Rain, Rain...

 We are just coming off a long stretch of rainy weather so I've had plenty of time to get some crafty things sorted out around here. Daddio's quilt has it's loop de loops done and is getting its binding sewn on. It's quite the job on something so big. Thank goodness for audio books.

 Mr. Chill has a body now and is getting packed up until next winter. It feels wrong to be working on winter things when its 60 outside and everything is starting to bloom.

 Ditto for the winter sampler.

 I am replacing it on the standing frame with my sheep breed sampler for the spring. I consider March 1st spring. It's actually been spring for weeks around here.

My little garden sampler is back in production now too. It's always sunny in my little fantasy garden no matter what's been going on outside.

I abandoned the February block on The Sheep Virtues a few days ago in favor of working on the March border. Spring has come early this year inside and out-and we'll probably be paying for it all summer. Ugh.

Tying One On

I don't have a TV in the loom room so it's been pretty much been gathering dust since the Olympics began. I did sneak in from time to time to get this new warp almost wound.

Ditto for threading the warp on the loom. I thought I was ready to tie it on but when I sat to do it last night I found a threading error and it was a doozy.

Instead of tying it all on I am untying it and re-threading it one painful heddle at a time. It's going to take forever and it's back breaking work.

It's crazy that I am going to all this trouble for what is going to be a very short lived project because this is all I have left of the weft from the kit. It's leftover from the big disaster I had with this very same project from last year.

The good news is I just noticed that my weaving stash is growing. I just may need another shelf.

One and Done

 I've got ONE mitt finished AND the Olympics are DONE.

 I really only thought to get that fiber spun during the games. The single mitt is a bonus.

 I got this far on the second one during the closing ceremony but there was too much to see so I gave it up.

It's better to spin while you're trying to watch TV so I got another bobbin of the Olympic fiber started. You can't have enough clown barf. I'll figure out what to do with it later. Maybe in Beijing in 2022? My goodness, that seems like a long way away, doesn't it?

Sunday Soap: Thinking Spring

 After a day of working in the bathroom it was nice to hide in the soap room to make a few loaves before the Olympics came on every night.

 I've had a nice little routine going that comes to an end today.

 I've got lots more fruit scented soap curing. Meet Black Cherry. I am very fond of cherry so I hope this one holds its scent through the long curing process.

 Lime Margarita is very, very yummy. The greens even worked out this time. Green is a hard color to work with.

 Aloe and Cactus water smells nothing like what I would think Aloe would smell like but it's full of aloe extract so I have high hopes for it.

 Yuzu is not for the faint of heart. Yuzu smells like rotten fruit. I bought this scent last summer because of the rave reviews and hated it. Recently I took out an old bar of it that I had made as a test and I LOVED IT. Maybe it's this dreary winter weather but suddenly that rotten fruit smell seemed more lush and exotic than stinky. I even made myself some lotion bars and foot fizzies with this scent so I'm covered in Yuzu and I don't even know what a Yuzu is.

Finally I made an old favorite, Mango and Papaya. It's not the end of the road though.

 I've got Coffee and Lavender  Sage in molds turning into soap as I speak. That's the end of the road for sure. I've got 99 bars that need to cure for the Spring giveaway. In six weeks. Watch this space.

Bathroom Update

 The tile around the tub is done minus the grout. We decided to do the walls and the floor at the same time so the walls are on hold for the moment.

 Pulling up the old floor was a job.

 We tackled that on that 80 degree day and it was no fun working in that small space in those temps.

 The new sub-floor had to be cut outside in the chilly drizzle later in the week. We can't catch a break with the weather.

We should be tiling the floor on Sunday. The Mister gave me the reason we couldn't do it today but I've forgotten what it is. No problem here. I could use a day to rest.

Knitting Ups and Downs

We are back to our usual winter weather, chilly and damp, so I took advantage of a glum afternoon to sit down and steek Tracery-and chickened out. Not because I was afraid of steeking but because I knew I was heading for a disaster of another kind.

I had taken some good measurements and realized that if I took it all back to the armpits I could re-shape it so it just might fit. After all these years and all this work I thought it deserved a second chance at becoming a wearable garment.

I drank a glass (or two) of wine and sat in a quiet room and ripped it all back to the underarms. It hurt while I was doing it but when I picked it up again last night I was glad I did it.

On a happier note, Snowfling is coming along nicely. It's such a pleasure to do color work with worsted weight yarn for a change.

My Olympic handspun seems to have turned into clown barf after all but I suppose that's what I was really going for.  They are becoming a pair of dispensable mitts that can live in my coat pockets. I won't cry if I lose one of these. This is exactly why I rarely dye things but it was more likely that it was my sloppy dividing of the fiber that caused the rather unattractive weirdness in the striping. It's always something. That's why I like to leave this sort of thing to the experts.

Summertime Blues

It was almost 80 degrees here today. I'm not trying to rub it in to you guys still in the throes of winter. I'm here to complain. I miss winter.

 Sure it was nice to take a walk before dinner down a path in the woods that led to the bay.

In spite of all that panting Pup is doing, the bay breeze was nice and cool. Back at home not so much. It's hot as heck in here as I am writing this post but who can turn on the AC-in February.

I did get out the flip flops and a sundress for my walk.

 I had a date the night before with a freshly made foot fizzy and a lotion bar but I still need to get last year's polish off. Before I do all that I am going to check the weather. It will probably snow this weekend. At least I hope so.

Good Day Sunshine

 It was 70 and sunny yesterday. It felt weird but I'm not complaining.

My  pansy has a baby on the way.

My crocus are enjoying the mild weather.

My feet....Oy vey. It was warm enough for my flip flops but I'm not showing these horrors to the world. Let's just keep this between ourselves, shall we?

The Easy Way Out

 It's been all tiling, all day around here but if I get up early enough I have had a few minutes to do some piecing. I think I am really getting the hang of this and I can see why it's such a popular project. It's better than doing the same block over and over.

 Having said that, look at the next block. Yowza. It's got over 40 pieces.

 I decided to take a shortcut and get rid of all the teeny tiny half square triangles by reprinting the pattern on cardstock and making my own pieces.

Oy....it's still a lot of pieces but it's more manageable.

I think I also have a solution for those naughty leaf shaped blocks. Jane may have had the talent to piece them but I don't. After watching a bunch of tutorials I decided I am taking the easy way out. I am ironing them onto fusible webbing and them just stitching them down. At least I think I am. Time will tell.

Wait a Minute

 We have a saying here in Maryland. "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute". That was never truer than yesterday. The Mister and I went out for a walk with Pup during a sunny break from all the rain in the afternoon. On the way back in I spied this pansy in bloom. Squeee.....

 We headed down to the craft room for about an hour to make a birthday card for his sister and when we emerged the world was a winter wonderland. No snow was expected here but it showed up anyway. It was better than the rain we were expecting. Much better.

Salty and Sweet

 I've got spring fever and the cure has been to make spring soap. Meet Sea Salt and Driftwood. This is a hard to describe spa scent that is sprinkled with sea salt.

 Island Nectar has vanilla in it and I forgot about it. It played havoc with the colors as it darkens them but it smells wonderful.

 Zesty Lemon is the sweetest lemon scent I have. It's like a lemon poundcake. Yum.

 The new samples that just showed up are also sweet. As soon as it stops raining I'll get right on these. I hate to open my lye container with this humidity. It will just clump.

 I also made some new spring lip balm. I love this stuff. I've got these little pots all over the place so I am never without. I use the same recipe as the lotion bars I just add flavored oil instead of scent.

New butters. The Mister wants more scrubby coffee soap and I want some aloe soap for summer. Now I just need some dry weather.