Cows and Calendars

The sun is shining and the cows are back. 2024 is off to a great start.

 

 

 

Even better I'm starting 2024 with Cortney Spillane's charming new calendar adorning my fridge.

 

 

This year's calendar is called, "Flora, some fauna, & the occasional field guide". Did you see the hand-painted 'Candy Cane' Camillia on the envelope? So sweet and . . . oh, look, dinosaurs!

I am a regular podcast listener of Cortney and Monica's podcast, "Craft, Cook, Read, Repeat".  Although Cortney makes her calendars for family and friends as Holiday "Cards" she prints up a few extra and I have been fortunate to snag one before they quickly sell out.

Last year's Birds and Breakables calendar came in an envelope with a beautiful hand-painted feather alongside a tea cup. Even The Man took notice and mentioned Cortney is a good artist. Now that is something. Heck ya, I'm keeping all her little works of art.

 

Not Just For Kids

Just in time for Christmas, The Man found a gently-used bike for himself at Goodwill. At the same time, I found a small potholder loom. It was a good day for both of us. The new, unused Harrisville Designs metal potholder loom was priced at $1.50. I knew it was worth ten times that amount. I recognized Harrisville Designs as the family-owned New Hampshire company that makes textiles, yarns, and various weaving looms. This was no cheap-o imported plastic loom.

We all had one of these looms as a kid, I think mine was red. And I'm sure everyone probably remembers weaving on the little potholder loom with the day-glo acrylic loops. I guess no one thought about the dangers of acrylic during those days. Compared to natural fibers, acrylic- a petroleum-based fiber, is highly flammable, melts as it burns and is difficult to extinguish. Yikes!

Although my loom came with colorful cotton loops I wanted to use my own yarn. At first I thought I would need to tie loops together but then I found a YouTube video by Noreen Crone-Findlay, demonstrating a continuous warp and weave with yarn. Yay, for using the yarn stash!

I gave it a try and wove a few cotton yarn samples. Using variegated yarns makes it easy-peasy. Using two colors a little more challenging especially since I wanted the edging to be one color. I single-crocheted an edge on one but it's a little too granny for me. On another I made a fringe by hemstitching the edge which was time-consuming. The fringe looks good but defeats the purpose of a speedy quick project.

And though they're nice and heat-resistant (tried it on the hot and heavy cast iron skillet) they're a little small with a finished size of 6" x 6".  Hmmm, let's see, fairly quick and easy to make, useful, very attractive, washable, but a little small.  No problem:

Harrisville Designs Potholder Pro 10" x 10" Loom.

New Toys Fiber Tools

Both sizes work good together as a set. Hot Pots, we've got you covered.

Culinary Art

(Culinary: of or relating to a kitchen or cookery.)

My poor old flour sack dish towels need to be retired.  Some are stained, most have holes; they're done.  I received them from my Mom many many moons ago.

I looked for flour sack dish towels locally without luck and ended up buying a six-pack from JoAnn.com.  My mistake was putting the new towels in my craft room instead of throwing it in the laundry basket.  The 30" x 34" bright white fabric just needed a little something so I pulled out my binder of DMC Floss (still in use from my cross-stitchin' days) to embroider a few lazy daisy stitches.  Nothing fancy.  Just a flower or two.

I've been working on it for a few weeks now.  Adding a stitch here and there.

Today, I'm going to have to say they're done and ready to go in the wash.  Otherwise, we'll be air-drying our dishes from now on.  And, isn't it funny, I think the other three look just fine all plain and white.