Chocolate

I've been weaving the color chocolate this past week. This looks so boring but it's not. My studio is the renovated garage. Ceiling in the back part where my looms are, is not much more than 6 feet. My being short works! The ceiling is filled with duct work. When they were doing the ceiling, I told them to put fluorescent lights wherever they could. They did. It's a nice bright space and I don't need any Ott lights like I did in the other space. However, because of that, I'm thinking, I can't get a good picture of the fabric on the loom. It's not washed out. It's a rich chocolate.

I was going to weave rugs after that warp but as I was putting some cones away, I saw this cone of yarn. I'm not sure where I got it but it spoke to me. It needed to be woven. I have extra chocolate for weft.

So I dug through my stash and found warp yarns. See that chocolate yarn? That's what the first picture should have been color wise.

It's on the loom. Pictures next week!

Until then, keep weaving!

Carol

Mommas

  I had two trips to the Museum of Appalachia this week.  On Monday, I was able to finish threading and sleying the reed.  I had a group of kids that came through the Loom House right before lunch...I had just started sleying the reed.  One little girl was super interested in what I was doing, and I told her that I should be weaving after lunch.  Sure thing....she came back to the loom house just as I was weaving in the spacer rags.  When I started the hem, she got really excited, and she stayed until I started with the rags.  Yep....another fiber child!!!

  Today I finished weaving the first placemat, and even got the second one woven before I was ready to leave.  I even had one lady who wanted to know if I was going to sell any of them.  YES, Ma'am!  Come see us at the Fall Homecoming, October 6, 7 and 8th!!!!
  All the fiber children today were the Mommas!!!  The kids just ran in and out!  The Moms had all the questions!

Just in time for Mother's Day...just look at these sweet little babies!!!

I have baby tomatoes and baby apples!!!! 

 And, I have a volunteer tomato plant that came up in the pallet garden!!!  I wonder what kind it will be.....

  If you look closely on the upper left, you'll see that two of the broccoli plants are trying to grow back.  It's a wait and see situation.

  All of the mothballs have been removed, but, I'm having a problem with someone tunneling in the first pallet.  I'm dealing with that by dumping the canister of cat hair from my vacuum cleaner down the tunnel.  That stopped that tunnel, but they soon took a different route.  (I think this might be chipmunks!)  That's OK....my cats shed a lot.

  I'm still weaving on the strap for my daughter's bag.  I think it's just the right size....and, heaven knows I'll have plenty to play with when this is finished!

  I'll see the kids on Sunday.  They asked what I wanted, and all I could think of was pizza and beer.  Ah...the simple life!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Patterns

You might say that this IS a pattern:  Ms. Ila baked us something yummy to eat!
  This was an apple-rhubarb bread that was to die for!!!!


















This is beginning to be a pattern:  Marie working her monthly shift upstairs in the shop.  Be sure to click on the picture and take a closer look at the baby blanket that she finished at home....those huck hearts are too cute!!!!





     Liz was introduced to the warping mill today.  She needed to wind an eight yard warp for some placemats. 












  Carl reported that he wove half a rug today.

  Ray gave us a lesson in his method of warping front to back.  Note the use of large clamps set on the counter to hold the reed.  This will be Christmas towels.



Now....for the beautiful patterns our weavers were working on today:

It is so exciting to walk around the studio and see what everyone is working on. 
  Change the treadling....
  Change the weft.....
And, you create a whole new look!!!!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Catching Up

I've been weaving short warps. These have only 2 or 3 pieces on each of them. I went throught my stash and found yarns to use what I had without ordering any more. I have yarns for my normal long warps but weaving some of these shorter warps will give my booth a touch of color, especially since I have been weaving a lot of black lately.

I forgot to take a picture of this sea green warp while on the loom. I had some accent balls of yarn so they became part of this project.

The color looks pink but in reality, it's plum which is much darker. It's interesting how the iPad changes the colors. Having the accent yarn just gives it a bit of a kick which I like.

This yellow looks yucky in the picture. It's truly a nice lemon yellow with accent colors that are just as pastel. There was just enough weft for 2 pieces: a top and a vest. 

This is still on the loom. It's caribe, a dark teal. The accent is very gold glittery. I love this one. There are 3 pieces. I have just one left to weave. You can see what I separate the pieces with as I weave. Two rows of the cheapest toilet paper!! Works great. I just cut between the rows and serge the raw edges. Then wash, cut and serge, then assemble, sew and crochet edges.....

Almost caught up. There is a warp of the narrower rugs that I wove but haven't done anything with. They're still in a roll. Hopefully I'll get them serged and hemmed this week. I'm keeping one of those rugs. Slowly I'm checking off the warps on my list and weaving them. There's one more rug warp I plan to do in the next weeks plus my regular ones. There's another baby blanket that has to be sewn before July, and the list continues. Somehow it's never done. As things are done, other items get added to that list. But then, we'd never have it any other way!

Until next week, keep weaving!

Carol

Just Sayin'

Congo Bars help us keep our energy up for weaving!!!

(Thanks, Betsy!!!)





















Crafting on the front porch on a sweet Spring day is a fine way to spend the morning.

 
Having weaving friends to talk to is the best!


 






A McMorran Yarn Balance is still the best way to find out if you have enough yarn for that project! 

 


And, fringe twisters are just the best!!!!

 

 Carol is always there to help you through a bug-a-boo.




 




  It's actually easy to lose your place in the treadling.
 
 




Rugs just don't weave themselves.  


 


It's a fact...if you are under a loom, someone will take your picture.








Pretty yarns will make a pretty scarf.

 If you wear your chicken socks, and do the chicken dance, we will all applaud.


 





Beware of weavers who say, "Why don't you weave on this warp for awhile."
  
Just sayin'......

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn 

Side Project

I have been weaving. This warp has royal on the outside, then sea blue and turquoise in the middle. It's been a nice calming warp to weave on. After that I got a solid royal warp done. Both warps have been serged, washed and now dry, ready for more cutting, serving and sewing. 

My side project was a baby blanket for some friends new grandson, I only found out about if just before he was born. In looking at some magazines at Books A Million recently, I saw this pattern that called for a jelly roll, a roll of 2 and 1/2 inch strips. I had one! Rarely do I follow a pattern, but this time I did. The fun part was figuring out which strips to put together. I truly like how quickly and easily it came together.

The back fabric was hard to find. I did go to a shop and specifically look. Since the fabric was pretty modern, I wanted the backing to be as well. The line is called grunge. There is a lot of color in there, like someone took a paintbrush with a bit of color and swiped it across the fabric. I think it works well with the front.

Layering it with batting and machine quilting didn't take long to do and it's wrapped, waiting to go in the box to ship....to Paris, France. Yup, that's where our friends live. I hope they enjoy it. I used a very fluffy batting so they can us it on the floor now with him lying on it and later use it as a blanket.

I'm back at the loom today, weaving some short warps. I am using yarns I have to create a bit of color for my booth in July. Each warp is ridiculously short, just 2 or 3 items each, but the colors will be nice. I'm finishing the second warp and have the third on the warping board, ready to go to the loom.

Until next week, keep weaving!

Carol

Yet another week gone by!

What a busy week, I can't believe it is Friday again!  We, LouAnn, Karin and I had a busy day at the Museum of Appalachia's second Friday of  Sheep Shearing Days.  We saw between last Friday and today close to 1500 students!  We did not have any rain today, but I forgot to take any pictures, not a single one.

(If LouAnn reads this she has my permission to insert one or two here.)

Tina and Karin setting up the tables this morning.  The cars are just starting to arrive.

We left in such a rush last week that we didn't get a chance to go thru the fleeces that had been shorn.  So today, before everything got started, Karin and I rushed up and chose the fleeces that we wanted to take, keeping in mind that this evening, when the crowds were all gone, there were going to be many more fleeces to choose from, among them were several Scottish Blackface.

I came away with 11 fleeces and Karin got close to the same amount, we feel very rich indeed.  Once I get back from my west coast trip, I will be washing fleeces again, and this year, I have a trampoline that we bought for the grandkids, on which I can spread them out on once they are clean, they should dry very quickly.  (I hadn't  thought of that until just now as I was typing!)

On Tuesday of this week, I went to the post office to pick up a package  before I went to weaving.  In this package was a double flyer spinning wheel.  I used to have one, but I felt like it was too fragile to take to the museum for demos and I sold it.

 I got to the Center before anybody else did and unpacked the wheel to make sure that nothing had gotten damaged in the post.  It looked good, and I managed to get it put together.

I knew when I purchased the wheel that it was going to have to go to "Bobbin Boy" for an overhaul/tune up, to be fully functional, but with a little cleaning and oiling, I did manage to get "take up" on both flyers.  It is missing one 1/3 of the distaff, but I was thrilled that it had the other 2 pieces.   It will be the middle of next month before I can take the wheel to Asheville, but I think it is going to be a really good demo wheel.

If you have never seen anybody spin on a double flyer, you simply must search youtube for some videos!  When this wheel is fully functional I will be able to spin 2 strands of yarn at once, usually  flax, but wool is also a possibility.

(A short video of Tina spinning on a double flyer spinning wheel in 2014.)

Speaking of wool, I took this Merino/ Silk blend from "Into The Wool" and divided it into 2 color ways.  One color way is using the oranges and the other one will be all the  greens.  I will use both of the resulting tonal skeins in a woven scarf.











The oranges, light and dark, are alternated on this first bobbin, on the second bobbin I am going to start with the dark orange and work my way thru to the light orange.

I will ply these 2 strands together and see what I get.  I am going to do the same thing with the greens, I think it is going to be 2 very nice skeins of yarn.

I probably will not be posting next week, I am on my way home for a full week.  Mom, brothers, and sister are there and my west coast daughter and her son are meeting us there too!  Who knows we may get a couple of my cousins to stop by for a visit.

I am looking forward to some time sipping iced tea and swapping stories under the big umbrella on the back porch.  It has been too long!

Until next time, Play with wool!   Tina