Front Page, Baby!

Whoo-hoo! Another front page appearance on Etsy!

Awesome friend Liz of MadeInLowell (check out her shop!!) took a screenshot for me:

A little small - but there it is, third row, left side, my sage and smokey blue scarf that I posted about here. I didn't even know I was in the treasury! I love it when it comes completely out of left field like that!

And, argh, I can't believe I didn't get my purple scarf posted today. Whoops! Missed opportunity!

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!

Just Listed... And A New Project On The Loom

I just listed this scarf in my Etsy shop! It's the third and final piece from this warp. A different treadling pattern, of course, from the other two, and it's a bit more green - I used the green in the weft for this one.

I'm also working on a new lacy scarf using yummy hand-dyed laceweight yarn from etsy seller Chewyspaghetti. Since I botched the last one I tried with this yarn, I'm being a bit more careful with this one...


Aren't the colors great?? Gold, mauvey-pink, hints of light purple... She did a really nice job dying this yarn!

It's a hand-manipulated lace structure called Danish Medallions that I've been meaning to try out for some time now. I'm interspersing it with sections of plain weave (otherwise the scarf would take 15,000 hours to weave.) And since spring is rapidly approaching I thought I'd make some lacier scarves... It was actually still light out here at 5:30 p.m. yesterday, wow!

Another Scarf Sold...

Sage green/smokey blue, shadow weave, and it's off to a new home!

I had a disaster in the washing machine the other day... Wove a ruffley scarf using this amazingly yummy silk/wool yarn from Chewyspaghetti and I basically killed it. Wah. I knew the silk/wool wouldn't shrink at the same rate as regular merino, so, it went through twice. And shrank too much. Live and learn! LOL! Happily, I have a bunch of the yarn left and I'm going to use it in a lace scarf, I think...


Poor Ms. Madeline cat has had a tummy ache. The vet had us give her Pepcid A/C - who knew?? She's obviously feeling much more like her normal meow-y, talkative self today. Hooray! We've had enough kitty cat tragedy around here for the next couple of years, thank you very much.