Handwoven Hair Toys!

I have been saving pieces of my handwoven pieces for years knowing that I would use them someday...So here they are with my handmade buttons!  Made my buttons over at Mary Harding's studio who is a dear friend and lives nearby.  (https://www.etsy.com/shop/maryhardingjewelry)

All backed with felt...button sewn on...and a hair clip!  Clip on your bag, your hair, whatever!

Not on Etsy yet...but soon!

xo

Student Work... and the ride that wasn't.

Such a good student!  Wove a little sampler with different colors and different treadling and even learned to weave with two shuttles!  We took it off and made another warp figuring out pattern repeats and thread counts and density...rolled it on...threaded the yarn in a pattern...sleyed the reed...and started weaving that.  So she will come back next week (some people have a real job) and finish her weaving.  Any mistakes you can see (don't look too hard) in this one are my mistakes in threading last night.  Might have been the wine, I don't know...

Oh yeah...went for a ride this morning with Linda (who boards her horse with me) and Sandy (who is a beginner and rides one of my horses).  Well...Sandy went off Dakota while we were in my field.  Dakota refused to be caught.  Spent a while walking through knee high wet grass.  Got close a couple of times.  Finally Linda rode back to the barn to get a bucket of grain.  Gary heard the horses yelling (ok mine was screaming in my ear).  Sandy and I started to walk back with Django in tow.  Dakota panicked and galloped past us, reins dangling.  Gary lowered the electric fence, showed Dakota the bucket and caught him while we were still trudging along.  So at least it was exercise.  And tomorrow Dakota is being worked in the ring until he turns and faces me and lets me approach and put on a halter.  For sure.  My boots are still squishy.
xo

Warp for a Student...

Well, it's been awhile since I have had a student...but today I put on a warp for an acquaintance who bought my LeClerc 45-inch loom.  I haven't been using it since I moved it upstairs.  After I moved it a couple of years ago I realized that I didn't like working up there and needed to be downstairs where people come in and be near the phone.  I like to be able to hear cars coming up the driveway.  Anyway, I was getting along fine with my other looms so I sold this one.  I have also slowed down since cancer and chemo and I haven't been weaving such wide pieces anymore.

In any case, I am letting her learn on my Norwood, 22-inch loom.  My favorite and the first loom I ever bought.  Figured I would put on a pattern that could weave two shuttle as well as one.  I don't have a feeling for what she will like doing yet, but tomorrow will be playing in the morning and weaving off this piece and then learning to read drafts and treadling as well as making a little warp and re-warping this loom.  Then I will see how the time goes.  Usually I take two whole days with this but she seems to want to do it in a day.  Here's hoping for stamina!  

Will post more pictures as it goes!  Wish me luck!

xo

Oh yeah...first I need a ride in the morning on Django!  Going to be a little cooler and maybe not as many biting deer flies if we go very early!

Adam's Mini Paintings

We visited my oldest, Adam, and my Daughter in Law, Alicia, and granddaughter, Ava, in March of this year.  A long, long trip to Maui.  We spent a little over a week there and got to see where they lived and get to know Ava a little.  We have skyped but it certainly isn't like a visit.

Adam paints and sells on Etsy as well as locally in Maui... www.studioserra.etsy.com.  I fell in love with some of his tiny paintings and bought 3 of them to take back with us to Upstate New York.  Just got them framed and home the other day and I love the way they look!!!  A vacation for the eyes!

Well...maybe we can go back next year!!!  Though we are having a wedding next summer for Alex and Victoria so they will come out for that...Maui is way too far away. sigh.
xo

Downtown Scarf

Woven with all kinds of silky stuff...pattern from Davidson's Handwoven Pattern Book...periwinkle.  Just because I love the name, periwinkle...and it has some interest without using a tabby which would make the scarf too heavy.  One down one to go.  Each one different and not repeatable!

9 1/2 inches wide and 71 inches long...

Hope everyone's weekend was wonderful!
xo

A Silky Downtown Scarf...

Ahhhh...back to weaving after a creative break.  Even though my looms are full: one with towels, one with gorgeous red fabric, I haven't felt like weaving lately.  But thought I would pop on a white silky warp with some off white rayon and a rayon boucle and weave with tencel, hand-dyed rayon, and whatever else caught my attention.  Haven't taken it off yet or seen the whole scarf but I think it is going well!

Off for a ride on Django!
xo

A walk in the woods...

Well...we had 17 truckloads of sand delivered and hired someone to bring it from where it was dumped and spread it on the new road.  The horses love cantering up this sandy path!

 My new road through the swamp and to the woods

 Coming up to the pond...

Meanwhile, Gary and I rented an excavator to dig out rocks both in the pasture and in the woods.  And I had fun piling them on the side of the path.

 Riding path through the woods

Sleepy horses...Django (L), Dakota (M), Skye (R)

Taking a rest day today from riding (me and the horses)...I have been tiring lately but I think it is the humidity and heat.  Having a PET scan Friday just to make sure everything is ok inside.  I never had one before so that should be interesting.  Here's hoping nothing lights up!!!!

xo