One More Birthday to Celebrate

I am a day behind, but here goes….

Happy Birthday, Daniel.  It is hard to believe that ??? number of years have past since my nephew, Daniel, was born.  He is my sister Terry and her husband Bill’s first child.  And also the first grandchild of my parents and my first nephew.  Actually, one of only two nephews, so no wonder I am such a proud aunt.  So, Daniel, be prepared for some embarrassing photos!

This is Daniel being held by his Great Grandmother Hoddy on his first Christmas.  (These are old photos that I scanned, so apologies for the poor quality.)

Daniel was a happy baby!  He was one year old here with his Aunt Sandy!  (Don’tcha love my pouffy hair!)

He spent a lot of time on Grandpa’s tractor.

Daniel came out to visit me and Pat in 2004.  We toured all the “Hot Spots” in Southern Arizona!And I am super proud to say he has grown into a fine young man!See ya!

Aunt Sandy at My Yellow Swing

 

Another Birthday Greeting!

Today, my sister, Terry, celebrates her birthday!  Terry is the middle child with one sister three years older (me) and the other sister, Kay, ten years younger.  I am sure it was not easy being my little sister.Terry has packed a lot of living in her (?) years.  She and Bill have raised two children who have become wonderful adults.  She and Kay ran an ice cream booth for 23 years that traveled all over Kentucky.She organized the local Farmers Market and has been a strong presence in the Kentucky Proud marketing program.  She is a great gardener, super good cook and all around wonderful friend.But I guess her greatest achievement has been putting up with her sisters.  We do have fun!Happy Birthday, Terry!

See ya,

Sandy O’

Then and Now

Another busy month passed, and November is going strong.  Yesterday, Pat and I celebrated  our 29th wedding anniversary.  Wow! Twenty nine years ago, we did this…And yesterday, we did this….We spent the day in Bisbee, AZ, checking out the antique shops and visiting our friend, Ken Wallace, owner of the Bisbee Bicycle Brothel.  It’s as much a vintage bicycle museum as it is a working bicycle shop.  There are posters, pictures, and all kinds of bicycle memorabilia.  If you love vintage lugged steel frames, this is the place to go.

Another then and now, my niece, Kaylee, is celebrating her birthday today!  I don’t have a baby picture, but here is an early one (one of my favorites!).And now… Happy Birthday!And my latest weaving now…It is a cowl that has the ends woven together.  I can see it becoming an addiction.

So, happy election day.  I am going to hide away in my studio and weave.

See ya,

Sandy O’

Lots of Little Weaving

It been a rough week, the weather in Southern Arizona has been wet, windy and unpredictable.  And my little dog, Duffy, had some health issues that has kept us up several worrisome nights.  He is better, but dealing with a sick dog has got to be the most helpless feeling a pet owner can have.  Oh well, we do the best we can.

My knitting has taken a back seat to my weaving projects.  I bought (another) Hokett loom kit, this one is the intermediate size 9″ x 10″ and comes with a small beater, shed stick, the cutest little stick shuttle and a long wooden needle.  I want to use it for small tapestry weavings.I finished a couple of mug rugs on the small Hokett loom.  They make the best gifts.  Actually the large mug rug on the right is off my Schacht tapestry loom.  I was trying out some Navajo Churro yarn bought at our local farmers market.  I normally knit my hand spun baby alpaca yarn but decided to weave some of it into a scarf.  I used my Schacht Flip rigid heddle loom and tried the Brooks Bouquet weaving pattern.  I still need to block it, but I like the way it looks.My latest lesson in weaving was the mobius scarf.  You leave about 20 inches of warp at the beginning, weave the body of the scarf and then unwind the woven part, take the 20 inches from the beginning off the front beam and weave it into the last part of the scarf.  In weavers terms, the warp becomes the weft.   It sounds complicated, but you can find several YouTube videos that show the procedure.  Here’s mine.  I used varigated yarn for the experimental piece. I need to take my time on the last part of the weave, but I can see lots of yarn and color possibilities.

Here’s hoping for a better week, a healthy dog and a safe trip to Kentucky to see my family.  Pat is staying with Duffy so I won’t worry…….too much!

See ya,

Sandy  O’

Time Flies…

I can’t believe I let the whole month of August fly by without a single blog post.  I have been busy, but looking back at the calendar, it was filled with appointments and other house stuff that kept me away from the fun stuff.  That will need a major correction.

So, here are the few things I did manage to finish.  This is a wall hanging woven with my hand spun yarn, mostly wool but there is a little alpaca blended in it.The little Hokett loom has had some action, the mug rug is almost finished. My knitting project is a triangle scarf with hand dyed alpaca yarn.  This is my go-to pattern when I can’t decide what to knit next. ( I don’t normally match my project bag with my yarn, but it does look good together.)

So, there you have it.  Hopefully, September will be more “fun” productive.  I have been in a spinning mood and will have some yarn to show soon.

See ya,

Sandy O’ at My Yellow Swing.

Summertime flowers

The crafty part of My Yellow Swing has been slow this summer.  Not absent, just slow.  I am working on an after-school kids weaving project for when school starts next month.  I have a little woven pouch pattern that I found on the Internet that can be done on a cardboard loom.  Along with the weaving, the kids will learn to knit an I-cord strap.My sheep tapestry is growing another row of sheep.  I understand sheep legs are not all that exciting.Last week, Pat and I ventured to Tucson and stopped at my LYS, Grandma’s Spinning Wheel where I found this.  I did not participate in Tour de Fleece, but I was inspired by many spinning blogs and knew I needed this roving.So, if you are not into flowers, you can click out now.  Here are my flowers around my house.  White roses….Red Lantana…My barrel cactus has some strange yellow things growing.But the neighbor’s barrel cactus has beautiful orange blooms.I have purple Mexican petunias.Yellow trumpet vines.The Vitex is starting it’s second bloom.Duffy is not impressed.So, everyone stay cool, stay safe, stop and smell the flowers.

See ya,

Sandy O’

Happy Fourth of July

I had planned to post a collection of red, white and blue weaving and knitting.  However, I have discovered that I have not used those three colors together in any of my projects.  I have a felted blue bag that I use for my small weaving projects.  There is a touch of red and  a little stripe of not-quite-white in the strap.I have a red mug rug woven on my Hokett loom.I have a white Feather and Fan scarf knitted with my hand spun alpaca yarn. I have a white dog with a red collar helping me with this post.  That’s about as patriotic as I can get today. (I could have put on a blue shirt, but that one is in the laundry and today is not laundry day.)I am still organizing my studio.  I found a neat way to store my hand spun yarn.  It’s a closet sweater hanging thingy.  I like to see the colors that I have on hand without pulling out tubs and boxes.  I have another weaving started on my Hokett loom.  This is some hand spun Navajo yarn I found in the bottom of a bargain bin at my LYS.I have another on my rigid heddle loom.  This is also hand spun yarn left over from my other weavings.  I am playing with different colors and textures for a small wall hanging.I made some bookmarks for special friends who have visited the Yarn Babes and Enlightenment Society this past month.And, last but not least, the sheep tapestry has grown another inch.That’s it.   Happy Fourth!

See ya,

Sandy O’