Busy Days

 

Hand Made Beads waiting to be incorporated into my own style of Fiber Jewelry   

I look forward to having my booth at the Fiber Festival of New England each November.  After many years of enjoying shopping at the delightful juried Winter Craft Fair for Big Brothers Big Sisters here in Northampton MA, I finally gathered up the courage to apply for a booth.  And I was accepted!  And then... CHD made the appropriate decision that going through with the fair would not be safe.  Eventually the Fiber Festival of New England made the same decision.  

But... there was the opportunity to participate in the online Winter Craft Fair for Big Brothers Big Sisters which will run November 14 through 22.  I initially thought I should sit this out.  I hadn't listed anything in my Etsy shop for years.  None of my creations were photographed.  I needed to set up and stock an online shop in a very short time, linking it with a commerce site to accept credit card payments.  All that I had was the last item; I accept cc payments through Square.  The last few weeks have been spent in finishing up my offerings and taking dozens of photos.  I have a long way to go but plan to have my Online shop open November 14.  More information about the Winter Craft Fair for Big Brothers Big Sisters will be posted here soon. 

Many people can identify one or two personal silver linings in experiencing  this pandemic.  For me, if all goes well, a major positive outcome will be an online shop presence!

Shawls and Bags

My posts are still lagging behind the weaving that I'm doing.  Actually that's not such a bad thing.  In fact it's far better than  blogging more and weaving less!

Dorset loom on left and Baby Wolf loom on right

 
In this somewhat odd photo there's a new project on my little Dorset loom.  Right next to it is my Baby Wolf.  I took this photo because without giving it too much thought I positioned the Dorset within spitting distance because I find the new Wolf Trap so useful.  For anyone not familiar with this piece of equipment, it is the little hammock-like shelf attached to the breast beam of the Baby Wolf.  In this photo it's holding several items that I'm using on the neighboring loom!  I particularly like how much easier weaving with two or more shuttles is with the Wolf Trap in place.

Prayer Shawl yarns

I think I mentioned one or two posts ago that I'd be including items here that I weave with fibers other than wool.  Here's one.  I am a member of what is called the Prayer Shawl Ministry at my church.  If you are unfamiliar with the concept of prayer shawls, you will find more information here.  One requirement of prayer shawls is that they be machine washable and dry-able.  This eliminates the use of many beautiful fibers.  The need to keep material costs down (I'm already donating an awful lot of my time!) eliminates purchasing lovely wash and dry yarns.  I try to make do with donated yarn and those bought at thrift shops etc.  Lots of acrylic.

Prayer Shawl; fringe not yet trimmed

This one starts with a warp of pale green Softball Cotton.  For the weft I tried two acrylics: a marly green Lion Brand Homespun, a yarn that is used by many knitters and crocheters.  It's actually difficult to knit and crochet with: terrible to frog.  It's great for weaving!  The second yarn, chosen for value contrast, is Moda Dea Metro.  I'd like to do another one in other colors soon because I think this one worked out nicely.  Next time I'll reduce the EPI from 10 to 8 to create a more drape-y effect.

Meadow Muffins yarn

Presently I have a warp of my Meadow Muffins sock yarn on the loom in variegated yellow-orange-pink.  I'm weaving a series of little drawstring bags based on one that I saw in Fabrics That Go Bump.  the weft is the same as the warp with strategic shots of novelty yarn or hand-spun to create a honeycomb effect.  Love these colors!

More Color-and-Weave

On the loom; the colors are not as accurate here as they are in the photos below.

Just a quick post with my most recent completed project, a small evening bag which will be submitted for a Guild exhibit at the local hospital.  I needed to do this in a hurry and hadn't yet investigated how to line bags like these so this one is unlined.  I found the draft in An Introduction to Multishaft Weaving by Kathryn Wertenberger.  

This draft requires eight shafts and two shuttles.  A very easy pattern to weave; once the rhythm is established it's a breeze. I used my usual sock yarn, dyed in chartreuse and magenta, and wove it on my Baby Wolf loom.  Nothing pale about this piece!

Weaving on a Spriggs Adjustable Rectangular Loom

I recently acquired a Spriggs seven foot adjustable rectangular loom.  This loom is designed to be worked diagonally with one continuous strand of yarn.  For my first project on the loom, using some of my earliest hand-spun yarn, I opted to use my own method, as described here.

Scarf woven with hand-spun

Close Up

And here's another look at Brenda's Santa doll, described in my last post:

Brenda's Santa Doll with Pygora Beard and Hair

Felt Julehjerte Valentine

Felt Julehjerte Valentine

It is a custom in Denmark and Northern Germany for families to weave paper hearts together to create lovely Christmas ornaments.  Although I always think felt when I see a paper project that appeals, I have to admit that I was inspired to try one when I saw Jennifer Ackerman- Haywood's tutorial for creating Julehjerte valentine baskets on her CraftSanity blog.  Jennifer's and my hearts are simple; she crafts with her children and perhaps I'm stuck in my felting days as a child.  The felt used if from my own sheep, of course.  But depending how the hearts are cut the weaving can be quite exquisite when paper is used.  Happy Valentine's Day to my blog friends!  

Weaving With Felt

Weaving with Felt

Just a quick look at a project I'm working on, weaving with felt strips and vintage rayon fabric gleaned from thrift shop finds.  This project will take time; I'll post more photos of little details here and there as I progress.

Going Baaaaaa-less

Well, not really. What I mean is that I haven't been weaving with wool lately. That's just a temporary situation while I get some wool rug warp dyed up and ready for rugs.











In this case, not even natural fiber!!!!!
I wanted a small rug to put in front of the sink in the upstairs bath. (That would be the bath that casual guests don't see so I went a little over the edge when I painted it. Note the outlet plate too.)

Anyway, I wanted something that would wash and dry quickly so I decided on a rag rug woven with strips of acrylic and polyester. My sources were thrift store finds and a couple of chenille throws that were deeply- discounted last spring.

The colors are a bit much... just right for that room!
I think I'm so used to dyeing multiple shades of several hues and then combining them so these clear tones in the rug are a little jarring to me.

My design was also limited by the colors that I had in the fabrics I needed. As it is I made a quick trip to two shops in town looking for acrylic sweatshirts in the right colors.

I needed to replace my ratty, faded crocheted dishcloths and wanted cloths that I could enjoy using. I put a 7 inch or so wide warp of mixed cottons on my workshop loom and wove up half a dozen cloths. The finished size is small but so are my hands and I find them more manageable than the store-bought ones.

Except for the sheep photo, the rest of these photos should take you to a larger image if you click on them. Should I provide links to larger images of the critters too in the future?

Hope everyone has a restful... and grateful... Thanksgiving.

The Last Batch of Potholders for Now

Here I used the same overall technique for these two but wanted them to coordinate since I'd be donating them to a local Senior Center for their Christmas fair. I started experimenting with design. This is a fun way to learn about color and proportion because the projects are small and don't involve a great investment of time or fiber.


For instance, I decided that the contrasting yellow is more effective when placed closer together as opposed to alternating.

There's still room for improvement- particularly, the hanging loops- but I was satisfied enough with these to donate them. The others will reside in my kitchen where my poor tired 30-year old potholders will be retired.

More Potholders

With the fourth and fifth potholders I started getting a little smarter. I decided to make my own "loopers" by wrapping strands of my wool yarn from one peg to the opposite peg four times and then tying off with a square knot. I found it easiest to do this on pegs that were near the corners as there is more space for fingers there.

Then I removed the looper and placed it on the loom where needed. So I created loopers as I wove, designing the color patterns along the way. I kept the knots in the middle of the fabric instead of the edges and used a crochet hook to work them into the weave; this helped keep the edges neater.

The number of passes around the pegs in creating each looper really depends on the thickness and "squishiness" of the yarn and it's a trial-and-error process.

I wanted my loopers, once they had taken a trip through the washer with hot water, detergent and a full wash cycle, then tumble-dried at the hottest setting, to "full" nicely; in other words, I wanted the yarn to fluff out into the spaces between loopers and to also be thick enough to be safe when handling hot items in the kitchen.

At this point it takes me about an hour to make each potholder. I'm slow at everything I do so it could take less time for manly people. It's very enjoyable to do while watching football games, etc.

More later!

Way Too Long...

Back after an extremely long break. I've been focusing on other areas of my life over the past few months, starting a small part-time business within my nursing career and also re-thinking what direction I want to take my fiber business in. More about that later... for now I want to start sharing some of the work I've been doing.

I recently bought a potholder loom from Jennifer at CraftSanity. I'm a longtime listener to her Podcasts and have learned so much from them. She interviews various artists, many of them textile artists, in depth, asking many probing questions to help the listener understand how the artist evolved to her present level.

Back to the loom! Jennifer has started producing beautiful, meticulously-worked wooden looms in various sizes. The concept is similar to the old potholder looms we used as children; it is so much nicer using equipment like this! Loom dimensions available run from coaster size up to place mat size. Jennifer mentioned a loom large enough for producing small rugs but I haven't seen one yet. I purchased the large potholder size because I wanted to make wool potholders that could go in the washing machine so I needed to plan on shrinkage. That size is working very well for me. I think that the prices of these looms are quite reasonable for the quality of the workmanship; if you'd like a look, head over to her Etsy Shop.

The photo above shows the large potholder loom with my first potholders. On one on the left was made from loopers that I cut from old tee shirts. OK, quite similar to the ones children produce, but too bulky to be functional and I didn't care for the somewhat sloppy edges. On the lower right I tried some three and four ply yarn that I had put together from hand-dyed wool singles spun from local sheep. The colors are nice and it's a pretty cloth, but again not functional because even after a trip through the washer the fabric is too thin with too much open space to use safely. I can't remember exactly how I made the third one (upper right), but it involved using multiple strands of single ply, same yarn. Getting closer to my desired effect but still too thin. I'll be back later with more.

A Weekend of Ragweaving!

This was one of those stellar weekends. I hear that the weather was superb; I was stuck indoors at WEBS here in Northampton all day both days and didn't mind one bit. I was participating in a workshop with Johanna Erickson (author of Rag Weaving Gimmicks and Tricks) on the subject of Wearable Rags. We spent the whole weekend weaving up samples using several techniques and multiple materials. Rather than yarn for weft we used strips of materials.

This appeals to me as I have stockpiled old items of clothing for several years with the intent of doing some ragweaving. I also think that much of what I learned will apply to weaving with wool roving.

Here's a closer look at my samples:

This one included a quilted floral fabric like one would use to make a bedspread, then some pink knit fabric woven three different ways, then some shiny purple synthetic material interspersed with a weft here and there of multicolor; a large knitting needle was used to create the clusters of loops with the purple fabric.


The sample below was woven with a rather dense chenille warp. I experimented with wefts of batik-like cloth, seam binding, ribbons, rick-rack (the yellow stuff), and some brightly-striped fabric that had been pre-cut and supplied on a spool. I would have chosen a less-dense warp to allow more of the weft to show.


This piece involved weaving with strips of knit fabric such as tee shirts. It was particularly fun to weave with the blue and white-striped material, fiddling with each weft to create a checkerboard effect.




This was probably the most fun: picture weaving. A fabric with a design such as flowers is chosen, cut into strips, and the strips woven in order so that there is a squashed-down version of the images on the original fabric. The larger and simpler the images, the more the more similar the woven results will be. Here you can see I experimented with several different patterns.

I love attending workshops that involve creating samples rather than a finished item. Good food, good people, good weaving.






THOSE COMMENTS...

Thank you Michelle Ward, Sharon Bogon, and Tammy for your recent comments.


FIBER FOR SALE



These were two very successful and rewarding dye jobs in which I tried a new technique. In each bag there are several continuous strands of roving, each dyed a hue that is harmonious with the others. Because the colors are in separate strands the spinner can control exactly how the colors are worked up; either blended all together, spun intermittently, or even spun into separate colored skeins. The batch above includes strands ranging from a pale, polite yellow through several shades of green to aqua.

My friend Mary Alice bought a bag at the recent meeting of the Nutmeg Spinners Guild. When I saw her a few days later she told me how delighted she was when she looked closer at home and discovered that she would have so many spinning possibilities. So I've decided to call this dyeing technique my Mary Alice roving. It was nice to get good feedback from someone who appreciated my efforts to put more control into the spinner's hands.

Since Mary Alice asked me to set aside another bag of this, I only have one bag available now; it's 6.6 ounces of Finn Cross for $23.10.



More Mary Alice roving here, with shades of shrimp from pale to medium as well as a touch of pale mauve. I have four bags of this, each approximately one half pound; if you're interested I'll get you the specifics. Priced as above, at $3.50 per ounce.

I'm getting ready for my next selling event which will be the Fleece Market at the WEBS Tent Sale on Saturday, 16 May at WEBS here in Northampton MA. Although the main sale is a two-day event, the Fleece Market will be limited to Saturday. I have a new (to me) EZ-UP shelter which will hopefully function better than my shelter last year which blew down. My border collie Bud will be with me that day to welcome visitors.

A Little Thief...

A couple days ago I checked in on my chickens just after lunchtime. This is what I saw: an opossum had found his way into the house, taken the top off the kitty litter pan I use as an egg box, had himself a tasty egg dinner, and snuggled in among broken eggshells for a nice nap. When I first saw him he was sound asleep in a ball. I was unable to capture that because I had to run back into the house for my camera.



Ever so slowly, he shook off his somnolence. He knew he was in an awkward situation and stayed curled up with his pointed snout open, showing some rather sharp-looking teeth. Most of the chickens were outside in their fenced-in area, but there were one or two walking around inside, unconcerned. There were a few eggs laid in the bedding in another corner of the coop so I'm assuming this fellow had been in possession of the egg box for awhile.


I don't want him to be a regular visitor so using a t-post I tipped him out of the box. He scurried out through the small chicken door, cowered in one corner of the outdoor pen, and eventually found a way out to freedom. He may have been helping himself to eggs all along but got sloppy in his burglary by snoozing on the job. I'll have to keep an eye on the situation and make some changes in the fencing if I see him again.


Time to show one of my projects from last summer. This is a ruglet, a small prototype for a rug. I tend to embark on rather labor-intensive projects so I like to do small samples and then make a decision about whether I want to invest the time on a larger version, or whether my idea would even work.

This ruglet was woven on my big Swedish loom on a cotton warp using several hues of hand-dyed wool roving. I didn't want the warp to show so laying in enough roving weft to cover the warp yarn was quite fiddly. If I were weaving a rug I'd probably use a nice dyed wool warp and not worry about whether the weft covered it completely. I'm also not sure about how this would function as a rug. I wouldn't want to put it in a high traffic area; it might be quite nice though as a scatter rug next to a bed.