It was a great year

I am ending the year by the fire knitting, my loved ones are near and we are healthy, happy and ready to enjoy next year.

50/50 Silk/Camel Sample

Once again I'm weaving on Thursday! Spent a good 3 hours and got the silk/camel sample thru the reed. Decided on 36 epi, 3 to a dent in a 10 dent reed, 10 inches wide. This yarn is very fine, so the sample should be shear.

New Season

We have finally reached the season of returning light. I feel better already knowing the days will grow longer. It is still cold and the wind has been blowing us around but summer is on it's way. Maybe now I can get some work done. Well, maybe I will start some work anyway.

The last weaving show

WeFF was a total success. The only way it could have been better would have been no rain, but it did rain, buckets of the stuff.  Everything was covered with ice this morning, so I cleaned the wood stove and started a fire, it's supposed to be cold for a week anyway.

Once again I forgot to take pictures. Next year..........

Back to my knitting by the fire.

Packing the truck

The truck is almost packed for the Southern California Handweavers Guild's WeFF show tomorrow.  SCHG is the first Guild I joined and it's fun to do a show when you know practically everybody. I have to set my clock back and get to bed early to get up at 3:45. The joys of a traveling silk merchant.

Just get on with it!

I have come to the conclusion that no matter how many cards I wrap I'm not going to like any of them. I am just going to pick one and weave it.  This is a booth sample for sett and hand, it has nothing to do with my color preference, I was given these colors and told to weave so I'm going to weave. And it's raining. 

50/50 Silk/Camel Sample

Fall is not my most favorite time. The daylight hours are less, of course, but the light also changes as the sun gets lower in the sky, creeps me out, with that said, I will continue with life.

Our traveling season will be over after this weekend with the Southern California Handweavers WeFF show, it's a one day show but very large and fun.

Note:  I have not stopped working on my P2P2 project, I'm still braiding, braiding, braiding.

Now on to my sample. We like to have samples, both woven and knitted, in our booth to show how our yarns work up and I am getting behind in my sample making so it's catch up time.

I will be working with 50/50 Silk/Camel, it's very fine yarn at 800 yards in a 50g skein. I have never worked with this yarn so if all works out I will have a scarf plus a square sample for the booth. I will also work in colors that are not inside my comfort zone to see what I can come up with.

Project:  Scarf 8" x 72" + sample square
Yarn:  RedFish DyeWorks
Colors:  P4d, BG4d, YG3b
Sett:  36 epi, 3 per dent 12 dent reed
I wind my skeins onto 4" cardboard bobbins with my bobbin winder. I use a plastic swift because the yarn doesn't stick to it as it does with the wood ones. Put the yarn on the swift, wind it off to the bobbin, takes about a minute and a half per skein.







I usually work with paper and colored pencils first but this yarn is so fine it doesn't translate well to paper. I will continue to wrap cards until I find a combination that pleases me.

Vogue Knitting Live

The last big show of the season is over, happy and sad.

Today we were visited by the Twisted Sisters, what fun they are. It's always a good feeling when other indie dyers purchase your yarns.


Time to lay down awhile.

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Location:Century Plaza Hotel

Vogue Knitting Live

End of the second day and the shelves are getting bare! Yeah!!


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Location:Century Plaza Hotel, Century City, CA

Packing for Vogue knitting LIVE!

Packing the truck for Vogue knitting LIVE! in Century City. This show is classified as a local show as it's in Los Angeles and I live in Los Angeles County, after all, it's only 45 miles, but it will probably take 2 or 3 hours to get there so we have to stay downtown for the weekend. We did find a motel just a half mile from the conference hall with a stove, refrigerator and free parking for $85.00 a night. The conference hotel is $245.00 special rate, with $15.00 a day parking. We will walk from our motel.


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Location:Acton

Not much happening

Not much happening with me this past week! The weather has me under the weather. I totally dislike weather, I live in the desert where it's supposed to be hot during the day, cool to cold at night. It has been like this forever. Now all of a sudden we have a new pattern, hot during the day, hot at night, next day hot day, cold night, next day so humid you can't breathe, then hot, yesterday, the topper! Rain, hail, wind, very unsavory weather. Our average rain is 6 to 8 inches a year, why do we need more when I have a perfectly good hose to water what I want watered, when I want it watered. This year we have had over 23 inches of rain, we have cleared the property of weeds 4 times. OK, I'm off my soapbox, and leave with tonights moonrise.
Well, I can't even do that. It's there but it won't upload. Bummer, I'm going to bed.

Back to Work

Spent an eight hour day winding and I was wrong, even with books pumped into my ears it's boring. One more afternoon and it should be done. The job was supposed to ship Monday but someone slipped a Holiday in on me, I didn't get the memo.

Back to Work

All the excitement of the P2P2 Big Reveal is over, projects shown, the accolades given and received, thanks given to Meg for organizing this fun project, and it's back to regular day in and day out duties. This weekend my job consists of winding 152 skeins of 60/2 silk on to spools, boy it just can't get any more exciting than that.  I am listening to a great book "Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death" Author,  M.C. Beaton so it's not as boring as it could be.

P2P2

The "Big Reveal"! I love it, I have never participated in an internet share group before and it was great fun.  I liked how some weavers were quite and some blogged about everything. I liked how the deadline was right around the corner when we started and I am anxious to see everyones work.

My Big Reveal:

 This is the photo I chose as my inspiration. It is a Rome street photo sent to me by Holly. I like using photos and magazine pictures for color inspiration, for a while I was using every Martha Stewart Living Magazine cover for a series of weavings because she uses a lot of pinks.
 This photo is far from my normal color range but I enjoyed weaving it just the same.

  I very seldom do anything but plain weave. There I've said it, 30 years of plain weave.  I like weaving with many colors and the fun is in the designing not the weaving. I shouldn't even call myself a weaver.
 On this piece I tried to vary my beat to give the effect of cobblestones and all it did was look like bad weaving. Oh well, when it's made into a vest I will know they are cobblestones.

 This shot is of the whole cloth. In the grey part I used 6 shades of grey, using 20/2 silk 3 strands used as one. I like to keep switching out colors as I measure.

 There will be braids and piping trim and I will post as I go if anyone is interested in seeing the final results. I was going to try to finish the whole project but sadly work got in the way.

I hope Esmae had as much fun with my photos as I did with Holly's and we can all get together again next year.

P2P2

I am using the excuse of it being so hot today to not move around much, so I am braiding some trim for my P2P2 project.   There are a couple areas that I want to boost up and I also want trim for the edges.
I am doing an eight strand braid on a Chinese Braiding Stand with 20/2 silk in red and black, one strand per bobbin. Color placement is B R R R R R R B.  I call it the taillight braid and hopefully will mimic the taillights of the cycles.
I have left the fabric on the loom but I will cut it off tonight and wet finish it.  The end is drawing near!

Mud Cloth

Unpacking from the last trip I found a piece of mud cloth I did in the workshop in Durango last July. I was really pleased with how it turned out, however, now I want to make a larger piece but I don't have any of the black mud.  The black mud (Michigan swamp mud) was supplied by the instructor and there was only a small bit to go around.  I telephoned my brother in St Louis and asked if he would traipse out to the Missouri swamps to see if he can find black mud. This project will lay in the back of my mind until little brother gets me some mud.  When I called he had several friends over and after I told him what I wanted, he announced to everyone that he had one crazy sister but he's going to go out digging in the mud so who's crazy?

Off time

Went to Santa Monica yesterday for a meet up with our yarn supplier, then, since we were a block away and spent 2 1/2 hours getting there, we put our feet in the ocean. Another 2 1/2 hours to drive 50 miles and we were in the desert again.


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Location:Acton, CA

Off time

I took some time this week to visit some friends, help 1 friend move, visit my neighbors new babies. Today is our normal down day so I will weave. What a life!

This Mother laid her ears back, telling me to stay away.

This Mother made a face at me saying this was a private moment.






I don't want to mess up a fine week so we will go to the beach tomorrow, then it will be back to work. The Vogue knitting "LIVE" show is September 23-25, right over the hill and through the valley in Beverly Hills.

Library Sewing Circle

Today was the first meeting of the Acton/Agua Dulce Library Sewing Circle.   We have started with the idea of slowing down, meeting new friends, working on hand projects we have started or learning new things from the excellent craft section of our new library.

Since nothing was really planned for the first meeting except discussing what we wanted to do, we decided to make name tags by embroidering on card stock.

Mat, our librarian, was having so much fun he made 2, one for the meetings and one for his everyday job.

For our next meeting, Polly, who's a beginning knitter wants to learn how to knit socks, Mat wants to learn to put French cuffs on old shirts, Elff, Lisa and I will bring whatever we are working on at the time.

Mat will write a article for our 2 local newspapers and we will see if we can get our circle to grow.

Goofing off

I had a looooong lunch and gossip session with a super friend I haven't seen in months. One of the problems of traveling; we were gone on the big trip and when we got home she was leaving to paint in Taos, then she came home as we were leaving on our next trip. Email and phone calls are great but nothing like a good hug. Tomorrow I see another super friend and have to see the third one hopefully next week. Then things can get back to normal.

Only got a little weaving done and tomorrow afternoon, we start the old fashioned sewing bee at the library to make slow cloth. Should be fun.

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Location:Palmdale CA

P2P2

The next step in my process is to decide on a weft. I very seldom think about the weft until the warp is tied on and ready to be woven. Most of the time, what is in my head never looks the same on the loom, so why bother worrying about it. Looking at the warp on the loom, I'm pleased, even happy. My fabric will be finished tomorrow so there will be no more P2P2 pictures of the fabric until the "Big Reveal". Next week, however, I will start the next phase of the project, dyeing the lining and doing some braiding, I will post pictures of them.

Happy Hat

Have you ever purchased something because it just made you laugh when you look at it? I saw this little red hat in a booth at Sock Summit, while the vendors were still setting up. Once again I fell in love and had to have it; unlike the Chameleon, this item requires no care and it makes me happy!  The artist is, Sarah La Joie, at Attitude Hats. Most of her hats are for adults but this little cutie is a child's hat and is about 6 inches across and 4 inches high. So my next work will be designed around this hat.   I have designed clothes around a button, so why not a hat?

Done

Tuesday all the big orders were shipped. Today I just wandered around, at a loss as to what to do. Then a silk shipment came in so my afternoon was filled.

We have been eating RAW, so yesterday while in town for UPS, a trip to B&N was necessary. I love the cookbook section and found the book "Becoming Raw" by a bunch of dietitians, it's subtitle is "The Essential Guide to Raw Vegan Diets". I am not a vegan all the time, sometimes sushi calls my name, and giving up eggs would be impossible but on the whole it's raw vegan. You get to eat a lot of food!

Location:Acton CA

P2P2

I decided to leave the warp as is, per usual, I would probably do it different if I were to do it over. I am warming up to the grey.

I always get a little sad at this point because the really fun part is over. I do enjoy the rest of the dressing process but then it's time to weave, not my favorite part.

I had a weaver friend who had a loom like mine, I would dress my loom, put it in my truck and take it to her house. I would drop it off and pick up her loom and yarn, bring it home and dress her loom. She would weave off my warp and we would do it all over again.  Sadly for me her child got in the way of her weaving. At least some people have their heads screwed on right.

P2P2

Just a minor change, still too much yellow but I'm running with it. The yellow grabs my eyes when I look at the photo, the yellow in the warp grabs my eyes too but now I don't flinch. I might darken the green and make it smaller. These little snafoos really slow me up.

Just as I thought, too much yellow and green. I should really try listening to myself sometime.

P2P2

I have the design part of the warp measured.  As I only need 3 yards for the vest, I decided to go front to back in dressing the loom. I am going to go through the reed to see if I like this part well enough to continue. It's looking rather garish at this stage, but then it's colors I don't normally use so we'll see.

The percentage of the cream in the photo is almost half but I have cut it way down, yellow and green can take over a warp all too easily.

P2P2

With only until the end of the month to finish, I have got to get a move on.

I have decided on the inspiration photo.

I have chosen the colors.














I have decided to weave fabric for a vest. It is hard to put my design ideas down as I see pictures of the finished product in my head and just work toward the end product. I design the color scheme on my warping reel as I go. This fabric will be mostly grey and I am using 4 shades of a black grey with some pure black thrown in.  The balance of the colors will be randomly placed through out.

Chameleon Project

Like a Chameleon, the photo never does justice or maybe I'm just a lousy photographer.

The scarf is finished. The warp is a hand spun single silk from Giovanna Imperia, it's very roughly spun, lots of texture but surprisingly strong. It was hand dyed by RedFish DyeWorks. Woven with 60/2 spun silk from RedFish DyeWorks. The hand spun sheds terribly, I hope washing will remove this problem.

Chameleon Project

I'm beginning to think I will never get it together! I got the Chameleon Project off my little loom but my camera batteries were all dead.

Now to begin P2P2.


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Location:Acton CA

Home

Had breakfast at the Hi-Lo Cafe in Weed yesterday morning, lunch in Sacramento, snack in Coalinga, supper in Acton. Eat, drive, eat, drive, eat, sleep, all in all a good day.
Going to my studio and weave.


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Location:Acton CA

Sock Summit

Sock Summit is over for two years. Homeward bound tomorrow, just a thousand miles to go.


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Location:Portland OR

Sock Summit

The MAC Fairy came and fixed my iPad.
Still at Sock Summit selling our little hearts out, there are going to be a lot of people dancing in silk socks. Makes me happy just to think about it!
Today, they had the second heat of the fastest knitter contest. Some of the ladies had an inch done before I could even tell their fingers were moving!


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Location:Portland OR

Sock Summit

Day 1 of Sock Summit was a total madhouse! Lots of knitters in Portland.


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Location:Portland OR

Sock Summit

Technology and I have not been able to meet on a common ground. As long as I am at home, it works just fine. The minute I'm away, it goes down the toilet. I used to own a Jaguar like that but that's another story. Needless to say I have no Internet until I arrive home.


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Location:Portland OR

Intermountain Weavers Conference

This is a very small conference with not too much happening while everyone is in class, so I'm taking a class in mudcloth. It's more fun than I thought it would be.


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Location:Durango CO

Traveling

Once again the truck is being packed. We are off to Durango CO tomorrow, then on to Portland OR. Two and a half weeks and I'll be weaving again. I am taking a class in Durango. Mudcloth!


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Location:Acton CA

Chameleon Project

Continuing to weave. I tried to take more photos but the fabric is too shear and all you see is the loom below.


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Location:Acton, CA

Chameleon Project

Moving right along, the loom is dressed, weft is picked (maybe), setting up to wind a bobbin.


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Location:Acton CA

Chameleon Project

Before my long trip, I had started the Chameleon Project.  I made the mistake of going to a pet store instead of the feed store to buy dog food.  Right up front, where you couldn't miss it if you tried, was a big glass aquarium with the most beautiful Chameleons in it.  I fell in love - with a reptile. I got a clerk and started asking questions and the answers were in the line of, "Oh you need an aquarium, probably 30 or 40 gallons, it should be a vertical one as they (notice the they, you really shouldn't have just one, it might get lonely)like to climb upward, oh and you need heaters, one at the top and one at the bottom. Lots of live plants and fresh crickets of course." By this time a figure I'm up to about $1500. so I decide to take a picture and weave a piece of cloth to remind me how beautiful they are.

That decided, I started my process. At our next conference, I was in Giovanna's booth and found a beautiful hand-spun Italian silk singles called Tulipano, (100gr 1700y) brought it home, gave it to RedFish along with the picture with instructions and had it dyed. I then started dressing the loom, joined P2P2, went on a 6 week selling trip, came home to work on P2P2 and remembered the Chameleon Project.  This picture doesn't do it justice, I will post another when it's taut.

Whew! That was very long winded.  I almost finished dressing the loom today and should be weaving by tomorrow morning if I can sneak away from chores at RedFish.

P2P2 - Decided

I discovered today that I have to finish the project that is started on my loom before I can dress it for P2P2, Yikes!!! The project is on the back beam and half way through the heddles, I worked on it for awhile this morning and will go out again this evening.

In the mean time, here are my photos received from Holly Haynes presented in least favorite to the chosen one.

This is the least favorite of the photos sent to me, it is a shop window in Rome. Very nicely set up but the greens are, well, they just are not in my color range.

This salad looks wonderful and I would love to eat it and I like how they put it on a light blue plate but it has that green.

I love this picture of the Smokey Mountains but I'm back to green, a much nicer green but......

This photo is tied for second place. I really like the colors and their proportions, I will probably use this color combination in the future.

Oh how I love Southwest Utah, in fact, I was very near to where this photo was taken a few days ago.  This is actually my favorite but it's colors I work in quite often so I will just hang it on the wall.

The photo I picked for my inspiration weaving is so far out of my box that I'm surprised myself. I never work in black unless bribed with money. I have never worn black except for shoes but this photo just instantly grabbed me.  There really isn't that much black in it and the grey tones are wonderful, with just enough color shots to make it very interesting. So I'm going to see if I can do a grand weaving!

Thank you Holly for the great pictures! 

P2P2 - Deciding

P2P2 (Pics to Picks #2) An internet weaving design exchange using pictures sent to you by someone else in the exchange.  Each person who joined the exchange received the name of another person to send 6 or so photos to and in return you would receive photos from someone else. I received my photos right before we left on the long trip and looked at them off and on for 5 weeks.  The major problem is deciding which of the 6 photos I want to use as my design inspiration.  Tomorrow I will post the photos and make a decision, gotta get crackin'!

Home

Tired, hungry but safely home.

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Location:Acton, CA

Homeward Bound

Yesterday, we stopped at the Western Trails Interpretive Center learning more about how the settlers came West. We also stopped at Independence Rock, it was said if you left St Joseph, MO, in March and made it to Independence Rock by July 4th, you could make it over the mountains on the way to OR before the snows. We made it way before the 4th, so I guess we are safe.

Today we drove hard, 584 miles. UT has 80 MPH speed limit, cars, trucks, cars pulling trailers, everything. I drove 65/70 and let everyone else whizz
around me. Be home tomorrow.

Right before I left on this trip I joined a weaving design group called P2P2. I have thought about it for the last 5 weeks, next week I will get serious!


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Location:St. George, UT

Homeward Bound

We are finally in WY, another of my top 5 states.

Today, we drove a lot but before we left Mitchell, we had to drive by the Corn Palace.

We did check out the National Minuteman Monument, the system that was supposed to be dismantled some 30 - 40 years ago that still has nuclear war heads spread across the west, but I'll not get started on that.

Also on the list was SD's Grassland Prairie. It was great to get out of the trees and into the prairie.

Just for kicks, we stopped at Wall, SD, to visit Wall Drug. An unbelievable store that upwards to 20,000 people visit everyday in the summer. It's wild!

We will cut through the corner of WY tomorrow and try to make some time.

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Location:Sundance, WY

Homeward Bound

Today we have seen over 100 wild buffalo at Blue Mound Tall Grass Prairie.
Unbelievably lucky as they have 1800 acres to roam and there they were, not a quarter mile from the road. Further up the road in Pipestone National Monument, are the quarries where the tribes of the Midwest came for stone to carve their pipes. The Pipestone runs from the palest pink to a dark almost light burgundy. A creek runs through the quarry making it impossible to remove the stone until late fall.
Today, we will leave Minnesota. The last couple days have been beautiful, light rain in the morning, sunny all afternoon. Temperature in the high 70s. I know I have complained about the weather here but without the rain, the ecosystem would not be what it is. Rain or shine, Minnesota is in my top 5 favorite states. It is extremely beautiful and the people are very friendly, if they would only do something about the food and the hunting thing.


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Location:Pipestone MN

Homeward Bound

Started yesterday by heading East to Calumet, MI, to see an exhibit by Audrey. Audrey was in charge of vendors and did an great job. Not thinking about the whole Midwest thing, the shop was, of course, closed for Sunday, resting I suppose. The Quincy Copper Mine was open, so now I know way more than I wanted to about copper mining in the early 1900s.

While taking one of those "shortcuts", known as alternate routes, to save you from driving hundreds of miles getting from one major road to another, we saw a Mother duck and her tiny babies on the side of the road. I stopped and she quickly ran across the road to a lake that looked exactly like the lake she came out of to cross the road. This shortcut was a two lane road through a wildlife preserve meaning you had to drive under 45 because the animals do have the right of way, but as the speed limit on the main roads is 55, you might as well go the short way.

It's time to hit the road, again.

No sun, misting out, but I'm wearing shorts pretending it's summer.


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Location:Tomah, WI

Midwest Weaver's Conference

The last conference on this trip is finished and we are homeward bound. We have had sunshine the last couple days but it's really cloudy now. I think we will stay north for awhile to avoid the fire and smoke of the southwest.



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Location:Hancock, MI

Midwest Weaver's Conference

After finishing up our selling day, we walked outside and the sun was shinning. As it was only 6:pm and it stays light until 10:15, we decided to walk the main street of Hancock, then over the blue draw bridge to Houghton for dinner. There are 12 restaurants in Hancock and you can get Pizza at 11 of them. Most of the places in Houghton served fish. Walking to the restaurant furthest away, we had fish and chips at Joey's Fish Shop, good, but not as good as the fish and chips at Two Fools Pub in Albuquerque. Only had 2 miles to walk back to the hotel.
Tomorrow is a short day, 9:00 to 3:00, then pack up the little bit of stuff we have left, go to bed early so we can be bright eyed and bushy tailed to hit the road Sunday. It's not supposed to rain until next Tuesday here, hopefully we will be long gone.


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Location:Hancock, MI

Midwest Weaver's Conference

wow, first day is over! It decided not to rain today but was so foggy we couldn't see. Walking in a strange town in the fog is an adventure everyone should try at least once.


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Location:Hancock, MI

Midwest Weaver's Conference

SURPRISE!!!! The iPad takes pictures. duh!


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Location:Summit St,Hancock,United States

Midwest Weaver's Conference

We are all set up and ready to sell in the morning. Our friend Melissa of Peace of Yarn had to cancel and gave us her booth, so we have tons of room. The conference provided a nice lunch and it only rained when we unloaded.


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Location:Hancock, MI

Traveling

I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when.

We are heading into Hancock a day early to try to find a motel for the week. We were planning on camping but it's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring.

We have made it to Hancock, no room at the college, the conference person in charge was trying to find us a room and sent us across the river to another town. On the way there I pulled into a Best Western and some one just cancelled a week of reservations, probably someone from the conference. We got a room, can't believe our luck. Karma.

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Location:Merriweather, MI

Traveling

We have pulled up stakes and moved on down the road. The trees, rain and mosquitoes have won. This is a very beautiful place but I'm ready for the desert. We went to the Grand Portage and the reenactment yesterday, walking back to the truck it started raining and then it poured, for the rest of the day and all night. We stayed dry but geeez, so tonight we are once again in a motel drying out equipment. Heading out to MI tomorrow, hope it's not raining there!


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Location:Tofte, MN

Traveling

Today was another day of wonder. How can one state have this many trees and all this water?? Might have something to do with it raining almost everyday. It was beautiful today, we went out on the lake in a long boat canoe, my arms will probably fall off in the morning.
We also did some hiking, saw many wildflowers and drove awhile, destination unknown.


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Location:Ely, MN

Traveling

We have been traveling the back roads of Minnesota camping in State Parks and seeing the local sights. What a beautiful state full of very nice people, eh? I have seen more trees on this trip than I have in the last 20 years. A few of the highlights:

We stayed at Moosehead Lake State Park where we camped, hiked, saw tons of wildflowers and mosquitoes.

We are fast learners, after Florida, we have a net tent, bug repellent clothing, mosquito repellent soap and wipes, I have only been bitten 3 times.
It's funny to see them come within 2 inches and then back off.

We stayed at Itasca State Park where we camped, hiked, saw tons of wildflowers, swarms of mosquitos, and the Headwaters of the Mississippi River. You can wade across it, it's only about 20 foot wide.

We stopped at the Lost 40 to see a virgin forest of white pines, some of the trees are 400 years old.

We are now in International Falls, MN, in a motel, where I can see Canada from my window. We are in a motel for a couple days to shower, do laundry, dry out camping equipment, and eat fresh food. Tomorrow we are going to Voyageur National Park where we will take a long boat canoe trip.

Of course, since no hikes were planned, it's the first day of no rain and sun but tomorrow is supposed to be the same. We can only hope.


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Location:International Falls, MN

Surface Design

Surface Design is over and we are happy and sad. Happy because the conference was great, the people were great, especially Katherine Tilton, who was in charge of the vendors and the ladies, Jeanne and Pat, who were our neighbors from Thai Silk. We are sad because of the one person who stole my orange felt art piece from our booth. Stealing will bring the worst kind of karma on this person.


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Location:Minneapolis, MN

Surface Design

There are a lot of fellers here and our wool is just flying of the rack. Being around all these creative people makes me want to go to my studio and make stuff!
Just a couple of hours in the morning, then we pack up and another show bites the dust! We will be heading home before we know it.


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Location:Minneapolis, MN

Surface Design

This is a great show and the people at the Radisson know how to be helpful. There are many great artists here and the fiber shows are wonderful. Very long selling hours but there are lots of people, it opens to the public tomorrow.
India Flint was in the vendor hall today, a hush went over the room as she went from booth to booth. Diffidently the star of the Conference.


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Location:Minneapolis, MN

Surface Design

Arrived in Minneapolis, checked in and went to sleep.
This morning we had a hard time finding the loading dock and this town is totally torn up as they are putting in a new sewer system and a light rail system all at the same time. They also have all one way streets and they all go in the wrong direction. We finally went down the street that said "do not enter" "not a through street" and there it was!
We are set up and tonight was shopping for registrants only for 3 hours. Once again it's bedtime.


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Location:Minneapolis, MN

Traveling

Yesterday we stopped at the George Washington Carver National Monument. Spent the morning, had a nature trail. Whole lot of water here, way too green.
Decided we would spend the night in Des Moines, wrong!, when the Pork Expo's in town, there is no room at the inn! Thinking this is bad karma for vegetarians, we moved on but 25 miles out of town in Ames we only got a room because of a cancellation. Movin' on.


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Location:Ames, IA

Traveling

Left TX, now we are in OK heading North. Our motel has dial up (???). Drove through OK no one has heard of wireless. Drove through MO, no wireless. Entered Iowa and the first rest station has wireless.



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Location:Muskogee OK

Contemporary Handweavers of Texas

T-Shirt yesterday: She who dies with the biggest stash is dead! When's the estate sale?

Temperature: 74. Humidity: 82

Pack up at noon and move to the next stop. Seems like we just left home and the road trip is half over!


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Location:College Station TX

Contemporary Handweavers of Texas

Very little down time today, Texans love RedFish! Tomorrow is our long day, 12 hours.


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Location:College Station TX

Contemporary Handweavers of Texas

We got totally set up today so we have tomorrow morning off. There are 17 used book stores here.

I figured out how to upload from my camera to my iPad and would do it if I had brought my camera cord. I'm not too good at this.


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Location:College Station, TX

Contemporary HandWeavers of Texas

Left Bandelier sadly but had to move on down the road. Next stop Fort Sumner, NM to check out Billy the Kid's grave site. There are several museums on Billy and also the museum of the Long Walk of the Navajos, Bosque Redondo, another atrocity by our Government.

Spent the night in Post, TX, in a nice little motel run by a very nice couple. While I was registering, I asked if there were any vegetarian restaurants in Post. She laughed and said she was probably was the only vegetarian in Post. After that she said she would give us a special rate and her best room (I would rather have had a nice Indian meal but that wasn't offered). The room turned out to be pink and gold with flowers everywhere, even had pink sheets.

Headed for College Station this morning and made excellent time as the roads were long and straight with a speed limit of 70.

Hopefully I will have time tomorrow to learn how to upload photos.


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Location:College Station, TX

Bandelier National Monument

From the big city to total wilderness in 2 hours. Albuquerque was our 2nd show of this year but seems like the first as Stiches West was in February. Having a 2 day break before heading to Texas is a luxury, especially being able to spend it at Bandelier. Yesterday we walked the path to the cliff dwellings,the large kiva and the long house. The cliffs above the dwellings had many pictographs and the caves had many paintings. The indigenous people of the area wove simple clothing items and baskets but painted the caves elaborately. I do have many photos and will upload them to Flickr, if I can figure out how but it will have to wait until I have a connection again.

On the walk back to the visitor's center, we saw a black bear cub. The ranger who was watching it said it had separated from it's mother this spring as it is 2 years old now. More rangers came and herded it to another area. Sleep was a long time coming after seeing a bear not far from your pitched tent.

Today was a sleeping, as not too much was done last night,and walking day, it's off to Texas tomorrow.


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Location:Whiterock NM

Albuquerque Fiber Fiesta

Fiber Fiesta is over for another 2 years. I finally remembered to bring the camera, took a couple pictures then promptly forgot about it. Now I have to figure out how to upload them to the blog. I will try to do that on our way to the Contemporary Handweavers of Texas Conference in College Station.

The fish and chips at the Two Fools Tavern were excellent, as was the Left Hand Milk Stout.


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Location:Albuquerque

Albuquerque Fiber Fiesta

Last night on the way to the motel, the little engine light lit up on my dash. After parking, I checked the manual to see what it meant. It meant a whole lot of money. You cannot steer without a rack and pinion, who knew. The truck is in the hospital and in it's place is this little dinky white thing that moans. Truck will be ready just in time to load up and head for Texas.

Camera is in the truck. I guess I can take a pic with the iPad.


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Location:Albuquerque, NM

Albuquerque Fiber Fiesta

Day 1 is over and considering it being Thursday, it was a good day. Even though the show is billed as a fiber show, it is mainly quilting and there are many "WOW!" quilts here. All the NM Guilds are here; embroidery, sewing, knitting, lace, but no weaving or spinning - strange.
I will try to remember my camera tomorrow.


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Location:Albuquerque, NM

Albuquerque Fiber Fiesta

Got to Albuquerque with only one minor problem, a major construction stop at 58 and 395. Sat for an hour and 15 minutes but had reading and knitting the weather was fantastic and lots of truckers to talk to, what else could one want?
Selling starts in the morning.

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Location:Albuquerque NM

Back from the other side

It's time to wake up from hibernation. Stitches West is next week and we are busily getting ready to hit the road again.