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.

The Three Susans

Today we were busy warping the looms that we will be needing for a special 2 day gig. We have been invited to do a hands on demonstration at a near by elementary school. We need to have 6 table looms warped and ready to weave with all the shuttles loaded and everything. Shannon had already wound the warps last week, so it was a matter of winding on the 3 yard warps and getting them ready to weave. I brought the first loom out of the annex as Marie was gathering the neccesary shuttles to pair with the looms. (Marie wound the stick shuttles for us as we were threading.) Once I had that first warp wound on the back beam Susan said that she would go and get another loom from the annex and get that one started as well.

I found a photo of Susan that I took just last week!

Right about then Pat let me know that she was getting ready to cut the rugs off of the Barn Frame Loom.

Right after that, if I remember correctly our other Susan said that she could finish drawing the first warp through the reed, tie on and weave about 2 inches, which left me free to go get a 3rd loom! (I had to go back among my photos to catch a picture of Susan #2, she is at the sink with her good buddy Kris right behind her!) So that is 1 loom warped and 2 in progress!

A little later on Judith told me that she was shocked at how quickly a rug can gobble up fabric strips and that she needed to cut more. So I got her set up and Marie took over to help her manage all that fabric. Round and Round! And Laura was ready to empty that full cloth beam we saw last week.

For Show and tell we had Mark and Jenny with projects. Mark made a table runner for his daughter and Jenny made a shawl. I know I took a picture of Jenny and her shawl but it isn't on my camera at all!

At the end of the day we had managed to get 2 of the looms completely ready to go and a third one was ready to go through the reed. I didn't head home until 4, though Marie and I did spend some time poking around in the annex for fabric strips.

If you are counting that is 2 Susans, where is the other one you might ask. Well, it didn't hit me until I got home, and I had to giggle, that I am the third Susan, and though it is my legal name, that name is only on documents and used in doctors offices etc.

Next week we will be continuing to get ready for the elementary school program so stay tuned! Until then this is Tina, for all!

Christmas in August!

What a busy day it was in the studio today! Marie had ordered 8/4 cotton last week because the yarn shelves were looking a little bare. Today the yarn Marie ordered was ready to be inventoried, labled and put on the shelf. Marie, Pearl, Karin and I took care of that first thing!

While that was going on Charlotte was looking for a new weaving pattern and Linda was twisting fringe. Oh, and I noticed that Kris was close to the end of her scarf warp.

Jenny continues to weave on her handpainted warp and I caught sight of the cloth beam of towels on Laura's loom!

Later on in the morning I was helping Joyeclynn wind this beautiful red warp onto her warp beam. This will be a beautiful set of Christmas napkins! You see, as hand weavers we have to plan months in advance if we want something for Christmas time as gifts or to sell especially if it is a project here at the Center when we are only here 4 hours a week. Oh, and by this time Kris was hemstitching!

After lunch I was helping Judith cut some more cloth strips for her rug project and I got a good picture of Kris cutting the scarf project off of her loom, and Susan was winding a towel warp for, you guessed it Christmas towels!

Barbara was the only weaver with Show and Tell today. Barbara finished a long scarf that you can wrap around your head if you need to on cold winter days! I believe she said that she had dyed the yarn.

That is all I have for you today, we will be back next week with more weaving fun, until then this is Tina, for all!