Felting my Friendships

I chose to spend the afternoon with a friend, yesterday. It was a wonderful visit. She lives in town and her home is one of those beautiful old Victorians that line the hills, up behind Main St., in Jackson.
She slipped on some ice during the holidays and did some major damage to her ankle. She has been in a cast ever since. Now, she is in a black boot and will go back into a cast again next week for another month. The ankle is not healing well and another cast is required.
I tell you this because my very active, giving friend who does for so much for others and never stops moving, has handled this accident with her usual optimistic self. I'm in awe of someone who can weather a fall like this, pick herself up  and continue to be the positive, glass half full person that she always is.
Even with the complications that have arisen, she is still thinking ahead to trips she wants to take next year and getting a walking cast on, next week, so she doesn't have to sleep downstairs with the cats and maneuver the narrow passageways of her charming home in a wheel chair anymore. She needs to get back to buying groceries for a house bound friend of hers and volunteering at one of the local thrift stores.
I'm sure she has had a few "Oh, @#*&!" moments but she is a trooper and I'm so proud of her.
So, I took cake... and magazines... and small gifts, etc. hoping to lighten her spirits, There was really no need. She greeted me, in her wheel chair, like she had just come in from working in the garden. We had deli sandwiches ... and we talked, talked, talked... laughed and talked some more... until it was time for me to head back to the highway, pick up the mail and drive home. The visit did us both good. It always does.
I left her in good hands. She has a  husband that takes good care of her and treats her like a queen.
So I'm telling you this because...?
Life is long (or short, depending on how you perceive it) and "@#*&!" happens. None of us is going to get out this alive, so we need to make the best of it.  We can play games, whine about our bad luck, carry grudges and complain about life, but... have you talked to other folks lately?
Everyone is having problems. They all have "thorns" in their sides...Some even have large knife wounds.
 My friend could have been bitter, angry and blameful about all this, but she wasn't. I'm sure she wishes that she hadn't gone out on that icy old balcony. I'm sure that she wishes the ankle would heal faster. But, she isn't being "why me?" about it. She's waiting and hoping and making plans for the future. All that positive energy has got to accelerate the healing process.
I'm convinced that life is, in large part, about attitude and expectations and.... looking at the good things in life, so you have this deep well of good thoughts and ideas to carry you through the times of drought and fire.

"The world is full of cactus, but we don't have to sit on it.  ~Will Foley
My friend never sits in her "cacti". Well... she is sitting a lot at the moment, but she's looking ahead of all this. She is an example to me of how to weather a storm. She's an example to us all.

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So today is "finish a felted scarf" day. Here are some choices. What do you think?

 This is the scarf. A combination of gray wool and a taupe, mystery yarn. I had no idea how it would turn out. I have a huge amount of it that I got at one of the thrift stores and ... wait. I do have some with a wrapper on it.  It's SPINNERIN 100% wool yarn called Suzanne. That's why it worked so well. I used it continuously with the gray wool yarn but in two places I dropped the gray wool and used only the "Suzanne" yarn. After I felted it the taupe yarn tighten up and looked much better. The gray combination felted really well. I'm very please with the results.
So, now I'm ready to embellish.

 Buttons? (with dog hair underneath... how embarrassing.)

A shell from the Pacific Ocean?

A different button? There's that dog hair again. I think I felted the hair right into the scarf. Maybe I could make it my trademark... Corgiwool, scarves from the dogfarm.

Some antique lace?

Old lace... and a button?

Or the ruffled edge of the "cute" shirt I bought at the thrift store. Remember the shirt made out of gray jersey with ruffles? What do you think? It's hard to get the colors true, here on the post, but you can get an idea. There are so many possibilities. Maybe lace is too lightweight for this scarf. I'm not sure. Maybe it needs to be a heavier lace... or none.
I would really like your input.
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Today I'm on to brighter possibilities...

When my sister was here we went to Amador City, my favorite little gold rush town. I bought this yarn at Sandy's Country Home store. She dyes and spins this yarn herself. It's so beautiful. It's a bit harder to knit with because it goes from thick to thin and felts up very thick... but I can't wait to use it.

Oh, yum!
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On my afternoon walk a few days ago, I thought that I would love to find some yarn that looked like the oak trees with their bright moss, tiny ferns and lichen growing on them.... Looking like they were going to a party, with the help of the rain and some northern exposure, and getting all dolled up for the occasion.

 I would love some yarn that looks like this...

or this...

Or possibly a softer green like the new grass that is coming up on the trail.
Think I can find some yarn that looks like this? Think I can wear a California Winter around my neck?

Friends for Lunch and a New Scarf.

Yes! Flowers and a tablecloth. Company was coming.

On Monday and Tuesday I pulled out some stored Boxes of Christmas and did some decorating. A little here and a little there...

...to make our little house feel warm and holiday-ish.
Two friends arrived bearing good will and homemade apple butter.

One friend is in my gourd group and the other is in the goat club... and they have known each other for years... way before I knew either of them.
Both live in the valley and have farms. Sylvia has a garden (both vegetable and flower) that makes me want to move to the flat land of the central valley and dive into the wonderful soil down there. She grows gourds that are absolutely wonderful... all kinds and thick skinned. Her Dahlias are to die for and she saved us from an over population of GOPHERS a few years ago when she gave me some gopher purge. It worked.
Jane has goats,.. Alpines...lovely and sweet. I have posted about Dick and Jane's farm before, here. I wish you could stand in the middle of these goats in the field and watch them. They are really beautiful animals and some will be having BABIES next year. I hope I can go down and take pictures of the kids. Jane thinks I need some does. Wouldn't that be lovely. Goat milk to make cheese and ice cream with, and some babies... sweet little newborns. Oh yes, that sounds delightful.
So they braved the fog in the valley and our scary road, to come up for lunch.
Having them here was so nice. I made vegetable soup and salad with Pumpkin pie for dessert.
The Prospector disappeared to find paydirt in the hills and leave the afternoon to the women.
After lunch I showed them my newest felted scarf. I had tried to take some photos of it on a gourd Tuesday. No one has a neck like this but I just wanted to see how it wrapped.
Fluffy butt Carl didn't want to model it for me. He wanted to chew on it, so I tried the gourd.

 It was OK, but I got a real person to model it yesterday and it made such a big difference. Thank you Jane.

I could see how it wrapped and tied on someone.
This was a felting experiment that worked out rather well. I love using separate pieces of knitting and adding crochet for trim. I love to detail a scarf with old buttons and eye cords.
this will be a Christmas gift for someone.
We had such a good time yesterday. I love having friends up here.
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I'm having a quiet day today. There are a few things to do. Got to go to town this afternoon.
Tomorrow my sister is coming up for the weekend to help me celebrate another year of life. Oh lord. I guess I should be thankful... and I am... really, but I didn't think I was going to get THIS old. Guess you just have to go with it. It's better than the alternative.
My friend "C", from Sacramento, is coming up for the day too. I'm looking forward to her visit. She is the same age as I am. She understands. We can commiserate together. We knew each other when we were 16 years old. Where did the years go?
My birthday isn't until Sunday but, since I found myself alive when I woke up this morning, I might as well milk it for all it's worth (Life, not goats.) and stretch it out for as many days as possible.
Don't ya think?

From Yarn to Felted Scarf...

I finished the Noro yarn scarf.
I started with this beautiful "Oh my. I think I'm in love." yarn.

Rolled it into a beautiful ball of amazing color that changes magically as you knit or crochet.

 I crocheted the yarn, starting with a granny square, and then I triple crocheted half of the length of the scarf. I made two of these pieces and attached them to form one whole piece.
 This is how the scarf looked before felting...

Pretty but very open and loose. I chose crochet because I wanted to keep the pattern from disappearing when I felted it. As it turned out, I could have made a much shorter scarf because I didn't get the shrinkage in the length that I expected.
 I threw the scarf into a mesh bag. Set the washing machine on the lowest water setting and the hottest water. Tossed the bag in with a pair of jeans and an old towel. Added some liquid hand soap and agitated everything for just 5 minutes.
The scarf softened up but nothing happened.
Another 5 minutes... nothing.
At 15 minutes I started to see the wool tightening up.
Another 5 minutes. and the pattern was really pulling together.
It's fun to watch this happen and it was happening very fast.
(Again I didn't take photos. I'm always so involved in the process I forget to do this... and I was fixing dinner at the same time. Too much multi-tasking for this old lady.)
Finally at 25 minutes I pulled the bag out and checked the scarf for the last time.
It was done, baked... finished.
If I had continued for another 5 or 10 minutes the scarf would have tightened up to the point where the scarf would have been this skinny piece of wool that wouldn't look like the crocheted scarf that I worked so hard on. You have to be very careful not to over felt. You will lose all your hard work and all the colors. The pattern will blend together and disappear.
I took the scarf out of the bag and rinsed it in cool water. Then gently squeeze to get the water out. I rolled it up into a towel, laid it on the floor and stood on it to get as much moisture out as possible.
The whole scarf was very fuzzy and needed to be "cleaned up".
This is done with very sharp scissors and a steady hand. Because this is now a felted fabric, you can trim the edges and cut the fuzz off and it will not unravel. You have to be very careful though. You want to rid the scarf of the fuzz, not cut through it. I have used a razor for this on solid pieces of felting. It works well and is faster than scissors. I also have a lint shaver that I bought online at knitpicks.com This is a nifty little battery run, hand held defuzzer that can be used for anything that needs to be cleaned up or an old sweater that has pilled and looks awful. It's only $3.99 and well worth the price. I still like scissors for edges.
So, here is the finished felted scarf...

The scarf is very long. I really thought that it would shrink up, lengthwise, more than it did, so it's a very long scarf. It's an Isadora Duncan scarf, not silk of course, and not long enough to get caught in the wheels of a convertible car.
It's safe... and warm.
I'm very pleased with it. I stretched it out, pulling and shaping it as it dried, to show off the pattern.
Love the colors. Loved using a granny square on the ends.
Now... what do you think?
Buttons?

Two matching buttons in the middle of the granny squares?

Four buttons.. one on each corner?

Big and gaudy?

Vintage?

One big, one small?

Or no buttons at all.
Tell me what you think.
Maybe this scarf doesn't need buttons.
Maybe it's wonderful just the way it is.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Alaskan Camper

Bachelorette week is over. I'm solitary today. I was actually just me yesterday too, but stayed in touch with my friend, who left in a rainstorm early Wednesday morning. We called each other, back and forth, as she traveled  back to her home in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

This is a photo of the mountains to the east of her house. I took it last summer when I visited her.

  I love cell phones. I was able to follow her drive back to Montana. What would we do without cell phones. They are the 911 where are you?, I need help!,  drive carefully, stay connected, electronic wonder of this century. I was able to follow "D" back to her home where I finally got an email saying that she had built a fire, fixed a cup of tea and tucked herself back into her wonderful place in the northern reaches of Montana.

It only took her two days to get home. She drove to the Columbia Rive,r in eastern Oregon, the first night and all the way home on Thursday. That's what I call burning rubber.
I am left with great memories of her visit and a bit of a mess to clean up before The Prospector comes home from his fishing trip because we had fun while he was gone.
Look at this.. I have until tomorrow to make room for eating food at the table again.

We shared ideas. She showed me stuff on my sewing machine that I didn't even know about. She fixed the needle on my machine. She taught me how to use a cutting board and a rotary cutting tool.
I taught her how to knit..

And how to felt the knitting... which, when accomplished, she promptly cut up and made a bag for her new Panasonic HD camcorder. 

The knitted felt (on the left) became a bag for her camcorder and the colorful felted fabric on the right was the first piece I had her do (with fleece) so she could learn the felting process, by hand, from scratch. The knitted piece was felted in the washing machine. I forgot to take a picture of the finished bag but it was really nice. It will protect her camcorder in her purse.
I had some Lion's Fisherman's Wool yarn in my stash, so we used it. I love this yarn. It's easy to knit or crochet with and comes in wonderful earthy colors. It "felts" like a dream.
"D" knitted two different colored yarns together to make a strong, beautiful piece of felt that would protect the camcorder. She cut gussets and sewed them in as side panels wrapping the main piece around and letting it overlap the bag as a flap. Then, she sewed it all together. She designed the whole thing to fit her camcorder. She even calculated the shrinkage carefully, measuring both the pre-felted knitting and the felted pieces. That's a nurse for you. She didn't want to go to all that work and not have it fit perfectly. IT DID!
I can see where the exactness comes from. She does quilting.... and her profession is Nursing.
Preciseness is her middle name. No Wabi Sabi woman is she.
Her husband, the mountain man/hunter gatherer will be wanting a vest or socks for his winter camping trips when he sees her newly learn skills.


So we spent the week knitting, talking and laughing about our lives and how differently they turned out than what we imagined when we were young.
We ate out a couple of times. I made bread pudding for dessert. She showed me how to make a meal out of a baked potato with a little bit of hamburger or... in her case, bear.. or rabbit.. or fish or whatever you can cook up on a campfire in the middle of nowhere. She adds lots of onion, tomatoes (we had plenty of these.) , cheese, sour cream and whatever you like. It's a meal all in one. Add a salad and WOW! Yummy good.

She brought this wonderful dog from Montana too. Her name is Wanda. She's an Australian Shepherd. A very, sweet and gentle dog. She's a senior citizen like us and is almost deaf. I loved this dog.
Wanda has one brown eye and one blue eye.

Wanda loves "D"...

That's a smile on Wanda's face when she looked up after being touched by "D". It's the way that "D" gets Wanda's attention. This is a very well trained dog. "D" husband hunts with Wanda and she can almost read  facial expression and maybe even lips. She's a very intelligent dog.
She also let this happen... without getting upset.

Wanda put up with Carl wanting to be in "D"s lap every time she sat down. Cutter (right) tried to usurp Carl's position but did his antsy puppy thing and didn't stay in the lap very long.
Actually, things went really well with the three dogs. Only one time did they argue over some hamburger and that was my fault. We will just leave it at that.
Suffice it to say... Wanda defended herself. Carl was his usual " I want it and no one else is going to get it.".. a typical CORGI attitude. They all got a TIME OUT.

One evening we drove to the Mokelumne River... but mostly we stayed home because I was taking care of the farm chores while The Prospector was Fishin' and we couldn't go too far away.
So we watched the Bluebirds,

worked on our projects and "D" got to meet some of the "locals"...

A baby rattler greeted us on our way back from lunch one day. The first one I have seen all summer.
How nice of it to show up for visitors.
It was very small and didn't even have rattles yet... but no less dangerous.
We got out and took some pictures, then with "D"s help (she watched from outside the car), I drove over the snake careful so I wouldn't run over it. It didn't want to move off the road and when a Rattler doesn't want to move... you don't argue with it.
This was the first day of "D"s visit ( last Friday) and the Prospector was still home. This is how the conversation went when we got up to the house.
Me: "Guess what we just saw down at the switchback in the middle of the road? A baby Rattler."
Husband: " Did you kill it?"
Me: "No. I don't like to kill them. You know that. It was just a little thing."
Husband: "Little ones grow into big ones. How far down?"
Me: "It's probably gone by now."
Husband: "Remember the prints in the dirt on the switchback? The big one probably has a den down there."
Me: "Well, it was so little and pretty. We just didn't want to kill it."
Husband: "Good grief."
Then he left with a shovel, a gun and a bag. Talk about overkill. When he got back he said it was gone. He couldn't find it anywhere.
I said, "Too bad.", but secretly I was OK about it. Even Rattlers have got to have a place in life. Besides, we have been very lucky this summer not having any Rattlesnakes around here. It would be bad Karma to kill a baby if the Mother was watching from the grass. Wouldn't it?

So "D' and her vintage Alaskan camper headed back to Montana on Wednesday morning.
Carl and Cutter are back to being as relaxed as Corgis can be and the house is kind of picked up. The weather has turned really cold at night.

"D" and I have plans to take a road trip together next summer. She has a daughter near Seattle and we're thinking maybe Vancouver Island, or British Columbia, or the Washington coast would be a good place to see.

I miss you, my friend. The miles are many but the years are going by with warp speed. We have started this summer tradition of spending time together. It's a good custom that we need to continue until we can't... until the fat lady sings... until the "Deadly Donkey falls from the sky".*
We can choose to live the way we wish to live during these remaining years and I for one want to go out enjoying the moments and making choices. We know this don't we? We have had this discussion.
Years ago I bought this card.

I've kept it because it always reminds me that living is a not just a gift handed to us by our parents, it's a path, a way of seeing... and choices.
Being aware of "The Deadly Donkey" makes us pay attention. Not "the sky is falling" kind of attention, but the kind of awareness that gives one courage and the bravery needed to continue on... in a good direction.
See you next summer...
or anytime really...
you're always welcome, here,
but definitely next summer...
A new adventure.
We will continue to dodge the donkey...
Or Grizzly bear.. depending on where we go.
Keep in touch.
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*The Deadly Donkey is one of the interesting thoughts of
Edward Monkton, Oxford, UK
Copyright 2004

Knitting, Gourding and Felting... Oh, My.

 This morning I took my coffee outside...

and sat down to enjoy a few moments of  late summer  peace and quiet.

 and then the gunfire started.
Dove season is in full swing. The weekend will be even noisier.
What sport is it in shooting these little birds? I don't get it.

When I finished my coffee and oh, it was good...
I watered the garden.
It was going to be a really hot day.
The Prospector asked for some help and by the time I returned to the house, I realized that whatever I did today would be done INSIDE. At 8:00 a.m. it was already hot.

A member of the gourd group and I are giving a demonstration at the Art Association meeting next Wednesday so I have been working on what I want to demonstrate. One of the projects is this bowl.

It's a cleaned out gourd that has been cut, stained and waxed with shoe polish.The inside of the gourd has been layered with torn paper from a magazine.  I decoupaged the paper with Mod Podge.
The edges were notched with a Dremel tool and have a hole under each indentation. Then I looped leather strapping into the holes and wrapped the leather around the lip of the bowl. The loose ends are where I will attach some twigs and feathers before I glue them down. Then I will add a few small rocks.
Do you think I should use chicken feathers?...

or Turkey feathers?.

The chicken feathers are more subtle, but the turkey feathers are more decorative and the colors are brighter.
What do you think? I need to get this finished by Wednesday so I've got to get going on it. More twigs and small rocks.. or moss. I haven't tried a lot of other things yet, except the feathers. Maybe I could wrap the bottoms of the feathers with the leather ties. Too many ideas.... to little time.

Another project is a baby blanket.

This is for a Mom that doesn't like traditional baby colors. She's kind of a gypsy woman and she's having a tiny, gypsy baby girl very shortly. She loves purple, magenta, bright greens and anything that is not just  "pink and blue" so I hope that this will fit into her gypsy bedroom.  This is really nice yarn to work with. It's RED HEART Acrylic yarn. You can machine wash and dry anything made with it and it is rather inexpensive. It has a nice feel to it. I will add a ruffled edge of green to it when I finish .

I'm also making a scarf out of some gray Paton's classic Wool Roving and a mystery yarn that I've had for a long time. I love the combination of the two yarns. I wish you could feel it.

I felted a test piece and the beige-gray yarn didn't shrink very much when I felted it. I will have to be careful not to felt this scarf too much because I don't want the gray roving to shrink up and pull the other yard in strange ways. But... sometimes, how different yarns shrink can be very interesting and it can form some rather unique patterns.

I love the way this off white yarn knits together.
 I really love the openness of the sections that are only knitted with the lighter yarn.
Can't wait to finish the scarf and felt it.
Felting is the fun part... the magic process part of all this.
It's really the only reason I learned to knit.


So I've got a few things to do next week.

Our oldest son will be here for the weekend so all of this will be on hold for a few days....
I have a blackberry pie to bake for "M". I promised him.
He's our son who always wanted pie, and not cake, on his birthdays when he was growing up.
So if I say...
"I will bake a pie for you when you come up."
I better darned will mean it.
Lucky, his cat, will be coming too... I think.
We won't tell Carl and Cutter.
No point in causing chaos before it happens... or not.

Will you look at this.

Cutter Butter.... hiding under the bed... where the overhead fan won't blow down on him and he can see Carl coming. Cute nose...

Oh, and Happy Birthday Uncle Earl.