New Seats, Managing Inventory and Finished Hand Dyed Fabric!

It is hard to find the right stool for dressing and weaving on a table loom. We have several of the tractor seat stools and when Marie looked into ordering a couple more for the studio they had quadrupled in price! Rhonda showed us the stool she had ordered from Amazon and last week we decided to get a couple to try for ourselves. They cost a little bit less than the tractor seats and they looked a lot more comfortable! The stools had arrived by Friday and Marie brought them today and spent some time putting them together, several of us had a hand in it as well, unpacking and putting the rollers in place. Everyone who sat on these new seats was impressed with them and many have made plans to order them for their own studios! I can't believe I missed getting a picture of the seat in situe, but if you look closely at the box you can see the SKU number to order one from Amazon.

While we are around the table I can point out the stack of items that are ready to be entered into the inventory and ready to get the upc codes for our sales tags. Usually, the upc stickers are ready by the following Tuesday and we can then take the items upstairs and put them with their fellow placemats or towels or bowl cozies or rugs..... you get the idea. While we are adding to the inventory list a couple of us have been getting the current inventory into a computer on a spreadsheet. There are 3 of us who have been in turn taking the Inventory binder home and entering all of the items that are still in the shop, or they should be anyway, that will be the next step.

While all of this was going on, Pat came by with Dolly to visit. As she left she took the cardboard boxes to be recycled in true Pat form! She is home from her trip home and we hope she will be able to join us again soon!

I heard someone calling me across the room quietly and I knew something was up! A couple of weavers (who will remain nameless) were gesturing for me to come to the back corner because Liz S. and Susan J. were under a loom doing a tie up! While we are in the back corner I can show you the warp on that loom. Liz S. is doing rep weave placemats in blue and white. She is having a little difficulty with shafts being slow to clear because of the very tight sett. We discussed it and we think that since this is an 8 shaft loom she could probably use shafts 5 and 6 as if they were shafts 1 and 2 to spread things out. I also have put in a set of lease sticks below the back beam to keep any thread tangles clear of the shafts. It may be she ends up rethreading before she goes much farther, having to clear the shed before you can pass the shuttle is so slow and even a little unpleasant!

Still in the back left corner, to the left of Liz's loom. Linda is making really good progress on her towel warp. She has used many different colors on a white warp.

Jenny has finished her hand dyed warp that is fabric for a garment! Jenny's loom is in front of Linda's loom.

On the Barn Frame Loom that is on permanant loan from the Museum of Appalachia that is across the street, Betsy is oh so close to being finished with her warp of wool that she is weaving for Laura to make a cape or poncho.

Hey friends, it is time for Show and Tell! Patty has been doing a lot of plainweave towels and she has brought in her latest finished project to show us.

Mark made good on his promise to make a hot mat from one of his end of warp weavings!

Fluffing More Merch! Going Back in Time!

We sure are on a roll over here! It started with the Placemats and has now moved to the scarfs! I had to take a scarf home a week or so ago and I wove in the ends and sewed a lable on it and I twisted the fringe. After that I ironed it and I was amazed at what a difference that made! Then I thought about our display in the shop upstairs from our classroom, and the wheels started turning, turning, turning. Marie and I talked about it and she ordered some childs hangers that are velvety. These will serve 2 purposes, first they will allow us to hang our handtowels on the new system that I talked about last week and second, it will give us a way to hang our scarves to minimise wrinkles. Here is the before.....

Here is the after! We will be able to display several more scarves in this same space!

Jenny is making fabric with some of our hand dyed bamboo. This will become a piece of clothing! Just look at that color progression from the cloth on the front beam to the warp coming over the back beam!

Mark is making Handtowels in a twill pattern. it reminds me of spring!

Judith is still making rugs on the Studio loom! We were trying to remember how many yards of warp we put on this sectional loom. I had to do a deep dive on the blog to find, way back in May of 2024, when we put the warp on the loom. What a trip! At that time I wrote that we had put 40 yards on the sectional. We did some math and we figure that Judith has 4 more rugs to weave more or less.

It is now time for Show and Tell! Charlotte came by to see us again today! She brought some napkins in M's and O's that she finished this week for us and she also had fun looking through our library.

Mark brought in a small matt that Patty had made from one of his left over warp short pieces. He decided to do the same thing himself with another piece of cloth! He also brought in some finished towels that he finshed at home.

That is it for today, I wish I could show you all of the hilarious stuff that goes on in this room, but I don't think words would do it justice! Maybe you can come by one Tuesday while we are here at the Appalachian Arts Craft Center and visit the shop upstairs and come down and see us at work and play, you would be more than welcome! Until then this is Tina, for all!

A Couple of Surprises Today

I walked in this morning to a couple of good surprises! The first one was a funny black curvy thing on the kitchen island and the second thing was fresh baked donuts (thank you Rhonda) and fresh sourdough Cinnamon bread (thank you Colleen)! Yum!!!!

Now for the saga of the curvy black thing.....

A couple of weeks ago I was working the desk at the Appalachian Arts Craft Center, near Norris TN. While I was there I began rearranging the weaver's merchendise that we make downstairs in the Weaving Studio, especially the placemats. It hit me like a ton of bricks that there might be a better way to display them! I texted the leadership team and we texted back several times that afternoon. We ended up having Marie order 6 of those black curvy things so that we could display the Placemats like they were on a closets rod! Here is the before.....

Here Angie and I have taken the placemats and original hardware down and we have put up our estimate of where the rods should go.

Finally we had fun putting the placemats in place and adding some of the kits we put together, namely the stick weaving kits and the scarf weaving kits that we make out of hand dyed bamboo. I am eyeing those endcaps where we have our hand towels, stay tuned for more fluffing of inventory!

While we were doing that bit of magic upstairs, the other weavers were downstairs doing their thing! Rhonda finished her warp and cut it off. I think I counted 3 full baby blanket sized pieces plus some smaller pieces for fabric.

Marilyn had a few threading errors to tend to today but before lunch she had started weaving on her towel warp.

Cathy is making wonderful progress on her towel warp, she has used a different weft color for each towel.

Liz #2 is threading the repweave warp that she was winding onto the back beam last week.

Colleen is continuing to weave towels in Summer/Winter.

Nobody brought Show and Tell today not even Mark! So join us again next week to see what we come up with next! Until then this is Tina for all!