More stash sales

More yarns added to my stash sale this morning.........got stopped in the middle when etsy decided to have unscheduled maintenance on the listings manager, thankfully it started working again today.

Above is Dana, a 100% rayon at 2100 yds/lb. Very slinky & shiny. Various prices due to various weights. They can be found in my etsy shop or here by clicking on the 'Other Stuff for Sale' tab.

There are too many to bother with listing here - they're all in my etsy shop. Some rayon novelties, some rayon/cotton novelties, silk/wool and rayon/wool.

Now off to do something that doesn't entail sitting in front of a monitor - administrivia is killing me!

Stash Sale

I've got some new things added to my Stash Sale. Go to the tab at the top of this page 'Other Stuff for Sale' or for even more descriptions check them out in the Stash Sale section of my etsy shop.

New tee's in the closet......

I did get some tee's embroidered for myself. The black and chartreuse are 3/4 length sleeves that I had planned on stitching today. Then I found the two short sleeves in browns that looked like they could use something. First the gingko leaf, I love anything gingko. Then, in preparation for the Olympics the  'peace, love, curl'  tee - I'm more than ready to binge watch curling next month.

Thinking ahead............

Thinking ahead a bit to St. Patrick's Day with embroidered towels, usually I'm way behind on creating for holidays. I did stitch some a few weeks back but some have already sold so I've replenished with these new towels to go with the others. All are in my etsy shop. Hmm......which should I stitch for my own kitchen??? It's hard to decide.

Now off to stitch a couple long sleeved tee's for myself..........then to work on that boundweave handout that I just can't seem to sit in front of the computer and do........if I work it right I'll run out of time today to work on it.......yes, that's bad........

Knit, knit, purl...........

A couple weeks ago I went through my (huge) stash of knitting yarn and came across a big skein of Mushishi by Plymouth yarn - 95/% wool/5% silk. This was all because a friend requested cute hats for a friend who lost her hair from chemo. So, I made the hat and it went off to it's new home. But I had quite a bit of this huge skein left and loved how the hat turned out so much I decided to knit another one, and then a pair of fingerless mitts. I was thinking I'd keep this for myself but now am not sure as I don't wear hats often so I think it will go in the 'gift box'. I know a couple people right off the top of my head who would love this set. 

I haven't been posting as often, just haven't had much to share and wonder sometimes how many really read it or care............so, I'll just post once in a while and see how it goes. I spent the day at the embroidery machine yesterday - pix to come of new celtic/st patricks day towels.........once I edit them, that is..........

First snow of the season overnight, much has already melted off. Up in the mountains they got more and there's even a rumor that the ski resort in the region will finally open this weekend. We are lacking in rain and snow this fall/winter.

12 Days of Christmas - done

Here is the 12 Days of Christmas spin-a-long yarn all finished. The beauty and sparkle can't be captured in a photo.........at least by me. This has not been washed/blocked yet so it will look a little different after that. I'll count up the yardage after washing. Once I know how many yards I have I'll be on the lookout for the perfect project for it.

More boundweave.........

Ok, so I can see how I got caught up in boundweave many years ago and wove so many samples - it's downright fun. Today I put a quick warp on the table loom for another couple samples. I used a cotton seine twine rug warp which is plied tightly and is very strong - a great choice for a rug. Both samples were woven at 5 epi using 2 threads as one for extra strength.

The first sample I used Lamb's Pride Bulky Wool yarn for the weft. I chose that because it's the thickest wool I have in my studio leftover from some knitted felted projects and rug hooking. Although I don't know how it would wear as a rug (without testing it) it would make a great weight rug. I really enjoyed weaving this sample.

Next up another rug sample - I used fabric strips cut 3/4" wide. This would also make a great weight rug and I know rags would hold up well. From weaving this I can see having a fabric that is dyed all the way through would be the best choice - no worries about making sure the right side of the fabric showed. My white worked well, the gray worked well too as it was a batik and the same on both sides. The black fabric was a bit of a pain because it was a light grey on the back side and I had to try to keep the black side out, you can see in some places I wasn't successful.

I'm not a rug weaver but have woven them when I've needed a rug for myself. If I find myself needing another rug in the future I will definitely consider boundweave.

Boundweave...........slow weaving............

It's been a long time since I've woven boundweave and I had forgotten just how long it takes to weave this weft faced weave structure. In March and then again in April I'm giving presentations on it to two different local guilds.  In 1999 I presented a guild program on boundweave and luckily I had woven a 3" notebook full of samples. But I was missing a few I had interest in so decided to put on a warp for the first two.

Weaving letters - symmetrical and asymmetrical. It was fun but took me oh so long to weave these small samples. How did I manage to weave that 3" notebook full of samples back then??? I mean, I love the look of boundweave, and I don't mind slow weaving working from a graph paper design but I wove a ton of samples back then......must have been a slow year for anything else!

Almost all my samples were woven using 5/2 perle cotton as the weft although I did weave one sample using 10/2 perle cotton - I must have been nuts, at some point I might have to figure out how many picks are in that 7" sample. I don't have any samples using thicker threads, like for rugs, so that's what my next set of samples will be. I'll be using a thick wool weft for one sample and fabric strips for another - I'll be weaving krokbragd, a 3 harness boundweave.

After the second set of samples are woven I've got to totally re-vamp my handout. It's needs a tremendous amount of updating but for some reason the file never made it from computer to computer - who knows what happened to it. So, I'll be starting from scratch working from the one print copy I have, essentially starting over.

Here's a long boundweave wall piece I wove back in 1999 - shuttles in a color spectrum.

It hangs in the hallway outside my studio - I love it as much now as I did back then.

A bit of stitching..........

 When searching for something else in my studio I came across stamped pillowcases ready for embroidery. I bought them several years ago, they got put in a cabinet and forgotten. Lo and behold they go great with the embroidered quilt I have on the guestroom bed at the beach cottage. So off to buy embroidery floss to match the quilt and start stitching. I'm halfway through pillowcase #2 - I've got 4 of them to stitch. It's so fun to do and how rewarding to have them go perfectly with this quilt.

I finally decided how to spin the 12 Days fiber. The first 3 (on the left) bothered me at how they didn't flow with the other jewel tones. They're perfect with the graphic the collection was based on but not perfect to my eye.  So I pulled off bits from the jewel tones to mix in the first 3, and I pulled bits off those to add to the jewel tones.  Just little bits but I think it's enough to tie them all together. I divided each colorway into two so I can spin on two bobbins and then ply them together. I'm pretty sure I'll stick with that decision. I'll probably start spinning this evening.


Fun to have some different projects to be working on but I must get back to weaving - it's been way too long. I'm vowing to mark days off on the calendar and not let others intrude on me getting back to nesting here at home. First off to do is weave more boundweave samples as I've got a guild program to present in early March, then present it again to another guild in April. I've got all my notes together to compose a good handout, that will take a big chunk of time. Luckily I've got some samples from when I presented this topic back in 1999 so I'm not starting from scratch, just have to fill in a few blanks.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 12

Here's Day 12 of the spin-a-long, the last packet to open.......and I'm still no closer to knowing how I want to spin these than I was at the beginning. There's no law that says when I have to spin it so I'll wait a few more days, throw all the little balls in a pile and ruminate on it for a while.

It's happening again - the Women's March 2018 on the anniversary of the one last year - January 20th. I've heard there are at least 250 marches planned across the country. So, if it's important to you do a search to find out where there's one near you. I still hate the name of these hats...........

12 Days of Christmas - Day 11

Day 11 of 12 Days of Christmas - loving these jewel tones in the second half of the packets

12 Days of Christmas - Day 10

Only 2 more packets to open after today and I still have no plan on how I'm going to spin this.......maybe I'm overthinking it but last year after the fact I wished I had spun the 12 Days packets differently.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 9

12 Days of Christmas - Day 8 plus......

 Here's day 8......yummy

Here's a knit cap just off the needles for Sam - he really needed another one so we chose colors from my stash of Lamb's Pride - not too many 'manly' colors left plus bits & bobs of small amounts of many colors but these work. I worked on it the past few nights while we watched Heartland on Netflix. A friend got us hooked on it - nice family show about a family/horses up in Alberta. I think there's something like 8 or 9 seasons so we're in it for the long haul.

Oh, and happy new year..........nothing special about it for us other than having to remember to write 2018 for the next couple weeks until it's ingrained and having to close the 2017 books (accounting) for my business, and start up the 2018 books.....which I feel very accomplished at just finishing.