Our anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary. Thirty-seven years ago I married the man of my dreams. I can remember that day well. I was really nervous. I peeked at him before the wedding started and wondered if I was doing the right thing! I can honestly say, after all these years, yes! Marrying him was the best decision I have ever made!

Looking back at pictures of that day, we look very different. I am not the slim and trim woman I used to be and my hair is going gray. He pretty much looks the same but his red beard has turned gray. Not fair! He calls me his bride and says I haven't changed a bit. I tell him love is either blind or his eyesight is failing! Life has been wonderful.

We have had some ups and downs like every marriage has but God has kept us together through it all.

Thank you, my love, for thirty-seven wonderful years. May God bless us with at least thirty-seven more!

Linda

Winding a new warp

It was a warm day here. I don't know how hot it actually got but after doing the farm chores and working the the flower beds I was ready for air conditioning!

Several years ago I saw an article in Handwoven that I wanted to try. It was back in 2002, I think.  Somehow I never got around to it. This week I decided it is time. Here is a picture of the article. The weaver wove placemats and napkins. I want to do table runners.

Here is part of the warp I wound. I have one third of it left to go.

I can never seem to capture the colors right.I even took this one outside to get better light.  It is sage green. Maybe I should start using my camera instead of the phone! I am really looking forward to trying something different. The yarn looks a bit discolored near my thumb. It isn't. That must just have been the lighting.

Linda

Eating their way through France

Our son had an assignment. He was to make an edible map of France for French class tomorrow. Want to see what it looks like? He chose to bake a cake.

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Looks like the French class is going to party! It will be interesting to hear what the other students came up with.

We have a busy summer planned. I guess I should say our son has a busy summer planned! This just might be the first summer in a while where we won't hear, "I'm bored". He will be going on a mission trip with our church's youth group, then the Chet Atkins Convention and then there is the aviation camp. I still can't believe we are letting him fly an airplane! This is his second time going to this camp. He loves flying.

This fall he will be a senior then it is off to college. This is the last child before we are empty nesters. I think I miss him already!


Linda

Smile for the camera!

Remember little puppy Max? Well, he is almost seven months old now and has grown into a wonderful farm dog. He rarely lets the goats out of his sight. Don't you just love that smile?

Here he is with the goats. Kami, my Nigora, has shed her wonderful wool and now will be cooler for the summer. She is the last one on the right.

Here is the latest addition to the studio. I can't really come up with a good name for him. I am leaning towards Hershey. See how he is standing up? He does that every time I go near his cage. I wonder if he is wishing he were taller? He is an 11 week old Netherland Dwarf. Hmmm, that definately does not look like a smile!

This is Socks. Every farm needs a cat, right?

 Since we are on the subject of animals I will tell you about who came to visit today. My neighbor's calf came up on our porch and bumped the door. Guess he couldn't find the door bell! I wish I had taken his picture. His Mama kept calling to him in the distance. He eventually found his way back to her.

Life in the country is wonderful. You never know who will stop by. A few years ago we had an emu come three times. It was funny when a neighbor called to tell us we had an "ostrich" in the yard. We even had a pot belly pig come once. We have had wolves here, too.

If you follow the Loomy Tunes blog you will have read that I bought a rack that I am hoping will be good for displaying rugs at craft shows. Here is what some rugs look like on it. I only had three hangers with clips to try it out. I am hoping to find some longer ones and really test this rack out before the shows,

I spent yesterday and today hemming rugs, placemats and table runners. They are all hemmed and washed. Now time to get back to weaving!

Linda

Textile museum Glenco, North Carolina

This past weekend we were at a family reunion. We had a little spare time so we went exploring. Here is what we found.
http://www.textileheritagemuseum.org/ If you are ever in the area stop by and see all the wonderful things they have on display there. They are only open on the weekends, though. They are only minutes away from Burlington, NC. We were greeted by a wonderfully knowledgible woman and two museum cats.

This isn't just a one building museum. This is a whole village! Here are some of the homes there. I wouldn't mind living in one of them! This is a textile mill town. The homes were built for the mill workers and rented to them for a low fee.

Inside the museum we found some weaving looms.

This dobby  loom has 16 harnesses and a single fly box

This is a small Structo loom.

This mill made cotton and flannel cloth. Here are some samples. I forgot to ask how old the samples were but the boxes they were in looked very old.

There was a machine there that punched the holes in the cards for the Jacquard looms. Sometimes, the chads were left hanging and someone would have to come along with a special punch and punch them out. Seems like hanging chads have been around for a long while!



Lastly, I will leave you with a picture of the mill. It is located on the Haw River. I really enjoyed my time there and could have stayed longer!

Linda

Today's rug

I didn't get much weaving time in today. Too much going on and then there were the farm chores to do. I finished up one rug and then started this one. As with all of my pictures it looks better in person.

I will leave you with a picture of some flowers on our deck.

Linda

Sorting through stash

Happy  mother's day to all the mom's out there!

I have been trying to clean out a barn of my stash. I have found things I forgot I had! It had been stored in large trash bags, knotted tightly and then put into totes. I have lots of sheets that will be cut up for rugs.

My husband says I have enough to last the rest of my life! Hmmmm, not sure about that but who knows.

Here is a picture of the beginning of a rug I am working on. This picture was taken when I was trying to decide if I wanted to use this weft or not. I have since removed it and woven a hem. I still have a bunch of this thick wool I want to get woven up. This may be the week! I hope so then I will have an empty spot on the shelves for the sheets!

Linda

The tale of two towels

Recently I purchased a large cone of supima cotton in the hopes that it would weave up into some nice dish towels. I put on enough supima warp for two towels. I wove one using the supima for weft and the other with a novelty yarn that is cotton with a thin core of polyesther as weft. I got them hemmed today then washed and dried them in the dryer.

They both turned out soft but the one on the left ( novelty yarn ) was softer. The all supima cotton towel has nice tracking that I don't think you can see in the picture.

I did an absorbancy test. Not very scientific, however. I spilled some water on the counter and then used both towels to clean it up. I have to say, the all supima cotton towel was not as absorbant as I had hoped. The towel on the left did fine. I knew it would. I have made more towels out of that novelty yarn than I can count. I wondered if I ran the all supima towel through the washer and dryer again would it make a difference. I will have to let you know some other time. It is drying as I write this.

Here is a close up.

The darker color yarn is a dark green cotton. I am thinking this cotton will be good for shawls. We will have to see.

Linda