A Sad Day for America - Political

   I am distraught over what happened yesterday-A Soros backed grand jury using political power to take down a political opponent - over something that happened many years ago and was not a crime.

  In my own opinion, Sadly right now we are No longer free in America-that is except for those that hate America and what our constitution stands for- the far left extremist are free to do what ever they want with no consequence  

 We need to Re Read our history-this is why the United States became a country in the first place-to rid themselves of tyranny and the corrupt upper class and rulers.

  History always repeats itself-especially when our education system is so lacking right now-we need to continue to teach our history so we don't repeat.

 With No election integrity anymore we can't even vote these people out. 

  One of my favorite songs came up in my Facebook feed today-gave me a bit of hope, we must stay strong

   I don't post political any more as I will most certainly be attacked-again-but I love my country, I am a Christian and right now I am very afraid of what is happening in our country-so far I am free to express myself but for how long?

T Stands For Tuesday

    Hi Everyone,

        It is time for T for Tuesday where we share a drink related photo in our post, and gather over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's Find link in my sidebar.

    We are having spring like weather with lots of rain and still cool most evenings. I am hoping to start planting more seeds in the "greenhouse bottles" this week-I am actually behind on that do to the very cold nights this month.

   Yes, I  am till spinning fibers, but over the weekend I got out my two spinning wheels-one is the vintage parlor castle wheel and the other is a Traveler by Ashford that I put together as a kit back in the late '70s.  

  One of the very few things that I like about Facebook are their groups-They have groups for any interest.  Recently I joined a couple cast iron cooking groups and I also found a spinning group. The spinning group has wonderful members on there and have answered many questions for me.  My vintage wheel is also a flax wheel and I am beginning to think that the tie up is for flax and that is why I can not get it to feed on to the bobbin properly-it is also a very fast wheel with too much twist.  So I need to do some research on that on how to change the tie up. I spent hours with this wheel since Friday. I named my spinning wheels several years ago and couldn't remember for sure what I had named this vintage wheel. I decided since she came from England and that my research shows that this is probably from the 1800's to early 1900's her name will be Miss Elizabeth.

  Larry got my Ashford wheel going for me over the weekend-he figured out a tension that I didn't understand before-so I am excited to be able to spin on this one today (Sunday) This is still a learning curve for me-but in the end I feel I will be able to spin nicer yarns. Her name is Miss Ashley

  Sorry not many photos this week-as my digital camera has "died" today. sigh. This camera is around 20 years old now and I think she finally did her last photos this morning.  I don't use cell phones so I am on the look out for another camera-hard to find now a days since most people use their cell phones for a camera.

   I did get this photo just before we started working with the wheels The one in the front is the vintage parlor, and the Ashford is in the back. I had taken some new photos of the wheels today, plus food and drink photos-but the camera quit working after so couldn't down load them-sigh

    This is what was on the bobbin from the last time I tried spinning-so not sure what I did different to get the yarn to go onto the bobbin-it is a mystery for sure

 Larry also worked on my little 4 harness loom that I shared last week. He used to be a gun smith and also repaired vintage scopes so he had a special scrubber that does not scratch and was able to get almost all of the rust off of the reed. He will be able to put it back together soon-and then I can set up it for weaving. More fiber fun!

For my drink photo-I brewed up this tea last week, don't think I have shared this one yet  Since I had re organized my teas I can see and find the teas better-it's fun to choose different teas now. I really like the teas from this company

  Are any of you joining in for Sketchbook Revival? I have been getting the emails for the daily projects but haven't been able to participate yet. Do any of you know if the information will stay up to visit later on? thanks

  We are seeing so many birds and water fowl still. Early mornings we hear the loons every morning and sometimes see them. The pelicans are still traveling through, the heron is back, the crows, sea gulls, Canada geese and of course the eagle pair. Lots of birds at the feeder. We scatter food also on the deck as soon as it is light-we are always early risers. Since I bought peanuts all the woodpeckers visit along with a pair of blue jays. I had forgotten how pretty their song is. We also have a dove pair and a cardinal pair.

  Have a good week Everyone and Happy T

A sunrise photo from the past

   

T Stands for Tuesday Welcoming in Spring

   Happy First Day of Spring!  We had been so cold here in my area-low teens and 20's F in the evenings for over a week now and cold temps during the day as well. Today bright sunshine and we made it up into the 50's F. A pretty nice day for welcoming in Spring.  A little warmer this week with lots of rain coming in.

  Hoping those of you with all that snow will be seeing a melt off soon with warmer temperatures coming your way as well.

  This post is also for T for Tuesday, where we visit with friends over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's with a drink related photo.

 This past week-yep still spinning-smiles. Another skein of this pretty blended green and this blended blue. I am also working on more blues and yellows-oranges. 

  With all the different colors I have spun up for my garment project, I am thinking to make the various greens the dominant color-so I found on Etsy from a different seller, a lovely hand painted woodsy green, with woodsy yellows and browns. This is a long wool-Blue Leicester and is also 4 ounces. I am thinking that having more greens woven through out the garment will give a more cohesive look.

 

    For this rauna project I need to work up a weaving sample with these bulky singles and decide what weight of warp yarn to use. I never sample any craft or art project I just jump in and do it, but this time I need to sample since the weights of the yarns will be so different. So I brought out my adorable little loom that Larry found at a garage sale many years ago. I have not used it in all these years as I was either too busy with working-before retirement-or into my other crafts-dyeing, paper making etc.

   Isn't she too adorable? It's a shame I didn't find the time to use this already. This 4 harness loom was made in the 1920's-1930's and sold for around $10.00 back then including some accessories. Larry thinks he only paid around $20.00 for it at a garage sale, and it is in very good shape.

   The reed is rusty as you can see but everything works and in good condition.  I found a Facebook group for these little looms so was able to ask questions about taking the reed off of it's frame so I can clean it.  That was a big help for us-to know about it-as it has springs to watch for so not to lose them, I also would like to buy another size reed-this one is 15 ends (slots) per inch which is pretty fine, and I would like to buy a size 12-12 ends per inch.  I located a business that makes reeds-costly but good to know. For the heck of it I looked on Ebay in case there could be a reed for sale-but instead I found several of these looms that were not as nice as mine starting at $300.00 on up-craziness. 

  Do you like to make up a corn beef and cabbage dinner? We love it so I always make us corn beef with cabbage, little whole potatoes, and fresh carrots. This year I made up this meal on the 16th and then on StPatrick's day I made us reubens-sooo good.

  The smaller one on the left is my gluten free version. I love this cast iron grill pan for so many different things, and to weight down the sandwiches, I just grabbed another cast iron pan.

 For my drink share-the thermal cup has ice water in it, and in the background is a dessert wine from a local winery in Stover Missouri. I found these thermal cups at Wal Mart last year and made in the USA

Yesterday (Sunday) I wanted to make an upside down cake-but something different than pineapple. I grabbed a can of organic peaches that were thickly sliced with no added sugar, fresh blueberries, and a yellow gluten free cake mix from Bob's Red Mill. This turned out soooo delicious and moist. I used the strained peach juice in the cake instead of the water, and I used olive oil instead of butter.  This turned out so good.

I was able to flip this over onto a hand thrown pottery plate with no accidents-whew  smiles

Happy T Day 

T Stands for Tuesday

 This post is for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T for Tuesday where we link up and share with friends with a drink related photo in our post-find link in my sidebar.

  Still cold and rain here at the lake. There were allot of fisherman on the lake this past weekend here at Lake in the Ozarks even though it was quite chilly and very little sun. We are getting into the low 20's degrees F here again for  the beginning of this week in the evenings. Brrr too chilly for us to do anything outdoors-so I have been blending fibers and spinning every day still. I switched back to blending fibers into the rolags off the blending board. I like this better now that I am getting better at pulling out the fibers to make one very long piece for spinning.

  Sunday  I finished up with the dark green Shetland wool roving-blended it with other fibers, turned out pretty I think. This was 4 ounces of the dark green-Still not spinning thinner yarn but I am improving, and since most of my other spun yarns are on the thick side it will be ok for the rauna project. I am deciding on what I want to use for the warp for this project (the yarn that is threaded onto the loom) Looking in my stash to see if I have something I can use up.

  Next up is blending and spinning blues.

  I was quite surprised to learn that Sunday was the day to change our clocks-again-this time forward. For some reason I was thinking this happened in April and read about it late Sunday afternoon on Facebook haha. That's ok as the time didn't matter to us. We are retired and really don't get out of the house much any more when the weather is not warm outdoors.

  I hadn't made a fruit crisp in awhile so I made us an apple-raisin crisp on Sunday morning. These always turn out so delicious. 

   I finally got the super bowl mug that I had ordered the day after the super bowl- last week Friday. It had gotten sent to the wrong city out of Kansas City and sat there for over a week-it finally showed up.  The last Chief's super bowl win I had bought a mug at the Wal mart store and was not happy with it-the edges of the top of the mug were not smooth-so this time I ordered one online.

I added a little whipped cream to my apple crisp-smiles

 Sorry I do not have any new lake photos to share,  but we have seen loons almost every day, the pelicans are traveling through-they are always fun to watch, and one of the eagles flew real close to the window in my husband's work room-big surprise haha. I heard him say "wow that was close" We also have seen groups of crows which I enjoy seeing too.

  The birds know spring is coming-more arguments, courtships starting, and the red headed woodpeckers are back eating the seeds I put out, along with blue jays and a dove pair. We always get up early an hour or so before sunrise-just habit from our past work schedules-so we look forward every morning to the sunrises and watching the birds after I put the seed out for them

  Enjoy your week and Happy T

Anything Goes Theme for Art Journal Journey

 Happy Thursday everyone, it is a cold rainy day today. We did get out of the house this morning for our 6 month blood work, and then we stopped by our friends that visit us often here at the lake.

  I have been concentrating on my fibers-spinning every day for a few weeks now-I am seeing some improvements being made-finally.

 I have been wanting to make a page for Valerie's theme this month and since Spring is arriving this month, I decided to do a Spring page for her Anything Goes theme.

    I grabbed a watercolor sheet from my watercolor spiral book, my own  made botanical inks, and looked in my stamp drawers and chose three.

  I inked the stamps with a black ink pad, once dry I grabbed the box of my botanical inks and my glass dip pen.

   I am pleased with the results The botanical inks I used were matcha, blackberry, blackberry with vinegar, blackberry with baking soda, hibiscus, hibiscus with turmeric and soda ash, avocado, orange mandarin, black walnut. For the stone pavers I used black calligraphy ink from Japan All with the glass dip pen-more precise for me than a paint brush

Note: photos will enlarge just click on them

  Once dry I glued down inside my German cookbook-now art journal book

I love the colors of these botanical inks

Thank you so much for visiting

T Stands for Still Spinning

 Happy T for Tuesday. We all meet up over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to visit friends with a drink related photo to share. Find link in my sidebar.

  In my area of Missouri we have had spring like weather this past week. Lots of wind and rain, still pretty cool at night but some days warms up to the 60's and close to the 70's-so no complaints here-except I have not been able to clean up the yard and burn leaves with the high wind.

 Quite a few fisherman on the lake over the weekend with the sunshine and warmer temps. Larry and his friend went out fishing today early in the morning (Monday) as the weather is changing tonight into rain and cold. So happy Larry can finally get out and go fishing. Update: well bummer, Larry has the worst luck at times, never did "get that" as He is someone that is always helping others etc. He came home about an hour after he left-problems with the very expensive Garmin set up that controls his trolling motor etc-so they have no way to control the boat- now that it is not working properly. He hurt his back in the process ugh  Takes hours on hold to get a Garmin tech person.  

  I am still spinning. Mostly going pretty well and then I get back to my too thick and uneven yarns-ugh. I did find another video on how to make a very long roving from the blending board. The first time I tried it I messed it up but this morning it came out perfect-loving this method so much more than the other two I tried out and shared.

Here is mine

  This is what it looks like when finished tearing it to make one piece-this will get drafted out-made thinner-for spinning

and stretched out a bit

I took a couple different spinning classes at Fiber U over the years when we lived closer to this event at the woods house.  I mentioned to one of my teachers that I get so frustrated that I have not improved my spinning although I keep trying. She says you must spin every day-at least that is what she needed to do. Others just jump right in and make nice yarn right away-it has been a struggle for me over the years. I love it so keep trying to make better yarn

I dug out a couple of my spinning books and have been trying out other ways to work with my spindles. I do want to get my spinning wheel out one day too and see if I can figure out the issue why the wheel won't stay turning.

  The pretty tweed finished This is one of my favorites so far.

I am very happy with this one that I shared last week on T  There was a couple long rovings of striped colors in one of the mixed art bags I had purchased-so I blended it up on the blending board-very pretty

 I subscribed to the Winsor Newton newsletter about a year ago, and have found it very interesting. They share different artists' works and also from time to time history of colors. Last month they shared a book that sounded really interesting, so I searched online for a copy. So far I am loving the author's writing, and this will be packed full of information. I learned so much about Van Gogh already that I didn't know before. Have any of you read this one?

I made gluten free brownies over the weekend-yum I had a taste for them I bake them in a square cast iron pan lined with parchment paper

Went well with my tea

Happy T everyone and new week

Today's sunrise (Monday)

Spinning Update

  Hi Everyone, and happy midweek. We were suppose to be warm today-not-I can't complain no ice or snow, but we are windy, cloudy and cool. So still can't burn leaves from last fall, or work outdoors. I am still fighting not feeling well too. I am thinking I need a dose of predisone for the asthma, can't get into the doctor til end of March. and bummer my car is still not working, we thought we had it fixed and now won't start again-must be some sort of electrical problem.  So instead of food shopping I am playing with fibers again today-smiles. 😀

  Since I am still playing with fibers, thought I would share some progress. One of the skeins I had spun back in 2016 I was able to save from the mice getting into it, at the woods house-since it was on the bottom of the bag. No smells, so I put it on one of my diy niddy noddy's and wetted it down again.  I have been tagging everything over the years so I know what it is. This was blended on the blending board back then with odd fibers and also romney locks that needed to be hand carded individually with a tool called a flicker. After reading the label I remembered I had a big basket full of long locks that I carded outdoors.  This is not too bad of  yarn for a beginner, but it is on the thicker size and the joins are all pretty noticeable-it will weave up ok though

Remember the blending board from my T Tuesday post? Here is the yarn it spun into-I had trouble drafting it out-I had put a bit too much fiber on the board-so this ended up pretty but a little on the thick size too Very soft

   Photo below is of the skein of the long white wool and the above after being wetted down on the niddy noddy to set the twist and let dry 

    Below photo shows dried, put into a skein and added to their cloth bags: the white wool skein goes with the rest to be spun, and the other Yellowstone colors cloth bag.

     Note: I learned years ago to Never store fibers or cloth fabrics in plastic bags, better to keep in cloth bags or old cotton pillow cases.  Resale shops are good places to find pillow cases if you need them.

   The fibers that I bought came from three different sellers all came in plastic, which is ok to mail in, but one of them was quite damp-thinking it was in the plastic too long before mailing.

   I have not had a problem with fabrics being in those large plastic storage containers with lids but plastic bags is a big No for long term storage especially fibers for spinning and spun fibers. 

This next yarn, I played with yesterday. I still have more of this roving so will make up more

Laying on fibers to the blending board

I decided to make into these rolags which I really liked-you pull the fiber from one end draft it out and you get one very long spun piece-if it doesn't break-smiles.

In those two bags of fibers to use for this purpose that I had bought-there were two large pieces of this pretty striped roving-I think the colors are so much prettier blending them together on the board opposed to what I have been doing-tearing off long lengths of the roving and then spin-just get the color you tear off doing that. These colors to me are Yellowstone

  Today I had two pieces of roving left to spin of that pretty tweed green-bamboo and merino wool.  I decided to make rolags out of the last of it, and also add a little bit of the darker green roving and a golden yellow 

I did spin one of these rolags this afternoon, but didn't get a photo yet. For some reason I had a more difficult time pulling the fiber out to spin-may have gotten it too tight. I want to go back to the video I shared yesterday-to make roving from the blending board. Will try that out tomorrow.

Here is a video by Ashford on how to use the blending board to make rolags-I love this company and  have several of their products

    My first purchase was back in the mid 1970's for one of their spinning wheels in kit form. I have not been able to concentrate long enough over the years, to figure out my wheel-which would speed up the spinning. This spinning wheel has been a struggle for me. After I bought it I was working allot of hours, had some life changes, moving around etc and then when I would have some time couldn't figure it out-back then no internet for help.  Years later I discovered they sent the wrong directions-wow-so I got it put together the right way but still couldn't get it to work right. One year I took it to Fiber U when I was taking a spinning class-she was telling me the different things I could do-didn't write it all down at the time-sigh  It's been a long story-still determined though to figure it out one day.

       Oh and  Ashford is a family business out of New Zealand

 Looking at what I have left to spin for my Yellowstone park inspired rauna or poncho, I need more blues and yellows. So I ordered 2 more art batts to make up my own on the blending board-less expensive and more fun too.

  Can't believe we are heading to the end of another week already. 

Happy March 1st everyone.