Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose and Garden

I usually start a small container garden this time of the year and reading Leigh's homesteading blog inspired me this year. We had our first cold snap this past weekend, it was 60 degrees when we got up and it never got passed 79 degrees with the wind whipping about, it was great I loved it.The white buckets are from our laundry detergent, we go through these at the rate of 1 every 1.5 months, with five of us at the house there's a lot of laundry. I save some for this reason, this was my reuse. The blue bucket my son brought home from his job these were re-purposed paint buckets. Mr. Deepend drilled drain hole at the bottom of all the bucket and I got to work.

The one's with the wire ring are my tomato plants, the bottom bucket is sweat basil, the top white is chives and the other is curly parsley.

This blue bucket has rosemary in it.

The final pic is of the recycled planter, I have waiting for more dirt for dill and lavender. I also have some green pepper seeds I saved as I was cooking the other day and want to plant these and see if they will grow and produce.Mr. Deepend promised his brother we'd bring some tomatoes for Thanksgiving dinner this year, but I don't think we will be able to the plants don't even have flowers, he's not a gardener, but a wonderful assistant.

Cut it off!

I've been working on some hand manipulated weaving with the pickup sticks, it's been interesting and fun but rather slow.   I don't feel as inspired as I should and instead of just grining and bearing it attitude I taken towards this warp, I decided that I should just cut my losses and move on to somthing I want to work on. After all if I'm not enjoying myself why weave just to trudge through a warp?  Na, life's too short for warps that make me feel un-creative.

Thoughtful Thursday

Find out who you are and do it on purpose. - Dolly Parton

Picture taken at Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales, FL

Cuban Picadillo

Since I don't have any weaving to report, I thought I'd share my recipe for Cuban Picadillo (Ground Beef in Tomato Sauce)

Ingredients:

1 ¾ lbs of Lean Ground Sirloin
½ each fine chop of green Pepper, red Pepper, Vidalia onion
1 tbsp of minced garlic
3 tbsp of Badia Complete Seasoning or ( 1tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, ground cumin, crushed bay leaves, parsley)
½ tsp of kosher salt
¼ cup of pimento stuffed olives
1 small box 1 ½ oz of raisins
1 small can of tomato sauce.
¼ cup of extra Virgin Olive Oil
Optional:
2 cubed baking potatoes fried in canola oil.
Take these and chop in the food processor or fine if you don't mind small chunks of peppers and onion, the spoon is full of fine minced garlic. ( my kids hate chunks of green stuff so I mince)

Put the olive oil in the pan along with the peppers, onion and garlic saute until soft

Add this wonderful seasoning and the Kosher salt.

the can of tomato sauce

Add the sirloin and cook until brown

Add the olives and raisins, cook for another 10 mins.

Variation: Cut up in to cubes 2 baking potatoes fry in canola oil and add to the cooked picadillo, mix.

You can serve this over cooked white rice or stuffed into Cuban or French Bread. If you like spicy food although not traditional, you can add hot sauce to taste.

I didn't add the potatoes because I'm planning to a Shepard's Pie filling with this batch.

Tiny Rant

Sometimes people amaze me, and not in a good way either.

Why is it that salespeople are always eager to sell you something, but customer service is never eager to help you with a problem?

Why do doctor's offices over book appointments to have you sit for well over an hour for an appointment you were early to?

Why is it that if you miss a payment on any of your bills you get a personal phone call, but if you need to talk to someone you have to press three hundred keys on the phone to get to a live person?

Why do people complain in long lines, it doesn't make the line go any faster?

What is the incessant need to talk on a cell phone all the time, everywhere, even public restrooms?

I think I need a vacation :)

Shuttle & Pick Up Stick Giveaway

I came across a post on Ravelry for a free giveaway for Shuttle or Pick Up Sticks from a fellow 1000 Market Vendor to enter go here (she provides all the details and links) Good Luck and have a great weekend!

Thoughtful Thursday

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 14:27 New King James Version (NKJV)

This pic was taken at Kings Mountain South Carolina near the National Military Park

Pick up Sticks, Sheds and Weaving

I wasn't too excited with this warp, and thought I could make the best of an attempted log cabin gone wrong, but then I needed to I'd do some fun stuff with it to keep me interested so I've been doing some work with the pick up sticks and am liking the results.

I'm going to change the pick up pattern through out the scarf then cut it and keep it for reference. this is a 2 x 2 pick up it doesn't look like much from the front but the back is really great. I crawled under the loom and took the next pic (yes, I've been know to crawl under this loom a few times) the floats are more defined in the back of the piece than the front and I really like the look of that side. I wonder is there a right and wrong side to weaving? I when I knit there is, but I never thought about it in weaving. I guess there could be, but who would know, unless its another weaver right? Yet another unanswered mystery at least for me.

When the pick up stick is placed in position this is the shed it creates, I usually shove the stick as close to the heddle as possible to open the shed as much as possible to throw my shuttle across. Sometimes I get ahead of myself and throw the shuttle throw the wrong shed opening, but then again that gives the fabric yet another look. It's not as bad as I thought the first time I did it I felts as if I'd committed a weaving crime, but then a wise weaver reminded me their is no weaving police, no one will come and take your loom away because you experimented with it, trust me those are words to live by.

Thoughtful Thursday

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. ~ Mark Twain

This pic was taken at Kings Mountain South Carolina, Living History Farm

Triloom Shawl

About a year ago we put our house up for sale and the realtor asked me to clear out a few of my craft items from around the house. "it looks like a lot of clutter" he matter of fact stated, little did he know that all that clutter, is just a wonderful therapy session for my busy mind, but since I wanted to try to sell the house I obliged, under protest of course. The office building I work in is huge we have exactly 9 vacant offices and I asked my boss if I could take the smallest office and put some boxes in it for storage, he agreed and I was happy. I also asked if I could hang my loom in the lunch room so that I could work there during my lunch breaks, he said "I like to watch you work on that thing since I have to earthly idea what the hell its for", jackpot I thought, so I get to play on my lunch break and educate the masses (well the four that lunch with me at least). I've been working on this shawl for about two months now, and am at the point where I need to get it finished and off the loom. I'm at the last 7 pegs and these always seem to be the hardest, they are, by this time really tight to weave over and under takes a lot of pressure from my hands and after 15 mins I get cramps so this this the slowest part for me.
I remember when I made this loom, and I was in the Triloom Group on Yahoo, there were ladies that put these shawls out in an afternoon, I was always amazed that they could put one out that quickly, it's never been that way for me, but I always work at my own pace, since I want to enjoy the process.
This is a close up of the weaving pattern, it's a cut thread shawl with the simplest plaid for some color effect. I have already had a few requests, for it, but of course no one wants to purchase it, they want it as a gift, pfffftttt.. NO, this is going on to the 1kmkt store and needs to be sold, I have to support the fiber habit( hrmm addiction) and this stuff ain't cheap. LOL.. But only other fiber artist understand that bit of frustration, when they are told "oh you could sell that for like $30.00 and make so much money", yeah right, I could just get rich on that.

Once it's is washed the the weaving stabilizes all the unevenness will subside and the shawl will be wonderfully soft and warm. I have to think about the fringe, I'm so tired of the twisted fringe, I need to come up with something else maybe I'll cut it and just let it be this time.

Thoughtful Thursday

When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others. ~Peace Pilgrim, spiritual leader

Burn Test Results

I finally got around to burning the mystery yarn. They burned and extinguish almost immediately, smelled like hair, but didn't have the ash that wool would have had. I think it's a blended yarn, some animal hair with acrylic or polyester as the label says.
my whole office smells like burn wet dog LOL everyone has come in asking "What's on fire, please don't tell me the toaster oven caught fire again?" (yeah we had this happen and it was scary, fire extinguishers, water, a really big mess, I think the troops are still weary of the new toaster oven).

Thoughtful Thursday

Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
10 "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

UPDATE: On the Mystery Yarn

Of course I posted on Ravelry, and got the response that it may not be what the ball band says, because someone else bought some yarn with the exact same label in another part of the country and it turned out to be wool. I think I should break out the lighter and cigar ashtray for a a burn test parrrtaaayyy.

" And that is when my spark got hot I heard somebody say Burn baby burn! - Disco inferno!Burn baby burn! - Burn that mama down, yo! Burn baby burn! - Disco inferno !Burn baby burn! Burn that mama down

Okay, now that song will stay in my head for the rest of the day!

New Yarn - It's a Mystery

My mom went to Big Lots and found these for a buck each, I am now the proud owner of 18 skeins of this yarn.
I have been searching the Internet and Ravelry for the manufacture of said yarn and have had no luck. They are 50g Polyester and Acrylic although I don't have any % on which is more prominent in the yarn, it's kind of hairy, and somewhat soft. The only thing that strikes me as odd it that it untwists with ease and in it almost has no twist as you play with it. I was trying to figure out the weight I think it's sport weight, but I'm not sure. Well regardless, I have them and I'm already thinking of what to weave them into I really like the colorways.

A Tribute

For the Families of the Victims, the Country in mourning and horror, the Honor of the Fallen, may God hold you in the palms of His hands.

Thoughtful Thursday

I was thinking I would start Thoughtful Thursdays which will include a pic I taken over the course of some outing and a verse or thought for the day.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination

Warp, Shrimp and Coffee

(I'm sorry if your blood rushes to your right ear as you view the pic but blogger is special when pictures are involved.) This of course is my sad attempt at log cabin, ahem shall we say NOT. It's okay one day I will actually just follow the directions and do it right, but I have to say I love the color combination on this one and am just going to weave randomly a bit of green, gold, sage and light green. This reminds me of sea grass at the shore, so that's what we'll name it. I warped 9ft of cotton chenille with my 12.5 dpi heddle, tabby weave I may do some waffle pick ups and see how it goes. After a few hours of warping and weaving, I needed some chow and this was definitely a welcome treat. I love shrimp pasta with lemon butter sauce it's the bestest, (as my kids use to say) with some white wine and garlic toast, it made me forget about warps, wefts, house, kids, husband, yeah it's that good!

We are also gearing up for another festival and have been doing the maintenance work on the coffee cart. We always have to get it cleaned and make sure all the equipment works before we go to any festival, nothing beats a properly maintained espresso machine, trust me we found out the hard way but as all the concessionaires we've met say, you'll never do it again after you learn the hard way, which is very true. There's the packing and sorting of all the syrups, cups, lids, various sugars, stirrers and straws. Before we started this venture, I never knew how much really goes into a specialty coffee drink and for that matter what it took for the food vendors and craft people to set up at the festivals and fairs, I have new found respect for these hard working people. There is the espresso machine, the regular coffee maker, coffee grinders for each machine, air pots, and the ice tea dispenser. Then inside the cart is the clean filtered water tank and the dark water tank, pump and various hoses and electrical wiring to make the whole thing work. It really is a neat little setup and we've enjoyed the festival circuit as much as we have been able to do, it gets tricky with full time jobs and we only have so many vacation days.
These are some pics of the cart at a few festivals we have attended.

If your in the Stuart, FL area we'll be at the Martin County Nautical Flea Market and Seafood Festival Sept 18-19 & 20, stop by and say hi, I'd love to meet a few bloggy friends.

Visualizing Concepts

I was contemplating doing a log cabin weave scarf with different colors, of course I can picture it in my mind but can't seem to picture what the threading would be like I've played with it in my mind for a good part of two weeks. I went to my reference books in which I found my tried and true Plain Weave is Anything But Plain by Leslie Voiers , this is my go to reference, especially when I have something in my head that needs some structure and explaining for such a small booklet, it packs a ton of useful information. The draft for log cabin is simple and really not complicated unless you muddle it up in your head and it comes out as something else I know I did that with this baby blanket. (after finding that post I'm in shock I've been weaving for a while and still feel like a newbie baby weaver, does that feeling ever go away?)

But my concept of the cabin with subtle changes in the color is really appealing to me. So of course I studied the book and think I have come up with the right sequence, although someone with much more experience is probably going DUH, I still have trouble putting my thoughts to actually fabric. I'd like to use the green colors of my cotton chenille with the the one constant color of the gold (although the gold might be to bold of a color) if that doesn't work then I will stay within the greens from bolder to lightest. I have a small frame loom, I'm going to play with before I warp my loom. I thought I would start with the deeper green and finish with the light green and have the color gradually form a faded effect. Both these sets of yarn have enough green to play with.

These are the days I wished I had a warping board, although I would know how to even get the yarn to the loom after that. I must really consider and save up some $$ to take a weaving course at J. Campbell Folk School in NC, that of course is on my bucket list, some people want to go to Europe or Japan, me I just want to go there, I guess I don't qualify as a having lofty travel dreams. Heck Mr. Deepend and I have even discussed selling our house and traveling the country in an RV for a year or two, but it's always the $$ issues that put a halt on all that mighty talk of just get up and go, ah but for the burden of responsibility.

I finished Midnight, I love the way it turned out. It took some time to get this one completed but I feel it was worth the work. I haven't measured it but it's a behemoth I wrapped myself up in it and it was wonderfully soft and warm and long and just lovely.I then started on this scarf, still in the spirit of grab any yarn you like and run with it.I have cotton chenille, rayon chenille, wool blend and eyelash yarn. The color indicator for this piece was the eyelash yarn, brown, beige, tan and steel grey. Lucky for me I had all those wonderful colors in my stash.I finished the piece yesterday, and I do like the look of it the weft is the rayon chenille and it's almost weft face but not quite and has a shadow effect with the color underneath it that I really like. It's almost a whisper of color, under a steel gray cloud, my DD called this one

Storm at the Beach.

Storm on the Beach Scarf = 7.5 dpi reed, 80 picks, 9ft warp, tabby weave. Bulky Rayon Chenille, Cotton Fingering Weight Chenille, Eyelash Yarn.

Stock for 1000Markets Shop and Art Fair.

I have a few FO's to share, I completed the table runner or scarf not sure yet what it should be, but I haven't twisted the fringe because I just finished paying for a hair twister gadget on Ebay. I hope to get is before the end of next week and twist fringe to my hearts content.

At this angle I could also say this is a shawl. This is a confusing piece, I really need to decide before I put it out for sale, although I could not name it and allow people to just use it as they see fit. This is the chenille scarf I was working on and the scarf that set my weaving mojo in motion again. It's soft, cushy and warm, if you wear this around your neck in winter it will definitely be toasty.

I had left over warp once I finished the chenille scarf and decided to make a short dual button scarf which my daughter named Tasto, which is Italian for button, she thought it would be great to give each piece an Italian or French name. I don't know yet but I do like Tasto, it just sounds right.

To achieve the button holes I wove to the point I wanted them, wove the first 12 picks on each side for four passes with scrap yarn on yarn bobbins which acted as tiny shuttles for me and woven the center with the main shuttle it wasn't hard to do, just kept all the yarn pieces going at the same intervals to make the buttonholes even. Once I had the right size for my button I took the main shuttle and woven two passes really tight to close the top off.

This is the finished piece it really is more like a cowl than a short scarf, I really like this piece and have a few more in mind with some thinner yarn for extra drape.

Solutions

For a while, I've had problems with my separator material, I use banners that my company makes and customers never pick up. I've been gifted what seems miles of this fabulous material and have cut lengths to fit my loom. The issue is not the material itself but what happens when I advance my warp. The banner material falls behind my loom, on to the floor,under my chair basically all over the place. It's messy and cumbersome when I need to move my loom out of the way and when I'm working. I took a trip to Walmart, yes I know, but really they had everything I needed and were the closest store to me at the time. I found these great hooks and the dowels I needed in the perfect size to fit my loom and they had them in stock. I screwed the hooks in place, this took some will power, because since this is my first loom I baby it. I'm always very careful, cautious I never bump into it with my chair, when I move it I pick it up and not drag it, you get the idea.

Hooks and dowels in placeI had my friend at work make me these end caps for the dowels they are 4" in diameter and were screwed to the dowel ends. Mr. Deepend did this I could trust myself with the 3/4" dowel a sharp wood screws and a tiny center hole. I didn't need a trip to the emergency room, so I let the finish carpenter of the house do those. ;o)

This is how it looks finished and tidy, now I advance the warp and I turn the separator dowel and suck up the banner material. It's such a simple thing but it really helps me out.

Another project I was working on was how to display scarves at the Art Fair I've been invited to in September. While shopping around I saw these curtain rod rings and thought I wish those came in really big sizes so I could display my scarves. I got back to work and spoke to the guys in the plastic department and they came up with this idea. ( I love those guys, so much talent)I tested it out and was thinking I could hang them on the side of the canopy and since they are clear it would almost look as if the scarves are floating around. I don't know if that's a good display, but we'll see how it works out.

Midnight Train to Georgia

I stared at my yarn stash and couldn't figure out what to do next with all that's in my head lately I draw blanks on my creativity and always have the fear that I've run dry that my creative mojo has just packed it's bags and left. But a trip to the stash closet, in which I get to look, touch and sometimes even smell yarn and that feeling gets cured in a nano second (thank God, I'd be so disappointed if I ran out of creative juice). As I stood there and looked at the yarn it hit me, I told myself to pick up all the yarn I had in the blue color palette, every skein, didn't matter what the yarn content was, or if it was the right shade of blue or if it been in there for a while, don't think just grab. I then decided to just weave and not give any thought to composition, symmetry, yarn weight, texture with the only requirement or better yet restriction, is color coordination.

I started on this shawl, which I called Midnight then I got Gladys Knight and The Pips, stuck in my head since I started weaving it "He's leaving,On that midnight train to Georgia, And he's goin' back To a simpler place and time. And I'll be with him On that midnight train to Georgia" but I digress. I have a lot of different yarn textures and weight with this one and I like the look and feel of it so far, my only concern is that the boulce is sticky as heck and the weaving has to be careful and deliberate each pass is slow and mindful. I love the fact that I didn't think, when I was warping I just picked up this yarn or that yarn and put it on the loom I didn't make any discerning choices, no thought to which weight would go with what next to each other, just GO, GO, GO... it was difficult to do especially when I normally really put some thought into what the final product will look like. I usually picture it in my mind what the feel, texture, color and look of the final weaving will be, but this exercise was liberating. I think I may be doing much more of this "throwing caution to the wind weaving" I REALLY LOVE IT!

Fringing this one will be a fun challenge!

Inspiration

I was trying to figure out what to weave next since I finished the chenille group and have been twisting fringe, looking for buttons for the small button scarf I woven from the extra warp and contemplating how to take pics for the the 1kmarket shop.

As I was wandering about the Internet I came across Memphis Weaver and the Girls of Summer Scarves what an inspiration for a new scarf or table runner, I dug out this yarn which I bought about a year ago from an Esty shop owner Yarntopia Treasures. I really loved the colors and thought I could knit with it but it's really to dry for knitting, so I put it way, until of course I got my encouragement, I love to stash yarn that didn't work out for a project and then resurface it and think wow, this yarn wanted to be this and I was forcing it to be something else, funny how that works.

I asked Felicitas the owner and weaver of Memphis Weaver, how the weft was done and she explained that her students carried the weft up to the next group without cutting the thread. I put in my extra shuttle and wove the first group, I thought looked great. (She has a class with RH weavers, dang I would love to be there learning!!)But wasn't impressed with the floating yarn so I wrapped it on the end and still was not convinced that it would survive the wash for cotton.

I then proceeded to cut the tread and beat the end and beginning warp of each group hard and tight. This I think suited this particular yarn better and would hold up to the washing and drying process. I finished it yesterday I haven't decided what I want to do with the fringe but I was thinking of beads or buttons. I'll have to see what kind of feeling I get for it today. (sorry about the sideways pics but blogger is having a "Manic Monday" now I can't get that song out of my head).

Scarf Weaving & other Tidbits

It's been so long since I've posted or woven anything that this feels a bit strange. Mr. Deepend and I started a business just about the time I stopped posting to this blog it's been really busy, stressful and exciting, but there hasn't been any time left over for my weaving, which I truly miss. I've been knitting quite a bit and if you follow my other blog you know I've mastered socks. LOL..

We have wound down for the summer (YES!!) and I am finding that I have some spare moments to weave. I'm rusty and have forgotten some more complex structures with my pick up sticks and whatnot, but it's like riding a bike after so months, it just seems to come back and you get your balance. I started a simple scarf with some stash yarn and Patons Bohemian Chenille, it's soft and super duper fuzzy, really cute stuff.

I warped my loom albeit only 84 warp threads in 1 hour and was weaving in less than 2, I'd say not bad, for a kid whose loom has sat in the corner of the dining room for about 6 months or more. I patted my own back and really got excited to start working again. I have quite a few other project in my creative mind and will be working on them diligently especially since my kids prompted me to open a 1000markets shop, yes I didn't go to Esty although I know it's every ones choice, but I really like 1k markets and it should grow at my pace and give me time to catch up with my loom.