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 |

Bookmarks & briliance

 I was reminded just how much slower it is to use levers on a table loom than treadles on a floor loom while I wove these 22 bookmarks on my Missouri loom at the pop up shop.

I think they look rather like a fanciful turkey tail here.

After I finally finished these I brought in a rayon chenille warp AND the setup to connect the treadles for this loom. SOOOO muc more efficient!

Meanwhile at home I finally finished the warp painted vs. skein painted pieces. It was interesting...while I was weaving them I alternately loved and hated them. That’s unusual for me. So I had to reserve judgement till I got all 3 off the loom, finished, and hung. Now I like them all. So, in the order woven and finished...

This shawl has a black tencel 8/2 weft. Although the picture has a bright side where the light is and a dark side with shadow, I feel that the colors are accurate, so didn’t try to make any ‘improvements.’

Next up, I think some of my customers wouldn’t like the brightness of the above colors, so decided to tone them down with a natural weft. I used 3 strands of 16/2 unbleached cotton held and wound together on the bobbin.

For the last piece, I intended to sew a 30-minute jacket with it, so wanted a cotton weft. I chose a really dark 8/2 navy unmercerized cotton. I like the interplay of the shiny tencel and the matte finish cotton.

After it was all woven, washed, and dried, and I sat down to do the sewing. Oops! Don’t know what I was thinking...I need half- again as much length for that as I had planned for and woven, so it, too, turned into a mobi.

I don’t know if I prefer the light or the dark. I do know I like the concept of using both warp painted and skein painted yarns in the same piece and will do that again.

I also know that I’m getting anxious about my weaving output. Between dyeing, towels, socks, onesies, and slow-woven bookmarks, I am nowhere near meeting my monthly goals. That means I either need to significantly over-produce in November and December — hard to do with the holidays — or resign myself to cutting out one of the great shows I do in the summer. The applications for both are due early in 2019, and I need to be confident I can build my stock sufficiently to be ready for both. Not sure how this will turn out.

October 22nd, 2018 | 

Brilliant or bad-early on

Here’s the ‘brilliant or bad idea’ piece early on in the weaving. I am loving it. However I know from experience that what I love on the loom isn’t always what I love once it comes off, is finished, and I can see the whole of it from a distance. In this particular case, I think I’ll weave the second piece with a natural/white weft, maybe in cotton, to tone the colors down a bit,...may be too intense for some folks.

With the black weft, I kept trying to think of what it reminded me of: stained glass windows? Wrong color schemes. Kaleidoscopes? Not enough shifting of colors. This afternoon I think I got it. Although I’ve never seen them in person, it reminds me of photographs and videos I’ve seen of the northern lights. To those of you who have actually seen the northern lights, does give you that impression or no?

Regardless of what they remind me or you of, I will say, I will say that so far, this concept seems brilliant to me, and I plan to do this again. Time will still tell.

I’m now thinking I’ll make one shawl, one wrap, and one other sewn piece – a 30-minute jacket. Trust me when I tell you this site doesn’t do it justice. I’ve got one pinned with a cotton warp and weft, and it’s pretty great.

October 4th, 2018 | 

Brilliant or bad idea?

My friend had lent me her dyes to shibori those socks, and while they were here I decided to use a little more of them. I got my color inspiration from somewhere on the web, and if I knew where I’d be happy to credit them, but you know how it is...you scro around and click on this and that, and then the phone rings and you close windows and have no idea where you were.

Before I measured our my 8/2 tencel warp chains, I had a brainstorm. Or maybe a bad idea. Only time will tell. I wound 3 warp chains on the mill as usual, but wound the amount needed for 2 more chains into skeins. I hand painted the 3 warp chains and the 2 skeins with the same colors, using boysenberry, chartreuse, and ice blue dyes.

After they batched, steamed, rinsed, and dried I measured out the 2 skeins on my mill as usual. Here’s what the results look like.

My plan is to wind and thread the loom as follows: warp painted, narrow dark strip, skein painted, narrow dark strip, warp painted, narrow dark strip, skein painted, narrow dark strip, warp painted.

I’m not saying it hasn’t been done before, but I personally haven’t seen this done before. So maybe it’s brilliant, and maybe it’s a bad idea. We’ll learn together.

October 1st, 2018 | 

3rd time isn't the charm

I’m working with a friend from my book club to hold a little pop up shop between now and Christmas. We’re not sure how this wi work, how many customers we’ll get, but I know I won’t sell a thing while it’s sitting in bins in my closet, so I’m committed to tryin it. If you’re on one of my email lists, look for an email with details later today or tomorrow.

I think it’s really important for this type of thing to have a broad range of price points, so decided to (a) weave a bunch more towels (more on that in another post), and (b) do some dyeing.

First I dyed 6 pair of bamboo socks. I used some empty plastic yarn cones that had provided the best results last year, scrunching and tying the socks shibori style. I’m very happy with all the results, and am hopeful that they’ll sell.

Then I ice-dyed 6 onesies. Well. This wasn’t as successful. For the first round I was quite disappointed in how poorly the dye took on the onesies. After some time pondering this I realized I had neglected an important step – soaking the onesies in a soda ash bath. So I did that, bought more ice, and tried again. One I really liked, 3 were just ok, and 2 were unacceptable. So I soake those 2 in another soda ash bath and tried a third time. Still just ok. Don’t know if these will sell or not.

I wanted to use colors that were not obviously ‘boy baby’ or ‘girl baby.’ So greens, yellows, and reds were high on my list. The greens were the hardest to get what I wanted. In fact I still didn’t get anything close to what I wanted. Sigh.

This next photo are the ones I like better, with just 1 that sings to me – that red/dark orange onesie on the left side of the photo. am more hopeful these will sell.

I have 6 more onesies. I think I’ll try wrapping and shibori dyeing 1 or 2 and see how that works.

On the weaving front, I realize I’ve already taken one of the newer shrugs to the pop up shop, and hadn’t photographed it. Mayb I’ll snap it while I’m there this weekend.

This morning I took some shots of the other piece, although it would have been better if Dolly was still here; she’s also at the po up shop. This one isn’t a shrug, isn’t a shawl, it’s a...well, I don’t know what to call it. Your input will be appreciated.

So here it is from the front.

I used 3 buttons that I’d made last year from polymer clay. This wrap is mostly cotton with a bit of linen in the colored stripes. It i pretty heavy and warm, and therefore not as drape-able as most of my work. This looks pretty old-fashioned to me, but it is comfortable. Except that it doesn’t cover much of the back.

My daughter, who has always been infinitely more fashionable than I, particularly liked it when it was put on sideways, with the buttons roughly on one shoulder. She thought this look was fashion-forward. This is the one I could have shown it much better o Dolly.

Wearing it this way covers similar amounts of the front and back of the body.

I have to get back to work now. Busy, busy.

September 27th, 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 | 

Shrugging along

 I really like making the mobius wraps, and my customers seem to like them, too. I’ve wanted to expand beyond straight flat pieces for a while, and mobiuses (mobii?) was my foray. Next up for me are some shrugs. Again, weave something flat and sew just a few straight seams to turn it into something else.

In the use-up-the-stash mode, I wound a warp long enough for 2 shrugs, starting with 5/2 pearl cotton and moving to some hand painted (not by me) bamboo-cotton blend I’ve had for some time. I really like the way the warp looks going on the loom.

I decided to use an undulating twill I like and sett the warp at 18 ends per inch. For the first shrug I used a natural 5/2 pearl cotton. Although this isn’t a great photo, I like it the overall look.

I have very little 5/2 left, so for the second am using 2 strands of 8/2 black tencel. Ooo la la!

Eager to get these off the loom, wet finished and sewn.

September 2nd, 2018 |