A couple of months ago, we took a week away. We started out with a serendipitous find at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, an exhibit on weaving:

I thought this top was knit until I got up close. It's a reproduction of a woven (called Sprang) shirt from approx 1300CE, found in Arizona.

And this is the real thing! Imagine! Someone actually wove this some 700 years ago!

And here's more of the exhibit on fiber and handwovens.

At Casa Grande Ruins National Monument museum in Arizona, there is a small exhibit on spinning and weaving.

While we drove, Gingie and I worked with "Dark Matter", an Anzula fiber colorway.

And I finished making up this sweet pillow. The pattern is from Purl SOHO. The bobbles are made up of my first ever handspun!

At home again, I got Sophie dressed in stripes. The colors were so striking, I didn't want them to wash out. So, I sett the 10/2 pearl cotton ends (threads) at 40 epi (ends per inch--think sheet thread count), closer together than I normally do.

Because I don't weave as much as I'd like, I don't get much practice setting up the loom. This is the same problem I had a year ago. There's only supposed to be one shed (see the opening to throw the shuttle through?), not two. Thanks to some generous support on Ravelry.com, I got this straightened out.

...and got to weaving some satin yardage! Look how the colors stand out! And with the warp  threads so close together, the weft is almost invisible.

After all that weaving, out came the scissors. Yikes! Then, thanks to some math miscalculations, I had enough cloth to sew two aprons and two pillow cases. My SIL says this will be her winter apron. Note to self: this density of cloth would work well for tote bags.

A minute here and a minute there, I've been spinning with Suzie and her stylus. This is silk from Chasing Rainbows. The color is called "crocus".

Every non-workday morning, I've been in the front yard as soon as the sun comes up. About a month ago, we put in a few vegies as place holders until I decide what belongs there. Since this picture was taken, we've gotten about 25 cucumbers and the cantaloupe and corn are coming along.

Further down the way, I've been digging up the roots from one of the trees we had taken out. The space longer than the length of the car was filled with roots...

...until me! This must be the reason I go to the gym!

And indoors, I finished painting the room that is to be our guest and my sewing room.

It's All Learning

I finished the fiddly 12 shaft yardage! So, here's another tote. After doing 36 epi (a little to loose, although not flimsy) and here at 42 epi (odd striping in the warp with this reed), I've decided that the perfect sett for totes with 10/2 cotton, is 40.   

 Looking to the future, I asked Joanne at Glimakra USA what I need to know to be ready for a drawloom. She sent me some patterns. This is one of them from her website. It's an 8 shaft drall.

From start to finish, with life in between, I got these done in four days!

Yes, I know I'll never be a stylist.

Stop and Go

It's been kind of stop and go around here. I've finished some things and struggled on others. I finished spinning and plying the fiber I bought at Imperial Yarn in Oregon.

It's three ply, done Navajo ply method.

And I've started spinning up this luscious 50/50 yak/silk blend from RedFish.

Another completed project is this lace scarf/shawl I've been knitting from my standby, Victorian Lace Today. It was supposed to be a stash buster. Sigh. There's probably enough yarn left to make a second one. Maybe I'll donate it.

 

 

 

And also, compliments of RedFish, I bought three sock yarns. They're 75% super wash merino wool and 25% silk. I've started on the green skein.

Interesting. I just noticed that the one in back is very similar in color to the fiber shown above. (And fyi, in the photo, the colors do not show as rich as they truly are.)

 Now, as to my weaving, it's been a struggle. As I've said before, I learn best by seeing and then doing. Book learning and no feedback is hard for me. So, I got stumped for a while on the 12 treadle/12 shaft tie up. I got it all done, but too many of the sheds were iffy. Thanks to some generous feedback from Karen at Warped for Good, I took all the ties off and started, again. I marked them as described by Becky at Vavstuga.

I did all 120 of them. And then, put them back on.

Most of the sheds were better, but the shafts still dropped. The shafts and lamms should be parallel to the ground. Because I kept stopping out of frustration, it took a while to get to the point where I could just weave. The sheds are not all good, but they're usable. I just have to push the shafts down, before stepping on some of the treadles. 

Luckily, this is yardage, so the selvedges (which are effected most) don't matter. This is another pattern I got from handweaving.net.

 

I Did it!

I did it! I finished the grocery totes!

These are from the yardage Sophie and I were playing with. They're beautiful and functional, but I think I'll sett them closer next time. Maybe instead of 36 ends per inch, 40 or 42. Although it may change the pattern somewhat, I'd like the cloth to be a little more dense. The pattern is a crackle weave from handweaving.net.   

 

At work, I have to pick up and put down my knitting at a moment's notice. So, I was desperate for a row counter of sorts to keep track of this pattern. The pretty stone counter/markers I bought were a little too heavy for sock knitting. And I kept forgetting which row I was on when using them. The bead store didn't have number beads, but they did have letters. It works!

Silly grin

I'm having so much fun with Sophie. I find that I have a silly grin on my face while I'm weaving!

This is a 10/2 pearl cotton, 36epi done in a 6 shaft crackle weave. The warp is more of a bright yellow than it shows. This is the yardage I'd like to use to make some grocery totes.

And these socks are for my nephew. They're knitted toe-up with Mountain Colors sock yarn that is a darker blue than it appears.