Living Near a Fiber Artist

Sometimes I wonder what our neighbors that of me.  Living next door to a fiber artist must be weird at times.  What got me thinking about this is that I have woven 3 scarfs since the beginning of the year.  After I am finished weaving them, I soak them in a hot bath of *Soak Wash* and very hot tap water and rough them up a bit to help set the weave.  After the water cools I rinse the scarf out of the excess dye.  Then it is time for thwacking. To do this I take the soaking wet scarf to the back yard and swing it as hard as I can on to the patio table for a few minutes.  Then it goes into the garage to dry on the line.  The same thing happens to freshly hand spun yarn too.

At other times I have freshly washed fiber drying in the sun. Perhaps blocking mats laying outside when I have to block something. Sometimes it’s a freshly wash quilt hanging on the fence.  On a nice day I might take my spinning wheel out side to spin.  If a fleece has a lot of vegetable matter I might take the carder to the driveway or front porch to card so I don’t have to sweep and vacuum a mess in the house.  I might even sit outside and knit.

I have friends who hang freshly dyed yarn outside to dry.  Even decorate fences with fiber art.  I have friends who dye yarn in their back yards too. I also will dye yarn in the back yard at times.  When I waited for Eric’s bus I used to stand outside and knit scarfs.

Does this make me weird? Does it mean that I just know how to have a lot of fun? That I don’t know when to stop having fun?

* I have been using Soak Wash for a long time.  If your local yarn or lingerie shop does not carry Soak Wash you can get it directly from Soak Wash , Raverly or Amazon. The makers of Soak Wash did not pay for this endorsement. I have not received anything for the mention in the blog.  It is just my favorite wool and lingerie wash.  I always have at least a couple of spare bottles in the laundry room so that I don’t run out.  I also recommend it to wash all of my by hand created fine washables.

A Sneak Peak

Tonight I am giving you a sneak peak of part of the third scarf I am weaving this year. Yes I know it is only January 6th.   My creativity is running on high octane.  I am just trying to keep up. This section is woven with a 3 ply yarn. 1 ply merino and 2 plies of crochet thread. Just look at the lovely pattern it creates.  This scarf was started this afternoon.

New Years Resolutions

Every time I go buy smaller size clothing people are always asking for my “miracle diet tips” everyone wants a fast easy way to lose weight and inches. I would like to say that I am not perfect. I have awful seasonal cravings. I don’t always make my step goal. I also know I just need to brush off the crumbs and resume my healthier lifestyle. It’s not about diets, it’s all about life style changes. I have been working on this gradually since June 2009.  It’s not fast in any way. There are blog post about this too.

So with this disclaimer:  I am not a medical professional. This is what works for me. Always talk to your doctor or other medical professional before making major lifestyle changes.

For me it’s about getting the bad for me stuff out of my life. These include high fructose corn syrup, artificial sugars, 80% of the regular sugars. White potatoes and white rice. I have also eliminated most soda, I had 1 bottle of soda since June 2018.  I had a really sudden and bad migraine and needed to drive across town in a few hours. I am not perfect by any means.  Perfection in lifestyle is an ugly facade.  It’s also about drinking more water or unsweetened teas.

Next it’s about moving your body.  You don’t need to buy an expensive gym membership, unless of course you want to. I got a pedometer and did a two week base line, of 2,500 steps a day. Yes, really. Once that was established I would increase my step goal by no more than 10% when I felt I could handle more exercise. My current goal is 8,080 steps a day.  You can find me walking in circles or figure 8’s around the house if the weather is not ideal or I am having a bad body day.  I also started deep cleaning the house. Small things like emptying the linen closet, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of.  Fold all the keepers and putting them back. Drawer by drawer. Closet by closet.  Until there was less.  I recommend Zenning in 5 minutes a Day.  Then start doing things like sweeping the floors on a regular basis.  Take over the vacuuming.  Do 30 minutes of housework a day.  It might sound really silly, but there is a method to my madness. The more you move and do things the more muscles you will build.  The more muscles you build the more calories your body uses, the more lean mass you build the more inches you will lose.  For more details on this ask your doctor.

Since June 2018 I have been trying to follow the low glycemic diet with 45 grams of carbs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. With snacks only if I am hungry. Again check with your doctor about this. I buy whole grain bread, fresh fruit and vegetables. I try to eat lean meat and eat fish several times a week.

So this is my invitation for you to join me on the slow trip to a thinner you.  The ultimate goal is better health no matter what size you end up at the end of your journey.

A Busy Day

Today was a very busy day.  We went car shopping. We are at the just looking stage. We need a car that will fit a tall and short person plus a spinning wheel in the back without laying it on its side. Also it would be nice if Teri and Tej could fit in the back seat when they came in for a visit. It’s not that big of an ask. We went to 3 different showrooms and just sat in the cars.

Out of the 3 we visited today, we eliminated one brand because they did not offer power seats in any of the models we were looking at. We were told that power seats were a luxury item. In 2020 really? They obviously don’t have arthritis.

 I was really annoyed with one salesman at the beginning because he was so snobby. Did we really belong in that showroom.  I really don’t see the need to dress up on a Saturday to go car shopping. Besides who dresses up to go car shopping anyway? A very rookie mistake by the salesman as far as I am concerned.  The sad part was that they had a nice car with features that we liked.

The other car that we liked had almost everything we wanted and the salesman was great. The car hunting adventures will continue. We still have at least 3 more brands to look at before we start the test drives.

 I also finished weaving the scarf that was on the loom and took it off.  I re warped the loom and started the next scarf and wove 29 inches of it tonight. So tomorrow morning I will tie up the ends of the red scarf , then soak it in hot water and thwack it. Finish weaving the blue and gray scarf and start the last scarf.  I have some really good news about my scarfs for later in the week. Stay tuned.

Hat 1-2020

Another day another hat. This is the first hat of 2020. It is 100% cotton and is already in the bag for my favorite clothing bank.  Yes, the next hat has been started.  I really like how it turned out.

The First

This is the beginning of the 1st hand woven scarf of 2020. I warped it tonight and wove 19 inches. A linen warp and a silk and wool weft.

It’s the Last Hat

This is the last hat that I knit in 2019. It was hat number 80.  I hope you did not think that this was my last hat ever. I have many more hats to knit. There is never a shortage of cold heads in Tucson that need hats.