The Open Shed

Reasa's Scarf

2011-03-27T17:46:00.004-04:00

I have fallen terribly behind on keeping track of my projects, so it's time to catch up!

This scarf was woven for my cousin Reasa. The warp is painted by Carrie May in her Autumn Harvest colorway. It is 8/2 Tencel sett at 24 epi. The weft is brown wool crepe from Habu.

The draft for this scarf was inspired by and is very similar to Jill's scarf. It is a straight threading on 12 shafts, with a plaited tie up and an advancing twill treadling. When I wove Jill's scarf (and its sample), I noticed that it had a tendency to collapse slightly. I thought that maybe I could use the same thing successfully with an overtwisted weft, and it worked! I love the way the plaited tie-up created subtle curves, rather than the straight linear pleats seen in an eight shaft 3/1/1/3 collapse piece. Bonnie Inouye's Advance! workshop really gave me the tools to design this.

Robyn Spady Fab Four Workshop

2010-09-24T18:17:00.005-04:00

Last weekend, our guild was fortunate to have Robyn Spady present her Fab Four workshop. This was a round robin workshop of four shaft structures. It was a great workshop. Robyn was so thoughtful, organized, and generous. Everyone in our group, from beginner through advanced, got something out of the workshop. I came home wanting to try all kinds of things, especially diversified plain weave, cannele, swivel, and overshot-patterned double weave. Below are a few of the samples I wove.

Corduroy:

Cannele (with different cell sizes):
Overshot patterned double weave (top) and turned swivel (middle, light weft, and bottom, dark weft)

Swivel:

Diversified plain weave:Some ideas I'm thinking of... Diversified plainweave towels, table runner; cannele place mats; swivel, framed like needlepoint for my walls; a messenger bag with corduroy on the front... I wonder if I ought to quit my day job...

Robyn was also kind enough to go through her presentation on making jewelry from thrums. She had a lot of great ideas, and I was glad to order a copy of her new monograph on that topic. I'm thinking maybe I could invite some of my non-weaver friends to a jewelry-making party to use up some thrums!

Scarf inspired by Advance! workshop

2010-09-24T17:57:00.006-04:00

Last year our guild hosted a workshop with Bonnie Inouye, and the topic was "Advance!". The workshop left me with so many ideas. For this project, I took an advancing points threading and wove it as overshot, to try my hand at weaving curves. The the warp and ground weft were a rayon / flax blend, and the pattern weft was a hand-painted bamboo / silk blend. I liked the idea of a shimmery pattern over a matte background. This was a lot of fun to weave; I enjoyed choosing the directions of the curves as I went. On the loom, the scarf looked very cool. After I finished it and looked at it from a distance, I wasn't as impressed. I can see that I definitely need more practice weaving the curves to make them appear smoother. In some places, they look a little abrupt to me. But I'm happy I tried it and intend to practice some more. And I will enjoy wearing my new scarf! :-)

This sideways photo shows the front of the scarf:

And this one shows the front and the back:

Scarf for Jill

2010-07-20T20:47:00.007-04:00

It has been more than a year since I bought a 4 shaft extension kit for my Louet Spring. Life happened, and I just recently installed it, giving me 12 shafts in all. My plan is to work through "Exploring Multishaft Design", but first, I wanted to make something. I decided on a straight threading. I used a plaited tie up from Bonnie Inouye's "Advance!" workshop handout. I played with several treadlings and chose advancing points. I first tried to weave a scarf with slubby rayon, but the texture of the yarn hid the pattern. I cut off that warp and used Bambu 12 instead. I sleyed it at 30 epi. I used the color cilantro for the warp and coral for the weft. I am trying to weave scarves for all of the girls in my family, and those colors made me think of my cousin Jill.

I was a little anxious about whether I could comfortably use 14 treadles, but that was no problem at all. The loom squeaked some when I treadled, so I used a little silicone spray on the rollers. That did the trick.

I actually remembered to measure the scarf before I gave it away. It was 5 5/8" x 70 1/2" on the loom and 5 3/8" x 67 1/2" after finishing. I added some of the coral yarn to the cilantro fringe. The cilantro by itself just stood out way too much.

I had a hard time getting any good pictures of it because they yarn reflected the light so much. Here is a shot showing both sides:
And here is a picture showing the front in more detail:
I was pleased with the way it turned out, and, more importantly, so was Jill!

Organic Cotton Towels - M's and O's

2010-07-15T12:41:00.006-04:00

I've fallen behind on my record keeping, so now it's time to catch up! A couple of months ago, I wove a set of kitchen towels in M's and O's, using a 10/2 organic cotton sampler from Chamomile Connection. I needed to make some gift towels, so I wove a set of four. Two were for me to give as (another!) wedding gift. Another was for my grandma to give to her cleaning lady. Grandma is quite fond of her, and she has admired a couple of towels that I have made for Grandma. The last, I kept for myself.
I was inspired to weave these some scarves in a recent issue of Handwoven. They were M's and O's with different stripes in the warp. I thought that would be a good way to use the little bits of different colors that were in the sampler.

Here is a shot of the towels on the loom. The colors are really subtle.

And here are a couple of the towels after washing in hot water, detergent, and washing soda. The colors are much more vibrant. I used a different color of weft on each towel.

Linen Huck Lace Runner

2010-04-28T12:17:00.005-04:00

I recently wove a gift for another wedding. This bride is very feminine and traditional. She and her new husband love antiques and have a home that he restored. So, I naturally chose a lace weave for them. I used Bockens 16/2 linen sett at 18 epi. I chose to weave it on my Baby Wolf. I have two reeds that will fit that loom: 8 dpi and 12 dpi. With the 8 dpi, I could sley 2/2/2/3 for 18 epi, and with the 12 dpi, I could sley 1/2 for 18 epi. Thinking it looked more even overall, I chose the 8 dpi reed. In retrospect, I see that this was the wrong choice. I could see reed marks after finishing the runner. I'm sure they weren't noticeable to the bride and groom, but I could see them. I see now that sleying 1/2 would have allowed the warp ends to move more evenly during finishing than the 2/2/2/3 allowed the one odd end en every fourth dent to move. The draft is from page 12 of The best of Weaver's Huck Lace.

I wove a sample as well, and used part of it to make a card to go with the gift:

This was my first experience in weaving with linen. After hearing horror stories about it, I was a little apprehensive, but the apprehension was unnecessary. It behaved very well. I didn't spray the warp with water or soak the bobbins. The weft did have a tendency to jump off the bobbin when it was full. I think either soaking the bobbin or using an EFS would have taken care of that. I should also note that we had a humidifier running in the next room, as we normally do in the winter.

Canvas weave wedding gift

2010-01-18T19:42:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine got married a couple of weeks ago. Her engagement was very short, and she didn't give us much notice before the wedding. I'm glad the reception was a week after the wedding, so I had a chance to finish the towels I was making her. There wasn't much time to spend designing the towels as I would have liked, so I just chose a draft from Davison that I had used for towels before. I had woven it before and liked it. It had an interesting pattern and used just one shuttle, so I went with it. It was a canvas weave, Swarthmore Check, on page 69. I used 8/2 unmercerized cotton in green and beige. The label says "KARDED COT 8/2POE". The yarn was pretty friendly to use. The only thing I noticed about it was in the semi-plainweave hems, there was a ton of tracking. That might be fun to play with another time. The towels shrunk noticeably after I washed them, but, of course, I forgot to measure them before I gave them away. I took a piece from the sample and made a card similar to the ones here, but with a heart-shaped opening. I forgot to take a picture of the card, too! I did manage to snap a couple of pics of the towels, so I will leave you with them.

Christmas Cards

2010-01-18T19:27:00.005-05:00

I turned those summer & winter bookmarks I was making into Christmas cards. I only finished seven before Christmas, just enough to send to the board members of our guild and to my weaving teacher.

I just stuck the bookmark to the front of a card with some double sided tape and rubber stamped "Peace on Earth" next to it. I thought they turned out fairly well, and a couple of recipients told me how pleased they were. :)

I learned a couple of things. First, I'm glad I used a loom with texsolve heddles because I still several warp ends break. Second, I found out that I didn't really do my research on S&W very well before I started. I had mentioned that I planned to try treadling in x's, o's, singles, and duckagang-fashion. Well, it turns out that real S&W has vertical "blocks" that consist of four picks, ABAB. I designed these with vertical "blocks" that consisted of just two picks, AB. So I just treadled as singles and went with it. If I had more time, I might have played around with it some more, but that darn calendar kept me moving. I think if I weave Christmas cards again, I will weave something that goes a little faster!

"It is more blessed to give than to receive"

2009-12-07T19:32:00.005-05:00

It's the time of year in which many of us think about helping those in need. This year, in my town, where the local economy depends heavily on Chrysler and GM, there is no shortage of opportunities to give. I was afraid that this year, having taken a cut in pay, I wouldn't be able to help much, but when I received a list of needs for some local senior citizens, I was inspired. The list included the normal socks, puzzle books, sweatshirts, and... knitting supplies! I immediately thought of my stash of handspun. Over the past couple of years, I have accumulated quite a few skeins for which I had no particular project in mind. So I washed the skeins that looked useable (not my beginnery handspun), wound them into balls, and took them to work to be included in the gift bags for the seniors. I can't tell you how good it felt! After hearing the stories of some of these seniors, many of whom have no family or friends to care for them, I was amazed to think that something I made could touch them.

Earlier this year, I decided to play with echo weave. I wove two scarves on one warp using Mora yan. They turned out pretty well. Since I'm getting to the point where I have more scarves than I can wear, I decided to donate them to a local charity auction, and they were sold this weekend. Those scarves are pictured below:

I was hesitant to write this post because I don't want to pat myself on the back and talk about how good and generous I am. But my hope is that someone may read this and be inspired to use their own talents to reach out to others in their own, individual way. If you aren't sure where to start, I would suggest contacting a local church or the United Way in your area. They can surely direct you to someone who would be encouraged by your gift of fiber (or whatever else). If you have any other ideas for giving, please leave a comment!

Guild Challenge

2009-11-22T15:14:00.004-05:00

This year, our guild's design challenge consisted of drawing three cards. Each one gave instructions with respect to weave structure, color, or fiber. We all had to weave something based on the cards we drew. I had to do plainweave, no more than two colors, and weft heavier than the warp. My first thought after I drew those cards was, "yuck, how boring!" I decided that to make it a little more interesting, I would bend the rules a little, and use several values of one color. Since I have very little experience dying, I consulted "Hands on Dying" and decided to follow the instructions for the first project in that book, which should yield four values of the same color, using Rit or Cushing dye. I thought it would be fun to do some clasped weft weaving with the light and dark colors of weft.

To meet the grist requirements for the warp and weft, I chose some natural 10/2 cotton as warp and some worsted weight cotton as weft. I figured with a heavier weft, I would make some placemats or a table runner. I bought Hobby Lobby brand worsted weight cotton, and I was pretty impressed with it. It is much softer (and I think nicer) than sugar 'n cream cotton, and on sale, it cost less for me to buy several skeins of the Hobby Lobby cotton than it would bave cost to buy a cone of the same weight of sugarn 'n cream. For the dye, I chose Rit in Apple Green.

Anyway, I took the heavy cotton, skeined it, and dyed it according to the instructions in the book. I left the warp cotton natural. A couple of things happened when I did the dying, and, please, keep in mind that I am a very inexperienced dyer. First, the difference in value of each skein was barely discernable. I suspect that this was because the dye I chose to use had a relatively light value to begin with. Since I needed to get moving on the project to meet the due date, I decided just to use what I had and weave something a little plainer without the clasped weft.

The other thing that happened during the dyeing was that when I skeined the yarn, I tied the choke ties too tight. This left some very light spots throughout the skein. Even though this was a mistake, it worked to my advantage. Since the idea of using light and dark yarns to do clasped weft was out, the light spots in the yarn added some interest.

Then I started weaving a placemat in plainweave. It was just OK. The worst part was the selvedges. I don't normally weave with such heavy yarns, and had a horrible time getting nice selvedges. I decided that one placemat of this was enough to fulfill the guild challenge requirements and that I would weave a runner in a different structure. At that point, I wished that I had threaded for rosepath instead of 1, 2, 3, 4. I really didn't want to rethread, so I consulted Davison's book to see what else I could do with that threading. I wove a couple of samples and settled on Joseph France's "Ribs Three & One" on page 7. This was like a plainweave, except three of the warp ends acted as one. I liked the way this looked a lot better, and for some reason, the selvedges looked a lot better with this structure. I'm sure I didn't do anything differently, so I'm not sure what made the difference.

The runner looked fine, but I don't see myself doing much more like that. I'm looking forward to getting back to weaving with some finer yarns. I do think, though, that something similar might be nice for some hand towels since it's nice and soft. I may have to try drying my hands on the runner to see if it's absorment enough. :)

Here are the four skeins after being dyed. You can see a little difference in value, but not much.

Here is the finished placemat, yucky selvedges, and all.

Here is the runner on the loom.

And here is the finished runner.

Slow Weaving

2009-11-17T20:35:00.004-05:00

I keep hearing about how hot slow art is right now. I think that just about any handweaving and handspinning could be considered slow, but what I'm working on now is ultra-slow! I'm weaving summer and winter bookmarks with 20/2 cotton warp and tabby weft and 10/2 cotton pattern weft on a table loom. It is sett at 36 epi. I chose the table loom for a couple of reasons. First, it's a louet, so it has a raddle that's suited to very fine warp. Second, I like the texsolve heddles for fine warps. If I were to weave this on a floor loom, I would need to use a skeleton tie-up, which would slow down my weaving rhythm considerably, anyway.

This is my first experience with weaving summer and winter. I wanted to make some Christmas gifts, so I designed a draft with little pine trees. I'm thankful to a member of our guild, who put on a program last year about designing with blocks. I had read about this before and vaguely understood how to do it, but to see it explained in person made it much clearer to me. After I had settled on my final design, I was perusing WeaveZine and found a draft there with Christmas trees. I'm glad I found it after I made my own design. While it would have saved me time to use an existing draft, it was good to go through the exercise of designing my own. Besides, I like mine a little better :)

So far, I have one bookmark woven, shown below. It is in the "singles" treadling order, as described by Strickler in her 8-shaft pattern book. My plan is to weave at least one bookmark each in singles, x's, o's, and dukagang-fashion.

Autumn Yarn

2009-10-31T17:14:00.003-04:00

I've just finished spinning some beautiful alpaca/merino/silk fiber from Yarn Hollow. It was hand painted in their chai colorway, which is just perfect for autumn. I'm still getting used to the great big bobbins on my Ladybug. I misjudged how much fiber I had left and wound up with about twice as much singles on one bobbin as I did on the other. I went ahead and plied the two together, and I Navajo plied the leftovers. The two-ply came out at about 32 - 36 wpi. The Navajo ply was about 24 - 28 wpi. I wish I would have taken the time to wind the leftover bobbin onto a ball and ply it onto itself because I really like the two-ply a lot better. Of course, maybe I just need more practice Navajo plying... :)

Here is the two-ply:

And here is the Navajo ply:

Advance! warp samples

2009-10-18T17:14:00.005-04:00

After Bonnie Inouye's Advance! workshop, I had plenty of warp left on the loom. I had a lot of breaking ends because, I believe, the tencel warp wasn't getting along with the flat steel heddles on my Baby Wolf. I'd had that issue in the past, but it had been a while, so I kind of forgot about it. Anyway, I didn't want to fight the warp to make a scarf or anything, but it was perfect for weaving more samples.

The warp was 8/2 tencel sleyed at 28 epi. Each of us in the workshop was assinged a different threading. Mine was an extended advancing twill: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc... I enjoyed this threading because each pattern had a large scale. That was one of the points that Bonnie tried to make, that it's nice to be able to see that a textile is interesting from across the room. Below I'll show the samples that I wove, both during the workshop and at home.

The first sample, below, is tromp as writ, with wide bands of color moving diagonally across the sample.

The next sample, below, starts out with a regular 5 pick advancing treadling. Then I moved to an extended advancing treadling, and you can see the slope of the lines change. Then I reversed the treadling, and you can see mirror symmetry at those points.

The next sample below shows an advancing and descending treadling. Here, you can see the slope of the lines reverse, but the twill continues without the mirror symmetry seen above.

The next sample below shows an advancing point treadling. This one was a lot of fun. It was really easy to change the slope and the direction of the lines.

This sample shows an overshot treadling. For the tabby weft, I used Bambu12 in a color that blended with the warp. The pattern weft was 8/2 tencel. Here I played a little, trying to get some curves. I had my for the other samples, I had the treadles tied in a walking format, so I decided to re-tie the treadles for this overshot sample so that the tabby treadles would be next to each other. After I was done with this sample, I figured out that one of my pattern treadles was tied up wrong.
This sample is the last one I wove during the workshop. It has a network treadling. At the beginning of the sample (the left in this picture), I used the treadling that Bonnie gave us in her workbook. Toward the right, I treadled freestyle, using a technique that Bonnie explained in her lecture. I started to get the hang of it, but to be able to create curves that really look good, I'll definitely need some practice.

This sample, I wove at home after the workshop. I wove all of this freestyle, using the techniques that Bonnie taught. The far left, light blue, is a combination of advancing and extended advancing treadlings, which changes the slope of the diagonal lines. The middle sample, dark blue, is an overshot treadling. The tabby weft in this sample is rayon chennile, and the pattern weft is the Bambu 12 that I used as tabby weft in the overshot above. The effect was very subtle, and the sample looks nicer from a distance than it does close-up, which is shown in the next photo.

The sample below shows overshot with Bambu 12 tabby weft and 8/2 tencel as pattern weft. To the right, I played some more with advancing and decending treadling. I need to study this a little more since I understand the basics, but something about it hasn't quite clicked. I think I'll understand it more if I continue to play with it.

Finally, the last sample, on the right, shows network treadling. I'm starting to get a better feel for this, but, again, it will take some more practice to really get the hang of it and create some nice curves while I'm at the loom.

At our guild meeting this weekend, we all brought our samples from the workshop for show-and-tell for the other members. One thing that stuck out to me after our discussion was how many of the samples (mine and others) looked better from across the room than they did close-up. As people across the room would hold up their samples, I thought, wow! Then, as they were passed around and came to me, I thought, well, that's interesting, but I don't love it. That wasn't the case for all of the samples, but for some. This is something I'm definitely going to play with more and practice, to see what I like best, and how to use it best.

Weekend Workshop

2009-10-01T21:19:00.005-04:00

Last weekend, our guild hosted Bonnie Inouye, who presented her Advance! workshop. This was an amazing workshop. In it, Bonnie gave us tools for using advancing twills, network twills, advancing points, overshot, etc. By advancing these units, we have the ability to control scale and to use curves in our weaving. Bonnie is a great teacher, very clear and encouraging. This workshop was challenging and inspiring, and it left me full of new ideas. One question I have been considering since then is: How can I best use these tools to create something in my own style? In other words, how do I keep it from looking like a copy of Bonnie Inouye's work? I think the answer is just through practice. I think it will take time to develop my own style. I think it will be a slow, challenging, and enjoyable journey to take just one project at a time.

Below are a few pictures of the samples we wove in the workshop. I still have some of this warp left on my loom, and I'm looking forward to just playing with it and weaving more samples.

Weaving With Kids

2009-09-20T20:35:00.004-04:00

A friend invited me to Bethlehem Days at her church last weekend to demonstrate weaving. I have to admit that I don't know much about weaving in a historical context, but since no one was too concerned with historical authenticity, I just brought my Kombo. I dressed it in natural cotton for plain weave, and wound several bobbins in bright colors for weft. I wanted to let the kids do most of the weaving. The day went really well. Lots of kids wanted to try, and a few were hooked. A couple were really interested in what we were doing but not quite brave enough to give it a try.

This little boy came to visit me several times and really got into it. His grandma got a little irritated with him because he wouldn't leave the loom when she said it was time to go.

I got a kick out of this little girl. She never really got the hang of it, but she had such a good time. She told me she wanted to learn to weave, so she could do it for a living. I had to ask her a couple of times to let the other kids have a turn at the loom. :)

This is my friend's little sister, Faith. She was a natural at the loom and caugh on very quickly. At the end of the day, when I went to change out of my bible costume, I came back to find Faith weaving away, all on her own. She later told her mom that she wanted a "weaver" of her own. Her grandmother used to weave rugs, so it may be in her blood. :)

Here is a bit of the finished piece. It was beautiful, with lots of long floats and crazy selvedges. After finishing it, I gave it to my friend to use as a wall-hanging in the children's room at the church. A couple of the kids were disappointed that they didn't get to keep what they had woven, so hopefully the wall-hanging will be a good memory for them.

Dragonfly Dreams

2009-06-29T12:40:00.004-04:00

For our guild's entry at Midwest Weavers' Conference, we all wove baby blankets to donate to a local hospital. The hospital suggested that blankets in deep and bright colors were welcome, as many would be going to African American and Hispanic families. To me, that sounded like an invitation to step outside of my box and have some fun. So I went to my local weaving shop, bought three cones of cotton in some of the brightest colors I could find, and played with some design ideas on the computer. I was delighted when I realized that using two of the colors (Pacific Blue and Caribbean) in the warp and the other (Magenta) in the weft resulted in iridescence. I took a draft from the Strickler book, turned it, and took out a few ends to come up with a heart shaped twill because the theme of the conference was Weaving in the Heart-land. I called the blanket "Dragonfly Dreams" because of the iridescence and because I love alliterations. Here are a couple of views of the blanket on the loom and one of the finished blanket:

I love my Ladybug!

2009-06-24T12:32:00.004-04:00

When I went to Greencastle earlier this year, I sat down and took a Schacht Ladybug for a spin. And I was hooked. So a Ladybug finally made her way to my house. Here she is:

No, I didn't need another wheel. In fact, I've noted an alarming trend: In the three years I've been weaving, I've collected three looms, and in the two years I've been spinning, two wheels. Anyway, my other wheel is an Ashford Joy, which is fabulous for taking places. Recently, I took it on a business trip to relax in the hotel that evening. The Ladybug will be my stay-at-home wheel. She is so stable and smooth, a real pleasure to use. I love that the functionality is similar to that of a Matchless. The only drawback I can find to this wheel is that it's not pretty, like a Matchless. The red plastic isn't traditional, but with my background in materials engineering, I feel almost as if I need to defend the inexpensive but funcitonally similar materials, even if they aren't beautiful.

So far, I've spun some BFL, some merino-alpaca blend, and some silk hankies. I've really enjoyed it. I had forgotten how much I looooooove silk hankies.

Here's one last parting shot, showing the little enamel ladybug on the wheel. Sort of cheesey and cute all at once!

Wedding in the Smokies

2009-06-02T17:52:00.004-04:00

Last month, I got married. We went to Gatlinburg and had a very small ceremony with family and a couple of close friends, and stayed in a nearby cabin for our honeymoon. As I was planning the wedding, I had planned on weaving a silk shaw to go with my dress. That was the plan until I picked out the dress. I found a lovely dress on clearance, and it fit me perfectly. The problem was that there was so much going on with the dress, beaded motifs and such, that I didn't think a shawl woud go with it very well. So I decided to make a necklace and earrings to go with it instead. They are made of pearl, swarovski crystals, and sterling silver.

While on the honeymoon, my dear husband was kind enough to go to a few fibery places with me. One place was the Smokey Mountain Spinnery. There I picked up some merino cross top, some soy silk top, and a hand-held bookmark loom. We also went to Spinning Wheel Crafts, where an older lady sells some handwovens and her husband does woodworking. She had a beautiful loom in her shop. When I asked her about it, she asked if I was a weaver. She told me that her father built the loom and asked me to weave a few picks on it, which made my day. :) So I couldn't leave without at least buying a couple of mug rugs from her. The warp is 10/2 cotton, and the weft is peaches and cream.

One of my favorite places that we visited along the arts and crafts trail was Cliff Dwellers gallery. They carried the work of several different weavers. Upstairs from the gallery, several of the artists were at work and demonstrating their crafts. There I met a woman who spins and dyes, a woman who does marbling, and a couple of women who paint. They were all so friendly and seemed to really enjoy answering questions about their work. Back downstairs, one of the owners of the gallery was weaving on an inkle loom. I bought a bookmark that she made, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the national park.

And now a few pictures from the honeymoon. First, the view from our cabin the morning after the wedding:

A view from the trail to Clingman's Dome:

Finally, my husband and me at the observation tower atop Clingman's Dome:

Iris's yarn

2009-05-10T17:49:00.003-04:00

The roving I'm spinning reminds me of my rabbit, Iris.

The yarn, not so much.

The fiber is Cormo and Cormo X. I got it from Cormo 24/7 at Greencastle. It is sooo nice to spin. Very clean, very soft, and very fine. I'm naming the yarn for Iris, anyway.

Greencastle and Greeting Cards

2009-04-21T22:27:00.004-04:00

On Good Friday we went to Greencastle. I was thinking I wanted some nice, natural fibers, and that's just what I came home with.

A Romeldale-Merino fleece

Cormo, Cormo-X roving

Natural Bluefaced Leicester roving

Dyed Coopworth, Silk roving

Wow, I have a lot of spinning to do!

This weekend, the program at our guild meeting was about making greeting cards with handwoven fabric. Eleanor and Sue gave a lot of practical advice about making cards and showed their impressive collections of cards they had made and recieved over the years. Then we all got to make cards with scraps of fabric that we had brought. Here is what I came home with:

It was a fun program, and the ladies did such a nice job!

Awesome Gift

2009-04-07T22:27:00.003-04:00

I went to a spin-in this weekend at Tabby Tree Weaver and was presented with a beautiful early-wedding-gift made by the ladies there.

The white yarn is commercial, and the rest is handspun. The blanket is, of course, handwoven. It is lovely, soft, warm, and thoughtful. It is long enough to wrap around my fiance and me. It has been nice during this unseasonably cold weather. We are so thankful!

I am busy weaving a couple of projects right now. One is for our guild's entry in the Midwest Weavers' Conference. The other is a sample for the program I'm doing for our guild in June. So no pictures for a while.

Also, this weekend is the Fiber Event at Greencastle, and I'm really looking forward to going. I'm going to look for some nice, natural wools to spin, but who knows what I'll come home with!

Spring Serendipity Scarves

2009-03-10T12:30:00.006-04:00

Last summer I used part of my economic stimulus check to buy the Earthues natural dye kit in the colors collection. I've always been drawn to the warm, soft colors from natural dyes. I had also been wanting to try my hand at warp painting, so the natural dye extracts seemed to be the way to go. Last summer, I painted a bunch of silk hankies and two silk warps. I finall got around to weaving one of the warps. It is a 20/2 silk noile, and I wove it in a 4-shaft huck. I do like the colors, and the noile yarn along with the huck weave structure gave the scarves a nice, airy feel. It was a lot of fun to see the colors change as I wove, and I am happy with the end results.

Fresh Bread

2009-02-28T16:15:00.003-05:00

Today I baked some of my favorite bread. It is a whole-wheat-cranberry-orange-pecan loaf from the King Arthur whole grain baking book, which has become one of my favorite cook books. I've loved everything I've made from this book, but this bread is especially good. It's moist and chewy and has a fabulous flavor. And I think this bread is part of the reason my fiance asked me to marry him ;-)

Alpaca Merino Shawl

2009-02-28T15:45:00.003-05:00

I finally finished the shawl I was working on. The draft is an advancing twill from Twill Thrills. The warp was Angel Face, a lace-weight alpaca from Briar Rose Fibers, and the weft was merino wool from Jaggerspun. I used this fiber combination on some scarves a couple of years ago and was really pleased with the results, and I am just as happy with this shawl.

I thought I would share some of my observations from using this yarn as warp.

First, the yarn is sticky. Not sticky, as in I couldn't get a good shed. Rather, sticky, in that little fuzz balls kept forming at the lease sticks while I was beaming the warp. I was continually separating warp ends with my fingers because they were being glued together with all these little fuzz balls. I didn't remember this from last time I used this warp. But that was a warp of narrow scarves, and this warp was a shawl, about 28" in the reed. Probably the width made it more noticable on this warp.

Second, the yarn is fragile. On both projects, I used louet looms with texsolve heddles and the louet raddles. I also used the paper clip temples on both projects. I would hate to try this as a warp on my baby wolf, which has flat steel heddles. When I wove the scarves, the selvedges broke often, so when I planned the shawl, I used a double strand for the floating selvedge. That seemed to do the trick. The only reed I had that was wide enough to weave this shawl was a 6 dpi, and I sleyed five per dent. I had several broken ends throughout the shawl, and I found it interesting that every broken end was one of the outside ends in a dent. I don't remember this happening with the scarves, which were woven with a 12 dpi reed. Next time I use this yarn again, I will use a finer reed and see what happens. I also had broken ends more frequently when I got to the end of the warp, where I didn't have the warp spread perfectly when I beamed it. Next time I will pay more attention to spreading the warp. I'm glad I used the louet raddle because the warp was spread much better than it would have if I had not used it. If you're not familiar with the louet raddles, Cally gives a fabulous explanation here.

Anyway, below are a couple of pictures of the shawl. I wish you could feel it. It is very drapey, very soft, very light weight, and very warm. I just ordered a skein of the alpaca in another colorway and see another shawl in my future.

Lesson learned...

2009-01-14T19:21:00.003-05:00

Always, always give washing instructions with handwoven gifts! The burgundy and brown wool scarf shown here was, with the best of intentions, thrown into a washing machine. It's small and stiff now. I guess there's always next year...

Christmas Presents - Part 5

2009-01-11T17:55:00.003-05:00

OK, this is the last post about last year's Christmas presents. This present was from myself and is not woven. It is a four-shaft extension kit for my Louet Spring. Yeah, it's gonna be a twelve-shaft loom! I'm pretty excited. A month or so before Christmas, I started threading the Spring with some lace-weight alpaca for a shawl. Before I finished threading, I realized how close Christmas was, so I started weaving all kinds of presents on the Baby Wolf while the Spring sat half-naked. Now the Spring is dressed, and once the shawl is woven, I'll install the new shafts. I'm quite excited to get started!

Christmas Presents - Part 4

2009-01-06T21:10:00.003-05:00

The last gift I wove was a scarf for my sister. The warp is Silk Thread from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, in the colorway Kavu Kavu. The weft is black jaggerspun merino. The contrast between the shimmery silk and the matte wool is really cool. The pictures don't do it justice. Once it was off the loom, the shimmer of the silk and the plaited twill design reminded me of fish scales. Anyway, the final product had a really nice hand. The silk warp and wool weft made an interesting combination of fibers, something I'll have to play with in the future.

Christmas Presents - Part 3

2009-01-05T20:41:00.005-05:00

The next gift I wove was a scarf for my mom. This was woven on the Megado at Tabby Tree Weaver. The loom was already dressed with a navy blue tencel, ready to weave a Sharon Alderman draft. I chose some taupe colored Jaggerspun Zephyr. I found it somewhat challenging to keep an even beat. I'm not sure whether it was because of the structure, the fibers, or both. Even so, it turned out nicely, and my mom was pleased with it.

Christmas Presents - Part 2

2008-12-30T19:50:00.004-05:00

I spun and wove coordinating scarves for my sister and her daughter. This is the first project in which I've used all handspun yarn. The warp was a blend of wool, mohair, and angora. At least I think that's what it was. When I bought it at Greencastle this year, the vendor didn't have the fibers written down, so she told me that from memory. I think she dyed it with kool-aid since it smelled a little fruity whenever I spun it. Even though it was dyed with kool-aid, the colors were nice and soft pastels, pink with a little green and orange. The yarn wound up around 18 wpi, and I wove it at 10 epi. If I were to do it over again, I would probably weave it at 12 epi because the end fabric was a little loose for my taste in many places. Since I had a limited amount of yarn for warp, the scarves were a little narrow, but not bad. The weft was handspun corriedale cross. I used a point threading. For the first scarf, I used a straight treadling, and for the second, a point treadling. The main thing I learned from these scarves is that my spinning needs practice to become more consistent. I'm sure that will come with time. The scarves turned out nice, soft and warm. My sister and niece liked them. I think they will appreciate having them during their first Indiana winter after years of living in Texas!

Christmas Presents - Part 1

2008-12-28T20:26:00.005-05:00

Since Christmas is over, and all the gifts have been given, I can now post pictures of some of the gifts I made. For my dad and boyfriend, I made scarves of 8/3 Jaggerspun heather. For heavier yarns, I think four shaft patterns often work best. For these scarves, I used the Herringbone Plaid #2 threading from page 27 of Davison's green book. I was going to use the first treadling, which was tromp as writ, but when I wove the sample, it seemed that there wasn't enough contrast to make the pattern stand out. It just looked kind of cluttered. So I wound up using a straight treadling for one scarf and a point treadling for the other. Here they are before fulling:

And here they are, thick and soft, after fulling:

Now I feel compelled to share an irrational pet peeve. Occasionally, as I am finishing a project, or shortly thereafter, I will see something similar in a new Handwoven. In this case, while I was finishing with these scarves, I got the new Handwoven, chock full of articles on fulling. Last year, I wove several tencel scarves in huck lace and then saw an article the new Handwoven about tencel scarves in huck lace. When that happens, I feel like I have to tell everyone that my projects were my own ideas and that I did not get them from Handwoven. I think Handwoven is an excellent publication, and I am always excited whenever a new issue comes. I have thought about why this would irritate me when I should be proud that some of my ideas are in league with those published in my favorite magazine. I realized that before I began weaving, I had no creative outlet and did not consider myself a creative person. Now that I have discovered this creativity within myself, a creativity in relative infancy, I feel like a protective mother, needing to always defend it (and sometimes brag about it, the way mothers do). I have concluded from all this that to mature, I need to be more open about sharing my own ideas and about receiving ideas and inspiration from others' experiences.

Thoughts on Megado

2008-12-16T17:22:00.004-05:00

I had the opportunity to weave a scarf on the Megado in our local weaving shop last weekend. I think it's always interesting to try out different looms. Here are my observations about this one:

First, I LOOOOOVE Louets! I was already prejudiced on this point. I have a Louet Kombo and a Louet Spring myself. They are quiet, well engineered, and they look nice. I know that appearances aren't really a big priority for looms, but I see it as a nice bonus. Anyway, the Megado fit all of those expectations. The only noise I noticed was a click each time the (computerized) dobby prepared for the next shed. The shed was nice and clear. The tension stayed very even with the floating breast beam. Treadling was easy, even on such a big loom.

I found weaving on the Megado to be a little slower than weaving on a plain ol' treadle loom. This is because I generally tie up my treadles in a walking configuration. That way I can raise one treadle, lower another, and beat all at the same time. With the Megado, the rhythm wasn't as fast. It was lower the treadle, throw the suttle, beat, raise the treadle, and so on.

I did like the computerized dobby. I usually plan my drafts out on the computer anyway, so it doesn't take any more time to set up the dobby than it does to tie up treadles. I can see that pegging dobby bars would take much longer, especially for a complicated draft. Also, with a manual dobby, you are limited by the number of bars you have. A couple of ladies in our guild have Octados, and they are quite often borrowing dobby bars from each other because they don't have enough. With a computer dobby, there are no such limits.

The other thing I learned was that I love treadling. I don't really see a dobby loom in my future. I got a little bored with just one treadle. Up, down, up, down, same treadle, over and over. Not that a dobby doesn't have some real advantages. Without a dobby, you can easily run out of treadles for many drafts, and a dobby allows you to weave many more interesting patterns. I have to admit that the pattern I wove was realatively simple. It was a straight threading and treadling on 16 shafts. I think that weaving a more complicated pattern (maybe something in the vein of Bonnie Inouye) would be much more interesting. But as for me, I weave for fun, and I think that a big part of the fun is treadling.

In summary, I think the Megado is a fabulous loom. It's not something that would make sense for me to buy, but I am really glad that there is one available for me to use occasionally if I so choose.

'Tis the season

2008-12-03T12:29:00.002-05:00

Last week I finished the last three rayon scarves for Grandma, but I forgot to take a picture of them before I gave them to her. They were shades of blue. Grandma was thrilled. She plans on putting them in unmarked gift bags and letting each sister pick a bag, so she won't have to choose who gets what.

Now I'm busy weaving Christmas presents for me to give. I'll post pictures after Christmas. I love weaving for others. It's so much fun picking out the right yarns, colors, and patterns for each person. It's also nice to know that they are appreciated. I'm really looking forward to finishing and giving them away!

Thankful

2008-11-24T18:30:00.002-05:00

Last night at Kokomo Urban Outreach, the kids were asked what they were thankful for. Most answered that they were thankful for parents, home, and Jesus. I began to think about what I am thankful for... The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; a good family; a very comfortable home; a kind boyfriend; a good, stable job; a good, reasonable boss; a dependable car; beauty in nature; caring friends; nice looms; a practical spinning wheel; plenty of yarn and fiber; warm clothes; nourishing food; a fabulous local weaving guild; an exceptionally nice local weaving shop; my pet rabbit, Iris; music; my health; a good church nearby; freedom; art... I could go on and on, but you get my point. I truly am blessed, and I am so grateful for it.

Baby Blanket

2008-11-14T17:29:00.003-05:00

Finally, I finished the baby blanket I began in September. It's been off the loom for a while, but I wasn't too excited about finishing it. Well, my friend's baby is due in less than a week, so I had some motivation to get it done. It's a block twill in bambu 7 warp and weft. I'm not too thrilled with the finished product. It's nice, but it doesn't really excite me. It does feel nice and have a nice drape. Maybe blankets just aren't my thing. I am mostly glad that it's done, so I can move on to the next project.

So what's on the looms now? The Spring is half-way dressed with a lace-weight alpaca warp for a shawl for me. It's only half dressed because I realized last week, rather suddenly, how close Christmas is. So I hurried and wove off the warp that was on the Baby Wolf, a scarf that will be a Christmas present, and dressed it with the warp to make the last three rayon scarves for my grandma. I really am getting bored of the variegated rayon warps. I think it will be a while before I do any more. But, it was a good way to quickly make nine scarves. I don't think my grandma realizes quite how much time is involved in doing these, but her excitement definitely makes up for it. She is so excited to give these scarves to her sisters!

Betsy Blumenthal Workshop

2008-10-20T22:31:00.003-04:00

Our guild hosted a workshop with Betsy Blumenthal last weekend. The topic was Fuzzy Bumpy fabrics. This was a round-robin workshop in which we learned about creating fabrics with different textures by using weave structures, differential shrinkage, and overtwisted yarns. Betsy was a warm, enthusiastic teacher, and we all left with heads full of information and new ideas. We also came home with lots of fun samples:

Guild Exchange

2008-09-21T16:49:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we completed our guild's yarn exchange. Each participant had brought a bag of yarn to exchange. Then we had to weave something for whoever supplied the yarn we used. I got Nancy's huge grocery bag full of yarn. It was hard to decide which to pick, but some brightly colored variegated slubby rayon silk blend kept calling out to me. There was also a cone of purple zephyr that looked nice with the slubby yarn. I really liked the results I got when I used an advancing twill with a slubby rayon earlier this year, so I decided to use the same draft. It didn't work with these yarns.

In the sample above, I wove sections of twill and plainweave with a single strand of weft and a double strand of weft. There was so much going on with color, texture, and pattern in the twill areas that I didn't really like them. I wound up choosing the plainweave with a single strand of weft. It turned out OK, and Nancy seemed happy with it.

I had brought some bambu 12 and some 20/2 handpainted silk for the exchange, and Sue wove them into a beautiful scarf. Here is the front:

And the back:

Both sides are lovely, but I think I prefer the back. The scarf has such a nice drape and hand. I'm looking forward to wearing it.

An exercise in patience

2008-09-17T21:26:00.002-04:00

My latest project on the Spring is a baby blanket of Bambu 7 in a block twill at 24 epi. I was excited today because I figured I would finish threading the heddles this evening. I almost did, but as I came to the last few ends of warp, I realized that I miscalculated the number of ends in each repeat. Argh! So enough for tonight. I think I'll spin a little to wind down. And then start re-threading again tomorrow.

High Tech Spinning

2008-08-12T17:27:00.002-04:00

I was really intrigued today when I read this article in SAE's aerospace engineering publication. A company called Nanocomp has developed a method for creating very long carbon nanotubes ("very long" in this context is a millimeter), which, in itself, is quite impressive. Then, one of the things they are doing with these millimeter long nanotubes is spinning them into yarn on an electrically controlled spindle. I cannot even imagine spinning millimeter long fiber. I would love to see their process. The mechanical and physical properties of the nanotube yarn are amazing. A quote from the article, "These spun conductive yarns exhibit breaking strengths up to 3 GPa, with fracture toughness that is higher than aramids (such as Kevlar or Twaron). They also show enhanced electrical conductivity with the ability to carry more current with better conductivity than copper at high frequencies. " To put that strength into context, the metals I am familiar with have room temperature tensile strengths of less than 1 GPa. This product could have some awesome applications. I hope I hear about it when it does!

State Fair

2008-08-10T21:10:00.005-04:00

I went to the Indiana State Fair today with a couple of girlfriends and had a great time. Since I was raised on a hoosier dairy farm, I always like to buy my fair food from places that support local agriculture. So I started the afternoon with a milkshake from the Dairy Bar and ended the evening with a ribeye sandwich from the Cattlemen's Club. Both had crazy-long lines, but in both cases, the wait was worthwhile. There wasn't really time to see all that we wanted. We did spend some time in the animal barns, where we saw the world's largest boar (man, was he big!) and some very cute and friendly shetland sheep.

We also spent a lot of time in the Home and Family Arts building, which housed exhibits of painting, photography, glass work, and, of course, fiber arts. The spinners were well represented. There were lots of beautiful skeins on display. I entered one skein, which didn't look too awfully bad among the others, but I could see that I still need a lot of practice in that area. My biggest disappointment was in the turnout of weavers. In the non-professional-weaving-of-things-other-than-rugs category, I saw only five entries from three weavers. Yes, only three weavers! We have more than ten times that many talented weavers in our one local guild. Anyway, two of the pieces on exhibit were mine. One was a deflected double weave scarf woven of tencel and mohair, which won first place. The other was a crammed warp plainweave scarf of wool and silk, which recieved an honorable mention. Second and third place were taken by Nancy, who entered a painted warp scarf and gorgeous shadow weave scarf.

I was more gratfied than disappointed, though, as I looked at the display. While I was admiring Nancy's work, a woman came to the display, pointed at my deflected double weave scarf, and said quietly to her daughter, "This one is gorgeous. The colors are beautiful." I was tempted to tell her that I had made it, but I decided not to. That simple praise was more than enough. My friends always say nice things about my work, but I tend to think that friends are supposed to say nice things. To hear such kind words from someone who didn't know me, or even know that the work was mine, validated me in a way. I feel as if I can say that I am a weaver or an artisan with more confidence and not feel like an imposter.

After I left, I began to think about what it was, specifically, that so disappointed me about the poor showing of weavers. I think that exhibiting in the fair is a great opportunity to present weaving in a contemporary context to the community. When I was younger, I remember many times seeing weavers in old-fashioned costumes weaving plain vanilla rag rugs, and each time I thought, "It's nice that people used to do that." It wasn't until I saw weaving as a contemporary art that I realized that I wanted to weave. That's why I think it's important to show our work and let others know that weaving is still relevant.

Up and Running!

2008-08-02T13:44:00.007-04:00

I remember the first time I ever rented a Lincoln. I was traveling for work, and there were no mid-size cars left. I couldn't understand why the rental car agent was in such rapture over this car. It didn't look *that* fantastic. I didn't understand... until I drove it. The way it felt was almost indescribable. There was a smoothness and ease to that car that I had never felt in any of the budget-friendly cars I had always driven. Weaving on my new Louet Spring is like driving that Lincoln. I finally finished assembling the Spring this week. I dressed it and wove off a sample, and the entire process was amazingly smooth. I am so pleased with it.

The sample I wove was sea-silk warp in plainweave, 18 epi. I am trying to decide between two different wefts: natural 20/2 silk and silver 8/2 tencel. Right now I am leaning toward the silver tencel, but I'll wait to see how they look after wet finishing. I chose plainweave for the first warp on the loom because I thought it would show most clearly if I needed to make any adjustments to the loom.

I've also been spinning. Right now I am working on a llama / merino / tencel blend that I bought at Franklin. I don't remember who sold it to me; their name isn't on the receipt :( I am really pleased with it. The little bits of turquoise really set it off.

I also recently met some friends at the bead store. I had been wanting some turquoise to go with a couple of my summer outfits, and I found just the thing. I made this necklace and bracelet of turquoise, silver, and brown glass beads. The large beads on the necklace are ceramic. I wasn't sure how I felt about the necklace at first, but it's growing on me.

Phoebe's first skein

2008-07-15T21:21:00.002-04:00

I just completed my first skein from Phoebe, a cormo fleece that I got at Greencastle. There are a few slubby spots, but all-in-all, I'm pleased with it. It is a nice clean white color and, of course, very soft. This was my first real experience with flick carding. I found it to be rather time consuming, but I liked the control it gave me. I felt I could spin a more consistent fine yarn this way, and since I prefer to weave fine, I am trying to practice spinning fine when I do spin. I haven't measured the wpi on this, but by eyeballing it, I'm guessing I could weave with this at about 20 epi or so.

Straight draw scarves

2008-06-23T20:39:00.004-04:00

At Saturday's guild meeting, several of us presented a program on straight draw. For my part, I focused mostly on the versatility of straight draw on eight shafts and the many looks that can be achieved just by changing the tie-up. I started off with the second set of three rayon scarves that I wove for my grandma. These are all 5/2 rayon, threaded 1 - 8. The one on the right is a waffle weave on straight draw, which was fun to weave. The one on the left is my favorite; it looks the most fluid.

Then I showed this scarf, with a buffalo warp and a handsun alpaca/shetland/silk weft. It is herringbone, but I threaded it as a straight draw on eight. I don't usually weave with wool this heavy and started weaving with a much too heavy beat. I was then so conscious of not beating too hard that my beat became progressively light. The other end wound up rather sleazy. You can see the difference between the two ends in the picture. The lesson I learned from this scarf is that when I am unsure of my beat, I MUST NOT be too confident to get out the ruler and check the ppi.

The last scarf I wove, just for fun, in plainweave with a crammed warp, following a recipe in an old Weaver's magazine. The structure is so simple, but the scarf turned out so nice. The crammed stripes are handpainted 20/2 silk, the remaining warp was 20/2 Jaggerspun Maine Line, and the weft was 20/2 silk noil. This turned out to be a nice, airy, light-weight scarf. I am really pleased with it. If I were to do anything differently, I would beam the wool and silk warps separately. Toward the end, there was a definite difference in tension.

Progress

2008-06-19T18:13:00.004-04:00

I've been busy the past few weeks, but I did find some time to weave. First, I completed the towels on the lymon warp:

I used the threading from the March/April issue of Handwoven. I used cottolin instead of bamboo, added a couple repeats, and changed the treadling slightly. I'm really pleased with the way they turned out.

My other recent accomplishment is a sample for our guild's advancing twill study group this weekend.

I used a 5/4 rayon slub mill end as the warp and 5/2 rayon as weft. I tried it with both black and blue wefts, and I like the black the best. The sett I used was 16 epi, which seemed a little too close. I think I will re-sley the remaining warp at 14 epi. I wound enough warp for several samples and a nice scarf. The colors in the warp are so much fun to work with. These pictures don't do justice.

Playing with Silk

2008-06-13T17:21:00.002-04:00

I had so much fun playing with the silk hankies that I bought last week that they are all spun up.

I really like these colors together, and, all-in-all, I'm pleased with the way it turned out. Of course, it will take some more practice before I can produce really nice yarn, but I think that what I have now is pretty darn good for a beginner. I plan on weaving a small scarf with it and some silver-colored tencel yarn in my stash.

Another Fiber Festival

2008-06-07T23:13:00.002-04:00

Yesterday several of us made a trip to Franklin, IN to the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival, and a good time was had by all. It was a smaller festival, but there was still a great selection. I came home with some fabulous fibers, but I did excercise enough restraint to come home without a raw fleece. A couple of vendors who particularly impressed me were Sandy's Pallette, where I picked up some nice hand-painted merino/tencel roving, and River's Edge Weaving Studio, where I found some beautiful silk hankies and merino/alpaca roving.

One reason I enjoy fiber festivals so much is, of course, the awesome fiber for sale. But the other reason is to see lots of fiber people. I thought about this and wondered why I'm happy to meet other fiber people. What makes them special? One answer is that we share a common interest, but I think it goes deeper than that. Working with fiber is a tactile, time-consuming, and, let's admit, sometimes tedious practice. This experience yields fiber artists who tend to be gentle and patient, both of which are qualities that define love in I Corinthians 13. If you combine that with the warmth and genuine interest that fiber people show in each other's work, it's easy to see why it's such a pleasure to be around other fiber people.

Summer's here! Also, more about me than you may ever want to know

2008-06-04T19:10:00.004-04:00

I was so excited to see the first rose blossom of the year greet me as I left for work this morning. That's a good sign that summer is here!

I have the Louet about half-way assembled now. One small part was missing, so I'm waiting on it to come in before I go any further with it. I've finished everything I was weaving for the guild's straight-draw program. Now I just need to finish a wedding gift and an advancing twill sample for the guild's study group due the same day. I began to weave on the wedding gift yesterday. I wove several inches in plainweave, and everything was looking great. Then I began weaving the pattern and found that four warp ends were threaded on the wrong pattern shaft. So once I fix that, I should be good to go.

Cally had some questions to share. I'm not sure I have five answers for each, but here goes...

What were you doing five years ago?

I was working in a different department at work, living in the old apartment, baking a lot more than I do now, and not weaving at all.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

Pick up some clutter, vacuum the floors, wash the dishes, and hopefully weave a little.

What are five snacks you enjoy?

Ice cream, fresh fruit with vanilla yogurt, homemade bread, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, dried cherries.

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

Quit my job, weave a lot more, invest in IDES, buy new houses for some of my family, and replace all of the windows in my house.

What are five of your bad habits?

Procrastinating, daydreaming too much, not picking up after myself, forgetting to water my plants, and keeping to myself more than I ought.

What are five places where you have lived?

The family farm, dorms at college, off-campus apartment in college, an apartment in the town where I now live, and now my first house in the same town (all in Indiana).

What are five jobs you’ve had?

Produce clerk, cafeteria worker, library clerk, summer factory worker, engineer.

I won't tag anyone else just now. I've got to get moving and work on that to-do list!

It's Here!

2008-05-22T16:26:00.002-04:00

When I came home for my lunch break today, I saw several large boxes on my front porch and shouted for joy. I had been expecting my new Louet to arrive any time, and there it was. Can a 36" loom and its accessories really fit in these three boxes?We shall see... :)

Lymon Warp

2008-05-19T20:33:00.004-04:00

Remember when Sprite ads always used the word "lymon"? I kept thinking of that as I wound this warp of fun, bright colors that I wouldn't generally think of using for myself. That's why it's such a blast to weave for other people.

What I've been up to...

2008-05-11T14:52:00.005-04:00

I've been quite busy weaving lately but can't post any photos. I just finished a scarf that I will be using as an example in our guild's program on straight draw in June. It was really simple, and I'm quite pleased with it. I have a scarf on the table loom right now for the same program. I'll post photos of them both when the program is over.

Right now, I'm working on designing some kitchen towels for a wedding gift. I picked out the yarn for the towels several months ago, but only recently decided on a weave structure. I was inspired by the last Handwoven to use a mix of colors in woven lace. I'm using Donna Muller's book Handwoven Laces to help design the fabric. This is such a great book. It is clearly written and makes designing lace drafts so easy. I also love Muller's style of writing, which is simple and clever. She seems to enjoy using irony and plays-on-words when the opportunities arise, which is more often than one might think with this topic.

I'm very excited to note that I'm making an addition to my loom collection. I will be getting a new-to-me Louet Spring within the next couple of weeks. I've been drooling over the Spring for some time and had the opportunity to get one at a good price. The Louets are engineered so well, and I'm really looking forward to weaving on this one. I did notice a rather disturbing trend; I've bought a loom each year that I've been weaving. I think the engineer in me has gone a little crazy collecting tools. But this will be the last loom for a while.

Spring Harvest

2008-05-02T18:29:00.004-04:00

I've never been mushroom hunting before. I never really thought about going mushroom hunting, and I certainly didn't expect to today. But as I was walking along the edge of my yard, I noticed a big morel underneath the crabapple tree. I looked closer and saw another and another...
I wandered back through the woods a little to look for more but didn't find anything beyond the crabapple tree. That's okay because what I found will be plenty for me. I am pretty happy with this spring-time gift from God!

New Placemats

2008-04-29T19:13:00.007-04:00

In a recent episode of Weavecast, Syne Mitchell discussed the drudgery of finishing your weaving, and I could totally relate. I get so excited about the transformation that takes place on the loom that I kind of forget to look forward to the transformation that will take place in the washer and dryer. I took these placemats off the loom weeks ago and just finished them today. Although I've woven and wet finished quite a bit, I am still always amazed by the appearance and texture of the finished fabric compared to the web.

This was my first attempt at overshot. I used M.P. Davison's Valley Forge Dogwood with a just-okay border that I designed. I used 10/2 and 5/2 mercerized cotton, so they would stand up to some abuse. I'm not thrilled with the way the border turned out, but I haven't had much experience designing drafts. If I had to change anything about the placemats, I would change the sett (27 epi is a little close) make them a little shorter. They're not bad though, and all-in-all, I'm pleased with them. I enjoyed the rhythm of overshot, and it was a lot of fun to watch the pattern develop. I can't say that overshot is my new favorite weave structure, but it is something I'll do once in a while.

Also, I wanted to share some of the view from my backyard:

Since I don't have much room on my property for growing things, I was so excited to see the crab apple blossoming on the land owned by the county. I'm having a lot of fun seeing what kind of plants are popping up around the house; although, I seem to have an over-abundance of hostas already...

My Poor Naked Looms

2008-04-24T22:23:00.005-04:00

I feel like I've been neglecting my looms lately. I don't feel too guilty, though, since I have a couple of good reasons. First, I bought some awesome fibers at Greencastle a couple of weeks ago.

First was this beautiful silk from Robin Edmundson. She had so many great yarns and fibers in so many beautiful colorways, it was hard to choose.

I also bought a raw Cormo fleece from Westfield Woolies. I decided to process it myself. I have never washed a fleece before. I have washed this one now, and it's still drying. I am going to flick card it since it has a nice long staple. I have already learned one important lesson: Be more careful about skirting. What I have isn't too bad, though, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.
Last, I bought this beautiful roving from Greyside Farm. It is alpaca, shetland, and silk. I have already spun quite a bit of it, and it's turning out very nice. I am going to use the yarn in a project for our guild's straight draw program in June. After the program is over, I'll post more about it.

So that's one reason I've been spinning so much instead of weaving. The second is that I've been spending time trying to bond with my new bunny. She lives in the basement, so I can take my wheel down there and spin while I hang out with her. Iris seems to really like the wheel. If I leave it unattended within her reach, she thinks it would make a fabulous chew toy. This makes me think it would be a very bad idea to take one of the looms to the basement to use while I spend time with her. She also seems to find my spinning relaxing. One evening as I was spinning, she hopped to the end of the room and stretched her whole body across the floor. It was relaxed as I have ever seen her. Another time she sat behind my legs and kept bumping my ankles as I spun. She seemed to think that was a fun game. I wound up with a rather slubby skein that time! Anyway, I think I'll have to keep spinning while she's around because she seems to frighten so easily at any other time and especially when I run the washer and dryer. Hopefully spinning will be a way to keep her increasingly calm and friendly.

My New Housemate and Creativity

2008-04-18T21:08:00.008-04:00

First, let me introduce Iris, who I adopted from the Indiana House Rabbit Societey:

I'm having a lot of fun getting to know Iris. She came from a rough background, so she has a hard time trusting people. If I sit or lie on the floor, she likes to come sniff me and check me out, but if I try to reach out to her she quickly runs away. She is really curious and likes to explore every corner of the room. She is also really active and likes to sprint around the furniture and do "binkies," happy bunny leaps. I have a blast watching her, and I think we'll get along quite well.

On another topic, I was home sick from work today and passed some of the time reading old issues of Handwoven. One article in particular caught my attention and made me think. It was about a Navajo weaving class. The Navajo instructor asked her students what was the source of their creativity. The students gave answers such as the land, the ocean, opossums, and turtles. The instructor replied that the source of her creativity was her clan, Reed. My first thought was: Opossums? Seriously??? Then I began to think about how I would answer that question. What is the source of my creativity? It didn't take long to realize that the source of my creativity is God. Anything I have ever made has been inspired or influenced by something that He has already made, either in nature or through someone else's work. The more I thought, I realized that He is the Creator of All Things. Nothing exists that He didn't create. So in all reality, I don't create anything. Rather, God creates through us. He created each of us individually and gave us skills, talents, passions, resources that yield beautiful things. He is ultimately the source of it all.

Spinning Silk in Spring

2008-04-07T20:45:00.005-04:00

I was so excited to discover this behind my house when I got home from work today:

Yeah! Spring is officially here! It looks a little bare to me yet. If nothing else pops up this year, I'll plant some tulips in the fall.

So, Greencastle is coming up this weekend, and I'll be going for the first time. I'm pretty excited about it. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned to Alice, my spinning teacher, that I planned on looking for some silk since I'd never spun it before. She offered to send me some to try, so I could see what I liked before I spent any money on it. Two or three days later, a silk hankie, a cap, some recycled sari silk, and a couple of types of sliver showed up in my mailbox. It didn't take long before I had spun it all, and I really enjoyed it. Here's what I wound up with:

Some of it is pretty slubby and inconsistent, but practice makes perfect. You might be thinking, "Hey, I don't see any recycled sari silk there," and you would be right. It turned out awful, with lots of tangly slubs that got caught at the orifice and on some of the flyer hooks. Before I realized it was caught, I tried treadling faster to make it take up, and I wound up with some "yarn" that was more overtwisted than anything I had ever made before. More practice is definitely in line!

Home Sweet Home

2008-04-02T21:54:00.007-04:00

It's been a long time since I posted for two reasons: First, I was preparing to move and settling into my new home. Second, it took a month for my ISP to reconnect me after I moved! Prior to my move, both looms sat naked for a good month, so, naturally, I've been weaving like a madman since then. Here is my new weaving space. It's a lot of space for two small looms, but I plan on upgrading within the next couple of years. It's a really pleasant room, with old hardwood floors, windows to the east and west, and plenty of storage space.

I wove my first set of three rayon scarves for my grandma and took them to show her at Easter. She was thrilled. I am happy with how they turned out. They feel great, and they were so quick to make. I used a straight threading on eight shafts and used a different tieup and/or treadling on each scarf.

Next I wove a set of placemats in overshot. I just cut them off the loom this week. I'll post a picture after I finish them. Now I've started the next set of Grandma's rayon scarves. Here's a preview:

Spinning Novelty Yarn / My First Knitting Project

2008-02-09T08:44:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago, I took a class in spinning novelty yarns. I learned to spin slub yarns, boucle, and Navajo ply. I initially learned to spin because, well, it looked like fun, and I thought it might be interesting to weave with hand-spun yarn sometimes. Some of the yarns that I was spinning did not seem like weaving yarns to me. In fact, they seemed to shout, "I am a knitting yarn!" The only problem was that I did not know how to knit. So Alice, my spinning teacher, generously taught me to cast on and knit, loaned me a pair of needles and a knitting book, and sent me on my way. I began working on a scarf made of slub yarn that I spun from a corriedale cross and a wool / silk blend. Here is the work in progress:

It's okay to laugh - it IS pretty funny looking. I doubt it will ever be worn much, but I keep working at it. It will be nice to have something that I made from start to finish (okay, I did use commercially prepared fibers), and besides, practice makes perfect.

Silk + Bambu Scarf

2008-01-18T22:00:00.002-05:00

The silk warp bambu weft scarf is complete. It feels awesome. Enough said.

Painted Warp

2008-01-16T21:47:00.001-05:00

Today I finished a scarf from a pre-made painted warp (made by Interlacements and sold by Tabby Tree Weaver). The warp was made of cotton with strands of slubby rayon. I wasn't thrilled by the way the cotton and rayon behaved together in the warp, but I am pleased with the result. The sett was 24 epi, which might

have been a little close for this yarn in plain weave in most cases, but it worked well here, showing the colors of the warp nicely. This is going to be a birthday present for my cousin Joy, and I think these colors will

suit her.

I wove another scarf from this warp in a twill and gave it to

my grandma for Christmas. She loooooooved it... So much, in fact, that she asked me to weave some scarves for her to give to her sisters and a couple girlfriends for next Christmas. How many are some? In this case, nine. Yes, that's a lot! But since it was for my Grandma, and since she was giving me a year to do it, well, I couldn't really say no. Besides, I have a plan. If I weave them all in 5/2 rayon, straight twill, and three scarves per warp, it should be doable. I'll post more on that as I get it done.

Mmmmm..... ginger....

2008-01-13T21:01:00.000-05:00

Although today's post has nothing to do with fiber arts, it is releated to the other kind of fiber... dietary fiber. One of my Christmas gifts from my mom this year was the book King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. This is a fabulous book comprising recipes for cakes, cookies, quiche, pies, pizza, pancakes, muffins, and, of course, breads. This weekend I made ginger bread (not gingerbread). This is a yeast bread made with whole wheat flour, oats, and three forms of ginger (dried ground, syrup, and crystallized). The first step is to make the ginger syrup. This was done by boiling equal parts of sugar and water with a TON of sliced fresh ginger. The resulting syrup was awesome, not to mention the scent it gave the whole apartment. The recipe made plenty of syrup, so I'll be watching for other uses for it. Anyway, the bread turned out great. It was sweet, chewy, and moist, with a noticeable ginger flavor. I'll be making it again.

Welcome

2008-01-07T20:51:00.001-05:00

Hello, and welcome to my new blog. Here I'll primarily be talking about what I'm weaving and spinning, but I'll probably also include other things I want to share.

Right now, I'm weaving a scarf in twill, draft 202 in the Strickler book. The warp is handpainted 20/2 silk in Fresia from Claudia Handpainted Yarns, and the weft is Bambu 12 in fig. So far, it's going well - the silk is soooo nice! I just need to be conscious about keeping an even beat.