Turning backward, going forward

December 30, 2012. Wow. Winter solstice has passed, and the daylight is starting to lengthen, slowly but surely. Right before and after the Solstice, the daylight stays the same for several days. I like to see this as a gathering-of- perspective time. Look back, look forward. Hold perfectly still and observe. Remember. Plan. Enjoy.

I had a very nice time in California with all my children and grandchildren. We don't all converge on one spot on the globe that often. The weather was warmer than Missouri! I'm having a hard time adjusting back to cold and damp. I slept in my own bed last night. My feet were warm during and immediately after my hot, hot bath last night, and that's about it. I'm feeling pretty worn down today, a bit of a headache. I'm cooking a pot of ham and beans, I made some boiled ginger tea, taking Chinese medicine, and will try to get more sleep tonight. I'm headed to town in a bit to buy an electric blanket. I'm going to let go of the pennies for it this time. I just don't sleep well with cold feet.

Grandkids at Christmas! Need I say more? Here's a couple pics of them:









The rocker board is pretty cool. It holds up to 220 pounds, so all the grownups had fun, too.

On the weaving scene, I had full intentions of coming back, beaming and threading the blue cotton painted warp and whupping out another blanket. However, plans have changed. My son and his family are using some of my oldest pieces of handwoven cloth as napkins, and there are only a couple of them. And they are rags by now! Rags, I tell you. They're probably 18 years old, and although it's a testament to the sturdiness of handwoven cloth that they are still in use, I can't let this need go unmet.

So, I'm winding warp today. Hopefully I will get it beamed and ready to go tomorrow. These colors are chosen for their ability to hide stains. The yellow stripe will be crossed with one of the other colors, so shouldn't be a problem.





These will be plain weave. The yarns are a mixture of 20/2 used double, 10/2 and 8/2. All will be sett at 24 epi, so there should be a slight bit of texture difference. There are 4 colors in this warp. I have planned 13 stripes, starting from the middle and working out to the sides, which means each side will be brown. I am also winding two threads of each of the other colors at the beginning and end of the warp. These will be brought forward from the back to use as edges when I am crossing with a color other than the brown. This keeps the edges looking neat.

The blue painted warp is wound into bouts. I think I'll get to it sometime in 2013. Happy New Year!

Painted warp scarves

I have been really busy the last couple weeks weaving off these scarves. And I got them all done! Six warps which yielded two scarves a warp. I tied on after the first one.

Warp: 8/2 Tencel
Weft: 10/2 Tencel except for #5, which is 24/2 wool and #12 which is 8/2 Tencel.

They are arranged in warp pairs: #1 and #2 same warp, etc.


#1



#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7


#8




#9


#10



#11






#12




I'm very happy with them! I think one's my favorite, then I see another and another and another. They make me want to paint more warps and I'll do that next spring. I used the 24/2 wool because I didn't have another good color in Tencel to go with that warp. I washed the wool weft one in the sink instead of in the washing machine on delicate like I did the rest of them. Then I threw them all in the dryer (wool one, too) until they were very damp. I ironed them on low, hung them on my drying rack outside for the afternoon, and when they were dry, I ironed them on the Cotton setting, which is pretty hot. That final pressing is when the hand changed drastically from not really drapey to melt-in-your-hand drapey. It's one of the few times I like ironing!

The wool weft did not shrink, and although it is not as iridescent as the others, it's quite light and airy.

For now, I'm winding solid blue warp to go with the 10/2 mercerized cotton painted in blues. I'll put this little solid warp stripe in since I don't have enough ends of the painted to make the blanket. I hope to get it all ready to start putting on the loom when I get back the end of the month. It helps to have something to start right in on.


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Just in the "Nick" of time

I cut these off the loom, put them through the washer and dryer on hot, because I want people to know they can USE these tea towels and they won't look different, or shrink or whatever. Anyhow, I did all this a week ago. Then I warped one of my painted scarf warps (photos of those later on), wove one of the warps off and half of the next, and still the tea towels sat on the couch, unfinished.

When I'm on a time schedule, as I am now, it's really difficult to make myself sit down for several hours and hem tea towels. I absolutely believe they need to be hand-hemmed. I don't feel right about them if they're not. But it takes time. Probably half an hour per tea towel for the actually hand work.

As it happened, I spent this weekend with my sister, who is undergoing chemo, and took her to her treatments, cooked, talked, kept up with meds, etc. I am SO happy to be able to do this. AND, there was lots of time for handwork. So, I got the tea towels hemmed, got I-chord made for my felted bag, which will go in the washer Monday, and I'm knitting on a pair of Christmas slippers. Whoo-hoo! Good weekend for getting handwork done!

Here are the tea towels. The pattern is Waldenweave by Bertha Gray Hayes. Warp is 10/2 unmercerized natural.




There are a couple blues (one crossed with an 8/2 and one with a double strand of 20/2), a set of green (8/2 cross), a set of moroon-ish red (8/2 cross), a single blues-ish one crossed with one thread of variegated 20/2 and a coordinating solid 20/2, and a set crossed with a cotton/linen slub. The tabby on most was 20/2 in cream, but on the green ones, I used a light brown tabby, and the maroon ones have a very light yellows and natural variegated tabby.

I hemmed them, then ran them through another wash (cold) and damp dried them (just to get them thoroughly damp), then hard pressed with an iron, laying them flat to finish drying, and they're done. Done!

I also twisted fringe on the two scarves, wet finished and ironed them, and they're rolled up in the suitcase.

It was a good weekend. I would never have been able to make myself sit through that much handwork in a row at home.

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Back at it

The first thing I did in the loom room upon my return was finish the tea towel warp. Those are now wet finished and on the couch, waiting for me to hand hem. They're really pretty and have a nice weight to them. I much prefer 10//2 cotton to 8/2 cotton for tea towels. Personal preference.

Today I put on the first of the painted scarf warps and wove one scarf.





Photo is a bit funky. This first scarf came out really pretty. I have another one on this warp, and hope to get that done tomorrow. I really like Ms & Os for painted warp. There's enough plain weave areas to give it good strength, enough grouped threads areas to make it drape, and the painted areas show well.

Here's a photo of the warp on the loom, taken from the back of the loom:





I'm still not completely rested from my trip. Each night I go to bed thinking THIS is the night I completely catch up!

I have several commitments in the next couple weeks, but am hoping to grab enough time to get several of these scarf warps woven. The warp is tencel, so the ends will have to be twisted or braided. That's when a narrow warp is a good thing! I'll use tencel for weft as much as I can. If I just can't live with my color options, I have lots of colors in 10/2 cotton.

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Too much room?

This is what happens when you bring stuff from the States to your daughter and you end up looking at a lot of space in your suitcase for the trip back. This striped sock yarn is SO CHEAP here. It's 5 E for a 100 g ball. Way too cheap to let that pass.

To date, I've bought 10 balls. Seven of them are for friends, but I've only been to 2 of the 14 (I think) Woolworth's in Berlin.




A couple days ago, at the first Woolworth's, I also found 90% wool 10% alpaca bulky on sale for 1 E per 100 g. I bought all they had (only 6 ;-( ) and made my daughter a pair of felted slippers.



This is a free pattern from Ravelry (Drops Slippers). They're a quick knit but I did have to sew a couple darts in the back part to decrease the foot opening. It works, but I'm making another pair and am going to try just running a basting stitch (using the yarn) around the back and drawing it up before felting. We'll see how that goes.

Anyhow, the front fits her foot perfectly and they really have a medieval court look about them.

It's been very gray here, which is about what I expect from November. They are a little further north than I am in Missouri, which means fewer daylight hours. That, with the gray skies, leads to lots of hot drinks and knitting. Good thing the yarn's so cheap.


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Painted Warps II

I painted the two 12-yard mercerized cotton warps today. 700 something ends in each. I had previously underdyed them -one a light blue and one a light purple. I figured I may as well go ahead and get them dyed. They are wrapped up in their plastic now, sitting in a dog-free area of the yard where the sun can hit them. I'll wait a few days to wash them out, mainly because my knuckles are still swollen from yesterday's washing out of the Tencel. As much as I love working with painted warps, I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to rationalize the physical effects. So, nice to have a few to go into this winter with!

I also got my new overshot tea towel warp beamed this weekend and wove a little on it this evening.






I'm in love again. This is Waldenweave from Bertha Gray Hayes. I was looking for a pattern that has a little larger repeat size. The last couple coverlets I've made have been with a pretty small repeat pattern (that's why they call them miniature patterns, right?) There are a couple in Ms. Hayes pattern book that are a little larger and this is one of them.

Getting to know a new overshot pattern is a little like starting a relationship. Am I going to like you? Are you going to be problematic? Exactly how does your treadling work line by line? Then, after a few repeats, and I can't see any threading errors, we get down to establishing our working relationship. How can I manipulate the treadling pattern so I can see quickly if I have an error? Do I really like you well enough to weave 12 yards of you?

As I said, I'm in love, so the answers are yes, yes, yes!

warp: 10/2 cotton at 24 epi
pattern weft: 10/2 cotton
tabby weft: 20/2 cotton

I have lots of colors of 10/2 and 20/2. Fun!

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Painted Warps

I spent a windy Thursday with my friend, Vicki, and I cannot say how thankful I am she has a large, well lit garage space. After my Press n' Seal blew off the table and unrolled about a third of it over the yard, and we were just doing prep work, we moved it inside the garage.

We each dyed six warps. It took ALL afternoon. I was exhausted when I got home. Friday was blustery, cold, spitting rain, an all around ugly day, and the warps needed to set for 24 hours anyhow, (I know you don't have to technically let them set, but I like to - I think it deepens the colors). So I washed warps this morning.

I haven't painted warps in a couple years. I used to do quite a bit of it, but times and life change. It's quite a process, not something you can do on a whim when you have a couple hours. First, I wind the warps (these are 8/2 Tencel), then wash and dry them, paint them on dye day, then wash the excess dyes out, dry them again (line drying, of course) and some day this winter, when it's cold and miserable out, I'll be weaving gorgeous scarves and stoles.

So, here's some close-ups of the individual warps. This is the first time I've had black to play with, thanks to my son-in-law, Brian, letting me use his left over dyes from tie-dyeing. It's amazing what a little black does to different colors. I had no idea it's the secret ingredient to a lot of color variation.





These are blues and purples, and a pretty heavy color saturation of both.





Grays and a rose.





Mauve, purple, blue, all of it slightly grayed.





Grays, blues, a very light dusty rose.





This one's a real mix, yellow to green, so you have all shades of yellow in there, plus some reddish, some blue, some purply red. I think this is going to be pretty.





Blues and greens.

They're drying now. Yes, my fingers are sore from washing out. Yes, I will probably do this again. No, I did not get my two 12-yard cotton warps dyed Thursday. What was I thinking? But, tomorrow's another day. I'd like to get these done before winter, and when I come back in November, it may well be winter.



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And the seasons,

they go round and round (Joni Mitchell). After a summer from the Mojave, we got rain in August, and fairly steadily since then, but not, everyone thought, enough to make a difference in fall color. I mean EVERYONE thought we were done, burnt toast, no way. But the amazing fact is, it's been the prettiest fall we've had in years.





Taken at a Conservation Area near my house - my favorite walking site when the ticks, chiggers and snakes head for their dens, die out, or whatever.

There are some color combos to think about in the woods right now. Orange is not one of my favorite colors to wear, but..... It works for some people, and it sure works in nature.

As it happens, I'll be dyeing some Tencel warps tomorrow with a weaving buddy. We'll see what colors I end up with. I like to go into a dye day with some basic ideas, but sometimes they just don't work out. That first swab, on the very end of the warp that won't be used anyhow, sometimes screams ugly things at me. After not listening to it and ending up with a couple warps that I hated from the get go, and weaving cloth that I hated from the get go, I decided life is too short.

I have my car packed - everything from a table to my color wheel, the six Tencel warps are soaking in the soda ash solution, along with a special tye dye project, and I have two 12 yard, 700+ends warps in bags to go into the soda ash as there's room, in case I get completely froggy about this tomorrow.

Dyeing warps is a bit like having a baby - you know, forgetting how much labor actually hurts? I always forget how much it hurts my hands to rinse out the warps, so this time, I over-dyed some shawls in a dyepot a couple days ago, as a reminder, and even after the aches of rinsing those out, I still have the extra warps packed. Glutton for punishment.

I am in a bit of a time crunch with this (and my other projects - more on that later) as I'm headed to Germany for two weeks starting Nov. 1, and I have multiple lists and piles of things to pack, finish, etc. all over the living room, BUT, I hope I can remember that all those warps don't have to be washed out in the SAME DAY. That's hard for me to do - not just work like a mad woman until it's done. We'll see.

So, other projects: I would dearly love to get a batch of soap made before I go, so it can be curing and ready by Christmas either as is, or remilled, again, depending on time. I have a pair of socks to finish for a friend. I want those done by Saturday and hope I get my way on this one.



I'm making myself sit and knit some each evening, which is fine, and would be no problem except last week I also started a knitted purse to be felted. I have the bottom done, ready to go up the sides, and I'm itching to be knitting on it. But the socks come first.

I have the overshot tea towel warp threaded and tied to the back beam, hopefully to be beamed and woven on at least a little before I go.

Several other small trips are in the plans before I go overseas, but that's just life, isn't it?

We had a lovely thunderstorm roll through this evening, and the temperature has dropped about 30 degrees. Beautiful clouds and sky colors. Should be a clear afternoon tomorrow for dyeing.

While walking yesterday, I also found this wildflower. I'm such a nut for purple.




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A look back

A look back at the week, that is. Despite not a lot to show for it, I was quite busy this week. I finished weaving the wool samples. They are cut off the loom and waiting for me to stack sweet potatoes in boxes so I can get to the sewing machine and secure the ends before wet finishing. On the list for this week.

I finished rendering lard for soap. Hopefully, I'll get a batch made in the next couple weeks. Rendering lard inside, in the oven, is not a thing like rendering it outside, in a kettle over a fire. It smells kind of good when done outside, but in the house, it starts feeling like you're breathing grease. I'm glad that job is done and marked off my list.

I nearly have my son-in-law's slippers ready for felting. That's going to be a bit of a crap shoot since his feet are in Germany and I'm here. I'll try to leave them a little large, and hopefully we can finish them once they are united with his feet. I would leave the whole process until then, but they have only a front loading machine - actually, I'm not sure they have any top loaders there - and it's not openable once started. So, most of the felting here, then hand felting in the sink to finish it.

He wears a 13, and the slippers, of course, in their unfelted state, are huge.





That's my felted slipper beside his (different pattern).

I went for my first fall walk in the woods today. It was wonderful, a bright, crisp morning (40 deg.), and my dog and I were the only ones on the trail.

We're supposed to have frost tonight, so I pulled my two houseplants inside this afternoon. Frost means the garden will need clearing, at least the tomatoes and eggplant. The lettuce, chard and kale should be blissful with the cooler weather.

And, I wound warps.





The shiny ones on the back of the couch are 8/2 tencel. There are six scarf/stole warps there. I'll wash them this week, and hopefully, be able to dye them the next week. My friend, Vicki, and I will be dyeing together.

The lower, ochre colored warp chains are 10/2 cotton natural for the next overshot tea towel warp. You can really see the difference in color, huh? I was hoping to get started on at least sleying it this weekend, but it was not to be. Friday was a long and late day at work for our Membership Picnic (moved indoors due to weather) and I was feeling tired, low energy, tired, a bit head-achey, and did I mention tired? on Saturday. Plus it was a cold, drizzly day, which didn't help me feel any better. I knit, wound warps, and read.



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Slipper-y preparations

I've worn felted slippers for several years. The pattern used is made with a double strand of worsted and the slipper turns out quite substantial. Good for general wear, but too thick to weave in.

Then, last winter, my sister gave me a pair of felted slippers made in the style of ballet shoes, and made with one strand of worsted. I was delighted to find I could weave in them. This is a VERY IMPORTANT finding. While weaving overshot, or some twill that involves dancing across the treadles carefully, I am fine weaving barefoot. But with plain weave, or a twill pattern that involves using treadles side by side, i.e., treadles 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, I bruise my feet pretty badly. The treadles are close and I can get a good speed up with these patterns, so as I release, say, treadle 1, I'm quickly pressing down on treadle 2. Treadle 1, on the way back up, whacks my foot where the big toe joins. I have had 2" of pretty bad bruising there.

It's not good to continually bruise a certain place, I don't think, so when I wore a hole through the ballet type slippers, I knit some more. I have 3 pair now, (good to slip into a suitcase for travels. I felted these this morning:





Cute, huh? Now I'm working on a pair of the sturdy, double strand type for my son-in-law, at his request.

I have a sample warp on the loom. A friend gifted me some 24/2 wool, which I could never afford to buy, so I stuck on a sample warp of white. It's 10" in the reed, 30 epi and I'm weaving 10" samples of plain weave, single strand weft straight twill, and double strand weft straight twill. My plan is to have 3 sets of these. One will remain as cut off the loom, one set will be hand washed, one set will be machine washed and fulled. Then I'll see what I know.

I still want to get an overshot tea towel warp (sample warp for my next coverlet) on and woven before I go to Germany in November. I'll try some of this 24/2 wool on that, too, just for grins.

I really like coverlets made of all cotton because of the easy care. Throw it in the machines. Even though traditional coverlets are crossed with fine wool, it's never appealed to me because of the care aspect. So, I'll sample it with the tea towel warp, wet finish in different ways, and see if I could live with a coverlet crossed in wool.

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Now for a little prep work

The coverlet is done. I'll try to get a pic of it on a bed up soon - too late today. The rugs are done. I dug my sweet potatoes today after returning from Weaving Guild (which was delightful, as always).




I use raised beds, and these were grown in an 8'x4' bed. I dug them with a hand trowel and my fingers. I LOVE raised bed gardening.

So, sweet potatoes are off the list of urgent things to do. I have several things to do to the house and yard before cold weather hits, but I also need to wind warps for dyeing. A friend and I are going to have a dye day, bring the warps we have wound (or measured, depending on your nomenclature), and I have zero, count 'em, zero warps ready. I want to have at least 4 or 5, but mostly they'll be narrow, so that's not such a big deal. I'll be using 8/2 Tencel. The Tencel gods have decided there will be no more 10/2 in natural available, so 8/2 it is. I'll just have to sett it close enough that my 10/2 Tencel colors will give me the desired effect.

So, about this winding/measuring deal. When I take yarn from the cone and wind it on the warping board in 100-end bouts, I call that "winding." When I put it on the loom, I call that "beaming." However, not all weavers use these words. Some call the process of putting the warp on the warp beam "winding," and the warping board process "measuring." It would be nice if we all referred to it as the same thing... probably not going to happen.....

I still have a lot I'd like to accomplish before I head off on my winter trips. I hope to get another overshot tea towel warp at least beamed, and possibly woven, and the next coverlet warp on. I'm on a coverlet/blanket rampage, and I can't stop!

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Friday odds and ends

I work a part time job - a/k/a/ my day job - at KMST Public Radio in Rolla. I usually work 8 a.m. - noon. Since last Saturday, though, we've been in Drive Mode. Twice a year we go to our membership and ask for money, and as annoying as it may be, we cannot survive without it. So, last Saturday from 4:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., Sunday noon - 5:00 p.m., and Mon. through Fri., from about 5:40 a.m. - 1, 2, 3 o'clock, depending on how much I felt up to, has been spent at the office. It's much easier to process pledges a day's worth at a time, but I must admit that I left today shortly after 1:00. I am, to quote an old neighbor, "wore to a frazzle." Very tired.
In the meantime, in my pastime of weaving, I've been weaving a rug for a young friend who's getting married.




This is Pendleton worm. I saved my neutrals/solids when I recently cleared my raw product of worms of all other colors. The background is light blue, the window squares dark blue. I warped enough for two rugs, and I'm glad I did. Though difficult to get a good read on until it's off the loom, it seems to be very............uhmmmm, blue. I don't think they have anything against blue, but still, it's really ..... blue.
I felt lucky to get this one completed working late afternoons and evenings this week. Today I sewed other colors together, and will weave another rug this weekend - hopefully less blue. I'm on a time constraint for this gift - no pressure!
I also hope to get the coverlet pieces machine stitched and hemmed this weekend. (I only work from 2:00 - 10:00 p.m. tomorrow, and have Sunday off.)
In other odd things this week, I learned by happenstance that my iPad2 does not actually send photos anywhere when you choose that option and put in an email address. Which means photos of my art entry, which I blithely sent from my iPad a couple weeks ago, never got there. Luckily, I had permission to be late with my entry, and sent photos off last night, using my dinosaur desktop. Note to self: when sending anything important, CC yourself so you know if it sent.
My refrigerator was bereft of food this evening, so I drove to the grocery and picked up supper:




Don't know if you can see, but that's freshly smoked pork steak, slaw and Shock Top. It's going to be great, and my dog is anxiously awaiting the leavings of the pork steak.
Hopefully,next week I'll have enough breathing room to start eating healthier than this week has been. Here's where I'll start: my garden:


But right now, it's take-out from the local grocery and no alarm tomorrow morning. Bon appetit!
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Beginning the finish

The coverlet pieces are off the loom, washed and dried. They've been sitting on my couch for most of this week, looking at me reproachfully as I hurried by them up the stairs to thread and beam the rug warp, as I finally finished the kitchen paint job, as I did a myriad of things that I'm sure were essential. But this evening I finally stood in front of the coverlet pieces and started our conversation.

I had already laid them out on the floor to see if they came close to matching, and they do, for the most part. I think there is actually a snowball's chance in hell of making this one work. I'm pretty determined to give it my best shot. This translates to sewing the pieces together by hand first, matching the pattern with each stitch, before I take it to the machine and make it permanent.

It's important the pieces stay as un-tensioned as possible, so I started out on my zafu and a pillow, so I can sit cross-legged for a period of time and still walk tomorrow, and the floor supports the bulk of the coverlet, so gravity doesn't pull on it. This was my workplace tonight.





Not saying I'm going to stay on the floor. I have it started now, and I know exactly where the needle has to go into the pattern (on both pieces) to make it match (I think). And I think I can keep the correct tension going even if I'm not sitting on the floor. Who knows, maybe I'll graduate to a chair! Whoo-ee! Party Down! (But the zafu is pretty comfortable, too.)

That's all tomorrow, though.

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A Little Overshot

Or, the title could be: A Lot of Overshot. I am weaving another coverlet. This time I put on an 11 yard sample warp and played with wefts and edges, rethreading, adding on more warp (which I weighted with jugs of water off the back beam), until I was satisfied with where the edge hit the repeat, and by that time, the 11 yard warp was done! And I had a few extra tea towels for family. These have too many mistakes to sell, so I sewed the hems on the machine, and will hand them out here and there.
Then I threaded a twelve yard warp (926 ends) and started on the coverlet. There are three panels, and the 12 yards should yield all 3 of those, plus the slightest bit of leeway.
I am trying to hit my goal of 6 repeats every day, and have, for the most part. I'm on the last panel, and hope to get the warp off the loom next week.




I am weaving it upsidedown, which I kind of like to do. Notice the adding machine tape? I use it to keep track of my beat. Each repeat is marked on the tape, and parts of the repeat are marked. This helps the three panels match (something I have not always had success with, so I'm hoping here). The tape is the full length of the panel. When I started with the first panel, the tape was blank. The first repeat I wove, trying to be very consistent with my beat, was then transferred to a small (5 inch) piece of tape. I used this only on the first panel, moving it up each time a repeat was finished. At the same time, each finished repeat was marked on the long tape.




The on-the-loom length of each panel is 118", so to keep the adding machine tape under control, I roll each end and secure with a paper clip. The clip on the leading edge is placed about 5" into "unwoven territory" and the weight of the clip holds it out of the way, but gives me enough slack to check my beat frequently.




In the meantime.............I have a wedding present to plan and make for the end of October. It will be a rug, but I want this one to be special, so those design ideas have been fluttering around in my head, and that warp will go on as soon as I get the coverlet off.
And, I have been asked again to contribute a piece of art to the Missouri Coalition for the Environment Art Show and Auction. They had a bad email address for me, so I only got this invitation last week. The show hangs Nov. 2 and they would like photos, etc. before then. SO, I'm working on that, too.
I have done this show a couple other times, and it's for a very good cause, and besides that, to be honest, I'm flattered they think my work is good enough. All I can say about the piece is it is nothing like my other pieces. I'll post a link when the online auction goes up.
Cabool Weaving Guild met last Monday. These are a VERY talented bunch of women and men. Hop on over to Ann's blog (she puts me to shame with her regular blogging) www.weavingforfun.blogspot.com to see some photos of the show and tell.
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Back at it

I'm back at the loom after 3 weeks in CA visiting kids and grandkids.  What a good time!  And, I managed to miss 3 weeks of ridiculously hot and dry weather here in Missouri.  Still have said weather going on, but just knowing I missed 3 weeks of it makes me happy-faced.

I did not finish the sample overshot warp before I left.  On purpose.  I left the weaving partway through the last sample (which will be serving as a tea towel), with my treadling notes, shuttles, etc. all exactly as if I were leaving for a bathroom break.  Even so, when I sat down at the loom again, it took me a repeat to feel like I was back on top of the pattern.

I finished out the warp, pulled those towels off, wet finished, and made some decisions on how where to stop the edges for best piecing.  I'll be putting three pieces together for this coverlet, and I want a small seam, but enough seam to match the pattern easily.   I think I have it, but we'll see.  That's why I wove a sample warp, and rethreaded the edges 3 times within that warp.

I'm onto threading the 921 threads for the coverlet.  I'm through the reed and about 1/4 through the threading.  I'm hoping to get it completely beamed by the end of the weekend.  It is still at least 100 degrees in the afternoons, and my loom room is upstairs.  I have a window AC unit I can put into that room, but it's still sitting on the floor.

I had Radiant Barrier put into my attic within the last couple years, and the difference in the heat in the house is amazing.  I use climate sense cooling, by which I mean I open the house at night to let the cool night air in, and close it up in the morning.  When I get home from work a little after noon, it's still cool in the house.  I like living in natural air, so it suits me fine.

Still need to wind some 8/2 tencel for painting this fall.  I need to make some project and warp decisions before I wind warp.  I figure it can wait until I get this coverlet beamed, though.

Sweet little overshot

This is my current warp.  It is masquerading as tea towels, but really it's a sample warp for my next coverlet.  My warping board is only 12 yards, I don't have a sectional beam, don't want to shell out for one, and don't even want to change warping boards.  I've used this one for so many years my muscle memory lets me wind quickly and accurately, with no (or seldom any) bumping of fingers and hands.  So, 12 yards is what I have to work with.   Out of a 12 yard warp, I can get three widths for a complete coverlet, but it does not leave any room to sample.  So, I throw on a tea towel warp for my sample.

This is out of "Weaving Designs: Miniature Overshot Patterns" by Bertha Gray Hayes.  This book is full of wonderful small overshot patterns and I've woven several.  This is one of my favorites already.  It's called "Flowers and Ferns" and it's a 52 shot repeat.  I'm using 10/2 cotton for warp, set at 24 epi, 10/2 cotton for pattern, and 20/2 for tabby.

I started out with the pattern threaded to the edges and a floating selvedge.  I wove the first towel off in that manner, then rethreaded 20 threads at each side into a twill for an edge, dropped the floating selvedge, and wove the second one off.  Today I washed them both in hot water, dried hot, and measured shrinkage.

Now I know several things:

I know the extension of the pattern at the edges for 8 threads is too little if I want to be able to make a small seam and match the pieces.  It will need to be twice that.   I know the width shrinkage is 18%, the length 20%.  I know that the size of the float with a twill edge and no floating selvedge washes up to be perfectly acceptable to me.  I know to wind a little extra (I'll have to figure out exactly how many) at each side.  After I make the first length (which will be the center piece) I'll rethread the seam allowance threads plus a few extra in to a twill on the right edge for the second length, the left for the third length.  Then I'll have a small border on the side edges of the coverlet.  We'll see how these plans play out.

So, this is a photo of the right side of the sample, after wet finishing in washer and dryer.  I've had this laid across an end table in my living room the last few days, and the more I look at it, the more I see larger and smaller versions of flowers.






Below is a photo of the wrong side of the fabric, same orientation as the top photo.  Pretty different.






So, now I will continue weaving off this warp, figure width and # of ends for the coverlet warp, and start winding that.  Overshot is fairly slow if you want it even and correct, which is what we all want, right?  After slamming the last plain weave, but prettily striped warp off in a little over a week, it's a change of pace.

In the brain room

Instead of spending time weaving last weekend, as was my intent Friday, the onus of my kitchen that drastically needed paint, etc. overcame me and I spent the weekend on that.  Just pain would have been a smallish thing, but the popcorn ceiling finish had to be removed, plus a wallpaper border, and the residue of glue under it.  I spent the whole day Saturday with prep, made 2 trips to Lowes.  It was a hellishly long day.  Sunday I painted.  It's all done now except the trim, and I'll wait a couple days to do the trim.  Right now I'm painting a microwave cabinet that suddenly looked really ghetto in that newly painted kitchen.

So, I didn't even touch the warp chains for my next project, which are lying over the back of the couch, and only stepped foot into the loom room to open windows for upstairs ventilation.  I did, however, spend time in the brain room.  I want to dye several warps this summer, and it always takes me a lot of thought time about what colors to use.  That means visualizing and then picking out dye colors.  I spend about as much time with this planning phase as I do with the painting phase.

So, I may get my new warp partially threaded this week.  I may not.  I'm in the brain room.

The object of the past week's obsession

Although I have been weaving at least one tea towel a day, for the most part, my free hours have been taken up with this jacket.





As noted earlier, this is for my youngest son.  He's a musician and has a Reggae band in Denver, CO, and requested a neon green jacket for a big gig this summer.  You can probably tell just from that statement, and the above photo, that he is not bound by common fashion requirements.  I hope he'll be happy with it.  It's the bulk of his birthday gift.  (I'm pretty sure he doesn't read this blog).   I plan to ship it off this week.

It was supposed to have buttons, but any button I held up really cheapened it (I mean, really, it did, although it's not quite a high-end couture fabric, etc), so I decided to do away with buttons.  I can't tell you how glad I am to be done with it.  I feel like I can get back to concentrating on weaving!

I have ordered some 8/2 tencel.  I tried to find 10/2, but it appears to have gone out of existence.  I did reach one person on the East Coast who has some that he called defective because of weak spots and, if he can ever find it in the warehouse, I'll have a few pounds coming to me.  It's cheap and I need to see for myself if it's unsuitable for warps.  I thought I probably should go ahead and get some 8/2, though, so I can forge ahead on dye plans.

I want to paint another shawl warp, and probably a scarf warp, too.  I'll just have to sett the 8/2 so it will take 10/2 weft, since I still have a lot of colors in 10/2 tencel.  My goal is to resist buying more colors and get some of my stash woven up.  It's a shame 10/2 has gone by the wayside.  It's such a nice size for wearables. 

I'm nearly done with the blue striped tea towel warp.  That should be finished up early this week, and I'm planning another tea towel warp, this time in a miniature overshot pattern.  It will be my extensive sample warp for another blanket, if I end up liking the pattern enough.

And one more word on sewing, although I'm very glad to be done with the jacket project, I did learn an important thing.  I haven't done much sewing the past 10 years because a) it's slow and a time-eater b) my neck hurts if I go at it like I used to (few breaks).  I found that keeping the sessions at the machine to an hour or slightly over, then doing something else kept my neck pain free.  Yes, it's even slower,  but I'm not on a time line like when I was production weaving, and I could see the progress, and the pain free thing is huge.  So, I found a pattern for a tiered skirt online.  I'll have to see where that goes.



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And now, for something completely different

(to quote Monty Python.)  Although I am still weaving at least one tea towel a day on the blue striped warp, I am also sewing a jacket for my son.  He's a musician and has a big gig coming up the end of July.  He wants to look uber cool on stage and asked me to make him a neon green jacket.  As you may imagine, pure neon green isn't just jumping off the shelves in fabric stores, but I did find a batik type piece of quilt fabric that is neon green with little tan squiggly looking things on it. 

So, that's what I've been doing this week - sewing the neon jacket.  I'm a little over half way finished.  It's a very loose fitting jacket, since this is the only jacket pattern I have left, so I interfaced the cotton with an iron-on interfacing, and am also lining it with a cotton drapery lining fabric, which I happened to have already.  I made the shoulder pads.

I'll be happy when it's done, and it's not taxing my patience as much as I thought it would.  I sew for a couple hours and put it down - go pull weeds or something, and weave when I can.

I'm glad I still had this one pattern.  I've found it's getting difficult to find a pattern for things like a men's jacket.  The patterns I find are quite simplified skirts, dresses, blouses.  I wish I had kept more of my patterns. 

My mom talked about when she was growing up and how patterns were so rare.  She said if anyone in the community somehow got a pattern, it would make the rounds and everyone made a copy.   I hope it won't get to that again, but I'm not sure.  It's a shame to lose the art of sewing your own clothes. 

I'm still looking at overshot patterns, and thinking, and thinking.

New blankets

The blanket above is a little overshot pattern from Bertha Gray Hayes.  It's Queen Anne's Lace, (I think).  Since it's such a small repeat I didn't keep careful track of the repeat sizes, thinking it would all match up, but nooooooooo.  It didn't match very well at all.  After a few days of stewing over it, I put it away for a few days, thinking I now had yardage for some future project.  I finally decided to get over myself, set it together and use it, unmatched though it is.  And I'm really glad I did.  It's a lovely piece and looks nice on the bed.  Next time I do a small overshot, I'll keep careful track of repeat sizes, though.  Lesson learned.



The photo above shows the 3/1 twill I just finished.  You can see the drastic difference between the two sides.  3/1 twill basically makes a cloth that is very weft faced on one side and warp faced on the other.  This was fun to do, but I'll think twice before threading 20/2 used doubled for warp for a 48 inch wide piece. 


This photo shows the 3/1 twill on the bed, warp faced side up. 

I have a couple towels finished on the blue striped warp (10/2 cotton) I just put on.  I like making something like tea towels after I finish a big project.  They fly off the loom, they're pretty, and they're functional.

I find myself thumbing through the overshot patterns, though.  I'm not sure how many blankets my family can use, but I sure like making them. 

Trying out an app

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Please forgive the crappy photo.  I've spent a good hour learning how to use this new BlogPress app, and I feel like any photo, at this point, is a success.

One of the problems I saw right away with my Ipad2 is the difficulty posting photos.  I got a free photo app for Facebook, but that one wouldn't let me post to my blog.  So, I finally coughed up five bucks for this app, and glory be, it appears to work.  So, future photos will be better, I promise.

The blanket is off the loom.  I wet finished it in the washer and dryer on hot (both of them) to get maximum shrinkage.  The edges, though, were a bit curled here and there, as they will do with a 3/1 twill.  However, also since it's a 3/1 twill, when I ironed an edge, it put a wave in it, because I was flattening down the pillow-y effect, but not over the entire piece, just the edge. 

I took it to the cleaner yesterday for pressing.  I know it may seem odd that I will wait two months to spend $5.00  on an app so I can use a nifty Ipad, which makes photos on my blog so easy,  but right away haul the blanket yardage to the cleaners.  I can't explain it other than to say the thought of hard pressing the entirety of those 3 blanket pieces didn't even rate an argument.  I'll pick those up tomorrow, and hopefully get them sewn together over the weekend sometime.

Here I am at summer's door, with plans to paint the kitchen, at least, this summer.  This is not a simple job.  It has that nasty popcorn finish on it, which has to be wet down with a garden sprayer and then scraped off, carefully.  Last summer's experience with the bathroom wasn't good. (A pox on the person who invented it).  I found a tool on Amazon that is SUPPOSED to make the job a lot easier.  It had only good reviews, so I ordered one.  That will be summer home improvement project one, and there are several on the list.

So, I opted for a tea towel warp for the next weaving project.   See photo above ;-)   I designed using wraps on a piece of mini-blind, and wound my colors accordingly.  I love to weave tea towels, people like to buy them, and they're a reasonable price.   These are plain weave - good to have on the loom when I may have only 30 minutes here and there to weave. 

A new development is I think I broke a tooth on a popcorn kernel last night and have a dental appt. tomorrow.  NOT in the plan.

May is good for planning

After a month of visiting with my kids, all got back to normal last week.  In between work and yardwork, I wound warp for the side portions of the blanket I'm working on.  I finished tying it on and got it beamed this weekend - and actually got about a foot woven this evening.  The 20/2 used double makes a really nice soft piece, which is what I want for this blanket, but tying on and beaming was a bit tedious.  Got it done, though, and that's what counts.

Now that there is just the weaving and finish work left to do, I'm starting to think about my next warp(s).  I never thought I'd say it, but I'm feeling like I have some warp painting ahead of me this summer.  I'd like to do a complete tencel shawl in painted warp, and maybe a couple scarf warps, too.  So, that means I need to order the Tencel, and start thinking hard about dye colors. 

Color work is difficult for me.  I have a hard time visualizing how colors will meld and work together.  So, I get out my dye color chart, and my color wheel, and we have sit-down discussions.   It will take several before I'm certain enough to order.

I also found a couple 10/2 cotton warps which I had base dyed in preparation for painting, so those can be worked into the dye schedule, too.

And, a new rug project is cycling through my brain.  I need to start gathering for that, too. 

Lots to think about!  Lots to look forward to.  And in the meantime, I have 9 yards of blanket side pieces to work off.

Earth Day 2012 - pre- and post-

I've been busier than the proverbial one-armed paper-hanger the last couple weeks.  My daughter, her husband and 3 friends arrived from Germany, my youngest son and his girlfriend arrived shortly after, and my oldest son, his wife and two boys arrived shortly after that.  We had a lovely big gathering last weekend - lots of food, lots of fun, and Sunday was Earth Day.  I thought it would be very nice to plant a tree with the grandkids for Earth Day, so my youngest son (who is a horticulturalist) and I made a trip into town and he picked out a Magnolia Jane - one of the "little girl" magnolias.  Deciduous, spring-blooming, fragrant, not a huge tree, just right.

We picked a spot, and started in.  First we dug day lillies from the chosen spot, then my son and the grandkids got to work with shovels.  Actually, my youngest grandson is a bit young (2) to be captivated by the process, and my oldest grandson, (5), was really in it for the worms, but they had a good time.  We got the tree planted, watered, mulched, done and done.

I sang a little Earth Day tree planting song while we worked, and the tree looks just lovely in its new home.

My company is now down to my oldest son and his family, and today I cut the blanket piece off the loom and wet finished it.  I'll sit down with my calculator tonight and figure shrinkage and width and ends needed for the final pieces.  I may try to get that warp wound at Shannnondale Craft Camp
this weekend.  My task between now and Thursday evening: get some sleep, pack the truck, check my lists many times, and go have FUN!