Weaving With the Grandkids

This week has been very busy. My son and his family came for Thanksgiving. While the grandkids were here, I warped the big loom so that I could give them a lesson on weaving. The youngest, who is 7, had asked me during a phone call, "How do you make cloth?" He was very interested. I have been wanting to try making some towels with a picture pattern woven in, so I took this opportunity to do it. I found this Santa pattern from Handwoven.

After explaining how the loom is warped and showing the kids how the pattern develops as I weave, I took out a couple of small cardboard looms that I had pre-warped and let them chose their yarn to weave with. It kept them busy all day, an added bonus! Perhaps there will be a couple more weavers in the family one day.

Play with Me

Do you think Sadie was trying to tell me something? I was in my workroom, spinning the other day when I looked down and noticed she had brought me a variety of toys. I guess she figured she would keeping bringing them until she found the one I would stop spinning for and play with her. Poor little thing. You know she never gets any attention!

Cozy 'Kita--Dogs on Thursday

It's been awhile since I have posted anything about the dogs. Everything is pretty much the same. Nikita is hanging in there, acting a bit more senile maybe. I don't think she hears much, if at all, anymore. Her eyes are very cloudy now. She needs to go outside an unbelievable amount now and gets us up during the night or very early in the morning, but at least she isn't having accidents in the house. She sleeps all day, saving up just enough energy to still do her dinner dance. Here she is last night. She has a blanket and this large pillow. Each night she spends several minutes arranging them and then usually goes off and sleeps somewhere else, but last night she got cozy on her pillow. I think it is a sweet picture of the old girl.

This is Japanese Halloween

Have a Happy Halloween!

Baby Monkey

Paton's has a new booklet out called Monkey Business. I had to get it and make this adorable baby monkey. I just love how out-of-proportion he is. I made this one for a friend and he will be delivered with his own knitted baby receiving blankie.

Other patterns I am considering making from this booklet are a reggae monkey and a punk rock monkey.

Rigid Heddle Towel

Just checking in here at the blog with pictures of a towel project I did recently on the 20 inch rigid heddle loom. This was the first time I used a pick up stick to create a pattern other than just a plain weave on this loom. Using the pick up stick allows you to pick up additional warp threads. The warp on these towels is a varigated pastel cotton. The weft is beige cotton flake, light enough to let the colors of the warp show, creating a slight striping effect.

Rats!

Ah, the latest victim! The large crop of figs we had this year also brought some unwanted visitors to our yard--rats! Some have even made their way into our garage. For the last couple of months we have been on the warpath, but these creatures are pretty crafty. Several times the bait has been stolen off our traps and the varmints have escaped unharmed. We even had one that we thought was trapped and dead somehow get away. We can just imagine his little rat friends all getting together, some standing on one end of the trap, the others pulling together on the spring end, releasing him with a chorus of little rat voices cheering as he limped away. He might have even needed a little rat CPR. One of the traps in the garage was sprung one day with a little trail of blood going back under the door. He must have gone back and gotten splinted and bandaged up at the rat clinic before resuming his nightly fig quests.

We are making some progress, though. We killed two big ones recently and in the last couple of weeks 3 smaller "teenager size" rats. The one pictured above is one of them. Maybe they have lost their leader and the guidance to avoid our snares. We can only hope. I hate rats! Nasty, dirty, creepy creatures they are.