Things They Are A Chang'n!

Well, quick update - I got the sales job at the radio station - yipppeeeee!! Really exciting. My last day at my old job was yesterday - quick presto chango, I know. Start training with the new place first thing Monday. Lots to learn, but I'm extremely excited and looking forward to it - I'd been feeling in a career rut for a while and now I need to really push myself to excel at this new job, similar to how I pushed myself and grew two years ago at the old one - but hopefully this will lead to more lasting long-term opportunities.

All I know is I gotta improve, learn and grow, because what else is there?

Is Anyone Still Here?

Wow, I've been so immersed in tons of changes, chaos, and reaching for new things, that I kinda forgot to blog. Not sure if anyone is still listening sometimes, but I think I still have at least a FEW readers out there. I know, you guys are busy too, right? But I never want to totally let go of blogging because so much more can be covered in a few blog paragraphs than can be said in any other medium since I'm not a Facebook kind of person.

First off, in the "life" realm, I really can't jinx it because I believe it's bad luck to report on something until it happens, but let's just say there has been a job search going on, as well as pretty active interviewing. I'm hoping like crazy that one particular opportunity materializes, but it's still up in the air. But it's a "happy" exilerating kind of air ride - hopefully I won't be plummeted to the ground in disappointment. This is a scary time for me to make a career move - but I've been feeling innner prompting that FEELS more like divine direction than simple job restlessness, so I'm listening to that inner angel - in fact stumbling upon this sign while at a thrift store made me assured, in a weird way, that I'm right to make a change now. Call me romantic or illogical, but I really believe in "signs." This one is a literal one that seemed to speak directly to me.

On the crafts front, I've been really making use of my free time lately to get some things finished. First off, I finally found the right button for that laptop cover I've been weaving and I finished sewing it up last week. I really LOVE this project. Absolutely LOVE it. The bright, crazy colors really make me happy.

Then I also made a quick project of crocheting and felting an Alpaca roving rug for Bob. I thought this would be PERFECT for that spot right under his desk where he sits barefoot working on the computer. This felted rug is as soft as can be.





Last on the weight loss/fitness front: I have been really making progress - yes!!! Keeping a strict calorie count journal and following the 1200 calories a day guideline my doctor gave me is working out so well. I'm down 9 pounds (nearly 10) in 6 weeks. Thrilling. I'm starting to go down a size in clothes, too, which is always gratifying. I'm continuing to exercise as much as possible, within the constraints of my shoulder injury and even that too is showing signs of improvement.

So have a good week everyone, let's hope the wind is pushing my balloon in the right direction into bluer skies. Sure hope that's the case - and I'm holding all of you in my good thoughts and wishes too. May your ride be smooth(er) for a while. So many of us need a rest, don't we?

Shouldering Too Much?

Haven't had time to write much on here lately. Things have been truly crazy busy. Work has been extremely stressful and weird lately. Unsettling actually. Lots of people quitting. Not sure WHAT is going on at my office but I don't feel either happy or secure. Very worrisome. Especially with my boss leaving - I just hate the idea of adjusting to my 4th boss in two years. Ugghhh!!!

We are thinking we might need to eventually relocate with Bob's job - long story - but with the real estate market being what it is, I don't know that it would be easy to move. Staying put for now, but that could change.

On top of all that, I am having pain. Lots of pain. In my shoulder. I've spent the last few weeks going to my doctor, to an ortho specialist and now to two weeks of physical therapy. It's called informally a "frozen shoulder" but the actual name is adhesive capsulitis. I noticed symptoms a few months ago, but it just has gotten worse and worse over time. Finally a few weeks ago I was in agony every time I moved the wrong way, and I could barely move my left arm or sleep on my left side. Let me tell ya, that's a problem when you are left handed! I've gone through some really painful physical therapy sessions 3 times per week and doing exercises for it 3 times a day. It's finally getting to the point where it's merely painful and not excruiciating.

I am so grateful for physical therapists, though. They are really and truly miracle workers if you do your exercises and follow their advice.

Maybe it's no coincidence that when I'm "shouldering" so much my shoulder gives out? Let me tell you, the thought has occurred to me that maybe this pain is more than physical and maybe my subconscious mind is trying to tell me something? Who knows.

The only thing that has brought me pleasure is spinning and weaving. For some reason, I've been able to do a BIT of that this week. For a few weeks, I haven't done much at all craft-wise because of the shoulder, but now I'm able to do a bit. This is the woven laptop bag I'm making on my rigid heddle loom. I LOVE weaving.

Celebrating with a Friend

Last weekend was Luann's birthday - so I headed over for a quick one-day trip to her house - it's about a 90 minute drive each way, but a very pleasant day and a nice drive. On the way down, I listened to a book on tape.

We had a fun day - spent some time spinning. First time I'd spun in a few weeks. I've really missed it. I saw her new Border Collie, her animals, and she gave me some raw fiber - some Shetland, some Finn, and some Blue Leicester. Guess I will have to learn how to wash and process fiber, huh? It's beautiful stuff.

She showed me her looms and taught me how to warp a loom using a 14 foot warping board. I've always just used the direct method of warping before. I can see how a warping board might be easier with some projects. I have a warping board on the back of my Harp but have never used it.

Last but not least, I finished making a birthday shawl for another friend, an online pal named Debbie. This is the first woven shawl I've ever done on my Kromski 24" rigid heddle. It actually didn't turn out half bad for a first attempt.

Luann has been making some really cool woven banners that hang outside on your deck and make gentle sounds in the wind. I am probably going to try my hand at making one of those too. We both agreed that we should use some novelty yarn, particularly ribbon yarn, in our shawls and banners. So we went out on a novelty yarn buying mission - found some really cheap for $1 a skein at Big Lots near her.

I keep promising a return to knitting, and I really have been trying to do more of that. Cast on some Monkey socks. But admittedly, my preoccupation is still weaving. I'm eager to get going on another shawl on the Harp. It's just too fun to stop. Warping tonight. Yippeee!

A Need for Synthesis

Granted, this year I wanted to learn a bunch of new skills - spinning better, weaving on a rigid heddle, carding better on my drumcarder, continuous strand weaving, learning more about art yarn. All these things I've been delving into for several months now.

So what has happened recently is that I've sorta lost track of where I'm at. With every new interest that comes along, I have allowed myself to randomly pursue it. And now things are getting to be a little - or a LOT strung out and disorganized. I jump from one set of needles, or looms, to another without enough direction to really complete projects the way I used to do.

Even my daily spinning (i.e. sanity check) has fallen a bit by the wayside while I pursue an obsession with weaving. Though I love weaving, unlike spinning, it isn't always relaxing and instead of unwinding, sometimes it makes me more tense.

The result is that I very much feel at "loose ends" right now - starting many things but finishing very little. So maybe (probably) I'm feeling scattered.

So I've decided to get things back in check by:

Finishing the turquoise recentagular shawl I've been weaving for a birthday gift - it's getting fairly far along, but not quite finished.

Spinning more on some sock spinning that has been sitting idle for several weeks

Clean out and organize my fiber stash so I know what I have and can get ready for Tour de Fleece.

Finish knitting a Haruni shawl that I've been working on very sporadically and see if I can make some headway on that.

Pick out a project I want to work on for Tour de Fleece - probably preparing and spinning the Coopworth fleece I picked out a few months ago at the Jefferson City Fiber fair.

Hopefully this realization for the need to get organized and focus my energies will help me put a rein on myself a bit and lead to perhaps getting more accomplished.

Update on diet frustration: Guess what? Since doing my calorie counting plan all this week, I went from 154.0 on Monday to 150.4 today. So I have lost 4 lbs in one week. Realize that this is probably mostly "water" weight but I am quite happy to have finally made a big budge in the scale. I went out and bought a cute little journal today at Borders, it has an oriental theme and is narrow so it won't take up much room in my small purse. With the shoulder trouble and pain I'm having, the big monster purse was replaced last week with a very small bag that holds only my essentials.

Maybe this shoulder trouble is symbolic, telling me I've been shouldering too much, and needing to simpify and unburden myself of the heavy things that are weighing me down? Who knows!

When It Ain't Working, Change It Up

Well, since December 2nd, 2010, I have been doing the new Weight Watchers program and religiously following it, logging all my "points" in a journal and sticking with the program pretty religiously, and doing it with several friends - at work, in real life and online. I was thrilled with the new program, in theory, because I had a minimum of 29 points and I now get "free" veggies and fruits without counting any points for those.

So I loved the new program. The only problem is/was that I've lost a total of only 5 lbs in 5 months. A pound a month average isn't so whippy. In fact, it's gotten pretty discouraging. Even with doing my Wii nearly every day, I wasn't losing pounds. Just staying the same.

I know there are many factors influencing my lackluster results, including menopause and who knows what else. So Friday I went to the doctor, got a physical and had a complete blood panel done to see what's going on.

My doctor, it turns out, has lost 70 pounds in the past 15 months. Phenomenal. In fact, I didn't recognize him at first! I thought I had had a new doctor, so it was ironic I was there to talk about my weight loss, or lack thereof, and he was standing right in front of me demonstrating his fitness success. He reviewed my food journal and we talked about what he had done. He's been a guy who tried every diet and exercise plan, including Weight Watchers and various low carb plans. He told me that what worked in the end was plain old-fashioned calorie counting and exercise 5 times a week for half an hour - mainly walking, because running can cause injury, especially in someone my age. He said, in short, that I'm getting too many calories even though I'm sticking to the plan. He suggested that I go out and get a calorie counting book. That combined with my Wii is my new plan.

Will report back. My goal is to lose 1 pound a week average. I'll get the blood work back maybe next week - and that will give me a good baseline from which to see how well this new plan works.

Am I Still Knitting?

Here lately all my blog posts have been about weaving. For those of you who don't weave, that's probably not too exciting. And you may wonder - do I knit anymore? My friend Elysbeth inquired about my knitting and I decided, what the heck, I might as well fess up to everyone that I have indeed inadvertently set aside my knitting bag somewhere due to my obsession with spinning, and here lately the new obsession of weaving.

In fact, embarrasingly enough, it took me a while the other day just to FIND my knitting bag buried beneath all the weaving books by my nightstand table.

It's not that I don't like knitting anymore. I do. Still love it. Just a matter of so many hours in the day. So I had cast on this shawl, called Haruni, in late March. It was supposed to be a knitalong with my group, but as mentioned, I'm way behind of doing anything with it. It's not a hard shawl, really it isn't. And though most in my knitting group have either finished or given up on it, I'm still plodding along, and now pulling it out of the bag and dusting it off. So here's the Haruni as it stands. The bright yellow yarns hanging out are the lifelines. It's my goal to work on it a bit during the Memorial Day extended weekend.

Have a good one everybody. I am really wiped out. Need to veg out, knit, listen to old podcasts, read a bit and knit a lot. This weekend the knitting will tag along with me. Promise.

Tri-Loom Can Be Trying

Over the weekend, Bob and I put up the Tri-loom that I got for Mother's Day. It's a really nice 7' Tri-loom from Hideaway Homestead.

I was so excited! We put it together. I started working on it Sunday night. I read the instructions, then I wove. Then after working on it for a few hours, and with the daylight turning into evening, I couldn't see as well and was getting tired, but kept weaving.

Then at 11 p.m., well past my point of rationality, I stopped and took a closer look at my handiwork. Saw that many of the threads weren't right - they had several horizontal "floats." Quite annoying. And of course, I didn't know how to fix it. I was exhausted, so I ripped it all out with the intenion of starting fresh again and doing better. I am still struggling over how to fix mistakes.

I wrote Roger, the loom maker, and he is SO PATIENT and helpful. He basically said that the problem is, I've gotten messed up on the vertical weaving down but it shows up on both sides of the loom in the horizontal skips. He suggested that I use a crochet or afghan hook to make my weaving through the threads more accurate. He also suggested proofreading each line of weaving carefully before proceeding to the next. And he said there is a way of fixing mistakes and tried to explain it to me.

On Tuesday night, I started over again. Saw that when I was careful and used a hook, my weaving was indeed much better and I am starting to get the hang of it. This is really addictive but it does strain my neck and back, so I am only working on it a few rows at a time. And I learned my lesson and am now working under much better light.

I am going to keep working on this - because I can already see that I'm getting better as I practice, like with everything else. And I'm taking a class on Continuous Strand Weaving, which is what this method is - so after I have that class, later this summer, I'll probably have a better understanding of my beginner's mistakes and maybe they won't be such a big deal. The good part is you don't have to warp your loom, you just create the warp as you go, but the challenging thing is, you have to do it right. Ha! Small details, huh? Let me tell you, there's an old expression that says, "God is in the details." Really true.

Getting Stuff Done - Yes!

Over this past weekend, I managed to get a ton of stuff done. Mostly organizing stuff - but it felt so terrific. I ran errands, I cleaned out closets and drawers, shredded up old bills. Chopped vegetables. Cooked and froze Weight Watcher friendly soups for future meals. Cleaned my car. Scrubbed my bathrooms and threw away old used-up stuff in the cabinet. Listened to the audiobook "Room" while I worked (fantastic and gripping book by the way). Reminded me that feels SO GOOD to get mundane stuff done and check them off the "to do" list.

I rewarded myself by visiting my old Sit and Knit group at Borders. Great seeing everyone again.

Now I feel recharged or empowered in a weird sort of way. Knowing that I can make headway in terms of mundane life tasks reminds me that I also can get stuff done and meet goals that are more abstract and meaningful.

Out of Sorts

Gotta admit, I'm really feeling unsettled, disturbed, grumpy and have slept poorly. My mind was just full of so much STUFF - worries floating around bothering me to no end. Finally gave up at 3:30 and got up. Am still up. Tempted to just call in today and take a personal day - but hate to waste a precious day off on just being out of sorts.

Maybe I should take tomorrow off instead - a 3 day weekend might be refreshing. I also really need to journal - there's just so much stuff. Need to do a mind and emotion dump and get all this anxiety out onto a page somewhere. I wish I could go off and pray somewhere - maybe go visit the monastery again or something - inner peace is in short supply lately. I really need Room 8.

Mother's Day 2011

Happy Mother's Day. We were all together. Four generations. Lucky to have Grammy Ferne still with us. She's phenomenal and was so happy to see everyone together.

Weekend Weaving Workshop

Okay, a kind of crazy, intense learning-filled weekend. My brain is mush and I'm exhausted - but it was ALL worthwhile. My friend Luann and I went to Yarn Barn to take a Rigid Heddle workshop with Jane Patrick. We couldn't pass up an opportunity to learn from a weaving master like her!

The first day was all about using pick up sticks and the second day was hand manipulated yarn techniques such as leno lace, Spanish medallions etc. All I can say was the first day, I thought the class was WAY over my head, and it probably was, since there were many talented weavers there with much more weaving experience. However, I stuck it out, and am really glad I did! Now her book and DVD set make much more sense to me.

Jane is a patient teacher who goes around to everyone and helps them go at their own pace, without feeling like you are keeping the whole class behind. Then, if you a more advance weaver, such as a couple of people in our class, then she keeps you busy with advanced enrichment techniques. Therefore, I would highly recommend any of her workshops because she's an excellent instructor.

On Saturday night, I finished this Leno Lace cowl which I had started right before leaving home. It was a really quick, fun project. Made it on my Cricket loom in just a few days. Boy, weaving is amazingly fast when you're doing a small project.

I will turn in VERY early tonight. One thing I learned, once again, is that my weekends of "down time" are precious and it would have to be for a very special instructor for me to give up a whole weekend of relax - and I'm going to try to slow my pace a bit the rest of this week to rest up and regroup.

Weaving Accessory Bag

If last weekend was focused on relaxing, this one was focused on doing errands and getting things done. Many things were marked off my "to do" list. That is a really satisfying feeling though.

The motivational speaker Brian Tracey used to call that "eating the frog" - meaning doing the things that you really need to do, and just swallowing those tasks - getting them over with, then feeling the satisfaction of having done what you need to do. Good especially on a cold, rainy and nasty April weekend when it's too cold to do anything outside anyway.

The only bit of fiber work I had the chance to do this weekend, though, was finishing weaving and sewing up this bag. It's a loom accessory bag. I actually wove the fabric for the bag itself on the Kromski Harp that it is hanging from. First project on that loom. And I'm so proud of myself for sewing the bag on my sewing machine, including a lining and inside pockets. Yippee. Something very handy and useful that I'll use every time I weave.

You gotta love a project that turns out exactly as you envisioned it. Gotta take happiness in simple things and accomplishments. Right?

Hope Begins

One of my favorite quotes, from one of my favorite writers, Anne Lamott:

"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work, you don't give up." - Anne Lamott

I LOVE Anne's nonfiction, especially her essays where she discusses her life and her faith, and her stories about her son Sam, who is now grown, with a son of his own. She's one of the most reasoned voices in faith that I've heard. She has the kind of faith that I aspire to. What's funny is I'm not as fond of her fiction - her novels just don't draw me in. Not sure why?

I also love her writing book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, which my friend Phyllis introduced to me back when I was still writing regularly. I don't know why, but Anne's nonfiction is so much more poignant and funny to me, and just resonates in a way that few voices do. Even if you aren't a writer, you'll love the insights from this book.

She seems to have the kind of faith that allows for complexity, and I feel that many people with strong faith tend to simplify the world and the heavens, whereas Anne accepts and welcomes the complexity. Few others have the inner strength to laugh at it, while still embracing it.

So if you haven't read her book "Grace Eventually: Thoughts on Faith" you might want to. I especially love the audio version, since she reads it herself.

As we are now seeing the promise of Spring, and it's the season of both Passover and Easter, it's the time to examine our interiors - focus once again on our spiritual selves and experience that sense of renewal that allows us to go within ourselves for reflection, then rise above and outside of ourselves in a hopeful way.

Spring Clothes Shopping

I don't remember when I've EVER looked forward to Spring so much, or a year when it's been so delayed. We had an outright beast of a winter, as I know many other areas did also. And I'm usually a cool/cold weather person, but when it comes to warmer weather this year, I say, "Bring it On!" though I may not maintain that enthusiasm once our temps and humidity climb into the 90's as they eventually will do.

At any rate, being faced with attending many conferences at this time of year, and needing an "attractive business casual" look, I decided last night was the time to go clothes shopping. I really dislike doing that, since I'm not nearly the fashionista that my mother and daughter have always been.

Shopping is especially distressing when you want to "dress thin" while not BEING thin. And a short, plump middle-aged lady like me is hard-pressed to find clothes that truly don't make her butt (and gut) look big. There's a good reason why we always ask people, "Do these pants make my butt look big?" There are in fact outfits that, while not making us truly smaller, can reduce the emphasis on our overly abundant parts.

So instead of holding out on clothes shopping until the elusive day when I "get in shape," I've decided to buy a few pieces NOW. And what is unusual, instead of avoiding white like I usually do, I purposely have been very drawn to it lately. Not sure why. I bought a white purse, a white pair of capris and slacks, one black and white dress that is very cute, and a darling pair of white sandals. I also bought a new pair of black capri's with a sort of silverish belt. And in the spirit of spring, painted my toenails bright pink. Doing this mini Spring "self makeover" had me singing "Summer Breeze . . . . makes me feel fine" all the way to the office.

What makes you sing? What makes you feel good about yourself? Can you treat yourself to one new outfit? Even a visit to a thrift store can reinvent a tired wardrobe.

Weaving - Me?

Okay, Grandma Ferne dragged me into spinning, kicking and screaming, when she offered me her Ashford Traddy 2 years ago. Now I'm being drawn into the darkside of her favorite craft love . . . . . weaving. Granted, I haven't fallen in love with it enough to add a room addition onto my house for a floor-sized loom, as she once did, but I like it enough to make this (second) scarf on my small Cricket heddle loom.

And I've dusted off my sewing machine - in this effort to transform my too-short first woven scarf into a Little Zippy Knitting Notions Bag.

I have succumbed to the lure of a Kromski Harp 24" rigid heddle loom. Here it is all put together. Nice huh? For some reason, I had a heck of a time getting it assembled, and I kept thinking we had put it together wrong. But my Kromski dealer from afar, DakotaSkipper, who I "met" on Ravelry is the very best, most supportive person. She dropped everything when I told her we were having trouble, and wrote out a whole tutorial on how to put it together. She is excellent support not only in selling the loom to me, but in continued information and assistance.

Soon will come mug rugs. I've been obsessively read Jane Patrick's Weaver's Idea book and watching her 2 set DVD instruction about rigid heddle weaving. She makes it look easy on the DVD. The book is a bit over my head, but will give me just what it says - IDEAS and inspiration for a long, long time. It may take me a while to get good enough to try many of the things she mentions in the book.

Gosh, my head hurts. I'm overwhelmed with crafting information this whole winter and now into spring. But the crafting has kept me focused on something fun and creative when much of the rest of my life has felt out of control and in transition lately, so that's probably why I'm immersing myself in them so much. It still is (a bit) cheaper than therapy, but a whole lot more fun.

Finally - a Restful Weekend

Gosh, I just realized I haven't blogged in two weeks. I think that's about the longest I've ever gone without checking in here. It's been a busy time. Especially weekends. Lately my weekends are even busier than my work weeks. Just got back from a 5 day tradeshow that kicked my butt and wore me out. So as this weekend approached, I couldn't wait! Then heard the weather forecast was for a frigid return to winter. Sure enough, as promised, this was a freezing cold and even snowy weekend - and I decided yesterday (Saturday) was a day to just stay home and hibernate. Haven't had an all-PJ's/all the time day in forever. So it was PJs and the fire for me. How cozy. Amazingly so. Played with my fiber most of the day. Successfully set up my rigid heddle loom on my own, then started a scarf and worked all day on it while watching movies and videos and drinking coffee. Very fun! Totally indulged in bumming around and enjoying every minute of it. Cooked. One of my favorite new meals I've been eating on Weight Watcher's lately is sweet potato fries sprayed with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" and dusted with chili powder - just cut them up, put in a 450 degree oven for 17 minutes and voila, you have a taste treat sensation that Jennifer Hudson recommends, and so do I. I eat it with 1 cup of cottage cheese and if I want sauce, I dunk the fries in honey mustard. Did treadmill and listened to podcasts. Fun! Today, on Sunday, I had breakfast with my Mom and visited my Grammy. Came home exhausted, took a deep deep nap. Did some thrift store shopping with her and landed some WONDERFUL gray corduroys. Perfect. I forgot how, when I was a teenager, I wore cords constantly. Now I'm fully rested and feeling much better. So this was a good reminder of how important balance is in my life and probably for most people. I haven't been giving myself any down time. Duly Noted. Intend to do more vegging when my body calls for it. Sorry for the run-on paragraph. Blogger must need some rest too?

Fiber Fest in Jeff City

Just returned from the best kept fiber learning secret in the Midwest - the Jefferson City Fiber Festival that is held every year in March. This was my second year attending, and it's just the best fiber learning opportunity I can imagine, short of SOAR (Spin Off Autumn Retreat) - but SOAR is too rich for my budget, while the one here in my state is so much more affordable and convenient. Plus, we often get many of the same teachers.


My classes this year were all spinning ones - 1) Setting Yourself Free with Scissors - which was drum carding and spinning by using novelty fibers and leftovers from other projects, and combining them into glorious batts in such as way that it LOOKS like art yarn, but is much more pleasing to my eye - and is much easier to boot. This was the most fun and easy class I took all weekend. It was also my favorite. There's a better chance of me using this immediately in my projects than anything else.



You can see that I loved this so much that I spun the yarn, washed and dried it in my hotel room and then created this little neckscarf that coordinated with a hand-made button that a newly-met friend, Susan, offered me. Isn't it beautiful? She has a real button making talent. I wish she sold them online, but she only does them for fun. I hadn't spun chunky singles in a while and this was really a blast.

2) Spinning Cotton - quite a challenge, but boy I learned a lot. This class helped perfect my ability to spin on a high whirl, treadles fast, move my hands VERY fast and practice long draw, which has usually been impossible for me. We also learned to draft cotton using special cotton cards. I can't believe how much fiber a little bit of cotton spins into. It's a very short staple. It was a pleasure to watch Leslie use a supported spindle, I think called tahkli (pronounced "talk-lee").




3) Spinning Flax - the teacher was a fiber genius and I had a great time. We spun with these high distaffs that reminded me of something I'd see people marching around with in Rennaisance times. Huzzah! It is a really challenging but FUN fiber to spin. The teacher made us realize how much work goes into getting Flax from the plant into shape enough to spin, and it is really labor intensive. Flax eventually becomes linen. It softens up more and more with each wash.


4) Woolen vs. Worsted - how to tell the difference and change your spinning technique to match the type of fiber you are spinning. Very enlightening and in this one, I finally learned how to use hand cards, or believe so anyway. The teacher, Darlene, was very patient and helpful, but a 12 year old fellow spinner named Shannon really helped cement the concept of hand carding and made it "click" in my brain. We practiced worsted vs. woolen prep and we learned that cottons are best done with long draw, while long fibers which I normally prefer are best done with the inchworm beginner method which is still my fallback technique. We got to work with fresh lamb's fleece, washed but not carded, and I finally know a butt from a tip - and how to flick it then card it and spin it without messing up the alignment of the fibers.


Whew! Very fun but exhausting weekend. Not so much as a retreat as a brain squeeze - but it gave me enough ideas and material to practice on for a good long time. I highly recommend this affordable festival to anyone in the Midwest who can attend.

Rigid Heddle Class at Yarn Barn

I took my first ever weaving class over the weekend at Yarn Barn. It was a rigid heddle beginning weaving class. Project was (of course) a woven scarf. I took the class because I've had my Schacht Cricket loom in the closet for over a year now and it's high time to use it.

The teacher, Mary Margaret, is a lot of fun and has a huge enthusiasm for weaving that was infectious.

The other women in my small class were very talented and multi-craftal. So the whole time we are in there in class, I'm thinking everyone's colors look better than mine, their scarves look better, and they are much faster than me also. But that's okay. I'm usually the slow one in the class and that doesn't bother me. I tend to be slow at getting new concepts and skills, but if interests me enough, I eventually improve over time.

So everyone else in the class finished their scarves but me. Most people's scarves were 50 inches, a tad short but no big deal. Well I just took mine home home and finished it up last night. Very confident and proud of my beginning weaving, even though it was far from perfect.

But when I was nearly finished and turned the crank one final time to get the end of the weaving area and to try to put in my waste yarn at the end to finalize the scarf, the apron rod, when fully out of the crank, was flopping and made all my tensioning on the scarf go slack. So I couldn't finish it up properly. My intention had been to do the "twining" (end stitching) and put in the white waste yarn so that when it is washed and blocked, that is removed and creates a nice finished look and even tension.

Maybe it was user error - I can't remember the teacher talking about that apron flopping issue. And I don't remember it being a problem on anyone else's loom, but then I was the only one with a Cricket. It is probably user error.

At any rate, while the beginning of my scarf looks like this - all neat and tidy, the ending looks messy and not tensioned properly.

Plus my scarf was only 36" - hardly scarf size. Not to mention fringe - shesh I can't remember how to make neat fringe at all. She showed us. I've seen first scarves from 6 years olds that look much neater and cuter than mine. Shesh!

So I'd say that my enthusiasm and interest in weaving far exceeds my talent. But I'm always open to get better - it can only go up from here.

Dare I Say It?

My friend Elysbeth and I were just talking the other day about how, we are both truly supstitious about revealing possible good news until it is a "done deal." Inevitably talking about a positive possiblity jinxes it. But as many of you know, my husband has been out of work for several months. Last time I bragged about him getting a job, it a short-lived contract job that lasted only a few months, so I'm hesitant to mention this for fear of jinxing it.

But shesh - I am so happy about it I am about to pop. Bob got a job, yeah! Granted it's a contract job that may only last 6 months. But considering how desperate and worried we were, it's such a relief. He's been looking for so long. When I say he's been LOOKING for a job, I don't mean casually, I mean with his whole heart and soul and constant effort. He had a really rough time. This job came about because he kept calling and following up with every single possibility. Just when his hopes had been dashed on one possibility, he heard that he had an interview with this new one. And they moved fast to interview and hire him. Yay!

Hip hip horray!!! (Now I'm still keeping my fingers crossed). Thanks to all of you who were supportive, sympathetic and said prayers or sent some good vibes our way.

This is a much needed piece of good news. Whew!