Full Circle!

What a beautiful day it was today in East Tennessee, the sun is shining and a warmish breeze is blowing! We are having quite a false spring coming up this week and it is trying to fool the gardeners in the group to plant all the things now! Most of us are going to not believe a word it is saying, but we do enjoy the sun when we can get it. The studio is in full swing as well from winding warps to weaving cloth, it is all happening. Angie finished her napkin warp last week and today she is already winding a new project. (towels I think)

Susan is helping Jenny wind on her new shawl warp.

Tina and Sally are helping Betsy get her new wool warp for fabric onto the huge back beam of the barn frame loom.

Nikki is threading the scarf warp she recently wound.

Mark has tied on the innaugural placemat warp on the Herald loom we put together last month!

Liz has switched from a complex twill pattern to plainweave on this shawl warp. There were too many broken threads happening!

Rhonda was ready early this afternoon to cut her towel warp off the loom. She already has plans and yarn set aside for the next project, so she will be winding a new warp next week. That is full circle here in the studio!

It is time for "Show and Tell"! Shannon finished weaving a waffle weave towel last week! (She is already putting on another waffle weave towel warp this week!)

Peggy stopped in today to show us some shadow weave that she had finished recently at home.

Laura brought in the finished poncho from last week, all it needs now is buttons! Rhonda kindly modeled is for us!

Mark brought in a couple of towel he finished at home. One was in plain weave and he said that the second one is part of this years "What are you waiting for?" challenge. He wove it in twill!!! There is a first time for everything!

Speaking of first times, this afternoon Susan #2 learned how to warp and thread a ridid heddle loom!

That is it for this week, come back next week and see how we get on with the new projects on the looms! Until then this is Tina, for all!

Another Catch up Post!

There have been some technical difficulties that have kept me from getting a blog posted, but rather than try to catch you all up on everything that has happened in the last month,(though I do have pictures) we will just begin with today. Last week Betsy began to wind a new wool warp for the barn frame loom. She had wound the first half and today she is winding the second half.

Mark and Patty are getting a new warp on the "new" Herald loom that made it back to the Studio from Pat's house last month. We took out a leclerc Mira and put it in storage and had some fun putting this unusual loom together.

Susan is winding a new warp today as well, I forgot to ask her what it will be!

Colleen (in pink) and Angie are really enjoying their first projects on a floor loom. Colleen's project is a fun 2 shuttle project and Angie has a strong twill going!

Linda and Liz S are weaving the same pattern with different yarns and colors for different effects. Linda is weaving placemats in a textured green and Liz S is weaving napkins in a color that reminds me of brick.

Laura is weaving towels in an all over pattern and Rhonda is also weaving towels blue warp and grey and white weft.

Oh! Guess what time it is!!! It is time for Show and Tell! To start us off Jenny did an experiment this week! She had purchased quite a lot of undyed Merino wool at SAFF last fall and this week she dyed some of it using Tumeric! She got a beautiful golden yellow color! We think it looks quite nice with the sweater she is wearing!

Pat came by to visit today and she brought some finished cozies from the fabric she took home last week and with a bit of leftover fabric she made a sweet little purse!

Last week Patty had brought in a scarf that she had made out of sock yarn, this week she brought in a ruana that she had made from that scarf! She also brought in a color and weave gamp that her daughter had done in a class years ago. When she came home from the class she told her Patty that she had found the thing that Patty would want to do! "You want to be a weaver!" she said.

Patty also brought in color gamp we did as a challenge way back in 2020, and an idea for a new product line for some of our leftover woven fabrics, a small wallet for credit cards and cash.

Cathy brought in the mohair and wool scarf she finished last month. I wish you could feel just how soft it is!

Laura took home the wool fabric that Betsy finished weaving sometime last month and is in the process of turning it into a coat! She is not finished yet, she needs to topstitch all around and add buttons and stuff to finish it off.

Mark brought in a rug he had finished this week. He had woven the first half and then with one thing and another the loom was silent for 6 months. This week he sat down and finished the second half. He was worried that the lack of symmetry would upset some of us, but he found a receptive group this time around!

That is all for today, I think the tech difficulties have been sorted so I should be able to post again next week. Until then, this is Tina, for all!

This Week and Last!

Hey friends, it is time for a catch up post! I wasn't able to do a post last week so Mark took some pictures so that I could catch you up! First up Susan gave Kris a hand as she cut off her warp!

Mark cut off his project! We have some plans to switch out this loom with another one in a week or two.

Colleen brought in her last finished project!

The first Tuesday of every year, we reserve some space across the street at the Museum of Appalachia so that we can all eat lunch together at long tables and catch up after a busy Holiday Season!

Here is a few "Show and Tells" from last Tuesday. Jenny had a couple of things to show us. First up was one of the first "What are you waiting for?" Challenge projects. It seems that Jenny had wanted to work with mohair for a long time but hadn't for what ever reason! She stopped waiting and finally knitted a vest with the precious Mohair!

Jenny also brought in a mobious scarf that she had made out of the ugly scarf that Mark had made the the end of last year! I think that is a win!

To finish last weeks wrap up Kathy finished a lovely sweater with stripes!

Now, on to today! You will remember that both Angela and Colleen had finished their projects on the table looms. Well guess what happens next? They got to put their names on a couple of small floor looms! I happened to see Angela winding a warp in one of the pictures last week and I think Colleen must have done that too because they were busy getting their Wolf Pups dressed for weaving. Teachers Dana and Patty were right there with them and Carol who was with us today through lunch had a word of encouragement too!

This is Colleen's warp, I didn't get a pic of either Colleen or Patty working away at this warp!

Nikki is very close to finishing her scarf warp.

Laura got a new Cricket Rigid Heddle loom and Linda and Marie were walking her through the process of putting a warp on it.

Susan has changed to loopers to finish the rug warp on her loom. She took some time to loop the loops together in randomish order and I managed to get a picture as she was getting started on this squishy thick rug!

Joycelyn is weaving the glorious gold warp with a variegated weft and She and I could'nt be more surprised or pleased with the results!

Rhonda is weaving textured fabric for hot pads, something we haven't had in the shop for awhile!

While all of this is going on Karin continues, diligently working on getting our library catalouged so that we can access the information even from home and see if there is a book we need in the library!

Now, finally, it is time for this weeks "Show and Tell"! Jenny made a set of fingerless mitts this week with her handspun Shetland.

Rhonda brought in a scarf that she finished 6 months ago and she struggled a bit with the fringe since her beads were a snugg fit on the yarn.

I brought in something I had been playing with over the last few weeks. Since my challenge project is to get comfortable with sewing of all sorts, I watched a few videos on youTube about Sashiko visible mending techniques and I bought 1 book and I began to play with some scraps of Tshirts that I had cut up to use as rags.

That is it for today! This year we hope to be seeing more and more of Carol as she regains her strength and stamina, she has already taken the job of inventory manager again! Until next week this is Tina, for all!