Archives

2025 in progress.

Jan5

I hope it’s progress, anyway. So far I just seem to be jammed with chores and projects left from 2024. Is that normal? I just rather thought I’d pretty much have the month of January off, a restful winter break. Ha! even Bah Humbug! Well, I broke down and made a LIST! I think here on Jan 5, I have managed to check off two things. It’s not that that’s all I’ve done, it’s just things on the list. I have manage to fill the day with chores in between list projects, some of which are at least underway. I think the problem is that I’m getting old. I used to be able to deal with all this and never even notice. Well, the Golden age is not living up to it’s name. It’s more like the Rusty Tin age! lol Ah well, enough bitchin’ for today.

I did manage to get one project woven on our invented circle loom. That was not actually on the list, just one of those things we’ve discussed in the past and it came up again while shopping at the GoodWill in Redding the other day. We bought a 12″ knitting loom. A plastic ring with pegs all around. I thought I could use it for a peg loom, but there turned out to be a few things I did not think of in my enthusiasm for the idea. Like that the pegs were only about an inch tall and there was no hole for the warp strings. But Himself came to the rescue and made a set of drilled pegs with dowels. The problem with the large circle is that there are too many warp strings in the center of the bottom to make a flat bottom. I was using some elderly Caron 100% Dacron rug yarn with the original price of 79 cents.  So the bundle of warp in the center was too big to bundle. I came up with a solution for that -after the fact- so it didn’t work very well here but I got a semi flat bottom to my bowl. I had planned it to be a basket but had to stop short this time. I’ll start from the bottom on the next one. I think it’ll work better. This one is only about 3″ deep. Himself thinks I could use this method to weave Rasta hats! I knitted one for my grandson years ago, like the 2nd one pictured. (That’s not mine, I can’t see to find a pic of it.) I guess it may be possible and I might try it later! The one with the braids definitely is a possible.

    

He’s making looms like crazy, I think he wants an entire years stock before the show season starts! lol I cannot keep up. Frankly, I’m not even trying to very hard. But I am getting things done in here tho they are still a little over whelming. Got the ceramic tree put back in storage. Got the houseplants back where they belong. My geraniums are all putting on blooms. I gave them a turn under the lights as they were not getting any sunshine from the widows lately and I didn’t want them getting really leggy. I guess the lights made them think it was spring. His 80 degree fires probably added to that! lol He can’t seem to get a Happy Medium. I just let it go out and rebuild when it starts cooling off but that is not the correct way according to him. I am not supposed to let it go out. Bah-Humbug! Ah well…We’ve only been married 40 years, I guess it takes time to get used to each others ways, huh?!

Just the two of us!

Okay, I spent a lot of time talking about how much I have to do so I supposed I ought to wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year and get on with my LIST! …and I do! I wish you all to accomplish just what you hope for this year and to stay safe in this chaotic world of today.

Hazel

More Clothing…

Dec15

Weavers have asked for more so here’s another. This was the first pull over that worked really well. It was back in the Olden Days, when I was spinning my own yarn. This was the first whole Jacob fleece I bought and spun up. I used the colors as they came. I’m not sure what became of it, I wasn’t able to find it this morning to take new photo so this is kind of fuzzy. I used the 7″ Quilt Weaver square, we were only making two sizes of looms back them the 7 & the 12″. You can see that the sleeves are a bit odd. If I make this one again I’ll use the sewing machine and modify the sleeve where I drew the red line on the chart. I was scared of cut and sew back then, too, I guess! But it’s a easy one to make and you can use any nice yarn. You can also use cut and sew to modify the neckline if you wanted a different one.

Making clothing

Dec5

The subject of making clothing has come up in pin loon chatting recently. I posted a couple of the tops I’ve made in the past so thought I’d put them here, too. They are easy loom-shaped garments so can be made to fit just about any size. I used the 6″ Multi looms for both of these. My figure changed and the drape between the alpaca and the wool is also much different. I’d like to try one of these in a nice sock yarn, too, but that hasn’t happened so far. I added a  knitted ribbing to the waist of the orange wool one which gave a better fit and the brown alpaca has a 2×6 slide stitch woven waist band. (and the hearts have come off since)

This type of garment fits a little better on a slimmer figure for the most part. The drape of your yarn also makes a difference. The alpaca drapes beautifully while this wool made a bit stiffer fabric.

Another oldie.

Apr6

I finished this one in 2014. It’s a collection of my handspun yarns.  Woven on several looms, mostly, if I remember, the 7″ and the 3 1/2″ squares. Randy made the wood buttons.  The button holes are just an unstitched space between the little squares on the front band. I like 3/4 sleeves but these were probably a little wide and the bottom edges. It works okay, tho.

Just been going though older projects, posting to my 3 “social media” places, here, Ravelry, and the facebook pin loom group. I’m working on a new everyday sweater but thinking of reworking that idea. I’ve been weaving either 12″ or 10.5″ squares, can’t remember just now. Needless to say that last one woven was a couple months back! But someone posted about shape weaving the other day which reminded me of the shape woven I’ve done in the past. I still have the cardboard looms and am thinking I might just employ that method on this sweater. I seem to get a better fit with less blocks than the cut and sew method. I’m too big to get a good fit with the totally block woven things. The one above is cut and sew. This one is the shape woven. The yoke and the arm skye as well as the back yoke were shape woven. And a much better fit than the others I’ve done, I think. The sleeves as shown were cut and sew but both made from the same pattern. Well, I’ll have to think about this some more. I have a little time between now and my next deadline, I hope!

Winter work…

Nov6

It’s November even tho with temps in the 60’s as high and the lows just in the low 40’s it doesn’t really feel very wintery. Well, except for the rain and gloomy skies. And gloomy husband. He doesn’t do well in continual darkness and besides has jobs that need to be outdoors in dry weather so that’s adding to the frustration. I’m fine tho it worries me a bit that it’s not getting cold. We are still picking pole beans and when I cut greens yesterday there was a bee buzzing around in the borage. Not normal winter conditions for these mountains. Well, I guess we’d better start getting used to the “not normal”. They are suggest a vague possibility of some snow on Monday. Not holding my breath!

But meantime, with the WAL coming to an end, I got out my cardigan project. My favorite orange sweater is wearing out. When even Himself notices it’s sort of ratty condition I guess it’s time!  So I’ll be weaving 12″ squares for some time. I’m reusing a frogged knit sweater that turned out to be a bad idea, mostly a bad fit. And I have another one that is in line for frogging as well. I guess I’d better stick to weaving! lol I balled this yarn up but it hasn’t been washed before weaving with it. I’ll find out if that’s a good idea.

     

But today I have to finish up a batch of apple sauce and sand a couple looms as well. The sweater is going to take awhile to finish.

  And there’s enough apples  left for a pie.

 

Weaving pictures

May24

My kitchen curtains. I’ve been asked about them and it seemed like a good thing to talk about.

 

I was inspired by an article in Hand Woven magazine, I’ll have to try to find that as I can’t  remember off hand. It was about weaving pictures into your weaving. I wove the squares using the 10.5″ Quilt Weaver and some fingering weight yarn. That gave me an open kind of grid.

I guess the next step was finding and charting the pictures I wanted. I have an old wood bread box and a couple of wooden hamburger presses, that have chickens painted on them. I have a collection of chickens- glass and ceramic- in shelves so went with chickens.

So I made cartoons using these painted chickens as a source.

I can’t seem to find the sketches for the hen and chick cartoons. I did make a cartoon, for the hen at least, I just made up the chicks and eggs.   But then I pinned the cartoon under the square and started weaving though the grid.

At that point, I decided that they needed a bit more. More definition, I suppose, so I did a little embroidery, too. This looks kind of rough close up but looks fine hanging in the kitchen window, (She said, patting herself on the back!)

So then all that was left was doing the rest of the panels and fitting it to the window which required a couple of blank squares.

What you do next would be a personal choice. You need a way to hang it. You can weave a pocket for threading the curtain rod, you could use clips, keeping in mind that it will stretch and sag between clips. You could use a commercial fabric bias tape for the rod pocket. I chose to use the previous valance as it was already on the rod, so the woven panels were just added below that pocket. I put the hen between the chicks and the fighting roosters when I assembled the squares. You know- Mommy protecting the kiddies.

But however you do it, let your imagination have a go.  You might want to try using one of the larger Multi looms to weave your grid. It would give you a finer set, your curtain would probably be denser but you could also weave more detail into your pictures. You could opt for x-stitch for this, too. I only have three other curtains in my house. The bathroom curtain is purely decorative as the glass is not clear. I had a collection of shell necklaces. So I strung them on a rod and used that for the bathroom. A commercial lace valance in a window that faces the driveway in the LR and a blackout curtain in the bedroom to deal with the neighbors porch lights are the other two. I could make my own for the LR. I may even do that and use the Multi to try out my ideas.

I have a couple more kitchen projects first, however.

 

Just some thoughts about…

May21

…how one might go about designing a project. I found a photo in my files, from a – is it called a boardwalk? Walkway? Anyway, something with walk in it, where designers show off their lastest ridiculous creations. This one is made up of diamonds and I think may have potential for something a person could actually wear. The hem could be left with the short flippy diamonds as I sketched in the left photo or cut flat into a normal hem. The diamonds are a little bit of fun. I didn’t much care for the flappy things on the bottom or the heavy cloggy shoes. I think she’s wearing a scarf with it, which could work but would not be necessary. Of course that may be the neck line/collar.

The next step would be deciding what size loom & yarn to use and then how many diamonds would you have to weave. I’d probably go wth the 7″ at first. The smaller one might actually be better for fitting but that would mean weaving a lot more of them! A light yarn, washable since it looks like a summer dress. Actually you could go thought your stash and use a variety of yarns, just keeping the washability the same. That would give it the feel of this designer dress in assorted prints. You could play with textures as well.

After that I’d do what I always do for clothing. Find my sewing pattern, the one that fits me and use it as a guide. I’m going to have to play with this! Not sure I have the figure for this sort of dress but on the other hand it could make a nice tunic as well.

What do you think?

      

I made this blouse, which was quite popular but sizing is tricky with the bigger looms. That’s where the smaller ones come in handy. I tried this with the Tumbling Block but, tho I got a fit, it was rather short and blocky. Not the same look at all. I tacked that antique collar on as it was kind of a dull color I thought it might add a bit of interest. By the way, that’s not a stain, that’s my shadow taking the photo. Do I pay attention to detail?! lol

This sketch has no figure shaping. I would be relying on the elasticity of the fabric for that, which could be a mistake! The first one also has a low neckline so the other one would be more like the original. The neckline could be easily adjusted, tho. Just some playing around. The arm skye on that 2nd one did not quite work out. ;-D

February again. 2021

Feb6

We did have some winter, 30″ of snow almost two weeks ago and bits and inches later which mostly melted off as fast as they fell. We still have 10 or so inches of that first one left on the ground.

I send in my seed order early as the companies are advising us to. And plants which I had set the ship Date at the end of March. Got my onion plants the day after the snow storm. What the heck? Not shoveling out the garden so I can plant onions in February! Lady at the seed company apologized, said their shipper thought we lived in south California. Isn’t that was zip codes are for? But she ordered more to be shipped early April and promised to hold the rest until then also. Hope so. The garden this year will be almost as big but different. Cutting back on tomatoes for one thing.

We go to town today to get or virus vaccinations. We’re luck to live in an area where there is not much of this plague so are comparatively safe. We do wear our masks and maintain social distancing. We go to the Grocery and the gas station and the hardware store, that’s about it. If we need anything else, there’s Amazon. I can use stash yarn for the nest 20 years and not run out so am good there, too! lol

I have been weaving on the large SweetHeart loom. The plan is a cowl using Crochet to joining and fill out a bit tho I have yet to discover if this will work. Maybe this way.

  

 

 

A conundrum… fur sure!

May4

So, cleaning up the studio, downsizing, all that  kind of thing. Here’s another big batch of woven block. All of assorted yarns, weights, textures, sizes, techniques… you know the way it goes. I’ve been demoing these looms for almost 20 years now and tho I have used a lot of them you can see that I still have a lot waiting to go into some lovely & useful projects. But what? What can you do with such a mish-mash? A lot of them I will not be able to identify the content so what happens when I mix wool and acrylic, or chenille  and silk or cotton any other probably incompatible  mix? I guess I am hoping some of you will come up with a clever answer! There’s a small stack of felted squares and a couple that fit no category!

Sort of like my pictures! lol I can’t seem to get them to do what I want, either! But you can see what I mean. There’s a lot of weaving hours and a lot of yarn tied up here and it ought to be good for something. Any ideas?!

Not sure!

Many Multis but mostly different!

Felted 7″ squares 

Woven on the 7″ square, different ways different sizes, too! Now what?!

Help!

New years resolutions?

Feb18

Well, maybe.  I cleaned up my Love Seat yesterday. That’s where all my projects and yarn- UFO’s, WIPs, new yarns etc end up. I just have too many projects started and many of them are never going to be done so I decided to seriously prioritize.
I decided on two projects. First, a fast one with a new yarn. It’s called Bernat Maker Home Dec & says it’s 72% cotton & 28% nylon. I wanted to try it for a dishcloth. I wove the ends in and then secured them by sewing the ends in with sewing thread. I’ll let you know of it makes a decent dish cloth or not. The skein comes with a crocheted blanket pattern. The yarn “tube” is about the size of a #4 knitting needle, quite elastic. It’s a knitted tube with a tiny bit of stuffing.

The second and long term project is a new sweater. My orange one is getting pretty ratty looking and I have been swatching for a new one lately and finally decided to use the bag of alpaca I bought on sale a few years ago. It’s Blue Sky 100% baby Alpaca in a sport weight. I have 5 skeins each of these three colors and several balls of two greens and a charcoal that may end up being the trim if I run out too soon. It is going to be many colored but I think it may end up looking a bit tweedy once it is woven and assembled. But in any case, I need a sweater and I want to use stash so it’s going to be what it is. I am using the 12″ Quilt Weaver square for the sweater, the same one I used for the old orange one. That one I did many years ago before I tried cut & sew so the sleeves in it were knitted. This one is going to be all woven so I am planning 24 squares, hence long term. I figure about 1 hour per square and I doubt I’ll be able to manage one a day, practically speaking. All of us have Other Lives which interfere with our weaving. sigh…;-)