A Boring Post about Kitchen Towels

Dear Mom,
I finished weaving the kitchen towels.
If I fold them just so, and you don't look too closely, you might be fooled into thinking they are perfect.

They are not.

They are riddled with errors, which seem to only show up on the underside of the weaving, so I didn't notice them until the towels came off the loom. Before I start my next project (more towels) I am going to have to figure out what I am doing wrong. I know enough to figure out that this is not a treadling error- the mistake is not carried all the way across that "row". I think that somehow I am going under threads I should be going over and I need to figure out how/what I am doing to make this happen so I can figure out how NOT to make it happen. Gotta fall down a few times when you are learning to walk.

However, they are just kitchen towels, they will be quite functional whether they are error free or not, and I've been weaving for less than a month and should cut myself some slack. I guess these are the weaving version of all those wonky, pitiful, one-skein scarves I knit when I was 11. I just hope I end up with fewer wonky dishtowels in my kitchen than the closet held scarves back in the early 70's!

Love,
Kim

The story of FrankenThumb

Dear Mom,
It was the Classic "Mother presents to the ER with hand wrapped in a kitchen towel'. One has to wonder what the statistics are on that.
In a cleaning frenzy Tuesday evening, I forgot about the lid from a can that was tucked into the stuff in my hand that I was throwing away. Noticing that the trash can was getting full, I used the stuff in my hand to compact the trash in the can.... and forced the lid well into the meat of my thumb. What I'd done registered before I felt anything more than pressure. And boy was I mad at myself.
Thankfully, I have a high pain threshold, and no nerves of tendons were damaged. My thumb would be feeling a whole lot better right now if I could stop whacking it into things.The stitches come out next Thursday.

In the meantime, I have discovered that I am able to dress up Donna Reed without hurting my thumb, and last night I was able to gingerly and cautiously knit, being careful to use the side of my thumb when I needed it. It is also about the size of Fred Flintstones thumb with all the gauze and tape I have protecting it, but where there's a WILL there's a WAY and you can't keep a determined knitter away from her needles.

Before FrankenThumb, I wove another scarf with leftover bits of sock yarn as my warp and yellow cotton as the weft that was leftover from the placemats and table runner I made in class. My selvage edges are improving, but this scarf  isn't without its mistakes either. I've decided to stop playing around, and what you see on the loom up there is the beginnings of some dish towels. I'm following pattern instructions on this one. (In weaving, patterns are called "drafts".)

I'll let you know how the towels turn out. The cotton I am using is much finer, and I have over 400 warp threads to thread through the loom, so this is taking awhile. Exciting though!

Love,

Kim

This is not part of the plan....

WARNING! THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST CONTAINS A GRAPHIC PICTURE THAT MAY BE UPSETTING TO DELICATE READERS.

Dear Mom,

Seven Stitches.

This is definitely gonna slow down the knitting, spinning and weaving I had planned.


Love,
Kim

Off the LOOM!

Dear Mom,

It's not the first project off my loom, but the first project that is worthy of sharing on the blog. The placemats I made at home to reinforce what I learned in class aren't bad- we'll use them- but there are places where I made treadling mistakes and my edges...well, my edges can only improve.

Almost as soon as those placemats were finished I was planning the next project. A simple scarf. Very simple. One that would allow me to concentrate on improving those edges. I dug through my stash and found some sock yarn from a long ago sock-of-the-month club and some coordinating bits of leftover sock yarn. I did the math, warped Donna Reed and a-weaving I went.

My edges are better. Not perfect, but much improved. And let me just say this about weaving: It. is. FAST.

I started warping the loom on Saturday afternoon and finished the scarf on Sunday afternoon. And I didn't sit there weaving for 24 hours straight. I did other stuff, too.

Also, I figured out ANOTHER good thing about weaving: You have to finish the thing on your loom before you can start another. Unlike Knitting. And you don't have to look far or hard around here to find knitting projects that have been cast on at a whim.

Also, just the idea of putting all my leftover bits of yarn to use in weaving projects is maybe the best thing of all. Just thinking about it makes me want to stop writing this and go dig through my yarn and start a new weaving project.

It hasn't been all weaving around here. I've done a bit of spinning- no pictures to show- and July's socks are finished.

Here is a close up of the stitch detail I knit in to break up the stripe pattern.

Before it gets too much hotter I need to get out to the garden a pick beans and blackberries. For all I know, they may be cooked already!

Keep Cool.

Love,

Kim

Happy Birthday, Bonnie Jo!

Dear Bonnie,

I hope...
   
    someone gives you a calico kitten
    you do whatever YOU want to do today and nothing you HAVE to do
    that you can take time to sip something cold and slushy on your back porch
    that your bees give you lots of honey
    that your chickens lay an extra egg or two today
    that we have many many more years to share.

Love,
Kim     

The Birds and The Bees

Dear Mom,
As you know, upon Bonnie Jo's request I reported bright and early Saturday morning to your backyard, camera at the ready. Bonnie Jo would be inspecting the beehive she recently set up there and wanted me to document the event for the blog. It is hard to take pictures when you are dressed like this:

Things seemed rather serious when I arrived because there was crouching down and leaning in involved.

As I understand it (and Bonnie Jo may have to jump in and correct any errors), the main purpose of the Hive Inspection was to search for Queen Amelia. When a Princess Bee comes to live in her new castle, it seems the first thing she does is fly away to go visit some bachelor bees before she can come home and be Queen. Sometimes the Princess Bees never come home. Maybe because they can't find their way back, or maybe they just really like the bachelor bees. Considering that this Princess Bee was named after the famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart, there was some concern that she may have lost her way somewhere over the reservoir never to return.

Thankfully, unlike the other Amelia, this Amelia's flight had a happy ending.

Bonnie Jo was pleased and proud to find Queen Amelia in the hive and laying little bee eggs like all Good Queen Bees are supposed to do.

In her official capacity as family beekeeper, Bonnie Jo declared that Amelia "IS A BEAUT!"



Where's Amelia?



All those jigsaw puzzles we did with Daddy when we were little must have been practice for finding bees later on. And if I remember correctly, Bonnie Jo was a gifted jigsaw puzzle piece finder.

Anyway, now that I know where Amelia is in that photo, I can find her, too. Let me give you a close up.



Queen Amelia

Before leaving, we took a peak at your nest of Barn Swallows.

It looks like these guys are running out of room and will be making flights of their own soon.

Especially this guy.

And let me just add here that the way "the Birds and the Bees" was explained to me all those years ago included NOTHING about spending time alone with a bunch of bachelor bees.....

Love,

Kim

Simple Pleasures

Dear Mom,
Yesterday's harvest-

a beautiful cabbage, some blackberries and green purple beans.
We ate the green beans for dinner last night and we're having coleslaw tonight. I've been snacking on the berries and will eat them with peaches and yogurt for breakfast. And the even better thing is- there are lots more of all of those things growing and ripening!

Love,
Kim

My Green Beans Aren't Green

Dear Mom,
They're purple.

I've never seen purple green beans before. I can't even tell you what "kind" of beans I planted. The package that contained the seeds was probably especially organic and biodegradable because it fell apart practically before I could get the seeds in the ground. All I can tell you is I purchased them at a local nursery and I was taken in by the charming art on the package and the fact that the seeds were supposed to be heirloom/organic/tailored for midwest gardens.
The plants and beans -despite the pretty purple color- are thriving and healthy.
My Concern, however, is that GREEN beans are one of the few vegetables I can count on the Young Lady (our picky eater) to eat. We never have leftover green beans. But Purple beans?

I gave serious thought to pulling up all the purple bean plants and starting over. Before doing so, I cooked a handful of purple beans as a taste test, in hopes that I could somehow convince the Young Lady that the purple beans were as good or better than green beans.... if you close your eyes.

All my worry was for nothing, as magic happened in the pot of simmering water.
The purple beans turned GREEN! And they were delicious.

I should go out there and harvest some this morning before it gets hotter. Steamy hot doesn't begin to describe how it is out there. In fact, that purple bean picture up there was not taken with some fancy movie star wrinkle-erasing lens filter on my camera. I had trouble taking pictures before the lens fogged over!

My corn is as high as an elephant's eye and I see little ears of corn growing. We'll be having fresh corn on the cob soon.

Love,
Kim

Introducing.....

Dear Mom,
I'd like you to meet Donna.

After spending two full days in weaving class and then coming home to repeat what I'd learned - or at least what I could remember!- on my loom, I knew her name had to be Donna. As in Reed. Because there is a part on the loom that the warp threads go through on the beater called a reed. And Donna is a good wholesome American name for my American made loom. And it makes me smile to know her name. We are already good friends.

In fact, I was beginning to be a little bit alarmed. I hadn't picked up knitting needles for almost a week and the last time that happened was because I'd had carpal tunnel surgery and had no choice. I've been spending all my knitting time either spinning or weaving. So last night I forced myself away from Donna and cast on for July's sock.

In weaving class we made a table runner to practice different types of weave- plain weave (good ole under/over), a twill and a basket weave. I am making coordinating placemats at home to practice and try out different patterns. This is the part that is addicting. I want to see how different things can look, and it is simply a matter of changing how I treadle my loom.

My head is also spinning with possibilities for scarves using sock yarn. And yes. I DO remember saying that I was "only going to weave placemats and dish towels". I have a way to go to get my edges neat, but that is one of the things I am hoping to accomplish on these placemats and I know I'll get there.

As you can imagine, being away weaving for that amount of time on the heels of vacation, and having left 2 dogs and 2 teens at home, things are pretty sketchy around here. My challenge for the next few days is to ignore the Call of the Fiber and tend to the house, shop for groceries, prepare healthy meals and try to get caught up on laundry.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about my garden.

Love,

Kim

Catching Up

Dear Mom,

After a week's vacation where we've touched our toes in the Atlantic and our fingers on a moon rock, sipped Butterbeers in Hogsmeade and mojitos on the beach, sent boys off shark fishing and girls 800 feet into the air on a parasail only to return home to house guests and the annual Cul-de-sac 4th of July celebration, I am slowly catching up and happy to home.

Despite having been  home since very late Saturday night- verging on the wee hours of Sunday morning- I didn't feel like I was truly able to relax and really Be Home until I brought Patsy home from the kennel yesterday. Now the family is all under one roof again and All is Well. (Bumper may feel differently. I think he enjoyed being Only Dog for two days.)

We planned our Florida vacation and the trip to Cocoa Beach in the hopes of seeing the last shuttle launch. As these things go, as soon as the condo was reserved and flight plans in the works the mission was delayed. And I heard this morning there is a good chance that rain will cause another delay and Atlantis may not launch on Friday. We may not be able to cross "Watch a Shuttle Launch" off our Bucket List, but we did tour Kennedy Space Center and got a peek at Atlantis on the launch pad.

Our trip was a very good one; the first family vacation we've taken where our kids brought friends with them, and despite being outnumbered by teens, all went very well and everyone had a buddy.
The buddy strategy allowed My Hero and I time to relax and read. And knit.
I finished June's socks.

And I knit this shawl with my very own handspun.

This is the result of that first bag of dirty wool I brought home. The Bag o'Wool that turned me into a spinner.

I've seen many of these To Eyre shawls on ravelry and Dianne made a beautiful one that you can see here. I wish mine were just a bit bigger. I prefer a shawl that I can really wrap up in, but this one will probably be just right for warming the back of my neck and shoulders while staying put and out of the way. The pattern instructions include directions for modifying length and width, and this was a soothing, quick project, so I may have to give it another go.

And before we left I finished this wrap.

I purchased this pattern and yarn on vacation last summer, so I guess it sort of fits to post it with stuff from this year's vacation. The pattern is Braided Glory, the yarn is Louisa Harding- a silk- I don't remember the name of the yarn and right now I am too lazy to get up and go looking for the ball band. The yarn was nice to work with but I think it may be too drape-y for this pattern. Also, I didn't do all the finishing on my wrap as the pattern suggests. I was ready to be Done With It and omitted some small edging details that didn't impress me. IF I ever make this again I will be making several modifications that, in my opinion, would neaten things up. However, with so many other things I want to make, I really don't see myself making another one of these.

I have weaving classes scheduled for the end of the week. The plan is to work on a loom in class and then come home and repeat the lesson on my loom at home to solidify what I've learned. I think we do placemats or table runners in class. So, whichever I do in class, I'll do the other at home. (I may appear calm, but my Insides are doing that happy dance kids do on Christmas Eve!)

Love,
Kim

I Don't Even Know Where To Begin . . .

Dear Mom,
As a reminder to everyone reading, I have 3 children.  My oldest, The Teenager, is a 14 year old boy who thinks he could--and should be (!)--running the country.  My middle child, The Diva, is 11 and likes to think of herself as the next American Idol (think:  lots of singing to Disney music into a wooden sock darning-thing-turned -microphone!  My saving grace is that there is no Justin Bieber in the house.  Yet.)   My youngest, The Pipsqueak, is a nature-loving 8 year old girl who would rather sleep in a tree house than in our house.  They are all happy and healthy.  And --- in a term coined by other parents who are trying to be nice about my "active" children --- all three of mine are "spirited".

For seven years now, the kids have been on a summer swim team.  Every day during the summer, we all wake up at 7:15 to make an 8:00 swim practice.  They swim until 10:30.  For 6 years now, I have been asking, "Are you sure you really want to swim this year?!"  They beg to swim.  We have made friends with so many neat people; one of them being a family like ours.  The parents are our age and they have 4 (!!!) children, the oldest being a few years older than The Teenager and all of their other kids are my kids' ages.  Due to a very sad circumstance, I have been a part-time mom to these 4 children this summer.  (My friend was in a very serious car accident and was in ICU for about a week.  She broke a lot of bones, tore some internal organs . . . . she is FINE and she is home now but there will be about 8 weeks of rehabilitation and therapy.  She is in a wheelchair, sleeps in a hospital bed in her family room . . . . )  I have been taking her children to my house several days each week so that they can make it to swim practice and swim meets without too much disruption and worry.

When I haven't had children, I have been working.  Starbucks.  And I had a very large photo shoot--the annual swim team photo shoot--team and 190 individual swimmer photos to edit and process.

Yes, I think I am crazy.  The younger girls have washed the dog (several times.  Poor Keeper!), painted rocks, baked cookies, made glitter globes, did face paint and dress-up, rode bikes, picked vegetables and planted flowers with me --- sometimes in just 1 day :-)  The boys have played Risk for several days in a row, made bonfires and roasted marshmallows, mowed the grass (yes, even the boys that aren't mine!), and have played some occasional video games --- sometimes in just 1 day :-)

Anyway . . . . . . . all of that to say this:  we finally had a day yesterday where I didn't have to work and I didn't have anyone else's children.  We did nothing.  At one point I asked The Teenager when he last showered.  This was our conversation:
Me:  "When was the last time you showered?"
Teenager:  "I don't know, Mom.  I swim every day."
Me:  "That doesn't count.  And that's gross.  . . . . Really, when was the last time?"
Teenager:  "Really.  I don't know."
Me:  "Go.  Now."

And because that left me speechless, my little Pipsqueak decided to pipe up:
Pipsqueak:  "Um. . . . . . should I tell you that I lost my toothbrush?"
Me:  "Yes!  When did you lose it?  How have you been brushing your teeth?"
Pipsqueak:  "With my finger!"
Me:  "When. Did. You. Lose. Your. Toothbrush?"
Pipsqueak: "I don't know.  More than a week ago."  (Said in a tone that was meant to reassure me that since it has been more than a week and she has been using her finger to brush her teeth and she's just fine, I shouldn't fret over a lost toothbrush!)
Me:  Opens linen closet, pulls out new toothbrush.  Hands it to Pipsqueak. "Go.  Now."

I looked at The Diva.
Diva:  "Going.  Now."

Ahhhhhhhh, happy carefree summer :-)  I wouldn't want it any other way!!!  :-)

Love,
Wendy

Knee high by the 4th of July

Dear Mom,

My corn is definitely knee high- well before the 4th of July!

And the tomato plants I started from seed are healthy and filled with blossoms.

My cabbage is coming along nicely.

And we have romaine lettuce to eat, the bean plants look healthy.

Can't wait to start harvesting some home grown veggies!

Love,
Kim

Heddles and shafts and tie-ups, Oh my!

Dear Mom,

I (hopefully) put my loom together.
There were lots of pieces.
800 of these things call heddles.

I have an 8 shaft loom. The heddles go in the shafts. So there are 100 heddles in each shaft.

Heddles are thin rather uncooperative metal bits. Even keeping them all lined up properly on their string didn't guarantee that they would stay that way- there were a few that twisted around each other, or one or two completely getting missed which meant backing off everybody else in line to straighten out the rogue heddle.


Then I attached all the tie-ups.
There are 90.
They will be used to coordinate which shafts are raised and lowered when I step on the treadles.

(Don't I just sound like I know what I am talking about?)
.......
(Really, I don't even have half a clue.)

When I was messing with all the tie-ups and they were dangling down and brushing against my arms, they reminded me of Bo Derek's hair in the movie 10. I might name the loom Bo. I'm still thinking about it.
Even though I've had my hands on all the parts, I still feel that we need more time together before I name it.

By the time I was done tying up the apron bars, dealing with the heddles and crawling on the floor looping those tie-ups through all those holes, my back ached, my shoulders were stiff and I was covered in dewy layer of perspiration. In my ignorance, I am choosing to believe that I won't have to do this again and that everything else involved in weaving will be easier. And not so sweaty.

I have classes the first week in July, so soon* (!?) I'll have something on the loom to share.

Love,
Kim

*I will not be defining 'soon'.

He still has spunk

Dear Mom,
An interesting event occurred the other day.  Our leaking ice maker was being repaired- replaced, actually- and Patsy was safely isolated in her crate while Tony removed the iceberg from the freezer and installed the new part.
Bumper, sensing safety and feeling younger than his 12 years, decided to live on the edge for a few moments. He grabbed Patsy's rawhide bone, did a parade lap around the family room in full view of the crated one, trotted through the kitchen and into the diningsewingweaving room.
Pardon the blurry photo here, I had to move fast to snap this shot.

See? I still have it in me!

Bumper was feeling pretty proud of himself and the Young Man and I did some serious gushing over him. He dropped the bone and went back to napping as soon as I finished taking his picture. We figured Bumper probably hasn't had his lips around a rawhide chew since the fateful day that Patsy came to live here.

Happily, he suffered no repercussions when Patsy was freed.

Love,
Kim

It's HERE!!

Dear Mom,
My loom arrived this afternoon, one day earlier than the expected delivery date, but fortunately after I had made a place for it in the dining room. (To be accurate, it probably should be called something else, because more sewing, spinning and now hopefully, weaving, is done in there than actual dining.)

Getting the box off the truck, up the driveway and into the house required the help of the Young Man and a next door neighbor who thankfully drove up right when we needed her to come hold the front door open. The box was a tiny bit heavy, but it was the size that made things a bit topsy turvy as we negotiated the front steps.

Here it is with the box just opened. About now I am still excited, but beginning to wonder what I've done.

When I slid it out this far I started to get just a tiny bit scared.

But I persevered, carefully slid it into close proximity of its new home and started to read through the instruction booklet that came with it, checking off the parts list which was a bit of a joke when parts are listed that I don't even know what they are called or what they are for. Some of them I just went by the count- yep, 3 of those things, so those must be apron bars....and that thing is brass colored so it must be the brass reed hook, and so on. I am taking their word for it that there are 800 heddles.
After removing all the plastic wraps and reading through the booklet, I did manage to get the thing unfolded and attached a crank handle before getting overwhelmed and calling it quits before I break something. I'll take my classes and get the whole thing figured out. I almost feel like I'll be learning how to drive all over again.

Here is is all unfolded.
The loom won't be given a name until we get more intimately acquainted.
I am also reminding myself that there have been weavers for centuries and that I am up to the task.

Love,
Kim

Flowers

Dear Mom,
The past days here have been perfect. Warm, not hot, days. Cool evenings. Gentle breezes. Plenty of sunshine and just enough rain.
My perennials are beautiful this year and my photos do not do them justice. Plus, my camera is malfunctioning and this may be the last good pictures I can get. This really bums me out. Seems an impending vacation always jinxes my cameras. I've got an email into Nikon's support center and I am hoping for a magic fix.
Anyway- here are some of my pretty flowers.
When shopping for marigolds on Mother's Day, I found an Orange coneflower and did not hesitate to put it in my wagon.

My garden is a haphazard mix of easy care perennials, and mostly I let things grow where they want to. I love perennials that will re-seed themselves and spread out- naturalizing themselves in the garden. I could never plan out their locations as ideally as they end up when they've planted themselves. Whenever I can, I take the seeds from favorites and scatter them in new spots, hoping for the best.

The blue delphiniums are blooming for the first time - I think I planted them 2 years ago, but they were trampled over last summer when we had new siding put on the house and never got a chance to bloom. The hot pink flowers are unknown to me, I admired them in my neighbor's yard and she gave me several seed pods. These have a fuzzy sage green leaf and have managed to grow in the best spots. Also mixed in there is some pink/purple yarrow which is really taking over, and way in the back there you can see Stella Day Lilies- another gift from another neighbor when she was dividing up hers.

I realized yesterday that if June's socks were going to get done I'd better get started on them. I've had this sock yarn in my stash for a very long time. Maybe 10 years! These will be man-sized socks.

Hopefully my camera issues will be resolved and I'll be able to post pictures of finished socks and knitting and vegetable gardens soon.  Until then I'll either be forced to blog without adding photos or resort to old pictures to make it interesting.

Love,
Kim

and another and another...

Dear Mom.
More t-shirts. Last summer it was bucket hats.
Now I'm decorating my t-shirts to coordinate with last summer's hats.
Don't worry. I'll run out of t-shirts or ideas soon.

I've also been motoring through a shawl. I keep waiting for the polish to wear off of my excitement over knitting this shawl, but it hasn't happened yet. The pattern is the Dragon Wing Shawl, which I picked up at Earth Guild 3 years ago when My Hero and I took a trip to Asheville for our 25th anniversary. The yarn is from Marr Haven, and I purchased it last summer on vacation. So it's like two vacations knitted together. I suppose I could take it on this year's vacation and really be wrapped up in happy memories when I wear this.

On the bobbin in that picture is 4 oz of yarn I've spun.  It is River's Edge Fiber Arts "Wild Screaming Monkeys" in the On Golden Pond colorway. This stuff is a dream to spin. I treated myself to another 4 oz when we were at Hoosier Hills so I'll spin that, ply them together and have some decent yardage to knit. Don't know what, but I'll figure that out later.
Love,
Kim

Two more t-shirts and a baby gift

Dear Mom,
I decorated two more t-shirts.

This one is a no sew project- I just used my button hole cutter to cut openings wide enough to thread the ribbon through. I marked the locations with straight pins first, making sure they were relatively evenly spaced and that I had the right number of openings so the ribbon would come out and meet together.

And this next one might be my favorite.

I cut 1-inch strips of fabric, sewed a loose basting line down the center to use for gathering up the fabric, and pinned the gathered strips in place, basically letting the fabric tell me where it wanted to go. This is one of those things I have to turn part of my brain off when I am doing it so I don't over think it. I then used a wide zig-zag stitch to stitch down the middle of the gathers around and around until the fabric was attached to the t-shirt. I purposely left the edges raw so they will be slightly frayed. I just might make more shirts like this one.

The only thing I am unsure of is whether I should carry the gathered fabric across the back of the neck. Right now all I've done is what you see here. Any opinions?

One of the nice women I spin with at Tabby Tree is expecting her first baby- a boy- at the end of the month. Since our monthly spin in last Sunday is the last time most of us will see her before her son is born, a baby shower was in order. I made one of my favorite Elizabeth Zimmermann patterns- the Tomten. I modified the design just a bit to add stitches on each side of the fronts to create a double breasted jacket, and used toggle buttons. This isn't the best photo, but I didn't get a better one before it was wrapped and given.

Despite the heat, wool is my fiber of choice. I have a beautimous lace shawl on my needles right now, and a smaller silk shawl/wrap thingy going too, but no pictures of either to show you. I'll do something about that and show some knitting in progress in the next day or two.

Love,

Kim