Totally Tuesday!

Some of the results from our dye day are in, we think that Ladonna has some too, but she couldn't make it today.  It was fun to see how the different fibers took the dye differently.

 Pat brought in a few pieces to donate to the Tuesday Weavers stash .  Here they are on top of the rugs that Alan finished last week.

Here is the new warp that Carl is putting on, I forgot to ask him what he was making!

 Lanny's scarf project is progressing nicely!

Linda is winding the final section of a warp she will be weaving at home, I think I am counting 20 + yards on the mill.

Here is one of my creative rug warps going on the old Barn Loom in the corner.  It is turning out exactly like I wanted it too!  There is a first!

We had an important meeting at lunch to nail down some dates for the Christmas party and for our Dye Day to start out the new year.  But we could do neither since some of the key participants were not here today.  Oh well, maybe we can pin them down via email.

There you go, another busy Tuesday! 
Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina for all!

Down & Dirty

On a beautiful, sunny Saturday, I finished plowing the vegetable garden.  Yesterday turned cloudy and damp, so the triangular flower bed beyond the garden had to wait.  Electric tiller + rain = dead gardener, so I took advantage of the rain and planted cover crops in the veggie garden, crimson clover and rye grass.  Then I sprinkled rye grass seed everywhere I still want lawn, an ever-shrinking area.  Now, I must figure out how to keep Bella out of the vegetable garden before that becomes crucial.

Also on Saturday, Bella met her new playmate, Amy, with whom she'll be spending every Wednesday and Friday, until Grandma comes back from Kentucky.  Amy is a Weimaraner who lives in Alcoa with Dustin, the larder roundsman at work.  Then, Bella and I went to Out of Eden, one of my favorite nurseries, and where I'd been told I could find a Crepe Myrtle.  I've become obsessed with having one after their amazing displays all over east Tennessee this long, hot summer.  They did have them; most nurseries here only get them when they are in bloom, when people are thinking of them, but now is the best time to plant them.  I picked a Tuscarora, a pink flowering variety with a papery-barked trunk.  It took me about 24 hours to decide where it would go.  The plan I made of my garden was not exactly to scale; everything I want in the backyard isn't going to fit, so this moved from the flower garden to where lawn once was.  Once again, I should have gotten a picture of this tree poking out the sunroof.  It's about 12 feet tall, and in the background, you'll see my teeny tiny Honda.  Bella had to sit in the back seat and got car sick all over it, which is why I didn't take the picture.  

  I planted daffodil and crocus bulbs all around the base.  Later, I planted gladiola bulbs in the front yard and iris bulbs between the butterfly bush to the right in the photo and the red bud just out of the photo.  LouAnn gave me the red bud last year when thinning out hers.  And then, I finally decided where the last three azalea bushes I bought a month ago were to go:  in the front yard, near the established azaleas. They're a different shade of pink, but divided by the climbing hydrangeas, so I hope they won't clash.

  No weaving this week, either!  My hands are so nasty from gardening and pickling beets, I probably would have stained anything I was working on, anyway!  But a beautiful weekend, very productive.

  Have a great week, full of what you like to do best!

Maggie

SERENDIPITY

First of all....don't you just love that word?  Serendipity...finding good things accidentally.

Ginny, who belongs to the Clinch Valley Handweavers Guild, brought me a box of Guild books and items that she had stored at her house for me to take care of.  We keep the Guild Library at the Appalachian Arts Craft Center where the Tuesday Weavers meet.  I just transferred the box from her car to my car, but this book caught my eye.  Ginny told me that one of the Guild members would need to keep this one at their house, since it is now out of print and worth a lot of money.  I thought I would take it into the house and take a look before I went to the Center on Tuesday.  OH MY!!!!  This book is a treasure!

  Sadye Tune Wilson and Doris Finch Kennedy conducted and directed a 5 year study of the early handwoven textiles in Tennessee.  The book was copyrighted in 1983, and contains beautiful color, as well as black & white pictures of coverlets from all over the state.  It also includes information and stories behind the person that wove the coverlet, if known.

  So, imagine my surprise when I got to page 178, and the house in the picture jumps out at me!  I know that house.....I took a picture of that house this spring when my brother, sister and I went up to Grainger County about my parents' farm.  Then, I started reading the text.  It was the Helton home place in Grainger County....YES!!!  It was my great-aunt Stella's house!  She was Esther's daughter, and married Robert (Bob) Helton.  Aunt Stella died in 1969 at 80 years old.  Uncle Bob died in 1972....and since they had no children, his nephews inherited the property, and sold it at auction.  The book mentions that a loom, spinning wheel and "counterpanes" were sold at that auction.  I don't remember seeing her loom...but we usually ran around outside when we went to visit them.  I do remember the beautiful "hall tree bench" that sat right inside the front door.  It was a work of art...solid oak!

  So, now I have another piece of the puzzle.  It looks like that Aunt Stella carried on the weaving tradition after she married.  She even used the loom at the house, as well as spinning her own thread.  The book mentioned that the wheel was a flax wheel, which goes along with what my Grandmother told me about the family planting and spinning flax.  The coverlet shown on that page was woven by Frances Hammer Helton...that could have been Uncle Bob's mother....I'll have to research that.  But, I wonder how many coverlets Aunt Stella wove?
  I enjoy looking at and studying my coverlet...I keep trying to figure out if this pattern has a name.  The first chapter of the book is about the structure of coverlets, and they even have a "motif classification system."  While I'm recovering from my tumble, I may try to study this system and graph the pattern.
  The book is very heavy, so this might be a challenge.  I have regained some use of my left arm, but I can only lift my arm about waist high.  I'll be starting therapy in 2 weeks, but I don't want the muscles to get too out of shape.  I'm even doing some of the Tai Chi movements I learned....I can see a little improvement every day! 
  So....my accident may lead to a delightful discovery.....time to research the motif and graph the pattern of my coverlet.  And, I can weave a little if I stand at the loom.  I've got a few projects that need to be finished before the holidays. 
       Yes, a little serendipity!!!!  (And, I'll gladly keep this book at my house for safe-keeping!!!)
LouAnn

Last Minute Stuff!

Here are the last 2 Baby Blankets ready to be pressed and tagged.  There have been a bunch of last minute things to do before I go to Blackberry Farm tomorrow to demonstrate.  I had to hem, wash and dry these two, clean out the car, pick up a loom, (more on this over on Farmstead Studio), mail a package to my mother, I also stopped by the hospital to see my MIL who is recovering nicely from an recent illness.

 All that is left to do now is pack the car.  I have these 2 tubs full of stuff, and I will bring a spinning wheel so that I can demonstrate for the folks there.  I hope I sell something, I forgot to ask Pat how she did last week.  Wish me luck!

I had hoped to get the new loom together so that I could take a pic of it to share, but that did not happen today.  Maybe by Monday I will be able to do it.

Well I am off to pack the car and feed the animals,

  Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina

Structo loom

This is a Structo 26 inch 8 harness loom that I bought from a good friend in Missouri. It is a table loom on a stand. Structo was a toy company that made toys for boys. Somewhere along the way they decided to make looms for girls. The first ones were small metal ones. They gradually got bigger and wider. This is the largest one they made. These are nice looms. Some weavers use the small ones for sampling. I bought mine because I wanted to try weaving on 8 harnesses.

Structo sold the business to Dick Blick and the looms were then called Artcraft looms. The looms are no longer made.

This loom has an interesting feature. When you push the beater bar away from you it hits a button that releases all the harnesses. This can save a little time while weaving.

I really like this loom but I do have to say I don't think I have ever met a loom I didn't like!

Linda

Last minute rush

Tomorrow I set up at my last show for the season. So the week was spent trying to get all those last minute pieces woven and finished. I didn't have time to weave alot, just 2 warps. One had 5 pieces on it and the other 6. I've finished 2 pieces completely, ready for my label and to be packed. The rest are still in line for the sewing and handwork necessary. I won't get them all done before the show is over but I'll do my best!

On the great news side, DD is finally crutch free. I think she's supposed to still use one crutch but it's very awkward and she's not using it. She walks slowly and still painfully, but is thrilled to be able to drive again.  Steps are still excruciatingly painful but each day she is able to get around a bit better. We're thankful for the progress that she makes.

Months ago I ordered loopers from Hillary at Crazy as a Loom. The boxes come packed with loopers but also crud that is part of the waste from the sock knitting. They're strings of yarn anywhere up to about 12 inches long that just get in the way. So I like to go through and get rid of all that stuff plus put the loopers in bags of their color. That way I know how much I have and can kind of ration the colors out. I know I have a ton of yellow so the rugs will have a bit more yellow in them than other colors. DD had begun to do this crud removal for me and I'm paying her for that. However, DH sat down the other day and couldn't quit. He's done the majority of the 78 lbs that I got.  One box is left. I suspect he'll do most of that as well!

Once this show is over I have the weaving challenges to do that we started in January. There's that mug rug to weave that goes with the mug I found in Canada, the scarves to weave with the donated yarn that we wanted to use up plus the Clinch Valley Handweavers Guild panels to weave in our friendship throw project. I think I can get it all done once I weave off those handtowels that have been on my baby wolf for how many months now while I was doing production??? Then there are those painted warps to weave and I'd love to dye more.
It never ends does it? Tons of inspiration all around us. Weavers never get bored!!
Carol

Tubs for Tuesday!

Today was full of Tubs!  Tubs of all sizes!  This big one if full of natural colored sock Loopers.  We really prefer our loopers to have lots of bright colors, so there was nothing to do but call another dye day!

 We counted out batches of 50 loopers and strung them together to make them easier to handle.

When they were strung up, I took them over to the sink and washed and rinsed them, to prepare for the dye bath.  This Dye Day we are doing mostly immersion dyeing.  (Though we did have a couple of painted warps going on)   Once the loopers were clean-ish, we set them aside and Carol, and Pat prepared the dye baths, in the small tubs! 

We also did some gauze skeins that I seemed to have totally missed with the camera!   Ann also had some skeins to use as weft that she threw into the buckets as well, again, no picture!

Next week we can post pictures of the results.

 

Bonnie missed our day at Lou Ann's, so she brought her warp and painted away, you can see us stringing the loopers together in the back ground.

Linda did a warp too, and so did other Bonnie, I really fell down on the job this time!  Again we will get you some pics of the finished warps for next week.

 Carl brought in his most recent tapestry creation, isn't it beautiful!

Alan and Lanny were working on knotting the rugs that were taken off last week.

Tubs were all over the place today as you can see, I didn't even show you the ones that Ladonna brought from the dollar store.  You really couldn't do dye day without them.  We are talking about a dye day in January or February to see if we can do all the loopers, as we barely made a dent in that Tub full.

Lots going on as usual, until next time, Tina for all!