Southwest Sunset Shawl

I finally decided to sell this shawl. It's handspun and handwoven. I kept thinking I'd keep it for myself but I haven't worn it so it's time to see if someone else would love this lovely piece. It's handspun merino wool, tussah silk, mohair, bamboo, tencel, ribbon, rayon with a bamboo weft. Lovely autumnal colors. It's listed in my Etsy shop HERE.

Photography work........a challenge.........

I think photography will always be a challenge for me. Perhaps/maybe if I took a course in it I'd do better but I'm not sure where I'd fit that course into the limited hours in my life. We can't all be good at everything and photography is one of my downfalls - I can accept that.  I did get these 3 items listed in the shop..........there's still a chenille scarf needs it's photos re-done - instead of turning out hot pink, they turned out red and no amount of editing seems to help so I'll try again.

Here is one of the echo weave scarves. I love it. Since it is so dense warp wise it is heavier than my usual tencel scarves but it is still lovely and drapey and I'm happy with it. I love the iridescence in this scarf, it makes me think of peacock feathers. The other one was just washed this morning and is hanging to dry, I used a red weft in that one.

This is another one of my rayon flake shawls in silver and white. It's been sitting waiting for the fringe to be twisted for a long time. Since the other one recently sold for a wedding I thought I best get to finishing this one up and get it listed in the shop. This shawl makes me think of liquid silver, it's incredible feeling.

And here is a baby blanket - I love the way it turned out with the bright colors.

There are sewing updates but no photos. I went to the American Sewing Guild local chapter's Make It Take It event on Saturday. What a fun day. I was able to take 3 two hour classes for $15 (plus a few small material fees) and it included lunch. Many thanks to the group that put it on.

I took my small Brother machine that does embroidery and regular sewing - I only use it for embroidery so it was a challenge to figure out how to work it as a regular sewing machine going from settings to settings. I didn't want to cart my more expensive Bernina to classes. Looks like I'll need to spend some time learning all the features the Brother has other than embroidery if I'm going to use it for classes........or eventually buy another machine, maybe keep my eye out for a nice used machine to use for carting around.

I took a class on free motion quilting - oh my gosh, it was wonderful. I learned so much from the instructor and I can see doing many projects in the future using this technique..........of course there will be lots of practice before an actual project happens. I took a class called quilt as you go - it was a bit hard to follow as I had no clue what we were doing but once I got my samples made I can see using one, possibly two of these three techniques in the future, especially for the community sews donation baby blankets. And then I took a non-sewing class - a 3D star made from fabric. I have not unpacked anything so no pix.

Two new shawls & stash sale yarn update

I finally got the shawls recently woven finished up - they needed to be washed and have the fringes twisted. These are woven in an undulating twill pattern in rayon, rayon slub, bamboo, rayon cotton novelty and rayon seed novelty yarn. These make me think beach wedding or beach/cruise vacation.

There are shades of taupe, peach, off white and pale mint green in the warp.  In this one I used a white novelty rayon for the weft. This shawl is so light and lovely, almost fly away......

.....this one I used a heavier weft in a peach rayon seed yarn - it's a heavier shawl but still perfect for cool summer nights.  Both are available in my etsy shop in the Shawls - Handwoven section of the shop.

There's an update to the Stuff for Sale section of this blog - more destashing of yarns. Details can be found in the Stash Sale Section of my other Etsy Shop.

Shawl warp

I finally got back to the shawl warp today. Finished the first shawl and am part way through the second. For the second one I used a different rayon novelty seed yarn. I 'think' I'll like these once off the loom and washed......they're very beachy which I do like.

New shawl warp on the loom

Finally a new warp on the loom for summer shawls. It's an undulating twill in cotton, rayon and bamboo. Next one up will probably have a peach weft. But I won't get to it for a bit, still trying to get photos taken of stash yarn to sell and also need to do our taxes now that I have all personal and business pulled together........will be glad to get that done, I do not like tax season, too much administrivia for my blood.........

Phew.....finally a bit of weaving

I have been so busy lately but not being creative, just doing the mundane, and also getting ready for family from Maryland and Montana coming to visit.......who should be here within the hour.  I did get to sneak into the studio a bit earlier this week to get 2 of the 3 black chenille shawls woven.........I won't get back to that warp until after family leaves.

I was doing the happy dance in the wee hours last Saturday night - we had rain, a nice steady rain. And then again the next night and 2 days since then, just light rain here and there. It's now sunny again heading into the weekend which is great for Art Along the Rogue which is an outdoor chalk festival here in town. Also tomorrow starts the Hugo Ladies Quilt Show, much of it is also outside. It's still fire season here until we get more rain but this was a start.

To all those on the east coast I'm sending good thoughts your way with this hurricane barreling down on the area. We have family in Indian Harbour Beach not far from Cape Canaveral - s-i-l is already in Orlando at a conference, hoping b-i-l heeds the warning and heads inland, as of this morning we heard he was planning on sticking it out. They are on a barrier island and once that bridge is closed there will be no getting out. I also have family more to the west I'm hoping will be safe as she's not near the coast.

Slow weaving shawl ready to wear

 I washed and twisted the fringe on the 'slow weaving' shawl out of my novelty handspun. It is incredibly soft.......I can't wait to wrap up in it in colder weather........which won't happen for quite a while with the 100 degree temps on the way this week.

Here's a bit of a close-up to see all the different fibers and lumpies/bumpies in the handspun. There is everything but the kitchen sink in this yarn.

Slow weaving.....

No, I am not joining the slow weaving revolution........if it's still around, saw it mentioned in the past couple of years. I love weaving, enjoy the bejeezees out of it but slow weaving is not for me. I need to weave at a good pace to develop a rhythm.......then it becomes relaxing and zen like.

But today was all about slow weaving. First I wove the last scarf out of handspun on the loom, then I wound a warp of some of my novelty handspun full of all kinds of fibers, glitz, locks, ribbons and more - I had plied it with a rayon sewing thread. Got it wound on the back beam, heddles threaded, reed sleyed and was ready to get to weaving. Well, in the first five inches 6 threads broke and I really hadn't even gotten up to my normal weaving speed.  So.........I moved to slow motion, very deliberate, easy weaving and so far in the 60" woven this afternoon I've only broken one more thread. Normally I don't have a problem weaving with handspun but in hindsight I can see that I really didn't spin the novelty ply tight enough and the rayon embroidery thread ply just wasn't strong enough to handle the abrasion of the reed on it's own. So, tomorrow I'll be back to slow weaving until I finish weaving the shawl. I'm really loving the look so I hope it's just as beautiful once it's washed which is part of the finishing process.

I love my new shawl.........

 I love my new shawl woven from some of my handspun alpaca and silk, the weft was commercial  merino/tencel.  I've been wanting/needing a black shawl..........I was thinking solid black but I'm so glad I decided to use this handspun with all the silk colors in it. I can wear this with practically anything.  Now all I need is for fall and winter to come along as it's hot, hot, hot outside. I'd be quite ok skipping summer which would mean also skipping fire season..........

I put on a handspun warp for 2 scarves and wove the first one. Before weaving the second one I want to see how it feels after washing since I used some handspun weft. If I like it I'll use the same weft for the second scarf, if not I'll find something else. No waste of warp cutting of as the warp I tie back on will become the fringe of the next scarf. Those stripes in the warp aren't from separate skeins, that all one length of handspun blending from one color to the next.

Next up is another warp of handspun for scarves. I'm trying to pull together some items made of my handspun to use in our county fair display this summer. These won't be entered into the fair for judging, just part of our display that we sit in front of and demonstrate spinning during the fair.

So, interesting thing happened yesterday with my new laptop with Windows 10 on it - I lost all my favorites. It may have been a Microsoft update, or it may have been Norton which was running but somehow my favorites disappeared - ack!  Luckily it's not my main computer so it only had around 15 favorites on it for sites I visit regularly while away from home. I've had the laptop for a few months and there had been no issue until yesterday. Has anyone else had this happen?  Was there a way to retrieve your favorites?  And for the record I do not care for Windows 10 - Windows 7 has been great (we know Windows 8 was a bust for MS). Why mess with a good thing? I sure wouldn't have bought a new laptop just because of this new operating system except that my netbook bit the dust..........

PS - is anyone else watching Outlander? The season will be ending all too soon on July 9th.  I heard that Starz has picked up season 3 & 4 with 3 in the works already. I binge watched the first season on DVD when a friend loaned it to me this past winter - I 'had' to sign up for Starz so I could watch the second season as I couldn't possibly wait until it comes out on DVD. 

New handwovens in shop

I finally did a bit of photography work......dreaded photography work........so I could list a few items in my etsy shop.

The handwoven table runner using a hand-dyed warp.

A white chenille shawl - perfect for a wedding or any ole' time.

Another white chenille shawl using a seed rayon as weft to give a nubby or pearl like look

Finally.....the alpaca and silk handspun

I spun this black baby alpaca and dyed silk yarn a while back. I started 2 different knitted shawlettes and took them out because they just didn't look right, then I started a crocheted scarf and didn't like that. Today I decided it needed to be woven, finally I got it right - it's going to look beautiful woven. It was close on having enough yardage - I only put aside a tiny bit in case of any broken threads which did not happen. I just wove it in plain weave to show off the handspun.....although my first choice would have been some sort of twill but I didn't have enough yardage since a twill needs to be sett closer, which would mean more warp ends. For the weft I'm using some commercial merino/tencel yarn I had gotten from Webs a while back - it's perfect. I can't wait to cut this off the loom and get it washed......it's not finished until it's washed. I'm thinking this will be for me as I've been wanting a black shawl to wear with many colors. It's a shame I couldn't capture the sheen of the silk in the photo..........

Here are what the batts I spun it from looked like.  And here's what the handspun looked like (3rd photo down) - I plied it with black thread.  This is pretty good for me - less than 2 years from batt to handspun to finished project........usually it sits in some form or another on the shelf for a while before being finished.

Now I'm looking at 2 different novelty handspuns that have been sitting on the shelf marinating for a few years thinking I'll weave some scarves out of them. I do need some new items made from handspun for our county fair display this summer.

Just white..........

 I got some time at the loom this afternoon to sley the reed and tie on for these white chenille shawls. I'm using a white rayon slub for the weft on the first one.

I'm using a slightly off-white rayon seed yarn for weft on the second one. Remember I used almost all of the chenille for the warp and was hoping there would be no broken threads..........well, there almost was......I had one thread weakening where the fuzz was coming off leaving just thin thread so I put in a repair thread for around a foot and now am hoping that particular end isn't weak the rest of the warp.......looks ok so far.

The hope is that these sell - the last few times I wove white chenille shawls they sold immediately......brides seem to like them for a wrap with their gowns.......with that said watch these linger in the etsy shop..........

ACK!!!

ACK!!! Re-entry sucks. We spent the last week on the coast getting back late yesterday afternoon - on the drive home I was already getting stressed over my upcoming week and how much I have on my to-do list. If we lived over there full time would the craziness and stress migrate over there?  Or would it stay relaxing and idyllic?  To make matters worse I opened the big freezer this morning to get something out only to find the door not tight and the entire inside full of frost.......ack, I didn't shut the door completely before we left for the week. With all the frost I couldn't get the door closed back up so I chipped off all the frost from the edges of the shelves and quickly closed the door to deal with it another day. We did need to defrost it but I was hoping to eat everything out of it first, not have to take it all to the landfill..........


Anyhow, we had a great week getting lots done on the cottage (well, Sam got lots of remodel work done on the cottage), many walks on the beach, some reading, knitting, weaving and twisting of fringe of scarves and shawls. The weather was perfect - sunny and just warm enough to have windows and doors open.
 

I have some newly woven scarves up for sale in my etsy shop - another few of my original ginkgo draft. They all have a ginkgo charm on one end.

Here's the process of twisting the fringe, adding little silver glass beads along the way. I've shown my handy dandy hair twister in the past - makes such fast work of twisting fringes.

Here's that scarf finished. I can't begin to describe the sheen in these tencel scarves.

Here's another scarf - twisting fringe underway.

And here it is finished.

Rather than weave another ginkgo scarf on that warp I wove my vines & leaves draft, this one has tiny little gold beads in the fringe.

And here's one of the silver rayon slub shawls - it feels like 'butta'.  This would make for a great wedding shawl with a white gown with lots of bling.........it would make for a great shawl for any time, summer or winter.  I have another one that I used white for the weft but I haven't finished twisting the fringe on that one.

I spent time weaving while over on the coast too - this batch of towels came off the loom and were washed - they're now awaiting pinning and hemming.  I'm doing great with weaving up all my cottolin stash.

I also wove this warp while over there of checked twill towels in brown, some in red and some in a charcoal gray/green. These are now in the queue to be hemmed......it's a big pile now.......

I started another shawlette using some of my handspun - this is merino and soy silk.

Bailey wanted his pic up today to show what a great time he had on the coast last week - today he's totally exhausted sleeping the day away.........all that running and playing on the beach wore him out.

 

House guest.......

 I have a house guest for a few weeks - Theresa's Gilmore Gem II.  It's a cute sturdy little loom. I'm trying it out to see if I want to buy one for the beach cottage where space is a big issue. Unfortunately I don't have time to get a warp on it for the next week but the following week I'll get to it. I like it's look and design but the decision on whether to buy one or not comes after I've sat down and woven a warp on it.........does it fit me, feel good to sit and weave at, do I like the tie-ups. I can't wait to get a warp on it............

Yesterday afternoon after a nice visit with Theresa here and then into town for shopping at The Kitchen Company and trying out a new restaurant, The Horney Goat, I sat down at the loom. I finished weaving the all silver shawl and got this one started using white rayon flake for the weft. Ok, so I need to remember to ask at the restaurant who came up with that terrible name - beautiful restaurant, Theresa and I both gave it a thumbs up, but the name is bad......

Outlander

Ok, I'm hooked - I've been binge watching the first season of Outlander. It's right down my alley, historically themed books/series/movies. I only have 3 episodes left - ack!  The new season will be out soon but I don't have Starz so I'll have to wait until it's out on DVD.  I've been ignoring the books so far but think I'll have to make a long term commitment to read all 8 of them as soon after I read the next books up in my Library2Go queue (digital library books).


So, while I've been binge watching Outlander I've been spending time in the studio. I twisted the fringe on 3 scarves, they're now waiting to be photographed. I also got both the Macomber and AVL warped up..........and then there was some down time when I was so mesmerized by Outlander that I just had to stop and watch it..........

I put on a rayon flake shawl warp on the Macomber. Here's the beginning of the warp where I'm testing out using white rayon flake as weft and the same silver rayon flake for weft that I used for warp. I'll weave a shawl of each as I like them both very much. This is an 8 harness twill design.

Here's the all silver grey shawl being woven.

On the AVL a warp went on for 4 gingko scarves as I'm sold out of them. These will be lighter colors to go with the season. I was trying out weft colors here and will go with the taupe, silver grey and mint green for 3 of the scarves. I'm thinking I'll switch and weave the final scarf in taupe using my vines and leaves draft.

Here's what the back of the loom looks like with 40 harnesses threaded. It is a stretch to reach those back 8 harnesses when threading the heddles. Thank goodness there's an option to use the weaving program to raise the harnesses tromp as writ for easy threading. I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be trying to pick the next heddle up in the pattern without that. Theoretically I will have no threading errors this way but that's only if the computer program has no hiccups.

Summer shawls........

I finally washed and twisted the fringe on some summer shawls in beach/sand colors. A mix of cotton and rayon slub in tans, peach, pale aqua and off white - very comfortable on the shoulders on a chilly summer evening. Now up for sale in my etsy shop.

After I weave off the scarves on the Macomber a white summer shawl warp will be going on. Need to get another scarf warp on the AVL too.  But for the immediate I'm back working on the bow weaving program with putting together warp & bead kits for guild members.  A very time consuming chore but it will be so much easier than having all guild members stringing beads at the guild meeting - I can work on it while watching movies/shows on Netflix.

Slubs........

Finally some time at the loom. Yesterday I got a summer shawl warp on the loom, today I wove off the two shawls. Hard to capture the colors but overall it looks like sand - I can see wearing this on the beach.......maybe I will have to keep one to wear on the beach!

Slubs - argh. I put in occasional accents of novelty rayon slub yarn - love the way it looks but what a pain one of them was. The peach slub would go through the heddles, occasionally needing a little coaxing but the other slub yarn, a variegated one with the pale aqua color would not even go through the heddles. I had to make string heddles to accommodate it........luckily there were only 8 ends as that's all I had of that yarn.

Anxious to see how these look after being washed.......maybe tomorrow..........

Auditioning........

I'm auditioning yarns for a warp of summer shawls.........may still have to work on these selections......hopefully the warp will get on the loom soon if I can put down that blasted bow loom........if it can be called a loom as it's just a 1/4" 48" long dowel........

Yummy chenille........

Black chenille shawl warp wound today, awaiting the threading of the heddles and reed........kind of boring to weave all black but the end result is a yummy black classic shawl so it's worth it.

Just as I was downloading the warp picture above I glanced out the window and saw this great double rainbow........

 .......here's the other side of it.......

.......and here's a close-up. Have you ever stood at one end of a rainbow? I've never been that close but my husband has been and said it's warm. I wanted to chase one down a couple weeks ago a we were driving home from town but he nixed that idea as it would have been many more miles than it was looking.........one of these days......

 

 

Another shawl

Forgot to take a photo of another handwoven shawl.  This one is using the same county fair challenge handspun yarn as the knit shawl I did earlier this summer.  I had extra so I figured I'd weave a shawl to add to our fair display.  Unfortunately I didn't capture the color quite right but that's life......I'm certainly not a photographer. I haven't decided if I'm keeping this shawl or not since I have the knit one in the same colors - it would be nice to leave over on the coast to use there......will be giving it thought........

I haven't complained about the fires in at least a day or so - there's now one a bit NW of us in Kelsey Creek. I heard the heavy copters heading out this morning, there are crews on it. I haven't heard any updates but am hoping they jumped on this one before it blows up out of conrol like the one to the NE of us, the Stout Fire - the terrain and winds are beating the heck out of those fire fighters. The worst thing for the past few days is the smoke - sinus headaches abound.  We're getting the smoke down low in the atmosphere from the Stout Fire - getting it higher in the atmosphere from the fires in Northern California. Have I said lately that I hate fire season???