Facebook Page

Hello all! Obviously I have basically stopped blogging here...

But I do have a Facebook Fan page that I post weaving-related stuff on, if you'd like to check it out.

Click here to go to my skiingweaver Facebook page!

I just post some photos from my recent week at John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina - I took Dianne Totten's and Pam Howard's "Color, Crimp, Create" advanced weaving class and had an absolute ball.

Hope to see you around Facebook...

Ahts and Merino/Tencel

Yay! I just received word today that I was accepted into the Boston Ahts Festival again this year! It's held September 10 -12, in Christopher Columbus Park on the waterfront in Boston. Even with terrible weather last year (Saturday was completely rained out) it was by far the most successful show I did. I was *really* hoping I'd get in again this year - but with completely different jurors and stiff competition for just 60-ish coveted spots, I wasn't sure.

(My booth, last year, nice corner location, I lucked out - though I was behind a pillar! LOL!)

It's a great time, with music and dance and demonstrations as well. Literally thousands upon thousands of people showed up last year (the free music is a huge draw! Local/emerging musicians from Berklee, the Boston Ballet, the Boston Gay Men's Choir, the list goes on and on).

Packed!!

A bit of Boston's waterfront, the evening of the last day of the show last year. I'm so excited to do this show again this year!

Maybe this will light a fire under my weaving rear-end. :) Speaking of weaving, how about a project round-up? I'm about to put a custom shawl on my 4-shaft loom, I've got Bonnie-Inouye-inspired echo weave going on the Weavebird, am about to warp up the Colonial with something or other (haven't decided yet), and I'm trying out a new-to-me yarn on my 8-shaft table loom.



Nothing too crazy - it's a 5-shaft waffle weave using three colors - I'm a sucker for texture and haven't tried waffle-weave with wool before (I did, of course, weave the obligatory cotton waffle-weave dishtowels years ago). The yarn is 10/2 Merino/Tencel from Webs and it's lusciously soft! If it comes out nicely, I'll be doing more - but with a floating selvedge and a couple shots of plain weave to begin next time. This one may be a little wonky in the end, but it's just for me, so that's ok. Love this yarn so far! (Yes, that's kid artwork on the table there...)

Osloom!

Oh, how fun, I just got my laser-cut backstrap loom from the Osloom project in the mail today.

There are all the pieces. Yay!

If you'd like to learn more about the OSloom project (Open Source Jacquard loom), you can read more at the osloom.org website.

A Little Pile of Coptic-Bound Journals

Hey, finally a little pile of coptic journals to list on Etsy! Always amazed at how long it takes to write that first listing for a series of items...

So I'm Not Exactly an Expert Seamstress...

... but I do have fun with it! I made a fun little smart phone pouch earlier this week. The pattern is from the fabulous The Crochet Diva on Etsy, and the pattern itself is her Swanky Little Phone Case. It was a wonderfully clear pattern - even a newbie seamstress like me could follow the instructions very easily.

Here's what my version looks like folded up:

There are two pockets on the inside (I still need to add a snap to that tab I'm holding down) - that's my Droid peeking out of the lower one.

This is the back:
That's my fabric and button - the same organic cotton/Webs cotton in turned twill that I'm using for my journal covers - I used an organic cotton sateen as the lining fabric.

I had all sorts of fun making that pouch! I am, however, developing my own little pouch to sell, instead of using a pattern. I'm getting there - it will have an open top and an inside pocket. I've almost got the prototype perfected, but look what I did...

I sewed two backsides together (as opposed to a front and a back) - lol, whoops! Putting that little seam ripper that came with my sewing machine to good use... I think I need to tweak the little pocket a bit, too, it's coming out a little on the large side at the moment.

Never thought I'd actually enjoying doing some sewing...

Coptic-Bound Journal

I've been obsessed with books lately... And have started learning sewn bindings. Fun! I started with just paper around the covers, to learn on, but have just made my first one using handwoven fabric...

So, here are the front and back covers - I've already covered them in handwoven fabric (turned twill blocks in organic cotton and 10/2 cotton from Webs), and the inside face has a nice sheet of Thai Unryu/Mulberry paper.

Next, I made folios of 6 leaves (12 sides) (I think that's the right way to say it) of handtorn paper, and used my awl to poke holes in them - the phonebook is a great jig!

There are seven of them, waiting their turn to be bound to the covers.

I've started binding the first folio to the back cover (note my daughter's Hello Kitty scissors...)

What the stitching looks like inside.

Getting there! (Neat little rows of Coptic stitching around the edge there). And, of course, I'm running out of waxed linen thread...

So I add a little more. That's a slip knot about to strangle the end of my thread that was getting too short. The book binding literature calls this a "weaver's knot" which actually kind of cracked me up, because I've never, ever used one before! (I assume it would be used to repair broken warp ends, but I do it differently, I don't like to leave a knot in the warp.)

Hey, it's done! Cool!

Really like how it lies open nice and flat. Great for sketches/journaling, I think.

Yay! I'm keeping this one, there are goofs in it, but I like it. :)

Kyna (pronounced key-nah) - my faithful assistant. (Yes, we have a puppy. She's half Lab half Golden Retriever and is almost six months old! Theresh a good girl, yesh.)

Love/Hate Relationships

Any weavers out there have a certain task that they just really don't like doing? I like just about everything to do with weaving, but there are a couple of things that I just don't enjoy doing, for some unknown reason.

One has always been...

Hemstitching! (These are going to be little bookmarks to go with the journals I've been making lately.) I do it so rarely that I normally have to dig out a copy of Handwoven Magazine to look up the directions for it (love that they print them in every issue).

I don't really know why I don't enjoy it - I normally like needlework (I'm really enjoying sewing some coptic-bound journals, e.g.) (I'll post a photo or two of those soon). Maybe it's because when I sit down at the loom to weave, I really want to just zip right along and weave. But, I do like how it looks, so it's worth curbing my impatience!

Otherwise, I've been battling a cold (poor me) (<-laughing at myself) (more like poor family!), hope you are all well!