Minutia

I absolutely think you are right that early morning in the dark, gloomy thoughts can prevail.   

The sun coming through the windows does make a difference.

Also, I agee, that we are so spoiled.  I have always known that my family in England spend

an inordinate amount of money for gas (petrol), which is why they drive the smallest cars they can find.   But since my first visit to England in 1964, I have been quite aware just how spoiled Americans are.   We have so much, and overall, most people have no idea how well off they are, and have no idea how expensive things are in other countries.   I was always shocked by how little "space" they have in England....small houses, small yards.....after all it is a small country.  Compared to our huge houses, and huge yards, it made quite an impact on me. 

In 2001, I went to Guatemala on a medical mission.   I came home thinking that everyone should have a "3rd world experience", just once.  If you want to know how spoiled and priveleged we really are, I highly recommend it.

I don't drive around much, so higher gas prices won't be too hard on me.  A tank of gas lasts me quite a while.

It's $4.03 in my neighborhood, and will probably get a lot higher.

Insulating my house isn't an option......because it's a post and beam house, there are no spaces in the walls for insulation, which means "studding up" the walls would be the only way to go, and with the price of lumber and insulation, it would not be feasible.  I am too old to reap the rewards of such a venture.

On a happier note, I just got the statement from my fuel company, and I have to admit, I must have read the last one wrong......I did not spend as much as I thought I did, and it wasn't as scary as I had imagined.    I could still find ways to cut back, but maybe not as drastically as I thought.....although again, who knows how much fuel will be this coming winter.

Only time will tell.

I am going to get heavy drapes for two of my doors that are drafty, cheaper I think than putting in new doors.   I am also going to do some research on the option of turning down heat at night, versus leaving the thremostat alone.   I know some say that it doesn't save you any money, but I can't see how that is true.

Today I hauled myself over to Aldi's, a bit out of my comfort zone, as I usually shop 3 miles down the road from my house.  But every time I go, I am glad that I did, and today was no exception.  I have 5 bags here, and honesly some of them are too heavy, but that's how many I took into the store.....and it came to $113.   Usually I leave my grocery store with 3 or 4 bags, and it is always over $100.  Plus their veggies and fruit are mostly nicer.  A whole pineapple for $1.55, and a gorgeous canteloupe, that was huge, for $2.29.   I had a list, and I didn't think that I would find everything on my list in that store, but I did.

Organic tofu........$1.55.  I am shopping their MORE OFTEN.   For sure going forward, as we anticipate higher prices for food that we are paying even now.

I'm not sure if I have already shared these, but they are my new favorite purchase, so here they are anyway.

Amazon......about $15 for 48 of them.

If you have dry eye, and boy do I ever have it....they are the bomb.   I put it on at bedtime...it stays warm for an hour, and when I wake up, usually in the night sometime, I take it off.

My dry eye has improved greatly doing this.

MYEBONG.....that is the brand name of these, but there are several vendors.

I have been doing a little spring cleaning......this front bedroom upstairs got some 

downsizing and cleaning.

It has my stepper machine in the window, and other than that, I use this room to wind skeins on my electric skein winder, and to wind cones on my electric cone winder, and to store thread, obviously.

This is only some of my yarn stash, there is more downstairs.  I have gotten rid of a

lot of it though.

In the hallway right outside this room is where I play with watercolors sometimes.

Play is the operative word, I am not very good.

It has been way too warm in my humble opinion....I know it is somewhat of a relief after the winter we have had, but I hate it when we jump from winter to summer, with no spring in the middle.

I need to ease into it.

I do love my house, but some days I wish it were not on the NYS highway.  There is way too much traffic.  Either I don't hear it at all, or it drives me wild.    So clearly, it is me that's the problem.

Maybe I need a nap.

.     

Case of nerves

Am I the only one getting a little nervous here?  I wonder if it's because I'm on my own these days...........but yesterday the talk on the radio talk show, the "Round Table", was that the projection for gas prices is $5-6/gallon.   OK, I don't drive far, I can probably deal with that, but the price of OIL and of ELECTRICITY  will go up as well.  And those are things that I do have to have.  they predict that we are going to be feeling the pinch, and soon.

So my brain is struggling to figure out how this will work.   

I do have some savings, but not a nest egg that makes me feel untouchable, for sure.

I can't just get in my car and drive to warmer climates, I have dogs, and a cat.  Not to mention that driving long distances at my age is daunting.  After a couple of hours, I remove my stiff body from the car, and imagine that I am a pretzel for the duration.

I can't move in with any of my kids, for the same reason.........either they don't have animals in their house, and don't want any, or they have too many animals already, and more would be pandemonium.  Anyway, it would be unfair to my own.

Someone suggested that I do major work on my house to insulate.  Well, that is difficult.  My house is a post and beam....the studio built in 1790, the main part of the house in 1810.  There are NO studs, and no spaces for insulation.  The walls are wood on wood on wood.....siding, wood wall, lathe and plaster..........so the only way to insulate is to stud up the inside walls.....making all the windows "set in", insulate, put up dry wall, plaster and paint.

You hear the sound of $$$$$, right?  Because I do.  The price of construction materials is out of this world....so to stud up all the outside walls, on the inside of the house, would be quite the pricey venture.

There are also SIPs......which are structural insulation panels, that you put on the outside of your house.......and the windows are "set in", but on the outside of the house instead of the inside.....and again.....astronomical prices.

I could BUY a wood stove.....more $$......would need a special chimney built.....and then I would have to BUY wood, and I would have to haul it in, tend the fire, etc.  I have done all that before, several times in my life, but I sure was a lot younger.

I could sell the house, but buyers would also be thinking that they would have to heat this big old place.  And every time I see a house that I might be interested in, it is gone within the week.......there are a whole group of people looking to buy, perusing the market daily, and jumping on anything good in my price range.

The one thing that might work is to shut off most of the house, turn the heat way, way down there, and live in just the studio, which is the sunniest, warmest, easiest to heat part of the house.  It would be somewhat restrictive, and I would definitely not like it much, but it might be my only option.  Unfortunately.

We are, as a culture, very spoiled, I know.  And that includes me.  

I love my huge, old house, and I love that I can ramble around it all on long winter days.

I have been blessed to have done it all these years, I know.

But maybe not this coming year, eh???

No photos today.  Just me, thinking out loud.

What are you all going to do???   Because we are all in this together.

Gratitude

Towels are done.  I am told that they look a little Christmas-y.  I can't explain why I chose those colors at this time.   I like them anyway.

This is my towel stash so far......88 with about 20 more on the loom.

Who's counting?    I am, of course.

Looking at my heating bill for this winter, I realize that something has to change.

I am considering how I can turn my heat down, and move through the house with the sun.

Weaving in the sunlit studio in the daytime.

And using the gas stove......with the beautiful glass windows on three sides.....

in the living room in the evening.

I think I can get my heat bill down, if I don't try to heat the huge dining room and kitchen 

the same as the rest of the house.   That's my plan anyway.

My friend and neighbor says I should just move into the studio which has it's own source of heat, and gets sunlight all day long.

I could but I really don't want to move my entire kitchen.

I'm trhing to think it through, and not be impulsive.  Goldie is givingi it all some thought as well.

Before I forget........to answer the question about the blinds, they just keep the draft out.  When looking at the window with an infrared light, the change was dramatic.............purple for super cold with the shade up, and orange ....much warmer when the shade was down.  That was my only goal.

And hello KATHY BOYD!!!   I remember you doing your weaving weekend here......seems like a long time ago.

I love hearing from old friends.....bloggers that I have met along the way, and students I have taught to weave.  I wish I had kept a list of all those students, there have been so. many.

I recently found a treasure.....I've been looking for one close enough to buy, for a long time.

 

I just took it over to my neighbor, who inspected the cord, and did a small repair, so it's safe.  It is really old.  It will make ironing my towels a whole lot easier.

Yesterday I had a physical at with my primary GP.   I haven't had one in ages, and I needed to 

have a resource that was up to date, when and if I need one.

He said I was in "pretty good shape".......he didn't say "for your age", even though I heard it 

clearly.   It's OK, I'll take it.  It's a blessing to be on my feet, of pretty sound mind, and still excited about getting up every morning.   It took me a while to get into a new to me rhythm after my husband died, but I'm ok.   I miss him, but I'm ok.  He would be glad for that.

My shoulder is complaining that I'm weaving too much in a day, so today I only wove one towel, and then I proceeded to organize the studio, starting in one corner, and working my way around.  I figure I will do that every day, then move on to the rest of the house.   If I keep busy with it, my whole house and studio will be clean, and I will have woven a towel a day.

Best I can do right now.

Warm days are coming, here and there.  I'm so happy to think that spring is right around the corner.  

Thanks for stopping by.....it makes me smile.

Enough with winter.

This has been the view out my bedroom window for months now.  But it rained last night, and I think maybe spring is around the corner.

Inside, I have tried to keep it bright and colorful in spite of what's going on outside.

I have a stack of yardage woven, on the shelf waiting for me to get inspired 

to sew.

I used to make a lot of möbius shawls, but I'm trying to push myself 

out of my comfort zone,  so in addition to some Naya cloaks, I want to make 

some version of these two patterns that I have collected.

What do you think????  All suggestions considered.

About a year and a half ago, I got this tiny slip of an aloe plant in a 

sandwich bag, and look what it has grown into.  It has become quite the showstopper.

I have amazing light in my house......the front of the house is all windows, and up and 

down on a sunny day, it's blinding.

The studio gets sun all day long with windows on two sides, east and south.

It's the warmest part of this old house.

This is the upstairs hall, and that is my Sea Onion......a plant I have had for probably 40 years.  I have split it more times than I can count, and gifted its babies.  It gets tiny white flowers when it's very happy.  It needs to go in a window where you don't mind it taking over, because it does.

This past winter I decided to get rid of this old sink in the studio.  It's been very handy, especially to rinse dye in, but the door is just to the left of this picture, and I can not tell you how many times I have run into the corner of that countertop.

So I moved my serger to the other side of the room.

Then I bought this lovely little laundry room sink at Lowe's.  It's perfect in the spot, 

and now the door is easy to open and close without injury.  It wasn't a very costly

project, but a satisfying one.

I put the old sink and countertop on FB marketplace for free, and some nice 

gentleman snagged it right off my back porch.

Win/win.

My next home improvement project occurred in early February, when we started 

the 3 week deep freeze in northeast NY.

My dining room and kitchen are perhaps the coldest rooms in my house, facing north and northwest.  So back to Lowe's, where I bought Levolor cellular blinds for all four windows.

Every night I have been faithfully pulling them down, along with the ones I already have

in the living room.  I really think it has helped.  I probably should have done it long ago.

If spring every really does arrive, my outside project for this year is getting the front of the house scraped and painted.  It really needs it and I will feel better having it done.

I will not die rich, but what sense does that make anyway?

Animal Kingdom

It's been a long, and very cold, and did I say LONG, winter.

I think most of us are very much over it.   

The fuel bills have been outrageous, I am way over my budget, and the heat is still on.

With the WAR in Iran, the prediction is that OIL will go even higher.  I am trying to 

figure out how that will be possible for me next winter.  I have gone over the options

available to me.

None of which are easy, or good.

Anyway.   Do you all remember Goldie?   He has been my resident outside cat since 

2017.

I have taken many photos of him.   He appeared out of nowhere, and has never left.

I have tried to keep him happy, with heated water bowls, full food dish every morning,

a solar house for sunny days, and a heated little house on the porch, when it's not.

Every day, I would sit on the porch and give him some TLC, which he ate up.

At times, in winter, when it was really frigid, I would bring him inside.  At first I had to trick

him to get him in, and later when he got more used to me, I would just pick him up and bring him in.  I kept him in the studio with food, water, and a litter box, and the doors shut

so he didn't have to deal with the dogs.  

And to be honest, I didn't know how that would go.

Every time, he was inconsolable, yowling all night and just miserable.   Then when I would let him out, he wouldn't come near me for days, once it was a couple of weeks.

Fast forward to this winter.  The forecast was for a bitter week of below zero nights.   He is getting older, he was getting thin.   I made the decision, he is coming in.  He is staying in until this tundra weather is over.

For the first week, he stayed in the studio, no dogs allowed.

After a few nights, he stopped with the screaming.

The second week, I let the dogs into the studio, for 20 minutes here and there.

No one died.

The third week, I just opened the damn doors, and told them to all figure it out.

That was in January.

Now he goes out, and stays out a while, and comes right back in.  If it's too cold, he turns 

around at the door, and stays in.

He sleeps in the dog bed.   On the sewing table.  In the cupboard in the LR.  In every chair in the house.   On the dining room table.

Goldie has become a spoiled, and FAT inside/outside cat who is so content now, that I struggle to not cry every time I see him curled up somewhere while the snow whips around outside.

And the group?????

Well, as you can see, they have figured it out.

Willie still has his moments.   He doesn't like Goldie in his dish, and at no time EVER, is Goldie allowed on the sofa.   

The sofa is where Willie has me to himself, as Naya never stays up there for long.

Naya has had a tough winter.   Her legs are failing her, and I have to lift her up most of the time to get her going.

I wasn't sure she was going to make it through the winter, but she's a tough little girl.

She's also pretty confused at times.

We're just doing the best we can do, and we are trying not to think about what's

coming down the road.  The vet says she is a lot older than we thought, but that rescues

often lie about a dog's age.

So there's that..

I'm going to try to do better here, assuming that someone is still listening.

Somehow, I just know you are.

Taking a breath.

In the studio, I have two chairs, across from each other, and when friends come, it is 

often where we sit with a cuppa tea for a visit.

Willie has never gotten up in this chair.....ever, until just a few days ago, when suddenly

he decided that it looked like a good place for a nap.

Since that day, he has been in it almost every day.

Sometimes I wish I knew what went on in his head, although I guess it isn't 

that hard to figure out.

It's his house, and everyone else sits in that chair, so...............

To answer a question about the Megado, a loom that I sold a few months ago, here's the story.

When my husband died three years ago, I sold my AVL.  They say you shouldn't make any big decsions for a year after a life changing event like losing your spouse, but I made it anyway.

It seemed like the right thing to do, and then once it was gone, I missed it.

So the following year, I ordered the Louet Megado.  At first I had the mechanical dobby with it, but found that I wasn't fond of the need to change the pick with one leg while treadling with the other, so I saved some money and when I could I ordered the electronic dobby for it.

I loved it.  Loved having 16 harnesses, loved what I could do with it.  But as the months went on, I found that every time I wove on it, my right shoulder was on fire the next day.

I realized that I was slightly raising my shoulders to throw the shuttle.   So I tried changing the height of my stool, I tried a bunch of other things.  The bottom line was that my body was just not made for that loom.  When I raised the height of my stool, it solved the shoulder issue, but it brought my legs up so high, I couldn't treadle.

I think it just has something to do with not just my height, but the length of my legs, and the length of my torso.  So I tried not weaving on it for days, then weeks, then weaving on it again.....and sure enough, it was the culprit.

So I decided to put it up for sale, send it out on the world wide web so to speak, and let the universe decide.

And it did.  A retired vet from PA came with her husband, and took it home.

So now I have the 8 harness David, and soon I will have an 8 harness Baby Wolf, and then I have my three looms that I use for weaving workshops.

The big news is that in addition to being a Louet dealer, now I am a Schacht dealer, too.

Which is why I am getting a new Baby Wolf.  It will be the designated towel loom, and it will leave the Louet David available for yardage.

Louet news:   next year Louet is coming out with a 12 harness David!!!!   It also might have the availability of an electronic dobby for the David 8 and the David 12.  

Since I try to limit my time weaving, to keep my shoulder from firing up again, I sometimes 

wind warps on my warping mill.   I find I can do it without it causing a problem. 

That being said, I don't weave a whole warp in one day.  I spread it out over 2 or 3 days.  I get a lot more done that way, without more pain.

A good friend and fellow weaver, who started out as my student many years ago, has a bit of a crush on Willie.

He is ok with that.

I try to eat a pretty clean diet, and most of the time I do well.  This is tofu, bok choy, and rice, 

with a lot of garlic.

I love dishes that I make up as I go.

But I confess, I love carbs.   Bread, naan, bagels.....toast!!!  of any kind.

That is my weakness.  Going to at least TRY to be a little better.

You notice that I did not say I was going to give them up.

I'm far more realistic than that.

Quiet post Christmas day here.  Very, very cold morning.  Dogs don't stay out for more than

a couple of minutes.  That's telling.

Did some weaving, made some soup, taking a break with the crossword,

Loving the post holiday lull.  

It's welcome.

Hope yours was a good one.

Checking in.

Hard to know where to start, when I haven't written a post since September.  Wow, I am 

pretty pathetic at this, clearly.

I've been experiencing more intense headaches, the worst in August and September and October, a bit better since then, but still a little nastier than I would like.

As I have often said in the past, I would commit to a #3 on a scale of 1-10, for the rest of my life, gladly.  But I don't have that choice, and sometimes, my headache just takes over.

Period.

I do the best I can.

Just a few photos of what I've been up to.

I used this round stone from an antique grinder, to make my "bird charcuterie board".

Can I just tell you, I load it up with black oil sunflower seed every day, and it is CLEAN by mid afternoon.

Sometimes I look out there and there are a happy group of mourning doves, enjoying

their new dining digs.

I put the rod in the seed cone on top, to keep it in place, but the rod fell right through it onto

the ground, so I fudged up the pots underneath it, to keep the rod where it belongs.

One day I had a huge raven taking over the menu, but he hasn't been back

after that one day.

Since the Megado is gone, I have done some rearranging.  I don't know if it's Feng Shui or not, but I know when it feels good to me.

And this feels good.

I made more room here too, just by moving my ironing board to the inside porch, 

just beyond a door, but not here, where it had become just a "surface" to collect whatever I decided to throw on it.

My next project is giving this triangle loom a go.  I've never used one, and I've 

always kind of wanted to, so when I got a real deal on this one, I grabbed it.

If I don't like it I will pass it on.

This antique quilt, which by the way is in pristine condition, was an 

early gift from my oldest daughter.

We happened apon it one day when we went to a local book/antique shop, and 

I fell in love with it.

Hand quilted, it was someone's treasure, and now it's mne.

The guild show was in November, and I did very well.  No complaints.  I took 114 towels, and came home with only 5.

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and now here it is almost Christmas.

Here's a photo of me, my oldest daughter, and my son in law hamming it up

for a photo.

I am always relieved when Christmas is over, it always seems so stressful working up to it.

But watching the kids with their gifts is usually worth it.

I recently went back through my blog looking for something in particular that one of my daughters asked me about.  While I was doing it, I was reminded of how great a collection of memories my blog is, and I experienced such a wave of gratitude that I started it, and kept up with it for  so long.

It is a treasure of photos and rememberances, of all the things that I love, and mostly, all the people that I have loved.

I came across posts about trekking across the country with my husband to fetch a loom, 

and Lois and I and her sister unloading a tractor trailer of sock waste in my driveway.

Some of it made me laugh, some brought tears, but it's all there.

My daughter asked me, " will your blog always be there?"   

I told her that unless Blogger goes away, I think it will be.

That makes me very happy.