Sunday, January 31, 2016

It's addictive.........

.....bow weaving that is.......well, chocolate is pretty addictive too but I'm trying to stay away for it at the moment.....not sure how long I'll last......

I wove a couple more bracelets that go around the wrist twice - findings and toggle clasps still need to be put on them.  The top one is using another variegated yarn.  So far all the bracelets I've done are with 6/0 seed beads because I wanted lots of examples to put on tables when I teach fellow guild members how to do this. But I had to try a bracelet using all different kinds and sizes of beads from my stash - that's the bottom one in the sea glass colors. I love it and might have to do a few more using a variety of beads.  I just placed my order with Shipwreck Beads for supplies for the class and found a toggle clasp with a seahorse and one with a mermaid so I had to order both to audition for this sea glass bracelet. I do need to break this addiction and get back to other weaving........soon......

Saturday, January 30, 2016

New roving in shop

I've spent the past two days fondling roving..........only it's not as fun as it sounds. I've been weighing, bagging, tagging, updating inventory and listing in my etsy shop - too much administrivia. Thank goodness for Sam's help since working together makes the job 3 times faster than me working alone.

I've got some new items like the green bamboo (above left) and these 5 new colors of merino.  The rest was just restocking sold out fibers in my shop.  Check out what I've got to offer here.  Of course I couldn't resist setting aside a couple colors for a future project - Mink & Plum - I need to decide what else to mix with them.......that will come when I'm ready to start playing with the blending board or drum carder......too much else on the to-do list at the moment........

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

More bow weaving...........

A bit more bow weaving going on here

A hat band using variegated cotton spacing the beads out a bit more. I have a shelf full of hats in the closet but I never wear hats........might have to start making an effort to wear them this summer.......or find homes for them to clear up closet space.

I bought a couple bags (50 in silver tone, 50 in gold tone) of key fob pieces last year with plans of making key fobs out of inkle woven and card woven bands but, like many other things in my life, I just ran out of time. Today I scrounged up a few pieces of leftover inkle bands and gave it a go to see how it worked out before I used a piece of the beaded bow weaving (on top of cotton strapping).  Sam created a 'process'........something he's famous for.......for me to close the fob ends using a vise with a couple pieces of wood on each side as to not mar the fob end.......worked great. I'll have to do some more inkle and card weaving this year so I can make up lots of key fobs............

I have a few more bow weaving samples I'd like to make, then it's on to putting together the kits for guild members and creating a handout..........then it's back to the loom for other weaving..........



Sunday, January 24, 2016

Bow weaving

I'm such a bad weaver at times. I took a class on bow weaving with Marilyn Romatka last June at the Black Sheep Gathering and never finished my project on the bow loom. I thoroughly enjoyed the class, Marilyn was a great teacher, easy to follow and understand and delightful but once I got home I just couldn't get back into it. And this is bad because I got a scholarship from my guild to take a class but in return I had to come back and give a program on what I learned - my program is in April and I hadn't done a thing up until 2 days ago.  I decided before another warp goes on any floor loom I was going to start weaving samples on the bow loom and get moving on this project. You see, I'm not one to do this type of thing last minute..........I'm one of those that likes to be prepared well in advance so I don't get last minute panic attacks.

So here is my double wrap around bracelet from the class last June - I love the way it turned out.  Next up was to make some bracelets that just go around the wrist once as samples for my April program. This will be a hands-on program and I want everyone to be able to finish it before they go home.........unless they visit a lot........then they're on their own to finish up at home. To make sure everyone gets moving quickly on weaving I'll be preparing the warps and threading the beads on........it's not something that takes very long but it can be a challenge for some people. So one day I'll put on a movie or two or three and sit and thread warps..........we have 45 guild members....yikes. And then I'll make the bow looms out of dowels, paper clips and duct tape.

Next up was this chartreuse - my favorite color.......I'm using 5/2 perle cotton..........

......then 3 more........these are all awaiting the jewelry findings. I might make a couple more bracelets so there can be one on each table for people to look at as they weave their own.........

.........this one is just started - I'm using a variegated 8/2 cotton from my stash and I'm spacing out the beads. I really like it. Originally it was to become a hat band but I'm thinking it might end up being another bracelet long enough to wrap around my wrist twice..........I'll decide for sure once I get more woven.

So, an activity I was dreading has now turned into an activity I can't wait to get back to tomorrow. I'm going to try some thinner cotton, maybe 10/2 with smaller beads........maybe I can find more novelty/space dyed yarns in my stash to try out.

Now to think of more uses for these bands - I've already thought of bracelet, necklace, headband, hatband, trim on clothing or bags.........a friend just told me someone she knows made a lanyard to hold her scissors so I'll add that to the list and most probably make myself one.



Wednesday, January 20, 2016

New towels in the shop

We spent some time on the coast, in the crazy horizontal rain, so I went to the loom and finished up the cottolin towel warp over there. My goal of weaving off the huge box of cottolin is coming along......of course now I'm left with some strange colors that I'll have to figure out how to put together.
Very spring/easter themed towels.....of course they'd be good anytime of the year.

They can be found in my etsy shop.
 
 

Saturday, January 16, 2016

New books

 A box arrived this week with some new books I'd had in my Amazon wish list for a while. I can't wait to knit up some of the new shawl patterns in these books.

Friends JoAnn & Dee gave a guild program for their guild on the coast weaving ribbon to put in travel mugs. JoAnn sent me pictures and I immediately remembered I had 2 similar mugs in my stash that had been there for years and I was considering giving away..........not now, thought I'd play........

 I pulled ribbon from my stash and started weaving it overtop a piece of doublesided fusible. Not sure why pictures turn the wrong way when I've taken them with my camera, even though when I edit them they are fine...........oh well.........

Here's the finished mug - color is off, again from taking the photo with my phone. That will teach me for being too lazy to run up the stairs for the camera. Sometime this week I'll do the other mug - I've got some sheep ribbon to try out for that one.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Bits and pieces in my life........

This week I'm spending most of my time getting together with friends.......well, with the exception of the dreaded tooth sharpening (cleaning) stuck in there. I have several get-togethers planned for the month so although I won't be getting much weaving done I will be having fun.

Right after Christmas I started knitting on a Ione Shawlette in blue - that one is done, awaiting blocking. I've got this one in progress in this pretty rose color. Both of them are in a merino/alpaca/silk noil blend I picked up a couple years ago at a local yarn shop sale, I think it's a Louisa Harding yarn. I'll eventually show these again after I get them blocked......whenever that is........the two recipients of these don't read my blog so I'm ok posting them. My goal this year is to work on holiday gifts throughout the year - I'm not sure how long I'll keep up with it and not get sidetracked but already I'll be miles ahead of where I was this past holiday gift making season when I was in panic mode come November.


Last week at our spinning get together I started spinning some Ashland Bay merino I've had in my stash for a while. It was one of their specials a few years ago and I had the sense to put some aside for myself.....which I often forget to do before limited colorways sell out.  I had wanted to get some blending done on the blending board for spinning but that didn't happen so pulling from stash was a good thing. Not sure what this will grow up to be - I've got a pound of it to spin.

Now off to knit and gab/catch up with a friend that just drove up the driveway........decisions, decisions......can I knit on that shawlette without errors, resulting in ripping and correcting errors while watching a Netflix movie and gabbing. Yesterday another friend came over to sit and knit and catch up and I had trouble concentrating on the lace pattern while gabbing and we weren't even watching a movie. I might have to pull out the simple sock knitting or spin instead..........



Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Yummy chenille........

Black chenille shawl warp wound today, awaiting the threading of the heddles and reed........kind of boring to weave all black but the end result is a yummy black classic shawl so it's worth it.

Just as I was downloading the warp picture above I glanced out the window and saw this great double rainbow........

 .......here's the other side of it.......
.......and here's a close-up. Have you ever stood at one end of a rainbow? I've never been that close but my husband has been and said it's warm. I wanted to chase one down a couple weeks ago a we were driving home from town but he nixed that idea as it would have been many more miles than it was looking.........one of these days......
 
 

Monday, January 4, 2016

Updates in the etsy shop

 Newly listed hand-dyed, hand-woven scarves available in my etsy shop

Newly listed Mix & Match Citrus Towels available in my etsy shop

Saturday, January 2, 2016

A bit of this, a bit of that........

....to start the new year. We decided to head to the coast after Christmas for a week. We walked the beach each day looking for treasures, Sam painted, I wove, knit, finished listening to an audio book and read......I've had it with painting at the moment.

I finally finished up the cottolin towel warp that was on the loom over there - brought this stack home, have washed them, they're now waiting to be hemmed and photographed for the etsy shop.

In my continuing effort to blow through my cottolin stash I put this towel warp on. I don't know if anyone will like pastel towels but they're really pretty, I might even keep 1 or 2. It's getting tough mixing colors from what cottolin I have left but I'm always up for a challenge.

Here's the first of the towels - I'm guessing I'll get 4 of them in this plaid design, the rest will have solid color wefts using up spools of the colors I've got.

In my effort this year to be ahead when the holidays come at the end of the year I'm starting to work on gifts - ask me again in a couple months how this plan is working out. Here's a knitted shawlette in the works. It's a very fun pattern to knit, soon I'll be at the stage where I do short rows to shape it. Not liking these Lantern Moon circular needles - they're beautiful, feel great in my hands but, and this is a big but, the join to the cable is horrible, not smooth at all so I'm fighting with them as I knit. I think I've got another size 5 circular in my stash so I'll be looking for it this evening.

We had to take a different, way too long, route to the coast due to a huge landslide. The upside to it was seeing different scenery including at least 60 elk and hundreds of geese at an elk viewing area. Unfortunately on the way over we didn't stop for pix when they were all standing majestically for photo ops, today they were all laying down. I'm still trying to figure out how they know to congregate in the area where the viewing stations have been built.........

Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy 2016


Another year has come and gone..........no new year's resolutions here, they just set me up for failure so I do what I do all year long, re-evaluate and work toward change......I don't always get there but I do set goals and work toward them. Right now my biggest issue will be remembering to write 2016 when I write checks until it's ingrained in my little pea brain......

My best to you all in the new year............