A Little of This and That

I've been busy with a little of this and that. I knitted hats and scarves to help during Boston's chill winter.

And I'm decluttering and reorganizing the house. What do you do with your old and well used and loved quilts?

I made these 15 or 20 years ago for my daughter. They're both eroding (the quilts, not my daughter). For now, I took these pictures. Maybe I'll  donate them (again, the quilts, not the pictures). I think. Maybe. Or not.

After finishing the tallis, I finally gave myself permission to open the boxes we brought home from Glimakra back in July. Here you can see the extension added to the back side of the loom. Luckily, it didn't need to stay this big. I think of it as 'Sophie's bustle'. You can see the drawloom on the chair in the foreground.

Everything had to come down. The countermarch (all the pulleys and string that make things go when I step on a treadle) needed to be taken off the top of the loom. The jacks (vertical slats) had to be flipped 180 degrees and all the strings needed to be moved to the alternate side of the jacks.

Once everything was back in place, I dressed Sophie for our next project. I put enough warp on her to make another sample before the real weaving begins. (And, yes, I'm being cryptic. I'll tell you later. It's a secret.) See the warping stick I "wove" into the cloth? Watch what happens after I cut the sample off:

 

Just by lacing the stick back onto the loom, Sophie's dressed and ready to go! Yay! It certainly beats having to re-tie all 1100+ ends back on by hand!

Road Trip

 Clearly, I was not as prepared for our 2 1/2 week road trip as I'd thought. I forgot to wind the skeins at home and hubby was busy driving (the nerve). So...

ab work a.k.a. sit-ups. Also, there was this little issue that I didn't like the gauge I was getting with the only needles I'd brought. We were forced to stop at the nearest store.

I did finish the linen-paper bag. I made it bigger than the Habu pattern calls for. Unfortunately, it wasn't big enough to use up all the yarn. Hmmm. What to do next with the left overs.             And did you notice what it's hanging on in the photo? Yep! Our first planned stop was to visit Joanne and Ed at Glimakra USA, in Montana. We brought home a warping reel and, here's a hint...     

a loom extension and...

  a DRAWLOOM!!! I'm SO Excited! These pictures were taken at Joanne's. I can't take mine out of the boxes at home until I finish a promised project. Focus. Focus!

From there we went east. These rugs were at the Crazy Horse Museum.

And this was a stop we Had to make in Iowa.

Next time someone says, "Your loom must take up a lot of space in your house."....

In Kolona, Iowa, there were quilts on the sidewalk

and on the barns.

Iowa! Need I say more?! How could it get any better? So, after this we headed back west.

Coverlet shown at Chimney Rock, was brought to Nebraska from Ohio in a covered wagon in 1862.

This and the next four pictures were taken at Cove Fort, Utah

The only actual fiber purchase I made on the whole trip was in Moab, Utah. It seems there was this yarn shop across the street from our hotel...             A good trip!

And I did come home to finishing spinning the silk hankies I've been picking at forEver!