Handwoven Towels

This is a little catch up post of something I did while I was away from blogging...

I wove some kitchen towels for Christmas gifts.  I used yarn that I had.  The colors were perfect for my daughter and a friend of mine.  I wasn't sure how they'd work up though since they weren't exactly the same yarn.  The towels looked ok when I wove them but the shrinkage was different with each color when I washed them.  I ironed them and it helped a bit.  My daughter has been using them and I was able to when I visited her.  They're actually quite nice and very absorbent for drying dishes.  They're nice and soft too.

While I was weaving the towels, my electric bobbin winder got hot and started smoking.  Uh oh!  

Hubby was so sweet....he made me a new one as a gift for Christmas.  It's so nice!  I need to get back to weaving to really try it out.

Weaving, Warm Fuzzies, and Flowers

I started weaving on a second dish towel yesterday.  I thought it would be fun to change it up a bit.  So, I'm weaving this one in a twill pattern.

While I was weaving yesterday afternoon, my sweet little Penelope was sleeping soundly.  She was so sound asleep that she didn't even notice when I walked in the room and took pictures of her.

I took a different route on my morning walk today and saw some beautiful flowers.  Of course, I couldn't resist taking pictures.  I love the colors in this one...

The centers are interesting and the color combination is so unexpected.

The trees along this street change SO much!  At different times of the year they have green pods, bright pink pods, fall color, a little bareness, and now, they're exploding with tiny yellow blossoms.

Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday!

Weaving in Progress

I started weaving some new dish towels yesterday.  They aren't turning out quite like I'd envisioned but they're growing on me.  I think they'll be even nicer once they're off the loom and washed.  Just for fun...and learning...I may try playing around with the treadling pattern on the next one.  I think I measured enough warp for at least three towels.

There's something so satisfying about creating something useful.  It also feels good to make it with materials I already have.  Yay for more de-stashing.  Although, these cones of thread seem to keep going and going and going!  I've already made so many things with these threads and there's LOTS left.  I'm sure getting my money's worth from these cones that I barely paid anything for!  Cool!

How was your weekend?

How was your weekend?  I hope it was a good one!

Mine was good.  It was filled with a little of this and a little of that.

It started off on Friday when I got back from the market.  I found a cute, little, spray bottle at Sprouts that I couldn't resist.  And, besides, I really wanted to try making some homemade air freshener/linen spray.  So, when I got home, that's just what I did.

I found a recipe online.  I cut it in half so it would fit in my bottle.  Here's what I used...3 tablespoons of distilled water, 1/2 tablespoon of vodka (all I had was pepper vodka but it has an earthy good smell and worked fine (vodka/alcohol is used to make the oil and water mix), and 20 drops of lavender oil.  It turned out great and smells sooooo good!

My husband got called into work early Saturday morning to take care of a problem.  I decided to go with him to keep him company on the drive and later do a little shopping and be-bopping around by the beach....he works in Carlsbad...just minutes from the ocean!  :-)

When he was finished, we headed to Encinitas for breakfast at the "Potato Shack".  Yum!  Then, we walked over to see the ocean.  It seemed extra blue and gorgeous that day and the water was so clear.  I wish I'd brought my camera.  Oh well, thank goodness for cell phone cameras.

After that, we hopped over to REI to do a little shopping.  I got a new backpack!  It's the green one on the right.  I had gotten one a couple of years ago (the blue one next to it) but it turned out to be too small for actual backpacking.  So, this time I got one that's probably the biggest I'd get for my small frame...a 60+10 litre.  It should work just fine.  I think I officially have a backpack collection now.  lol  The other two are a small pack for day hikes (the turquoise one), and the smaller one I use when I go biking.

Our garden seems to be noticeably growing each day.  We have a few more seeds that have sprouted over the weekend too.  And, we got our first two tomatoes of the season.  Woot!

I measured off a new warp a couple weeks ago....with the "help" of my sweet Penelope.  I've since been slowly putting it on my loom.  You know....a little time here, a little time there.

I finished warping my loom last night and it's ready to weave!

Hooray!  I'm so excited to see how this project will turn out.  I'm going to weave some kitchen towels with some thread/yarn I have in my stash.  Yay...more de-stashing!

Here's to a great week!

Off the Loom

The weaving project I've been working on this week is off the loom!

After I was finished weaving and before taking it off the loom I added a hem stitch.

I love the results!

 I thought a hem stitch would be a good choice because of the limited amount of yarn I had. It made it so I didn't have to take length from the dish towel to fold it over and sew hems.  I was hoping that would help give me enough yarn to have a nice size dish towel.

However, I severely mis-guessed on the length of my warp.  I really should take time to figure out how to calculate and then actually use the math needed to do it right.  But, I hate math!  I've gotten by fine on all of my previous projects...until now.  Did I mention how much I hate math?!

I got this little....um...place mat?...cloth?...???...instead.  It's 14" long (not counting the fringe) x 16" wide.  I do love how the yarn and colors wove up though.  It feels really nice and looks good.

I ended up with at least a third of the yarn left over...maybe even closer to half!

I have an idea for something I can use it for though.

I tried and tried to get a photo that would accurately show off the pretty, warm, fall colors.  But, no matter what I did or where I took the photo, it just didn't work.  It's very pretty in person though.

My wonderful assistant that "helped" me with this project is seeing it all the way to the end.  She's sitting here, right next to me, as I write this blog post.  What would I do without her?!

Weaving!

I have a great little LeClerc floor loom that sits patiently waiting...and waiting...and waiting for me to use it.  I bet it's in shock right now because I actually am using it again!  I measured out some warp last week for a dish towel and finished warping yesterday.

I have a weaving assistant!  She supervised last week from behind the loom.  Yesterday, as I finished up, Penelope jumped up on my lap and looked up at me as if to ask what I was doing...

Then, she did a close up inspection to make sure I did it right...

Then, I started weaving!  Wooot!  It's so fun!  Why don't I do this more often?!

I'm just doing a simple plain weave for this dish towel project.  I love seeing how multi-colored yarn works up.  And, so far, this is looking great!  I have a busy day ahead but I hope to find some time to work on it today.  There's only enough yarn for one towel.  So, it should work up pretty quickly.

Happy Tuesday!

Fiber Fiesta

The annual Fiber Fiesta held in the northern San Diego County city of Vista was held last weekend.  It's a small fiber festival but one of the very few we have in Southern California.  I've been to it several times by myself but this year was extra special because my daughter went with me.  That made it a LOT more fun!  

We had a blast wandering through the weaving barn.  It's filled with looms and lots of them have projects on them.  This one was especially exciting.  Not only are the colors gorgeous...

...and the weaving is beautiful... 

...but, it's also a big dobby loom.  My dream loom!  I got to work on one of these years ago and I've wanted one ever since.  The pins on the wood bars create the pattern in the fabric and a new bar is advanced for each throw of weft thread/yarn.  It's fun and magical!  I love this kind of loom!

The barn is filled with looms...large ones, small ones, newer ones and very old ones.  We saw someone weaving on one from the 1800's.  I believe this one was from the 1930's.  I thought the handle on the beater bar was interesting.  I'd never seen that before.

One of the weavers told us about this old Jacquard loom the museum has inherited.  They're very excited about it and working hard to get it up and running.  It'll be the logo for their museum.  It's so tall that it almost reaches the rafters of the barn!  I couldn't get a picture of the whole thing as it was surrounded by other looms and things.  This is part of the top...

I peeked between some things to get a picture of the many threads running through it...

These red strips have holes punched in them and as they feed through the loom they control the pattern that will be created in the fabric...

The very long loop of those strips runs from the floor to the top of the loom and up into that part that's almost up to the rafters and then back down again...

Here's another picture of that top part from the other side...

Fascinating!

There was a table near one of the doorways/openings to the barn with some very nice ladies who were excited to show us how to do Kumihimo.  They had a basket filled with little kits with yarn already measured out and ready to share.  We were excited to learn.  Kumihimo is Japanese braiding and it's very easy and fun.  We caught on quickly and finished up our braided cords later that day and started some new ones.  I'll try to get some pictures of our cords for another post.

There were vendors/booths outside selling hand dyed yarn, tools, handmade clothing, etc.  We had a lot of fun shopping and could have come home with SO much stuff if the budget allowed.  We couldn't afford all the wonderful things we fell in love with but we still managed to spend a little too much on yarn.  So much for the yarn diet!

I got two beautiful skeins of yarn from my favorite dyer, Inner Yarn Zen.  I love this one!  The color is "Carmel Pumpkin Spice".  Just wait til I get started on a project so I can show the cool effect that's created with how she dyed it!  Yarn love!

There's just something about this one that literally makes my heart flutter when I look at it!  It's gorgeous!  Of course, all of these yarns are much more beautiful in person!

Newton's Yarn Country was there with their amazing yarn bargains.  I couldn't resist this time!  They sell huge skeins of yarn for six for $20.  Amazing!  I bought this cotton to make a kitchen towel.  Unfortunately, I read the tag wrong when I got it and I might not have enough.  I'm planning to play around with it today and see what I can figure out.

We got three skeins of this super soft cotton.  They said it works great for towels and just keeps getting softer and softer as it's used and washed.  I'm planning to use the red and cream for weaving kitchen towels.  My daughter is going to use the brown to knit a cowl or scarf.  

We got several other colors but they didn't photograph well to accurately show the colors.

The Fiber Fiesta is held at the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum and it's always fun to walk around to see these magnificent old machines.  In fact, I think their annual show is this next weekend.  They actually start some of these up and drive them around at the show.  Amazing!

This might sound weird but I think this one is pretty!

There was a gem and rock show going on last weekend too.  And, the museum has classes throughout the year for various things including weaving and blacksmithing.  It's a little far away but I'm thinking of joining.  It's a wonderful place with lots of nice people and I love how it's preserving history.

Road Trip, Day 18 - Taos, New Mexico

The eighteenth day of our road trip started very early as we "got the heck outta Dodge"...Dodge City, Kansas that is.  You can go HERE to read about that.  It was a long drive that day through miles and miles of prairies and grassland and then miles and miles of desert.  Heading farther and farther west was looking more and more familiar, beautiful and just plain good!  It's hard to explain but it felt great to see rocks and dirt again!  We're just not used to so much green and water and although it's beautiful  in the South and Midwest, it's all so much the same color and texture....green and plants.  I guess it just comes down to what you're used to and what you love.  For us, the west is the best!

It was exciting to see mountains again too!  The mountains of northern New Mexico are beautiful!  This is some of the scenery we enjoyed as we got closer to Taos...

We had to stop to take it all in and breathe the fresh, cool, air.  Ahhhh!

We'd left Dodge City so early that we pulled into Taos by around noon.  We hadn't eaten much that morning and we were very hungry.  So, the first order of business was to find a place to eat!  We thought Huevos Rancheros sounded awesome.  So, we started asking around and ended up at a little hole in the wall restaurant called, "La Cueva".  The food was awesome!  There's nothing like New Mexico chilies and sauces!  Yummmmmm!  It was so good that we ended up back there for dinner.  It was at least as good the second time.  I had chicken with mole sauce (just in case you've never heard of that...it's a chili sauce with Mexican chocolate in it) and my daughter had seafood enchiladas.  The food was amazing, the people were very nice, the service was great, and the prices were great!

I'm surprised I actually took the time to take a picture

because I was so hungry but here's my breakfast/lunch...

Afterwards, we popped into "Gearing Up" bike shop a few doors down.  I wanted to see if they had anything for my dear hubby.  I bought him a few great things.  What a bike shop!  They had so many fun things and they were super nice too!  It turns out there are a lot of trails in the area.  I think we'll be heading back to check some of them out one of these days!

Next, we got back into the car to visit one of the main things we'd come to see, Taos Pueblo.  My daughter had seen it in a book and it was one of the places she'd hoped to see one day.  This was the day!  It was just minutes from the restaurant and easy to find.

As we drove up and parked, we saw the cemetery and what was left of the original church.

And, just look at that gorgeous sky!  What a beautiful area!!!

Before entering, we needed to go up to a more modern/newer building to purchase our tickets.

I love the posts on that building...

This is a World Heritage Site and a National Landmark.  The Pueblo has been inhabited by

Native Americans for over 1,000 years.  They still live there today.

There were several larger complexes like this...

And, a bunch of smaller ones like this...

They're made with mud and straw with wood beams for the roof.

The wood is visible on the ceilings inside.  

There is a small church.  The design is simple on the outside and it's more ornately decorated on the inside.  It's dark, quiet, and very peaceful inside but they don't allow photographs.

I love the blue glass windows along the sides of the church.

And, the smooth, curved, mud walls are so pretty.

This was my favorite little house.  It looks so cute and cozy.

Residents/Native Americans were selling food, handmade jewelry and other items in some of the pueblo rooms/homes and outside.  This dog was peacefully napping in the shade next to a mud oven.

We had hoped for a tour but the guide never showed up.  We walked around a bit and took some photos but didn't stay long as it was quite hot in the full sun.

Since we arrived in Taos so early in the day, we had plenty of time to visit a place I really wanted to see, "Weaving Southwest".  It was just a ten minute drive from town to the small community of Arroyo Seco.  This seemed to be the main street....

Here it is...a simple building with a lovely, Southwest facade...

I gasped when I walked in.  The colors, the rugs, the yarn....gorgeous!

I would have loved to have taken some of the beautiful rugs home with me.

Unfortunately, they're a bit out of my price range.  The colors, design and workmanship are top notch!  They do, however, offer classes and workshops.  Hmmmm?  Maybe on a future trip!

The lady working there that day was really nice and it turned out that her son lives close to where I live in Southern California.  She'd just come back from visiting.  It's such a small world!

I bought a couple of things before I left.  I bought a wood batten that I should be able to use with my inkle loom.  I have a feeling it will be much more comfortable on my hands than a credit card!  That's the stick on the left.  On the right is a tapestry beater.  It's small but I love the wood grain on it and it's very comfortable in my hand.  I'm hoping to try out tapestry weaving someday.  And, it's not everyday I'm in a shop that sells things like this.  So, I HAD to get it!  ;-)

Before leaving Arroyo Seco, we walked through a couple of fun little shops.

There were Hollyhocks growing in flowerbeds all around.  I couldn't resist taking some pictures.

Aren't they pretty?!  They must love the climate there.

Next, we headed back to Taos and checked into our hotel for the night, "Hotel La Fonda De Taos".  I'd found it on Trip Advisor and it had great reviews.  It sounded like an interesting and nice place to stay.  It's right on the Taos Plaza (an old shopping area in the center of town that's recently been fixed up and has become a great shopping and dining destination).  We checked in and took our stuff to our room.  We had a great view of the plaza and it was so nice to have a window that opens.  Our room was where the window is, just below the "N" on the Hotel La Fonda sign.  

The people that work there are all very nice and the hotel is colorful, clean and pretty.

Here's a view of the lobby from the mezzanine.  There's a restaurant through the door on the left.

The mezzanine had a cozy seating area and it was close to our room.  The fireplace turns on with a switch/dial.  There are books, games, tables and chairs and comfy sofas to relax.

There are little doors like this along the hallways to the rooms.  They're probably about a foot and a half to two feet wide and maybe three feet tall.  I meant to ask what they're for but forgot to whenever I was passing by the front desk.  So, my story is that they're for the ghosts.  Yup...this place is supposedly haunted too.  They even told me that the rooms had earplugs because of the moans and creaking sounds.  I left the bathroom light on just in case and tried not to open my eyes during the night!  But, I found out in the middle of the night that the earplugs are probably because it can get rather loud on the plaza and the sound is amplified as it bounces between the buildings.

Here's our window from the inside looking out onto the plaza after a late afternoon rainstorm.

The hotel was clean and nice.  I think the only thing we didn't like was the smell of the room.  But, my daughter quickly spotted the source of the smell and took care of it.  It was a glass vase-like thing, filled with potpourri, hanging on the wall.  She quickly slipped it out of it's holder, stored it in the armoire, and voila...the smell went away!  Yay!  We were sure to put it back before we left.

After checking in and taking our stuff to the room, we headed out for some shopping...another thing we were hoping to have time for and did!  Yippee!  And...the shopping there is awesome!  I could have spent SO much money...if I had SO much money to spend!  There were lots of great little shops and things in them that I loved!  And, there were so many more we could have seen!

The Taos Plaza is lined with little shops.  More shops are just outside of the Plaza.  And, there are so many more beyond that!  Wow!  And, even though there are art galleries and very nice shops and things being sold, it's down to earth and comfortable like I'd hoped.  We love Taos!

It turned out that there are a few yarn shops in town.  We went into one of them but they hardly had any yarn...or anything at all for that matter.  Then, I made sure to stop in at Mooncat Fiber because they sell yarn that's dyed by someone who used to live in California and go to our stitch nights.  She now lives in New Mexico.  The store owner raved about her yarn and how much they love her.  There was a gorgeous blue skein that I had to buy!  You can find Berry Colorful Yarnings HERE and HERE.  This is the photo I posted on Instagram that day...

Just across the sidewalk was a wonderful little fabric shop.  It's called, "Common Thread".  It was filled with some of the most beautiful and unique fabrics I've ever seen!  My daughter loved it too!  I like the tree standing in the middle of the store.  It was a cute and fun place to visit!

After shopping and another great meal at La Cueva, we headed back to our room for some much needed rest.  How great it was that we were able to get to town so early and fit so much into one afternoon!  Sleep was needed though as we were planning to head out very early the next day for an even longer drive to Grand Canyon and the final stop of our amazing, three week road trip!