Meet Naomi, my new cuddle bunny!   Isn't she adorable?     I have 'borrowed' these pictures from my friend's instagram account (with her permission).   Her creator / mother is Tracy who is technically my hairdresser, but after 8 years we have become good friends.    Tracy is aware of all our trials and tribulations this past winter and decided I needed some soft companionship to help during rough patches.    Her name is Naomi. She is crocheted with the softest yarn and is actually quite large. Most of her are those floppy ears but she also has a ..read more

So as I explained in my last post, spinning is all I can do for now while my back heals and I have been enjoying the time.  I have become much more familiar with my Hansen e-spinner and how to get the best out of it and my spinning / plying has improved.  It's a different approach to a regular spinning wheel and takes some time to get used to. (Or it did for me at least).  Anyhow, it has saved my arthritic feet and I enjoy the portability of it.     Some how I found this web site: FellviewFibres on line and bought some of their rolags to spin.  There is always a ..read more

 Yes, I'm still here.... I'm not even sure where to begin really..... It started with my mother in law dying November 30th at age 100.     Then I hurt my back in mid December. How?  I bent over to pick up something off the floor and felt it go. My lower SI joint / disc on the left side and it came with a big helping of sciatica.  Dreadful pain..... and I'm still dealing with it. Then the sky light above our hallway started to leak and there were no roofer to be had over the holidays so there was a classy plastic bucket set up in the hallway.  Our house painter fri ..read more

 Happy New Year to you all..... where ever you may be!  ? It's become a custom here at my blog to do a weaving year in review. To see what I was able to accomplish in my studio. I will admit right now that my looms are very quiet.  The smaller Spring loom is waiting for me to resume threading on two huck lace shawls and two lovely painted warp scarves are just under way on the Megado.     About mid December my left lower SI joint started to ache and I ignored it to my peril and now I have terrible back pain and hobbling through my day. Gel ice packs and pain meds are ..read more

I found this Nordic Santa today on FB (no  photo accreditation sadly).    This is what Santa should look like!   Not that one made popular by a certain soda pop many years ago.  Anyhow, this gentleman's hat, coat and  boots look beautiful and functional.....  He's ready to fly tonight! This is a different kind of Santa too. More earthy tones and rather polished appearance.  He seems to be doing quite well and can afford a better suit of clothes  I find it interesting that many cultures who don't normally celebrate Christmas, now embrace Santa an ..read more

I guess you could say that I started my Christmas preparations in July by deciding to weave  kitchen towels to restock my Etsy store  and planned and pre-wound no less than five warps. This is warp number three.   Warp number four is over the half way mark and I just beamed warp number five.    I have no idea what is next after that!   (yet) The idea is to have some lower price point items as this going to be a tough holiday season for everyone stretched money wise.   If they sell well, I may plan some more for at least one of the two looms.... I have w ..read more

I have been itching to weave a turned twill project for some time.  So I dug around in my stash of 10/2 cotton (of which I have a lot ? )   and pulled together some colours.   Now the drafts below show the basic arrangement of the two blocks and the colour transitions, but the actual colours are much more muted than the ones I grabbed off the colour bar.  I don't get that persnickety with the colours as I keep the original cones out and close to hand to view as I work.  These are Web's Valley yarns  and the entire range of colours have a muted or saddened quality ..read more

 A second helping of an annual towel exchange that honours the memory of Wayne Nicholson or Padre Wayne as he was known on weaving groups at Ravelry.    It's been a lot of fun exchanging towels and making new friends and that was the heart of Wayne's inner light. To reach out and touch people in a light hearted way.    He and I swapped towels, samples and conversations so he would have just loved this. This time, my towel swap partner was Nari in San Francisco who sent me this lovely towel of all over Swedish lace; sett 18 epi and has an 8/2 cotton warp and cottolin we ..read more

 Some of you long time readers may recall my memorial for a friend Rev. Wayne Nicholson. He died tragically in June of 2019.  He was a friend to many, an active weaver and fibre enthusiast, and husband to Harry.   He touch a lot of lives, especially through his good works at his church. His posts at Warped Weavers, a group of weavers that carved out a (large) niche at Ravelry endeared him to many all over the world.   One group, the Woven Dishtowels hold an annual towel swap in his memory, as Wayne loved to weave towels and gift them.  The rules are simple: advert ..read more

I had hoped to have this post up sooner but a combination of out of town company and all the related activity, plus a death in the family sort of sidelined things.  I found having a stack of towels to hand sew the hems quite a comfort actually. Something about a simple task that takes your mind away from things.   I was sorry when the sewing came to en end. So we'll start with a similar picture of a stack of towels, in the same order, except this time they are washed, hemmed and well pressed..... and photographed. We actually had some much needed rain and cloudy skies in a long seaso ..read more