Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Coming up for air

June 22, 2011 by Katie

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!

Posted in family & friends, Methow Valley, weaving | Leave a Comment »

ANWG 2011

June 4, 2011 by Katie

Sort of dropped the ball on chronicling the rest of our meander through Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and onward to home in the Methow.  Suffice it to say that we encountered a lot of wind, some heavy rain, but also some partly sunny days and lots of beautiful vistas of the Rockies and other mountain ranges of Montana (which was incredibly GREEN – a lush, verdant spring green).  We particularly enjoyed the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.  It is a beautifully done (and obviously well funded) complex of 5 museums.  We only had time to visit the Plains Indian and Western Art museums, but they were well worth it.

Our last night was spent outside of Spokane, and we spent the evening with our friend Austin who has relocated there from Seattle.  Check out the band he is playing (guitar) with: the Angela Marie Project.  This is just a sideline for all of them, they have actual jobs….

Then we had 5 whole days at home!  Teasel was so glad to see us, although she wasn’t really frantic – obviously she has bonded with our trusted housesitter.  It rained like crazy from time to time.  This is May in the Methow?  But it does make it so green on the hills, and the wildflowers are loving it.  We washed everything in sight…clothes, the trailer, both cars,etc.  Then packed up the truck with miscellaneous furniture and household belongings (since we have finally consolidated into one domicile only) – this for Rick to take down to the kid & grandkids in Medford/Ashland.

So last Tuesday we set out again for Oregon, without trailer this time.  We stayed with our good friends who own the Real Mother Goose Gallery in Portland, then on Wednesday Rick dropped me off at Willamette University in Salem, OR for the Association of Northwest Weavers Guilds (ANWG) biannual conference.  He kept going and is down in Medford/Ashland visiting with the family until tomorrow, when he comes back to pick me up.  Meanwhile I am staying at a somewhat tatty dorm on campus (my friend Holly is in a much nicer and newer one – jealous!) but having a great time at the conference.  At least the food is better, MUCH better than 2 years ago at Gonzaga U. in Spokane.

The first day Holly and I set up the guild booth display for the Seattle Weavers’ Guild:

Seattle Weavers' Guild booth at ANWG 2011

Our theme was “Use Your Weaving Every Day” and we had 3 “rooms” in the display.  Left-guest bedroom, Center-family room, Right-kitchen.

On Thursday I had an all-day class on using Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements) to produce a free-form weaving pattern design and then import it into your weaving software that will generate threading, tie-up and draw-downs.  I have Weave-It Pro to do this but it works with a lot of them.  It was pretty interesting but it became clear, for reasons I won’t try to explain, that you have to have a computer-driven dobby loom with at  least 16 shafts to make use of this idea.  Won’t really fly with an 8 or 12 shaft floor loom like I have.  Well you could do it with a 16-shaft table loom (the thing is you need to be able to raise any combination of 16 or more shafts – can you say 16 factorial?) but that would be tedious IMHO.  Not having the spare $10,000 or so to buy an AVL or Louet Megado loom at the moment – not doing this!

The next day I had a great class in the morning on “Polychrome Crackle” with Susan Wilson.  Very organized teacher, good handout and Powerpoint presentation.  In 2-1/2 hours I got a lot of information on a technique that I am very interested in pursuing.  Crackle is a weave structure – polychrome is what happens when you start introducing a lot of colors.

Sue Wilson with polychrome crackle blanket

My Friday afternoon seminar was on “Analyzing and Reproducing Commercial Cloth” with Teresa Ruch, who worked at Pendleton Woolen Mills for 18 years first as a sample weaver and later as a fabric designer.  Since then she has taught fabric design at the college level and has a thriving dye studio and art-to-wear business.  A little disorganized as a teacher but I still got some useful information.

Today I had the morning off, which was wonderful since the weather has turned warm and sunny and the campus is quite beautiful with a steam meandering through it and gorgeous landscaping – lots of rhododendrons in bloom right now.  I lazed around and went to look at the garments from the previous night’s fashion show.  Just showing a few things here, I have more pictures but these were kind of favorites:

This dress with peacock feather train was the Grand Finale of fashion show!

Really liked this sleeveless dress with side pockets

OK, this is a needle-felted "hat"

Looked amazing on a Young-Thing Model in a black leotard!

Awarded "Best of Show" - cloth and garment both fabulous

This afternoon I had another half-day class with Teresa Ruch on “Dyeing Hand-Painted Skeins and Warps”.  Got some great handouts and took a lot of pictures, but more of the sort to remind me of what she was doing, not for the blog.

So here I am in my down-at-heel dorm room on a Saturday night, which fortunately also has great internet access so I can catch up on the blog, as I fear it may get by me when I finally get home.  It has been a great experience (both the trip to the Southwest and the time in Oregon) but now I am ready to be at home after an extended absence of almost a month!

Posted in travel, weaving | 1 Comment »

Stormy Weather

May 22, 2011 by Katie

After leaving Pueblo, Colorado our plan was to stay near Boulder for a few days, visit the Rocky Mountain National Park and then work our way up through Yellowstone on the way home.  Well, it is snowing/raining in both national parks so that is just not an option.  We drove up to Golden Gate State Park in the mountains west of Boulder on Friday, which was a beautiful drive, only to find 4-6″ of snow on the ground at the park- so not camping there!

Drove back down to Boulder and fulfilled my mission of visiting Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins, a fabulous yarn store.  My mentor, Judith MacKenzie, told me about it years ago – they have a lot of mill ends for weaving.  But they don’t show these on their website, as it is a constantly revolving and unpredictable selection.  The place is huge and staff very friendly and helpful.

The mill-ends area in the back room

weaving classroom and more weaving yarns (not mill-end)

classroom area in back including dye kitchen

the main store (retail knitting yarn etc)

From Boulder we drove north and stayed at Boyd Lake State Park just south of Fort Collins.  Although we drove in through essentially a suburb, the park itself was very nice and we were able to go for a bike ride on their extensive trail system before leaving the next morning.  We also went up to Fort Collins Friday afternoon and visited the New Belgium Brewing Co. (think “Fat Tire” and others).  Quite the scene, being late Friday in a college town!  But they give out 4 free tasters per person so between us we were able to try 8 different beers, including seasonal specials.  Kind of fun!

Yesterday we started working our way north into Wyoming, where it was (is) extremely windy, with some pelting rain mixed in last night.  We are staying east of the Rockies for now, and visited Guernsey State Park to see the historic CCC buildings there, and also Fort Laramie.  Thought we would stay at the state park, but due to the nasty weather of late they were not really set up and open yet.  So we holed up in a KOA at Douglas, WY last night and rode out the storm.

Beautifully crafted museum built by the CCC in 1930's

Today it is still very windy, but at least the sun is out!

Posted in travel, weaving | 2 Comments »

Seniora

May 19, 2011 by Katie

Yesterday I turned 62, which in the eyes of the U.S. Government (Dept of Interior in particular) makes me eligible for my very own ten-dollar, good-for-my-lifetime Senior Pass to our nation’s public lands.  Entry to national parks, half-price camping fees in certain areas, and most usefully to me, trailhead pass for hiking trails at home in the Methow Valley.  I plan to buy mine either at Rocky Mountain National Park, or Jellystone National Park on the way home.

Here was the scene when we crossed the Continental Divide on Colorado State Hwy 50 on Tuesday:

Monarch Pass

Those peaks are over 14000′ high (the pass about 11000′).  Lots of snow up there still.

Tomorrow we head north towards Boulder.  The state park where we plan to stay showed 44 degrees and snowing yesterday!  But it is supposed to warm up to the mid-60’s and be partly sunny by the weekend.  May not have good internet access after this so blogging may be over after tonight.

Posted in travel | 2 Comments »

Island in the Sky

May 17, 2011 by Katie

On our third day here we moved the trailer to the new spot, did laundry, and just kind of took it easy.  In the afternoon we took off in the truck to explore the mesa top country.  The access road to the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands NP takes off just a quarter mile down the highway from where we are staying, and it also leads to Dead Horse Point State Park.  We decided to make that our destination for the afternoon.

Dead Horse Point is a small mesa separated from the “mainland” by only a 30-ft wide neck of land.  The main vista is to the east over the canyonlands and the Colorado River.  Quite spectacular, but so vast it is hard to take in, much less photograph.  There were a lot of high clouds that day and the light was flat, colors washed, but after a bit the sun broke through and we were able to make out more relief in the rock formations.

Dead Horse Point State Park

That’s a potash evaporation pond in the far distance.  They pump water from the river into the layer that contains the potash, then dry the liquid in lined evaporation ponds.  Then they “mine” it with bulldozers and take it to a refining plant nearby.  The blue color is from something they add to speed up the evaporation process.

landscape from Dead Horse Point

A woman we met from Australia had told us the bike trail at this park was really great and quite civilized compared to what she was used to at home.  So we got our folding bikes out of the truck and set off from the visitor center parking  lot only to discover that neither bikes nor riders were up to the challenge.  It was a mix of red dirt and slick rock and way too bumpy and uneven for the little tires on our folding bikes!  Oh well, worth a try.

Sunday we went back up the same road to explore the Island in the Sky district of the national park.  Much of it is also an isolated mesa, separated from the adjoining land by a 40-ft wide neck called “The Neck”, strangely enough.  This mesa is quite convoluted in shape but fairly large, 43 square miles.  We hiked a total of about 7 miles this day, but not all in the same place.  The shortest one was a half-mile nature walk to see Mesa Arch, through which you look down on the canyonlands below:

Mesa Arch at Canyonlands

The longest one was a 3.6 mile round trip to Murphy Point, which looks out to the southwest over the Green River as it flows down to join the Colorado, and also an area of the park called The Maze, which is accessible only by jeep trail and hiking trails.

the view from Murphy Point at Canyonlands

It was another gorgeous sunny day, temps in the 80’s, but extremely windy.  When we got back to camp, we discovered our Kelty awning had imploded and some of the edge binding had torn loose, so we had to take it down.  I should be able to repair it once I get back home to my sewing machine, but no more vestibule/shelter for the side of the trailer for the rest of this trip.

Yesterday was our last full day here, and we went back to Arches NP to explore the Devils Garden area trails.  It was a high overcast day, windy, temps in the mid-70’s – very comfortable for hiking, but the light and colors were very flat for photography.  This trail starts off very groomed and civilized and there were many people.  There are a number of arches to visit on spur trails along the way.

Partition Arch in the Devils Garden

After about a mile you have to climb up a steep rock fin, and that is where the wheat is separated from the chaff, so to speak.  There are many visitors from Europe, Japan, Australia, and Canada (we heard a lot of French, which could mean people from France – or from Quebec) and they all seemed to make the distance to the end of the trail.  But some of this trail is not for the agoraphobic!

check out the signpost

Rick on a rock fin at Devils Garden

Last night we had dinner in Moab at a nice place called the Desert Bistro.  It was really windy with strong gusts during the night, and began raining this morning.  We feel lucky to have had such beautiful weather during our 5 days here exploring the 2 parks.  I felt so sorry for the people here camped in tents, it must have been a miserable night and a muddy red morning.  But we are packing up and heading off to Colorado, where hopefully the weather will improve!

Posted in travel | 1 Comment »

In the Land of the Utes

May 14, 2011 by Katie

Utah, that is….

Here we are near Moab, Utah for 6 days, well-positioned to explore Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.  We headed south with our Aliner camping trailer on May 9, after a weekend in Seattle for various errands, visits and Mothers’ Day dinner with Rick’s mom and sister.  The first night we stayed at Farewell Bend State Park, a very nice Oregon SP on the Snake River, almost into Idaho.  The second day we daudled a bit, so didn’t get to a campground until quite late, and landed up at Willard Bay State Park just south of Brigham City, UT.  Not so nice, just off the highway and they were doing work at night so lots of jack-hammering amidst the truck traffic noise.  Thank goodness for earplugs!

Arrived here on Wednesday May 11.  We had made a reservation for 6 nights, and had a spot at the end of a row so we weren’t sandwiched between other people.  The place is quiet and very clean, and well out of town ( Moab appears to be a bit hectic).   But it turned out we were near the highway with lots of truck traffic at night, so the next morning we arranged to move to a new spot as soon as possible, which turned out to be Saturday.  It’s on the other side,over a slight rise which blocks off the highway.  So for our last 3 nights here we will have peace and quiet, and an unimpeded view across the desert towards the Windows section of Arches National Park:

Moab itself is a mecca for bicyclists (both road and mountain variety). There is an extensive trail system, plus all the surrounding public lands.  It appears to also draw rafters, rock climbers, hikers, and ATV and motorcycle types.  The town has a lot of RV parks and motels, restaurants, tourist shops, and “adventure tour” places.  Red rock T-shirt, anyone?  Kokopelli?  No?  Well it also has a couple of good grocery stores etc. so we have ventured into town a couple of times to stock up.

Thursday we explored Arches National Park.  What an amazing place!  We stopped at several spots along the road and did short to medium hikes, probably about 6 miles all told.  Still getting used to the altitude here, which has been between 5000′ and 6000′ where we have been hiking.  Rick is having a lot of fun with his big camera but I took a few with my little point-and-shoot so I can post a sampling of the scenery on the blog.  These are thumbnails, click on the image to see it full-sized:

Turret Arch in The Windows area of Arches NP

Double Arch in The Windows area of Arches NP

Delicate Arch at Wolfe Ranch area of Arches NP

Winter Wash below the Delicate Arch

Yesterday  we drove down to The Needles section of Canyonlands National Park.  This park is huge and divided by the Colorado and Green Rivers, so you can’t drive through the park and no roads connect the different sections.  The road to The Needles section is 40 miles south of Moab, then a 35 mile drive to the park boundary, but it is a lovely drive with towering red rock cliffs, mesas, a creek valley with a working ranch, etc.  Once we reached the park and got more information at the visitor center, we did the short drive to the end of the road and explored a couple of the “short walks”.  Then we parked at the Elephant Hill parking lot and did a 6-mile hike to Cresler Park, which is a high shrub and grassland surrounded by the Needles formations for which this section of the park is named.  Didn’t start until about 3 pm and got out a little after 7 pm, tired and weary and sweaty but basically happy to have been really up into such an amazing landscape.  A lot of the hike was across slickrock with rock cairns to guide the way.

The Needles area landscape

We got to a sign that said “Chesler Park 0.2 miles” and yours truly went the wrong way, so after about a half mile we realized this couldn’t be right, and re-traced our steps.  Pretty tired, we debated whether to make the effort to go up to the overlook, which involved some climbing.  But wow, we are glad we did!

Chesler Park from overlook

Posted in travel | Leave a Comment »

Lap Robe #5

May 4, 2011 by Katie

We’re in the final stages of preparing to leave on {gasp!} an actual vacation, so there don’t seem to be enough minutes in the day, these days.  But I did want to put up a picture of the blanket-of-the-week.  I really like the colors in this one, and it may be the one that goes to the ANWG 2011 Conference with me at the beginning of June.

Posted in weaving | 3 Comments »

Weaving along…

May 1, 2011 by Katie

I finished the fourth fulled lap robe last week, this time in shades of green in the warp (Shetland wool) and a beautiful blue-green in Harrisville Shetland for the weft.  I think it may be my favorite so far:

off the loom but before fulling

the finished blue-green lap robe or throw

I moved my plaited twill scarf weaving down to the loom that I keep at the guild room.  This is “Mother Mary’s Loom” that we bought and restored 2 summers ago (blogged about here).  I am using 8 of the 12 harnesses, but the real bonus is in having 16 treadles.  Now I can reserve 2 treadles for true tabby or plain weave (which raises 1-2 on one treadle, and 3-4-5-6-7-8 on the other  – for the double 2-tie threading, same as with summer & winter – in other words, every other thread is on either harness 1 or harness 2).

I put on enough warp in my Autumn colorway to weave 5 scarves:

I got into the guild room several times this past week, and finished off the 5th scarf yesterday.  I have had some fun trying some new weft colors and a new pattern, too.

Here it is with a tencel weft in a color called Tussah:

Here is the new pattern.  It required 12 treadles and I only had 10 on the smaller workshop loom I was using at home for these scarves.  I used tencel in a color called Shale:

Now that I have enough treadles to do a complicated pattern plus tabby (plain weave) I am weaving a small header in plain weave at each end and doing hemstitching.  I think it will be a much nicer finish than going straight into the twisted braids (although I will still braid the ends as before).

Dare I speak it… Spring may be on the way!  It is supposed to be sunny and in the mid-60’s this coming week, for the most part.  We went for a lovely walk up Wolf Creek Road this morning, enjoying the sun and the bird songs.

Posted in weaving | 2 Comments »

Lap Robe #3

April 22, 2011 by Katie

This one came off the loom before we left for California, but I didn’t finish it until this week (twisting the fringes, then fulling it in the washing machine).  I agitated it for 8 minutes this time, after the initial 4-hour soak, and it came out about 34″ x 57″ exclusive of fringe.  It is nice and soft and drapy.

The yarn was, once again, Shetland wool 2-ply knitting yarn – leftovers from previous knitting projects, plus yarn bought at a de-stashing sale at knitting retreat.  I had quite a bit of a heathered grey with mauve overtones, and not enough of the actual mauve colors to do all the warp, so I alternated the grey with the mauve colors every other thread in the warp.  The same grey was used to weave the blanket as the weft.  I used the broken twill treadling but it doesn’t show up as much as in blanket #1.  The use of the grey yarn in both the warp and the weft tended to mute the tones overall, but I do like it – just another variation, and a learning experience!

Posted in weaving | Leave a Comment »

SoCal sojourn

April 20, 2011 by Katie

I couldn’t write about this in advance, for fear of spoiling the surprise – but last week we flew down to southern California for a long weekend and 60th birthday celebration with best friends.   We had air miles to use and figured, why not?  It was planned out in advance with her husband, who picked us up at the airport and dropped us in downtown Redlands where they were going to dinner at a wonderful restaurant, “The Farm” or Farm Artisan Foods.  So we were waiting when they showed up for dinner, and she was really, truly surprised and delighted.

The weather was gorgeous all weekend – low 80’s, sunny, a nice break from the still-chilly Methow Valley.

On Friday we had a lazy morning, then headed out to the beach at Balboa Peninsula.  We walked on the sand along the shore, then took the little ferry across to Balboa Island on the way back:

On Saturday we headed off to Palm Springs for brunch (not a long drive from Redlands), then spent the rest of the day up in Joshua Tree National Park.  It was rather hot there, in the 90’s, but we managed a short hike at the southern entrance at Cottonwood Springs.  There were a number of things in bloom – ocotillo, various cacti, yellow bushes all over the place (sorry, my plant id skills are lacking here).  All sorts of flora and fauna.

fauna - Western Chuckwalla lizard

more fauna

beavertail cactus with blooms

hedgehog cactus with blooms

As we drove north through the park, the day lengthened, and when we came upon this wonderful patch of cholla cactus, the light shone through their fantastic forms in the most striking manner:

We stopped for another short hike and a beer at the fabulous White Tank campground, named for the rock formations there.  What a great place to camp, amongst those rocks.  We hope to go back some time and see more of the park and camp there.

Posted in family & friends, travel | 1 Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »