Away too long

I have been away far too long.  I haven't really been in the mood to blog. I've been between and betwixed.  Not sure why.  It's not the middle of winter, it's the beginning of Spring (well, sort of - it's almost March).

Anyway, here I am now.  I have some awesome news.  I have a new (to me) loom and I'm so very excited. I figured out today how to get it threaded (it had some thread on it already and the treadles were tied up).  It was just a matter of figuring out how to do it all and once that was figured out, it was a piece of cake!  :-)

I'm so stoked to start doing patterns.  It's SO fast compared to a rigid heddle loom.  Just amazing.

The bench is a little too high for me.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it.  If we saw off the legs to a better height, it might get done incorrectly - too short isn't good either.  It will also affect the price if I ever want to sell it. I'm wondering if I should sell it, and get an adjustable bench.  Hmm.

I spent the last 5 days with my daughter visiting (not cuz she wanted to - her hubby was away on business)  and my new grand daughter, whom I adore.  She is so serious sometimes, and just so stinking sweet.  She's just about 10 weeks old.  She's already trying to stand up, and she is holding her head up so well already!  It's amazing. I miss them both as we returned them home yesterday.  But I know why 55 yr old women don't have kids.  Yikes, I was so exhausted I didn't think I was going to ever not be tired again.

I'm afraid I wasn't as big a help as I'd hoped to be.  My stamina didn't allow it. :-(  I helped a lot during the day, but I couldn't do the night time.  I just didn't have it in me.  But, the baby slept really well the last night and I'm hoping that it continues for my daughter. 

So here are some photos.....

The cutest grand baby in the world:

And my new loom - new to me.  Leclerc Nilus 45" Jack Loom.  My new toy!

I'm off to finish weaving my towels for the exchange on Ravelry, on my rigid heddle loom - which won't go nearly as fast or be nearly as much fun, and weaving on THIS loom.  But I'll get it done!

Till next time..............
Weavin happy!
Martha

A New Month Right Around the Corner!

It's hard to believe.  Its almost February.  Someone asked me the other day, does it seem like January has gone on forever?  Yes, it does seem that way.  This has been a very long mont.  I'm really not sure why....I've been able to go visit the grandbaby about once a week.  That is so much fun.  I do wish I could be closer to visit more often.

January is supposed to be the month when the days start getting longer.  Why doesn't it seem that way?

February is a short month.  At least in theory.  Then it's March and that is usually Spring time.  That's what I'm waiting for.

But, on the other hand, I don't want to wish time away!

I'm really enjoying my weaving.  I don't have anything on the loom at the moment.  I'm in the process of organizing my craft room.  It's going slowly.  Ever so slowly.  But, that's the way I do it.  I get things out of spots, then walk away.  I think about what I want from the space.  Eventually, the right answers come to me.  Trying not to spend $ on new things - the room isn't that big.  There are already too many tables and 2 dressers in there.  

The main focus will no longer be the quilting - I really didn't get that big a kick out of quilting.  Cutting up beautiful fabric into tiny pieces, then trying to sew it together again where everything meets up, then sewing those pieces to other pieces and all those seams.  Just too much work.  Not enough fun for me.  

I've been going thru my fabric.  I have some pretty fabric.  Eventually, I do want to use it for something....I have a ton of fabric I spent good money on to make a quilt for our king sized bed.  I guess I'm going to HAVE to do something with that. 
I do wish I had a large floor loom to make rugs on.  That would be nice.  Or even weave a blanket for the bed instead of sewing it.  But, that's not what I have, so I am going to have to make do with what I do have, and what I CAN do.  :-)

Not quite sure what my next project will be on the loom.  I have some fun yarns to put together for a project - but I don't know what I want that project to be.....and I have to at least have some idea because I have to know how large to make the warp.  Maybe a bag.  I need a new bag.  That way it's not seasonal and I can show it off every time I go out.  Yep, I think that's what I wanna do.

I have ordered some more 8/2 cotton to make dish towels out of.  Spring dish towels for a towel exchange on Ravelry.  I'm excited!  I'll get towels from others too. 

I have my eye on a new (to me) loom.  There is a studio going out of business down near Richomond.  I really need my saddle to sell in the saddle shop so I can go see this loom and decide if I want/like it.  I was told by the owner it's not a loom to make rugs on.  Guess it's not sturdy enough.  I don't know where I'd put a floor loom either.  It would be too heavy to put upstairs I imagine.  Besides, I wouldn't want to take it apart to put up there.  Wonder if Honey would have an issue with it going in the dining room?  Haha.  Would have to remove the dining table and chairs.  Not like we use it that much.  Maybe I should sell THAT and then I'd have room for a floor loom AND the money to buy one!  Haha!

At any rate, that's about it for me. I'm going to change my heading photo because ever since I put the one up there with winter on it, it's been ugly winter here.  So now it's time for something beautiful!

Have yourself a wonderful day, night, weekend, week, or whatever is upcoming when you read this.  

Next post will have some projects on it - when I have time to post them.  I have been neglectful of the blog, but will try harder to be better about it.  The weather is supposed to be ugly on Tues and Weds (this is Sunday as I write) so I can post then.  Tomorrow is a trip to see the daughter and grandbaby.  YAY! :-)

Weavinhappy

Martha

Another project finished

Well, I got another project off the loom.  No photos - it's 9:00 at night and I still have to knot some of the fringe, wash and dry it.  It's a shawl for my ill Aunt.  I hope it drapes nicely when I get it all done and out of the dryer.  I think it will.  I'm very pleased with the color.  Even DH said that he thinks the colors are perfect - not too bright and cheery, and not dull.  :-)  That means a lot to me that he even commented on it.
I'll be taking photos and adding them tomorrow.
I feel really good that I got this done.  Monday is a holiday so I won't get it in the mail till Tuesday, but that's ok.  It means it'll be with my Aunt by the end of the week. :-)


Till tomorrow...................sweet dreams. 
Martha
 

Happy New Year

Yes, I'm a tad behind the curve.  But hey, Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!  :-)

This is what happened on December 21, 2010.

This is Jia Michelle.  My new (and first and probably only) Grand daughter.  She's beautiful!  She was less than an hour old in this photo.

This is how she looked at Christmas:

And this is how she looked about a week later:

 She is SO teeny.  It's amazing to me.  My babies were watermelons when they were born!  LoL  Its wonderful to be a Grammie.  I don't get to see little Jia enough.  I haven't seen her in over a week now.  But I'll be going up next week for sure. :-)

I've also been busy weaving.  I love weaving.  Someone asked me how I started.  I guess putting that down here would be a good idea.

I've always wanted to weave.  I just never really looked into it before. I thought I had to get one of those big floor looms.  Come to find out, that's not necessary.  There are LOTS of ways to weave, from the potholder looms we used to use as kids (did you ever have one?), to backstrap looms, to card weaving, to inkle looms, to Rigid Heddle Looms, up to table looms and floor looms.....there are even computer operated looms!

I decided that for me, to start with, I wanted something somewhat substantial.  I decided on a Rigid Heddle loom.  I went with the Kromski 24" Rigid Heddle loom.  I sorta wanted to go bigger.  But at this point, I'm glad I went 24".  32" would have been much wider, and taken up much more room.  I wouldn't mind having a larger loom at some point.  I also wouldn't mind having a smaller loom at some point.  But for now, this is the right loom for me.

I also ordered two books.  Hands On Rigid Heddle Weaving by Betty Linn Davenport, and Weaving Made Easy by Liz Gipson.  I really am getting a LOT of information from the first book.  The second one is ok, but I don't know if I'll actually ever MAKE anything from it......

And, I watched YouTube videos.  Seriously!  I learned a LOT from them.  I also learned a lot by joining Ravelry, an online community forum that has so many kind people that are wonderful with sharing their knowledge and information.  Between the books, videos, and forum, this is how I have learned to weave.

So far, I've made table runners, mug rugs, dish towels, a really cool scarf, some oops projects, and at this very moment, I have a shawl on the loom.  I found out over the weekend, that my Aunt, someone very near and dear to my heart, has been diagnosed with bladder cancer.  She's going to live out her days at home.  Bless her.  I wish I could be there to help out.  But alas, she's in Maine, and I'm in VA.  I feel that the shawl will be something maybe she can use, and feel my love, while hopefully it'll keep the chill away. 

I have decided not to make the shawl out of wool.  I'm not a fan of wool myself.  I love cotton, but it shrinks too much and something this large would be heavy.  So I decided on acrylic.   A lot of people would snub acrylic, but someone on the forum, mentioned to me that she makes prayer shawls out of acylic so that the people who care for the elderly people the shawls are made for, can just wash and dry the shawls without having to worry about the fiber it's made of.

I'll be the first to admit that I have very little fiber knowledge.  I know what I like, and what I don't like.  I think at some point, I'll probalby work with wool so that I can make some things for other people.  I'm hoping that eventually, I'll be able to sell some products I make.  That would be such an awesome feeling, to be doing something I love, and to have others actually WANT it as a finished object. 

Here are a few more photos:

This is a photo of my loom with my first project on it; 100% cotton table runner.

This is the finished project:

The sun was shining thru the lace curtains - I kinda like the effect it made.

This is a Christmas table runner that I made.  I wanted to try weaving the ends in so that I didn't have fringe.  It took a little work but I like the final product (which I just realized you can see here - lol)

These are dish towels.  I went from using a really thick cotton yarn, to an extremely thin cotton yarn.  And silly me, I warped the loom for really long use.  Not a good idea the first time out.  LOL  It gave me fits but I love the outcome - they aren't perfect...but they are real usable dish towels! 

And there is the scarf.  My favorite thing so far.  It's made of micro fiber yarn - and I didn't think I was going to like it - but it's actually comfy to wear.

This is called a Pinwheel pattern, sometimes called a Houndstooth pattern.  It looks complicated ~~ but it's SO stinking easy!  I will be making more of these out of different fibers/yarns in the future.

Well, it's dinner time here.  Gonna drag out the Panini Press and make tomato and mozzerella sandwiches, and soup.   It's very cold today and I was outside at agility practice for 2 hours today.  I still haven't warmed up.

I'll be back more often.  I promise.

Wow

So the truth is, I haven't been here for a long while.  I've been really busy.  I've started a[nother] new hobby - weaving.  I'm loving it.  I have so much to learn, but I like it a lot more than anything else I've done recently (the last few years at least).

So this is my first project (above).  It is a table runner, made from Sugar & Cream cotton.  It turned out pretty well.

This (below) is my second project. These are mug rugs....another learning process.  Again, 100% cotton.

Here is my third project.   Not happy with it - too many mistakes.  Don't weave when I'm tired is the lesson learned from this one.....

Here is my last project.  It turned out VERY well and I like the way it looks.  Again, 100% cotton (I have a lot of the cotton to use up and practice on) and perfect for the holiday.

So now I'm working on another project which isn't looking the way I thought it would when I was putting the yarn on the loom...........so, we'll see.....learning from my mistakes seems to be how I learn.  I do have 2 books, planning on getting another after the holidays.....

Haven't done any quilting, but I did do some sewing.  I had bought some 4" foam, a large slab of it, to put in the back seat for the dogs.  The foam was a bit wide (front to back) for the seat, so I sliced off enough to split that piece in half, and add to each side, which then made the piece long enough for the seat, and the right width front to back.  Yay!  I covered it with foam, then I made a pillow case out of some blue fabric I had.  I pulled a red zipper out that I've had forever and never used for anything else.  I put the zipper in (couldn't find my zipper foot) and it works great.  I have it in the back seat for the dogs.  Evan LOVES it as he can sit with his harness on that keeps him from being a flying object, and he can see out the front window, which is when he's happiest in the car.  Gabbi doesn't feel the motion or bumps so much and she likes it a lot too.....well, as much as she can while she's in the car which she doesn't seem to hate, but it's not a favorite thing to do either.

With Christmas coming, and my DD due to have her baby next Tuesday (the 21st), I'm really busy and haven't had time to do some of the things I really want to get done.   But, there is an entire new year ahead of me, and I plan on making the best of it that I can.  I have no great expectations.  My new mantra is to enjoy the moment and what I'm doing, when I'm doing it.  I tend to be doing one thing and thinking I could/should be doing something else.  So if that's the way I feel, then I go do the something else instead of beating myself up.

Many things have changed for me over the last year.  I am looking at everything as a learning process.  I know that I am who I am, and the way I want to be.  I'm not going to beat myself up, let others beat me up, or tell me how wrong I am because I'm busy, or doing what I love to do, or because I have such a variety of things going on.  My life is exactly how I want it to be right now.  For that, I'm ever so greatful.  Of course, a little more time to do everything I want to do would be nice....but that's just poor management on MY part! LOL  Just another thing to try to improve on.

A huge break....

That is what I've been on ~ from sewing, from Blogging.  I have been in one of those times where I'm not sure what I want to do.
I did crochet a scarf. I loved it so much (really soft yarn) that I went and got another ball (because it doesn't go very far) and I made a headband to go with it.  I'll take photos and post them.

I finished my purple knitted sweater. I'm not thrilled with it.  It is boxy, and heavy, and short sleeved ~ there is just something about a sweater - I think if it's a heavy sweater, it should be long sleeved.  Whatever.  Anyway, I don't like the sleeves and the collar.  I'm seriously thinking of taking those apart and crocheting something and hoping it comes out looking nicer (and fitting better).  The left sleeve opening is tight and I don't like that.

I started a scarf [knit] that I haven't finished.  It's for the donation box that the local knit shop has.  They have kits you get - you can crochet or knit - and the scarves go to the abused women's shelter.  I need to finish that.

This weekend is the baby shower for my daughter.  She is due in Dec with our first (and probably only) grandchild.  It's going to be a girl.  At least, that's what they were told....I sure hope it is since everything we've gone with till now is pink!  I'm excited, but I'm also worried about my daughter and how this is going to change her life.  She doesn't do change well.  I also worry about her health. 

Sewing ~~~ well, I haven't felt like sewing one bit.  I have projects waiting for me upstairs.  I really do NOT feel like going up and doing any of them.  I needed a break.  I felt pressured to sew for a long time and I started resenting it.  I hate piecing (for quilting) so I've decided that if I quilt, it won't have a lot of piecing in it.  I love the actual free motion quilting.  But I'm pretty sure quilting will just be something I do now and then.  It's not my passion.  It's not like I can't wait to get to the sewing machine and create.

I do feel a need to create.  I don't know why I haven't found the one thing I can be passionate about as far as finding that perfect craft - the one I need to do upon waking every morning.  The one that will keep me from wanting to escape the house and stay out as long as I can.   Hmmm, wonder why I can't seem to find THE craft for myself?  I have dabbled in SO many crafts. 

So on that note, I'm about to try another craft......I have ordered a Rigid Heddle Loom.  It should arrive some time in the next day or 2.  I won't get to do much with it, as I'm preparing for the shower on Saturday.  Just too many things to do between now and then.  I just hope that after investing in this, it's something I'll continue to do......

I'm hoping that things will settle down for me once the shower is over.  But of course, then comes Thanksgiving, then the baby is due in Dec, then Christmas, New Years, etc......wow.  So much going on! 

This year is one of the first in a long time, that I feel like decorating for Christmas.  Which is really strange because it's going to be the first year that we won't have family here at our house for the holiday.  Hmmm.  I do feel that in the past, it was all about the pressure of buying and making sure that everything was perfect.  But this year, I feel we're being blessed in another way, and I'm not going to worry about the gifts or the amount of presenst under the tree.  I'm going to decorate and enjoy the season.  I do wish my house was a little bigger so I could put more things out.  That's one thing about this house - not a lot of places to put pretty things.  But that's ok - I love my house, I love our farm, and I love my critters.

Ok, well, I guess that's enough for now.  I just wanted to check in and post a blog since I'd disappeared for so long.  It's lunch time and I have many things I want to get done this afternoon.  Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to the dog trainer's and we are going to do Rally - she's having an open house and Rally course set up so everyone can give it a try.

On Friday I have agility with Evan.  He is loving it and so am I.  It's FUN.  Of course, with the weather getting colder, I don't know how much fun we'll have.....lol.  But I am going to stick with this because I am feeling passionate with it.

K, off I go. I hope anyone who cares to read this is having a wonderful day and is enjoying whatever their passion is in life!  :-)
Martha

Crazy Thursday

Today is Crazy Thursday for me.  I'm posting now, not much interesting, just so I can get it done, in case I don't get back later today.
I have a huge list of things to do.  Started one already - had to print something off so I can finish that little project.  
I have to do two more invites to the baby shower.  Pics to come soon.
I will also be starting to work on the house today.  I am determined not to spend the entire beautiful weekend inside cleaning...but I will be opening the windows and enjoying the Fall weather.  Sposed to be absolutely beautiful for the next few days, and I'm going to take advantage of it!
I'll be back, I hope, with the photos of the goodies my good friend Rita brought me from Australia.  :-)
So off I go.  Wish me luck on getting all my stuff done!  Wheeeeeeeeeeeee