After the Rain

We got some much needed rain overnight and we have several more days ahead with chances of rain! While that is going one outside in East TN, we have various stages of loom dressing and weaving going on inside the weaving center. Betsy is almost finished threading the barn frame loom, this will be fabric for a top.

Kris is threading here towel warp through the reed.

Judith is loading a rug shuttle with thick wool yarn for a rug.

Mark is weaving more placemats.

Alanna is weaving another project on the ashford table loom.

Carol and Pat have started going through some of the hand dyed warps and wefts and putting together projects for us to weave.

Alice finished another inkle loom band! She is unstoppable!

Last week Jenny picked out some hand dyed rayon that as been around for a little while. She has been finding it a little tricky to control. She finally had some success winding it onto a cone using it as a nostepinne and then with help from Nikki they wound a warp with Jenny feeding the yarn to Nikki who was winding the warp.

Liz and I both had some problems today. I am weaving at Laura's loom for a little while as she will be gone. Only proble I had was that Laura had already started a towel and I have a different natural beat than she does. I wove for and inch or two and found that I beat harder than Laura does. I had to unweave back and start over paying special attention to my beat.

Liz had started a new towel project from an old book that Carol loaned her. The picture of the fabric from the book looks like little Ty fighters from Star Wars. When she went to weave the fabric however something seemed off, the A block seemed just right but the B block wasn't turning out at all. We checked treadle tie up and it was just like the instructions said it should be. Then we began comparing the treadle tie ups and the treadle sequence. We ended up adding 2 shafts to treadle 7 and we added shaft 1 to either side of block B. You can see the progression of the fabric in the second photo.

Time for Show and Tell! Shannon wove a blanket for her Mom's bed yesterday in 5 hours!!! The blanket is in the same colors that Shannon and her Aunt are using on a quilt that is also for her mom.

Rhonda did the finishing for her shawl this week, the fabric is much admired and I know several that are planning on trying a variation of it.

I have a Tip and Trick for you today! There have been a rash of rescue heddles needed over the last 3 weeks and Marie talked me into using sagfety pins instead of just string. Well I must say that I have fallen in love with this technique and plan to use it in the future. The beauty is that once you are finished with your project you can unfasten the safety pins and save them in your bench for the next time you need one!