Crunch Time!

  No...she isn't cracking a whip!  (Actually, I don't know what she is talking about...I just got this photo op and I wasn't going to pass it up!!!)
  As always, things are moving into high gear around here as we get ready for the Foothills show.  Pat (R) and I made straw looms for the kits this morning.  We are almost out!

 Just in time, Alyce was ready to cut off her towel warp.
  And, Linda decided to cut off the towels she had on the cloth beam on the Macomber.  There are four jade towels and two yellow ones.

  Carol pulled out the serger and started on Alyce's towels.  When she finished serging the hems, she just went on to Linda's towels next.  The ladies will take them home to hem and wet finish.

  Jaid was back with us today, and she's been working on her lovely red warp.

  Just look at this lovely piece!!!!

Oh, my!!!!

  Bonnie and Ms. Ila are weaving the "snake skin" pattern, but they look so different because of the size.
  On the right is a close up of Ms. Ila's shawl.  That gray warp with the black weft is really working!

After adding some heddles to the loom, Mary got busy threading her new warp.

















  Sharon was busy threading, too.  That's another scarf warp on the loom!
  It's blue scarves for Frieda in that very unique eight shaft pattern.






  Now that Marilyn has finished the twill sections of her first warp, she's ready to do a table runner with the rest of the warp.











  Helen, Jocelyn and Betsy kept the back corner buzzing today
  (What a maze of looms!!!)




  After we moved all the parked Pups, Carl got in position at the back of the loom to thread the heddles.  He only has a few inches to finish next week, and then they'll be winding on that new rug warp!













  Here's a peek at the new display Ray and Marie put together last week.  It is truly amazing how much can be placed on this!  And, everything is so visible!

  It will be a mad dash from now until November 15th.
Hold on......................


Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Shag in the making

napkin in 16/2

The napkins are almost ready to deliver, all that is left to do is make some labels and I may tie them in a couple of bundles with a handwoven band. (Oops, I just saw a skipped thread, I need to tend to!)

1 dozen

My daughter that is a graphic designer was in town last week and while she was here she went to Joanne's with me and helped me pick out the poly fleece I needed for the Shag rug I am making.  Joanne's was having a 1/2 off sale on fleece, so it was really good timing on our part!   My granddaughter said that she wanted the rug to be colors of the rainbow.

stuffed shopping cart 

I thought that I was going to need 7 colors, but it turns out that all I will need is 6 colors. So I needed to decide which color to leave out.  I consulted Dear One (good with color) and he suggested I leave out the eggplant color, so that is what I am going with.

cutting, cutting, cutting

Yesterday and today set up my trusty fabric cutter and set to work.  I need to cut all of this fleece into 1/2 inch strips.  I am not sure if I will weave them in strip form or go ahead and cut the strips in 4 inch lengths, but I am sure leaning that way.  I think I will do a little bit of sampling to make sure.

small pile of strips

       

three bags full?

I had to do some work with colored pencils to get the new color order to work, (the colors intermesh a lot in this rug) but once again consulting Dear One we made the necessary changes  in the color order and I really think that these colors will all play together nicely.


I finished cutting the pink and the red into strips today, and I expect to finish the other 4 colors by the end of next week.  Then I will check to see that I have enough heddles on the first 4 shafts of the 60inch Leclerc, Big Bertha. I need 120 heddles for each of the 4 shafts.
 I will hopefully be able to thread and tie on to the front apron before I go see my Mom November 9th, so that once I get home on the 18th,  I will be ready to weave.



There is no due date on this rug, and I am glad because for the last few months weaving time has been hard to come by.  I expect though that I will be more than a little bit excited to finally get started throwing the shuttle, and as fiddly as this type of weaving is, it is very satisfying.

Until next week, Happy Weaving, Tina

Here We Go, Again!

  Welcome to Mary...our newest weaver!  I heard that she has been reading our blog, and now she is part of our little community!
  She got her yarn chosen, and the warp is wound.  Next week she will start the process of dressing the loom.
  Let the fun begin!!!!















 
  Marilyn continues to work on her sampler warp.  Those weaving skills she already had are coming back to her!

Carl got busy on his new rug warp this morning.  (Remember...he warps front to back!)  The copper stripes came first.
  By the end of the day, he was finished sleying the reed.  That means he'll be threading the heddles next week.

  Pearl was having difficulty with the yellow warp on the new Ashford loom.  Carol thought that rewinding the warp using paper on the warp beam would be just the ticket to correct the problem.











 Jocelyn was back with us today.  She and Anna had some time to catch up with all that has happened in the last few weeks.







  Liz was back with us, also.  Those towels will look great at our booth at the Foothills sale.





Helen is working on the Wolf Pup.  That's a scarf warp that she's finishing. 







Shirley has started the threading on her warp.  She settled on a 2-2 twill for her scarves.
 

   Whoa.....wait just a minute!  What is this????

An empty row of weaving benches!!!!!!















Ms. Ila said they were slackers!!!  The Ladies were ALL hard at work on their looms!!!!!!!

  Betsy has finished the first placemat on her warp.  We're all gearing up for that fall sale!


















  Marie and Pat have been weaving at home....Pat is trying to use up her stash, and came with this big stack of placemats and table runners.  Marie is building up her stock for the shop and the fall sale.

  Marie also hemmed Tina's napkins (Tina blogged about these a few weeks ago.)   Tina dropped by to pick them up this morning.














  And.....guess what else Marie did?????
She and Ray put together a new display feature for the shop upstairs!!!!  (We need one of these for the Foothills sale!)





 
  I think you deserve a gingersnap, Marie!!!! 
Lucky us.....Sharon baked us a fresh batch....and they were wonderful.
  Thank you, Sharon!

I think I need some of what Marie is taking.....................


Stay tuned........

LouAnn

My First Full Width Project on Bertha

The napkins I posted about last recently are now with Marie and are thankfully out of my hands!!!!  It is nice to have my mind free to take on the next project, this time it is a shag rug for my granddaughter.  I wove a sample a couple of months ago using t-shirt material for the shag, and one thing I learned as I cut off that sample, is that t-shirts would be entirely too heavy to use on a  60x90inch shag rug!  I decided that I would use the polyester fleece that is used in the Weavers Craft magazine article that I am relying on heavily for my inspiration.

My granddaughter will pick the colors that she wants me to use, and I am making the rug twice as long and over twice as wide as this Rainbow rug that is in the magazine.  I will also be precutting the shag before I weave so that I won't have to spend time fishing for those loops that were so hard to find when I wove the sample.

Since I was changing so many things, I had to do some math, not my strong point, but I had to know how much 8/4 I needed so that I could choose what color to use.  The warp will not show in the rug so I was able to use a color that I had gotten for a different project that never got off of the ground.

Yep, put on your sunglasses because it is this bright!  I started with 5 cones and  ended with 1 cone and 4 partials.


















I held 4 strands together and carefully wound 15 inch bouts of 5 yards, 4 times, to make the 60 inch warp width.  I did something a little different to hold the cross this time.  I took a drinking straw or 2 that I had on hand, and I cut a couple of lengths.  I placed them at the cross and used blue painters tape to hold them together.

So easy to handle!

Warp Chains in a box. (Do you still have those sunglasses?)

Up and over the castle, ready for the lease sticks on the other side.

Getting the lease stick in place.

I removed the straws once the lease sticks were in place and tied in place on the back beam.  Then it was just a matter of spreading the warp through the raddle that I had in place on top of the castle.








The warp was spread and then lashed onto the apron irons before I could wind the warp.  This warp is only 5 yards so it was on the warp beam in record time.

3 out of 5 of my looms have sectional warp beams, so this is an unusual warping sequence for me, and having the raddle on top of the castle was a first for me, but since the warp was so wide, I felt that the heddles were going to get in the way if I tried to go through the castle.  I have to say that I really liked warping this way, and I am going to see if I can implement some of the things I learned today on my other non sectional looms.

I was soon tying off the warp at the lease sticks and I will soon be threading.  The only thing left to do is choose the colors I want to use for shag and then make strips and cut them to size.  Before long I will be immersed in springy shag!

Until next time, keep Weaving, Tina

And, Elvis said......

 


   "a little less conversation, a little more action."

What the heck?????

Around here there's always a LOT of conversation and
a LOT of action!!!!

  Carl got right to work tying the fringes on the rugs we cut off the barn loom--there were six!  Two of them sold as soon as the fringes were tied!!!!

  Pat got right to work winding a new 16 yard warp for the barn loom.   This one will have navy and copper stripes.  Since Carl is a front to back warper, she wound all the navy first, and then started on the copper.  Carl can start threading next week.
  Anna's sister is visiting from California, and there were a lot of conversations going on with the weavers.


    Liz's towel warp is coming right along.  There was plenty of time for both conversation and action!!!!


















   Betsy found an error in the tie up on her warp, which was simple to fix.  Now she's ready to get going on her placemat warp.







  Carol jumped in to tie fringes, too.  As we finished a rug, Carol got them measured and tagged for the shop upstairs.

  Linda had a bunch of pictures to show us of her new grandson....he's precious!!!  You should see that head of dark hair!!!!  But, she was right back on her loom this afternoon. 
  Bonnie is making headway with that placemat warp...I bet they'll be finished in time for the Foothills sale.

  Marilyn is threading her sample warp.  She's returning to weaving after a few years away.  It seems that we always return to the things we love to do!















  Sharon got her sunset warp wound on, and she's ready to start threading.  She found a twill pattern that she really liked in the Dixon book.

  Now to the warp from *%?!!  Ray has the patience of a saint!  This a jack loom, but it doesn't want to raise three shafts....which you have to do when you are weaving doubleweave.  Ray has backed up to the beginning to trouble shoot the situation. 
  Conversation and action......both will be needed here!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Just in case you don't remember the song:
Elvis Presley - A Little Less Conversation - YouTube