Twisp of Fate

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!

I have been weaving another set of 8 scarves the last 2 weeks, in the original warp colorway which I have decided to call “Rainbow” for lack of a better idea.  I didn’t have time to photograph them individually as I wanted to get them out to the 2 galleries, and one was a special order.  But here are a few pictures of the ones I have hanging up at the Winthrop Gallery:

"Rainbow" warp with 3 colors of rayon chenille weft

"Rainbow" warp with black & navy tencel weft (2 on the right)

Yesterday I made my annual batch of krumkake (the only Christmas cookie I make anymore).  My mother-in-law gave me her krumkake iron a number of years ago, and I have been trying to keep up the tradition every year.  It is a “slow food” process because you have to bake them one at a time on the stove top:

and you have to work fast!  They only cook for about 30 seconds on each side, and the temperature has to be just right.  Once you lift the cookie off the griddle, they cool fast so you have to roll them up right away, within seconds.

It was the maiden voyage for the Mixmaster, and she worked great!  Well, there might have been just the slightest whiff of burning motor oil…