Bits & bobs.......

 Finally the quilt top I started a couple years ago made it to a long arm quilter in January - don't ask me why it took me so long to get it to someone. I took it to Sew Cute Quilting & Fabric Boutique in Dillard, OR - we pass it on our way to and from the coast. If it hadn't been that convenient it may still be sitting in the basket with the backing and batting.  This morning I got the binding sewn on - I love these little clips - so much easier than using pins on something like this.

 My mitered edges turned out great - I cut the corners  off the quilt so it wouldn't get stepped on as we walk around the bed. Here the binding is turned to the back ready for the final hand-stitching. Yes, I could stitch in the ditch and catch the backside of the binding but I really like not seeing that machine stitching in the binding. Once it makes it onto the bed at the beach cottage I'll take a photo again. It's hard to see in the pictures but the quilting is a sealife design with shells, sand dollars, starfish and kelp.

 I spent some time sewing yesterday making some snap bags. The tops have metal measuring tape inside the casings so the tops can be pulled out and snap back closed. These three go with a tote bag I made a couple years ago. I also made 4 more small ones in various stages of construction. I'll be leading our neighborhood American Sewing Guild group in how to make them later in March. I took photos along the way so I can give each person written directions too.

This painted silk warp went on the loom the other day but other than auditioning wefts I haven't gotten back to it. This is a dye job gone awry. I mixed that purple dye with varying amounts of gold dye hoping to get more of an ombre feel but it didn't come out as expected. So, after sitting for 2 years on the shelf I decided to just put it on the loom and get it woven. I've got enough for 3 scarves - I'll vary some wefts and also vary treadlings. I'm hoping once woven I'll like them better than I am right now........I could easily take that purple out of the warp, not sure I want to do that though.

More weaving - whoo hoo!

It's been a great 4 days - other than running orders to the post office I have spent 4 days at home weaving. This makes me so happy, it's where I want to be, nesting at home, nesting in my studio.

This morning I tied on another painted warp and auditioned wefts. I decided to go with, from the top, the forest green and the deep red/rust just below it. The first scarf was the deep red/rust weft woven using the treadling that creates the above pattern............of course, I forgot to take a photo of it.

Here is the scarf using the forest green as weft and a change in treadling. I decided to see what would happen if I wove 2 repeats of the treadling and then reversed it for 2 repeats and kept repeating that - I liked it. I'm actually thinking I may like this for a towel warp. This scarf is much prettier in person, it's kind of washed out in the photo.

Although I have another painted warp to go on the loom it won't happen until sometime next week - life is interfering and I won't get much time in the studio, maybe a little here and there so I can get the warp on but probably no weaving.  It was great while it lasted..........

 💘💘💘  Happy Valentine's Day  💘💘💘

I'm on a roll............

I'm on a roll with these painted warps. Although I'm not excited with the autumn colored ones I'm going to knock them out. These 5 painted warps have been sitting on the shelf for too long so it's time to get them woven..........then I won't feel guilty when the weather warms up and I want to paint more warps!

Here's the second scarf on yesterday's warp - got it woven off this morning

And this afternoon this painted warp went on the loom. I'm ready to start auditioning wefts for the 2 scarves on this warp - so far I've got 5 colors to try. This warp is tencel like the one above.

Next painted warps up are a silk one in golds/purple and another tencel one in autumn colors. I'm taking advantage of time I'm getting in the studio this week - it used to be the norm but life seems to have gotten in the way the past couple of years. And with this time in the studio I decided it was time to start listening to an audio book, #4 in the Outlander series, Drums of Autumn - there are 38 discs - I've listened to 7 so far.

Another painted warp

Another painted warp on the loom....this one tencel....2 scarves worth.....first scarf woven

Finally weaving.........

 I finally got some time at the loom to weave this 3 scarf warp off. I painted/dyed the warp months and months ago, it's a cotton/rayon blend. I used tencel for the weft in all 3 scarves. These are a bit thicker/heavier than I usually weave scarves but I'm sure they'll be lovely once washed. Above a rust weft.

 Here's a tan weft

Here's a mauvey/rust weft

Finally.......something on the loom......

 It's been a while but this afternoon I put a painted warp on the loom. This one a cotton/rayon blend. Here I've got it wound on the back beam. I've got 4 or 5 painted warps in the studio that have sat neglected for a couple years - not sure why other than the fact that they all seem to be autumn colors and I haven't been in the mood to weave those colors.

Threading the heddles

Auditioning wefts, not the green at the bottom, that was just waste yarn to spread out the warp. Will think on this a bit longer before deciding which 3 I'll use, or maybe just 2 of them making 2 of the 3 scarves the same.......don't have to decide that tonight.

Lavender Fields Scarves

New hand-dyed, handwoven, tencel scarves in my etsy shop - a turned twill design



A bit of weaving

A bit of weaving happened today........finally. Two baby blankets woven, one to go. This is tough weaving for me - the reach is a bit more than my arms are comfortable with so I can't weave too long. Can't wait to get these off the loom but tomorrow is supposed to be lovely outside so may have to work in the yard instead.

 Recently woven scarves finally photographed and listed in my etsy shop. Above hand-dyed tencel in a twill weave structure.

Chartreuse rayon chenille with a few stripes of novelty yarn in purple, teal and blue. I like this one so much I'm keeping one for myself..........chartreuse is one of my favorite colors if not my all time fav.

Another rayon chenille scarf in two shades of seafoam green. Fibonacci striping in the warp. Half the weft is the lighter shade of seafoam, half is the darker shade. The colors are very close so it's a subtle difference.

Not really the time of year to be listing chenille scarves for sale but that's what I'm weaving on the loom at the beach cottage right now so I might as well put them in the shop.

New scarves in the shop

The two recently woven scarves are finished and up for sale in my etsy shop. They turned out great although, once again, I was having trouble capturing the colors.  And why does my white background get a pink tint sometimes??? I took these pix within minutes of each other, same lighting.  They can be found in the 'scarves' section of my shop........or by scrolling through everything else on the main page to find them.

Back to the sticky warp

Today I was able to get back to the rayon flake scarf warp. This is the second scarf on the warp, I'm using an olive tencel for the weft. Weaving is done, washing and twisting fringe up next.

I just updated my 'Other Stuff for Sale' page on the blog with a couple knitting items - the Carmen Bananas Knitting kit from Knit Picks and a Noni Just Pockets pattern and 19 zippers to knit and felt little bags. I'm really trying to clean out my studio and be realistic about what I'll actually get to in my lifetime. When I determine something needs a new home it will show up here on the blog and/or in my etsy shop. I'm not on a all out cleaning out binge, when I come across something I re-access if it will actually get used here or not. Both of these are also listed in my fiber etsy shop and be bought there or by contacting me directly.

Sticky warp

Yesterday I spent the afternoon planning out painted warps - now they're each sitting in a bag with their drafts ready to weave at a moment's notice. 

This is the first up - it's a rayon flake warp. Each time I dye rayon flake warps I tell myself don't do it, the flake areas love to stick to each other after the dyeing/rinsing process making it very slow to wind on the back beam. This time I'm going to try and remember that when it comes time to dye more warps.....someone knock me on the side of my head if I say I'm winding a rayon flake warp to paint/dye.  So, this first scarf I'm using a forest green for the weft, I thought the next scarf would be a wine weft but now I'm thinking a dark chartreuse. I did sample at the beginning of the warp.....but often change my mind after I start weaving. This is a simple 4H broken twill.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 11

 Here's Day 11 - I can't believe this fun is almost over. But then I do get to ply all of it as soon as I figure out what I'm plying it with..........

 ..........someone should give me a pat on the back for not peeking ahead in the packages and staying with the program........I didn't have to, I could have done what I wanted, but it was kind of fun to do what the plan was for this fiber.......my friend Kathy who had it all spun up really fast and is on to plying.......other friend Cathy is drop spindling hers so she hasn't peeked ahead.

Since today was another snow day I wove a couple scarves from a painted rayon flake warp I dyed. I forgot to take a photo of the second warp - I used a royal blue tencel weft for that one. I really like rayon flake but it probably wasn't the best choice for a painted warp. In the painting/rinsing/drying process the flake areas of the warp all stuck together which made this really hard to wind on the loom through the lease sticks........it was slow going..........but the end result will be lovely.

Tomorrow is another snow day for me as I won't venture out on the roads or down our long steep driveway yet. My Outback will drag on the snow on the 1/3 mile of drive and I'm worried about sliding off into the ravine.......but I think by Friday I can get out, I've sure enjoyed being housebound.........well, I guess it's not really housebound, I have left the house, just not the property.........

Snow day

It's still snowing. Earlier today it stopped for around 15 minutes so I thought it was over but no, the blizzard started up again. And it stopped again this past hour but now it's snowing again. So, I guess it's another snow day.......or maybe it will be a snow week at this rate.  I'm just grateful that we didn't lose power. No new snow pix because it just looks like yesterday multiplied by many inches.

I wove on a painted tencel warp today. This scarf I used a dark teal tencel for the weft...

.....and this scarf a burnt orange tencel for the weft

I listened to an audio book while weaving. Now it's time to figure out dinner, then spinning day 9 fiber after dinner.......life is good..........as long as we don't lose power........

A bit of weaving...........

 Today I was able to get a little time at the loom so wove off the second scarf on the painted tencel warp. Both are washed and hanging to dry.

Friend Theresa gifted me a very fun cookie cutter with Bailey's name - whoops, meant to take a photo of the cookie cutter, just realized I didn't......oh well.  Anyhow I made some 'cookies' for Bailey. What Theresa doesn't know is that I'm cookie cutter challenged. This is the best one out of the bunch - Bailey doesn't mind that the others have crazy compound fractured legs or giraffe necks - they still taste very yummy.

Finally........

 Finally a bit of time at the loom.  I put on a painted tencel warp, enough for 2 scarves. It's a 20 harness design, originally more harnesses from out of the Complex Weavers book but I turned the draft at which time it became 20.  Above I'm auditioning wefts. Definitely the dark teal for one scarf, still deciding between the lavender or light teal for the second scarf.

Here's the dark teal scarf. The painted warp is very subtle, on purpose, in pale shades of sea glass......well, not the colors of sea glass I find on the Oregon coast beaches but the colors I see in jewelry which is probably man made sea glass............

More painted warps

Warps painted/dyed yesterday now rinsed out and hanging to dry. I hope I can squeeze in time to wind more warps and get them dyed before the weather turns........which won't be too soon for me, I'm tired of this heat and fire season........unfortunately we have at least 5 more weeks of this if we get rain at the end of September..........if...........

Painted warps

 Yesterday I painted/dyed some warps for future weaving......this morning I rinsed, and rinsed, and rinsed them out. Mostly rayon or tencel. The couple of short ones are 5/2 cotton tied in a skein in the perfect size for putting on my inkle loom, I thought it might be fun to inkle weave some painted warps......I'll add some solid colors to them when I warp the inkle loom.  One of the short ones is ikat dyed - holey cow does it ever take a long time to tie those ikat choke ties.....not to mention removing them once it dries.

I had more warps to paint/dye today - here's one just painted ready to have the plastic put over top and rolled up to sit and batch until tomorrow morning when I wash it and the others out. Sometimes I paint a warp for two scarves, like here, sometimes for three scarves. I always vary the wefts so the scarves look a bit different woven up. Me, being in production mode most of the time would love to paint longer warps but I really don't want that many similar colorways for my scarves - I want more one of a kind.

More ice dyeing.....

Just a bit more ice-dyeing - love the hot pink in this.......

.....love the subtle lavenders and blues in this one......

.......and this one with the lavenders and grey blues has really caught my eye......I've listed it in my shop but am still giving thought to keeping it..........if it sells soon then it wasn't meant to be but if it sticks around it's definitely mine.......or may end up being mine anyhow........

So I decided to try out ice-dyeing on a warp (for you non-weavers, a warp is the lengthwise threads that go on a loom for weaving). Usually I paint (dye with brushes) warps for weaving but thought I'd see what happens with ice-dyeing. It's not what I expected. I guess I thought it might be more mottled like ice-dyeing fabric. There are some color differences but not much. This warp is just for one scarf as it was an experiment. The fiber is a blend of cotton and rayon. So, I'll put it on the loom soon and weave it off and see how I like the effect - will it have a watercolor effect? or just look almost a solid shade of green? How it turns out will determine if I ice dye a warp again.

I have more silk/rayon shawls to dye - some ice-dyed, some with ombre effects but I need to set those aside until sometime next week as I've got other things that need attention first.

I'm coming down the homestretch on the gingko shawl. I took it to work on at my spinning group yesterday - big mistake as I'm down to the lace rows which include a gingko leaf. I ended up backing out two rows, last night here at home I reknit those and knit one more row so not much to show for my day.

On the loom.........

In-between massive loads of laundry I got another painted warp on the loom. I threaded it to an 8 harness two block twill, both warp and weft are 8/2 tencel.

Here's the first scarf - I'm using a black tencel weft

Second scarf which I almost got finished I'm using a sage green weft

 

 

Another great day......

I've been having some good studio 'nesting' days lately. Today was another great day as I finally wove off a painted warp that's been sitting on the AVL for months. Obviously selling roving is getting in the way of my first love......weaving.

I found this draft on handweaving.net. I don't remember the name of it off hand and would have to walk down the stairs to the studio to get it.......and I've already gone up and down the stairs 3000 times today.......if someone is interested in knowing the name of it please leave a comment and I'll get it posted later - it is a 16 harness draft. Fuchsia weft here.

Here's the same fuchsia weft at the next color change on the warp. I forgot to take a picture at the final color change.......oh well........

Here's the start of the second scarf on the warp, rust weft here. Warp and wefts are 8/2 tencel.

This is the next painted warp to go on the loom. This will be woven in an 8 harness two block twill. I'm loving these colors I dyed........if one of the finished scarves speaks to me once woven I may have to keep it for myself. This is the next painted warp in the queue but might not be the next warp to go on the loom. I also want to get a shawl warp on the loom. But then there are the holiday cooking and get togethers so nothing will be happening right away.......