5th Tuesday Means it's Potluck

Busy day in the studio today! Mark was first in line for pictures when I walked in this morning. It was time to cut off his warp because the cloth beam was getting too full! I also caught sight of a loom with an old warp and a new warp side by side, I thought that was interesting!

Pat is making steady progress on the old barn loom and Kris is making progress on her placemat project.

Laura has taken over the towels that look like "woven lawn chairs" warp and we are trying to see if the loom has any harness that stick as she weaves.

Our friend Andy dropped by today with some alpace fleeces for us to look at and Karin took three and I took two. Did we need them? No we did not!

Around here the 5th Tuesday of any ole month that comes around means that it is a potluck Tuesday! My friend LouAnn came up with that idea several years and we have been keeping up the tradition!

Another thing that LouAnn did was she came up with Challenges for us. We usually rolled our eyes but did them anyway! Well it has been a couple of years since LouAnn passed away and we haven't done a single challenge since then, until now! Karin and I put our heads together and came up with one. In 5 months there will be another 5th Tuesday and I am challenging our group to do a project(s) that has either been put off because they were afraid to start it, or one that has been languishing forever, you know anything along those lines. Also, it doesn't have to be weaving, it can be any craft at all! Details of how this will unfold are coming, they are to think about it and decide by next week what they want to work on. I will have a list, but they do not have to sign up if they don't want to. So far I have 5 different projects on my list with room for more! I think a good name would be the "Unfinished Business Challenge"!

Now it is time for "Show and Tell"! Dana took an inkle weaving class last weekend and brought in her watermelon band. She also brought in a bag holder shaped like a possum!!!!! You can see from Laura and Susan in the background how funny we all thought it was!

Susan brought in a set of towels she had finished this week. She had some trouble with one of the colors bleeding in the wash even though she had used color catchers! It looks like the copper color was the culprit. Susan got the towel pattern from "Simply Towels" ( I saw several ideas in that book that I want to try for sure!)

Barbara emptied her looms at home this week! She brought in a scarf made with some sparkle and a grandchild in mind and she finished a wrap for the shop upstairs.

That is all I have for you today! Karin and I will be at the Museum of Appalachia on this Friday and Next showing Thousands hundreds of kids how to wash and card and spin the fleeces that come off of the sheep, I will try to get some pictures of the day. Until next week this is Tina, for all!

Special Visitor!

We had a surprise visit from Carol today! I didn't know that she was coming and was thrilled to see her walk in the door. She made her way around to everybody and I happened to catch her with Joycelyn and Liz #2!

Linda has her project underway. I wove this pattern a couple of times over the last few months and Linda decided to do it in Fall colors. Pat wound a blanket warp at home and brought it in to put on the Barn Frame Loom. She wound the colors seperately and will mix them in the reed before she winds the warp onto the back beam.

Jenny is ready to thread this vibrant warp, and Cathy is quietly weaving towels in lt pink/lilac/white.

Judith has been weaving for awhile on this rug warp and we decided that today was the day that she would cut the warp and take off the current batch of rugs to be finished. This warp is really quite unusual in that as colorful as it is, it seems to dissapear into each and every rug! There were seven rugs in this batch.

Phillys is getting ready to thread her new scarf, Karin continues to update the library and Dana is hand hemming some towels.

Time for "Show and Tell"! Pyllis brought in some textiles from her recent trip, a beautiful textured towel and a hotpad for a hot dish, both of which were made in Italy. Jenny finished a wool sweater just in time for Summer! (who else is knitting a wool sweater besides me!) Shannon made some inkle straps to help hold the reed on a loom at the Heritage Center in Townsend TN and she also finished a Huck Lace towel.

That is all I have for you today, check back with us next week as we get together for a potluck since it is the 5th Tuesday of the month! Until then, this is Tina, for all!

Weavers and Warps!

We had a good group today, even though there were several weaver's that couldn't make it. I first want to show you Linda and her warp that is really close to the tie on stage of warping. (this was the one I was missing last week!)

Next we have Mark who has changed the weft he is using on the "warp that never ends", and Judith who had come up with another color combo for her rug weft!

Jenny is getting ready to wind this smashing warp today and JP is in the process of threading his warp through the reed, almost ready to tie on.

Here are a couple of warps in progress that don't have their weaver's with them!

Marie was busy serging some towels for Susan #2 and Marie, Patty and Karin were hard at it to get some new inventory upstairs, though I didn't get a picture of them but I did get a picture of some rugs that Pat brought in today.

Now it is time for "Show and Tell"! Alice brought in a Knitter's Pride pattern holder that has magnet strips to help you keep track of where you are in your pattern. This works for knitting and I bet it would be great for inkle weaving pick up patterns as well as general treadling sequences. Also, Susan #3 brought in some towels that she had woven from the book "Simply Towels".

Well friends, that is all I have for you today, we will be back again next week with more new projects and maybe even some more finished warps. Until then, this is Tina, for all!