Friday, May 31, 2013

Vines & Leaves

I did get the loom warped today with a warp for 4 scarves, 8/2 tencel, in the new vines & leaves draft I designed last week. With some tencel left on a bobbin from another project I wove off a half inch more than one repeat so I could get an idea of how it looks. The backside has dark leaves with a light background, just the opposite of what's shown here. Now I'll sleep on it before weaving the scarves in case there's a little tweaking to do. Don't pay attention to my uneven beat, I was concentrating so much on the pattern emerging and looking at floats that I wasn't paying attention to my beat -   this is only a sample in the fringe end of the first scarf, it will be pulled out anyhow after the warp comes off the loom.

Usually changes happen between what wefts I think I'll use and what I end up using but this time I changed the warp from a gold to black so who knows what other changes will come. Am thinking of wefts for the 4 scarves of red, silver, sage and maybe gold or rust.....but that may change when I audition wefts.

Fibersphere winner!

The winner of the Fibersphere giveaway is Denise O'Rourke - I'll be contacting you privately Denise. This wasn't a really successful giveway......as in not many were interested, that's ok - thank you to the six of you that were.


Thursday, May 30, 2013

Apron done

New apron for the beach cottage, pink sand dollars with teal & pink fish scale contrasting fabric. Not sure if I'll put a pocket on the next apron...can't think of what I'd put in it. Neck strap should maybe be an inch or two shorter.......will live with it for a bit and see how I feel about it........it will be a pain to change now, maybe a better solution would have been to make an adjustable or tie neck strap. Of course it doesn't hang on the mannequin like it does on a real body as this mannequin is probably a size 000......it does not hang below the boob line on a real person.  Bought some insulated batting yesterday to make some hot pads with the matching mermaid fabric.  I've got some dragonfly fabric to sew up next for an apron for here.
 
Just haven't been able to get into winding a warp and weaving this week...think it's just been too many hours out of the house each day.......there's always tomorrow.
 
 

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

In the Pink.......

We spent the holiday weekend on the coast - no fiber, other than a tiny bit of knitting done - lots of walking on the beach. I also painted a coffee table white - it looks great. I couldn't resist going in the quilt shop, Forget Me Knots Quilt Shop, since they were having a sale. I'm always on the lookout for sea/beach inspired fabrics for my quilts......which will be started soon........which I don't really need to be buying anymore fabric for........I found these great fabrics that instead will be made into an apron. I can't believe they had pink sand dollar fabric, and then the cute little blues/pinks fish scales. I bought the two fabrics on Sunday but then had to go back on Monday before heading home to buy the matching panels - how could I resist the cute mermaids - there are 4 different panel designs, 2 mermaids, porpoises and seahorses. I may make a couple pot holders and hot pads from the panels. Now into the washer all this fabric goes so I can whip up an apron.......pattern undecided as of yet.......I've got several......of course.......


So, keeping with the pink theme I'm going to give away this Fibersphere - it's a round ball that opens up to hold a ball of yarn and protect it while you're knitting or crocheting. To be eligible for the give away just make a comment to this post, be sure I'm able to contact you either thru blogger or by putting your email address in your comment. I will pull a winner using a random number generator on Friday morning. I'll post the winner and contact that person, if I can't contact the winner and I haven't heard from the winner by Monday morning I'll pull another name. Open to US and Canadian residents only.

WeGO Traveling Exhibit 2013 - Threads to New Worlds....A Collection of Fiber Arts

I promised I'd post pictures of the WeGO (Weaving Guilds of Oregon) traveling exhibit after friend Kathy and I sat it a couple weeks ago - finally I've got the pictures off the camera...such as they are....lighting wasn't good and I was trying to take them quickly in-between visitors. I took pictures in order of the brochure so I could match them up to post them here. If I know the weaver I'll say a few words about her/him. Nancy Hoskins was the juror of this show - she had a couple of small pieces of boundweave in it as juror but I forgot to take pictures of them. ( I didn't like the way the scarves were displayed - in Portland and North Bend they tied/looped them around the frames - I thought they looked much better than just hanging in these pictures)

This is a tencel & bamboo network drafted scarf woven by Sally Glynn of Crescent City, CA - she's a member of the Webfoot Weavers and Humbug Mountain Guild both on the SW Oregon coast. (I know Sally, she's an elegant woman who weaves beautifully)
Space-dyed Silk Scarf by Dorothy Golik of Salem, OR


This is one of my scarves - I've posted it on my blog in the past in a photo that better shows the variations of color in the handspun merino/tencel warp, it has a commercial bamboo weft and there is a beaded embellishment in-between the fringe bundles. This scarf sold before the show even opened
 
Here is my other scarf in the show - my ginkgo scarf in 8/2 tencel - it won the Complex Weavers Award. This scarf sold when the exhibit was on display up in Portland but all sold items stay with the exhibit through the first quarter of 2014.

Hand-dyed Tencel Block Twill Scarf by Cindy Pentony who is a member of the Salem Fibrearts Guild

The scarf was woven by Nadine Purcell who is a fellow guild member and friend of mine. This scarf is an 8 shaft point twill of space dyed tencel warp and a 30/2 silk weft. I really wish I took close-ups of all this work. Nadine is an incredibly generous fiber artist with her time and expertise.

Shades of Gray - a double weave pick-up scarf by Tom Seymour, it says in the brochure that he is a new weaver - he won the Best New Weaver Award for this piece

This scarf won the Best use of Color & Design for Donna Stor who is a member of the Salem Fibrearts Guild - it is hand-dyed silk woven in twill variations

Ladella Williams is a member of the Portland Handweavers Guild - this is a kumihimo spiral neckpiece - she used space-dyed fibers, rayon and rat-tail cord

Ladella also created this Kumihimo neckpiece using space-dyed fibers and sparkle yarn

Petroglifos de Codornices is the name of this rug woven by Linda David of Sisters, OR - I love this rug!  Linda is a very talented weaver, wonderful workshop teacher.

Kathy Fennell wove this piece and the one below. Kathy is one of my fellow guild members belonging to the Saturday Handweavers Guild in Medford, OR - she used photo collages of her previous weavings, cut them into strips and then rewove them - very fun pieces.

Kathy won the Juror's Choice Award for this one

Rag Rug by Beth Glascock of the Salem Fibrearts Guild. This rug is woven in Ripsmatta (Rep Weave) - she used hand-dyed weft from flannel sheets - she is a new weaver having woven for just 1 1/2 years

Rag Rug by Dorothy Golik

Krokbradg Rug by Mark Marker of the Columbia Fibres Guild - linen warp, wood weft

This is a pillow made from handspun yarn embellished with a piece of hand-made bobbin lace. Shirley McFarland of my weaving guild created this piece - the photo just does not do this lace justice - very intricate

Shaft switching, weft face rug with a cotton wrap and wool weft by Cindy Pentony

Tapestry wall hanging by Linda Rees of the Eugene Weavers Guild using wool, synthetics and cassette tape

Emma Lou Scherf wove this waste paper basket with bouquet from actual 'waste' paper - she's a member of the Eugene Weavers Guild. This is fun

Tom Seymour also wove this piece -it's a double weave table runner in a geometric design that color coordinates with a scarf he wove that I can't seem to find the picture of - argh.

Penny Unverzgat wove this framed cotton and rag wool rug, she's a member of the Salem Fibrearts Guild

Petroglifos de Ovejas is another rug by Linda Davis in Taquete. This rug won Best of Show Award and once seeing it in person I could understand why

A traditional overshot table runner by Marlene Lloyd of the Salem Fibrearts Guild - she also had some coordinating placemats woven in ripsmatta (rep weave) - can't seem to find this photo either

Anne Abendroth - King's Coat: Henry VIII. Cotton, rayon, silk, beads and buttons, kimono style wall piece. Anne is a member of the Portland Handweavers Guild

My friend JoAnn Sutter wove the fabric for this vest and then constructed it. It is tencel and space-dyed cotton in honeycomb weave and huck weave variations. JoAnn is a member of the Webfoot Weavers Guild. She won an award for her vest but it's not listed in the brochure - I think it was for Technical Excellence, I think

Carol Wylie of Klamath Falls woven tencel fabric to construct her long vest. Carol a real sweetheart. (I have to say Kathy and I love it so much we thoroughly examined her vest to see how she constructed it)

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Friday, May 24, 2013

Looks good on paper.......

I'm still here, just been working on things I can't show like sitting in front of the laptop for hours working on this new draft, or doing some sewing for gifts which I can't show yet. I have done a little spinning but already showed what's on my spindle so won't bore anyone with that again so soon.  So this is my vines & leaves draft - I have worked on several versions of it, had to step away, then go back to it to see what was bothering me and do more tweaking. I can't tell you how many hours have gone into this and I won't know if it's a success until I actually weave it. Still on the upside of a steep learning curve with designing for the AVL. I plan on getting a gold tencel warp on after the holiday weekend to give it a try, am auditioning wefts but those always change and usually aren't what I usually envision in the planning stages.

On an upside - all of a sudden uploading photos to the blog is working after not working correctly since the beginning of the year - whoo hoo!

Read below if you choose.........or not - it's just me ranting........

On the downside - I live in a crazy county here in SW Oregon......everyone wants services but no one wants to pay for them, I just don't get it. For well over a year we have had very little law enforcement and when someone is arrested they are let out of jail before the end of the day because there is no money to fund the jail for more than a small number of prisoners......and that's if they actually make it to trial since there is very little funding for that either. This has been an ongoing issue for years but the last 2 it's gotten really bad. It is a joke in the county - criminals do what they want because there are no consequences. Last year a measure to fund safety was voted down, this past Tuesday it was voted down once again but this time only 51% to 49% - last I heard there were only 400 votes between the two. I don't even want to know how my friends and acquaintances voted because I'd probably be disappointed in them if I knew for sure they voted against the measure. Our county has the lowest tax rate out of the entire state by a large amount........that is because no one wants to pay taxes here. We have no county libraries anymore - thank goodness a volunteer group organized and started up communities libraries that run on donations.......so some of us donate each year so everyone can benefit of having access to a library, no one is turned down a library card.

So, here I sit on acreage with a locked gate, an alarm system that's only purpose nowadays is to alert me to something happening as no one will respond to it, great neighbors, guns if needed (hopefully never) and  fingers ready to dial 911 if I feel like I am in immediate danger......and what will I say when the 911 operator answers but FIRE.  I pay for fire protection so I know someone will show......I'll just have to deal with the consequences of doing that after the fact. And yes, this county votes down having county wide fire protection too so if we want it we contract for it on our own with the one reliable local company.

Enough of my ranting.......I plan on having a wonderful holiday weekend and I hope all of you do the same.....and I will be keeping in my heart the folks of Oklahoma who have lost so much.......so small are my problems........

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Back to the art yarn


It's back to the art yarn......when I last left off on this project I had gone from this basket of fluff of all sorts of fibers, ribbons, glitz, etc. to spinning two full bobbins of singles.

Here's one of the bobbins of singles waiting to be plied with some rayon thread

Here it is plied - don't ask me what happened to the color on this photo, it's more like the photo above, not as orange as this looks. This is hard for me to spin and ply, I tend to like my handspun yarn smooth and even - dealing with the resulting lumps and bumps is pretty distressing to me. I know, I know, it's got character and is art yarn.......but you know, I don't buy art yarn or lumpy, bumpy yarn so I'm not exactly sure what project I'll use this in. Time will tell after I ply the next bobbin and find out how much yardage I have.  I'm sure I'll like whatever it grows up to be......I think........



Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Pet peeve of the day........

Pet Peeve: "A pet peeve is a minor annoyance that an individual identifies as particularly annoying to them, to a greater degree than others may find it."

Ok, so many of my pet peeves I wouldn't consider minor annoyances but edging toward major ones. I promise I won't be posting a pet peeve of the day - that would be too depressing but I had to complain a bit today.



Why is it nowdays that it takes a major tool to get a lid off a jar??? Ok, so this picture is just a free one off the internet, it's not really me, but I'm thinking I might need a wrench like this to get the lids off jars. I've got 3 types of devices to open jar lids plus a pretty strong husband and sometimes it's almost impossible. I fought and fought this evening to get the lids off a jar of roasted peppers and artichokes. It shouldn't be this hard. I know companies are trying to protect us, covering their asses, but do they really have to put them on quite as tight as they do?

And while I'm on a roll here's another pet peeve of mine - why is it that loading pictures on the blog used to work fine until a few months ago and now it's a major issue to get them up on my blog? The only way that I've been successful is to start my post, publish it, and then go in to edit it - that's when I can upload pictures.......most of the time. So, that's my routine now, takes much longer to post than it used to. I've gotten no help from the blogger forum. Oh well, guess I just have to suck it up and deal with it.

Ok, that's it - no more pet peeves for the day. Speaking of tools (yes, there's one pictured above) my hubby surprised me with a reciprocating saw for our anniversary, commonly known as a Sawzall. Normally that would be something that wouldn't earn him points but it was a joke, and a joke that he'll enjoy using and already has. For years, probably all 30 of them we've been married, I've been saying I want one of those saws - cool things can be deconstructed using one, including taking down walls. I'd watch in envy on the home improvement shows when they'd pull out the Sawzall.........hmm, what can I use it for..........  A little history on gift buying in this relationship - hubby is not allowed to buy me anything with a power cord - years ago when he wanted to buy me an electric bobbin winder for weaving he called a friend to make sure it was ok since it had a cord - she assured him it was......great gift, that was.

Now off to collapse after weighing out close to two hundred pounds of roving today, bagging and tagging it, putting it into inventory. I still have a large amount of natural fibers sitting down there to weigh out tomorrow for future dyeing.....it's dye season again.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Steampunk

I had the embroidery machine running today while taking photographs of handwoven towels and scarves for my etsy shops. I need to stay close by since it's an inexpensive machine and I have to be there to change thread colors unlike commercial machines where there are many needles threaded with all the different thread colors.

I love this new to me steampunk spinning wheel embroidery design. I only stitched two of them in case no one else is as enamored as I am with this funky wheel.


This is a nice soft cotton flour sack towel with red twill stripes - I thought the primitive country sheep with heart embroidery suited it well. I like this towel as it has a handy twill tape to hang it with.


And more of the white sheep on oatmeal linen towels - a variation of ones done in the past - they're very popular.

These towels are up for sale now in my etsy shop. I also got the last of the Deep Blue Sea Waves scarves up in the shop for sale. And tomorrow handwoven towels will go up after friend Yvonne picks out the ones she wants to buy.

I am longing for a day of frittering but it doesn't seem to happen - too much to do - and I've still got pounds and pounds of roving that arrived last week waiting to be weighed, bagged, labeled and relisted in the shop.....not to mention weighing out roving for future dye days. No rest for the wicked.........

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Mother's Day gift

My mother is at that stage in her life where she says she doesn't need anything, figuring out a gift can be hard so I try to go handmade. For mother's day I altered a sweatshirt into a cardigan. She lives in a retirement community and goes from her cottage to the main building for meals, the dining rooms can be cold in the summer time so this will be perfect worn over a t-shirt. I took a commercial sweatshirt, cut it down the center, cut off the neck ribbing and put on a binding out of some fun ginkgo fabric I had in the perfect color (yes, I do have a big stash of ginkgo fabric, no surprise, huh?). Her arms are short so I cut off a bunch on the sleeves and put the binding on the edge of them too. What you can't see in the photo are the pockets - I was trying to get a picture of the t-shirt and didn't think about the pockets. After cutting off the sleeve ribbing I opened it up, cut it into square pockets, edged the top with the fabric binding and sewed them on. Then I took a t-shirt and appliqued a piece of the binding fabric on the front and a little applique on the back. I think it turned out really cute. I've got an idea for one for myself, maybe with some beadwork, some handwork too.........but not sure when that will happen as it's not high on my to-do list at the moment, too many other things that need to be done right now.

I'm still here....just busy as all get out.....

First off - this is not my sweater. This is my friend Kathy's (who should have a blog) handspun handknit sweater which is the product of some of my hand-dyed roving (SW BFL in Golden Turk colorway which is currently sold out). It's a cute adult short sweater - so cute I'm going to go find the magazine in my stash with the pattern.

It's been over a week since I last posted - I've been busy, well, busy part of the time. Our 30th anniversary was earlier this week so Sam surprised me by taking 3 days off work - we left for the coast Saturday morning after a community concert Friday evening, and came home Wednesday evening. It was a great relaxed time with walking on the beach, reading, painting a few pieces of furniture and just plain old relaxing. Oh, and dinner out at The Loft - I've written about this restaurant before - it's one of those places where all we talked about during dinner was how good each bite of food was.

Thursday was spent baking for my guild hostessing duties, catching up on business, shopping,  finishing up a mother's day gift, packing and shipping orders, doing laundry.  Friday was spent sitting the WeGO (Weaving Guilds of Oregon) traveling exhibit in which I have 2 pieces......the exhibit is traveling the state for a year and May is the month our guilds host it at a gallery in Jacksonville, OR. We had some very interested visitors in the morning but it was slow in the afternoon so my friend Kathy and I sat and  spun and caught up (that's when I got the picture of her sweater above). I stayed a little while for the opening reception in the evening. Then yesterday was the monthly weaving guild meeting (which I baked for) - it was held at the gallery so members could see the exhibit. In a few hours I'll be heading to town to pick up my mother and bring her to our place for the day and dinner. Tomorrow I crash......and pack up orders to ship, hem 13 handwoven towels, maybe get some pix up on the blog of the traveling exhibit and if I get to it start weighing out roving to go in one of my etsy shops.........boring job, I usually put on a movie or book on cd......

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mother's out there whether it's to 2 or 4 legged kids.....

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Friday, May 3, 2013

Sunflower towels......

Sunflower towels off the loom, washed, dried and now awaiting hemming which probably won't happen for well over a week due to everything else on the schedule...........


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Sunflower towels

Finally back to the towel warp I started on April 3rd - wove some towels using the natural weft that day.......those were my favorites......

 ....then today some in yellow gold weft.......
 ....then some chocolate brown weft.......
.... and then a nubby cotton slub.........actually now that I think of it I pretty much like them all......still enough warp to weave 3 more towels......