I wove a basket!

Well, here is the basket that I wove on Saturday at my class at Colorado Fiber Arts, 121 Broadway Ave., Pueblo, Colorado.  719-543-1161. It is a neat place for knitting, crochet, felting, all kinds of fiber stuff. But I would rather you pop in and see Karen and learn for yourself, because I want to tell you about my basket weaving thing here!

I took my class from a lovely girl named Simone Soucy. She went out and cut these willow switches for us to weave. Last time I cut a switch it was not to weave and it included my mother and I think a canary (or lack of one), a cat and a pile of feathers! But, I do digress.

This basket is made of fresh willow sticks and I had quite the little time. It is fun to make this stuff out of natures bounty and then be able to use it in our home. But there were 5 or six of us setting around a round table flipping these baskets around and trying to get them whipped into some sort of shape that would hold something! Now Simone did tell us the Native Americans could weave them tight enough to hold water. I rather thought I would use mine to seine fish. It will be for big fish because the little ones will slide out the holes. I figure one or  2 pounders!

Simone taught us how to harvest the willow to get the best "bang for our buck" but I have not gotten that far in my quest. I have to be careful about the venturing in where spiders and snakes reign supreme. Creepy crawlies scare the bejiggers out of me.

So, just wanted to show you the basket. Now I have to go make some Kimchi cause I found a buyer for that. Dollar here, dollar there and pretty soon I have enough to do something.

Have a good one and may the Good Lord take a like'n to you!!

No, really, I am going to clean out that closet today, or tomorrow at the latest!

Lyn was here yesterday and she made the mistake of opening my closet door. Now in all fairness this closet is big. It is  14 feet long and 6 feet wide. It just screams "If you don't know what to do with that just cram it in here!" I have stayed in motel rooms with less square feet than this thing has!

In this room is all my hanging up clothes, thus earning the name "closet." It is very cool in there so I keep all my oils  and soap making stuff in there. There is some overflow eBay stuff in there. Christmas wrapping paper, every piece of correspondence I have ever gotten, Kenny's memorial box, a huge box of hats (all collectible and worth a fortune), an 8mm video camera, sheets, blankets, baskets and various and sundry items that have been given to me and I can not throw them away because someone's feelings may be hurt.

Ok, I can see your wheels turning. You are thinking I am a hoarder. No, that is not it at all. I am not hoarding this stuff, I am merely keeping it until I figure out what to do with it. I am sure soon I will come up with a solution. A few years back I thought I had the solution and I took it all downstairs. I wrote the date on each box and thought after one year I would throw the box out if I had not opened it. So I opened each one, peeked inside, and wrote a new date on the box. So that was no real solution.

Ok, when I get home today, I am going to set every thing in the other end of the closet and then start putting it back in an orderly fashion. I am really going to do that. You will see. No more will Lyn be able to say "Shall I put the vacuum cleaner in the closet out of your way? Oh, no! It is full and the vacuum won't fit!" I wonder what her closets look like?

I will be back Monday to report on how this is progressing. I am not a hoarder; you will see. This is all good stuff it just needs to be sorted through and organized. Monday I will post a picture of the progress I have made. You will be so proud of me! 

Do you remember the show on the radio called "Fibber McGee and Molly." No Fibber McGee here. You will see Monday.

Here is the hot pink blanket!

Well, I finally got the hot pink blanket finished! As with anything that is handmade, this one has several mistakes. The mistakes are not readily visible, but I know they are in there and I can find them if I need to. Course that is the beauty of anything hand made, it is different. You always know that nowhere in the whole world is there another blanket exactly like this one. So there you have this one. Hope you enjoyed the peek at my latest handwoven project. I think I am going to auction this one off on eBay! Can not list it for a few days though.

This is made with 8/2 cotton, which is the white part and some kind of wool that I bought from Joanne. I love this pattern and that is the reason I also wove a blue and white one right before I wove this one. They are both 51" x 41" which is smaller than I like, but it is a little bit late to be worrying about what size they should have been. I just did the pattern 2 across and 2 long. Will do something different next time.

Think I will go downstairs and see what other ornery stuff I can get into today! If you are thinking of starting a new hobby and weaving looks fun to you, contact me. If I can weave, anyone can weave!!

The first crocus of the year at my house!

It is the first sign I have seen of Spring except for the 2 Robins building their nest in the middle of the snow storm a couple weeks ago. It is a lovely yellow Crocus! Only one out there, but it is there. Now as soon as I say I have a Crocus blooming everyone in town will have lots of them, and also Daffodils, Narcissus, and Hyacinths all over the place. But this one is mine and I just wanted to let you know.

I am sure we are not through with the snow since Indian Lore shows we have 13 more to go, but I am also sure that Spring is on the way! I for one shall be very glad to see it. We have had a fairly mild Winter here in Pueblo, but anything below 60 degrees is enough to send me into culture shock! I shall now go rake around my little Crocus and perhaps give it a little drink of water. If the dogs would be good they could go out front with me, but alas, Elvira runs away and does not listen.

Happy Birthday to the little 1 year old!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

TO MY PRECIOUS GREAT GRANDSON!

(Name withheld for obvious reasons!)

Babysitting with the little baby!

 

Well, here we are taking care on the little Jayvan. Why this is called "babysitting" is beyond me, because there is not a lot of the sitting going on. Course it is much easier when I have Daisy and Elvira to help me. See how fast Elvira and Daisy's tails go! Just looks like a shadow back there.

Little Jayvan likes to mostly eat and laugh, but he is getting teeth right now and that is a lot of work for a little kid. Makes him pretty mad, too. So he went home to Daddy pretty soon after dad got home!

Hi sister Mary! Do you recognize this cup!

When sister Mary went home, her goal was to count her Skaets Steak Shop cups. She thought perhaps I had more then her, thus making me the favored sister of Donna, co-owner of Skaets. So her and Donna had coffee in the NEW cups at Skaets and very blatantly sent me a picture of them hoisting their cups.

So I cast my eyes around and found this cup, which belongs to Mary, but she forgot and left it here! So, now who gets the last laugh? I am not going to drink out of this, but will be holding it hostage until such time when I receive a NEW cup from Skaets Steak Shop, 2300 North Main, Hutchinson, Kansas, which is run by Karen Leshure and Donna Bartholomew.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, you sisters of mine!!