Christmas tree time!

This year's tree! I finally finished it last night with some help from husband and kids. Every year I gripe about putting it up. Every year I want to get an artificial tree with lights already attached. And every year, I'm glad we got a real tree. This year, I'm not putting out the little village thing. Just the creche. Che made some awesome peanut butter cookies to sustain us through the ordeal.

The tree is really nice this year. Fat and full. Except for one little hollow area. So I put this owl and some air plants in there for a little nest.

I tried to take pics of the mug rugs I'm working on but they're so ugly the camera broke. Not really, but the pics did come out bad so I didn't include them. I want to finish them SOON so I can start on the scarf I want to make.

Weird day off

I hate when I'm off Friday, have to work Saturday and am off Sunday. Ok...I don't really hate the days off part, it's the Saturday part that stinks.

This Friday off was strange. The day started with taking the car to the mechanic because the mysterious "check engine" light came on again. Gerry and I hung out in Ft. Liquordale, had breakfast, went to Pearls Art store, the thrift store then back for the car. That was nice. Got a little more Christmas shopping done. After this, the day gets icky. We came home to a rock through the back window of Daisy.

You can't really tell from this picture. Took this after Gerry cleaned up all the glass. It was shattered. I think some kids were probably walking past the house throwing rocks at each other and missed. It was a small garden type rock. If someone wanted to do this on purpose, they'd have used a brick or something bigger. I couldn't believe such a small rock did such damage. Anyway $45 later, Gerry got replacement glass and we made a police report.

I just don't want to believe someone would have done this on purpose.

I started the supposed log cabin mug rugs. I hated them. The colors looked awful together and I was sort of disappointed. So, not being one to waste a warp already on the loom, I started playing around with this chunky Lion Brand yarn I've got. I can't even begin to guess how this will come out but what the heck. It looks like crap on the loom, which is why I didn't get too close with the camera.

Decided to take a break from this fiasco and watch the cats. You know I'm bored when I find them more interesting than my weaving.

Here they are both trying to pretend that they're not interested in the yarn I just shook in front of their faces.

And here's Ms. Putty completely over it. She wants to go outside and eat a lizard.


LittleMan got tired of the string too and went to his favorite spot...the big loom. He spends more and more time there now. He's either sleeping on the bench or walking around the back and front beams. He thinks he's Olga Korbet...get it...walks the beams, ya har ya har.

I'm still working on the table runner, or whatever this is going to be, on the big loom. The loom came with the warp, and once again...I hate to waste a warp. So I ended my weaving day on the big loom. Later we went for pizza and the Christmas tree. We're letting the branches relax down and will decorate tonight.

Every weird, icky day should end with some comic relief.

Log cabin

I finished the log cabin WAL on Weavolution. My pattern contrast came out a bit more subtle than other projects (click on image). I was also a little concerned about this being too "lacey". But no worries there. I fulled it in some very warm water and it just bloomed. All the little spaces filled in nicely and the selvedge doesn't look too bad. Next time I'd like to try two really different colors, maybe black and lavender.

So this is now an autumn table runner for my oldest daughter. She and her boyfriend are looking for an apartment together so this will be a nice Thanksgiving house warming.

Hope to be starting on some mug rugs soon. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Log Cabin weave-a-long

I started a new weave-a-long. It took a lot of effort to get interested. I've been mentally battling a health issue (which is, thank God, not cancer, but a benign tumor on the left acoustic nerve...a little tiny intruder which I hope to kill dead). But I am feeling stronger mentally and spiritually and want to get back to my weaving. As Forest Gump said...that's all I have to say about that.

I chose these two colors because I wasn't really worrying too much about color. I like the colors, don't get me wrong. But what I really needed was some strong yarn that would work with a 7.5 dent heddle. So these were the best candidates, even though they barely work with the 7.5. It has a bit more of a lacy feel than I had planned or wanted so hopefully wet finishing with fix that.

Hopefully this will be a small table runner. The log cabin pattern is a real challenge to my dyslexia. So, I literally warped this in bundles of 8, being careful to keep the DLDL LDLD (Dark, Light) continuum. I was and am a little nervous about starting the actual weaving.

Also, I've decided to get back to knitting which I put by the wayside. I really need to start from ground zero with it too because I just don't feel competent. Have been doing the freestyle knitting and crochet though so my hand is still in it.

Fabric and fur

It finally cooled down here. Went down to a chilly 58 degrees. I know... people in Buffalo would find that pretty funny, but it has been a brutal summer. Poor BunnyBoop woke up chilled to her little fibers. And she's got a lot of fibers! But even still, she doesn't like the cold. Sam (dog) loves it. The cats just sat on the back porch looking confused. But that's pretty much the way they always look.

I finished the mug rugs for the Weavolution WAL (weave-a-long) this morning. I got 5 rugs out of the warp. I tried 5 different patterns as well. This one is my favorite. This was 7/1 lace I think. Will have to double check. I let the piece rest today and will start finishing them when I get home.

Went yard sale-"ing" this past Saturday. Found these cool fabrics at one place. I've finally started to make strips out of the fabric stash I've got. Not sure how I'll use these, but definately a rag rug. I've been thinking that maybe I'll just go nuts with one and not worry too much about color composition. Just go crazy with colors and see what happens.

Went for a surf on Sunday. The waves were really fun. Was able to get lefts and rights. The water was warm but the air was cold! Stayed out for about an hour, then my ear started to ache a bit so I came in. It was great though. Haven't been on a board in a while. Very grateful for that.

I hope this weather lasts ;)

Ladies dancing

Forgot this picture. When we were in PA, we walked downtown to see the livestock auctions and then to the park to the Fiddler's Picnic, an annual event. I took this at the picnic. Something about these little ladies caught my eye. The picnic was very cool. A lot of follk music and very nice people, but strange too. I got a feeling of deep sadness and can't explain why.

What I did on my summer vacation

Well, let's see. First we bought a 1987 Travel Master (see previous post). I thought that this alone would provide enough comic material to last a few postings. Not so. Daisy performed very well accept for some leaking in the Smokies and another incident that I’ll get to. But first…

Here is Gerry at a rest stop in ... oh heck, I don't remember. One of the Carolina's. At rest stops, you either go to the car side of the building or the truck/RV side. We barely qualified for the truck/RV side as you can see. Daisy is little. And she also has a cataract on her left headlight.

First we went to the Smokies. We camped at Smokemont, or as I liked to call it Smoke-em-if-ya-got-em mont. Apparently, the N. Carolina side of the Smokies is like some kind of rain forest, which is how we discovered Daisy has a little leaking problem. Who knew? Well Bobby did. We met Bobby at Smokemont and we all sort of came together because he too owns a little Daisy. He gave us all sorts of advice on these little campers. He's a super nice guy. We exchanged emails.

Here's Gerry at our campsite.

It was beautiful, as it always is there. There was an abundance of funky fungus and I had to snap pics of all of them. Here's one example.

The leaves were just starting to turn.

While on vacation, I took along Dowde's book on freeform crochet and decided to teach myself...

Here's a pic of me at New Found Gap. Be kind. I haven't bathed in a few days. No water or electric in the Smokies.

Here's me standing in one of the freezing streams. The water was so cold, I literally had a pain shoot up my back when I stepped in it.

This is my Uncle Joe...he's a movin' kinda slow. Ok...not really. He was a park employee at the old mill. He's from Jersey. Somehow, the authenticity was missing there.

Here's an artsy fartsy shot at the mill...

Has Gerry got a short sale deal for you! After the Smokes, we went to the Biltmore. $55 to get in, but worth it. You spend the whole day there. It was awesome. Especially the winery ;)

This is a good one. I was trying to be artsy here. Had no idea I had the lion chomping someones head off! Didn't even notice it until I looked at the picture 2 or 3 times.

Gerry picking the statue's nose....sigh...I think it's a statue of Plato or "Play Dough" :)

Then on to Pennsylvania. I taught my mother-in-law how to weave on the potholder loom.

Here she is in the ducky hat she won at the Farmer's Market

We had a great time in PA. The weather was perfect. In the 50's at night and 70's during the day.

Farms, corn, ham, tatters.....uuuuuuummmmmm!

Then we started home. We got as far as Rocky Mount, NC and poor Daisy got a flat tire. Unfortunately, it's a bit more involved with duel axle. So we had to have road side assistance. There were complications and we wound up having to stay over night. But the mechanic was awesome! They went out of their way for us ... so if you ever break down around Rocky Mount, call Automotive Express!

Daisy's flat foot.

A somewhat distressed Ger...

All in all it was a great vacation. We both came back tired but relaxed too. We met a lot of really nice people along the way. Camping is just way fun. But I think Daisy should stick to Florida from now on....she is getting on in years.

To see all the pics, click here