Peaceful Woodland Walk - NOT!

We're so lucky that our house is near miles and miles of trails through the forest. We love to walk our dog out there.

We often see other walkers, and in winter, cross-country skis, snowshoes and snowmobiles are popular too.

Sometimes we see deer, foxes, fishers, and even coyotes.

Today was anything but quiet and peaceful. We didn't see anyone on foot, or any wildlife.

Instead we saw mountain bikers - riding on snow - and a snowmobile pulling the trail-grooming sled.

Plus, we could hear helicopters the whole time, and saw this glimpse into the workday of a power-line repair crew.


Three people working on top of power lines.


A helicopter coming in to pick one worker up.



Dropping that worker off at the next pole.


Coming in to pick up the next person.

After the ice storms earlier this winter, we definitely don't take power for granted and we really appreciate that there are people doing this job!!

Textile Territory Exhibit

A textile exhibition opened Friday night at 100 Market in Portsmouth, NH. Works by local artists will grace the walls on floors 1-4 until April 20.


"Dark in the Deep" and "Gridone/Fragments" by Tinka Pritchett


This story in Seacoast Online contains info about the exhibition.


Sarah Haskell's "Four Small Houses"


Isn't Tinka's blue and black felted coat wonderful?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Things I love in Valentine colors.....


Candy


Red-bellied woodpecker in our backyard


Flowers

Wishing you all a happy Valentine's Day!!

Wish Me Luck with Huck!

I need to get something on my naked loom!


While my studio was dismantled and covered in Toika pieces, I wound this warp for the last towels in my series of dishtowels.


It's a set of huck dishtowels from Handwoven, J/F 2001, "Tales & Towels of Huck" pp. 34-37 by Rosalie Neilson. (And do not despair if you love this project, because the same weaver has a similar project in the M/J 2008 issue of Handwoven, plus she has a book in progress about huck!)

When I placed this yarn order years ago, I definitely struggled with each warp, so I wanted to struggle with colors I love!!

The original color choice, shown here in Handwoven, is great....but I love blue so I wanted to change it.


With help from my color wheel, I realized that Rosalie Neilson, the designer of these towels, had selected 3 colors next to each other on the color wheel, and one color directly across it. (There's probably a technical name for that color combination....but I don't know it.)

I used Halcyon Yarn's Yarn Store in a Box to choose my colors.

When the colors arrived, the pale blue I had chosen seemed like it wouldn't stand up to the strength of the turquoise, green and pink.

My weaving buddies said they use a wrap, or software to try to figure out how the colors will look together. I tried both.


In the wrap, I decided that the paler blue I had originally selected wasn't strong enough with the other two colors.


Luckily, by some giant miscalculation on my blue crepe towels, I have enough yarn left over to use the royal blue for this project too.

That's one of those happy creative accidents - which I have to enjoy and remember because I am often stymied by unhappy creative accidents!!


I want to take care with this warp, because it is enough for 5 or 6 towels....I'll have to live with any problems I create for some time!!

Quality Time

Lately, Jim and I have been spending lots of quality time together in the basement, with sandpaper and pieces of my Toika Liisa loom.

We have this pile of wood ready to oil...it's the bench, the beater, and a few touch-ups on 3 large beams from the loom.


In just over an hour, we applied Bush Oil to everything.


The next morning, these parts are ready.


The re-assembled bench reminds me of a young colt, with its long legs.


Somehow, putting the beater on the loom makes me even more excited to start weaving with it.


We still have work to do on the jacks, shafts and lamms, so I have to wait a bit longer. Patience is not my strong suit!

Chill Out

Now that I'm blogging, I'd like to get better at photography. The Google Reader suggested Digital Photography School, so I thought I'd give this week's assignment a shot.

They want pictures of cold? Well, we've got cold here in New Hampshire! (Actually, this week it's not quite as cold as it has been.....We're enjoying our January thaw a little later than normal.)


I took all of these pictures yesterday.


One thing I've already learned from this assignment is that you should take the pictures you want as soon as you think of them. I love icicles, and we've had some great ones this year. But the rules of the assignment are that the photo must be taken from January 28 - February 11.

My icicle pictures from earlier in January can't be included. By now, the most spectacular icicles have fallen off the roof. We still have a few good ones left.




I think the last icicles are my favorites!


I left this assignment until my last available moments of daylight, and made the rule that I would not walk on snow or ice to get my pictures. I want Jim to continue loaning me his camera. Falling outside with it wouldn't further that goal!

Procrastination til the last minute isn't conducive to great photos.


Is it spring yet?

A Weaver's Progress

Before I talk about my next weaving project, I want to look back at where I've been. I'm a self-taught weaver, thanks to Deborah's Chandler's Learning to Weave.

My basic plan is to do a sample from the book, and then do a project of my choice. I'm not a weaver who loves to sample....although more and more I'm learning why people sample!!


My first project was this scarf from Halcyon Yarn, which they no longer sell. It's a combination of Harrisville yarn and an eyelash yarn. I brushed one side of it and left the other side unbrushed.

The Yarn Barn also sells lots of kits. I haven't ordered from them, but other local weavers have loved their products.

For me, weaving kits were a great way to start because I could produce objects that I liked, without having to know much about yarn or project design.


After the scarf, I started a series of dishtowels. We don't actually dry dishes in our kitchen. Life's too short! But we do dry our hands when working in the kitchen, so we go through plenty of kitchen towels in a week.


This first set of towels was also a kit from Halcyon, similar to the Cottolin Tea Towels but in a different colorway.

This project was fun because it produced eight different towels from one warp and tie-up, just by changing the treadling. Plus I changed the order and dimensions of the plaid in each towel. The project was well-designed for a beginner because it was asymmetrical - and symmetry isn't always a beginner's friend!

Plus, who would not fall in love with working with cottolin? Yum!


The star towels that I made next were also cottolin, based on a project in Handwoven. I changed the colors to yellow from white in these towels. I loved this project!

This project is from Handwoven, September 2003, "Star Towels", pg 28 - 31 by Britt-Marie Lamb. Another article with related towel designs is on Interweave's website.


I still think it is so cool that the front and back are opposites!


Finally, I made these blue cotton crepe towels.


That's where I am in my dishtowel series...with one more set of towels on the horizon. I've definitely learned a lot from this series of projects!!