Frayed........

Yes, that's how life feels at times - frayed. But in this case it's a baby/toddler blanket made with recycled blue jeans. I used 3 different sheep fabrics from my stash on the back. I love the way it turned out but I'm afraid this is the only one I'll be making, snipping all those layers took forever and really ouched my arthritic hands.  I'm not sure what I'll do with this if the local foster kids organization doesn't take it with other donations from our local sewing guild. I'm not sure why they wouldn't like it but who knows. I'd make this again using something other than jeans fabric, something soft and easy to snip like flannel or cotton. Anyhow, it turned out really cute and would have been a much quicker project had it not been for the heavy jeans.  I need to come up with some other projects to use up the rest of those jeans. 

Last week the extended weather forecast showed the temps going from 110+ to the low 90's, upper 80's this week........well, it was wrong, once again.  Upper 90's, 100's later in the week. We are in extreme fire danger from now until fall rains. The fire in Northern California is close and we're getting socked in with smoke. I've really grown to hate summers. Our first 10 years in Oregon wasn't bad but each year we have more and more days over 100 and fire danger is worse. it doesn't help that our AC is limping along and the house is warm and stuffy - new HVAC system on order. I'm on my countdown to the end of fire season. I use the end of September as my last day although that's rarely it but hopefully we've at least had one rain by then - 60 days to go.......

 

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.

A bit of weaving

A bit of weaving happened today........finally. Two baby blankets woven, one to go. This is tough weaving for me - the reach is a bit more than my arms are comfortable with so I can't weave too long. Can't wait to get these off the loom but tomorrow is supposed to be lovely outside so may have to work in the yard instead.

 Recently woven scarves finally photographed and listed in my etsy shop. Above hand-dyed tencel in a twill weave structure.

Chartreuse rayon chenille with a few stripes of novelty yarn in purple, teal and blue. I like this one so much I'm keeping one for myself..........chartreuse is one of my favorite colors if not my all time fav.

Another rayon chenille scarf in two shades of seafoam green. Fibonacci striping in the warp. Half the weft is the lighter shade of seafoam, half is the darker shade. The colors are very close so it's a subtle difference.

Not really the time of year to be listing chenille scarves for sale but that's what I'm weaving on the loom at the beach cottage right now so I might as well put them in the shop.

Comedy of Errors

Yesterday I decided it was time to get a baby blanket warp on the loom, one for a gift, others for sale. Photo shows heddles being threaded, I did finish this and get the reed sleyed so today I'm ready to start weaving on this circus colored warp. 

So, I get almost to the end of threading heddles and I'm short 15 on the left side of harness #3 - argh. This never happens to me but I messed up when sliding heddles to the left side for threading, I didn't count correctly......my brain must have been out to lunch when I counted. So, I had to pull heddles off the right side and put them on the left side - not a fun job. Oh, but this wasn't all - I had made mistakes on all 4 harnesses. I had enough for threading but then there was a huge amount of extra heddles on the right side of the other three harnesses. I could have left this except that I'm weaving almost the full width of the loom so I had to take the extras off as they interfere with the warp..........of course means they'll eventually have to go back on.

I guess we all have to have a big slice of humble pie once in a while. It's probably been 30 years since I made a mistake like this..........

Baby Blankets

 New baby blankets available for sale in my etsy shop.......



.....based on the Royal Crown Overshot Pattern....

.....they are incredibly soft and yummy feeling......

Not the traditional overshot

This baby blanket warp is not the traditional colonial overshot - the border is but using stripes in the warp is not. There will be this large border area on each end of the blanket. I love the look. This afternoon I got this warp tied on and started weaving, then it was just too danged hot to continue weaving, just got enough done to see how it will look.

Baby blankets

Baby blanket warp going on the loom - will have overshot borders for a girl blanket, a boy blanket and a few that could go either way.

We've been lucky so far this fire season but now fires are popping up all over the region. Luckily they've jumped on them quickly but Friday evening 3 homes and 4 outbuildings lost in the fire 20 or so miles south of us.........a human caused fire, perp already in jail but probably won't stay there for long since no one in our county wants to pay for law enforcement.  Sore subject for me - lowest tax rate in the state, we pay 25% of what most counties pay - these morons in my county vote down any taxes for services. Personally I have never understood why we get to vote on things like law enforcement - that should be a given and we shouldn't have the choice of voting it down just because we don't want to pay any taxes.  We also no longer have a county library system - thank goodness a group finally got together to take over the libraries and make them a community library funded by donations. Folks like us donate each year but everyone can get a library card whether they donate or not which means those same morons that vote down having a library now get library benefits for free. I think being inside in this 100+ degree weather is making me grumpy so enough of my ranting because I could go on and on about the craziness in this county.........



Sturdy baby blanket

Here's a baby blanket off the first of the baby blanket warps (one of them already listed in my etsy shop). I love the colors. I love the tracking that happened after it was washed creating that very cool texture in the blanket............but this cotton is not as soft as I would like.  It still makes a sturdy baby blanket, it could even double as a bath towel for baby......but I was expecting cuddly soft. I guess that's why a weaver should sample.......but that's just not me.  I will go ahead and weave the blue/green blankets out of this same cotton as it's still very nice and I wouldn't hesitate to use it if I had a baby (which would never happen) but before I do those I'm going to weave a warp of blankets using a softer cotton........that I know will turn out cuddlely soft as I was hoping for this warp.

New weaving underway

The new weaving underway is for baby blankets. A family member is possibly interested in one but doesn't know yet if it's a boy or girl..........I'm going to need one after the beginning of the year (boy or girl???) as a gift and my only baby blanket in stock is the same as one I already gave the new mother 18 months ago. And I always need baby blankets in stock to sell.  So, a good time to weave baby blankets. It's hard to tell in the photo but this is a very pale peach and a very pale pink window pane check.  Next warp up with be green and blue window pane check. Very simple weaving with no floats for baby's fingers to get caught in.

Baby blankets

I finally had time to hem the baby blankets and have listed 2 of them in my etsy shop. I love the soft feel of the 3/2 perle cotton - would love to have one of these for myself.

Life has been busy this week - out of the house every day, today I'm home other than a quick run to the post office with orders to be dropped off.  I still have to finish up handspun handknit socks for Sam.......so hard to work on them when he's home more with semi-retirement.......this week he went in to the office all week and I just happened to have things going on out of the house most of the week - not a good combination for knitting socks.  I did get some knitting in here and there while watching The Tudors on Netflix. Think I'll get a few episodes in today while knitting.........at least that's the plan........although the morning is almost over.  Off to knit and dream of weaving........

Baby blankets woven

This afternoon I got some time at the loom and got the 3 baby blankets woven, now they need to be washed and hemmed. I like them, very cheery looking to me. It's always a stretch to weave almost the full width of the loom - back and shoulders are sore this evening..........

ACK!!!!

Nobody reading this blog including me noticed this error for the baby blanket warp in my blog post of last week.  I accidently flipped over that warp bout when putting it on the lease sticks. The blue shouldn't be right next to the yellow - there should be white, then green, then white, then blue. This is a first in 28 years of weaving - I've never done that.

I found it when I was threading the heddles yesterday afternoon, I got to that point and thought "what the heck???" I kept threading in the correct color order but I knew I had to do a better fix because the tension would be wacky. So, I got a bit of time earlier this evening to pull the entire warp to the front, fix the problem on the back beam bar and wind it back on. Now I'm ready to sley the reed, tie on and start weaving.......just need some time back in the studio.........

Baby blankets in the works......

Yesterday afternoon I eeked out a little time to wind the warp for the baby blankets. All wound on the back beam, sitting in the raddle awaiting heddles & reed to be threaded........not sure when that will happen as I have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me but hoping to sneak time at the loom here and there. Weave structure will be a very simple basket weave and twill that I've used for a couple towels warps in the past.

Baby blanket........

Even though I don't have much time for weaving right now I did eek out some time to plan a baby blanket warp this afternoon. I need one for a gift in January, will have two to sell. This warp will be woven out of 3/2 perle cotton.  Years ago I used to weave a lot of baby blankets for sale and used softball cotton because I loved the soft squishy feel. Even though I have some left I don't know as if I have enough for this project...........and I have tons of 3/2 perle cotton I rarely use so this seemed like a good project to empty some of those cones. Can't wait to get it on the loom and start weaving..........much going on the next few weeks but hoping to find some free time to get the warp wound and on the loom so I can start weaving. I usually hem baby blankets but am considering putting a satin blanket binding on since it will be so soft next to a baby's neck. Any other weavers or mother's out there have thoughts on that?