Handwoven Dishtowels

Alice, Dear,

I was mangling table cloths, napkins, and dishtowels last weekend, draping every one gently over the drying rack as I went along to let them finish drying completely. Wow! I thought to myself. Quite a collection I am lucky to have! Ellen has contributed many to this cache...her lovely blues, and the most recent orange one with the red and yellow stripes which is sunshine in itself. Mary's is the organic cotton one, done in a diaper weave, and it has the most luscious hand. And there are yours...the multi-colored cotton stripes with a linen weft. Some I gave as gifts, but after your leaving us, I kept the last one for myself...I knew there would never be any more of those, and I like it so much. There is the one I wove myself with handspun cotton as weft. I decided that that particular one should go into the archives. It is really much too flimsy, though it does do a nice job on glasses. Maybe someday, 75 years from now, one granddaughter or another will pull it out of the archive and exclaim with joy about the handspun cotton weft. We can only hope....

Lots of love,
Nancy

More Signs

Dear Alice,

At lunchtime today when I walked out to the mailbox, I heard a Sandhill Crane overhead! That has got to be a good sign that Spring is really going to come this year. They gather by the thousands at Phyllis Haehnle Preserve near Jackson every autumn as they wend their way southward. I missed seeing him/her/them since I didn't look up fast enough. I only thought "what is that weird bird call...Oh! yes!" and then it/they were gone. The Haehnle website has an interest fact page all about the cranes.

It has already been a week since I last posted. I have felt pulled in too many directions, and really haven't accomplished anything (much). However, I did finish spinning and plying the Moody Blues yarn that is for my cousin's colorful sox. Isn't it the best?
Contrast that (yes, a little color lesson on complementaries!) with the Clivia that has been blooming it's heart out! I have several plants that I split from the mother three years ago, so we get a blast of this beauty when we walk through the sunroom, and another snippet of color when we are in the dining room. The one in the dining room is starting to send up another stalk of blossoms (and is promised to my friend Ginny for her new sunroom when she has recovered a little more).



Much to do...I am still working on the Top Secret project, I have things to finish up before Sunday when the Fiberarts Guild has a jurying session for the upcoming Fiber Feast in April. Saturday is the Dexter Pioneer Arts Fair, and I promised to help by demonstrating at Mary U's booth (if I can get there before the end of the day, since I am also scheduled to do my civic duty that day as well, as a Board of Review member).

I hope you are doing well. Thinking of you daily,
Nancy

Spring Snow

Oh, JOY! Today was my first visit to our new tea shop in town...TeaHaus! I was looking for 1001 Nights, the type my sis sent from Wichita, but alas! it was not to be. I came home with 'Arabian Nights' and tested it right away. Green and black tea/sunflower/jasmine/rose blend. Very nice, and a rather wonderful selection teas. It reminded me much of my first favorite tea shoppe House of Tea in Philadelphia.

We have once again gotten another lovely dump of snow, (photo at 7 a.m. yesterday)
but this is nothing like the up-north snow. The Leland Report
indicates that Leland, MI has had 124 inches total so far this season! DH and I can attest to that, since we worked hard to remove layer upon layer of snow, packed, melted, and heavy, from the boats.

It is about time that I report here on some progress with weaving projects. I contemplated the mint green Border Leicester/Mohair blend for several days when I hit upon using a color combination similar to those in a table cloth that I have enjoyed for years. Here is the initial wrapping:


Left to right the yarns are a natural wool boucle to be used in the weft, silk (Treenway Silks) from the stash, a teal wool from the stash, periwinkle rayon chenille, another little variegated cotton/nylon boucle originally from the Yarn Barn, a beautiful pale mint rayon (I'll call it seafoam), and the last is the handspun BL/mohair blend. I plan to use the natural bouclè and the mohair blend in the weft. Doesn't that look like SPRING?!!

So! here are the first 100 threads on the warping board. If I'm good, I will go finish up measuring out the remaining 275 yet tonight and start dressing the loom tomorrow.



Spring is coming. I know it. Yesterday's snowstorm smelled like spring. The cardinals are calling their mates every morning. More evidence (the clivias started blooming while we were away!):







And March comes on Saturday!