(De-con)Structo Loom

Finally got a bug to get this loom cleaned up. 

It's a Structo tabletop loom. 

I have independent legs for it as well. It has a number imprinted in the wood of the castle:

It appears to be the same "font" as the metal treadle plate. 

It has been bathed in Murphy's Oil Soap and I'm getting ready to oil all of the various metal parts & pieces. 

My biggest concern at this point is cleaning the reed and the heddles. I have wiped the reed with some naval jelly and I'm thinking about removing all of the rusty heddles and just keeping the clean ones until I can order more. 

I would love to hear your suggestions!

Didn't I blog that?!

I thought I had blogged R's birthday playmat. But, now I can't find it. So, if you've heard this story before, feel free to skip ahead. 

My nephew's birthday was in August and I threw together a Minecraft Sword playmat. Thing 1 & Thing 2 helped to get the colors sorted and this is what we ended up with...

My trip to Eleanor's on Friday was to gather some greens for another sword playmat for my nephew J. His birthday is in early December. 

I also wanted to get some coordinates to the Vintage Modern charm pack for Baby Girl's quilt...

What I didn't plan on was buying the entire line of Minion fabrics!

I'm not sure what's going to happen with this, but who can pass up Minions?!

I also grabbed a couple of stash builders. I lucked out on the light neutral. It had a repeating spot and I was given 2 "damaged" yards in addition to my requested 1 yard. Can't do much better than that!

All in all, a very successful trip to Eleanor's!

Happy Fall!

There are a few things about fall that make me smile:

And the colors this morning:

It also looks like a trip to Eleanor's Quilt shop is happening today. 

Accomplishments & a Do-Over

I am not a morning person. 

But, if I'm going to survive the upcoming winter, I'm thinking a routine might be good. So, I started today. 

Before noon:

1. Washed dishes & straightened up the kitchen

2. Folded a load of towels

3. Washed a load of jeans

4. Balanced the checkbook

5. Finished most of the Twins' schoolwork

6. Took the Princess to school and The Boy to work

After noon:

1. Threw a fit due to the washer not spinning out

2. Threw another fit because of ladybugs and stink bugs

3. Picked the Princess up from school

4. Fought with the washer again & decided to put jeans in the dryer anyway

5. Sorted my "strings" quilting box and separated Kansas Troubles, Civil War prints & plaids from all of the other fabrics

Now, I'm on to Darren's socks. I frogged them on Monday and started over. I figure if I make time to knit for an hour or more each day I might be able to finish them before his birthday on November 7. 

Best & Worst of the Changing of the Seasons

I like fall. 

Don't get me wrong, 

but I don't like the migraines due to changing weather patterns, the colder temps and especially the stink bugs!

Yuck!

But, here are a few of the things I do like:

Homecoming.

The colors. 

Knitting socks (and other Christmas gifts). 

What I don't like about the socks is when they end up about an inch too long. Sigh. 

I ripped them back once because I did the heel wraps entirely wrong. I had The Boy try them on & they are entirely too big. I guess I'll be ripping back more today. 

Or maybe I can just take off at the tie?

Thoughts?

Home Alone

I find myself all alone this morning. 

It doesn't happen often. 

The only bad thing is I'm running shuttle all day. 

Said "Good bye" to Baby Girl at 7:15.

Took The Princess to school at 7:30. 

Took The Boy to work at 8:30. 

Will need to pick up The Boy at 1 and The Princess at 3.

Lots of interruptions, lots to do. 

I'm thinking Monday's need to be a day for working on Baby Girl's Christmas quilt. Actually, I need to decide on a pattern for this quilt. I've been making 4 patch blocks, but haven't come up with a final design. 

I also need to get Darren's socks to the next phase...men's socks take a lot longer to knit than ladies & childrens. He may only ever get this one pair. 

Maybe I'll just crawl back under the covers and look through quilting magazines and see what I come up with. After all, I don't often have a day to do whatever I want.

What shall I do first?

Thing 1 & Thing 2 are at Gram & Pap's for the weekend. 

The Princess has had her interview for Berea and we are back home with a free weekend. 

There is plenty to do, but where do I begin?

If I clean the kitchen, I'll want to recover the chairs (I've been wanting to do that for a while & The Boy has pulled all of my fabrics out of his room).

If I want to work on Baby Girl's quilt, I'll need to clean the sewing room...

Yep. Nothing happening in there anytime soon. 

Of course, I could cut the new fabric that I got this weekend.

Then, there are Darren's socks. I'm almost finished with the gusset increase. I think I could get that to the next stage rather quickly. 

Then, there is laundry, bills to pay, the checkbook to balance, stink bugs to gather and flush, my little garden that is so close to being ready for spring (just a few more weeds to pull), and the chicken coop that needs cleaned and composted in the main garden. 

It's a great day for outside work, but I'm thinking I'd rather spin or knit or sew...

I guess the best place to start is re-assessing our funds. At least I won't have it hanging over my head for the week and will be able to relax and enjoy any sit down time that arises. 

What do you do when a weekend opens up without any major responsibilities?