Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for 2012

End of Warp … and Flamingos!

Posted in knitting, weaving on February 14, 2012| 3 Comments »

I finished off the rug warp last week, starting with this custom order 6-1/2 ft runner.  My friends wanted this material in particular, a classic Hudson’s Bay blanket colorway.  Pendleton calls it the Glacier National Park Blanket.  I kept calling the mill outlet store near Portland until they finally got some of the fringed material in from the mill, and then had it sent up to me.

I still had some warp left, so wove this little mat for the “water closet” in our upstairs bathroom (the toilet is in its own little room):

and I still had some warp left, so decided to “go for it” and make another small rug using some dark blue fringed material alternated with bright red “worms”.  It was a struggle getting a good shed at the end, but I had very little warp left when done, which is a good thing.

On the knitting front, I finished a pair of the Flamingo Mittens by SpillyJane Knits.  I first saw these on Carol Sunday’s website, or rather the e-newsletter I subscribe to from her.  The website is Sunday Knits.  She has a line of scrumptious yarn sourced from Italy and dyed to her specifications, and is a prolific knitwear designer.  I had a skein of her Nirvana (92% merino, 8% cashmere) in the Cedar color, and rummaged around in the yarn boxes until I found a good flamingo pink in Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply.

These are too small for my hands at an 8″ circumference, but that’s OK since I made them for a friend of mine anyway.  But if I make another pair of SpillyJane’s mittens for me, I will add another 10 sts or 1 inch in circumference.

Read Full Post »

Yet More Rugs…

Posted in weaving on February 8, 2012| 1 Comment »

I’m nearing the end of the rug warp on my 48″ Macomber loom.  I have enough left to weave a custom order hallway runner for some friends (at least, I hope I have enough left…)

I usually weave 4-5 rugs at a time before taking them off and finishing them (which means sewing the hems, washing them on a delicate or washable-wool setting in cold water, hanging to dry, then sewing on my labels).

Here are the ones I finished mid to late January:

Multi-colored worms intermixed with solid red at each end

Multi-colored worms intermixed with solid blue at each end

This one is similar to the rug I did for a friend back at the beginning of this warp.  I used 6 different colors of “worms” (wool strips) plus some of the fringed wool blanket selvages.  It looks a lot better in person – I really like the variety of colors and textures and may wind up keeping it.

6 colors of worms plus some fringed material

Multi-colored worms with solid purple stripes outlined in dark violet

The above were taken off the loom, finished, and photographed on Jan 21st.  Since then I have produced the following:

Classic Pendleton blanket selvage alternated with blue worms

Blue multicolor flannel (un-napped) worms

These two I wove specifically for our upstairs bathroom:

Brown & green tones flannel worms; stripes outlined in solid black

When we were in Seattle a week or so ago, we went by D.A. Burns, a carpet & upholstery cleaning and repair business that we have used many times over the years.  I wanted to get some Durahold rug pad to put under the rugs I am keeping at home – this stuff is the best for hardwood floors!  It has a felt upper surface and natural rubber bottom surface, so it both cushions and grips the rug, and also won’t slide on the floor.  It came on 6-ft and 12-ft rolls, so we had them cut a piece 28″ wide and 12-ft long, then Rick just cut the piece with a utility knife to fit the rugs after washing (my current rugs are warped at 30″ and come out 29-30″ wide finished – they recommend cutting the pad about 1-1/2″ narrower than the finished size in both directions).

Read Full Post »

Introducing Juno and Stormy

Posted in pets, Uncategorized on February 5, 2012| 2 Comments »

This is an update from an email I sent to family and friends yesterday.  It has been almost a year since we lost our 18-year-old gray cat, Pushkin, and then last August our 12-year-old Bengal cat, Teasel.  We decided to try being “cat-free” since it does simplify life, at least as far as taking both long and short trips goes.  But after almost 40 years of being cat owners, we missed having them around and had started looking a bit at shelters and on the internet (Petfinder.com is a wonderful resource).

So we came home from the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society on Friday with 2 new kitties!  One we had seen last Monday on our way home from Seattle.  She is young (5 months) and they say she is a “dilute calico”.  She has a wonderful personality, very friendly, confident and playful, and very soft fur.  We are calling her Juno (“Matilda” wasn’t doing it for us).

 

We also adopted a 4-year-old neutered male who had just been surrendered by his owner (who was moving to somewhere that wouldn’t take pets, or so the surrender form said).  He looks a lot like Pushkin, but he is smaller and more vocal.  He had a rough week being dumped at the noisy humane society, but loves being held and petted. He has been getting more comfortable being out and about in the house as the days pass.  He started off growling at Juno who wants to play and follow him around, but I think this morning he seems a little more curious about her.  We think it is only a matter of time (after all, Teasel finally wore Pushkin down).  He came with the name Storm so we are calling him Stormy.

 

Read Full Post »

Almost Snowed In!

Posted in home life, Methow Valley on January 25, 2012| 2 Comments »

We got at least a foot of new snow last night – way more than predicted!  I need to go in to the office again today, but I am going to wait until Chuck the snowplow guy shows up to deal with our driveway.  This goes way beyond using the snowblower.

Looking towards Patterson Mountain from the upstairs deck

Our "snow gauge" - Loki in the Stars

Rick's shop and my studio blanketed in snow

We saw the MVSTA trail groomer go by out in the field this morning, so the ski trails should be fabulous.  Too bad we have to work!  Maybe we can sneak in a ski in the late afternoon…

Read Full Post »

Sun & Snow

Posted in Methow Valley, outdoors on January 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Sunday it snowed all day long and our overall snowpack is looking pretty good!  The MVSTA trail groomers have been out grooming our valley’s extensive cross-county trail system every morning. Yesterday there was a break between storm systems so we headed up to Sun Mountain in the late morning for a ski outing.

Not being in the best of shape, we stuck to the lower, relatively flat trails.  We started out along the edge of the beaver pond:

to the Hough Homestead:

then back along the Yellow Jacket trail, which has its ups and downs.  We decided we weren’t quite ready to quit yet, so we skiied back up Little Wolf Rd to the Overland trail, which is a higher route with beautiful trees and views down to the valley.

snow-covered pines on Overland trail

view up-valley along the Overland trail

What a gorgeous, sunny day!  We were out for almost 2 hours of continuous, although not overly strenuous, exercise.

Here’s a shot of the house with its new blanket of snow on the roof:

The next system is moving in from the coast, and we are supposed to get another 3-6 inches today and tonight!

Read Full Post »

FO: Bobble Shirt

Posted in knitting on January 22, 2012| 3 Comments »

Here’s a “finished object” in the knitting department.  I started it the first weekend of November while at knitting retreat.  It’s an adaptation of a pattern called “Bobble Shirt” by Carol Lapin in the first Jamieson’s Shetland Knitting Book (I have added a link because it is still available both new and used).

My version of the Bobble Shirt

The main yarn was a lovely handpainted Blue Face Leicester DK from Fleece Artist, a dyer in Nova Scotia.  I bought two skeins in the Ebony colorway at Knit Purl in Portland, OR several years ago.  It’s time had come!  Each skein was 250 gms, 450 meters – so I had about 1000 yds of DK weight, which knits up at 5-1/2 sts per inch on a US 6 (4 mm) needle.  For the two bottom tiers or layers, I rummaged through my box of discontinued Rowan Designer DK and found the cocoa brown and dark gray that seemed to work with the handpaint.  I needed two 50-gm balls of each of those colors, but only had one of the gray, so I had to substitute something “close but different” to finish the bottom layer – but it is hidden underneath the cocoa layer and you will never see it.

So here are the changes I made to the pattern.  This is a BIG drop shoulder design so I knit the “smallest” size which was a 45″ circumference.

  • Changed number of stitches for the smaller size to adjust for gauge difference (5-1/2 instead of 5 sts to the inch)
  • Split the hem on the bottom tier or layer (dark gray in picture) with a seed stitch edging around the bottom and up the sides of the split hem
  • Added “purl darts” (column of purl stitches every 10 stitches) to the two bottom tiers to keep them from curling.  The pattern has you knit the bottom tiers in straight stockinette, which you know is going to curl up like a roller blind if you don’t do something to keep it hanging flat!
  • Knit the body in the round to the underarm
  • This is the big one – changed it from a drop shoulder to a set-in-sleeve design.  I used my method for knitting and attaching the sleeve cap directly into the armhole, then knit the rest of the sleeve in the round to the cuff.
  • So overall, not knit in flat pieces and then sewn together – knit all in one piece with no sewing.

There is some “pooling” of colors in the handpaint at different points throughout the sweater.  I struggled with this a bit but decided to just not worry about it in the end.  It has to do with the interplay of the width (flat knitting) or circumference (knitting in the round) of the garment at some point, versus the length of the color repeat in the yarn.  If I had knit the entire sweater in flat pieces to be sewn together, I am pretty sure I would still have had some color pooling on the sleeves, at least.  And possibly also in the yoke, since the width of the body above and below the underarm became different after changing it to a set-in-sleeve design.

Also, this being a handpaint, the two skeins were not exactly the same; one was a little more muted in tone for at least part of the skein, so I had to break the yarn and wind off sections and rearrange them to get transitions that were not glaringly obvious.

I am really happy with this sweater, it is really comfortable and fits me well.  And it is a little different, more whimsical, than what I usually knit for myself.

This is how much I had left of the handpaint yarn!

Read Full Post »

Shopcam: Antique Gun Display

Posted in woodworking on January 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Rick was commissioned to build a secure display cabinet for the antique gun collection at the Shafer Museum in Winthrop.   He special-ordered a sheet of polycarbonate (bullet proof, better than safety glass) which will be installed in the door, with locks on both sides.  Here’s a photo taken from a ladder in the shop (the cabinet will be mounted on a wall):

Some of these came from Simon Shafer’s personal collection, and others have been donated to the museum over the years.  I think the oldest gun dates to 1832.

Read Full Post »

On (and Off) the Loom

Posted in weaving on January 14, 2012| 4 Comments »

I’ve been weaving away on rugs and thought I would put up a few pictures.  All of these are woven with materials I got at the Pendleton mill outlet stores.  For the most part they are by-products from weaving wool blankets (the fringed selvages, and also the smooth wool selvages they call “worms”).   I also have some lighter weight fringed selvages that I think were by-products of weaving wool shirting fabrics.

Pendleton smooth wool selvages ("worms")

wool shirting selvages alternated with smooth wool strips

I’ve been experimenting with alternating shots of the fringed selvages with the smooth wool selvages, for a number of reasons – to make the fringed material go farther, to make the rug less heavy, and for color effects.  I am pretty pleased with this approach and will probably use it more.

very heavy fringed selvages alternated with black "worms"

And this:

turned into this:

I was a little surprised when I got into this next bag and realized the material was COTTON – almost everything I get from the mill stores is wool!

Pendleton cotton fringed material

Another one using alternating shots of fringed and smooth material:

And this last one was done all with “worms”:

One of these was a special order; the others are out in the Confluence Gallery in Twisp and the Winthrop Gallery in Winthrop, on consignment.  And there are more underway!

I’m happy to report that is is finally SNOWING here today, with more forecast for the week.  It has been really cold and dry, icy and treacherous walking… this seems more like “normal”!

Read Full Post »

ShopCam: Treasure Box

Posted in woodworking on January 8, 2012| 2 Comments »

I just wanted to show some pictures of a beautiful “treasure box” that Rick completed in December for a dear friend’s 60th birthday present.  I had purchased a small enamel piece called “Cat Heaven” from Gloria Spiwak, who is a fellow member of the Winthrop Gallery.  I suggested to Rick that he use it in the lid of a box, imagining something the size of a shoe box.

Well, he found some special woods (wenge and quilted maple, for the most part) and got a little carried away.  The bottom of the tray, lower drawer and the inside of the box itself are water-ski veneers from the 1960’s that he had laid up on core stock.

Photos by Teri Pieper, also a member of the Winthrop Gallery.

Read Full Post »

Moving into the New Year

Posted in home life, weaving on January 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

We arrived home from the Coast the day after Christmas, and the following week brought a mad (but fun) swirl of social activities: dinners with friends, our neighbor’s 70th birthday party, guests from Seattle, New Year’s Eve at the Methow Valley Inn in Twisp.

Unfortunately, my camera battery needed charging so I didn’t get very good pictures at the birthday party, but it was snowing lightly and there were wagon rides:

two-horse open "sleigh"

Actually the plan was for it to be a sleigh, but there just wasn’t enough snow so they had a wagon instead!  There were jingle bells, though.

We got out for a ski on the cross-country trails on New Year’s Day, and the conditions were excellent despite the odd weather we continue to experience (little snow, rain, warming trends, etc).  The next morning our friends from Wenatchee stopped by for brunch and to see the Wolf Creek house – they hadn’t been here yet.  They had a great pair of “beer-can-holder” mittens that someone had brought back from a trip to Iceland.  I will definitely be making a pair of these:

In the studio, I am back to weaving rugs on my big loom.  I decided it was time to sort through all the bags of Pendleton “worms” I brought back from the mill outlet store in Portland.  Bags and bags of them.  When I buy these, they are dumped into a big bin, sold by the pound, so I basically go dumpster diving and stuff all the colors I like into big plastic bags.  They still need to be sorted so I can see what and how much I have of various colors.  It’s a dusty, dirty affair!

Then I start pairing things up to see what I might want to use in a rug.   I am going to try combining the smooth selvages (“worms”) with the fringed selvages this time around, at least in a few of them.

I’m also toying with the idea of making one more run of the plaited twill scarves.  The Confluence Gallery sold almost everything I had over the holidays, plus 3 of my lap robes (not complaining, mind you…)  So now I am almost out of scarves again.   I don’t want to buy more material, though, so am trying to figure out what I have enough of to make a long-ish warp.  Warp colors in the foreground, some rayon chenilles to weave with in the background:

On the way home from the Coast after Christmas, we made a few stops and I found a couple of new treasures in antique shops.  This object is a buttonhole cutter (Optima, made in Germany) and it is quite beefy and in great condition – and only five bucks!

I haven’t been able to find anything about it on the Internet; they definitely don’t seem to be made anymore.  I did find something like it, made by the U.S. company Wiss (makers of scissors and shears), on an antique tool website, but that was about it.  He had sold that one for $95 so I am feeling good about my purchase.

Then I found these vintage milliner’s hat forms.  They are canvas and I have since found a few on eBay (mine cost a lot less, yay!).  I had never seen one before, and I found them on the same day, but in two completely different stores (one in Monroe and one in Cashmere).  I will use them to display my hand-knit hats:

vintage canvas hat forms

The only bad news this week is that the ignition switch went out on our Honda CR-V.  It had started acting funny 2 days ago, but we weren’t sure if it was a key issue or a steering wheel lock issue, or what.  Then yesterday I made an errands run – picked up eggs from neighbor up the road, check.  Post office, check.  Grocery store, check.  Stopped by the office above Winthrop where I work part time, to drop off mail and check emails, etc.  When I went to leave, I couldn’t get my key or the valet key to go into the ignition.  Then finally got it in but it wouldn’t turn.  Rick was down in Pateros on an installation so I couldn’t even get a ride home.  It was getting dark and cold!  Finally called the local locksmith and fortunately he was in Winthrop (they cover the whole valley, and beyond).  He couldn’t get it to work either, despite lubricating it and trying for about a half hour.  The conclusion is that there is some pin or pins in there that have seized up or fallen out or something.  So I have left the car up there and we are waiting for a new ignition to be sent from the dealership in Wenatchee.  Hopefully by tomorrow or Friday I will have my car back!

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts