I love my new shawl.........

 I love my new shawl woven from some of my handspun alpaca and silk, the weft was commercial  merino/tencel.  I've been wanting/needing a black shawl..........I was thinking solid black but I'm so glad I decided to use this handspun with all the silk colors in it. I can wear this with practically anything.  Now all I need is for fall and winter to come along as it's hot, hot, hot outside. I'd be quite ok skipping summer which would mean also skipping fire season..........

I put on a handspun warp for 2 scarves and wove the first one. Before weaving the second one I want to see how it feels after washing since I used some handspun weft. If I like it I'll use the same weft for the second scarf, if not I'll find something else. No waste of warp cutting of as the warp I tie back on will become the fringe of the next scarf. Those stripes in the warp aren't from separate skeins, that all one length of handspun blending from one color to the next.

Next up is another warp of handspun for scarves. I'm trying to pull together some items made of my handspun to use in our county fair display this summer. These won't be entered into the fair for judging, just part of our display that we sit in front of and demonstrate spinning during the fair.

So, interesting thing happened yesterday with my new laptop with Windows 10 on it - I lost all my favorites. It may have been a Microsoft update, or it may have been Norton which was running but somehow my favorites disappeared - ack!  Luckily it's not my main computer so it only had around 15 favorites on it for sites I visit regularly while away from home. I've had the laptop for a few months and there had been no issue until yesterday. Has anyone else had this happen?  Was there a way to retrieve your favorites?  And for the record I do not care for Windows 10 - Windows 7 has been great (we know Windows 8 was a bust for MS). Why mess with a good thing? I sure wouldn't have bought a new laptop just because of this new operating system except that my netbook bit the dust..........

PS - is anyone else watching Outlander? The season will be ending all too soon on July 9th.  I heard that Starz has picked up season 3 & 4 with 3 in the works already. I binge watched the first season on DVD when a friend loaned it to me this past winter - I 'had' to sign up for Starz so I could watch the second season as I couldn't possibly wait until it comes out on DVD. 

New scarves in etsy shop

Finally I got photos edited, such as they are, and more scarves listed in my etsy shop.  These aren't necessarily fresh off the loom scarves, they're ones that have been waiting for cooler weather to come around either due to colorways or fibers.  Phew, cross one chore off the list........for now........

Different treadling.......

Got a little time at the loom this afternoon - I tried out a different treadling on the second scarf of the handspun wool/silk scarf warp. I think I like this one better than the first treadling (post of 3/19) - not sure what I'll do for the 3rd scarf, maybe this treadling again, maybe something new. This one is pretty busy.........

Meh

Handspun Merino/Tussah silk awaiting warping and weaving. The lighter shade is a very pale lavender, the darker shade a dusty purple. I spun these a few years ago, just now have I decided to do something with them.

 

Today I planned this warp, an 8 harness draft out of the Strickler book. Comedy of errors in the beginning - I had a crossed thread in the reed which has only happened to me a few times over 28 years so that had to be fixed.....I was beating too hard at first so I unwove, then I didn't notice that one of the tie-rods dropped out of the 3rd treadle, twice, so I unwove, twice. Finally I was getting back into the weaving groove and started thinking maybe I don't like this......but maybe I will once the 3 scarves are off the loom and washed, or at least someone will like them. I love the dusty purple color but the pale lavender looks a little flat to me, there's not as much variation as the dusty purple (I put 3 ends of that dusty purple on the selvedges, hoping it looks good once finished). Maybe I should have gone with the undulating twill draft I was originally looking at......oh well.......meh.....

Yummy feeling.......

This is one of the two scarves that just came off the loom and were washed. The light grey/multi-color in the warp is my handspun from a mystery batt, not sure what's in it other than definitely a soft wool and silk. The black in the warp and weft is commercial alpaca. Yummy feeling - so soft! Too bad pictures can't convey yummy.