So, What Happened to February? Part 1

Talk about a month slipping by without noticing it! I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything in my blog in over a month! Is that being too complacent, too busy or does that fit under my title of Procrastinator Magnificent?

My granddaughter Paige has turned one and has 8 teeth. She isn’t walking yet but may surprise us one of these days as she is standing unassisted occasionally when she doesn’t think about it.

Carlee, Tom, Jack, Katie Jane and Buddy drove down from Salt Lake City over Presidents’ Holiday to celebrate Paige’s birthday. We had Erin’s two Schnauzers as they were on a cruise and would have the party the day after they got back from the cruise. It was a bit of a zoo with four dog when anyone came to the door.

I bought a Schacht Cricket loom to work on with Jack while he was here and he did quite well with weaving on it. Katie had to have a go at it and didn’t do too badly either. She just doesn’t have the attention spand for it. Everything big brother tries she has to try. Grandma is going to keep the loom so that they have something to weave on when they visit, and I’ll bring it along when I visit SLC. The loom will last longer that way.


I’m still knitting on the horizontal herringbone scarves, all 4 of them, mostly as experiments to see how the gauge and yarns work out. But they are being replaced as the knitting project of the moment. I’ve moved on to “Durango Blue”.

“Durango Blue” is a sort of freeform knitting project that I want to finish before July, hopefully so that I can put it in the unjuried IWC (Intermountain Weavers Conference) show. It’s knit using #13 needles in a garter stitch, following a sketch that I’ve enlarged with a software program called Rapid Resizer. The enlargement is used as my cartoon or pattern. It’s a “shawl” that is really a wall hanging. More a figment of my imagination. I’ve started a group at Wooly Wonders on Tuesday mornings working on knitting and crochet freeform so that I will start working on my freeform project. And it worked! I’ve started working on my project again and a couple of people showed up for the group. So we may get something going.



I’ve been taking the mastery embroidery lessons for both the machine and the software for the Bernina which overlapped. I would like to retake the lessons in a month or so. Hopefully then more of the information will make more sense and become more second nature. Now I have to look everything up before I do it, as I am so unsure of what I am doing. But it is fascinating.

Back in the Saddle Again--Before I Forget How to Ride

Have you ever avoided something because you just knew it was going to take forever to get it done? But, by putting it off you just make it worse? That’s me. I think I should form a Procrastinators Anonymous of America group. PAA -- that sounds just about right, doesn’t it. Like a tire going flat. paaaaaa. This is my story…

I planned to take a week off my blog to attend a lace weaving workshop in Salt Lake City, well, it’s turned into more like two. The workshop was put on by the Mary M. Atwater Weaver’s Guild on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, October 25-27. That overlapped with our grandson’s fifth birthday party on Saturday in SLC, which was a nice fit with our schedule. We also planned to stop in Cedar City to check on the progress of the digging of the new basement. The SLC guild was holding their meeting in Provo Thursday night with Madelyn van der Hoogt, the editor of Handwoven, as the guest speaker. So I was hoping that we would be able to arrange our trip to fit that date in too.

On Thursday morning of the 23, my husband Bob, our dog Mac and I headed north in a packed car with suitcases, a small cooler, a warped table loom, folded loom stand, and a sack of birthday presents for the 6+ hr. drive. (More about our time in Utah in up coming posts.)

When I’m away I usually check my email and stay current, but this trip I didn’t with the excitement of family and the workshop. (Mistake #1) When I returned home to Las Vegas on Tuesday the 28th after another 6+ hr. drive, I tried to get ready for a machine embroidery class. I had just purchased the unit to go with my Bernina 440 sewing machine the Wednesday before the lace workshop, and the mastery lessons started on the 29th. Tight planning. I had to work the next day and had to load some software on a new to me laptop, and, of course, I ran into problems. Finally at 11:30 PM I decided I would have to cancel out of the class sessions and wait for the next round of session in January. Superwoman I’m not! I had already glanced at my email and saw that the messages totaled 127, and I passed on cutting the total down. (Mistake #2)

After work on Wednesday I had to round up some weaving equipment to take to a weaving and spinning demonstration the next day at our neighborhood elementary school. I didn’t work on my email or blog. (Mistake #3)

The school was celebrating Nevada Day, a state holiday observed on Friday, by having a pioneer dress up day on Thursday. During the noon hour recess some of our guild members were going to be out on the play ground spinning and weaving as part of their pioneer days. You can see us in the above photo.



Friday, the 31st, I babysat my granddaughter, Paige, to give my son an Art break in the morning and I went shopping at Quiltique in the afternoon as they were having a nice sale as part of their Grand Reopening from a huge remodel. 30% off of quilting yardage is great just before the holidays. Trick or treaters were out that night, and it was so warm that we had a small get together with neighbors out in the street while the little ghosts and goblins came around. This is a picture of Paige, our granddaughter in her first Halloween costume. Another day of avoidance of the computer. (Mistake #4)


Shopping and UNLV football game on Saturday. Poor UNLV, another loss, TCU was really good. By bedtime no blog and no email dealt with…on Sunday night when I finally opened my email there were 190 messages. Yuck. Today I finally got the totals down to single digits. Not a pretty story. Time to get in the saddle again.