My newspaper column for Sept. 2013



Sept column

My book store in Granby, Read Again Books, will be closed the last week of September for a little R&R.

I am gearing up for a couple events for the fall. Sept 20th and 21st SW Fiber Folks will be hosting an event in Mt Vernon. It is called Fiber Daze. There will be vendors there to show all kinds of yarns, equipment, and a multitude of things. This is open to the public and is at the MARC Center. Classes are being offered and registration is still open if you go to our website to check things out. www.fiberfolkssofswmo.com

Also I have registered for Farm Girl Fest the first weekend of Oct. held north of Carthage at Red Oak. I will have my booth to do weaving demonstrations and sell my hand woven rugs, totes, and much more. Also the fiber guild will be there with members demonstrating spinning and weaving. Should be a great event.

So what have I been reading?

I have just finished the first of a trilogy, Fifty

Shades of Grey. Oh, my, not for the faint of heart, and not appropriate to report on in this column.

I did read two Sandra Brown Books this past month.

Play Dirty

by

Sandra Brown

A great story about a former Dallas Cowboy superstar named Griff who spend 5 years in a Federal prison for throwing a game for money. He is now free and trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life as he is not wanted back in the industry that he loved. Of course as with all Sandra Brown's books there is a romance thrown in as Griff falls for the wife of a multi-millionaire who has hired him to do a job for him that will leave you shocked and even for shocked that he accepts the offer. Lots of twists and turns here to keep you reading.

Lethal

by

Sandra Brown

Another page turner that is a tale of corruption, betrayal, and murder. When a sick man is found lying in her front yard, Honor rushes to his aid, only to be held captive by a man accused of murdering 7 local people the night before. Eddie claims that she has something in her possession that belonged to her late husband that will prove his innocence. This all leads them into the corruption at the highest levels of law and government. Again a great read.

The Lucky One

by

Nicholas Sparks

Sparks is another of my favorite authors. U.S. Marine, Logan finds a photograph in the dirt, during his tour of duty in Iraq. The face of the woman haunts him and he ends up feeling that its presence in his pocket has kept him safe. Upon returning home, he is at loose ends and starts out on a journey to find this woman. He is able to identify something in the photo to guide him to the right city. Of course you must know he finds her and falls in love with her, but must go slow and he helps solve a mystery. A great story about the surprising paths our lives often take and the power of fate to guide us.

Next month I will report on the school program called Bright Futures. If you have not heard about it, you will.

Weaving rag balls made by another

A couple weeks ago a gal came into my shop with a box of rag balls that she had sewn and wanted to know what I would charge for weaving them for her.  She wanted a long rug 100 inches and a couple short ones.  The balls looked pretty neat and rolled up tight and she had 4 rolls of warp for me to use, a burgundy, cream, green, and tan.  So we negotiated a fee and I took it home.  Since my loom was empty I preceded to warp it using her carpet warp and adding some of my own to have enough to fill my loom.  Not going to all the work of warping a loom without putting the max on it.  Ended up taking all I warped with only enough to finish out with a short rug for myself.

Anyway as I started to weave I realized what a mess I had.  She had sewn the strips together wrong leaving wide untrimmed seams. Plus she had such a mixture of fabric, some strips of old blanket I threw out.  There was alot of prints, and old muslin.  Some had the hems attached.  So I had lots of trimming and ripping some that were way to wide and the silky stuff had to go.  Here is the big rug when it was done.  I was amazed that it looked as good as it was.  All the bumps and lumps from her seams actually gave it an old time look and when she picked them up today she was so happy with them.  I gave her a little lesson on how to sew the strips in case she makes any more.  But I could tell these old scraps ment alot to her as each fabric told a story of her mothers dress or the old pillow cases and flour sacks.




August column



I would like to apologize to my book store customers for my inconsistent business hours. I have a family member who is ill and I am the transportation for all the Dr. appointments. So having to be closed some days to take care of what is most important to me. I have posted my phone number and if you are coming from very far please feel free to give me a call to be sure I am there, 417-312-0956.

I have learned a new technique in weaving for my little table top loom. It is called tubular weaving and I have been busy making new tote bags on the loom. They are all lined with pockets. Anyone interested in learning more about weaving come by the store and I will be glad to give you a demonstration and even let you have some hands on. There will be some great classes offered at Fiber Daze on September 20th, & 21st at Mt. Vernon. Everything from crocheting, weaving, spinning, basket weaving, felting, and dyeing. Go to this site http://www.fiberfolksofswmo.com/ and you can look it over and register if you want. I will be there on Saturday as a greeter in the morning and will be taking a class in afternoon.

I find that I read a book and if I like it I will look on my shelves and find several to read. This month I have read several books by Kirk Mitchell. If you are a Tony Hillerman fan, you will like Mitchell. He brings authenticity to his books as he was a deputy sheriff on a Paiute-Shoshone reservation in Ca. The books here all have the same characters to follow and I find that interesting.

Cry Dance

by

Kirk Mitchell

Emmett Parker, a Chomanche and a seasoned investigator for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Anna Turnipseed, a Modoc and rookie FBI agent are the main characters. A body is found at the bottom of the Grand Canyon on Havasupai Nation land. Emmet and Anna are teamed for the first time to investigate this crime. It leads them into a complex mystery with Anna eventually used as bait for the killer to get to Emmet. It deals with the gaming industry on the reservations. Some tribes want to have it on their land and others want to maintain their heritage. A very good read.

Dance of Thunder Dogs

by

Kirk Mitchell

In this investigation Emmet and Anna work on a case on a reservation in Oklahoma. Oil well funds are being diverted from the rightful reservation recipients, but where has the money gone and why? Then a fellow investigator is murdered and Emmet becomes the prime suspect. In this book you start to see a little love interest developing between Emmet and Anna. I like the way this guy writes and the weaving of peoples lives to create a picture for you.

Spirit Sickness

by

Kirk Mitchell

What I find interesting about the way Mitchell writes is that his characters somehow manage to maintain their Indian heritage while upholding the law. Emmet and Anna are brought to the scene of a brutal murder of a cop from a Navajo reservation in New Mexico, and his wife. There are spirits and Gila Monsters added to the mix. The murderer has woven his personal madness with Navajo myth to create his own reality. They have to stop him before he kills again. The love interest between Emmet and Anna has evolved but has become complicated.

“What day is it?” asked Pooh.

“It's today,” squeaked Piglet.

“My favorite day..” said Pooh.

-A.A. Milne

My July column for newspaper

Goodness, where has June gone?? Of course by the time this is in the paper it will be July. It has been a busy month. My sister and I went all the way to Butler Mo. To the Poplar Heights Farm on June 8th. It is a living history farm and the event was well attended. We had some very interesting vendors around us. There was a black smith, cross cut sawing, music, home made ice cream, and a Civil War gun display with a cannon they fired several times. There was hay wagon rides, and the weather was beautiful. Of course there was weaving and spinning going on. We were able to set up under this row of very old cedar trees, that had been the entrance to the farm house. The old farm house and barn have been restored to original and open for touring, plus the gardens and so much more. It would make an awesome day trip for a family to see a bit of our history. Go to this web site to see info about the days they are open. http://poplarheightsfarm.org/

A couple months ago I immersed myself in all things Robert James Waller. I read 4 of his books, watched the movie again, Bridges of Madison County, and even went on line and in reading his bio found out that he is a musician so ended up buying his CD and love it. He is sort of a folk singer and a few of the songs were about the characters of Bridges. He has written other books that I have not read. I will report on the ones I read in the order they were written.

The Bridges of Madison County

by

Robert James Waller

This was his first book written in 1992 then later made into a movie staring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. This is one of the rare times when I felt the movie was just as good as the book. The main character is Robert Kinkaid who is a famous photographer for National Geographic. He has traveled to Iowa to photograph the covered bridges in Iowa, and accidentally meets Francesca who is a farmers wife with 2 nearly grown children. Her family happens to be gone for a few days to the fair and she and Kinkaid find a special “once in a life time” love in the 3 days, but must it must last them a life time as he has to leave and she won't leave her family and go with him. I couldn't help but feel that the author Robert has put just a bit of himself in this Kinkaid. Just a feeling I get from reading about him.

Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend

by

Robert James Waller

This book was written in 1993, is another novel set in Iowa. Again the main character falls in love with a woman he shouldn't have. Michael is a college professor and Jellie is the wife of a fellow colleague. They are both mature adults and the attraction is irresistible. Jellie disappears and Michael must travel to India to find her and things get very complicated. This is a small novel and I enjoyed the plot.

Border Music

by

Robert James Waller

Also written in 1993 this was a fun book to read. With a guy named Texas Jack Carmine who is described as “God's only freeborn soul, rider of the summer roads, traveler of the far places”, you know it is going to be interesting. Texas Jack meets a down and out waitress in Minnesota and rescues her by loading her in his old truck and they head for Texas where he owns a one-horse ranch. He is an old Vietnam Vet and fighting his own demons, so can they make a go of it? Waller really has a way with words and I really think this would make an excellent movie

A Thousand Country Roads

by

Robert James Waller

This was the book I was really looking for. It was written in 2003 and is an epilogue to The Bridges of Madison County. The story goes back and forth between the lives of Robert Kinkaid and Francesca. It reveals how they have spent their lives apart and still think of each other and the near misses they have in meeting again. Again I felt that Waller was writing about himself in many ways. He was able to recreate the intensity of their feelings for each other. The surprise is to find the unexpected joy that Kinkaid found toward the end of his life. This is a very satisfying conclusion to the lives of Kinkaid and Francesca.

OK here it is

http://buggnme.blogspot.com/  This is the link to my main blog.  I find it hard to keep up with both of them and seems I usually write on this one because I am working on my weaving or have info about my store.  So when I write a big blog on this other site I wish I had it here too and don't want to duplicate to here you go. If you are someone who knows me or who gives a hoot you can travel on over to the other site and join my peeps there.  Thanks.

The saga of tubular weaving

While on a trip recently to Iowa to visit friends I had the opportunity to teach some weaving techniques to the gal (and her daughters) who taught me to weave.  I told her "now pay attention Grasshopper"!  
I had learned from my weaving class how to do the tubular weave.  They had never heard of it and just couldn't believe you could weave two sides at once with the sides closed.  Well here it is step by step.  My tie up was the usual 1,2,3,4 sequence that I use for all my rugs, so no problem there.  And with my table top it is easy to "treadle" the sequence.  I used:  1----1,2,4----2----1,2,3    Repeat, repeat, ect......

I closed the bottom of the bag with regular Tabby weave then started the tubular weave.  I have some soft knit fabric that my friend gave me.  She had a huge spool of it from a factory. The stretch is across the short side of the fabric so it wasn't stretchy to weave with.   In the second picture you can see the tube starting.  You can put your hand into it to be sure.

This is the finished tied ends.  You have to remember to keep doing the tubular weave as you to the top header. 

The last picture is finished with lining and a strap I made by doing a half hitch type braid using the fabric the bag is made from. I put a couple pockets in the lining and hand stitched it around the top.  Think I could have done it on the sewing machine but just liked doing it by hand.

So there you have tubular weave on a loom, easy as pie!

My thought for the day:  Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there----- Will Rogers



My column for June

June column

First I want to report that the Farm Girl Fest at Cave Spring School north east of Sarcoxie was really a lot of fun. It got a little hot in my long prairie dress but at least we had our shade. Ended up having to put my flip flops on so that at least my feet weren't hot. There were some great vendors prestent. I set up with 7 other Fiber Folks and I think people enjoyed watching us spin wool into yarn and weave rugs. They had good food and entertainment. Looking forward to perhaps doing the show at Red Oak in the fall. For now I have plans to go to Butler for their Summer Festival on June 8^th and 9^th. It is a living history farm so they encourage us to dress in our “old” cloths and do demonstrations of our art, plus we get to sell our products. My sister and I will take in this event together.

For this month I read a variety of books. Actually I read more than I can report on but will report of the three that I liked the best.

Milkweed

by

Jerry Spinelli

Milkweed is a book written for young adults and would be very good to use to teach about the Holocaust.

A young boy in Warsaw in 1939 survives by stealing what food he can, but he knows nothing about his background. All he is called is Stopthief. He thinks he might be a Jew or maybe a Gypsy. He is befriended by a band of Jewish boys and they give him the name of Misha. When he sees people being marched in the streets he thinks it is a parade and he is excited and wants to join in. He sees the Nazi soldiers and admires their shinny boots and marching, so he thinks he wants to be a Nazi. He does not comprehend what is happening. Eventually he is marched into a camp along with a young Jewish girl and her family. Because he is so small he is able to squeeze thru a hole and continue to steal food to help the family survive. This is a very good story for young adults to read and be able to see the events of the Holocaust thru the innocence of the eyes of a child. The ending of the book was unexpected but was heart warming at the same time.

In Search of Eden

by Linda Nichols

Miranda comes from a difficult childhood with an unfeeling mother who forces her to give her baby up for adoption with out even knowing if it was a boy or girl when she was 16. She was told that the baby went to a safe place. Later as an adult of 27, when her mother dies she finds a clue hidden in a desk, a picture of a baby with the name of a town. She sets out to this town in Virginia to try to find her child that she knows nothing about. The local sheriff takes notice of her and is suspicious of her from the start. It is fairly easy for the reader to put the pieces together that the sheriff's niece is her lost daughter but Miranda doesn't find out till the end. Miranda searches out the connection of why her daughter was sent to this small town and finds her own sad family history that helps her to understand her mother. I really enjoyed this book and will look for anything written by this author.

                                                     The Guardian

by

Nicholas Spark

What could be better than a Nicholas Sparks book with romance and a faithful dog. I am never disappointed with any of Sparks books. This one starts out sad as you know this young woman looses her husband, but he has left her two things, a promise to watch over her and a puppy, a great Dane of all things. Four years later Julie has a dilemma of two suitors. The dog becomes very possessive and the book takes a twist into the thriller type mystery that makes you want to hit Julie on the head and say “Listen to your dog”! A very good read.