Dragonfly Dreams

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.