Marching Ahead

Somehow it’s a whole month since my last post, despite my intentions and efforts. I was pushing myself to finish some things in the last few weeks, which kept me away from my computer. But let’s not focus on the negative.

I took the photo above on February 10. Those snowdrops were quite brave, as we had plenty of both very cold temps and snow after that. Since they’re not mine and I didn’t record the address where I snapped the image, I can’t tell you how they made out, but I am seeing lots of snowdrops on my morning walks now, in early March, so I know plenty of these little lovelies made it.

What was I so busy with? I finally admitted to myself that the USPS was never going to find the package I’d mailed on 12/18. So remade both the placemats and the handknit fingerless mitts, filed for a refund of the shipping & insurance coverage, and sent o a new package. Along with his thank you, my nephew kindly sent me a photo of the placemats on his table.

I made a batch of 10 more bead bags, although I apparently forgot to photograph them. I THOUGHT I had taken a picture, but it’s nowhere to be found. Not even in my recently deleted file. Oh well.

At a customer’s request I wove a batch of 9 more crackle towels. We kept in close contact throughout the process, and within hours of me listing them in my Etsy store she’d purchased 7 of the them.

After those two weaves I immediately warped my loom for some black & white gradient scarves in Tencel.

The Copper Shop Gallery at the Roycroft Campus in East Aurora had sold some items I’d sent them in November, so I wanted t send them a few more. A scarf from this warp seemed like a seller to me. Here are the 4 items that finally made it into the mail today.

They got the gradient scarf with white weft. I also wove 2 more. Personally, the blue is my favorite, but I think the black & white will move faster. We’ll see.

Not something I made but instead something I just think is too sweet not to share. This vintage tablecoth is hand emboidered. I’ pretty sure it came from my mother’s, but I don’t think she made it either. Maybe my sister knows???

Now I have to go pick up my grandson from school, and if I don’t hit Publish RIGHT NOW this post will continue to linger.

March 4th, 2024 

I'm in love

I know, I know, I usually love whatever just came off the loom, but this time I think it’s a long-lasting love, not just a passing crush.

In the last post you saw my work hand painting two bouts of yarn – a terra cotta and an intended teal that was actually turquoise Neither was exactly what I’d had in mind, but I was hoping they’d play nicely together for my weaving plan. I was happy with the colors while beaming.

This is a deflected doubleweave structure, so it meant twice as many threads (480) as usual for a scarf, and 2 shuttles to weave I picked 2 colors of yarn and started weaving. I really like this cool on-the-loom shot.

As always, although I liked the look on the loom, I couldn’t be positive about the pieces till they were off the loom, fringed, and wet finished. Especially since this was a structure I hadn’t woven before, and the number of threads involved in a narrow piece, had my fingers crossed that it would work as planned, that the ‘hand’ or drape and feel, would be pleasing, as well as the color choices.

You just have to trust me when I tell you that none of the photos I took show these scarves to their best advantage. I couldn’t ge the colors just right. But I know I will be using this scarf for one of my jury photos...I think it’s a show stopper! Sometimes I think looks like a fish, sometimes like jewelry, sometimes like a watercolor painting with metals in the paint.

I used the same light teal for the green-ish/blue-ish weft throughout, but changed the terra cotta warp with each piece. The differences are subtle, and not noticeable unless you see them side by side.

I will absolutely use this weaving draft again, even though as a 2-shuttle weave it’s slow. So where did I get the draft from? A woman in my Guild bought a scarf and brought it into a weaving class, where she and the teacher analyzed it and wrote out the draft. A third woman wove it up, brought the finished scarf to a Guild meeting where I drooled over it, and later shared the draft with me. Thanks, Toni, Joyce, & Eleanor!!

In other weaving news, I did finish weaving the black and white shawls. Had to get them off the loom to do the terra cotta & turquoise. Just like the scarves, I much prefer the look of the shawl with the white weft. Don’t know how others will feel. I wanted a contrast with the creamy white of the warp yarn and a weft. This isn’t as noticeable as I’d desired, but was the best I could do... mercerized cotton white weft.

So I’ll finish January with 9 completed pieces. Feeling good about that.

I’ve reconnected with a friend from years ago, and since she’s moved I want to bring her a few towels for her new home. My towel stock was woefully low, so I put a quick warp for just 8 towels on the loom and am weaving them. Towels won’t count in meeting my monthly goals, so I’m mentally planning for February’s weaving while I’m weaving those towels.

January 31st, 2018 | 

Met my goal, plus

 With my goal of 6-7 finished scarves or shawls per month, I’ve just met that for October. It’s possible that I’ll get 3 more done, bu they may end up not getting finished until November.

In my last post I showed you 3 warps I’d hand painted. The first to go on the loom was the 5/2 bamboo. I chose a simple block twill weave; I just like this weave structure.

For the first scarf I used an 8/2 cotton weft that I’d immersion dyed a year ago that was waiting for the right opportunity to play. This was it. I like the way the sheen of the bamboo and the matte finish of the cotton play off each other. I also switched the size of the treadling blocks randomly. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, but I do.

I used a commercial 5/2 bamboo for the second scarf, and because I wasn’t sure if I’d like the random treadling, I used a consistent pattern for this one.

I had only enough warp left for a short cowl. I opted for a navy tencel, wanting it to make the warp colors pop. I also chose short treadling changes for this short piece. I was surprised that this is my least favorite of these 3 on this warp.

I also got those bumberet towels you saw me beaming in the last post woven and finished. I learned something with this warp... prefer it when I have more of a main color predominating in the warp than I did in this one. They’re fine, just not my favs. From the top down, in the weft color order in which I wove them, you see blue, medium blue, pale green, periwinkle, peacock, mauve, aquamarine, and lilac.

All of these towels, and a few others I have in stock, will go to the Weavers’ Guild Holiday Sale in a few weeks. History tells us that people like to have small purchase options, so I’m hoping the towels will do well there. Although I like making towels, they’re not big sellers at my show, so towels do not count toward my monthly goal.

In keeping with the small-items scenario, I decided to make polymer buttons for the Holiday Sale, too. I tried some new things, and there were lots of buttons that didn’t make the grade after baking.

I am happy with all those that did. I made a little leaf-vein etching on this set of 3...

...and did what I think is neat striping on some.

I decided to paint a glaze on the buttons for a finished look that I prefer, and turned them into button lollipops for 2 coats of glaze front and back.

Once they were all done I had to develop packaging that would show them well. I printed on cardstock, sewed the buttons to it ( task that took much longer than I’d anticipated), inserted it into a cellophane bag, stuck my business card in the back, and close the bag with decorated tape. We’ll see if they sell.

After this show I will put any towels and buttons left up in my Etsy store, and try to get some more photographic views of woven scarves and shawls to post, too.

October 23rd, 2017 | 

Fiesta to Sherbet

That yarn that I thought looked overwhelmingly bright, like a Mexican fiesta, turned into a lovely rainbow sherbet when I wove it in twill blocks with an undyed weft. The colors are a bunch more muted in real life than they appear in the photo.

I wish I’d woven both with that weft. Instead I wove the second with a periwinkle weft. Jack couldn’t resist photo bombing this one.

Here’s how I decided to finish the fringe on that leno pima cotton scarf. I think it added a nice touch to a nice scarf.

Although I don’t have a photo of it, I decided to turn that rayon scarf with the problem fringe that turned yellow at the end into an infinity scarf. That way no yellow will show.

I’ve said it before about other towels and I’ll probably say it again about new ones, but I think these are my favorite ever kitchen towels.

I love their colorfulness. Is that a word? They make me smile just to look at them. I wish they’d made me smile to weave them. The natural cotton is soooo soft that it kept breaking warp threads near the selvedges. I wove 3, cut them off, and re-tied, thinking that might help. Then I wove the other 3. Still problematic. I am decidedly not proud of the selvedges on these towels, but I think they’ll be really thirsty. And I’m betting they sell regardless of their less-than-beautiful selvedges. But we all know wha happens when I say that.

Gotta get back to the loom now. Still cranking out work.

August 30th, 2016 | 

Making decisions

I think I mentioned that I have never before done any fall garden cleanup. Usually by now I’m too busy, too tired, too over-it-all. I changed that decision this year because my house is on the market & I think my gardens have to look at least somewhat presentable regardless of what month someone might stop by to look at it.

Never having done this before I wasn’t really sure how to go about it. I’ve got the weeding & mulching down pat, but what perennials should I cut back & what should I leave? I consulted some websites and a friend who’s a Master Gardener. Then I started working, and came up with a rule of thumb that works for me.

If it’s a plant that I actually do trim back in the spring or one that I should trim back, then I’d cut it back now. In the first category are things like my peonies and red hot pokers, in the second things like my Siberian iris and daylilies.

I think this rule of thumb makes sense. The things I’m purposely leaving standing include all woody/shrubby plants and anything that I really want to promote, things that I hope will spread their seeds over the fall and winter and reproduce themselves. And o course, the biennials like foxglove and the things that provide winter interest (grasses) or bird food (echinacea).

My yard is definitely looking much more presentable.

Gardening decisions, weaving decisions. I have to make decisions all the time. I wrote about all the decisions I had to make with those turned taquete towels, how many changes I went through. In the end I really like them and will start winding a new warp today. Although I know that others like to sett 8/2 yarn closer, for me 24 ends per inch is great for a thirsty towel. Here are the fiv good towels I got out of that troubled warp, washed, dried, & hemmed, but not yet pressed.

See that not great treadling decision in the left quarter of towel 1?

Towel 2 has variegated blues/greens/purples weft.

Towel 3 had a solid light blue weft.

Towel 4 has a solid dark green weft with varied treadling patterns. I’m liking those little areas...

...so I do more of that with towel 5 (solid dark blue weft). Hmmm...I actually like towel 4’s design better.

Here are the colors I’ll use for my new warp – 8 instead of the 4 I used for the first time around. This involved about a zillion decisions — blues or oranges? Which blues? In what order?

If I’m willing to change warp colors regularly – and I will for at least some of them – here’s how beautifully gem-like they’ll be.

Wait! Maybe I should make scarves like this!
No. Stick with your decision and start with the towels, Peg. You can make scarves later, but you need towels in your stash now.

September 29th, 2014 | 

Mac & me

I’ve become friends with my Mac. It took time — time checking out other looms, time buying and then selling what I thought would be my ideal loom, and time weaving on Mac. I believe we’re there now.

I told you about that sample placemat I wove on the Mac. Well, not surprisingly, it wasn’t what my customer had in mind. The barber pole of the warp yarn created unpleasant eyeball effects – reminded me of 1970s doodles.

Instead we’re going to use a solid natural cotton for both warp & weft.

I didn’t want to waste all the warp I’d put on so decided to weave some towels. First I used the same natural weft, figuring someone would like it. Then I used the same barber pole yarn for weft. Interestingly, using this same yarn for both warp & weft had a dramatic effect, and that disturbing waviness of pattern was gone. I liked it well enough that I wove a runner after the towel.

Then I tried a variegated weft in earth tones. I liked this, too, and changed up the treadling to show the variegated yarn more. I liked the treadling enough that I figured I’d try with another variegated weft, this time in muted pastels. It’s okay but too subtle fo me.

Next came a mercerized cotton (everything up to now was unmercerized) in a bold variegation. I modified the treadling to make a bit easier – no counting how many rows of pattern I’d done. I finished out the warp with a solid medium blue. Although I would have chosen more colorful yarns if I’d been planning on making towels, I think someone will like these and they’ll sell, and it was better than wasting warp. Plus I learned some things about color and pattern and got more Mac weaving time, so it’s all good.

Next I wanted to try an effect I’d seen on Weavolution – creating rayon snake skins. Now I’m not a snake lover, although I will admit some are very beautiful. But the concept appealed to me. I spent a looooong time working out the pattern, threaded heddles and reed, and quickly discovered that the 18 ends per inch I’d planned was too loose for this pattern. So I rethreaded th reed to 21 EPI and it was perfect. However now the scarves would be narrower than planned, and I would have modified the sides of the pattern slightly had I known I could add more threads.

I wanted to use a gold warp but didn’t have enough gold yarn for 4 scarves, so decided on black instead. First I used a relatively bright orange weft. Does it look a bit snakey to you?

I liked it, but it was brighter than I had in mind so went with that gold I’d wanted to use for warp. I think this one best displayed th effect I had in mind.

Next I chose a deep red weft – a bit shiny in this photo, and there’s not enough contrast in the black & red yarns to show the pattern well.

I rounded the set out with a white warp. Although I didn’t expect it, I think this one is my favorite of the four.

Now I’m playing grandma for a week, caring for my sweet, little grandson while mama & papa take a mid-winter vacation. We’ve finished day 2 just fine. Five more to go — I’m sure we’ll be good. And closer than ever – YAY!!!

January 21st, 2013 | 

July Already?

July already?

Clearly my actions don’t match my intentions. On a regular basis at the end of the day I am clueless about what I actually did, about how things like balancing the checkbook and mowing the lawn could suddenly fill so much time. Somehow things do get crossed of my to-do list, although they’re not very exciting, and certainly not photo-worthy.

Someone in my BuyNothing group announced that her sour cherry tree was in fruit and offered anyone who was interested to pick. Isn’t it beautiful?! Last year the tree had much more fruit, but I did pick 3 scant quarts and made some jam.

I managed to get just one batch of towels woven in June.

Too much outdoor work to do, which called to me much more than the loom did. Like this...

This is an area of my front lawn...much of which is a hill. You’ve seen images of the corner garden before, sometimes just individual plants but I THINK occasionally the whole thing. When I started it, my plan was to expand it each year, to continually minimize the amount of hillside mowing I had to do.

This year I really dug into that goal (pun intended). This area is roughly 7′ x 7′. That’s a lot of grass that had to be dug up, the dir shaken off to the extent possible, amendments added, plants put in the ground, and the area mulched heavily. I added several more plants and a drip hose after I took this picture. It’ll still take a few years to fill up nicely, but it’s on its way.

Meanwhile, out back a calla lily I planted last year and chose not to dig and bring in, decided to return. Probably because it’s rig next to my foundation. Although that part of the foundation is just a crawl space, it surely is still better than being out in the open

Around the corner from the calla, I’ve had these 2 mallows for years. Often they get eaten by bunnies or otherwise barely survived and don’t bloom at all. This year I’m happy to see their beautiful flowers.

I find this light colored one particularly beautiful.

And here’s a lovely fragrant honeysuckle I put in a few years ago. I do love flowers with fragrance.

I also decided to try some new things with my sourdough starter. I made two batches each of bagels (no pix) and ciabatta rolls with 100% sourdough – no commercial yeast. I was happy with them both, despite their...rustic...appearance. Their taste and chewy-ness were right, at least in my opinion.

In May I showed you my embroidery for submission into an exhibit. The opening of that exhibit, in the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY, was Friday night. I was very impressed with the entries and tried to get pix of them all. Some just couldn’t be appreciated in the images I took, so I’m only sharing a few here.

A friend of mine knit a ballot box and created 3 little felted and embroidered issues going into the box.

I was really moved by this piece. I’ve heard this poem before, always powerful, and it stitched into the back of a very wearable denim jacket...wow.

Being a weaver, I was of course impressed by the work in this long vest, woven in rayon chenille.

This seemingly ‘simple’ piece spoke well to the fact that women still hold such as small percentage of seats in the U.S. House o Representatives (29%) and Senate (25%). So much lower than many other countries, so woeful, so in need of change.

Women’s health is in so much danger. I am fortunate that I live in NYS, but so many women, especially women in poverty, do no have access to comprehensive health care. Both maternal and infant mortality are rising as women are forced to carry pregnancies that are not viable and that threaten their lives.

Meanwhile, I continue to write postcards to get out the vote. The exact message varies from week to week, and is of course dependent on where those postcards are going. Although it’s certainly not everything, writing these cards is something. It’s something I can do. And who knows – maybe it’ll inspire me to do even more.

When I picked up my postcards on Friday there was a woman there selling necklaces she’d made. I made a spur of the momen decision to buy one, and I’ve since committed to wearing it constantly until November 5, election day.

I’ve seen a meme that I hesitate to post here, given my prior experience posting images that I do not own. But the sentiment is too good to not include. RBG is in the center of the frame, wearing her robe and one of her signature crocheted collars. The words are, “I want you to pivot your sadness and worry into numbers and strength.” Indeed, Justice Ginsberg. Indeed.

July 14th, 2024 | Tags: cotton, towels & linens | Category: Gardening, Life - As I See It, Weaving |