Hemming towels.....

I'm hemming the towels that came off the loom yesterday and were washed & dried.  I love using these clips rather than pins - they're sold with quilting sewing supplies. And I discovered just this last year after owning my Bernina for 13 years that I get a beautiful hem by using the walking foot on my machine - duh - only took me 13 years to figure that one out after using that foot while sewing a binding on a quilt.

I'd love to get the photography work done on these but the sun has disappeared so I'll wait for another day.  Three are for a gift so those will be set aside but the rest will go in my etsy shop after I do the much dreaded photography work.

I may put one more towel warp on the loom before moving on to a sewing/quilting project.

Everyone stay safe out there, if you must go out.......

Twill and basketweave.....

I got another towel warp on the loom. This one is cotlin.  It's a twill and basketweave draft.  Not sure but there may be one more towel warp in me before I move on to doing some sewing. I've got a quilt wallhanging kit to piece and also a twin (or maybe it's a full) quilt (block) kit of the month project to start - not to mention many other projects. The kit of the month quilt was from 2 years ago - I signed up for it right before we started house hunting so it got put on hold, all I did was pick up my kit each month and store it away.

This whole virus pandemic is horrendous but I sure am liking this sheltering in place, I wonder if I can keep it up after life gets back to normal...….it used to be my old normal but then life changed and there were too many commitments to deal with.

New towels.....

 Newly woven towels are now in my etsy shop ready to find new homes.  

I love these bumbaret towels, so colorful. They are a pain to warp though with a warp color change every three ends..….but worth it, I'll weave these again in the near future, maybe more tropical bright colors next time.

Just another day.....

..... in paradise.  Yes, for me sheltering at home is paradise. I can weave, sew, spin, knit, quilt, do whatever my creative heart wants without interference from the outside world.  I am happy here at home, I have plenty to keep me busy.  But my heart goes out to all those who will not be getting paychecks because businesses and restaurants have closed their doors until things get better, to those who may have contracted this virus, to those worried about loved ones far away.  It's tough out there at the moment.  But for me, yes I'll be sheltering in place playing with fiber - we're good until the toilet paper runs out which won't be for a while since I bought some right before the big run on it, which still baffles me, I mean why not just buy as one usually would.

So, back to the towel warp - 4 towels woven using a blue weft.....

....and 4 towels woven using a green weft.  

I'll be cutting these all off the loom shortly, will stitch the ends quickly and throw them in the washer and dryer, then hemming.  I'll be putting aside some for a gift and listing the rest for sale in my etsy shop. I will have to figure out a place to takes photos of them once finished as the dining room is a mess. We are taking out the two archways - arches now gone, a bit of a header needs to be built, then drywall, texture and paint. The house is a disaster once again.  Once that is cleaned up we'll move on to the kitchen backsplash.

Seeing red......

Seeing red..……..on the loom, that is.  The first 4 towels will be red but not the red that's in the warp, I'm going with a deep burgundy. I like it.  The next 4 towels with be green, the final 4 will be navy.  I ended up going with darker wefts but next time I weave bumbaret I'm going with bright tropical colors.

I had to run to the store today - it was crazy. The lines were all the way to the back of the store.  When I look in people's carts filled with crazy large amounts of certain foods I wonder if they normally eat those foods and what will happen to their huge stockpile in the pantry when life gets back to normal.  Maybe the food banks will benefit.  All I was concerned about was would my ice cream melt before I got to the checkout. And while at the checkout there was a box of Reese's eggs sitting there so I told the cashier I really needed one for my mental health so to ring it up and I'd eat it right then......it tasted great, my favorite.

.

Auditioning wefts

I finished warping the loom with this super colorful warp for bumbaret towels. I've woven around 12" in samples to audition wefts. I'm still not sure which color of wefts I'll choose for the 12 towels. I'd like to choose 4 and have them coordinate with each other.  So now the question is will I go with brights or more subdued darker colors. Will think on it and revisit this tomorrow morning.

I wish everyone the best during these crazy times. I hope you have lots of cheese, chocolate and wine stockpiled to hold you over during the worst of this pandemic. If we run out of those it will really be bedlam. I've got plenty of yarn, roving and fabric to tide me over for the rest of my life so I'm good.

Bumbaret............

 Here's the start of the warp for some bumbaret towels. I changed my mind numerous times on the 9 colors of cotton I wanted to use.  At the last minute I pulled out the black and navy and put in the red and purple..…...hope that wasn't a mistake......

…….whatever, I guess they will turn out colorful and fun.  It's a 12 yard warp which is killing my back so I only wound 3 of the 6 bouts it will take for this warp......will get back to it hopefully, Friday.

I am still not liking my new camera, just a newer version of my old one but not one photo so far has been color correct. I work on the color in photo editing software but still can't get it true.  My gripe for the day.......

Weaving and a little pooch pic

Afghan woven out of handspun is finished. It's much prettier in person, I just couldn't get the color right in this pic, probably taken too early in the day with artificial light. It feels wonderfully soft.

As I was trying to get that picture Misty kept walking in front of the phone so I finally told her I'd get her picture.…...she's a ham and wanted to be on the blog.  She's learning more and more each day but somehow we can't get her to be somewhat calm when seeing other people, she never calms down, even after hours of someone being in our house. Hoping she eventually acts like the two goldens we've had in the past where she'll be excited to see people but then calm down after 10 minutes or so.....right now it's seeming like she'll never improve but we're hoping.  She's doing great in obedience class - she loves going and excels, probably because she's a show off........she does seem to be the most social in each class.

Handspun projects....

 I cut the shawl woven from my handspun off the loom today, twisted the fringe and washed it, it's now hanging to dry. I didn't agitate it but did think it might full a bit more than it did. I'll check it after it's dry and see if I need/want to full it a bit.

Yesterday at my spinning group I started another shawl.  It's the Pretty Basic shawl pattern I've knit in the past. I wanted to link to this shawl pattern on Ravelry but it's now discontinued and no longer available......glad I got it when I did...….

This and that.......

I have gotten a little bit of fiber time. I'm nowhere near where I need to be to keep my sanity but I'm trying to work toward getting back to what my normal had been for 2+ decades. How did life change? I need for it to change back, at least partially back to what it used to be or 'funny farm' here I come.

I put some handspun on the loom recently for a double weave/width afghan. Color is not quite right but it's close, and that was after working on it. Newer version of my old camera takes terrible pictures colorwise, just don't get it. Anyhow, that skein on the top is the weft.

Here it is in progress. The join is on the left hand side. When this comes off the loom it will unfold to be twice it's width, which is around 42" before washing.  I'd like to think I would get it off the loom today and be able to start twisting the fringe but I've also got 3 fruit trees to prune and I need to help Sam get the bird netting over the garden structure.

I finally finished a pair of superwash merino/bamboo/nylon socks that have been on the needles for probably a year. A project that I'd just pick up here and there when I needed to grab a quick project to work on while on the go. They feel super soft, with our weather these may not end up on my feet until next winter. Time to get another pair of socks on the needles for my on the go, no thinking necessary, project.

At the sewing guild meeting last week we learned about Swedish weaving, which is not really weaving (as we weavers know) but embroidery on huck fabric - the embroidery sits on the top of one side of the fabric. This is my sample in progress. I think I may be pulling my thread to tight - looks fine but once washed it may pull.....I need to consult my fellow guild member to find out. This is very fun and very addictive......the last thing I need is something else fun to do as I don't have the hours to do what I want but that's ok, I'll fit it in somewhere, sometime.  I'm thinking I need to make myself a couple of towels, maybe even make a few gifts for later in the year.

Busy week ahead.  I'm hoping to find time to start winding a warp for bumbaret towels although I'm learning life gets in the way all too often. All those colors of 8/2 cotton are calling to me to make super colorful towels.