Up on the Housetop, Click, Click, Click

It has rained most of the weekend here, but according to the radar we have about 5 hours of sunshine this afternoon. James had started a project on Friday of taking out our chimney. It's all part of the kitchen renovation. The house was built in 1945 with a chimney for the furnace and one for a coal burning fireplace. In the 1960s, an addition enclosed the coal burning fireplace chimney within the house. We placed a set of gas logs in there and every time we used them more heat escape than was put in the house. So it's going for more room and a set of ventless logs. Here's the before pictures - in the house, in the attic and the protected hearth!

He was able to get it to a stopping point on Friday, but waited and waited for the rain to subside. So with the great forecast, he's up there making all sorts of noise! I'm countering him by continuing tuning the piano!

While I was out checking on him, I notice our amaryllis are in bloom. That is actually a rare thing. My in-laws are in Charleston and their bloom regularly. We took some and most have not lived since it's that much cooler here away from the coast. In any case, it was a welcome surprise!

The blue yarn came in for the wedge weave and that is continuing nicely. I completed the green and blue green blocks and likely will complete the blue block today.

Lastly, I could use some help. Tapestry Weavers South is having an exhibition on August and I've been working towards entering it. The wedge weave in fact is heading that way. A second piece I framed this weekend. It's really a sampler that I created last year to try some transparency work for a larger piece. It's a geometric, as you see, with a number of different lines. I liked it enough I've combined it with a metal mat and continued the lines on the metal. The whole then is in a simple black frame. It was quite difficult to photograph since everything reflected in the mat - including me and the camera! I want to name it and I'm at a loss. Got any suggestions?

Time to go check on the clicking from the roof and make sure he's not coming down the chimney like old Saint Nick!

WeaveZine

You all may have already found this, but I'll share in case you have not. I've just discovered WeaveZine - an online magazine for weavers. The link is:
http://www.weavezine.com/

You'll Think I'm Crazy, But....

First off - my husband completed the Assault on Mount Mitchell today in about 8.75 hours. that's about 1000 people who voluntarily choose to start at 6:30 am in Spartanburg and ride 102 miles (and 11,000 feet in elevation) to the top of Mt. Mitchell. It was 45F in Spartanburg when they left and fortunately warmed up to 60F on the top of the mountain. When he got up at 4:30 this morning, I asked, "Is this still fun?" I'm not sure who the crazy one is in this case!

Secondly, I have officially run out of the blue yarn for the wedge weave. I ran to Asheville over the weekend where I had bought the first skein. Unfortunately, they were out! So I now have it on order. But I came home and started weaving and weaving and weaving and now have the green block only one row from being finished. After that, I can't do anything else on it until the blue yarn shows up! I just couldn't stop going and going and going....

Thirdly, while I was in Asheville, I did buy MORE yarn! If you remember the Noro yarn I purchased from Theresa. I've been wanting a chocolate brown as a background color for that piece. So there it was and I bought it!

Lastly, I asked someone a couple of weeks ago if it was possible to spin Dakota's hair. He was mostly a German Shepherd and it's not exactly what I would assume one spins. She said yes and volunteered to spin it for me. So, for two weeks I have walked around with a paper bag picking up hair in all those places that dog hair ends up. And yes - I even resorted to the vacuum cleaner bag. All the hair I would curse all those years have now become VERY precious to me. I wasn't able to provide the best fur for spinning. We used to take clumps of that out every time we bathed him! But tonight I took all that I found and she was able to make about 2 feet of two ply yarn for me. My plans are to weave a mat for a picture of him and his yarn can be an accent.

A word to the wise - if this idea appeals to you, collect hair now while it's easy to obtain. You really don't want to know what's in your vacuum cleaner bag!!!

The Blues

First off, a family of blue birds has decided to come live in our yard. We had built a 16 apartment birdhouse for purple martins on the porch of the garage many years ago. Starlings have been the only ones checking it out and not even every year. The blue bird has decided the bottom right apartment is theirs. He's been checking out the domain and generally bullying everything that moves.

Blue-green has made the scene on the wedge weave. Progress is going, but just not as fast as earlier this year. That's okay - there's plenty of time, but I'm more concerned about running out of the blue yarn. It's going to happen, but I think it'll make it through the blue-green blended section. I was planning to change the colors back on the other side of a plain green block. So soon I shall make a trip to Asheville!

Lastly, I am blue over the fact that I really do have a string thing! I thought I had control, but when I heard $0.50/lb for silk - I had to go! It turns out there is a yarn distributor about 1/2 hour from me and he normally works in truckloads for all sorts of industries. A friend's aunt found him and he had told her to come by. The friend invited me along and I was eager to see what could be. It turns out the distributor has a number of samples and basically wants to give them away. When he was pulling out a few cones, he kept saying "There's not enough on here to really do anything." All I thought was, "That spool is lifetime supply for me!"

I have 5 cones of silk that likely was for upholstery. They are in red, gold and white. They scream Christmas to me. Then, there is the space dyed silk that is blue, lavender, mauve and khaki. My friend was getting samples for his aunt. I told him I would glad share this one with her. I'll never use all of it. Lastly, there is the spool of white fine silk . He had a few more of it, but I don't know that I'll use more than one. When I asked what to pay him, he just said for me to take it. Here they all are, my latest yarn acquisition with no projects planned! Oh I'm in so much trouble!!!