Organizing.....

Much of today was spent organizing in one room of my studio - the sewing/beading/knitting/misc. room (other big room is the weaving room). Yesterday Sam put up 4 new shelves for me, brackets for 5th shelf are up but we figured wrong, need to pick up another shelf. The room was a mess after that so today I put things away and cleared off my two work tables of 'stuff' and moved it all up on the shelves - I can actually feel calm in the room now. I also put together some new scrabble pins - a special order pin thru my etsy shop - just have to post the picture here. The buyer picked the cutest charms & great bead colors. It's off in the mail tomorrow to her friend as a gift. I also made 4 pins for Valentine's Day - Love Scrabble Pins and X's & O's Scrabble Pins......posting one picture here. They'll be up in the etsy shop as soon as I get time.

Weaving and Knitting

The latest scarves to come off the loom are bamboo with a supplementary warp in seacell (a seaweed product). Bamboo is lovely, soft and have beautiful drape.

Last week I started a new knitting project, the Scotch Thistle Stole pattern from Heartstrings. I'm using my handspun for this shawl, these colors made me think of a thistle plant. Had a rocky start to the project as row 13 just wouldn't work out, I kept taking it out and reknitting but it still wouldn't work. I looked on the site to see if there was an errata, couldn't find one so I e'd Heartstrings late one evening. I woke up in the morning with this horrible thought that maybe I was just tired and it was me making the same error over and over but alas, bright and early there was a reply to my email that said, yes, there was a error in the early patterns in that row, since then it's been fixed. So, I was off and running working a little each evening on the shawl. I've now reached the halfway point - will put this aside and start the other side. Once both sides are done there's a (supposedly) invisible join in the center back. It's hard to tell the pattern in this picture since it really won't show until the shawl is blocked but here's a picture anyhow.

Now to decide what project is next on the loom - yesterday spent time planning 4 new projects all for the guild program......2 using bamboo, 1 tencel and 1 seacell/silk blend.

Hope abounds

Oh what an emotional day it has been - there is very little that will make me late for spinning - today the inauguration kept me home a bit later than usual. Even though I was dvr'ing the events all day I just couldn't seem to leave and miss the swearing in and acceptance speach, I wanted to see/listen to it at the same time everyone else around the world was. If I were still living back in the DC area I would have been downtown with the crowds for this history making event. Great hope for the future..........and finally once again a President who is intelligent and can speak! Although the late night shows will have to find someone else to make fun of, Bush was great fodder for them all.

Today's scarf

I finished the chenille/corn fiber scarf today, finally got to the loom room this afternoon to finish warping the loom and start weaving, weaving is finished, need to wash the scarf tomorrow. It's a lavendar rayon chenille with two colors of 100% corn fiber ribbon/tape used as a supplementary warp. I just played with where I wanted the corn fiber to show, very fun. I'm not used to putting on a warp for only one scarf at a time, for the most part I do production weaving.......but only bought a small amount of corn fiber for sampling. Tomorrow I'll get it washed and will see the results of how the corn fiber turns out - it can't take high heat but that's not an issue for this project.

All the weaving I'm doing for this March guild program will eventually be for sale.........well, almost all, am thinking I might keep the brown soy silk scarf (January 1st posting) but who knows.............

More scarves finished

I'm moving right along weaving for the March guild program. I finished up the two painted warp tencel scarves - have close-ups here to show, they turned out beautiful. Also wove a huck lace scarf in pink, the fiber is 80% milk protein/20% cotton. It's lovely, nice drape, very soft but way too expensive. I'm in the process of warping up the loom with a chenille scarf warp that I'll be using a corn fiber, tape/ribbon, as a supplementary warp. I didn't buy enough of the corn fiber to do anything but accent with it. I think the next project will be bamboo - one of my favorite fibers to weave with.

Back in my comfort zone...........

Well I'm back in my comfort zone weaving with a bit finer threads. That jadeite and seacell just aren't my cup of tea although I have found some more seacell (it's on order) that should be much finer - one combined with superwash merino, the other with silk. Maybe I'll love weaving with those fibers, might handpaint the merino blend. So what I'm weaving on today is a hand-dyed (warp painted) warp of 8/2 tencel - enough for 2 scarves. I dyed it several months ago along with many other warps of various fibers - love looking through the basket and picking one to weave during winter months. This one is dyed in shades of teals, blues and golden browns. I'm using 8/2 tencel for the weft too - one scarf I'm using a dark teal, the other scarf a navy........both are beautiful. This is an 8 harness plaited twill weave structure. A box arrived from Silk City Fibers this afternoon with more bamboo - hmm, why did I need yet more bamboo??? Oh, that's right, didn't have the exact colors of blue or red that I want for two different projects (ha!). But where will I find room on the shelves for it. One of these days I'll take pictures of my fiber stash and post them.

Jadeite Scarf finished - Seacell Scarf Started

Here is a picture of the finished jadeite scarf - it's fine, just not my style. Also a picture of the newly warped and started scarf using a yarn that is a combination of seacell, wool and silk. Also not my style to work with such thick yarns for scarves but it will make a nice example for the guild program. This scarf is being woven in a broken twill, hoping it will have nice drape, it's sett at 8epi.

Jadeite Scarf

This is what I did this afternoon - warped up the loom with a fiber called Therapi that has jadeite in it along with wool & silk. I'm still trying to find out the manufacturing process using the mineral/stone - hoping to get a reply from the company after the holidays are over and businesses get back to normal. The warp is the jadeite fiber in two shades of lavender - the weft is some of my handspun handdyed merino wool. I forgot to take a picture while weaving on the scarf, this picture is on the end of the warp, a quick sample for my records. This is a 8 harness interlocking twill pattern, not evident in this picture but it's a nice pattern. Am anxious to get the scarf washed to see how the drape is and what it will feel like, it's very soft before washing. I usually don't weave scarves out of fiber this thick.

More etsy shop updates

Finished up the etsy shop updates for the time being. I just listed some knitted scarves, hand-dyed silk/rayon scarves and a handwoven chenille shawl.

Etsy shop updates

Been busy taking pictures to list more items up in my etsy shop - http://eweniquelyewe.etsy.com/ Please stop by and visit if you haven't lately. So far a felted pink purse and 3 hats have gone up today - have some knit scarves, hand-dyed silk scarves and a handwoven chenille shawl still left to get in the shop, takes time to take the pictures, resize them and get items listed.

As soon as this is finished up I'll be heading to the studio to warp up the loom with a yarn that contains jadite - another new fiber to try in preparation for a guild program in March on the newer fibers on the market.

Soy Silk Scarf

The soy silk scarf I showed earlier while on the loom is completely finished - got it washed yesterday and twisted the fringe this morning, decided to add some seed beads to the fringe for a bit of sparkle. The close-up picture is of the front and back to show how different it looks on each side. Soy silk has a lovely feel to it, beautiful drape and shrinks very little but for the cost compared to silk, tencel or bamboo it's not worth it, the others cost substantially less per pound and are much nicer in my opinion. Perhaps the price will come down in the future as with all new things.

Christmas

Christmas is a bit delayed here at our house this year. We usually do a big Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve but it snowed half the day here at our house and weather was iffy for the evening - possibly more snow & ice so we postponed that until Saturday. It's just fine, no reason for unnecessary worry about family driving.

I thought I'd post some of the gifts I made for family & friends this year. First off are our Christmas cards this year - I have pictures of two of them since the trees vary a bit since the warps were handpainted (dyed) and then woven. And yes, I hand cut all the tree shapes out of cardstock.

Here's another knitted felted tea cozy, this one decorated with needlefelted leaves & vines

I covered journals (these are just a few) with all sorts of papers for friends & family to keep their thoughts, dreams or ideas in. My spinning group got glass magnets - one with our logo and then others with various pictures of fibers. And for another gift I filled glass balls with spinning fibers, these the signature fiber from a past NWRSA conference, I added some glitzy fibers to it for more sparkle.











A friend who moved up to Corvallis earlier this fall got a special gift. Two of us were over helping her pack one day and while packing the kitchen I opened a drawer and found it full of twist ties, bread closures and rubberbands. I got hysterical because there were so many of them, more than a person could ever use - recycling taken to the max. The night before she and her husband took off she gave me a gift - a box of twist ties, bread closures & rubberbands! Well, I knew I couldn't let that go so I really took recycling to the max and made her a necklace and earrings - all I added were some jump rings and a few beads. I'm hoping she got a big laugh when she opened the box yesterday morning.
I made two quilted afghans this year both in golf themes. Hubby Sam's is the one in the grey/black colorway, my cousin Jim (whose name I had in the family gift exchange this year) is the forest/deep red colorway. Jim won't get his until tomorrow since we delayed Christmas Eve dinner - hope he loves it as much as Sam loves his.






And finally some of the fingerless mitts I knit and a new knit hat for Sam

Soysilk

The latest project on the loom - an advancing twill scarf in soy silk. The warp is a space dyed soy silk, the weft a solid brown. If I had more of this on the shelf in the studio I would have liked to have had more contrast in the weft, like a rich dark chocolate brown but I don't. This project is actually part of a guild program for March and I only bought enough soy silk for two projects, the other dark pink. It's very expensive, as in way more expensive than real silk.

Traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner has been postponed due to nasty weather..........was snowing the first half of the day, has now changed to rain but will be changing back to snow this evening. Not good traveling for family to get up to our house or to get home traveling over a mountain pass.

Another bummer for the afternoon is that my server connection to msn is down so no email - horror of all horrors! I do have the yahoo account but only use it in emergencies..........this may be one if the server connection doesn't come up soon.

Banana Silk

Oh my, this banana silk yarn is an experience. I'm finally starting to work on a guild program for March that will be on some of the newer fibers out there to use.......some I've used for years but other weavers in my guild haven't so those will be covered too. The banana silk yarn is new to me, it's similar to recycled sari silk yarn only not as nice. I wove two skinny scarves out of it using 10/2 perle cotton for the warp, the banana silk would not be suitable for warp even with big eyed heddles. The scarves are still drying so I'm not sure what the end result will be, hoping for soft. This yarn is very weak, nubby, overtwisted and sheds while weaving...........and it took forever to get the fugitive dye out of it in the washing process. Oh, and it had sharp little prickers and sticks spun in - hopefully I got most of those out. Not something I'll buy again but it was good to try it for the program.

Yum cookies

Just finished what small amount of cookie baking I'll be doing for Christmas and they're not the traditional ones the family makes. Some almond coconut macaroons and some chocolate cookies rolled in Oregon hazelnuts (thank you Shirley) with a bit of frosting and a hersheys kiss in the center - all I have to say is yum! Perfect snowy day activity.

Morning Snowfall

This is the 4th significant snowfall in 6 days - still snow on the ground from previous days. Looks to be 5-6" this morning and still snowing hard. The temps have stayed below freezing for a few days now. Need to bring that hummingbird feeder in to thaw - always a few stay for the winter, also heard the birds chirping so need to clean off the birdfeeders and make sure they have some yummies too, maybe put out the suet. Nice to know we don't have to get anywhere today other than figuring out how to get the trashcan down the steep hill to the road for pickup tomorrow morning - driveway is 1/3 mile all downhill curves with steep drop-offs. Going to get a beef stew going in the crockpot, fire is warming up the house, might even bake some Christmas cookies today..........would love to get to the spinning wheel or loom room. As long as we don't lose power I'll be a happy camper.

More Snow!

This is our third morning waking up to a substantial amount of snow. It's so still out this morning.............well, it was until Bailey decided to start barking at a big buck meandering through the property. I decided to take pix out the front door this time. That's the wood shed - it's completely full, hopefully it will last the winter. We've already used a cord of wood that was under tarps in front of the shed. This morning the snow is very heavy, yesterday morning it was sparkly and light. Hoping the 4wd Tundra can navigate the steep 1/3 mile driveway later today as we need to ship something. All this snow keeping me home has helped with getting Christmas gifts finished up.

Gecko tea cozy

I thought I wouldn't be able to post any pictures of Christmas gifts I've made until after the holidays but s-i-l and b-i-l couldn't wait and opened their gift. Part of it was this tea cozy that I knit, felted and then needlefelted the gecko on. They live in Florida and they're decor is margaritaville - thought it would fit in just perfectly.

Snow

Woke up to snow this morning - weather forecasters hit it on the head this time. Predicted to snow through the weekend. Even with 4wd Sam can't get down the drive - all ice underneath it. It had let up a bit when I took this picture but now the flakes are gigantic again, snowing hard. Good day to stay inside by the fire with a cuppa tea and sew or knit - still working on Christmas gifts.

Pacifica Winter Arts Festival

Well, it's over for another year - very fun time yesterday in my booth at the Pacifica Winter Arts Festival. I got to visit with many old friends and new when I wasn't busy writing up sales. I wasn't sure what to expect with the economy but it ended up being a great sale. Higher priced shawls and scarves didn't sell as well but medium priced items sold very well. Some items are back up in my etsy shop for sale, more here in the studio in stock............and hopefully at some point this week photo taking to get more items up in etsy to replace those that sold yesterday. But first it's back to gift making - Christmas is sneaking up on me way too quickly.

Fiber Update

Yes, I'm still here, I just haven't had anything much fiber related to post to the blog lately, I'm working on Christmas gifts so I can't post pictures of those until after they've been opened on Christmas Day.

Yesterday my spinning group met here at the house - very fun day. For our entertainment I had saved a dvr'd of the show Dirty Jobs (Discovery Channel) of Mike Rowe out working on a sheep ranch in Colorado shearing, docking tails and castrating. It was a little barbaric but watching his reaction to performing these normal ranch duties was a kick.

A reminder to everyone that I'll be at the Pacifica Winter Arts & Crafts Festival this Saturday, Dec 6th from 10-5, if you're local please come by to visit, it's a very fun event. I'll have handwoven shawls, scarves and towels.......felted bags, belt bags and soap...........knitted items, handmade jewelry...........and for those of you that are fiber minded I'll have my hand-dyed roving and sock yarn.

As for my Etsy shop - from December 1st -25th every box of purchases that leaves the studio will include a small thank you gift as a holiday gift.