Flashback Friday

I was sorting through some old photos this week and came across a picture of Robert at a wedding in the early 1980s, and then I found a picture of  Victor Thresh (our grandson) wearing a tux for his high school Senior Prom last year. I was struck by the resemblance. Two handsome guys.

So Mochi fun

 I've been having such fun. Mochi is a yarn from Crystal Palace Yarns. It's 80% Merino wool and 20% nylon and comes in all sorts of marvelous colors. There was a Mochi Hat contest on Ravelry and I wanted to enter. I ordered two balls of Chunky Mochi intense rainbow from K2TOG in Albany, CA on Friday, February 21.

 It was delivered to my post office box on Monday the 24. I had until Friday, the 28 to get it finished and post a photo before noon. I was still knitting the last row of ribbing Friday morning. There was no way I could get it blocked and photographed and uploaded before noon. Well, darn it.

 The beret project combines knitting and weaving. First, you warp your loom-board on a kraft paper pattern.

 Then you weave the weft yarn to make your circle beret top.

 The woven circle does not have to be hemmed. Pick up the warp and weft loops all around the edge and begin knitting.

I think it is really neat. To toot my own horn: please check out my book, Knitter's Weaving Book. There is a free downloadable PDF pattern for another beret using the same technique on that page. The book is also available on Amazon.com

Hat's off!

No, the beret is on.

 The beret was blocked and came out just fine.

How to block a beret? Find a large dinner plate (the same size as the kraft paper pattern used for weaving). Thanks to Elizabeth Zimmerman for this tip in her book Knitting Without Tears.

 Dampen the top of the beret in lukewarm water, squeeze most of the water out, roll in a terry towel to absorb more moisture, and then stretch it over the plate.

 Don't stretch the knitted ribbing.

Let it dry away from heat or sunlight for 24 hours.

This project will be in the next book following Knitter's Weaving Book. The next book will be called Knitters' Weaving Projects.

Around and around and around

This is fun. I am knitting on a circular needle around my checked beret fabric. After I darned in the outside yarns (picks and warps) of the circular woven piece I picked up the loops around the edge and knitted two rows. (See my last post for a starting picture.) I then did two decreasing rows and went back to plain knitting.

As a quilter I've been using store-bought fabric for years and years. Now I'm weaving my own fabric. I love the way the red and white check came out.

I'm doing the final ribbed band right now. I hope I get it off the needle and block it tonight. Blocking wet wool takes a least a day for drying. Tune in again soon.

Box of books

 It is fun to get a big box of books -- my Knitter's Weaving Book is all printed. Now copies are ready to go out in the world.

My friend Katie and I went to the Lambtown Festival in Dixon 10 days ago. I introduced my KWB to a few yarn vendors. We watched the sheep shearing competition for over two hours.

 There was a Sheep to Shawl competition, too. Three teams of spinners and weavers started at 10 a.m. with a washed sheep fleece and turned it into a 19-inch by 72-inch shawl by 4 p.m. The spinners (two to a team) grabbed rolags of carded fleece from the carders and began to spin yarn. The weaver (1 on each team) waited patiently for the first yards of yarn so she could begin weaving (the looms were already warped). One person on a team was assigned to be an information source and tell the public what was going on. The information person could switch assignments and take a spinner or a the weaver's place, and someone else became the explainer. We checked on the progress on and off throughout the day. One team had to drop out near the end due to a mechanical problem. The first to finish was not necessarily the winner because the teams were judged on the quality of the shawl design. It was fun to watch.

 I'm looking forward to getting my Knitter's Weaving Book on the market. If you know of a good place for me to send a review copy, please tell me. You can buy a copy by going to my Thresh Publications website (or clicking on the graphic below) and using PayPal.

 I am working on a project for the next book, Knitters' Weaving Projects. Right now I'm weaving a checked beret with a knitted headband. I am looking for projects and will be holding a contest to find good ones. Let me know if you are interested.

So far, so good.

Where should it go?

I've been working on this book cover today.

 I'm thinking of self-publishing it in an 8.5" x 11" format. The manuscript has been in my file drawer for years. There are lots of knitters nowadays and I think the time might be right to get it out in the market. It combines knitting and weaving using very basic materials -- a "loom board," and a tapestry needle. You can make knitted and woven pieces, such as woven mittens with knitted cuffs, or a sweater with a woven collar.

After I finished the cover mock-up I began wondering where to put an apostrophe. Should it be Knitter's Weaving Book, or Knitters' Weaving Book, or (skip the apostrophe) Knitters Weaving Book? What do you think?

Ghost of a needle

"The needle is among the oldest of artifacts, and its usefulness is without question. ... Needles can be thought of as headless pins with a single eye meant to pass readily through anything from the hem of a veil to the hide of a camel, leaving behind only a thread of a clue to their presence. When fully sewn into a garment, a piece of thread can be thought of as a continuous and flexible ghost of a needle. ..."
From The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski.

Night visitor

This opossum has been hanging out in my house. He (or she) has been coming in through the cat door and eating the cats' food and drinking water. The critter scattered food and dipped some in the water bowl. I put out a call for help on the Bethel Island area of Facebook. I received over 50 suggestions -- some of them were very funny.
One nice lady, Linda, came over to my house and brought a cat trap for me to borrow. I set it up last night and this morning the possum was in it. I took him for a long car ride (in the trunk so he could not see where we were going). He has a new home in as yet not built waterfront development. I hope he is happy there.
Thank you all in my community for your support.

South Africa

Many people are thinking about Nelson Mandela and South Africa right now. I posted a free 4-inch paper pieced pattern of the flag in 2009. You can click on the photo below and go to the page if you would like to make one.

My laundry today

Here is my laundry hanging to dry.

I just washed a bunch of 4-inch paper pieced blocks I made way back in July of 2009. They needed a good wash because the other day my cat, Feather, got locked in my sewing room all day. When I finally discovered him late at night he had been confined for at least 12 hours. He was very happy to get out and I thought all was well. NOT. My sewing room smelled very peculiar (that's putting it nicely). Today I searched and sniffed every pile of fabric in there. I found one small collection of blocks that the poor cat had decided to use as his temporary sandbox. Whew!

After this wash, I hope they will be as good as new. If you want to see some of the blocks, go to the July, 2009 archive here. I did a block-a-day series that year. There are free paper piecing foundations to print out, too.

Got some 'splainin' to do

I made the chocolate quilt top and took progress pictures as I went along. I know what I did and how it went together, but now I have to explain how to do it so I can put out a pattern for others to follow. I have 10 draft pages of Dear Hearts so far. I will look for a pattern tester to try it out in another color-way. I'll show the tester my project and hand over the pattern draft pages. I won't add any verbal explanation. If she or he gets terribly stuck we can talk and I can add more words or pictures. It is an interesting process to come up with a final, salable pattern.

 

Where did Feather go?

Last evening, way past dinnertime, I started to worry about my cat, Feather. I called and called him but his big white form did not emerge from the darkness outside. By 10:30 PM I was really worried. I had to go to bed. I passed by my sewing room door and thought I'd peek in there. To my great surprise, there was Feather. He had not made a sound. I did not go into my sewing room all day yesterday. I don't even remember opening the door once during the day. Very strange. I am sure he was comfortable because he had lots of soft piles of fabric to cuddle with.

 

And, speaking of cats, we have a new resident in the house. Her name is Phoenix. She is less than a year old. She was abandoned by a family which moved out of a rental house on Taylor Road in late March. The day after they moved out, the house caught fire and burned to the ground and burned up the house next door, too. A cat rescue organization found her and she was in "foster cat care" for a while. A friend called me and asked if I wanted a cat. I did not want a cat, but when I heard her story I said, "bring her over." When I saw her I was so surprised because she looked just exactly like our old cat Aucuba who lived with us for 18 years. Phoenix seems to be the right name for her because her coat looks as if it is "sooty." She knows her name now, is very pleasant, and gets along very well with Feather. I've tried and tried to take a good photo of her with no luck. She looks grumpy in her pictures, but she isn't.

Filling the box

I'm halfway with my chocolate box quilt top. I had to run to the store and buy a Hershey bar because I got so hungry while working on it.

I started at the top left corner and pinned the patches on my design board. Halfway done now. We have dark chocolate, milk chocolate, strawberry, raspberry, a gold foil-wrapped surprise, chocolate-marshmallow, butterscotch, and I am just adding a honeycomb (or seafoam) piece now at the bottom left.

My mother used to make honeycomb candy and I believe See's Candies still sells it. I looked up recipes for seafoam candy on the web and here is a good site with step-by-step instructions and a video -- http://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/honeycomb/

Island Crab Feed and my checkered past



Photo by BrendaLou Scott

Last Saturday, I attended the Island's Annual Crab Feed benefiting the Santa Sack program. There were hundreds of people in Scout Hall (our community center). The Santa Sack program gives gifts to needy children in the Bethel Island area and holds a Christmas party for them.

The Hall was so full and I wandered around looking for someone I knew. People come from neighboring towns for this delicious event. I did not see a familiar face (except my friends tending bar, collecting 212 tickets, and helping in the kitchen). After fifteen minutes I had almost decided to leave and go home. Then I spotted a quilting friend, Maxine. Whew, I had a dinner companion.

We had all the crab we could eat. The servers were high school students doing their community service work. They kept the huge platters of crab, French bread, and melted butter coming without a moments pause. They also kept the waste buckets coming for the empty crab shells. There was pineapple upside-down cake for dessert. What good workers they were.

As I was getting dressed before the event, I pulled on a favorite pair of black and white houndstooth wool pants, and thought, "I've had these pants for a long time." I pulled on a black jersey from my high school class reunion in 2008. I spiffed up the outfit with my brand new red corduroy Big Shirt from L.L. Bean.

Yesterday, I was looking through some old photos trying to find pictures I could use to promote my 40th anniversary reprint of my little Spinning with a Drop Spindle booklet. One photo surprised me.

There I was in 1974, spinning on my spindle wearing the same houndstooth pants. Yes, I realized I've worn these pants for at least 38 years!

So, if you know any knitters that might enjoy spinning their own yarn, click on the cover picture and get them a nice little Christmas present. It's time for me to get a new pair of pants!

Thanksgiving for 600 people

For the last ten years, a free Thanksgiving meal has been served at Scout Hall, Bethel Island's community center. Usually 200-300 people show up to enjoy the feast. This year, nine (9) days before Thanksgiving, our Chamber of Commerce manager, Cha-Cha, found out that the church group from Antioch which had been putting on the dinner was not going to do it this year.

Cha-Cha posted a notice on our Bethel Island Facebook page and asked for help. She said it "was an overwhelming request for me to even comprehend." Help poured in. Offers of money from businesses and service groups and individuals, turkeys from the grocery store and restaurants, pies, dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, aluminum containers and paper and plastic supplies were all donated. People volunteered to come to Scout Hall and cook during the days before Thanksgiving. The hall has a well-equipped kitchen and large professional refrigerators so this was possible. Other people cooked at home and brought their platters and bowls full of hot food to the hall Thanksgiving morning.

The Island population is around 2,500 people (including neighboring Hotchkiss Tract). The annual dinner is served to anyone who walks in the door, and is delivered to shut-ins that day. There are many single people on the island, and we have a high population of elderly folks because this is a retirement place.

 Food Bank coordinator from the Island Baptist Church, Celia, and Cha-Cha

Cha-Cha reported the next day that an "astounding number of meals were provided -- 535 meals were served at the hall and delivered to shut-ins. Gosh, I was flabbergasted." Bags of packaged-good groceries were given to those who needed them on Thanksgiving when they left after their meal.
On Friday morning, a group arrived at the hall to bag up the remaining food for the Food Bank where another 65 people were fed. Cha-Cha said, "Thank you certainly does not seem like adequate praise to you. But we did it. . . . To see the smiling faces, to see. . . .groups of friends gather to share a meal rather than sitting at home alone. You all made it possible. Aloha Nui Loa. ..."

As if that were not enough, Saturday morning we saw Cha-Cha and her good friend Ron Dolittle in the community park next to Scout Hall unpacking containers of outdoor Christmas decorations and lights. The Saturday after Thanksgiving is the traditional day to get the park ready for the holidays.

Scout Hall in the background
Ron attached lights to the light poles using a tall ladder that Scott Bigness provided, and Dorreen Oxford brought some new (to us) decorations for this year, including a singing Santa for the sleigh.

Fire station quilt on TV

The Bethel Island Fire Station was on KTVU Fox 2 last night. A reporter named Noelle and photojournalist Randee Deason from channel 2 were here on the island filming a piece about our fire station. They interviewed Chief Hugh Henderson and went inside the station to see the mold and asbestos damage. Henderson called me over to the station to talk about it becoming a historical building.
The County Board of Supervisors approved the historic designation last week. That means that the station can be repaired. This was important so the building does not have to be raised up in the air above flood height. Historic buildings get an exemption from the FEMA floodplain requirements.
I rushed from my house to meet the crew at the station. I did not have time to change and get all fixed up for an interview. I brought along parts of the fundraising quilt I am making, and there is a quick glimpse of the pieces in the video.
I told the reporters that we would like them to come back and film when our volunteers are working on refurbishing the building. Those could be good action shots with a lot of human interest.

I think if you click on the picture above will take you to the segment. You will have to sit through a commercial before it starts.

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to ...

In the olden days there were not any fire hydrants on Bethel Island. Nowadays there are fire hydrants, but they don’t have any water in them. Sometime in between there was water pumped from the slough available for the hydrants.
Here we are in 2012 and our hydrants are covered with burlap and don’t work. When the new bridge to the island was built, the big pump was taken out. I’m pretty sure the water pipes to the hydrants are still underground along Bethel Island Road.
Do you suppose we could get a new pump at the bridge? If there are leaks in the pipes to the hydrants they could be fixed. Who knows about this?
If there was a fire near downtown, it would be good to have a water source here. If water tenders come to the island from Oakley and Brentwood it would be good if they could fill up on the island when their tanks run out instead of going back to their stations five or more miles away.
The last records I saw showed that Bethel Island’s tax paid to the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District was over $700,000 per year. Maybe some of that money could be allocated to a new pump at the bridge. Perhaps there are plumbers on the island who can test the pipe and tell us what needs to be done. I’m sure there would be willing volunteers to do some digging down to the pipes and help repair them under the supervision of a licensed plumber.
I don’t think we should have to wait and hope the Delta Coves project will bring water to the hydrants.
This is an editorial.

The doors rolled down this morning

 A few of us were there at 8 a.m. this morning, July 1, 2012, when the last shift went off duty. A new shift didn’t arrive to take their place. Our Bethel Island Fire Station is closed.

Ben Whitener, Karen Israel, Captain Robert Ruddick, Joni Fraga-Pratt, Page Pratt, Bob Kenny

It was a sad goodbye. A volunteer fire department started on the Island in 1948. In the early 50s, a Quonset Hut was erected to house the engine. In the 1970s a paid chief and an assistant were hired and the station was manned 24/7 with paid-on-call volunteers. The firefighters have been protecting the Island for 64 years.

A single medical emergency person will be on the site for a while. Engines will come to the Island from the nearby towns of Oakley and Brentwood (over 5 miles away). The reason for the closure, we are told, is that a bond measure on the recent ballot did not pass.

This morning, about 45 minutes after the station closed, a medical call came in. The firefighters just stood there. They could not go to give aid. About 10 minutes later a fire truck from Oakley arrived on the Island.

Plans are afoot to preserve the station and get it designated as an historic structure. You will learn more about this in further posts.

JP Morgan Chase needs to keep better track of things

creative commons photo from Wikipedia

 Poor Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase Bank, had to appear before the Senate Banking Committee today to explain a little bookkeeping error of $20+ Billion dollars.

I wish he would appear at my house and explain a somewhat smaller bookkeeping error his bank made with my mortgage. I was notified last month that there was a shortage in my escrow account. The escrow account is used to pay my homeowner’s insurance.

“What did I do?” I wondered.

It turns out I didn’t do anything wrong. They made an error and did not withdraw enough money from my bank account to cover the insurance. I’ve had the mortgage for many years and the insurance goes up maybe $10 to $20 a year. Pretty simple. But now they say I owe them $500 and they will take it out of my account in increments of $70 a month starting in July. Darn.

Box of books

 I picked up my little box of books Tuesday. These are review copies of Spinning with a Drop Spindle. I am sending them out to spinning and weaving stores to see if they would like to buy some. I have a long way to go before I have notified the fiber world that it’s back in print.

I remember this process from years ago. There was no internet back then. We went to the library and looked through telephone yellow pages and picked out stores with names that sounded promising. It is much easier today because I can search online.

I ran across an old friend at Halcyon Yarn in Bath, Maine. She is still in business 40 years later. I called her and she remembered selling the booklet years ago. I’m sending her a copy today and I hope she will write a review “blurb” for the back cover. Another friend, Susan Druding, was a pioneer retailer with her store Straw into Gold in Berkeley. Susan was one of our very first customers and sold thousands of copies of Spinning with a Drop Spindle. She now owns Crystal Palace Yarns and wholesales yarns, not weaving and spinning tools. Susan said she will write a comment for the back cover.

There is a big Conference of Northern California Handweavers at the Oakland Convention Center from May 18 through the 20^th.  I think it is way too late for me to sign up as a vendor, but maybe a fiber arts distributor will have my spinning booklet in stock by then. (I am prepared to order a big, fast print run if there is interest.)

And I have them for sale on my other website: Thresh Publications. Wish me luck.

Ready for a new home

 Not me! I’m staying here. I have five (5) Singer Featherweight sewing machines. That’s five too many for one person. I sew on my trusty Singer 301s.

I posted on Yahoo’s Featherweight Group:
“I have a batch (5) of Five Featherweight sewing machines, including a white one. My husband and I bought them over the years. We joked about them being for our retirement. Well, he died a year and a half ago and I am running out of money to pay my taxes. So, I’d like to sell the batch as a bunch.
I don’t want to pack them individually. I live in the California Delta which is 60 miles east of San Francisco.
The machines were all running when I put them away in a closet. I think Featherweights are going for around $250 nowadays, so I’d like to sell the batch for $1,250 as are, where are."

I’ve had e-mail inquiries asking “Where will you ship them?” “Can I pick up one and take it to a sewing machine shop to be checked out?” “What are the serial numbers?” “Please send pictures.”

I don’t want to ship them. But I did take some photos and turned the machines upside down to find their numbers.

The serial numbers (starting at the bottom step) are:
AL193324
AM175588
AF484822
EV006700
AF077172
Even though these are “featherweight” it was a big job for me to haul them out and set them up for their photo session today. I sure hope someone in the Bay Area wants a flock of Featherweights.