Beignets Anyone???

While the crew was busy winding on Carl's new rug warp, Christy and I were making Beignets in the kitchen!  The CREW got their beignets delivered to them!!!  A little reward for all their hard work!
  Afterwards, Carl got the warp tied on the front bar, and he was ready to weave.  The first rug will be the re-weave project for the lady with the dogs.......

Oh, those Ladies!

They pull out those looms and get to work.  This is the place to be!

Christy got busy sleying a scarf warp.  She is a Front to Back warper, by the way!  Just on the other side, Jocelyn and Molly were weaving on their looms.  Yes, Molly is also on her computer!  She's working on the treadling sequence to get just the right effect for that wonderful warp.

Pat wound the mug rug warp at home, and she got it wound on the table loom.  Threading goes a little easier when folks aren't stopping to talk--right, Pat???  Would you believe she had a threading error???  Don't know how that happened!!!!
   Lanny used the fringe twister to finish the fringes on his beautiful scarf.  Today, he was using a binder of past issues of Handwoven for the weight.  On the other side of the table, Carol was walking Helen through hemstitching.  She kept checking back ever so often.
  The yarn on the table was up for grabs....as our weavers purge their stashes, other weavers are winners!!!!

  I'm not sure, but I think these ladies are up to something!!!

  Polly is going to take custody of that little loom....it will be fun to see what she weaves with it.  It is rather unique.

  There's always something going on around here...another great Tuesday!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Springtime!

My keyboard isn't working properly this morning so there won't be a lot of words on this blog!!  How do you fix it when it's just a blank space where the letters should be? I'm used to typing without looking at the keys but not having the outline makes it so tough!

The lilacs are blooming in my yard. Just a couple of bushes but it's enough to make me happy!!

My sister is not impressed! Theirs won't bloom for over a month yet.

So it's also azalea blooming time. This is what my azaleas looked loke last year.

This is what they look like this year! We had a serious frost about 3 weeks ago. It must have frozen the buds. At the time we thought it was early and they'd be fine but for the first time in all the years we've lived here, it's a poor showing. They're pretty but not like usual.

Here are the rugs from the third warp I did. It's a black warp and the selvedges were varied so it made for some interesting combinations.

Guess who woke up and had to check on things while I was working. That looks like Belle.

Then Meg came as well!

I'm heading down to the studio now to put another warp on the loom. I'm taking a break from rugs and it's going to be a regular production warp with a twist. It's a color combination I haven't done before. Should be fun!!

Until next week, keep weaving!

Carol 

All in Red and White

Last week I did a bunch of threading and rethreading.  The first up was a rethread of my favorite napkins project.  (The previous threading was just a smidgen off center)  So I centered the pattern and I added a couple of stripes in the center that were not in the original pattern by Mary Black.

This happens to be the underside of the fabric, but I had advanced so far on top that you couldn't see the pattern.  I plan to do a lot of red napkins for the fall shows, I am going to have to wind on some more of this warp,  (my never ending 100 yd warps) but I think I have enough on the loom for 8 napkins right now.



Once I was sure that this project was in good shape I turned to the kitchen towel warp on the 6 harness loom.  I had played with my weaving software and I thought that I had a really nice twill pattern, but when I sampled it I really did not like it at all.  I tinkered some more with the tie up and treadling sequence and then decided to see what it looked like in plain weave.

I like it quite a lot, but I will continue to play with the software and see what I can come up with that involves some twill runs.

All the while that I was doing these adjustments on the big floor looms, I was thinking about what narrow band I was going to put on the newly returned "Alice" the small ancient Leclerc, when it dawned on me that I had a band in progress on the box loom, that I plan to use as tabs for these kitchen towels.

My warping board it full of skeins of 8/4 carpet warp at the moment, but that is a different story, and I did not want to unload it to wind a new warp, so I decided to wind the band on the box loom onto little "Alice".

 "Alice" has a 26 inch weaving width, and it seems a little silly to put on such a narrow warp, but I was curious how it would weave up for me.  I have been contemplating getting one of those "band looms" that everyone is talking about, so that I could weave longer bands than on the Inkle looms, but I thought if this worked, I wouldn't have to buy something else!










I have some work to do on these edges but I think I am in business.  I am not using the reed to beat the weft in, but I did use the reed to cram the warp really close together, and I think it has really helped me get a consistent band width.  It may also be that I can get a much higher warp tension on the floor loom than I was ever able to get on the Inkle, or the small band looms that I have on hand.

As I was weaving on this band I encountered an unrelated but reoccurring problem I have been having.  I have been having a problem with sliding forward off of the loom bench as I weave, I think it is a posture problem, and I am working on that, but in the mean time, I discovered something that is going to make you laugh, that really helped!

I had some gripper stuff that I used under the box loom to keep it from sliding forward and I all of a sudden though to put it on the bench it to keep my bum from sliding forward off the bench, and you know what, it works!  Hurray!

LouAnn and I went to the Museum today to demo spinning and weaving to a bunch of 4th graders, we were pleased to have several of the kids really take an interest in the process.  Who knows maybe we planted some seeds today.

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina

Early April in East Tennessee

  It's a roller coaster ride this time of year.  Yesterday, it was almost 80 degrees.....today it has been breezy and chilly.  By Sunday, we are expecting the temps to roar back to the upper 70s. 
  I met a couple today at the Museum.  They were headed back home to Indiana from spring break in Florida.  They were in shock!




But, with such a handsome host, they soon felt right at home.  The warm blaze in the fireplace helped, too!!!
  Somehow, they managed to come by when the students were at lunch. 
  Today was Day #1 of the Anderson County Student Day.  I saw 250 fourth graders!  (Tomorrow, there will be 250 more!!!)  Since it is too cold to work in the Loom House, I brought my Inkle loom and the Rigid Heddle to weave on in the Peter's Cabin. 
  ***I had one little girl ask me where she could come to learn to weave....I told her about the Center across the street.  That would be a fun summer project for her!

The flora is coming along in my garden...if I can just keep the fauna out of there!
  I love spring weather in East Tennessee....you just never know what's coming around the corner.
Enjoy Spring where you are!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Happy Birthday!!!

  Yes, it comes around once a year!  Happy Birthday, Pat!!!  We're so glad you wanted to spend your special day with us!!! 
  Pat brought some of her linen napkins that she just finished to show us.  (She confessed that she now has a "love-hate" relationship with linen!)  By the way, she used an eight harness Atwater-Bronson pattern from Strickler.










  Wouldn't you know it....Ms. Ila just so happened to bake a yummy chocolate cake for us today.  This one had walnuts and raisins in it.  There was very little cake left at the end of the day!!!

   Christy is back from New Orleans, and brought us some truly tasty treats!   We're going to make the beignets next week!!!!  We just need some oil and powdered sugar!

  We kept the Birthday girl busy....she helped Tina wind off a pound of 8/4 that she had rinsed.  The swift had to spin just right to keep the cone winder happy!

     Elsewhere in the studio, it was business as usual.  Alyce is winding a new warp for placemats on the warping board, and Carol had time to catch up with Anna.  Bonnie is still threading her towel warp....lots of threads!!!!

   Molly was able to be with us today...I'm not sure how much weaving she got to do, though.  We all wanted to hear about her upcoming trip, and just catch up with her.

Carl got the new rug warp threaded and tied on.  We will wind it on next week, and he'll be ready to weave that blue jean rug for the customer.  Then, he'll start weaving more blue jean rugs for the shop!

 

  Marie brought her hedgehog for us to admire today!!!  It is knitted, and then felted before it is stuffed full of goodness.  Wayyyyyy too cute!

  And, the towel on the counter is the one she received in the towel exchange on Ravelry.  It is done in turned overshot!!!

A very busy day in the Studio!!!

Happy Weaving!

LouAnn

First set of rugs

It's been a crazy day on the Internet. I am not computer savvy!! I take pictures with my iPad. So this morning my iPad decided to not have an Internet connection. At all!! Since I use my cell phone minutes there was no reason it shouldn't have worked. 

Then just now DH came home from work...and it miraculously worked. What is it about things like that. They don't work til a responsible person comes and then magically it works? I have no idea but I'm typing fast while it does.

Saturday I delivered over 20 rugs to a shop in Gatlinburg. It's nice to have them out of the house but they were fun to figure out. Oh, also DD came by before I took them and wanted one rug. Just one. Took her forever to pick. She took 3 of them home!!   

The first warp I wove was narrow. The shop had asked for some rugs that were 24 inches wide so I wove several of the "birch" rugs in the narrow width. These are from the last batch of loopers that LouAnn had stored in her garage. I know she's glad to be rid of them. I spent hours shaking the lint out of them earlier when we had nice warm weather. I have a ton left so there will be more rugs.

The other few rugs that were on the warp were woven with a knit strip that I got from Kalamazoo MI. The stripes on the strips are so cheerful. The fabric is rather stretchy so it takes a careful hand to weave them so they don't buckle. I screwed up the last one on that warp. Trying to force the last few inches is not a good idea. I ended up taking it apart and wove that bunch on a new warp today. It's on a black warp. I'll take pictures of it when I get that warp done. I think I may keep the new one.

The rest of these pictures are from the second warp. It's a natural warp and I used selvedges for all of these. I had a bunch of the selvedges from last year plus the 4 bags I brought home in July. So there was plenty to pick from. Each rug is different and cheerful in its own way. My general width for rugs is 30 inches so that's what this warp was.

This rug was all one ball of selvedge. I took a closeup so you can see the primary colors on this rug. 

After 4 or 5 rugs, I had to cut off the woven rugs because here wasn't room on the cloth beam for more. The pile was also so heavy that it was much easier to carry a roll of 4 rugs than a roll with more. I also serge the raw edges before pinning and hemming the rugs. Always be careful to keep weight off the needles on the machine. It's easy to mess up the timing on your serger and sewing machine.

When I finished the rug above, I didn't have enough warp to do another one 30 inches wide, so I cut 3 inches on each side and wove another 24 inch rug. The blue is much more cheerful than the picture indicates. It's that typical blue and yellow combination.

I can see why DD couldn't make up her mind about the rug but this is just a part of the rugs I wove. I took pictures of them all because each of them is different. I'm still weaving rugs but will start doing some regular production between rug warps for awhile. I am trying to weave up all my selvedges and some fabrics that I have in stock as well. I keep saying I'm not doing more with selvedges but I suspect that when I drive north, my van will just veer off toward InWeave to pick up more as I drive north! But, maybe I'll be strong.

So it's just a few more rugs before I vacuum under the loom and put on a warp for some clothing again. It'll be nice to have a change.

 Until next week, keep weaving!

Carol

Last Week of March

This last week has been busy, I had to go to the Vet unexpectedly to get the cat named "Mouse" stitched up.  I couldn't remember how old she was so I had to search old blog posts to find out!  Turns out I got her late June of 2012, and she was a tiny thing, which is why I named her "Mouse".  Right now she is up in the Studio living the good life while her wounds heal.  That trip to the Vet cut into my Wednesday weaving time, but I did manage to get some work done this week anyway.

I spent Monday shearing the goats, and I again this year lost some fleece to felting while I was waiting on the weather to stabilize and the fleeces to be ready to pluck or pull from the goats, and I have decided that  from now one I am going to start shearing in late February or early March depending on temps and weather, and leave the goats 1 inch of fleece to keep them warm.  Either way I lose a little bit of the fiber, but I think I will lose less if I shear.

 On Tuesday afternoon, after weaving at the Center, I finished loading the back beam on the loom that I posted about two weeks ago, and I have put in the lease sticks and have everything ready to thread, once I decide what pattern I am going to use.

 I have an old article by Nellie Sargent Johnson that discusses this unusual 6 harness/6 treadle loom, the "Sears Hearthside".  Mrs. Johnson was a Champion of this particular loom, and  recommended this floor loom and it's companion table loom back around the time that this article was written which is dated November 1945.  The article show several twill threadings, and 2 different tie ups for the loom, I used some weaving soft ware that I recently purchased, "Iweaveit", to get an idea what the fabric would look like.

Sears Hearthside loom ready to thread

I plugged in all the possibilities that Mrs. Johnson recommended, and then I started playing with the tie up and treadling possibilities.  Oh, what fun!  Many of the suggested configurations had floats that I considered too long for kitchen towels, so I added some treadles to the tie ups.  For example:

Instead of treadle #1 being only harness 1 & 2, I also added harness 4.  For treadle #2,  I added harness 5 to the original harnesses 2 &3, and so on across all 6 treadles.

#1 - 1, 2 & 4
#2 - 2, 3 & 5
#3 - 3, 4 & 6
#4 - 4, 5 & 1
#5 - 5, 6 & 2
#6 - 6, 1 & 3


The addition of just one more harness per treadle  has given me a much better fabric for kitchen towels than I had originally been getting with the original tie up suggested by Mrs. Johnson.  Anyway I have a little more playing to do on the software before I finally make up my mind what I want to do, but the loom is ready and waiting for me when I am ready to start.

Wednesday was a really warm and sunny day, and I was able to do something I had been wanting to do for a long time, but I wasn't sure how I was going to do it!  A couple of years ago we had to take down the old clothesline because the posts had given way.  Since then I had really wanted to put one back up but I didn't want to run into the same problem a couple of years down the road.

 I remembered Tuesday night while I was going to sleep that we have a couple of telephone type poles in the yard for various things, and maybe just maybe I could use a couple of eye bolts and some clothesline and come up with something that would work for a clothesline.  ( You can bet I had a hard time going to sleep then!)  The next day I reviewed the situation, made a quick trip to the Hardware store, then once home a few minutes with a drill and screwdriver, and this is what I got!  (This was a great way to spend the time while I was waiting to hear from the Vet about "Mouse.")

Clothes on the line on a sunny Saturday

The coolest part is I can take the clothesline down when it is not needed!  It takes about 5 minutes to put it up or take it down.  In the past I would often forgot to wipe down the old clothesline before use and I ended up with "stuff "on the clean clothes if I did.  This way, I won't need to wipe it down, because it isn't out in the weather getting nasty!  Yay!

Welcome back miss Alice!

Yesterday, (Friday) after LouAnn and I had finished demonstrating at the Museum of Appalachia for a group of 2nd graders, I went to pick up a small Leclerc loom that had been on loan for a year or so.  I got the loom put back together in the Studio and I think I am going to make some twill tape for a bag project I have in mind.  
I am going to try a  tie up that Peggy Osterkamp is so happy with to see what I think about it.    Ms. Osterkamp likes to use a direct tie up method, 1 harness to one treadle, and in this order, 1, 3, 4 and then 2.   I don't quite see the point, but maybe I will after several yards of twill tape.  If I don't like it I can always change back to my usual!

That is about it for this week, I am hoping to see the sun come out today, cause I already have 2 loads of clothes on the line!

Until next week, Happy Weaving, Tina