Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Weaving away........

I've been itching to get back to the loom, way too much time away from it for someone who loves to sit in front of the loom for hours every day......putting the dyepots away has freed up my time again. Above is a faux ikat bamboo scarf warp. This first scarf I'm using purple bamboo for the weft, next one might be black, third one I'll audition different colors before deciding.

Yesterday I put on a warp of green/blue/purple handspun wool for 2 scarves, wove them off and washed them last night. Oh my gosh, they are horrible, I've never had such a failure, even in my beginning weaving. Looking at them again just a bit ago I realize that others may like them but they don't represent my weaving so off to the washer they'll go for a bit of felting. This will be an experiment - maybe they'll be slightly felted scarves which would improve them, or maybe they'll just become felted fabric to be used later in a project.

It started raining here over the weekend, finally fire season is officially over - hurray!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Odds and ends........

Been working on odds & ends today. Cleaned up floor in walk-in closet for fiber stuff....only because I could barely open the door, put away fabric, packed up things for the beach, finished up the little needlefelted pincushions in anticipation of holiday sales and put together more felting bunz kits for sale.

Hand-dyed roving ready for sale...........

These will be showing up in my etsy shop over the next few weeks - if any catches someone's fancy before it's listed contact me directly.

Above is 75% Blue Face Leicester/25%Tussah Silk - it has incredible sheen and is a dream to spin. The top left colorway and center colorway are both ones I've developed recipes for and are repeatable....Cranberry Blue I have around 3 pounds of, Forest 2 pounds. Everything else was just playing that day and I have approximately one pound of each.

Below is what's called Panda - it's 60% superwash merino/30% bamboo/10% nylon. Oh my gosh does it ever sparkle, and also a dream to spin. The one colorway sold out the day after I got them braided, weighed and labeled. There's approximately a pound of each colorway - these are all my playing on dye day, colors cannot be duplicated.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Busy as a bee........

Today I was as busy as a bee......I guess that saying means they're pretty busy. I started out with blocking the back and fronts of the knitted vest I'm working on. The next steps will be to sew the shoulder seams, pick up stitches along the sides for a patterned insert, then pick up the stitches on the centers fronts and neck and knit a pattern of slip stitches.

After the long boring job of pushing all those pins in to block the knitting I moved on to braiding, weighing, labeling, taking and editing pictures of hand-dyed roving - over 22 pounds of it. Good job to do while catching up on dvr'd tv programs. I used my new photo cube from Harbor Freight Co, it's a fold up white cube with a circular hole in one side. I laid a braid of each colorway in the cube and took the pictures - they turned out nice, I'm happy with my purchase. Then on to tying decorative yarn on 64 felted soaps and tagging them.
Tomorrow I've got to put all the acid dye supplies away.....dyes, tables, steamers, roaster, squirt bottles, buckets, etc. Rain and cooler weather on coming in so it's time to put it away. Am hoping to work on another cute idea I have, will post a picture if they turn out.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Coming down the home stretch........

I'm coming down the homestretch on dyeing for the season. Today was 8 pounds of Panda which is a merino/bamboo/nylon blend. The sheen on it as it's starting to dry is incredible. I spun a little sample before dyeing and it's a dream to spin, makes a beautiful yarn.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Autumn adventure..........

Tuesday my friend Yvonne and I went on an autumn adventure. We started out the day heading to the Butte Creek Mill to explore and shop a bit for staples like flours, oatmeal, etc. Colors of autumn found there.


Next it was on to Union Creek for lunch and hiking along the Rogue River at the Rogue River Gorge and Natural Bridge. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of our luncheon spot, Beckie's Cafe who is known for the great pies. We both had burgers, fries and pie, me oh my! Bad year for huckleberries so I had blueberry - yum!


Yvonne taught me the names of many plants I didn't know. Below is hemlock, I was especially taken with it because of the tiny little pinecones, probably 1/2" to 3/4" in length.
What a fun day!

Back to the dyepots........

I finally got back to the dyepots - today I dyed 11 1/2 pounds of Blue Face Leicester/Tussah Silk. I still have more to dye, maybe next week, if not the dye supplies will be put away for a number of months

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Prune fingers.........

This afternoon I made 64 felted soaps - fun wet-felting project - pruney fingers, but very soft fingers now....

New finds for the beach

We found some new furniture finds for the beach place on Monday, all great bargains. Above is the cute little bench Sam spotted for our entry way. I found the 2 quilts, one for $20, the other for $17 - I was very excited over those! And then there's a white dresser & mirror, little wall shelf and coffee table. All we need to find now is a bookcase or such to fit under a dining room window to hold a teacup collection and a couple of lamps for our bedroom. The beach place foundation work is on-going, new piers put in and the house is now level, just all the follow-up work to be done now.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Still here, just not weaving........

I'm still here, I just haven't had anything  picture worthy to show. Mostly because I've been doing other things to avoid the last of my roving dyeing that needs to be done......on the calendar once again for next week. I have been doing some sewing though - whipped up some more little box bags, pictured above, for gifts. And have kept that sewing machine busy working on some other little gifts for Christmas that I won't post until after everyone has been gifted. Still at work on the knit vest - back is finished, halfway up the two fronts.....knitting them at the same time on a circular needle so they're exactly the same length. Christmas card design is mulling around in my little pea brain........will give it more thought later.......