Sad times ahead

If you had asked me how I was handling William's upcoming high school graduation I would have smiled and told you fine! Tonight I realized that is not a true statement. Tonight we went to an awards dinner where our son, among others, were presented with student of the year awards. At one point in the ceremony there were baby pictures of each student along with a present day photo. I hope no one saw me because I started crying.  I was even tearing up looking at other student's baby pictures! Okay, I admit it. I am an emotiional person. I even cried when E.T. went home!

William is our youngest child and last one at home. I prayed for this child for 19 years! That is how long it took me to get pregnant with him and now he is almost all grown up and will be going to college. Sigh. Where have the last 17 years gone to? They have flown by so quickly. Where did that little boy with the cute chubby cheeks go?

In a couple of weeks there will be more baby and current pictures going up on a large screen at church when we celebrate senior recognition Sunday. I plan on being armed with lots of Kleenex! I hope I don't embarrass myself, William or my husband!

Maybe the problem isn't that he is growing up and will soon be starting his own life. Maybe the real problem is that I am loosing my job. One that I have held for thirty-six years. That job is being a mom. I know....once a mom always a mom but it just won't be the same.

On a happier note......my hubby is taking tomorrow off. He hasn't done that in a while and I alway enjoy us spending the day together. Hmmmmm, guess there will be more of those days in our future. Now that is a lovely thought!

Linda

Still at it

Today I hemmed and washed the last three rugs. Tomorrow they will get tags and then be added to the latest stack to be added to my inventory.

Last summer I bought something that I thought would be interesting for rugs. I wove up some of it and decided that it would be too heavy a rug to be washed in a home washing machine. It is soft and would be nice to step on coming out of the shower, though. It is time consuming to weave.

Here is a close up. I think it looks like a floor mop! This sample is just the right size for a loom bench! I think I will give it a try there.

Life here on the ridge has been so busy lately and will be for a few more weeks. Our youngest will be graduating from high school in just a few weeks. Prom is this Saturday and tomorrow we are going to a formal dinner. One of his teachers has named him student of the year. We are so proud of him!


Linda

Waiting for tags

With all the hemming, washing, ironing and folding I have done in the last two days it seems like this pile should be taller! There are 8 rugs, 13 placemats and 6 dish towels in this picture.  I cut two more rugs off the Union this evening. They are relaxing and will get hemmed and washed tomorrow and will be added to the pile waiting to get price tags. My first event of the year is in about 18 days!

It would be so nice if I could just sit and weave for hours every day but life just gets in the way. Some days I just want to throw my phone away. Ever have those days? Yesterday I kiddingly sent my husband a text that said, "Dear family. I have moved." No forwarding address, nothing. Of course I would never do that but it sure would be nice to disappear for a few days. Just me in my studio all alone. Sounds good to me!

Linda

It's that time of year

Now that the weather has gotten warmer my Nigora goat, Kami, has started to shed her wool. She can look pretty strange this time of year. I wonder what the neighbor's think?  There are three grades to this kind of wool and I am fortunate that I have a C. This means she sheds instead of having to be sheared. Here is what she looks like today. If you look closely you will see how her long wool has been brushed off her back. See the darker color underneath? She is shedding all over but it is most noticeable on her back right now. I wonder what Philippe will think when she doesn't look like a sheep anymore?

This is the wool I have gotten so far. This process of brushing her will take a few days. I wish you could feel it. It is very soft!

Linda

All hemmed and washed

If you remember, the studio was owned my a man who liked chickens. He had lots of them and it didn't smell very nice around here. When we bought the property nearly two and a half years ago I decided if I was going to plant anything it had to smell wonderful. One of the few plants I purchased was four lilac bushes. They are in bloom now and walking through the back yard the air smells so nice! I wish they would bloom all summer.

Today was spent hemming and washing placemats. All thirteen of them. I somehow ended with one extra placemat on one of the warps. Here are the Christmas placemats relaxing on the loom.

Here they are all hemmed, washed and drying on a clothes rack.

I also hemmed the fall placemats. Here are some of them on the same rack.

I always use a color catcher when I wash my handwovens. I don't want any surprises. Usually after the wash they look hardly used at all. For these two warps I used all cotton rug warp. I usually use poly/cotton. This time I got a big surprise. The color catcher on the fall placemats came out orange!

I will leave you with one last picture. These are columbine.  I also have blue ones.

Linda

Rug, placemats, plants and wool

Life has kept me away from my looms for the last several days. Next month our youngest child will be graduating from high school. My family and I have been busy working around the outside of the house and studio getting them company ready. The studio's front yard had been landscaped by the previous owners but not well. There were shrubs that were too close to the house and taller plants were in front of shorter plants. Last Saturday I gave four shrubs away to some friends. I think they were Chinese Laurel but I am not sure. In their place but away from the house I planted Knockout roses. I have seen these in many places lately and they are so pretty. I hope they live. I have been known to have a brown thumb!

Today I was able to spend a few hours at the studio. I am almost done with the Christmas placemat warp. I have lost count of how many are on there but the end is in sight.

I finished another rug on the Studio loom. This one is blue and yellow. This one has alternating strips of both colors.

I have looms with woven items on them that I need to cut off, hem and wash. My first event in in less than a month! There is so much I have to do!

Another thing I have been working on is getting Philippe to get close to me. He is so shy! The slightest movement or sound will send him running away. I have been giving him bread and Cheerios as treats. For a while he wouldn't go near them but when he saw the others eating them he decided maybe he wanted to try it, too. Today he got close enough to let me pet his nose with one finger. Ah, progress! He is going to be sheared at the end of the month so I really need to be able to catch him. I wonder what he will look like without all that wool?

Kami, my Nigora is starting to shed. Time to start brushing her to get all that nice wool. It looks like I will be doing lots of spinning this summer. I hope so, anyway!

Linda