Swatch

swatch: (1) a sample of cloth or other material, (2) a sample, patch, or characteristic specimen of anything.

The decision was made before Thanksgiving. The downstairs carpet needed cleaning before our Holiday guests arrived. And, you know, since the cleaners were going to be here anyway they might as well clean a few areas upstairs as well. The quoted price was over $300. Big bucks.

The downstairs carpet was looking pretty shabby so instead of cleaning we opted to replace the carpet with "Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring". It looks like wood but better - scratch, stain, and waterproof, i.e. dog-proof. We got 32 boxes of "Trail Oak", nearly a full pallet. Bigger bucks.

It was going to be a big project so we decided to work on a smaller project first. Off and on for the past year I had been yammering suggesting that I needed a larger workspace. My "creativity" had grown beyond the bounds of my craft room and as my enthusiasm for hand spinning grew so did my bins of fiber supply.

The Man encouraged me to take over one of the two guest bedrooms. I grappled with the idea because I did like my overnight guests to be comfortable. In the end, I liked the idea of having a "studio" better.  I bought a Queen-sized Aerobed and The Man started work on the larger guest bedroom.

New lighting.

My new room is finished and it's a beautiful space. Right now it's housing some furniture as work gets underway downstairs. But I did manage to move a few of my things in.

Like I said, it's a beautiful space, thanks to The (Handy) Man.

 

Special Day 2020

Each day is usually a good day.

But today seemed different. Fresher.

A little more special.

 

A little more glorious.

 

I could feel it in the air.

1/1/20

Happy New Year, 2020.

Out And About: CCW Retreat 2019

Central Coast Weavers Guild Retreat

Camp Ocean Pines

Cambria, CA

November 8-10, 2019

You were dreamin'

On a park bench

'bout a broad highway somewhere

When the music from the carillon

Seemed to hurl your heart out there

 Past the scientific darkness

Past the fireflies that float

To an angel bending down 

To wrap you in her warmest coat

And you ask

What am I not doing

She says

Your voice cannot command
 In time you will move mountains
And it will come through your hands

 

Still you argue for an option

Still you angle for your case

Like you wouldn't know a burning bush

If it blew up in your face

Yeah, we scheme about the future

And we dream about the past
 When just a simple reaching out
Might build a bridge that lasts

 

 And you ask

What am I not doing

She says

Your voice cannot command

In time you will move mountains

And it will come through your hands

Through your hands

 

 So whatever your hands find to do

You must do with all your heart

 

There are thoughts enough

 To blow men's minds

And tear great worlds apart

 There's a healing touch to find you

On that broad highway somewhere

To lift you high

 As music flyin'

Through the angels' hair

Don't ask what you are not doing

Because your voice cannot command

In time we will move mountains

And it will come through your hands.




Through Your Hands, John Hiatt, 1990

Thank you to the CCW Guild for the Scholarships "Camperships" which allows first-timer Guild members an opportunity to attend the Camp Ocean Pines Retreat.

The Cousteau Cabin Newbies

 

Thank you to the Sharing Hands: Flo, Kathy, Nancy, iRene, Rich, Jannie, Carol, Teresa, Roberta, Glenda, Ginny, and Cindy.

Fall Is

Fall happened today.

It showed up like an invited guest.

We had been waiting.

 I look forward to my daily spin wrapped in cool crispness.

The Man journeyed out for his own spin.

Heading north on Highway 1.

 

 

 

Fall is in the air.

September 23, 2019

Short and Bitter Sweet

Well, it's happened again and it's probably no surprise to anyone. The month of August came and went with nary a blog post. None, nada, zip.

Sheesh, not even the gratuitous goat pic.

The sad thing is I'm still outlining stories and I continue to take tons of photographs to accompany the blog post. (5603 photos currently lives on my phone.)

Often times I spend parts of my day thinking about a blog post, planning what the title will be (that's the best part), and I write little snippets of the story on small pieces of paper - lots and lots of small pieces of paper - sometimes when I'm composing the story I smile to myself and occasionally chuckle out loud. Weird, I know. Unfortunately, the stories I plan don't make it out of my head.

Recently SLO Yarns celebrated an Anniversary. It's hard to believe but it's been 7 years since I hit the publish button and the blog went live with the first post. Seven years.

It seems like once I retired - and had all the time in the world - my routines changed and writing a weekly blog post got lost in the transition. But you know, at this time, I'm still not ready for SLO Yarns to disappear into the sunset. Partly because - as you can imagine - my head feels quite a bit cluttered with the hundreds of stories waiting to be told but mostly because writing still gives me joy.

I'll try to do better going forward (she says).

In the meantime, here's a couple of gratuitous goaty pics.

Slow SLO Yarn

One of my many (oh-so-many) current projects is a slow, long-term Sheep to Shawl project. Long term because I'm learning each step as I go. Slow so I can savor the process.

My Sheep2Shawl project began with an Etsy purchase of one pound of raw CVM/Romeldale fleece from an ewe named Ember. Coming from a cold climate (Minnesota) the wool was covered (coated) which helped to keep it free of large amounts of veggie matter (VM) such as hay and field grass. It was beautiful clean fleece.

Ember's lovely locks.

First I chose the individual locks that were similar in color and length. I stacked them carefully so I knew which ends were the tips and which were the cut ends. I'm starting with the lightest colored locks and will progress to the darker wool as I work through the fleece.

The aligned locks were placed in tulle netting and washed (scoured) with 2 washes and 2 rinses using Unicorn Fiber Power Scour and very hot water. The fleece wasn't too dirty but it was rich with greasy lanolin.

4/25/19, Drying in the sun.

5/2/19, Second batch.

 6/28/19, Third batch.

After the locks are thoroughly dried the tips are brushed open (flicked).

Next, the cut ends are placed oh-so-carefully on the metal tines of the Valkyrie Extra Fine mini combs. It took me a few sessions before I felt comfortable with the sharp combs and I keep them covered or lying sideways when I'm not actively combing, especially when my helpers show up.

The combed wool is then pulled through an object with a tiny hole (diz) to make long strips of ready-to-spin fiber.

A light as air "bird nest".

I wanted to spin my prepped fiber as thinly as possible. I didn't think I could do it on my spinning wheel without wasting a lot of it so I learned from YouTube how to spin on a supported spindle.

One bird nest takes me over an hour to spin.

Right now I'm just spinning a single strand. My lofty goal is to spin a 2-ply yarn for a gradient, natural-colored, knitted rectangular lace wrap or shawl.

7/4/19, Spun to date:

 In the meantime, I'm enjoying every inch, every ounce, every minute of the process.

Happy 4th of July and
Happy Summer Everyone.