Phil the Reeves Pheasant

Here's our new friend, Phil the Reeves Pheasant. Many thanks to Yvonne for finding out what kind of bird he was when we sent her this pic from Sam's cell, she's our resident birder. Phil's been hanging around recently - sometimes hanging with the turkeys, sometimes alone. He seems very lonely as he's not afraid of us and even chased us down the driveway yesterday evening as we drove out. He enjoys being talked to and talks back in a soft melodic song. We're hoping he's not lost from his home, perhaps someone nearby is raising them. Sure hope he roosts in the firs at night like the turkeys so the coyotes don't get him.

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

This is the last painted warp I had hanging in the studio - it's been hanging there for a reason, I haven't been thrilled with the colors. I almost hung it back out of sight but decided to put it on the loom. I've had a few warps like this in the past and once I wove them I loved the resulting scarves.......jury still out on this one. The warp is tencel, the weft is a golden bamboo. The second scarf on the warp I'll use a dusty rose bamboo, I sampled at the beginning of the warp with several colors and like the dusty rose. Since I hadn't tired of this undulating twill pattern from the last scarf I decided to use it for this one too.  Can't wait for it to warm up so I can get outside to dye more warps. I can do the dyeing in the garage in bad weather but I like the natural light much better so I dye enough during the summer to weave on all year. I don't have a plan as I wind warps - I wind enough for scarves but sometimes end up mixing them with solid colors on the loom to make shawls or yardage.

Sale - Hand-dyed Rovings

Thought I'd share the picture of  hand-dyed rovings on sale, 25% off, in my etsy shop. If anyone is interested go to my shop and click on the Sale Section to see them without having to wade through all the other roving. There is superwash merino, merino, falkland, colonial, corriedale cross, blue face leicester, black blue face leicester and wensleydale. These are the last of these colorways - need to make room for new colorways. I can't wait to get back to the dyepots - I keep thinking warm weather is coming but spring got lost somewhere on it's way to Oregon..............

A wintery day of play.........

Yes, I said wintery day of play......what happened to spring??? I remember having 3 or 4 days of it and then we went back to winter - today torrential rains, wind, big hail and tonight the snow level will fall to 2500 ft and freeze warnings in the valley. Guess I'll need to pull all those planters on the deck up against the house or lose all.

So, here's the finished scarf of my handspun merino/tencel warp crossed with a commercial bamboo weft. I had been undecided on the sett and ended up changing it from 15 epi to 18 epi. It turned out beautiful but in hindsight I wish I had left it at 15 epi. The feel of this is 'like butter'. I added some beading in-between the twisted fringes, it doesn't show much which is planned, I didn't want a lot of added color to pop out, I just wanted sparkle. I'm happy with this.

So here was the beginning of my play day.....surface design. I never shop at Penney's but the other night some cute women's t's with cap sleeves caught my eye in the sale ad (sale is still on for a few days). How could I resist? Only $5.99, regular $14.00, just calling out to be embellished. I did keep a couple plain but had to play with the rest. Although not pictured many have a little embellishment on the sleeve or on the back shoulder. I could have gone crazy with the stenciling and silk screening but in reality I don't like that much design, much prefer simple and understated. First was the chartruese t that I bought to wear under this great rayon piece. I used stencils and Shiva Paintstiks - love the way it turned out.

Next was the brown t where I used a ginko stencil sheet and gold, copper and yellow gold paintstiks. The second picture is of the back shoulder.

Then a cute little flower in white paintstik on purple

The lotus blossom is one of the silkscreens I made last year - I used chartruese Lumiere paint. This also has a cute little chinese knot on each sleeve and the back shoulder

And finally on the black t a neat little abstract design in white paintstik with dragonflies in lavendar, green and blue

paintstiks. The second picture is the back shoulder. Since I'm not an experienced photographer I'm not sure why the wavy lines turn up on the body of the t-shirts in these photos. Sometimes it happens when photographing handwovens on the loom too.

Ok, big decision - do I head back to Penney's for more little t's...

Today's weaving

This morning I woke up and decided to put some of my handspun merino/tencel on the loom to weave a scarf in an undulating twill. The handspun is beautiful, it has a sheen I will never be able to catch with the camera. I used black Bambu 7 (bamboo) for the weft. I went back and forth on what to sett the warp at, first thinking 12 epi because of the wool, but then knew that would be too open so I opted for 15 epi. I started weaving some waste yarn to check it out and found it was too loose so out of the reed it came and resleyed to 18 epi. I never have this indecision on sett but then I don't weave as often with wool, my fiber of choice is usually tencel, bamboo, rayon, silk and cotton. It came off the loom a bit ago and wow did the merino/tencel puff up once there was no tension on it - hope my decision to sett at 18epi was a good one. It's now soaking, will hang to dry. Not sure about the fringe until I see it dry but first thought is to twist it and add black sparkley glass beads as embellishment in-between.

Ply me to the moon update

Thought I'd just mention that if anyone is interested in checking out the blog, Ply me to the moon, I put up for my spinning group I just updated it today after taking pix of the latest spinning done. It's just for fun. One member has written a song which we eventually hope to get up on the blog, just need to figure out how to get the video up.

Knitting stitch markers..........

This was my fun activity for part of today - making more knitting stitch markers for sale, 3 different sizes, all kinds of glass beads. New are the alphabet markers. Most are packaged on cards in clear bags ready for sale now (will keep some on hand if someone contacts me about buying them). Trying to get a pile of stuff ready for the shop, Llamas & Llambs, for delivery on Thursday - have the stitch markers, a few handwoven towels, handwoven scarves and inklewoven bookmarks. Boy, I better buckle down and get to weaving, am out of runners, towels and getting low on scarves.

My Friday afternoon............

This is what I sewed this afternoon - box bags that are the perfect size for sock knitting, but they have all sorts of uses. I really wanted to wind a warp and start weaving but needed to work on these for gifts, still have more to make, not sure if I'll keep going right now or wait a month or so to make more.

Cinnamon the sheep.........

Ok, so here's what I worked on while the power was out........plus catching up reading several magazines while laying on the porch swing...........

This is my project for my guild challenge. We each got a scent, mine was cinnamon, that were were supposed to use as inspiration for a fiber related project - it could be handspun, woven, knit, felted, whatever. My first thought was woven coasters using the long cinnamon sticks but they would never go over the front beam of the loom without breaking the sticks and I wasn't about to cut off and re-tie on for each coaster. So, plan b was to use cinnamon sticks for a needlefelted sheep's legs. I could have cheated and used one of two warp painted scarves I already had done that happened to be called cinnamon but I didn't.........

So, before the power went out I quickly sewed up a wool felt sheep body and hot glued the cinnamon stick legs in. Now, this isn't my own idea of the felt body - my friend Karen makes sheep like this using rusted nails for legs and locks (washed sheep's fleece before carding) for the sheep's coat. I knew she wouldn't mind if I made the core of my sheep the same way since I'm not going to be selling any of these (this is my one and only!). Check out her etsy shop, Liongate, to see her adorable sheep for sale, not to mention santas, mice, felted gift tags, fiber, etc. etc.

The first picture is of my sewn and stuffed sheep body as I was just starting to needlefelt his coat on. I don't have locks but I do have hundreds of pounds of Ashland Bay Fiber to choose from, I used the Ecru Colonial Wool. So time consuming to give a slight twist to the roving and needlfelt it on. It took hours!!! (which is why this is my one and only). But I kept with it and my Cinnamon Sheep is adorable - check out the second picture! I still need to sew on a couple of bead eyes but I've played with him enough today.....and 3 of my fingers are smarting from running the felting needle through him. I did learn a valuable lesson - don't be too generous with the hot glue gun glueing in those legs because felting needles don't like them, broke a number of them.

Finished scarves.......

Here is the picture of the latest scarves to come off the loom - rayon, tencel and a novelty ribbon. I had originally planned to twist the fringes but seeing how pretty the ribbon is I'm not sure........will think on it.

I'm still planning my day - power company notified us last week that today the power will be shut off at 10am until at least 3pm - they've been replacing poles and wire for weeks, not sure what the activity is for today requiring no power. That means not enough light for winding a warp, threading heddles and starting to weave, no power for the sewing machine but most important no power for the well pump and for internet - yikes! I have filled the tubs with water to flush toilets and have filled numerous water bottles and pitchers. So, the question is what to do....other than going out shopping (not my favorite activity). So, I'm quickly sewing up a sheep body before power goes out that I can stuff and needlefelt it today as my other guild yearly challenge (will post pictures and explanation later.....if it turns out). Since it's already a beautiful day looks like I'll spend much of it out on the deck enjoying the flowers planted yesterday - will spin, knit, read. I can hook up little speakers to my mp3 player or CD player - all run on batteries. Should be a very nice day.

Flowers.........

Ok, so haven't had any weaving to share for a bit although I did finish up the scarf warp that I posted about last week. Scarves are in soaking now, will post pictures once dry. Took some time away from our valley - we left Friday for Bandon by the Sea over on the coast. Great weekend, beautiful weather. Played catch up and wove a bit on Monday, weaving guild meeting yesterday.....end of the year potluck luncheon and recycling challenge, and then today got more weaving time in and planted my deck flowers. I've got a total of 3 hanging baskets, 4 deck rail planters, 4 potted plants.....one empty, ran out of flowers, and then the 3 pots of lettuces that were planted a while ago. Still need to get some basil to plant in with the lettuce so when that starts bolting and basil will take over. In a month or so they should be starting to look really full and loaded with blooms. It's looking like maybe (hope, hope) spring has returned and my flowers are safe from frost - not so sure I can say the same about the peach and italian plum trees........am hoping we have fruit this year. Think I'll go lay out on the deck swing and enjoy the blooms of my labor..............

It's been a while but I haven't been idle.......

It's been a little while since I last posted but I've been busy. Last weekend I took a doubleweave workshop with Jannie Taylor (AVL teacher). It was great - a lot of information pouring into my head in a short period of time. Enjoyed it very much, learned much. Have a ton of warp left on my loom - my pattern was overshot doubleweave......will have to think on what I can do with that narrow warp in those colors - ice blue and fuschia - yikes!

This is the latest warp on the loom - tencel and rayon slub the main part of the warp with a supplemental warp of a space dyed ribbon. I like the way it's coming out. The first picture I used the mauve tencel as the weft. The second picture I'm using the gold rayon slub as weft. Am not thinking the rayon slub as weft is my favorite but once washed I may really like it. Not sure what the third scarf will be - am thinking a dusty lavendar or purple.....will play with colors when I get there. Since these aren't woven tightly I was a bit worried about weft shifting as it went over the front beam so I was prepared to put something over the beam to remedy it......ended up not being a problem at all.

It's been a good day.......

Today was a good day in spite of it feeling like winter once again - morning walk with Bailey found torrential rains and hail, snow dusting the hills just above us. After my shoulders recovered from morning yoga practice, phew instructors are working us harder lately, I put minestrone in the crockpot, got laundry started (never ending, isn't it?) and finally got to putting a painted warp on the loom.

This is one of the last two painted warps that's been sitting around waiting for me to weave. Just about time to start thinking about winding many new warps in different fibers to dye for future projects. My favorite fibers for painted warps are bamboo, tencel, rayon and silk. The fiber here is Bambu 7 (bamboo). The weave structure is basically a twill, a two tie unit based on a draft in the book '60 Scarves, 60 Years' published by the Baltimore Weaver's Guild recently. I took liberties with the draft - after putting it into my weaving computer program, WeaveIt Pro, I started manipulating it to make it my own. This is what I came up with. There's enough warp for 2 scarves, this first one I'm crossing with a bamboo weft in purple. At the beginning of the warp I also tried an inch using a silver grey bamboo - haven't decided yet if I'll use that for the second warp or not. Using a light color like that may wash out the scarf....will think on it.

So, when Bailey wasn't laying in the studio snoozing while I was weaving he was laying on 'his' bed in the guest room. He loves the big picture window where he can survey part of his property and keep watch on those turkeys, deer and the hated squirrels.

Upcycled bag............

My recyled guild challenge is finished - I think it turned out just fine and I ended up liking the lining fabric I bought although I was questioning my choice yesterday. It's a huge tote bag - perfect for it's intended job of toting things out to the RV for weekend trips.......longer trips I use a bigger duffel. I can see things I would have done differently colorwise now that I know the clear plastic bags add a lot of  'white' to the weaving. Before I did the sewing I had visions of making lots of these bags, although a more normal size tote, since I seem to have a large growing supply of the bags from my fiber orders...........but the sewing wasn't all that much fun so will have to think more on that idea.

The other guild challenge is due in June - that one we have to create something inspired by a scent we received - I have cinnamon. I do have my idea for that - just need to execute and hope it works - pictures to come when I get around to it. First it's back to weaving - scarf inventory is getting a bit low.

Recycled weaving revisted..........

So I finished weaving the fabric for my recycled weaving fabric a bit ago - it's 3/2 perle cotton warp crossed with a plastic bag strip weft - the plastic bags are what my Ashland Bay orders come in - each color in a bag by itself. So, I searched and searched for a fabric lining and decided on the cotton fabric on the right. Well, that searching was done with just pieces of the chartreuse & black perle cotton, I didn't take into account how much lighter the woven fabric looks with the plastic bags....guess I should have just schelped the woven fabric with me to the store. If I have something more suitable in my fabric stash I'll use it, otherwise I go with this. The hold up for starting to sew was weaving the matching inkle band for straps. I want the straps to go all the way down the sides of the bag to the bottom so it's stronger. I'd pretty much been ignoring the warped up inkle loom until this afternoon when I wove like crazy to get the almost 5 yards of band woven. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to the sewing machine.

Twisting fringe the fast way......

I thought I'd share how I twist fringe the fast way. Since I do a lot of it I need for it to be quick and efficient. I was so thrilled a number of years ago when there was a new hair craze (I think for little girls) of twisting hair. Many stores/drugstores had the Conair Hair Twister.....and a few months later when the fad died out they were on clearance. All of us local weavers hit the stores buying them up.And you know, of course, I bought a second one just in case the first broke and I couldn't find anymore.  It's battery operated, batteries last a long time in it. Now, of course, they've disappeared but I did hear from someone that they found another brand on Amazon - search under hair twister or hair braider for it.  I do have one of the manual fringe twisters made by a weaver, it's really nice but not as fast and requires extra work on my part, not to mention need 2 hands.

I start out by laying the item on my rotary cutting board - it's great because of the marked off inch gridlines that make it easy to measure where to tie the knot so they're all the same length. I do put weight on the fabric end to keep it from moving....usually whatever is handy, like cones of yarn. I insert the 2 sections to be twisted into the ends of the fringe twister. I push the button forward and it twists the fringe.

Then I push the the button in the opposite direction and the entire head of the unit twists in the other direction to twist them together (see below). It is so fast! What a lifesaver. Usually my knots aren't tied that short but this is a throw and I didn't think having a long fringe was the best for it.

AFter all the twisting is finished I pull out my rotary cutter and trim the ends to a perfect length. Usually I use a longer ruler but I was too lazy to walk in the other room to get the longer one sitting next to the sewing machine. Below is a picture of the finished fringe along with the fringe twister (hair twister). I twisted lots of fringe yesterday working on two chenille throws.

Currently on the wheel............

This is my current spinning, since I usually only spin in my spinning group and when demo'ing it will take a while to get this spun. This is some of my hand-dyed merino roving. It's a dream to spin. Unfortunately for anyone interested in this colorway this is all there is. I do have others for sale in my etsy shop.

Hoping today to get the fringe twisted on the chenille throws.

A beautiful spring day.......finally......

I tried to get pictures of the hummingbirds as they landed on the feeder today, pictures are just so-so but I thought I'd share them anyhow. The picture of the one sitting on the oak tree branch is not very clear at all, it was very far away but it caught the beautiful color of his throat - Sam took that picture. For the pix at the feeder I was sitting just 4 feet away, both Bailey and I can be very still and quiet as to not bother the birds - they dive bomb us if we're too noisy.

So, today I got a bit done that I'd be waiting for the weather to warm up to do. I washed the two chenille throws and let them dry over towels hanging over the deck railing (no pix). I washed and blocked the crocheted shawl made from my garden party handspun. I also washed the handwoven recycled bag fabric (no pix) - still need to work on the inkle band though so not ready to sew it together yet. And I did do a tiny bit of weaving - a few more samples on the warp from the summer and winter workshop. The red/black/white is two color dukagang. And the asian symbol for happiness was done in dukagang pickup. Am hoping to find some time tomorrow to play with more sampling on that warp.

I'm back.........

I'm back, been absent this week attending a Summer & Winter weaving workshop taught by Linda Davis of Sisters, OR. I learned a tremendous amount about designing and some of the many different treadlings available to use with this weave structure. My samples are still on the table loom as I want to try out some other treadling variations. Hopefully I can get to that early next week since I need to get that warp off the loom and the next one on for a doubleweave workshop with Jannie Taylor (instructor for AVL) in 2 weeks. Maybe next year my two guilds will communicate better and not have workshops this close together.

So today I need to get the inkle loom warped up to weave the handles for my recycled bag project - will do the actual weaving in the evening. Then it's back to the chenille throw warp, need to finish weaving it off, wash the throws and twist the fringes so they get to the customer who ordered them.

I've still got a sale going in my etsy shop on hand-dyed roving - these are the last of these colorways. They're in the Sale Section of my shop and are marked at 25% off. These are pix of some of what's available. There is also lots of other roving in the shop that I have larger quantities of.

Sample spinning............

The only spinning I've done lately is more samples of Ashland Bay Fibers. Most of these are merino, a couple colonial, merino/bamboo and merino/tussah. This spinning is very fun, spin a bit of a color, andean ply it and then move on to the next color. This is the last of the samples to be spun for a while so I'll have to pick out something from the stash for my next spinning.