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What’s next?

Aug2

Added 8-3   Shrug is not working. Wanted to warn you here so you can rethink if you are following my examples. :-0      Not sure if it’s the plan or just my size. Plan rather simplistic, I agree. But it seemed like a good idea. Too short in back and too tight under the arms. tho the sleeves were plenty big.  I could probably  weave more squares and then cut and sew but I think I’ll just try something else this time. Stayed tuned!

 

I was thinking of trying another shawl, maybe a little bigger but the yarn I pulled out of stash proved to be insufficient for that but I think it’ll make a nice shrug. It’s, Lion Brand Jiffy that I bought when our Five & Dime went out of business some years back. Got a nice price for it. I could buy more but I’m trying to use stash. It’s a bulky yarn, acrylic. Soft, a little fluffy so that you have to open the shed each time to avoid tangles, but it weaves fast enough. I also have a skein of charcoal LB ‘Homespun’ that I might use to assemble or for some accent. I’m using the 14″ square this time and my squares are coming out about 12 1/2″.

DSC02337 weave sample

Here’s the plan. So far.

It’s a twill: Weave 7 rows plain.

Start pattern;

o1, u1,*o2, u1* end o1, u1.

The thing is that it is going to change at the ends every other row, just go with the pattern. And this might not work if you’re using another size looms but I’m sure you can figure it out. You just want to keep the edges neat. You can work a couple o1, u1  at each side if that works better for you.

This is what I more or less envision. You could use a couple more big squares on the sleeves if you have enough yarn to make them longer. I think these are going to be about 3/4 sleeves. Maybe even less. Humm….. Well, no point worrying about it now. I have a few more squares to weave.

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Tri Shawl

Jul30

That didn’t take long! Fast to weave and I found an interesting way to assemble that also added about an inch to each seam so makes the shawl a bit bigger for my single ball of yarn. Found this purple in my stash for the trim and like the way it looks. Took 15 triangles. I left the tip off as I really don’t need an arrow pointing ‘there’.

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The join, in case you’re liking that, is a 5 stitch dc shell. Since I used the 14″ Tri it worked out this way: On the short side: 2 sc, skip 1 loop, *shell, sk 2,  slip stitch, sk 2* but you’ll need to adjust for your size. It’s the same basic thing so not a problem how many you skip or don’t skip. To join, work the same thing but dc 3 then slip your hook out and into the center stitch of the opposite shell and draw the loop though, then dc two more to finish the shell. Try to keep the right side up, which I failed to pay attention to at first, but it really doesn’t show much in the shawl unless you really look for it. I finished the shawl edge with a row of sc and a row of reverse sc in the shawl yarn and the top edge is just dc adjusted to lay flat.

My shawl measures 62″ wide by 30″ deep. My yarn, a soft merino, had a lot of draw-up so my tris are about 11″ on the side. Yours will likely be larger depending, of course, on your yarn and weaving tension. The shell join adds about an inch to each seam.

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Okay, your turn. A quick project for summer to have you ready for fall!

Tri Shawl

Jul28

I started weaving these triangles in Eugene last month thinking that tho I tell people they can weave shawls with the small looms, I have never made one myself & really ought to. I have this ball of some 600+ yards which should  give me quite a few tris…  It’s a light worsted 100% merino, very nice but with a lot of stretch and as a result, a lot of draw up. Which I didn’t really pay much attention at first. I am weaving on the 14″ triangle but my tris measure 11 1/2  to 12 inches on a side. I need two more tris to finish a shawl of about 62″ hypotenuse. I still have quite a bit of yarn but not enough to make it another row wide. Anyway, by the time I get it assembled and maybe add a fringe or edging (more likely) I’ll probably be running short. Did I say I still need to weave two tris? I wove 4 or 5 yesterday so it’s going pretty fast. I still have all those 4″ Multi squares that I haven’t quite figure out what to do with. Well, it’s July and hot so yarn thoughts are not coming thick and fast! =) Hope you’re getting in a little weaving these days, tho. Good time to work on a shawl which will come in handy when you can use a light wrap later this fall, you know.

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Just thinking…

Jul19

It’s July and too hot to be doing much with yarn. I am working on a project for a book to be published by somebody else. I hope I can get it done in time.

But meantime, cleaning up the kitchen this morning, I got to thinking about dishrags. Lots of people weave them on the looms, Sis is one of them. I have also done it but mostly for the how-to pictures. I have clung to my sponges. But awhile back Sis gave me a stack of her old faded ones to use as rags in the shop or somewhere. I just shoved them in the kitchen towel drawer. The other day I got a bug to clean out the overflowing drawer and remembered seeing on someones blog that she had a basket in her kitchen filled with old dishrags, etc to use as clean up rags and save paper towels so I got out one of my hand made baskets (arthritis won’t allow that anymore) and put them all in it. And have started using them for that purpose. And I think I am converted! They are easy to rinse out and hang on the edge of the sink to dry. It was too easy to toss the sponge into the sink where it probably grew some really nasty stuff. I know I went though a lot of them. I remember reading in a “green” magazine that it was actually cheaper and more energy efficient to  use paper towels. The author if this piece having proved to herself that the manufacture and delivery of the paper towels saved more energy that the washing of dish cloths. I am going to equate the making of the paper towels with the manufacture of yarn, energy wise. And I refuse to think of the “energy” spent weaving the cloths as effecting the global climate, so will skip to the washing. If you ran a batch just for the dishrags, yeah, that would count, but who does that? You toss the in with whatever batch seems appropriate to your style of doing laundry and as that energy would be used with or without the cloths that also can’t be counted against your ‘carbon footprint’. So it seems to me that the handwoven cloth is going to come off ahead however you look at it. There’s a little water used to rise the cloth but I usually rinsed the sponges and often the paper towels as I use the tough ones so that can’t add to much.

And more to the point… The dishrags woven with kitchen cotton do a much better job of cleaning! That’s really the part that converted me. I am going to have to weave a few more of these handy bits. I’ve had some people tell me they use them as wash cloths, too. I’ll have to give that a try next.

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Summer time….

Jul11

And, contrary  to that lovely song, the livin’ is not easy.  It is hectic! Jobs and orders piling up, three shows coming up to have stock for, people calling daily with jobs that need doing now! So that’s my excuse for not posting lately. No, that’s my reason! I am getting some weaving done, it’s for that book, if I can get it finished in time. If you have great ideas you might want to check into this. The more the merrier as is said:

posted 8 days ago (Thursday, July 3)

Stackpole Books is currently requesting submissions of Pin Loom projects to be published in a book in Fall 2015. We are looking for all sorts of pin loom projects on any small loom. We want to see your creativity! The details of the Call for Submissions are available here: http://media.stackpolebooks.com/submissions/f15pinloomdesigns.pdf. Please contact me with any questions at cderr at stackpolebooks dot com.

Meantime our local grocery is up for sale. If you’d like to move to a lovely mountain village and run your own little corner ‘general’ store here’s an opportunity not to miss. I have no interest in this except as a customer. But if you’re a weaver, I’d dearly love to have you as a neighbor, too! (call Steve  at Weaverville Realty)

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And when someone complains about me & how I get things done, I wear this shirt which explains my philosophy. Popeye got it right! Hope your day is going your way!

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Home again

Jun25

We’re back from Black Sheep Gathering, in Eugene, Oregon. Had a wonderful time with Jane Grogan who came all the way from Wisconsin  to teach weaving in Oregon.  She wore her vest woven on the 4″ square Multi. which I didn’t get a close up of. 😦 But here we are in the booth where we got to weave together when she was “off duty”.

Jane in vestBSG4a

I also like her hat with the diamond top and the rolled brim. Hers was two dark colors so the diamonds stood out more than on mine where the colors  kind of blend everything together. I’ll use more contrast on the next one. But I like it anyway.

Jane Hat 4Jane Hat 5

Yesterday was spent going to town to pick up the cats from the ‘motel’ and get a few emergency groceries. Today is shipping orders and catching up on the laundry. What fun! lol  and Friday we’re off to Medford for the month’s grocery shopping and for lumber so Randy can get busy filling orders again. This year we are going to be at the California Wool and Fiber Festival in Booneville which is in September. We have not been there since it joined the Mendocino County Fair so it’ll be a new experience for us. If you are in that area I hope you’ll come by and say hi.

Meantime… Back to weaving. Hope your summer is off to a great start!

June already!

Jun15

Sorry I have not been back here in a while. It’s been a busy month already. Black Sheep Gathering coming up next weekend, too. Jane Grogan is on her way west to teach a couple of classes there.  If you want to be in her classes you’d better hurry to sign up. I don’t know if there’s any space left but you can check. she’s doing something with the 4″ Multi’s and has a Quilting class using the tiny Weaver Set. That’s going to be interesting. Wish I could join but I am going to be busy at our booth. Sis is coming up, too, and she’ll be looking at white fleeces, being the spinner of the family.

I’ve been weaving squares but have no project in the works just now. But once we get back I’ll be able to settle in. The garden is in now and growing so that project is pretty self-sustaining for a while. This is some mohair, I think it’s some Sis spun with colored nubs. Not sure what it’s going to be…

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Finally finsihed!

May19

The Tri top is done. I wove four 12″ squares and sewed them in pairs. Folded in the sleeve openings a couple times and fitted the sleeves in until they looked right. Pinned them in place and tried it on, adjusting until I had the look I needed.

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Then I top stitched the sleeves in place.

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After that I turned it inside out and cut the excess fabric and zigzaged the seam.

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Here it is.

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I tried to take my picture in it but the do-it-yourself-setting on my camera has quit doing it. All I get is a fuzzy one so will have to wait until Himself and do the photography with his big mulit-talented camera. But here’s the fuzzy view, for what it’s worth.

DSC01959I think it turned out, in the end, okay if a less than flattering design for me. The color is nice and the texture of this soft cotton is very nice.

And, by the way, the beans are coming  up! Hope things are springing up where you are!

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Is it a blouse or is it a cat blanket?!

May12

That’s still up for grabs. I am working on the sleeves. I think the problem is that the shoulders are too wide. This is going to turn out to be one of those cut and sew projects after all. But meantime the weather has warmed up and we got the bean tower in and the beans planted. It’s 80 degrees on the deck. Yum!

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