Conclave

Some folks might think we have a conclave of goodies on Tuesdays....and they might be right! 
  Today, Sharon brought us some pecan sandies, and Joan brought her "Blondies".  (You could also call them Congo Bars!)

Thank you, Ladies!!!

  This is a conclave of sisters!  Linda's son got married last weekend, so her sisters were here for a visit.  Since no visit to our area is complete without a tour of the weaving studio, we got the chance to meet these ladies.

  Betsy is back, and spent the morning threading her new rug warp.

  I think we all agree that Marie's choice of weft is just the ticket for that wild pink warp.

  Here's a close up of the shawl warp.

  This is a close up of Joan's scarf winding onto the cloth beam.  It looks like little windows!!!









   Jocelyn and Anna have interesting projects on their looms, also.  Jocelyn is weaving twill with her light gray weft.









  After changing the tie-up, Tina got started on the Christmas tree towels.  She found her own unique way to solve the problem of two few treadles for the trees!!!!






  Yes...that's Carl in the background....he was hard at work on his rug warp.  Would you believe it's already time to be thinking about another warp for his loom!!!! 



 







This is truly a conclave of looms (or a Schacht commercial!!!!)    This is Liz's first project on a floor loom!  Right now, she's busy threading.

This looks like a serious conclave to me......


Another lovely Tuesday in the Studio!!!


Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Catching Up!

I wove these rugs awhile ago but the pile of rugs just sat there til I had a few hours. 

Saturday evening we had a storm come through. It was quite fast moving, but did some damage. It wasn't bad right here but a mile away a tree went down on power lines. I don't think that it affected us but just after the storm started our power went out. We're used to power going out during snow storms or when there's a lot of wind damage with trees down. We're not used to no damage and no power!

I've heard from several Tuesday Weavers and at least one had a bunch of trees down and power poles snapped. As usual, the storm varied in intensity as it came through.

Our power came back on sometime yesterday morning so I headed down to serge and hem these rugs. Although we had power, Comcast was out which meant no cable, Internet or phone. Good thing we have cell phones and iPads, and a DVD player in my studio!

I was working nicely, in full production mode. So about 4:30 power went out again! So I didn't get more hemming done. However when we got back home after 7pm, not only was the power on but also Comcast, a full 6 hours before they had predicted.

Today I'm finishing with this stack of rugs.

They're all small. The warp was only 24 inches. Black warp and using bits of weft I had waiting to be woven.

First two rugs were woven with loopers. I had divided loopers and chained them separately by colors.

Stripes of black vs natural and light gray would look great in a bathroom or kitchen.

Same with this one. It's fun to sometimes do an asymmetrical design.

The rest were selvedges. I used up all my blue selvedges.

Dark grays and neutrals.

More neutrals with a bit of green and blue plus Belle. She was actually more interested in a bug flying nearby but she sat for a second and I got her!

These neutrals work well together. Teal pulls it together.

The dark red selvedges frame the neutrals in the middle. More of Belle!

So that's what was on that roll of rugs. I'm taking another roll off the loom today before I wind on a white warp for clothing. It won't be anything worth posting on photo wise, but the white pieces will be nice to wear once done.

It's going to be another busy week but I'll weave when I can and hopefully the warp will get done!

Until next week, keep weaving!

Carol

Change of Plans

I had settled in my mind that I was going to clean a lot of fleeces this week and last week, and you know what, it didn't happen!  Oh well, they are still on the back porch waiting for me.  I had a bunch of other things this week, but I did manage to fit in some time to spin on a new spinning project.

I have had these braids of Blue Faced Leicester  top (Freckled Faced Fibers) for a long time, but I didn't know what I wanted to do with them.  I had bought them from a fellow fiber person, and it had been a custom dye job that she had not used after all.
I had been thinking about these 4 braids since I had gotten them, I knew that I wanted to use them together somehow, but I couldn't wrap my head around what would work best.
It finally hit me that if I divided them up, I could get 2 nice gradient skeins of yarn, and I could then weave a shawl or two,  from dark to light in both in the warp and in the weft!

I split each braid in half short wise and then longwise.  Then I then I split each 1/4 of a braid into 8 pieces.  I laid them out in color order darkest to lightest.

Then I bagged them back up into the original plastic bags, except somehow it doesn't fit  in the bag anymore.  I was sure that this was going to be a long spin, it is 4 braids after all.

I have been surprised that I have been able to get 2 bobbins full spun  in my spare time and in the evenings and I am working on my 3rd.

This is a cool shot, because you can see that I have finished the lighter colored bits of fiber and I am now going into the medium tones.

There is only a little bit more and this bobbin will be finished too.  Today I picked up the Woolee Winder for my Hansen e-spinner at my daughters house.  It goes back and forth between our houses.  We don't like to spin on the Woolee Winder, but we sure love to ply on it!


So even though I have not had a chance to get any more fleeces clean this week, I did get something else that I have been putting off under way.

I pulled 3 bags of sock loopers out of the back of my car. They had been hanging out in the car so that the next time I passed by a laundromat I would be able to toss them in all at the same time and get them washed all at once.  I quickly realized that it was never going to happen, so I have a load of them in my washer right now.  I am determined to get at least that done this week, maybe even tonight!  Shoot I may pull out the 3 or 4 bottles of the Rit dye I still have to use up and dye me up some more loopers!

I'm hoping that next week I will be able to get some fleeces washed.  It doesn't look like I have washed any of them when I look at the pile, but I know I have 3 cleaned and sorted fleeces upstairs waiting on the next steps, and that tells me I have made a little progress.  Just a little....

Until next week, Happy Spinning, Tina

I Need Grandkids!!!

Forgive me.....
I seem to be having technology problems (too much to write about now!)
I keep remembering this Ally Bank commercial.....

I hope Tina can blog about something fibery.....I'm tired of this new fangled stuff!!!

LouAnn

Crowd Control

Carol was on duty again today, she, our fearless leader has been charged with keeping the bedlam that is often present on Tuesdays, under control, for as long as I have been here (2001).

 It doesn't look like much to begin with,

 a weaver here and a weaver there.














Harriet popped in for a quick visit!  We do miss her!

Before you know it though, the room is full of weavers, noisy weavers!  Winding on new warps, and threading and sleying thru the reed!

I witnessed a couple of instances of loom repair,  in one instance we (LouAnn, Marie and I) raised the harnesses of one loom, a counter balance, to improve  shed and on  another loom, Marie raised the shuttle race to keep a mischievous shuttle from plunging thru the warp to the floor!






 I overheard, and participated in discussions of past weaving disasters, tangled warps, forgetting to go over the back beam, forgetting to go thru the heddles and wondering what was the matter when you went to weave.  You just cannot even imagine the laughter from all corners of the room!  I will not assign weaver's names to any of these instances, it just can't be done.

 I do have it on good authority that there was some actual weaving going on!  However with so much going on I would be hard pressed to keep it all straight.

So of course the only thing to do when we are all in such a state is to call "Lunch Time", and in so doing at least  Carol can catch her breath while the weavers all hold still for a few minutes.

After lunch time, everybody gets to work again, and as usual, the afternoon is much quieter more relaxed.  Conversations have more pauses than before.  We all take stock of what we have managed to get accomplished in the few hours we have together.  A towel finished here, a warp beamed there,  Hemstitching, and heddle threading in progress, but not quite finished.

As each weaver heads for home, they call out "good bye" and "see you next week".  The looms are put away and the projects will be waiting for us , and not only that but we all look forward to more conversations and laughter, and sharing and caring next week, and every week.  That is what this crowd is all about.

Until next week, Happy Weaving, Tina for all

Here It Is!

Such as it is! This is a pretty good picture of the warp I was planning last week.

The close up photo lost the color of chocolate but the other colors show up better.

I had planned to do one more warp of rugs using a black warp. I don't have a lot of selvedges left so I'm trying to use up as much as I can in the warp. Hopefully I put enough on to use it all. Less to store til next winter when I weave more. I do like the soft colors in the rug that's on the cloth beam. I can weave one, maybe two more before I have to cut them off and retie. The cloth beam only holds so much fabric and rugs are thick!

Rug shuttles waiting to be woven in the next rug....

I'm not sure what I'll weave next but it may be a white warp. I'll decide once the rugs are off. There's still a roll of narrower rugs that hasn't been cut and hemmed yet. I've been side tracked lately working on a baby quilt again. This one should be ready for a picture next week. I think I have enough fabric for 2 of them, including backing. But I won't be sure til I cut the rest of the pieces. It's a cute boy fabric with rockets, etc! One will go to Saskatoon but  the other will go in my tub for when I need another baby gift.

Until next week, keep weaving!

Carol

Stash

  I admit....I had to giggle when my DIL told my daughter that she was purging her fabric stash...would she like to see if there was anything she'd like to have?  Now, you have to realize that my daughter just started to sew this winter, and has not built up a healthy stash yet, so this was her prime opportunity!!!!
  Stash????  I have more than my fair share!  But, I'm always looking to add a little here and a little there.  Case in point:  a quilter left a donation of two bags of little prints at the Center.  When I saw these two prints, I just knew they would go with the fabric that my daughter had chosen for her purse.  It has now been washed, dried, and ready to go to the cutting table.

  All of the 8/4 that I'm using for the strap is from my stash, also.  I like being able to play with the colors... always looking for just the right combination.
  I'm getting really close to the end of this strap.  The tension knob doesn't have a lot of room left to tighten the warp, so I'll just keep going until I can't go any further!!!  There will be plenty to do what I need to do.
  My goal is to have it ready by Sunday.

Thank goodness for stash!  It's always there when you need it!

Happy Weaving!  and sewing!
LouAnn

Have warp...some weft....let's weave!!!

 Yes...it's that time!

Let's get those warps on the loom so we can weave like the wind.....

  This is Liz's first floor loom project, and Carol was ready to lend a hand getting it on the loom.

  This is also a great time to chat with the ladies nearby.

  Betsy was ready to wind on her warp, too.  Marie and Linda stepped in to lend a hand at the front of the loom.  (Shhhhh....don't tell....but, they wound it on the wrong way and had to rewind it!!!!) 

  It could happen to anyone, right?

   Ray isn't quite ready to wind on just yet.  He got the reed sleyed last week, and this week he was busy threading the heddles.  These towels will be show stoppers!!!







Anna's scarf is ready to go...the sampling is done, and the weaving has begun.


 







  As promised, here's a quick look at Christy's scarf.  Notice the splash of orange in this warp!








  Bonnie and Ms. Ila were hard at work at their looms:  another batch of towels and beautiful shawls coming up!!!!







 THEY said I wouldn't include this picture....but, I did!  Yes, I'm under the loom fixing the 1-3 tie up.  It did help, but, I'll be back under the loom next week to adjust both plain weave treadles.

    Ruth Ann and Helen are still working on their first warps, and Carol is always there to encourage and answer questions.

There are always more rugs to weave, but you need to cut more weft, right, Carl????
  Pat jumped in to help with the L O N G strip of blue jeans.


Another great day with the Tuesday Weavers!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn