Breezy, Blustery Day

Fall has arrived... The trees are now that non-descript cross between brown and dirt colors with a little pear yellow here and there. The leaves are piling in the yard in between mowings and the sun is shining. Temps remain in the high 80's most of the time with a few cooler days. While I am looking forward to the cooler weather I am not a fan of the drabness of autumn and winter in this part of the country. Or maybe I'm just in a mood today... ;o)

The breeze today makes it a really good day to wash and dry the woven scarf and the finished yarns of the past few weeks. These yarns have not been dyed and I'm in love with warm natural colors .. the lightest being mixed wool, the darkest warm brown is Merino Lamb and the honey color is a mix of Romney/Merino. I'm in a hurry for these to dry since I can just see them mixed together in a pattern on my loom and making warm scarves.

Surprise!

We came home from running around town a couple of days ago and found that one of our daughters had called several times. After we unloaded groceries and put them away, DH sat down in his chair and returned the call. She answered almost immediately and I heard him say "Well, where are you?". Then I saw him getting out of his chair saying "At our front door?!!"... lol Talk about a surprise! She and her husband could only stay a couple of hours, but what a good surprise that was!

Saturday the clock was finished! DH tried to change the movement to one that bonged a different sound, but the movement he bought for it just didn't work. He wound up putting the original one back in, but we love it anyway. Each one seems to be getting just that much better. He already has the next one picked out. ;o)

Will the Last True Newspaper Man Please Stand Up

In this election year, this is a must read for everyone...

Will the Last ....

Maybe 3rd Time is Charm

Blogger seems to have the hiccups these days... This post was written twice yesterday and both times it just disappeared into cyberspace and then Blogger wouldn't come up again to re-write... so it was just not meant for me to post yesterday...lol

I am really wishing that I had taken the time years ago to practice and work with knitting more. Knitting has a much better feel than crochet and is not any harder to do once a person is comfortable with the main stitches.

The feather and fan is a pattern that has long been one of my favorites...even if I didn't know it had a name...lol I think I finally have it down... I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and bought slightly larger needles and some soft yarn to make this scarf.

Jackie at Heart Strings Fiber Arts.com has a feather and fan pattern baby blanket pattern that is gorgeous. I will make that next and change the size yarn and needle to larger...making it an afghan.

Just in case you didn't know, there is a give away in progress over on Fabric Follies Two... as a way of saying "Thank you!" for the 300,000+ hits that have come that way in the last 22 months. Pop over and say hello...

Pansy Purse

One of the first projects done when my Harp loom arrived was to weave some of the green handspun that was in the stash basket. I didn't weave very much of it...about 18" x 24". It's been waiting in my workroom for me to get around to making this purse out of it... Well, today was the day.

A pattern wasn't used, but here is a site that will give you basic instructions for the way I did it..

Placemat Purse Instructions.

It's been very warm today...sunshiny through the office windows. Had to close them to keep the heat out of the house. I don't know if it really is so, but it sure seems to be warmer today than it has been for the last couple of days.

Saturday Craft Day at the Museum

Today was Craft Saturday at the Red River Historical Museum. This was my second time to go and it's fun each time. Today we painted these precious Christmas spoons that can be hung on the tree or used in any decorations you want. Aren't they adorable! I am terrible with names or I would tell you who the instructor was..lol I know her first name was Debbie and she was great.

Mammograms & Lace Knitting

I grabbed my knitting as I raced out the door to my follow up mammogram appt. only to realize after I got there that the pattern was still sitting on the arm of my chair...sigh Oh well.. I had some nalbinding in a plastic bag, so I didn't have to sit there and twiddle my thumbs.

This is the follow up for the MRI I had about 6 months ago. It seems that one lump is quite persistent and this time when the sonogram was done following the mammogram it was not just the left side, but also the right that was checked. So will be a little antsy until I finally hear something. Hopefully, that will be today. [Hello, Pat... ;o) ]

This is a hand spun yarn from a bamboo, mohair and wool batt that I got in McKinney. It took me a while to realize that I really needed to card this stuff and I like the soft gold color that comes when I finish. After I knitted the "Linh's Ivy" scarf, I thought how pretty it would look in this thread, so I am trying it. I think I really need a much thinner thread to show off the stitch of this lovely pattern. I'm not sure that I like this and may pull it back out and do a broomstick lace with this yarn. We'll see....

Jim... send me pics of how you're coming with the quilt! Would love to see!

County Fair Time

This weekend was the County Fair. We went on Sunday thinking the crowd would be a little less. If this is the crowd on Sunday, I'm certainly glad we waited...lol And this is within 30 minutes of opening time. By the time we left about 45 minutes later the parking area was completely full and this open space in the front of the pic was no longer there. And people still coming..lol

The Arts and Crafts entries were the complete reason we went...well...the reason I went..lol DH went because I wanted to go...you know how it is...

I loved this quilt. The color selections alone made it one of my favorites, but the workmanship was wonderful. This quilt won Best of Show.

This Sunbonnet Sue with the Irish Chain was the one I really would have stuffed in my purse to take home with me...lol Something inherently innocent about this quilt that just makes me love it....

As a hanky lover, this immediately caught my eye. What a creative way to showcase antique hankies! And what lovely embroidery work!

There were many quilts shown. So many quilts and not enough wall room. There's one thing about it... we have some very talented quilters in the area. The blue quilt in the center was, of course, DH's favorite. I liked the brightly colored Christmas quilt on the left. These are the ones we voted for for People's Choice. But the fact is...there were so many wonderful quilts that just being there and seeing them all was inspiration personified....

Literally Pincushion Linda.. Sewing Pun Intended

Went to the allergist yesterday. Hmmm... After having 64 of these on my back, here she comes in with 20+ syringes stuck in their vials...standing tall like soldiers with pikes... Yes, I took a deep breath. And yes they did hurt...lol

And it did tell me what I already knew... and then some. Severe allergy to cats and ragweed... but didn't know had allergies to sycamore trees (in the front yard!) and many others... all grasses except rye and johnson grass...sigh House dust..etc and the list goes on... Oh well...

Double Hole Tape Weaving... Wow...

I probably will not try this one...lol But I love the way Cyndy of riverrim does it...

My Favorite Things

I suppose everyone knows that I am a true lover of teapots and pitchers. I have Hall's teapots, funny teapots, collector's teapots, tourist teapots and teapots from other countries...but this one touches my heart somewhere deep inside that I can't explain...and it's not even a teapot...it's a pitcher... I found it in a thrift shop and gave all of $2.00 for it...

Sniffles and Broomstick Lace

If you've been following my other blog, you'll already know that I have been preparing to go to Drumright (the town where 3 of my children were born) to the Oil Patch Jamboree. DD has a booth and we were going to set up and "sell our wares"... ;o) And then the sneezing, sniffling, runny nose, watery eyes, I can't sleep 'cause I can't breathe hit... early cold or sinus infection.. don't know which. Down for the count all day yesterday. Slept so much poor DH had no one to talk to most of the day. Anyway... now I have a bag full of beginner's spinning kits, hand spun yarns, hand spun and hand knit scarves, nalbinding things, and broomstick lace "Broomstiks"... and speaking of...

This is what I have been working on in the evenings. It is the most amazing stuff I have done in a long time. There is so much elasticity in it that I just love it. Whatever this thing is that I am working on is growing longer.. so looks like it will turn into a lacy scarf... I tried this with larger yarn and a larger Broomstik and it would make a really good afghan...

Video tutorial by Jennifer Hansen of Stitch Diva Studios showing how to do this is found here.