What To Do With Odds and Ends?

What do you do when you have a whole box of 2.5" squares?

You make this!  Traffic Jam! from Pat Sloan--it is

truly a scrap busting quilt

and when you have several leftover blocks--where do they go?

Into the beginning of a full size quilt top--all those 'orphans' will be put to good use!

not bad but I still have two orphan blocks left over--oh well, guess

those blocks will linger till there are a few more orphans to work with

or maybe--the backing will contain those two blocks.

Seek and you Shall Find--Evidently!

Either you love Youtube or you hate it!  I've found some useful articles, photos and videos on this popular social network.  Just recently, An article about a Navajo weaver winning best of show appeared on my news feed--move over--Here I come to do more research--you see, I enjoy Navajo weaving A LOT!
I've taken several weaving and dyeing workshops with Navajo weavers--I have collected Navajo weavings and I cherish each and every one.

Navajo Times had the article and photo of  Isabel Deschinny

doing a review of her award winning piece of

Navajo natural dyes and weavings--

Many moons ago I took a natural dyeing workshop

with Isabel in Taos--what great knowledge she

offered.  Not only is she a weaver and dyer, but her

mother was Mabel Burnside-Myers!  The one and

only, who produced this piece

I have had this wonderful weaving/dyeing chart for years and I searched

and searched to see the maker, to no avail,

then I met Isabel and she told us the story of

her mother's work--each piece is individually woven

on a small loom and Mabel was not given any credit-

no wonder I couldn't find a maker.

So happy to have a maker's name with an outstanding work of art!

Her Stash Lives On....................

January spin-in brings lots of good memories for future years--it also brings many different fibers to add to your stash!  How do we accumulate so much fiber?  Why can't we keep up with the spinning required to make that yarn we need for weaving or knitting?  Sometimes Life gets in the way while we are living each day..............................................

Two days before we arrived at Spin-in, we received a call from a family member who had some fiber to donate to spinners who would appreciate it.  Okay, we'll accepted it and it give it as door prizes, which is a big thing each day for registrants--needless to say, we did not expect what we received----27, yes 27 TUBS!!  Yes TUBS!! of fiber--all good fiber--most processed.  We felt sad for this person who had to move to assisted living facility--there was no way she could take it with her--
I'm sorry I didn't get photos of all the tubs--it was hard to believe that someone could have so much lovely fiber--

 This was one of the dyed rovings--Corriedale fiber--she seemed to like this breed of sheep as there was many tubs with processed white fleeces

 She also liked Merino, 80's count;  lovely roving--spinning quality right to the wheel.  There were so many different fleeces--Alpaca, wool, Jacob, etc.  We asked those members who had study groups if they would be interested in these fleeces--there were also soy silk bags, mohair rovings--raw fiber too.  And Silk!  yes, lots of silk.

The photo above is merino--it would be great for felting as well as spinning.

The fiber to the left is 50/50 merino/mohair--

 There wasn't much dyed fiber rovings, like the one on the right--if she did the dyeing, she did a good job--fiber wasn't felted or matted.

 Most of the bins had the price tag and merchant she purchased from--most from 2002-2004.  There was no cotton fiber but lots of synthetic, that could be used for stuffing (in my opinion)   There was also lots of tencel--which a study group wanted to study.  Don't think I'd want to spin it, but some of the attendees were happy to accept for their study.

Photo to the right is bleached tussah silk, almost a pound--Pollywogs  lovely stuff!  Her stash will keep many spinning for many years to come.

Several of us decided right then, we were going home and spin up our stash!  No one wants to leave so much fiber without a home--

She had very little hand spun yarn in her stash--there was one woven shawl with her

handspun--that shawl was delivered with our charity "Helping Hands" hats and gloves.

The above fiber is 50/50 wool and tencel--Her skeins were lovely--

these are in my stash now--I want to make something that would

showcase her spinning--maybe, return it to her someday.

Needless to say, I didn't purchase much fiber-usually don't.

A vendor graciously gave me this bag of Acadian grown brown cotton--

I'll add it to my stash!! 

2020 January Spin-in Wrap Up

What began in 1989 as a small group of 8 spinners who just wanted to gather in

January and have a spinning retreat--has now gone to over 125 spinners plus

vendors coming together the last full weekend in January.  We begin

on Wednesday with vendors setting up their booths with registrants

arriving at 1 PM--they are usually waiting in the hallway rather

impatiently to enter.

the doors open and the spinners begin!  

It's the best laid back place to be for three and half days--there

are no workshops or seminars, just spinners making new friends,

greeting 'old' friends and spinning to their heart's content.

You can stay as late as you want, then back to their condo

to rest to begin again the next day.

One of the vendors has the best designed 

booth-always intriguing and usually to the theme--this year's theme "Helping Hands"

This year the vendor's display was with these wonderful overshot coverlets!  All dyed with

indigo--just a delight to see and touch.  I'm sorry I didn't get a photo of their completed booth set-up

Every one of these spinners are wearing a handmade item--either handspun or not--it doesn't matter--

Lovely it is for body adornment!

Each day around 10 AM--give or take 30 minutes or more--there is a show and

tell and we encourage anyone who wishes to talk about and show off their

latest creation.  We have some wonderful knitters amongst these spinners.

Around the room, there are various sizes of circles--some large, some small, but each spinning away on their purchased product--
Doesn't matter how experienced or novice you are, there is always something to learn from each other--that's why there are no workshops or seminars.

Gorgeous colors flow throughout the days--natural dyes along with chemical dyes--all brightly shining with eager hands spinning away.

Several of our spinners are also knitters and weavers--so here are the latest in color study from Charlene--I loved this study--constant warp with weft of warp colors crossing over--

great way to see how some colors fool the eye --no mudding here or there!

I was surprised how many E-spinners were being used--no electric cords allowed-- But

the "old" fashion way of treadling was majority

Since our theme for 2020 was Helping Hands--we had collected handmade items from those

who wished to participate.  There were many who donated their items to their local

charity, but this group of hats, gloves, scarves, lap robes and blankets were going to a

northern state--in the South we have only 3-4 days of cold a year

We did not count the total number of gifted handmade presented--wonderful

contribution from our "helping hands" spinners

Another year has come to a close for our gathering--it is with sadness we hug and say goodbye to our friends--we'll see you next year in 2021!  Our theme was voted by our

participants--"Alpacalypse is coming"--what fun will we have with this!

2020 Knitting Challenges

Ohlalana is hosting a beginner knit along with

mystery blanket of blocks for 2020.  Each block will be 

different and use techniques that a beginning knitter

will find that helps with knitting.

• Skill level of BEGINNER (only use knits and purls!)
• All squares have the same number of stitches (43) and rows (63).
• The approximate measure for each of my blocks is 8.75” x 8.75” (22.5 cm x 22.5 cm). Of course, this will vary if your tension is different than mine or if you decide to knit them with another yarn weight and needle size.
• They will have 4 rows garter st at each end (casting-on and binding-off edges) and 4 garter stitches at each side. This means that the internal surface (my stitch pattern design playground!) has 35 stitches x 55 rows.

Ohlalana also is featuring a lace blanket knit along.  Maybe,

you don't want to make a full blanket--here are some suggestions:

• Knit some of the patterns instead of all 15 to make a shorter blanket.
• Knit each pattern for more than 4” to make a larger blanket.
• Add more horizontal repeats of each pattern to increase the width of your blanket.
• Add a final border to all the perimeter of your blanket at the end (you might find useful to use provisional cast-on in this case).
• Knit additional rows between patterns to enlarge the blanket effortlessly. 

Finished!! Completed!

My goal was to finish two UFOs before I began a new one.  I did It!!

This was Christmas top from Fort Worth Fabric Studio

It was easy to sew along, if you kept up with the steps

which I didn't do!

I found the Santa Southwest fabric in my stash--

Think I'll add a border or two

Just a touch of Santa amongst the sagrillo and pine trees--

much like Arizona

Add the borders and off to the unquilted stash pile it goes!

This top is from 2019 BOM "Out of This World:

Pat Sloan, designer--

I did mine with sunflowers--just needs two borders and a

sunflower larger border--wish I'd added larger borders of sunflowers

Okay, I finished two UFOs so I'm off to begin a new UFO to add to my UFO stash

Block One of Fort Worth Fabric Studio's mystery QAL is on the left and block two on the right Fort Worth Fabric Studio  "Love Supreme" You can also find this on Facebook.

This should wrap up by February 14th!

Another Month Read With Agatha

The following info is thanks to Helena--our Ravelry discussion leader

Check out the group on Ravelry and join us in reading these intriguing books

by Agatha Christie--we watched Acorn version of "The Mysterious

Affair at Styles"

"The story takes place during the First World War, also known as The Great War and is the first novel published by Agatha Christie. We are introduced to Arthur Hastings, Hercule Poirot and Inspector Jappe of Scotland Yard.

A short audio dramatisation is to be found here
The full audio book is here
A free copy of the text is to be found here

Published in 1920--how have things changed in 100 years?

1. In 1914 women worked mostly in the textiles industry. By 1918 almost a million women were employed in some aspect of munitions work.
2. The first women police officers served during the First World War.
3. Even though women formed a large part of the work force, only munitions workers received a partial compensation for childcare.
4. The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was established in December 1916. The Women’s Royal Naval Service was formed in November 1917 and the Women’s Royal Air Force was set up on 1 April 1918. In total, over 100,000 women joined Britain’s armed forces during the war.
5. Women’s football became popular. Many munitions factories developed their own ladies’ football teams.The most famous of these teams were Dick, Kerr’s Ladies FC in Preston. Founded in 1917, their matches drew large crowds. They continued to enjoy success until women were banned from playing in Football League grounds in 1921.
6. The suffrage movement fractured as some of their leaders supported the war effort while others opposed the war. Those that supported the war saw their efforts rewarded in February 1918, when the Representation of the People Act gave the vote to all men over 21 years of age and to women over 30. It was another ten years later before this was extended to women over 21.
7. Women serving in the auxiliary services or working in manufacturing, transport and on the land wore a range of uniforms and clothes, sometimes including trousers. Although women’s fashions were already evolving by 1914, the move to more practical clothing during wartime undoubtedly accelerated the pace of change.

Women were encouraged to knit for the troops (comforts for the troops). This included socks, knee  warmers, mittens, rifle mittens, scarves and balaclavas.

After the war, with the start of the “flapper” era, women were ready for something new. Hats (cloches), and sportswear (tennis and golf) became very popular.