I Love My Studio...

So, I posted this scarf on Etsy on Tuesday:

And somebody bought it last night! That was fast. So, it's heading off to it's new home. While at the studio, I re-did some of the photos I took earlier this week...

And for some reason, I just really love this picture. Not even sure if it's a really good photo of the scarf for selling, per se, I just really like the little bit of the view of the frozen canal outside my studio window...

(This scarf is from the same warp as the one that sold, but the weft is grey instead of icy blue. Both are a turned Ms and Os structure, using Silk City's Bambu7 sett at 16 epi, using various shades of blue and gray and a bit of black to outline the cells.)

I love my studio on weekday mornings. When I scoot over there before 9am, I'm often the only person on my floor, and it's very peaceful, and it's nice to see the artists that work there on a daily basis making their way in, too. I really am looking forward to when Conall is old enough to go to preschool a couple mornings a week, so I can spend more daylight hours in my space - does that make me a terrible, terrible mother? :)

Wet Finishing

I just thought I would post a couple of photos to demonstrate the difference wet finishing makes in handwoven textiles. This first photo is of an Ms and Os scarf that I wove recently, in bamboo, with lots of fun colors (purple, teal, yellow, caramel...):



I actually took the color inspiration from a painting by my daughter! (When she paints, I give her three little pots to fill and she chooses what primary colors to mix to get the final shades she wants.)

Anyway, you can see that it looks kind of flat when it comes off the loom. It also feels much stiffer than it will after it is washed. There's also a threading error in it, so that means I'm keeping this scarf instead of selling it (I know others sell less-than-perfect work for a discount, but I just can't bring myself to do it!)... I love the colors so much, I'm wondering whether I did it intentionally, lol! I fixed the threading, though, and wove another one to put in my shop.

And, here it is, after washing (photo taken inside, normally I take them outside, in the shade):



Can you see the difference? (I hadn't trimmed my ends or anything yet at this point.) The structure has really softened up, the Os looks like Os, and the whole thing shrank a bit as well. And it's beautifully soft to the touch now, too!

Man, though, it looks like it's going to be tough to photograph it's sister (the one without the goof) and really capture the colors... It's really quite a bit prettier in person, I think!

Happy Leap Day!

Whoo-hoo, happy February 29th! :) I know of at least one couple that are getting married this evening (Congrats to Ali and Rachel!)...

Ms. B was almost a leap baby. Missed it by about four hours. And after 25 hours of (natural) labor, I was just happy that she was finally born, lol! (As my midwife said - first babies don't fall out. Conall was muuuuch faster!)

And I actually managed to list another scarf in my Etsy shop today. Carlos (hubby) really likes the colors on this one:

I wasn't so sure about it when it came off the loom, but after I got it finished/washed, it looks great! I have another Ms and Os scarf that just came off the loom, so I'll post before and after photos tomorrow-ish so you can see what I mean. Washing makes a huge difference in this structure, especially when I use fiber like bamboo that shrinks a bit.

I'm also happy that I'm managing to build up a little inventory. (Not that a whopping nine items is much inventory, but still...) One of my goals this year is to try to build up enough inventory to maybe try out a little craft show or two this fall, just to get my feet wet. (Or, alternatively, to apply to a local artists' co-op that I have my eye on.) So, I'm getting there.

At any rate, happy Leap Day!

Sold!

This scarflette is on it's way to a wonderful new home today...

I loved this design... Made a full-length scarf as well as a custom order for a customer. Think I'll have to warp up some more Ms and Os, I love the texture they create.

Lonely Scarflette

So, I had *just* enough time during Conall's morning nap to drink some coffee and then scoot out in the snow (yup, snowing again, but not too much, just a couple inches) and take pictures of this little scarflette:

I managed to list it in my Etsy shop, too - where it now sits, in solitary splendor.

It's that turned Ms and Os again, in bamboo. I like this structure. I actually wove two full-size scarves from this warp too, using different weft colors. One went to my Mum for Christmas (hi, Mum!) and the other is going to wind up in my shop once I manage to photograph it.

Current Projects

Just thought I would post a couple quick pictures of my current projects...

On the little loom now:

The colors look a little bland in the photo, but they're a bit prettier in real life. Deep gold, a nice basil green, light light yellow and a khaki color, in a that turned Ms and Os structure that I keep coming back to (like the texture it creates in the fabric).

Here are some recently finished scarves that will be Christmas presents, I think:

What a difference wet finishing makes! My Mum was here yesterday (as always on Fridays, the kids love seeing Ginga every week) and was peeking at these scarves, but that was before I washed them... Fabric right off the loom can be stiff, but once it's washed up and dried in whatever way is appropriate for the fiber - hooray! Lovely, soft and drapey. At least, that's the way bamboo, tencel, wool/silk, alpaca/silk, etc. turn out - I have yet to work with linen, but I assume it keeps it stiffness to a certain extent...

Can you believe it's the 22nd of December already?? Yikes! Just about done with Christmas shopping, hooray, now I just have a bunch of presents to wrap up and a turkey to buy...

Baseball, Pillows and More

Now *that* is what I call a baseball game! Heck of a game last night at Fenway - of course I'm happy the Sox smucked the Rockies in Game 1, but last night's game was a real classic pitching duel... Both starters were excellent and the final score was 2-1. That's the kind of game that is fun to watch!

OK, on to weaving matters... I managed to put together my inventory for the Weavers' Guild Sale. Phew. One task done. Now I just have to finish up the last few items that are on the list but are still on my looms, eeks!

I did finish what I thought would be a turned Ms and Os shawl last night... Twisted the fringe in front of the game and got it washed, etc. But, as I suspected while I was weaving it, I'm not wild about the stripe pattern that I put into the weft. Looks kind of table-clothy for a shawl, at least to my eye. So, I'm thinking of cutting it up and making bolster-shaped pillows from it, which should suit the pattern perfectly. And it's made from bamboo, so it should stand up to use as pillow fabric (though that will be interested to discover). I've never made a pillow from my handwoven fabric before - fun!

I would post a picture, but half the batteries are missing from my camera. Taken to put into some toy or another (a little flashlight, actually, I think, for Bella, who loves that sort of thing).

There are never enough rechargeable batteries in this house! :) And we don't even buy the munchkins very many electronic toys...

So, here's a picture of some bamboo from Wikipedia article about bamboo:




And I really wish I had batteries in my camera because the leaves are soooo much prettier than last week! The colors are really spectacular this fall... We had a pretty terrible drought in August and September, I wonder if that contributed to the colors (eeks!)?

Twisting Madness

Wow, I've actually managed to finish two more scarves in record time. Twisted fringe during Red Sox games, got them washed, and managed to take photos during Conall's 30-second nap this afternoon (sigh) (my kids don't sleep). Nothing like a sale to light a fire under one's rear...

The first is a lime/white twill woven from zephyr (50/50 wool/silk) and 50/50 alpaca wool:

The pattern is called "gothic cross" and is from Marguerite Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book. If you're a weaver with a four-shaft (or more) loom and don't already own this book, run, don't walk to Amazon and get yourself one. (It's an old book, out of print, but you can still find it!)

Here's a closer view of the pattern:

I like it. :) The reverse side is predominantly green, but I think of this as the front side.

I looooove how this second scarf turned out, though!



This is a turned Ms and Os pattern - and it's made from three shades of pink bamboo (love that bamboo) - ranging from light shell pink to burgundy to outline the cells. Would make a nice gift for a breast cancer survivor...

Bamboo, it turns out, loves Ms and Os. Who knew?! It shrinks up just enough during finishing, I think, to really take to a structure that requires the yarn to move. Which means the finer version of the yarn would probably make gorgeous lace, too. Hmmm....

I'm thinking I might have to make another one of these, and a little headband/scarflette, too, for myself. Now if I can just get around to choosing the best pictures and getting these two listed in my etsy store...

Trouble Shooting

Oy. Every once in a while, there's just one of those projects. Everything that can go wrong, does.

I'm attempting to weave some dishtowels from some very nice, very fine, organic cotton yarn that I bought from Silk City Fibers. It's really lovely stuff, it feels almost silky to the touch.

Two major problems so far, though.... First, I was threading an Ms and Os pattern. Simple enough. On a four shaft loom, you thread it more or less like this:

12121212 34343434
13131313 24242424

I motored right along, tied it all on, wove a header, wove my hems, started to weave my first towel, and lo and behold, I got this:


That doesn't look like any Ms and Os I've ever seen, lol... It's pretty, but not what I was aiming for. What on earth happened?

Oh, goodlord. HUGE threading error. I skipped that second row up there (the 13131313 24242424 part) and just repeated the first line for the whole warp. DUH.

600 ends. 300 of them threaded wrong. Rip the whole thing off and start over? Nope, this yarn is much too expensive for that. So, I cut off the above, re-threaded those 300 heddles, re-sleyed those 300 ends, tied on again, and was finally ready to start over.



Well, that looks better. Except...

I put on a long (6 yards) warp. On my little Harrisville Loom. Which tends to give me severe tension problems with long warps. Which I had forgotten, since I've mostly just been weaving scarves or other single projects on it... So I blithely wound it on without paying extra special attention to the tension, which I need to do with long warps on this loom. So, the left third or so of my warp has gotten really loose after weaving not even one whole dishtowel...

One way for fix it for now:

Ha. Anybody with little kids will recognize those (they're the edges for the foam rubber alphabet mats that everyone seems to have now). I've heard of using upholstery foam to do this, but I didn't have any and thought of these. They're working ok, but once I'm ready to start the second dishtowel, I'll probably try to take up some slack in the warp by pulling it forward between the towels. We'll see if that works! If not, I doubt I'll have the patience to weave six or so more towels with a messed up warp...

Live and Learn. :) Two problems that easily could have been avoided if I'd been paying more attention!

Warped

30 ends per inch. I'm in warping hell...

Actually, it's not so bad. I'm setting up some organic cotton warp - this yarn has 7000 yards per pound, so it's really fine. I'm going to weave some dishtowels in Ms and Os. Huh. Haven't done many dishtowels - my first absolutely disastrous attempt at weaving involved dishtowels and yarn from a knitting store (what was I thinking?? LOL I had no idea at that point where to find yarn suitable for weaving). I made some a couple years ago for Christmas presents (along with soap that I made, too) that turned out significantly better. Here's hoping these are even better!

If these turn out well, I'm thinking of trying another set with overshot borders, using some 10/2 Tencel as the pattern weft. Supposedly, Tencel is very absorbent, and the colors are so darn striking, I thought that might be fun to try.

Not much else going on - I've started working out again. My cardiovascular system is in shock. ("You want me to do *what*??") I figured that since Conall is just about seven months old, it was time to get my rear in gear. Especially if I want to ski this winter!! I missed it so much last year! But at this point, my thighs are *not* going to be letting me telemark any time soon... Oh well, there's always snowboarding, the laziest way down the mountain if I'm still a blob by the time November/December roll around.

Ms and Os Scarf

I keep forgetting to post this guy!

There she is. Not so bad in the end - I like the scalloped edges that Ms and Os creates. Does it look sort of blue-tinged to you? Or is it just my computer?

Man, I have to get better at taking pictures. Maybe actually splurge and buy a dress form, sigh. I wish I could come up with a more creative way to take pics of my stuff that actually still shows the texture, movement, drapability (is that even a word?? lol) of the fabric, etc. I've been thinking about finding a nice rich looking woven basket, too. Or maybe even a great piece of stone to drape them across? But whatever I do, I need to figure out something and get consistent with it!

A fuzzy scarf and a dead computer...

My poor laptop was on the fritz for quite a while there - we finally figured out it was the keyboard. All sticky and ooky from toddler fingers and Little Girl's (black cat) habit of sitting on it in the winter because it's warm.

Wonderful hubby Carlos ordered a new keyboard for me and replaced it. Hooray for nerdly husbands. Should we take another gander at his nerd score??



LOL! (Not that I should laugh too loud... see my score if you want.)

In the meantime, I finished the first scarf that I'm making with some yummy pink yarn from YarnChef at etsy. That same shadow-weave pattern with the pseudo-circles, I keep using it!

Anyway, I combined the pink merino with chocolate colored bamboo and fulled it a bit unintentionally when I finished it - but I like how it came out.



My only complaint is that it's hard to see the lovely variegation in the pink yarn - I'm currently weaving another scarf in Ms&Os that will show it a bit more, I think...

Although I'm also thinking I'm going to back up quite a bit and start the second scarf over - I don't have enough of the pink yarn left to use as all of the warp and all of the weft, but I do have enough for the warp plus some weft. So, I wove about five inches using the pink as the weft and then switched to a white Zephyr:


The idea is to then duplicate that pink portion at the other end of the scarf. It's ok, but I'm actually thinking of backing up and making pink and white stripes at the ends with white in the middle - less jarring, but I'd still get to use the pink yarn in the weft too. Off to unweave...