Tropical Mindfulness

    With much gratitude for everyone and everything that have brought me to this place and time, I am sitting looking out over the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Hawai’i (the Big Island).  I hear the sound of small waves breaking against the relatively fresh Earth of lava rock pools between me and the deep blue sea.  I feel a warm breeze on my sun baked skin. I see a good sized Honu (green sea turtle) is basking on the rocks.  I saw some small, young ones swimming in the small protected pool earlier as well.  Will they also come out to bask? Who knows?  We must wait and see, and be with what is happening right now, right?

      

  Except, I am at this very moment also writing a blog post, so perhaps I should be mindfully attending to that!  I recently listened to a talk on dharmaseeds.org by Michelle McDonald and she points out that if we were completely mindful of everything every moment, our heads would basically explode.  Though she may have put it more eloquently than that.

  

      The reason I started this post, and the reason for the wave photos was because I was feeling very clever after noticing the following:

     I was watching the waves come and go on the beach the first day we arrived here.  I tried to mindfully watch one wave arrive, crest, ripple up the beach and recede. But there was always another wave right behind, capturing my attention.  It proved verrrry tricky to focus on one wave at a time. Just like my thoughts and experiences.  They come so quickly, that I feel lucky to be able to notice one at all.  I try to slow down and notice, but not be harsh or judgmental towards  myself if I cannot.  After all, I certainly do not want my brain to explode.

What are you seeing/hearing/smelling/feeling/tasting at this very moment?


Disclaimer:

It's not like I'm some kind of mindfulness expert, but I have been attempting to be more mindful since beginning my yoga teacher training with Yoga Calm about 5 years ago.  Mindfulness certainly doesn't always make life more pleasant, but it definitely makes it more interesting, and I enjoy weaving it into my yoga teaching and daily life. My starter book was Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Visit my website shadygroveendeavors.com for information on my yoga classes in Eugene, Oregon.

Weaving Around

          Sooooo, I just purposely deleted a half-finished (incredibly funny, of course) post from 5 months ago. It was all about those dishtowels I showed you the wound warp pictures of.  Since then I can hardly believe how many projects I have done on my lovely, mid-century vintage Arthur A. Allen folding floor loom.  Which brings me to a big sigh.

SIGH

          I need to sell it.  The good news is that it is because I love weaving so much that I have purchased a different loom.  I am hoping that I have moved up a mini-notch on the loom ladder and not just betrayed my one true love.  Time will tell.

SIGH

          So this post is going to be all about how I have improved and woven on this loom for my exciting first year of discovery of weaving around the weaving world. It may well need to turn into several posts. Or if I do manage it all at once, feel free to skim and/or read it over several visits!

SIGH
   
          I bought this loom and immediately signed up for a 3 day intermediate weaving class at fiber arts retreat called Fiber In The Forest, run by the local weaving shop, The Eugene Textile Center.  I figured I had better whip something out pretty quickly at home in Rose Cottage before driving into the wilds of Oregon with it to be sure I could get the thing to function at all!

Weaving Tips I learned from this project:

*Handwoven dish-towels are 110% better than store-bought.

*I love weaving!

In the collage below, look at the pictures counterclockwise starting with the cones of yarn on the stairs

Weaving tips I learned from this project: 

*You can take apart your teeny warping board and screw it to your fence to make it larger. 

 *You can also use it to hold your reed on a table to sley the reed.

 *Using 2 very different threads in your warp is extremely difficult because they would be happier with different tensions. 

*Doubleweave weaving is difficult, but fun.  

*You CAN do a 3/1 treading on this loom even though it is counterbalance, but you have to watch the shed carefully (especially if you can't get the tension tight enough). 

*Madelyn VanDerHooght is an excellent teacher.

*This loom needed a little TLC and rehabilitation.

      So, upon return from Fiber in The Forest I set about the beginning of the loom rehabilitation.  Overall it was in great shape, but the wax cotton cords for the treadle tie ups, roller bars/harness hangers were gross and hard to handle.  Also, the brake didn't work very well, which really contributed to my tension problems.  Over the course of the year I managed to fix all of those things to my great satisfaction (just in time to sell it). This collage makes it look like it was all really fast, but it took several projects to identify problems, a lot of head scratching, trips to various shops and plenty of help with tool loans and a second set of hands from my handy husband.

Arthur A. Allen Counterbalance Loom Rehabilitation Tips:

*Don't try super-gluing sandpaper around your back beam to increase friction on the friction brake. It helps for about 5 minutes, then you can't get it off easily.

*Heater hose from your local funky auto parts store is the perfect replacement for the rubber tubing.

*Use a couple of zip-ties to replace the wax-string wrapping that keeps the tube bent around the bolt (you'll understand this only if you are actually rehabilitating one of these).

*Attach the brake tubing to the spring with a tiny cheap something that opens--try various size carabiners--to get the exact right tension and make it easy to remove rather than lashing the darn thing through the spring-end-hole (again, this will only make sense if you really need it to)

*You don't need little plastic connectors for Texsolv cords.  Use loops (see top center) and the holes.

* I re-inforce sewed the apron/wavy metal rod then lashed on a hollow 1/2" aluminum rod cut to length for a normal apron rod (you can see a tiny end of it sticking out of the cardboard by the brake)  You could remove the canvas aprons, but I like to keep as much intact on vintage things as possible.

*It's worth it and you feel good about yourself when you accomplish little mechanical tasks.

          Wow, I feel like I am starting to weave around nearly literally after staring at the computer screen so long.  Perhaps now is a good time to pause and publish. Given my previous record on "coming right back" to the blog, perhaps I should end with one shot of the loom in full, just in case I don't make it back super soon. If you have any specific questions about any of these things, shoot me a comment!

Now, wouldn't she look cute in YOUR craft space?

Fleece out,

LauraRose

Vitamin D Deficiency Prescription

Around the darkest days of the year we got a wild hair (hare?) to visit Hawaii. 

We started North of Kailua-Kona at Puako Bay.

There were strawberries at the Waimea (Big Island) Farmers' Market.

Not to mention bananas, papaya, rambutan, oranges and lillikoi (passionfruit).

It was Mid-January.

We saw honu (turtles) and whales.

I practiced Tunisian Crochet on the beach.

We smiled A LOT.

Then we got in our little rental car and drove around the north side of the island to Pahoa.  On the way we saw Akaka Falls where someone had left a little yarn bomb friendship ring on the rail.  

One of the highlights of the whole trip was seeing brand brand new bits of Earth's crust.  Excitingly, it is headed right for the little town of Pahoa where our friends live.  No big rush or danger, but it may well cut off the highway in a while, and after that, only Pele knows which way she will flow, or if she will stop and simply head elsewhere. 

While we were in the area we went to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. 

There are a lot of invasive plants and species thriving in Hawaii, and most of the botanic garden was non-native, but it was a pleasant way to  spend a few hours.

Two cuties pies were spotted amongst the ferns and bromeliads.

  After Hilo/Pahoa we kept going south on the ring road to visit the center of Pele's domain at Volcanoes National Park. On the way we saw where she had obliterated a favorite black sand surfing beach and an entire semi-occupied subdivision in the 1980s and 1990s (maybe you watched this on a National Geographic special) and replaced it with fresh pahoehoe and a new mini-black-sand beach.

On to Volcano!

Steam vents!

Calderas!

Sulfur Dioxide!

Hydrogen Sulfide!

Magma glow!

Volcanoes National Park is not overly huge, but there is plenty for a few days.  

The next day we drove down the chain of Craters Road.

 We stopped at a Lava tube within a native Ohia Tree forest.

We leaned that the fluffy stuff from new fern fronds was used for nice soft bandages and such. 

We saw pictographs, which are largely associated with blessings of new babies. 

We saw every shape of lava imaginable.

 Best of all, we saw Nene which are an endangered native goose.

      We continued to continue southward. Stopping at yet another black sand beach (yes, the sand gets really really hot),  I watched a sea turtle haul itself out to bask (I think I stayed 30 feet away like the sign said, so the zoomed in photo may be a little pixelated).  Then we drove out a tiny one lane road to South Point.

  Southernmost point in the U.S.  

Next stop, Tahiti. 

Our last few days were spent south of Kailua-Kona at a nice B&B, Kawa'aloa Plantation. We chilled out, watched geckos check out my collection of  new Tunisian Crochet, gecko colored dishrags,  and watched sunsets before heading back home to good old dark Eugene. 

It was just what the doctor ordered.

To be taken annually for best results.

There's No Place Like Home

That was a very pleasant vacation seeing some new towns like Bloomington,

and Indianapolis;

knitting--and finishing-- my Knit-1-Below leg warmers in the rental car on the way through Ohio;

being taken care of by my folks for two weeks back at the cottage on Lake Erie;  

eating the original Buffalo wings at the Anchor Bar;

and hanging out in good old Wash, PA.

 I say "good old," but, dang it has really grown with all this natural gas drilling and fracking going on.  I almost fell out of the car driving around -- there are OUTLET STORES for goodness sakes.  There were people from OTHER COUNTRIES in the AT&T store. Seriously astounding.

Anyhow, we made it back only an hour late on United. The trip out on American was perfect. And the staff was friendly (and existent). I'm so glad American is flying into Eugene now.  We are definitely going to continue to try to avoid United. 

Anyhow, anyhow, we got back and the next day I went to Eugene Textile Center to get a cone of black 10/2 Pearl cotton to go with my other Lunatic Fringe yarns which I had left from my Fiber In the Forest doubleweave class with Madelyn VanDerHooght last spring. Now, that was a totally awesome class, and I learned a ton and a half, but it was seriously a bit over my head. I was so excited about weaving after that though that I was acting like a crazy chicken. I knew I needed to do something a little more basic, but what? Did I want to try to do handspun? Did I want to try some more basic dish towels? Wool or cotton? Did I want to do different threadings? So many options! Of course the result was, I didn't do anything until now.

While I was toiling back along the rails to trails bike path from Ridgeway to my folks' cottage on Silver Bay on a cranky old bike one chilly day on vacation I kept my mind off the sore parts by planning out my next project.  Doing multiplication while riding is recommended only on easy trails!  I finally decided to use the beautiful Lunatic Fringe Cotton for some multicolored dish towels where I could try different treadlings on one tie up. I used our delay "due to weather" in bright and sunny SanFrancisco, to type up my plan on my iPad.  My mental math was right, I was pleased to find. 

I grabbed my tiny warping board, which I have taken apart, and screwed it to the fence with the sides a yard apart to make it bigger.  Now this worked great the first time I did it, last spring for FITF,  

but this time the screws (which I had not too intelligently put back in the same holes in the fence) started stripping out on the right side so that edge started leaning in and the threads kept sliding off the pegs which are a little shorter than I would like anyhow since it is only a small warping board. I just kept powering through because I didn't know what else to do.  Of course the last half of the warp ended up being about 8" shorter than the first half.  If I hadn't been in a panic (did I mention I was outside and it was getting dark and I had to go to my piano class?)

 I might have realized I could just stop that warp and start a second one for the rest.  I know that's what "people" do for big warps, but "I" have never done that in my vast warping experience (I think this is warp #5).  It turns out I could even have done the colors separately.  So much to learn.  I had "heard" all of this, but it's not until you really experience something that it thoroughly sinks in.  Next time I will think in smaller warp chunks (392 ends was probably a bit much for my short pegs even if they hadn't started to come out of the wall) and be sure my warping board is really secure. Oh, yeah, and don't start later than 12:30 pm.  

It was hard to chain t off the board because of the sliding issue, but I managed it.  Whew. 

I suppose 8" of loom waste is a very small price to pay for the education.  

The saga continues in the next installment!

Fiber Financed My Fair Foray

In Washington, PA, my hometown, and seat of the county government we had an awesome County Fair.  There were so many animals and exhibits it easily took all day to see everything. I don't know if it's still awesome as it was in the 1970s an 1980s, but The Lane County Fair seems shockingly small to me given the square miles of Washington county are 861 and Lane County comes in at 4,722.

Anyhow, I decided to do my bit for the exhibits and entered 10 things in the textiles show.

We had fun treasure hunting for my 10 items.  I just had to fix the collar on this one though!

Hey, lady, read the sign!

In Wash., PA, you got a free day pass for entering--here you still have to pay your 9 bucks to get in. So I was very excited to see all the ribbons I won.

My cash prizes added up to $33, which was exactly enough to pay my and my friend Dominique's way in, buy a funnel cake, and ride the ferris wheel!

We could hear Pat Benatar playing her show from the ferris wheel.  That was pretty cool for us girls of the 80's.

Crooked Seamed Scottish Bear didn't win anything, but she did enjoy watching the world go by from the safety of her glass case.  She was, however, a little concerned with the psychiatric health of the purple crocheted snowman given the heat that week.

I received 3 First Place,  2 Second, 2 Third, an honorable mention and a Donor Award.  

There's no band night, or demolition derby, or truck pulls or anything at the Lane County Fair, but it's better than nothing, and a pretty good deal for just doing my bit!  If you are reading this from Lane County, enter some things next year to bulk up the exhibits.

Just be sure your entries are not a nice as mine!

Rose Cottage is Open for Fuzzy Fiber Fun!

   Step right in.

 Lamby and Minky will welcome you and protect your head from the stair corners.

Can you tell I'm excited about the ironing board and ex-ironing board bookshelves?

 Piper's Corner

All the curtains are "up- cycled" hand-pieced quilt tops that I got at St. Vincent De Paul's!






Cool old glass shades from Hippo Hardware.

Rosie says, "Don't just stand there, go check out the upstairs loft."

 It's hard to back up far enough to get good photos up here.  I love that I fit so much craft stuff under our little ol' antique rope bed.





The bed doubles as a handy workspace, but I'll clear it off for you if you come visit.

I'm looking forward to it getting even more overgrown! 

Window is open, hoping that Bumbles will figure out she can go in and out. See the back of the curtains show all that cool hand-stitching some spirit quilter did just for me?
 Come visit. I'll make us some tea and we can craft the afternoon away!