Plenty To Do

  You'd never know these ladies just went to the Woolery and bought new yarn!  Oh, no!  They were all over this assortment of yarn that came from Barbara's stash!  Barbara is a local weaver that is now weaving mainly tapestry.  She's been clearing out her stash of yarn and books, and the Tuesday Weavers stepped up to the plate.  There were plenty of happy weavers this morning!

  The looms were back in business as the weavers moved to their spots.  Ms. Ila is winding a new warp to be dyed at the end of the month....I bet it just might be another shawl (or two!) 

  Jocelyn is making steady progress on her placemat warp.

  That's Marie at the Macomber.....she was busy sleying the reed.  As soon as she gets tied on the front beam, she'll be off and weaving!

  Linda and Sharon were just to the right of Marie.  (It's too bad I can't stitch these two pictures together!)  There are so many conversations going on in the Studio!!!

  Betsy was back with us today....without her arm sling!!!!  She's weaving on her little Inkle loom right now.

Frieda is making great progress with the scarf warp.








  Carl is just about finished with this rug (flannel plaid.)  Pat cut strips for the next rug today.  It's a mixture of several plaids and solid red.  I can't wait to see it on the loom.








  Remember the warp that Tina wound on the little Macomber???  Karin was busy today getting it threaded in the 8 harness rosepath.  Those are going to be such fun towels!!!

  Polly and Irene finished up their first warps today!!!!! 

Wonder what they will weave next???

  Parting shot:  wonder what they are up to????

I'm sure they weren't checking Power Ball tickets!


Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Road Trip

Last Wednesday ten Tuesday Weavers took a road trip. We met at the center before 8:30 and headed north. The fear when planning anything this time of year is that we'll have ice or snow, especially going over the mountain into Kentucky. The weather was perfect. We stopped at the visitor center in Berea. If you've never been there, it wonderful. Not only bathrooms but a shop of all Kentucky made crafts. Temptation started early. Then our 3 cars headed up to Frankfort with a stop for lunch before we found The Woolery.

What a cool welcome waited for us at their door!! I'd called the day before to be sure they would be open. Everyone had a blast checking out everything. I am so glad that I don't spin and have decided that nuno felting is too hard on my hands. That narrowed my focus! We had several new weavers with us that were overwhelmed but found some treasures to take home. All but one person left with bags and the other one ordered something they were out of. If you click the link on the side of this page, you go to their website and can see what they have. It's hard not to be tempted!! We are great encouragers/enablers!!

We got back to the center just after 6pm. Not a bad day traveling with tons of talking the whole way, at least in the car I was in!!

So what have I been weaving? Well, I put on a short 2 vest warp using scrap balls of painted bamboo, left over bits of weft, mixed up colors, all wound into a warp. The first vest I wove pure black. Nice stripes in a mixture of color.

The second one I wove with a ball of painted bamboo. I had fun weaving this one, watching the colors as I went.

Both vests are going to be lovely but I'm partial to the second one, at least right now. I have divided my extra bits of bamboo and have 3 projects waiting to be done. Each will have to wait. I am weaving curtains. 

The lodge on Mount LeConte has curtains I wove beginning back in the mid 80s. Now I'm replacing them. This is the third year I've been asked to do this. This year I'm doing 12 windows. It's slow and not terribly exciting but measuring accurately as I go is important. I'll have pictures of them as I weave more. The pattern accent is different this time, but still red.

It's cold this morning, clear and cold. I'm glad to be inside getting some work done. They had talked snow yesterday but we didn't get any. Now there's a possibility of snow tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully it'll wait til we all leave the center and get home!! I hate to miss Tuesday weaving!

Til next week, keep weaving!

Carol

Recycle and Re-use

There are many times that we come into the Center on a Tuesday morning to find that someone has brought in a relative's stash.  Early sometime last year it was boxes and bags of yarn, there were also several half knitted items that would have been impossible to finish, and these were also divided/sold amongst those who were interested.

I happened to see a large worsted weight project that was in a heathered burgundy colorway that I thought I might use.  I brought it home and frogged the whole project, skeined it up and washed it, then I put it away until I was ready to use it.  I finished the poncho that I posted about last week and I immediately began to think about the next long term project I wanted to take on, and also to think about what kind of yarn I had on hand.  That is when I remembered this lovely yarn.

The yarn is actually not quite as bright as it shows in this picture.  I weighed the yarn, and compared what I found on the yarn labels that were on the unused skeins.  Turns out there are approximately 10 skeins and a whopping 2700 yards of worsted weight yarn.

I don't usually knit with this weight yarn so I had no idea what kind of pattern I would be able to knit with this amount of yarn.

 I knew that I wanted something textured and comfy, and using the Ravelry pattern search,  I was pleased to find that I could knit Veronik Avery's "Landfall" quite easily with this much yarn!   This is a paid for pattern on Ravelry.  (I tried to link it, but my efforts were in vain!)  "Landfall" is a sweater coat with lots of texture.

I did a good sized swatch and I washed it and let it dry.   Happily I got gauge with the recommended size of knitting needle.

It has been a long time since I have done a pattern with so much texture and at such a scale as this.  This is definitely a long term project!

To help me get back into the textured knitting groove, I decided that I would knit the sleeves first.  Boy, am I glad I did!  I had several false starts, with twisting the twisted stitches incorrectly, leaving out a cable twist etc.  But as I persevered, I felt like I was getting it.  Only to find that I had blown passed the start of the sleeve increases!  Rip it!

Finally,  last night, 3 pattern repeats in, I was loving how the texture was shaping up.  I decided I had better make sure I was remembering to do the stitch increases on the end of the row as well as the beginning.

After a quick count, I found that one side of that center cable work had 2 stitches more than the other side did, but at the same time I had the correct number of stitches on the needle!  I then checked my stitch count just above the ribbing and, you guessed it, I had not centered the center panel correctly.  It was off by just that couple of stitches.  Rip it!

I started over again, but I find that, I am already comfortable with reading the pattern charts,  now that I have done them several times over, and it is once again moving along nicely.  I can't wait until I get back to where I was last night!

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Tina

Ode to Strickler

  I'm not going to get into my day....too much of the "real life" stuff there.  I want to salute this wonderful book!!!
  Personally, I can spend hours studying the pages of this book.  I learned about profile drafts from this book!  It's my go-to when I want to find something out of the ordinary!
  Tuesday night after I got home from the Center, I pulled out my Strickler so I could do my drawdown for the throws I'm going to put on Big Bertha.  I'm using #652 on page 198.  Dogwood patterns are always popular in this neck of the woods.  It was magical.....as the drawdown started forming, I couldn't see any dogwoods....then, they started to appear!  I think it will be like that when I start weaving the throws, too.  Magic!!!!
  Maybe one day....when it's not the end of a year or the beginning of a new year or there's no rush to finish something for one of the shows....I might just put on a warp just to play with some of the wonderful patterns in this book!  Wouldn't that be fun?
  And, if you are on Facebook, there is a group called "Strickler In Color."  I think those folks like to see the patterns appear, too!  It's magic!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Starting The New Year Right!

  What could be a better way to start the new year than adding a new weaver to our merry little group?????
  Say "Hello" to Michelle!  She came on the most perfect day to start weaving!









  It's our holiday Potluck Lunch Day!




There certainly was plenty for everyone!

And, there was plenty leftover when we finished.

They even went upstairs to the shop and invited folks downstairs to eat!!!!

  Just so you know, there was also a lot of weaving going on today, too!  You can even see the "Ladies" on the back row at their looms!!!!  The cabinets in the middle are for the kitchen re-model that will happen this month at the Center.  Right now we are just working around them!

   Ms. Ila finished her shawl warp.  She thinks this piece is large enough for two shawls!!!

   Tina finished winding on the warp on the little Macomber.  There was just one more tangle for her to fix before she finished, though.  Threading for those towels will start next week.

  Marie finished threading the big Macomber, and almost finished sleying the reed.  Darlene and Barb pulled the thrums off of Big Bertha....we'll be putting a new warp on the ole girl next week!
  Tomorrow, a bunch of the Tuesday Weavers are driving north to The Woolery for a little fiber fun!   Someone must have some Christmas money burning a hole in their pocket!!!!  Have fun!!!!

This was the best way to start our new weaving year!!!
LouAnn

Right on Time!

It's winter here in East Tennessee but no snow yet. There's talk of snow in the next week but we're not holding   our breath! If this winter is like last year, it'll be February when we get a bunch. I certainly have enough projects if we get snowed in.

Something I really like about living here, especially after growing up in the Canadian prairies, is that things start blooming here early. Our quince bush is blooming, pretty much like most years. We had cut it way back a couple of years ago so it's just now growing enough to bloom. It makes the dreary, cloudy days look so much better.

Another very early, long blooming plant is the Lenten rose. In our front yard, this one is full of buds. I'm sure that in the back where they get more sun, they'd be in full bloom.

We did find a couple of blooms near the front door. Our yard is pretty natural with lots of plants that are perennial and like their spots. Someone, 60 years ago, planted some ivy in the neighborhood. Now it's everywhere. Not as bad as kudzu, it's still invasive. 

No snowdrops yet in our yard but in a week or so, we should start seeing them bloom.

I have cut off 12 placements now, mostly for gifts. Still plenty of warp left. I'll be set once they're done. It may be awhile before I get back to weaving them.

My newest project just got wound on yesterday. That white warp is woven and off the loom, ready to finish. This warp is incredibly short, just two vests. When I wind skeins for weft, I just guesstimate how much I'll need. I wind til I can just grab the thickness between my thumb and middle finger. I really need a yard counter! Usually, I'll get 2 vests out of one skein with some left over. I took a bunch of the odds and ends, divided them into piles and wound a warp out of one pile. 6 strands at a time made the warp a good mixture of color. I'll thread and hopefully weave it off today.

I hear curtains calling me. It's time to weave them the next couple of weeks. I'll probably put on 2 or 3 warps to get them done. I could have done them sectional but I hate doing that. I'm big on doing what works for me so I'll just do a bit extra work and be sure it's right.

No New Years resolutions here. Just keep doing what I'm doing. It's worked so far.

Until next week, keep weaving!

Carol

End of a Long Project

Some of you may have heard of slow cloth.  I don't think the term is really used in reference to what I do, though I am usually painfully slow.  This time the project is a spinning and knitted poncho.  The spinning took over One Year, though it was mainly because I was using a new to me spinning technique  that seemed oh so slow, and I would put it down for weeks at a time.  That would of course make it take even longer, but I really liked the yarn that I got.

Merino Silk handspun

 This yarn is a 2ply lace weight of Merino wool and silk.  It was a bear to spin, but I love it!  The colors go beautifully with anything I want to wear, especially Denim.

I know this is a terribly blurry picture, but it was the best non goofy picture we came up with.  This shows the basic shape when I am not trying to show how stretchy the poncho is.

Just a little bit more lace to do!

Goofy stretchy picture!

Lace Border Detail

Not much left to do on this long term project, maybe 10 repeats of the lace pattern.  Then I need to decide if I want to add lace to the cowl neck collar, I may wear it a bit before I decide.  I had hoped to finish this project before the year ended, but I guess it will be one  of my "Clean Slate Challenge" projects, a Knit along put on by one of my knitting blogs, "Just One More Row". In this knit along, you work on Works in Progress.

I haven't done much weaving at all since the push for the Fall shows.  Family matters have been taking precedence, but I can slip a knitting project in to my bag and be ready for the day.

Happy New Year everybody, do something you really want to do today!

Tina

I almost forgot to say that this is a pattern that I found on Ravelry called the "Sheer Poncho".