Post holiday

First off, sorry a couple pix are sideways - makes no sense, can't seem to correct it when it loads to blogger. Take the pic with phone held the same way but some come out different and no amount of editing on the computer reflects once they upload to blogger. 

I'm sorry I neglected to take photos of many of the gifts I made this year but that's life.  So below is one of them and a few other pix. 

I decided to make an inkling this year since I had an idea. This is #27 in the series started back in the 90's. Some years I have ideas, some years I don't, some years I've made a set that go together, some years just one.....or none.  This year's inkling is a Yellowstone Ranch cowboy (Yellowstone series starring Kevin Costner) The body is inkle woven and stuffed. What looks like feet is really a horse shoe he's sitting on top of. Part of the fun making these is searching for 'accessories' from all different sources.  I already have an idea for next year.....if I can pull it off. 

Yesterday I knit another hat on the Addi machine out of Cascade 220 worsted wool.  It's reversible. Here is one side of it........

...here's the other side. I thought I'd be doing good if I could knock out one a day fitting it in-between other activities - may not always happen but I'll work towards it.

And here are our holiday cards. Handwoven as they often are although I have been known to make quilted, crocheted or paper crafted cards. 

Finally, this is for Judy from Fundamentally Fiber, if you happen to read my blog. The photo of your current roving being spun on a turkish spindle is incredible - the colors are incredible and the photo is beautiful - I think you could put together a great calendar with your fiber photos. Anyhow, since you don't have comments enabled I'm writing here to say I love seeing what you're up to in your fiber life. 

 

Christmas in July............

First off, why in the world do my pictures from my phone want to turn sideways when uploaded to the blog??? I took pictures holding the phone 2 different ways and the same happened with each. Many times at least one of them will be turned correctly.  And I save them to my computer and edit them turning them the correct way but when loaded to blogger they turn back. ACK.  I give up. 

Anyhow, got heddles threaded, reed sleyed yesterday on this warp. It's a combination weave from a workshop I took from Robyn Spady. the threading is based on the Periwinkle overshot pattern in the Davison book. The treadling is polychrome swivel. This makes a sturdy fabric but not suitable for anything where the back would show as there are very long floats - would be great upholostery fabric or for a project that is lined. I'll be using this for our holiday card inserts. So far it's been slow weaving only because I haven't gotten in a rhythm with the color changes and treadling. Maybe others wouldn't think it's slow weaving but for me it is.........but since I'm not weaving to sell anymore it really doesn't matter. 

I have another pair of socks started, will take a photo once I'm more than 2" into the knitting. I want some denim colored socks, only denim, not stripes or other patterns.  I'm still working on some black socks but can't take those places to work on because if the light isn't good I can't see well, especially if I drop a stitch. 

 

Struggling........

I'm really struggling with coming up with posts for my blog. I'm still not very productive and I'm still not really motivated to do much which includes taking photos. I decided since I had taken these photos that I should force myself to post.

I am weaving a bit again.  It's really hard when going from weaving to sell to just weaving for myself or gifts or to learn something new..........just not as much drive.  I saw this draft over on Susan's blog recently - she wove scarves using it. I thought it might make a nice table runner for our dining room. I like it just fine.  I wove 2 others using different weft colors to use as gifts. 

I just took this warp off the loom and washed it. This undulating twill was being woven by many weavers a couple years ago. I wove it using 10/2 perle cotton to use as the fabric for our holiday cards this year.  I like it so much I may have to weave myself some towels.  Of course I have very little white and red 8/2 unmerc. cotton in my stash which covers 2 walls in the studio from floor to ceiling so I'm going to have to place an order. I suppose that means I'll order some other colors I'm low on at the same time. In the meantime I'm winding a warp for some turned twill towels. Hopefully before fall I'll have a number of warps woven for gift giving. 

On another note I've been so depressed since hearing the official Supreme Court ruling although I could see it coming. I know abortion is a heated topic and I respect other's views but that doesn't mean I think it's right to take away a woman's rights - yes, I am pro-choice and always will be. I will hope that Oregon will be a refuge for those seeking abortions and nothing changes that. How horrible to be setting back a woman's right to choose 50 years. What will come next because something isn't directly addressed in the constitution???  Nasty comments on this subject will not be posted, I will trash them. Respectful comments are welcome.  And that's all I'm going to say on the subject even though it will be on my mind every single day. 

Life sucks at times.......

Life is uncertain right now, things change hour by hour. These days my life is centered around talking with nurses, doctors, social workers, case workers, palliative care teams, etc concerning a younger relative who is gravely ill. Tough times for my relative, us, and for the rest of the family out of the area who I'm drawing on for strength and support. 

 

I haven't been able to do much for myself but when I have a little block of time I've gotten back to the towel warp.  The first towels in my last post I used a teal as weft which I loved, here I'm using a rose color as weft. Only 2 towels left to go on the warp at this point. 

Here I've used a lavender weft - I love it. Eventually these towels will end up in my etsy shop but with life the way it is right now I have no clue when I'll get the final 2 towels woven, then all washed, all hemmed and photography done.....just can't worry about it at the moment, taking it one day at a time, when it happens it happens. 

Here are our holiday cards for this year. I chose a quilt theme rather than weaving this year - these are my wonky stars. And I decided I didn't need to use traditional christmas color either so they are all over the place. I like how they turned out. I am so glad I worked on these during the summer so they were ready to go. I also had 9 wonky stars made up in seaglass blue and 9 in apricot/peaches. I was on a roll when sewing so had way more than I needed.  The seaglass and the apricot will end up being miniature wall hangings at some point, maybe I'll hand quilt them.........that small size is about my limit for handquilting........

Happy Holidays

Happy  Holidays from my home to yours

A bit of sewing............

Been busy around here with this and that and now visiting family. I try to sneak in a few minutes here and there to work on our holiday cards - not telling what they are but here are the pieces I'm working on sewing together.  I haven't quite nailed down how the card will go together but getting the sewing done will be the most time consuming part of it.

I really haven't been inspired to blog much these days, I suppose because I have very little creative time in my days. I'm hoping that changes come next week, I'm going to try my best not to let other chores or duties interfere too much. I'm doing pretty good with saying 'NO' these days when asked to volunteer or help with something.

Right down to the wire...........

Sheesh - where does the time go??? I was right down to the wire on getting out all our holiday cards - finally today the last of them went in the mail - hopefully they'll arrive on the east coast by Christmas........if not they can be called a New Year's card. Anyhow, they aren't really cards at all this year - they're fabric ornaments that have a little tag hanging on them with a sentiment on it....sorry, didn't take a photo with the tag on them.

2016 Holiday Cards

Here are this year's holiday cards. It's a 26 harness twill star. I started with a star design from the Complex Weavers compilation publication and then tweaked it to how I wanted to see it woven. The warp is 20/2 perle cotton the weft a similar size metallic thread from my stash.

I used 3 different types of gold scrapbook paper. The top right was my favorite but I only had 2 pages of it in my stash and couldn't find it anywhere - it was a matte gold metallic color. Then the bottom left was a very cool paper, or so I thought since it was found in with the scrapbooking papers........it was actually metal combined with something else, maybe a plastic coating - it was destroying my square punch so I had to toss that idea. Then I found a 24"x36" sheet of the glittery card stock, upper left, that the punch liked and ended up making the majority of the cards out of that.  I cut the bottom edge with deckled scissors and then used a gold metallic marker on the inside so it shows when the card is closed. I neglected to take a photo of the inside - I printed the sentiment on a gold parchment and added it inside.

Found a couple more cross stitch patterns stashed away and have been stitching in the evenings. I also found 8 finished cross stitch projects in need of framing, they've been stashed away for years. Goal next year is to frame some for our bedroom and possibly gift the others.

I've already been working on going through my stash, in small bits of time, and selling, gifting, donating craft supplies I don't use and will never use........someone else might as well enjoy creating with them rather than leaving them to take up space in my studio.

Notecards listed in shop

I just listed 7 different styles of handwoven blank notecards (with envelope) in my etsy shop for sale - they can be found in the Notecard/Greeting Card section of my shop. Many of these will work for holiday cards in addition to everyday all occasion cards. And what a deal - buy 3 cards and I'll throw in a free card of my choice. So much nicer than a plain old mass produced printed paper card for the same amount of money.

Elves hard at work......

I've been absent from making blog posts as I'm been busy in Santa's workshop. Unfortunately I can't show what I've been creating but it's all been at the sewing machine this year, several different projects. I still have a few more gifts to sew but since they're for my mother I've got plenty of time - no mailing involved.

Some fun little gifts.......sorry, can't show what they are but I definitely will after the holidays along with a link to a YouTube video to show how they're made........

......holiday cards from hand-woven fabric in progress......

......and gift bag making. Those Trader Joe's bags I get when I've forgotten to put my reusable shopping bags back in the car don't go to waste - they become my gift bags for the holidays.....my tissue is old sewing patterns, no need to waste that tissue either........

This afternoon I had to run up to the post office and to the store. I pulled the mustang out of the garage and thought, wow, my feet feel so comfy.........well, I looked down and I was wearing my sheep slippers. I felt compelled to go back in the house and put on real shoes. If it were just the small post office 2 miles away I wouldn't have bothered changing but I was going to town to a big store with lots of walking around and it's pouring rain......thought real shoes would be in order.

This and that.........

 Today I spent some time hemming towels. There are 8 of these blue towels that were sold before they were woven.......

 ......and these four are a wedding gift, they are colors being used in the kitchen of the new bride & groom.....I hope they enjoy using them.  This draft is from the Marguerite Davison book, A Handweaver's Pattern Book. I really like it and may eventually weave more.

Yesterday afternoon I pulled out these cones of 10/2 perle cotton for this years Christmas cards. Even though I was tired as heck yesterday afternoon I wound the warp and got it on the loom ready to weave. Late this afternoon I decided to weave the first row to see how they would look - I like them and ended up weaving 3 more rows - each row has enough to make 3 cards. I won't show the cards here until after I mail them out in December but I will take pictures along the way and tell where I got the draft from.........that I altered greatly.........and my alterations are much better than the original.......at least in my mind.........

Very tired of upper 80/low 90 degree temps, still dry as a bone, no rain, fire season still in effect - what happened to autumn???

Progress......

I'm making some progress on my very long to-do list in spite of being out of the house too much lately.......of course this is the list that only covers things that need to be done within the next few weeks, the other list has been set aside and continues to grow in length.

Today I worked on our holiday cards, they're all put together, the weaving is a name draft using the words 'happy holidays'. I still need to print the insert and return address labels which will both have a picture of the weaving on them. Unfortunately the blue cardstock didn't photograph well, it's really not that blue, it matches the blue in the weaving fairly well.

And some crocheting yesterday evening, more this evening.........a project I've been wanting to try but can't reveal at the moment since the first ones will be for a friend......then I'll make more for myself. Will reveal it in a few weeks.........

Hoping later this week to spend some time at the embroidery machine and sewing machine - then most of the holiday gift making will be finished.  I need to plan a baby blanket soon for a gift - I haven't made any in years......used to sell a tremendous number of them but grew bored with weaving them so gave it up......will be fun to plan and work on that project - not needed until mid-January but better to get it done now, I'm not a good last minute worker.  Oh yes, almost forgot I've got a huge Ashland Bay roving order to deal with........been good with ignoring those gigantic boxes so far........need to deal with it before I place the next order.....

I don't usually do this....

I don't usually post pictures of holiday things before they're gifted/go out in the mail but since I have nothing else to show I thought I'd show our Christmas cards in progress - there are two versions. I scanned them because I use the scanned image in miniature on the inside of the card with the greeting. These are machine embroidered on burlap. I worked on these yesterday, hoping to finish up today but need to pick up more deep red cardstock which I'll hopefully find here in town while I'm out doing errands.....then I'll be working on assembly of glueing burlap to cards, putting inserts inside.....then one thing can be marked off the long to-do list. 

I did find out yesterday that not all burlaps are created equal. I'm pulling from my stash and this was the quality burlap - the other is much more loosely woven but still looks great since it's supposed to look primitive and country like. But oh, the dust created from cutting the burlap. I've got the laptop sitting near the machine to run it and had to put a towel over the keyboard to keep the dust off of it even though I was doing the cutting in the other room, there was dust just from it moving in the machine while being stitched. I also used a cotton embroidery thread rather than my usual rayon, that created tons of red lint all over the machine, hoping the inside isn't looking too bad, may need to go in for a cleaning this winter if I can't get to it all.

Very often I weave our cards and I do have a drawing that I want to make into card inserts using my 40 harness AVL but, for me, at this point that is a lengthy process so I chose to not stress myself over it and go this route saving that design for next year.

Now on to thinking about holiday gifts - I'm feeling way behind for those I'm making....actually for those I'm buying too - haven't done a thing - need to work on that to-do list again and get myself organized.