Sampling on the loom..........

Here I am sampling on the loom for what color weft to use for a painted scarf warp. It's hard to tell in this little swatch what colors I painted the warp - it's gold, orangey bronze and silver gray. I've decided to use the red weft for the first scarf........am still pondering on the second scarf; either the rust brown or the gray (the top two samples). This warp is 8/2 tencel. Weave structure is a 2 block twill.

Much of yesterday was spent taking pictures of scarves & towels to soon be listed in my etsy shop. It takes so much time to do that chore, and then there's all the editing.....which is still in process. Picture taking is a struggle for me but someone has to do it and I don't remember hearing Bailey volunteer.

Back to the loom............

Yes, I'm still here........

Yes, I'm still here.....have just been busy prepping for a couple of presentations and enjoying a visit from my brother from back east. I've got all my samples finished up for the surface design program but still a few projects to get done in the remaining 13 days....yes, I'm counting the days now, getting a little panicky. Tuesday I'm speaking at an American Sewing Guild meeting, these are fiber folks not familiar with weaving at all. They'll be holding their meeting here at my house and studio so it will be easy to explain/demonstrate weaving with the aid of looms. One loom was naked so quickly yesterday afternoon I planned a project of 3 summer shawls so there will be something on the big loom. I just finished getting it threaded and tied on and started weaving......pictures above. I'm using Henry's Attic Queen Anne's Lace, Silk City Avanti and 2 colors of 5/2 perle cotton. I quickly realized I needed to use a wide reed with multiple ends sleyed through each dent since the Avanti has very fat slubs. For this first shawl I'm using the same Queen Anne's Lace for the weft, 2nd and 3rd shawls the weft will vary, haven't decided what to use yet. It's fun to put on a quick project like this.

This coming up weekend is a guild sponsored workshop with Anita Luvera Mayer called Vested Interests - it should be very fun. I've heard Anita speak several times and took a class last year at the NWRSA conference called Mud Pies for Adults - all surface design techniques. She's incredibly creative and such an inspiration. I'm so looking forward to this workshop.

Another fiber thing going on in my life is the Southern Oregon Placemat Exchange. I've already started receiving placemats from 6 guilds here in SW Oregon. I'm compiling notebooks with all the drafts and swatches or photos for each guild library and will handle the exchange of the mats. The end of June all those involved will attend a potluck luncheon in Jacksonville - a day of fun and getting to know weavers from other guilds.....and to meet those whose placemats we've received. I had this brainstorm 3 years ago about doing this and presented it to one of my local guilds and it took off from there - first year was a towel exchange, second year napkins. I don't know if it will happen again next year.....depends on the group as a whole.......and maybe next year someone else would love to spearhead it!

Hopefully sometime this week I'll get to writing about how I got into weaving - the challenge was issued by Susan, Lynnette has followed through, I need to too.

Today at the loom

Here's what I've been up to today. Earlier in the day I wound a warp for 2 scarves in Bambu 7 which is a 100% bamboo yarn from Silk City Fibers. I threaded an advancing twill which I love weaving, my feet dance on the treadles following the pattern. I apologize for how hard it is to see the weave structure in these pictures. I used a royal blue warp - the first scarf the weft is a blue of a couple shades darker, it's very hard to see the pattern unless you look at it at an angle but it's just what I was going for, a subtle look. The second scarf I used a very dark blue weft so the pattern shows up much more..........of course, my photography doesn't really catch the true color of the warp....royal blue photo is more true for the warp color. I could have finished up these scarves this afternoon but I got too chilly downstairs - needed to come up and get warm in front of the fire.

Subject: weaving again

Ok, so here's what's on my loom today - huck towels. This is a popular weave structure that I love weaving but like to vary it each time (so I don't get bored). This time I used 4 colors in the warp - forest green, clay, gold and tan and threaded them in a Fibonacci striping sequence (8-13-21). There's loads of info online on Fibonacci if anyone is interested in reading about this Italian mathematician and his theory. I really like the look, the colors make me think of the redwoods. The first 2 towels I used the clay cotton for the weft, the second 2 I'm using the forest green. Have enough on the loom for 13 towels so I've just started......will continue to change the weft colors so they're all different but coordinating.