scarves off the loom

I finally got back to weaving! I had the Leclerc Dorothy ready to go, before the surgery,  for when I felt like weaving again.  I took the loom to the arts center last Tuesday and wove some. Then I finished weaving the warp at home. These scarves are woven using rayon from R&M Yarns. The warp is a light khaki color and the weft is two strands, muted green and verigated. ( on one scarf. The other scarf has stripes of verigated ) The verigated has off white, burnt orange and a green that almost matches the other strand in the weft. I took this picture using my phone so the colors aren't showing up quite right. I just have to get myself a camera!

Here is a picture of my Dorothy with the scarves still on the loom. A couple of years ago I found an ad for this loom. The price listed was $15.00!! I contacted the seller and told her I thought there was a typo in her ad. She said no, that was the price of the loom! I asked for pictures and the rest is history! When it came I damp wiped the loom and then oiled the wood with Howard's Feed and wax. I put a warp on it and then discovered a problem. The loom didn't have the bars to keep it from folding! My husband came to the rescue and made the bars. He did such a wonderful job. You wouldn't know they weren't original! He also added the screws for the bars to hook onto. The strange thing is.....it didn't look like it had come with the bars when first made. All is well now and it is a great little loom!

Entertaining Visitors

I'm not so sure that August is a great time for little sheep to be visiting East Tennessee!!!  It has been SO HOT and HUMID for the last few weeks, that even those of us without wool coats are working hard to stay cool!  Bucky did spend some time in the pool...the cool water really helped (as did the COOL drink!)  Floating around is just his style....no felting allowed!

I promised to find him some sunglasses....the sun was really bright!

Bucky got to see some of the native vegetation.  Kudzu is often called the "scourge of the South" since it covers anything that doesn't move!  It originally was introduced to help with erosion, and it did.  But it also took over and eradicated native plants.  It's very aggressive, and hard to get rid of!!!!  (I know this because I am waging a battle with it myself!)  Bucky found out that it's very cool under those big leaves, but you can almost watch it grow!  (It grows a foot a day!)  He also found a fairy ring in the back yard.  NO!  Don't take a bite!  We don't know if it's edible!

During the hot time of the day, Bucky and Tromp have read a lot of books.  Their favorites are the "Sheep" books by Nancy Shaw.  They just giggle and giggle over the sheep adventures.

Bucky has also shown a lot of interest in my weaving.  I don't have any wool warps on right now, but he just loved Maggie's panel that I've been weaving on this week.  The variegated thread tends to make blocks of color.  Since it's time to wind a new bobbin, Bucky wants me to start the new one so that the light part will be in the middle this time.   I'll try my best. 

  Last night he helped me do the math for a bamboo wrap.  I have a 9 pound spool of natural bamboo, and I would love to make a lace wrap to wear this fall.  I can even wind the warp for TWO wraps!!!  We'll see how that goes.  I think Bucky just wants to play on the old barn looms while I wind the warp.  It does look like a jungle gym!
  Uh-oh....gotta run.  I just heard a big SPLASH!!!!!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Creative Juices!

Sometimes you know when you start a project, just exactly how it is going to turn out, and there are not many chances that those plans will change.
You know the steps you have to take to get the finished product, and the results are pretty much fool proof.

Months ago I began winding this warp thinking the whole time that I would do hand towels in plain weave with stripes and matching bands across.  Simple enough right? 

While I was waiting for a loom to open up for this project, ( or really I had to buy the loom) I began to fall in love with Overshot all over again.  So, I began to puzzle it out,  I love what your brain does while you are not even aware of it!

I really love this design, it has all the elements I like and I think with a little work I can make it match up with the stripes flowing down underneath the overshot design.

I had to move a couple of threads to make it work, and I am now almost done winding on.  I am waiting for some loom parts for this loom, then it will be full speed ahead.

I may still do some handtowel with this warp, maybe even with an overshot accent, but I think it will make fantastic pillows!

This is the next project for my 4 harness counterbalance,  Overshot again.  I can't wait to see how this developes!

On a side note, this is my night time knitting project, almost to the end of the main body. Should have it finished in plenty of time to wear to Blackberry Farm to demonstrate!










So while some projects are pretty straight forward, with expected results, like running the dogs = happy dogs and too many tomatoes in the summer = canned tomatoes.

Other projects are more fluid and can change as they progress, but with a lot less mess!

                                                                          





                                                                           Ping!



Happy Weaving, Tina
12 miles logged

Trip North, part 2

Yup, Moose Jaw has a moose! It's by the main highway, the #1 Highway that runs across the country. I've driven by it so many times over the years before my family moved here. Never thought then that there'd be a reason to take a picture of him. By the way, someone stole his jaw a few years ago but looks like he's fine now!Every Saturday morning there's a farmers market downtown. They sell vegetables but also meats. The big freezers hold farm raised beef. Like anywhere else, you can find baked goods and home grown vegetables. It was a hot day and they were glad for the tarp over their table. These vendors are Hutterites. Hutterites live communally on huge farms. They have the best equipment available to produce the best products. The Hutterites have their own homes on the farm but they eat communally and each person has their own job.  The women all dress alike with dark clothes and the polka dotted scarfs. I haven't seen a woman drive a vehicle. They always come to town with a man driving them. They have their own schools on their farms but I think they have government teachers. Not sure if it's one room or a couple of rooms for the school. When my sister talked about ordering some chickens from them, we knew they'd be well cleaned and ready for her freezer. I think she gets some in a few weeks!My sister's dining room is sewing central! We have the machines on either end of the table. The cutting table I got from Joyce is full of projects. The lower left is a table topper my sister finished just after we got here. There's no air conditioning on this floor so the fan was needed when it got quite hot. Yesterday we spent the day in Regina. Of course we went shopping, but also to renew my Mom's passport. She's only 86 but if she wants to go south to Minot or Bismarck to shop, she has to have it. I'm so glad that she feels much better after her 6 by passes a couple of years ago. Who would have thought then that she would need one again? We're thrilled! Anyway, we ended up at Applebees for lunch. Yup, they've got one up there. Also McDonalds, Burger King, Arby's and Wendys. Oh, Robin's donuts and my favorite, Tim Horton's. On the wall of the restaurant was this picture of the Canadian mounties. They began and their headquarters is in Regina. They always look so cool!Got that throw for my nephew finished. It's ready to give to him next week when I drive to Winnipeg. I kind of like the backing on it. Gnomes are an interesting contrast to the anime girls on the front! It quilted up easily. I used bamboo for the batting.My sister started this red and purple piece a year ago but we are finishing it now. Ended up backing it with a neat ice cream cone themed fabric that she had in her stash. She sometimes gets fabric from friends when they don't want something anymore and we find ways of using it! I'm going to machine quilt it for her, just stitching in the ditch. Then she's going to use the two spools of thread to stitch flower shapes in the middle of the 4 patch squares to give it a bit of added punch. We'll have to practice dropping the feed dogs and moving a scrap of fabric with batting and backing to get the motion going before she starts it on the quilt itself. I think she should hang it next to the table. That wall is empty and needs a little something to pull the room together. This would work great!We're also working on Mom's winter quilt. Had to buy an extra yard of fabric yesterday since we decided to add 4 borders around what we'd sewn. This has been a fun project. I hope to finish sewing the borders this morning and then we'll cut the backing. It's going to be the big poinsettia fabric. My sister's friend has a long arm quilting machine and will quilt it for us. Then Mom'll be ready for winter. She does get cold.

So, that's been our week. We've had some quite warm days here but yesterday was cooler and today it's not supposed to be hot. We'll get more work done that way! We're going to layer a bunch of baby tops that they've made with batting and backing and pin them. Mom's going to quilt one for each grandchild incase they ever have kids. So we'll have 3 machines going this weekend! Should be fun!

Carol

Another Terriffic Tuesday!!!!

Today was a great day for visitors!  We welcomed a little ram, Bucky Merino....he's visiting from Milwaukie, OR.  Bucky had heard about all the goings on at the Center, and tagged along with Tromp for a day with the weavers.  (You can meet his friend, Roxie, at her blog on the right side bar:  Sanna's Bag.)
  I didn't get a picture of Marta's visitors....sorry!  But, David's sister and her husband and son were in for a visit.  They spent some time with us, then went across the street to the Museum of Appalachia to walk about for awhile.

Chamisa was with us today.  She has made a lot of progress on her loom, and has done a wonderful job!  You just have to love seeing young people enjoy weaving!!!!

Linda was able to be with us today.  William was her escort, and loom toter!!!  We are all in awe at her recovery from her surgery!  I guess it just goes to show that weaving is GREAT physical therapy!

Sharen and Maggie were back with us today, also.  Both of them went right back to work on their projects.  Ila was working really hard on her 8/2 lace warp.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture of that!!!!  And, Bonnie is hard at work on her looper rugs.  I didn't EVEN want to look under her loom this morning!

I got lots of help tying up the treadles on the 8 shaft Tools of the Trade from Bucky and Tromp.  In fact, I spent most of my day at the Center under that loom!!!!

We had a lively discussion at lunch about the gray warp you see on the table.  This is left-over from the KMA Wind, Rewind, Weave project.  It was donated to the Tuesday Weavers for their use.  Pat has been reading up on Bound Weave, and this would give all of us a chance to learn something new!  Of course, Tromp and Bucky had to put in their two cents worth!  We have a lot of colors to use for weft (thanks to the KMA) and this would make some beautiful table runners.  There's a lot of warp there!!!  Pat had cut her placemat warp off today, so she's already getting that gray warp ready to go on her loom!

  
Happy Weaving, y'all!!!!
LouAnn

So close, and yet...

Here is the first rectangle of the last set of rectangles in the afghan project.  As I mentioned previously, my warp is not long enough.  Poor planning, bad math skills and then, inability to look at the project for a while have kept this project sitting alone in the loominaria.  But, as before, the blog pushed me into trying to finish it.  I've wound the 2 yard warp--maybe too much but that's okay--and read once again how to tie on more warp.  I cut the finished rectangles off:

I've unwound the many, many rectangles:







I was getting ready to start tying on the new threads, but realized I needed lease sticks.  Both pairs I own are on the other project I've been ignoring.  I looked the other loom over, trying to figure out how I can wind on that warp by myself, and I remembered what Theresa from Camp Runamuck said:  Is there no way to work on some of the dressing methods to make the Colonial easier?   Is there?  It's only running through the heddle space; there's nothing that makes it imperative that someone stand in the front, pulling and someone else stand in the back, turning.  Silly of me to think that!  I started winding it on, by myself, from the back.  Jennifer's kind of a bear, even from the back, but I got quite a lot wound on this morning.  I've broken 3 threads on the fine cotton, because of my haste, and it kind of hurts my back leaning over the loom, but I've gotten about halfway.

The pearl cotton is very slippery and needs to be held taughtly; the unmercerized cotton is sticky and won't behave.  It doesn't need to be held, because the lease sticks and raddle keep it tight, but the threads tangle around the lease sticks and cling to each other.  I'm taking a break from it for now, but will finish it this afternoon.  I won't thread today, though.  Jenny is waiting for those lease sticks.  And I'm getting ready for the next project.  My copy of Doubleweave by Jennifer Moore arrived this past weekend, and I'm planning my mug rug for our Christmas exchange.  That'll be next on Jenny, lots of doubleweave sampling!

I'm on vacation until the 11th, had a fabulous birthday weekend with my sister, mother and friends and have a trip to Nashville this week to try Matt's sandwiches.  I'll slip some weaving in from time to time and let you know how it goes next Monday.  Until then,  happy weaving!
Maggie

ANXIETY

Here is my desk. I can't work with such a mess. I will tell you why it is the way it is.

I don't usually blog today. I thought this would help relieve my anxiety. You know a stress relief. As of Thursday I had gotten my white warp ready for the reed. Since then I found time to warp the reed and tie on. I got started on my first rectangle for the friendship afhgan. I have the Macomber programed and ready. (A quick update. In the past it would drop harnesses or not raise them. I have had trouble with it.) I thought I would give it another try. My mistake. I have woven 2 inches, taken out 1, woven 3, taken out 1 so on an on. It still drops the harnesses or the pistons will not fire to lift them. If you haven't seen a Macomber with a dobie computer, then this makes no sense. The jest is that it is not working. There is a manual mode to which I will have to read the book to see how it works. Here is what I have gotten done finally. It is going to be nice if I can figure out how to get it finished. Think. After this one I only have 15 more to go. Maybe by by blog day I will have it finished.  No, this did not relieve my anxiety. Hope you have a good weaving week.

Until Thursday.

Bonnie