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Busy Week

March 26, 2012 by Katie

It’s been a bit of a mad whirlwind the last week or so.  The weekend before this last one, we went over to the coast for 3 nights for mostly social reasons.  First up was my “little” brother’s 60th birthday, which he didn’t want a big deal made of.  His wife had a nice dinner party at their home on Camano Island,  and we went down with my dad, then spent the night up at dad’s house in Anacortes.  There were only about 10 of us – the food was fabulous and it was a nice laid-back evening.

Family photo-op at the birthday dinner

The next day (Sunday) we headed down to Seattle to attend the wedding of a lovely young woman who worked on several of the research projects I was involved in at the UW, back when I was gainfully employed as a computer programmer/data analyst.  These were marriage and family studies in the Psychology Dept and later Family & Child Nursing.  It was an honor to be invited and also a wonderful opportunity to re-connect with some of my friends and colleagues whom I hadn’t seen in 6 years.

Stephanie & Braulio

My buddies from the old days!

CB with the happy couple

The next day, our friend Stan drove up from Portland to meet us and bring us the rest of the display cases that we hadn’t been able to fit into the truck and U-Haul on the trip to Portland.  It was really nice of him to do that, as he had been hoping to pick up furniture and other things from Seattle people who show at The Real Mother Goose, and it turned out no-one had things for him to pick up, or they were out of town.  After meeting up in Ballard and transferring the goods from his van to our truck, we had lunch at Ray’s Boathouse with Rick’s mom and sister, then headed home to the Methow, arriving about 8 pm.

In the intervening week, we have been trying to get work done (in the shop, for Rick) and also get ready for our annual meeting with our accountant.  So I have been putting in long hours at the computer, entering things into Quickbooks and pulling together other information.

On Friday, I headed up a painting project at the Winthrop Gallery to renew the gift shop area.  I had some helpers, of course, but it was a long day on Friday pulling everything off the shelves, moving out the old display cases, putting 2 coats of paint on the walls, cleaning, then moving in the new display cases.  On Saturday I went back in and spent about 4 hours putting all the stock back on the shelves and arranging the displays.  It looks so much better!  But I failed to take a single picture.

Friday night, despite being really tired from the long day, we decided to go back into Winthrop to the Old Schoolhouse Brewery – because Terry Lee Hardesty was playing with the band that night.  Terry Lee lives in Twisp now, but he has had a long and varied music career, including playing and recording with Merle Haggard.  He is a fabulous guitar player, and has a deep mellow voice.  You have to like country music to like Terry Lee – but he can also rock it, trust me.

Terry Lee and Rick

Well, that’s life in the Methow – always something new and different!

 

Posted in family & friends | 3 Comments »

Icelandic “Fleece”

March 16, 2012 by Katie

Before I left for spinning camp in late February, I realized I had never finished up spinning and/or plying some of the projects we had undertaken 2 years previously.  Ridiculous!  That year the theme had been “Spinning for Traditional Knitting.”  We spun different kinds of fleeces different ways, to make yarns suitable for Cowichan style sweaters, traditional Aran knitting 5-ply, and Icelandic lace.

We had worked from 5 or 6 different Icelandic sheep fleeces, in a range of colors from white to gray to brown to black.  Judith showed us how to use the electric carder to de-hair the locks, then the undercoats were carded into spinning batts.  The goal was to produce a 2-ply yarn suitable for lace knitting, in a variety of colors.  I had prepared all the wool and spun some of it, but still had a number of batts left to spin.  So I finished those up and plied them all.  Before I left for Orcas this year, I went through a number of my knitting books, including the wonderful Three-cornered and Long Shawls by Sigridur Halldórsdóttir (in Icelandic with an English translation provided, and available from Schoolhouse Press).  I liked the look of those shawls, but knew I didn’t have enough yarn for something that large, nor was my handspun yarn that fine a weight.  Then I remembered seeing a wonderful scarf which is a free pattern on Knitty:  Fleece by Kieran Foley.

So here is my version of Fleece, which is written for a sock weight yarn.  I cut the size down by 30 sts (one full repeat) as my yarn was a little heavier and I had a limited amount.  I changed the colors whenever it seemed time, with the goal of using up everything I had!

I had also spun, but not plied, the wool from a Clun Forest sheep (a down breed).  We were supposed to make a 5-ply for aran knitting, to get a smooth rounded yarn that would show cable and other stitch patterns well.  Before this year’s camp, I went to work on plying it up and knitting it into a hat (I have to admit I cheated and only made a 4-ply).  I didn’t have quite enough for the whole hat, so made the initial ribbing from a charcoal gray handspun I had laying around.

The pattern is Crown of Leaves by Faina Goberstein, available from Twist Collective as a PDF download.

I made the largest size, and also added one additional cable repeat at the beginning of the crown section, so the hat would be a little taller.  It fits me well and is my new favorite hat!

 

 

Posted in knitting | 2 Comments »

We-Haul

March 13, 2012 by Katie

We made a quick trip to Portland, Oregon this past weekend.  One reason was to pick up a load of oak display cases from our friends who own The Real Mother Goose Gallery in Portland.  These are cases that Rick built for the stores probably 25-30 years ago (there were three stores at the time, now down to two – one downtown and one at the Portland Airport).  Stan has been warehousing them for quite a while and was motivated both to get rid of them, and to help out some of the galleries here in the valley.  They are destined for the Confluence Gallery in Twisp, Winthrop Gallery in Winthrop, and the new Methow Valley Interpretive Center that is opening on the TwispWorks campus.

We wound up with more cases ordered than would fit in our truck and cargo trailer, so rented a 12-foot U-Haul down there – and still didn’t quite get everything in.

We stayed with our friends who own the store, and bless their hearts, they also opened their home to some of our family who came up from Medford/Ashland to see us while we were there.  Rick’s daughter and her husband were there, along with her oldest son (our grandson) and his wife and 2 little ones.  So yes – we are in our early 60’s and we have two great-grandchildren!  It’s a long story which I won’t relate here, with a happy ending.  We were all together on Friday and Saturday nights, and had a wonderful long visit.

On Saturday, while Rick and Stan were loading the U-Haul, Judy and I took the two little ones (one 4 and the other almost-6) to the Children’s Museum near the Portland Zoo.  We took the Max train from downtown, which was a fun adventure for the kids in itself.  The museum has many different interactive rooms and they were able to play for hours.  Judy is an experienced mom and ex-teacher of early grades, so I was glad to have her along (and besides, it gave us some time together just for ourselves).  Unfortunately, I was totally lame and forgot to bring my camera!

But here is a family picture taken Sunday morning before we all went our separate ways – 4 generations:

The drive home Sunday was long but scenic and interesting.  It took us about 10 hours.  We went up the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, crossing at Biggs and then heading up east of the Cascades through Goldendale, Yakima and Elllensburg.  There, we cut east and then up to Wenatchee and on to home.  There were dark clouds all around in the mountains, and it was really windy in the southern part of Washington, but we never actually experienced rain.  We saw a huge dust storm down in the valley south of Toppenish, and they were diverting traffic around it.  Turns out there was a big pile-up of cars (we thought the police officer said 20, but when I look online it says 5) so we managed to avoid a bad situation there.

We arrived in Twisp about 8 pm in time to grab dinner at the pub, then home under a starry sky.  But we woke up the next morning to this:

A storm front had moved in overnight, as predicted, and it was snowing and blowing all day.  We had to unload the truck and trailer though, and return the U-Haul to Omak (the Twisp U-Haul place went out of business a year or so ago).  Faithful friends and helpers stepped up to the plate, though, so the unloading went easier than we feared.  It is about a 40-mile drive to Omak, over 4000′ Loup Loup Pass, so that part wasn’t a lot of fun, but we made it.  Today, of course, it is all blue and sunny again!

Posted in family & friends, home life | 1 Comment »

New directions

March 8, 2012 by Katie

I have had an almost finished small rug sitting on my Baby Mac loom since September, when I took the rug weaving workshop out in Forks, WA.  Last week I finished that rug, in which I was playing with clasped wefts and some pick-and-pick patterns.

I still had warp left on the loom, so I got out Peter Collingwood’s book, The Techniques of Rug Weaving, and found some ideas based on a broken twill tie-up and 4-shot sequence of pattern wefts.  I had some miscellaneous knitting yarn (discontinued Rowanspun Tweed) in decent colors, so although not rug wool, I thought it would work for something meant to become a cushion top.

I like it OK and learned something new, which is always a good thing!  Neither of these is very big, about 16″ x 20″, and I hope to use them as throw pillow tops.

So now the small loom is free and ready for something new.  I have been meaning to start an exploration of surface color based on a summer-and-winter threading, ever since taking a workshop from Margaret Roach Wheeler in Seattle over a year ago.  Our guild challenge project this year is “Summer and Winter” and I need to have something done by mid-April, so that dovetailed nicely with some ideas I have been meaning to pursue anyway.

So I put a warp on for about a 10″ wide scarf, 6 yds long so I have room for some sampling and hopefully 2 scarves.  I am using a 50/50 wool silk blend (18/2 Zephyr from Jaggerspun) and used 5 colors of bluegreen graduated across the width of the warp.  Also using Zephyr for the pattern wefts and tabby tie-downs.

Here is some color sampling I did before starting the first scarf.  I was just exploring what looked good against the blue-green warp.

Here’s the start of the patterns for the first scarf:

then I wanted it to go into more muted colors, blending into the background, before starting the plain weave section in the middle:

I’m working on the plain weave section now, and then will work the above patterns in reverse at the other end.  This is so much fun and I am quite excited about the possibilities!

Posted in weaving | 1 Comment »

Mister and His Sister

March 5, 2012 by Katie

I can’t believe I have been back from Orcas Island for a week already.  While I was gone, Rick reported that the new cats were getting along well and playing a lot.  They seem to be firm friends by now:

Spinning camp, or fiber retreat, was a lot of fun as always.  The theme was supposed to be “Fine and Fuzzy” but we did a lot of different things.  Here’s the meeting room where we set up our wheels:

spinning retreat at Camp Orkila

We took apart thrift-shop cashmere sweaters and experimented with re-using the yarn in various ways.  We spun paper! Judith had an article about this in the Spring 2011 Spin-Off Magazine.  I liked the end result used in weaving, or for baskets, the best.

Little mats woven from spun paper on a cotton warp, and a little basket from spun paper, dyed with indigo

The raw material - cut up dress pattern paper

We were also given cashmere, camel, bison, angora bunny, and pygora goat fiber to spin (some of these in different blends, e.g. with silk or with merino wool).  On the last day, Judith made a boucle yarn with recycled cashmere and pygora type A fiber.  Definitely going to be pursuing this one.

There was also dyeing going on in the cabin adjacent to the meeting room.  This year it was mainly dyeing with various lichens, and with indigo, although there was a frenzy of silk hankie dyeing with acid dyes towards the end.  I stayed out of that – just too many ideas and things to try to take on another one!

Posted in pets, spinning | 1 Comment »

Off to Orcas Island

February 19, 2012 by Katie

Just a quick post before I head out the door… I’m going to my annual spinning workshop with Judith MacKenzie up on Orcas Island, for all of the coming week.  This year’s theme is “Fine & Fuzzy” and I will report back on what exactly that meant when I return!

We had a sociable weekend.  On Thursday there was a surprise 65th birthday party down at the Methow Valley Inn in Twisp, so we were able to socialize with a number of folks we haven’t seen for a while.  The birthday gal is a former neighbor up Benson Creek.

On Friday there was a music event sponsored by Methow Arts at the Barn in Winthrop.  The group, called The Lost Fingers, was from Quebec City.  An acoustic trio (2 guitars and a string bass), they play standards of the gipsy jazz repertoire (à la Django Reinhardt, who lost 2 fingers in a fire, hence the name of the group) as well as their arrangements of hits of the 80’s.  They were fabulous musicians and there was a definite sense of playfulness and humor to the music.  Not sure it is something I would listen to all the time, but as a live performance it was great!  For the second set, they came out in raspberry pink outfits, and half the crowd was up and dancing by then.

The kitties are settling in really well.  Juno is one of the most personable cats we have ever had – confident and loving and playful.  She and Stormy are hanging out during the day, and playing together quite a bit.   We think they are going to be buddies.

Juno - ready for action!

Stormy wouldn't pose - so these came out more like "Fog"

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End of Warp … and Flamingos!

February 14, 2012 by Katie

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.

Posted in knitting, weaving | 3 Comments »

Yet More Rugs…

February 8, 2012 by Katie

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).

Posted in weaving | 1 Comment »

Introducing Juno and Stormy

February 5, 2012 by Katie

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.

 

Posted in pets, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Almost Snowed In!

January 25, 2012 by Katie

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…

Posted in home life, Methow Valley | 2 Comments »

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