I Will Not Surrender!

Whether it's the intricacies of a 720 thread warp, the 91 degrees outside or 91 degrees inside the bakery, I will not surrender!  My mother loves to tell the story of when I was four years old and I desperately wanted to be by my dad while he was target shooting.  I hated the noise, but wanted to sit next to Dad, so she says I squared my shoulders up, ducked my head a little and marched down to the firing line.  When I want something badly enough, I will not surrender!
  Which is why I finished the black-on-black scarf this morning before work, before you were even awake!  You can probably see it only slightly less well than I could while I worked on it.  I had to keep very close track of the pattern because mistakes were hard to see.  Though I think it's my favorite.  They're all going to the sale this fall, the first time I've ever woven something completely for sale, without keeping one for anyone.  That warp is done, and I am planning the next.  Of course, I need to twist fringe and wash the scarves, but I am ready for something besides Blooming Leaf or Lee's Surrender.

 And here is my choice.  The warp is one Lanny dyed for me last week, in tencel and much more variegated than he thought it would be, because he hadn't unchained the warp.  It's lovely, and I think one scarf in the silver tencel and one in the black bamboo will be nice, in a small lace pattern.  The third scarf is TBD as far as weft goes.  You never know!  I might just dye some more tencel, or something completely different.

Dear Lee's Surrender!  How I love it!  The red is done, and the eggplant is halfway up the blooming leaf.  Alas, I won't be in Norris this coming Tuesday, or the next, so I'll have to wait until the middle of August to get going on it again.   In the meantime, I will do some research to find out why it's called what it is.  Where to start?




One photo I took while LouAnn was getting lunch this past Tuesday was of Judy, right after she cut off her placemats.  Just look at the string of them!  You'd never know she's a new weaver!  Congratulations, Judy!
  It's heating up, finally, just as though it's really, truly summer, so stay inside and weave happily!

Maggie

Little Blessings

Baby Brother:  October 2010

  Maggie always calls this the "Birthday Jubilee" week.....you know.....you get to celebrate for more than just one day.  My Jubilee started this weekend when the family all came in for a visit.  I was delighted to see everyone, especially my Baby Brother, who lives in Texas.  My sister and I cooked a "family" meal on Friday with all of our favorite growing up foods.  And on Saturday, we had a big gathering.  (My BBQ chicken did NOT cook up like it was supposed to...but we had a big meal none the less.)  Even our cousin and his wife from Chattanooga came up for the day.  On Sunday, it was family and friends!!!!
  Needless to say, we did a lot of porch sitting, since the weather was much milder here than he has in Texas.  And, on Monday, we drove up to his favorite place in the world:  Norris Lake!  The Dam wasn't spilling, but it was glorious without being too hot.  We finished out the day by grilling hamburgers, which we both enjoy.
  I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family and friends...and we had such a fantastic time together.

  Right before the onslaught of family, I had dyed at Maggie's house.  Last week when I blogged, they were still wrapped up tightly in plastic wrap.  But, they are all dried now, and ready to weave.
  The bamboo that I dyed with the avocado did not come as as dark as I thought it would, so I may have to rethink the weft for that shawl....or dye some additional bamboo.  (Now that's a thought!!!!)
  The colors of that warp actually remind me of Norris Lake.
  The soy silk is on the left side of the picture.  I'm trying to come up with a Swedish lace pattern for that warp.

  And, the Tiger Lilies made their appearance this weekend, too. 

I think they just wanted to show off for all the guests.

They are one of my favorites, after all!

  And, I guess my kids really DO know me!  My son got me the Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook, which is just too much fun!  I can spend hours looking at all the different kinds of sheep from all over the world!  And, my daughter found me the Cat book, which is really funny since Tina spun Biscuit's fur into that incredible yarn!  I might have to do some more with all the fur around here!

  As I was house cleaning for the weekend, I got a good look at all the fiber, thread and fabric that I have stashed.  Even if I were to weave all the time from now to my last day, I could NOT use it all up!  I guess I am blessed to have good things to do, and wonderful folks to share it with.

  Lots of little blessings!
Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

A Hot Bed of Activity!

  The temps today were more July-like...it got up into the 90's today!  But, despite the heat, Bonnie agreed to model the newest warp dyed shawl.  It goes so well with her shirt!

  Margi took advantage of Ms. Ila's expertise to observe her dressing her loom with a new scarf warp.

  Linda got "inside" the Studio Loom and got that baby threaded.  After a quick search for the top of the beater bar, she also got the reed sleyed.
 

  Cindy found some thrums that could be put to use.


The rug warp on the rocker loom is getting re-wound!  Ann had a few problems with twisted threads, and made the decision to redress the loom.

Judy got the edges serged on her run of placemats, while Patty continued to weave on her sampler.
                                                                                  

Weaving continues on my turned twill towels, while Allan threads a warp for table runners.

    I don't think I'll ever understand the way pictures come into Blogger.......but, I think you can see the lovely contrast between the berry and the eggplant overshot pieces.  Maggie finished up one coverlet today, and got a good start on the next one.

Not pictured is the warp that Shirley is winding on the Pup, or Christy's lovely scarf warp.....I'll get pictures for next week.

In the meantime, stay COOL!!!!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

One More for the Books!

 

My husband is president of the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society. Each year we have a convention in Nashville. We just got home from there last night after another successful 4 day show!

We're not stressed or anything but the guys were doing some practicing and I guess some neck rubs were necessary as I was doing the work getting all the last minute registration paperwork done!

 Our show involves over 70 performers and groups. The music is on several stages and spills out into the hallways. I normally am at the reg desk the whole time talking to people but there was one show I didn't want to miss. It was the Hot Club  of Nashville which featured Richard Smith, Pat Bergeson and his wife Annie plus a couple of other guys. The music was awesome. Nice jazz tunes for about 45 minutes was a great break for me!

 Then back to the reg desk and my crew that helps me each year. Couldn't do it without them. They come from as far as Canada, Texas and Florida to help me man the desk for the 4 days. Notice the guy on the right hiding behind his wife? That's Harry. He may try to hide but he's a huge part of our convention. He's kind of my bouncer. He's normally sitting on the side behind the table and watching for nametags. We sometimes have people that try to slip in. That's a huge no no. We need their reg fees. So he guides people back to our desk to become legal!

 The grand finale is Saturday evening. That's the only time I actually sit down for a whole show. Mark started it off being accompanied by Jim and John Nichols who are good teachers and wonderful performers.

 Last year we started this and we're continuing this year...Scottie Moore gave us the guitar that he used while he toured with Elvis. He toured with this guitar all over the world. It's been lost, stolen, misplaced but always came back to him. He wanted it played, not in a museum. So we brought it along and asked an upcoming young guitar player to perform a tune at the beginning of the evening on that guitar. When Tanner came into the room before we began and saw that the room had been expanded to seat 1000, I think he took a huge gulp of air. It's his first year at CAAS and he didn't quite know how it all went yet. However, he did a good job playing and we hope that it will inspire him to continue and see what else he learns before next year!

 Alot of music comes from Muhlenberg Co in Kentucky. We usually have a huge contingent of players from there. A bunch of them came up to play a song in tribute to Merle Travis who passed away 30 years ago. There were a couple of pretty young guys in the group.

 Chet's sister Billie Rose was able to come up and participate in a trio with her granddaughter Meagan on the right and Morning Nichols on the left. The song they sang had been written by Billie Rose. It was awesome. Good harmony.

 Nokie Edwards played with the Ventures back in the day. He still tours. In fact, he was in Japan several months ago when he had a heart attack.......and then another one just before he was to fly back to the US. He's back performing with us after just coming back, again, from a trip to Japan. I know he's flying back over there in the next few months. Playing with him was Brooks Robertson who kind of grew up in CAAS and is  a nice guy that plays really well!

 In the audience was a white haired lady weaving a blue suit. That's Margaret Fields who was president of the original Chet Atkins fan club from the 1950s. Her daughter brought her as our guest to the convention. We gave her a plaque to commemorate her achievements as the original club President. It really was Margaret who began the whole organization. It folded in the 60s but when we talked of starting a new one, there were several original members that were available to advise us. Three of them were in the audience Saturday evening.

 Mark was accompanied by Tony McManus and his good friend Zach Bergen while they played Ashokin Farewell, a haunting tune that Billie Rose says Mark will play at her funeral. I hope it's not anytime soon!!

 Again, Meagan playing with Jason Coleman. Meagan is Chet's great niece. Jason is Floyd Cramer's grandson. Of course they played a couple of the old tunes just like they were supposed to be played!!

 Then the grand finale when all the performers come on stage and play. It was kind of wild and there are more guys up there that you can't see but a good time was had by all!!

So it's over for this year. It was our 29th annual. Plans begin now for next year.
I'm not getting a break either. Wednesday I have to be in Asheville setting up for a craft fair. So now I have to go through all the stuff we brought home, pack it up for next year and get that shopping list ready so I just pull the sheet out and go pick up what we need because it's so much easier if I do it now and not have to wonder next June. Then shift gears to pack the car Tuesday evening....
Until next week, taking a breath or two inbetween all this...
Carol

Selvedges!

Last Tuesday, there were not very many weavers at the center, which meant that there were fewer conversations going on in the room.  Which meant that it was pretty easy to follow everything that was said in almost every conversation!

The topic turned, as it often does, to selvedges.  How to get straight ones, how do you do yours, do you use a temple?  All the normal questions were batted around the room.  I had just run across a new to me, way to address them,  on Ravelry, (not just a knit/crochet community anymore!) and I hadn't had a chance really to try out this method, but I mentioned it.  Suddenly, everyone was all ears!  What was this method and how does it work?  Since I had not tried it and really wasn't sure, I told them that I would give a complete report next week.

I was able to track down that thread on Ravelry, on the Warped Weavers forum quite easily.  Turns out it is from the Dixon pattern directory, which I do not at present own.  Luckily someone had taken the time to actually draw out what Dixon's instructions were suggesting, which really helped me a lot to visualize it.

So, here is my best shot at explaining it.  This selvedge reinforcing method involves the 3 outer most dents of your project, and the last 12 threads from each side.   I am going to use in this example as a base, my 12/3 cotton towel warp, at 20 epi, in a 10 dent reed, 2 per dent.  Also, I am assuming that the ends are threaded in the 1234 twill.  (Pictured above, before the revision.)

 Each of the three outer dents is going to end up with 4 ends in it.   The outer most dent will have 4 ends threaded normally 1234.  The next dent in is going to have 4 ends as well, but these will be threaded 2 to a heddle,  2 ends in heddle 3, and 2 ends in heddle 4.

8 ends thru 4 heddles

The next dent in will have 4 ends as well, 2 to a heddle once again, but this time 2 ends for heddle 1 and 2 ends for heddle 2.  I have kept the same threading order as normal, nothing changes there, you just double up those 8 threads in the harnesses and the reed, and you double the outer most 4 threads only in the reed.   Repeat on the opposite side, following the normal  threading order, doubling up the outer most 4 in the reed, and doubling the next 8 ends in the heddles and in the reed.  In the picture below the three outermost dents, each have 4 threads in them. 

 I tied on as usual, and started weaving.  I have to say that I like how the selvedges are looking, straight and almost crisp.  These pictures are of 2 different towels, the before towel has already been washed, and the after towel is what is on the loom right now.

Before 

After 

In the whole process I lost 6 dents, 3 dents on each side, just over 1/2 inch.  You can also see that the margin is narrower.  If I had been planning a new project, I could of course add some extra ends to compensate, but on this project, I was using an existing project, so I did not have the chance to do that.  I could also adjust a few threads of my pattern threading to plain weave to widen the margin.

Either way would work, I think I will try this threading on my 8/2 cotton bread cloths as well.  I don't know about the  baby blankets that I do in 8/4 cotton warp, I don't want to loose any width at all there!  The rugs and placemats will probably not be seeing this treatment either, just the fine threads.

I hope that I have not made it any more confusing that it needs to be, let me know!

Until next time, Happy Weaving and Spinning, Tina

Anticipation

  I was waiting at the service center to find out what in the world is wrong with my car when I got a text from Maggie:  "It's like Christmas!"
  I knew she was talking about her yarn that was dyed yesterday....but I forgot that she had not seen two of the pieces since Lanny had done the dyeing for her.  (She just blogged about this over at Sweet Threads.) 
  This is the bambu shawl warp that I will be rinsing out very shortly.  I also dyed warp and weft for a soysilk scarf.  This will be the first time I have woven with this.

  I was at the Museum of Appalachia last Thursday for the 4th of July celebration, and I noticed just a hint of mildew coming from the cloth beam.  The Loom House is an open air log building, and we have had a ton of rain this year.  In fact, we have already reached our rain total for July--and that was on the 10th!!!!
  Tina and I ran over to the Loom House on Tuesday while we were there picking up lunch, and cut off the three rugs that were finished.  I threw them in the washer with just a wee bit of bleach.  They aren't the most beautiful rugs....but they'll be great for the kitchen!  Folks just want to watch you weave!

  There were lots of folks who came to the Museum for the celebration:  Abe and Mary Lincoln even came!  The rain held off for the most part, and the anvil shoot was the most popular event of the day.  At 2 o'clock, everyone gathered for the Ringing of The Bell.  In fact, it was rung 13 times!!!!

  I was able to get a short clip of the anvil shoot...what a fun event!

 I'm going to go rinse out my warps......maybe it will be like Christmas here, too!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

We Could've Just Dyed!

 A couple of weeks ago, Lanny asked me to help him dye some Jagger-Spun Zephyr in a Tennessee Orange.  He wants to make some scarves for friends, and they want them in their favorite team's colors.  I bought some Zephyr, too, and wanted to dye it for knitting shawls and scarves, so we picked a day.  I invited LouAnn and Ann, who both had things to dye.
  We started with Lanny's orange, which looked a little to red to start with, but ended up that lovely shade of Rocky Top orange.  Makes you want to yell "Go Vols," doesn't it?
 







LouAnn and Ann started experimenting with the Procion dyes LouAnn had gotten from her son's fiance, as well as some I'd bought about a year ago but not used.  LouAnn had some soysilk, and Ann had some bamboo shawls, already woven.  They each had a color scheme in mind, but I think the dye availability might have steered them in slightly different directions.

 After Lanny finished his warp, I asked him to dye some of mine, since I had five wool skeins to dye in the dye pots.  He chose some colors and went outside with the ladies to paint the warps.  I like the looks of this one, with the slight variations in greens.






It looks like LouAnn had a similar color scheme going, with the greens and grays and teals.  It was a lovely morning, sunny with a gentle breeze, but it warmed up as we finished.
  Ann chose Bronze to dye her second shawl (I missed the first one.), and she varied the tones throughout.  It was beautiful when she was done.

We came in for lunch, a potluck salad affair, and Bella was curious about the spread.  We lingered in the air conditioning and had a lovely time.

 But then came time to clean up.  Oh, my goodness!  Artists can be messy!  Actually, Lanny and Ann had to go, but LouAnn and I dyed a little more.  Just as LouAnn finished her last warp, a whopper storm blew in, with lightning, thunder and a stiff wind.  We retreated to the front porch to watch it, though I admit to jumping several times from the crashing thunder.
  Then LouAnn headed back home, and I finished my last warps while it sprinkled.  I should have gotten pictures because, see all those random colors on the kitchen counter? I mixed a lot of them up for my last two warps, and they are quite interesting!  I had to mix up a little more dyes, but I used up all that was left from everyone else's mixing.  It was fun.  I'll post the results later, when I've rinsed everything out.  Right now, my mind is mulling over what they'll all become.

 I also dyed some skeins of Zephyr and some angora.  Missing in the photo are the pecan skein and the tangerine one.  They are lovely, but notice the two turquoise skeins?  Same dye bath together, but one is angora and one is Zephyr.  It's interesting to me how different they came out.  The other is deep magenta, even though it looks very red.  That will be one sexy shawl, won't it?

 Yarn was not all that was dyed today. I'm not surprised about my hands because the gloves were just too hot, sweaty and cumbersome, but I've never dyed my toes before.
  I have salad left over and a lovely rose chilling, so I will wish you a wonderful week, and happy weaving!
Maggie