Weaver's Weekend

My husband said he wanted to skip his bike ride to take me down to Vista, California, in northern San Diego county. If the traffic's light, it's a two hour drive. He wanted to take me to the Antique Gas and Steam Museum. The idea of any kind of engines is not very motivating for me. I would say that trying to get me out of the house resembled fighting the inertia you push against in prying a rock from it's bed. But he had seen an ad in one of my magazines for the Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta. Luckily, my hubby was willing to push. It was WONDERFUL!!! This one building held about 50 looms!  

Look at the works on top of this loom!

It fascinated me!

Punch cards.

Each of the individual heddles hanging behind the shafts had it's own weight hanging from it.

And the yellow strings went one to each of those heddles.

I wanted to have a visual record of the way this Glimakra countermarch was tied up. It's upside down from the way I learned.

Such pretty colors and work on this dobby loom. But I wanted to take note of the temple. She used bent j-hooks from knitting...

then added a pulley and a bottle of sand.

I know I don't have room for a great wheel, but...                                                      Then, on the way home, we stopped in San Pedro at Crafted. My eyes, followed by my feet, went straight to the giant countermarch loom. It's 10 feet in the reed.  

Dana, it's owner, is a textile artist. We spent a delightful hour visiting both under and in front of the loom. I look forward to seeing what she produces on it.                                   The day after all this fun, I had a visitor, Robin, who's contemplating purchasing a Glimakra loom. She wanted to have the opportunity for a little hands on before she made her decision. It was perfect timing. I have a sample on Sophia (the countermarch Standard) and napkins on Julia (counterbalance), so I didn't mind someone else weaving on them. Besides, I was so full of excitement about the previous day's and week's activities, I wanted to share!                                                                      The week before all of this, I spent watching and learning from the dvd, Dress Your Loom the Swedish Way. I hope both ladies will forgive me for babbling on about everything I learned from the dvd. Because I learned to weave on a jack loom, tie up and set-up on my countermarch has been a struggle. And I don't learn by reading. So, to finally get Sophia dressed with ease was a pleasure. And now she's weaving as comfortably and smoothly as I knew she could. I can't stop grinning!  

Zero to 60 in...

Well, it seems like I've gone from zero to sixty. Being ill this summer brought my activity to a screeching halt. As soon as I had a little energy, I started back on my needlepoint seen here. It's already about two thirds done. But I had to slow down, because my hands were starting to hurt from too many hours working on it. I did get to work on a few other projects:

I finally finished weaving those !#@$% mohair scarves and took them off of Sophia. I'm not at all impressed. The light blue is not as washed out as it looks here, but they're still "eh". I sent them to my daughter and suggested she either claim them, find a friend in need or donate them to the first homeless person she comes across. 

 

I finished spinning up two ounces of this supima cotton from Chasing Rainbows that I bought at my favorite candy store, Village Spinning and Weaving. The colorway is called Morning Glory. As usual for me, I didn't quite get an accurate picture of the colors. The pinks and purples get all the way to almost an orange. Exquisite! I'm spinning it on the stylus on my Susie Professional and getting a nice fine yarn. I'd love to be able to use this as singles on the loom, but I'm not brave enough. I have another two ounces that I'll spin up next to ply with this. 

A couple three years ago, I gifted a chenille scarf to a friend. I had it back to repair some of the twisted fringe that was coming undone.

Since I was lucky enough to have it in my possession, I took the opportunity to photograph it.

No, it's not your eyes. The picture's blurry. This is one of the sweaters I knitted that I actually finished. It's from a denim cotton. I got the pattern from a book, but I can't remember where I put the book after I copied the pattern into my Kindle. If I find it, or someone really wants to know, I'll go looking. The other sweater is just a shell. No pictures until I finish the edges. I'll get there.

And then there's Big Foot or Yeti. I bought the pattern as an e-book, Cryptozoology, from KnitPicks. Because I do Nothing the easy way, I knit up one and a half slippers before I decided to do a test swatch and wash it to make sure it would shrink and felt enough. ...Um. No. ...Sigh. I had to go to the yarn store and buy another yarn that Would felt. I made two pair of these to gift to both my daughter and her sweetie. They are under orders to photograph the feet once they are nicely shrunken.   

Stash Busting Gone Awry

Well, my stash busting has gone awry. My husband and I went to a wedding on the fourth of July that took us through Solvang on the way home the next day. We stopped in Thumbelina, the needlework shop where I'd purchased this in the end of April. It took me a month and a half. 

No more needlepoint. Right?! Well, we made a side trip to Thumbelina, again...just to look.

This was labeled as marked down from $99 to $49. Okay. How could I resist? But there was another canvas that grabbed me. It wasn't priced. Hmmm. The owner said that since I'm actually purchasing to do the work, $50 for this one, too.!!!!!!!!

It's about 38 x 20, and it's done in a style called "tremme" (sp?). There's a diagram of it here, but it's not labeled as such. Just look for the black and white picture under terminology on the linked page. It'll be fun to try something new...but, when?!                                  I'm still spinning a beautiful cotton with my Majacraft stylus and weaving that MISERABLE...I mean magnificent...the pendulum swings...mediocre... Okay, let's stop with the adjectives while I'm ahead, mohair scarf. I have one sweater that's knitted and ready to assemble. And my current knitting project is another sweater. I'm at the elbow on the first sleeve. Once the second sleeve is done, I can sew it together and be done with it, too. Pictures to come, I'm hoping by the end of the week. That is, if I can stay away from the roses...?

Road Trip and Stash Enhancement

My husband and I took a road trip from southern California up to Vancouver, BC, Canada and back. That means driving time for him and knitting time for me. In Abbotsford, BC, I made a detour in the first of many yarn stores, Birkeland Bros. That is where I saw this 100 year old beauty. They'd just finished carding some fleeces and were in the process of some clean up.

This sweetie was one of the hand-raised sheep in the front yard at Imperial Yarn and Stock Ranch. The entire enterprise is run with an emphasis on sustainability, check their website.

Jeanne Carver, the owner with her husband, Dan, was gracious enough to give us a tour of some of the historic buildings. This old house is now the headquarters for the wonderful yarns and fibers. I spent some time lightening their inventory.  

In Salem, OR we found an old woolen mill.

I'd never been up close and personal to the industrialized production of fabric. We were given a key and sent to open doors and wander through.

I wish I could have seen this in motion. I can't imagine how it works.

Thanks to Imperial Yarn, my stash has been enhanced. I don't know what the wool fiber is going to be, but I already have patterns for the yarns.

And to round that out, a few other fibers, too. This should keep me busy for a while, don't you think?!

There was one other historic mill we stopped at in Eagle Point, OR. I came home with 10 lbs of bread flour, 5 lbs whole oats, and a few other dry goods. I just made this buttermilk, whole wheat bread. What a difference freshly milled flour makes!

Fighting Inertia

As beautiful as the wildflowers in the back yard are, I've been trying to make myself go into the front yard to get some weeding done.

I've finished another pair of socks. My youngest son has claimed these. I think this is going to have to be it for a while. I only have two sock yarns left in my stash, but I just can't face them right now.

Instead, I've been making time for other things. A couple of months ago there was a yarn crawl here in L.A. I insisted I wasn't going to go. Does going to only four stores count as not going?              Anyway, in the last store, I met Donna Nelson . She's been working on making chinchilla fur into a spinnable fiber. Oh, my! or Yum! While we chatted I petted and squeezed and rubbed the luscious stuff. It's a combed blend of 70% cormo, 20% chinchilla and 10% bombyx. She sells it on ETSY. Buy some for yourself for a special treat! 

I used the stylus on my Majacraft to spin up lace weight singles. And here, I was plying it from both ends. I'll post a finished picture as soon as I can get back to it.

And the main reason I haven't touched my looms is this lovely stuff from my stash. It's from Ironstone Warehouse (does that company even still exist?) 78% mohair, 13% wool, 9% nylon and 100% pain in the butt. It's been on Sophie for Months. Just dressing her was WWIII. I couldn't wind the warp onto the warp beam with the lease sticks in, because it got so snarled. The plan was to make a few scarves out of it. Then, the plan was to give it One More Try. If I couldn't get it to unstick, I gave myself permission to toss it. And I NEVER toss anything! I finally got her dressed. Then, I was afraid to even try weaving. What if I couldn't get a clear shed? We've finally made our peace with each other, but next time I weave with a mohair, it'd better be either the  short hair or bald variety! 

Getting stuff done...and started.

So, until I finish my stash of sock yarn, you'll keep seeing more of socks. These are made from Schachenmayr, Catania Fine Color. 100% cotton. Now, I'm seriously Not a fan of self striping, but I really like these colors. And since each skein is 50g, about 165m, I figured I'd knit them both toe up. That way, I could make them as long as they allowed or as short as I wanted. Easy, peasy. ...NOT.                                 I started the first sock by finding the end in the center of the skein. Then, having two sets of double pointed size 2's, I prepared to start the second sock at the same time. I looked and hunted and dug for the center of the other skein. No go. So, I set up my ball winder and wound a skein from the outside, twice. That way both socks would have the same color progression just like the factory makes them, right? Sigh. Nope. Guess what I did? Yep. I tore it out and wound the skein. Again.                                          When I was part way up the second foot, I realized that the stripes didn't match. But if I ripped out and re-knit the toes starting an inch along the yarn, "top" down, they would be perfect. You guessed it! I ripped them out backwards. In case you wondered, it comes out easily on the stocking stitch, but the ribbing needs to be picked out. Good times. I do like the resulting socks, though.

These place mats have been on Sophie for Ever. I couldn't figure out the pattern I wanted and finally realized that I didn't know how to make the yarns move the way I wanted without finding another pattern and altering it. Besides, this yarn is another example of using what's in the stash instead of what I'd like to see. The thick weft is eight strands of the 5/2 and the thin is one. Anyway, 5/2 cotton. Warp rep. Eh. They'll do.

And while I was busy hemming placemats, I figured I might as well hem this, too. It's a plaited twill from 8 Shaft Patterns, p. 104, #374, 12 epi. You can see the front and back of this pretty 3/2 cotton (from my stash) baby blanket  I wove it on my Gilly (Gilmore). Anyone having a girl?

And finally (well not really---there's always something more), my hubby and I made another trip to Solvang where I got this canvas on sale. The colors the company chose do Not make me happy, so you can see that I've started playing with color. The water no longer looks like a swamp. I love to see the picture come to life as I work/play.                                         And just so you don't worry that that "finally" was real, I'll admit that I have another pair of socks over half done in my purse. Sophie's getting dressed in a mohair scarf. Suzie, my Majacraft spinning wheel, is in the midst of repairs on her drive belt, but she's wearing some pretty cotton. And there are the early signs of more napkins on Julia. Poor Gilly is naked, though. Okay. Go ahead and worry.