The Colors of December

Sue at Life Looms Large began some time ago to post the colors of the month, once a month. I'm not sure if she originally intended it to be a communal activity, but last month I caught on. She posts her colors and invites us to post ours. This is my first month, and wouldn't you know it, it has snowed and stayed. This is the spruce tree in our front yard that Ian decked out. Color.
This morning we woke to freezing fog, so although some snow has melted, the fog froze onto everything, almost pogonip. This is the tree that we brought down from the neighbors who lost their house and it's doing great. If you remember, it looked peaked last the summer.






Sammie is another color of December. It was one year ago this month that she adopted herself to us. Her owners were rarely home and she had taken to living on our front porch. One night at 19 degrees she appeared at the French door, covered in snow with a snow beard. We didn't know else to do and just opened the door. It wasn't until spring that the neighbors asked us to take their trees and their dog and left their home. Sammie loves us.
Blue is the most color I can come up with and the forecast is for another storm tomorrow. I'm afraid our colors of December just aren't very interesting. I know I keep saying it, but I get such pleasure out of snow because I don't have to commute in it any more.










That's all the color I have. Time to post your colors! Check the link I provided at the beginning of this post for the rules. I hope someone has some color because we sure don't.

Handspun Sweaters

This is the first sweater that I ever knit from my own handspun yarn. The gray is Corriedale/Rambouillet and the white is Rambouillet. I hadn't learned long draw yet and suffered terribly at the hands of the Rambouliet. It was an agony to spin from my pinched over-controlled inchworm technique. Still, the yarn is soft and the sweater comfortable. I have complained for years that I don't know why I knit sweaters because I never wear them. Until now.

When we worked, we would come home, run the furnace to heat up the house and then maintain it with the woodstove. I was never cold. Now that we're home all the time, we only heat with wood and it can get pretty chilly in parts of the house. I wear my sweaters a lot!

It has been years since I wore this one, so when I was wearing it last week, I was mortified to discover that there were moth holds. I found this out when I reached around to scratch my back and my finger went right through, or I would probably never have known. I then brought down the stack of my sweaters from the top of the closet and checked them all. I was lucky to only have one victim. There's no more yarn from this project but I'll mend it and make due.

I have about a half dozen sweaters that are my favorites. The two on the left are from the Sonnet pattern on Knitty. I've sold sweaters at guild White Elephant sales before and had planned to donate the one on the left this year - until I got cold.
These are a couple more of my favorites, but the middle is my absolute most favorite of all. It was my second sweater from handspun and this time I plied the white Rambouillet with the gray Corriedale/Rambouillet. The small handspinners flock belonging to a friend that the gray wool came were killed by neighbor dogs, and I have always felt close to this sweater. I love the cables.

I've been curious about temples in weaving and I've seen other questions lately on blogs. I was thrilled tonight to open Laura Frey's blog and find a discussion and video which you can see here. If you are interested in weaving, you really should follow her blog. She is a wonderful and generous teacher.

Three Packages

A package came in the mail for Charlie. It's the orange tabbycat ornament that I bought on eBay for this years tree. Yes, there are others. It's becoming a collection. What do you think, Charlie?

I do believe there is a resem-
blance, especially the 'tude. Charlie has claws, the ornament does not. Charlie is a sandy cat. Does that make him Sandy Claws?
He's like, whatever. Leaf me alone, I'm in the forest. King of the foreeest - think Burt Lahr. This is closest this poor indoor kitty gets to sleeping under a tree. He loves his Christmas tree. There are no outdoor kitties in Coyoteville. No presents under the tree? Our family agreed several years ago that we would share ourselves, but no gifts, no January debt.
I got a package too. This bin is my sum total of dish towel cotton and it's all 8/2. I was going to plan another warp but I was waiting on a Webs order. I realized that I don't have blues and would like to see my new cones before I plan the next one.
Charlie's package came yesterday and mine came today. I love the blues - don't know why I didn't think about them before. The variegated yarn? I have two babies I had planned to knit for, but I'm going to weave blankets instead. The first one is due in March so I have time to figure out what in the heck I ordered and what I'm going to do about it.

I have Missy's warp on Goldie. It's sleyed and I decided to warp in point twill, but when I got half done I realized that I don't have enough heddles. I have exactly 400 heddles and I need 402. I already knew I was going to make two at the end. I didn't stop to think that point twill uses more heddles on the middle two sheds. I pulled it all out. I had wanted to try a M and W threading and got my wish. Half of the warp is threaded in a variation. I could have been done - sigh.

Package #3? It it exactly six months ago today that I walked out the back door from my job and my work life to my new life in retirement, thanks to an early buyout package. I like all my packages but I LOVE this package the best.

It's Looking a Lot Like Christmas

I have only found one snowflake crochet pattern on the Internet that I understand well enough to make so have made a half dozen. I pictured a variety of different snowflakes on the tree, but I overestimated my rusty skills. Notice the ornament below it - Campbell kids sitting in a cup. I was phishing for Christmas ornaments on eBay and stumbled across this, and also the invitation to check out her other sales - she had bought a set at an estate auction.

I am absolutely thrilled with this catch. She had them set for "Buy Now" and I did. I bought them all. She messaged me that if I was interested, she had just loaded three more sales for Campbell Kids bobble heads, that I had wiped her out.
Someone at the company under-
stands merchan-
dising - they issue aluminum cans every year. The red fits nicely into the Christmas theme. I'm not a collector but I am happy to have all this Campbell stuff on the tree. Four auctions were in original plastic forms, but the owner was a smoker. We wanted to share the wealth with other family members but have been unable to shake the smell. Ian wanted me to wash them with Dawn, but I think we might lose the art along with the smell. It occurred to me, literally while I was typing this, that maybe an immersion in kitty litter might do the trick. They are so cute to smell so bad.
Here is the green green grass of home. Today was an in-town day, totally loaded. My oldest stepson from San Diego is spending a couple of days with us but his car was in town with a flat tire. Ian and Dougie set off in Ian's truck for their set of errands and I in my car, with a lunch date set in the middle.
This is our dirt access road, about two miles worth. I was thrilled that it was plowed. I named my Forester "Eleanor" after Eleanor Roosevelt. Neither one is pretty but completely capable in the most challenging circumstances. I have driven this before plowing - not fun - but Eleanor just girded up the loans of her spirit and did it anyway. I am so glad I don't have this commute anymore.
This is the paved road. It's 29 degrees and the road is a sheet of ice. Eleanor just laughed. We took it slow and I listened to my iTunes library. It got ugly when the we lost the blue skies and entered fog. I allowed 1 1/2 hours for my appointment and was right on time. I'm so happy I don't have to commute in this anymore. Wait, am I repeating myself?
I treated myself to a visit at Jimmy Beans. I was just going to buy sock yarn for DIL Missy, but Noro sock yarn was on sale and I love the one pair that I have already. I asked Missy for her favorite colors. She said, black, brown, blue or purple. Her skein has all but purple. I can't start hers until she can find the tape measure she packed, so I started mine instread.

And yes, I did cut that warp off. I've known Missy over half her life. I know that her towels coming from Goldie will touch her deeply. I got the warp sleyed, and now Goldie is folded and stored in her dormer jail while we have company.

Indecision

I've wound this warp for dish towels for DS Josh and DIL Missy as a house-
warming gift. Last Sunday was the first day in their new home in Bend, Oregon. Josh had been living in their 5th wheel for the past three months and was thrilled to be in their house. A 5th wheel in snow and below-freezing temps is no fun. His new job is great, but living in the trailer wasn't. Missy worries that he won't want to camp in it anymore.

The warp is hanging on the front beam of Maudie Mae. That's the name that I decided on today for my 24" Gilmore, because she's been around for quite a while, she's smaller and maybe not as fast as other looms, but she's still capable - still got it in her. So - the warp is hanging on Maudie Mae because I can't make my mind up.

Josh and Missy picked up Goldie for me from Ken. They were camping in that area and just put everything into their 5th wheel. They fell in love with Ken and when Missy relayed his desire that I weave my first project for him, she started to cry. She was very moved by him and his story. I know she would mean a lot to her if these towels were woven on Goldie.

Here's the problem. I just finished tying onto the dummy warp and drawing it onto Goldie's back beam. If you're thinking about using a dummy warp, 8/2 cotton isn't substantial enough. I thought it would be, but when I drew the knots through the heddles, I had about a half dozen warps snap. I think I would still use one with handspun yarn, but maybe use 8/4 carpet warp - or silk.
I used a Fibonacci sequence and a complex 24 heddle threading. It was a lot of work to get this far but I'm not in love with this project. And. I still have to sley it in the reed. In addition, I just got a confirmation from Webs that the five cones of cotton I ordered have been shipped. I love Missy's towels and am chomping at the bit to start. I'll sleep on it and hope I wake up with a new perspective in the morning.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to remember how to crochet so I can make some snowflakes for the Christmas tree.

A Whole Lot of Spinning Going On

I finally finished the silk that I have been spinning in the mornings for the past several weeks. It took forever because I wanted to spin it thin enough to Navajo ply. When I first learned the technique, I thought it was Rainbow ply and I still think of it by that name. It seems apt to me.

Then I decided to spend a few minutes finishing up the hat that I was commis-
sioned to knit several days ago. The skein ran out and I realized it was the last one. Ordinarily I wouldn't feel compelled to make a hat so fast but last night was the third at below zero. Liz works at the Red Rock Hounds horse stables and I know she really needs it. She moved here from Santa Monica this year and is especially struggling with the cold. I have knit hats for a couple others at the stables and they suggested she contact me.
It took me about an hour to make this skein and in doing so, I realized that I only have one more bump of Mickey. I have three of his fleeces in the garage. Someone needs to skirt them and send them off for processing. I chose Mickey for her hat because his fleece is the softest of our wethers. I love to spin Shetland, but that was a whole lot of spinning for one day. The fulled skein was dry this evening so I went back to work.
And here's the completed hat, roasting by a not-open fire. Interest-
ingly, the browns are both from Ollie, whose lovely cocoa brown is fading into coffee au lait with age. I'd call it graying, only it's not gray. That leaves tomorrow for laundry and weaving - maybe shoveling snow, since it's forecasted again.

A Promise Kept

I finished my purple flannel pajamas today and just in time. The sleeves of my shower curtain PJs are only elbow length because that's when I ran out of shower curtain. We heat with the woodstove, but Ian had to finally turned on the furnace for a while this morning. I need warm PJs. I used to sew all my clothes but haven't made any in at least 20 years. I can see that more sewing practice is required before I cut into handwoven cloth.
It was -9 this morning when I took this picture. Ian gets up before me and said it was -14 then. Today is supposed to be the last really cold day and then we will be close to freezing the rest of the week. That's when the dogs will start tracking in mud - good news, bad news.
By this afternoon it was a winter wonder-
land, that is, if you got to stay inside. DD Chris got stuck in her driveway with the front wheel drive wheels frozen in the gutter. We IMed for quite a while but came up with this solution: towels in front and behind front wheels, then rock the car back and forth to break the inertia. It worked and she cabled her tires right in the middle of the street. Even so she almost got stuck going back into the driveway. Ice is treacherous! I feel so much better, knowing that she is driving on cables.

I've been wanting to show off this specta-
cular Thanks-
giving cactus - it almost looks like an orchid. The starter was a gift from an elderly neighbor, one of the first to build out here, and wonderfully welcoming of us when we came. She died two years ago and I enjoy having this memory of her.
I have another memory that I am honoring. These towels are the first project to come off of Goldie. They are going in the mail on my next trip to town. Not quite two years ago I received an email (I'm the email contact for our guild), asking if I would advertise a loom for sale. Instead, I bought it. I had several email exchanges with Ken, the widower, and learned that he and LeeAnn had bought the loom in upper state New York and that actually both of them wove on it. He as an engineer liked the design process and she enjoyed weaving.

They had both retired from California and bought a new home in Gardnerville, which is south of Carson City, Nevada's capitol. They had been in their new home three months, ordered new furniture which hadn't even arrived, when she was killed in a traffic accident. The loom was still packed from the move. DS Josh was going camping in that area so went by and picked everything up and put it in their 5th wheel. Ken asked me if I would consider gifting him the first project that I wove from the loom. I said yes, but never seemed to find time to weave while I was working.
Ken included a lot of stuff and initially I gave some of the extras away. The whole box of yarns went to Virva, a Finnish weaver who lives at Lake Tahoe, and I forget where the frame loom went. But then I stopped thinking about it as time went on. I had woven a couple of samples on Goldie, but I feel the Texsolv heddles are what really made her mine and allowed me to enjoy her. Now I'm back to thinking about it.

This Schacht inkle loom was part of the package. I even took a class, but never even finished my project. I realize that I'm just not interested, so I asked Amy if she'd like it. She teaches inkle and could use it for a student loom. She said yes! I sent the wire heddles last week to Bonita for use in her student studio. LeeAnn's warping board went to Jeanne - why do I need two? I think the only things left to disperse are the books that Ken included. He and I are both excited about the towels - a promise kept. I just wish I would have used another color besides yellow. Deb Menz says a little yellow goes a long way. Why didn't I listen?!