spring gathering

Last Monday, our 2nd Monday gathering was at my home. Spring is here in all of her unpredictable beauty; which explains why I was whipping the sheets off some of my outdoor flowers as people made their way up the driveway.  My little beauties survived 2 nights of frost and now I am hoping that we are done with that.  Those last lingering bits of  snowflakes/hail/sleet are still too fresh in my memory.  Now it is time to rejoice in the orioles, indigo buntings and scarlet tanagers that are flocking my feeders.
It was great to share the day with friends old and new.  Angela has just found her way to our group and I hope that she was as inspired by the projects, camaraderie, laughter and good food as I always am.  What is usually a feast of healthy salads and veggies turned into a desert fest this time. Yea!  My only regret being that I didn't try some of Elins's pound cake.  But you can't have your cake and eat it too, or some such nonsense.  Anyway, no one went away hungry.

Kathy's spice cake

Ninja the cat lovin on Elin's rugs

Elin's scarves and Nan's recent handspun yarns

New and beautiful, rya weave flowers from Susan of Avalanche Looms played nicely with  my Swedish lace  mosquito net or myggtjall scarf of organic cotton/Habu tsumugi silk

Elin's rug made from wool roving spun with a jute core.

new work..sort of

This honeycomb scarf has been off the loom for awhile now.  I don't often weave with wool and I thoroughly enjoyed this, especially how substantial and alive the finished fabric feels. Partly because the wool crepe that outlines the honeycombs gives the scarf just a bit of collapse and texture.  I wove this knowing that the long floats on the back would maybe be a wear-ability problem.  It turns out though, that I like that side just about as much as the front.  I will have to sell these with a disclaimer about taking care when wearing with jewelry, etc.  So now I can cross honeycomb off the to do list; at least for awhile. Stll on the list is weaving with some of my new Habu yarns, boundweave and exploring collapse weave, oh and maybe I will break down and do some rep weave after being inspired by the new book, Custom Woven Interiors by Kelly Marshall.  We'll see..

2nd Monday at Elin's

 Can't believe it is mid April as I look out the window and see it snowing as if it could be January.  It's a good thing that there are days, like our 2nd Monday weavers gathering that help maintain a sense of joy and dare I say; sanity.
 This month Elin and Bob showed off the remodeling that they had just completed on their kitchen.  It made an already inviting house even more so.  Our "bring a dish to pass" cause I am having pizza, turned into a feast, so that was all good.  It was fun to see Bob's newest old car purchase, I can easily say that is the most beautiful car I've ever seen.  Go to my flickr page to see more pics. Once again I can never remember the name of things but it was the reddest, coolest car ever.  Although I'd be thinking I'd need another loom if my husband came home with that.Just sayin....
Thanks Elin for another fun gathering.

no one went away hungry

Elin was rightly proud of her new kitchen

Knitted slippers from Olga's mother.

our favorite inspiration books and a coverlet Susan brought in  that was woven in strips and joined.

Elin's husband Bob has an amazing collection of old and beautiful vehicles

pretty sure this is weld/ and the seed stalks that Elin shared seeds from

Some of Elin's projects: silk dyed scarf/ hand dyed warps in rayon for the handwoven scarves

Scenes from Elin's dye studio.  Yarns dyed with natural dyes

The dye house

felted boot workshop

Amy's finished sample boots

Such a fun group.  Amy's son Jae was a star pupil, we were all trying to keep up with him.

Two layers and both boots are felted around one foam insert and then cut apart as in the last photo.  Lots of soapy water and booty shaking.

talk about bigfoot...

Amy and her husbands wonderful studio and of course one of their eager helpers.  Check out their etsy site.

Boots almost finished by: Jean/ Denise/ Char/ and mine

A little play time in the studio waiting for the boots to come out of the dryer

A good days work and boy are our hands clean!

Our teacher and friend Amy Arnold and illustrious student Barb

What a fun day we had at a felting workshop given by one of our fiber group members, Amy Arnold.  In preparation for an upcoming class with the Driftless Folk School Amy asked if we wanted to to give felted boot making a try and of course we were up for it.  I had some reservations in that anything I have ever wet felted has come out looking more like a convoluted brain blob.  Fortunately I like my boots way better than anything I have felted before.  They will be great for keeping my feet warm while I am weaving.  Thanks Amy for being such a great teacher!

zentangle fun

Our egg decorating took a new turn this year.  Waiting for spring...

2nd Monday at Carole's

lots of treats including a flourless chocolate cake

Zentangles

Caroles' doubleweave

Michelles sweater in progress/ Denise's weaving/Barb's felted bag and Nan's sweater for Ethan

Barb's strip purse ala Doni's Deli

Michelle's embroidered piece/ Barb's hemp towels/ birch bark woven purse/Carole's knitting in progress

Carole's stained glass and mosaic windows

This Mondays weavers group met at Carole's warm and inviting home.  Michelle shared with us something that she had recently taken a class in.  It is called Zentangles and involves drawing (basically doodling) in a semi-structured way that takes away some of the fear of not being "artistic" enough.  Fun and somewhat addictive; I am looking forward to sharing it with my daughters.
As always, there was much chatting and sharing of projects and joy in being together, there have been too many snowbound days lately.  Winter seems to be having a hard time letting go.
Thanks Carole for sharing your wonderful soup and treats, your home and frienship always inspires me.

holy habu, batman

be still my heart

sweater (kit 36) knit with paper yarn a silk mohair

Silk stainless steel yarn and fine merino, felted

As my love for all things Habu deepens I decided to check out the Appleton Wi yarn shop, Iris Fine Yarns partly because they featured Habu yarns and gasp, knitted samples of said yarn.  So with plans to pick up my daughter who attends college in Appleton, I was really looking forward to some daughter and... yarn shop time.  However it ended up being a 5 hour , white knuckle drive through blowing, snow covered roads.  So totally worth it though.  I have seen a lot of yarn shops, and very few carry Habu; and not many have as great a sense of style and creative display as this beautiful shop does.  Pam, who so graciously dug out some Habu samples for me to see, was so welcoming I was tempted to get a room for the night just so I could hang around and knit with her in this wonderful space.  But the blizzard loomed and the daughter waited, (too smart to want to get picked up first) so after a too quick look at the other yarns and a couple of, "my god I just drove through a blizzard to get here and deserve these" purchases,  I regretfully left.

Pam did tell me that the owner of Habu occasionally will do workshops through their shop.  Sign me up.  

I am looking forward to our weavers meeting on Monday so that I can share some of my excitement over these incredible yarns. I was always sure their yarns would be inspirational to weave with but now I am equally excited to knit with them. Can't wait to show Nan the book ori ami knits that features patterns using Habu yarns.  Now if only the weather would cooperate....  oh oh, I feel another Habu order coming on.