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Archive for the ‘Methow Valley’ Category

December doings

Posted in Methow Valley, spinning, weaving on December 4, 2011| 3 Comments »

It’s been clear and cold here, with no change in sight for next week.  We still have snow but it is getting to be an icy, crusty affair.  It’s beautiful – but we’re getting anxious about lack of new snow for skiing and snowshoeing!

Meanwhile, since returning from Seattle at Thanksgiving, I finished up 3 rugs.  The first two shown below were done with Pendleton “worms”, a selvage edge trimmed from the sides of the Pendleton blankets as they are being woven (they later bind the edges with a wool cloth edging).  I have bags and bags of this stuff in a variety of colors, and this time around with the rug warp I think I will concentrate on using it and playing with the colors.

By the way, I have had several comments from friends/family that I never showed pictures of our new oak floor after it was installed in October.  So folks – THAT’S IT in the background of the rug photos below!

Pendleton "worms" - black, white and tan with orange accents

Pendleton "worms" alternating dark blue/purple with brighter colors

The next one was done with 9 colors of cotton corduroys and some lightweight denims.  I sequenced the 9 colors by sewing the ends of strips together at the sewing machine – most of the strips were only about 20″ long – and there are 20 repeats of the 9-color sequence in the rug.  A lot of work preparing the strips for weaving, but I like the effect.

9 colors of cotton corduroys and denims

I’ve also been spinning some beautiful dyed Blue-Faced Leicester top that I bought from Briar Rose Fibers at the first Sock Summit in Portland, OR.  I started this project in Seattle on my HansenCraft minispinner, and I am planning to make a 3-ply yarn which I hope will be enough to knit something for myself.  Actually I have finished all the spinning at this point and should be able to get it plied up this week.

Last night we went down to the Confluence Gallery in Twisp for an evening event called “Black Tie Methow Style.”   They had fabulous hors d’oeuvres, champagne and a no-host bar.  People got dressed up – but with bit of a twist in many cases.  Two of our favorite local musicians were playing jazz.  I didn’t get the best of pictures, but it was a lot of fun and we got to see and socialize with many friends we hadn’t seen for a while.  A nice kick-off to the holiday season!

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Holiday Shows

Posted in Methow Valley, weaving on November 19, 2011| 1 Comment »

There’s a new show up at the Confluence Gallery in Twisp titled “Exquisite Craft.”  Rick and I both have some work in this show and there are many really wonderful things.  Anyone in or passing through the valley between now and early January, make sure to get off the highway (Twisp’s main street is one block east) and spend a little time there.

Rick's "Tallback Chairs" along with one of Peter Nawrot's tables

A display of my weaving

The Winthrop Gallery also mounted their Holiday Gift Show this week, but I am sorry to say I have no pictures.  Looks pretty good though and there are a lot of nice hand-made items.  This is an artist cooperative gallery in Winthrop of which I am now a member.

And this weekend saw the Methow Valley Spinners & Weavers Guild annual show and sale.  I didn’t get by there until the end of the day today, as I was teaching a knitting class down in Chelan, but it looks like a lot of people came by to see the work of our guild, and many of them also purchased holiday gifts.  So thank-you to all those folks!

We’re off early tomorrow morning for a week on the Coast so no blogging for me until we return after Thanksgiving….

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More Peerie Blankets

Posted in Methow Valley, weaving on October 26, 2011| 3 Comments »

We are dashing out the door for Seattle.  I have 13 scarves, 10 lap robes/throws (“peerie blankets”) and 2 wallhangings for the Seattle Weavers’ Guild show that runs Oct 27-29 at St Marks Cathedral on Capital Hill in Seattle (see sidebar for more info).   Unbelievable amount of work getting them all finished, inventoried and labeled!

Here are the 6 new little blankets, again all done with 2-ply Shetland wool:

Blue Corn Cafe yarns

Purples - last one off the loom!

Shetland natural marled yarns with shades of Green

Greens & Browns with Lemon Yellow

Beach and Surf

Shetland Sheep natural colors (undyed)

I also put 46 yards of rug warp on the loom last week, and wove 2 custom rugs to bring over to Seattle for delivery.  I am pretty happy with this 6-foot runner that my friends’ ordered for their kitchen:

It has been beautiful in the valley this week with lots of fall color, particularly the cottonwoods in bright golden yellow.  There is snow in the high country, too.  Here was the scene when we drove over Washington Pass last week:

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Labor Day visitors

Posted in family & friends, Methow Valley on September 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Rick’s daughter and son-in-law drove up from Medford last Thursday to visit us and see our new home at Wolf Creek.  It’s a long drive, about 12 hours if done straight, so we really appreciated them making the effort.  We didn’t “do” much, just took it easy and had a nice visit.

But it turns out Duane loves to split wood.  Who are we to argue?  Now all the firewood is split and stacked neatly away for winter!

On Sunday we drove up to Hart’s Pass – actually beyond, to the base of Slate Peak.  From there is it a short walk up to the fire lookout at 7488 feet.  Gorgeous views all around of the North Cascades and Pasayten Wilderness.

on top of Slate Peak, Mt Baker in the background

 

 

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Family and Feast

Posted in family & friends, Methow Valley on August 24, 2011| 1 Comment »

Last week our grand-daughter took a week of her vacation to come up to visit us from Medford, OR.  It was her first long road trip by herself but she seemed to enjoy it, and we had a great time.  The first 3 days we stayed in the valley and just sort of hung out and visited – but she did tell me she wanted to learn to knit, so I also got her started on that and she was making real progress by the end of the week.

The night before we left for Seattle, we had dinner down at Twisp River Pub:

In Seattle we visited with Rick’s sister and mom (April’s great-aunt and great-grandmother!)

and did touristy stuff, like visit the Space Needle and the Seattle Aquarium.  The weather was perfect and it was actually nice to be doing some fun things in Seattle instead of being focused on errands and so forth, like we usually are.

at the Space Needle

We all thought this modified sign in Ballard was pretty funny:

We parted company after 3 days in Seattle, her heading south to Oregon and us heading north to visit my Dad and brother and sister-in-law before coming home over the North Cascades Highway on Sunday morning.

Sunday evening we went to a wonderful outdoor event at Bluebird Grain Farms up in the Rendezvous area.  Called the “Feast of Field and Stream”, it was a dinner showcasing the products of Bluebird Grain Farms, Hard Row to Hoe Vineyards in Chelan, and the Okanogan Producers Marketing Association, all of whom had earned their Salmon-Safe certifications.  All proceeds went to Trout Unlimited and the Salmon Safe program.

The dinner was catered by Cameron Green and Molly Patterson of Glover Street Market in Twisp, and featured huge pans of farro paella cooked over outdoor fires, quite impressive:

that's a pan full of mussels in the background

cheeses from Glover Street Market

A good time was had by all and we hope they do it again next year!

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Start-itis

Posted in fiberarts, Methow Valley on August 10, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Lots of new projects underway here lately, but the blog has lagged behind.  I have had start-itis, wanting to start many things all at once!

I started a new sweater using some yarn that I spun last year.  Actually I brought this one along all the way from the fleece, which was from a multicolored Corriedale named “Tsuku”.  After washing, I separated the fleece into 3 color groups (gray, white-to-pale gray, and dark-gray-to-black), carded them separately and then put the 3 colors onto the drum carder in layers.  The goal was to preserve some color variation in the final yarn, which more or less worked.  Spun it up as a 3-ply yarn sometime last winter and wound up with quite a lot, maybe 2800 yards or so.  So now I am knitting it up as a traditional gansey style sweater, using the pattern Lochinver from Alice Starmore’s book Fishermen’s Sweaters.

Lochinver sweater completed to the underarm

As of today, I have almost finished the front and back yokes and will be moving on to the collar and sleeves soon.  More pictures to come!  It’s going amazingly fast and it feels good to be knitting an actual sweater again.  I had kind of gotten stuck on hats and small projects there for a while.

I started spinning some merino/cashmere and merino/tencel fiber that I purchased at a conference several years back.  Dyed by Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks, both in the same colorway called Copper Slate.  Taking an idea from last February’s spinning camp on Orcas, I am alternating the two fiber blends in the spun singles (instead of alternating colorways of the same fiber) and hope to wind up with a 2-ply for a lace project.  No pictures yet but I will get some once I actually have produced some yarn.

Started another round of plaited twill scarves down at the weavers’ guild room.  I am calling this warp colorway “Sea Scallop.”

Sea Scallop with chocolate chenille weft

Sea Scallop with taupe tencel weft

These are actually off the loom now, fringes braided, washed and pressed and trimmed.  I’ll get pictures today or tomorrow and show the finished product.  I have wound the next warp and it is ready to tie on, which I may get started on today.  I’m on a roll, trying to build up some stock for the galleries and holiday sales.

At home, I have been working on more of the small blankets or lap robes.  I have interim pictures only, as I am just concentrating on getting them woven and putting them in a box to be finished up later (twisting the fringes, fulling in the washing machine, etc).  It’s been really fun though, sorting through my Shetland yarn stash and coming up with combinations that work together – and getting rid of some stuff kept in storage for way, way too long!

This one used some handspun Romney yarn that was given to me at knitting retreat last November.  She dyed it the variegated purple color and then spun it as a 2-ply.  I had to use some commercial yarn in the warp as well (Harrisville Shetland) to get the full width, and also for the weft:

# 6 using hand-spun, hand-dyed Romney

This one used up yarn leftover from a fairisle sweater I knit several years ago (Luskentyre by Alice Starmore):

# 7 Luskentyre, on the loom

#7 Luskentyre, off loom but not yet finished/fulled

I finished one 2 days ago in shades of brown, and have a new one on the loom in shades of gray to black:

# 9 underway on the loom

On a completely different note, last Friday we attended the “soft opening” for my friend Sara’s new studio down at the TwispWorks campus in Twisp.  She is calling it “Culler Studio”, a play on “color studio” but Culler was her mother’s maiden name.  Rick and I had been down there the week before helping her paint the walls, and it was amazing to see it transformed:

Culler Studio at TwispWorks

This will be primarily a work space (Sara is a natural dyer, painter, weaver) but for this event she had a showing of her own work, plus that of her 2 daughters Eva (print-making) and Grace (jewelry).  It was certainly well-attended and a good time was had by all!

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Music in the Valley

Posted in Methow Valley on July 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This year, for the first time, we have been attending the wonderful Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival.  In its 16th year, the festival brings world-class performers from the Pacific Northwest and around the country.  Featured this year was the Grammy-award winning Parker String Quartet; they played together, and in various combinations with other musicians.  Fabulous!

Two years ago the festival moved to a new location at Signal Hill Ranch in the hills above the valley between Twisp and Winthrop.  Owners Howard and Liz Johnson opened their ranch to the festival, and converted their barn to a state-of-the-art 200-seat venue.  Howie is an electrical engineer by trade and designed the acoustics for the barn.  Here is a short quote from this article about the Johnson’s and Signal Hill Ranch: “Originally built to house show horses, the barn sits high on a pastured, east-facing slope between Winthrop and Twisp with stunning views of mountains and hillsides all around.  If the timing and weather are right, audiences can enjoy top-flight chamber musicians while, through an open barn door, they watch the moon rise over the hills – one of those special Methow Magic moments.”  Indeed!

We bought two flex-passes, each good for 4 concerts, and have been to every center-stage performance since last Friday, July 22 (there are also a lot of free events during the festival in various locations up and down valley, and a music camp for young musicians, plus you can attend open rehearsal up at the barn in the mornings).

They also have food & beverages available before the concerts, and although we had dinner at home, reports of the catering by Rocking Horse Bakery were quite favorable.  All the beer, wine and cider were donated by local businesses with sales to benefit the festival – typical generosity from these folks:  Twisp River Pub, Lost River Winery, and the Methow Valley Cider House.

This ranch horse seemed particularly interested in someone’s Asian noodle salad:

It’s been a wonderful experience and we plan to make this a yearly event!  I love this valley.

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Coming up for air

Posted in family & friends, Methow Valley, weaving on June 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Wow, it’s been almost 3 weeks since my last post.  Life has been busy but wonderful!

During our week at home after the trip to Oregon, we had a little time to catch up on home life.  I had applied to join the Winthrop Gallery, an artist cooperative, before we left for Utah, and was accepted.  We are expected to take one day a month to staff the gallery and it was time for me to get some training and put in a first day there.  I “worked” on Sunday, June 12, and things went well except that I only sold one note card during the entire day.  But now I have an outlet for my weaving again in Winthrop and have my rugs, scarves and a couple of small blankets there on consignment.  I am also showing at the Confluence Gallery in Twisp.

An old friend of Rick’s, who lives in North Bend, came over for a couple of nights with his friend Fukiko from Japan.

Dave & Fukiko

She brought a bottle of special sake which is made in her village near Kyoto, and the first night she cooked us a wonderful sukiyaki dinner, including ingredients she had brought from Japan.

Dave originally met Fukiko a couple of years ago when he was on  trip to Japan with some friends.  She has worked as a travel agent, but most recently has developed a home stay program at her family home in Kameoka.  Here is her website:  Japan Reservation Network.  Lovely woman.  We hope we can pull off a visit to Japan in the next couple of years!

The following week (last week) we had a small family reunion here.  My sister and brother-in-law flew up from San Jose (soon to be from Colorado instead).  My dad came over from Anacortes in his RV.  My brother and sister-in-law came over from Camano Island.  The weather was cool-ish but not raining! and a good time was had by all.

Family dinner at Wolf Creek

The gathered clan

I have managed to fit in a little weaving during the last month or so.  I wound a new scarf warp after returning from Utah/Colorado and got it set up on my loom at the weaving guild room.  It is a mix of reds and I am calling it “Pomegranate” in my head.  So far, with all the comings and goings, I have woven off 3 of the 5 scarves it should allow.  Today finished number 3 in a navy tencel warp:

Navy tencel weft on Pomegranate warp

Tomorrow we head out to Lochaerie Resort on the north shore of Lake Quinault on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, for the annual fundraiser bike ride around the lake and a get-together with old friends.  But tonight we went down to the Twisp River Pub for dinner, and discovered it was the beginning of summer, with the first Wednesday night jazz music in the beer garden!

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Still Fitting in Knitting

Posted in knitting, Methow Valley, weaving on March 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

The show, titled “Lacunae – The art of gaps, holes and negative spaces”, at the Confluence Gallery in Twisp opened yesterday.  My friend Sara Ashford and I have our work displayed in what they call the Solo Gallery, which is now on either side as you walk on back to the main gallery space.  Sara owns (or owned) the Ashford Gallery in Winthrop and has been carrying my rugs, scarves, shawls and shawl pins on consignment for the last couple of years.  She does beautiful nature dyeing on silks and is also a weaver and member of our local guild.  She is closing the gallery in Winthrop to devote more time to her own artwork, and will hopefully have a new studio space at TwispWorks (on the site of the old Forest Service complex) in the near future.

While up on Orcas Island, I was also knitting away feverishly on the embellishments for my woven and felted wall-hangings.  I wanted each one to have a theme, and wound up knitting Estonian lace panels in Rowan Kidsilk Haze for the blue/green wall-hanging, and patterns from the fishermen’s ganseys of Eriskay (in the Outer Hebrides) for the black & white one.  I have always loved the Eriskay ganseys and this got me excited about actually knitting one this year.  My idea for the purple wall-hanging was to do stranded colorwork (Fair Isle, Bohus, etc) but this wasn’t panning out too well, so when I got home I found a yarn that worked well color-wise, and wound up knitting some elaborate cable and texture patterns from my stitch pattern books.

The idea here came from some of my friends asking me if I still knit, in slightly puzzled tones, when they observe my new obsession with weaving.  It made me realize that for me, weaving is new, exciting, exploratory and offers a way to play with fiber and color and also get something completed relatively quickly.  Whereas knitting is more of a “slow fiber” craft, it can take 6 months or more to complete a finely knitted sweater, but that is always OK with me – I enjoy the process and enjoy knitting challenging and complex patterns.  So the wall-hangings are titled “Still Fitting in Knitting” – they are meant to be playful and whimsical, but also represent the place of the two crafts in my life at present.

They had to be in to the gallery by last Tuesday, and I was working on them right up to the end, but here they are hanging.  I also have a nice selection of my plaited twill scarves in the Confluence Gallery gift shop.

Still Fitting in Knitting – Texture
Still Fitting in Knitting – Lace
Still Fitting in Knitting – Eriskay

By the way, for you traditional knitters out there, I know of two sources for patterns for complete Eriskay ganseys:  Alice Starmore’s Fishermen’s Sweaters, and Madeline Weston’s Country Weekend Knits (originally published as Classic British Knits).

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Last Post for 2010

Posted in family & friends, Methow Valley, pets, weaving on December 31, 2010| 3 Comments »

We returned from 6 days on the Coast last Sunday, and our dear friends who are currently living in Southern California joined us here for 3 nights before heading back south.  We celebrated a 59th birthday:

They brought their 2 new cats, Tatti (a Maine Coon, still an adolescent and a big, sweet girl) and the Siamese kitten, Neko.  I’m not sure why my best picture of Neko was taken when she was asleep, because that was rarely the case!  She was very playful and hilariously entertaining.

There was only one “moment” when Tatti sneaked upstairs past our barrier and encountered a hostile Teasel (our female Bengal cat).  There was a lot of hissing, screaming and scrambling around.  We raced upstairs to find Tatti cowering in the bathroom, little fluffs of Tatti fur on the landing, and Teasel puffed up to about 3 times her normal size.  No harm done, though.

Rick and I went out for a fairly long ski on Monday which took us onto the Winthrop Trail and a view back down to the house:

Since then it has turned really, really cold – but clear and beautiful, especially in the mornings.

The carport is finished and we have both trailers (the Aliner travel trailer, and Rick’s utility trailer) and both our vehicles safely parked out of the snow now:

carport finished Dec 30, 2010

While away on the Coast, I finished the fourth of the swirl top hats.  This time I used a mosaic pattern from Barbara Walker’s Mosaic Knitting for the band and I am quite pleased with the result.  The yarns are Noro Silk Garden (the one showing color graduation) and Rowan Kid Classic in the same dark brown I used on the first hat.

And this week I warped up my small loom with a new scarf warp colorway that I had prepared before we left for Christmas.  I have finished the first 2 of 4 scarves I will get from this warp, and am working on the third one today.

Autumn warp with eggplant chenille weft

Autumn warp with black tencel weft

Tonight we go down to Twisp to join a group of friends for potluck dinner and ringing in the New Year at the Methow Valley Inn.  Safe travels to all who are similarly out and about tonight, and Happy New Year!

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