So What Happened to February? Part 2

Because I didn’t know what I was doing I haven’t progressed very far on the sewing projects for my granddaughters. I’ve finally gotten the initials done on the corduroy bodices, now I have to change the thread on the serger to sew up the outfits. But of course, I’ve put that off to make an apron for my neighbor…







My neighbor, Lynn, is a great cook and baker besides being generous. When Carlee and family from SLC were here for Paige’s first birth celebration, Lynn sent over some baked dishes and cookies. What a sweetheart! So instead of sending some food back to her, I thought that I would embroider an apron for her and send that back with the empty dishes. HA! Well the empty dishes went back 2 weeks ago and I’m still working on the apron! But at least it looks decent. I added some embroidery “Lynn Super Mom” to the apron bib in pink on a turquoise background with an Amy Butler print used for the ruffle, pocket, trim and ties. Another week or so should finish off the apron. I keep forgetting that sewing, and doing a good job of it takes more time than I originally think it should. Once the apron is finished I can get back to the granddaughter’s outfits--which they will have probably grown out of by then or the weather will be too warm to wear. True Murphy’s Law or in my case, Ackerman’s Procrastination.




This past Monday morning I started teaching a beginning tapestry class at Wooly Wonders to a very interested student. Interested enough to get me back to teaching as I had taken the fall semester off from teaching weaving classes. It looks like I may have a beginning rigid heddle class following the end of the tapestry class. I’m going to try some new resolutions to prevent burn out. Teach only one class - one section at a time with a break of a week between a series of classes. And I raised my prices to approximately $10. an hour plus materials if any. We’ll see how well the new resolutions work out.

Away from the Glitz

Although I live in Las Vegas I'm mentally a long way away from the glitter and glitz of the Strip. I live in the "other" city, where people live and work and actually don't think about gambling every minute. I've lived here for 22 years, teaching in the school system for 15 of those years. Now that I'm retired I can "play" with fiber instead of coins.

I work in a local yarn shop usually only one day a week, enough to feed my yarn habit. Since retiring I've been giving beginning weaving lessons on frame looms that I've constructed myself--over 75. Lately I've started branching out into beginning weaving instruction in rigid heddle looms. I've also touched on inkle weaving, tapestry weaving and fabric for making a vest (that was a REAL learning experience).

I also enjoy knitting and am currently working on a mittered square project from the book "Knit to be Square" by Vivian Hoxbro. Vivian calls the technique 'domino knitting' not mittered square. This particular project is abstract stole found on page 123--using incomplete squares. I thought a stole with holes in it was especially appropriate for Vegas weather. I'm using #4 needles with some Koigu fingering yarn. I don't plan to felt it as the patterns suggests so I'm cutting down on the number of panels and squares per panel. Hopefully I have enough yarn for the project...does that sound just a little like a faint doubt of my estimations? Oh yes.

Incidentally the piece of fabric at the bottom of this blog is the fabric I wove on a rigid heddle loom that I made into a vest, which I'll show in another posting. The workshop that I took with Daryl Lancaster in Salt Lake City last April was very helpful in completing the vest.