Here Comes the Queen of Hearts!

It's time to think about that sweetest time of the year--Valentine's Day!  Did you know that Valentine's Day is celebrated in various countries around the world?  It is a time to show your love and affection for someone special in your life.

I'm thinking about Valentine's Day because the brown headed kid asked for a table runner for her new home--she requested this valentine one.

Joy Shope has the tutorial--we are stash diving for this one!

Should be fun to create for her table.

Other patterns are found here on this site--have fun!

and for some history, we have this from Wikepedia........

Valentine's Day, also known as Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine,^[1] is a celebration observed on February 14 each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it is not a public holiday in most of them.

St. Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. Several martyrdom stories were invented for the various Valentines that belonged to February 14, and added to later martyrologies.^[2] A popular hagiographical account of Saint Valentine of Rome states that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire. According to legend, during his imprisonment, he healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius. An embellishment to this story states that before his execution he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell.^[3]Saint Valentine's Day is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion,^[4] as well as in the Lutheran Church.^[5] The Eastern Orthodox Church also celebrates Saint Valentine's Day, albeit on July 6 and July 30, the former date in honor of the Roman presbyter Saint Valentine, and the latter date in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni).

The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). In Europe, Saint Valentine's Keys are given to lovers "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver’s heart", as well as to children, in order to ward off epilepsy (called Saint Valentine's Malady).^[6] Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.^[7]

Antique Valentine's card
Also called	Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine
Observed by	People in many countries; Anglican Communion (see calendar) Eastern Orthodox Church (see calendar) Lutheran Church (see calendar)
Type	Christian, cultural, commercial
Significance	Feast day of Saint Valentine; the celebration of love and affection
Observances	Sending greeting cards and gifts, dating, church services
Date	February 14 (fixed by the Western Christian Church) July 6 (fixed by the Eastern Orthodox Church)
Frequency	annual

Crayola has coloring pages!! for you to download and color!

And if you need something to write in those Colorful cards, you can find Poems!  Much sweeter than candy!

10,000 hours or 100 hours

What Is the 10000 Hour Rule?

The 10000 Hour Rule is just that. This is the idea that it takes approximately 10000 hours of deliberate practice to master a skill.

For instance, it would take 10 years of practicing 3 hours a day to become a master in your subject. It would take approximately 5 years of full-time employment to become proficient in your field. Simply work out how many hours you have already achieved and calculate how many more you need to clock up before you reach 10000.

the 100-Hour Rule:

For most disciplines, it only takes one hundred hours of active learning to become much more competent than an absolute beginner.

For example:

• Cooking: it takes years to become a master chef, but one hundred hours of cooking lessons and classes and deliberate practice will make you a better cook than most of your friends.
• Coding: it takes years of study and practice to become a strong software engineer, but going through a couple of Codecademy or Udacity courses will make you a good enough programmer for a lot of basic applications.
• Sales: it takes years of experience to become great at sales, but reading a few key books and shadowing experienced sales people for several hours will help you learn enough to avoid the most common/dangerous sales mistakes.

So, if this is the case--what is the number of hours you need to be competent in your fiber field?  Is it 10,000 hours, 1,000 hours or 100 hours?  As someone who has been a weaver since 1979, I can personally say--I'm still learning!  I AM NOT competent in my weaving!  I don't think I ever will be.  There is no way you can achieve the greatest number of hours and learn everything about weaving--how do colors mingle; weave structures abound; fiber combinations match, etc.  So, I will continue to practice and build up more hours of learning!

What number of hours do you need to be proficient in your field?  

Weaving Inspiration!

It's back to the routine--January always brings out new thoughts, new beginnings, new challenges.  And I'm always ready to be inspired by my fellow weavers--who have been more production and creative than I have!

D'Anne purchased a new loom--Glimakra Band Loom and she really went to town with her weaving.

Using stash yarns (5/2 perle cotton) she wove and wove

colorful band weaving--perfect for a jacket or even a guitar strap

Gretchen enjoyed weaving workshop with Rosalie Neilson that she wove this

wonderful 'snowflake' table runner.

Take a look at one of Rosalie's video

Close-up of Gretchen's snowflake in Rep Weave

She also had these wonderful turned twill block woven towels

Same warp, different wefts!  Enchanting color changes--cottolin fiber

Karen I was at it with her small tapestry piece--super detail in this tiny (3"x5") piece

I love her backs too--she says she needs to weave in the ends, but

I like them just like this!

Karen I also had these lovely woven linen mats/towels

such wonderful weaving technique

She has an article in this month's Handwoven magazine--working with linen.

Her work is always superb!  Another article in the January/February Handwoven

is by Tracy on towels.  We had such a great knowledge of weaving in our

study group.

As an exercise, we played with colored papers and weave structures

or lack there of--fun just to play

and a good way to see how colors bounce of each other. 

Okay, I'm inspired for the month--what to weave?  and what color will I use? 

Under the Mighty Oak!

There is nothing like an oak tree--and it is amazing that from a seedling it grows to be mighty and bold.  Having lived in Louisiana for many years, the Oak was a symbol of love and endurance.  There are so many lovely oaks around the state.

Edna Szymoniak Oak

35' 6" in circumference | #2072 of the Live Oak Society

A recent article in Countryroads Magazine caught my attention as we had a huge oak growing right beside our home in Gonzales, Louisiana.  William Guion is documenting Louisiana's most ancient live oaks--the oldest 100 Oaks in the state.  Take a stroll through his photographs and read the article on this project.  I watched our tree grow from a sapling to over 15 ft tall, but it is still growing and enduring.  Oh, the stories they could tell!  

Marshmallow Fluff!

Marshmallow Fluff --Yummy!  

We can't do fudge without it!  My mother said she ate so many peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches in her day that she had to swear off the stuff!

Nope, I'm talking about this Marshmallow Fluff knitting pattern 

from The Studio

Doesn't this look luscious and yummy, just like the real white stuff from a jar!  

Just need some chunky yarn, needles and away we go!

and it will be a quick knit too!

Are You Calling Me Chicken??

January must be the month to be called "chicken"!  So many recipes popping up with chicken as the main meat ingredient.  Do you know Erin?  Erin Chase runs 31 days of certain recipes--She is $5 Dinner Mom.

January she is featuring 31 Days of Rotisserie Chicken Recipes--Not that I want to eat chicken for 31 days straight, but these recipes can be saved for future reference.

Then I got my January Cooking Light Magazine and guess what?  It features chicken recipes too!  Is it a conspiracy?

Chicken 25 Ways!  

And Food Network Magazine has recipes for chicken wings!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner--

excuse me--I'm getting hungry and going to search for some

CHICKEN!

Fleece to Finish Project

For those who have fiber animals, here is an opportunity for you to participate in an event.  Many of our past fiber study groups have done a similar project.   Each person in the group chose a sheep breed, did a study of that breed, collect the fleece to distribute to other members of the group.  Then there was the spinning of each breed for our own workbook.  It was a year long study with great results.  We learned about different breeds, quality of their fleece and how it could be useful for our needs.

A link to the actual discussion is here: FLEECE TO FINISH

INFO:, 
There will be an emphasis on 3 areas:

1. Washing/processing fleece January we’ll discuss the washing methods we all use and make up our very own booklet..
2. Plying February to April will focus on plying methods with a particular look at Andean plying so we can make our own document on plying too.
3. Finishing items eg knitting, felting, weaving or crochet etc March to April we’ll look at what we do with our processed fleece - ie end products- knitted crocheted felted woven.. Other?