when there's a will

well, you know the rest.
my bicep tendon is very inflamed, so is the bursa in my left shoulder. and it has calcium deposits.
the good news is the rotator cuff looks fine.

so, i have to keep wearing a sling and ice is my new best friend.

i've been going mad from boredom. no knitting for almost 2 months.

hmmm, usually i spin left hand forward.

how hard would it be to switch to right hand forward, so my poor decrepid left hand could simply lay in my lap and hold the fiber?

so i found the fluffiest, wiriest, sproingiest fiber in the stashola, totally ready to spin.

gotland/border leicester/corriedale in green gold from spirit trail fiberworks.

and grabbed the walnut van eaton fold/n/tote.



divided the roving and spun up 3 bobbins.






stuck a fat book under the lazy kate, trying to make a 45 degree angle. maybe warren should have more pages written about him , not quite 45.





since it's not a smooth fiber, and i was using my other hand, perfect yarn was not the goal.



i love the yarn, and if i can ever knit again, i think it will be one of those felted dumpling bags that hang from your wheel. maybe with a little embroidery :-)




rajah has found a new use for the van eaton's bag.

shimmo says come on in, the water's fine!

meet my new baby

baby wolf!

schacht cherry 8 harness baby wolf from the yarn barn of kansas.

excellent customer service!

the red rayon chenille warp is a kit from cotton clouds. since i didn't have a warping board, or warping reel here, i called around til i found this kit, it has a precut warp chain.

i haven't woven in a few years, deborah chandler's book "learning to weave", and sallie guy's weaving video "tips and tricks" are invaluable learning tools.

here the reed is sleyed, 15 epi, i used a 10 dent reed, and sleyed it 2/1.

iow, sleyed 2 threads in one dent, 1 thread in the next dent, to make it 15 ends per inch in a 10 dent per inch reed.

the warp is tied in bundles with rubberbands behind the reed so the little suckers don't have a chance to fall out ;-)


next the warp is threaded through the heddles. it is threaded in a straight twill, but will be woven tabby or plain weave.


i separated 4 heddles at a time in order, so i wouldn't make a booboo.

but i did make a major mistake. i had way too many heddles on the harness, and since i was using the entire weaving width, there was no room for all those extra heddles to go on the sides.

deep breath

nothing to do but unthread the heddles, lift the harnesses out, take off the extra heddles and rethread.

uh, a learning exprience i am putting in writing in hopes i don't ever repeat it ;/)

i tied a white cotton string onto the middle of the reed, and threaded each side of the warp through the heddles from the center out.

finally the warp is wound onto the warp beam in the back, and tied to the cloth beam in the front.

first i wove with some thick white yarn to evenly space out the warp.




wheehee! actual weaving! the weft is a solid red rayon chenille. the warp is 3 colors of red rayon chenille, i threaded the 3 colors in a random pattern.

love it!

why does the weaving go so much more quickly than the setup?

outside photo-

inside photo, just to try and show more of the lovely drape. i wish you could feel the fabric :-)

21 1/2" by 41 1/2".

the cloth will be made into 2 large pillows for my son and ddil for christmas. i'll sew a solid back onto the pllows.

now for some gingersnaps!

a little waffle before the beach-
look at that facey- i just want to kiss her and kiss her!

swing!

daddy and gingersnap in the lake.

pappa reading a bedtime story, thank goodness we will be seeing her soon!

rebecca came for a visit with her new puppy, moby. he is a mini-shimmo!

madaket likes him.

just to show you how insane my cat really is.

rajah leaps from the bartop up to the stair railing-

then he climbs up to the top. the railing is about an inch and a half wide!

now for the ratty news. somehow i have totally messed up my left rotator cuff and bicept tendon. why didn't anyone warn me how painful cortisone shots are?

a week later, my first physcal therapy session . during the evaluation the physical therapist (i love her) told me i also have carpal tunnel in both wrists.

as we say in the south- how nice.

getting my money's worth

from my knitting lately. seems like all my projects get knit, then frogged at least twice, if not three times :-)



these green autumn (druid) mittens were started on the way up to pensacola for christmas.
i knit both the cuffs on 2.25 knitpicks harmony dpns. but the chart for the hand was not the best choice for vacation knitting...

last week i picked them up again. tried on a cuff, it fit me fine, but i knew they would be too tight for my daughter rebecca, who has very large hands and wrists.

rip rip, start over with 2.5. knit knit knit, hmm, the hand would still be too tight for rebecca.

rip rip, keep the cuff, but reknit the hand with 2.75s. purrfect width, but the hand is too short.

so i knit almost an extra repeat of the pattern, starting the decreases on the line that would be the extra row 69. i ended up with 11 sts before starting the saddle.

what a clever way to close up the saddle! that jared flood writes an excellent pattern.

for the thumb i only needed to add 2 extra rows before starting the decreases.


another present tucked away for christmas :-)

all that was left of 2 skeins of jamieson's spindrift was 14 inches!

when i knit the dusk pullover for tom, i had tons of leftover skeins, 3 each of dusk and midnight.

the mittens only used 2 skeins, the pattern calls for 3.

i'll knit a pair of midnight for natalie.

shimmo and madaket waiting for the tennis ball.

lucky lucky lucky me!

a few weeks ago, kim of the woolen rabbit wrote about her new van eaton potpourri wheel.

i knew mr. van eaton had retired from wheel making, the last time i spoke to him it was his 87th birthday!

after seeing kim's wheel i thought i'd ask mr. van eaton if he would make me a few extra bobbins. yes, he could make a couple of bobbins, then he said he had a potpourri traditional wheel that a lady had ordered and had never picked up. he said i could buy it if i'd like.

are you kidding? happy happy dance :-)

the wheel has all different woods, apricot, apple, walnut, mesquite, cherry, bubinga and teak.

my friend terri shea wrote a wonderful story about mr. van eaton on her blog-

it's truly an honor to have his wheels.

we have 11 new calves

aren't they sweet?

i love their colors :-)

daddy bull is on the right. blossom is the black and white cow on the left.

it hasn't rained here in central florida for so long that we've had to feed the cows twice a week. normally by now all they eat is grass.

the tree in the middle is our mulberry tree. the larger one behind it is a camphor tree.

when we planted the mulberry tree about 11 years ago it was 5 or 6 feet tall ;-)

now it's twice as tall as the garage!

happy spinning!

the long and winding row

miles and miles and miles of binding off
at least it seemed like miles

but let me start at the very beginning


with these absolutely gorgeous skeins of worsted superwash merino from tanis fiber arts-

12 different colors, greens, blues and purples.

the colors are so saturated and the yarn is super soft and squishy.

excellent customer service!

it all started with a little log cabin square, ala januay one, thanks cara :-)

true potato chip knitting.

after the log cabin strips were all knit up, i picked up all the stitches on knitpicks harmony tips using 2 tips and 5 cables.

added a narrow border of jewel and a wide border of mallard just like a sewn quilt.

exactly what i was hoping for, a huge super-soft comfy balnket, big enough for two.

details in my ravelry notebook.

in our lake placid backyard we have a mulberry tree. when we planted it the tree was about 6 feet tall. now it is huge!

tom and i put on our rattiest clothes, and picked a bowl full of berries.

i baked a pie. yum yum yum




madaket and shimmo waiting for the tennis ball.

rajah says "stupid dogs, they could be napping."

i might have a wee problem

last night tom and i went to a fabulous beach barbeque sorry all you people who are still freezing

but all i could think of was this little package waiting for me at home-

inside, wood beams and 2 lip glosses from goodiesunlimited , talk about excellent customer service! my order was placed late friday, shipped saturday, arrived monday. thanks audrey :-)

at madrona, my friend michelle's wee robin and my wee robin were reunited.

michelle's wee robin is a lovely rich honey color. michelle told me she used woodbeams on her wheel.

lust, pure lust.

could hardly wait til this morning, it was still dark outside-

aaahhhhh-

although i don't think my wheel will ever be as dark as michelle's. hers has a lot more spalting than mine, they are both lovely, and spin beautifully!

just a smattering of all the wonderful friends i got to see at madrona this year! how lucky am i?

impossible to keep shimmo out of the pool,

shimmo, the incredible diving dog!

thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the kind condolences on the loss of my mom.

i hope i thanked everyone i could find, if i didn't get a hold of you, thank you :-)

goodbye mommy

sometimes we were like oil and water, i wish i had known before how much i'd miss you now.

the angels are singing :-)