I have noticed that whenever I warp any of my looms that I always stop at 10 inches of weaving the first day. I also found that the British show The Great Pottery Throw Down, on HBO Max is a great show to watch while warping my loom. So here is the beginning of my latest scarf which is going to the Flowing Wells SD Clothing Bank. This is another of my great stash busting projects this year I wonder how many scarfs that I can weave
After yesterday’s food debacle when the restaurant deemed that 11% fat was a low fat item, By the way my body says it’s not. All I had the energy to do was 2 loads of hand wash and 2 washer and dryer loads. Then it was a day of rehydration and knitting.
I am hoping to enough energy to spin some of my new mini batts tomorrow. I would also like to do some more drum carding of fiber. I also want to warp the loom and get some scarfs started. As long as we stay home with the temperature heading upwards of 109, maybe higher. I will be staying inside. I hope I have enough energy for everything
The hats pictured below are the 2 hats that I finished today. Don’t worry the knitting needles are not lonely as I started another hat and a scarf
I have moved into my hyper drive knitting for the summer. I am knitting with 2 strands of worsted weight cotton held together. I use US size 13 knitting needles, so these go super fast. I can finish between 1 and 3 hats a day. These usually go to the younger children. I hope by the time I finish this spree I will have one more empty storage box. This one is 48 quarts and almost empty. I do get a little crazy with the colors, the kids like bright and colorful hats.
I usually use some cone yarn with the scraps of yarn from these hats going into regular hats for older kids. By the way, this is the 37th hat of the year. I also have a full tub of 4 to 6 ounce skeins that I will use to add variety of these hats.
Would you believe that carding batts is this weeks strategy for cutting down my fiber stash. If it is not ready to spin it is harder to use up. Today I spent enough time to card a dozen batts using bits and pieces of fiber to make many one of a kind batts. I also did two bundles with 3 batts each that can be spun together for more yardage. I have a feeling that I will be changing up my Louet Victoria to accommodate the smaller bobbins for the one of a kind batts. These batts will be spun up and used in scarfs for the clothing bank. My carder needed a short break so I took a picture of some of the action.
Yesterday we had our first in the house visitors since last year. My older sister and brother-in-law came by for a visit. We had a nice chat, a couple of meals out. We also did a lot of knitting, the girls only. The guys just talked. All in all it was a very good visit.
I had to clean my Ashford Drum Carder after dinner. I usually use a needle nose pliers, however tonight we used some of John’s 3D printer tools. I must say that they worked very good. So next time you need to clean your carder find someone with a 3D printers tools. They made the job faster. It is so much nicer using a clean drum carder.
I have just finished emptying the plastic box I used to carry all my supplies for craft sales. I will no longer be spending months of my time crafting for a solo charity fundraiser or taking part in fund raisers for charity. This is not to say that I am giving up all my charity work, just the shows. The shows take up 100’s of hours of preparation and a few hundred dollars or more in supplies, all to spend a whole day selling the items to make somewhere between a few dollars to a few thousand for the charity. If asked and I have the time I might make a few items. All the charity work was supposed to lead to a part time crafting career, but I found people only bought from me at charity events and would even call me to see if I would be willing to sell a high ticket item after the event was over and give all the money to charity. They would even ask when my next show would be so they could get what they needed. When I offered to sell it to them they would always say that they would wait for the charity event. This diminishes my work as an artist, to tell me that my work is only good enough for charity events and not to buy at other times.
So I will be doing art for me. Doing what I love. I do have a very wonderful children’s clothing bank that takes what ever I make and finds a new home for my creations. This gives me greater joy than charity sales events. I am making 1 child at a time happy and warmer.
I will still teach knitting, spinning and weaving, because this also brings me joy. I will still be designing new patterns, as I like sharing. I like to see people learn new things. Again this will be on a limited basis.
The past 32 years has been hard on my body and soul. I still have some issues that I am working through. I am tired. I have more issues with my body as I get older that need to be taken care of, I am moving slower than I was 3 decades ago and I don’t like that. So this is the beginning of the me era until my family needs me.
