Livin' La Needle Loca

...and I have no new garden photos today. I had to take the cat to the vet this morning before going to work. There simply wasn't enough time to take photos.  Instead, here is a photo of my latest handspun project in progress. This is Mint Green Tea [ Ravelry ]: Up this weekend: I have no idea. There are so many things running through my head right now that I don't know where to start. Maybe some chores will get done and definitely a grocery store run. Some crafting will happen. I was asked to knit an avocado cozy for a friend, so I'll need to stash dive for that. I should have some appropriate yarn on hand for that. As for what else to work on, I'm just going to play it by ear. .

...I totally went down a rabbit hole this week. Lots of work things keeping me so busy that it's the end of the day before I can even surface. So let's play a little catch up. Spinning:  I finished spinning the singles for Mission District Handspun [ Ravelry ]. I started spinning a new handspun using a Shirsty Cat fiber I bought at Stitches West in 2017. There was no color name listed, so I'm calling it Mint Green Tea.  I'm in the process of spinning the singles.  Weaving: I finished weaving repeat #3 and wove repeat #4. Yay! Knitting: No progress on existing projects. However, today I was commissioned to knit an avocado cozy for a friend. It will be a quick and fun knit to do. No progress on the quilting, sewing, or stitching WIPs in rotation. Housework: no progress on this either! I did get a lot of reading done, though. I've read 85 books so far this year...reading is definitely winning! WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Mission District Handspun (spinnin...

...and Happy Solstice! This morning in the garden we have a new passionfruit forming: Orange dahlias opening: Apricots getting closer and closer to ripe: and Trachelium caeruleum, aka Blue Lace Flowers: Up this weekend: Figure our if my new clamp-on lamp is going to work with my loom. The neck is long enough, but the clamp may not open wide enough to attach to the back of my loom. I might have to come up with something creative to make it work! I need to do some serious organizing of my handspun. It's starting to take over the empty floor space! There has to be a better way! I have some spinning and weaving that I want to do. Less appealing, but very necessary, is the need to do a deeper clean of the house. Let's not even talk about the dust gathering on the bookshelves in the living room! .

...and no new photos today either. I had a choice this morning to take photos or go to the store and buy my lunch. Lunch won. ;) At Craft Coffee last night, I worked on the Estrella Marina shawl [ Ravelry ]. I am finally past the point where I discovered an error - hooray! I've been trying to think how to use up some of my handspun to free up some storage space. I have a lot of handspun, both in regular weights and in art yarn. The project that's running through my brain right now is a quasi-tapestry/Saori piece using different blue handspuns combined with unspun top. My issue is that I don't have a loom wide enough to handle my vision. I don't want to buy yet-another loom, so I'm checking out DIY options for the best way to make a big loom. If making my own wide loom doesn't work, I suppose I could always weave two panels on my Knitters Loom and join them to make the piece. Hmmm... WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Estrella Marina Shawl (knitting) [ Ravel...

...and the weekend report. It was a mish-mosh of different activities. Spinning:  I continued to spin the singles for the Mission District handspun [ Ravelry ]. It was pretty much my go-to project when other things hit a speed bump. I'm trying to spin it a little thinner than normal, but I'll have to wait until I ply it to see whether I was successful. Knitting:  As I reported a couple of weeks ago, I discovered an error in the Estrella Marina Shawl [ Ravelry ]. I finally got it tinked back to the place where I forgot to do the KFB (only did a knit). Then I reknit it almost back to where I figured out there was a problem. Weaving:  It seemed to be the weekend for errors. When I picked up the weaving again, I noticed that the last pick finished on the wrong side, meaning that I missed a pick somewhere in the 72 picks of the pattern. Sigh. I started unweaving. After unweaving 10 picks I realized that the unwoven/raveled yarn was going to be an issue. Rather than tr...

...and I am so ready! Our apricots are getting close to ripe. We can tell because the birds are starting to eat them. Rotten birds... The husband planted a passion flower vine next to my bathroom window to help filter out the bright morning sunlight. I have always loved the flowers, but the plant itself is quite nice. Up this weekend: Father's Day is Sunday. We'll meet up with the Daughter for a late lunch to celebrate. Other than that, I have now specific plans. I might make a run to the sporting goods store to see whether they have any UPF clothing in my size. We are going to a music festival next month that will be outside in the hot sun - no umbrellas or tall lawn chairs are allowed. I need to make sure that I have a good hat and other clothes to protect my skin. I'm sure the weekend will include a little weaving, a little spinning, and who knows what else! .

...and no new photos today. It's been unusually hot the last couple of days - over 100 degrees. Once I get home from work, all I want to do is grab a cold drink and find a cool place to sit until the sun goes down. Even then, it's been too hot to do much of anything. When I went to bed at 10pm last night it was still 80 degrees. Yuck! WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Mission District Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Started spinning the singles. Shimmering Points Wrap (weaving) [ Ravelry ] Repaired the broken warp and wove a 3rd pattern repeat. In the Queue Renaissance Mermaid (cross stitch) Works In Progress, Did Not Work On This Week: Estrella Marina Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Finishing work for some old crewel pictures (sewing)  Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting) Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch) UFOs/Hibernation: Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Bear Paw pottery (needlepoint) Mother of Dragons shawl ...

...the spinning portion of the weekend. I couldn't quite face making the permanent fix of the broken warp thread, so I worked on spinning instead. I plied the Hot Lips Handspun [ Ravelry ]: and the close-up: Specs: Started 4/13/19 Finished 6/8/19 Camel-Silk (4 oz.) from Greenwood Fiberworks 162 yds. chain-plied, 15 WPI Then I plied the Cockles Handspun [ Ravelry ]: and the close-up: Specs: Started 5/27/19 Finished 6/8/19 Alpaca (4 oz.) from Sakina Needles 162 yds. chain-plied, 15 WPI On Sunday, I sewed a zippered cover for the bench pillow I bought the week before. I found a purple petroglyph fabric in my stash that had enough yardage. I'll take photos when I get a chance. Then I attacked the broken warp thread. I decided to use a combination of the different methods I found in my research. Instead of cutting the right length of warp and weighting it with container filled with pennies, I'm attaching the loose end of the warp directly fr...

...and we're officially 1 week into June! Things are happening in the garden! Our tomatoes are setting flowers: The berries are starting up: The apricots are starting to ripen: And we still have flowers blooming, like this dahlia: Up this weekend: More weaving! More spinning! And more sleep! (I'm just putting that out there so the Universe hears it and then it might happen. Ha!) .

...and a peek at the loom. As I mentioned in the last post, I found a configuration that let's me track where I am in the treadling pattern. Here's what it looks like (ignore the messy work spaces behind the loom): On the left is the double clamp holding the small magnetic white board with my treadling pattern and a bookmark magnet that I'm using to mark where I am in the pattern. On the right is the clip-on light that I'm currently using.  The light works, but doesn't illuminate the entire working area. This photo shows the current state of the project with the temporary fix for the broken warp. I'll do the permanent fix over the weekend. Despite the broken warp, I'm pleased with my progress. I've learned lots about my loom and weaving a complex pattern in the last couple of weeks! WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Cockles Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Finished spinning the singles; ready to ply. Estrella Marina Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ...

...and the weekend report. I spent most of my weekend at the loom, in one capacity or another. The first thing I wanted to address was how to track where I was in the pattern draft. Each pattern repeat has 72 picks, so memorizing it would not be easy. The original pattern was from a magazine and the treadling image was too small to see easily. I created an Excel spreadsheet and input the treadling pattern into 2 tables, 1/2 of the pattern in each. I made it so it would fit in a 5x7 area so I could trim down the paper. I tried using it last weekend, but I didn't have any place to mount it on the loom. I did not buy the high castle for my Baby Wolf so I don't have anywhere I can mount the pattern at eye-height. After Googling a bunch of options, I bought a gooseneck clamp that has clamps on both ends. It's designed for photographers to clamp onto a table and use the other clamp to hold paper, backdrops, etc. The features that I liked were that the gooseneck is 20-inches...

...still experiencing interrupted sleep patterns, so lots of reading. Finished: Nothing crafty, just books: Beach Wedding, Grace Greene 18th Abduction, James Patterson Price of Paradise, Susana López Rubio I’d Know You Anywhere, Laura Lippman Runaway Mistress, Robyn Carr Kill the Queen, Jennifer Estep Storm Cursed, Patricia Briggs To the Power of Three, Laura Lippman Shadow Hunter, BR Kingsolver Night Stalker, BR Kingsolver Gods and Demons, BR Kingsolver Dragon’s Egg, BR Kingsolver Witches’ Brew, BR Kingsolver Chameleon Assassin, BR Kingsolver Started: 5/27 Cockles Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] 5/4 Hot Lips Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Queued Renaissance Mermaid (cross stitch) IDJ (It's Dead, Jim) Midnight Obsession, Melinda Leigh (reading) Never Never, James Patterson (reading) Works In Progress: Estrella Marina Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Finishing work for some old crewel pictures (sewing) Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting...