When The Plan Comes Together

  All of the pre-planning paid off!  When Cindy and Marie started working on plans for this year's booth right after the 2013 show, they ordered panels and shelves and lots of little do-dads that made the set up and display so much easier.
  Now, that doesn't mean we didn't ad-lib where necessary, but it all came together very nicely!

  With Marie and Tina acting as the team leaders, Christy, Ann and I put together panels, hung curtains, clipped on lights and ran the power cords.  Then the fun began!










  Even Christy's hubby was put to work putting the hangers on the rugs.

  We have plenty of scarves for folks to choose from this year, and the spiral display will come with Marie in the morning.  We have a wonderful selection of wool scarves that will come in handy for this arctic weather that has come our way. 

  There are more scarves on the right side of the booth, along with the placemats and runners.  Extra rugs were stored on the bottom shelves.  Book marks, mug rugs and greeting cards are at the check out table.

  The rugs take center place this year.  The walker bags are flanking them on the right.  You know there are always straw looms.....right there with the rugs!

  Ann had to leave around noon, but we continued to place each woven item where it would get noticed.  (I'm sure tomorrow's crew will "fluff" the shelves again!  Who knows what it will look like when I get there on Saturday!!!)
  But, for today, the plan came together!

  Here's to a successful show!!!  (Carol's booth looks great, too!!!)

LouAnn

We Salute You

  We are honored to weave with our Veterans....and today was the day to salute their service to our country.

  Thank you, Carl.





Thank you, Lanny.















Thank you, Ray.










  We also salute Carol....she keeps us on track and inspires us to reach higher in our quest for learning about this wonderful world of weaving.
  Today Carol was tagging and making the inventory list for the items for the Foothills show.    You don't see Marie and Tina because they were running up and down the stairs from the shop pulling items to take to the show.  They also got them all listed on the master inventory.

Marie is now serving on the shop committee, and she spent last Thursday getting the scarves on the new display rack.  We decided that the whole rack can make the trip to the Show this weekend!!!  Also, the shawls look so much better on the new rack!

  Betsy has woven several more "walker bags" for the show, and Charlotte volunteered to do some of finish work.

  I'm not sure what Margi was working on when I caught her using these scissors on the sewing machine.  File that one under "creative uses for scissors."

   And, through all the commotion in the studio, Sharon tried to weave on the placemat warp.  That includes us coming through with stacks of rugs and placemats and towels.  She got really good at ducking at the right moment!

Now, we all need to rest up and get ready for set-up on Thursday, and then three days of showing the world our wonderful weaving.

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Suitcases and Stockings

We talked a lot last Tuesday about our plans for the Foothills Craft Guild's Fall Festival, that is quickly coming our way!  In fact, a week from today we will be manning the booth!  We set up on Thursday, so that it will be all ready.  There are a lot of booths at this show, so much so that everyone is there at once trying to get the best spot along the building to unload all their stuff.  I mentioned that if we brought a dolly or two we could just park in the parking lot and wheel everything in.  At this Lou Ann said that she had heard about a weaver that put her stuff in old rolly suitcases with handles so that she didn't have to carry tubs.  Genius!



Here is a common storage tub with inventory in it.

It protects the inventory really well, but it is really uncomfortable to carry!

Here is the same bit of inventory in a rolly suitcase, the straps keep everything in protected and in place.  There is room for a lot more in this suitcase!

You can see that the sides are not sticking out or anything.  The only thing I can think of that might not be good about the suitcase is that you can't stack them as reliably as you can tubs.  All in all though, I think this is a winning idea!

 Thursday Lou Ann posted about her stockings, and I thought I might show them to you a little differently.  Here is a picture of the stockings the minute I got them off the needles.  You can see that they are roughly the same size but that the texture of the socks is a little rough looking.  There is a little ladder where the dpn's would meet, but the blocking should take care of that.

 The chair these stockings are blocking in is one of those over stuffed numbers, to give you an idea just how big they really are.  See how the fabric is really improved by blocking!  I didn't use sock blockers, I don't think they make them this big!  I just laid them out on the couch once I had most of the water out, and I began to shape them a bit, stroking this way and that.  Making sure that the decreases along the back of the leg were lining up with the fold in the sock, it was really quite simple.

I used a free pattern called "Stockings in Rhyme"  that I found on Ravelry.  It is as it says, a pattern for stockings in rhyme!  I can just see a mom writting it down to give to her daughter.   I changed the 2x2 rib at the top of the stocking to a picot edge and added eyelets so that we could string some ribbon through them to keep these babies up!

The pattern called for a heel flap and gusset, and I followed it to the letter.  Lou Ann wore her stockings to the Museum of Appalachia today, we had a school group coming in.  She says that they work wonderfully!

(It was cold!)

 I am working on my pair right now, and I am pretty sure that I will have enough yarn to make a third pair,  I will knit them to fit my friend Linda, who helped me a lot with my outfit for the Museum.  (Just like Lou Ann did!)

That is it for today,   Until next time, Happy Spinning, Knitting and Weaving, Tina

My Blustery Day

  No...these aren't my Christmas stockings!!!!
  These are my extra-special wool & silk stockings that Tina knit for our outings at the Museum of Appalachia.  And, they are finished just in time for our outing on Friday!  We have a front moving through right now that is blowing all the downed leaves in every which direction!!!  The temps are going to be dropping like crazy.












  The leaf drop in my yard hasn't even reached the tipping point yet!  It would seem that this is the new norm....the leaves aren't totally down 'til mid November.

  I got the warp wound for the placemats I wanted to try.  All of the threads are doubled for this huck variation, which should make these plenty thick enough.  It was quick to thread, but not without problems.   In fact, in the upper left hand corner of the picture you can see one of the problems!
  I should have taken the extra heddles off of the shafts before I started threading, but I actually thought they wouldn't be in the way afterwards.  Boy!  Was I wrong!!!!








  Let me just say that the hemstitching for this took me several times to figure out, but I've made the adjustment.  There isn't a true tabby for this huck.
  I cut off the problem area (which I can use to test for color fastness) and removed over 100 heddles (which was NOT fun!!!)  It is weaving much nicer now that those heddles are gone, and I should be able to get some mats done. 
  That works for me since there isn't any sense in raking leaves on such a blustery day.  Maybe that wind will just blow the leaves out of my yard!!!!
Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Yes, We Have A Plan

I know, I know....it looks crazy!  But, there was a plan in place.

First:  get the rug out of the Annex and check for any possible critters.  Take it inside and give it a good vacuum!  Check!

Second:  Get the mug rug warp on the Pup that will be going to the Foothills show.  (Thank you, Molly, for getting it threaded!!!)

Third:  Set up the warping mill so that Lanny can wind the last batch of threads for his warp.  Check!

Weave if you can get to your loom!

  Yes, there was a blue jean donation....Pat got busy getting them ready to be stripped.
  Ms. Bonnie is down-sizing at her house, and brought some small sewing machines to sell if anyone needed one.  Tina took a look at the small Singer machine.












  Margi needed to cut the completed items off of her loom....there were two walker bags, two placemats and one table runner.

  Karin brought her Inkle loom to show us her progress.  Those silver threads really add just the right touch to this band.

  Linda finally came to the end of the warp on the Studio loom.  There were five rugs on the cloth beam, which made a total of ten rugs from this warp.

  Betsy has been working on her walker bags at home.  She brought them in today to have Carol check them.  She also made some small purses with the leftover warp!  That's when the rope machine came in handy to make the straps!!!!













  Charlotte was back with us today weaving on her first warp.  She's working her way through the different twills.






  Christy shared some mug rugs she made at home using gold lame and Christmas prints as the weft.  They look classy!!!!











  Carl shared some lovely placemats woven in lace AND a lesson learned:  watch those reds when you wet finish your items!!!!  We think another bath with a color catcher might do the trick!

  Pat brought the placemats she wove at home on the 50/50 deal:  using the Center's materials, weave one for the Center, and keep one for yourself.  (Can you tell we're trying to use up some of our stash????)








She also finished a boa!  There was even enough of those yarns to make more if anyone would like to tackle that job!

After lunch, we got busy making the straw looms for the kits (we only needed 35) and finishing the edges for the cards on the serger.  Carl wove these 8 harness designs...they are just the ticket for the greeting cards.

  Marie inserted the weaving in the cards as Carol finished them up--team work at its best!!!

YES....the plan worked!
Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Go Figure!!

First of all, I have to tell you 2 stories before I write about this past weekend! 

So, a year ago, on a whim, DH called the Hippensteal Mountain Inn to see if they'd have a room for Saturday night. Of course not! People book a year in advance. No wait, there'd been a cancellation so we got to go for one night a year ago. It was fun. Getting away isn't usually an option for us so being able to go up in the mountains to a beautiful place and having breakfast as well was wonderful. So we booked for 2 nights for this past weekend. Couldn't get Friday night, so we booked Saturday and Sunday nights. 

The other story I need to tell you is that the whole time I was up at my sister's home in Canada, I kept saying, it can't snow until I get back to Knoxville. I hate being stuck worrying about whether I'll be able to get out or not. It didn't snow. I had a wonderful time with family and friends while up there. We did go through Mom's room and got it pretty much moved to where she wanted things to go. She will turn the room into her sewing room which I think Mom would have approved of, maybe even been jealous of!

So that brings us to this past Saturday. I'd flown back in Thursday evening and Friday was shot. I was exhausted and just trying to catch up on a thing or two! Saturday morning we packed, had an obligation for the morning and left about noon for Seymour and across to Sevierville. We drove through Pigeon Forge and then crawled into Gatlinburg(traffic is always nuts this time of year). Oh yeah, snow appeared by the road halfway to Gatlinburg. We kind of knew we may have an issue with the roads but it looked like it was already starting to melt and we'd brought the old jeep so we knew we could get up the long, very narrow driveway up to the Inn.

Turns out they had 6 inches of snow overnight. The clouds were still very low when we got there about 4pm Saturday afternoon. No mountains in view, but sure could see snow, tho.

 The kicker was that they had no power!! It's a fairly small Inn with about 12 rooms in 2 buildings. We ended up in the main building on the third floor, in a very nice room with comfortable chairs that would have been awesome to do handwork in except no lights or heat. We were fortunate because our part, the main building, had a generator that worked. The smaller building, the one we stayed in last year, did not have any generator. We had water, warm water! They had nothing. Oh yeah, we also had one emergency light in the bathroom. They didn't. Flashlights were handed out to everyone but we didn't need them as much as we'd thought because of the emergency lights they had planned for in the construction. It was chilly. They have gas fireplaces but it didn't warm up that much. We spent the evening in the main room with most everyone else just staying warm and chatting. Everyone went to their rooms early. You know, without power, the evening is really long!! Thankfully the beds had warm blankets so we can't complain. Plus, the water worked and their water heater is gas or propane so we had warm showers in the morning. We really couldn't, and didn't, complain.

Yesterday morning we woke to sunshine although it was still hovering around 32 degrees.

 The view from our room was just awesome. Would have loved to sit on the rocking chair and enjoy it but we opted to stay in the room and look out awhile!

 The stoves worked Sunday morning because they were gas as well so we had a very good breakfast and the hot chocolate was to die for!

 We went out for the afternoon yesterday to visit some craft shops owned by friends. We got back at 6pm to power on everywhere. It had just come back on. The new people checking in were just glad they had missed it. We were the only ones that stayed over from the night before but everyone that had been there already signed up for their time at the Inn next year again.

Breakfast this morning!
It is an amazing place. They've been in business about 25 years and some people, I think, have come every year. The ones checking in last night have come about 19 years in a row, same weekend, most staying 6 nights. They vacation with the same people each year. People they met at the Inn. It is interesting!
I think we need an Inn for weavers where we can come, go to the library to browse fiber books and recharge our batteries!

I told my sister about the snow. She laughed. It's melting now and there are fewer chain saws cutting trees that fell but it will be awhile before it's all back to normal. The mountain you can see in the photo above is Mount LeConte. There's a lodge up there that usually has about 53 people each night until mid November. People were up there when the snow fell and had a time coming down. I think some may still be up there. They had 22 inches of snow. The only way up is to hike there and back!! I'm just glad we weren't up there but I'm sure the ones there have stories to tell as well.
We were in luxury even if it wasn't as warm as we'd have liked and we could drive out!
So, you never know what's around the corner when you plan a vacation. We enjoyed ourselves and booked the nights for next year again. I don't think history will repeat itself. We're bound to enjoy our time there again next year!
Until next week, keep weaving. I'm going to be doing alot of handwork on pieces that need to be ready for the Foothills Guild Show in a couple of weeks!
Carol

Not for the Faint at Heart!

It seems like forever ago that I first began to talk about converting my 3 problem looms to a warp weighted system, and I am finally getting around to actually doing it!

This particular loom is a Sears Hearthside loom that was donated to the Tuesday Weavers quite awhile ago.  Until we have more room at the Center, it is living with me.   I had taken care of the cosmetic issues like dirt and wood that needed a good oiling.  Then I had worked out a fix for the lack of treadle wires, (Texsolve to the rescue!)  My final difficulty was the lack of a crank for the back beam, because without that crank the beam simply will not stay on the loom!

This last week, I hung the trapeze on the wall behind the loom and  put the warp that I had been saving for this loom over the trapeze, and around the back beam that I have bungied in place to act as a pivot point.  Oh, before I did all that I had threaded the warp thru the heddles and reed and tied it onto the front beam.  I know all crazy and backwards, but it was what I had to do to get it done!  In the picture to the right you can see all those threads that have not been weighted with a rock, they were very busy having a party until I could get to them and straighted the whole bunch out!

I had gone to the local nursery and hand picked a 5 gallon bucket full of rocks that I thought would serve my purpose.  I wanted rocks that were in the shape of a rectangle, and that felt like they might do the job.   I wavered as I was unloading them at home, I was worried that many of them would be too heavy!

 You can see order progressing as I made my way across the warp.  I can tell you that it took the better part of 2 days to really get it under control, and that was after I had threaded.

From the front you can see the far bits of the warp are tight and the near ones are not, though it isn't nearly as scary as the back was!  This is my usual Bread Cloth warp, that I had taken off of the Leclerc I sold back to Bonnie!

I have woven a few inches on this warp, I was first afraid that the rocks were too heavy, but when I switched them out, it wasn't enough drag on the warp, to I switched back to the original rocks.  I could have sworn that I had a picture of the first bit of weaving, but I don't,  that will have to wait for next week.

Until then, Happy Spinning, Knitting and Weaving, Tina