We’re back in the valley this week after a nice relaxing Thanksgiving weekend visit to Seattle. After the actual T-day activities, we had a couple of days to just hang out and be tourists in the city. The weather was great, meaning dry and even sunny on occasion, which meant we could go for long walks. We got together with friends, also rented movies and stayed in some evenings, and got lots of sleep.
Back in the valley, it has stayed dry and it is getting quite cold. We could use some snow around here. The Weatherwatch column in the paper (Methow Valley News) says it will be coming with the waning of the moon… hope so!
I made a first batch of shawl pins for the guild sale using beads and some wood rings I found at a bead store in Seattle. Unfortunately, they have run out of the rings and said it was a one-time thing and they would not be getting more. I had explored some other bead stores while over at the coast for Thanksgiving, and came home with some really pretty semi-precious stones that I wanted to use for the heads of the pins. But, no rings.
But wait a minute, I am married to a woodworker. So I asked him a couple of days ago if he thought he could make me some rings that were a little nicer and more interesting than the ones I had purchased. What a guy – the next thing I knew he was down in the shop up to his ankles in wood chips and had turned out the wood for 108 of them. 108!! Most of them still need sanding and finishing, but he did finish up enough for me to get some out to the shops on consignment for the holiday shopping season.
And he used some beautiful woods – highly figured maple, lacewood, a very dark and dense walnut from either Paraguay or Peru (he couldn’t remember).
So here’s some of the first batch:
Lacewood with turquoise bead
Walnut with bright green stone bead
Walnut with square red semi-precious bead
Figured maple with semi-precious stone bead
Lacewood with orange semi-precious bead
I also finished two longer shawls, having put the warp on the loom before we left for the holiday. One was woven with rich brown alpaca for the weft, the other with black alpaca. I took them up to the galleries today (Ashford Gallery in Winthrop and Confluence Gallery in Twisp) and am planning on starting another pair of longer shawls tomorrow.
Blue & turquoise warp with brown alpaca
Blue & turquoise warp with black alpaca
Twisp of Fate 
Oooooooo! Beautiful! You are turning out to be quite the artist. Those pins will undoubtedly fly off the shelves. Burled maple with a blue stone… that would be the one I couldn’t resist. {hint} 🙂
I’ll bear it in mind, my dear….
Love the shawl pins! Don’t forget to make some things for the Seattle Weavers Guild Sale.
Hi Katie,
We have not met, but I’m a friend of Jan Jaqua. She attended your spinning class at Orcas a couple of weeks ago. The other day she wore one of your beautiful shawl pins. She told me she bought it from you. She then directed me to your web site/blog. I’m contacting you to find out how I can get one and what is the price. I’ve been looking for a shawl pin for over a year to no avail. Of the ones displayed on your site I would like to buy the one made of lacewood with the orange semi precious bead.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Cindie
I’m replying to you privately, Cindie, but this is definitely telling me that I need to get my Etsy shop up and running for the shawl pins!