Measuring warp, dried apples, and teaching my daughter to weave

It was a day spent doing this and that, but all in all a peaceful, creative time. I'm starting to work on prepping food for my upcoming Estrella trip in February, and apples were on sale for 88 cents/lb. That meant making up a batch of dried apple chips in the dehydrator. My daughter snapped a picture of me using my apple slicer/peeler/corer gadget. It makes this task go so much quicker!



My spaniels were delighted that I was slicing and peeling their apples for them. Of course, they were getting some of the peel as a treat. I think they were not quite clear on the idea of peeled apples, but they had a grand time. The apples slices went in the dehydrator, and the rest of the peel and the cores went out in the compost bin.



Since my daughter snapped a picture of me, I figured it was only fair to get one of her. We went yarn shopping together the other day, and she picked out a color combination that she wanted to make into a shawl. I showed her yesterday how to weave on the triangle loom, and she took to it like a pro! I just now took a break from typing to show her how to add the fringe. Yes, she's been doing little else but weaving today, and having a marvelous time doing it. She's trying to get the shawl finished before she goes back up to college on Saturday. I think she'll make it with no problem.



When I wasn't teaching, or cooking, or taking down the Christmas tree (yes, that is going slowly this year), I was rearranging my studio to make room for my weaving project. I've finished up spinning the yarn, made my calculations, and early this evening I started measuring out my warp. The hand spun skeins go on the umbrella swift to keep them under control and to easily feed onto the warping mill. I love having the right tool for the job! I'm making 7 warp chains, each containing 48 threads, each 11 yards long. I'll set them on the loom at 12 threads per inch, so the fabric will start out 28" wide before shrinkage. I'm aiming toward a finished fabric of 21" wide, 8 yards long.



And then, I also took time off this evening to go out to dinner with my sweetie. We wandered the mall afterward. I took this picture as we exited the mall at closing time. I really like carrying a pocket camera around--it lets me capture just little things, like the way the green tree trunks curved in front of the lights. Beautiful.



And now, I should head off to bed. I have more warp measuring on tap for tomorrow, and we'll need to get my daughter packed up and ready to go for the semester. But I can sleep knowing it was a full and productive day, full of quiet creative moments.