11-11-11

Obligatory "cool date in history" post today. It was actually a pretty good day - lots of cheer at work and good knitting progress this evening. I fed the snake, finished another book, started the last skein of yarn for Martha's sweater, watched some programs on Netfix and patted the dog on the head.

I had the bright idea to have a card weaving workshop with my No Idle Hands friends/ group and now I am at that stage of preparation where I realize I have no idea what I am doing. On the other hand, fun is the important part... and I did a little prep work this week so it shouldn't be a total disaster.

No World of Warcraft this week, as I am trying to finish up the sweater, but I sure do miss it.

A Day at the Demo

Yesterday I spent the day demonstrating spinning and weaving with the No Idle Hands group. Cleverly, I managed to forget to have someone take a picture of me! But here is the view from my loom. There were spinners, knitters, someone was making bobbin lace, another woman was grinding grain, a fellow was cutting and sewing a waistcoat and two ladies had their lucets in use. The gentle arts were well represented.

It was a very pretty day and I had a good time. I was a little overwhelmed with new people and was not the chattiest me, but I got out there and that is a start. I brought the table loom and worked on the little huck lace tea towels for a while and fielded lots of weaving questions. I often demonstrate spinning and know all the answers to the usual cadre of questions, but I do not have a weaving "patter" yet and was at a loss for words several times. It will get easier with practice, I am sure. My least favorite question is surely 'but it is so complicated, I will never understand'. I just want to shake them and say, but just look and listen and pay attention instead of saying I can't and you may surprise yourself!

Anne and I went on walkabout to see the rest of the fair and to visit with the other spinning group who was there. I got out the distaff, spindle and grey corriedale roving and we were quite a hit. I even knew one of the Riverside Spinners from a Riverspinners event several years ago. It is a small spinning world.

We were right next to the Gentlemen Adventurers (a sword-fighting group) and it was very interesting to see their gear and watch their demos and displays of weaponry and skills.

Set up was a little disorganized (I am not used to bringing a loom and had no idea how to lay out my space), but tear down was quick and worry free. We were home at a decent hour and barely sunburned at all.

Warp Speed

I finally decided to warp up the loom for a sampler. I measured out the warp the other day, but finally had a good chunk of time today to get the warping done in one shot (little weaving joke there). I want to make some huck lace dishtowels and figured I should make a sampler first to better understand the construction of the different kinds of huck lace patterns.The loom with the warp chains wrapped around the front beam, the reed sleyed and the heddle threading in progress. My loom is an 8 harness. I am using harnesses 1-4 for the pattern threads and 5 -6 for the tabby borders / selvedge. The heddles are threaded (I only had to rethread half due to an error), the warp is attached to the back beam and the warp is beamed. Spacers in back courtesy of Trader Joe and his paper grocery sacks. Same stage, view from the back. Threads are going obediently over the back beam.

Front beam is tied on, warp threads have been adjsuted for tension and knots secured. Oddly, I had a vast difference from R to L with the length of the warp threads. I am not sure if this is due to bad tension while beaming, or if I used different pegs to wind the two warp chains. Note to self - mark your pegs next time.The pattern cloth has begun! The green yarn is just to space out the warp threads evenly. The cloth so far is one repeat each of the first two lace patterns in the sampler - weft floats in block A (tabby block B) and weft floats in block B (tabby block A).

I was cursing the textbook for putting the treadling in the center of the book, making it difficult to follow, but I just remembered I have a copy machine and I can fix that problem. Now to find a speedy way to wind bobbins and I will be zooming merrily along.

Total processing time? About three and a half hours steady work. It took about an hour longer than that, but I was not moving very fast and also watching a movie.

Busy Weekend

I made it out to the Renaissance Faire yesterday. I stocked up on incense, bought a new pair of scissors, saw the Moonie Show:and generally had a good time. I saw the (new) queen in her court and out on walkies, Spun some yarn in the guildyard, ate a potato and got amazingly dusty. However, I was cute as a button and sunburn-free. I took the walking stick that I use as a distaff and got lots of attention. Few re-enactors use a distaff nowadays, so it creates interest with participants as well as the public. I also managed to get some spinning done while "on the move".

Friday I visited with some faire friends and discovered that I love dachshunds. They are in the running for the next dog I get (if any) after mine kick their buckets. That night I saw "As You Like It" at the Redlands bowl. It is enacted with a Wild West theme, and was loooooong. It made "Titus Andronicus" look much better in comparison. Next week "Leading Ladies" opens at Redlands Footlighters and I think I will waddle by and check it out.

Today I wound some warp to make a huck lace sampler and had the cockatiels out for walkies. Mustardseed really is just the sweetest thing ever. She has the sweet temper of her granddam Dante (my first cockatiel). The newest babies (3 months old now) are very much still in the sassy-pants stage, although clipping their wings last week has begun to change their outlook. Back to the weaving - I want to make a set of huck lace distowels, but think I will do the smart thing and work up a sampler of the different patterns to get accustomed to the concept. I am using "The Best of Weaver's: Huck Lace" as my guide. It has been in the library for a year and needs to earn its keep at some point! The warp is wound and the loom is in the other room calling to me. Now, if only I remember how to warp!

Speedy Sunday

Where did the day go?! It seems I was just zipping over to gardening day at Martha's. I brought home a tomato for my garden, but did not get as far as planting it today. There will be time before work tomorrow.

Groceries, tv, nap, free flight time for the cockatiels and suddenly it was 7pm. Whew! I took some excedrin for a massive headache and now it is 10pm and I am wide awake and ready to go. Fabulous.

This evening I am making a little progress on a handwoven pouch and flipping through my book on huck lace with an eye to weaving up some dishowels for sale. There has to be a way to rig up my swift (which is missing its clamp) so that I can wind off some warp tomorrow. I am also pondering a way to make a single (huge) cone of 1ply into a useable 3 or 4 ply... I see a lot of re-winding in my future. Aha! I just looked to my right and found the two cones of white cotton 8/2 that I was missing. Someday I will get all the weaving yarns in the same place.

A nice hot day today - which serves as an incentive to get the windows & screens in good order so I can get some breezes in the evenings.

Spring is for Weaving

I added a new weaving blog to the sidebar - Blossom Merz - for your enjoyment. His work is quite lovely and his posts about the process of starting a viable commercial weaving business from the ground up are enlightenting and encouraging. It is a lot of work, but he has vision, a plan and persistence. It is paying off! You may have seen him and his work last year at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire or run across his Etsy store. Do click over and visit!

High Fiber Content

My haul from Newton's parking lot sale last weekend: From Left to Right:

• Firsa the cat - 13 years old and still the center of attention
• a cone of 20/1 100% viscose (I bought 2 cones, and they are huge), destined to be curtains.
• a cone of sage green mystery fiber. It strongly resembles 20/2 cotton, dyed green. I think it will match well with the white & brown cotton that is already in my stash. Dishtowels, here I come!
• 3 cones of rayon chenille (one in graphite & 2 in porcini) that might someday be a simple plaid or striped scarf.

I also got a book on weaving Huck / Huck Lace that looks very interesting. I certainly have enough cotton & viscose to go to town! This is the yarn for my next sweater project, Cece from Chicknits. It is cotton & viscose plied together, which gives it a lovely sheen and drape. Linda at Knit N Stitch has quite a bit of it, in 6 or 8 colorways. They are each quite subtle, but all lovely. This one is blue, gold & aqua. I think it will look cool and refreshing.

And, sadly, Mr Whiskers died in the night. He was at least 7, maybe 8, so he had a good long run. He was a good piggy though, and will be missed. This picture was taken about a year ago at his one and only adventure as a show pig (see the ear tag?).

Falling

Time to check in for a bit. It has been dry, windy and alternately warm and cool here, leading to a general feeling of ' am I sick or are these dust sniffles? '. All the lotion and hair conditioner has come out from storage, as well as the flannel jammies.

I am still working in weaving class, warping up for an overshot practice piece. One mistake in the warp became 2 and then 3... what a mess. I muddled thru and learned a lot about just doing things correctly in the first place! Threading has commenced and I should be ready to throw a shuttle in a couple more weeks. Home weaving has been on hold, although I have repaired the warping board and have a long list of things that need to be made up, and soon.

Mama and the kittens all got sterilized last week and are recovering nicely. The boys look a little... deflated. The girls got more of a Brazilian wax. Want one?

Knitting has recommenced after a long wool-free summer. The burgundy Icarus shawl has been dusted off and is looking good. I have also been threatening to have a Wallaby KAL for a couple years now and finally started one so that I will be able to help the class. The brown romney I was spinning last winter is just the thing and progress is swift.

Driving has been cut to a minimum until I can save up the $400 I need for the rest of the repairs it needs (my oil change ended up being $300 in repairs and that was just the things that would have killed me on the way home), but I think I can carpool to the Handweavers' show this weekend, so fun is still in my future!

Parade of Finished Objects

First, the upholstery fabric. I think it came out quite well. It softened after wet-finishing, but the blue did not pucker noticeably and the boucle bits in the white stripes became more prominent. It has a good weight and a dense enough texture to be approved for upholstery by my weaving class, so I call it a success. Now to find cheap pillow forms and some foam to make a weaving bench pad.

A wide shot of the cottolin fabric. This is the twill side, and you can barely, barely see the herringbone pattern through the textured, striped yarn. This picture is after wet-finishing, a trip through the dryer and having the holy hell ironed out of it. Measured shrinkage was minimal, although the cotton portion did fluff up considerably. The fabric has become much softer and more pliable. The tabby side also came out well, but the picture is not very interesting. "Yup, looks like cloth, Martha". A super-close up of the twill portion. Hopefully you can click to enlarge but I can see about setting up a weaving folder on my flickr account for better viewing. I really enjoyed working with the linen, broken warp threads notwithstanding.

I have also discovered that I am sick of using a dummy warp. It is meant to give extra length to the warp so that you can use every inch of your fashion fabric, which is valuable for dear yarns or handspun. I find that I lose more weaving time, and gain more stress, than I had in the weaving process in that last 6 inches. I will stick to tying a back apron rod onto the warp beam.

Next on the weaving plate? Overshot sampling in weaving class and cotton tea-towels (full size) at home. I also need to warp up for the gray blanket.

I Made Waffles!

First, the world's darkest picture of waffle weave. One weft portion is handspun cotton singles, the remainder is the 8/2 2-ply I used for warp. I just need to cut the washcloths apart and hem them. I remembered to leave an inch for hemming this time! I hope you can see that the squares, after washing, became much smaller and deeper. The fabric is very squashy.My new project - cotton / linen 2 ply for both the warp and the weft. Sett is 24 epi, threading is herringbone (style?) on 8 shafts. This is just a little 1 yard sample. I can see the twill reverse direction in this picture (it makes little waves), but it is nearly impossible to see in person. I will try some tabby weave later for comparison.I am learning about a sticky shed, about an in flexible yarn, and about working with flax in single-digit humidity. I think it will soften after washing. I will take it to my dressmaker friend and see if it will work for its intended purpose - a skirt. It is so nice and light though, she may approve a blouse.

Well, weaving is all I want to do today, but it is off to demo spinning and weaving at the fair. I will remember to bring my charkha this time and hopefully figure out something to pack as a lunch.

Good Tidings

The handspun cotton is working out great (we will check in again after wet-finishing) and I rigged a bobbin winder out of my power drill, a bic pen and a hair tie.

But I may have to ask for one for Christmas.

Peer Pressure

Since the looms are apparently the best place to be, I thought I would get back to work. But I didn't want to disturb a sleeping Bingo, so I broke out the table loom and an audio book from the library (The Princes of Ireland by E. Rutherfurd) and got down to it.There was warp already on the loom, left over from the last batch of tea towels. I chose a basic waffle-weave as my next project and rethreaded the heddles and resleyed the reed. It only took about an hour for each - amazing how fast it goes when I sit and do it! I also thought and thought until I figured out a way to add more heddles to shafts that were already threaded. It worked out well, and the 2o minutes of thinking and the 20 minutes of fiddling were less than the hours it would have taken to put 12 string heddles on each of 4 shafts *shudder*. I am glad I ordered those extra heddles (way back when).I hope you can click to "embiggen" the pictures. Waffle weave makes little squares in the fabric just like, well, waffles. The treadling is a little more complicated than tabby or twill, but not terrible. I have to pay attention though, as I have threaded pattern repeats on shafts 1-4 and 5-8 so that I can use more ends.

I am also using the same yarn for warp and weft in this sample. I have quite a bit of handspun cotton set aside, so I may try sampling with some of that too. The handspun is thinner than the warp, however, and I wonder what it will do to the weave structure.

All right kitties, off the loom, it is time to get back to work!

Weaving Class Info

The main website for Tri-community adult school in Covina.

A list of the summer term offerings is here (although the term just ended). I don't see the fall schedule up yet. The weaving class will be $25 + $10 registration for each 3 hour session when classes start again 9/7. Registration is on a 'just show up' basis, so get there about 20 minutes early. Looms are provided and there is *plenty* of free yarn to get you started. There is also yarn for purchase or you can bring your own. They also have a spinner's corner with equipment and fiber if you would prefer to learn to spin.

We meet at location two. It takes about 45 minutes from Riverside, but at least we are driving the opposite way of all the traffic!

There is no 'required' reading but you may want to get Handwoven, Learning to Weave (Chandler), A Weaver's Companion, or Mastering Weave Structures (Alderman).

Woolies and Weavings

The new weaving project in class: A close up:
The previous project. Woven half this size and unfolded. Pay no attention to the unfinished edges. Mr. Whiskers and Lola (she was a show pig):

Baby lionhead rabbits. Fuzz-licious!

Imagine

If anyone has seen my camera, can you send it home? It was supposed to come in when the streetlights came on. Haven't seen it in weeks, even though The Great Decluttering of 2009 continues.

Redlands Bowl season is here, so there is more knitting time in my week now. The first of the blue socks is nearly done and they might be fair-worthy. Opening night was packed with both people and good entertainment.

The first project from my weaving class is off the loom and wet-finished (imagine picture here). I need to figure out a good edging treatment and decide if it is a mat, towel or blanket. This project was my fist of double-wide double-weave, which gives a finished item twice as wide as the working width of the project. I think my fold line was pretty iffy, but the class and the teachers assure me it was pretty darn good. Wet finishing changed the texture significantly, so my first order of business in our next class is trying to find out why it changed, followed by how to avoid those changes and/ or how to duplicate them in a future project.

Someone came by the spinning demo booth at the farmers' market Friday and suggested we wander by the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum to see the weavers' barn. Denise was agreeable, so Saturday was filled with chili dogs, soft serve, tractors, weaving, looking for a water fountain, and contemplating the blacksmithing class. Then back at the ranch we admired the goats and sheeps and horses. A good day.

I am going to a wedding next weekend and am scrambling for a gift. Yarn, perhaps.

Wednesday Weaving

I forgot to post the picture I took of our weaving classroom. Someone from a newsletter or paper came by to take pictures, so we uncovered every loom. I siezed the opportunity to get a shot for the blog! This is not even all of them. It was also a lovely opportunity to see more of the projects that students are working on... every one of those floor looms (and there are several out of shot) is assigned to someone.

We had our 3rd session this evening and I am still working on getting my dummy warp set up. The bad news is that my intended project is just not going to fit on the loom I was assigned, but the good news is that I can use the same tie-up for another project and use the loom at home for the original one. Now that the front room is much tidier I want to make a bunch of rugs and runners to brighten it.

Weekly Wrap-Up

It is another beautiful day in the neighborhood. Set up the soap booth at the local farmers' market today and was astounded by the wind. It was really quite impressive. Picked up a little swiss chard for dinner tonight... the ones in my garden are really not growing fast enough.

Knitting progress is still slim. Washcloths are due soon and I had fewer than I thought, so there has been a lot of work on those. The lace stole is still in limbo and there is no lace mojo on the horizon. Even my socks have been stalled since I switched knitting bags. Fortunately it is too warm now for socks and I have plenty in the sock drawer already in case we have an early spring blizzard. I did stop by Knit N Stitch for an quick visit this afternoon and was reminded how much I love yarn and the people who work with it. We even got to burn someone’s yarn! The burn test is one way to determine the fiber of a yarn – wool turns to ash, acrylic melts, et cetera.

Saturday is the GLASG meeting so I will be there with fiber, a smile and some soap. It is always nice to visit with spinners, and I anticipate I can get a lot of progress made on the box of brown Romney roving. It seems that the more I spin, the less the level of wool in the box goes down! The black Romney fleece is nearly all scoured and dried now, so I can work on that soon. It will be fun to break out the drum carder! I think after that I will be ready for some white or anything with color. The theme of the meeting is trying out different kinds of wheels and spindles, so I will pack a couple interesting ones and maybe one will find a new home.

Denise and I started the weaving class in Covina this week. The facility is amazing – they have been in that room since the ‘70s and that class has been running since ’37. They must have 50 floor looms and a couple dozen table looms, plus a dyeing room, a small spinning area, a triangle loom and bunches and bunches of free / donation yarn for projects. I don't know what I was expecting, but that was not it. The folks are all very nice and it turns out most of us recognize each other from various fiber events - sometimes it is good to be known as "the soap lady"!

I am planning on learning the doublewide – doubleweave technique, where one weaves a cloth that you can unfold it when it comes off the loom and is twice as wide as it seemed. Double weave can also be used to make cloth that is a tube, has pockets, has a front and a back that are entirely different or to make two pieces of cloth at the same time (one sits above the other). It is all very clever.

I am also fascinated by the idea of woven lace (huck, atwater-bronson, etc) and might make some curtains later in the semester. I have to get Martha’s blanket done at some point in my life. She would prefer if it were soon! I am still such a new weaver that I am not sure what all the weaving ‘options’ are. So many things in our environment are made from woven fabric but how often do we stop and evaluate them? Do I want to make curtains? Rugs? Upholstery fabric? Towels? Yardage for clothing? That is why I want to be in a class – not just for instruction and guidance but also for inspiration and variation.

I brought the guinea pig to gardening day at Martha's this week and he was well admired. They commented how well the red pig looked in the green grass against the purple flowers; maybe we should make a calendar!

Back in the World

Presenting the Tea Towels! They are all woven with a handspun weft, using 100% cotton. These are the final 4 and each one is unique. They are all preshrunk and measure around 8" x 30". $25 each or two for $45. Please email for availability to sleepingfox16 at yahoo dot com. Teapot not included :) White with Blue Twill Border

Pink Twill

Green Stripe

Blue Stripe.

Today I joined "The Ladies" at quiliting and we got Christie's quilt up and running. I need to learn how to do the actual quilting before I can help, but I did finish pinning my little "Elements" quilt together along the stitching lines so I can machine quilt it. I also found sashing and backing fabric for the two 9 patch quilts that are in progress.

I have been knitting along on the Halloween socks and am well into the leg of sock 1. All other knitting is still languishing, but I look at it affectionately. The Halloween socks have the advantage of being plain stockinette, which makes them good travel / therapist appointment knitting.

Spinning continues on the gray cormo. I have been using it to practice my long draw / semi woolen technique. Since the Millie has a delta orifice, I have to use one hand as the "point" of the spindle and the other does the drafting. It makes more sense when you see it. It is time to pluck Olive (the angora bunny) again. He finally looks like a properly fuzzy bun - no big mats or areas which are half grown next to areas which are plucked bare. I had better get on it before it gets any colder, so his winter coat can grow in.

Steve McQueen is still the chubbiest mouse in town. He knows that if he puts all 4 feet on my hand he gets taken out, and then we have a nice little snuggle. One day he got to run around in the bathtub.

That's all the news that is fit to print! I updated the schedule and the blogroll over in the sidebar. Be sure to check it out!

House Arrest

I got up yesterday at 7 to the sounds of a sledgehammer on concrete. The neighbor is having her walkway replaced. This is fine. The concrete truck blocking me in my driveway until 2 was not so fine. While I waited to leave the house I pieced a whole slew of 9 patches for my quilt (and discovered I need to buy more fabric for the sashing) and listened to many people rant on NPR. I really like piecing squares and sewing straight lines. It goes so much faster than spinning and weaving! In the afternoon, the other neighbor took her turn blocking my car in, so I had to walk to the yoga studio to run an errand. The dogs made the trip with me and enjoyed it thoroughly.

I am also re-sleying the loom for a dimity pattern (in white). I finished another tea towel and realized I was totally ready to see what was on the cloth beam. 9 towels were edged, washed, dried and readied for sale on Thursday. Two are already off to a new home (Scott, I held yours back, not to worry). As there is still warp on the loom and I received my new Handwoven the other day, I am rethreading /resleying for something new - a pattern with texture in the warp pattern. It is a pain in the ass (PIA) but I suppose it is good practice for something.

Las Vegas Faire was fun, but I always forget how much damn work it is to work for 30 hours in 3 days, plus the 10 hour drive. The parrow show guy has motivated me to play with the birds more, I didn't pick up anything or anybody contagious, and I earned about half my rent money for next month. Wheee!

Knitting is lacadaisical: the halloween socks are my waiting-for-the-train knitting; the stripey socks (which have gone through about 20 name changes) are for knitting in the shop; the Preppy scarf is ambling along; MS4 is still on clue 4 (although I did work on it last night); Mirepoix is still on hold due to the sleeve issue. I haven't started many new things, but am not finishing anything very fast.

All in all, things are quiet here at the homestead and I am not feeling sad or lonely.

Pattern Release & Lazy Saturday

It's here! It's here! The Mermaid Scarf pattern is finished and ready for purchase. It will be up on The Soap Plantation website shortly or it can be found at Knit N Stitch. It is a simple little scarf suitable for beginning lace knitters and will take about 300 yards of any laceweight yarn. This is the first little pattern I am sending out into the world and I hope you like it as much as I do. in other news, it has been hot and humid for the past two days. Blah. I have been watering the garden but it is getting to the end of the season and everything is looking a bit scraggly. I found some seeds for Coreopsis Tinctura or Dyer's Coreopsis when I was clearing out a cupboard and think I will put it in before "winter". I also need to suck it up and dig out all the sad sad rose stumps. I wonder when the right time is to put in new ones?

I have been weaving like a woman possessed by the need to make her hobby into a career and it is going well. I can actually weave and let my mind wander at the same time now. I can even weave and listen to NPR! And either my cotton spinning has improved or I found a better way to load it on the bobbin, because the thread has been breaking far less.

I am missing Wyoming and the fresh air (my skin never looked so good), the open spaces and the scenery. Here is the old chicken coop:

And I will leave you with a picture of some sunflowers. Who doesn't love sunflowers?