New Play Things!

So my cold lasted a week and generally was your normal, usual miserable cold and cough where you feel like crap. During this time I held down the couch and didn't accomplish much. I did have time to read my new books!

I have been waiting for this rewrite for many months! The Scandinavian weaving book is lovely as well. It does seem to take two books to qualify for the free shipping at Amazon. That's a great hook isn't it?

 So in the (lonely) studio, I have threading under way on the Louet for guest hand towels:

On the big loom, I have the towel warp which has been waiting patiently for my lower back to get better so I can treadle (depressing the treadles can aggravate a lumbar pinch!)

I did manage to get myself upright, dressed and more productive and cleaned the house just ahead of a fast flip visit from Lynnette and her hubby. They were here to pick something special up and all the details of that, I will leave to her!   :)  We had a couple of grand days and the sun shone for our trip to see the fall colours. The last day we woke to rain and Michael said it was obviously time to go home.
Lynnette gifted me a lovely blood wood shawl pin!  Now I have to make a shawl for me.

So when a weaving friend comes to town, you *must* take her to the local yarn store (LYS)... right? So we went to The Loom which is just south of Duncan. Don't let the name fool you as there are only a few cones of weaving yarn and some bits and pieces of equipment parts. The store is crammed (I mean crammed!) with knitting yarns, and some spinning fibre... but mainly knitting yarns. We both found something to bring home... how could you not?  I found some interesting yarn to try my amateur hands at knitting this winter in the evenings.

This meant I had to buy these... which are a rare sight in my home!

I'll let you know how this experiment goes!

So I did promise to show you my loot haul from the Kelowna spin in (since I have no weaving news for you) My first goal was to look for a quad fringe twister and I scored! Hopefully this will help speed finishing up...

A friend loaned me a wheel to spin on (which apparently used to belong to a dear friend who passed away some years ago) It was much appreciated and so I had to buy some top to spin!

It has a hint of raspberry, peach and sage green. Lovely with 20% silk and 80% merino!  Andrea of Aurelia Wool and Weaving brings this yummy stuff in from New Zealand.
Next...

I recently wove using bamboo as my weft in combination with silk and loved it! I was happy to find these four  8/2 cones and snapped them up. (Security at the airport scanned them twice and for a time I thought she was going to keep them. Apparently yarn is a dangerous weapon!)

Gudrun also gave me a small hand towel for the kitchen. It was the tail end of a towel warp and its now a handy hand wipe, complete with its own little hanger.                                                                                   

The little tape hanger is handwoven! Gudrun said she wanted the tape to match. How cute is that?

So there were lots of little door prizes and many took one home... but there was only two raffle prizes. Two baskets: one had three local bottles of VQA wine and various cheeses, crackers. The second was this one:

It had a fibre theme and was due to a generous donation by  Kelowna's Ponderosa Guild member (Thanks Margaret!).
So with me having to fly home with weight restrictions, no one was more surprised than me when I won!
I can't really describe it too much as some if it is being gifted shortly, but an Ashford drop spindle, hand cream and some "The Wheel" spinning magazines and at the bottom was a lovely woven tray cloth:

A lovely plaited twill!  I spent some of my sick time researching plaited twills and one may be in my future!

No the basket didn't come home with me.....

* Please note that I have added a new page to my blog at the very top and will be adding books and equipment there for sale here as I sort through my studio and pare down! Check often   :)

Susan