Tag Archive | hand woven

A couple of new old projects.

I was rummaging and found these two. The quilt top was one of the first projects I made with our looms. I used the Tiny Weaver set, the 3 1/2″ square and triangle, to make this quilt top. I ran it though the washer and found some quilt batting and fabric for a backing and now it’s a proper quilt. I think it’s about crib size. The backing color is not ideal, but it was the only bit of fabric I could find in my stash that fit.

The other thing I found was a blouse I made for myself back in the day, too. It has used an assortment of loom sizes. The 12″ and the 3 1/2″ I think. The yoke and sleeves in this one are knitted. I can’t recall off hand what the yarn is called but it’s a sport weight (I think) cotton. It was comfortable and nice to wear but you probably notice that I am speaking in the past tense. Well, you know how things go when you ‘grow up’.

But now we’re almost ready to leave for Canby and OFFF. Randy is finishing up his 7 foot shawl loom. He promised someone (Sorry but we can neither of us remember who) that he’d have one this year. I think I am ready. Tomorrow I take the cats in to the ‘motel’ & buy groceries for the trailer and Thursday we hit the road. Keep your fingers x-ed for a cool but dry weekend!

Do come see us if you can!

Busy Bees!

Sep20

Well, we’re not bees but busy we are! Having been gone about a week and a half to fiber shows we have a lot of catching up to do before we leave again for Canby and the Oregon Flock and Fiber Fair. Got rained out last year… well, more like blown out, so are watching the forecasts closely. This was the Natural Fiber Fair in Arcata, Ca. I failed to get a picture in Booneville, where the event was held in conjunction with the county fair, midway and all. It was pretty exciting!

Meantime, we found orders for over 70 looms when we got back plus ripe tomatoes and wind fall apples that are attracting the deer and have to be canned this week. The apples might wait but the tomatoes and beans wouldn’t. And trip laundry and 200+emails lol Such problems! Anyway, if you are waiting for your order, please be patient, we are peddling as fast as we can!

The fairs were enjoyable and we sold looms and made a few new weavers, I think. We did some ‘boondocking’ at the ocean side, too, which was fun. Going to sleep with the sound of the crashing waves was at first a bit of a challenge. Crashing was certainly the correct word! I hadn’t realized how much noise water hitting on rocks would be. Much more than our little stream running over the smallish dam here at home.

But speaking of water sounds, we got to go to sleep with the sound of falling rain a couple nights ago! That was indeed a welcomed sound! A neighboring town, just over the hill, has suffered quite a tragedy, they are saying at least a quarter of the town has burned. I feel much better with this rain and more predicted for next week.

And I think I have my Weaving for your Doll book nearly ready. Last evening I got to finish the leotard and will try to get photo’s for it today between shop work and applesauce! But now I need to get Himself some breakfast and go to work. Hope you get some weaving time today!

On the road again….

Sep5

We are getting ready to leave for a couple shows. First in Arcata for the Natural Fibers fair and then next weekend to Booneville for the Californian Wool and Fiber Fair. If you are in either area, we hope you’ll come by and see us. Later this month we’ll be in Canby for the Oregon Flock and Fiber Fair up near Portland.

So not much time at home this month and tho I don’t have any projects to share this time I will be weaving as we go. I was given some yarn, a generic wool and alpaca, nice but not next to skin soft and I am weaving 7″ squares with it. I am thinking I might make an afghan but it would also make a nice jacket, and a little more conservative than my last one. But right now I’m weaving and considering. We’ll see what happens!

I also just got my Weaving for Dolls book finished and will have it with us if any of you are also doll fans. I’ll be working on a project for them on this trip as well.

But I have been clipping pictures from magazines and catalogs for my ideas file. I found this one & thought the collar was rather interesting. I’m never sure if anything will come of the collection but they do help ideas to simmer in the background and sometime inspiration happens. We’ll see.

Meantime, hope to see you are one of the fairs but if not…

Happy Weaving!

Oh my… how time flies…

Aug22

And that’s even if you’re not having fun. Not that I’m having un-fun, it’s just that time of year, but sorry I have been so long in posting. Peaches got ripe, then the fire and three shows coming up in September, then his truck had to go to the shop. We have to go pick it up today. You know how these things go.

But sis was down this week for an all too short visit and brought along a couple skeins she has spun from her birthday fleece.. I got a chance to try it out with a little weaving in the evening while we chatted. I used the 7 inch set. We had been discussing pattern weaves on the Multi and I thought I’d try one diagonally. I think it worked pretty well so will have to get busy and try a few more of them. This one is the slide stitch. I wove a few rows, six I think, and then worked a slide row with three regular rows in between & it came out nicely spaced. Now don’t take my word for this as I can’t really remember for sure. I’m not going to tell you the details of how to do it this morning but will work it as I type tomorrow so hopefully can get it right. Meantime if you’re interested you can go to my YouTube- Weaver Hazel– and take a look at the Multi version.

But here’s what I made with the sample yarn. Two squares and two triangles, sc around the edges and a tie string. It’s an ear warmer. I’ll also try to get a photo of it on. This kind of shows the pattern stitch.

Not what I started but…

Aug7

I think it worked out okay, tho a more simple garment. I know poncho’s haven’t really been in style since Martha Stewart got out of jail but I’ve never had one and thought it might really work as well as a shrug for those coolish times of the day when you don’t really want a sweater. For one thing, sleeves are difficult in the shop. The sleeves either catch on the nails or sweep them off the work table, then I have to get out my handy dandy magnet on a handle and get them up off the floor. And same thing just sitting and weaving, they get hung up on everything. Not sure this garment will work any better but I’m going to try it. After trying it on again, I think I might end up adding a couple more rows to the neckline to raise it a bit, but I might wait until cooler weather to decide if I need that. I fitted a 12″ triangle at the back neck to raise the back a bit. I just about had a heat stroke wearing this for Himself to take the photo. lol What with the smoke from the fire and the thunder storms, the heat and humidity are trapped at ground level here and it gets pretty uncomfortable. But here’s what I came up with. I’ve had some suggestions for the shrug and I have more Jiffy so it is still a possibility. But next on my to-do is tending to the peach crop!

Okay, scratch that.

Aug3

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!

But I do have a couple things to show you, meantime. This 14″ square was proving a little unhandy as a lap loom the other evening and I remembered I had this table easel over in my painting stuff so went and fetched it out. It works pretty good for this. My middle sister made one for me that sits on the edge of the table that would also work but I’m not sure where that one is at this point. But you might want to consider something like this if you’re having the same problem. I have it set on a dining chair to put it to the right height for me to work on from my chair.

The other thing is joining. You can do a russian join, which is what I have been doing, or if you have wool, the ‘spit’ join. But I just sewed the yarn into the new piece without the russian loop and it holds really well in both wool and acrylic. It may make a bit thinner lump that the previous type join. You could probably thin it by cutting plies before you stretch the join out, but I haven’t tried it yet. Sew the yarn into next strand, pull the last end flat (after you take the needle off) then work the first end flat. If you have a little lump at the beginning you can work that out with a needle and trim it.

Okay, I’m going to weave another 14″ twill square and think about what this is going to become since it’s not, after all, going to be a shrug.

What’s next?

Aug2

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″.

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.

Hazel Rose

My Life in the Country