Demonstrating weaving for kids

Pardon my recent long pause in posts.  Like I mentioned before, my family and I moved from Edmond, OK to Coffeyville, KS for a job opportunity for my husband.  We had been on the lookout for a position that would eventually take us back closer to family, and when one arose, we took it!  My mom and dad live in Coffeyville, and it's been fabulous over the last 3 weeks having them so close.

Of course, along with the fun of moving comes much un-fun...the packing, unpacking, sorting, cleaning, painting, arranging, phone calls, DMV visits, and on and on....  So that has kept me busy.  Although I'm typing now while sitting cross-legged on the floor with the keyboard in my lap because the movers broke my desk and we haven't found a new one yet, I feel pretty settled and am ready to share again.

Last Friday, I was asked to demonstrate weaving to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders at Clearwater Intermediate School.  Each year they have a day when presenters come in to share with the kids, and this year's topic was Fine Arts.  My sister is a teacher there, and she thought of me. 

I was excited to go and share.  Two years ago, I demonstrated weaving at the Whimmydiddle Craft Fair and had such a blast hearing and seeing the feedback and interest that weaving attracted.  People are truly interested in how weaving happens.  These kids at the school were the same way.

I threaded a small sampler weaving onto my travel-able table loom and took several weaving examples to show the kids.  When I was done, they were all examining their clothing to determine if what they were wearing was woven! :)

My sister Kim, niece Morgan, and nephew Caleb

Each kid had the opportunity to try out weaving plainweave for a few picks, using my bobbin winder, and making a small bracelet with my fringe twister.  They asked a lot of good questions and were very polite and attentive. 

It was a great program to expose the children to things they may not have seen before: weaveing, interpretive dance, calligraphy, quilting, flower arranging, and many more.  I'm grateful for the opportunity!

We even had a lovely picnic lunch on the green space in front of the school, with a leisurely hour to enjoy the beautiful weather and a bluegrass band.  My niece and nephew came to sit and eat with me. 

It was a great day, one I'll always remember.

Color Infusion Cowl

I've finally finished a project that's been on my needles for 2 months.  It's been a hard thing to keep knitting, as all colorwork things are for me.  Why is it that I love looking at colorwork projects, planning them, and starting them...but it's so hard to finish them???  That's rhetorical.  I don't know.

With a daily self-imposed knitting requirement, I was able to finish this lovely cowl:

It is knit using stranded (or Fair Isle) technique, with 3 colors of fingering weight yarn.

This pattern is  Color Infusion by Meridith Shepherd, knit in The Fibre Company Canopy Fingering yarn (alpaca, wool and bamboo combination), in colorways Jacaranda (purple) and Guava (pink), as well as Madelinetosh Twist Light (wool and nylon blend) in colorway Kilim (multicolor).

It's a gloriously simple and ingenious design, you knit one side, then do a few purl rows to make a "fold" line, then continue knitting the other side.  Then you seam the bind off stitches to the cast on edge, and you've got a fully reversible, double thickness cowl.  The two yarns are luxurious together, and feel so soft on the neck!

Below, I double wrapped it, that would be so warm!

And it can easily be looped to show both colorways.

See the purl rows?  Neat, huh?

So although it took a lot of time, I love love love it.  This is staying with me!  It'll come in handy this winter, with the projected El Nino precipitation we're supposed to have!

Sacred Dog Infinity Scarf

I was perusing the isles of the Hobby Lobby one day, and a yarn caught my eye:

Yarn Bee Aurora Borealis in colorway Mustang #40.  It's a worsted weight 100% acrylic yarn.

I immediately thought of my Grandma Rilla.  She is a hard-working farm wife, and she is a hard-core jeans girl.  I've been wanting to try weaving a scarf in a basic twill using a variegated yarn, and thought this would be a good yarn for that!  I used 3 skeins for my project. 

For the weave structure, I decided on an extended zig-zag.  Many native Americans used triangles in their pottery and rug weaving, and I felt this yarn had the southwestern feel also. 

The colorway, Mustang, lit a light bulb in my head.  I'd remembered learning that native Americans considered horses sacred.  I did a little research, and learned that often times, the horse was viewed as a "sacred dog".  This was because early plains Indians lived nomadic lives, and often moved their homesteads.  Everything they owned was carried on foot and with the help of dogs, who wore packs and saddle bags, even pulling primitive carts.  The dogs were very important to their way of life; essential.  When the horse was brought to the new world by the Spanish in the 1500's, the Indians obtained some and quickly found them invaluable as well.  They became as revered as the dog, and without the language to describe the horse, they called it the "sacred dog".  Isn't that fascinating?

Well enough history for today, but the point is I decided to call this project my "Sacred Dog Scarf".

I set out to make a 6.5" wide infinity scarf, and dressed my loom.  I began weaving, and quickly fell into pattern with the zig-zag.  Here is a picture of the scarf on the loom:

After weaving until I ran out of weft, I took the scarf off the loom, secured the ends with machine zig-zag stitch, and sewed them together in a loop.  Then I took an old pair of jean shorts I'd saved, cut off the leg hem, and stitched it around the seam.  I further secured the jean material with four coordinating buttons.

I'm so happy with the finished results:

I love the turquoise in the yarn!

Doubled with the jean strip in back

The Katniss version, lol!

Wound as a shrug, covering the shoulders with a cowl-like neck.

I presented this to my Grandma at our early Thanksgiving gathering this year, and she was impressed!  She loved the fact that she could wrap it around twice and wear it with a coordinating shirt or wrap it three times and really be protected against the cold.  I can just see her putting it on to go bottle feed the calves in the barn.  :)  I hope she gets some good use out of it.  I made sure to tell her she can machine wash it!  Always important for a no-fuss gal!

More Blue Kitchen Towels

Well thanks for hanging with me through all the vacation photos.  We indeed had a great time, but now it's nice to be back to normal.  I've been busy working on a few things, and have a couple finished projects to share.

First up are a set of towels that I actually finished just days before we left for Europe, but I didn't have the time to blog them.  These were for a very special family member, and were supposed to be for her birthday, but like always I was behind.  So I jumped right on it.

My mother-in-law, who asked me to make these, is the owner of my first set of blue towels.  (By the way, <-- that blog is by far my most popular post to date, it has been averaging 20 views a day!).  She liked the towels so much, that she wanted me to make a set just like them for her sister-in-law.  She did, however, want them a little larger.

I set out with calculations, and once I had that all set, I decided to try new twill weaves with this set. 

They're made from 8/2 unmercerized cotton.  A 4-shaft loom is all you need. 

They turned out great, and best of all: I completed them start to finish in around a week, working about an hour a day. 

The weaves I used: (from left to right, top to bottom) Extended zig zag, S diagonal, Uneven vertical zig zag, and M & W.  They were a lot of fun to weave, seaming went smooth and quick, and they're perfect!

If you'd like to make a set of towels like these, I've enclosed a copy of my instructions, measurements and notes.  When you're done, send me a picture of your creation - I'd love to see it!

PDF Weaving Record Sheet

Click on the link above to download the instructions!

Happy weaving Wednesday!

Munich Day 2

I love this quote by the one and only Anthony Bordain.  Travel changes you, alters your perspective, and leaves beautiful memories in your heart.

Today, our final full day in Europe, we woke up leisurely and went down to eat breakfast.  The place was packed, but we managed to get enough to eat (although I was bummed that I didn't get my morning strudel).  We hopped on the metro and followed the lederhosen to Oktoberfest.

I really didn't know what to expect, but I was surprised that it looked like a state fair on steroids.  There were carnival rides.  Kids shouting in German that, I'm sure, they needed more tickets for their favorite ride.  There were sausage vendors everywhere.  And people.  People in every square inch of the place.

First of all, we walked around a bit, getting our bearings and seeing the sights.  We tried to bee line for one corner of the grounds, where the bands from each beer tent were playing together in a orchestral ceremony.  We got there just after they started, and filled in with the crowd to see.

Next, we made our way to the Weinzelt tent.  Now let me say a bit about the "tents".  Each year, the major brewhouses erect huge buildings for Oktoberfest.  Many are steel-framed, some are two-level, and they all contain tons of wooden benches and seats.  They usually center around a stage, where the oompah bands play.

At Weinzelt, we explained to the "bouncers" stationed at the doors that we didn't have reservations (Chris had tried 10 months in advance to get reservations, to no avail), but were wanting to just have a beer.  They pointed us upstairs, where a waitress slid us in between an Italian party and 3 Swiss guys.  They were very insistent that we stay for no more than an HOUR!  Ok, ok.

The Swiss guys were nice, asking about us and allowing us to take a picture of their get-ups.

From the 2nd level looking down.

He got a Paulaner, I got a wine.  and another pretzel, of course.

We made sure to stay less than an hour, and decided to see what else we could get into.  We walked around and took pictures of many of the tents:

We discovered that it was going to be increasingly difficult to make it into the tents as the day progressed, as the reserved tables were seated.  So Chris picked the Spatenbrau house to try as the last attempt, and we got in.  We caught a waiter inside, and he found us a cranny at a table in the middle of the floor between a rowdy group of drunk men, and a nice family.

We sat down, ordered an ox entree and a beer, and absorbed the surroundings.  Occasionally, the band would erupt into an obviously traditional song, and everyone would sing along and clink their mugs together.  Very jovial.  Except for the drunk guys, they were getting rowdy.  Once when they nearly dumped the table over on us, Chris said "Hey now, guys", and then they focused on us, speaking in German distastefully about us....  ughhh.   Luckily, they decided to move on, and I was ever so glad.

In the new-found quiet of the table, we were able to communicate with the nice family next to us, learning that they were from Munich and come every year.  They graciously told us some of the history behind Oktoberfest and the Spatenbrau tent, and the traditional garb. 

They were even nice enough to pose for a photo with us.  Thank you for making our Oktoberfest experience better, you two.  Wish I knew your names.

The ox dish was very good, and the family explained to us that we were eating "Richard".  We were confused, and they pointed to the side of the beer tent, where "Richard" was roasting on a spit.  A huge ox, and they figured it'd be swell to share his name.  Richard.  Oh well, thanks for the tasty meat, Richard.

Now to be honest, I hated Oktoberfest.  Loud, drunken, carnival-ly, beer-filled (and I don't like beer)...  I really did try, but I'm sure Chris wasn't fooled.  It was probably plain as day and annoying him.  But being the sweet guy he is, and probably also because it was appearing that we may not have any other success getting into tents, he agreed to allow me to direct him to Alte Pinakothek, an art museum. 

Here we saw lovely works from Raphael, Da Vinci and Botticelli, to name a few.  Here were some that we enjoyed:

Raphael - La Vierge a la tenture

Raphael's Madonna Tempi - painted in 1508

Leonardo Da Vinci - Madonna of the Carnation

Rembrandt - Bust of Man in Oriental Garb

After we toured the museum, we returned to Ostbahnhoff, ate a nice dinner at the train station, where Chris got to try another German brew, and then we returned to our room to pack for our trip home tomorrow!

I'll spare you another post for our trip home, we had a rather uneventful although long trip.  We made it to Atlanta after a 10 hour flight, and though we had arrived on time, we were unable to fly standby on the earliest flight to OKC.  We then had a 6 hour layover, when we'd been up for 12 hours already.  So we ate a nice dinner at the airport, and then I crashed out on the floor of the concourse while waiting for our flight.  We both slept on the flight to OKC, and made it home about 25 hours after waking up the previous day...so we slept.  The next 3 days were spent trying to change our clocks over...but the good news: the boys were happy to see us, and likewise. 

Our trip was enlightening, relaxing, rejuvenating, and reaffirming.  I'm so glad we went, and now I know what areas of Europe I want to spend more time in if given the chance!

Munich Day 1

We didn't set an alarm on our first day in Munich, but we woke up at around 7:30 am.  We got around and ate breakfast at the hotel - which was great.  They had an extensive selection of sausages, eggs, bacon, baked goods, deli items and fruits.  I also got a pretty darn good cappuccino.  :)

After eating, we set off for a Munich City Walk, guided by Rick Steves.  We walked back to the train/metro station and hopped on a metro to city center: Marienplatz.

Munich metros were far better than Paris.  The cars were cleaner, the stations were marked better, and each stop was announced audibly.  Also, the layout of the system was well thought out: all metro lines stop at the popular inner city stops, so as long as you're staying inside the inner city area, you can get on any metro car to take you up or down the line.

So walking up out of the metro tunnel, we immediately saw this:

Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) in Marienplatz - built in the 1800's

The glockenspiel on the New Town Hall

We were standing right in Marienplatz, looking at the amazing Neues Rathaus.  Luckily, we arrived early enough in the day that it wasn't crowded, so we took some photos and admired the view.

If you walk through Neues Rathaus, you emerge into a neat courtyard that looks like this:

In Marienplatz, there are a few other notable fixtures:

Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) - Was built in the 1300's, however it was heavily damaged by bombs during WWII and was rebuilt, so it actually looks newer than the New Town Hall.

Also, Mariensaule, or Mary's Column, was erected in 1638 to celebrate the end of the Thirty Years' War.  On top is a statue of the virgin Mary.  At the four corners, are statues of cherubs defeating the city's 4 adversaries: war (a lion), pestilence (a cockatrice), famine (a dragon), and heresy (a serpent).

We walked a few blocks and admired St. Peter's Church: - We were not allowed to take photos inside and for some reason I can't find an outside photo!

St. Peter's is a beautiful old church, being build as it currently appears in the 1300's.  The spot on which it stands was previously a church and monastery which originated in the 1100's.  After those buildings burnt down, the church was built.  This spot is presumably the originating point for the whole city of Munich.

Next stop: Viktualienmarkt.  This is a modern-day market with a lot of history.  The city has protected the area from high taxes and chain stores, so it remains possible for small local farmers and tradesmen to set up shop here.  We browsed around, and found some AMAZING food selection, from fresh produce to meats, cheeses, hops, and of course beers!

Viktualienmarkt May Pole

Amazing food.  Makes me want to cook!

Not even sure what all that food is!!  Like the purple puff??!

Here, we were able to find some goodies: some of the most amazing grapes I've ever tasted, a pretzel, and a beer for the boss.

Well hydrated, we continued our walk.  Next we saw the Jewish Synagogue.  It was built from 2004-2006 for the Jewish Community of Munich, which of course was a big step in religious equality.  Its doors feature Hebrew letters depicting the 10 commandments.

Next, we walked along the streets toward our next stop: the Asam Church.  I took the next picture just to show the atmosphere.  Munich has a lovely pedestrian-only inner city area, which makes strolling the streets easy.  The high temperatures during our time here averaged 62 degrees, so it was cool, but nice out.  It was mostly cloudy.  We were thankful we'd decided to bring sweaters and jackets.

But back to the Asam Church: this is a church built in the 1700's by the Asam brothers.  They had intended it to be their private church, but resistance from the city made them make it open to the public.  The brothers decorated the church themselves, even painting the frescoes.  They studied under Bernini in Italy before returning to Germany.  Inside, the church is small, but jam-packed with beauty.

Chris standing in front of the Asam Church.

The overwhelming church interior.

Next, we made our way toward St. Michael's Church, seeing one of the many horse-drawn brewery carts in the road...

The Hofbrau Cart

St. Michael's Church is a Jesuit church right in the thick of things in downtown Munich.  It's a beautiful building, built in the 1500's.  It still gets me that everything is so much older in Europe!  Below the church are crypts containing the remains of many important Germans, including kings, dukes, and even the daughter of Empress Elizabeth (whose palace we toured in Greece).

The beautiful high altar at St. Michael's.

The next stop was the famous Dallmayr Deli.  We didn't take any photos here, but this is probably the best delicatessen in the world.  There were chocolates, baked goods, coffees, fancy meats, cheeses, premade foods, a full restaurant, and a liquor store.  We stopped here and just browsed all the fine foods, and we bought some pine cone schnapps here!

Up next: Hofbrauhaus.  This is one of Munich's oldest and best known beer halls.  It's symbol is a crown because it was the "royal brewery" for centuries.  Now, the house is a tourist destination.  For the fun of it, we walked through the house, and it was a crazy atmosphere.  Lots of tourists, lots of music, lots of beer, and lots of noise.  Very festive though!

We walked back through downtown, catching some lunch at a tiny little sandwich shop called Ringlers, and seeing another brewhouse cart:

And the cart's home...

We also took a little time out for stein shopping - Chris had decided that he wanted one for his souvenir.  So he looked and looked.  Have no fear, he finally decided on one.

Another picture I took: check out this ivy covered house (it was near Hofbrauhaus)

With the major sights out of the way, we only had one more stop for the day...The Residenz and Treasury museums.  The Residenz is the former royal palace for the Bavarian monarchs.  It contains 10 courtyards and 130 rooms.  We did a quick tour, and took a few pictures:

Up close photo of a fountain in one of the courtyards - if you look closely you can see it's nearly entirely made of shells.

The Residenz Antiquarium - the largest residence hall north of the Alps.  I'm sitting near the middle of the photo.

The Baroque ancestral gallery

I'm not sure of its name, but this is a beautiful tiny room filled with mirrors, gold leaf, and tiny blue and white vases.

Another view of the antiquarium.

Then we toured the Treasury, which houses the jewels and treasures of the Wittelsbach dynasty.  Royal insignia, crowns, swords, goblets, goldsmith works, rock crystal, ivory work, icons and numerous other treasures like precious tableware and toiletries are magnificently presented.  Here are a few of our favorites:

The treasury was very impressive.  I kept thinking how hard it would be to put a price tag on all those things for insurance reasons!  They're nearly ALL invaluable.

After the museums, we set out on a mission to find the boys a souvenir, but didn't have much luck.  Disappointed, we returned to the hotel.  A very nice manager there directed us to a toy store and a place where locals go to eat dinner that was very close to the hotel, so we went and did those things and then went back to the hotel to rest up for Oktoberfest tomorrow.

A word about Germany: I found Munich very livable.  We never had trouble communicating in English, many people spoke well.  The metros were great, the climate was fabulous, the homes quaint, and the parks were beautiful.  There was a lot of tourist traffic of course, but I think outskirts of town would be lovely.  I felt much less wary of pick-pockets here, for some reason.  The atmosphere was jovial and celebratory, probably helped having Oktoberfest happening.  We really enjoyed it.