Trip North part 4

This is my last post about my trip to Canada. Got home quite late Monday night and I'm still unpacking and recuperating!! I love going, enjoy listening to books on CD as I go and didn't get tired this time but, boy, Tuesday morning I was exhausted!! Sunday I drove 12 hours and Monday 14 hours. Knowing I was not going to have to find a hotel made me just relax and head on down the road to home!

Last Wednesday we spent visiting family in Winnipeg. Got to reconnect with a cousin I hadn't seen in over 30 years. Also my sister came with me to see a cousin she hadn't seen in about as many years altho I have met her a time or two inbetween. It's all good. Facebook has made it so much easier to find friends. While I was at my sister's, we were fooling around online and I found a high school friend I hadn't seen since we graduated in 1970! She now lives in Alberta and has a bunch of grandchildren, the newest being 5 month old triplets! Imagine that!

Thursday we headed south to Niverville where I grew up. In the last few years our house has disappeared. I don't know if they bulldozed it or moved it, but there's a store there now. We used to live on the main highway near town and that stretch is now businesses. That's sad. But it's the way life goes. Nothing stays quite the same!

From there we headed to Altona. My parents lived there for over 20 years after I graduated from high school. This trip was kind of a spur of the moment thing but Mom had called her good friend Helen and she had arranged for the old gang to get together for pot luck. Mom was so surprised and thrilled to see all her friends again. They do keep up on the phone but it's not the same as seeing each other.

Friday Mom had dialysis and my sister and I went shopping in Winkler. The best place to go is the MCC store. That's a store that sells used items. The sales people are all volunteer and all the money goes to help the Mennonite Central Committee projects around the world. I got a bunch of buttons at the one in Altona. Mom used to work at that one and the lady in charge was there and she let me go through the box of buttons she had just processed and hadn't taken out into the shop yet!

We both found a few things at the one in Winkler.

I used to teach first grade in Winkler back in the mid 70s. This building is the one I taught in. It's a maintenance shop now. They've closed off most of the windows. We had a wall of windows when I was there.  It was the original 4 room school and is quite old. My class the last year was in the front right side. The other years I'd been in the one behind it facing the playground in the back. The new school is on the right and is much bigger. Winkler is now a city. I don't think there's another elementary school there but I could be wrong. It has been a long time since I was there. We used to make the kids go out even if it was 20 below to just get their blood moving for a bit before getting them back to work!

 Something new since I lived here was this little, long, narrow park a few blocks from where I'd lived. In summer they fill it with flowers. The paths are nice and there's a fountain. Also a "gardener" and "chickens". Winkler is  a predominantly Mennonite community and Mennonite communities are known for their flowers. This garden is just an extension of it all. My Mom always had alot of flowers in her yard. They kept seeds from year to year and just bought some to fill in what they didn't have.

 Saturday morning we drove to Steinbach. My best friend Bettie lives there. She and her husband own Harv's air service. It's an air field and they teach flying. Their 3 sons are all involved in the business.  They teach people from around the world how to fly airplanes. Bettie and I have always kept up over the years. The internet has really helped that and we email each other every few weeks just to keep up.

 We got back to Winnipeg about 4pm on Saturday. Back to my sister in law's place. She is fixing up her basement so that she can rent it out this winter to a college student. Before we had left on Thursday, we'd found her some fabric for curtains down there. There are 4 windows, these kind of smaller above ground ones. She asked my sister and me to sew some of them so I pulled out my machine from the car and we very carefully measured and sewed 2 windows worth. The third window in that area is going to be a bit tricky and I'm not sure she had everything she needed for the window in the bedroom. It was amazing the difference that those curtains made down there. It just cheered up the space immensely. She has some finishing left to do in there but she'll be ready when her tenant comes this Friday.

 Sunday morning we left after 7am. Stopping on the way at Tim Hortons on St Mary's on the way to the Perimeter around Winnipeg. Got an apple fritter. They were out of dutchies, rats! Tim Hortons is so much better than Krispy Kreme. Alot more variety and choices. It is the place to go for a snack or meal. They sell doughnuts but also bagels and sandwiches and soup. My only problem is they only take mastercard, not visa and they have pepsi products. I don't drink coffee and in summer it's too hot for hot tea!
We drove along the Perimeter for a few miles, then I exited south onto Hwy 75 and my Mom and sister continued on the Perimeter til they got to Hwy #1 and headed west back to Moose Jaw.
This field is an example of what I saw driving. It's kind of hard to stop and take pictures along the interstate plus I had so many miles to go! The ditch, a fence, and road separate the highway from the corn field. This is in North Dakota just south of Fargo. The sky goes for miles and you see farms and trees in the distance. The corn is green and growing. The further south you drive, the topography changes. I didn't stop for a picture. However, the land is more rolling with small hills. The corn changes too. I noticed it as I got into Missouri. The corn was starting to dry up. By the time I hit Tennessee, some of the fields were totally dried up, some still had a few green leaves on the plants. None had been harvested yet. I was wondering how long it would take for that to happen. The grain fields were being harvested already back home and alot as I drove down the states. There'd been alot of rain recently so the fields were drying, waiting for the right conditions to harvest.

So that's the end of my trip. I have to get a warp on my loom, at least by tomorrow and I"ll be weaving again. Going home is wonderful. Being with family is the best! I'm just glad that I still have my Mom and family to go see. Next year I"ll do it all over again!
Carol

It's Tuesday Once Again!!!!

It was business as usual today for the Tuesday Weavers.  Sharen had to cut more strips for her placemats....Linda is working on her table loom, and Marta is getting ready to go on Safari, and getting placemats ready to go upstairs in the shop.  Joyce was getting her Inkle Loom warped for some mug rugs.

Carol is back from her trip to Canada, and she is just in time to tag Marta's placemats.   Pat is threading the Boundweave warp.  (That's going to be FUN!!!)     

TA-DA!!!!    Lanny was ready to cut his rug warp off today!  He was trying to remember how long he has been working on this warp.  This is the one time when it is OK to have scissors near the warp!!!!





The process is not complete until they have been rolled out on the floor....and rolled out, and rolled out!!!  Seven rugs came off that loom!  That's a lot of knotting still to do!!!!  Tina already has warps wound off to put back on the loom when Lanny gets ready.

Ann and Allan were hard at work on their warps and Bonnie is still plugging away at more looper rugs.


As for me....the floating selvedge on the scarf warp broke...and the tie-ups are still acting ugly.  I'll fight that battle next week!!!!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Light at the End of the Tunnel

This morning was a beautiful, rainy day, cool enough to open all the windows.  It's heated up drastically since then, but I enjoyed it while I wove.
  Yes, my friends, there was weaving at Chez Davidson this morning!  The afghan project warp was tied on, the knots were wiggled through reed and heddles, wound on and the last rectangle was woven.  It was pretty satisfying to get that last one done, and then, I had enough warp to make some quarter-sized rectangles to use in putting my own rectangles together.  They're 4 1/2 inches long, in the pattern I've used throughout the project.  Inspired by Theresa's comment last week about white on white patterns, and by Sue at Thrums, who weaves amazing white on white silk shawls, I decided to make the small rectangles as a border across the top and bottom, or maybe interspersed.  I think the afghan is going to be oddly shaped if I just stop at the 16 rectangles.  How would I arrange them?  4 by 4?  Won't a square-ish afghan be awkward to use?  I know we settled on 16 because there are eight of us, but I think it needs to be, well, less square.

I really like the way it looks.  I think it's going to set off the variegated blocks well, and be interesting to look at, too.
  But, as you've read if you follow this blog, I've been wallowing in white, and it's time to move on.

Here are my colors for my double weave sampler, a red I really like and a... dijon mustard? Not so crazy about the dijon, which is why I'm going to use it in the sampler.  I don't know what I bought it for, but I do like the way it goes with the red.  I've only just started winding, and probably will just work on it through the week whenever I have time.  Busy week ahead at work, so that I can have Saturday off for the Clinch Valley Guild meeting.

In the meantime, happy weaving!
Maggie

two blogs in one day?

Today I got to do something I haven't gotten to do since May. I went to the state park where I volunteer one weekend a month.  This is the Women On The Frontier weekend.  It was so wonderful to see everyone again! We had a ladies tea! We got to try several different teas, cinnamon rolls and several small cakes (cookies). We had our tea in the dog trot between the gunsmith shop and the blacksmith forge. We can get some nice breezes through there sometimes.

Several of us wore our gowns, our good shoes and even some jewelery. We don't get to dress up very often because we normally demonstrate the daily life out in the wilderness of 1775. I had a wonderful time. Here are some pictures. These were taken by my DH just before the tea started. In case you are wondering which one is me I am wearing a floral gown and I am standing to the left of a woman in a yellow gown.

Linda

A Quickie!

It's a hot, humid, hazy August morning here on the Ridge.  My sister is in for the weekend, and we're going to get going in just a bit...got a few errands to run and we're treating ourselves to breakfast out. 

So, here's a quick overview of my week!

Bucky & I did some sightseeing around Oak Ridge this week.  As you probably know, Oak Ridge was home to the Manhattan Project during WWII.

I took Bucky to see the Friendship Bell that is a symbol of the link between Oak Ridge and Japan.  It has a wonderful, deep sound.  We did take some time to read  the inscription on the side of the huge bell.  Nothing more needs to be said.

We also took a quick trip to the Museum of Science and Energy  Bucky had fun at the whisper dish.  You can hear someone talking softly across the patio when they are facing the dish.
"Can you hear me now?"

I cut off 8 mug rugs from the Tennessee Squares warp, and decided to rethread for Cat Tracks/Snail Trail.  Bucky really liked that design!!!  He was a BIG help!

Some of these mug rugs will be used for the goody bags for the Fiber Conference next April.

OK....my sis is ready to go....so I've got to run!
Happy Weaving and STAY COOL!
LouAnn

Ready to roll!

Before we trek off on vacation, I wanted to get Lillian ready to thread when I got back.  She is a sectional loom, so I use a tension box and and spool rack to load her up.  The most I have done on her was 10 yards, I think.

One of the problems I have had in the past is that the back beam on this wonderful loom is curved!  So that means that my tension box does not fit on the beam.  I had the bright idea last time to switch the 2 back beams since the one closest to the floor is square instead of round.

Now there is a a groove on the curved beam that I could use the threader plate and do it, but I love the  yardage counter on my tension box!  No more counting turns, just keep an eye on the counter!

Spool rack loaded, and this time I took all the threads up to the top of the rack before I loaded them into the tension box.  I think things went even smoother than usual, hardly a snag.

 Tie onto the grommet.

Go slowly around that first time, to make sure that all is aligned properly and everyone wants to stay where they are supposed to.  For some reason this loom doesn't have a handle to turn the warp beam.  That means I have to use the pegs to turn it.  So you should see me go, it is a regular work out.  Once I know that is should run smoothly I really haul away at it!  So far I haven't gone past the 15 yard mark that is my goal this time, but it was close a couple of times.

Here she is all wound up and ready to go.  I wound all 19 bouts this time, it is time to see just how far I can reach.  I will be threading her with a simple overshot pattern, but not til I get back from vacation.

I had a ton of yardage on those cones, probably enough to load a 25 yard warp.  I decided to just fasten the loaded tension box to the spool rack and put it in the corner, that way if all goes well, I will just hook her up and do it again!




Now to pack!  Have a great week, I will try to post next Friday with beach pictures.

Until then, Happy Weaving, Tina
ETA logged 14.5 miles

Eureka!

I think a week ago I was still having trouble with my Macomber loom.  I was asked by my friend "why did you put the afghan project on THAT loom".  I guess in my mind, I knew what it would take to get my DDH off his _____, and do something about it. I couldn't fix it. Not a clue. Sunday I told him that I had more yarn to do my afghan project, that people would be expecting me to get this done. I asked could you please take another look at my loom and see what the problem is. What is with men/husbands? Somebody will bring a computer over, he will stay up until 2:00 am to get it working. But let me want him to do something or fix something for me-------how long does it take?? We want even go there. Back to Sunday. He got under the loom and worked and worked. Finally! Eureka! He figured it out. Got it working. I finished my rectangle, and did 3 more.  I did one of my color's above and then 2 of Maggie's and half of one for Pat.

I would have had maybe 4 more done today and yesterday but my son's AC went out and we brought the  4 grandchildren home for the night. WOW! I know it would have been easier in my 30's. But not at my age now. The little one, Roman, who is 2 had not had a nap and not much sleep the night before, so at dinner he ate a roll and drank some Sprite and his head went down on the table. Yes he was asleep. I could not get him awake. Took him home and he woke up as we got home, just in time to throw a fit. I mean a FIT. I call it an exhausted fit. I remember it well, with my son. The only way to get them calm is to hold them tight so as not to be able to kick and hit and just rock and whisper softly to him. After a few minutes, which seemed like forever, he got calm. I asked him if he was ready to watch 'Sponge Bob Squarepants"?  He said "OK". Then a bit later I got him to eat a bit of his dinner. Then bed. Yeah.  Then we had a big rain storm from 11pm until 2:30 am. I know because I did not sleep. I guess out of fear that they would fall out of bed or something and I would not hear them. Needless to say,  that one day and night,  I am exhausted.

Oh, yes they are little angles. Roman is 2 and Avery is going to be 4 next week. The other two are  9 and 13 and not a problem. i did not get a picture of them. Maybe another time. My plans for yesterday and today were shot. What was to be done today will be there for tomorrow.

Have a good week.

Bonnie