Keeping busy

I finally finished the autumn colors warp and cut it off the loom.  They’ve been through a wash and dry cycle and are cut apart now, waiting for me to hem them.

It finally occurred to me to work on warps ahead of time on sunny days.  I’ve been winding my next warp a little at a time so it’s all ready to go on the loom.  These are the wild colors I just got from Brassard, and I love the feel of the yarn, soft and silky, and so unlike the harsh UKI.  Some of you commented that I should find a way to use those bouts of colors that didn’t fit in the last warp, but unfortunately I don’t have enough yarn for ten more towels.

I bought an ebook with Sarah Jackson’s Summer and Winter towels after seeing her post on Facebook.  Many weavers have done this in their own colors and I think it’s time for me to try it.

I’m going to use colors I already have since I’ve never done this weave structure before.  That way I won’t feel terrible about making mistakes which no doubt I will.  A couple of these cones have been around so long that I had to dust them.

I was making great progress on Alexia’s sweater and had knit past the waist shaping, with only 6” left in the body.  Two things bothered me.  I had gone up a needle size to get the correct gauge and the knitted fabric just looked sloppy to me.  The other thing was the shaping - even with waist decreases the sweater was looking like a sweatshirt.  So I ripped it out.

I bought this Heidi Kirrmaier pattern on Ravelry instead.  Sammy got anxious while we were at grandson Evan’s band concert and ate all seven pages of the pattern, all but this piece.  I’ve since reprinted it and we’re working on Sammy’s anxiety - poor girl.

I havie to do some serious knitting to make sure this is done in time for Christmas, but it’s knitting at the gauge recommended by both the yarn and the pattern and the improvement is worth it.

I took a two-day photo-etching class at the Bend Art Center this weekend.  I really like the process and since photography was the first art that I took classes in, this is much more comfortable for me than electro-etching.  In fact, I just don’t think I’ll continue with electro-etch. I’ve learned a lot of different techniques this past year and am trying to pick what I want to focus on.

Yesterday we learned how to make a plate through a photographic process.

And once the plate is made, it’s good for about a hundred printings.

We spent most of yesterday learning the process and today was all about application of it.  These two prints are from two different plates.  The lighting is very low in the “dark room” which makes it difficult to register the transfer film with the treated plate.  The transfer film has the image of the photograph on it and has to be made in advance by a local print shop.  I truncated the ships masts on the print on the left, so I made a second plate with the same photograph on the right and this time got everything in the frame. The class was four hours yesterday and four hours today, and in that time I was only able to learn the process, make four plates and print them on the press.

I stayed an extra hour today and dabbled with adding some color to the plate, but we had to clear out in hurry to make way for a class at 2;00. I had six photographs printed on transfer film and really would like to make plates of the other three.  I think we’re going to do a group buy of the plates which will bring the price down and pay for shipping.  It’s the best way to get supplies, the only way!