The Year of the Monkey

 Yesterday we went to Jacksonville for the Chinese New Year Parade. It turned out to be a beautiful day after it poured overnight.

 I love the dragons - so fun. There's a big history of the Chinese in this area due to the gold mining - not necessarily good times.

 I tried to get some pix of the hula dancers since two of my spinning friends were dancing in the parade but I only had my phone and I didn't get good pix of them. These 3 dragon pix were the only good ones I got out of the bunch.

 When we got home I got to work on stringing beads for the kits for the bow weaving program I'll be teaching at my weaving guild in April.

Stringing these size 8 beads on 5/2 perle cotton is quick work using a dental flosser. Of course putting together the number of kits I need will still take a number of hours to complete but it's a mindless, good watching movies on Netflix chore. Would love to get back to this today but today is sit down in front of the computer with Turbo Tax Home & Business day - argh.........

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......

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..........

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.

Black Sheep Gathering

Yesterday morning at o'dark-thirty friend Pat and I left for the day to travel a couple hours north to the Black Sheep Gathering. I used to go spend the entire weekend up there in Eugene for it but have gotten away from it for a number of years - I think I've only gone twice for a day trip in the past 6-7 years. It's a great event, but maybe for me it follows to close behind attending the nwrsa conference so I just don't feel like going, at that point I've had my fiber event fill for the month. Anyhow, it was a fun day, got some visiting in with other fiber friends, took a class, but spent very little money.....I just don't need a thing.......

I took a half day bow weaving class from Marilyn Romatka with hopes that it would make a good weaving guild program for this next year. It was fun and Marilyn was a great teacher, very concise and easy to understand.....which comes from teaching middle school age kids. Our bows were made of 4 ft dowels, paper clips and duct tape - ingenious.

Here's my bracelet in progress - it's being woven in an approximately 5/2 cotton yarn using size 6 beads. This was a 4 hour class jammed into 3 hours so we didn't finish our bracelets that wrap around the wrist twice but got close. (all those threads hanging out are where I spliced in new thread, they'll get woven  in once I'm finished) We did get a good tutorial on how to finish and add the findings. I don't know how much of this I'll do but I really enjoyed it and will have fun sharing it with my guild members.

I did very little shopping in the vendor hall - I just don't need a thing. Then friends Linda and Kathie showed me the gradient yarn they bought from Black Trillium for shawls so I had to go back and pick out a pack for myself. It was a really hard decision as there were so many beautiful colors but I went with a dusty plum.