Road Trip

Knitting socks 'on the road' (pun intended).



Gold Progress

Making progress on the gold/purple warp. I have the color work area done on one end and now am working on weaving 58 inches without a color change. I am using a paper yard tape measure-er to measure with. (try saying that three times fast!) Are you getting the idea that this might be a cocoon when done? That is what I hope this will be!! But since there will be some sewing, I am counting on my friend Becky to help with that part. I can make the fabric, I just can't sew the fabric together.

Follow Up to Monday's Guild Meeting

OK, here is my attempt at twinning. It was a joy to work with this loom my friend's DH made. The weaving went pretty fast while watching TV. Things I learned: should have used a fabric that was the same on both sides, cut the strips two inches wide instead of the one inch I did here. If the strips were wider, it would have wove up quicker with this loom.


Weaving in progress!



Placement ready to receive that fried chicken, mashed potatoes and cream gravy dinner!

Weaving Gold

Well, not really weaving with real gold, but I am weaving the purple/gold warp now.  The  trick to this will be to match the other end of the warp. So measuring and keeping track of what colors went where is going to be very important. When I get this off the loom, you will see why that is important.

Twinning

I have another weaving guild I attend that meets in Cabool, MO. Some of the weavers drive two or three hours to get there. Yesterday we had a great group of 12 weavers who were very interested in the program given by Gayle. Gayle  has given several classes on twinning over the last few years and shared her expertise with us.

Gayle explains twinning to the group while Jan demonstrates on her placemat size loom.

Notice the large loom behind Gayle, it will makes a nice size rug.

Using a small loom (made by Gayle's husband, Larry) you get a hotpad.

SHOW AND TELL

Katie explains how she wove this wonderful blanket.

Vicki passes around her silk scarf.

Bo is explaining the fibers and weave structure of her scarf.

Barbara has been making baskets, knitting socks, weaving honeycomb and overshot.

More Finish Work

Hemmed the multi-colored monk's belt lap robe.

Then I finished the hem for the pink lap robe.

While outside trying to find a place to take pictures of the two lap robes, I kept hearing a nearby sound. It took me a while to discover I needed to return to the safety of my home and admire the flowering trees from afar.



Twill Re-Visited

I have been finishing up some UFO's. Not the kind from outer space, but in my 'weaving closet'. Finishing work is one thing I really must work on. My daughter always says "it's in the details that makes things pop." So here is the blue twill runner:

 

And this is the edge treatment I came up with:

Lap Robe with Pillows

This is the Monk's Belt lap robe with matching pillows that I plan go giving to someone special on her birthday. I am very pleased with the pillows and lap robe. The small pillow I didn't stuff very full as I think she may want that one behind her head when she 'might' take that nap.

As several of my weaving friends know, I have always made fun of Monk's Belt as a boring weave. To me it was that red and black checkerboard coverlet that I saw in one of the coverlet books. Working on this project made me realize that it was not just that. Sometimes you get in your mind what something looks like, and then you 'sample' and find that the weave you saw in a book can be so much more if you go outside the box. When I wove the small pillow on that threading, who knew it would so interesting. And changing the way I did weave the two blocks together in the lap robe and big pillow was a fun exercise too.

The moral to this story..... sample, you might find something exciting happening you didn't expect.

Gold/Purple Warp

I have this new warp through the reed. Since I am using an eight shaft loom, I will thread through the heddles in 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 order, but will tie up the treadles to weave plain weave. The warp is a mixture of rayon, bamboo, and ladder yarns. Stay tuned........

Springfield Fiber Artists

Went to a meeting of the Springfield Fiber Artists last night. The meeting was at the Library Center in Springfield, MO. This is a great group of people who do all things fiber! Just a few of the interests of the group include drop spindle spinning, felting, quilting, knitting, crocheting, basket making, jewelry, weaving, spinning wheels and paper crafts.

Marty Corcoran gave the program on "Color Interactions and Weaving". Using color gamps, she explained how color and weave structures interplay in the woven cloth. Finding the right combination of colors takes a little research and maybe a color wheel. Unless you are one of those with a good color sense, making color wraps might be helpful to find your color pallet and proportions of the colors you are wanting to use. After you have found your color pallet and weave structure for you project you will want to sample, sample, sample!



Marty Corcoran.





Using a wool color gamp she wove, she explains the proportions to use when making a gamp.




Showing how to use your color wheel to help pick you color pallet.



Monk's Belt Be Gone

Having a few inches of warp left, I treadled ten picks of plain weave and five picks of alternating blocks. Might make a cute pillow top. Will have to see what it looks like when it's washed.


Here I am cutting off! Now to the washing machine and a hard press. I can tell you that so far, this fabric is very-very soft. 

Socks - March 2012

Finished the March socks.... and have started on April's socks. This new pair is the sock yarn I dyed earlier. It is soooooo soft! I think these might be mine.

Weaving alert!
Still working on getting the accent yarn un-tangled, so not much weaving going on right now!

Another Project

Getting ready to put a warp on the Baby Wolf.

New warp yarns.

And for one of the accent yarns I have this.......

Have you done this too! What was I thinking???

But I did get enough to get my warp wound. I need some of this for the weft, so I will try to wind off from both ends until I get enough. Now I know why I prefer to get my yarns by the cone!



Warp on kite sticks.

This will be a simple plain weave warp. My friend Becky has been working on a project, and knowing that the grass is always greener on the other side, I have to try my hand at doing it too. I will be using an 8 dent reed and hope that the ladder yarn will go through without to much trouble.



Monk's Belt 101 - nearing the end....

Nearing the end, no, really. I think this will be the last one.

I really like the green Bambu. Here I have treadled the blocks 2 x 2, two blocks of A then two blocks of B.

Then I saw in the yard this.....

Maybe I should have found some yellow to put with the Bambu green.

Monk's Belt - sample

I couldn't decide on which colors to use, so I am going to use them all. And, I am using only one blocks, so the treadling is going pretty fast. I thought that using one block would give vertical lines instead of the checkerboard effect that the two blocks was giving, and it might help tone down the strong horizontal lines the colors are making. 

Monk's Belt 101 ...continues

Well, now. What to do? Do I make this next one light blue/dark blue or do I pick blue/pink? I have these seven colors that I could use. Maybe one block of each color? Hummm.... This is the part I really like the best, sampling.

Monk's Belt 101 progress

Still working on weaving off the Bambu Monk's Belt. I am using a temple because this stuff is so soft that my draw-in is pretty bad. But the weaving goes fairly fast, even though I move the temple about every inch or so.

I never did find out who this 'Monk' was.... Does anyone know why this is called "Monk's Belt"???

Complex Weavers and more paperwork

I have my Complex Weaver Tied Weaves study group samples ready for the mail. Keeping good records is one of the side effects of belonging to Complex Weavers. The study groups challenge and inspire me. And when I get the samples from the others, it's like getting my own personal weaving monograph.

Rock Socks and Roll

Got all but one of the skeins 'ball-ed' up. I am sure there is a better word, but can't find it this morning. <g>. Now I can't wait to see how they knit up. My daughter-in-law and granddaughter love their hand knit socks. Maybe some of this yarn will wind up as birthday presents or under their Christmas tree.

Monk's Belt 101b

Getting down to the nitty-gritty. The first large block is done (dark pink) and have started on the second  large block (light pink). Looks like there will be 7 small blocks by 7 small blocks in each large block, before you change colors.

You can find this exact pattern with all the details on Weaving Today , Interweave Press's websight. Look under 'free resources' then under 'projects'. This project is "Bamboo Baby Blankets by Robin Lynde".

Monk's Belt 101a

1000 ends at 33 inches in the reed, this Bambu yarn was a dream to wind on. Very few tangles.

Monk's belt is woven with pattern and tabby alternating with each other. I had said it was a two shuttle weave, but you could use one shuttle if you can keep track of which tabby is next.  

Complex Weaver kind of day

Working on putting my Complex Weavers Bateman Study Group paper work together......

then the mail came.............. first time in COLOR!!!!



Nostepinne Winding Pin

Some people us a ball winder, but I like to use a nostepine so I can look at every inch of color and feel the texture of the yarn.

Dyeing Sock Yarn

The wind was blowing, the sky was a milky gray like the hair on the neighbors old cat. What else is a person to do but grab a couple of large pots and her dyes and head to the kitchen. Nothing lifts the spirits like turning a dull dark dank windy day into a bright pink, red, or purple day.

Needing some sock yarn to start another pair, I went to 'the stash' and found 6 skeins of some marvelous natural colored sock yarn I got from a fellow Weaving Diva. The 60% alpaca, 15% merino, 10% silk and 15% nylon make this feel like a soft puppy. She had this blended special from her flock, herd, gaggle!?  http://www.morningmoonalpacas.com/

Filling the pot about half full of water, I heated it to boiling then added some vinegar. Lowered the heat to reduce the bubbles to a small roar, I placed one skein in the pot, sprinkled the dry powered dye on top of the skein, then put in another skein and sprinkled another color, then another skein and another color... I repeat this until I have all the skeins in the pot. I do 'poke' the yarn down into the liquid very carefully. I turn off the fire and let it simmer until all the dye is soaked up by the yarn.  I might peek to make sure that everything is getting some of the dye. Just do it slowly. At this point, you don't want to agitate the wool.



This pan I place on the burner with the water- vinegar and drizzle the dry powder dye in selected areas. The purple went on one side of the pan, yellow on the other. This pan will only hold two skeins at at time. I must wait until it is completely cool before I remove it from the stove.

  This is the pot I layer the skeins into. Adding the dyes and skeins layer by layer. I usually take it off the stove and let it sit on the counter until the yarn has soaked up all the dye.  

This shows the dark gloomy sky and the wind. I think all the bird seed had blown away too!

Weaving Diva's Guild Meeting

Kathy gave a great program on color rotation with S&W.

Marty models her shurg!

Marilynn explains warp painting and structure.

Love the shoes, Zoe!

Woven on same warp.

Tapestry by Janice. Awesome!

Tomi wove crepe and constructed a vest!!