Thursday, November 14, 2013

Making Little Waves!

There is a thread in Ravelry's Warped Weavers group called OLAD Strikes Again.  OLAD, or Obsessive Loom Acquisition Disorder, is something that apparently strikes weavers.  We seem to have a need to add more looms to the herd - more than we can ever weave on. Whilst browsing the Warped Weavers Marketplace, yet another group dedicated to acquisition and destashing of looms and equipment, I came across an ad for a Gilmore Mini-Wave.  The Wave looms are primarily warp-faced band looms.  They can be used for inkle, card or tablet, band and bead weaving.  I've had my eye on the Mini-Wave, but I really had no use for one as I have two inkle looms already.  But there was one in the Marketplace, looking like it needed a new home...  And so she's mine!

Gilmore Mini-Wave Loom
She arrived on Friday - a long teaching day for me.  George brought her to the shop around lunchtime, but I couldn't do more than look her over.  Saturday and Sunday were pretty much devoted to the Kid N Ewe fiber festival in Boerne, but I did think about a first project for her.  I've been looking at the Josephine Knot design in The Weaver's Inkle Pattern Directory.  It's done in a technique that might not fit so nicely on the Mini-Wave - at least not for a first project.  I used the same chart in a different technique and added little green and gold cables to the side, and classic inkle bars on the outside.  I opted for fall colors - again, because I love them and it's what I had in my stash.

After only a couple of tries, I got the project warped on.  The little loom takes some getting used to.  Also, the green Perle 5 cotton I used for the braid pattern wasn't as thick as I thought it would be.  I had to unweave, untie, unbeam, and add doubled threads for the pattern.  That could have been a disaster, but it worked out okay.  I got the loom set back up again and took off.  I've decided I love this little loom!  She'll probably be my inkle loom of choice.  I'm not a huge band weaver, but I do enjoy some pick-up work.

And here's the band in progress:
Celtic Braid Band
It will probably be made into a small bag to be attached to an narrower inkle band I wove a couple of years ago.  I'll use it at work to hold my badge, phone and other small items that I always seem to need.

But I'm really looking at a huge computerized loom...

Monday, November 4, 2013

Weaving Like A Celt Yet Again!

Weaving like a Celt is apparently something we do quite a bit.  The 2013 Austin Celtic Festival has come and gone and we have a mostly-finished tartan on the loom, a full bobbin of spun yarn and lots of happy memories!

This is the first year we've used the rug and bench pads - I barely got them finished in time.  Here is the booth set up and ready to go on Saturday morning:

George and the Booth
I am SO glad I made the pads, especially, as we were much more comfortable this year than we have been in the past.  I now need to finish the bench pads for my studio weaving benches.  Here's a close-up of the spinning wheel and its rug:

Now add one spinner and you get this!

We were especially fortunate to have Cassandra with us on Saturday.  This may be her last demonstration with us as she's moving on with her life.  On Sunday, we had two friends come who innocently thought they were going to drop by to see us and then enjoy the rest of the Festival.  They stayed and worked almost all day!  Chris worked the loom and Patrick the spinning wheel, freeing me up to do presentations.  Such a luxury!  Thanks to both of you!

So now I have to come down off my cloud and get back to work, both the day job and the studio.  Although I don't have photos of it, the tartan is coming out beautifully.  I adore the Maine Line 2/20 and will probably use it extensively in the future.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Weaving, and More Weaving!

Oh, argh!  I haven't posted since August?  (And I honestly had to be sure it wasn't August of LAST year!)  I admit to neglecting the blog for my Facebook and Pinterest pages.  Which probably isn't a good idea.

So!  What's going on?

Mostly weaving, which I'm sure is a huge surprise to everyone.  From most recent to oldest:

The MacAskill Tartan
MacAskill Tartan On Loom
Demonstration season is upon us again!  This year's offering for the Austin Celtic Festival is the MacAskill tartan.  It's being done at the request of the Festival organizer.  Although it's not the oldest tartan - and remember, almost all tartans are less than 200 years old - it's one of the prettiest.  We're using a new thread this time, JaggerSpun's Maine Line 2/20 wool, which is much finer than we've used before.  I'm very pleased with how it's weaving up and am looking forward to getting it off the loom and finishing it.  I think the hand and drape will be very nice.

Rugs and Upholstery
The Rep Rug On Loom
I swore I'd never weave a rug.  I had no interest in rug weaving at all.  When we bought the Glimakra, we bought it from a woman who used it to weave rugs.  Included with the loom were several shuttles specifically for rugs as well as several spools of rug warp.  I almost sold the shuttles, thinking I'd never use them. Fortunately, I didn't.  I recently bought Tom Knisely's master weaving e-book from Interweave.  At first, I couldn't even think of a good reason to buy the e-book.  He specializes in rugs and I had no interest, right?  One of the rugs appealed to me, mostly because of the colors.  I've also been interested since I wove the rep towels from Custom Woven Interiors.  I liked how her rugs (and towels) had an overshot feel to them.  Since I've had so much fun with blocks, I decided to use Tom Knisely's colors and adapt an overshot pattern to rep weave.

I took the Snowballs section of the Wahoo Blossom and Snowballs draft from Marguerite Porter Davison's A Handweaver's Source Book, entered it as a profile draft and then converted it to rep. I admit to making a few mistakes in it, but it's working and I love it!  I warped on enough to get a nice-sized rug and enough upholstery fabric for bench pads for all my looms.

George took this photograph.  He loves the look of the project from below the loom.
You're seeing the underside of the rug wrapped around the beam, the rug border just above the beam and the right side of the upholstery fabric angling down toward the knee beam.

Breaking All The Rules
Breaking All The Rules Christmas Scarf
Schacht Spindle Company just came out with a little goodie for their rigid heddle looms.  The new Variable Dent Heddle (they call it a reed, which it isn't) allows the use of multiple thicknesses of yarn in the same warp. I grabbed one of those at the beginning of the recent Hill Country Yarn Crawl.  I also grabbed a skein of La Boheme in Christmas colors.  La Boheme is an interesting yarn.  It's two strands used as one and one of the strands is mohair.  Now, mohair presents lots of challenges in weaving, when used as a warp thread.  Mohair is very fuzzy and wants to cling to the threads next to it.  There are ways to get around the fuzziness, but if you decide to use the mohair in blocks, as I did, prying the warp apart is something that has to be done in almost every shed.  Slow, but workable.  Then I chose a red sock yarn with an almost velvet look to it.  The red is so rich.  I don't even like reds, normally, but this is a gorgeous sock yarn.  However, sock yarn has lots of stretch and the La Boheme has none.  And I mean NONE.  So tensioning the warp is a challenge.  And I figured that if I'd come this far, I might as well go for broke.  I chose a white, fine laceweight silk/mohair blend in white.  And yes, it has all the mohair fun.  The green and black accent yarns are sock yarns, but they didn't add to the challenges.

But I thought, what the heck, if I'm breaking rules, let's don't stop there!  I left about 18" of warp unwoven in the beginning, then wove the scarf, then used the beginning warp as the weft to weave off the end of the scarf.  All well and good, but how to you put tension on a warp if you've disconnected the beginning of the weaving?  Sew the fabric to the apron rod of the loom about three or four inches from the fell line, tension the warp and go for it!  This gave me a scarf with no beginning or end.  It's not exactly a circle, but it's all connected.  What a fun technique!  I'm very happy with the resulting scarf
The End As The Beginning
Weaving for the Kitchen

I finally did some weaving on the rigid heddle loom to be cut and sewn into items - in this case into two potholders and an oven mitt. My assignment this time was to produce fabric with a mixed warp and not to buy any yarn for it.  All the yarn was hanging around the house, either leftovers from other projects or yarn bought for projects that never happened or something.  There are four yarns in this project, a dark green cotton, a light green cotton, a green/purple variegated chenille and a lavender cotton/wool blend.  The lavender cotton-wool had the most yardage, so I used it for the weft and for a few threads scattered throughout the warp.  All the others were used in the warp.  I'm very pleased with how the items turned out!

Weaving on the Antique Loom
Norse Kitchen Towels on the Sabina Loom

Remember the entry about restoring the old Loomcraft Sabina?  The post is here: The Sabina Weaves Again.  Well, the poor Sabina has been put away since that time as I had no room to unfold her and use her.  At long last, I've started working on the upstairs - converting it into studio space.  We cleared enough room for the Sabina to be brought upstairs and unfolded.  She's in the same room with the Glimakra.  I decided to put a pretty overshot set of towels on her that I've been wanting to weave for some time: Norse Kitchen Towels from Marguerite Porter Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book.  I decided to use a 16/2 cotton-linen blend that I will probably NEVER use for warp again.  It's a little delicate and very sticky.  The Sabina has a somewhat anemic shed and warp threads are breaking.  However, that's not the loom's fault and I have another project ready for her whenever I finish these towels.

And that's it for now!  I will TRY to be better about updating my blog!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Got Lots of Catching Up To Do!

Guess who has neglected her blog??  I try to keep my Facebook page updated, but my poor blog hasn't had an update in months!  Spring is our busy season, of course, with the most demonstrations, but here we are in the latter part of the summer and no updates have happened.  So here we go!

Well, I'm obviously weaving my little fingers to the bone, although at the moment, not as much on the big looms.  A Schacht Zoom Loom came home with me in early July.  Since then, I've made two bags for it (one for me, one for the shop), a notions bag (for the shop) and two baby blankets (one for the shop).  The little looms are versions of the Weave-It looms from the 1930's.  I have two of the original Weave-It's, as well as a Loomette loom from the 1940's.  I've woven projects on my antique looms, but for some reason set them aside.  Although the antique looms are plenty strong enough to weave on, I do worry about carrying them around.  If I drop the Zoom Loom, no biggie.  So here is a photo of all my hand looms with the yellow / variegated baby blanket I finished a few days ago.
Katie Ann with the Looms!
From left to right are the Loomette (1940's), the wooden Weave-It, the resin Weave-It (both from the 1930's) and the Zoom Loom.  Showing the looms is my mother's favorite doll from the 1940's.

Here's the blue checkerboard blanket I made for the shop.
Blue Checkerboard Blanket

Both blankets have a crocheted edging I got from a 1930's booklet.  Here's a photo of the detail:

Edging Detail

Here's a photo of the first bag I made to carry the Zoom Loom and all its stuff:
The Zoom Loom and its Bag
Making squares on these little looms is a bit like eating potato chips.  You really can't stop with just one!  I've got lots of other ideas for Zoom Loom projects.

Navajo-Style Weaving... from a Cherokee Point of View


The Loom and Me
But before the Zoom Loom craze got me, I was taking some time to do more Navajo-style weaving.  George finished my big Navajo loom.  Of course, by "big" I mean "bigger than the miniature looms."  The loom isn't big enough to weave a full-size rug on, but it's plenty big for me.  The first project.. didn't happen.  I probably made every possible mistake warping it.  I completely removed the warp and started over.  The second warp went on just fine, but it took a few tries to get the design working the way I wanted it to.  The design is a cross between a classic Two Grey Hills design and "Arizona," a song I loved from the 70's.  So that's why I'm using... colors of green and grey instead of more traditional colors.  This is as far as I've gotten:
Arizona Rug on the Loom
So why "From a Cherokee Point of View?"  I'm not Navajo at all, but I do have two Cherokee ancestors. I have a great deal of respect for those two women and I wish I knew more about them.

More Overshot Designs
After finally working through Madelyn van der Hoogt's Block Weaves DVD, I decided to play with some designs from Marguerite Porter Davison's A Handweaver's Source Book.  That book has been following me around for 30-plus years but has been a bit difficult to use. Analyzing the drafts as blocks really helps and makes it easy to convert to more modern weaving drafts.  The first one is a re-work of my favorite Soldier's Return draft.  I made it a little smaller to fit on a scarf and then wove it up in blues and turquoises that reminded me of our trip to Florida and diving in the Keys.  Here's the scarf:

Soldier's Return Scarf

I have lots of other projects waiting in the wings, but I need to finish up things currently on the looms.  I'm weaving another Orange Peel scarf to photograph for the draft available in my Etsy shop.  Once the scarf and Joseph's towels are off the loom, I have lots of new projects getting ready to go on!

And maybe it won't be so long before I do another blog post!

Sunday, March 31, 2013

An Easter Story

I hope it isn't too sacrilegious to post this story, but I am so pleased.  Three years ago, in spring of 2010 my climbing American Beauty roses were finally mature enough to put on their once-a-year incredible bloom flush.  It had taken me four years to grow the roses from gallon pots to climbing from the ground to the deck and then to climb over the trellises above the swing.  They were awesome.  Here are some photos of them that year:
Climbing American Beauty Roses (2010)

Roses from the Side (2010)
 Then, you may remember, my next-door neighbor cut all my roses to the ground.  Darkness kept her from cutting the second of the two American Beauties and my hysterical screaming kept her away from my roses the next day.  It has taken three years, but the roses have grown back up and look like they're going to put on the same show this year.

2013 Climbing American Beauty Roses
Just a few of the roses have opened but the majority of the buds have broken color.  I'm expecting them to pop this week or next.  Exciting!  The horticulturist at the Antique Rose Emporium (which has since closed its San Antonio location) told me to put Rose Tone on them and pray back in 2010.  I did and they lived.  Bless them!  I think they may be the only plants that she cut back that did live.

I recently reread Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. It was one of my favorite books as a child.  However, I didn't realize how much it influenced both my ideas of gardening and my ideas about religion.  I think I may have finally achieved something like my own Secret Garden.  Today's photos didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked, but here are a few of them:

Tamora
I only have two hybrid tea roses in the garden.  They don't do as well in South Texas as I'd like.  Mostly, I have David Austin roses and antiques.  The climbing American Beauty roses are antiques.  Tamora is a David Austin rose.  Here's the garden:
The Secret Garden
Again, not the best photo.  I'll try to get more when the Beauties bloom.


Saturday, March 23, 2013

Roses, Roses!

Just a quick post to show off my roses.  The "Secret Garden" is starting to bloom!  The roses are growing up into the trees above, over the arch and are covering the swing.  The climbing American Beauties are about to pop.  They're still in tight bud stage, but they should make a great show this year.

Remember the trip to Bellingrath Gardens?  Remember the Moonstone rose and how I said I just might get one?  Well, I got one this week!  I got the last one at the nursery and it's a beautiful, healthy rose!  It has several buds and just one open flower.  Normally, I'd never cut a rose from a first year plant, but we're supposed to have 35 mph winds and the poor bloom would be blown to kingdom come.  So here it is!
Moonstone Rose
  The David Austin roses are starting up.  Mary Rose only has a couple of open blooms, but both Tamora and Ambridge are going strong.  Sadly, the blooms will probably be blown off tomorrow, but I could only bring myself to cut one of them.  Here's a Tamora rose.

Tamora Rose
Here's to beautiful roses!

See you next time!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Visiting Frank Lloyd Wright

The Arizona Biltmore Resort
Corporate annual conferences can be tricky things.  I don't envy anyone who gets to plan them.  How do you find the balance between useful information and putting everybody to sleep??  And let's face it - after years of studying psychology and learning to analyze research, I'm more than a little skeptical of the latest 2-day change-your-life psycho-babble.  But this year's conference had something going for it that no other conference I've ever attended has had.  This year's conference was held in Phoenix, Arizona at the fabulous Arizona Biltmore Resort.

I was prepared to enjoy our stay here because a little research indicated that the hotel's design had been heavily influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Now, before anybody gets in any place about who designed it, Albert Chase MacArthur is the architect of record, so he, by golly, gets the credit.  However, it's undeniably true that the old man had a hand in it.  Just how much of a hand remains something of a mystery.  I can't seem to find a straight story anywhere, so that will have to be one of those things that remain a mystery.  My gut feel (worth absolutely nothing) is that MacArthur had more of a hand than many of the stories indicate.  The influence is more Art Deco than I associate with Lloyd Wright.  Anyway, whoever had the upper design hand, the place is gorgeous!  For an architecture fan, the place is heaven.

The Main Tower
For some unknown reason, I didn't take my camera.  There wasn't any time, what with corporate functions.  Fortunately, my trusty Samsung Note 2's camera was up to the task and I got lots of photos.  I even had time to do a couple of sketches.  Neither is any good as I am beyond out of practice, but I had fun anyway.

The Sprites
Here's another Biltmore Mystery.  There are statues scattered around the grounds - the official book says six, but I only found five.  The statues were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  That much everyone agrees on.  He designed them for Chicago's Midway Gardens.  When the Gardens were demolished, the statues disappeared.  Depending on which version of the story you get, the six at the Biltmore are six of those original statues.  Or they are copies made from the molds of the original statues.  Or they are smaller copies of six of the original statues.  Who cares?  They're gorgeous in a very... well... Art Deco, geometric way.  They are dramatically lit at night and placed such that the sun casts their features in a different relief at different times of day.  I photographed the five I found (and sketched one of them).  Here are two of my favorites - the sprites in the main courtyard:
The Sprites in the Main Courtyard
Hopefully, this photo will explain what I mean by the dramatic lighting.  Here are the same sprites at night:
Sprites at Night
One sprite, all by herself, is placed by the fountain in the courtyard between the Valley wing and the Paradise Wing.  As our room was in the Paradise Wing, I consider her "my" sprite.  She's the one I sketched while playing hookey from one of the sessions.
My Sprite
The Restaurants
As if the architecture, comfortable rooms and unobtrusive, yet excellent service wasn't enough, there's the food.  Oh my!  There are two main restaurants. a deli and a couple of bars.  We never got a chance to try the deli, but we headed for the main restaurants every chance we got.  Wright's, the more up-scale of the two, is rated the number one restaurant in Phoenix on TripAdvisor.  There is definitely a reason for it. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner there the first night before the conference started.  Wow.  Just wow.

The service, as I've said, is exceptional everywhere in the Biltmore, but nowhere is it as noticeable as in the restaurants.  Tom, our waiter that evening, was great.  He explained the menu, the thinking behind the way the chef prepares dishes, and even tried to find out for me if the architectural drawings on the wall were MacArthur's or Wright's.  (And if they were copies or originals.)  (My guess is MacArthur's and they're copies of the originals.)

The food was well-prepared and the flavors were perfectly balanced.  I wish I could invent something as good!  The chef gets a half-point subtracted because the textures weren't totally there, which indicates to me that they were a tad overdone, but, hey, what do I know??  Dessert?  Get the souffle!  They offer three versions, but we never got beyond the Grand Marnier version!

Tom told us that he worked at one time in the second of the main restaurants, Frank & Albert's.  He suggested that we would enjoy breakfast there and to definitely get their French Toast. So the next morning, where did we find ourselves?  That's right!  Having breakfast at Frank & Albert's!
The Exterior of Frank & Albert's
I think the wing where Frank & Albert's is located is newer than the main building of the hotel.  I can't swear to that, however, because it looks just like the rest of it.  And yes, get the French Toast.  You'll think I'm crazy for recommending it when you see it.  It's a loaf of brioche.  Yes, a loaf.  It's filled with lemon mascarpone.  You'll think you're getting a brick.  You're not.  It's the lightest, most delectable thing I've ever had for breakfast.  George got the Eggs Benedict.  Instead of using lemon as the flavor base, they use a chili base.  They also replace the Canadian bacon with smoked pork.  It's yummy, too, but give me the French Toast every time.  We had breakfast there twice, lunch once and had Cheryl wait on us each time.  Get Cheryl if you possibly can.  She's a jewel!  We did have dinner once at Frank & Albert's, but we weren't as impressed.  I think breakfast and lunch are their specialties.  Well, those and...

Afternoon Tea

And then there's tea.  Oh  yes, there's tea.  Why Teatime magazine hasn't run an article devoted to the Biltmore, I'll never know.  Tea is served from Thursday through Sunday, from noon to 2.  Reservations are not only required, they must be made at least 24 hours in advance.  An area of the lobby next to the front windows is set aside for the tea.  We got the best table of all - a quiet table for two overlooking the beautifully manicured front lawn.

Two gentlemen guided us through the wonders of Tea at the Biltmore.  Kevin, the senior of the two, is the "tea sommelier."  He is very knowledgeable about teas and is generous about sharing that knowledge.  This is obviously his passion and it's a joy to see someone do what they should be doing.  I wish I knew the name of the younger gentleman.  I think he's a tea expert on the way up.

Tea consists of three (yes, three) courses.  There's the savories course, the bread course and the dessert course.  Although it all looks delicate, there's an impressive amount of food here.  You've been warned.
The Savories Course
Lobster salad, smoked salmon, Waldorf salad, stuffed cherry tomatoes...  There are seven little sandwiches and they're all delectable.  The bread course consists of two scones and poundcake.

The Dessert Course
And then there are the desserts.  There are six delicate yummies, which are very, very good... and very, very filling.

There are 10 types of teas offered and you can have a different tea with every course.  Kevin has his suggestions, and my suggestion is to take his suggestions.  At first, I was dismayed that no milk is offered with the teas.  However, even the black teas are light and really don't need milk.  My favorite tea story is about the African Solstice tea, a rooibos tea.  I've tried rooibos teas from Teavana and the Republic of Tea and really hated them.  Kevin suggested the African Solstice for the bread course as the vanilla scent of the tea would compliment the breads.  I turned up my nose at the suggestion, but he gently persuaded me to give it a try.  Need I say that I found a tin of African Solstice at a local shop to bring home with me??  In fact, I may go get a cup of it right now!
A Very Happy Tea Drinker
So, if you ever find yourself in Phoenix, go visit the Arizona Biltmore Resort.  Visit for tea, for a meal or, if you're very, very lucky as we were, stay awhile.

And if you ever figure out who really did design it, would you let me know??

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

A New Year, A New Project

As part of my ongoing towel production, I thought I should make kitchen towels for my son.  I've made them for my daughter, for my boat and for me.  Why should my poor son be left out?  His taste runs to something between Baroque and Steampunk.  Favorite colors are black and gold.  I was going to make him waffle weave towels like the others I've done recently, but hey.  How Steampunk can waffle weave be??

So I remembered a beautiful complex twill in Carol Strickler's A Weaver's Book Of 8-Shaft Patterns.  The draft is a 7-shaft reduction of a 16-shaft twill called Bethlehem Star.  I thought it would be beautiful in black and gold.  After working it out in my weaving software, I realized I didn't have enough of either color to warp the project.  So I made upset muttering noises and proceeded to ask my friend if she had any 8/2 unmercerized cotton in her stash.  She had over 2 pounds of black, but older black from a different maker.  I took it anyway and warped it on.  Let me tell you, black is not the easiest color to warp when your eyes aren't the best and when there's no good natural light in the weaving room!  Anyway, I got it on and proceeded to weave...

And wound up with 16 broken warp threads in the first repeat.  But it IS beautiful!
Joseph's Towels
I don't know if the thread is too weak to use in the warp or if I'm having abrasion problems.  I cut off the first repeat and decided to re-tie and try again.  I used a lighter tension and got through a couple of repeats without a broken thread and then, bam!  I'm up to six broken threads again.  However, I have noticed that the upper and lower shaft bars are hitting the warp, so I may need to re-tie the shafts.  Not my favorite task, but I really don't want to have to re-thread this project.

I Still Knit

Squirrel Slippers
Did everyone think that I've stopped knitting?  I do still knit.  I finished these adorable tree-squirrel-heart slippers from Laura Farson's Knitting Scandinavian Slippers and Socks.  These have had their share of problems as well.  I started them in Queensland Kathmandu Aran.  We had it on clearance at the shop and I do love Donegal-style wools.  1) I didn't have enough natural and we didn't have more, 2) the Donegal characteristics obscure the pattern and 3) the second slipper was MUCH bigger than the first.  I must have been uber-tense with the first one.  I ripped out the second slipper and made more of those upset muttering noises.

But I did really want those slippers, so I started over using colors in the Ella Rae Classic Heather we carry at the shop.  They turned out beautifully!  They're not as warm as my felted slippers, so I tend to put them on when I'm working at my desk or have my feet up on the glider or am weaving.  But they're wonderful!  I have a second set on the needles in a icy, heathery blue and natural.  They're done with snowflakes.  At least I won't have so many ends to work back in!!

January White Sale
January is my time to work on the house.  I've driven everyone crazy with reorganization, but I'm liking it.  I changed out the bedding.  I needed a lighter down coverlet on my bed and while finally getting that taken care of, I noticed that Restoration Hardware had real linen sheets on sale.  I splurged and got myself a set.  Now that's luxury!!  I've replaced missing pieces of my stoneware, flatware and my grandmother's silverplate.  I'll replace the single broken piece of my grandmother's china.  I moved the flatware from here to there in the kitchen and bought plain cotton napkins to use instead of paper towels.  I LOVE this time of year!!

In fact, I think I'll go move other things around!