Category Archives: fiber toys

Ashland Oregon

Holly Doyne Posted on by 1

A friend assures me is a lovely town, well worth a visit in non-Covid times. There is a Shakespeare Festival, historic inns. It might be lovely, it might be industrial, I have no clue. When arriving off I-5 around 1900 in the evening it was impossible to tell. Most certainly it is not a town that is spending significant resources on street lighting. Located 16 miles north of the California border, the sign for Ashland was a welcome sight.

The sun is setting earlier and I do not enjoy driving in the dark. Not in the dark, not up and down hills (mountains?), nor around curves. We will not speak of the fact that more than 50% of the vehicles sharing the road with me had twelve wheels or more. They sail down hills before gradually slowing as they grind their way up the next. Their head lights provide an unwanted glare in my rear view mirrors. The few other cars dart past, between the trucks sometimes managing a speed only marginally faster than required for overtaking.

This kind of excitement and stress do not bring me joy. I really, really no longer enjoy driving at night and have decided that I will not blow this particular popsicle stand prior to decent light in the morning.

In case you are wondering, I am currently headed to Portland. There is a knitting friend there who is also a weaver. He is a brother to a much longer known friend, indie.dyer and yarn shop owner in the San Juans. I have “toys” that have been occupying space in my life, our garage prior to our most recent move to Germany if that gives you an idea on the age. I am never going to use them again. Selling them is just too much of a pain. So why not give them to an engineer? Neither he nor his son have a clue as to what fills the back of our  VW Golf. But I was reassured that there was plenty of space in his great room.

We shall see….

Oooh, new toy!

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

This came in the mail yesterday –

the Box

Shipped from Calgary.

But let me back track first.

Like many people with various hobbies, I am a tool and toy junkies. Not a total and complete hoarder of same, you have to understand. I have divested myself of various bits and bobs (some of them significantly large) over the years. After all, I live with other people and they just would not understand if I took over the house for a weaving and fiber studio. So, I no longer have my Glimakra, AVL, or Harrisville looms. Sewing machines have been upgraded over the years and I haven’t kept all of the old one.

I will admit to probably having a few too many spinning wheels. In fact, when I stop and think about it, I haven’t done much in the way of spinning or knitting since the move to California. Since wool is my fiber of preference, that might make a small bit of sense. It is not all that cold here. But I “might” want them in the future. I am not counting the two that I “re-homed” before leaving Germany or the one that I gifted (along with the Harrisville and several dozen cones of yarn) after settling here.

Since moving here, I have been doing more sewing, machine embroidery, and cross-stitch. Like any other crafter, I have been accumulating supplies (aka Stash) against a future want, the apocalypse, or an acute shortage of whatever I might fancy at the moment. I don’t spend beyond my means. And I haven’t quite run out of storage space.

Anyway – for the couple of years, I have been searching for the perfect cross-stitch stand. Functional is important – and so, frankly is esthetics. I had three various stands (System-4, Lacis, and ???) which do work, for some projects, but ran into the challenge of trying to sit comfortably while stitching so that I don’t get a sore back. There is also the challenge of width of the project. The System-4 stand can adjust to quite a wide width – but it has a three point braced foot that makes it impossible to use with any kind of a lounge chair or foot stool. The Lacis stand is lovely, adjustable, and a max of 50cm wide. The ??? which I think might be a Charles Craft has split rail rods, and goes to 60 cm, but doesn’t work well with a chair/footstool combination.

All of this lead me to Hearthside Craftworks – which is a home based Calgary couple. After thinking about it from January on – I ordered a Mark 2 stand near the beginning of March. My stand went in the mail on the 20th of March, checked into the Calgary post office. And then it seemed to sit there on the tracking display for day after day after day. Suddenly on 29 March my stand showed as now being in Richmond, BC which is an area (town/suburb/whatever of Vancouver). Apparently Canada Post only logs packages in, and doesn’t log them out – so in transit can mean anywhere from the originating post office to the door of the next. On the 30th it was marked at being at customs.

And it arrived yesterday.

Unpacking –

all these lovely red oak pieces

 

which rapidly turned into this –

completely set up and current project transferred.

I am more than a happy bunny

California Handweavers

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Sometimes you can just be in the right place at the right time. My luck ran that way today. From what I think I read, it was the annual convention of the California Handweavers complete with classes, banquet and fashion show (last night) and a room full of dealers with lovely things to buy.

It has been a long time since I have done any significant weaving. Years and years as a matter of fact. The Glimakra drawloom went to live in PA in 1993 and I sold the AVL leaving me only various toys and an 8-H Baby Wolf. My interests drifted over to spinning and knitting.

The guys dropped me off late morning. I intended to buy a day pass and then join them in a shoe-shopping-for-the-boy expedition. Instead I texted them back saying I wasn’t going to be done till about 1700.

It was easy to spend a couple of hours in the dealers and exhibition hall. First looking at the fashion and weaving displays then wandering from booth to booth feeling all that luscious fiber. Carolina Handspun had a number of spinning wheels to try and I have now managed to talk myself out of buying a Schacht Sidewinder. I have a portable wheel which I really don’t much like (Louet Victoria) and was hoping to find an alternative. I managed to avoid all the fiber and all but a couple of skeins of yarn.

Then there was this dude with glass earrings. If I hadn’t already had plans for Thursday evening i would have been over at the Oakland Center taking a class from Harlan. As is, I just had to settle for indulging in a couple pairs for me.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon in a class taught on finishing techniques for handwovens. Daryl Landcaster started out in haute couture and tailoring taught by her mother. Weaving was a later addition. Reviewing seams, edge-finishings and hemming all of it is applicable to “normal”

I will give you the photos as a gallery – click to embiggen…

Lovely Toys

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Back in October I decided that I really wanted a yarn bowl. One of those lovely single purpose pieces of pottery designed to keep a ball of yarn from rolling around on a dog hair infested floor. I must have looked at dozens of different models on Etsy. Decided I liked the ones in this shop the best. While I was at it, I ordered a tea mug to match.

my matching set

my matching set

I have them now, they are great. Clear ringing tone and incredibly smooth glaze. Special combination of black and red just for me.

Now, all I have to do is see if Angela is up to making a new model – one with a divider in the middle so that I can use two balls of yarn at the same time for stranded knitting.

Busking – 1/2 Price today

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Rather than go back into the city and spend more money on things that I really don’t need, I decided to stay in Guildford today and accomplish pretty much the same thing.

a Guildford Pub front

a Guildford Pub front

Mary had teaching this morning, giving me a chance to sit and knit for few hours. I also wandered a few stores and otherwise relaxed. After lunch at Wagamama’s, we wandered through the Guildford Museum. Because of the government’s commitment to history and the arts – the museums are free. I was able to spend time looking at two of my favourite things – needlework and implements –

lace

lace

Victorian needle work tools

Victorian needle work tools

paired clamps for skeins

paired clamps for skeins

and model railways.

a model of Guildford

a model of Guildford

 

On the street – A regular (the keyboardist)from Threepenny Bit with a couple of extras were busking. Wonderful, fun foot tapping tunes to make one’s heart glad. I picked up their CD for £5 and tossed my small loose change in the case.

ThreePenny Bit

ThreePenny Bit

To put a great end on the day after finding a pair of shoes and Clark’s, Mary and I spent the evening doing needle work.

Slithering under the couch cushions

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Having read a post by Mary Scott Huff that she wrote last winter, I was able to maintain my cool when transitioning from ribbing to the pattern portion of a vest. A cabled vest, and me on a plane without a cable needle.

One of the smaller size KP harmony end that was just swapped off the cable worked as a substitute and I even still had both loose needles at the end of the flight.

Now, the previous evening I had dug change out of the bed (€, $, Sterling and a couple of Florints), tracked down needles hiding under the bed, collected yarn from a bin upstairs, and rescued pouches of stitch markers from two suitcases. Remaining on the must find list – after I had located one of the must be dozens of needle size gauges that I own – was a tape measure.

I think they are alive; capable of slithering off on their bellies to secret themselves in dark warm places. I buy tape measures frequently, but never seem to be able to locate a single one.

Unless, of course, I am have just returned from acquiring a tape measure. It is at that point that I will find a tangled nest of them in a knitting bag that I could swear was empty just hours prior.

I suppose I could solve the problem if I went through the whole house (which house? UK? DE? ) and collected all my knitting stuff into one location and spent the required time to sort things out. Stocked project bags with the required tools and placed all the extra in my nice wooded Lebküchen box.

Oh, wait. I did that once, right before I moved so that everything was organized. That was Jan 2008. I wasn’t two weeks on the ground in the UK and didn’t have a tape measure in sight.

Two of them that I located last night were still in their original packaging. I have not a clue what one was doing in the kitchen service manual drawer or why the other was hanging out with candles in the dining room. But certainly, they did not fight me when I placed them in my project bag.

I did make a significant mistake: I unpackaged them. Tonight I find that both had vanished, slithering out of sight sometime in the last 24 hours when I was not looking. I hope they are having a good time, perhaps exploring a Lufthansa flight back and forth over the Channel.

Spinning

Holly Doyne Posted on by

There is a certain quiet of a house when the dog has gone. Toys sitting where they have been forgotten, dog bed empty and the food dish just waiting to be filled. There is dog hair on the carpet of several rooms waiting to be vacuumed. Completing all these tasks will make things a bit more final than I think my daughter is ready to have happen.

Friday night we had dinner in Guildford with a friend which eased things a bit and yesterday was a quiet day with Internet only an option at work. Today it was more of the same. BT down and me thinking about how I can force them to give me two days credit for service not delivered.

I am not talented in jewelry making. Ms Soprano messed around a bit and came up with both button cuff links and a good dozen lovely stitch markers for me.

stitch markers and cufflinks

stitch markers and cufflinks

The black wool that I received in the Ongoing Swap (Ravelry UK Spinnners) is now spun –

singles

singles

The Dreamsicle merino/silk is now plyed

two ply with remaining fiber

two ply with remaining fiber

I also finishing spinning and plying all of the grey shetland that I had coned. Not being smart enough to take a picture prior to dropping it in the sink, at least I managed to weigh it (445 gm) prior to the start of the soak.  There seemed to still be a bit too much lanolin left so I expect to lose as much as 50 gm in the washing.

Now, all I need is a set of wringers. You know, the kind of wringers that used to top every old fashion washing machine. If you crank yarn through them, you can powder remaining veg matter….

Stitch Markers

Holly Doyne Posted on by

There is something so fun, so appealing about all those bright and shiny dangles. Over the last year, I have collected quite a few and thought briefly about making my own.

I have jewels,

creatures

dragon flies and Loons

dragon flies and Loons

and abstract objects.

And then there are those that I use on a daily basis. They are really simple. They are thin and they have no dangles. There is nothing to get caught in that row, the one below or the one below that. No struggling with a yo increase next to a marker.

I buy another batch every time I place an order with The Loopy Ewe

Phoenix

Finally got to the armhole and 17 rows past it. Two views (with and without flash)

27 March - 165 rows

27 March - 165 rows

172 Rows - 27 March 09

172 Rows - 27 March 09

Watching and listening

more CSI: Miami.
City of Fire – Ellis on audio.

Doors