Welcome Back to Some Old Friends

The first one we can welcome back is Carol of course! She has been gone 6 weeks, more or less, but she had a great visit with her Sister in Canada! They are already making plans for next year! She and Marie were catching up!

I got to the Center late today and was busy from the get go, so it was lunch time before I took many pictures.

So how about we start with Show and Tell this week, cause there is a lot of it! Charlotte was with us today for a little while and she brought in somes Huck Lace towels she had woven at home. Ruth brought in the towels she had finished off of Bonnies loom. (We miss you Bonnie, come by for a visit!!!!)

Welcome back to Irene who was with us today, and she brought in some lovely boundweave pieces that she has been doing on a rigid heddle loom. She wants to try it on a loom with shafts. Phyllis brought in the finihed scarf that she took off of the loom last week. I learned today that she had also dyed the warp and weft for this project.

Patty had a lot to show us today! She made pincushions for all of our looms out of some fabric from Sharons stash! She brought in a towel that looks so soft and also 2 more twisted poncho thingys.

Last but not least Shannon brought in a baby blanket that she wove for her grandaughter. We all thought that her version is much better than the version photographed in the book!

I did manage to get a couple of photos of weavers at the looms but very few. I saw Joycelyn weaving at her Christmas towel project and Barbara weaving on a loom for next weeks hands on demo at the elememntary school.

Speaking of the hands on demo, next weeks post will feature that 2 day event. We spent some time today finishing up the last minute things that needed to happen. Marie and Karin were winding some cool wool yarn that was in pieces of 18-20 inches, they are knotting the pieces together and winding them in balls of various sizes. I snuck in a picture of the scarf project that Karin is weaving on her loom.

The last old friend we saw today was JP! He is back from his travels, he had a wonderful time but is glad to be home! I didn't manage to take a picture of JP today, but I found one in my Photos from last year, and it pretty much sums it up!

We missed all three of you and we are glad you are back! Until next time this is Tina, for all

Winding Things Up

I was late getting to the Center this morning, so things were in full swing when I got there. Karin had her loom out and was weaving on a scarf.

Linda was busy twisting the fringe on her scarf and Liz tried to sneak and get her warp off before I found out!

Judith has finished her first rug on the Studio loom and Laura is putting a warp from Sharons stash on her table loom.

One of the last things we need to get ready for the demo in a couple of weeks is to gather yarn for weft. Susan help find some cool yarn in the bin under the table and I went digging into the other place we put partial cones. One of the yarns that Susan found was multicolored and in pieces of about 20 inches, maybe the end of a warp? Karin set to work tying those pieces together and making it into balls to use as weft. At the same time, and for a completely different project Patty was winding a ball of very fine yarn from a skein that was too big for the swift, so she draped it over a warping board, and enlisted a couple of helpers to wind while she managed the yarn. I know that Marie is in this picture, but I think Linda took a turn as well.

Now for Show and Tell, Marilyn had a frustration at her house, something about a bathroom space that wasn't really able to be a bathroom space after all. Well, she took it out on her Inkle loom! Oh, and speaking of Inkle looms, I just got the cutest little Inkle loom in the mail yesterday! I haven't warped it yet, but that will happen soon!

Carol, our fearless leader will be back with us next week, we are so glad! Until then this is Tina, for all.

Projects off of the Floor Looms and 6 Warped Table Looms

Linda had taken her towels off of her loom last week and since her sewing machine is in the shop she brought them back in this week to use the serger to take them apart. However there was a problem with the serger and she and Marie couldn't get it to work.

In the mean time I had brought the 4th table loom to put a warp on it. Kris began to thread table loom #3 through the reed. When Karin got to the Center, I had the warp on loom #4 and passed it off to her to thread etc and went to get loom #5.

About the time I got Loom #5 set up to start winding the warp onto the back beam, Mark let me know that he was getting ready to cut his placemats off of the loom. Our Ellens pattern warps are "crammed and spaced" so that the warp can have tension issues after awhile and we have found that it is best to cut the project off and retie the warp when that happens. Soon after that Phyllis cut off one of my new favorite warps, I have so enjoyed watching the colors dance.

Laura and Marie were still trying to get that serger to work! They switched to a different serger and then had to rethread it! We couldn't find the serger that we normally use.

When lunch time rolled around I passed of loom #5 to Susan so that I could go get loom #6 from the annex. After lunch of course it is time for "Show and Tell". Charlotte is our thrum weaver. She takes our thrums and makes beautiful cloth and scarves. Shannon brought it some very cool store bought yarn that is made out of t-shirt material. She had woven a strap on an inkle loom with it and wow the colors are bright! She had also made some weights to use when you are cutting fabric, the weights sit on the pattern hand hold it in place instead of pins. Oh, and she also had a disaster that involved 7 yards of fabric and a surprise color bleed!

Kris had 2 pieces for us today, she had her colorful towels and her scarf all finished even the fringe is twisted. Mark made a rug for his daughter out of her favorite colors.

Normally, I end the blog here but this afternoon we had two more warps come off of the looms! Ruth cut her towels off of the loom and Patty tried to cut her striped shawlproject off without me seeing her!

By the end of the day we had 4 warps off of the floor looms and we did finish getting the 6 table looms warped for 2 "hands on" demonstration days, September 9th and 10th at a local elementary school. You may be wondering what happened with Marie and Laura! They finally gave up and Marie is taking the towels home with her to serge apart using her own serger which doesn't usually give her any trouble. Well folks that is it for today, we should have more fun for you next week, until then this is Tina, for all.