the mind today!
Since it thunderstormed all day again, the guys didn't stucco but we were surprised by this-the beginnings of a finished soffet on the front veranda! Beautiful!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Against the Odds

I have fallen behind for my spinning goals.........I only spun enough to fill 2 bobbins and didn't even ply them. At least I did do some spinning.
I did try to do some weaving and found that the meds really did affect my hand/eye coordination the other day because when I sat down to do some actual weaving this morning , 10 of the first 85 threads were crossed which means they get in each other's way when you try to change shafts. (Which means that you have to rethread them so you can weave!) I had to cut the warp and do some untangling but did get it sorted out. Of course, this didn't leave any weaving time. BTW, the threading I did yesterday when I felt better was 100 % accurate so that did help my attitude: I was working impaired-I was not an idiot.

I helped Bill clear the tools out of the way in the garage so he could have room to install a new Flowmaster off-brand exhaust system on his truck because we had rain most of the day and it wasn't friendly to driveway work-thunder and lightening unfriendly. We tested the new system by taking it to church tonight-it sounds quieter and Bill said the truck was zippier so let's hope it will boost the gas economy, too.
I did time in the sewing room this afternoon while he worked on the truck. I put together two more plastic totes now that I have the new webbing.
And I made this crutch-pocket for a friend who has to be on crutches for quite a while and doesn't have the spare hand to carry anything! It was very nice to be in front of the sewing machine again.

Tomorrow we are taking the day to go and help Matthew move some living essentials from Ocala to Lake City, where he will be staying with Caleb for a while so he can be closer to his new job as store manager. It will be a good time and a break for all of us. The stucco crew will be working even though we will not be there so imagine our surprise when we get home and see some real color/finish to the house! I am very excited!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Checking It Off The List!

I am enjoying the pace of my Tour de Fleece, I have spun 900 yards so far and it is fun to see it all add up!
I will finish up this skein tonight.
Bill made himself a list for the next three days and he was a powerhouse of checkmarks today:
He gave me a tempory space for the washer and dryer.
We emptied the front porch and took the shutters off the walls. He moved the temporary service out of the way so they can stucco behind it and moved the phone wires from an exterior run into the attic where it belongs!

We shifted our attention to the back of the house and moved all the lawn furniture, the bbq grill and then the cement slabs! And as for weaving, I am slowly but surely moving through threading all the heddles for the 'skinny fiber ' project(see July 2nd post) An observation; I think I am going to like the 'bigger fiber' projects. This is my hypothesis . I will let you know the outcome. Since Friday, I have been on steroids to try to get my body back on track-allergies have gone overboard after my bronchitus and the cessation of my favorite Allegra (since our insurance company won't cover my perscripts any more.) So farall the over-the-counter brands have brought no relief........I am buzzing from the meds but at least my sinus headache is subsiding. My hands shake and so it makes for inaccurate heddle threading. I am doing a little every day though and I will get it done so I can start weaving again-soon! I have also received an assortment of very pretty plastic bags from a friend-I have put the word out that I need some colorful ones and my friends are getting creative in their shopping now that they are looking for them! We all need a little help from our friends!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Spinning and Building

I got our my spinning wheel on Friday to get ready to spin wool for the Tour de France-to spinners, this contest is called Tour de Fleece! Disaster had struck my wheel-the factory finish from Ashford had turned to caramel-in color and consistency! What to do? I haven't spun since April, so some fiber friends claimed it was the wheel's revenge for neglect. Another offered the idea of washing the whole wheel in alcohol to get rid of the gunk. After the generous application of elbow grease, it is useable. The finish is no longer pretty and I will have to refinish the wood somehow but at least I was able to use it without my feet sticking to the treadles!


I dyed some Coopworth wool for my spinning adventures. Now this is my kind of kitchen work!



Bill tackled the long awaited (dreaded) tearing out of the back wall. The previous owners had walled up the garage opening in the back of the house with ordinary 2 x 6's and the termites were very grateful. We had the house sprayed so there were no live critters but they had left the wood too fragile to be any good. The old door came out, the new window in and the cats will have their own entrance, too! It was a marathon but oh, so worth it-good job, husband!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Stucco On!

I started a new warp on the loom. A bit finer than the string and plastic bag strips this time. This is from a box of #30 thread I got a long time ago. It will be an experiment in overshot...
I am still making progress on the alpaca shawl. The 32 row repeat goes on........

Stucoo cement is on several sides of the house! This is just the base coat (3/4") and next week they will apply the color/texture coat. They are amazing how efficiently they put the stucco on! even in spite of the steamy day ; they worked in the shade when they could!
(The red around the windows is tape to keep the cement off the sills.)



This is a view of the garage from behind it.
The south addition from the back yard.
Front corner and south side of the house.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

House Armor

This little guy had the attention of our cat this morning.......from 5' visitors to this little guy (2") ---what a contrast!
I warped a new project on the warping board. Stay tuned to its progress.

I finished a few more plastic totes. I kind of defeated my 'use it up' mode because I bought some more webbing on EBay to finish these two bags!
Bill had to dig out in front of the garage because there must be a 6" footer of cement in front of the framing...........it didn't get mentioned before! Oh, well. He got the tractor right out and ditched in front of it and will have to pour a footer!
The stucco preparations are coming right along. The house is now encased in its armor and it passed inspection today. They will begin to put on the base coat of cement tomorrow!

SEEING COLORS

I added the last row to the mosaic of hexagons;  it is 48" x 60".  The yarn is from ancient skeins of  Homespun yarns  by LionBran...