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.

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.........

Back to the sticky warp

Today I was able to get back to the rayon flake scarf warp. This is the second scarf on the warp, I'm using an olive tencel for the weft. Weaving is done, washing and twisting fringe up next.

I just updated my 'Other Stuff for Sale' page on the blog with a couple knitting items - the Carmen Bananas Knitting kit from Knit Picks and a Noni Just Pockets pattern and 19 zippers to knit and felt little bags. I'm really trying to clean out my studio and be realistic about what I'll actually get to in my lifetime. When I determine something needs a new home it will show up here on the blog and/or in my etsy shop. I'm not on a all out cleaning out binge, when I come across something I re-access if it will actually get used here or not. Both of these are also listed in my fiber etsy shop and be bought there or by contacting me directly.

Sticky warp

Yesterday I spent the afternoon planning out painted warps - now they're each sitting in a bag with their drafts ready to weave at a moment's notice. 

This is the first up - it's a rayon flake warp. Each time I dye rayon flake warps I tell myself don't do it, the flake areas love to stick to each other after the dyeing/rinsing process making it very slow to wind on the back beam. This time I'm going to try and remember that when it comes time to dye more warps.....someone knock me on the side of my head if I say I'm winding a rayon flake warp to paint/dye.  So, this first scarf I'm using a forest green for the weft, I thought the next scarf would be a wine weft but now I'm thinking a dark chartreuse. I did sample at the beginning of the warp.....but often change my mind after I start weaving. This is a simple 4H broken twill.

Ice-dyed warp

Here's the finished ice-dyed warp woven up in an undulating twill. I like it but don't know as if I'll ice dye any more warps..........the watercolor effect I was going for wasn't quite what I expected, not as much color variation.

This and that.......

This is the ice-dyed warp on the loom. It's not quite this pale teal in person, it's got a bit more seaglass green in it......not sure why I couldn't capture the color. Here's the link to the ice-dyed warp before it went on the loom, in that picture it's more grass green than it really is. This experimental scarf is finished, ready to be washed in the morning.

A false damask towel warp on another loom. The brown is just where I used up what was left on a bobbin to weave a couple inches to spread the warp out and make sure there were no threading errors. This warp is ready to weave when I feel like weaving towels.

Yesterday morning while walking Bailey on our property I decided to take pix of the wildflowers on our property. This is what we have this week, there were different flowers blooming a few weeks ago, different ones will be blooming a few weeks from now. Unfortunately it was windy so the flower heads were wanting to blow around so not the clearest pix of some.  In addition to the yellow flower can you see the tiny little baby yellow flower to the right of it?

Love these little purple ones. Wish I had taken pix of the other purple flowers earlier in the spring.

This is one of my favorites - I think it's a wild iris.....although I could be wrong.

Cute little white flowers - see those leaves of three near them - that's poison oak. It's all over our 5 acres except Bailey's fenced yard. I have real problems with poison oak, some years I end up at the doctor's over it. I've gotten rid of it in Bailey's yard but there's no way I can control it on 5 acres......and there's a bumper crop this year.

This is another fun  little white flower - lots of poison oak around it too.

Some different little yellow flowers

More of these......because I love them. I had pix of two other wildflowers but accidently deleted them when I was editing......oh well........

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......

Yummy feeling scarves

New yummy feeling scarves in my etsy shop. They have a space dyed rayon flake warp and tencel wefts.

Down to Earth Scarf - Olive - Buy it HERE

Down to Earth Scarf - Taupe - Buy it HERE

More new scarves to come, gingko scarves, but they are still drying, all need the fringes twisted and then the dreaded photography work......... the part of my job that I really struggle with.

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.

At a loss

I'm at a loss as to what weft to use on the next two scarves. I've 'auditioned' numerous weft colors and so far this is the only one I've liked. I don't want to use the same weft for all three scarves. Will have to ponder on this some more before I get to scarf #2. I've got plenty of time for pondering as there are too many other things on the schedule for the next week, I'll be lucky to get time at the loom to get this scarf woven on anytime soon. What has happened to those days I spent in the studio from morning until dinner........I miss them.........

Free chenille

UPDATE: The chenille is spoken for - it's found a home - hurray.

In my continuing effort to find homes for 'stuff' as I'm feeling like it's all closing in on me I've got a GIVEAWAY.  This is rayon chenille, 500 yards per pound, so it's fairly thick. I bought it years ago but in reality I don't weave with this size of chenille so it's time for it to find a new home and be turned into something wonderful.  It feels incredibly yummy which is why I've hung onto it for so long but how long can I keep it around just for fondling.  The skeins do have 2-3 ties on them but they may be a challenge since the skeins are so large and chenille worms so rather than selling this I'm giving it away for the cost of shipping via USPS Priority Mail (Canada it will go First Class).  Just put it on a swift or squirrel cage and take it slow winding it into a ball - it may or may not take a little patience.....since I haven't wound any into balls I'm not sure, it could go quickly with no issues.

I've got 3 skeins of this - first to claim any or all of them gets them......I hope someone wants them......please, please......
1 lb 4 oz skein
1 lb 4 oz skein
1 lb 5 oz skein

If you're interested drop me a note with your email so I can send you a Paypal invoice for the shipping costs. Don't forget to send me your mailing address too. 

NOTE: this is open only to US or Canadian folks

Replenishing stock

Spent some time at the loom today weaving on the huck shawl warp.  It's hard to tell in this photo but it's a lovely pale sage green. The first shawl (not pictured, because I forgot) I used the same novelty rayon weft as warp. For this shawl I used a 5/2 perle cotton for the weft in the same lovely sage color.

Sorry if you're already tired of hearing about fires but it's just the start.........it's going to be a long fire season. In the future I'll try to only post about it if there's something big or dangerously close......otherwise there will be a daily report and I know all my readers will grow weary of that real fast. Last Friday fire season started with many restrictions in the moderate fire danger guidelines, tomorrow we go to high fire danger already......I wonder when extreme fire danger will follow. Copters flying overhead today to fires in the area, they've been doing a great job all week fighting them, numerous fires already snuffed out..........winds pretty strong so hopefully nothing new starts up, we're under a red flag warning through tomorrow afternoon due to the wind.

Good things
 - men and women who choose fire fighting as a profession - many thanks to them all for keeping us safe while they work in extreme conditions - heat, smoke, steep terrain, falling snags, poison oak, etc.
 - cool lovely mornings even though it gets stifling hot by afternoon - but no humidity so really good.

Bad things
 - toxic people....I won't go into that subject any further, if you have them in your life you know it.
 - robo calls - slow day today, only 4 so far - whatever happened to that Do Not Call list.

New scarves........

I finally finished twisting fringe on newly woven scarves....photos taken of 4 of them and they're now listed in my etsy shop for sale.

Sand Castles Buttercream

 

Sand Castles Taupe

 

Raspberry Cream - Lavender

Raspberry Cream - Fuchsia

 

 

Another casting call........

 Another casting call for weft auditions, this time on the rayon warp on the AVL. Still thinking on which 3 I want to use for the 3 scarves but am leaning toward the taupe, the goldy yellow and the buttercream yellow.

 I got back to working on a tote bag - isn't it cute?  A couple weeks ago I met Theresa over in Ashland for a day of walking through shops and lunch. We went to 'her' fabric store, Fabric of Vision, and I was looking at the tote bag kits. Well, there were only a few left and I wasn't thrilled with the fabric but then I saw this fabric - I had to buy it and I was given the pattern to go with it. I got most of it sewn on Sunday but didn't like the black webbing I had for the straps that I found in my stash, it was too black so I waited until I could get to JoAnn's yesterday to pick up an oatmeal colored webbing - I love it.

Here's the inside lining. On the outside there are 3 pockets on the front and on the back. I'm going to make myself a few more of these to use for shopping bags but first is another tote bag pattern that I got as a gift - hoping to get to it soon.

A novelty.....2 looms warped.......

 Yesterday I got a couple of warps wound.  This one is a 9 ply rayon, hand-dyed by someone else, it's lovely. It's the same type of rayon I've used in the white wedding shawls recently. For non-weavers this view is from the back of the loom after I've wound the warp on, awaiting threading the heddles and sleying the reed.

 Here's the same warp, view from the front of the loom all threaded and tied on. I'm auditioning wefts for 3 scarves. I love the coral/peach color. Am torn on the pale lavender, fuchsia and light pink........leaning toward the fuchsia but not sure about the others so I'll start weaving the first scarf using the coral/peach and think on the other 2 scarf wefts. It's looking like I'll end up with tencel wefts, one bamboo is too thin, the other too thick. This draft is from the Strickler book - I've used it many times, just love this undulating twill.

 I also got a warp on the AVL - it's all rayon, a random mix of 2 colors of yellow and two of peachy/tan.

This draft is using 32 of my 40 harnesses. After some lunch I'll either start weaving on the pink warp or I'll audition wefts for this 3 scarf warp.

From one warp.........

Here are 3 scarves that came off the same painted rayon flake warp. The same scarf, just a bit different colorway. I love tencel but when I use rayon in the warp and tencel in the weft I love it even more - these scarves are so soft and drapey, I love the feel of them. I put them up for sale in my etsy shop although I keep eyeing one of them to keep for myself......will give it thought.

It's that time of year again - blueberry time......blueberries in smoothies, yogurt and on cereal. After I got home from town today I 'had' to bake a blueberry pie - it's not a beautifully made pie but I'm sure it's going to taste yummy........with vanilla bean ice cream tonight........