Last Minute

I've been weaving the last few weeks. It's the last push before my last show. I am ready for a break! I almost forgot to take a picture of the black, grey and cranberry warp. My apron's on there, too. I always wear an apron because it keeps my clothes from touching any warp or fabric. It looks more professional when I wear it. It's my ritual. Once apron is on, I'm ready to work!!

I like these warps where I feature a couple of colors. The pieces look nice on people, too. I'll try to take a picture of them in the booth this weekend.

The other warp was the black with white and turquoise. It's cheerful, airy looking. The 2 warps are so similar but the choice of cranberry instead of red made those pieces so much more subdued. 

I've got the fabrics washed, pieces cut,serged and assembled. Now I'm on the downhill side, finishing all the handwork. There's also inventorying to do and packing into my tubs so they're ready to pack Wednesday evening. 

I'm already thinking ahead to next year and the colors I hope to weave for more pieces.

There was a question in the comments section last week about my warps. To figure out how much you need to weave, find a top that's comfortable for you and measure it from side to side. You'll need to add a couple of inches for shrinkage and drawin as you weave. That's your width. The length is entirely up to you. Do you want the top to be just below your waist, hip length or somewhere inbetween. Measure the length you want but add some for shrinkage. If you're using cotton like I do, it's going to shrink when you wash it. Take your length measurement and double it for front and back. That's your total length requires for a top. If you're making 2 tops, you'll need that length twice. You also  need to add in loom waste to get your final warp length. You can make 2 identical tops or change the weft color to have different looks. Once it's woven you'll need to wash the fabric. I take the fabric off the loom and serge the raw edges. While weaving, I always weave a couple of rows of toilet paper or other yarn  between  the 2 lengths. Cut between the waste yarn rows and serge there so you have 2 pieces. Either hand or machine wash your fabrics, hang to dry before you figure out how you're going to make the hole for your head to go through.

I hope that helps. I'm going to turn on some mindless TV and crochet edgings for a couple of hours!

Until next week, keep weaving.

Carol

Playing with Color

The Foothills Guild Fall Show is coming up fast, with that in mind I set my goal some weeks ago to finish 3 more fleece rugs, 1 large one and 2 smaller (about 3/4 size) rugs.  I figured that I needed 1.5 lbs of fleece for the big rug and 18 ounces for each of the smaller rugs.  I decided last month that since the actual weaving is fairly quick, that I would do well to concentrate first on getting all of the fleece batts prepared, and then shift my concentration to weaving the rugs, one right after the other.

This afternoon, after yet another day spent at the Museum, doing some demo work for a school group,  I finally finished getting the last of the necessary 60 ounces cleaned and made into batts.  The thing I really like about Jacobs fleeces is the many natural colors that I have to work with even in a single fleece, from white to gray to black and then there is even a range of browns, and there is also the certainty  that no matter what combination I put together, it will look good!

I have 5 fleeces represented in this batch: #3, #13, Big Boy, Other Ram, and Olga 21.  I think Olga 21, the light gray in the upper right hand corner, likes to roll in the mud because the tips of her fleece were particularly caked with mud even after it had been thru the wash a couple of times.  There are 6 bags of fluff in the picture because one of the fleeces is so huge it wouldn't all fit into one bag.

Tomorrow, I will get to work first thing figuring out what colors I want to put in each rug.  First the large one and then the smaller ones.   For the large rug I will probably pick one of the big bags of fleece like "Other Ram" that has many colors, and add either more gray from Olga 21 or more black or brown from #13 or #3.   I would love to make one of the small rugs mostly black with some gray and the other one white and gray.  I will know more when I pour them out of the bags and start mixing batts and weighing.

I am planning on finishing the large rug this weekend and the smaller rugs by Tuesday evening.  If I can't quite manage that, I can always finish the small rugs on Friday and then take them over to the show that afternoon, since the show doesn't open until Friday morning anyway.

Tuesday next week, we will be gathering shop inventory from upstairs and personal inventory from the weavers as well.  We will load up the booth equipment and  inventory into several vehicles and be ready to meet on Thursday morning at the Jacobs Building when the doors are opened to the vendors for set up.  We are going to be using some of the wooden booth pieces that we took to the Museum show last month.  We felt that they were a little easier to set up and also we remembered how much we like the look of wood with the handwoven fabric.

That is all for now, Until next week, Happy Weaving, Tina

A Little At A Time

   I finished this little inkle band last week, and had every intention of getting my hot pads done lickety-split.  It was a plan....it just didn't happen as quickly as I hoped.













  Two of the three are complete...the third is waiting its turn.  I may have to weave some for next year's shows.  I'm thinking a snail trail pattern might be fun.

  I started this band last week at the Museum, and I'll work on it tomorrow when I return for another school group.  I want to use it for a blue jean purse that I'd like to make.
  But, it's full steam ahead getting the last minute items ready for the Foothills show.

  I'll just get a little bit done at a time.....

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Friends

  It's so nice to look up and see old friends walk into the studio!  Welcome back, Roz! 
  It seems that there has been a communications breakdown with some emails, but we're really glad to see her! 
  Roz and Margi came today to work on woven wall hangings for the Foothills show.  I could have sworn that I had a picture of Margi from this morning, but somehow it disappeared!  But, you get the idea about their project.

  Christy pitched in on another project that Carol wanted done.  That's even more bits and pieces to use for those creations!
  Polly got pulled for many jobs today:  changing out the fluorescent tubes over Carl and Tina's loom was first on the list!  Then, we cornered her about a project for our Foothills booth....and she said it is do-able!!!  Yeah!!!  Pictures next week????








   Here's a close up picture of  Pat's table runner warp.  Don't you just love all the different designs???  She's already talking about using the middle section in another project.  I love how our weaving can inspire new weaving projects!








   This is what true friends look like.

  They will sit with you and pull out old warp threads.  They will count groups of 20 and knot them off. 
  They are there for you!!!!

  That's it for today....we're getting ready for the big Foothills show next week, and there's always lots of plotting and planning to do before we go.  Next week we'll be pulling items from the shop to take along with the woven items from our Tuesday Weavers. We'll all be busy little weavers!!!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Stash Reduction

Those of us that weave talk about our yarn stashes. It's important to have choices. When I order yarn, I do so with projects in mind that I've planned. I try to just order what I need but you have to order a tad more just to be sure you don't run out of yarn. So over time, you get a stash of extras. I store my yarns in huge clear rubbermaids. I got shelving from Home Depot, I think. There are a couple of them in the back of the room and 3 tubs fit on each shelf. Since they're clear, it's easy to see where the yarns are. 

When I plan a project, I simply pull out an empty Office Depot cardboard box and fill it with the yarns for that warp. I love it when I have everything I need for a project.

That's what happened the other day when I looked at what I had. I didn't want to order any yarns and see what I could do. I had a cone of variegated accent yarn so pulled out colors to go with it. It was a short warp. Just 2 tops and 2 vests. I liked the combination of colors.

Then weft. I didn't have a stash of several pounds to work with this so looked at my partial cones. I had enough to weave a top and vest with a nice chocolate that's warmer than the picture shows.

Cranberry looked good and I had enough to weave a top with it.

A nice deep green worked great for a vest.

And that was the end of the warp. I used up some of the stash and ended up with 4 nice pieces to add to my stock for the show in just over a week. 

It all started with a cone of inspiration yarn. 

I've got a last warp on the loom right now that's just waiting to be woven off. Hopefully I'll be serging  the pieces later today. It's a rainy sleepy kind of day outside but inside it'll be filled with the noises of my shuttle and beater going....and some vintage NCIS shows playing in the background. 

All in a day's work!

Until next week, keep weaving!

Carol

Another Day at the Museum

LouAnn and I were demonstrating spinning and Inkle weaving again today at the Museum of Appalachia.   As discussed the last time I posted about it, I brought the clock reel/clock reel/creel/weasel, to be part of the Spinning demonstration.

I happened to have some yarn already spun and on a stick from the very first day I had the wee great wheel.  So I spent a few minutes before the Kindergarteners arrived loading that yarn onto the clock reel so that I could give the kids an idea how this set up would really work.







The kids were really well behaved today, and such a pleasure to see and to talk to, and it was obvious to me that the teachers had taken a little bit of time to prepare these kids for what they were going to be seeing at the Museum today.  That makes all the difference in the world!

Until next time, Happy Spinning and Weaving, Tina

Trick OR Treat!

  What a treat!  A new shawl warp going on Jocelyn's loom!  Marie was on hand to help her get it wound on the loom.  This is going to be a beauty.











  Carol was on call to help Liz wind on this towel warp.  These will be "pillow ticking" towels!!!









   Pat dressed this Pup at home, and brought it to the Center ready to go.  These placemats will be a big hit!













   No...this isn't a new warp.  Carl was starting a fresh shuttle of blue jean strips.





    Christy has been joining up panels of blue jeans so they'll be ready to strip when Carl needs them.  We like to keep him supplied.......no tricks here!!!!











  These ladies were busy at their looms.
Way to go, Sharon, Frieda and Anna!!!








  These ladies were .....uh-oh....not busy on their looms!!!!  Is this a trick?????
  (Seriously....they were REAL busy earlier.  The extra heddles had to be removed from Bonnie's loom, which was a tricky operation!!!!)

   Marie brought in some donated old copies of Handwoven for giveaway.  Irene and Ron got a chance to give them the once over.
  They are always a treat!

  What are they looking at?????  Do you see a ghost?  a clown?    Oh.....the camera!!!!

Here are your treats!!!!

Polly went to the orchard, and brought us some apples to sample.

Linda made "haystacks" for us to nibble on, while Sharon fixed us all a treat bag!

It's always a treat to be with the Tuesday Weavers!!!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn