After the Rain

We got some much needed rain overnight and we have several more days ahead with chances of rain! While that is going one outside in East TN, we have various stages of loom dressing and weaving going on inside the weaving center. Betsy is almost finished threading the barn frame loom, this will be fabric for a top.

Kris is threading here towel warp through the reed.

Judith is loading a rug shuttle with thick wool yarn for a rug.

Mark is weaving more placemats.

Alanna is weaving another project on the ashford table loom.

Carol and Pat have started going through some of the hand dyed warps and wefts and putting together projects for us to weave.

Alice finished another inkle loom band! She is unstoppable!

Last week Jenny picked out some hand dyed rayon that as been around for a little while. She has been finding it a little tricky to control. She finally had some success winding it onto a cone using it as a nostepinne and then with help from Nikki they wound a warp with Jenny feeding the yarn to Nikki who was winding the warp.

Liz and I both had some problems today. I am weaving at Laura's loom for a little while as she will be gone. Only proble I had was that Laura had already started a towel and I have a different natural beat than she does. I wove for and inch or two and found that I beat harder than Laura does. I had to unweave back and start over paying special attention to my beat.

Liz had started a new towel project from an old book that Carol loaned her. The picture of the fabric from the book looks like little Ty fighters from Star Wars. When she went to weave the fabric however something seemed off, the A block seemed just right but the B block wasn't turning out at all. We checked treadle tie up and it was just like the instructions said it should be. Then we began comparing the treadle tie ups and the treadle sequence. We ended up adding 2 shafts to treadle 7 and we added shaft 1 to either side of block B. You can see the progression of the fabric in the second photo.

Time for Show and Tell! Shannon wove a blanket for her Mom's bed yesterday in 5 hours!!! The blanket is in the same colors that Shannon and her Aunt are using on a quilt that is also for her mom.

Rhonda did the finishing for her shawl this week, the fabric is much admired and I know several that are planning on trying a variation of it.

I have a Tip and Trick for you today! There have been a rash of rescue heddles needed over the last 3 weeks and Marie talked me into using sagfety pins instead of just string. Well I must say that I have fallen in love with this technique and plan to use it in the future. The beauty is that once you are finished with your project you can unfasten the safety pins and save them in your bench for the next time you need one!

Donation Sorting, Empty looms, and Tips and Tricks

It happened again, a donation came in sometime last week and it is up to us to air out fabric and keep what we will use and discard or pass on the rest. This week I found some very colorful strips of fabric that I will take home to use as a runner on a black warp I have waiting on my Dorothy thrift store find. I will then bring the runners back for the shop to grow our building fund.

We have several empty looms right now. Rhonda is taking the opportunity to rearrange heddles and give her loom a good clean before she puts on another warp and Marilyn cut her project off of her loom today.

Jenny too cut her project off of her loom and is already chosing her next project! I think it will be fabric for a top this time.

Cathy and Nikki are the queens of alternating yarn in the warp or in the weft and sometimes both of them at the same time!

Time for Show and Tell! Rhonda did some over dyeing this week on some skeins.

Kris brought in her results from ice dyeing t-shirts and napkins.

Last week, Karin came up with a feature idea for the blog, we are calling it Tips and Tricks. For our inaugural tip we will feature the fabric that Susan #3 is weaving with hand dyed popcorn yarn.

There can be weak points in popcorn yarn and that is what happened this time. So what we did is this, we took a bit of sewing thread and tied it around the popcorn yarn on each side of the weak section, then we coated it with a thin film of elmers glue. We let the glue dry during lunch before Susan continued weaving.

I caught up with Susan after a little while to check on how the yarn was behaving and she said that it was working great! When the fabric is done the glue will wash out and she can clip the sewing thread ends!

That is all for this week, check back for a visit next week and let's see what new warps will go on those empty looms! Until then this is Tina, for all!

Familiar Faces!

Joycelyn was back with us today, and she brought with her a warp that she had wound just before she cracked a couple of ribs! We are so glad to have her back and feeling better!

JP came by to visit for a spell, he and Carol caught up and I saw JP do the rounds and speak to most everybody!

Carol had some towels tagged and inventoried this morning, for us to take upstairs to the shop.

How about some Weavers and their Warps! Linda is putting on a new towel warp on the Leclerc today.

Cathy is a champ at combining two different wefts for a scarf!

Alyce is finishing a band for Patty to use on one of her period costume pieces for the fall. This band is 2 yards and 21 inches long.

Liz was having some tension issues with her scarf project so she decided to finish a few inches early and is knotting the fringe as she cuts the scarf off of the loom.

Rhonda too has finished her project and is ready to cut it off of the loom.

Angie, Colleen and Alanna were busy getting a new warp onto one of the wolf pups!

After lunch and a short business meeting, it is time for show and tell! Cathy brought in her Dye day projects, tye dyed shirts and skeins. Cathy also had a batch of Christmas towels to put up in the shop!

Colleen brought in her tye dyed projects as well, this time it is napkins.

Patty brought in her latest project. It is a pocket made for the book reader in your life. This model has and ink pen, sticky tabs and a highlighter! She told us that if anybody was interested in learning how to make them she had 75 more to make!

Mark has been doing some landscaping at he and Judiths new place. He passed around a picture of a new bridge he built to go over a little waterway.