Poor Miss Scarlett

aka Not Our Best Day

First off, we're fine. Sore - and I'm sure it will be worse tomorrow - but we, and everyone else involved, walked away from this. We were driving down the freeway when we were hit, spun, then hit again at least once. My poor 6-week old car is totaled. The side airbags deployed and kept us from hitting our heads. The car is squished in on the sides so badly that the headliner popped out; the back passenger side windows are gone. Darn it, I loved that car. Poor Miss Scarlett, I'll miss you. God bless whomever invented side impact airbags.

Tied On

Plan A - warp and weft were different colors of the same fiber - didn't work, so this is Plan B. The warp is a minty green 8/2 cotton and the weft is an off-white 3/2 organic cotton. I didn't realize until I took this photo that there really is a pattern here. I think I like it . . . . When I told Dick and Marie I was doing a 'name draft' they thought I'd be spelling out words, like in card weaving. I think they were disappointed there weren't "real" letters in the fabric.

I've woven about 10" tonight. I'd do more, but one of the ties holding the warp on the back beam broke and I can't get enough weight on there to keep it tensioned. Gotta wait for Commander Woodshop to fix it in the A.M. Thank goodness for handy hubbies!

Naked No More

Yesterday I finally decided on a weaving project using a threading from Marguerite Davison's Handweaver's Pattern Book. I wound the warp chain and threaded the reed last night. I could have started on the heddles, I had time, but something made me wait. And I'm glad I did. After reading Kimberly's blog today, I've changed my plan, yet again. Using Kimberly's idea, along with instructions I found here and here, I sat down with graph paper and planned a name graph. The number of threads I cut and threaded last night turned out to be the exact number I needed for this newest incarnation. How freaky is that? This project was meant to be.
So what does it say? Not going to tell until it's done.

Pumpkin Day

With Halloween just around the corner, we joined Matt's gang at Faulkner Farms in Santa Paula to find a pumpkin or two. It's one of my favorite places 'cause there's more to do than just pick a pumpkin and go. There are wheelbarrow rides - but you have to bring your own propulsion system. "Matt power" works really well.

We found a petting zoo with cows, pigs, goats and Nai'a's favorite - adorable little bunnies. Miles loved swinging the gate more than petting the animals. There were plenty of pumpkins in a range of sizes and shapes. Miles was hesitant at first but he quickly got into the spirit. He knew he could only have one, so he'd put a pumpkin in the wheelbarrow, than find another he liked better. Out went the first one and in went the second. Then he found another he liked - out with the old and in with the new. And his choices kept getting bigger and bigger. That's going to be one tired little boy tonight!

There was steer roping, California-style - and pony rides - both kids were belted in, but Dad wasn't taking any chances, walking alongside Miles the whole way. The weather was nice - warm and dry after yesterday's rain - but you can tell the Santa Ana winds are on their way back again. It was dusty and breezy, which made the lemonade taste even better. Today was Faulkner Farm's last day for the season so the remaining pumpkins were buy 1 get 1 free. Marie only found one she liked, but Nai'a and Miles ended up with two or three each. Can't wait to see the jack-o-lanterns Chris and Matt come up with.

Indecision

Poor little naked loom. I'd planned to spend the day weaving. My weaving area is cleaned up; the visiting loom and other weaving stuff I'd been storing for the guild is gone, sold at last Saturday's sale. All I need do is find a project and get going. Instead, I've spent all day stalling and making excuses to avoid starting. Vacuuming, cleaning the cat boxes (I'll spare you a photo), laundry - apparently even housecleaning is better than making a decision.

Weaving is different from knitting and crochet. With those two, you find a project you like, buy the pattern and yarn, pick up the sticks, and get to work. If you're a beginner - like I am with weaving - you follow the directions pretty much to the letter and you end up with something that, hopefully, looks like the pattern.

With weaving, there are too many variables. No patterns per se. I have multiple cones of yarn but - of course - none of it is what I need for the projects I like in Handwoven or the weaving books I've spent the evening perusing. I think - maybe - I've found what I'm going to make. It's now 11:30 at night, too late to start the project . . . . want to bet by morning I've changed my mind again? I'm practically paralyzed with indecision. This is ridiculous.

On a happier note, I started a new crochet project. This is Short and Sweet from Debbie Stoller's Happy Hooker book using Cascade Ecological Wool and an "H" hook. Once I found the errata and diagram on the designer's blog, this started going together nicely. The stitch pattern is thick - lots of front and back-post stitches. This is going to be one warm sweater.

Yarn P0rn

All the money I made teaching last night's class? Spent it!

Webs is having a(nother) sale - Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk at more than 50% off??!? Oh, yeah. I bought that. And this - and this - and this - and maybe just a little of this. Noro cotton. Who knew?

East Coast Flowers

It's been a slow week, blogging-wise. I taught a crochet class tonight (a reversible cabled scarf class, my own pattern), I'm co-teaching a beginning crochet class tomorrow night, and Thursday I'm giving a lesson plus it's spin night. Not very blogable.

I figured if I couldn't be interesting, I could at least show you something pretty. I love taking close-up shots of flowers. These are from our trip to New England earlier this month. Enjoy! Oh wait, that's not a flower. That's a Sweet-Sweet!

Success!

It's over - and all that bagging and tagging, untangling and de-snarling? Totally worth it! The ping-pong table worth of stuff was reduced to this - barely enough to cover the trunk of my little car. The weather cooperated with gentle breezes and temps in the 70's (unlike today, with hurricane-force winds and major fires* throughout the area) and the site was gorgeous, with full-grown oak trees providing shade for most of the area. We were so busy that I didn't have a chance to take photos until afternoon, when the crowds had thinned out. We had a flood of shoppers right when we opened at 10:00 and it continued steady until about 1:30 when we closed the raffle and silent auction. We still had customers as we started packing up at 3:00. I didn't get a chance to sit down until about 1:30, and the crochet project I'd planned to work on never made it out of the car. Poor Marie 'volunteered' to lend a hand, helping me unload and set up at 6:30, then manning the cash register until noon. Her assistance (on 3 hours sleep) made a big difference!

I'm estimating we had several hundred shoppers throughout the day and they all seemed anxious to buy. All the vendors I talked to said they sold more than expected; one doubled her estimate and another made more than 3x's what she'd planned. Major success! And the best news of all? They all want to come back again next year, provided we have it at the same location.

Guild members gave demos and answered questions about spinning, weaving, bobbin lace (gorgeous! but way too detail-oriented for me), knitting, crochet and more. We had a host of inquiries about joining the guild and actually acquired four new members.

Granny's Attic was a definite winner. It was a lot of work to prepare - this was where all the bagged yarn ended up - but it sold like hotcakes. We also sold items that guild members wanted to part with, with 10% of the sales price going to the guild.
Bottom line? We have a few bills to pay but it looks like we'll clear - as profit - over $2100. Whoohoo! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. (And Dick is getting pretty tired of hearing about it. [grin] )

*Fire Day

This is the view from my front yard about 2:30 today - and looking across the street. There's a fire a few miles away, in Santa Rosa Valley, but I can't find much info on it - the newsies are all talking about the fire in Malibu. Most of the smoke around here is from the Castaic/Piru fire. Poor Piru; seems like they burn every year. Sure hope the winds calm down soon so the firefighters can get a handle on these blazes.