Chenille scarves

I have been working on scarves for a few weeks.  I’m designing scarves for Cotton Clouds kits as well as weaving for holiday sales.

This is a scarf woven from all the cones in a recent chenille delivery. I used each color twice with 6-thread stripes.

This scarf was designed after someone in my Weekly Weaving Workshop class asked how to weave a scarf with pure colors in two stripes. The next scarf is on the same warp, but you can see the dark weft crossing the light weft.

 

I had a hard time taking photos of this scarf. I need to try again. This warp has black yarn alternating with odds and ends of green and variegated yarns. See the table below. If there is 3 yards left of a color I have kept it knowing that it would be enough for a scarf warp. So the scarf in the photo uses the greens. I have a few more scarf warps to create from the cones below.

Two busy weekends

I spent the last two days in Placerville teaching Weave a V-Shawl to the Hangtown Fiber Guild. Here are the results:

Ladies,  please turn around.

These are the warps for shawls not quite finished:

Quite a variety of shawls!

Last weekend was Lambtown in Dixon, CA. The fiber building was so busy that I barely got outside to snap a few photos. The sheep-to-shawl contest was one of the most popular events. Teams come with looms already warped and they need to prepare and spin the yarn and weave the shawls during the contest. This year the fiber for the weft was Jacob wool from my flock. It got great reviews from the spinners.  Here is the winning shawl woven by the Silverado Guild from Napa:

And a close-up:

The Del Oro Guild got second place:

I didn’t get photos of the other shawls, but I did get one of Hangtown Guild’s portrayal of their theme of  “Au Naturel”:

There is a new use for all that roving that you don’t have time to spin! Hangtown always does it with a sense of humor!

One last photo taken at Lambtown:

Do I want to swap out my sheep for a flock of these  cuties? Hmmm…what is a group of chincillas called? Covey–no, that’s quail. Warren–isn’t that where rabbits live? Crowd? How about Cloud?

The newest lambs and the newest weavers

It’s hard to take photos when sheep are in pens. This is Mary who lambed last week at the CA State Fair Nursery. She has triplet ewes. Madeline is next to her and lambed a couple of days ago, also with triplet ewes! They are quite the crowd-pleasers.

The sheep show is this weekend.  I’m there with 8 sheep (not counting the sheep in the Nursery) and a big display. Today I took one of my portable rigid heddle looms to work on. Some of the girls who were there with their family’s sheep flocks were hanging around and watching me weave. After I finished a scarf I told them that they could all try it. I finally decided to just let them weave one. Three girls traded off and finished a scarf. We warped the loom again for another and tomorrow I’m going to take another loom and a basket full of yarn. I’ll let them keep weaving as long as they want to. Another great crowd pleaser!

These are 2nd to 5th graders. I got them started and they’re doing great!

They’re tying the fringe here.

These girls sure make it look easy. Maybe they can sell looms for me.!

Weaving odds & ends

I won’t say that I’m catching up with my things-to-weave list, but I’m plugging away at it. I have sold about half of the baby blankets on the PURPLE warp.

but have enough left to put some on the website and maybe resurrect my etsy listings too. I have a new baby blanket warp on the loom ready to thread. Not everyone wants a purple blanket for a baby gift and that’s all I have right now!

Here’s a full-size blanket that I finally finished for a customer using her yarn.

This is a blanket for another customer who sent me her Jacob wool.

And here’s a funky bag. I’m experimenting with felting up some odds and ends of wool fabric to create bags. I think they’ll get better as I perfect it.

I have taught a couple of weaving classes in the last few weeks as well. Here are the participants and their scarves:

It’s sure nice now that I have room in my shop to have 5 people weaving at once!

Finally weaving

I have started to work on the projects that are backed up from BBA (before broken arm). This is a Jacob wool blanket for a local Jacob breeder. The wool was spun at Yolo Wool Mill. It’s very open right now at 4 epi but I have notes from the last blanket I did using this yarn  and the blanket came out great. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. But now I’ll have to wait a week (at least). I’m leaving in the morning for Michigan and Vermont! I’ll take photos!

Leash it!

I’m trying to figure out a name for my new product. This is the one that is going to make my fortune. Well, maybe not…but it involves yarn and it’s fun to do. These are the leashes I’ve been working on. I think I still need to do something about some of the tassels and beads to neaten them up. My original idea was to splice the ends, but that would involve learning something else and a lot of time and then I wouldn’t have an excuse to go buy beads.

There is a member-screening at the Artery’s Annual Meeting this weekend and I’ve been planning to get these ropes done so I could take them to the screening. I also need to finish some more buttons.

I’m back to the loom–trying to weave off the warp that I put on before I broke my arm in January. This is a baby blanket warp on the AVL.

This blanket is still on the loom. Purple enough?

These will be listed for sale on my website soon I hope.

I Have a New Daughter!

Yes, I have a new daughter (-in-law).  And I didn’t have to deal with the teenage years. My son, Matt, married Kaleena on Saturday and we are all very happy. Kaleena started planned the wedding last summer and her organization paid off. (If she ever wants to quit her U.S. Forest Service job she could probably be a wedding planner.) The only thing she couldn’t control was the weather, but the rain didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits. Here are some photos.

In the photo below that’s my husband, Dan, me, Matt, Kaleena, and her mom, Mary. I am wearing the v-shawl that I wove to wear with the dress that I dyed. That was my wedding dress and with the input of my weaving friends, I finally chose a color to dye it.  Then we chose yarns for the shawl. My main idea was to not stand out in the crowd. I figured that if no one noticed me then I did all right.  I didn’t want to have people say “Who the heck is that?” or “Why is she wearing THAT?” Kaleena’s colors for the wedding were dark brown and sage green and Mary and I both matched pretty well. (Mary sewed her dress and jacket too.)

In this photo that’s my other kids, Chris & Katie on the left of Matt & Kaleena, and Kaleena’s sister on the right. Didn’t Kaleena choose a great setting for her wedding colors? Or did she choose the colors to go with the setting? Even the clubhouse where the wedding and reception were held was perfect. The carpet and chair upholstery was the green of the dresses and the huge picture windows had a view into the tree tops.

Kaleena let all of her little nieces and her nephew participate in the wedding. The littlest flower girl tried picking up the rose petals that the others dropped down the aisle.

Another weaving class

I taught the Weave a V-Shawl class in Stockton this month. Judy Allen of Gilmore Looms organized it and we used the space at the shop to hold the class. Five students took the class and here’s what they created. These shawls are right off the loom so fringes and wet finishing will be done later. Aren’t they incredible? And all so different.

In the photo above you can get a feel for the warp. It’s the photo below that shows what happens when the shawl is woven–you get fun plaids on the back. The second, third and fifth shawl are out of my Jacob wool. The first is a cotton mix that Judy wove for her mother (modeling the shawl).  The 4th shawl is out of beautiful handspun and the shawl on the far right is a variegated alpaca yarn–so soft.

One of the most fun things for me was that I took an old Gilmore loom I have to the class on the 2nd day and Bob spent a lot of time fixing things for me. This loom was made in 1962 and I acquired it a few years ago. Bob fixed the space where the reed goes in the beater so that I don’t have to jam it in. He cut slots so that the top bar that holds the reed in place will slip out without having to undo the bolts. He showed me how to fix the reeds that have the tape coming off of them. And most exciting–he turned the beam into a sectional beam for me. Photo to come later.

Thanks to Bob for the loom work and to Judy for organizing the class…and of course the students.

Changing Clothes

I thought you might be interested in this project and website by Lea Redmond. Lea contacted me several months ago to buy some black and white Jacob yarn. She planned to weaving clothing labels. Huh? About a month ago she contacted me and said her project was finished and she was having a show at The Cheese Factory http://www.artatthecheesefactory.org/ near Petaluma, CA. Lea used my wool for a giant size clothing label as part of her Changing Clothes project in which she “investigates politics and ecology of clothes”. Go to this website-   http://www.leafcutterdesigns.com/projects/changingclothes.html and explore more of what she is doing in this project. There are some interesting ways that all of us can participate.

A Successful Weaving Class

I spent the last two days in Placerville, about an hour from my place, teaching a beginning weaving class. The Hangtown Fiber Guild meets at a great facility. They use a classroom at a local church with plenty of space–tables, running water, etc.  There were 7 students and a few helpers and everyone finished their scarves in the allotted time. It is always fun to see the variety of scarves and this class was no exception. Here are some photos of the scarves on the looms.

Jacob wool in broken twill

handspun warp & weft (includes beads!)

Jacob wool warp (rainbow dyed) with a wool weft

Jacob wool in broken twill

Space-dyed yarn in warp and weft

Cotton warp with rainbow dyed Jacob wool weft

Cotton warp and weft

These are the finished scarves before washing or finishing fringes. Great job!