Serenity now!

Sometimes I wish I could sneak into my neighbor's mysterious forest and read some weaving books or just hang out and hide from the world!

A little bit o' knittin'.... and a planned rebellion.

I've been racking my brain for a Christmas present for a severely-animal-allergic nephew, and I have decided that cotton is in.  All I have is thin weaving cotton on hand, so... I knitted up this cotton hat from 3 colors of weaving yarn, and next I want to make a scarf that combines all three colors also.  I think he'll like it!  And better yet, they live in cold country now, so it will be useful AND animal free, except for the occasional cat hair that clings to it... poor kid.

I also have to make a matching set for his non-animal-allergic-animal-loving little brother.









I am using 3 strands of 12/2 cotton, and since the cotton usually has an epi of 30 with one strand, I am predicting an epi of 10 for 3 strands mixed together.  I know that all the books say to put only 1 thread in each heddle, however, I want the same mixed up look as the hat.  So I'm going to be a bit rebellious and put all 3 strands in 1 heddle!  I'll let you know how my rebellion works out...

Table Runners

The table runners are done already!  I really like how the opposite side wove up!  Look at that neat texture!!  I love those little designs!

 Even though I ironed these already, they still look pretty wrinkled.  I am not sure if they just need another washing or if my iron isn't getting hot enough anymore.  But the weaving design is really cool!

 And here is the other side, but again, it looks pretty wrinkled.  I might try washing one again to see if it helps, and taking it out of the dryer while it's still a little moist.  That would probably help quite a bit!  I also see a few threads that need to be trimmed, but otherwise, they turned out pretty cute!

I have some more of the cotton to use!  I think I might do a twill runner next!  I am going to try using quite a few colors in the warp.  I think that will look really neat!

Thanksgiving day memories

Thanksgiving was great this year.  I feel like we have a lot to be grateful for this year.  I think the biggest topic that kept coming up today was how thankful we are for Brian's job this year!  I can't wait to see where we'll be 1 year from now.

Here are a few of the fun things we did on Thanksgiving:

I played with yarn... these are intriguing colors!

Between all the festivities, I put on a new summer and winter warp!

Brian picked the remainder of the garden.

I think I'll be canning these tomorrow!  

I predict 14 quarts of cooked carrots!  

Yum!

This wraps up our gardens until next spring. 

We divided all the cooking this year.  I made the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and the pies.  I ran out of circular dishes, so we had a regular pie and a squared pie.  They were both really popular!

 

 My mom brought me a Thanksgiving quilt!  It's so warm and pretty!

 We took a lovely walk and watched the clouds roll in.  It was so pretty out today!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love fall colors

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER!

This is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe I have been able to get to work at high altitudes!  Beware, it makes A LOT of cookies!!!













The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER:


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat well:
4 sticks of butter, soft
2 cups brown sugar
1.5 cups white sugar

Add:
2 Tbs vanilla
3 eggs

Combine, then mix in:
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 cups flour

Add last, and hand stir:
6 cups chocolate chips (about 2 bags)


Make golf ball sized rounds of cookie dough.  Place on cookie sheet and flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass.  Bake 14 minutes.  Let cool 2 minutes on sheet and carefully move to cooling rack.

Table Runner

This project is weaving up super fast because the yarn is so chunky!  I love the look of summer and winter with these greens.  I used Bertha Gray Hayes' "trellis" pattern, but I had to modify it to be a little bit smaller because this yarn is very big.  This project has a sett of 10 ends per inch.  When using the modified pattern in summer and winter, I only got 2 repeats on this project in about a 12" width.  But doesn't it have a neat texture?

The original pattern changed into a profile draft: 

 

 My modified version:

(Note: I made 2 repeats across in this example so
you can see what the table runner will look like)

So far, so good!

 

 And the backside under the loom:

(My weaving companion for this project was Zip!)

This is only a 3 yard warp, so I will probably rip right though this project!  I think I want to do another runner in an 8-shaft twill next, and then after that I want to explore this trellis pattern again with my 12/2 cotton.  I think I will be set with project for a few weekends anyway!

Dig in!

Here are some new project supplies from my mom!!!

I can't wait to dig into this brightly colored imported cotton from Greece!!
It's called Butterfly Mercerized Cotton, and it's BEAUTIFUL!!!!

And apparently, there's no more...  This. Is. It.

 

Even Zip had to come and see this rare treat.

I'm thinking of something in summer and winter... 

possibly Bertha Gray Hayes...

It's so pretty and soft, we all have to touch it!
 

Ornaments!!!

I think I'm somewhat of an "ADHD" weaver... Not that there's anything wrong with that!  I mean, I think I have major attention deficit sometimes (mixed with a bit of hyper-activity)!  I can be so distracted from the original project.  Like these ornament, for example, started out as ornaments and then I quickly saw how cute they were and made them into dishtowels!  I made all kinds of combinations, and before I knew it, I had very quickly run out of warp!









So then I re-warped for my ornaments... and wove them... and when they came off the loom, what did I do with them?  Go, take a wild guess!!











I add batting and a backing, then when I start sewing stitches between the ornaments to cut them apart, and I see what a cute quilt it is!




It is pretty cute, and I knew I had some extra trees anyway... so I figure, what the heck?!  And I turned it into a cute little cheerful holiday quilt!





Then I wonder what it would look like with a few strips of fabric between the trees...

 And that's where the second small holiday quilt came from!  

Seriously... this would be a cute idea for log cabins!

 

The finishing of this one was slightly delayed because I ran out of fabric for binding and had to ask my mom for a small piece.  I went with muslin, and I think it looks really good!

But, I knew I only had a few extra to play with and thought that I'd better get down to the business of making my Christmas card ornaments!!

I cut...

 

...and cut...

...and petted the cat a little bit... 

(By the way, like his new winter buzz?  I buzzed his hair because it was dirty and matted all the time.  He doesn't go outside anyway...)

...and surged... 

 

 ...and surged...
...for miles and miles...

... and then tied little strings on...

And now all I have to do is figure out the card part!  

I love them, and I think my friends and relatives will, too!

Cranberry Relish

I've been making this cranberry dish almost every year since I was in 4th grade!  My teacher shared it with us that year, and it has been our tradition since!

Cranberry Relish

1 bag frozen blueberries
1 bag fresh cranberries
2 chopped apples
2 chopped oranges
2- oz. crushed pineapple, packed in juice
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup sugar

Using a food processor, chop the blueberries and cranberries.  Cut up apples and oranges.  Add everything to a bowl and stir.  Make 1 day in advance and stir every few hours.

Oh Christmas Trees!

Here they are... finally I'm dedicating time to my Christmas cards!!  I have revamped this pattern just a bit from the towels I "practiced" with!  First, I spread the trees out a little bit more and second, I used green for the warp threads.  I think I still like green and white best, but I have also tried green weft and brown weft. 

I think these will be very both cute and useful for this year.  I am going to sew the edges and then cut them apart, and then sew them with some thin batting, and voila!  I'll have some ornaments. 

 Yay for fun Christmas cards!!

PS.  Scout says, "HI!