Tag Archive | weaving. weave. loom

December Oneth already!

Dec1

Hasn’t improved things, I’m still behind and still losing things. Story of my life lately. Bah Humbug! Finished the 4″ square Christmas sweater for that Brazilian ladies’ yearly JAL. White on white just doesn’t work. So after 4 tries I went to a pale blue back ground and finally got a good photo. Even made a file especially to put it in.  Computer tells me this file is empty. Cannot find that picture anywhere on this perverter machine! Not going though all that again so too bad. I do have a picture of Piper wearing it, tho.

I’m mostly working on the stitch patterns for the continuous weave looms. So far mostly the 7″, both regular and fine sett. And finishing up some magazine submissions. And I have to make bread today. There’s stuff in the yard and flower beds that need some pre-weather cleaning up. It May happen. And the ravens are hanging around in the neighborhood today, being noisy. Not common here, wonder what’s up with that.  They have been before during fledgling season but I told them to come back Nevermore!

Okay, with that I guess I’d better get the laundry started and the roast ready to go in the oven. Hope your December is starting out more cheerful!

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.

 

Last Week….

Nov3

Looks like I was mistaken about the enduing date! The WAL will end on Wednesday November 11. That adds a couple more days for those of you who need a little more time to finish! Go! Go! You don’t want to miss a chance at this prize!

The last Week of the Anniversary WAL. It ends Monday midnight. that gives you 5 1/2 days to get your red bird finished up. Remember, you don’t have to make anything of it to qualify as a finisher, just need to have the chart woven and assembled. Of course I’ll be delighted if you do manage to get it made into something so try for it! How about adding a waist band and making it a Hostess apron for your Thanksgiving get-together?! A  little old fashioned maybe retro!, but I remember Momma wearing her prettiest aprons for those festive occasions when she had to be in the kitchen as well as in entertaining guests and family. But in any case I hope to see a few more finishers getting a chance at our BIG PRIZE!!!

A few pieces woven on the fine set. the lacy bit used the Croquette. It’s about the size of #30 crochet thread, I think. Has a bit of metallic sparkle which never shows in photos.

Post a comment to let us know how you are getting along with your project!

WAL week three already.

Oct27

Turns out week three is half gone and I am already late post it. Well, you all either have most of you weaving done and re starting assembly or you are already putting it off and are probably not going to finish. You know who you are! How many woven UFOs have you got?! I’ll bet 99% of us have at least one. But now you’ve got an investment in yarn and time, you may as well finish and have something nice to show for it, right? So if you are behind, get it out and make another go!

 

 

Yeah, I have a few, too. But I manage to finish two projects for this one knowing you were all watching me! I’m watching your guys, too!

Well, this weeks prize will be a couple of my books. I haven’t decided which yet but I’ll pick a couple that I think most people might be interested in weaving. But again, post your comment here to be in the drawing!

 

Raining fish and frogs!

Oct21

Well, not really. Used to do that once in awhile when I lived in Florida years ago, but never seen it here. But we are all delighted to see it raining hard enough that the Fire Service people are considering the fires to be OUT!  

I finished my Antimacassar yesterday but was not able to load it here and it kept timing out. So I’ll try again! I added a 14″ triangle to the top to hang over the back of the chair to keep it in place and still let the whole picture show. I’m not really very happy with the additional stuff on the top left but not unhappy enough to rip it out and do over. Worked a SC in white around the edge just to finish it off neatly. Now I just have to find a shiny black button to give him an eye. Sister insists that he needs one in spite of the fact that it’s probably not going to show.

So I hope you are all making some headway, maybe even starting to assemble? Hope to hear some progress reports!

Remember, this weeks prize is a 4″ Multi triangle loom! The dusty one in the photo is mine, you’ll get a new un-dusty one!

Row two is the most complicated bit and that is really not that hard once you look at how it’s put together. It’s just overlapping triangles!

Weaving a Pot holder

Sep4

Okay, finally here’s some weaving content! When packing up the kitchen in case of evacuation I used all my potholders as packing material between breakables. Clever, huh? Yes, but I still have to cook meantime! The too thin commercial pot holder that was left  is cute but I may as well use my barehand and burn scars are not cute! I I dug out some yarns and the 3.5×7″ Quilt Weaver rectangle and wove a few. Two are Brown Sheep’s Lamb’s Pride 80% wool, 20% mohair and a skein of my own handspun, unlabeled, of course. That’s how I know it’s mine. Rosy, my spinning sister, labels hers with fiber type and yardage. Anyway, I wove two of each yarn and felted them in the washer with some bath mats. Not a good choice by the way as they incorporated  a nice bit of white fuzz onto my blocks. But as I am not after pretty with this project I didn’t let that stop me, just something to keep in mind!

So now I see that the Brown Sheep felted up nice and tight, the hand spun less so but still good. I decided that the Brown Sheep were going to be a little too small for my project and that both were still a little thinner than I wanted for a pot holder. So I sewed the smaller ones to the larger to make my holder a double thickness. Then I used a blanket stitch to sew the two pads together.

Those of you who use the original non-stick (cast iron) skillets know how hot that handle can get but I think I’ve fixed that now! I’ll tell you after breakfast tomorrow!

It’s not pretty or cute but it looks like doing what I need. It ought to be pretty fire proof too, so hopefully I won’t set the kitchen on fire! However, I think I’ll make another and make it just a bit shorter. And maybe this time I’ll go for cute as well as safety!

 

Trying again…

May6

Not only am I not techy, I think I have the Anti-techy gene! But I’ll keep trying! I think I have figured out how to do this… maybe.

It’s springtime so we are doing all those springtime things, garden, cabin, jobs for Himself, garden, project writing for me, spring cleaning, garden… lol You know how it goes! I have several projects going on the looms and am trying to Organize, Wow! That’s a huge word for me. Always has been but even more so these days. I just find that I really don’t want to, I just want it to all go away and leave me alone! I guess most of you can understand these days. Mostly I’m okay as long as there is no deadlines. You’d think that at my age the only deadlines I’d have would be those I give myself but that hasn’t worked out for me for some reason. Probably goes back to that word- Organize. Should have taken care of that a couple decades ago. Ah well… Time to quit bitchin’ and get on with it.

Garden seems to have come up most in the above list. Climate and weather warming up early so naturally the gardening bug hits. Still too early tho for most things. Got peas growing- slowly it seems to me. If they don’t hurry they’ll get caught in the big heat before they’re ready. And the tomato plants are outgrowing their temp pots before it’s time for them to go in the ground. I think that’s going to be next week- ready or not!

The iris are blooming up a storm now. These were the first ones but there’s more colors now and the morels below were a bit of a surprise! I think I counted about 26 of them in the lawn. I don’t plan on cutting them. They’re welcomed to do their thing. Everything seems to be blooming  very abundantly this year even tho we are in a drought, the state tells us. I guess fire weather has already impacted some parts. It’ll be here soon, too. Meantime yard and woods are all blooming and lovely.

Weaving is making progress, too. Have several projects done or in the works for publishing and have started swatching for my cardigan.  I have a bunch of nice wool, I’ve knit and frogged a couple cardigans already and am now determined to weave another one like my raggedy orange one. I over fulled (felted!) my 2nd swatch. Too much time elapsed after the first one so didn’t remember what I’d done to get that one perfect. Got another square woven so will try again today. Once I get that right I can get an estimate of how many squares I’m going to need. I still have another knit sweater I can frog if I need more yarn.

Been playing with pattern stitches for the Quilt Weavers. It is more difficult to get them for that loom than for the Multi for a couple reasons. One- it is woven diagonally and it is a much larger/wider set. The diagonal edge needs special attention so that it stays woven to make a selvage edge.  That leaves less room in the center for the arty work.  And a lot of stitches are lacy which makes the sett even more important. Too loose and you have no definition, it just looks a jumble. Too tight and the opposite makes your lace disappear, makes it look solid. And the tightness is partly the yarn you use as well as your tension and stitch. Does that help make it plain? lol

Here’s a couple. Lacy but not very stable. Both using a heavy yarn. They’d very likely be more stable once stitched together, but both need some work.  My cardigan uses a  simpler pattern. More a texture stitch than a lace.

The right is the fulled one, the other woven of frogged knit yarn, unblocked. I’m going to try machine fulling it as I think that’s what I did to that first one. Should have taken notes, hummm?

Well, I think that’s enough for today I need to get some work done. Have a lovely day!

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.

  

 

 

Whopee!

Apr7

The new Little Looms magazine just came out and I’m in it! They wanted my little Onsie, woven on the 4″ square Multi loom. This is only my 2nd time being Published. A few years ago Handwoven had one of my doll dresses in it. I  think I’ve caught the Bug! lol I’ve got a list of subjects and dates for projects and am busy planning!

But here’s the Onsie.

If you have a new baby coming, child, grandchild, friend, you might like this one. It’d make a great shower gift, too! (Link above to magazine, or check your local book store-if you can do so safely.) I used the 4″ triangle, too, but I think you could use the square and just fold it. However, we would be happy to sell you a 4″ triangle, they are very handy! The theme was Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. Mine is named after a flower so in the Veg category. This magazine only comes out once a year but I’ve already submitted & had accepted my project for next year.

Hey! Remember… You knew me when!

 

 

Looks like we’re staying home for Easter.

Mar23

I was thinking about that and remembered I had woven some bunnies in days of yore so headed out to Le Shed to see what I could find. The lavender bunny was the first one I made and that back in the first year we were making looms. Back when I was doing a newsletter. I’m not sure where that went, just kind of faded, I guess. But this 20 year old bunny is still hanging in, looking a bit worn but still identifiable! He’s pretty simple so I think you  can probably figure out how I did it by this little sketch.

This sad little guy came sometime later. He does have real rabbit ears tho drooping like they are here they look more like bear ears in this photo. The back view shows them and how I gave him a tail. It’s just a cotton ball sewn on. He’s also made with two triangles but I just tied off his ears and gathered his neck a bit. The rest was playing with some needle sculpting. Wasn’t very good at it but he does sit up and shows a bit of legs and arms. His nose is a big French knot, and I gave him glued on goggle eyes.

The third bunny is the newest one, only a few years old. I used some fuzzy yarn for him and a square and a triangle. As it happens, I did write this one up! It’s a downloadable pdf file. Hope you enjoy this one!

Bunnies