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

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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!

Reality hits again

So, the last post, I see, says I have become an every-couple-months poster. Ha! As if. A whole year (nearly) has gone by since that optimistic post. A couple friends have started blogs, and the regularity of their posts both gives me reason to think I can do the same, and makes me feel pretty darned inept at my inability so far.

So, Ann, and Michelle, thank you for prodding me out of my blogging slump. Also, I now have an Ipad2, so if I can figure out how to post the text from my computer with a keyboard and then upload photos from my Ipad, I'll be in business. The jury is still out, though. (Final verdict - not without a special app - so, back to the camera.)

I've made several blankets since posting last, and painted a tencel warp and made it into scarves, made several odds and ends weavings - tea towels, runners, a couple rugs, and now have another blanket on the loom. This one is in a 3/1 twill, 20/2 cotton used doubled as one through the heddles and reed, 30 epi, 48+ inches in the reed.

The blanket will be made in three pieces, as are my other blankets, and then set together, but I wanted the center piece for this one wider than the two side pieces. I'm not sure the extra work of winding and weaving two separate warps will be worth it. Go here to see a photo of the blanket I just made (thanks, Ann). It's pretty hard to tell where it's set together - it really has to be felt for, so why did I go through threading 1450+ ends for this blanket's center piece?

As with every warp, though, I learn so much. The 20/2 cotton is very unforgiving for bad shuttle throws that catch on the threads a bit. Usually one strand of the 20/2 will snap. Not too hard to repair, thankfully. I'm using my 13" LeClerc closed bottom shuttle and the extra weight helps the shuttle through the shed. However, I found I have to unwind enough warp at the END of each throw to make it back through the next throw. Add to that the 48" width, and I'm sure I make an interesting study while weaving. I throw the shuttle, catch it and continue up and out with it until it spools enough off, then repeat. It's a good thing I'm tall and have long arms. As it is, I look rather like I'm conducting some kind of odd orchestra.

I use this technique a lot with cloth weaving. It gives me prettier selvedges. The piece is not usually this wide, though.

I'm not sure what size this blanket will end up. After I get this center section done, I'll wet finish it to find shrinkage, and then warp for the sides.

Update again

I guess I'm just an every-couple-months poster right now and that's just the way it is. First a bit of catch-up. I did warp more chenille and made two scarves. I used up every single inch of one of my weft colors, and nearly all of the other. Even steven, all the way around. My brother LOVES his chenille stole and I have a couple scarves to sell, if I can bear to part with them - soft, luscious, wonderful pieces.

I warped 10 inches of 10/2 cotton to sample for another blanket. That's off, washed, and shrinkage calibrated and I have wound 807 ends of 10/2 cotton in natural for my next blanket. It will be in Queen Anne's Lace, a sweet, small overshot pattern from Bertha Gray Hayes' book. I haven't decided what color cotton I will cross it with yet.

I haven't been idle the last few months, though. My son and his family were here for a couple weeks, then I went there for a week. I loved every minute of their visit here and my visit there. Grandchildren are SO special.

I was preparing to venture into my first weaving teaching gig, and had a friend's LeClerc Dorothy table loom at the house while my daughter-in-law was here. She's always had an interest in weaving, with not much opportunity due to two small boys, but here was Nai-Nai to help out with children and a loom calling to her. So, she made a rag piece 14" wide and last I saw, had sewn it into a nice tote bag. She did it all from winding the warp to sewing the bag.

I taught weaving at Shannondale Craft Camp http://shannondalecraftcamp.com/ last weekend and had a lovely time. My students were all at different levels with different projects/goals, and it was fun helping them toward those goals. I hope they had as much fun as I did!

I have been mulching hostas the last couple days, which always puts me in an artsy mood. I'm not a "green" person as far as personal color, but when I work with my hostas in the spring, I start thinking about greens for future projects. Fun, fun!

This blanket will probably take me a month or so, what with gardening, yard work, and two weeks in Berlin coming up, but I'm learning to be okay with this new, no-show-to-weave-like-a-madwoman-for pace. Sometime this summer I want to dye a Tencel warp for scarves or shawls, and colorways are running around my mind a lot for that. Always something to think about when you're a weaver!