"Copper's "Looper" Rug...."

The last time I was in Michigan, I went to the Great Northern Weaving supply, which is north of Kalamazoo, MI. I bought some "loopers" for weaving a rug. I originally was thinking of weaving a rug for the bathroom, but decided Copper's bed needed to have a rug on top of it instead. I set the loom up and wove the rug in about 2-2 1/2 hours! It was the fastest piece I have ever woven! It took longer to set the loom up than it did to weave her rug. :)

Loopers are a by product from the sock industry, similar to the loops that are used to make potholders on those small square frames, although fuzzier. To use them in weaving, they have to be chained together. Below, you can see them in their pre-woven state but chained together.


This is another photo that shows them chained together.


The finished piece. I wet finished it by washing it on the gentle cycle and drying it in the dryer, doing nothing special other than using cold water for the wash.


It fits Copper's bed nicely.......


Copper has slept on it but with the warmer weather we've been experiencing, she has been sleeping on the hardwood floors more often than not.

"More of Boulder...."

We met my cousin Kim, who lives in Boulder, at The Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse (http://www.boulderteahouse.com/) for lunch. The day was so beautiful, we chose to sit outside, and unfortunately, did not take any photos of the inside. It is beautiful though. :)


Our table was next to a rushing stream. Kim spent quite a bit of time with us.....I think we had a 2 hour lunch, but had to leave us and go back to work, although she said many times she wished she could "hang out" with us for the rest of the day. We were next headed to Banjo Billy's Bus Tour, something she has not experienced.

A rose between 2 thorns...... :)


Myself, Paula Sue, and Sherry, in the rose garden which is in front of the teahouse.


Inside of Banjo Billy's tour bus. Don (his shy self), me, Paula Sue, and David. John, the owner and tour guide, told us how the name came to be Banjo Billy's, but unfortunately, I don't remember what it was. He told A LOT of stories........ :) I do remember he said that he had a masters, gave up his day job, bought the old school bus on eBay for $6000, cut the top off, welded a peaked metal roof onto it and sided it with old wooden fencing. It truly did look more like something one would see in the backwoods........ As you can see in the photo, the interior was somewhat "unconventional". :) Yes, that is a western saddle that one could sit on for the ride.....it would be about as bumpy, too as riding with a real horse under you, too.


Sherry in her bus seat.


A bus view of Chautauqua Meadow, at the trail head located in Chautauqua Park.

"Colorado Continued/Boulder......."

I'm a little late in writing my blog this morning even though we have been up since 4:30 AM. We awoke to the sound of our "weather alert radio" alarm, along with thunder and lightening. Copper and I spent awhile down in the basement, while Don listened to the weather on TV and the warnings on the weather radio. It isn't as if he were upstairs "braving out the storm", as we were under a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch, but I was trying to calm Copper down, and she preferred being in the basement. :)

Now....continuing our Colorado trip. We all went to Boulder, CO mid week, and started our day at the Leanin' Tree Art Museum. Leanin' Tree card company was started in 1949 and the owner started purchasing original western art for his cards. Each year he added more originals to his card line and the collection continued to grow. No photos are allowed to be taken inside the museum, but in the sculpture garden, photos are allowed and encouraged. We took full advantage of that. :) We had a beautiful day for our "photo shoot", too.

Don and I........


Paula Sue and Don.


David, Michael, and Paula Sue.....


Donna and Sherry.....


Don, "in character"..... :) (or should I say IS a character?) Paula Sue in the background....


Donna, perhaps "out of character"? Donna seems to me a very serious person and was definitely being a good sport by putting up with all of our teasing and shenanigans. We definitely all laughed a lot last week. :)


Henry with is bag of candy....."Bear Poop".....or was it "Bear Droppings"? Either way, I think you can get the picture.


Donna, Don, and Paula Sue.

"Colorado Gathering....."

As mentioned yesterday, Don and I drove out to the Denver area to visit family and friends. This is the "group" that we spent most of our time with.
From front left: Sherri, from Des Moines, IA, Paula Sue, in front of me, from New Jersey, and her husband David, Donna, with her partner Henry behind her. Everyone but Don and I stayed at their house.
We're all fixed on "Don TV". :) Don had a slide show going on his laptop that was all of the family photos....well, not all, as there are hundreds (thousands?), but there were many that they had not seen.


This is Donna's daughter Cindy, granddaughter Jocelyn, and son in law, Nathan. They got married last Friday, so we were able to attend the wedding.


Donna in the kitchen (she spent too much time in there), with her son Douglas.


Sherri, Don, and Paula Sue.


Henry with Donna's grandson, Jacob, Cindy's oldest child.

"Before the Trip and During......"

Don and I drove out to Denver, CO, to visit friends and relatives. A cousin of Don's on his mothers side of the family lives outside of Denver and had a "mini gathering" of the Anderson Clan. Her sister and brother in law came from New Jersey, another cousin came from Des Moines, IA, and we represented WI. :) The main reason for doing this now is there will be a big family reunion this July in Des Moines, and they wanted to gather together family information/photos to prepare for the reunion. It was also for fun, too. More on that later when I post photos of our trip.

Before leaving, I finished spinning my 1st skein of yarn. Unfortunately, in these photos I have not "wet finished" the yarn yet, so it still isn't as relaxed as it was after the wet finishing. I was pretty happy with the results of my 1st attempt at spinning. Needless to say, although I will.....I am "hooked". :)


A close up view of the yarn. It is a 2 ply yarn.......meaning I spun 2 bobbins of yarn (singles), then spun them together, creating a 2 ply yarn.


This was some roving that I had from when I bought the loom from Mary. I tried plying it with another single of the black/white yarn. Both singles were more consistently of one size with less slubs (thicker areas vs. thin areas) in them. I think the skein turned out fairly well, too.......it is a consistently thinner yarn throughout the entire skein. I still have to wet finish the skein and take photos for posting.


Don's cousin Donna lives with her partner Henry, in Lakewood, CO, a suburb of Denver. We spent a fair amount of time at her house. With me, is cousin Sherri from Des Moines. (Notice the green bag....it held my knitting. I finished a sock while there.)


I did a lot of reading and knitting while the cousins shared family information and scanned photos. We'd brought Don's scanner along for this purpose. He has quite a bit of the family ancestry on his website and possibly (probably) the most complete.

I had gone to the local fiber shop (The Recycled Lamb), bought some roving/magazines to commemorate our trip to CO, and was reading the spinning magazine, "Spin-Off". The women working that day were quite impressed to learn that I lived close to Susan's Fiber Shop, where I had bought my spinning wheel. They knew of her because of her advertisements in fiber magazines as well as an instructor at the Estes Park, CO, Fiber Festival, which by the way, will be held this coming weekend. I was out to Susan's yesterday and she'd just come home from a show in Missouri, soon to leave for Estes Park. I'm not sure I'd enjoy so much traveling, but it is lucrative, and gets your name out there........

"Jeanan, Bobaloo, Sean, and Becky....."

Our neighbor Jeanan, went to a Humane Society event last Saturday night, and committed to adopting a small Pomeranian, now named Bobaloo. He came to live with her last Sunday, and they have almost become inseparable. He is such a well behaved little guy, that she has been able to take him to work, meetings, and even small social gatherings at friends homes.

Below is the happy couple.....Jeanan and Bobaloo.


Jeanan brought Bobaloo down on Sunday to meet us. We were sitting out on the deck with Rob, so she walked down with Bobaloo. Copper and Bobaloo were fine with each other, as was Bobaloo with Jillian, from across the street, who happened to stop by with her pets, Lonny and Charlie.


My cousin Kim, sent photos from Sean and Becky's short visit with her in Boulder.


Becky, Kim, and Sean.


Checking gear before heading out on the last leg of the trip to San Fransisco.

"Erica's Birthday Happy Hour...."

Erica, in the pink, had her 30th birthday last week. We helped her celebrate it at last Friday's happy hour.

From left to right are: Charlie, in the background, Dan, Erica's boyfriend, Erica, and neighbor Rob.


We also surprised her with a "Birthday Brownie", with lit candles in the form of a large 30.


Surprise is definitely the word. I thought the candles would burn themselves out before she made a wish and blew them out......


See what I mean? Still not making her wish.....


I can truthfully say, that I have never seen so much smoke from birthday candles. I wonder if it is because they were "allowed" to burn for so long? :)


We all enjoyed being able to spend time with Erica and Dan, and hope they come join us more often for happy hours....