An already excellent site updated- Laura-Jane Whimfield's tutorial

The site "Whimfield: modern pre-industrial living" is an utter delight! Laura-Jane is so talented and is an excellent teacher. I wish I knew a tenth about any one craft as she knows about a vast array of them.

This talented lady has updated her already excellent tutorials on the one little craft in which I happen to have some facility. Do check it out!

Kudos, Laura-Jane!

Why yes, the cat DOES have my tongue- and here she is! And here is a little of what I'd be saying were she to let go

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Yes, the cat does have my tongue!

I don't generally post these days unless I can say it well, and lately, that muse just hasn't been with me.  Instead, I've been chopping wood, taking care of Tess, blitzed out with either allergies or a cold, fencing in the dogs, and so forth.

I have several projects in the works rug wise about which I wish I were posting.

• A photo expose of my "retina recovery rug" which will have a leather center and jean body.
• A video about repairing a rug which has suffered the ravages of an overly agitated (agitating?) washing machine or dog... or both
• Rug stories... there's always rug stories

So when my sinuses let up or the cat lets go, that's what I'll blog about.  Until then, enjoy the cute kitty!  Most of the pictures in the slide show are of her hiding among the boxes of rug mat'l in the garage, as is the photo below.  I also took a particularly difficult piece of fabric and made a cozy cove for her, but as soon as I approach she jumps out to rub against me, so no photos of her in it yet.

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Phoebe was our cat, we gave her and another to my parents when we moved in 1997. The other cat died, but Phoebe is still fine. She was the fiercest of the kittens from her litter, but now she is very affectionate. She loves tormenting the Papillon dogs when they are outside, she always knows how far their leads will let them go, or how small a space they occupy.

This is my favorite picture of Phoebe

Toothbrush rugs: And now for something completely different

Yes, I'm still making my rugs... but like most things in my life right now, I've been too busy doing life to talk about it.

I'm almost done with this beautiful pastel rug which while artistically luscious couldn't be more contrary to our aesthetic. So I'm going to give it to some dear friends from our former life who have been supporting us in many ways. I don't think they read my blogs, so it'll come as a surprise to them. The pattern had been three rows of the pink pattern to one of the teal, but as of the current row, I'm not sure that I have enough teal to finish a row, so I'm doing three strips pink pattern to one strip teal. That way, the mathematical pattern is maintained.
If I run out of teal to intersperse, I'll use up the pink. A "problem" or challenge all rug makers face is "what do you do with the scraps." Sometimes I make hot pads out of them, sometimes I start a new "sister" rug, but I've another rug in the work which involves pinks and pastels which is destined to be a gift, and once its done, I think I'll be off pastels and definitely pinks for a decade, or until someone pays me enough to overcome how much I dislike the color.
Yes, I know... people keep encouraging me to sell my rugs. And when people have seen them and offered me something reasonable, I'm game, but I HATE bargaining, and I'm as bad at it as they come (think Bryan in the market in Python's The Life Of...) so...

Next I'll be doing something REALLY radical, I'll be fixing this rug. Its one my mother made of my wife's uniforms when she was a professional of a certain sort. However, my mother does not stitch as tightly as I do, and some of the mat'l was rather flimsy, so a huge section of it has disintegrated. So... just because I love taking this craft to places its not been before, I'm going to cut off the bad part and stitch two or three rows on as an anchoring boarder. I'll be shooting video of several steps of the process.

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Here's a slideshow of my rugs, for those who are new around here, where ever 'here' is