Wilson River Gal

  Hot off the needles: a pair of wool socks for me. Knit in Laura Linneman's "Footpath Sock" pattern - at least for the stitch pattern anyway, I did my "own thing" for the cuffs, heels, and toes - the yarns featured were some Malabrigo fingering (the dark purple-blue) and some handspun 3-ply that I happened to have a big cake of. The cast on is a stretchy Italian cast-on. The heel is a Balbriggan heel, and the toes are the standard wedge toes. Malabrigo yarns often bleed when they're washed for the first time, so when I was finished with the knitting and finish work, I soaked the socks in lukewarm water with a bit of Retayne in it, to head off any dye running. Worked a treat! No color in the water. Rinse, "squoze", and dried the socks on sock blockers. Done! What's new on the needles? The Cozy Quilt Socks using one strand of blue and one strand of cream. Shocker: this time I'm actually following the pattern! Pictures when I have something w...

Hi.  I used to blog on a WordPress site, but eventually it stagnated and got quiet because I couldn't think of anything more to say.  I don't want to discard those previous posts - dating back to March, 2015 - so I am incorporating them here under the label "Back Catalog" and re-publishing with the original date. Thanks. 

My brother was a serious Motocross competitor and loved to ride his dirt bike in the hills of the area then known as the Tillamook Burn (now known as the Tillamook State Forest). His life was cut short by melanoma skin cancer at age 20. After he passed, my parents organized an annual motocross event in the Tillamook Burn to raise funds for cancer research. We are coming up on the 60th anniversary of Mike's death next April, so I wanted to create a piece of cross stitchery to commemorate the his life and passion. My sweet husband happened to find an original Mike Stewart Enduro patch from one of the early races and surprised me with it. After some thought, I went looking for a cross stitch chart featuring a motocross rider in the woods, and found one that - while very complex with 27 colors - is just what I had in mind. My plan is to lay out the image on 14-count Aida fabric, sketch in the boundaries, then arrange the patch and two original photographs in the composition, marking th...

This is a bit of life from my perspective.  I am a "maker". Maker of food, of fiber arts projects, of copious messes that I then clean up.  Spring is here in the Pacific Northwest, which means outdoor messes of all kinds: gardening, yardwork, general clean-up after storms. This work usually means, also, that I am preparing meals in "big batch" fashion so I don't have to spend time and energy cooking when I've spent both outside that day.  The next big experiment at our house? Grinding our own wheat flours from whole kernels using a grain mill attachment on my 1980's-era Kitchen Aid mixer. We are very excited. And waiting for the part to arrive.  Foodies Topic: Cookies - It's worth it to watch the WHOLE VIDEO - no fast-forwarding, please. 

  30 November 2016 I can't believe it's been 12 days since I've updated! I've been busy working on a couple of things and building muscle memory skills with the Griffis wheel. WIP #1: One of B's co-workers has a baby girl due in February, so I'm knitting a 3-6 month size sweater for her. The yoke will be an ecru yarn (not sparkly), and you can see the main yarn above. I'm really enjoying this pattern and finding it a fast knit. Last night, I joined the body and two sleeves on the circular needle and knitted the first yoke row. Last weekend while we were in Salem, we bought some beautiful pink glass bobble buttons for this project. The yarn is a superwash merino with just a bit of nylon. WIP #2: Still working on spinning the merino / silk yarn for B's scarf. I've got just less than an ounce of fiber left to spin, then I'll two-ply the singles. It looks like it will ply out to about a fingering weight. Once the yarn is plied and washed, I...

Time to process apples! Our apple trees (one each of braeburn, rome, King Cole, and spitzenburg) have out-done themselves this year. We've had one branch on the spitzenburg propped up for most of the summer - its applies are huge and heavy, so propping was necessary to keep the limb from being damaged. We finally remembered that we've got a perfectly serviceable food dehydrator in the garage. In this year of full freezers (and having to make room for half a beef next month!), we're now drying stuff to keep from putting more into the freezer. We've got a bunch of pie filling and applesauce stashed away, so, we're happily drying apples. The spitzenburgs seem to make the nicest dried apples: large slices, with a sparkly zing and plenty of sweetness. King Cole apples are drier than the "spitzs" - at least this year, anyway - and are good dried, but have a more subtle flavor than the spitzenburgs. The slices are sturdy, leathery. The coles seem to be a good ba...