Weaving

Twelve placemats are completed. I am excited.  I love them.  Decided to keep a small fringe on each end.  I will keep 8 and gift 4 away.

Warp 5/2 cotton hand dyed by me this summer.

Weft 5/2 natural cotton.  18 epi

I finished warping the 14 yards yesterday and began weaving.  I had intended more placemats, but as I got into the weave-groove,  they told me they wanted to be curtains for the kitchen.  So, kitchen curtains they shall be.

Spinning

I have just a bit of merino/kid mohair to finish spinning.  I bought this from WinderWood Farms last week.  I have yet to be dis-satisfied with anything from there.  My plan is to Navajo Ply this in order to keep the colors separated.

I sold my drum carder in November as I just had a hard time spinning the drum and would really like to get a Pat Green Super Carder (I am dreaming big and planning for our fiber farm some day).  So for now, I am back to blending fibers with a diz and a hackle.  Apparently my Valkyrie hackle is no longer made.  It is a pretty scary object, but I had fun making a new roving.

Hope your day is filled with the small joys in life.

Please do not confuse that with spanking the genius!  Ok seriously, My wonderful hubby (the genius), after reading about Kati Reed’s trapeze, decided that we really didn’t have the room in our shared office space to build one. He did, however, go to Lowe’s on Saturday bought some hardware, and mounted a closet bar for me to use when winding very long warps.  I couldn’t wait to try it.  So, after cutting off the placemats from yesterday, I wound another 14 yard warp.  This morning, I got busy: (sorry in advance for the dark pictures…Chris was facing the window and obviously the sun was in the lens)

(pretend you don’t see the mess on top of the loom, ok?)

Kati metions “spanking” the warp instead of trying to comb it out, or trying to fix it.  Wonderful.  A little frustrated?  Go spank your warp.  Awesome!

I love my new home made raddle.  Eye hooks every inch with a dowel running through the eye hooks to secure the warp.

I was able to wind a 14 yard warp in under 30 minutes by myself.  It went on so well and truly looks great on the back beam.  As of this writing, I have threaded half the heddles and will finish up after lunch.  I think I could learn to love long warps.  Thanks Jim for hanging my new warp helper thingy and thanks Kati for writing such a great book!  (next up???? could be making my own canvas apron and securing to the back and cloth beams…also explained in Kati’s book.  We’ll see if I get brave enough to do it.

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This morning we got our first glance at some winter weather.  Ok, so it’s melted off already but the kids were excited to see it.  This doesn’t hold a candle to all of you getting inches and inches and feet upon feet of it, though.

Just a light coating on the trampoline.

Yes, I have issues with tension.  With 5 kids and an Army hubby, who wouldn’t have tension.  Ok, so really I am talking about keeping a consistent tension on my weaving.  When I advance my warp, I run my hand over the cloth to see if it feels like it did before I advanced it.  Some times, I have to go a bit further, some times I have to back off, some times I am just wrong and you can see the irregularity in the finished project.  I received Kati Reed’s Book Warp With A Trapeze, Dance With Your Loom on Friday and had set up a live weight tension system on Saturday.

I LOVE IT (pictured here is a bit more weight then I actually wove with).  I had consistent tension through the rest of my project, just simply advanced the cloth beam and kept on going.  I was able to weave 10 out of 12 of my placemats using this system and think they turned out great.

Now to cut them apart, sew them, wash and press them and we will be good to go.

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Tomorrow we head back to school, regular work schedules, and well….let’s face it, I enjoyed the time off.  But all good things must come to an end or they won’t be special anymore.  So, bring on the work schedule, the school schedule, bowling, and everything else in between. Since I have my weaving tensions solved, maybe I can handle the other “tensions” better.

Yay!  I already have some things I can write up as completed.  Pretty cool.

Weaving:

On Sunday I purchased a no name home made rigid heddle loom from a fellow Ravely member.  It was a really decent price.  I used to have a rigid heddle loom but sold it in 2007.  I decided I couldn’t pass this deal up as it was more then affordable and some of the kid-lets have been asking to learn how to weave.  It arrived on Wednesday.  Assembly was easy, warping happened right away.  Since it’s 18 inches wide and can easily be used on my lap, I thought a stand would be good too.  So I went to hobby lobby and bought a cross stitch stand.  I clamped the loom to the stand to find the best place for the loom.

(disclaimer…picture was taken AFTER the project was cut off the loom)

I started weaving New Year’s Eve while the family watched Speed Racer

and it was finished on New Year’s Day while the kids and Jim played Star Wars on the Wii (before mandatory football game watching started)

I just used various scraps of yarn left over from other projects and wound the warp until I ran out of a color. While it’s not the best, I forgot how different it was to weave on a rigid heddle as opposed a floor loom.  Now to set the loom back up for the kids to weave on.

Spinning:

233 Yards 100% mohair in a blue/red colorway

From our House to yours:

What can I say?  2008 comes to an end and we usher in 2009.  2008 was the year on changes, of tolerance, of patience, of waiting, of reunions, sadness, and fibery projects.

Changes:

The kids grew through the roof.  Seriously, how much can one boy grow in a year?  When Jim left in 2007, our middle boy was shorter then Jim.  Now 13 months later, he’s exploded and while not yet 13 (almost) he’s grown over a foot, his voice changed, and he keeps growing.  Oldest son and daughter also changed before my eyes as well as youngest daughter.  Youngest son is getting there and I predict 2009 will be the year of his changes.

Tolerance & Patience:

Let’s just say it was hard to deal with some of the things I had to deal with “on my own” while Jim was gone, but that’s where it paid off being tolerant and patient.   God surely was my refuge and strength even when I didn’t see it.

Waiting:

Um yeah…every day was a waiting game until Jim returned.  It was never fun waiting, but personal growth couldn’t happen without that waiting.

Reunions:

Not just one but a few!  Jim came home twice (once on R&R and then for good), my friend’s husband also came home as well as many other spouses.

Sadness:

Saying goodbye to friends who left due to military moves or marriages ending.

Fibery Project:

129 documented finished projects in 2008.

WEAVING

• 10 Bags/Totes
• 7 items of Clothing
• 4 Shawls
• 45 Scarves
• 3 Roving Rugs
• 5 Dishtowels

KNITTING

• 11 pairs of Mittens or Fingerless Mitts
• 25 Hats
• 11 pairs of Socks (mostly kids for charity)
• 1 Scarf
• 7 Sweaters

Wow! That’s a lot.  I didn’t document any finished spun skeins and will do that for the coming year but several skeins were spun up as well many painted skeins.  Will 2009 be as productive?  I don’t know.  I am sleeping much better these days now that the daddy-man is home.  However, I do have a few things I want to try in 2009 so stay tuned……………….

After pulling out a new pair of knitted socks the other day I realized I had never woven in the strand of yarn at the toe.  It made for an incredible way to tease the cat:

My apologies to anyone who has visited my website lately and was redirected to a website other then my own.  My website was hijacked and some visitors redirected to a website that does not reflect the beliefs or me or my family.

My website related email is still down, but at least I can sign into my blog right now.  I have continued to have problems off and on, so please bear with me.

Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding if you were one of the ones redirected to the “other” website.

How does your garden grow?

One felted flower at a time of course.

This is a Noni Forget Me Not Felted Flower pattern from the Spring 2007 Collection.  Kelly sent me this pattern for my birthday and it’s a tribute to those who have struggled with breast cancer.  I have this idea in my head that I will weave a bag and attach some felted forget me nots to it and donate it for the Cancer Walk auction in 2009.

More flowers are being made today so there should be a small garden growing by the end of the week.

The kids asked if we could head to the mall so they could spend the gift cards from Grandpa.  Neither Jim, nor I, were thrilled about heading to the mall the day after Christmas.  Then Jim heard a story on the news about poor retail sales and big sales.  So we braved the crowds (or so we thought) and went.  Our first stop, K-Mart…..nearly no one there.  Then to the mall.  While people where there, it seemed more like your normal every day weekend kind of crowd.  The kids all had Aeropostale gift cards and I had printed out some internet coupons for an extra 10.00 off (if you purchased 40.00 or more).  While the kids shopped and/or were in line, I handed out the extra coupons I had to people who looked like they had a lot of items.  It was amazing to see the expressions on their faces when I just handed them a coupon for no reason.  After there we headed to Sears and then home.  When the mail arrived for the day, there were more gift cards to Wal Mart (thanks Aunt Karen and Uncle Chris)  So I agreed to take the kids to Wal Mart after lunch.  Again not so busy.  But we soon left with full bags and empty gift cards.

All in all it was a good day, but I did notice deeper discounts at the mall stores and not much discounting (except on seasonal items) at the “mart” stores.

Kids are playing the Wii this morning and I am looking at starting a second pot of coffee.

Perhaps even some weaving might get done this weekend, but I am not counting on it.