Week 3 of 2025

I finished the Second Story Tee this week - 

It is a pattern by Debbie O'Neill. I knit it with a Knit Picks merino cashmere yarn that I dyed.

If I was to knit it again I would change the neckline - it is too high, and wide (I would do gradual decreases). I made it to wear as a vest (slipover I think, since it doesn't have buttons).

I started a new knitting project - the Bubbly Shawl by Ainur Berkimbayeva. I am using a merino/tencel blend that I dyed and spun.

It is really enjoyable to knit - never more than 20 stitches being worked at a time. I am not making it into a triangle, but more of a scarf (I have finished increasing and will work straight for a bit).

The weaving is going well - I tried out some different weave structures on this set of towels.

Photos from Around -

We had a blizzard this week (luckily every one was home).

It polished the surrounding field of snow to look like a lake.

Now it is very cold (-45ºC windchill forecast tonight).

The chickens are holding up OK, just touches of frostbite on the ones with big combs, still all laying well.

The cats are happy to stay inside (Miss Maggie won't share her bench with GingerSnap! so I had to bring in a bench for him).

GingerSnap! still has to be involved with everything - helping me change the tie-up on my loom (I have a Mighty Wolf by Schacht and it is very easy to change, but all those dancing cords are pretty exciting).

He is even involved with helping get Molly ready for a walk.

All the best!♥︎

Week 2 of 2025

This week I started a new weaving project-

Another set of tea towels using a pattern from the JST School of Weaving (Season 6, Episode 2). The warp is 2/8 cotton in three shades of green, and white. My goal is to be a bit more experimental with weft colours for these towels.

When I was getting the loom all ready to start weaving (dressing the loom), I realized that I use various height chairs to make the work more comfortable, and that they all involve weaving in some way.

When I thread the heddles (the "wires" that create the weaving pattern) I use a very low chair. It is over a hundred years old, made by hand with wooden pins holding it together. I refinished the chair in the 1980's when I was a teenager staying at my Aunt's in Quebec one summer (brought the chair home on the plane). A cousin replaced the rawhide seat - a woven pattern.

Here is a photo of the cousin (on his wedding day - his wife was a cousin of my grandfather).

When my children were young we went to see him and he showed me his floor loom, I had never seen one in person and was so impressed.

Next when I thread the reed (the piece that spaces the thread, and beats the warp threads in place when weaving), I use a stool that is a bit higher. The wool fabric on this was woven by my Mom in the 1970's.

When I am actually weaving I use a higher, older Leclerc weaving bench.

These are some woven items made by my Grandmother and an Aunt - these are catalognes (typical French Canadian weavings made from cotton and strips of cloth/rags).

I am glad to be carrying on the tradition of weaving.

Pets - 

The hens are doing well.

Molly having fun in the cold this morning.

Maggie and GingerSnap! were startled by the dog barking.

All the best!♥︎

Week 1 of 2025

I had a few finishes this week -

The 2024 temperature blanket was finished on the last day of the year!

It was a fun knit, and made me pay attention to everyday of the year in a different way.

A set of tea towels is off the loom.

These are at the same pattern as the last set I wove in December, but using different colours for the warp.

It is an 8 shaft twill pattern. The towel in the above photo is just woven with red - stripes appear in certain sections, and the diagonal line in the twill changes directions, weaving is magical!

We framed the cross stitch I finished earlier using a frame from the thrift store that we cut to size. It was less than $3, solid oak and had the glass (it framed a piece of needlepoint and looked like it had been made with reclaimed wood).

It hangs in my kitchen with two other cross stitch samplers I had made (one from 30 years ago, and one I designed and stitched a couple of years ago to fit the thrifted frame it is in).

On January 1st I started another cross stitch - this is my cross stitch for 2025 (the challenge will be making it last for the year), a quarter of the border is stitched.

Photos from Around - 

Cold temperatures this week made for a few days of amazing sundogs.

Pets at the Start of 2025-

GingerSnap

Maggie

Molly (her turn in a cone this week).

Some of the nine chickens.

We plan on adding a few chickens this year, but hopefully no other pets show up wanting to move in (GingerSnap!).

All the best!♥︎

Week 52 of 2024

This week I made a companion piece for the "Smart Sofa Station" I made a few weeks ago -

This is the "Snips and Tails Mini Bucket" available free on the designer's website.

It uses a magnet to attach to the sofa station.

The patterns, along with the videos are great, making sewing a breeze.

Works in Progress - 

Warms days this week. Just two days left on the temperature blanket!

This week I cut and basted about 1000 hexagons (really only about 200, but yikes it took forever!). This is another long term English Paper Piecing project for when I feel like some hand sewing. The hexagons are all random except for one flower. These are hexagons with 1" sides (papers cut with the smallest die for the AccuQuilt GO!). I originally started this with plastic template hexagons but it didn't work as well as the paper ones that could be basted through. 

Weaving towel #6.

Participating in a 12 days of spinning challenge, and spinning some fibre for sock yarn.

Photos from Around - 

The hens keeping warm.

GingerSnap back wearing a cone (open sore on his leg that he just won't leave alone).

Maggie and Molly enjoying some warm winter fun.

Frosty day today.

All the best!♥︎

Week 51 of 2024

This week I finished a cross stitch -

The pattern is All Creatures Great and Small by Barbara Ana.

I stitched it on 40 count linen, with DMC floss (1 strand of floss over 2 fabric threads, so 20 stitches per inch). It is 12"x15". I thought it would be a three year project but I finished it in just over two and a half years (May 2022 to December 2024).It was really enjoyable to stitch because all the little motifs made for many satisfying finishes along the way. I added my maternal grandmother's initials and her date of birth, because her work inspired my love of embroidery. 

Here she is on the left, aged about 15 years around 1908, along with an older sister and her mother (I was surprised to realize that I am about the same age as my great grandmother in this photo - late fifties).

This is a sampler that my grandmother made at school (probably around the same time as the above photo), it includes different embroidery stitches, quilting, mending, patching, and crochet.

My next cross stitch is all ready (this will be a 2025 project).

I also made a couple of little "kicker" cat toys (with winter just starting someone is inside a lot more and needs ways to burn off energy that don't involve eating plants and climbing in the basement ceiling joists!). Simple squares of leftover thick fabric, sewn into rectangles, stuffed with scraps of wool batting, with some little braids of crochet cotton on the corners for added fun.

Very entertaining!

Weaving number four of the six tea towels on the loom.

Hard to believe only one and a half weeks left!

Photos from Around - 

Nose freckles.

GingerSnap blends well with the quilt.

There are so many photos of GingerSnap because he is always close by (he is the most affectionate of all the pets).

Everyone waiting for treats (someone more excited than the others).

The hens get their treats too (still laying lots of eggs).

Beautiful winter walks.

All the best!♥︎