Fabulous Sunday

Yesterday was fantastic -- from the sunshine start to the delicious baked pork chops with homemade applesauce dinner.  Always makes me think of Peter Brady -- you too???

I had a weaving workshop Sunday at Heritage Spinning & Weaving.  I picked up my friend Kate and headed out to Lake Orion for our 5 hour class taught by Joan Hoover, the owner.  After warping our looms Saturday night we were more than ready to learn several techniques on our rigid heddle looms.

We learned how to use pick up sticks and a fork in manipulating the cotton yarn.

The two pictures below represent about 3 hours of work -- yikes!

We started with hem stitching and Leno stitching, 4 warp strands and then 6 warp strands.  BTW, it's pronounced LEENO not LENNO.  I always think of Jay when I see that pattern!

Then we tried some color work using four different techniques.  Plenty of practice time will be required for me to get everything down pat but I do like the top two techniques.  Hmmmm.....now where do you suppose I'm going to find the time to practice???

P.S.  Happy Birthday Sue!!

Darn, darn, darn

I had a really great blog post but stupid Blogger won't let me post pictures today.  More coming tomorrow....hopefully.

Ahhhhh!!

I love buying books on fiber.  Never mind that many never result in a finished project.  That's not the point, right Joyce??  My roommate told me yesterday that one time he actually counted the books on my two bookcases and there were nearly 300 books.  Nooooo, I said, I'm sure you're wrong!  Of course I was certain because I knew he hadn't included the books in the entertainment center, or the books on the shelves in the laundry room, or the books in the hallway, or the books in my bedroom and craft cave.

I'm always looking for new books with beautiful projects and new ideas.  I spotted 'Quilt it With Wool' by Nathalie Mornu at the Spinners Flock Fleece Fair last month.  I thumbed through it and while I loved many of the projects, the book had some damage so I passed on it.  But I didn't forget about it....

When I saw it on Amazon I HAD to get it.  Not only would it be in pristine condition, it was insanely cheap -- $8.56 instead of $21.95 !!!!  But of course, since you have to spend more than $25 to get free shipping from Amazon I had to get a second book.  I looked through their suggestions and decided on 'Pennies From Heaven' by Gretchen Gibbons.

Both books are filled with do-able projects, fabulous photos, and wonderful ideas.  Now if I only had more hours in my days......

Comeback Story

This is what makes us great.  Time to support this company that was determined to rebuild and help this devastated community make it through a terrible time.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/bringing-america-back-wrangler-rebuilds-tornado/story?id=14826097

For other ways to seek out locally produced goods, check out Still Made in USA.com.  There are still lots of options!

Upheaval

Today at work:

• I lost my boss
• my team leader became my boss
• I got a new title:  QA Analyst
• I got a new team name:  Technology Solutions

Change is good, right?

Lamb Chair Pad

Last year when I was losing my job I started selling all sorts of things on Ebay.  I sold a lamb rug hooking pattern and Cris sent me this photo recently of the finished chair pad.  It's so darn cute and nice to see it actually being used!

Better

I've spent the last couple of days trying to clean up my craft cave.  I started with this:

Not much room to move around, eh?

Here are the after photos:

Am I done?  Oh no, not yet.  But at least I can walk around the room and much of my stray yarn has found its rightful home.  I have a large Rubbermaid contain full of yarn for upcoming hats, wraps, etc.  I have a lot of knitting to do before my show in December.  My, oh my.