so-so......

That's what I think of this - it's just so-so..... I hated working with this sheer fabric, I thought I didn't enjoy the last sheer fabric but at least it had some body to it, this was like working with gauze made of the finest silk, sett very loose. And no, this sheer is not silk - it's some sort of synthetic which I found out when I had the foresight to iron on a scrap piece. It immediately melted, iron needed to cleaned off, temp lowered. Can't remember where I saw this hint for cleaning off an iron, on someone's blog, website, tv, magazine.....use one of those Eraser Pads for cleaning, just iron on the pad with steam, works like a charm. Funny thing, the armholes are larger than the version with set in sleeves but they're pretty tight once I put it on. I'm usually not much of a 'blue' person .....lots of blue on the remnant tables lately. It will look fine with a black tank top underneath and black crop pants, might even look good with all white. Hmm, looks like there's a school of fish swimming across it in the photo - no fish looking on it in person.....

On another note - I think I like this shower curtain as a backdrop in the studio bathroom better than my felt gray backdrop I use for photos for the etsy shop. I don't know if it's the off-white color or the great lighting in the bathroom. Since the mannequin lives in that bathroom I may make it easy on myself and take pictures in there next time I have items ready to list.

On the needles.....

I decided last night I needed to get something on the needles to work on. I've always got socks going but save those for riding in the car or sitting in meetings since they're portable. I want something to work on while we sit and watch tv in the evenings. I've knit several lacey shawls, which I love, they do give a little warmth but I really want a shawl that's purpose will be to keep me warm. I saw Shaelyn on Ravelry and thought it would work perfectly - a little lace but lots of stockinette. I knit the first repeat last night - tonight will start on the next lace section. The yarn is my handspun, Ashland Bay's Merino/Tussah in the Del Mar colorway.

I cut out another top pattern yesterday, it's for a sleeveless version of the gingko top I made this winter. I'm working with another slippery sheer. Was struggling cutting out the pattern and then thought, why not use the rotary cutter so I slid the mat under the fabric and it worked perfectly. Of course after I got it cut out I realized that I had cut out the front and back for the version with sleeves, stupid me didn't look at the pattern closely and realize there were different front and back pieces for the sleeveless version. I walked away from it but will go back to it later this afternoon - I think the only difference is a lower neckline, if so I'll fix that and be on my way. I sampled sewing on this sheer and figured out a nice way to make a super narrow hem. I do have to make or use bias tape for the neck & sleeve edges though and I'm concerned with it looking good - will definitely make my own bias tape from the same fabric so it doesn't show too much. This should be a super quick sew - we'll see if it really is with my slippery fabric choice.

On the weaving front...nada, nothing, zilch! This week and next are crazy busy and I'm not sure if I'll get to the loom or not.....makes for a grumpy me after a while.

Spent the weekend on the coast and didn't pick up the knitting needles or drop spindle once. I painted a couple pieces of furniture...many more to be painted in the next few months. We walked on the beach and relaxed. Didn't even start my book, just read a couple of magazines. Had a great dinner at The Gallery at The Lodge at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. Impeccable service, yummy food.

I did pick up two more inexpensive otter prints for the otter wall. I already have others by the same two artists. When I have time to get to Michaels (in the next few weeks) I'll drop these off for framing using one of their 50%+ coupons.

Bailey has something new to add to his scrapbook - he made The World newspaper over on the coast. That's him 4th column from the left on the top, I tried to put a pink arrow pointing to him. Unfortunately he didn't win the contest, we really thought he should have, he was the cutest. I think a cat person was judging since 2 of the top 3 were cats. Not that there's anything wrong with cat people (we are dog people) we are not cat people because we're both allergic, if we weren't we would have a cat in addition to a dog. The one cat did have a great caption - "He's a male siamese, he likes nothing, nothing at all" - and he did look pretty grumpy in his picture.

Not sure how much will happen here fiber wise this week - many things on the to-do list....first off is to get the weaving guild newsletter started, finished and out of here - it's my last one - whoo hoo!

Phew......

Phew.....I thought I'd knock out this top yesterday but it wasn't happening, looks very simple, actually it's not a terribly hard pattern just not very clear directions. It doesn't look like much on my mannequin which is probably a size 0 and my top is not...so it doesn't drape nicely. There are things I'd do differently next time like the front & back neck bands - those can be a part of the bodice, no need for extra pieces, the curved areas were hard to get to lie flat in the sewing process. Of course, working with a slippery sheer fabric could have been the issue. Next time I'll alter the pattern so the front is all one piece, I'll like the continuity of the pattern in the fabric better. If anyone has tips for working with slippery fabrics please post a comment. This one was especially hard to work with because it wouldn't hold a fold when I pressed it with tons of steam. For the sewing process I pinned the bejeebers out of it.

This pattern is from Suede, he was on a reality show, can't remember which one now since I never watched it. I bought this because I saw it made up and being worn at the Sewing Expo by the Simplicity gal that was working with him on his fashion show. I found him very entertaining and I liked many of his patterns. After the show all these ladies ran over to the Simplicity booth to buy patterns at full price.....I waited and bought it at JoAnn's for $1.99.

I had to make some spaghetti strap sized ties for the front of it so I thought I'd share what I use for turning tubes of fabric. The Fasturn Tool has been around for quite a while. It was designed by a retired engineer right here in Southern Oregon. The company sold but is still owned by someone local and the tools are still being made in the US, I'm not sure if they're still made here or not though but am assuming so since they also have a nice fabric store and teach classes where they were manufacturing them before.

The kit I have has 6 sizes of tubes with accompanying thin wires. I sewed the lengthwise seam of my fabric and slid it over the metal tube. I then caught the end of the fabric with the thin wire which has a little curly cue at the top just for that purpose.

Then I started pulling the fabric through the tube. At this stage if I wanted a tube with cording inside of it I could just get it started in the end and it would pull right through putting the cording in the fabric tube at the same time it turns it right side out.

Here you can see the turned fabric coming out of the bottom of the tube.

And here's the turned tube. Easy peasy. If you sew much and don't have one of these you NEED one.

soon to be.....

For lack of having anything else to show for my time I thought I'd show something.......anything.......13 colors of Cascade 220 wool yarn I'm auditioning for a granny square afghan. I have some other colors but I think this is the final selection....I think. I started out wanting sand/sea colors but needed some accents to add to them hence the rose/pink/lavendars. Not sure when this project will get started but buying the yarn and picking colors is a big accomplishment.

On the weaving front - finished that one supplementary warp scarf from the end of last week and the ribbon started shredding - argh! So, out comes the ribbon, I thought I'd just weave them plain, wove around 6" and decided the supplementary warp (ribbon) is what made the scarves so I walked away from the loom. Will ponder what to do next.....in the meantime I blinged up 6 t-shirts with blingy rhinestone designs - usually so not me but I love them. Today was my spinning get together, brought sock knitting which I made a mistake on so need to frog around 6 rows....will work on that this evening. Am thinking of sewing this week.......will sleep on it.....

no weaving once again....

Once again a day without weaving....there was laundry & vacuuming, boxing up & shipping of orders and then the dreaded photography work in order to sell more. This is one of my hardest jobs, I'm just not good at it. So, I spent the better part of the afternoon photographing 14 items for my etsy shop....now I'll spend a good deal of time editing and resizing them....not to mention gradually listing them. Where is that photography department when I need it, oh yeah, I don't have one....come to think of it I don't have a shipping and receiving department either.....

On another note - I'll be starting to dye roving again soon so I'm putting some older colorways in my etsy shop on sale - 6 went on sale today....shameless plug.... 

no weaving today.....

...have weaving on my mind but it's such a beautiful day I decided it was time to add some color to the deck....3 nurseries and a stop at the grocery store in the am.....planting early afternoon....6 hanging baskets, 4 deck planters, several round pots later and the deck is looking much revived....just wait until it fills in, will be a real show then. So for the rest of the day that swing with a view of the flowers and my book are looking pretty inviting....the loom will still be there tomorrow.....

more supplementary warp.....

Today I decided instead of putting a warp on the AVL I wanted to weave another set of supplementary warp scarves...in tencel again, with a variegated ribbon. Not as much ribbon as I would have liked, those little balls really don't have much yardage on them, especially when it's a warp  for 4 scarves. I've picked out the weft for 3 of the scarves, thinking on the 4th one still. Trying to weave with colors I might not usually pick, after all I sell these and not everyone wants to wear only the colors I wear......like chartreuse and yellow. As I'm weaving I'm giving thought to one more supplementary warp but maybe this time with the ground fabric in a twill.....will give it thought.....

shadow weave workshop

My samples from the round robin shadow weave workshop this past weekend. The ones from my loom are on the left - bottom one original treadling where I was playing with color combinations, upper sample two alternate treadlings.

more scarves

wish the camera could catch the sheen of the tencel.....

.....and the sparkle of the novelty rayon supplementary warp....

....I'm sure there's a way, I'm just not a good photographer.....

Supplementary warp

Sharon asked what supplemental warp is. I quickly looked in the indexes of a couple weaving books but didn't see a definition right off the bat so I tired of that and thought I'd give my own. Supplemental warp is a warp end that is in addition/supplement to a ground fabric. If the supplemental warp ends were cut out a viable fabric would be left, plain weave in this case. If you're familiar with overshot you can think of that as a supplemental weft - the pattern threads in overshot are in supplement to the plain weave weft ground fabric.

The above diagram shows the draft I'm using for my current scarf warp. I threaded the plain weave sections for however many ends as I wanted, then when I wanted to put in a supplemental warp I threaded those threads (novelty rayon in this case) on either harnesses 3 or 4. You don't have to use both 3 & 4 supplemental warp ends, you could just use 3 - using both gives you supplemental warps that raise at different times.

Then I treadle randomly repeating the different sections how ever many times as I'd like. I like the changes in the lengths of the supplemental warp but you may choose to weave the same over and over to have it consistent.

Going beyond this you can pretty much use any kind of weave structure for your ground fabric - twills are especially nice. You can also have as many different supplemental warps on different harnesses as you like to have them lift at different times. You are only restricted by the number of harnesses you have on your loom.

Back to overshot - if you know anything about turning drafts, if you turn overshot your pattern threads become supplemental warps.

Oh, I almost forgot. Sometimes as your weaving progresses your supplemental warp ends may become looser in tension than your plain weave sections because they're floating more, less intertwining, so there is less take-up in them. I haven't found this a problem with my 12 yard warps but if it becomes a problem all you need to do is slip a dowel between those ends and the rest of the warp and let it hang off the back of the loom with a little weight on each end. Or if you have a double back beam you will beam the ground warp and supplemental warps on separate beams.

Ok, so did this sound confusing? I'm probably not so good at explaining in print. If you're interested just give it a try using the above draft, experiment with it.

Scarves on the macomber today.....

....the cross.....tencel and novelty rayon for a supplemental warp.....

 ....12 yards on the warping board......

.....the first scarf.....weft auditions already made for the next three.....

Upcycled, recycled scrabble tiles

Look at what was waiting in the mail for me in the mail from over the weekend. A fun scrabble bracelet that spells out 'ewenique'  It came in a cute little handmade pouch. My cousin Claudia sent this. She has an etsy shop where she sells upcycled handmade creations and also a blog. Check them out!

The Washed Ashore Project

This past weekend was a girls coast getaway, me and my good friend Pat, one of my fiber peeps.....well Bailey went too so not a total girls getaway. We walked the Bandon beaches, relaxed, went through some shops, drank a little wine, had great food and just had a nice leisurely 3 days relaxing at the cottage. One of the fun, most inspiring places we visited was The Washed Ashore Project and Art 101 just south of  Bandon on the Oregon Coast. This is an incredible project lead by artist and director Angela Haseltine with the help of many volunteers in the community. Unfortunately we didn't get to meet Angela as she was out of town promoting the project but we had a great visit with a wonderful couple working there on Saturday. Incredible giant sealife sculptures are created with all the trash, marine and plastic, collected off the beaches. The idea behind it is to bring awareness to the problem out there and the consequences of this trash to our marine life. I apologize for the pictures, my phone's camera isn't the greatest but it's all I had with me at the time. Please take the time to visit the websites by clicking on the links to their names above. And be sure to click on the movie tab and watch the video on The Washed Ashore Project site, it's very moving. And there are great photographs on the site....unlike my poor ones. I couldn't leave there without leaving a donation and plan on bringing some items to donate to the resale project to help raise funds. Remember as you look at these pictures that everything was created from trash.


The Sea Cave - they turned out the lights on us and it also glowed in the dark - wow!



Sea cave close-up

Fish tank

Fish tank close-up

Jellyfish made of plastic bottles destined to go with turtles & fish as a part of a larger piece

Part of a tiger shark in progress

Nothing creative happening here.....

Yes, I'm here, got home from the coast Sunday evening and nothing creative has gone on in this house since....administrivia took up the entire week. Paperwork, computer work, weaving guild newsletter, etc. Well, there was one day of play when Yvonne and I went to Medford and browsed the antique/craft mercantiles over there, lunch out, stop at Old Navy.....but adminstrivia before we went and when I got home. And I still haven't taken pictures of scarves so I can list them in the etsy shop. I am happy to say that I have only one more issue of the weaving guild newsletter to put together and then I'm done with that monthly chore. I really shouldn't call it a chore - I did the job for 7 years, took a few years off and have been back at it for 5 years now. It's really a fun guild job, it's just time for me to move on, I'm getting stale.

Here's hoping for a fiber filled weekend to all of my fiber loving followers, my weekend is going to be much more fun than the administrivia of the week.....

Another beautiful day in paradise.....

It's another picture perfect beautiful day here on the coast - we'd really love to live here full time even when the weather is not picture perfect...maybe one day but today we've got to head back home, Sam has to work tomorrow and I've got fiber orders to mail.

This is one of the many wood sculptures down in the harbor area down the hill from our house. It's a spectacular octopus.

Some plants in my little flower bed in front of the cottage. I don't have a plant book over here so I can't tell you want these are called but they're huge, so beautiful and covered in snails....this yard is snail haven.

What fun!

Just had to share - I won a book - Nicholas Spark's book The Lucky One. It's going to be a great beach read. Many thanks to Rachel of Always a Project blog. Check out her blog to see the wonderfully creative things she does and read about the fun house party she had to promote the movie. I can't remember how I found Rachel's blog months ago but I've so enjoyed reading it since then. Thank you Rachel

Life's a beach.....

 Morning marine layer along the coast - absolutely beautiful walk this morning......

.....here's looking the other direction......

.....and here's Bailey all tuckered out from a very long walk, at this point he's not remembering we walked so far down that we have a long climb up the scary stairs.....we both think they're scary, those metal stairs that you can see through, gives us the willies climbing them, and it must be 4 flights worth with landings in-between.....didn't find the usual handful of cockle shells on this walk but found what I'd call a 'real' shell, I was so excited....found another treasure - a knotted bag which probably holds bait on a boat over the side to attract fish complete with metal hook....the things that excite us me.

After that great beach walk we stopped at the library on the way home to see the exhibit by the local weaving guild, Humbug Weavers & Spinners, very nice and always wonderful to see the fiber arts being promoted to the general public. After that I picked up my drop spindle and roving and went over to The Wool Co to visit the local spinning group, No Lazy Kates....what a nice welcoming group....I'll go back when I'm here on the day they meet, it's always nice to meet other fiber fanatics.

Shadow weave

Here's the shadow weave warp on the table loom for the upcoming workshop. I wove a little sample to check my threading - no errors, I'm good to go. For the sample I used the same black and golden green for weft - it will be fun to try some variations on those colors in my samples. After this was done I twisted the fringes on the scarves posted yesterday. Now those need photographs taken plus I've got some other scarves that need to be photographed....not sure if I'll feel like doing that tomorrow or not.....not my favorite job.

I did get yesterday's post in under the wire - internet was lost shortly after I finished it until 11:30 this morning, it's been off and on although the past couple of hours all has been well. I'd like to think that after 6 days my provider finally got it fixed but I'm not getting my hopes up yet.

Sneaking this in......

I'm trying to sneak in this post before internet goes down again, it's been a problem now going on 5 days (actually many months off and on). Calling my provider and talking to someone in India doesn't provide anything other than frustration since they are instructed to follow a script that provides no solution on my end. During one of the rare times I had internet I finally found a place to send an email, I must have hit a nerve because I had a phone call from someone here in the states this morning. I got an apology - new equipment is being installed here to correct the problem they've been jury rigging for a long time. No solution for slowest dsl on the planet though. He conferenced me through to the 'loyalty' department and because of my on-going problems I'm getting the next 12 months at half-price......would rather have internet I can count on but at least this is something. No internet is tough, we all depend on it so much these days.

Here are those scarves that recently came off the loom, washed yesterday. The pictures don't do them justice, the gold color looks like real gold, it just shimmers. It turns out my favorite one is the one I didn't like on the loom - the red with the busy crepe weave background. Next step is to twist the fringes.

This warp going on my table loom looks similar in color to the scarves above in this picture but it really isn't. This picture is taken from the back of the loom, the warp still on the lease sticks, it's threaded through the heddles & reed at this point. It's for an upcoming shadow weave workshop with Linda Hartshorn. I decided to use 2 light colors with my dark instead of just one light and one dark. My dark is black - my lights are chartreuse and golden green. This workshop is a couple weeks off but I want my loom warped and set aside ready to go, will tie on tomorrow and weave a little sample to make sure there are no errors. In addition to these colors I'll probably bring a few more to experiment with for the weft. This is a round robin workshop, depending on what fiber and length warp put on we'll either weave off a scarf or table runner after sampling. I didn't want a table runner so this is an 8/2 tencel scarf warp, wider than I'd normally like but that's the width she suggested, it's perfectly fine. This should be a fun workshop, I'm looking forward to it. I'm hoping to gain more knowledge to enable me to design shadow weave drafts to weave on my AVL using many harnesses. Also have been thinking about echo weave lately and want to start learning more about it - first glance makes me think it's similar to shadow weave in warp but then only one color in the weft......will find time to read up on it at some point in the near future. 

Birch leaves revamped....

Last night I decided to sit down with the laptop and rework the birch leaves draft I had downloaded from handweaving.net. I took out the crepe weave background and replaced it with a 1/3 twill. It probably took me longer than it should have since I don't know the shortcuts but that's ok, it's all a learning process. I think it looks much better, what do you think?

After I wove a scarf using the new draft I then reworked it again taking out some of the rows of 1/3 twill in-between the leaves. I'm now starting to think about the gingko leaf and dragonfly drafts I'd like to design, I want to do some more playing in the software first though.