Tag Archive | weaving

Heading into winter now…

Nov8

When I go back through my photos, looking for inspiration for this blog post I find the same thing all summer and it’s not weaving or yarn of much any kind. Garden, canning, veggies and fruits, even a few flowers and lately apples and pears and apples and apples and…

                   

There’s more apples. These are the Romes, best after a bit of frost. The Hyde king as the earliest, good for eating and baking and making applesauce. The unknown from the neighbors tree are a good firm tart cooking apples but also tasty if you like a tart apple. There’s a few more what I call wild trees, that produce good apples. No telling their linage but they all produced magnificently this year! As did the pears. It’s the same with them. There are a couple we know are Bartletts but there are others that are older trees. The pears are good but they do produce stones, those hard little “rocks’ that form around a bruise or the core so their use is limited if you don’t care for grit in your pears! However, there are plenty of good ones so we mostly leave these for the bear and whoever else likes a sweet fruit.

I could have posted more baskets of green beans, they were another prolific producer this summer. Along with cucumbers! Way more than we could use. I dried some and added them to the mix. Rehydrated and added to soup or a scramble you can’t tell them from anything else. I dehydrated most everything that grew in the garden this year. I put 11 quarts of dried Veggies in the pantry  a couple weeks ago. The garden is pretty much gone now. There are still carrots and the celery plants Sis brought me are still looking happy. They haven’t really made stalks as we think of them, but lots of tops which have a good celery flavor. I’ll dry some of that, too. It’ll serve as parsley if nothing else!

But there has been yarn happening.  This spring there was a happy class of beginning weavers making dish cloths over in Farmington, Utah, and five weavers joined me at Lambtown in Dixon Ca in October to weave Tartans. That was interesting and fun as well.  The skirt is a project of mine. Not entirely successful, still not finished, I just have to give a little more thought to it! The scarf is more successful and a lot easier project! The samples shown from the class are family tartans the weavers wanted to copy. It’s challenging to take a floor loom woven tartan pattern and translate it into diagonal continuous strand weaving, but these ladies were doing a good job of it. I’ve recently heard from one who is still working on her project. I hope they all are!

  

The fiber fairs are over for this year. We’re looking at next year, thinking about adding one or two. Himself wants to “take a trip” in the spring. He’s exploring via Google Earth to find the interesting places to go within our reach. Our reach has a time frame as we do have stuff to do here as well.  It would be interesting, I think, to be one of those vagabonds who live in their RV and just go from place to place. But not in the present 5th wheel! We’d need  a larger and roomier ‘home’. And even the ‘previously loved’ ones are pretty pricey, not to mention Big. We need a Tesseract! But it’s not practical, anyway. We have to be here to make looms, I don’t see being able to take the shop with us! lol And Cat wouldn’t like it. He likes his outdoor time which he wouldn’t get on the road. So we’ll take a week or so and then come back and take care of the garden and the rental cabin and the shop, and get ready for the next fiber fairs! And I might submit to magazines again, maybe, that takes up a lot of time.

But meantime, we’re heading into winter. What that will be like is anybody’s guess. The weather/climate experts are so far covering both sides! I love it. You might be cold and wet or you might be warm and dry! I think I could have predicted that! But hey, they are trying to predict nature so I guess we have to give them a break. They have fancier equipment to work with now days but Grampa’s arthritic knee was probably as accurate at predicting. But whatever it is, we’re ready. Wood shed and pantry well stocked. What else do you need?! I hope you have a lovely cosy one whether warm or cold! i’m looking forward to some snow… but not before Christmas!

 

 

April in Trinity

Apr18

It’s been beautifully sunny and warm this last week. The “glacier” on front of my kitchen is disappearing rapidly, bulbs coming up and blooming, trees starting to bud, birds and animals coming out of hiding!  This morning at 28 degrees there was new snow on the deck! Not much, but just April making sure we know it’s not May yet! But the sun is up again and that white is melting rapidly.

A crocus, reluctant to open in the frosty lawn and one of the first primroses blooming under a budding mini rose.

     

We are getting ready to leave for the Great Basin Fiber Arts fair in Utah next week. In spite of all that has come together to make this as difficult as possible I am actually looking forward to going. The latest disaster, in case I haven’t mentioned it, is his truck. The one that pulls the 5th wheel, is in the shop. It’s brain dead. It’s computer died and has had to be sent off to a company in New York that rebuilds/programs these units. We were told a month. I didn’t want to disappoint weavers there who’ve signed up for my classes so we’ve rented a U-Haul van and an airBnB and are going anyway. It is going to be an interesting trip!

I haven’t gotten a lot of weaving done this month, most has been more mundane stuff but things that needed to be done. I did work on some rectangular stuff, nothing finished or ready to be shown. And made a couple scrubbies for the house. Stuff like that. Did I mention the Cat?

I must have. I still haven’t been able to find his family or anyone who can give him a home.  He seems to be happy asking to be let out when he needs to answer nature. That’s fine as we really have no place to keep a littler box. We have been planning to take him to the shelter in Weaverville if I cannot find another home for him. At my age I really don’t need a cat under foot, and he is really good at the ankle twining cat thing! But it looks like we may end up keeping him after all. Randy talked to the temporary animal control person and was told that they are at capacity for cats and can’t take anymore. I’m not going to dump him or let him starve. He’s a very loving guy, also quite handsome and well mannered. He’s also a long haired white cat. So far in this cold weather, he has not been shedding but that’s one thing my last white cat did in abundance, I still find her “angora” on my black coat and stuff like that! But we’ll see.

We’re never going to be Vegans but I’ve been trying to be less carnivorous.  It’s much easier for me than it is for Himself but he rarely complains. He did comment on an article he read saying people need to eat less red meat, saying, “That’s not a problem around here.” I just agreed! lol It’ll be easier once the garden gets going again and we have lots of fresh veggies. Winter is hard since produce is limited and the grocery store is an 80 mile round trip. I can as much as we have for it in the summer but it’s starting to run our by this time of year. We’ve planted onions and peas. He’s says he had to replant some of the onions. I think it’s the jays who pull them up. Everybody is looking for fresh greens this time of year, he put wire over the pea row, just in case!

Well, looks like I’ve been a bit chatty this morning so it’s time to say Have a Nice Day! and get to work on the days chores! Hope you’re seeing signs of spring where you are!

 

 

 

Dish Towel on the new 14″ x 28″ loom.

Mar22

This is  our new Dish towel loom that weavers have been asking for. Several are making gift sets to give or sell. I used some peaches and Cream, called Ocean Stripes. This 100% cotton yarn is a bit lighter weight than the Lily Sugar and Cream I usually use but I only had plain colors of that on hand and wanted something more varied. I worked a single crochet around the edges because I thought it might help to stabilized the diagonal drape of this rectangle.  It has quite a bit of draw up before the fulling was done & I think no matter what, the diagonal is going to effect the final size/shape. I did not use this towel gently. It was hot wash, cold rinse, and full cycle in the dryer since I figured that would be the way my normal kitchen laundry would be done.

     

It works fine as towel in the kitchen. It feels quite soft and is as absorbent as the dish cloths made on larger looms and fulled the same way.

It was challenging for me to weave as it is a larger loom than I generally like to work with and I ended up weaving it much too tightly. I used one of my painting easels to hold the loom and set it on a dining chair so I could weave from my chair. I tired it on the dining table but it was too high there for me to reach well whether seated or standing. It took me three days to weave, not an average! I just worked at in by fits and starts as the saying goes. But all in all I am pleased with it.

 

Progress…

Mar1

I redid my seams so she now has sleeves. This is only pinned together as you can likely see but I am making progress. I do think I like the vertical alignment of the floats better but not enough to disassemble the whole thing!

 

While rummaging in my loom basket, I also found the 1×6 Randy made for me some time ago. Just for fun I used it to weave her headband and I really like it for that! It’s needs two plus the few rows of garter stitch. I did this blue on in plain weave as it seems a bit flimsy with the pattern stitch, but I did a 2nd using some Red Heat worsted, it was tight weaving but I did the pattern stitch with that, giving it a bit of ease, and it worked fine that way.

So I am happy to see some of you are making progress, too. I did get a head start of you all so ought to finish first, tho I can see that’s going to be close, too! lol

I’m deciding what I am going to offer as a bonus pattern to finishers.

WAL Official start today….

Feb28

I was late, however, due to our snowfall and power failure. The Great Guys from PUD got out there in the cold and snow and got it back working in just a few hours!

I have some pictures to share, unfortunately my camera decided it it needs a battery recharge this morning of all times! lol But I posted things yesterday so you should all be busy weaving squares toward this dress.

Just thought I’d share a couple other outfits I’ve woven for your inspiration and, hopefully, enjoyment!

This one is an attempt to weave a version of Molly’s meet outfit. It used the 4×6″ Multi for both the top and the skirt.

Addy is wearing one using the 4×6 and the  2″ Multi looms. I think this yarn is Caron’s Simply Soft. It’s on the heavy side for these looms but not bad. It’s also brighter colors than it shows here. I called it Festive.

     

And a Hoodie for Dean. This one used the Quilt Weaver looms. I gave it those Kangaroo pockets and a zipper. I’m afraid this hoodie is probably more for warm than fashion. For that, I think it needs to be black and have a deeper hood, for hiding in. It has knitted cuffs and edgings. I should have shortened the sleeves as well.

         

Kanani is wearing a cropped version. Her cargo pants are also woven.  She has way too much hair for the hood so it is just a collar for her. Here she is weaving on her ridged heddle loom. She is weaving a small afghan using some textured stash yarns.

There’s lots more. Once you get going with this you can easily design your own and they can also be embellished in anyway you like using knit, crochet; you can embroider or add beads. Sky’s the limit.

 

A bit of a fashion show.

Feb24

I spent yesterday having the ladies model some of the woven clothing in their wardrobes. Not all of them have written patterns but I think once you get the ‘hang’ of weaving for your dolls you won’t have any trouble designing your own. Meantime I hope you find these inspiring you to dig out your looms and yarns!

This one was fashioned after a dress knitted by Patricia Elizabeth over in Italy after one in the AG catalog, don’t recall what year.

It used the Multi looms. 6″ square for the front, 4×6″ for the back and skirt and 2×6″ was the sleeves. I indulged in a little lace work. No, I don’t remember what, but I could probably come up with some, if not quite the same. I think Pat’s dress was titled the White Dress, don’t remember what AG called theirs. Ruthy looks good it it if I do say so!

Still snowing here, 13″ this morning….

Uh-oh…

Feb22

Found one of my bins of woven doll things out in Le Shed. I thought those bins were mouse proof. Live and learn.

  

That was Molly’s Miss Liberty costume. But the rest of the bin was okay so I’ll get some pictures of other things I’ve made.

It’s still snowing but (knock knock) the lights are still on!

 

February again…

Feb18

But don’t worry, it’s not spring yet! More snow in the forecast on Tuesday and through the week it sounds like. I’m okay with that. We have gotten quite a bit of precip this winter but are still not caught up with the last dozen or more years of drought. Garden started to thaw a bit this week with the highs in the upper 40’s but there’s still plenty of time for that , too.

I’ve done little yarn things this winter, knitted myself a scrap vest. This is all the scraps and snippets saved from projects over the last decade, probably. Tied together in an overhand knot. Will that hold? Ask me in a few years of wearing it!

And played with a few weaving techniques, that’s about it. Just did this one yesterday. From a photo posted on the pin loom facebook group.

Randy is planning our trip to Utah next month to take part in the Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair, Friday April 28 and Saturday April 29
The Legacy Event Center – Farmington, Utah. I’ll be teaching a basic class on the 4 inch Multi loom, we’ll make a little needle book to learn plain weave and a texture pattern or two. The other class is the dishcloth class on the 10.5″ Quit Weaver Square. We’ll start with plain weave and see how far we get. The class schedule hasn’t been posted yet but should be soon–keep checking!

We’ll be at the Black Sheep Gathering, June 23, 24, & 25 and the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival,  October 14 & 15. Both in Albany, OR. I think we’ll also be at Lambtown in Dixon, CA, Oct 7 & 8. We’re also looking at Fiber Fusion Northwest in Monroe, Washington.  June 4 & 5. Maybe. Sounds like a lot, beginning to feel like a lot as well. I think I’m getting old as these affairs are a lot more stressful than they used to be. I suppose it’s good for me. At least that’s what Himself keeps telling! lol

Did I mention that we can almost see the lake again? Yes, indeed, it has been coming up rapidly this winter. Authorities warn us not to expect it to fill this spring, tho, Partly it appears, because they have other uses for the water up here. I don’t mind sharing but it would be nice if we had some lake. Our local businesses mostly rely on that body of water to draw the tourists that they rely on to stay in business. We’ve lost a few already who weren’t able to tough it out. That’s rough on us all.

Way in the back, that thin line of blue is the lake. The rock piles (a remnant of the mining days) show the river wending its way to join that pool. This is the view across the Lake(bottom) from Trinity Center where we had tp go last month to get internet and cell service from the Verizon tower there.

And my little Fox friend is still coming for dinner each evening. He doesn’t get much, I want him to still hunt but while the snow was still frozen on the ground hunting was difficult and I wanted to keep him around. He’s my best mouser!

I guess that’s all for now. I hope it’s not too Winter where ever you are. Spring isn’t far and we can all be outdoors grubbing in the dirt again!

 

Carrots & Radishes

 

Another WAL project.

Dec9

Been snowing all day, what a good time for making these projects! This time it’s the little baskets. If you are anywhere near my age, you remember making these little May Day baskets.  We made them in school or at home, picked a few poor wildflowers and hung them on neighbors door knobs. Then ring the bell and run and hide! Fun for both parties! Well these are woven and you can fill them with flowers or greenery or little gifts, whatever and hang then on the tree.

Easy easy as you can see! Fold the square to make a cone, add a tassel to the bottom and a loop to the top. They look pretty int sparkly yarns, too.

And don’t forget the little deer. They looks cute on the mantle or the table with the little snow persons as well as the tree.

You can find the instruction for these on the web site under projects.