Bare Bones Dismantle

Halloween is nearly upon us! Was it worth waiting for?

I'll let you know next week. Something that I've been waiting for...although I still have some meat on my bones...was definitely worth it. Remember when I got the loom for my birthday, and we had to wait "for the snow to melt" to move it around the outside of the house and downstairs? Well,the snow was gone by early June, and we just—finally—moved the loom to my fiber studio.

It was too heavy to moved own the outside steps completely assembled, so I had to take it apart. The parts that I could carry went down the indoor stairs. The "castle" went around the outside of the house, minus the shafts and heddles, warp beam, cloth beam, beater and treadles. Here's what it looked like after we got it in place, just the bare bones. 

(You should know that we had to remove an entertainment center bigger than our big stone fireplace, along with two big, boxy TVs.)

You know how when you take something apart, you're never sure you can put it back together again? That was my worry. So I took photos of the parts I thought I might forget. That worked, except for one place, where I had to take the bolt out twice and put it together again because I

a) forgot to put in the four washers that belonged there the first time, and

b) I realized it would be difficult to reinstall the brake-release lever with everything assembled the second time.

While reassembling the loom, I wiped everything down with Howard's Feed-N-Wax, which was Joanie's recommendation for care of the lovely cherry wood. Here is the reassembled loom, with the treadles all tied up for my next project:

I worked all day Saturday to reorganize my "mess" in that part of the fiber studio. Here's the room tidied up a bit. There is still a lot to do, though. We want to install a flat TV on the wall and replace the futon with a sofa bed. I might move my wheel down there, too.

Here's another view. We haven't figured out if the components for the TV will work sitting on the bookcase. We'll look at the options. 

Vintage Stitchers met at my house this week. Rebecca and Carol both had knee surgeries during the week, so they didn't come. I gave Barbara the scarf I made for Rebecca, since she was planning to visit her. 

Barbara has been working on an appliqué block. Julie designed the bird for it. Here's the appliqué block with the sewing just started.

Janet brought a finished quilt top. This one is "Civil War Scrappy" from Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott. She used the same fabrics she used in her "Daisy Chain" quilt from the same book. They will go on twin beds in her guest room. 

My Delectable Pathways is progressing. I'm on the third panel. I've finished a couple of leaves since taking this photo, but it will give you an idea. 

I like to use Connecting Threads thread for appliqué. I bought this bobbin holder at the quilt show. Now I don't have to carry all those big, economical spools of thread along with me with my appliqué stuff. 

The weather has been nice, so we're getting in some Autumn hiking. Here's DH tidying up the "Fairy Tree" while Sunny supervises. 

We didn't have any cuteness last week, other than the pups, so here's some Soren for you. (What does that young man say when security asks if anyone has touched his luggage?)

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, Christmas Waffle and Green Tea socks with a few more pattern repeats finished.

What's on my loom: Lots of Howard's Feed-N-Wax! Winding the warp for more scarves for Christmas presents. Also need to warp the table loom for my rug class in a couple of weeks. 

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Wolf". First bobbin finished. 

What's on my Sewing needles, Featherweight: Delectable Pathways, piecing the Delectable Mountain block panels. Appliqué panel #3, Making progress.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Icebound by Dean Koontz on the OverDrive app. It's starting to get cold here, so maybe it wasn't a good choice. Its a good book, though. Just started The Power of Six, also on OverDrive. I enjoyed the eBook Out in the Country by Kate Hewitt, purchased through BookBub, is on my iPad in the iBooks app for bedtime reading. Now I'm reading Cry of the Peacock by V. R. Christensen on the Kindle App, also purchased through BookBub. Listening to the Fiber Hooligan podcast and the Knit Picks podcast.

What's my app of the week: Talkatone. It's a free app that allows you to make and receive phone calls using Google Voice, which makes phone calls over the Internet. I'm finding the 300 minutes a month I get with my cell service adequate for most months, but it's nice to be able to make some phone calls without using my minutes, just in case. Since I have unlimited data, it doesn't cost me to call. 

What's in my wine glass: Concha y Toro Frontera Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot. A. If name for a big bottle! I needed the whole bottle after reassembling the loom, but I shared nicely, as I was taught. 

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Spooky Times, Good Times.

The scarf I wove for my friend Rebecca is finished.

I hope to be able to give it to her this week. Rebecca let all the Vintage Stitchers go through the bins of fat quarters she wanted to unload, and we each came away with a pile of very nice quilting fabric. Later, she gave me a big bin of yarn for charity projects and weaving practice. In it were two balls of Koigu hand-painted fingering weight merino, which had been very expensive. She must have liked the colors when she bought it but then couldn't decide what to do with it, so it ended up in the bin. I warped last week for this scarf, and now it will be hers, to thank her for the yarn and fabric. 

In other weaving news, I took custody of this cute little Schacht table loom, which belongs to the weavers' guild. I'll be renting it for my class in rug weaving next month with Jason Collingwood. (Obviously I can't take my floor loom to class!)

Common Threads met this week. This is one of our hosts:

He lives with Jean D. I've added the initial because we had two Jeans this week. Jean R. also came. If you have been reading my blog for several years, you might remember her from the meeting where she taught us how to steek. (A steek is where you cut your knitting the way you would cut fabric when sewing. Sweaters are knit in the round and then cut for sleeve and front openings. Scary thought until you've done it a few times.)

We had show-and-tell, as usual. Julie brought the baby hat she made for a neighbor's baby.

Ellen's appliqué is coming along. 

Jean R. brought her current Dale of Norway sweater. She wanted to get some advice about facings and where to get clasps for the front. She's an amazing knitter, but she still likes to talk things over with other knitters before she does anything. 

Lynda just finished this sweater vest. 

The pattern she used is the Oat Couture Oregon Vest, but she changed it by using clasps instead of a zipper. Nice choice. If I ever make this vest, I'll use clasps, too. 

I worked on my appliqué. I have the stems on my third panel about 3/4 finished. 

Every year about this time, my friend Joanie has a big garage sale. Other friends of hers bring their stuff to sell, too. The evening before the garage sale is open to the public, Joanie invites her friends to come and go through the sale items. I found this cute little building-block train for Soren, who will be bringing his family here for Thanksgiving.

Gramps will have to find a dowel the right size to replace the missing one connecting the last two cars, but that should be easy. I also bought two big baskets, which will be great for holding yarn and fabric. 

As people finish shopping at Joanie's garage sale, they join the party in her home. She calls it her "Halloween Spooktakular."

Most of the members of Common Threads showed up. Here is Joanie and some of her friends. 

There were More in the kitchen. The woman to Joanie's right is her daughter, Kristie. She's a great knitter and beader. She makes some beautiful beaded jewelry. Julie, our long-arm quilter is to the far right. Joanie, of course, is in the middle, with the hat rimmed with skeletons.

As usual, they had some tasty snacks and some good wine. 

Jean D. hadn't been to Joanie's before. Here she is in Joanie's fiber studio with its new curtains. (This was where my loom lived before it came to live with me.)

Saturday we took the pups on a hike in Moose Hollow, an area a few minutes from our home. There is a great view from the trail, and the leaves are still pretty. Here's Rocky on the trail. 

Here's the entire family. (Except for me. I'm behind the camera...er...iPhone.)

After the hike, we ran into some friends who live in the area and had a nice chat. They showed us their new 5th wheel, which is huge and beautiful. They're getting ready to leave town to spend several months in southern Utah and Arizona. Nice!

Baseball has been taking up some of my time this week. My beloved Red Sox have been doing well. I'm not willing to grow a beard or wear a phony one, but I did knit some red socks, just in case the team made it to the World Series. As of Saturday night, my wishes were fulfilled. I will be wearing my "Fenway Pahk Sox" on Wednesday evening for game 1 of the World Series!

It will be great if they win!

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, Christmas Waffle and Green Tea socks with a few more pattern repeats finished.

What's on my loom: Waiting to warp for more scarves for Christmas presents. I have the pattern worked out and how much warp I need to put on. Ready to go. Also need to warp the little table loom for my class.

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Wolf". First bobbin almost finished. 

What's on my Sewing needles, Featherweight: Delectable pathways, appliqué panel #3, more than half of the stems done. Still need to sew the blocks together for the pieced strips between the appliqué. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Icebound by Dean Koontz on the Overdrive app. It's starting to get cold here, so maybe it wasn't a good choice. Its a good book, though. The eBook Out in the Country by Kate Hewitt, purchased through BookBub, is on my iPad in the iBooks app for bedtime reading. Listening to the Fiber Hooligan podcast and the Knit Picks podcast.

What's my app of the week: Talkatone. It's a free app that allows you to make and receive phone calls using Google Voice, which makes phone calls over the Internet. I'm finding the 300 minutes a month I get with my cell service adequate for most months, but it's nice to be able to make some phone calls without using my minutes, just in case. Since I have unlimited data, it doesn't cost me to call. 

What's in my wine glass: Foxhorn Merlot, the big bottle. Nice value! We had some anxious days this week when we were concerned that we might not get our Social Security deposits because of the government shutdown. It was nice to have a very affordable wine so we didn't have to deprive ourselves. (And a glass of nice wine to lift in celebration when we discovered that our money had been deposited.) Spooky times indeed!

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post, although some were petted, cuddled and had the ball thrown for them.

Quilt Shop, Quilt Show and Fun With Friends

Big news! We finally have a local quilt shop with the opening of Davidene’s Quilt Shop just a few minutes from my home!

One of the great things about this quilt shop is the fact that they sell Connecting Threads thread! It's a little more expensive than in the catalog, but really handy when I find I need a color I don't already have.

It will also be nice to be able to take classes nearby.  Ellen, Karan, Margareth and I stopped by on Thursday to pick up some goodies and check out the facilities after visiting the quilt show. 

This week the Utah Quilt Guild held its annual Quilt Fest, this year at the Zermatt in Midway. I was unable to take any classes this year, but it was fun to go to the show with friends, and then to lunch at the Spin Cafe in Heber City. Of course, I can't show you all of the quilts in the show in this little blog, but you can see all the photos I took here. Here are a few that especially appealed to me. I'm always drawn to quilts made from scraps (or look as if they were), like this one:

I really like this one, too. The cattails are appliquéd.

And then there was this one.

They also had the vendors' mall, with some really great quilting supplies for sale, along with some goodies that quilters just naturally like, like chocolate!

Joanie's birthday was Tuesday, but she was busy all week, getting ready for her annual "Spooktakular" (garage sale kicked off with a party the night before). Ellen and I got to treat her to breakfast on Saturday. We went to a little cafe connected with a local gas station, where they have great food.

This week brought some progress with knitting, spinning, appliqué and weaving, but most of it you've seen before, and it doesn't look much different. The big news, though, is in weaving. I warped on Monday for a scarf for a friend:

The warp is Knit Picks' Palette (one of my favorite yarns) in Green Tea and Edamame. The weft is Koigu hand-painted merino. I ripped it out after I had about 10" done. I was beating too hard, I guess, because the warp threads were sitting tightly against each other, making it almost weft-faced (all weft and no warp showing). It was pretty, but I had wanted the two shades of warp threads to show through, and I was going to use up the weft too fast, meaning I would run out of weft yarn while the scarf was still way too short. I had worked out the weft for 12 picks per inch (12 weft threads per inch), and this about twice that, so it was going to make it take much more yarn than I had. Here's what I mean:

See the two different colors in the warp? The only place you would see the warp was in the fringe. After picking out the weft and starting anew, here's what it looks like:

I've made more progress on it, but it looks about the same as in this photo. When it's finished, it will be a gift for a friend who gave me a lot of quilting fabric she wanted to get rid of, and a big box of yarn for charity projects and weaving practice. The Koigu was in the box. It's expensive yarn, and she must have liked it, so my weaving practice will also provide her with a scarf for the winter.

On Sunday Rocky and Sunny took me to the Park City Community's annual Blessing of the Animals, held to celebrate the feast day of St. Francis. This year it was at my church, St. Luke's Episcopal. The rain stopped about an hour before the event and started up again as we were on our way home in the car.

I haven't given you a gratuitous baby photo for a while, so here's a cute shot of Daphne after the family got home from the Children's Museum. The "Cat in the Hat" she's sitting on is the back side of her "I Spy" quilt. She had her face painted at the museum.

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, Christmas Waffle and Green Tea socks with a few more pattern repeats finished.

What's on my loom: "Scarf for a Friend," nearly half done. 

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Wolf". I'm still on the first bobbin. 

What's on my Featherweight: Delectable pathways, appliqué panel #3, more than half of the stems done. Still need to sew the blocks together for the pieced strips between the appliqué. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: I really enjoyed The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson-Burnett (author of Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden) on Audible. I guess I need to read more by this author. Now I'm listening to Icebound by Dean Koontz on the Overdrive app. The eBook The Hannover Square Affair by Ashley Gardner is still on my iPad Nook app for bedtime reading. Listening to the Fiber Hooligan podcast and the Knit Picks podcast.

What's my app of the week: MLB, the free version. When I can't watch my beloved Red Sox on TV, I can still keep track of the games using the scoreboard in the app.

What's in my wine glass: HRM Rex-Goliath Free Range Red, nice for a change of pace. "Sweet and juicy," although it isn't really what I would call a sweet wine. 

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Learning New Things

In Common Threads this week, we had a special meeting to view the video, "Learn to Love Needleturn" by Mary Sorensen. 

We gathered at our usual start time at Janet's to have a bite to eat before the meeting. We had eight people, in spite of our first real snowstorm, with accumulation on the roads (see photo, below). Some of our members are new to quilting. 

Here we are, watching the video. 

We started by watching a segment, then practicing what we learned, but we could see we weren't going to be able to finish in the time we had allotted, no surprise to me. I had wanted a full day, but some of our members who wanted to participate couldn't spare the time all at once. "Plan B" was to get everyone started, then watch the remaining segments. That way, we got through the 2-hr. video. Each person will be able to borrow the DVD to finish up at her own speed. Some people are going to work together, and some may end up buying their own copy. 

I continue to be amazed at how many tips and tricks there are to learn on the DVD. I've watched it several times, and I've learned something new each time, as I pick up on things that escaped me in earlier viewings, and that, in spite of having had the class in person with Mary Sorensen several years ago, which was wonderful. This is a great DVD, so worth the price! Mary's a good teacher, with a good sense of humor.

We finished up our meeting with a potluck lunch. It was a fun day. Ellen has to go home to Florida soon, but we have decided to work on our appliqué block together when she comes back next month. 

Update on the llama fleeces: Lynda and I prepared a little of the fiber, pulled out guard hairs and junk, washed it, ran it through our drum carder and spun it up, just to see if it was worth all the work. Lynda has knit up a swatch. I still need to do mine. Both of us found there was more dirt to wash out with the finished yarn. Here's a photo of my share of the llama, spun and plied:

I got 19 wraps-per-inch (WPI), 43 g and 56 yds. It's very soft, but I'm not sure about next to the skin; it might be a little itchy. We may have left a few of the guard hairs in. It took several hours just to get less than 100 g ready to spin, but I think it's worth the effort. Now if the weather will cooperate and give us a few days to get enough done to do something with. Here's a closeup.

We had a special get-together to be able to spend some time with an old friend who isn't available on Thursdays. Susan came and showed off her jacket.

She wove this from Tencel and Silk thread. She says the weaving was easy, but the sewing was a challenge.

Remember that winter storm I mentioned? I wasn't kidding. This is what greeted me Friday morning when I looked out our back windows. That's our hot tub under all that snow. I can't remember ever having "real" snow this early. Most of it has melted now.

We had new technical problems this week, related to iOS7. DH had a return of his username/password problem. Also, about the beginning of the week I lost Siri. (I was afraid she had been furloughed, although I thought she was a contractor, not a federal worker.) We had to stop by the Apple store anyway to help DH with his problem (finally resolved, I think), so I got an appointment with one of the cute geniuses at the Genius Bar. It turns out I had turned her off. (I have that effect on a lot of people.) I wonder where she went while she was gone?

Speaking of computers, this came in from the cold:

I didn't want a computer bug, so I showed him the door (window, actually). My laptop is a MacBook, but I didn't want to take a chance. 

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, Christmas Waffle inching along, and Green Tea socks with a few more pattern repeats finished.

What's on my loom: Hoping to warp soon for a scarf. (This week got away from me.)

What's on my wheel: Full Circle Roving in "Wolf," barely started.

What's on my Featherweight: Delectable pathways, appliqué panel #3, half of the stems done, but not very pretty yet, so no photo. I've been using my machine to hem pants, etc., but I may have to sew my Delectable Mountains blocks together, just to take a break from appliqué, knitting, spinning, etc.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson-Burnett (author of Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden). Excellent book. The eBook The Hannover Square Affair by Ashley Gardner is on my iPad Nook app for bedtime reading. Listening to the Fiber Hooligan podcast and the Knit Picks podcast.

What's my app of the week: The Recipe Box. There are several apps for keeping your recipes, but this was one of the ones where you don't have to pay extra to get the iPad, iPhone and Mac version of the app. It's $3.99. You can copy and paste your favorite recipes and include a photo if you have one. It will help you make a shopping list. I'm transferring my recipes as I cook them. I especially like that it doesn't turn itself off while you're trying to cook. I've been viewing my recipes in Pages and always hate to have to touch my iPad screen with messy fingers. Note: A couple of weeks ago, I chose a flashlight app as my "app of the week." I've now deleted that flashlight app, because iOS 7 gives you a flashlight, and it can be accessed from the Control Center. One of the amazing new features!

What's in my wine glass: Glen Ellen House Concannon (Glen Ellen Reserve) Merlot, vintage 2011. As in, "You had me at Merlot." Nice wine with flavors of cherry and plum with a touch of spice. Think I'll have another glass....

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.