Sock Summit 2009

I'm supposed to be getting everything ready to leave for OFFF bright and early tomorrow morning but here I am back at the computer reading some ravelry posts. I just discovered through a fellow raveler's blog Sock Summit 2009......Aug 6-9 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland! Now to figure out how to add that to the already growing list of fiber events next spring & summer. Will decide once more info comes available. Here's the link for anyone interested - http://www.socksummit.com/

I'm still here............

Yes, I'm still here - gotten sidetracked and haven't gotten too much fiber wise done lately........brother Chris out to visit (very fun) and just frittering time, I guess. The towel warp is still on the loom, it feels like it will never end. I've been using different wefts to vary the towels - ones I wove today I used a brown weft, like them very much. Have been doing a bit of spinning - spinning samples of newer fibers like seacell, bamboo, ingeo (corn) and latte (milk product), oh, and tencel but that's not new to me.

This weekend is OFFF - Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival in Canby, OR - will be heading up at the break of dawn Friday morning, back Sunday evening. Numerous carloads heading up from here in Southern OR - will be a fun weekend of bonding with fiber buddies from here and ones up there that I only see at festivals or conferences. BIG SHOPPING WEEKEND!

Took a great sunrise photo the other morning - I missed most of the brilliant colors just running to get the camera but it still looks awesome.

New roving up in etsy shop

I've just put some more of my handpainted rovings up in my etsy shop. Not much in the way of knitting or weaving being done here this week into next - family visiting from the east coast so am enjoying other activities.

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.

Bailey the pin-up

Ok, so I know this isn't fiber related but I'm a proud mom so I have to share. Golden Bond Rescues, where we adopted Bailey at the end of January, was asking for submissions for the 2009 calendar. So, of course, I sent in 4 to be considered along with a letter from Bailey about his background (what we know of it). We got an email a couple weeks ago saying that 2 of Bailey's pictures were chosen for the calendar. Finally today they're up on the website for sale (www.goldenbondrescue.com). If you click on calendar you can see the 12 pictures chosen - Bailey is the one on the bottom in the center laying in the snow - that picture was taken his first week here. I can't wait to read the text that goes along with it. Since they said 2 pictures were chosen I'm making an assumption they also have small pictures scattered throughout the calendar.......won't know which of his other pictures was chosen until I get mine in the mail. We're trying very hard not to let this go to his head! Here's the big picture that will appear in the calendar - not sure which month, if they're in order it would be November but who knows.

Hand dyed scarves

Here are 4 of the hand dyed silk & rayon scarves I dyed last weekend. They are sheer and so light, almost iridescent looking once dyed. I laid them overtop each other so you can see through to the one below. Eventually these will get up on my etsy shop along with others that are shibori dyed, some of the shibori dyed ones will be getting beaded fringes or further surface embellishment.

Finished Towels

Here are the towels shown in a pic on the loom on August 24th all hemmed and ready to tag. They are a huck lace weave structure. There are 2 all natural ones, 2 peach, 2 mint, 2 lime and 4 tan. These will be priced as all my towels are at $20 each. Handwoven towels last years, I throw mine in the washer and dryer weekly. The pic from Aug 24th is a close-up and shows the weave structure more than this picture.

Sox

Here are the socks knit from the sock block I dyed - are they great or what?! And my favorite colors to boot!

Fiber Reactive Dye Day

I finally painted some warps yesterday, rinsed them all out today. Some warps are bamboo, some rayon, some tencel. Each warp will be enough to weave 2 scarves, or I may add other fiber to it and weave shawls. Bamboo feels delicious but tencel is my all time favorite fiber to dye - it takes the dye like silk, beautiful colors.......and the hand after weaving is like silk. I had a number of silk/rayon scarf & shawl blanks so I dyed those too.

Handwoven towels are in the dryer, next step is hemming them - socks knit from one of my hand-dyed sock blanks are almost finished. Will post pictures of both soon.