The Skeleton Crew

  We were few in number today, but we got a lot of little stuff done!!!  (Carol is in Canada, so a bunch of people played hooky!!!)  Tina, Pat and I finished making straw looms for the Smoky Mountain Fiber Arts Festival which is this weekend. ( I don't have a final count yet....I'll let you know when I blog on Saturday.)  Four straws, four lengths of yarn and you have a little "loom"!!!!  You'll notice the egg cartons on the table....Tina's hens are laying again!  Yeah!!!!   (Great eggs come from very happy hens, ya know!!!!)

  We cut mug rugs off of the table looms (the remaining warp can be used for Kids Kamp in June.)  Linda knotted the fringe on this set of rugs.  These are the mug rugs for the goody bags for the Southeast Fiber Festival in April.

  Charlotte was busy knotting the fringe on some of the mug rugs, too!  Trudy is taking home the little Structo Loom to clean up.  She and Ms. Bonnie discussed the best way to clean the reed and heddles.  Lanny (not pictured!) was the only one who made it to his loom this morning!  He wove until lunch, then he headed out. 

  We always have a lot of little stuff to get done, so today was a great day to do just that!  It will be back to the looms next week!

Have a great week of Weaving!!!!
LouAnn

Written Excuse

Hi!  It's my day to blog, and I have to tell you that I can't!  I've done nothing interesting but work, work, work, and today, my son, his girlfriend and my mother have all come to visit.  I've taken a break to write this, and need to get back.  Have a great week, weave like there's no tomorrow and check back Tuesday for the donation excitement to continue!
Happy weaving!
Maggie

I Said I Wasn't Goin' To.......

  I went with the best of intentions (and we all know where that leads!)  The Center is having a Porch Sale this weekend, and they always have a table of home-baked goodies. I had baked a batch of my Red Velvet cookies, and had them bagged and priced.....ready to go!   I walked right in the front door without allowing my eyes to wander to the shelves on the porch stocked with discounted treasures.  
  After putting my bags of cookies on the sale table, I politely purchased a chess square to take home and enjoy later.  (Whewwwww.....I'm almost done!)
  But, NO....don't look......a BAG of specialty yarns sitting on the shelf on the porch.  Only $2!!!!  Now, you know I don't need any more yarn or thread.....I made it through Tuesday's sale without buying anything!  But, that beautiful assortment of yarns just had to come home with me!

 

  Can you say, "Hello, my name is LouAnn, and I'm addicted to Fiber!"

  What I was seeing were some yarns to use for stripes in some chenille scarves that I want to make.  There isn't enough to do a whole project, yet there's plenty to use in a mixed warp....and the colors were perfect for the chenille I have on hand.    I even started a moebius using that lovely turquoise and purple yarn.  I really love how that scarf is crocheting along.  I already have about 6 inches completed.
  Oh, and I forgot to tell you that I bought 2 rigid heddles.....they are about two inches too wide for my rigid heddle loom, though.  Wonder if I can shorten them????  I only paid $1.

And, finally, thoughts and prayers going out to the people of Japan..............

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Results Color Fast Trial!

This week has largely been spent on the color trial.  I have had a two colors of 100% cotton carpet warp bleed all over the natural warp, they are Dubonnet and Smokey Blue.  I used these colors during the trial and added a nice dark Purple too.

Disclamer:

1.  This is my results, under my conditions, please test any color you plan to use, before you do a project with it.

2.  I only used cold water in all washes.  I do not know how warm or hot water would effect the results.  That is for another trial.

3.  I always used a Color Catcher in every wash.  I was able to reuse the color catchers several times!

4.  Samples were removed from the washer as soon as it finished.  None were allowed to remain wet, but were immediatly placed in the dryer to tumble dry normal heat.

5.  Your regular laundry may pile up if you plan to do an extensive trial like I did. (27 loads)

I began the trial by weaving a strip of overshot in the 3 selected colors.  I serged them apart and then into 3 pieces each, to make up the three different wash groups.




Three things had been recommended to me to set colors in the reds and blues.  Synthropol, Salt and Vinegar.  I had also read recently that washing in just plain cold water for the first wash would work just as well.  Synthropol detergent proved very expensive to buy and ship, and I knew that it would give good results already so I chose not to use it.  The three wash groups then were:

Cold water only for the first wash
Salt during the first wash
Vinegar during the first wash

The Samples then were washed in cold water and Orvus paste.

Then I cut each Sample in half so that I could wash each of them in a regular detergent that I knew had given me problems before, with the blue.  I wanted to keep a control group.

(I have to admit that I had pre-concieved ideas about which one would work best, and I was proven so wrong!)

I took pictures along the way, but I will only show you the final results to save time.  So, without further ado,


Dubonnet,

Smokey Blue,

and Purple



To my amazement all of the suggested fixes worked!  I would sell anything that had this color intensity and definition.   Yipeeeeee!

I had a couple of blankets made, one in Parakeet and one in Copper.  I washed them each in cold water only.  I forgot the Color Catcher when I washed the Copper one and there is the slightest copper tinge to the natural, but the Parakeet showed no color transfer at all.

Encouraged by may results, I knitted up a dish cloth using the natural and Kentucky Red.

Here it is, I decided that if I knitted them up, I would have the looms free and,  I would have some dishcloths.

After cold water only wash!





The looms are lashed on and ready to go, I am on my way to weave an Overshot Couch Throw in Kentucky Red.  I plan to put on all my tags that I recommend using cold water Only to wash my textiles.   I am pumped!!!!!

Please reread the disclamers at the beginning of this post, I am not responsible for any damage to any project you may undertake!

I will be bringing the samples on Tuesday to show everyone my happy results.

Until next time, Happy Weaving with RED, Tina

Connections!

What a day this has been! First of all, I just got this warp off of my loom. It's seafoam green, natural and wisteria. It'll be a jacket, 2 tops and 3 vests. It'll be fun to figure out which buttons to use on these pieces. I'm in the full spring mode on my loom!!

As was posted on the Tuesday blog, it was kind of like Christmas with yarn and fabric strips coming to the center. We were very fortunate to have all of this offered to us. Of course, as we were moving them to storage more got put on our piles. I know there are some neutral colors I"d like to get yet, but for now, here's my stash. Some of those weigh 20 lbs! There's always room for a bit more in my studio but I am already figuring out warps to weave these on. The fabric is synethic, alot of it nylon. I think they'll make great bathroom mats, placemats and even handbags. Back in the day, Arrowcraft sold bags woven with the nylon strips and I think we need to make our own version for the shop!! There will be more coming in a few weeks. I'm not sure the people getting it to us even know what all is there yet and we certainly are excited about the prospect of something that will take us in new directions. I didn't ever imagine that these selvages were still available anywhere so am looking forward to playing with them in the months to come!

It's after midnight on Tuesday night, so I can do my blog as a Wednesday! We just got in from a concert. We have a friend who is good friends with Merle Haggard. She has gone to his concerts for probably 30 years! She called us the other day to say he'd be in town, did we want to go? Maybe go backstage? So we went. We had good seats but ended up backstage for the whole performance. Not only was Merle Haggard playing, but also Kris Kristofferson. Kris had a nasty cold and had a time trying to sing but they put on a good show. Merle's son is 18 and is playing in the band. That kid is good! He could have a very bright future in the music industry if he wants to. It was obvious how proud his Dad was to be on stage with him.

There was an opening act of young guys from North Carolina. We invited them to come to our convention in July because they would really enjoy meeting Paul Yandell who was Chet Atkin's rhythm player. I hope they come. It's like our fiber conferences. You always learn something new at them. Whether it's guitar music or a new weave structure, we're all in the game of knowledge!
I've been meaning to visit my family in Moose Jaw for some time now. I always dread going in winter but January is generally the time I like to go for a couple of weeks. This year it's alot later. I'm flying up on Friday for a couple of weeks. My sister has plans for us to sew! This should be interesting. I've collected some fabric and notions that we'll need. She has both her sewing machines in fine shape so I hope to post some pictures of what we do while I'm there. No room for a loom in my carry on. I'll be taking a laptop. So the weaving will wait til I get back!
Carol

It's Tuesday.....Oh, My!!!!

Take a look at this!!!

 This is the load of weaving supplies we got today.  This is from a lady in the Smoky Mountains that passed away last Fall.  She had three houses full of weaving supplies, and she wove items for Arrowcraft and other shops in Sevier County.  She wove rugs, tote bags and purses using a lot of this nylon warp.  There was even another bag of 100 yard warps as well as some acrylic yarn that would be great for rug warp.

  Since we don't have room to store all this stash, the weavers had a shopping day!!!!  I just got a report from Tina that we sold 550 pounds!  Of course, this also means that we had to store the rest until we can get to it.

  Carol brought her hand truck, and we loaded up the left-over rolls and took them out to the Annex for now.  Many hands make short work......that is so true!!!!  But, you would have had a good laugh as some of the rolls came back inside and  right on someone's pile!!!!  Maybe it was seeing it in the daylight?????

  We'll be getting another load of supplies at the end of the month.  In the meantime, we have lots of plans for the next few months.  What a BUSY place!!!

  Happy Weaving!

LouAnn

Picture This:

I had a great blog entry all ready, with photos from my Canon G10, because I don't like the quality of the iphone's camera.  But about six weeks ago, I downloaded Snow Leopard onto my imac, and ever since then, I haven't been able to download photos from my Canon.  I've troubleshot the problem all afternoon, and it's not working.  This has made me grumpy and irritable and I feel like I need to go make a cup of tea, grab a brownie and go knit in front of the t.v. for the rest of the afternoon.  Kind of a version of pouting, but productive and nutritious at the same time!
  I haven't woven anything this week, anyway, and I've already blogged about my knitting antics on A Sweet Thread.  I did find a perfect pattern for the lace on my new socks.  Hang on!  I'll see if I can download that from my iphone app from Vogue knitting!  Stay right there!
  No, can't send it.  It's cool, though:  eyelet hearts, 12 stitches, plus 3, just about right.  Guess you have to be there to visualize it.
   I did have a good weekend, though.  I had brunch with my friend Amy yesterday.  She's drinking her sweet tea while I drank my bloody mary, because she's a civilized Southern woman, while I'm a heathen Yankee!  Bistro at the Bijou is now my favorite brunch spot, which is where we went.  Everything I've had there has been delicious, especially the bloody mary!

  Saturday, we hosted a fundraising dinner for the Knoxville Museum of Art, which was not so much fun, but here are three women loving their job, rolling 650 rolls for the dinner.  This is my new work area, now that I'm back making desserts.  Krissy and Tracy, closest and farthest from the camera, are the bread baking wizards, while Suzie in the middle is one of the p.m. pastry cooks.  Melanie came over with me from the preservation kitchen and is the other p.m. pastry cook.  We're still looking for one more a.m. pastry cook, but we have two people trying out for the job in the next week.
 

And here's the one picture I got of the dinner, the first course.  It's a terrine of lobster and leeks.  See what I mean about the quality of the photos?  It's funny how a 5 megapixel camera used to be state of the art, but now, it's not good enough!
  Well, that cup of tea and brownie is ready.  Have a wonderful, up and down weather-wise week!  Stay tuned to Loomy Tunes for the exciting donation fun tomorrow!
  Happy Weaving!   Maggie