And Just Like That - Three Months!

I set my next warp on top of my loom with two prospective Tencel yarns for weft  and then left them for a couple of days until I could decide which would best show off my handspun yarn.

I was leaning toward the neutral thinking it might go better with more garments, but in the end my favorite, the rust won out.  I plied it with 60/2 silk so it's uber drapey.  I keep saying everything is for sale but I might have to keep this one for myself.

So I've finished two of the four scarves intended for Fiber Market Day in March, and I've ordered a pound of Panda to dye in a variety of colors so I can blend more batts.  I need to get some jars so I can make so dye stock from the dyes Laura loaned me six weeks ago.  It's weird not to have dye in solution after more than ten years of always having some at the ready.   And it's weird to have to order fiber after 13 years of just driving across the valley and buying it from Mim.

I'm still weaving on the "Tidepool" warp with just a few towels to go, and I've have started winding the next warp from these cones.  I call it "Desert Sunrise."

About three years ago Cindie Kitchen (from the Eweniquely Ewe blog and Etsy store) sent me a packet of materials from a class she was teaching.  At the time the idea of "overshot" made me break out in hives - two shuttles?  No way!  But I've joined the COSW Overshot study group and thought I'd go through this before the next meeting to kind of get an idea of how it works.

I worked through the materials for a couple hours yesterday but when I got to this part, decided to let Fiberworks, my weaving software, do the work.  My sheet matches Cindie's example with all the twill pairs carefully circled, then entered onto the treadling grid.

I like to lie in bed after I wake up and mull "things" over before I launch into the day.  I was thinking about the exercises I did yesterday.  Cindie provided four "secret codes" and I did every one of them.  But laying in bed I could clearly see my worksheet - absent the circles around the twill pairs.  I wanted to do it agian to see what if changes would occur by doing it correctly.

This is the incorrect one.

This is the correct one.  Can you see any difference?  Me neither.  But I will say that the hours I invested in this guided exercise gave me a lot of insight into weave drafts and this one in particular.

This folder has been in my file box since I put it there three years ago.  She included a lot of materials including a hands-on exercise with paper strips and this cute little pillow.  I was focused on the material and didn't realize until just yesterday that the cute little pillow is a Heath candy bar cleverly wrapped in a photocopy of her draft.  Cute!  

It's hard to believe three months have passed since we moved in.  We had the kids over for one of the playoff games and pizza.  Last weekend we had a playoff-game barbecue at Josh's and will get together again for the Super Bowl.  I haven't watched football in years and I can't believe I'm saying it, but I'm going to miss the games and the social gatherings that go with them.

Call It A Day

I have already put the warp on my Dorset for the crackle-weave workshop next month.  I've never had a problem- free warp on this loom so I started early in the event I need to call for help, i.e., Laura.  It was another gray day but because the loom is so small and light, I set it up in Ian's stamp room underneath the skylight.  Before I knew it all 8" of warp was threaded.

It's ready to go and so am I!

This is a blend of eight fibers including Starfire. 

I still have a lot of stuff from Melissa including this yarn that I'll use to ply with.

Oh my, easier said than done.  The skein was a tangled mess and took me an hour to unravel with the hank draped over my knees.

I wound the yarn around a felted dryer ball and took it to the COSW meeting yesterday to see if anyone knew what it was.   I showed my skein at show-and-tell, then asked for help IDing my yarn.  Patty Huffer, a local weaving teacher, (in front of white board with back to the photo) used it as a teaching moment and told us to Google "burn test fiber" and then burn a sample.  

I couldn't tell when I just burned that yarn so I lit a candle and burned fibers that I knew what the content was.  Dharma has a great sheet of information on doing a burn test.  My yarn is definitely silk.  I tried to break the thread last week with my hand and it cut into my finger deeply.  I should have known right then.

These are the other skeins Melissa gave me.  The one on the right is 60/2 but the others aren't labeled.

I lashed on the towel warp on Maudie and after getting the first towel underway, I decided to just wind my warp.

I put the warp on the front of Arthur and thought, I'll just sley it so I can see how the colors look, and, well, you know how the rest went.

I was just going to hem-stitch it, but then thought I should weave a couple inches to check the pics per inch and then I thought I should make sure the selvedges were even. By 2:00 I was starving and knew I really needed to call it a day.  

How I Spend My Mornings

Once I sent my booth fee and application, I knew it was time to get serious and stop fooling around with six yard warps.  My target used to be 70 towels before a show.

The "Desert Sky" towels are done,

And the "Tidepool" warp is ready to be lashed on and woven.

That gave me a little breathing room.  I have a few scarves I'd like to put in the booth but I'm almost out of the ones that sell best for me - made from hand blended and hand spun yarns.  I started pulling colors together and selected these for my first bats.

And done!

I chose more muted colors for the second batch and acquired a second helper.

These are all wool/silk blends, mostly from stuff people have given me.

Melissa gave me a big bag of navy blue roving that's simply labeled "Australian wool" but it feels like Merino top to me.  I blended it with alpaca, white Merino, tussah silk and silk noil.  

This is the iffyist of the three batches.  It's either going to be great or groan.

A week ago our yard looked this.

Today it looked this so after my fiber play I took a couple bags out to do a little clean-up.  I could have filled four bags - or more.  I bet I threw away the equivalent weight of two Yorkies - in poop.

Two big bags of poop is significant when your trashcan is this tiny.  Bend is very serious about living responsibility and recycling is mandatory so that bin is twice the size of the trash.  It's especially significant when the trashcan is 3/4 full, it's Monday and pick-up isn't until Friday.

Creative Communities

 

Ian and I went shopping for a floor lamp to light up the living room corner.  We found very few floor lamps in consignment stores but what we did see amused us and also sent us to a retailer.  We ultimately ordered one through a local lighting store and it's coming on the slow boat from China.

Friday night was another band concert, this time it was the regional honor bands.  The 111 high school students filed in with their instruments and sat next to us, and in fact, Logan sat right in front of us.   The auditorium seats 1,400 and in spite of getting there a half hour early, we scrambled to find seats together.  The middle school band thrilled us but the high school band knocked our socks off.  I know I've said it before and I'm saying it again, every band and orchestra kid has their own instrument.  It boggles my mind to see this commitment from teachers, families and the community to music education.

Saturday was my spinning guild meeting in Redmond, a half-hour from here.  I was invited to breakfast before the meeting and appreciated the opportunity to spend time with and get to know some of the other ladies.  They have welcomed me into the spinning community in spades.   After the meeting I followed Cindy Wasner back to her house and bought more yarn.  The drive home was messy and it seemed like the frosting on the cake was getting caught by the train.  I can hear them from our house but this is the first one I've seen.

Cindy pointed out that the Jamison Shetland yarn I was using for this hat wasn't as sturdy as the Finullgarn she orders from Norway.  I finished this hat and saw that she was right.  It's thinner and smaller than the first one.  However Ian was delighted with it as he has a small head and the lining band of Alpaca kept his years warm on his walk this morning.  I've started another hat for son Matt.

An announcement was made at the meeting for Fiber Market Day.  It's the last Saturday in March and held (indoors) at the Crook County fairgrounds in Prineville.  Laura and I talked it over yesterday morning and have decided to split a booth which is insanity for me since my inventory is so low.  This is the application which is going in the mail today.

I have to step up my game and after breakfast went back to work on these towels.  It's so gray today that I had to use all my lights for the first time.  I also worked on another warp and enjoyed the accompanying patter of rain on the skylight.

I thought the next thing I would do is start planning to weave cloth for a kimono and asked for recommended patterns on 4-Shaft Weaving, the Facebook group.  I got several responses and one woman who doesn't know me from Adam scanned and emailed me the information she had collected from an Anita Luvera Mayer workshop.  I'm always appreciative of the weaving community's sharing and welcoming spirit.  I can't start now until April but what a generous thing to do!

Much Better

I finished my sampler using a Shadow Weave draft from a recent Handwoven, and while the cloth has a nice hand, I didn't enjoy weaving this at all.  I still don't know how I'll use the ten skeins of lace-weight Kellbourne yarn.  I'm thinking.

I did however enjoy weaving the scarf I just finished - after I managed to get the mess sorted out.  I set these cones out to think about for a second one.

After deliberating for a couple of days I decided to go with these analogous colors.  I thought it would make a scarf match more clothes.

This is how it's turning out.  I don't know if I'm pleased or not and probably won't know until it's finished, washed and pressed.

This is the first one and it's more green than I had expected - my daughter's colors.  I think I'll send it to her for her birthday in April.

I've signed up for a three-day crackle weave workshop next month taught by Susan Wilson.  Yesterday I received an email with instructions, including the draft that I need to put on my loom as well as the yarns I need to bring.  These are all yarns that people have given to me.  The only yarns I've bought are 8/2 Tencel and cotton.  The warp is to be a light-colored 10/2 perle cotton (white), with two different 10/2 for warp (black and red), some 3/2 and some textured yarns.  I've never woven with 3/2 cotton and the only cone I have is the magenta on the right.  The only 10/2 I have is the black, red and white.

I've been putting off a Webs order and it's a good thing because I need to order some 3/2.  After much thought I chose the lime green and teal, only to discover that Webs doesn't have any teals in this weight and their lime green is deeper.

I ended up ordering the lavender and lime green though I don't need much for the class.  After all, it's a 3 yard by 8" warp.  I have no idea what I'll do with the rest of these cones afterwards.

Ian bought the last cat tree at Costco this week.  Maddy has been scratching everything and has already scratched to death the little post we bought for her after we moved here.  The top bed is 6' high, much taller than her old one.  It's so big that the only place for it was this corner in our bedroom and she can watch the birds from both windows.  She loves it!

I took this picture from the sliding door this morning.  Maddy isn't the only one who likes looking out these windows.

And speaking of looking out the windows, I saw this deer in our driveway from our kitchen window. 

Our woodstove stopped drawing and sent choking smoke into the room, launching the smoke alarm which not only screeches but says "fire" - oh swell.  Ian tried several times to coax a fire to no avail.  The chimney sweeps were here yesterday to remove the soot from the chimney and clean the plugged cap.  Now it can breath and so can we.  Much better.