New Arrivals! Halfpint Sized!

This week I had some unexpected new arrivals.  Some of you know me and know that I am expecting my Nigora doe to kid any minute, it's not that!  Let me tell you though, that I expect within 2 weeks we will have a couple of new little Nigora kids running around the place, or Kami just might pop!  So you can let your breath out, it's not that.

This week I finally received a spinning wheel that I bought last summer, and sent off to be refurbished.  It is a long story, but she is now here with a much needed flyer repair, new leathers and 4, count them, 4 new bobbins!  I will not tell you how much I spent for all this lovely work, but suffice to say that I will never be able to sell it for what I have in it.  (That happens sometimes.)


I bought this wheel because it is a very small wheel that I can take with me when I demonstrate spinning at the Museum of Appalachia.  It is a Mayville spinning wheel, and it was made in Mayville, Wisconson  sometime between 1835 and 1935.  The restorer that helped me with this wheel says that she thinks that it is one of the earlier ones.

After the turn of that century Frank Fell took over the wheel production from the Mayville company, so these wheels are sometimes known as Mayville/Fell wheels.  Though we think this may be a Mayville.

 You can see how much smaller it is than the wheel I am used to carrying around.   I won't even have to take it apart to put it in the car!  Lou Ann has a nifty red wagon that we use to move stuff from the car to the cabin, but still that big wheel takes up a lot of room.  I'm not big on naming my wheels, but right now I am calling her the little red wheel.  I'm creative that way!

One of the other good tings about this wheel is that it will be a good wheel for people to try to spin on, since it is a much slower wheel than the larger wheel I have been using, and with its slower ratio, I may even be able to spin some thicker yarn, that the larger drive wheels on the other wheels, make so difficult.

 Monday, while I was running errands, I got a  text from Linda.  It seems that she had decided to sell one of her goats,  This little goat is not as big as he should be at this age, (5 inches shorter than his brother) and his coat is not as long as it should be this time of year either.  (Isn't he cute!)
I told her that I would be happy to take him and see what I could do to get a growth spurt going!  I have some tricks up my sleeve, who knows, though, if it will come to anything.  (I need to take my tape measure out there and see how tall he really is!)

My flock is quite small, here you can see all 4 of them with the little guy in the foreground, which makes him look bigger than he really is!  We are at the point in the "getting to know you" phase of  socialization, of extended time together grazing, under supervision of course.  I don't want him to be stressed too much by bossy goats.

One of the fun things about this little guy is that he follows me around like a puppy when I am in the barn area!  The grandkids are going to love that!

By this time next month, I will have at least 6 goats maybe 7 bouncing around the place.  Maybe as early as next week, you just never know!

Until next time, Happy Spinning, Knitting and Weaving, Tina

She's All That

  You know Marie......you see her in our Tuesday blogs.  She's either working on her tablet, checking lists, threading or organizing us to be more efficient.  Sometimes, she even gets to weave!

  But, did you know that she's been married for 48 years?  She's a Mom to three, a grandmother to five, and a great-grandmother to one?  Did you know that she got her accounting degree at the University of Tennessee when she was 40????   WOW!

  This is Marie on her very first day with the Tuesday Weavers.  That was September 11, 2012.  I wonder if she knew how much her life was going to change?

  She moved straight from the table loom to one of the floor looms.   And, it wasn't long until she had bought her own loom to use at home.










  Marie was no stranger to weaving when she came to us, though.  She had been weaving on rigid heddle looms for awhile.  She learned to crochet from her Mother when she was a teenager, and then learned to knit.  At Clinch River Yarn Company, she took up weaving with the rigid heddle, and came to us weave on a floor loom.
 Last summer, Marie led the Tuesday Weavers in warping up a whole bunch of mobius scarves on rigid heddle looms.  She even sold the one she was wearing at the Foothills Fall Show!!!!

  And, you can bet you'll hear, "Where's Marie?" when we have a mechanical problem.  She has her own tool box, you know!!!
  Puzzles.....she likes puzzles.  And getting everything in its place.

Oh yes, she's all that..........
     and more!!!!

Thank you, Marie!
Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Yep! It's Tuesday!

  It's 9:15 A.M. folks!!!!
  Carol moved back the starting time for Weaving to 9:30 since so many people were there early.  But, I arrived at 9:15, and there were already people waiting for Carol to get there and unlock the door!!!!

  My excuse for being so early was that I needed to leave the camera so they could take some pictures.  I needed to be at the Museum for the last day of Anderson County Days.....but, I would need pictures for today's blog!

  Here's how the day went..................

  Fiber on the hoof!!!!  Linda and Tina were working a fiber trade.  I think the little fellow went home with Tina.









  Harriet has graduated to one of the floor looms!  It looks like she's working on a scarf warp!








  She's been weaving up a storm at home!









  These are the towels from Cindy's warp that Andy wove off.  We're going to miss Andy...she has a new job and has to miss our Tuesday get-togethers.






  There are a lot of woven towels on the cloth beam on Molly's loom!  That is such a fun pattern to play with.










  Yippee!!!  Marie got a chance to sit down and thread on her napkin warp!!!!  She's almost finished.

    Anna wound warps for Dye Day which is later this week.  Betsy was busy winding a warp, too.  I think that table top mill is going to get a lot of use!!!







 
    Linda and Sharon just get it done........











And, as always, Carl keeps that loom humming.

                                                                               

  Winding on a warp.....who knew it could be so much fun????

Jocelyn introduced her friend...she knit her top...then crocheted the bottom part when she realized that it was too short!  Smart lady!!!














Darlene brought some woven items from Honduras to share with us.  LOVE those beautiful colors!

  Never a dull moment, that's for sure!  I'm looking forward to seeing some of the new dyed warps next week.......I won't be so early next time.

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

A couple of things..

Not a ton to report on from the studio this week. I am slowly chipping away at the pile of things that I posted about last week. Weaving the red, grey and black warp was fun. I really like the combination of colors and the pieces end up so cheerful.

 The red softens the black nicely. I want to weave the opposite yet, with black the main color and grey and then red in the middle. It'll be nice to show the difference but that warp is way down the list. I'm not sure I'll get it done before the July show, but for sure by the October one.

 What's on the loom now? Black. Yes, just solid black. Am I excited? No. However, black sells well and I need to have that color as well so I'll spend a few days weaving black. I won't take a picture of it. Too boring. Just know I'll be watching season 8 of JAG and weaving....have you seen JAG? It's quite an interesting show. Not sure why we didn't watch it originally but I am thoroughly enjoying it now! Poor Lieutenant Roberts!! for those of you who watched it.

Saturday we went to the University of Tennessee Gardens. Each year on Mother's Day weekend they open the gardens and have a sale with vendors. We've gone once before but it's been years. So we went this time with no expectations. DH bought some flame azaleas, native to our mountains to add to our hillside. Some pink, some orange. They are beautiful! Friday he went to another greenhouse and bought a couple more hostas. The huge, huge ones. The leaves are massive and beautiful. We certainly have the room to display them. So evenings this week, he'll be planting them. He's also trying to get rid of wisteria. Remember the pictures I posted the last few years of the blooms? Well, if you're not careful they just take over everything and they have. So this year he's attempting to gain ground against them. I'm not sure who'll win but they are spreading all over our yard, not just staying in the woods.

I didn't expect to find anything at the show but in wandering among the vendors, several of whom are Foothills Guild members, I came across some unusual hostas. These are miniatures. As in tiny hostas.

 They don't grow any bigger. I bought 9 little hostas, all different!!

 The plan is to plant them in the 2 pots. They'll be on our deck year round. The deck is mostly in the shade, especially one end of it has no sun. So this is the perfect environment for them. In fall they'll die down and the pots will appear to be empty but in spring they'll come back. It really is the perfect plant for the deck. I'll have them near the chairs so we can enjoy them.
Each of them has a different name. You can see how small the plants are by the size of the tag next to them. I want to remember their names because they're really cute and if one of them doesn't come up next year I want to be able to replace it with another one. Just need to be sure to water all the plants out there. Wish the mosquitoes weren't as bad as they are right now....

So that's the latest from my studio. For Mother's Day, DH got my car vacumned and washed. I was thrilled! Hauling stuff around like I do, it's nice to have that done once in awhile!
This week I'm just going to keep weaving, sewing buttons on pieces, cutting, serging, assembling and maybe get to that inventorying that I need to do. Oh yeah, and this week the Tuesday Weavers are having dye day Thursday so Wednesday afternoon I'll probably go over there to help set up. That reminds me, I need to start winding skeins to dye.
Busy week!
Until next week, keep weaving!
Carol

Anderson County Days Continue at the Museum

The visitors at the museum today were  eighth graders again today.  We were out there bright and early, so that we could be all set up by the time the students were let loose on the place.

 Yesterday you saw me sitting on the Peters cabin porch, so I thought I would show you my view of Lou Ann's Loom house that is off to my left as I am spinning.  You can just see the basket with my finished skeins and the woven scarves in the foreground.

The kids were great today, lots of questions, and for the most part they were eager to learn about new things.

 I finished this bobbing early on, and had to wind it off to start on some white wool.  All the wool that I spin at the museum, comes from the sheep on the property.  I have wool left over from last year when I took "all the fleeces" home.  This year I was a little more picky about which fleeces I took home and washed, cause there is no shortage of fleeces at my place!  Most of the fleeces have a high percentage of the Southdown breed which is a very springing wool that is easy to wash and to spin.  making yarn that is perfect for hats, mittens, sweaters and socks.  Every once in awhile, however,  there is a fleece that makes you smile!  It is usually grey, here at the museum, and this year it is a lambs fleece.

 On the home front, my husband has been away for about 2 weeks now, and I have been taking advantage of his absence to get a lot of very messy jobs done.  I am almost through with the museum fleeces and hope to have that completely done and put away by the time he gets back.
 Another task I took on this week is something I have been looking at for awhile now, and all the pieces finally fell into place for me to start, was designing a rug pattern for me to use while I learn how to hook a rug  using traditional methods.

The pattern I took from an old quilting pattern called "spools".  I got out my colored pencils and colored the pattern according to the colors of wool that I have on hand.

It is going to be interesting to learn something new.  I have a lot of the fabric strips cut and have done a little bit in the center of the design.  Like most things it is going to take some time for me to know if I like doing this craft or not.  It seems a little fiddly, but hey, I think I am a process girl deep down.

In a day or two you would not be able to tell the mess this place was in while he was gone.  I will be glad I was able to accomplish so much, in such a short time!

Until next time, Happy Spinning, Knitting and Weaving, Tina

The View From The Porch

  My weaving friends spent the day on Tina's porch...I was at the Museum.  As I drove to Norris this morning, I was getting mentally set to interact with around 200 4th graders.  I sat down on the porch at the Peter's Cabin with my Inkle loom to finish weaving the strap that was on it.  When I looked up, this is what I saw.  They sure were BIG 4th graders!!!!  Come to find out, they were 8th graders!!!!  (And, there were 300 of them!!!)

  The Museum schedules four days in May for the 4th and 8th graders across Anderson County.  This goes along with the Tennessee history curriculum for those grades.  They had their scavenger hunt sheet handy, and had a lot of great questions about how weaving fit in with our local history.

  Tina and I were just at the Museum yesterday.  The Museum hosted the monthly meeting of State Trustees, and several took a tour around the property.  Tina had her wheel spinning away....she was determined to finish her bobbin of brown wool.











  I brought a chair out on the porch, and wove on the box loom.  I have a wool warp on it, too.

  I ended up today in the Loom House, since the kids' sheet referenced items that were in there.  I did finish my "spring" strap, and even got a new warp on the loom with a patriotic theme.  I think I will take cleaning cloths and work on the Rocker Beater loom tomorrow (YES...tomorrow is another group!) 
  Tina will have her spinning wheel, and it will be another lively day!

  But, don't tell Tina.....they had "Perfect Chocolate Cake" on the dessert table today.  I just couldn't pass that up!  Spinach quiche, green beans and hash brown casserole with sweet tea made a mighty fine lunch!  It's probably a good thing that I can't be there every day!








  On the home front, I have started winding on the 13 yard place mat warp.  Those pink things are the hand weights I use to tension the warp while I wind.  I would really like to start threading that this weekend!  May is already going so quickly...I don't want to end up missing my deadline.

  I'm already wondering....who will be at the Museum tomorrow morning:  4th graders or 8th graders???? 
  It doesn't really matter.....I'll tell them about weaving.

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Grab Your Cup.....

.......and join our little group.  Ms. Ila made us some "Morning Glory Muffins" to start our day.  The coffee is fresh....or you could make yourself a cup of tea.
  These muffins might even be considered healthy:  carrots, apples, coconut and nuts!  YUM!!!

  The second day of the Weaving 2.0 class was in session.










There are always a lot of questions....which usually leads to more questions, right???  Weaving is a life long learning experience.






Meanwhile, in the studio, Marie and Andy installed the stroller kit for the Baby Wolf.  With all the folks in the other room, there was more space for working!  

 






  Once Andy got to work on the loom, it wasn't too long until she finished the towel warp.  Look how close she is to the back bar!  This was the last two towels on this warp.








  This was also a great time to get the new warp on the little Leclerc.  That's a 60 yard warp for place mats, and Tina had Sharon's new Leclerc tension box working like a dream.








  Linda was a able to weave on her rug warp even though we were kinda/sorta in her way.  The Leclerc had to be pulled out in order to place the yarn tree at the back side of that loom.









  I was finally able to get a picture of Ms. Ila's shawl being woven....the color change is beautiful.  She's using a brown bamboo weft.  (The warp is hand painted bamboo.)







  Yes....Marie is still doing book work.  She keeps a close eye on what sells upstairs in the shop.  Our basket of "one of a kind" mats have been selling really well.  Now we'll need to see if any more need to be moved.

  Next week, we'll be back to normal....whatever that is!  Two looms will need to be threaded, and just maybe....Marie will get to work on her napkin warp!!!!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn