What looms ahead?

The view from the cabin is always lovely and especially after snow. The branches droop with snow and clouds hang low on the mountain.

It may be a sign of aging that I think of snow blowing before I consider skiing and playing in it. I cleared the cabin path then headed to the end of the driveway.

Not so bucolic. The road was plowed to the dirt, which is great, but I faced a three foot wall of snow and dirt. They don’t teach you how to gnaw through this in Snow Blowing 101.

But gnaw I did.

And now there’s a clear path and the possibility of driving out…to play? But this is already on my loom.

Crafty

Happy to report I’m all better. My leg pain was a side effect from yet another statin. I stopped it and am fully recovered. Now I’ve moved on to an injectable med. We’ll see.

We’re swimming in the local pool three times a week and I’ve upped my game. Now I routinely swim a mile. I needed a bag to organize my swim stuff, so naturally I made one. This is the second iteration made from a bird seed sack. It holds everything I need, including my suit and goggles.

I was so happy when someone commented on how cute it was.

The loom has been warped with projects since I’ve been home. I’m working on my second set of towels.

I’m playing around with some of my quilts. I turned one into a baby sleep sack and a jacket.

My linocuts are getting more complex. I’m working on a 3 color version of a loon swimming. Here’s my drying rack.

And I’ve made a slew of hats and mittens as I am wont to do every year.

I finally had help stacking the wood for the winter. It’s the first year in a while Tim was not injured and he did most of the work.

We need it. We got two feet of snow and it’s not even winter yet!

No time to procrastinate

My to do list is getting shorter. We leave in a week to become caretakers at Bass Harbor Head lighthouse. If you are one of the 100,000! people who visit annually, please say hi.

The National Park Service acquired it from the US Coast Guard in 2020 and we will be its first NPS caretakers! Mount Desert Island is technically an island but we can drive there.

Time to clean the fridge. Meals become interesting as we eat through its contents.

Time to finish projects I can’t take with me. Actually, I will take my latest with me in its finished form. Back in March, I started weaving a queen size blanket made of alpaca silk yarn. I planned and calculated but still ran short of yarn 2/3 through and could not find more. I found some similar though, waited for it to be delivered, and made do.

Hot off the loom

I wove about 10 yards of fabric, cut it into three panels and, poof, we have a blanket to take to Maine.

Tim is in full form so I no longer am responsible for EVERYTHING!! Of course, he is already doing too much.

Sparky is sporting a new windshield but won’t be making this trip with us. He is strictly a lake boat. I found a great guy in the north country with a can do attitude and he did it!

We plan to bike the 45+ miles of carriage road in the park and I converted Tim’s bike to fit me, while he had a new recumbent bike delivered to Maine.

My car may look like the Beverly Hillbillies because I also fixed my roof rack just in case.

Off we go.

inspired by nature

Sunsets are guaranteed to happen every day, some more beautiful than others. We only have to marvel at them.

The palette inspires my weaving.

I am making more napkins on my table loom. We lost one of the two I made in Maine this winter so now I am making six for home.

My band weaving group is going to meet again after more than a year apart. I was inspired to try a 3 heddle technique on my inkle loom. I had to correct a few threading mishaps but now this will be easy weaving while we chat away the afternoon.

Aran meets Japan

I’m using a Japanese stitch pattern to make an Aran style baby sweater. Similar but different. It seems more delicate and lacy.

Kaleidescope quilt blocks

Down another rabbit hole. I am trying a new quilt technique where you cut 6 (or 8) identical triangles and arrange them into a hexagon. I use a hinged mirror to predict the outcome and plan the layout.

• 

• 

• 

• 

One triangle three ways

I try to create a little something every day. And keep a sense of wonder.

I joined the herd

The vaccination is the first step in creating herd immunity. Finally a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel, even while infections surge worldwide. I urge you to do the same when you get the call.

I learned Thursday I was eligible and drove 16 hours there and back to get it. Another whirlwind. But worth it.

In the brief hours I spent at home, I finished two projects: napkins for us to use in Maine; and a baby sweater. That’s a wrap for 2020 works in progress.

I drove from sunrise to sunset two days in a row. I left Schoodic peninsula shrouded in frozen fog! Whoever heard of such a thing. It leaves a thin shell of slippery ice on everything.

Starbucks cold brew made my trip possible. Caffeine in a can. Great sipping during a 9 hour drive.

Back in Maine, we can hear the whistle buoy from home. Reminds me of a mourning from my other home in the Adirondacks.

And then he said this,

“Oma, when will you come to my house so you can sleep with me and have a campout?” And just like that, I’m crushed. I don’t know when…

So I try to distract myself instead and make things and take long walks in the woods. I’m completing a batch of quilts for the grand darlings now that they all sleep in their own beds, even if it lets them wander in the night.

Shark quilt

Elli inspecting a quilt top

And a couple for the adults as well.

Just like I “read” two books at a time (one is an audiobook), I generally have about three projects in the works: a quilt, something on the loom and a project on my knitting needles for the evenings while we watch movies.

Tencel scarf on the table loom

Hands spun, hand knit scarf

We leave soon for the Schoodic Institute in Acadia National Park for the winter. What to bring, what to bring? I’m not talking about clothing. We’ll have boots, skis and snowshoes. Oh and a bathing suit to wear in the local pool. That’s always easy.

Which of my many fiber tools? Always knitting needles. Perhaps my portable table loom with premeasured warps? Or a sewing machine? And what about my spinning wheel? Oh my.

This is the first time we can drive to a caretaker gig and it boggles my mind. No dry bags, no dinghies, no planes. I may need limits.

And so it is Christmas

We celebrated early with the family away and never brought a tree into the house. My geranium, salvaged from Seguin Island several years ago, brings holiday color to the room.

This year’s family craft project was paper cutting animal snowflakes.

Be careful, it’s another worm hole to fall into. We used the book, 100 Amazing Paper Animal Snowflakes by Marion T. Nichols. For some reason, the templates are available online on this website if you feel the urge.

My work area looked like a warehouse from Thanksgiving until now. I knit, wove and wove. I finished my final ? project yesterday but didn’t take a photograph it yet. I made tablet woven tiebacks for the log cabin’s curtains.  Tim also received a wool rag rug for the cabin in the white elephant fiber exchange. The cabin may be complete – never.

There were hats, scarves, slippers, rugs, bath and hand towels to name what I can remember.

We sneaked a quick trip in to Montreal to listen to a choir perform in the Notre Dame Basilica. Despite the slush and the Montreal shuffle it demands, it is a beautiful city in the winter.  Our new NEXUS passes let us sail across the border.

My fair isle sweater is almost complete. It’s knit but there about a million ends to weave in. I built a wooly board yesterday from plans I found online to block it. The pattern was for a man and it fits a little wonky. I hope the stretcher will help. For now, it looks just as nice inside out.

Today is a lovely snowy day to sit by the wood stove and finish this task. After I use the snow blower to clear the driveway.

 

Keeping busy

I was right about the ice in my last, truncated,  post. There were more cold water rescues and deaths under the ice than I remember in the past. 

Weather has been all over the place- snow, lots of snow, 60 degrees, rain, lightning, ice melt and not quite raging rivers and temps below zero this weekend. There were some fabulous cross country ski days tucked in there, when Tim was able to lure me from my fiber den. 

  
  
My fingers have been nimble and warm at home. 

  
I finished weaving this christening outfit in time for the blessing. It was stunning if I do say so myself. 

  
  
And fit like a dream. It’s woven with 720 fine mercerized cotton threads as warp and cotton and silk weft. 

Tim likes his new sweater and under/over shirt made of alpaca and wool.  

  
  
A mandolin may already be hung from this strap.

  
And our fireplace matches are tidy in a bag I wove. 

  

My to do list has not shortened one bit though.  

On thin ice

We’ve had a sustained deep freeze and lovely snow. Today I drove across Lake Champlain (on a bridge not ice) and saw lots of tents – the modern ice shanty. Some were alittle  close to open water for my comfort. 

  
  
My latest passion is tablet or card weaving. I may try to make 52 bands in 2017. I’ve already made a few. 

  
  
I’m working on hat bands, a mandolin strap, a bag for my tablets, a bag for fireplace stuff, and want to make a new backstrap before we head off the grid. The new backstrap will let ME be the loom tension. Very handy and portable.  I did it in Tasmania but was using someone’s discarded nylon  camera strap as my backstrap-perhaps a bit too high tech.

We have a cardinal in the ash tree and an unhinged peacock in the white house. Trying to find balance and stand for issues important to me. And playing with and hugging grandchildren! ( and watching youtube videos to figure out 
 

What I felt

Basically everything.  I’ve been on a knitting and felting kick lately. I finished the slippers for my daughter AND HER 13 FRIENDS!  She wanted their crab logo on them and I tried all sorts of techniques to make crabs: cross stitch; felted appliqué; and knit. I used BigPhil, my bulky knitting machine to knit the clogs flat, sewed them together and felted them in the washer.  Then I embellished them with various crabs. 

 
  
  What fun!

Here’s the lot of them,

  
sized and matched with their mates and ready for the post office.

I tried a pair of mittens using a similar technique.

  
The thumb was a little wonky but they are nice and warm.

I finished the cat beds but sadly, my older cat, Loki, only used his briefly before he died just after Thanksgiving.  His first diagnosis was wrong but obviously something was brewing.  

  

Now we’re a one cat, one litter box, two cat bed household. Oh yes, there’s dear Tim too.  

I have a few more slippers up my sleeve but have moved on to weaving.  I finished twisting all the ends to my lovely overshot sampler shawl this morning.

 She’s a beauty and will get lots of use this winter.

 
I found a lovely used warping reel online and measured a warp for a card weaving project.  There were a couple of snags but it worked beautifully.

  

Then I got to real work. I am making my new grandson’s christening gown from a Handwoven pattern. 724 ends of fine 20/2 cotton.  I was able to warp 3 threads at a time (I used a rigid heddle clamped to the table as a warping paddle) and it was a breeze.  A few of those threads snapped while getting it on the loom but after a morning repairing broken threads I was off and weaving.  I’m using fine silk as the weft and it is stunning.

  
I’ll sew a sample pattern first before I cut this beautiful fabric.

The clutter of my workroom is an insight into my scrambled mind.  I’ve started a quilt; am in the process of weaving bands for more slippers; making more slippers; considering a few sewing projects…

I have almost made it 12 months without buying any clothes for me and it was a lot easier than I thought.  I made 5 camisoles from alpaca, merino, silk fibers and they fit, are comfortable and make a great first layer. I also made a pair of shorts, and  some socks.

  
  
My earth oven has been shelved until the spring.  I spent a day last weekend building the form with sand then covering it with mud.  It looked great but I made the cardinal mistake of not sampling the clay enough.  When I shoveled out the 3 wheelbarrowfulls of sand and lit a fire within, the roof collapsed as the too-wet clay mixture defrosted.

  
Lessons learned.  Now I have to decide if I will try to patch it or just start again in the spring.  I think the second time will be a charm.