WEAVING AND WEAVING

I am back at the loom, and quite honestly, I can't imagine how I stayed away so long.  I am loving the colors, the textures, the solitude, the meditative rhythm as I look out the picture window in front of me at the winter vineyard.  

The fourth rug since I began....

...reclaimed wool, which began as old blankets, cut into thin strips and woven on a linen warp.

One can get lost in the repetition of warp--weft--warp--weft...

...going to inner places of healing.

Once I finished the above rug, I still had linen warp remaining on the loom, so I decided on a mixture of colors that would represent the rock outcroppings and ledges here in the Kickapoo.  Again I was using reclaimed wool blankets, but also used some of the wool rug yarns I have collected over the years.  I am really happy with how the colors turned out to look so much like the many ledges I have seen on my countless journeys through the Kickapoo Valley Reserve: hiking, skiing, snow shoeing.

Still something was niggling at me and the thought of another wall hanging emerged. I decided to make this into a wall hanging using the Friends of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve's logo as the central theme. 

The making and appliqueing of this logo was anything but easy.  I almost gave up, researched and drew a large Blue Heron to applique, but in the end went with the depiction of pines, ledges, and the river.

I am happy with the end result.

Still, I did not use up all the warp and my next project has begun!!

I'M WARPED

Finally, after summer, fall and a few winter months, I am back to weaving.  It's funny that I forgot how much I love to weave.  I warped my old Union Loom with a heavy duty rug linen, and despite some tension problems, am happy with the resulting rugs.

A while back I was shopping in a thrift store in Richland Center and came across five large rag balls, so neatly folded (they looked ironed) and 'balled' up, I was unable to resist.  I also loved the quiet color combinations of beige and reds.  When I was contemplating what to use as a weft, I noticed the color of the linen warp matched so well with the color in the rag balls, I decided to use them.

Despite the dull quality of the photo below, the color combination really turned out quite lovely.  As the rags were doubled, this made for a nice heavy duty rug.

As I still had plenty of warp left on the rug, I decided to use some of the wool rug yarn that has been hanging in my workshop for years...

It was difficult to decide on what colors to use, but I think this color combination worked out well.

This is quite a long rug, and once I have 'finished' it off, I think it will be quite nice.

And on another note, I spent some time yesterday making English Muffins.  We enjoyed them with farm fresh eggs and Organic Valley's turkey bacon for brunch.

Perhaps a bit of work for just six muffins, the next time I will double the recipe.

And an added treat to start my day today...Andy had to come and get hay and Iris, with whom I have never skied, came along.  We skied along Jug Creek and had lots of fun.  She is a great little skier.  It was slippery, but we figured this might be the last chance this winter to ski.   I so much look forward to skiing the entire loop with her next winter. 

A LONG WAYS TO GO YET

First of all....

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

...and second of all, I am still hopeless at the editing process of this new camera once transferred to my computer.  I seem to be able to operate the camera on a basic level, but getting it to the right place on my computer is baffling me.  To be honest, I have been so busy prepping for Valentine's Day, that I haven't confronted the Dummies book yet.  Next on my agenda.  So for now, at least I hope it is just 'for now', these photos are way less then I want them to be!!!!!

 

I  spent quite some time making Valentine cards, loosely using the "Tangle" technique of Zentangles.  This really was lots of fun, and makes for a striking card. 

Andy built the girls a 'work table' and their chairs were in need of pads.  I told the girls, much to their delight, that I had made valentines for their 'bottoms', and they were mystified, until they opened these.

We also have been doing lessons around the story of Little Red Riding Hood on Nonnie Day...

...their own Red Riding Hood capes.

The girls also received pendants I commissioned my niece to make, and as they are so perfectly beautiful, I did not photograph them.  Once I am able to do them justice, I will post a photo of them.  For Iris she made an enamel iris and for Elsa Mae, an enamel May flower, both set in sterling silver.  Quite honestly, they are gorgeous!!

On another note, our local library is fund raising for a much needed expansion.  We will be having a silent auction in conjunction with the Lion's Club pancake supper (proceeds to go to the expansion project)...we are actively soliciting donations....

and as I have finally found time to get back to weaving

here is a wallhanging I am donating to the auction.  It is a woven background, with branches and owls appliqued. 

I am also spending this afternoon completing the warping of one of my floor looms.  I am warping with a heavy duty linen warp and hope to weave a couple of new rugs in the next couple of weeks.

It feels good to be back at the loom!!

STILL A LOT TO LEARN

I finally got the new camera out of the box!  Have been doing some studying, and some tentative photo taking.  This morning I decided to put them on the computer, only to find out that the UBS cord for my new camera was 'available separately' and I did not have it, I was a bit miffed to say the least.  Thankfully, my old cord fits and works.  

However, as all this was going on, my computer had gone back out for additional clean-up and repair, as when I got it back, things just were not working properly.  I find, at this point anyway, that I can not edit my photos, at least not as I usually did.  So the pictures on this posting are totally unedited.  I will study the manual and the book for Dummies some more, but for now, I am happy to have gotten this far.

A FEW DAYS OF WORKING WITH BREAD

Last week when my girls were here eating/cleaning me out of pesto bread sticks we decided that the next Nonnie day we would make bread sticks.  I had dough rising and ready...

Tiny rolling pins rolled out the dough, little hands applied the pesto then rolled the dough into bread sticks....

...a little left over dough just right for individual pizzas for lunch...

The bread sticks.

These girls are great in the kitchen, attentive, serious, and I know they are going to be great cooks!!!  A Nonnie's delight.

On another note, a small group of friends expressed some interest in a Bread Baking 101 gathering, and knowing it would be great fun, I bought the ingredients, set up four stations, and yesterday we made bread.

Our plan was to make sour dough baguettes, and I had prepped a quart of sour dough starter for each, had 7 grain bread flour and unbleached bread flour at the ready...(and some wine, of course)

Each at her own station,  mixing and stirring the initial sour dough ferment.

After mixing, and kneading the dough is now ready for rising.  Clean, wet dish towels will cover the bowls while rising.

As I had prepared ahead of time, bread at each of its stages for them to see, we had two warm, crusty loaves to eat along with the cheese, wine and dessert these lovely ladies brought along.

I really cannot remember when I last had such fun.  I kind of wish it hadn't happened yet, as I'd like to experience it again.  Guess I'll hunt up another interested group!

WHITEWASHED TROUBLES

It has been a time of (comparatively speaking, minor) troubles.  First of all my computer has been acting up, and I sent it out for cleaning/repair.  It was not easy being without a computer. My computer is still acting up, and will be going once again to be worked on.  Then my 4-year old camera up and died, cost to repair more than camera worth.

So, I went out and bought another camera, which has sat in its box, unopened, for almost a week.  Why, one might ask?  Well, I do believe it is a camera 'beyond' at least my current, abilities!  I have been afraid to open it as I would probably not know how do operate it, maybe not even know how to get it together.  It is a Nikon DSLR 3100, and I have never owned anything other than a point and shoot.  Thus my trepidation.  I did, however, open it this morning, charged up the battery, and will now break out my DSLR Digital Cameras for DUMMIES book. 

Now for the GOOD news....it is snowing, and I mean really snowing.

I came out to my workshop at 6:30 this morning, with the snow coming down.  I shoveled off the deck and the steps, saw that schools were closed, and wondered at how long this snow would keep coming.

I put on my skis and out we (my dog and I) went!  It was glorious, that is outdoors, the skiing was, well not quite skiing.  It was more like a ski-hike, with little if any gliding.  It was, however, lovely and great exercise!  

After returning from skiing, I came back out to my workshop, and proceeded to shovel off five new inches of snow from the steps and the deck.  That was perhaps 30 minutes ago.  There has already accumulated another 2" of snow.  Perhaps skiing will be better this afternoon!!!
 

(And no, these photos were not taken with my new camera, they were archived!)

THE LOST FORTY

It was very cold yesterday, not as cold as today where our thermometer registers only 10 below, but cold nonetheless at about 8 above zero.  Still it was sunny and lovely, so we decided to take a hike.

At least once per year, especially in the winter, I want to take a hike to the 'Lost Forty' in order to see the spread of 'Princess Pines'.  Princess Pine is the common name for this beautiful, tiny, pine-tree-looking plant.  They are somewhat rare and in no other place that we have hiked have we seen them.

They are really this brilliant a green and in some spots this prolific, as well.

"Common Name: Club Moss, Running pine, Staghorn club moss, Wolf claw club moss, Ground pine, Running moss, Princess pine - The common name describes the club-like appendages at the end of a long stalk that extends upward from the moss-like basal plant, the overall effect is a  moss with clubs.

Scientific Name:  Lycopodium clavatum  - The generic name is from the Greek words  lukos meaning wolf and podos meaning foot; the tips of the branches are reminiscent of a wolf  paw.   The specific name is from the Latin clava meaning club which accentuates the club-like extensions.

Club mosses are the vestigial relict of the earliest  land plants which evolved in the Devonian Period  about 395 million years ago. Members of this group of plants included  tree lycopods of the extinct genus Lepidodendron that were up to 100 feet in height whose deposition and decay during the Carboniferous Period engendered the world's major coal fields. The club moss is not a moss since it is vascular; mosses are  non-vascular bryophytes. Botanically, vascular refers to the evolution of  specialized xylem and phloem cells that provide for the fluid transfer necessary for nutrient provisioning and sufficient for complex structure.  Club mosses are often referred to in the vernacular literature as lycophytes or lycopsids in reference to earlier taxonomies that  placed them in the divisions Lycophyta and Lycopsida, now in desuetude due to the revelations of DNA associations. Club mosses are now generally grouped in a separate class,  Lycopodiopsida.

The life cycle of the club mosses, like that of the ferns, is a combination of a spore producing phase (sporophyte) and a sexual phase (gametophyte), an arrangement that appears to mark a transitional phase in the evolution of plants. The cycle nominally starts when a single  spore among the billions produced successfully germinates and forms one of two different pre-sexual bodies called prothalli. While some prothalli are photosynthetic and epigeal, growing on top of the soil, most are  hypogeal, buried by accumulated debris or faunal motive activity to depths of up to 4 inches." (Excerpted from The Hikers Notebook, to access online go to: http://www.sierrapotomac.org/W_Needham/ClubMoss_040110R090318.htm)

We started our hike uphill wending our way through all of the tree-fall from Freddie's hillside cut last winter...it was not easy, but did keep us warmed up.

We are within the 'Lost Forty' approaching the Princess Pines.

It is truly a lovely spot and feels quite magical.

I was sufficiently bundled up against the temperature, and except for my hands getting cold when I took photos, I stayed plenty warm.

These miniature 'pines' are slowly spreading, and each time we come to this spot, they have multiplied, though not in huge amounts.  They appear undamaged year after year, and we have a tendency to keep this location secret, in order to keep them that way.

It definitely was a cold day, however it was both physically and mentally invigorating.  The hour and a half hike proved to be a spiritual renewal!!

SUNDAY SLEDDING

Well, finally I have my blog activated, as well as my computer cleaned up and updated.  Now, I am trying to get used to new operations. 

These are the photos I wanted to upload a week ago, and despite there being little snow left on these hills now, I thought I would post anyway.  We did manage to choose exactly the right day for this family sledding party.

We live in very hilly country, a true blessing as far as I am concerned.  Our vineyard is on a hill just above the barn, and visible from the house and from my cabin as well.  It is a picturesque sight to say the least.

It was a magnificent day, the sun shinning brightly, the air crisp but not too cold, and the sky truly was this blue.

My daughter Jonel, Andy her husband and their two girls, Iris, 6 and Elsa 3 came along with Freddie's daughter Kari, her husband Doug and their children, Morgan 10, Morgan's friend Hayley, Macy 8, and Nolan 4.  

The hill was really slick and fast and ever so long.  The grown ups did a lot of sledding, but they also did a great deal of...

hauling back up the hill.

I would say at least two hours were spent going down and going up and going down and going up...clothes were shed, eyes were closed, and there was much laughter.

This little three year old stunned me when I realized that the saucer with a little one speeding by at what seemed like at least 30 miles an hour, contained Elsa, eyes shut but in full command.  She loved it and went back for more and more and still more!!

Inside for hot cocoa and hot soup and lots more play.  It was a great family day!  Now let's hope for more snow, lots more snow.  Let's hope that winter is nowhere near over.