August fun

You’ve heard me talk about my wonderful urban soul line dance group, the Grateful Line Danze Krew. I can honestly say I hav never been involved in anything like this group before. In my 70+ years, nothing has made me feel so welcome, so appreciated, so truly grateful to be a part of it. I’d like to think that a single Black woman would feel as welcome in a group of white women as do in this group of Black women, but I know in my heart that is just not true. These women are something else. Like any organization, large or small, so much starts with the person at the top, and for us, it’s LadyP. She exudes warmth and joy. LadyP is the woman kneeling at the far right in the photo below.

Our 2nd year anniversary celebration is this weekend, and I’ve been involved in getting everything ready for a wonderful and FUN time. This year we’re hosting a Glow Party. We have sold 146 tickets to this event, with groups from Buffalo and Syracuse sending large contingents as well as lots of local people.

As the name implies, we’ll have black lights and lots of glowing decorations. Everyone will get a bag of favors on entry. Shhhhh.....don’t tell anyone, but here are 2 of the items in that bag. (I suggested these.)

I crammed myself into my little closet to take that one.
Then, because our line dance group loves to make noise when we dance, the favors also include a branded whistle.

The whistles were my idea, so although I didn’t create the graphics, I was the one who worked with the online company to get a sample, then get our artwork correct and get them shipped on time.

There are also 2 starlight mints in the bag. Here’s a tip from me, learned too late. Don’t buy the mints at the local dollar store. While they taste fine, they are very hard to open and I know that people will find that frustrating on Saturday. Unfortunately I didn’t know that until I had already purchased 5 bags of them and put them in the bags.

Because there will be so many people, we want everyone to be able to identify who our group is, so if they have any questions o concerns during the event they can easily find one of us to ask. Someone (not me this time) suggested that we make buttons/pins. One of the group thought she had a button maker, but it turned out she’d given it away. So I reached out to a friend of my daughter’s who used to make buttons as a side gig, but she’s a busy woman and it took several days for her to respond. I the meantime I learned that one of the local libraries has a whole button making kit available for borrowing, but unfortunately it was already checked out and not due back in time. I was getting desperate so sent out a group email to my weaving guild and one of the members actually had one she’d loan me. She lives almost an hour away, but we were able to coordinate times for both pickup and return when she would be much closer. But still...time to find one, time to drive to meet her, and way too much time spent at the computer making the logo the correct size and shape to print several of them on a sheet, in a circle that I could very carefully cut around, and then turn into these buttons.

Then, while I was meeting the woman with the button machine, I stopped at a local seafood eatery to pick up gift cards for Lady and Cleo, her teaching sidekick. (Standing far left in the photo at the top of the page.) One of the other members of our core group suggested I make little pouches to hold the gift cards. I went through my fabric stash and came up with two that I knew would work great. From my sister’s place when I cleaned it out after she died back in January. It took longer to sew on those snaps than to make the little pouches themselves.

Then, one of the group said she’d buy bottled water and make labels for them, also handed out at the event.. She did this last year as well. Last year we had about 85 people come, so she’d planned on bottles for 100. When we sold almost 150 I told her I’d take care of the last 50. I bought the water, configured a Word document with both our logo and that 2nd year 2023 side from the whistles, printed them out, and taped them on. Only after the fact did I have an oops moment. Kim had labels printed on lab paper. Mine were on plain paper. They would NOT stand up to an ice-filled cooler. So I went back over each label with clear packing tape. They will likely still have issues and Kim’s will be nicer, but I did what I could. (See how the time adds up?!)

So while I have been busy, it hasn’t included included a lot of weaving.

I did finally get another batch of 3 handwoven hugs completed. I’m quite pleased with them. I used a draft I’ve used several time before, because it’s easy to thread and treadle and I always like the look. This first one may be my favorite of the three, and it went first. The warp for all three is mercerized cotton, mostly 6/2, in a gradient. This one has a lavender cotton weft (8/2 and 16/ held together), that seems to go from silver to bright lavender as it crosses the warp colors.

Using the rule about black intensifying colors, I used black bamboo (3 strands of 20/2 held together) for the next one. It’s fine, and got chosen second, but it’s just a tad dark for my taste.

I still have this last one, waiting for someone to claim it. Will that be you?

My hugs are given at no charge to people who are dealing with depression OR Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. The hug can be for the person with the disease or one of their caregivers or loved ones. I do not have anyone on my wait list, and I know myself well enough to know that I’m motivated by a list, so if you’d like this hug, or to get on a wait list for whatever might come next, PLEASE let me know. All I will ask is reimbursement for postage. The golden glow of this one is so inviting. Another bamboo weft.

Finally, I did get bead bags sewn for August.

I have some lovely garden shots, but I’ve been sitting in front of my laptop for too long and have to get out and do my morning walk, so they’ll be in the next post.

August 18th, 2023 | 

July updates

We’ll start with a bit of the natural world. Yesterday morning I was heading back from my walk and came upon a man who was staring up into the trees. It was clear he was watching something, so I stopped and quietly asked what was interesting. There was an adult pileated woodpecker (mama? papa?) and 2 juveniles up in the tree.

The adult was very busily working on the trunk, making a big hole and digging out bugs or larvae, and the juveniles were sort of hopping around and trying to imitate the behavior. Emphasis on trying. The adult was seen to feed one of the tasty morsels (s)h uncovered to a juvenile.

Can you see the juvenile poking around the side of the tree near mama/papa?

On to some sewing. I realize I never showed you the bead bags I made in June, so below you have 2 sets: first June’s 10 bags and then July’s. I don’t love the skull fabric, but I’m hoping they’ll appeal to some of the children in the hospital.

As for weaving, since I didn’t finish them until several days ago, I’ve decided that I’ll not call these June hugs. That boat has sailed and I have to admit that I simply missed that target. These are July’s hugs.

Personally, I prefer the bright ones – the second two – but I’m trusting the first will suit someone. These hugs are a combination of bamboo, cotton, and tencel or rayon.

Because I’ve somewhat struggled in distributing these hugs to people with dementia or their loved ones, I added another potential avenue for these. I am a member of my local BuyNothing group, a Facebook based group. As the name implies, the concept is to give away what you don’t need or want and get what you do. I’ve both given and gotten several things. I’m hoping posting in that group will reach people I haven’t yet had contact with.

So as always, do contact me if you know of someone who could use a hug – a woven one.

Now for the closing. I take an urban/soul line dance class weekly. This is an important part of my week, and never fails to raise my spirits. The group is SO positive, so encouraging, so welcoming, so great. This week, one of the core team wore a T that struck me as perfect, so I asked for her permission to photograph it and her. I love the sentiment and this woman.

July 16th, 2022 | 

This and that

I asked for a specific things for Christmas, and my kids came through in spades. Most aren’t particularly photogenic, but these 2 are, both from LaBrise Stained Glass.

A cardinal pair in my front window...

...and a sweet chickadee in the studio.

On the weaving front, in a reply to a comment on that post about the weavies, it occurred to me that I didn’t know if a single weavie would reasonably suffice as a mug rug. Would the wool transfer moisture to the table/surface underneath it? I wanted to know, because I didn’t think I could sell any if I priced them high enough to account for the work involved in making 2 weavies, sewing them together, and stuffing them. So I did an experiment.

I got 3 different of my test weavies. From left to right they are a single strand of sock yarn, a double strand of sock yarn, and a single strand of worsted weight wool. I put a paper towel under the row of 3 and a glass of water with ice cubes on each. I figure I’d be able to more easily see if the paper towel got wet/damp than my table top.

I waited. The ice melted but nothing happened. The glasses didn’t sweat, which was needed for the test. So I dumped out most of the remaining water, and filled each glass up with ice. Now they’d sweat for sure.

The bottom line? The sock yarns, which are a fiber blend, transferred a tiny bit of moisture to the paper towel; the worsted wool transferred none. So I think I’ll make some to sell this summer and see what kind of interest I get. Weavies are a great thing to d in the evening while I’m watching TV.

Moving on, I did get those ‘beach’ towels from the last post woven and off the loom. I intended to do the hand hemming last nigh in front of the tube, but Jack decided he MUST have more attention, so that was the end of that.

While I was weaving the towels I tried to figure out what I wanted to weave for jury photos. I decided I’d try the circle shawl from the November/December 2014 issue of Handwoven.

I’ve looked at it several times since 2014, so now I was going to jump in. Of course I wanted my own interpretation, basically jus using their measurements for a finished piece.

I planned the whole thing out with some beautiful, thick-ish mercerized cotton. Then it was time for bed. By the next morning I realized I wouldn’t like the plan. Why? My warp would be in stripes because I didn’t have enough of any single color of the yarn, and those stripes would end up being horizontal in the finished piece. I don’t like wearing horizontal stripes, and figured others would feel the same. Hmmmmmm.....think again, Peg.

I didn’t really want a solid color warp. Using a variegated yarn in the weft has never pleased me; I really only like them in warp. How would I solve this problem?

Another lightbulb, and another pass through the stash and I found some beautiful bamboo-cotton yarn that I’ve had for a few years, hand painted by another fiber artist. I’ve now measured out that warp and plan to get it on the loom tomorrow.

While I was winding I realized I have 3 very cool options for some novelty yarn that would look smashing with this warp. But again, they’d be horizontal stripes. So I’m going to try to use them in the weft. We’ll see how that goes.

January 3rd, 2019 | 

Having fun, making progress

 Although I’ve been feeling stressed about being behind in my weaving goals, months ago I’d made plans to visit another weave the lovely Hilary at Crazy as a Loom, and I wasn’t going to cancel it.

Hilary is talented, funny, gracious, and inspiring, eager to share some ideas about boosting sales and upping my weaving game She and hubby, along with their sweet dog and cat, welcomed me with open arms, and cooked, too! The visit was short, but totally enjoyable.

I came home and got to it! I’d finished weaving a warp before I left, but hadn’t finished either piece yet, so did that first off. Both were going to dramatically benefit from having a human model for the photos, so I took them to the pop up shop on Saturday, i hopes that a customer would be willing to model for me. That didn’t happen, but I did sell a piece, before I even had it tagged! S I took photos on a mannequin, the best I could do.

It’s a large cowl, roughly 24′′ wide and 32′′ around. When worn around the neck, it’s soooo luxurious! There’s plenty of fabric there to pick it up and put it over your head for a loose hood.

Then on Sunday I took a class at the Weaving Center. I’m not a felter, and not interested in becoming one, but wanted to support the teacher, who is a friend, especially since it was her first time teaching at the Center. I made a felted vessel, which to me, is reminiscent of the human circulatory system.

The particularly interesting thing about this class is that the whole point was to take a failed felting project, rip it apart, and turn it into something new. Very fun and creative.

After class was over I got my friend to model my latest garment, a rayon chenille jacket. I am very proud of this piece, and it definitely doesn’t show off on a hanger. Unfortunately in this first photo I caught her with her eyes closed.

I would have tossed this photo, but you can see that the front drapes (although I could have done better at setting her up). Then she was willing to mug for the camera to show it to advantage.

I wish this sweet young woman lived next to me and would pose for all my photos!

Almost as an aside, I finished a piece of rayon chenille I’ve had sitting for months, turning it into a neck cuff/collar with a bit of crochet and some buttons.

Now I’ve got another warp on the loom, planned for another jacket and a mobi.

This warp is a combination of bamboo and cotton. I really like the way the colors change from all silver at one end to all gold at the other. The interesting thing is that I used several sizes of yarn, from 10/2 to 3/2, so had to think about how I would sett it. If my loom was wider I would have sett the 10/2 at 18 or 21EPI and the 3/2 & 5/2 at 15EPI, but that wouldn’t have fit on my loom. So I sett them at 24 and 15EPI, respectively. Hoping it drapes well.

October 29th, 2018 |

How I spent my...

...Tuesday afternoon. Before:

After:

Although this color – Dried Lavender at Sherwin Williams – wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, I really like it. It makes my house looks more like me. Since I plan to live here until I can’t live alone anymore, I am not concerned about what the next homeowne might think; I’m much more focused on what I like, what makes me happy. This was one more step.

I took the shutters down in the morning (with some difficulty as the old flathead screws were very rusty and I had to be careful n to strip them), then started painting at noon when my daughter and grandson left after their visit. I got 2 coats on the front door, the shutters, and the side door, and was putting things away at 5PM. Not bad for 5 hours work! This morning I got new phillips head screws for the shutters and put them back up in literally seconds per shutter.

A few days ago I also got some shots of recent weaving. So here you go.
You’d seen the flat black and white hand painted Tencel shawl. I turned one of the three into a mobius. A standard shot first.

What happens when you turn it sideways? A slightly different look. If Dolly was larger than a size 8, it would be easier to dress her differently.

And if she had arms, even more so. Photographing my shrugs well seems impossible to me. So how the heck will I display them at a show? I have no idea and am hoping you have suggestions.

Here’s the first one, with a mostly cotton warp (the hand painted parts are a bamboo-cotton blend) and a natural cotton weft.

And the second, with a black tencel weft.

Since that photo doesn’t really show it well, I tried another way. Not better, just differently not-good.

I have two more pieces woven and finished, but no photos. Next post...

September 19th, 2018 | 

I am not old

 I saw that posted on Facebook and just love it – the photo and the poem.

On the weaving front, I’ve finished 4 pieces for March from my Happy warp. First I wove a flat shawl in what I call ‘huck-ish’ – weaving just half of a huck pattern. This is an example of necessity causing a design element that I like a lot. I started weaving with magenta Tencel, believing I had 2 tubes of it. I was about 8′′ from the second end when I ran out on the first tube and went get the other.

Uh oh. It wasn’t magenta. It was bordeaux. They looked the same in the darkness of the shelves, but not once they were out in the daylight.

After consideration I unwove several inches so that I could do some weft striping. I added three stripes – coral and pink – separated by thin stripes of the magenta, and finished the shawl with the end of the magenta yarn. Whew!

I liked the way that coral looked so well that I decided I’d use it for weft for the next piece. The coral is Bambu 7. which is substantially thicker than the 8/2 cotton of the weft. It’s also very loosely spun. So I chose to stick with the ‘huck-ish’ treadling to minimize floats. As planned, this piece is a mobius. Here it is on Dolly so you can see how it sits.

So easy to wear. And the bamboo gives it such a wonderful hand.

I chose an azure Tencel for the third piece, also a mobius. For this one I did a full huck treadling. I also like this one a lot.

It was clear I had enough warp left to weave a cowl. I picked a navy Bambu 7, and since the piece would be short I opted to do the full huck treadling again. This is far and away my least favorite.

Amazing how different they look with the different colored wefts, isn’t it?

There’s 4. I’m counting this next one as 5 for the month, even though it’s sort of cheating. I actually finished this piece in September, but it was never right. I didn’t know how to do the mobius at that time, and sewed it end-to-end. It was just a mess.

So once I knew how to do the mobius I took it apart and fixed it. It’s a bit shorter than my typical, but it’s totally fine.

So. With actual garments, simple as they may be, I needed a cloth label. I’d looked at several designs online and planned to order some.

Then the lightbulb went off in my brain. Wait! I had cloth labels that I’d designed for my baby wraps. I’d ordered something like 300 of them, so I had roughly 250 left.

They had info that I didn’t need or want on the clothing, so I had to get rid of that. A serger would have done the perfect job, but my machine with a narrow and tight zigzag stitch worked, and I could sew a string of them, one right after the other.

The color is correct in the photo above, not in the one below.

On the left is the full label, created for my baby wraps. I use them for my towels – at least most of them. Some of my towels hav some bamboo in them.

In the center are labels I can use for things like the 100% cotton mobius – I don’t want them machine washed & dried. On the left I can use for my other mobius and the center-seam shawls.

March 16th, 2018 | 

Towels & tootsies

I got 8 towels woven. Natural (unbleached & undyed) cotton threaded in point twill, 4 different tie ups, 2 of each weave pattern.

First I wove what I call a flower pattern. Wasn’t my favorite in real life, nor did I like dark that yarn – which was very cool on the cone – as much as I thought I would.

Next I wove snowflakes. Started with a traditional blue, then went to some handpainted bamboo-cotton blend I’ve had hanging around for far too long. I was very happy to use up some stash yarn in small amounts, so went with more of that handpainted bamboo cotton for the next 4 towels.

For the 3rd pair I used a simple V weave structure. The warp is 8/2 cotton, and red-purple yarn is thicker than that. The green- purple yarn is the same weight, but the lighter colors don’t show the weave pattern as well.

Last up was some Xs. I wasn’t at all sure about this, since I had used the draft once when I was doing baby wraps and wasn’t crazy about it, but in fact I really liked it for the towels. Again, the pattern shows up better with the darker color, but I really like th stripes on the yellow one.

Two of these towels will go to my friend, the rest into stock.

Now I wish I had more of that natural cotton. I can see something like that end-striped-towel in several colors, and by using a natural warp I can use up lots of odds and ends of nice hand painted yarn. The only downside is that the handpainted yarn (I didn’t dye it, I bought it) has a tendency to bleed in the wash. Could I wash all the yarn before I used it? I could, but I know myse well enough to know that I won’t. Anyhow, I don’t have much natural cotton left. Might pick up some at the Guild’s annual stash- reduction sale next month. We’ll see what people bring in.

On the needles, Friday night I finished a pair of socks I’d been working on. (Don’t tell me I don’t know how to have a good time on Friday night!) They look perfect with some of my favorite leggings.

Finally, Cindie over at Eweniquely Ewe inspired me. Yesterday I got all the rest of the pre-accountant work done for my taxes. Ugh. But it’s done – yay! Just waiting on a few things to arrive in the mail.

Now I’m off to the warping mill to start working on this month’s weaving goal.

February 4th, 2018 |