I was making some progress hooking a rug. Getting way too much help!

 D-9 Uncle Richard

 D-10 Battlefield

 D-11 Snow Crystal

D-13 Field Of Dreams.
I have 4 rows done now, I am not spending a lot of serious time on my Dear Jane quilt these last couple of weeks. I just can't seem to get over this cold and have mostly just marking time until I feel better. I do a little sewing, a little spinning, a little weaving and then I am exhausted. Take a nap. Then mostly knitting since that doesn't take a lot of concentration.

David requested a sweater-vest to wear under his coat for additional warmth in the winter. I made him one many years ago but he outgrew it or wore it out, we can't remember what happened to it, but it would never fit him now. No pattern, none needed, all I really needed was his measurements and the gauge of the yarn. I could have knit it in the round but I didn't plan ahead to do it, just started knitting. I don't mind sewing side and shoulder seams.

These are the latest from the dyepot. The two on the left are commercial yarns, the colors were kind of blah, I picked them up at a thrift shop. The  colors are a lot nicer now, in my opinion. The right is some of my handspun and I love it!

Ambrosina has made a lovely spinich-mushroom-cheese tart for lunch and I am now going to take time to give it the attention it deserves!

D-4 Crystal Star. This one took a little longer, the petal shapes are hand appliqued.

While I am in the grips of this cold I haven't been doing a whole lot. I hope to be doing better soon.

D-6 Challenge, not much of one, a challenge that is. I showcased a chintz fabric that I've had for over 17 years, I recovered Ambrosina's dining room chairs with it and I have always loved it. I have only a few small pieces of it left and I have always used it for something that would show it's pattern.

D-7 Meeting Place. Not very difficult either, good thing I am not up to anything that requires any sort of concentration.

A little hard to see, the left yarn was dyed with food coloring, Wilton's Teal. It didn't "break" the way I was hoping, again I think the amount of dye was wrong because the handspun wool doesn't bind as fast as a superwash wool would and I didn't allow for it. Learning all the time! The right was dyed with magenta food coloring which has two colors of dye in it which broke apart in this beautiful pink and yellow, love it. There was only a small amount of food coloring left in the jar so I didn't use as much and the results were much more like what I was looking for.

I know that this isn't the best yarn in the world, but now that I am getting some experience under my belt and getting used to my wheel it's getting a lot better. Most of all I am enjoying it so much that I am not worried about what is done with and just trying to make improvements in what I am doing now.

Now it's time for a nap, I may even have a second cup of coffee this afternoon to help with the coughing, coffee being a natural cough suppressant and I need a rest from it. Any old port in a storm, and any reason is a good one to have a cup of coffee!

D-5 Cathedral Window, this one was fast and easy. Straight paper piecing that would be hard to go wrong. Good thing too, I am better but still not feeling well. After this one was done I spent the rest of the morning spinning, something that is soothing when I am not feeling well, or any other time for that matter. I could see making a whole quilt out of these little blocks. Will I? I doubt it, I have too many other ideas that are stirring around in my brain.

I dyed yarn, when the skeins are dry tomorrow I will have a picture. They aren't drying very fast, it's not very warm. It seems summer was over before it got here. We had such a late spring and now an early autumn. It could be worse I suppose, we could be getting a hurricane. I guess I had better count my blessings. We aren't having a blizzard yet either.

Also the car is running! Such freedom! I do have a lot to be happy about, also when I am not feeling good I have the time to take a nap, something that never happened when I had a family to be responsible for, Ambrosina has the cold and she is not getting naps. What goes around comes around.

And speaking of naps...

David generously shared his cold with me and I have been not at all well this week. I have not felt like doing much at all and anything I tried to do hasn't turned out too well. As witness:

 D-2 Mouse In A Mirror, 1st

And this is the second, much better.

 D-3 Jason's Jacks, this is hand applique so wasn't difficult to do while I had my feet up, nursing my cold.

 C-13 Lakota Sioux, done over the weekend before I came down with my cold.

 C-11 Soldier's and Sailors Monument

 C-12 Family Reunion

D-1 Alison's Guiding Light, these were done over the last weekend before I got to feeling so badly.

Hopefully I will start feeling better tomorrow, that's about how long it took everyone else to get over it and I should be no different. We will see.

It always surprises me how much I can get done in twenty minutes. I love the way the pattern is starting to emerge on the loom. I don't spend a lot of time in any one sitting when I weave, but a short time spent goes a long way.

C-10 Patriot's Lantern

I only got one done this morning, I didn't seem to be able to get up to speed this morning. David has come down with a cold, I hope I am not joining him. Ambrosina has it too. According to Sammy they got it from one of his classmates.

I brought the yarn in from drying outside. I am very happy with the way it turned out and I can't wait to see how it is going to look in a rug. This was some of the first yarn I spun and I was out of practice so it is really uneven and very bulky, as well as over-twisted. Now I am getting the thickness down and getting the twist more under control. I used Wilton's violet food coloring. What I took away from this is that the raw wool takes the dye slower. It's not completely raw, by the time it went into the dye pot it had been washed twice, but still had a lot of lanolin in it. By the time it was finished cooking, the lanolin was all gone and it is feels harsher. This wool is from sheep that are bred for meat so the staple is going to be coarser and it won't be as soft as sheep that are bred for wool. I don't mind, for rugs it will do very well and will be very durable.

So there you have it, I am looking forward to my next time at dyeing. I have to wait for a day that Ambrosina is not using the kitchen. I will be glad when we get water down here, but don't know when that will be. We make do with what we have, it's certainly not all that difficult.

Ambrosina went through her baking cupboard and gave me some of her food coloring. I look forward to trying that!

Here we go with the first food coloring experiment. One-half teaspoon violet dye in a cup of tepid water. With this very first try I learned that you cannot control what the food coloring is going to do, that is what made it so much fun. I only soaked one skein of yarn, I didn't think I would need anymore but when I saw that the yarn in the pot wasn't going to exhaust into the first skein I pulled it out and tossed in a dry one.

That didn't exhaust either. I have a lot to learn. My wool/food coloring/vinegar mix was off. I am not dissatisfied with my yarn. In fact I am very pleased and can't wait to try again.

These skeins were in the same dye pot one after the other, the darker first. I think the colors are beautiful. One can't dye enough for a garment this way, but for the use I am planning the variety will be wonderful. I can't wait until they are dry so I can use them.

 C-7 Meghan's Mountain Laurel. I finished the hand applique of the diamonds last night, the rest is paper pieced.

 C-8 Hani's Crown. I pieced this while I was waiting on the dye pot. I lost some time this morning because my new ball winder broke last night when I was winding yarn and I had to take it back. I hope the new one lasts better.

So now on to other things, it's time for some hand work and the boys will be home from school very soon.

One of the first skeins of yarn that I spun. It's pretty knobby and a lot heavier than I like. It was a little hard to put through the eye of the ball winder. I've improved vastly. I got used to the wheel with the bulk bobbin and am honing my skills. It's been 20 plus years since I did much spinning, probably close to 25. My family was young and I was taking care of my elderly parents and I was working full time. It's no wonder I didn't have time. After I stopped working I didn't have a wool source. I found that my knowledge and understanding of the process has grown over time, I am approaching my work with a whole different mindset and it is so much fun! I plan on dyeing tomorrow.

C-3 Eye Of The Cyclone. I didn't do much sewing this morning, I had some odds and ends to catch up on and a couple of skeins of yarn to wash and block. I bought a salad spinner to put the yarn through to get the extra water out and it should dry faster. We already have the fall chill in the air so the time for drying outside is going to be limited.

So Sammy, who is seven, was standing watching me spinning. Then he said: "So where's this yarn you are supposed to be making?" And I told him it was right in front of him. He said, 'that doesn't look like yarn to me. Of course I said well it is yarn. He said: "It doesn't look like the yarn I use". There is always a critic in the room.

Tomorrow I am going to try dyeing with food coloring, I can't wait!

 C-6 Ashey's Aura


C-4 Tic Tac Toe


I'm a little out of order. I did finish one this morning, but David got the car back together and we took it for a test drive. I did some shopping that I couldn't do last week and it felt so good to be independent again. David is worn out but I so appreciate his hard work. Poor guy it was a terrible job.

 C-2 Streak Of Lightening

C-3 Rayelle's Fence

I did pick up one yellow at Walmart this morning, but that source is pretty well tapped out for yellows. Likewise Hobby Lobby. I have to check at Jo-ann's and there is one quilt shop I haven't been to before that I discovered when we had to take a detour for road work. I won't complain about any more detours I guess.

I have been knitting since I was about 4 years old, that's sixty years. I have always wanted a ball winder and I finally got one today! Yippie skippie!

This is food coloring. I have been hearing about food coloring dyeing, but never tried it. One can't dye a lot of yarn at once with it but it's been something that I wanted to try. Now that I have the wool for it I can finally do it. There will be some interesting experiments to show quite soon. Can't wait. I have some other ideas I want to try, but I need some more tools and they will have to wait. Can't do everything at once after all. I have to get more yarn spun anyway. I am about 2/3 through the carding. I want to get some hand carders because some of the wool that is left would benefit being done by hand instead of the drum carder but they are a little spendy and I don't have the money right now. I can't complain, I don't want to get spoiled, after all, I did get a ball winder this month!

 As I write I've got this enormous tom-cat sitting on my chest think that it's the only place he can be. It's really nice to be loved. My weaving looks good to me, an expert weaver would have some criticisms I am sure. My reed is the wrong size but I don't have another one so that's that. Heavier thread would have been better, but that's the thread I have. Anyway, as long as I learn and enjoy what I am learning I count it a success. It will soon start getting cold down here and weaving will be difficult. I am thinking I will try turning on the heater for a half an hour so I can weave off and on throughout the winter, but we will have to see.

Cat left, he is over on the other side of the bed waking up David from his nap.

B-8 Water Lily

B-11 Melissa's Cross

B-13 Four Corner Press

B-12 Starflower

B-10 Jud's Trophy

This finishes row B of Dear Jane. Tomorrow I will start row C. I am doing about 2 blocks in a morning's sewing. Since I am not hurrying I don't feel the need to push it and I will soon run our of different yellows and will have to decide whether I want to repeat on colors or wait until I can afford some more. If that is the case I will dig something out of the UFO tub.

So anyway dinner is ready and I need to go eat, I can put the decisions off for a few days.