Monday, June 28, 2021

Weaving In and Out

A lot went on this week. As you may remember, the mattresses arrived and exploded (under control). Well, Wednesday the table arrived. We put it together and pushed it to one side. Friday the bed arrived. Putting it together was more complicated, but we managed to put the bed together that day.


Saturday we put together the trundle. 


(It looks like DH is the only one working, but someone had to take the photo, and I did help.) The trundle was easier to put together, because the construction was identical to the bed.

I still need to make pillow covers for the bed, but in the meantime, I just folded Joanie's quilt over the pillows. I put the new pillow cases on the pillows and used the little bags the bedding came in as covers for some smaller pillows we had. 


This will give you a better idea of how the room looks in use. (The other pillows were from another bedroom. They will be more useful here.) The old folding table was hard to use for storage, because the folding mechanism was in the way. It was also too big.


DH needs to put up the curtain rod for me. When the sun is at the back of the house in the morning, we have nice light in this room, but when the sun shines on the front later in the day, we have to close the room-darkening shades to keep the house from heating up, and then you can't see anything. The curtains will help keep the room from heating up so much if I want to be working in there during the afternoon and need the light to see.

The Kevät is finished! Here it is blocking:


I chose to block the bottom ribbing in points because it was expedient. It wanted to do that anyway, and it only needed to be pinned in 6 places. I used my lace blocking wires for the sides and shoulders.

Here it is blocked and getting acquainted with some of my other pieces of clothing.


Here's how it fits. (Excuse the crepey arms. I'm an old lady.)


I finished the dish mat while we talked with the kids during our regular Sunday Zoom call.


The loom is finally in use, but not before much groaning and gnashing of teeth. If you remember, I wound the warp last week. The different kinds of fiber didn't cooperate with each other the way I hoped they would, and they made a big mess when I tried to warp the loom. It was great practice, though. I had some Peaches 'n' Cream cotton yarn, so I wound the warp again, using only the cotton yarn. I still had some issues, but I managed to get past where I had the mess. I've been using the Craftsy class Floor Loom Weaving as my guide. One thing the teacher mentioned that I hadn't remembered from when I used it to make the project was that all the heddles should be leaning to the right for a right-handed person and to the left for a left-handed person. If they are the wrong way, you need to turn them upside-down, not just turn them over to the other side. I remembered we had taken the heddle frames out of the loom to move it (twice), so I decided to check. I found one set that were all on the same way, but the whole set was up-side down. That was easy to fix by taking the frame out and replacing it the correct way. ALL the others had some the right way and some the wrong way. They must have been this way when I received the loom! Here you can see what I'm talking about. Look at the two heddles in the center of the photo. The heddle on the right is set up for a right-handed person. The other one is for someone who is left-handed.


I took out each heddle frame, took off all the heddles and checked each one before putting it back on the heddle rods. When I got to the third and last frame I had to do this with, I noticed the paint on one end but not on the other. See the one with no paint? It's upside-down compared with its fellows. I discovered that when you have all the painted ends together, all the heddles will be facing the same way.


It should have been easy to realize. It did make it easier to finish the third set. Duh! I don't remember anyone's mentioning this before, but they probably did. Threading the heddles was easier than I remembered from previous projects. This must be why.



Next was to put the beater bar back on with the reed in place to sley the reed. (That black thing in the bottom of the photo is a sleeping Rocky, not a discarded sweater or jacket.)


I managed to get all the threads into the reed in the right order, which I found shocking when I discovered I had done it right. However, when I went to tie up the treadles, I discovered that the job was made more difficult because the treadles weren't quite in the right position. I have figured out that the guys had installed the treadle assembly upside-down. See those holes at the bottom of the photo where the screws go in? That's side is supposed to be facing the floor. The treadles needed to be flipped around to be in the right position. 


It's supposed to fit  down on the floor, as in this photo from our old place:


I explained to DH, and he unscrewed the two bolts holding the base of the assembly, so we could flip it over. 



I managed to tie up and throw a few picks to even out the warp, so I'm finally off to a good start. Now I'm going to weave a narrow border that will hold the fringe at each end of the rug.


I didn't need to undo anything when we fixed the treadle assembly, other than to untie the treadles.

In other news, you may have heard about the terrific heat wave that has descended on the Pacific Northwest. It isn't quite as bad here as locations lower in elevation and closer to the coast, like Portland, but it's still expected to be over 100ºF for the next few days here where we are. However, the difference between sun and shade is much greater than most places. This is what we had yesterday evening, as the sun was getting low and shining right on the front porch.


You may remember that our furnace went out last Fall and we replaced it with a unit that included air conditioning. It's a very efficient and quiet unit, operating with a fraction of the energy older models require. Here's a photo of our thermostat inside the house at the time it was so hot outside.


We have it set on 78ºF, and it pretty much stays there. Upstairs it's a little bit warmer, so we run our little portable air cooler in the bedroom, which keeps it comfortable.

What a week! And DH has an unpleasant medical procedure today, which requires that I drive him. It's supposed to continue to have record-breaking temperatures, but I hope this week goes more smoothly.

Where's my blog: As you may know, the entity that notifies people when a blog they follow posts will discontinue notifications in July. This motivated me to link my blog to Bloglovin', as I did some time ago with The Doll's Storybook. If you are following my blog want to continue following after July, I recommend you go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Just finished the Dish Mat, but there's still the Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl. I will be working on it again, now that the Kevät is done.

What's on my sewing machine: Its cover. However, I will be making the pillow covers and revising the curtains soon.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. No progress this week. (Are you kidding?)

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Look-alikes. Pippa wishes she were more like the other dolls.



What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Rose Code by Kate Quinn.

What's in my wine glass: Crystal Range Barbera 2019. Excellent.

What's my tip of the week: We occasionally eat vegetarian hot dogs with buns, but so seldom, we need to freeze most of the hot dogs. I put the hot dogs, two-by-two, into sandwich bags and tuck each pair into a larger zippered bag with two buns. When we're ready to eat them, I just pull out the pair of dogs and buns, just the amount we need.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBabyBarnes & Noble and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. The three stories in the book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. The stories (and links to them) are Being LittleBesties, and Distraction.




Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

<a class="blsdk-follow" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/highfiber-7365001" target="_blank" data-blsdk-type="button" data-blsdk-counter="false">Follow</a><script>(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = "https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, "script", "bloglovin-sdk"))</script>

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a> 

Monday, June 21, 2021

High on Fiber

I made a lot of progress on the Kevät sweater this week. Bind-off done, just the sleeves, weaving in and blocking to do.


The sleeves won't take too long. It's mostly just ribbing.

Because the pattern recommended a stretchy bind-off, I used this bind-off method.



Along with that, I decided to warp my loom for some rugs. I had what I thought was plenty of thread for warp, some in cotton and some in linen. Four partial spools had been given to me for free. I figured out how much warp I would need for three rugs and wound the thread, one after the other, onto my warping board.


Oops! I had enough for 180 ends, but I needed 244, so not nearly enough. I think it might be enough for two rugs, though, so I used my ball winder to remove it all from my warping board.


I'm hoping to have enough when I wind it on again, but shorter. This time I know how much I have of each (by weight) without the heavy cardboard spools included. I know I will need to use it all. I plan to use the linen, which should be stronger, on the outside edges and the cotton in the middle. (I get to have that fun all over again.)

I needed a bathing suit for Pippa for an upcoming story. I had bought some little girls' socks to use. (I picked the socks on the bottom row, center, for the first suit.)


I already had the pattern. All I had to do was figure out the new measurements, which I did, and now the pattern is updated. Here's Pippa in her new suit. (The bow in the front wasn't planned. I accidentally sewed the fold-over-elastic to the right side of that little section that goes at the neck in front. It meant when I sewed the other side of the trim down, it left some rather messy-looking extra stitching showing, so...the bow.)


Here's another angle, showing a bit of the back. Although some small sewing projects are difficult to make because of stitching in a confined area, it wasn't any harder to make than the larger size.



You may remember my new curtains in the workroom.


I'm finding it difficult to close them without pulling down the tension rod that holds them up, so I've decided I need a regular curtain rod (which I already have) with tabs to make the curtain longer. I'm working with the color scheme from this quilt my friend Joanie left me. 


The bed quilt we made together is also now in my possession, and it will go on the daybed when we get it set up.

I had used all the curtain fabric I had, but I found this in my stash and think it will coordinate nicely with the quilts. I'll make tabs and use the buttons to embellish where I sew the tabs to the curtain.


We ordered the daybed with trundle, two mattresses for it and a smaller table for the workroom last week. The mattresses have arrived. The 8" top mattress arrived on Wednesday, and we unrolled it and let it expand.


Thursday the 6" trundle mattress arrived. It wasn't quite as heavy, and it took less time to expand. The mattresses both came from Indonesia. As they sucked in the American air after we unrolled them, I could almost hear them say, "Selamat tidur." (Blessed sleep. It's how Indonesians say goodnight when they are off to bed, and not just parting for the night, which would be "Selamat malam.)

The mattress pads arrived the day after we ordered them, and DH picked up the sheets, which I had found at Fred Meyer on sale, when he was there picking up a prescription.


We have some related cuteness this week. Here's our DDIL2 with her Kevät sweater, which she has finished except for one sleeve, weaving in the ends and blocking. She let her niece (one of my honorary grandchildren) try on the sweater.



She's making the full-length version. Mine is the cropped version, although I added an extra pattern repeat, and she added several. I hope to be done in a day or two with mine. 


Where's my blog: As you may know, the entity that notifies people when a blog they follow posts will discontinue notifications in July. This motivated me to link my blog to Bloglovin', as I did some time ago with The Doll's Storybook. If you are following my blog want to continue following after July, I recommend you go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Kevät sweater and the dish mat, with the Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl on hold until I finish the Kevät.

What's on my sewing machine: Tabs for the curtains in workroom.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. No progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Too Big, Too Small. Pippa wonders why she can't borrow clothes from Veronika, if she's willing to let Veronika borrow hers.



What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Rose Code by Kate Quinn. Very intriguing story so far.

What's in my wine glass: Charles Shaw Pinot Grigio from Trader Joe's. It's a bit sweet for every day according to my taste, but a nice change.

What's my tip of the week: I may have mentioned before this little trick for measuring butter. Select a measuring cup twice the size you would need to measure your butter. Fill it half full of cold or room temperature water. Spoon the butter into the water until the level reaches twice the amount of butter you want to measure. Pour off the water. Your butter is measured accurately.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBabyBarnes & Noble and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. The three stories in the book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. The stories (and links to them) are Being LittleBesties, and Distraction.




Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

<a class="blsdk-follow" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/highfiber-7365001" target="_blank" data-blsdk-type="button" data-blsdk-counter="false">Follow</a><script>(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = "https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, "script", "bloglovin-sdk"))</script>

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a> 

Monday, June 14, 2021

Out and About

Here's my progress on the Kevät sweater.



Kevät means "Spring" in Finnish, but I doubt I'll "finish" it before Summer, as that season will soon be here. If it doesn't look as if I've made much progress this week  it's because I ended up frogging eight rounds. I found out when communicating with my DIL who is making the same sweater that there was supposed to be a repeat of Rounds 1-14, as plainly indicated on the chart...in red. (See photo)




If you can't see the red line between Rounds 14 and 15 on the chart, it's because I printed the instructions in B&W. Here's how it's supposed to look.


I've been having a difficult time reading the chart anyway, because the background for the chart is so dark. Now I've enlarged the chart and printed it again, with the line for the repeats filled in. Fortunately, the top part of the chart starts out the same as the repeated section, so I didn't have more rounds to frog. Now I'm almost back to where I started.

It has been a busy week, with the camping trip to Suttle Lake. We had a good time, although it was very cold at night. We have two new batteries now, so we were able to run the heater as needed during the night.

We took the dog stroller around the lake when we hiked the trail. It's about 3 1/2 miles. Rocky walked nearly 2 1/4 miles of it, although broken up by a couple of periods of riding in the stroller.



Imagine our surprise when we notice another stroller coming towards us! As they got closer, we saw that the stroller also held a dog. We had a nice chat with the dog's two-leggeds.

We returned home on Thursday and spent a couple of days unloading the trailer and doing laundry.

Most of Saturday afternoon was taken up repairing the gate to our backyard. DH needed someone to hold the gate upright while he reinstalled the bolts, which didn't want to go through all three holes...because they weren't lined up properly. It was difficult to line them up, because we couldn't see the hole in the post between the two pieces of wood. Eventually it worked, but it was a very tedious process.

We have ordered a daybed and a smaller table for my workroom, so it can double as a guest room, besides being a cozy place to work. The mattress pads have already arrived.

Sunday WE WENT TO A REAL IN-PERSON PARTY!!!! It was an end-of-the-year get-together. It was for the choir members and their spouses. It's strange to have a party to celebrate the end of a year like the one we have had. There were people I had only met during Zoom sessions and others I hadn't seen at all for a year. Everyone was vaccinated, and it was outdoors, so it was very safe. Our hosts both sing in the choir. The husband has a Finnish Goshawk, which he brought out to show off. He uses his bird to hunt rabbits, but since the bird only weighs about 1 1/2 lbs, he doesn't bring back the local rabbits, which are 7-8 lbs. each. He just tags them and flies off, sort of like keeping score or like the falconer's version of catch-and-release. This was the only photo I took during the delightful afternoon and evening.


Our peonies are blooming. We brought this one inside to keep us company.




Where's my blog: As you may know, the entity that notifies people when a blog they follow posts will discontinue notifications in July. This motivated me to link my blog to Bloglovin', as I did some time ago with The Doll's Storybook. If you are following my blog want to continue following after July, I recommend you go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Kevät sweater (see above), the Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl and the new dish mat.

What's on my sewing machine: Waiting.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. No more progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: "Best Buds." Billy and Emil are best friends, but they enjoy the company of the girls, too.




What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer on Chirp. While we were camping, we also listened to one episode of The Cisco Kid, complete with commercials from back when we were kids. Just downloaded The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, a new author for me, from Audible.

What's in my wine glass: Radford Dale Nudity 2018 Syrah Voor Paardeberg with no added sulfites, very nice!

What's my tip of the week: A basil plant prefers 80-90ºF, some direct sun every day and standing water around the roots to be fully happy, but as long as the temperature doesn't go below 50ºF or the plant is put into an insulated bag or box or covered up with a blanket (with something holding the blanket away from the leaves), it will survive.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBabyBarnes & Noble and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. The three stories in the book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. The stories (and links to them) are Being LittleBesties, and Distraction.




Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

<a class="blsdk-follow" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/highfiber-7365001" target="_blank" data-blsdk-type="button" data-blsdk-counter="false">Follow</a><script>(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = "https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, "script", "bloglovin-sdk"))</script>

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a> 

Monday, June 7, 2021

Heddles Up!

You may remember from last week's blog post that we moved the loom down to the living room. With the removal of the loom from the workroom, I'm ready to redecorate the space.


I made some simple curtains, so I can block the sun and still find my way around in there. With the room-darkening shades down, as is the case on hot day, it's almost totally dark. This is going to be cozier, too. We expect to have a houseful over the Christmas holidays, so I thought it might be good to get a daybed for this space. The quilt is the one I helped my friend Joanie make for her bed. She left that and the quilt on the wall to me when she passed away. Under it is the wicker hamper that houses almost all my spinning fiber. It should fit nicely in front of the day bed, except when the trundle gets pulled out. It weighs almost nothing, so is easy to move. Now that it's out from under the long folding table in the room, I can get a shorter table, which, I hope, will be the right thickness to attach my ball winder and swift.

We are off camping again! Expect a full report next week.

In the meantime, I've made some progress with the Kivät sweater. I'm finished with Color B. The rest is just texture.


If I get bored with the sweater, I can continue with the Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl. I have the yarn all caked up and ready to go.


I will also take the dish mat, which is still on the needles, because it takes no concentration, so I can work on it while talking to people.

Some of the choir rehearsed in person again Wednesday evening, masked and distanced, accompanied by the rest of the singers online via Zoom. We rehearsed Rutter's "For the Beauty of the Earth" and after the Zoom session ended, the in-person choir recorded it. That will be used to make guide tracks for the other singers to learn and submit their virtual recordings, which of us who participated in-person will also do. We were singing with masks on, so I don't know how clear it will be. I didn't manage to get a photo of the rehearsal, but we came out to this:


The rainbow went all the way over the church and came down on the other side, but I couldn't get it all in the photo. We were all enchanted, though. "For the Beauty of the Earth," indeed!

The loom looks cozy in her new spot.


After we get home from camping, I'm planning to warp the loom and start some rag rugs for the house and then for the trailer using the instructions I found in my eBook copy of Handwoven's Master Weaver Collection Favorite Projects and Lessons from Tom Knisely.


Here's a screenshot of part of a page in the rag rug instructions to give you an idea, only he dyed sheets to use, and I plan to play with my stash, so mine won't be anywhere near this organized. I'm planning to have fringe on each end, too. I plan to aim for 30 X 50" for all three house rugs, so a little bigger than the rugs in these instructions.


It has been a long time since I warped my loom, so I'm going to run through the process by watching that part of the Craftsy class, Floor Loom Weaving. I've been reviewing the process, and will watch each part again as I do it.

We had three days where we had to use our new AC, which was lovely. Wednesday the high was in the 90s! It was so nice not to have to get up at 5:00 AM to open the windows and bring in the cool air to try to get through the day. Friday a low pressure front brought in cooler air. It was the cause of an attack of osteoarthritis pain which continued all day and all night. The only nonnarcotic medication that works for me for this kind of pain is aspirin, which I don't like to take, so I didn't. The heating pad helped some, but by 5:00 AM, I relented and took some aspirin. In 15 minutes the pain let up, and when the medication wore off, it was tolerable and letting up. I was fine the rest of the weekend.

For some cuteness, here's a photo of the pups after they returned from the groomer on Monday.




Where's my blog: As you may know, the entity that notifies people when a blog they follow here posts will discontinue notifications in July. That motivated me to link my blog to Bloglovin', as I did some time ago with The Doll's Storybook. If you are following my blog and want to continue following after July, I recommend you go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Three projects: Kivät sweater, Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl and the lowly dish mat.

What's on my sewing machine: Just finished simple curtains. Nothing new yet.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. No progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: A Conversation with Emil. Pippa has learned that Emil can communicate with animals and wants to know more about it, including whether her bear can talk to him.




What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer, about 1/3 finished.

What's in my wine glass: Terra D'Oro Barbera from Amador County. Pretty good!

What's my tip of the week: Easy homemade TV dinners make camping easier. I still have a couple of the lasagne dinners from the last time I made lasagne, and I decided to put together this easy dinner for the next night. It's Quorn faux chicken cutlet on top of a Trader Joe's frozen hash brown potatoes and covered with mushroom sauce. Everything except the sauce was already frozen when I assembled it. I cover with foil, then the piece of cardboard that came with the trays, on which I write what the dinner contains. When we're ready to eat, I cook it in the oven at 300ºF for 40-50 minutes (the longer time for higher elevations). Easy cleanup.




Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBabyBarnes & Noble and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. The three stories in the book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. The stories (and links to them) are Being LittleBesties, and Distraction.




Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

<a class="blsdk-follow" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/highfiber-7365001" target="_blank" data-blsdk-type="button" data-blsdk-counter="false">Follow</a><script>(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = "https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, "script", "bloglovin-sdk"))</script>

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>