New Year

It's January already!!  So where did the year go? It always seems to go by faster and faster.

I don't do new years resolutions. I do mentally make lists of what I want to accomplish, at least in the next month or so. I do eventually have to get back to my regular production. I'll have to get a yarn order ready for that but I'm going to procrastinate for a week or two. I've got several projects ready to go on for production already, but first, I'm going to continue to keep doing some rugs. I've been storing some boxes of rug weft material at my husband's office. Stash takes up space!! We brought 4 huge rubbermaids home last week and I began to use some of the fabric strips that I bought at Great Northern in June. However, these rugs are all from my stash of loopers.

Don't you like how, just by picking certain colors, you can change the whole look of a rug inspite of what colors you're using for warp? I think using different colors in the warp just add a bit of interest to the whole look of the rug. This more warm toned rug doesn't have any turquoise in the weft but plenty in the warp. I like the bits of colors that show over the weft loopers.

There are 2 of these rugs.

 I just made one rug of these primary colors, well, I did add green to the mix. I'm going to do another one of these soon, I hope.

 Ah, yes, the pink and purple one. You're right, Teresa, looks like a grandma would love to pick this up for her granddaughter! I'm hoping so anyway. I did 2 of them hoping that was a good idea.

 In the middle of all this, I decided to dye some of those loopers that we'd cleaned at LouAnn's house. I weighed one pound bunches of them and dyed them in empty plastic cat litter pails. RIT calls for half a cup of dye in 3 gallons of water. So that's exactly what fits into the pails. Would it be possible to dye 2 pounds in 3 gallons? I don't know. I like the fairly intense colors that resulted here.
My only problem with all this is that DH has been watching our septic tank pretty closely. The guy that's supposed to fix the drain field has been AWOL for several months but it had been doing ok without help.........til I needed to rinse out the loopers. Friday afternoon I came home and had to take the pails outside to drain, take the cover off the spigot outside and attach the hose. It wasn't too cold (high mid 50s) yet but the pails were pretty heavy to haul out there. I did rinse them a couple of times before bringing them in to sit overnight.......because......they needed to be washed in warm water and detergent. Yeah, right, with the tank at an uncomfortably full level.....as in, no showers, etc.
Saturday was the start of the holiday weekend. Try to call someone to come empty the tank for you then!! We did have success with a guy who's been here before. He came mid afternoon and emptied it. If you live in my area and need someone, call me. I'd send business his way any day!! He went above and beyond, I thought!!! Hopefully we have a lead on another guy to fix the line. All the damage is still from those storms that came through in April which resulted in so many of us getting a new roof, etc.

 Tina, LouAnn and I spent hours cleaning loopers at her house. So after washing, dyeing, rinsing and then throwing them back in the dryer to help them dry, there are some serious piles of knots of debris still in the loopers!! Guess once they're completely dry, I'll have fun sorting through them again before bagging them to be ready for weaving down the road. These colors might work for the rug I plan to weave for his office.

 Since our septic tank is, at least temporarily, problem free, I think I'll bag up some more of those loopers and dye them so I have a good supply for a rug later on. If I use the big bag full that I brought home, that's fine. I know where I can get more!!
So what's going on the loom next? I've got a black warp on there and this bag of strips is waiting to be woven into a rug. Normally our rugs don't look so great in a contemporary room, but this rug would look great in a very modern setting. Linda, I think we should have bought more of this!!! Their web site doesn't show any more of this particular stripe so I guess it's all sold. Too bad. But, I'll just weave up what I have and hope someone likes it enough to buy it in spring!!

We've had a nice fall so far weatherwise. The other night I actually was watching the weather and there was this big swath of cold air predicted to come down here. It was come via Laura in Prince George and my family in Moose Jaw. I talked to my sister and she said there were alot colder already there and they'd had some snow. Last night the cold air started to come down here. No snow, just a few clouds in the sky but they predict snow in the mountains an hour from here maybe by Tuesday. We should be fine. We're protected down here in the valley. But, it's the kind of weather that's good for staying inside and getting work done on projects. That's what I plan to do this week. Maybe I can check off a thing or two from my mental list. Trouble is, as I check something off, another item gets put on the bottom of that list!! I guess it's a good thing. I'd hate to be bored with nothing to do. We sure don't have that problem around here!!
Until next week,
Happy weaving!!
Carol