Mid-November already?

I've neglected mentioning the cookbook challenges... October was Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking; I made halibut in a yogurt sauce and sauted spinach and peppers. November's cookbook is George Lang's Cuisine of Hungary.

It's also been a fall of apples. LOTS of apple crisp, apple butter, apple sauce, apple salads. The red with the larger fruit tastes best; the smaller red are good the longer they are on the tree.  They're tiny enough where I use a corer to core them then they are 4 bites. The green are very tasty too although a little sunburnt; I just finished stripping the tree. I'll miss them!

• I haven't spent much time in the studio lately, but today I spent most of the day there. I have a really long warp on the loom for Janet Dawson's class; I abandoned the samples and have decided to weave off the rest in petit point and sew something with it. It's complicated to weave so I'm taking it in small doses.
• Plied the singles I'd spun woolen from a blue/green/black art batt and plied more paper yarn. I also plied up little bits of stuff I was playing with in classes.
• Finished the runner I started in the ruler work class.

I took a class in andamento which is how to place the tiles in a mosaic to create a flow; the teacher teaches the classical method but also talked about some of the contemporary treatments. I have a couple enlarged drawings that I might mosaic.

I am also taking a class in print making. Or course there came the part of the class that I dread, in which the instructor says "Okay, draw something". I just took an easy photo off my phone (of the ground cherry) and used that; we'll see how it prints. For next week, we'll need an image for a multicolor print; I'm likely to steal one of the fetching drawings out of my child's Beginner Piano book and do that; they're super cute and I think would adapt to a learning situation.

Pub Quilt finished and on the bed! And Cape Gooseberries!

 I’ve  been waiting for the DH to take some glamor shots of the finished Pub Quilt, but with everything else going on I suspect that’s not going to happen soon.  So I took a couple of plain photos...

Heres's my side

I did want to note that I did straight grain binding but now I've done it I prefer bias; also, I did 2.25" binding and I think I prefer 2". 

I’m very pleased with myself. I’m still trying to figure out when I started it; it was between  28 and 30 years ago. I finished it a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been playing since then.

And here's his side

Specifically, these are the other projects:

• I’ve been spinning paper, with a goal to knit something from it. Below is a knitted sample, using silk singles as a  binder. The yarn is between light fingering and lace weight from 1/4” strips of sewing pattern tissue paper.  1/2" strips make a thinker yarn. I'm using some roughly spun silk I got from someone's destash as the binder on the yarn for the knitting project... (In case I forget, I'm adding twist to the silk with a 4 count out and a 4 count in, and plied it with an 8 count out and 2 count in. 

• 

  Knitted paper yarn!!!

  I’ve been spinning a blue stashed batt with a woolen draw, to get ready for the next project. The singles are ready to be plied.
• I carded the green fiber from 2020 CNCH some random silk bits, and some zwartbles together, and will spin it into a 2 ply woolen yarn. There's a competition for the yarns, which is why I'm practicing with the batt.
• I spun some cotton but need to work more on this.
• I’ve been weaving some of the samples from Janet Dawson’s class but am not ready to share. There are some fun and some overly fussy samples.
• I cataloged my sewing fabric and patterns with an eye towards engaging a sewing tutor; I put together a list of goals.
• I took a class in ruler quilting at PIQF, made a super ugly runner which needs to be bound.
• I have a mosaic class in Andemento coming up in which we won't be doing any mosaic, but really just drawing pieces and grout line.
• I enrolled in a Lino block carving class and got to order art supplies!!!! Hurray for art supplies! Sadly it’s nearly impossible to get red ink right now.
• And yesterday I dyed the yarns for the next run of ikat scarves. It was an utter disappointment; I'll detail that later!

Now I need to think about how to structure my life so I can get all this shit done.

New Pool Toy

Meanwhile, construction continues on the laundry room that will morph into a dye studio, and I'm taking piano lessons. We had a huge rain storm in which my favorite oak fell into the pool, and we had several new leaks. Good thing we have contractors working on drywall right now anyways.

And last but not least, the cape gooseberry crop came in just in time for me to candy these adorable tiny fruits for DH's birthday. We had these for the first time at a rural hotel in England, as part of a dessert tray, the year we got married. So I guess 27 years later is the magic year to get things done. 

Things From SOAR

I often take classes then don't practice what I learn, then I forget what I learned. I promised myself I wouldn't do this with the classes I just took at SOAR. So...

Here's a lovely finished object from SOAR... a tablet woven mask lanyard. It's 20 cards of 10/2 cotton in Egyptian diagonals pattern (iron age tech), started in a class with John Mullarkey. It's about 3/4" wide and 35" long with lobster clips. I sloppily zig-zaged it together by machine; I need to find a better way.  The double diamonds in the center section were a mistake! You'd think I could have watched my weaving and caught it... but I liked it enough to replicate it (with John's help). I have notes!

Speaking of card weaving, my new friend S. pointed out this delightful site: http://ladyelewys.carpevinumpdx.com/. She's hosting a weave-a-long for historical card weaving that includes historical or archeological information. I'm hooked.

I took a break from The Quilt That Must Be Finished this morning to practice a couple things from SOAR. I had cut up some pattern paper in 1/2" strips and tried spinning it on my Kromski wheel; it spins beautifully but will not feed on. The orafice is more convoluted than on the Louet, and all the little hooks seem to be a bit of an issue. I'll go back to the Louet and try it again. I've also bought some colored tissue paper from Target; one of the ladies had brought it to the workshop and Judith had declared it fabulous, so I'll give it a try some morning. 

I also tried some tweed. I took the green fiber from the CNCH Return to Sender challenge and carded it with about 15-20% Zwartbles wool  and some silk floor sweepings from John's class; it ended up being a lovely olive green with the little silk bits showing through. My spinning technique, however, needs some work... So I'll spin something else up with a woolen draft before I go back to this. The good parts are very good but there are some unattractive lumps...

Zwartbles

Zwartbles, by the way, are a Dutch sheep breed that are naturally black in their un-unburnt state; the wool goes a little brown on the older sheep.  Here's an awesome photo of them from https://zwartblesireland.com/. They're milk and meat sheep; the wool has a good crimp but is in the 30 micron diameter range which makes it a little itchy for next to the skin use.

The aforementioned quilt will be done this week!

LOTS of cool things going on...

It's been a while since I posted last and a lot is going on but with very little to show for it.

First and foremost is that darned quilt. Yes, I am obsessed with it to the point where I'm not really working on much of anything else, which is a shame. The good news is that I am nearly done with it and will have it on the bed by the end of October, hopefully sooner for DH's birthday. I've been spending afternoons on the deck in the shade quilting on it with the cats, who are much better at staying off it outside than inside...

Boulder Chautauqua, view of the Flatirons.

The other big news is I travelled to Boulder for SOAR (a small retreat devoted to spinning). It was at the Colorado Chautauqua, so I got to learn about that movement, which was super interesting. More importantly, I got to go somewhere new and interesting and take classes with some of Spinning's luminaries! I learned to spin paper and to make tweed yarns with Judith MacKenzie, practiced long draw with Maggie Casey, and got attention on my bad-boyfriend charkha from Kate Larson; then, a two day class in spinning silk for cardweaving from John Mularkey!!! I have Plans to practice what I learned... just as soon as the quilt it done...  so expect some more posts on projects from that event in the next couple of months.

On the project side,

• I signed up for and warped the loom for Janet Dawson's class, Overshot Departures. I've woven one overshot motif to check the threading and nothing more yet.

SQUEE!!! They're so cute!

• I finished two cute little hand towels for the powder room; DH asked "am I supposed to use them or just look at them?" I told him either was fine but that they require ironing to look their best, 'nuff said. Two more towels are draped over the loom waiting hemming.
• Fiber is here for the rug, rug is designed. 
• I promised my study group I'd show them how to wrap for ikat... so I put the last set of random ikat scarves on the warping board and demo'ed. Then realized that I needed to have the warping board free for a guild demo and so I tied the rest of it in a hurry! I have the dye but haven't dyed it yet.
• I finished spinning the dark blue singles that I've been working on for the last year or so; some is plied.
• Construction started on the laundry room/dye studio, which is not something I'm personally working on but it's an exciting prospect.

Does it feel like there's a lot of projects that are languishing? There are! It's that darned quilt! Every time I think of another project, I am pulled back to it. Am I obsessed because I need a new quilt on the bed? Excited to have a new quilt? Or just tired of thinking about it? Maybe the trail of cotton lint that will follow it until it's bound haunts me? I feels so close yet so far away... Meanwhile, I'm carefully dancing around an overuse wrist injury, and thinking about spinning cotton on my newly tuned little bad-boyfriend book charkha.

The Little Bad-Boyfriend Book Charkha spinning cotton.

Q3'21 finished things (4)

Nothing to do with anything, 
but still a pretty sunset

Done:

• 2 huck baby blankets
• 2 of 4 of the hand towels for the guest bath; the other two are siting on the loom, unhemmed.

In Progress:

• 2 more hand towels for the guest bath; okay, they just need hemming
• The Pub Quilt! I'm on border 4 of 4, then have to bind it and do a litttttttle more quilting on the inside. Honestly, nothing else is getting done 'cause I'm obsessed.
  

Still on the list but what was I thinking?

• Make the Get Weaving Vest pattern in handwoven or stash fabric. 
• Start an overshot throw in champagne and white for the den.
• Make more progress on the new mosaic table (more than just one poppy).
• Okay, I did a second poppy but that was it.
• Make another grocery bag! 
• Make a piece of Andean Pebble weave that's wider, on the loom. 
  
• More towels for another towel exchange, maybe using info from Tien and Janet's class.
• 2 Ikat scarves, for M. and for C. (these are tied but not dyed or woven).

Monagamous! and Fricassee

With all vacations cancelled, we're back to the cookbook challenge, and DH picked Marcella Hazan's The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking again. I wanted to cook a recipe that seemed more like home food than restaurant food (although I can't tell from the book), something that isn't typical to Italian restaurants in the US, and something DH did not expect: Chicken Fricassee in Red Cabbage. The cabbage is cooked down with onion and garlic, then the browned chicken and red wine are added and cooked a while more. It was excellent!  I cooked and served it with a California pinot noir, and accompanied it with polenta and spinich and shallots sauteed in pan drippings from the chicken. I'll make this again!

On the fiber front, I continue to be monogamous. 

I'm quilting away, often on the deck by the pool, when I can negotiate with the cats for access to the quilt. I'm more than half way done with the background, then it'll just be the borders! This afternoon's task will be to mark more quilt. I did sign up for a ruler quilting class at PIQF in mid-October, and I'm invited to the local quilt group meetings where I hope to find out if anyone can coach me through quilt-as-you-go.

Negotiating who gets
which part of the quilt

I'm weaving hand towels for the bathroom, and those are going well. I finally conceded that I need 6-8 inches to get used to pattern and beat before my project looks good. I just signed up for another Janet Dawson Overshot class so will warp the little loom for that; I'm also about to order fiber for the rug by the kitchen slider and flirting with a bound weave project for later in the year.

I'm only really working on my knitting one evening every other week. Two weeks ago, I encountered an error but put it out of my mind, so last night I rediscovered it and spent an hour picking it out. I'd picked this project for travel and now that travel isn't happening I confess I'm looking at other projects.

I hosted two spinning classes taught by guild member BP; I brought out my wheel and continued to spin that blue merino mix that has been making me so unhappy. The good news is I'm almost done with the spinning, then I'll ply that and the brown singles I have (not together). I also took out the charka and tried some cotton but I fear that'll have to wait until my class at the end of September.

I've also been spending lots of time in the garden; I've convinced the gardeners that we need to finish one project before we move to the next. So large parts of the garden are looking much better.

Two new baby blankets for two new babies

Wet finishing makes the difference

Lighting is obviously an issue with the two photos, but here there are, two fresh new baby blankets right off the loom.

I used a long staple 8/2 cotton ("Baby Soft", from ETC) which makes a lovely soft drapey fabric...

The two photos here (lighting is terrible! Sorry!) are off the loom and machine washed (left) and on the loom (right). Note how the threads shift a bit on the lacy parts to make them more, well, lacy. The texture is wonderful.

I'm still having issues with tension, especially with wider pieces; these were 39 inches on the loom. I had waaaayyy too much draw in while weaving, and that caused issues too.

Still on the loom

Regardless, I'm ludicrously happy with how they turned out and thinking I might need to make a throw blanket like this for one of the sofas... Thinking this might end up being one of my go-to baby blanket patterns.

One blanket is going to KC's g-grand-baby and the other to Taipei for M&R's little boy.

On other fronts, I'm still working on the pub quilt and will be for quite a while; I spent a couple of afternoons on the deck in the shade working on them so it feels like there is progress... Also knitting a few rows on the poor little drag along shawl. I've started pulling a warp for towels for the guest bath in 10/2 cotton; I suspect DH will hate them but I'm doing it anyways.