Full House

  I heard someone say we had 21 or 22 folks at weaving this morning.....I didn't do a recount!  Just like many mornings, we walked into a donation left for us on the table.  This one was all fabric.  (No...Carol and Christy are not playing tug o' war with that piece!)









  Irene and Ron tackled the Kids Kamp closet where many donations go to live until summer.  These items will be used for many, many craft projects.








  This is a sight you don't see every day!!!  A man in a loom!!!! 
  Ray spent some quality time with the Studio loom getting it ready to weave his next project.

  A whole row of dedicated weavers!!!!  It looks like Joan will be cutting off her warp any minute!!!

Frieda's scarf warp (blue warp) is coming right along.   That green warp is Sharon's M&W scarf.

 


  Betsy is weaving on her painted placemat warp.  Take a look at the pattern!!!!

 
 Carl finished threading and he tied onto the back rod of his loom.  That means we'll be winding on the warp next week!  Christy has prepared more blue jean legs for him to cut into strips for his rugs!!!!

I don't know why Linda moved in with THE LADIES....I think she was waiting for Tina to finish the re-thread on the little Macomber.  Linda will be taking over the towel warp....a little respite from the black placemat warp.

  Anna finished her scarf warp, and volunteered to finish the scarf warp on the Pup. 

  Helen is still weaving on her table runner.  Those weft stripes are right out of Mary Black's book!!!!  (Chapter 3)

  Irene and Ron must have known how busy we would be today, and they brought some yummy donuts for our morning.  This was all that was left by lunch!!!!

  Liz is through threading...next week the reed and weaving!!!!

  All lined up and ready to go!  These are the skeins and warps that are pre-rinsed and ready for Dye Day this week.  The Weavers are meeting on Thursday and Friday to work their magic.

Stay warm!
Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Just a Little

I haven't been able to weave a lot recently but two warps are done.

This first one is peach and I got 2 tops and 2 vests done on it.

Then a black, grey and caribe warp. It's still on the loom waiting to come off to be serged and finished. Weaving has not been a priority lately.

I almost forgot to post today. Having 2 meetings in one day is 2 too many! But I'm done now and ready to work on some baby blankets that need quilting before the shower on Saturday. We're spending time dyeing yarns this week as well. It's going to be busy. Good thing I have a few things ready to dye! Details in a few weeks when I set up as a featured artist at the Art Market Gallery. There's nothing like signing up for an exhibit to make you do stuff!

Until next week, keep weaving!

Carol

In Motion

Last week we left the Jacobs fleeces standing in a row in the upstairs hallway.  Today I finally packed away the last 6 fleeces into their bags, and it was time to find a more suitable place to store these bags.  It was going to require some thought, and more than a little moving around of things.

I found a corner where I could stack them up.....

The only thing on the shelves behind these fleeces is really fine linen thread that is not going to be used for awhile, so not vital for day to day activities.

Right beside the stack of fleeces I put an extra spool rack that looks like it was made to hold these in check.  There was just enough room to slip the narrow Leclerc 4 harness jack loom that is waiting for a project.

I did a tiny bit of research and found out that this little  loom is probably a pre 1950 model, so it is older than I am!!!!!  I will eventually get a project on her, it isn't high on the list just now.

What was high on my list this week was loom dismantling.  I have 2 looms that were on loan that will be going back to their respective homes.  One to the annex at the Center on Tuesday and the other one is the rug loom that LouAnn loaned me some months ago.  It is a sweet loom, but my hips really complained about the back hinge treadles, so back home to LouAnn he goes.  It is a regular musical looms around here!

My "new to me" bobbins to use on my Hansen mini spinner with a Woolee winder arrived this week.  I now have a grand total of 12 bobbins to fill up before I stop to wind off skeins for fulling.  Since I have so many bobbins and the Woolee Winder loads the bobbins evenly all by itself,  all I have to do is spin, and remember to take breaks once in awhile!

You can see my copy of the "New Key to Weaving" by Mary Black.  We are studying this book as a group, one chapter a month.  This month we are on plain weave,  it is tempting to skim, but I am trying not to!  We are not actually weaving the lesson samples in the book yet, but we might later, I am kind of keeping that small Leclerc pictured above free just in case we decided to do some sampling.

Until next time, keep moving, Tina

Same But Different

  You might think this is just a recycled picture...so many times they all look the same.  That's just us...doing what we do.  The looms are pulled out, and folks start weaving. 
  Well....we don't start immediately.  You always need catch-up time with your fellow weavers before you sit down at your loom.







  

  Marie got right to work winding the rest of Carl's warp.  She knew she had to leave early today, so this was the first thing on her list!











  As promised, Carol had Helen help Liz wind on her placemat warp.  The more she winds on, the more familiar the process is when you have to do one by yourself.

  Tina took some time to study the towel warp. She discovered that she had some threading errors last week.  But,  she had some options...and, she decided to rethread the towel warp.  (She's a fast threader....I'm not worried!)












  Ms. Ila was ready to start weaving her first shawl on this warp.  She was trying to decide which treadling she wanted to start with, and went with the easiest one.  That way, if she finds a threading error, it's a lot easier to unweave!!!!  Yes....she found a crossed thread.........
  Bonnie began weaving her scarf today, too.

  What do you think????????
  There's a story here, but I'll wait to share it.















 Shirley finished her scarf warp and cut off the four scarves from the cloth beam.







  Christy sure has job security!  She's working on another stack of blue jean legs to join AND we had a donation of more blue jeans left over from a church rummage sale.  YEAH!!!













   Pat was determined to finish her warp...and she DID!    This warp was cut off this afternoon!  They will grow up to be table runners for some lucky folks.








  Margi got busy with the skein winder and made a 600 yard bamboo skein for dye day.  This will be dyed for weft.













  Ray began winding his doubleweave warp....630 threads!!!!!  He got the first part done this morning.  This is a great opportunity for our newer weavers to see double weave close up and personal!

 And, at any point in the day, you'll see lots of conversations taking place in the studio. 

Weaving
Winding
Sharing our lives.....


Happy Weaving
LouAnn

 

Kumihimo

In January we had scheduled Victoria Walker to teach a class on kumihimo, a Japanese braiding technique. Well, it got snowed out. The snow day was today.

Some people weren't able to take it after all because of the change but others could so there were 10 of us in class.

The start was the usual chaos of people trying to wind their warps and cut, knot ends and generally get things together.

Check out that monster loom. Ok, I forgot the real name for it but it was quite cool, especially when she showed us the braid she was doing. It's about 24 or 30 inches off the floor.

Then it was our turn. Here's mine, all wound up and ready to go. Huge learning curve here!

Notice the concentration!! Not a lot of chatting while we were working on getting the yarns right!

The little fabric bag holds weights that we had to move up as the tape progressed. You can just see a bit of the tape I was doing.

We started at 10am and didn't quit til almost 4 and this is all I got done. Ok, it was supposed to be a lanyard to wear on our wrist but I got carried away and about ran out of warp. You can see the different braids we were working on.

Fun? You bet! It was very enjoyable and I'd take another class. We know how to read patterns now so we should be able to carry on! I'm hoping she develops another class because it's fun to work together and make stuff.

Theresa, I tried to send you an email but doubt it got through. The little wool embroidery wall hangings I make are just for fun and I don't sell them.  However, you can get the pattern and perhaps a kit from wooly lady.com. The pattern is called Birds &Berries Wall Hanging.

Not a lot of weaving going on for me but I hope there is for you.

Until next week, keep weaving.

Carol

There are Batts and there are Batts

Last fall, before the fall shows, I was in a big rush to make batts from some of the Jacob fleeces that I had.  I was not looking for smooth uniform batts, because I was going to pull them into strips and use them as weft just as they were.  I wove 6 rugs in that manner,  3 were given away as  appreciation presents to my shepherds and 1 rug sold at the show.  When the shows were over, I took a deep breath and then I began to wash all of the fleeces that were in the upstairs studio.  As I was working I was thinking about what else I could do with all of these colorful fleeces, (close to 50)  and I got it in my head to try to weave some blankets.  I didn't have any idea how I was going to approach it, but with so many to wash I knew that the ideas had time to flow before I would be to the planning stage.

Last Wednesday, I washed the final fleece, and the last batch of 6 fleeces is still in the drying racks drying, but I finally came up with a good idea for storing them all.  I had tried vacuum packing them but the sight of them in plastic made me feel like I was suffocating!  I did some research and came across heavy duty paper lawn bags from one of the big box stores, and they were really inexpensive.

Each of these bags has 3 full sized fleeces in them with a separating paper between them.  I put "like fleeces" together ( white w/ black, Black w/white, white and black, Lilac, and lamb) and labeled everything so that I would be able to find the fleece I was looking for.

I can get 5 lamb fleeces in one bag, I am keeping the lamb fleeces separate from the mature fleeces, they are really very soft, but they are also full of vegetable matter, and the tips of the locks are still quite stuck together.  ( silly lambs)

Anyway back to the batts, the batts I was making before are not really ready for spinning, so once again, I asked LouAnn if I could borrow her electric drum carder to re-card these batts into a smoother more uniform, spinnable batt.

I don't think that the electric drum carder is faster than a manual one is, but it sure is easier on my shoulders and it leaves my hands free to work with the fiber.

The batt on top needs to be carded again, but the batt on the bottom is ready to spin.

Here is some more of the gray fleece from "Olga #21"  I should hopefully get enough for 2 bobbins full from what I have on hand of this fleece.

Here is the first one.

Here is the bobbin from last week, full to the brim, this one is from #10 heart (white), I have enough for another full bobbin of this same fleece.

Here are some batts from "#13" and from "Big Boy"  all leftovers from the rug making adventure.  These are in line to be re-carded as well, I will go through all of this before I start on the fresh fleeces.

When I have several skeins of yarn in several colors, I can begin to plan some small blanket projects,  I have some ideas, but nothing concrete yet.




There is a lot of work ahead of me, and a lot of time to plan.  I can't wait to get these batts as smooth as silk so that I can really get spinning in fast mode.

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Tina

Backwards

 I'm telling you folks, the world has gone crazy!!!!  The calendar is all messed up!!!!

Last week it was May!  The temps were in the high 70's and folks were running around in shorts.  (It was FEBRUARY!!!)  Flowers and trees started blooming everywhere!!!!

This week it is April!  Showers!!!!  Flood warnings!!!!  More trees and flowers have started blooming!!!!!

By tomorrow night, it will be back to February (and now it really is March!)  We've got freezing temps forecast for the next few days!!!! 
  My silly ornamental magnolia is gonna get got!!!!  No two ways about it!!!!
  Mother Nature is going backwards!

  The rowers are back.
I wish they could have been here last week when the weather was so beautiful!
  Carl and I saw our first group as we were driving to the Center on Tuesday.  For the next month, our little town will have all these athletic college kids running around in the afternoon....and rowing on the river in the mornings.  It's a lovely sight.

5 June 2012

  And, speaking of the Center, we were wondering when we put the black warp on the loom, and how much we put on it.  I went back on the blog, and I found out that we wound on that 60 yard warp on June 5, 2012.
  After texting Tina, Marie and Linda L. with that information, we started wondering how many items were woven AND how much money it produced.  That information will have to wait until we can look at Carol's inventory list.  Plus, we were wondering who all had woven on that warp.
  Interesting........

Hey....if you get a chance, jump over to Camp Runamuck and wish Theresa a very Happy Birthday!  I'm sure she and her mighty band of canines are having a big party today!!!!

I'm going to try and finish getting my mileage added up for my taxes, and then maybe I can finish threading that hot pad warp. 

Or....maybe I'll switch it up and go play on the loom first!!!!!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn