Learning to Weave!

Jill spining in the background
Lura, my weaving teacher.




This is my true begining into Weaving! On Tuesday,with my dear friend Lura's help, I got a warp on the warping board and got the table loom threaded. It did take a while, but I enjoyed the process, which, I understand is a really good thing!


Then, a few days later, I went back to Lura and Jill's house and got the warp tied on and began to WEAVE! Yes, really, folks. All I could do was sing "I am a weaver now" The checks began to appear as if by magic, and it is so fast! I think I am going to be hooked, if I am not already!

It was so nice to be there and all three of us kept chatting. Jill is my spinning instructor and now to learn weaving from Lura, I am twice blessed with such good friends. and they only live 5 minutes from me!

On the work front, things are going well. We are still selling and my company was number 1 in the Tucson market for home builders for the month of April! And a third of those numbers were ours, at our subdivision! Now, if the houses will close...I can get paid!

I will be going to Cats on Sunday night with Jill, Lura and a new friend, Chris. I have never seen the musical, just know some of the songs from Choir and such. Really looking forward to it. I am going to scoot out of work early and meet everyone for dinner and then the show. I am really pumped. Life is good. Hugs to all, KC

Trip to Show Low, or My friends are Aces!

I took off in a rented Mazda 5 on Monday afternoon. Fortified with Chocolate and water and a full tank of gas, I left my worries and bald tires behind, along with the desert heat.

The drive up was fun in the sporty sedan and as always, I enjoyed the scenery. (sorry, didn't think to stop for pics). Let's just say that the drive up has similar vistas to the Grand Canyon, but if you stop to do much looking, you stand the chance of getting behind a Walmart Truck and going REALLY slow! I did get a lot of zip in the passing lanes, they are right about the Zoom,Zoom on the commercials.

I stayed with my BFF Marilyn, who happens to be a Shaman. I got a lot of time to just be, and got some spiritual clearing treatments that were really beneficial. Marilyn and I went shopping on Tuesday and went to two thrift stores, two high end country style gift shops, the yarn store and the quilt store! I have purchases from each one, of course!

My favorite purchase was at the St.Vincent dePaul's: A soft as butter, wonderfully worn, Black Leather Jacket! I call it my "alter ego" biker chick coat!

Tuesday night we had a girls craft night where I worked on a beater for my drum, Marliyn painted on Coyote gourd rattles and Minda sewed some leather medicine bags. Barb kept up company and we all had a wonderful time.

As with all friendships, I got to learn something new about Marilyn this trip. She Loves to Weed her yard! Here she is enjoying her favorite past time!


The picture at the top is aview from her deck. Really a slice of heaven on earth.

The ride home was quick and I picked my car with the new tires on it and home I went. The dogs were glad to see me and the cat dissapeared as soon as I fed her. Cats!

I am going to give some more time tonight to the Amanda Hat, just so I can finish it. Not crazy about the pattern stitch, but the color of Malabrigo is outstanding. I haven't gotten my malabrigo swap yet, so I must have someone who is waiting for everything to come in before they send it. I need to check Rav to see if my swapee enjoyed her package. She got it and didn't post before I left. Back to work routine tomorrow. All is well.

Happy May Day

I have been extra occupied this last 4 weeks, but I have something to show for it. Mr. Greenjeans is done! This picture is pre-blocking and I think it looks Great! And it fits just right, too. I have it soaking in the sink and will lay it out to block before work.

My dogs, Hershey & Lucky are waiting anxiously with me while it soaks....


My Cat, Minkus, is not so enthused!


But they are my household now. I am single as of middle of March. My life partner and I went our seperate ways back in March and we are both doing just fine, if not better. We remain friendly and are trading dog sitting. She took Molly and Willie to live with her and I kept Hershy, Lucky and Minkus. She is living nearby in one of the furnished rentals that she owns and I will living here.

I continue to look forward to my oldest daughter, Sharayah, coming to live with me in July and I will be flying up to Seattle to attend her graduation in June from Western Washington University.

My work life has become wonderfully busy as well. I wrote up four contracts last Sunday. I haven't been that busy for sooo long. And my sales partner, Joan, wrote 4 over Saturday and Sunday. So the future is very bright financially, which helps my piece of mind soo much, as you can imagine.

I want to thank a special Ravelry friend, Spinknit aka Leanne, for her love and support. She and I have never met, except through Ravelry and yet we are so alike it is nearly spooky! She has been a rock these last several weeks as I would pour my heart out on the message post and she would respond with kind and gentle truths. Breaking up hurts, but the hurt passes. There are good days and not so good days, but day by day I will become stronger and better and more myself than ever before. And this is coming to pass. Thanks, Leanne.

Well, I had better get Mr. G out of the soak and block him so I can get to work on time and sell a few more houses! Hugs to all,

Fibers Through Time was Fabulous!

Some of our class. Anne Fletcher is showing her hand spun and how she split a roving and used each color in differend skeins.



I got back Sunday night and got the garage arranged better for a dye studio. I was so excited to begin dyeing roving to spin! I worked yesterday and wrote two contracts, Yeah! So today and tomorrow, my days off, I can concentrate on fiber and house cleaning :)

In our Color in Spinning class, the teachers were Jill Holbrook and Mary Snyder. We spent the first day carding 20 samples and blending colors to create a rainbow for our notebook! The only bad thing was all the fiber in the air made my allergies so bad that by the evening I was drugged up to the max and had to go to bed at 8 pm! Not like me at all! But the next day we spun hand painted rovings in different ways so my nose was much better. This is Mary showing us how to Handy Ply. It is like Andean plying but you don't go around your middle finger both ways.
www.knitty.com/issuewinter05/FEAThandyplying.html



We helped each other alot and I made several new friends. Marty (in the puppy shirt on my right) showed me how to wind a small skein on my foot!

We learned how to fractally spin our fiber for subtle striping and also navajo ply which gives a 3 ply yarn that has more color definition because you use just one bobbin and ply the yarn to itself. Image a large crochet chain, if you will.
I knit mine up and will make a small bag out it. The top is the fractal section and the bottom is navajo ply. I plan to embellish it with sea shells and drift wood for a beach scene. It really reminds me of the beaches in Washington where I grew up.


Also on my list of things to do today are weigh in at Weight Watchers and get my yearly mamagram. Then I will come home and get to some dyeing (I Hope!) Hugs to all! KC

Happy Spring!

Today is the first day I have begun to heat the pool. I am having some out of town family over this morning and promised the little guys that they could swim. I am going to take advantage of it myself, too. But Horror Of Horrors, My Pool Basket Ball is FLAT! This is a Major Breach! I have to go buy a pump, 'cause the one last summer broke.
For a flash back on pool fun, here is pic from September. Gotta Love a pool when it is over 100 degrees. Today won't get that hot, but hopefully up to the 80's so it will be fine for the boys. Me, I may whimp out unless the sun is beating down :)



That is my daughter, Ravel Rayah, (Sharayah) with the ball and my son Shad.

Last ditch efforts

I have been madly crocheting the handspun shawl that I am putting in the Fibers through Time Gallery. It is a great pattern by local fiber guru, Kathy Withers of Unique Designs. I was hoping to finish last night and block this morning, but of course, my friend Murphy showed up and said HA right in my face. I am about 4 yards short of yarn to finish the last row. I think I can spin more to match. going to give it a go here in a moment, but thought I would let you all know how it goes.

Had a great time with Sharayah here. We knit and watched movies and she participated in our Gansey study group and came home and knit nearly the entire teddy bear sweater in the following days! The girl is amazing!

She is back in Bellingham,WA now for a few more months to finish her BA, then she comes to live here, YEAH! She called yesterday and told me it was snowing up there. She was so dejected and is so looking forward to being here in the sunshine, it was rather sweet.

E is for Exact!

I was having trouble coming up with an example of E, until I dyed my Bare sock yarn from Knitpicks to match my Apricot Malabrigo. I would say, that for an hobbyist dyer, I got an EXACT match on the wonderful peachy color! My yarn is on the left and the Malabrigo is on the right. What do you think? Pretty good, Eh?

I ordered more of the Apricot so that I can knit up the Sunkist pattern that is on Ravelry. It is a cropped top down sweater that I am going to alter to have some open lacy texture. Malabrigo is a wonderful yarn, soft and warm. The pattern will help me have a sweater that will be easy to wear in the summer here in all the cold air conditioned places. And, of course, I will have socks that match! Too Cool.

I am making good progress on my Mr. Greenjeans sweater, but I don't think I will have it done in time to wear it for St. Patty's. I have to finish the second clog for the class I am teaching this Saturday first. then I can concentrate on Mr. Greenjeans. Then I have to crochet the shawl for Fibers Through Time by April 3rd! I must love the excitement that deadlines bring, or else I am an Excitement Junkie!

I will keep you all up to date as I can. My best friend comes tonight for a short visit and then Saturday my daughter, Rayah, comes for 10 days! Woo Hoo! I love having company, especially when we have our cleaning gal coming on Friday. LOL Plus I have the whole weekend off.

Hey, another thing to let you know, I can go back to a 5 day work week next week! I will have Tuesday and Wednesday off every week and boy, will I love it! I can go back to my Tuesday weight watchers meeting in the morning and I can go to the Weavers and Spinners guild meetings on the 4th Wednesdays! I just have to trade with my partner to be able to go to the knitters guild on the third Thursdays.
It will be so great to not have to work 7 to 9 days in a row anymore. Halle Lu :)